Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Well, don't you also have a plan regarding the crest?" I tilted my head and frowned. Why must he ask me if he was going to hand it over to that creepy headmaster geezer, anyway?

"… I do. I plan to give the crest to the headmaster. He might know more and maybe it'll be more useful in his hands," general Emilio said, "but I doubt you'll let me."

"Damn straight. I'm not letting that geezer touch this." I scoffed and put a hand on my hip.

"Then do you have a better idea? Or do I have to fight you for it?" His face remained unchanged, but his glare felt sharper now, "I'm not letting you use it for personal gain, unless you have a good reason for it."

"Oh? You want to fight me? Someone who killed the elf king?" I widened my legs, and lowered my stance, "with those injuries?"

He stayed in his position, not moving even one bit. As we exchanged piercing gazes, my mind was racing, trying to find a way to convince him to not fight me.

I mean, oh gosh, my provocation was like a sixth-grader's provocation.

Actually, my buffs were already gone. Reduced to atoms. I heard the ding-ding while we were walking here looking for them, which meant just a few minutes—seconds ago, even. With my buffs gone, I barely even managed to keep that ice cage erect, and he wanted to fight me?

Dang, if all three of them went for me at once, I'd be down in less than a minute. Heck, maybe even general Zhang alone would end me. My body was already comparable to a cold WackDonald's takeout. Miserable. And falling apart.

"General Emilio, let's not get hasty." Jeanne quickly came between us, and spoke with her usual serious voice.

"Yeah, porcupine~ Either way, I don't think the crest will go to either of you~" General Zhang patted, or more like smacked, actually, the stoic general's back while grinning.

"Why?" General Emilio asked with only one word.

"Do you have other plans, general Zhang?" This time, Jeanne was the one who asked.

"No, not me," he grinned and pointed at me, "but my little cub has one."

General Emilio and Jeanne simultaneously looked at me with expectant eyes, waiting for me to say something, anything.

"Well? Don't you, little cub?" His smirking face was directed towards me, "you look like you have something stuck in your throat, and it's not a fishbone."

"Uh… Fine. I'll speak." I sighed.

Jeanne's expression immediately got brighter. Well, quite expected, since she was never really fond of conflicts in general.

"I'm going to be honest here, I don't think you guys will agree," I scratched my head and looked away, before looking back at them, "umm, I say we give the crest to the girl."

"What!?" Jeanne gasped in shock.

"… Let's hear your reasoning for that." General Emilio, on the other hand, remained composed and stared at me.

"Let's hear your reason for not giving it to her, then," I retaliated, "none of us know the previous owner, the elf king, really well. We didn't even activate the first phase. Do you seriously expect any of us will make it through if we try to absorb the crest?"

Actually, I still have some left in the blood bag, so any of us could activate the first phase instead of Firiell if we waited. But let's not tell them. I needed Firiell to become a strong elf Queen for a reason.

"Still, we can use it for research." General Emilio reasoned.

"Uh, I don't think the elves' years of research really produced anything major. If they, the owner of the crests, couldn't really do much with research, then how can we?" I continued, "I think it'll be a waste of time, energy, and precious crest. We only have one, anyway. Researches usually need a lot of samples."

General Emilio went quiet, just staring at me. Meanwhile, Jeanne looked back and forth between us two, seemingly unsure what to do. And of course, general Zhang, was just being the goofy eel he always was.

"True, nothing's guaranteed. There's no guarantee that we'll succeed, but there's no guarantee that we'll fail." General Emilio replied.

"Well, the chances of it failing is much higher. You sure you wanna take the risk? When we can just use the crest to strengthen our army that's going to extract your brother?" I continued pushing. My words were a bit mean, but it was necessary.

"I never said I was going to take the risk. Even without you threatening me, I know it's irresponsible to depend on a small chance. I see your point now," general Emilio nodded, "then, what should we bring back for the headmaster?"

"Huh? Why should we bring anything back to him?" I raised an eyebrow confusedly. I didn't expect that reply. What did the headmaster have to do with this? Why were we obligated to 'bring something back'?

"We always bring something back from big raids like this. It helps to patch up our lack of knowledge, and sometimes, they're able to make breakthroughs in their research from the materials we brought back," Jeanne explained, instead of general Emilio, "so it's always great to bring anything that might be useful."

"Then we can bring some weed for them or whatever," I shrugged, "but, who are they?" I tilted my head. Breakthroughs? Ah, probably like the scientists and engineers?

"They are Elena's work mates~ You've been getting all cozy with Elena, haven't you, little cub?" General Zhang suddenly circled his arm around my shoulder, "well, did she say anything about her job?"

"Ack! You—" I was about to push him away again, but then I saw his eyes gleam with something that I couldn't really point out what that was. I instantly held my breath and swallowed my words.

