Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"I-- What!?" She jumped back in shock, bumping the table until our tablewares made clanking sounds.

"Yes. You guys don't have a minimum age requirement for a coronation, right?" I grinned widely, "then, get ready to be the youngest elf queen in history."

"But-- Why!? And how!?" She exclaimed loudly, her eyes wide open and her jaw dropped low.

"Hmm~ Is this another one of your wacky plans, little cub?" General Zhang tilted his head while humming, "I'm in!" He chuckled and stood up to circle his arm around my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, wacky. Please get a mirror for yourself." I sighed and just stayed quiet while he started to pinch my cheeks.

"How do you plan to kill the current elf king?" General Emilio asked, "he's not an easy opponent to take on."

I smiled upon hearing his question. As expected, he caught on quickly.

"Do you think I plan to freeze their whole entire castle just to negotiate?" I opened my mouth to answer him.

"Not negotiate. Threaten." He corrected.

"Right. Threaten. Not very far from what I have in mind, actually," I started explaining, "freezing the castle is just a little part of my plan. It's not the main course." I grinned.

"Ooh~ Then what is the main course, little cub?" General Zhang squished my cheeks together with his palm.

"Bleh," I shook my head to get myself off of his grip, "we're going to do something that's so morally wrong. But at least, after all this is done, we can all live somewhat respectfully towards each other, regardless of what species we are."

"What's that got to do with killing the elf king?" General Zhang raised an eyebrow.

"You'll know when you know," I sighed and ruffled Firiell's hair, who was still standing there with a shocked expression, "just know that if we succeed, we're one step closer to realizing your mother's wish-- and yours."

I smiled when I saw her expression morphed from being shocked, to being teary-eyed and red-nosed from happy crying.

"Huweee! Big sister Chae! I thought nobody will ever support me and my mom's belief!" She cried again and hugged me so tight, I was feeling pain, "thank you... Thank you for believing in me when no one was willing to..."

I said nothing and just returned her hug while caressing her hair. Well, to be honest... I didn't even stop to think for one second about all of this 'coexisting' stuff. I really came here with the full intention to either wipe them all out, or oppress every single one of them to submit to us as our disposable army.

But, a better option just presented itself to me on a platter.

Based on my experience, an empire built on oppression will collapse horribly, sooner or later. Not only that, but the quality of life of its members usually existed on the extremes. Either incredibly prosperous and respected, or incredibly abused and miserable. If I was to build an army like that, I would be building a glass cannon. Powerful, especially at the start, but very easy to take down, too.

Meanwhile, an empire built on mutual interest tended to last longer, and more balanced. It would be more beneficial in the long run, and it would be better for its members. And I kinda had no time for petty coup-de-tat or revolution drama that usually happens in an oppressive environment, so...

"Hehe~" Firiell snuggled closer to me as I observed this little girl.

Well, aside from that, I didn't think Firiell would just agree if we were to invite her to kill her own family, right? Oh well, in any case, it would be nice if my plan worked out, but if not, then I could always go back to my initial oppressing plan.

Seeing that Firiell didn't even protest about me killing her uncle, her king, made me wonder what exactly did he do to her to make her feel okay-ish about him dying... Perhaps it had something to do with what I said about not letting herself be controlled by her instinct, too, though. Or maybe she understood that King Erenduill was too engrossed in his ideals that he would rather die than surrender.

... Eh, she was doing great, that was all that mattered. I didn't need to read too much into it just yet.

"So what do we do now, little cub?" General Zhang asked while grinning, "I'm already excited~"

"I need to speak to the orcs first to confirm something. Firiell, can you help as our translator?" I scratched my cheek.

"Okay!" She excitedly exclaimed.

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"Here it is! The first one! Ta-da!" Firiell proudly spread her arms wide, pointing towards the old well that was sitting in the middle of nowhere on the village's outskirts.

"Good. Let's quickly finish our business here and head for the next one," I smiled in satisfaction, "he said there are three wells in total, right?" I pointed at the orc from the blacksmith that we had forced to tag along.

"Yep! Two on the outskirts, and one inside the village!" Firiell nodded happily.

"Is he 100% certain those are their only wells, their only source of water?" I questioned again, just to make sure.

"Uh-huh. So now, what do we do?" Her eyes glimmered with excitement.

I gave her a smile, "now we do nothing."

"Eh?"

I walked up to the old well and looked down. Aside from the mosses that were growing alongside the cracks in the stone, nothing was remarkable about this well. Not to mention that it was too dark to see anything. Hmm, this well must be quite deep.

'Crackle!'

A little ice shard appeared on my hand as I quickly conjured it up using my newly-found elemental magic. Although I hadn't fully mastered using both elements at once, it was pretty easy to do just one element at each time. There was no difference from when I controlled my fire magic. I should ask Elena for some advice regarding this. Perhaps she might know a thing or two about controlling two elements at once. After all, she was like a walking library.

'Sploosh!'

I grinned when I heard the sound of water splashing as I dropped the little shard from my hand. Alright, one down, two more to go.

"Let's go, Firiell. You too, orc dude. We don't have all day." I turned around and walked away from the well.

"Huh? We're finished? Just like that?" She frowned, still confused that we really didn't do anything in her eyes.

"Mmhmm. C'mon, lead the way. There's still a lot of things we need to do, in preparation for tonight." I answered.

After asking the orcs back at the hideout, we found out that there were three wells that were used by the elves and the orcs. It was fewer than I thought, so it was excellent news, but the problem was that one of them was located inside the village.

Meanwhile, we couldn't possibly enter the crowded part of the village just like that, could we? Imagine if a group of wanted criminals just strolled around the market as if they had done nothing. We would be captured in a heartbeat.

And that was why I asked Jeanne and Emilio to help look for some elvish clothing anywhere they could find. Maybe they could go buy some with the orc's cash or like, snatch them off some elf villagers, I dunno. I assumed that they would be done by the time I and Firiell finished our business with the wells, though.

As for that eel, I asked him to do something else. Something that was so, horribly, horribly wrong. But I mean, we gotta do what we gotta do, right? He should be able to get some lead, especially since the orc's facade was a workshop.

The day quickly progressed until the sun was strongly shining upon us, trickling sweat down the sides of our foreheads. Ugh, I had always hated summer for this reason. I wasn't the greatest when it came to heat. And yet, I got fire magic. Great.

"Look, big sister Chae! There's our second well!" Firiell's voice snapped me out of my haze as she pointed towards the distant grey-ish dot in front of us.

"Ah, nice. Let's quickly get this done and come back. I should ask Jeanne to make us some more milk tea. And maybe I could use my new magic to make some ice cubes? Ah, that would be a nice business idea..." I sighed as we strolled quickly through the plains until we arrived at the well.

"Are we going to do nothing here, too?" Firiell tilted her head in question.

"Something like that, yeah." I replied and looked down the well once again. This, too, was pretty deep and I couldn't really see anything from here. Absolutely perfect.

'Crackle!'

I summoned a small ice shard once again, and let it drop down from my hand until it made another splashing sound.

"We're done here. Let's head back to the hideout and hope that they already have some clothes ready for us." I grinned wide. So far, so good.

"Hmm, is doing this really enough?" Firiell put her finger to her mouth while she seemed to be thinking hard.

"Yep, yep. Don't worry, big sis Chae will handle the complicated stuff." I smiled and ruffled her hair.

I felt bad for not telling them my exact plan, but I couldn't tell them just yet. I needed their genuine reaction later when I revealed my plan to Erenduill. Couldn't risk anything, you know?

After all, the best way to fool your enemies was to fool your friends first.