Jeanne's Earnest Prayer / Another Magician / Guidance from the Dragon

T/N: It's the extra chapters I promised before.

Regular chapters will remain 2ch/day

.....

[You had actually considered whether you could go back to Domremy Village as a substitute soldier instead of making Jeanne travel all that way.]

[But you quickly realized that this was by no means a suitable solution.]

[On the one hand, you were worried that the soldiers sent back might not truly do their best to help the people in the village.]

[On the other hand, Domremy Village knew you and Jeanne quite well.]

[If not handled properly, you might end up revealing your true relationship on the spot.]

[In comparison, if you really wanted to go back to Domremy Village, only the two of you siblings could do it.]

[Of course, you also knew that if you left so quietly, the French army would definitely fall into chaos.]

[So, you first declared that Jeanne had received divine revelation and had to return to Domremy Village, where she used to live.]

[Before she returned, the armies were not to act rashly.]

[This measure did indeed work.]

[Your statement quickly received the support of Charles VII.]

[Having witnessed your private wedding, he was, in a sense, already a good friend to you and Jeanne.]

[Not to mention that he originally firmly believed that Jeanne was a messenger sent by the Lord, so naturally, he wouldn't stand against you now.]

[After everything was arranged, you and Jeanne embarked on your journey back to the village.]

It was winter, and the land of France was swept by waves of cold wind.

A plain-looking carriage was slowly making ruts on the country road.

"Cough cough."

The girl's cough came from inside, causing the boy beside her to become anxious.

He spoke with a hint of reproach, but also with a very concerned and caring voice:

"See, Jeanne, I told you your illness wasn't completely gone!" he said softly, his brow furrowed in worry.

"Yes, I'm sorry..." Jeanne said softly, covering her mouth with her hand as she apologized.

Her petite body would occasionally tremble from the violent coughing, looking very pitiful and making people feel sorry for her.

Seeing his younger sister like this, even if Pierre was very annoyed, he calmed down in an instant.

"Sigh, you..." Pierre sighed, then pulled up the curtains on both sides of the carriage.

He hoped that this way he could make his younger sister feel a little better.

He couldn't bear to see her suffer.

Not even a little bit.

[In this somewhat bad situation, you drove the carriage to a small village.]

[This was a village under the armed control of the English, and you could see their soldiers in groups of three or five everywhere.]

[However, you were not worried that your younger sister would be discovered by these English.]

[Because before setting off, you had already made her change out of her usually very conspicuous clothes and put on a certain degree of disguise.]

[Now she just looked like a slightly prettier village girl.]

[In a sense, half of what you had feared had become a reality—she had indeed become a village girl, but at least she had gotten married.]

[However, you still remained cautious—you didn't want anything to happen to your younger sister.]

[But the actual situation was almost the same as you had imagined, and not many people cared about your arrival.]

[After all, in wartime, the movement of people was a very normal thing.]

[There were also quite a few people fleeing like you.]

[You felt fortunate for this—not being noticed was your greatest need at this moment.]

Although her physical condition wasn't very good, Jeanne's appetite hadn't been affected by it.

In fact, possibly because of the bumpy ride, she seemed to want to eat more than usual.

Watching his younger sister gobbling down her food, Pierre's mood improved a bit.

Just then, several English soldiers pushed open the door of the tavern and walked in.

They waved their hands grandly:

"Landlady, like usual, bring us a few bottles of wine!" one of them boomed.

"Coming right up!" the landlady replied.

Although he wasn't worried that these English soldiers would discover him and Jeanne,

Out of caution to protect his younger sister, Pierre still secretly observed them.

He had to ensure that his younger sister wouldn't be harmed.

The two English soldiers probably didn't expect that someone would be secretly paying attention to their conversation at this time.

So, after receiving the wine from the landlady, they started chatting loudly and carelessly.

"Hey, did you hear?! It seems like a really amazing person has come from above!" one soldier exclaimed.

"A really amazing person?!" the other soldier asked, his brow furrowed in curiosity.

"Yeah, it's said to be a very powerful magician... and a girl too!" the first soldier replied, his voice filled with excitement.

