The Matter of Talula Finding and Adopting Me

"—What's wrong, Lyudmila?!"

Alina hurried over, only to find Miss Lyudmila clinging to the edge of a manhole cover, nearly crying and almost falling into the hole.

"..."

Yeah, it had to be a coincidence.

I Need to Rally the Troops Again!

"Don't move, police!!"

At Peterheim Middle School, just as Orson was preparing to leave after dealing with the Sarkaz mercenary terrorist attack, police officers who had received intelligence from the Baikal faction in advance stormed into the gymnasium.

"Tch. Those lapdogs got the intel and picked just the right moment to rush in. Want me to take them all out for you?"

W toyed with C4 in one hand as she teasingly asked Orson.

Inside the gymnasium, which had already been blasted full of holes, the Sarkaz mercenaries were on the inner side while the Ursus police who had arrived immediately blocked the exits. Trying to flee directly would only get them focused down by crossbow fire.

"Assaulting police is a serious crime. Just use that shit-stick thing you used against the mercenaries earlier."

Orson sighed. He did not think using nonlethal weapons would let him keep being an upstanding citizen. After this operation, regardless of the outcome, he would definitely make his debut as the centerpiece at the police station—the kind of guy who would get pinned to the ground by a crowd the moment he asked whether a watermelon was ripe.

"Wait—! Stand down!"

Just as the tension reached its peak, one detective noticed W and her streaked hair, then suddenly signaled for everyone else not to fire.

The action made Orson and the others frown, unable to tell what the man was trying to do.

"You—you're that Sarkaz mercenary who fought with others on People's Avenue before, right?"

The officer recognized W and asked hesitantly.

"Ha. What, did I accidentally blow one of your brothers to pieces? If you want revenge, come at me—though I won't give you the chance."

W acted completely unconcerned, but the officer's next words were entirely different from what she had expected.

"My name is Loban. You might not know me, but the important thing is—I saw it. You saved my daughter back then, didn't you?!"

"—Huh?"

W froze for a moment.

"My daughter was taken hostage by a mercenary at the time—the cute red-eyed girl with short brownish-gray hair! I saw it clearly in the surveillance footage. To save her, you deliberately detonated the grenade early, and you even charged straight into the enemy's attacks so bravely..."

"Save the nonsense for when you're dead and can chat with the Grim Reaper. So what are you going to do? Aren't you arresting us? I'll prove with my actions that your judgment was wrong, you know?"

W interrupted the officer with a mocking expression.

Although the behavior was exceptionally wild and rude, even feeling like deliberate provocation, Orson sharply noticed that when the officer described what W had done, she had been so embarrassed she practically wanted to dig out a three-bedroom apartment with her toes.

"W, so you're a living saint after all!"

Orson sighed in admiration as though saying, "So you're one of the good comrades too!" Then, before he could finish praising W's return from the wrong path, the unusually flustered W blew him away with a bomb.

"If I hadn't blocked that with Rest Note, I really would've died..."

"Wouldn't dying be better~?"

After the disturbance, Orson and W were ultimately released by the police officer named Loban. Loban understood that powerful forces were involved behind this matter. All he could do was secretly let go of Orson, who looked like a student, and W, the tsundere mercenary who had saved his daughter.

As for those Sarkaz mercenaries, since the Chernobyl police lacked the means to detain such dangerous mercenaries, they could effectively be considered reserve troops awaiting W's orders.

As for Bear Squad, although Lumiere had chased after Orson and demanded to know what exactly he was, the situation had been too urgent for him to explain properly. He could only brush her off vaguely and ask Loban to settle the students down.

"Was being praised for doing a good deed once really that hard for you to handle?"

As the two headed toward the Rostov residence, Orson asked W why she had reacted so strongly earlier.

"Ha, don't joke around. I'm not a good person in any literal sense. I'm nowhere close to one, okay?"

W responded with a shrug and a sarcastic tone.

"Hmm... Looks like you need to be corrected by Alina too, W."

Orson reached his conclusion.

"Alina?"

"She's the beacon of our Reunion Movement, though she seems to be gathering intelligence around Baikal right now—ah, Alina!"

Halfway through his explanation, Orson returned to the residence and immediately noticed the gentle little deer radiating a calming glow.

"Orson? It feels like it's been so long. Have you been eating properly lately?"

Alina saw Orson and smiled as she greeted him. That long-missed soothing power immediately caressed his entire body.

"The food was pretty good a few days ago, but after the chef ran off, it's mostly been canned food and takeout... Hm? Who's that girl over there?"

