Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Uh…?" I piped up from inside general Zhang's embrace upon hearing what the sapphire-eyed man said. The witch?

"Yes." General Emilio answered quickly, still maintaining his stance.

"Hmm, I'm disappointed. Do I not look like a witch?" The man tilted his head casually, "ahh~ even though those elves immediately started calling me witch the moment I came here. I guess us humans have fewer imaginations the moment we got older, huh?"

"You…" I trailed off, my eyes blinking a few times observing him from top to bottom.

"Hi. You're cute when you're confused. Lovely blinking." The man winked at me.

At that moment, my mind immediately raced, trying to piece out the information that we had received so far. A witch? The one who put some kinda curse thingy on the orc leader? The one human other than us that we completely forgot existed here?

Dang it! I was too focused on Erenduill, that I completely missed him!

Wait, wait. That, too. He… Was a male, right? I thought witches are…?

… Did the orcs ever say it was a 'she', though?

I looked up to him, and saw his grin that was directed at me. No, the orcs had never explicitly told us that the witch was a female, nor if he was a human. He did have long hair, and his way of dressing was definitely androgynous. It was all just our own speculation.

"The witchie!? I honestly forgot about you for a second!" I exclaimed while raising my arm, pointing my finger at him. General Zhang immediately grabbed my hand, though, and gently pulled it down again.

"Yes~ That's me. It's okay, people's memories are feeble. We'll be meeting each other a lot, once I add you to my collection. So don't worry, you definitely won't forget me again." The man clapped his hands together in delight.

"No, you're not going to meet each other a lot," general Zhang scoffed, "because I have no intention of handing her over."

I blinked a few times again, and looked up to general Zhang who had an austere, but slightly solemn look on his face.

"I—"

"I'm sorry, little cub. I want to respect your wishes, but this time, I can't let you go with him. Or with anyone." He smiled at me, but it felt a little sad compared to his usual chirpy, goofy grin.

Seeing this new side of him surprised me, so much that I decided to keep quiet and just nodded, while clutching onto his torn shirt.

"Are you implying that I have to take you down to get her?" The man in the posh clothing tapped his feet on the ground, as if thinking hard about something.

"The two of us." General Emilio added, which made me excited for some reason. Had he finally considered me as a member? Hehe~

"You talk as if you can take us on," general Zhang smirked, but his eyes glinted with such extreme bloodlust and malice alongside with his murderous mana, I couldn't help but curl up a little, "I don't think you can even last 1 minute… No, 30 seconds against me."

"Heuk--!" I choked when I sensed an abrupt spike of his mana rising, engulfing me and then everything around me.

Wh-what?

My fingers curled up, crumpling his shirt as I could hear my own heartbeat getting faster and faster.

What was this extreme pressure…?

I started gasping for air as I felt as if my vision was starting to glitch out, and an unknown fear seeped inside me. As sweat trickled down the sides of my forehead, I grabbed general Zhang's shoulder to keep myself from falling down, since my legs were barely succeeding in not giving out.

I tried to look up to see his face, but it was too scary to move. Too frightening. I could only shut my eyes tightly as I waited for this to pass. C'mon, Chae. You gotta be strong. I didn't know what exactly this was, but it should pass. As long as I was able to endure… Just like how I had lived so far. Just barely enduring everything, outliving the pain and agony as best as I could, hoping to find something worthwhile at the end.

"It's okay."

… Huh?

Was that general Zhang's voice?

'Pat.'

As I felt his hand gently caressing my hair, I was reminded of him. Was this thing his doing? My mind went back from that dark place to here. Breathe in, breathe out. Slowly but surely, I could feel my breathing started to stabilize.

… Ah, that spooky feeling now felt so small compared to how it was before.

My shoulders slumped down as I felt my body's tension started to lessen, and I finally opened my eyes again, looking up.

