Just as Jeanne brought up Nine in conversation, a familiar voice drifted over from behind them. The very person they had been discussing was standing there, offering a cheerful greeting.
"I never expected you lot to actually show up today. I was planning to invite you all over in a few days to take a look around. Well, what do you think? This little establishment I chipped in to help with—looks rather decent, doesn't it?"
After stepping inside, Nine gave Susie a fond pat on the head before turning to greet Jeanne and the others, acting with the casual familiarity of a lifelong friend.
That level of casual intimacy didn't go unnoticed by the surrounding Yeti Squad members, a few of whom instinctively leaned back a fraction, eyeing the shop with a suddenly heightened sense of caution.
Nine's peripheral vision caught those subtle defensive shifts. The primary reason she had carved out time to visit the shop today was precisely to ensure the establishment's security.
With the recent influx of Victorian infected, minority Victorians, and displaced Tarans settling into the district, a few shady operators who used to play fast and loose back in Victoria were starting to test the waters.
These opportunists knew Chernobog wasn't Victoria; pulling stunts here usually meant a swift rendezvous with the local Guard Department, followed by a strict application of the penal code.
Even stranger was the rumor that these law enforcement officers were completely immune to bribes—or more accurately, the guards were simply too terrified to accept any grease money, deeply paranoid about triggering catastrophic consequences.
Whenever outsiders dared to probe, the local police and administrative staff would shudder and reply that such thoughts were entirely off the table; nobody in their right mind would risk corruption with a monster like Jeanne roaming the city.
Jeanne was the sort of terrifying entity who could dig up Wei Yenwu's deep hidden private stash just by trusting her intuition. Relying on her strange Revelations, she could unearth every single lawbreaker in the vicinity—a tactic she had deployed relentlessly during Chernobog's early reconstruction days.
If someone took a bribe on Monday morning, Jeanne would haul them in before lunch. When Nine first witnessed that efficiency, she had stared into space in pure disbelief.
"It's a wonderful shop, completely different from the dreary ambiance of standard Ursus taverns. Are Victorian taverns that double as hair salons typically designed this way?"
Alina glanced around the room, offering an appreciative nod. She genuinely adored the atmosphere; the mere presence of blossoming flora instantly lifted her spirits, whether that was an illusion or not.
"Whether standard Victorian taverns look like this is beyond me, but I do know that anyone bold enough to cram a flower shop, a bar, and a hair salon into a single storefront anywhere on Terra is a person with extraordinary ambition."
Nine continued to affectionately ruffle Susie's hair. The young Feline proprietor, however, shrank back like a shy child, keeping her head down and remaining entirely silent under the attention.
The auxiliary staff helping out around the shop exchanged amused, helpless smiles at the sight. Their young boss was still remarkably green when it comes to managing a public storefront.
"Alright, run along and get back to work. I can already see customers waiting for a haircut over there. As the owner, you ought to show a bit of flair and turn this place into a genuine landmark for the district."
Noticing the way Susie was awkwardly wringing her hands, Nine didn't keep her trapped in conversation for long, especially since several curious patrons were already gravitating toward the styling chairs.
"A-Ah, right! I'll get back to it. If any of you need anything, just give me a shout!" Reminded of her duties by Nine's prompt, Susie scurried off to tend to her growing queue of clients.
Only after successfully launching her own business did she realize the enterprise bore little resemblance to her initial daydreams. Being the shop owner turned out to be exponentially more stressful than being a rank-and-file employee.
"Let's grab a seat over there. I recall the chef they hired actually puts out decent food—at least the fried scalefish and chips carry a very... authentic Victorian charm."
Nine did her best to put a positive spin on the menu, though the unapologetically rustic Victorian culinary style failed to spark any genuine enthusiasm. It was a rather painful realization.
The single saving grace of those dishes was their speed, convenience, and low cost, making them a staple comfort food for working-class Victorians.
True Victorian nobility, by contrast, subsisted almost exclusively on high-end Gallic cuisine.
Jeanne had grown thoroughly exhausted of that particular flavor profile during her time in Victoria, but for FrostNova, Alina, and the Yeti Squad—none of whom had ever set foot in the nation—trying these local staples for the first time was a novel experience.
