Therefore, those who dared to come to this border region were all desperate fellows who valued money far over their own lives. This was because the bounty offered here by the imperial court for capturing fleeing Infected was also the highest in the entire realm.
With an entire company of over fifty men completely vanished for several days and not a single word of communication sent back, the Reconnaissance Squad supervisor couldn't help but feel the immense pressure mounting upon his shoulders. He could only anxiously dispatch his remaining scouts to the south to keep watch and see if any news could be gathered.
It wasn't until a few days later that intelligence finally arrived, confirming that the group of Infected they had originally been targeting had successfully crossed the border lines and entered the Reunion Movement's territory. This information immediately sent a freezing chill straight down the supervisor's spine.
If that massive group had already safely reached the Reunion Movement, then what about the elite vanguard company he had sent to pursue them?
The supervisor quickly dispatched a specialized search party to trace along the exact path the vanished company had taken. Before long, he received a definitive result that made his vision instantly go dark—they were all dead. Furthermore, the state of their deaths was too gruesome to behold, as if they had been processed through a meat grinder rather than a conventional battlefield.
When this terrifying news was officially reported upward to his superiors, the supervisor only received a single, detached "Oh" in response, with absolutely no further administrative action taken.
He was left completely dumbfounded in his office. What on earth were the higher-ups thinking? Were they really not going to seek revenge for an entire annihilated company?
Driven by sheer anxiety, he quietly went to consult a close friend within the local military command. After presenting a hefty bribe, the only advice he received from his friend was to just let the matter drop completely and pretend nothing had happened.
Under the supervisor's repeated, frantic questioning, the friend finally sighed and vaguely revealed a hidden truth: the horrifying, twisted state of these soldiers' deaths was structurally identical to the casualties found after the carefully planned ambush orchestrated by the Old Nobility's joint legions last year.
Upon hearing this explanation, the supervisor broke out in a thick, cold sweat that soaked his uniform. He knew exactly about the specific battle his friend mentioned; in fact, he was originally supposed to be one of the frontline participants in that joint operation. However, because he had suffered from such severe diarrhea during those few days that his legs were physically too weak to stand, another officer had taken his spot.
At the time, he had even wallowed in bitter self-pity for a while, cursing his luck. After all, by collaborating with the regular military forces to crack down on a rogue organization of wretched Infected, they could usually scavenge an immense amount of personal wealth from the aftermath, making it an incredibly easy way to earn some extra cash.
Then the formal reports had arrived. The regular military forces had been utterly defeated by that Infected organization called the Reunion Movement, and every single member of the Reconnaissance Squad who went to assist had perished on that bloody battlefield, leaving no survivors. A major reason he was even able to become the regional supervisor here was simply because there were very few members of the Reconnaissance Squad left in this district with more seniority than him, and absolutely no one else wanted to be stationed so close to this boundary.
Now, hearing that these recent deaths were directly related to that nightmare from last year, he instantly lost all his nerve. No matter how important making money was, one fundamentally had to be alive to spend it. He immediately began to ponder whether he could pull some strings to get himself transferred further into the interior of Ursus, far away from this region, so as not to be so close to the Reunion Movement's border. Otherwise, if that god of death ever decided to wander over into his district one day, he certainly wouldn't have the capability to stop them.
Meanwhile, on the Reunion Movement's side, after daybreak arrived, Flandre followed the cheerful crowd as they began their march back toward the mobile module.
Halfway through their journey, Red arrived with a detachment of heavily armed soldiers to officially take over the defensive perimeter of the refugee group. The sturdy transport carriages they brought along allowed the elderly and those who were lagging behind due to poor physical condition to be loaded directly onto them, significantly speeding up their pace.
By around two o'clock in the afternoon, the entire procession finally arrived beneath the shadow of the mobile module.
Looking up at the massive, vibrant, and sprawling mobile structure operating before them, the newly arrived Infected one after another showed expressions of pure disbelief and awe.
"Is this... is this truly our mobile city?" one old man whispered, his hands trembling as he stared at the massive iron tracks.
"It doesn't quite count as a full mobile city yet; this is just a single mobile module," Red replied, turning back to the crowd. "If I had to be completely precise, it can only be considered a small village or a moving town at this stage!"
Although his words sounded very humble, the immense pride flashing within Red's eyes could not be hidden. Hearing this validation, many of the refugees once again found their eyes brimming with hot tears. They had spent their entire lives being hunted like animals, and the sight of a safe haven built specifically for them was overwhelming.
Just then, Talulah walked out directly from the main access passage of the module, her long hair swaying slightly in the northern wind.
"Friends from the north, welcome to the Reunion Movement," Talulah spoke, her voice carrying clearly across the clearing. "I am Talulah, the current leader of the Reunion Movement. We have already pre-arranged comfortable living quarters for everyone."
She stepped forward, her expression warm and reassuring as she addressed the bedraggled crowd. "You can follow our logistical staff to pick out your respective houses first. After that, please proceed directly to our medical partner, the Rhodes Island Hospital module, for a comprehensive physical examination. If anyone is found to be in serious medical condition, please rest assured that you will receive completely free medical treatment there."
