The crowd stood in stunned silence, not a single soul daring to utter a syllable. These people who had been so eager to wash their hands of Reunion were now trembling, their hearts leaping into their throats as they worried that an enraged Talulah might turn her fearsome Arts upon them for their insolence.
Yet, Talulah did not resort to violence. She merely allowed the heat radiating around their bodies to grow increasingly intense, offering a tangible reminder of her wrath without showing any intention of striking them down. She was using the suffocating warmth alone to punish them for their greed.
Standing a short distance away, Jeanne wavered, unsure whether she should step forward or remain in the shadows. It felt a bit awkward to intrude upon such a tense scene, so she decided to stay right where she was and see how the dispute unfolded.
She possessed complete confidence that Talulah was more than capable of handling a crowd like this on her own.
"Are you finished?" Talulah asked after a long, heavy silence. Her voice was remarkably steady, completely devoid of any wild emotional swings, yet every person in the square could easily discern the terrifying anger simmering beneath her calm exterior.
"We... we are finished,"(Fumina: Literally lol.) the instigators stammered, their earlier bravado vanishing in an instant. The fierce attitude they had displayed when trying to bully her into surrendering the town was entirely gone, replaced by a hesitant, trembling demeanor.
"First, let me state clearly that I have never forgotten the efforts you contributed to our survival," Talulah began, her gaze boring straight into the eyes of the ringleaders. "After I led our fighters to liberate you from that wretched camp, you did indeed labor alongside us for the past six months. I remember every bit of it."
She spoke with absolute clarity, systematically recounting the skirmishes they had participated in, and even noting how many of their companions had been wounded or laid to rest during those harsh months.
"I have never demanded that every soul who joins our ranks must follow my path until the very end. When you first nurtured the desire to part ways, I never raised a hand to block your departure or disrupt your plans. However..."
Talulah took a deep breath, looking down at the cluster of malcontents who were now huddled together like a pack of frightened mice, reflexively shrinking away from the furious gaze of the Draco.
Throughout their time in the movement, these folk had rarely seen Talulah truly lose her temper. Even when she clashed with Frostnova over administrative matters, she had never unleashed her inner flame in this manner, so the community remained entirely ignorant of what a thoroughly enraged Talulah looked like.
Coupled with her remarkably youthful features, these villagers had gradually developed a trace of contempt for the young lady, viewing her decisions through a lens of arrogant skepticism and profound disbelief.
This sudden march toward the south was a perfect example; they believed the girl had simply lost her mind. To head straight into the southern territories—wouldn't the regular imperial armies tear their ragtag bands to shreds along the highway?
"But you crossed the line when you insulted my companion," Talulah continued, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You insulted a woman who painstakingly carved out a safe haven for your families, who discovered fertile ground for your crops, and who brought back the very medicine that treats your Oripathy. To make matters worse, you even harbored designs to strike at her from the shadows!"
Talulah had tolerated this grievance for an extended period. She had already deduced exactly which characters had been trailing Jeanne through the lanes, waiting for an opening to mount an assault. She had merely kept her silence, waiting for these treacherous elements to expose themselves completely.
Hearing her words, the surrounding guards looked ready to throw the instigators to the ground and beat them to a pulp. The schemers, meanwhile, could only stare back at Talulah with wide, terrified eyes, silently wondering how she had uncovered their secret machinations.
"What is that look for? Did you truly believe your little tracking patterns were completely invisible?" Talulah asked, finding their panic almost laughable. "Did you honestly convince yourselves that my lack of response over these past weeks was born of guilt or ignorance?"
She found their sheer delusion amusing. The only reason these characters had grown less frequent in their tracking was that Jeanne had caught them in the act and given them a thorough thrashing, leaving them thoroughly cowed. They hadn't even realized the profound wrongness of their actions; they had simply blamed their failure on the outsider's overwhelming strength.
"I have zero desire to waste my breath debating these meaningless grievances with you. Nor do I believe a handful of words from my mouth will ever alter your twisted perspectives. But as things stand right now, you have exactly two choices left!"
Talulah swept her gaze across the square, looking upon these people whose cowardice bordered on the ridiculous. These were the very individuals who, just hours before, had been marching under her banner, leaving her spirit filled with an incredibly complex knot of emotions.
She couldn't help but wonder if she had committed some grave error in her leadership to earn such deep-seated resentment from her own people. The sheer ingratitude made her feel as though her efforts were worth less than the dirt beneath the boots of the overseers back in the mines.
