Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"G… General?" I asked, bewildered for the fiftieth time today, probably.

W-what was he doing, hugging people so casually? Ack, was this a thing in this world? Perhaps I was the conservative one, but back in my hometown, you didn't just hug people, especially someone of the opposite gender, in this context! Like, playful smacks or physical contact in case of emergencies like when you were under attack? Sure. This? No.

As I felt the blood on my face steadily rising up until I was sure that my face was as red as a ripe tomato, I prayed so that he wouldn't notice my rapidly growing tachycardia.

"… Alright, let's get moving. Porcupine is barely alive." General Zhang said as he slowly let go of me, until his fingertips brushed in slow motion against my hair, letting a few strands of my hair fall gracefully from his hand.

"Ah, true," I headed towards the unconscious general Emilio in a hassle and crouched down to check on him, "why did he faint?" I muttered as I positioned my ear near his nose and mouth to listen to his breathing while observing his up-and-down chest movement. Great, still breathing relatively okay-ish. Next, his pulse…

"It's not a new thing to me. People just faint when I do that." General Zhang came up beside me and tapped my shoulder, as if telling me to back down as he easily picked up general Emilio's body with one arm.

"They do?" I asked as I stood up and straightened my outfit.

"Yes." He answered concisely without a trace of his cheeriness left on his face. Somehow, even though he looked obviously sadder, but… He didn't seem cold at all. Instead, there was something in his expression that just made me wanna be there for him.

"… Then, it must've been lonely, no?" I casually remarked while walking beside him towards one of the hospital beds to lay general Emilio down on.

"Huh?" He turned his head at me as I saw his eyes widen with surprise, like he didn't expect me to say that at all.

"Huh? Oh, I didn't mean it in a demeaning way… Sorry, it just came outta nowhere…" I scratched my head and looked away, "it's just… I understand how it feels to be a threat just simply by existing. And it's not a great feeling."

He stared straight into my eyes for a few seconds and stopped walking.

"Haha… Ahaha?" I awkwardly laughed and continued scratching my head.

After a few more seconds, he finally moved to reach out his hand towards me "… In this world, I won't let you be like that," he said as he tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind my ear.

"Huh?" I froze again, seeing his expression that contained so many untold stories I had yet to know.

'Thud!'

"Help me get some bandages from the shelves." General Zhang said as he put general Emilio's body down on the bed.

"Ah, yes!" That snapped me out of my trance, as I quickly trotted over to the medicine cabinet.

Uh, let's see… Bandages, maybe some gauze with alcohol, and…

As I scrambled around the shelves, I decided to just wing it and took a few bottles that I didn't even know the content of. Perhaps one of them would be useful, I dunno.

"Here," I walked back towards the two men and placed the things I retrieved on a trolley, "do you know how to treat a patient?" I asked.

"Not too much, but we can at least keep him alive." He replied as he started undressing general Emilio's top, still without a smile on his face.

"That's good enough already. I plan to get a healer for us tomorrow in the village," I grinned, "I'm sure they'll come to us." I explained while handing general Zhang a towel that I got from the shelves

"Oh? You're so sure?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at me with a slight amusement on his face. Finally, another expression aside from that blue one.

"Of courseeee, the trick is simple," I smirked and held my hand up in front of his face, rubbing my fingers together, "money."

"Little cub, I know I'm rich, but I don't just carry another species' currency everywhere, you know." He snickered a bit. Ah, a smile! Kinda.

"You're saying it like you do have some, but you have it stored somewhere…" I sighed, "but no, I mean, excuse you? We're in a castle. And we have the elf Queen as our comrade."

"Oh, so you want to…"

"Yes. Our money now." I chuckled. I felt a bit sorry for using them without permission, but hey, we were going to raid the minotaurs' kingdom together, anyway. If we die, they die. So, might as well work together.

"Pfft—Ahahhaha!" General Zhang laughed while he cleaned both of his hands using some alcohol after he had finished washing his hands over on the washbasin.