Talulah paused, allowing her words to sink into the minds of the stunned refugees before continuing. "After dinner is served tonight, our administrative staff will come by to collect information regarding your past occupations and skills, which will facilitate arranging suitable work for you later on. If you do not possess a specific skill or trade that you are already good at, you can also freely choose a field you are interested in, and we will arrange for specialists to teach you the relevant technical skills from scratch. Alright, everyone must be absolutely exhausted after such a long and perilous journey, so I won't delay your rest any further. I truly hope you can all lead a new, safe, and satisfying life here in the Reunion Movement."
After Talulah finished her welcoming speech, the logistical personnel she had brought along began to systematically lead the amazed crowd into the warm interior of the mobile module.
Once the last of the refugees had filed inside the passage, Talulah walked over, reached out, and gently picked up Flandre into her arms.
"Alina sent a long-range word to me earlier; it's entirely thanks to your swift actions again this time," Talulah said with a smile.
Flandre wriggled her small body happily in Talulah's arms, her crystal wings clinking softly like wind chimes. "Hehe, Flandre is very happy to be able to help everyone and get praised by Talulah!"
After a moment, Flandre looked toward the entrance where the refugees had disappeared and curiously asked about the situation of the group that had been sent over yesterday.
"Their injuries have already been brought completely under control by the medical team, and their permanent living quarters have been fully arranged," Talulah answered patiently, stroking the girl's hair. "As for those young children, those who still have surviving family members will stay with them, while the orphans will be settled together in a centralized, specialized care location."
"But with so many new people arriving every day, can this single mobile module really hold them all?" Flandre asked, tilting her head. She knew from her visits that the interior spaces of this specific module were already nearly packed to capacity.
"It indeed cannot hold everyone if they all stay inside," Talulah explained as she began to walk along the perimeter. "But a very large portion of the developmental work for the Reunion Movement is actually conducted outside the mobile city itself. So the physical pressure on our residential sectors isn't actually as great as one might imagine."
Talulah began to outline the general long-term arrangement for personnel within their territory. When Infected came to join the Reunion Movement, the leadership naturally would never refuse them entry. But the mobile module itself was only of a fixed size; it certainly could not house the exponentially increasing number of refugees arriving from across Ursus.
Fortunately, their actual sovereign territory was not limited to just a single moving steel platform; they also possessed about six thousand square kilometers of fixed land area that they had claimed and secured. This territory was roughly similar in size to the massive city of Shanghai.
Although the vast majority of this geographical area was currently covered by dense northern vegetation and rugged mountain ranges, it was more than enough to clear out a significant amount of safe, arable space for everyone to establish communities and live. Currently, the total number of Infected citizens recorded in the Reunion Movement's census was only about fifty thousand. While fifty thousand Infected might seem like an unmanageable, threatening horde anywhere else in the world, for such a massive piece of land, fifty thousand people could be easily settled and integrated without causing any strain on resources.
Flandre nodded in sudden realization, her ruby eyes blinking. Then she looked up and asked Talulah why she had come all the way down to the ground gates personally.
"Didn't Alina tell you through your connection?" Talulah asked, looking a bit surprised. "Her transport team is right behind your group. They should be arriving here in about half an hour, so I came down here to pick her up while I was at it."
Talulah knew that Flandre and Alina possessed a unique ability to contact each other directly via their Bloodline Connection, so she was naturally surprised that they hadn't informed each other about their respective arrival times today.
"Ehehe, I didn't think to ask her!" Flandre gave a silly, cheerful grin, rubbing her nose.
The two of them waited comfortably near the lower staging area for a little while until they finally saw another stream of people appearing at the edge of the forest path. This newly arrived group was noticeably smaller than the one Flandre had escorted back, numbering just over sixty people in total. However, what stood out immediately was that among them, nearly a full third of the group consisted of very small children.
This was the primary reason Talulah had specifically arranged for Alina to go pick this group up personally.
"They are all from the exact same border village," Talulah murmured softly, her eyes darkening slightly with sorrow as she watched the procession approach. "Not long ago, a sudden Catastrophe struck their home village, and many of the residents were heavily Infected by the active Originium. On the perilous journey to reach the Reunion Movement, many of the adults sacrificed their lives fighting off wild beasts and local militias to protect these young children. Fortunately, the children themselves are mostly fine physically."
Flandre watched the new group come closer. Just like all the other newly arrived Infected she had seen before, most of these refugees had eyes filled with a deep, instinctual unease and fear upon arriving at this strange place for the very first time. Yet, beneath that fear, there was also an unmistakable spark of hope for a completely new life.
For these specific people, it had not been very long since they initially became Infected, so in many structural ways, some of their civilian mindsets and prejudices had not yet fully shifted or adapted to their new reality. Fortunately, the Reunion Movement had received thousands of such newly Infected citizens over the past year, and Talulah was already incredibly experienced in handling this delicate transition.