I am the old, fiery-faced man from the senior department.

Talulah gritted her teeth, cursing the nobles for their betrayal, and continued running towards the camp entrance.

Before she even arrived, she saw the tall Wendigo and the shield guards behind him, who had raised their shields to protect the infected warriors behind him.

An enemy that would make them take their battle seriously...

"Talulah! Talulah is here! Make way!"

An infected person saw her and immediately called out to her. The infected people gathered there quickly parted to let her pass.

"Talulah! Watch out!"

A shield guard gave her a warning.

"Whoever you are, we have already obtained the Marquis Evans's permission to pass. Your obstruction is tantamount to..."

Talulah's warning fell silent after she saw what the other person looked like.

"Hush...huh..."

The enemy, dressed in strange equipment, stood before them. The wind swept snow from the forest, which drifted to his side and instantly turned into black mud that splashed onto the ground.

He looked over.

"Talulah, don't go near him."

Bozocas held his large shield and giant spear in front of her... before the other party could make a move.

"How could this be...? Why would the Emperor's personal guards from Ursus be here?"

Talulah stood behind Patriot and did not move forward.

She knew how formidable the other side was, and she also knew that if she got too close during a clash of their strengths, it would only affect the Patriot.

“Hiss… I’ve found you, Talulah.”

The other person's gaze bypassed the towering Wendigo and landed on her.

“You have gathered the remnants of the Empire…and so many infected have gathered around you.”

"What exactly are you trying to say, Inner Guard?"

Talulah called out in response.

"What terrible scheme have you come here to carry out?"

“You bribed the advisors at Eastburg with money, and you traded language and factional secrets for the right to pass from Evans.”

"You traveled south from the ice plains, splitting into three groups at the base of Shidong Fort, passing through the Kagambi Hills and the Ska River..."

"enough!"

Talulah stopped him.

“I hope you’ve come not just to show us how powerful Ursus’s intelligence capabilities are.”

"call……"

The other man raised his hand, and at the same time, Patriot's spear was pointed at him. The slightest movement from him would send the spear piercing his body.

"There's no need for such vigilance, Bozokasti, esteemed warrior. I have no intention of fighting you here."

The other party seemed to know Patriot.

"I am here on His Majesty's orders."

"His Majesty?"

"How could the emperor have the leisure to care about us ordinary infected people?"

Talulah narrowed her eyes, a golden glint reflecting in them.

"Put away your fire, daughter of Edward. Now is not the time for you to burn."

The guard's words made Talulah pause abruptly, and she immediately clenched her fists.

"Where did you learn this name from!"

Edward...

I know that name...

"Edward..."

The name was too common, and even after racking his brains, Bozokast could not think of anyone whose name was related to Talulah.

"Son of Tara, your path does not lie here."

The guard's fingers sliced ​​through the space in front of him like a knife cutting through a cream cake.

"The territory belonging to the bear cannot allow you to fly, and your flames cannot melt the ice of the tundra."

He took out a cylinder made using an unknown technique.

Talulah knew.

Talulah figured it out.

That's... O'Neng.

"Talulah".

Bozokast tried to stop her.

“Don’t worry about me, Mr. Patriot.”

She stepped forward and stood alongside the patriot.

"Since he has no hostile intentions, we will not provoke a fight. Peaceful negotiations are beneficial to both of us."

"..."

Patriot did not respond, but he still gripped his gun and shield tightly.

"Your path is further south, Talulah."

He grabbed the cylinder and tossed it to young Draco.

"March further south, leader of the infected."

He left. His dark figure disappeared into the mountains and forests.

He didn't say anything more, not even what was in the cylinder.

"...Return to your positions. Everyone back to your posts."

Patriot glanced at Talulah, who was clutching the cylinder in silence, then turned and began guiding the gathered infected away from there.

"Dad, what happened? Where are the enemies? What happened to Talulah?"

The white rabbit arrived late, and looked at Talulah, who was standing there motionless, with a worried expression.

"It's over."

The Patriots looked at the Shield Guards, who immediately understood and began to drive away the infected who still wanted to stay and ask questions.

"They are not enemies yet...not at the moment."

“And Talulah.”

Bozokasti turned around and looked at her with his daughter.

"she……"

The young Drak's hand holding the cylinder was now covered in gilded armor, and what she called "Arcane Energy" was flashing at a regular frequency.

“I’m sorry to have worried you, Mr. Patriot, Froststar.”

After a minute or two, Talulah finally opened her eyes.

"What exactly happened, Talulah?"

She was patrolling the camp when she suddenly heard someone invading. She rushed over but found no trace of a battle and the enemy had disappeared. Talulah was standing next to her father, lost in thought.

"That bodyguard... gave me some information."

Her expression was somewhat strange.

It's like painstakingly farming runes all over the map, finally accumulating a million runes, but before you can even enjoy the pleasure of spending them, a red sun appears in front of you and throws you a set of 699.

"..."

"What the hell... This land belongs to the infected... Has that emperor gone mad? Doesn't he know the plight of the Ursus infected?"

After hearing Talulah's so-called news, the white rabbit looked at her with a face full of question marks.

Patriots also fell silent.

He couldn't figure out the emperor's true thoughts either.

They gave the infected person a piece of land to move to without explaining his requirements...

"I think... things might be getting complicated."

Compared to the two women who relied entirely on captured intelligence and their accounts, Talulah knew that after receiving this information, they... or rather, the Reunion Movement, had become entangled in the power struggle between nations.

"Once you see it, you should know what it means."

Talulah shook the Arcane Cylinder in her hand.

"This thing could never possibly be in the hands of the Emperor's personal guards in Ursus."

"That is to say..."

"Yan Kingdom and Ursus made a deal. It was a deal that only the Emperor and the Imperial Guard could know about."

Bozokasti picked up where his daughter left off.

"And we..."

"Infected individuals are one of the bargaining chips in this game."

"That despicable emperor... how can he decide the fate of the infected with just a single sentence?"

The white rabbit felt even less favorably toward those high-ranking figures who could decide their future with a single word.

Don't let her see that emperor, or she'll definitely rip off his crown and slap him in the face.

“This is already quite generous of them, Yelena.”