… I kinda felt like I shouldn't say something wrong here.

"She did tell me a little," I answered while trying to sound as unsuspecting as possible, "she said she's a prison warden as well as some kind of researcher, if I remember correctly."

"Mmhmm, brilliant~" He giggled, seemingly pleased, "and then what else?"

"Huk—" I flinched a bit when he suddenly eyed me sharply.

"Come on, tell me."

Uhh… How should I say this… I didn't think it was a good idea to just go around spilling my friend's backstory, you know? Kinda disrespectful if I did, in my opinion. If Elena had entrusted me with her backstory info, then I should not take advantage of that trust, right?

"Umm, she also told me…" I scratched my cheek and looked down.

"Yes?" He looked at me expectantly. Ack, what did he want from meeee?

"… She told me that she liked to tease her juniors in her work, especially the cute ones." I concluded, still avoiding his gaze. Did I look convincing enough already? Like someone who was forced to spill? Hopefully.

"Pfft--! Ahahhahah!" He burst out in laughter, not sure if that was good or not, but I'd take it.

"Ugh, what?" I frowned and released his arm from around my shoulders. Gah, he didn't need to laugh that loud, now I was embarrassed for some reason.

"Little cub, sometimes I wonder if you're okay in the head~" He chuckled.

"… Are you picking a fight with me?"

"Just don't follow her lead, okay? I don't allow flirting in the Vanguard. Don't forget I'm still a general," he continued chuckling, "and there are no juniors cuter than me anyway. Tee-hee!"

"Jeanne, sorry, don't mind him. Please just treat him like a fly. Anyway, where were we? Oh, right. The research," I blatantly ignored him, "if you're worried about that, isn't the solution simple?"

"Uhh, we should… Bring something else back home?" Jeanne suggested.

"Yeah, we should bring Owen and general Enzo back home. They can't complain if we do that." I shrugged.

"I don't think the headmaster would be very pleased." General Emilio put his hand on his chin. He didn't seem to oppose the idea. Rather, he seemed to be more concerned about how to appease the headmaster for some reason. Geez, loyalty could be scary sometimes.

"Then, let him be displeased. If he truly goes batshit crazy when we bring them back home, then I don't know, fam. I wouldn't want to serve under someone who values 'research materials' more than my comrades' lives," I pouted, "he should be extremely grateful already if we manage to bring the both of them back alive." I argued.

"Not if, but when." General Emilio growled, surprising me a bit.

Oh, true, the most agitated person here should be him, after all. I couldn't imagine how stressed and worried he must be right now… It had been like, what, almost two weeks since the kidnapping? Dude, I really hoped they were both okay…

"Yes yes. In any case, I think giving the crest to the girl is the best choice for now, unless we want to end up with a wasted crest and a dead or crazy person," I concluded and nodded profusely, "she will be working alongside us, anyway. Think of it as upgrading your team, instead of yourself."

"First, she will only be temporarily in our team. Second, didn't you upgrade yourself using the first crest?" General Emilio asked with a straight face, "… But yes, I accept your suggestion for now. It's the least risky solution we currently have."

"Hehe, thank you," I scratched the back of my head happily, "well, we managed to defeat the elf king because I took the crest, right? At least I produced a result, don't complain about that. And by the way, I'm planning to keep working alongside Firiell."

"Oho~?" General Zhang hummed amusedly.

"I want us to be allies. It's not a bad thing for Vanguards anyway, right? It's just like a diplomatic business with the elves, if you will." I reasoned with them.

Well, actually, I had another motive. But it was personal, so there wasn't any need to tell them. It was my business with Eli, anyway.

"Allying with monsters… I've never seen it happen before," Jeanne spoke, "ah, I remember reading records about taming monsters, though. The conclusion was unclear, but I remember reading about some illegal monster auction going on, which quickly got wiped out under the headmaster's command."

"Monster taming? Now that's new. I don't think 'taming' is a very nice way to put it, though. Anyway, no need to be so surprised, all of you have met Firiell and Luke, and they're both not exactly humans. And definitely not something to be tamed. There's a first for everything, right?" I chuckled, "but, records? Did that happen a long time ago already?"

"Ah yes, quite. I don't remember the exact year, though." Jeanne nodded in approval.

"But the headmaster you mentioned, is it the same as the current one?" I continued asking.

"As far as I know, that's true. I remember seeing his portrait in the records, too. It was the exact same." She explained.

"…Wait, how come?" I suddenly frowned, "he looked the exact same for a long time? Hey, how long has he been reigning as a headmaster? What about the previous headmasters?"

"That…" Jeanne paused, as I wait for her to continue.

"He… Is the only headmaster we've ever had."