Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Well, I..."

General Zhang trailed off, but his eyes never left the other man. With a smirk on his face, he observed the man in front of him tighten his grip on his newly-sharpened spear.

The other general, however, didn't say anything and just waited for general Zhang to continue his sentence. His expression was as flat as polished wood, and no one knew what was on his mind at that very moment.

"I... Obviously didn't know, tee-hee!" General Zhang winked while sticking his tongue out.

"You didn't?" General Emilio's eyes widened in surprise, and a little frown formed on top of his forehead.

"Of course~ Who do you think I am, porcupine? Some kind of an all-knowing god?" He leaned in closer to general Emilio, "I would love to be one, though. Hey, what kind of god do you think I'd be, if I was one?"

"... Are you certain?" General Emilio asked another question, instead of answering the prompt.

"Why shouldn't I be certain?" The aloof general asked back, tilting his head.

"You've always been the headmaster's... Loyal subordinate." General Emilio answered, hesitating for a bit.

"You can just call me his lapdog if you want to. No need to hold back." General Zhang grinned, his eyes glinted with malice.

"Well, if you wish to be called one, then so be it." The other man glared back without flinching even in the slightest.

"Hmm~" The red-eyed man just hummed as the tension between them rose, and consequently, their mana also slowly rose, overtaking each other.

"You--"

"UWAH!"

Both generals jumped when a high-pitched yell broke the tension, filling the relatively quiet room. They immediately looked at the source of the yell, and stared at the dark-haired girl with wide eyes once they realized that the unconscious Chaerin had suddenly woken up without any warnings, not even a slight groan before jumping into a seated position.

"Little cub!?" General Zhang exclaimed with surprise, his mouth wide open for the first time since Chaerin arrived here.

"You're awake!? Now?" General Emilio also loudly wondered.

"Oh my gosh, am I finally awake? For real?" Chaerin gasped as she uttered those words in-between her heavy breathing.

She was pale, very pale that her usually red lips lost their colour, and sweat trickled down the sides of her forehead, although her fingertips were almost as cold as ice. Her eyes were wide open with shock, scanning the room carefully, and stopping for a few seconds on each person she saw.

"Are you really awake?" General Zhang shifted his seating position to face Chaerin, and leaned in to inspect her carefully.

"That's what I just asked, you dumb eel," she replied with a huff, "am I really awake now? ... You're real, right?"

"Huh? You're asking weird questions, but..." General Zhang raised an eyebrow, before grabbing her ice-cold hand and wincing upon the icy touch, "here, touch me. Do I feel real to you?" He grinned as he brought her hand to his face, until her hand was cupping the side of his cheek.

"Uh--!" She stuttered when she realized what the young man had done, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. In a panic state, she quickly reacted by...

"Ow, ow, ow!" General Zhang whined when she pinched his cheeks, hard, "little cub, why are you so mean~"

"Did the pain feel real to you?" She asked back, still with a flushed face.

"Of course it did," he pouted for a second, and then a smirk appeared on his face, "if you're still unsure, let me convince you that I'm real..." He leaned in closer and closer, until they were just about ten centimeters apart, and--

"Chaerin! Thank goodness you're awake!" Jeanne, who was awoken by the commotion, rushed to Chaerin's side and pushed the sneaky general away.

"Ah, Jeanne!" Chaerin's face beamed with happiness when she saw her closest friend so far in this era, coming to check up on her, "hehe~ I'm glad you're here when I woke up~"

"Are you alright? How do you feel right now?" Jeanne asked as she checked the girl's body all the way from top to bottom, starting from her face, her body, her hands, even down to her feet, "does it hurt anywhere?"

"I'm okay, I suppose. A bit tired, but life is always tiring anyway, so who am I to complain?" She answered with a little chuckle.

'Thump!'

"Uh? J-Jeanne?" Chaerin stuttered when the blonde general suddenly hugged her tight.

She was bewildered and didn't exactly know what to do, since nobody, well, except a certain edgy prince called Elias, had hugged her tight out of genuine care.

"... You got me scared there, Chaerin... Don't do that again, please." Jeanne muttered into her ears while tightening her hug.

Chaerin, still in a daze, only managed to give a little nod and a few back pats to Jeanne. She just awkwardly hugged back, and once a few seconds had passed, she finally eased in and slumped her shoulders back down, and even snuggling her face into Jeanne's shoulder.

"So warm..." Chaerin whispered ever so slightly as she rubbed her face on Jeanne's shoulder, enjoying the comfort.

Surprisingly, although it was foreign to her at first, she kinda liked the feeling of being hugged in this way. This hug, for some reason, was warm. Unlike the hugs she received from empty greetings and shameful men that think hugging without consent was okay.

