"So that is how it went," Talulah said with a quiet, helpless sigh. "I have no idea what went wrong along the way, but ever since I left Chernobog, nothing has gone smoothly."
She glared at Jeanne, whose shoulders were trembling as she fought back a burst of laughter. Seeing her close friend react like that gave Talulah a sudden urge to punch her right in the face.
"Tell me," Talulah pressed, maintaining a tight grip on Jeanne's single tuft of stray hair and staring into her eyes word by word. "Did you put some kind of curse on me?"
"How could you slander my good character like that?" Jeanne rolled her eyes, offering a exasperated look. "How on earth do I have anything to do with a curse? Aside from the fact that I don't even know how to use such black magic, even if I did, do I look like the type of person who would do that to you?"
She paused, her expression softening into concern as she looked at Talulah. "Are you truly heading to Victoria? Aren't you worried you might never come back? Of all the places on this continent, Victoria is likely the most dangerous for you. Anything could happen to you there!"
A descendant of the royal Draco bloodline stepping back onto Victorian soil was a dangerous spark. With the grand dukes currently locked in tense political rivalries, those paranoid lords might resort to extreme measures if they caught wind of her presence.
"I simply want to see it with my own eyes," Talulah murmured, turning her gaze toward the open sky.
Jeanne could feel the scaled tail in her grip twitching restlessly, betraying the storm of complex emotions swirling inside the Draco leader—and her subtle desire to break free from Jeanne's hold.
"I need to say a proper farewell to that land," Talulah continued softly. "Even though I have no memories of growing up there, a part of my lineage belongs to that soil. I have to face it sooner or later."
She let out a dry, exasperated breath. "You have no idea how many opportunistic agents have tried to recruit me over the past few months. No matter how many times I explain that I have zero interest in political games, those ambitious vultures refuse to give up. To them, the surname Artorius represents ultimate legitimacy. So long as I don't settle things once and for all, they will never stop hounding me."
Her tone was heavy with lingering frustration. Even after becoming Infected, the royal lineage carried by Artorius remained a tempting pawn for factions seeking a claim to the throne in Londinium.
"It seems I'm stuck taking another long detour with you," Jeanne sighed, shaking her head.
It almost felt as though the universe had orchestrated Talulah's string of absurd misadventures just to force their paths to cross out here in the wilderness. Leaving Talulah to meet up with Reunion's local group in Victoria all by herself was simply too dangerous.
"And to think I boasted that nothing could stop my journey back home!" Jeanne grumbled, crossing her arms and muttering under her breath. "Then you go and spawn right in front of me out of nowhere! What kind of luck is this?"
Why was returning to Chernobog always so complicated? Every single time she set off for home, some major crisis dragged her across the continent instead.
"You can still go back right now," Talulah offered with a subtle smile. "Just drop me off at the nearest town, and I'll figure out a way to cross the border on my own."
Though her expression revealed she didn't want Jeanne to leave, Talulah was entirely serious. Jeanne had spent months running around the world confronting continental disasters; taking a long-deserved rest was entirely reasonable.
"Forget it," Jeanne waved off the idea. "If I abandon you in the middle of nowhere and head home alone, Alina will nag me for three months straight. I'll just treat this as a road trip with a friend. Thinking of it that way makes it much easier to digest!"
Without needing any convincing from Talulah, Jeanne had already reasoned herself into coming along. Truth be told, she had intended to accompany her from the moment she heard the situation; she was merely venting her annoyance over another failed attempt to return home.
"Then let's get moving!" Talulah said, pushing herself up from the ground. "First, let's see if we can salvage parts from both wrecked vehicles to assemble one that actually works. I have no desire to sleep in the dirt and swallow dust all night!"
However, Talulah seemed to have forgotten one minor detail as she stood up.
"Ahhh!"
Jeanne's sharp cry echoed across the plain. Talulah turned around, only to see Jeanne clutching her scalp in agony.
In her haste to stand, Talulah had completely forgotten to release her grip, nearly tearing Jeanne's stray hair tuft right out by the root!
"You did that on purpose, you villain!" Jeanne yelled, grabbing Talulah's tail once more and refusing to let go. "Before we fix the vehicle, I'm going to fix your attitude!"
