Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Everything is pretty much unexpected at this point." I sighed.

"Well, I really didn't expect her to volunteer to help the orcs," Jeanne continued, "she said that the orcs had always been friendly to her ever since they moved here, so she wanted to know their reason for abducting her."

"That's... Very risky to do at that timing, Firiell..." I grimaced. Couldn't they at least discuss that after fighting?

"As things turned out to be, they decided to snatch Firiell right at that moment because they didn't want that prince to die, since they needed him for something." Jeanne explained.

"That would be his promise to get the crest back and help their leader." Luke nodded.

"Yeah, they were able to communicate somehow and Firiell relayed that information to me," she sighed, "but once Firiell told them that she was the one who owned the crest now, they immediately begged her to follow them to where their leader was lying sick."

"The prince can also communicate with the orcs, so it's likely that they received education about orc's language." General Emilio added.

"... Why." I uttered a single word that expressed my whole feeling right now.

Couldn't they just, wait for like, 10 minutes tops? We would've finished that prince by that time, and no one would be at risk. It was nice that general Zhang was there to step in, but if he wasn't...

"I also don't understand her too well, yet," Jeanne said as she glanced over at the little girl who hadn't woken up, "but she insisted on helping the orcs."

"... I guess we can only ask once she wakes up," I shifted in my seat, "we also need to tell her to be more aware of the situation, just in case this happens again."

"That's true. What's even more worrisome is the fact that their method of healing is a bit... Questionable." Jeanne said as she pointed at her wrist.

"Yeah, I was going to ask, what do they even need her blood for?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"She said her crest power was called 'Pureblood'. And I think you may already have figured out why, just from the name." Jeanne answered.

"Ah, so it's a play on the words? Her blood purifies others, like that?" General Zhang perked up, "ahahahha! What a concept!" He laughed loudly while holding his stomach.

"They're drinking her blood? That's so metal." I grimaced. But did that work, though?

"I think they're doing blood transfusion. But the crest's exact mechanism is still not understood," Jeanne corrected, before continuing, "but strangely, it didn't work as well as we thought it would."

"Elaborate?" I leaned closer to pay attention.

"At first, the leader did get better and his fever went down, but soon after, we noticed that his other symptoms persisted and he couldn't even get out of his bed now." Jeanne bit her lip in anguish.

"Huh, probably the curse they're talking about works in a complex manner..." I touched my chin and began thinking of some possibilities. What were we missing here? There must've been a missing link. Hmm...

"We need to wait until that girl wakes up, and then we'll ask about her crest." General Emilio crossed his arms in front of his chest with a frown. I guess he was also pretty pissed.

"Hngg--"

"Speaking of which, someone else just woke up." Luke raised an eyebrow and stared down at my feet.

"Huh? Oh! You woke up!" I exclaimed in surprise when I saw the creature we caught earlier started squirming around. I was comfortable resting my feet on top of her too, dang.

"You. State who you are. I'll give you 5 seconds." General Emilio suddenly swung his spear and pressed the tip against her neck, drawing a tiny drop of blood.

"W-wait--" She gasped and stuttered while looking at us with wide eyes.

"Four."

"You're going to regret doing this to me!"

"Three."

Huh, why did this feel familiar to me? What was up with generals here and their tendency to offer 5 seconds to someone who had just woken up? Uncool.

"Two... One."

"Kill me, if you dare!"

'STAB!'

"AAHHH!" The lady's high-pitched screaming made me flinch from the surprise.

Dang, this dude really just jammed his spear right through her thigh until blood seeped through her pants and onto the ropes, dyeing them red.

"... So you're not gonna kill her for real? Just Stabby McStab time?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Not until she gives us information." He said with a flat tone and an equally flat expression. Huh, so that was what my fate would've been if I didn't answer Jeanne when I first woke up here. Hmm, yeah, I would like to keep my legs, thank you very much.

"You're crazy!" She screamed so loud that my ears were starting to ring, and I covered them in annoyance.

"Then talk!" I groaned.

"I will never talk to you! Don't you ever think my loyalty to my master will simply be shaken by this!" She snarled and thrashed around, pulling the rope on my waist.

"Oh, so you have a master. Who are they?" I asked as I yanked the rope so she would stay put a bit more, since it was starting to get annoying.