"Either you pack your meager belongings and depart from this city immediately, and I shall allow this matter to slide, treating your exit as a simple difference in ideology."
The moment the words left her mouth, the ringleaders opened their mouths to object. This proposal was practically a death sentence—demanding they face the open wastes with nothing to their name was no different from leaving them to freeze in the snowdrifts.
"Or," Talulah interrupted, her voice suddenly rising to a thunderous shout that echoed off the stone walls, her eyes flashing with pure fury, "we can settle this account right here! We can bring to light every single piece of dirty business you have conducted in the dark, and expose the conspiracies you have been whispering to the other villagers. We can let the entire movement gather and enact a complete, uncompromising reckoning!"
The sheer power of her voice seemed to shatter the final remnants of their resolve. Faced with the threat of a public trial, the schemers lost all desire to bargain, eagerly promising that they would take whatever trail rations were offered and vanish into the wilderness without another word.
Given the depth of their betrayal, however, obtaining extra provisions was entirely out of the question. The surrounding guards simply rummaged through the nearest crates, pulling out a few bundles of hard, stale trail bread and tossing them carelessly at their feet.
This departure was a far cry from the farewell lines that had formed when the previous group of Sarkaz warriors chose to leave the movement. Those warriors had wished to return to their ancestral home in Kazdel, and despite the scarcity of resources, the entire camp had come together to provide them with ample supplies and warm cloaks.
Jeanne had even gone out of her way to arrange a safe passage for them, ensuring they could hook up with a reliable merchant caravan—the very transit company Kal'tsit had located, which was now owned by the Sanktas serving under Jeanne's command.
While the Sarkaz had departed amidst a chorus of warm blessings, these characters were being driven out like a plague of destructive locusts, accompanied only by the cold, unyielding silence of the community.
Not a single soul harbored a grain of sympathy for their plight. In truth, the regular combatants felt that allowing these scoundrels to walk away with their lives was a testament to Talulah's boundless mercy—a leniency so vast that many felt she was being entirely too soft on them.
"There is no need to ruin your day over people of that sort, Talulah," a veteran shieldguard murmured, stepping forward to offer comfort as he noted the slight dimness in her eyes. "No matter where you travel under the sun, you will always stumble upon these loathsome elements. Wasting your precious energy on their venom is simply not worth the toll."
"My thanks. I assure you, I can manage..."
"Leave her condition to me, boys! I promise to return a perfectly bright and spirited Talulah to you in no time at all!"
Before the Draco could finish explaining that she wasn't deeply wounded, Jeanne suddenly burst out from the shadows, stepping between them and playfully pulling her companion away from the gathering. The sudden appearance of the maiden caught Talulah completely by surprise, her eyes widening in astonishment.
Seeing Jeanne guide their leader away, the veteran guards couldn't help but chuckle, their features relaxing. They knew better than anyone that if anyone could lift Talulah out of her melancholy, it was undoubtedly the cheerful maiden.
"When... when did you manage to slip over here?" Talulah asked, a trace of fluster in her voice as she tried to keep pace. "I distinctly remember that the munitions warehouse you were guarding is a considerable distance from this nexus!"
Her anxiety didn't stem from any personal grievance; she was simply terrified that Jeanne might have overheard the venomous slurs the crowd had directed at her, which would inevitably ruin her bright disposition.
Even though the maiden usually carried herself with a carefree, almost reckless air, Talulah knew that such cruel words could easily leave a small yet deep, lingering ache in her heart.
"When did I arrive? I was standing right there the exact moment those guys started dragging my good name through the dirt!" Jeanne replied, giving her fist a firm, playful squeeze to emphasize her sudden desire to crack a few skulls.
"Then you heard..." Talulah's worry deepened upon hearing her confirmation.
"You mean those wonderful statements where you stood up for my honor and shut them down completely? I caught every single word, and I must say, I am deeply moved!" Jeanne answered lightly. She didn't dwell on the insults at all, choosing instead to focus entirely on the fierce loyalty her companion had shown.
"That is not what I meant. Those terrible accusations..." Talulah tried to clarify, but Jeanne cut her off with a gentle pat on the shoulder.
"There is absolutely no reason to pay any mind to their nonsense, is there? I am hardly the type to lock myself in a dark room and weep just because a handful of strangers said a few mean things. Do you truly take me for a fragile soul like yourself?"
Jeanne offered a bright, entirely unaffected smile, her demeanor completely unbothered by the encounter.
"Besides, you already gave them a thorough piece of your mind on my behalf, didn't you? Why on earth should I waste my time worrying about it now?"