Realizing what she had just done, Talulah flushed with embarrassment, allowing Jeanne to quickly gain the upper hand in their playful wrestling match.
"I was wrong! I apologized, didn't I?" Talulah called out, squirming on the grass. "Give me a break—hey! Let go of my tail! Since when did you develop a habit of biting?!"
After a brief, violent struggle, the two settled their score.
A short while later, Talulah—nursling a tail covered in shallow tooth marks—and Jeanne—rubbing a swollen bump on her forehead—acted as if nothing chaotic had happened at all. They stood shoulder to shoulder, rolling up their sleeves to begin repairing the vehicle.
"Don't you even have a tent in your trunk?" Jeanne asked, staring at the shattered frame of Talulah's transport. It looked as though it had been dragged through a scrap yard shredder. "This thing is completely unsalvageable!"
"I brought plenty of supplies," Talulah replied defensively, kicking the mangled rear compartment. "Then that Catastrophe storm hit, and the winds tore the entire back section off!"
"How on earth did you manage to get the trunk door blown off?" Jeanne asked, eyeing the damaged metal with genuine confusion.
Talulah fell silent for a moment before answering in a low, muffled voice. "...I accidentally hit the release button while driving through the storm."
Jeanne stared at her, genuinely impressed. "You truly are something else."
An hour later, after successfully salvaging intact components from Talulah's wreck to patch up Jeanne's vehicle, the machine roared back to life.
Talulah stared at the fully functional engine, her expression growing increasingly suspicious. "I didn't believe it earlier when you said my bad luck had nothing to do with you... but now I am willing to bet my entire stash of math guidebooks that you are somehow behind this!"
The gaze she directed at Jeanne was so sharp that Jeanne felt a cold chill run down her spine.
"It's just a coincidence! A total coincidence!" Jeanne broke out into a cold sweat, trying to explain herself. "You shouldn't be so superstitious! Curses and bad luck signs are pure superstition—you can't fall for that!"
Yet her explanations sounded flimsy even to her own ears. The spare parts from Talulah's destroyed transport fitted Jeanne's vehicle so perfectly that the engine ran even smoother than before. It was almost too convenient to be natural.
"Coming from you, talking about superstition sounds completely absurd," Talulah scoffed, stepping into the passenger seat. Since Jeanne always took the wheel on their long trips, Talulah leaned back to rest.
"I can explain! It really isn't magic!" Jeanne insisted, hopping into the driver's seat. "If you're ready, we're setting off! Lie back and relax—I'm taking the wheel!"
"Why does the way you phrase that sound so incredibly bizarre?" Talulah muttered, her eyelid twitching slightly, though she didn't press the matter further.
Guided by Jeanne's navigational Arts, the two drove through the countryside until they finally located a quiet farmhouse willing to shelter them for the night. The elderly couple living there offered them an abandoned barn filled with dry hay.
"See? I told you we were lucky!" Jeanne boasted, bringing up the topic again the moment they settled into the barn. "We didn't run into a single problem on the road. Traveling with me goes smoothly—how could I possibly bring you bad luck?"
Talulah sat against a wooden pillar, watching her with a dry expression as she prepared to sleep. "That just means your personal luck is ridiculous enough to drain everyone else's around you."
Glancing around the dry, straw-filled barn, Talulah reminded herself to keep her Arts under strict control tonight. A single stray spark from her fire would turn the place into an inferno, landing both of them on the front page of Chernobog's news as tragic fodder.
"Alright, this will have to do for tonight," Jeanne said, smoothing out a makeshift bed on a thick layer of hay and patting the spot next to her.
"Why is there only one blanket?" Talulah asked, raising an eyebrow at the sparse setup.
"I only carry one spare blanket in my vehicle!" Jeanne replied, slightly annoyed by her friend's reaction. "What, are you suddenly afraid to sleep next to me?"
"I'm afraid you'll hog the blanket!" Talulah countered dryly. "Do you have any idea how much physical strength you use when you yank the covers in your sleep?"
She sighed, settling down onto the hay beside Jeanne. "Whatever. If it gets cold, I'll just use you as a human heater."
The two lay side by side under the dim moonlight filtering through the wooden slats. Exhausted from their chaotic day, it wasn't long before both fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.