Orson noticed a red-haired girl beside Alina, wearing oversized clothes that did not fit her, with fluffy drooping ears.

"This is Lyudmila. She's a girl I brought back from Grand Duke Baikal's territory. Despite how she looks, she's very strong."

Alina explained with a smile while looking at the mercenary girl beside Orson, with her cockroach-like tuft of hair.

"Ha, so you're Alina, the one Orson mentioned? You're giving off this innocent, sheltered air from head to toe. That way you look like you could treat anyone gently is really..."

Halfway through her mockery, W realized Alina seemed to have a bit of Theresia's feeling about her. Even the cockroach-hair radar on her forehead reacted.

What was there to look at in this little deer who seemed like a country girl at first glance?

Hmm... One more look.

Hmph, she completely lacks the leadership needed to command the Sarkaz people!

But she still wanted another look.

In short, W awkwardly kept sneaking glances at Alina. The gesture contrasted sharply with W's battle-hardened appearance, making Alina smile.

Damn it, she has even more of that feeling when she smiles. Where did this little deer come from?!

W, the devoted fangirl, was undergoing a trial.

"Orson, W, it's good that you returned safely. I heard from a noble connected to the police station that the incident at Peterheim Middle School has been resolved, but I also have bad news—large-scale movements at a unified frequency have been detected within the city. If nothing unexpected happens, Duke Baikal has decided to go to war completely... Orson?"

Talula walked out of the meeting room and began explaining the current situation to Orson. Yet Orson, who normally responded immediately, completely ignored her this time.

At that moment, Orson was...

"W-wait...! Mm—what are you doing...? Don't rub my ears!? M-my tail is off limits too...!! My clothes, my clothes are going to fall off!"

Lyudmila, who had just been rescued by Alina and changed into Natalia's clothes that did not suit her flat figure, was currently being intensely cuddled and rubbed all over by Orson.

"You're even more petite than I imagined. Haven't you hit your growth spurt yet? Anyway, you feel really nice, JunJun. Hehehehe, I had 114,514 ways to torment you before this. Rub rub rub rub rub rub rub rub rub~~~"

Having finally met JunJun, someone who could replace him as the mascot being tormented, and with JunJun being even more petite than in the original story—probably only half a head taller than Sasha—Orson immediately pounced on her and began rubbing enthusiastically.

In fact, Orson had always liked rubbing FrostNova's ears and tail. He only began restraining himself after Patriot beat him half to death several times.

Talula's tail... If he rubbed that, he would probably turn into Fire Punch.

Alina's antlers... The result would probably be about the same as the previous one.

Ino's ears... Damn, it wasn't like he was into men!

After considering it all, JunJun seemed to be the only one left who could fulfill Orson's dream of rubbing to his heart's content.

"Alina, you... do you really think you don't have enough rivals?"

Talula frowned at the scene before asking Alina beside her.

"Sorry. From now on, I'll put twelve times the effort into helping Miss Lyudmila find a suitable home."

Alina replied with a smile.

"You Elafia over there, do you... uh, well, know how to fix doors?"

"...?"

After struggling with himself for a while, W asked a completely baffling question.

My Life Is So Sad, I'm Driving Chernobyl Into the Lungmen City-State

"Why is it that every time I see you, Orson, you have injuries that don't look like they came from an enemy?"

In the meeting room, Lumen curiously asked Orson, whose head was covered in bumps.

"I rubbed a girl too much... Don't ask."

With burns, antler gouges, C4 impacts to the face, dog bites, and other injuries all over him, the now-calm Orson wore an expression of deep regret.

"In any case, Duke Baikal has begun dispatching troops to attack us directly. According to our contacts, Reunion Movement's advance force has already reached Chernobyl and is currently evacuating civilians and arranging formations. They should arrive here soon."

Talula drew the situation detected by Orson's Frequency Reflection Array onto the whiteboard. It showed at least four forces advancing toward them. Clearly, these groups moving in synchronized rhythm were army units planted by the Baikal faction within Chernobyl.

"Their target is Natalia and me. As long as the heir and the head of the family die, the Rostov family's assets can be dealt with gradually. Is that right?"

Lumen's father asked Talula, but she shook her head.

"I'm afraid it's not just that, Marquis Rostov—when Alina was gathering intelligence in Grand Duke Baikal's territory, she noticed a strange blueprint."

"Based on my subsequent investigation, that blueprint was likely for Chernobyl's propulsion equipment."