"What are you laughing at?" I frowned and grabbed the alcohol from him to do the same thing. Although I sound pissed, I was actually super relieved that he was finally laughing again… Even if the object of laughing was me. Ugh.

"You, of course." He laughed again and finished with a sigh, before turning around and facing me, extending his hand towards my face.

"W-what do you want?" I flinched and backed up a bit, but the moment I saw him doing the same, I felt bad for avoiding him. So, I stopped backing up and stayed put as his hand was getting closer.

"You…" His lips parted open as our eyes met, his blood-red orbs melting into my darker ones. I closed my eyes, unable to bear the shyness that was building up inside me, "you never fail to amuse me, in many ways."

Hearing that, I slowly peeked open one of my eyes, and saw his smiling face directed at me. His cold, rough hand was now caressing the sides of my cheeks, tracing my skin carefully.

"Uh—"

'Piiiinch!'

"OW OW OW! Oh gosh, you fweak!"

I screamed in pain when he suddenly pulled my cheek so hard that it felt like an angry rat just bit it off. The heck was his problem!?

"Puhahahah!" He burst into laughter, so much that he had to hold his stomach while he cracked up, "alllrighty, where were we? Ah right, new bandages, please… Ahahahha!"

"You dare ignore me…" I shot my murderous glare at him as I rubbed my stinging cheek with my palm.

"I'm not ignoring you, or are you implying that porcupine bleeding to death isn't more important than—"

"Okay, okay. I get your point. Here." I grumbled as I handed him some dressing and scooted closer to help clean the wounds using gauze.

"Mm-hmm, now that's more like it." He grinned, approving my response.

"Ah, I almost forgot to use this first." I looked through the instruments laid down on the cart, and when I finally found a syringe, I picked it up and opened a new one.

"A syringe? You want to inject something?" General Zhang asked while he rested his head on my shoulder.

"Uh-huh. I saw a bottle of lidocaine earlier so I brought it here. It's supposed to make you feel numb." I explained while I cleaned the bottle's cap with an alcohol gauze as I let his head took comfort on my shoulder.

"You sure know a lot, little cub," he said quietly while looking down and snuggling his head closer until I felt his spiky hair poking my neck, "makes me wonder what kind of life you've lived."

"Hmm, I don't know if this is a lot. See, it's pretty simple, like this," I showed him as I got the air out of the syringe, aspirated some fluid until it reached the line, and flicked it a few times until there weren't any visible air bubbles inside the syringe, "there. Now we're ready to prick-prick. Not that bad, huh?" I grinned at him.

"You sound like you've done this a lot." He continued chatting me up.

"I have. Everyone in my brigade has done this a lot," I explained as I injected the syringe content around the laceration wound that I was going to suture, "perhaps that's because we were in a special brigade, so we received much harsher training than normal soldiers. Doesn't mean we're good at it, though. I'm shat at medic stuff. Watch, I'm going to suture this badly, but sutures are sutures."

"Huh… I think it would be a good idea to teach this kind of stuff more in our Vanguard," he replied while cozying up in the crook of my neck. Very ticklish, "but, that wasn't what I wanted to know."

"Then what kinda thing do you want to know?" I asked while I rummaged through the numerous bottles that were strangely labeled with human language. Looking at these, I presumed these supplies came from 'those' humans. Made sense, since I doubt orcs understood modern medicine… Wait, so 'those' humans, just how far had they advanced? Their attire was posher than ours, in general.

"You," he spoke, still looking down, his eyes blocked from my view by his white locks, "tell me about you."

"Heuk--?" I flinched when I heard his request, "uh, well, since you asked so suddenly, I'm not sure what I should explain, you know…?"

I scratched my cheek and waited for his response, but he just waited and waited, pressuring me with silence to elaborate about myself.

Finally, I sighed, "fine… Uh… Where do I start?"

"Anywhere." He replied, his tone cheerier than before.

"Mmm, I guess I can start from when I joined the army…?"