"Were you spooked? Sorry. I'm scary sometimes, huh?" And there he was, looking at me with an expression that was new to me. If I was to describe it in one word, it would be… Blue.

I bit my lip and inhaled, "… It's okay." I replied with a grin.

As I said that, my hand reached out to touch his face, but then, I hesitated at the last second and decided to pull my hand back down again. He stared at me, seemingly observing my every movement and expression with a mix of worry and… Something blue.

I sighed, "I was a bit shocked, but once I knew that it was you, my fear was gone. You're alright, don't worry," I fist-bumped his chest instead, trying to lift up the mood again.

Instead of answering, he just raised his eyebrows as his gorgeous lips parted. Huh? I didn't expect this reaction.

"What? Are you shocked that I'm not intimidated by you~?" I teased him and snickered. The fact that he was behaving like this got me worried. Uh, what would cheer him up? Wait, what did he even like? … Ah, I knew so little about him, and about Jeanne and Emi, too. Even Dmitri, Wolf, Owen, and the others… Just when I thought I was getting closer, something like this reminded me that I was not that significant in their lives.

"… Yes." General Zhang nodded.

"Huh?"

"Yes."

'Tap.'

Uh!??

My entire body froze as he suddenly dropped his head down, and plopped it on my right shoulder.

"U-um… Hey, eel?" I tried calling for him, but there was no answer. Heck, I didn't know what to do in this situation! My hands were still frozen in the air, and my body was as stiff as uncooked pasta.

"Uh…" I looked around me, and found that the strange man was no longer there, not leaving any kind of traces. Meanwhile, general Emilio had passed out on the cold, hard floor.

I was about to jump to check on him, but then, this one white-haired general was getting me worried, too. This was the first time I had seen him this… Dejected?

'Pat, pat.'

"There, there. I… I'm not sure what the problem is, but… If you need rest or if you need to vent, I can help…" I meekly said while caressing his spiky hair. Was that the right thing to do?

My gaze went down, trying to check on his expression again, but alas, I couldn't see anything as he had already burrowed his face deep into my shoulder.

"… Little cub."

"Ah! Yes?" I quickly responded when I finally heard his voice again. Finally, talk to me, please. I was hecking clueless on cheering someone up.

For a few seconds, there wasn't any response. I could only feel his soft breathing against my neck. Suddenly, a soft sigh escaped his lips.

"Tee-hee! Nothing! Did you see that? That witch ran away~ He must've been so scared~" General Zhang suddenly got up again, but this time his usual grin was adorned on his face, as if nothing happened… Actually, no. This smile was still a bit off.

"Huh? Did you hit your head or something? Do you have multiple personalities?" I raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"Nope~ Anyway, that witch is gone now. I was cool, right? Now let us—"

"Stop it." I frowned in annoyance.

"Huh~?" He tilted his head, still keeping that smile plastered on his face.

"Stop acting like that. Doing that won't make me brush things off instantly," I pinched both of his cheeks and pulled them down, "just be upset if you want to be upset. If you continue to act like that, you're even creepier than when you were doing whatever it was with your mana."

His eyes went wide as he just stood there without moving or saying anything, and we just exchanged eye contact for a few seconds.

"Ahem," finally, I cracked under the awkwardness, "in any case, I'd prefer it if you're, uh, more transparent? Even if it means leaking your killing intent like before. It's better than you trying so obviously to look unbothered."

I looked away to the floor for a bit, before peeking back at him, who had yet to react, "but that's just my opinion. You're free to do whatever you please."

I sighed and facepalmed myself. Haa, what the heck did I just do? I spoke as if I knew everything about him, when in fact, I probably only knew less than one percent. I must've come across as obnoxious. Ugh…

"Little cub…"

He finally spoke, making my ears perk up and my face flushing red from the sudden wave of embarrassment and realization. Gah, I was acting so weird, too!

"… Thanks."

Huh?

I blinked a few times in confusion again, when I realized that…

… He was hugging me?