Alina gave her judgment.

"Chernobyl... Wait, do you remember what Anna said back then? 'Chernobyl's City Lord, Marquis Boris, fled Chernobyl.' Why would Baikal let the City Lord of a city he wanted to occupy escape?" Orson frowned as he thought, a bad conclusion already beginning to emerge.

"Because his use as City Lord was no longer needed? Or because Chernobyl was never Baikal's target in the first place?" Lumen looked at Orson in disbelief.

Everyone had originally assumed Baikal's goal was to seize Chernobyl's authority and profits, but it now seemed that was not all.

"Koschei once said that the old nobility's dissatisfaction was not merely directed at Chernobyl. What they resented was modern Ursus. Those rotten officials who rose through war and cemented their status through war might not want Chernobyl's benefits at all. What they want is the endless wars Ursus once endured, and—the ammunition that can be used to start wars."

"What these people want is Chernobyl itself. They want to ram this piece of Ursus territory into another country—Lungmen, for example—and ignite a war on the national level."

After speaking, Orson rubbed his brow. Though he did not want to admit it, this was the only answer that could explain the current situation.

Fuck, is Chernobyl some kind of shared bicycle!? Why does everyone want to drive it into Lungmen?!

"Start a war... Then what should we do? The Emperor—should we try contacting the Emperor? Something this absurd would never be allowed, right?" the Head of the Rostov Family asked with a frown.

"No. The current Emperor has not completely unified his internal political power. If Chernobyl truly has a territorial conflict with Lungmen, regardless of the outcome, the old nobility will use the opportunity to muddy the waters and mobilize the public and the army. Or rather, this is how Ursus has always done things. It's just that in the past, those acts were orders personally issued by the previous Emperor."

Talula answered seriously. She had heard too many absurd war "fuses" from Koschei. Ursus was like a dry Powder Keg. No one cared where the spark came from; everyone only knew that the Powder Keg was waiting to explode.

"There's no point looking for someone like that now. If we successfully stop these real lunatics, then we can consider claiming credit from him or asking for protection from a purge—but right now, what we need to do is the same as before. We just need to kill all those idiots."

W rested both hands behind her neck and spoke carelessly.

"Although the army units follow the old nobility's commands, they are not a single solid block. In fact, if I'm right, most soldiers in the army do not want to fight but have been manipulated by the old nobility into having no choice."

Alina recalled the complaints of that soldier in the dungeon.

After all, Ursus was not an inherently warlike race like the Sarkaz. Many veterans understood that war could bring them no benefits and might instead lead to them being purged after it ended.

War sacrificed them and their brothers, fattened those nobles, and had no justice to it at all. Many within the army units had likely long been dissatisfied with those "leaders."

"Then—the original plan remains unchanged, except our enemy this time will not just be Grand Duke Baikal. The one currently leading the Third Army Group is... Viscount Kerk. He must have planned this together with Grand Duke Baikal." Talula named another target.

"And the glove they'll use to start up Chernobyl should be Garson and those 'orthodox Sarkaz' behind him. A bunch of idiots thirsting for war," W added.

The group's analysis quickly made the situation almost entirely clear. This was not Duke Baikal forcibly seizing the Rostov family's assets out of greed.

It was a war fuse created together with Sarkaz mercenaries and Viscount Kerk, vice commander of the Third Army Group.

"Beheading the people involved... Setting aside whether that can stop this disaster, do we really have that kind of ability? That's the Third Army Group. No individual can contend with something like that, no matter what, right?"

Lumen asked worriedly. In her mind, Ursus's regular army was practically synonymous with "victory." No matter how harsh the conditions or who the enemy was, Ursus's legions had never been stopped from advancing their iron hooves.

"Who knows? But at this point, we can only try. In the end, politics is a game created to reasonably avoid violence. If we lack force that transcends politics, then nothing can even begin."

"So, in summary—I'll immediately join up with FrostNova and Patriot. Leave Viscount Kerk to me. With FrostNova, Patriot, and me, even the regular troops of an army group should be something we can at least trade blows with."

Orson directly took on the task of confronting the army group, the task that seemed least possible to accomplish.

But likewise, the origin of the title The Silence of the North was no fabrication.

"...Saying 'don't push yourself too hard' now would sound too hypocritical. Orson, we have to survive. You understand, right?"

Talula looked at Orson. He nodded and prepared to leave, only for the Head of the Rostov Family to suddenly stop him and say he had a "gift" for Orson.