"Is that really true?" the second soldier asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Yeah, I heard she plans to use a special way to help us win this war... I wonder how she's going to do it," the first soldier said, taking a swig of his wine.

"I don't know, it sounds so unreliable to me... like a swindler," the second soldier muttered, shaking his head.

[The conversation between the two English soldiers caught your attention.]

[You listened to their conversation even more carefully, hoping to get more useful information from it.]

[Unfortunately, however, those English soldiers also seemed to only have a superficial understanding of the mysterious female magician.]

[The topic between them quickly shifted to other things with the clinking of wine glasses.]

[You realized that the English might have gotten another powerful external aid.]

[This was obviously not good news for France.]

[After all, the miracle of dragon slaying in Orléans was not so easy to replicate.]

[If the English summoned another bunch of dragons, France might really be doomed.]

[Thinking of these things, you couldn't help but feel a little worried.]

"Brother~" Jeanne's voice pulled Pierre's thoughts back to reality.

She blinked her beautiful blue eyes and looked at her beloved older brother with a worried expression.

"Brother, what's wrong? You seem a little absent-minded?" she asked softly, her blue eyes looking at him with concern.

"..."

[Although you felt that the unknown magician was a very dangerous existence.]

[But you also clearly knew that telling Jeanne about this at this time would only cause her unnecessary worry.]

[After all, in the end, she was just an ordinary girl.]

[You didn't want her to bear so much pressure.]

"It's nothing," Pierre smiled slightly. "I just haven't been resting well lately, and I spaced out a bit," he explained gently, his gaze loving.

"..."

Hearing this, Jeanne looked a little guilty.

"Brother... is it all because of me?" she asked softly, her blue eyes looking at him with concern.

"There is definitely some of that, but not entirely," Pierre replied gently, reaching out to stroke his younger sister's head softly, trying to reassure her.

"It's okay, Jeanne, you don't need to worry too much," he added, a warm smile on his face.

"..."

Jeanne pondered for a moment, then asked.

"Brother, are we resting here tonight?" she asked softly, her blue eyes looking at him with curiosity.

"Probably," Pierre replied, his gaze thoughtful.

"Then—" Jeanne looked at her beloved, her face slightly flushed.

"I'll make it up to Brother tonight~" she said softly, her voice filled with tenderness.

[Time flew by quickly.]

[Night soon fell upon the village where you and Jeanne had arrived.]

[You found a place to rest.]

Inside a room somewhere in the village.

Jeanne's village girl attire from the daytime had been neatly folded and placed on the bed beside her.

And she herself planned to perform some kind of prayer ritual from a nun.

This was the first time she had tried to do so.

The blonde girl took out a bottle of wine from behind her—something she had bought from the landlady here in advance.

Plop.

Jeanne pulled out the cork and placed it aside.

Glug glug.

The blonde girl drank a few mouthfuls of ordinary wine, but didn't swallow it, instead holding it in her mouth.

Kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped together in a prayer position, she looked at her older brother on the bed—this was to ask him if she could start praying.

Pierre naturally didn't refuse his younger sister's request.

He nodded, indicating that she could.

And so—

The wine in the girl's mouth began to soak something.

Feeling guilty, Jeanne also took this opportunity to properly summarize the past events where she had burdened her older brother.

She gently chanted the scriptures of atonement, lightly inscribing her kiss on the holy pillar in the sea of wine.

The holy pillar then surged back and forth, stirring up a purple tide—that was the response from the saint's symbiotic being.

The quiet night emerged, and the sea surface sparkled with white light, adorning the myriad of scarlet seas.

At the end, the girl drank the seasoned wine of atonement and revealed a happy smile.

"I've made things even with Brother again~" Jeanne looked up at him in front of her, her eyes already filled with love.

"That's great," Pierre replied softly, a warm smile on his face.

And Pierre, feeling relieved after the experience, felt a bit worried inside.

He was really afraid that his younger sister wouldn't have a good life.

[You spent a pleasant time together.]

[Jeanne really liked doing things that could bring you happiness.]