"I never took you for someone who would care this much about a random commercial shop," Jeanne remarked, watching the group dig into their plates before turning her curious gaze back to Nine.
She remained genuinely fascinated by what had driven the busy Pythia director of the Guard Department—someone whose daily schedule was packed to the absolute breaking point—to carve out time for a grand opening celebration.
Catching Jeanne's inquiring look, Nine merely smiled, lifting her gaze to admire the vibrant blooms surrounding them. Breathing in the scent of flowers she had personally cultivated smoothed away a fraction of her chronic mental exhaustion.
"This shop holds a unique significance for this district," Nine explained quietly to Jeanne. "Not only because it opened its doors early, but because Susie is one of the vanishingly rare individuals willing to stake her entire livelihood on a dream... and those are the people I want to support."
She trailed off slightly, but Jeanne easily read between the lines. Nine was subtly alluding to Susie's status as an infected—a reality that naturally drew protective empathy from someone in Nine's position.
Regardless of political affiliations, the infected maintained an instinctive solidarity with their struggling peers. Witnessing a fellow infected hold onto such fierce hope made it impossible for someone like Jeanne not to lend a hand, either.
"So you actually used your own Originium Arts to force all these flowers to bloom? Pouring that much power into botanical acceleration has to take a heavy toll on your constitution. You need to pace yourself!"
Jeanne offered a gentle reprimand driven by genuine worry. While the miraculous healing waters and improving medical infrastructure in the city offered reliable suppression for Oripathy, pushing one's Arts to that extreme without restraint was a dangerous gamble. Jeanne genuinely feared Nine might push her body past the breaking point before long.
"With that miraculous healing water keeping my condition in check, this level of floral cultivation hardly counts as heavy exertion. Besides, manipulating plant growth Arts doesn't carry a severe metabolic burden."
The stoic Pythia director answered Jeanne's concern matter-of-factly, casually lifting her arm to reveal a custom-crafted caster's ring and a delicate bracelet fitted around her slender wrist.
Though vintage, those high-grade custom foci allowed her to channel casting mechanics cleanly, preventing her body from exacerbating the infection through brute-force channeling.
"Besides, I wanted to give this little dreamer a fighting chance. I've tried setting up programs for infected employment in the past, but most of them hit dead ends..."
She trailed off, watching the bustling crowd with a soft look of introspection. Lately, she had noticed an uncharacteristic surge of sentimentality creeping into her thoughts, frequently pulling her back into old memories.
A sudden commotion nearby snapped Jeanne out of her thoughts. Turning her head, she spotted a cluster of Yeti Squad members huddled around Susie's styling chair. One particularly curious squad member was sitting upright, examining her newly transformed reflection with a mixture of shock and profound satisfaction.
Verdant Sparks Recommended Style: Shopkeeper Susie's Special Electric Puff. The primary advantage was its short duration, making it ideal for anyone looking to experiment with a radically volatile aesthetic.
The squad members had grown endlessly fascinated by Susie's unconventional hair-styling technique, which utilized subtle, controlled bursts of localized static electricity to force individual strands outward into an explosive, cloud-like halo.
To be fair, the first attempt had been a slight technical miscalculation driven by Susie's severe stage fright; the poor Feline was currently bowing frantically and apologizing with a face on the verge of tears.
Yet the surrounding Yeti Squad girls harbored zero anger. If anything, they found the voluminous explosion of hair utterly delightful, especially upon learning it was entirely temporary.
Without missing a beat, the squad members smoothly shifted their collective gaze toward FrostNova.
The white rabbit froze instantly, recognizing that exact look of dangerous amusement. She spun around with the intent to make a tactical retreat, only to find her escape routes cleanly cut off by her own enthusiastic subordinates.
Jeanne watched, highly entertained, as the poor snow rabbit was thoroughly 'persuaded' by her own troops, guided gently toward the vacant chair, entirely blind to the wicked grins plastered across her squad's faces.
A sharp, faint snap of static electricity flickered through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the pristine snow rabbit transformed into a fully charged, violently fluffed-up electro-bunny, every single strand of her long white hair standing rigidly on end!