"Don't talk to me!" She thrashed even harder, until my waist was hurting.

'Stomp!'

"Geez, fam, you're making this harder on yourself," I frowned as I pushed her to the ground with my foot, "if you can just spill a few things, this will be much faster and easier for us both."

"Then I'll make this faster and easier, just like you want."

"Hmm?"

'Splat!'

My eyes went wide when I saw blood gushing out of her mouth. The creature beneath me groaned in pain as she gagged and coughed, with blood spurting out every time she did either one of them.

"Oh gosh!" Jeanne gasped and kneeled down beside her, while trying to check her mouth.

"Ack! Why is everyone so metal today!?" I scrunched my hair in frustration when I realized that this woman just bit off her tongue in retaliation. She really did that just to avoid spilling info! Oh man, I got careless, even though I should've expected this! Geez, Chae, you weren't a newbie at extracting information, how could you make this beginner mistake?

"Ooooh~ How stubborn~" General Zhang hummed in amusement.

I sighed in defeat, "forget it, let's just loot her." She wouldn't survive long enough for us to persuade her, anyway, if she was this stubborn. Might as well make do with what we have, which was loot.

I was just about to crouch down and start searching her body, when suddenly--

'Poof!'

"...Huh!?"

The woman... Faded away into a puff of smoke!?

"Luke!? What is the meaning of this? Do you know anything about this?" I asked in shock.

"No! What do I have to do with this, kid?" He answered frantically, looking just as spooked and as confused as I was.

"Huh? She's not the same as you? You also do this poof poof thing often, so I thought you'd recognize your own kind!" I explained with apparent bewilderment on my face.

"I do recognize my own kind, I recognized your suicidal friend!" He pointed at general Zhang who was just sitting there with one eyebrow raised. He didn't even look that surprised. Pretty freaky.

"Since when am I suicidal?" General Zhang tilted his head in confusion.

"Since this morning! You started the day with choking!" Luke explained.

"No! I already said it was a misunderstanding! Ack!" I yelled in frustration. How could we talk about this when a woman--no, a creature had just poofed into nothing in front of us? And she poofed away with valuable information that we could've extracted, too!

"Then what is she, if she isn't the same as... Whatever you are?" General Emilio inquired with a stoic face. At this rate, I wasn't surprised anymore. That dude only looked surprised during big reveals.

"Don't ask me, I don't know. Who do you think I am, her mommy?" Luke pouted.

"...The heck?" I scratched my head in confusion. So she was confirmed to not be a human. Also clearly wasn't an elf. Not a monster, too, since big brother Luke said so. Then, what was she?

"Pfft-- Isn't it clear already, though? I mean, her identity, that is." General Zhang chuckled, turning our attention towards him.

"Then tell us, you annoying eel. Don't act mysterious, this isn't a quiz show." I frowned and stomped on his foot, which he took without complaints.

"I mean~ She's clearly 'it', right?" General Zhang winked and grinned at us.

"It?" The rest of us looked at each other, expecting at least one of us to understand what 'it' meant, but apparently no one did, so we looked back at general Zhang.

"An idiot sandwich, of course." He winked at me.

"You wanna fight? Fight me, you overgrown eel." I said as I yanked his collar and clenched my fist in anger.

"Aahahahha! I'm kidding, I'm kidding of course~" He laughed until I saw tears forming at the corner of his eyes, and his body curled up because he was holding his stomach.

"Why the heck would you lie at this time, you-- ugh!" I growled in frustration. Sometimes he could be so childish!

"Here, here, let me spell it out for you, then," he said in-between his giggles, "she has a master. What do you think that means?"

"A boss, maybe? Just like the headmaster, or a general to us? Or someone she looks up to?" Jeanne suggested while putting her hand on her chin.

"Tsk, tsk. Try to think of something more literal." General Zhang said as he swung his index finger from left to right, and back and forth.

"... Her teacher?" General Emilio tried.

"Nope. Although the term is spot-on, but try to think moooore literally." General Zhang giggled.

"Owner? Is she like a pet?" This time I tried answering.

"Your word choice is always questionable, little cub. But something like that, yes." He finally nodded and grinned.

"A human pet? What!?" I exclaimed.

"I said your word choice is weird, right?" General Zhang sighed, "she isn't a pet, she's just..."

I gulped. She was just..?

"... She's just magic."