[Having put too much into it, she slept very peacefully, even uttering a variety of sleep talks.]

["Brother, so amazing." "I like it best when Brother is like this."]

[Shameful remarks of this kind kept coming out of her mouth.]

[This should have been a happy thing.]

[After all, in a sense, this was also a manifestation of her deep love for you—even her dreams had turned into your image.]

[But at this moment, you couldn't be happy at all.]

[Because the happier Jeanne seemed, the more you feared that something in the future would come and destroy all of this.]

[You always wanted to pave the way for her entire future—but there was always something that would hinder you, preventing you from achieving this.]

[There was no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution.]

[Realizing this, you fell into deep pain.]

[Beside your sleeping sister, you were sleepless.]

Late at night.

The boy, clutching his forehead, looked very haggard.

Pierre found that he seemed to have fallen into some extremely terrible obsession.

He was very anxious now, completely unable to calm down and think about the essence of the problem like he usually could.

But at this moment—

The black dragon-shaped pendant on the boy's neck emitted a faint light.

"Pierre," Fafnir's voice came from within.

"What's wrong with you?" the dragon side asked, his tone filled with concern.

The voice of the dragon side allowed Pierre to slightly regain some of his former composure.

This was an absolutely trustworthy, other side of himself.

"Fafnir, I..." Pierre began, his voice filled with worry.

[You told your other self everything you had seen and heard today.]

[This outpouring made the pressure in your heart lessen a bit.]

[You realized that he was indeed a good person to confide in.]

"A very powerful magician?" Fafnir's voice was full of doubt. "Could it be that arrogant guy who calls himself Lev again?"

"No," Pierre shook his head. "This time it's definitely not Lev," he said firmly.

"Because this magician is a woman," he explained, his brow furrowed in thought.

"This..." Fafnir didn't know how to respond to this sentence for a moment.

After all, compared to his human side, he, as the dragon side, had actually seen even less.

He thought for a while, then asked again.

"Have you heard of such a magician before?"

"No," Pierre quickly shook his head in denial.

"At least until Jeanne and I left there, I had never heard of such a magician," he explained, his gaze thoughtful.

"Heh," Fafnir chuckled softly.

"Then you shouldn't worry, right?" Fafnir's tone became lighter.

"After all, if she was really that powerful... I think her name would have spread throughout the English and French armies long ago," he reasoned, his voice calm.

"A reputation that only spread after a major defeat looks more like a scapegoat who was found to take responsibility," Fafnir concluded, his tone slightly mocking.

This was a very interesting way of putting it.

Pierre was taken aback for a moment, then he reacted.

"Fafnir, are you comforting me?" he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"If you want to understand it that way, it's not impossible," the dragon side didn't hide his purpose at all.

"The main thing is that I feel like there's no point in you just being so anxious... you might as well turn back into the you who dared to do anything for your sister," Fafnir said, his voice firm.

"I think that version of you fits my understanding better," he added, his tone encouraging.

"..."

"Right," Pierre said softly, nodding in agreement.

"You're right," he added, his gaze resolute.

[Fafnir's guidance made you less anxious.]

[You realized that there were still many things you could do for Jeanne.]

[And being anxious was the most meaningless and valueless thing among them.]

[Having calmed down, you began to think about the current situation.]

[You figured out your current purpose.]

He and Jeanne needed to cross almost half of France to return to Domremy Village, where they used to live.

During this process, they could completely collect information about this female magician.

After all, if even the English soldiers in such a small village knew a thing or two, then other places would definitely have some related information as well.

Maybe—

He could really piece together information about this magician.

Having completely calmed down, Pierre re-established his goals that night.

He wouldn't let anyone hurt his younger sister.

[You and Jeanne continued your journey back to the village.]

[However, unlike before, you had a clearer goal on this trip.]

[That was to find out the identity of the magician who claimed to be able to bring victory to England.]

[But this was not as simple as imagined—almost everyone only knew some superficial information.]

[Until this day, you and Jeanne arrived in this village.]

[You recognized a girl.]

[And her name—]

[Was François Prelati.]