"Hey, you." General Emilio called, snapping her back to reality as she raised her head to look at him without releasing the hug.

"Yeah?" She chirped.

"Your memory, how is it? And are you crazy now, or not?" He abruptly asked.

"Oh, are you checking whether or not the crest thingy was a success?" Chaerin instantly picked up on the meaning of his questions, "geez, you could've said it in a better way, you know."

"Yeah, porcupine, that's not how you talk to a woman. At this rate, you're gonna die without ever dating anyone, you know~?" General Zhang interrupted with a giggle.

"Dude, you're one to talk. You're not better than him, even worse, probably." Chaerin sighed, as she always did whenever that easygoing general was around.

"Your mana is not too different from before. According to what that kid said, shouldn't your mana change after taking the crest?" General Emilio pressed further, "but if you fail, shouldn't you either be dead or crazy right now?"

"Well, first of all, you said not 'too' different, so you already know that something definitely changed, right?" Chaerin pouted, "and second of all, who said that there are only two outcomes? Do you want me dead that much?" She ended her explanation by sticking her tongue out.

"Then what's the other outcome?" General Emilio raised an eyebrow, curious about the answer.

"Alright, alright let me tell you, but let's wake Firiell up first, since I want to ask her a few things, too." Chaerin sighed as she released her hug, and hopped out of the bed.

"Oh, you're right. I didn't notice that she didn't wake up despite us being so loud... I guess she's very tired and needed rest," Jeanne nodded and smile, "understood, I will go and wake her up."

"Thank you, Jeanne," the other girl grinned happily, "now while you wake her up, I need to take care of something..."

"What is it?"

"Um, toilet?"

--------

"Okay, now that we're all here, let me start explaining what happened." Chaerin clapped her hands together, finally ready to describe the bizarre events that she had just gone through.

She was in a relatively good mood now, though, since she was able to finally go to the toilet after one whole day of not being conscious. Anyone's bladder would've been so full it was starting to be painful.

They were all gathered in the middle of the clinic, while the orc leader and his guards were peacefully sleeping in the corner of the room.

"Huwaaa! Big sis Chae! I thought you will never wake up!" Firiell cried out, her eyes were red from the tears, a huge contrast to her overly pale face.

"I mean, I kinda wish--"

'Bonk!'

"Word choice, little cub. I won't allow you to die while I'm still alive." General Zhang bonked the girl right in the middle of her head.

"Urk... Anyway, let me explain what happened, and this might take a long time since I actually spent a whole lot of time in there, even though one day barely passed here," Chaerin continued, "so grab your drinks and snacks, and enjoy my free storytelling."

She leaned back for a more comfortable position as she told them the events that transpired, starting from when she woke up in an unfamiliar bleak room, the strange 'illusions', and the choices that were offered to her.

"...And after that, I soon realized that the correct answer was to kill myself." She continued while explaining her thought process.

"I see. That might be true, and now it makes sense why no human has ever been able to succeed," general Emilio nodded, "so, you killed yourself?"

"You need to find another hobby aside from being suicidal, little cub. Tsk, tsk." General Zhang sighed.

"No, of course I didn't. Why would I just comply like that? I don't even have a 'king'!" Chaerin pouted.

"Then, how did you wake up?" Jeanne asked with a concerned expression.

"Well, so it went like this..."

--------

"Hey, voice dude. You said I should obey my king, right? So how should I kill myself?" I asked with an obvious frown on my face. Ack, I was starting to get super pissed at this situation.

[You've made an admirable choice, O princess of nature--]

"I haven't made any choice. I'm just asking, are you deaf or just stupid?" I cut him off.

[... True, you haven't,] he paused for a brief moment, [allow me to present you with a sword.]

I raised an eyebrow as I saw a green sword materialized in front of me, which was the exact copy of Ioriell's sword.

[Now, carry out your faith.] The voice commanded.

"... Make sure you watch." I concisely replied while I extended my hand and grabbed the sword that was made of mana.

"Uh?" I yelped when I felt the sudden surge of mana coming from the sword. For some reason, the foreign mana was very condensed in this sword. However, even though I said 'foreign', I think actually recognized it.

It was definitely Ioriell's mana. No doubt about it. The only difference was that this one was far more malicious, as if it was infused with a lot of seething hatred. Even just touching it already made my heart skips a beat, and my hands start trembling.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and tightened my grip on the hilt.

Alright, time to start putting my plan into action. Man, this better work. If not, I was as good as dead.

"Ioriell, speak to me."

'FLASH!'