Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 102: The crest (2)

We started our discussion with some explanations from our side, since Firiell could use a little more rest while she recovered after having been unconscious for a long time. We explained the events that took place, starting from my drip rifle thingy up until I joined general Zhang, and how that eel was just running around killing every elf he met in various ways because he was starting to get bored.

"Huh, I've never thought to use a rifle in that way. You're a smart little cub, aren't you~?" General Zhang grinned while ruffling the top of my head, messing up my hairdo.

"Ack! Don't ruin my hair!" I protested and grabbed his hand to shove it away from me, "well, but, I've never thought to try experimenting with the elves' lightning threshold, too."

I stuck my tongue at him for his antics while we were away. He actually took the opportunity to test the elves' lightning threshold and its effect on their body. Well, thanks to his 'experiment', at least we knew that the elves were a bit more resistant towards lightning compared to humans. Neat.

"So that was why both of you showed up at the same exact time." General Emilio piped up.

"Yep, yep. I was planning on staying hidden for a longer time, but this freaky eel just decided to jump in by himself." I sighed and elbowed the mentioned person.

"You can just ignore me, you know~" He giggled.

"Yeah but you purposely didn't move away from Ioriell's attack, you monkeyface." My brows furrowed into a frown.

"Oooh~ Thanks for caring about me, little cub~"

"... General Emilio, please continue with your story." I smiled wide and turned my back on the jittery general to look at the stern general that was staring at us with a questionable expression.

He just nodded without much talking, and immediately explained the whole battle in like, 5 sentences at most. Efficient with words as always, that general Emilio. Immediately after he finished telling the story up to where I fished the crest out of the dead prince's heart, he glanced at me and gave me a little nod to signal me to start explaining.

And so, I did. I skipped the part where I was shown the sequence of memories, and just brushed it off as 'a weird story about your parents'. I purposely said it with a vague meaning, so it could be taken in two ways. Jeanne and Firiell should think that we were being told a story by Ioriell, while the generals knew that I literally got my soul yeeted into a movie theater showing Ioriell's memories.

I also skipped the part where I stored his heart inside my bag, though, in hope that they wouldn't notice and I wouldn't need to be in that weird spot again. I carefully chose my words this time, to not hurt Firiell with a glimpse of her parent's past. Surprisingly, she took it very well.

"As expected of mom. She used to always tell me the same thing." She grinned wide, a bit more refreshed now after she had some water and some food, although it was cold food.

"Hmm? Told you what, Firiell?" I tilted my head to the side questioningly.

"She told me about how we should take care of others, too, not just ourselves," she explained while munching on the cold pizza that we brought for her, "mom's always been like that, so in my childhood years, I genuinely thought it was a natural thing to do."

... You... Were still in a childhood phase now, though?

"But apparently, most elves tend to keep to themselves," she sighed, "a pity, even though it would be nice if we can just coexist happily..."

"Well, although I fully agree with you, the world isn't kind enough for everyone to be happy," I patted her head gently, "and although elves can be pretty exclusive at times, in the end, every species is kinda exclusive to some extent. We also tend to prioritize humans above, let's say, elves or animals."

"Yup... I still try to help out as best as I can whenever I'm able to, though. Mom told me it's better to help and regret later, rather than not helping and regretting it later." She answered.

I see, so that was why she was so hellbent on helping those random orcs. Still though, it could've gotten ugly...

"Sometimes, choosing to help someone meant abstaining from helping another." I told her with a slight smile.

"I guess that's true..." She chuckled with a hint of sadness, "perhaps that why she stopped telling me that after the incident."

I bit my lip upon hearing that. Well, from what I saw, and experienced actually, I roughly knew how passionate Edelweiss was about caring for other... Species. It was only a one-day trip through memory lane, but if that one day was enough to see her love for others, I could only imagine how apparent it was to Firiell and Ioriell.

...Wait, their name kinda rhymed. Did Edelweiss do that on purpose?

"Too bad, though. Uncle Ioriell was starting to open his heart to others, and that happened..." Firiell continued, "but even so, my mom still looked up to uncle Ioriell, and admired his respect and love for a life. She believed that uncle Ioriell would understand her vision one day."

Ack, why must the feel-goodsies guys die? I wonder how different their entire culture would be, if Ioriell and Edelweiss were the ones to survive and reign supreme. Sometimes, I wondered if alternate universes existed, and how different the 'me' over there would be. Wild thought, I knew.

"Well, he's dead now," general Emilio suddenly proceeded with the story, "we took his crest as we had intended, and fleed the forest."

"... Very direct." I let out a small sigh when general Emilio coldly continued our story while Firiell was having a moment about her family, her dead family. But understandable, since this was quite a pressing matter.

He quickly explained all about our escape, the meeting with that now-fingerless orc, and how we got him to spill the information that we currently knew. And of course, he didn't forget to mention our first meeting at the door with the 'magic' lady.

"I see... So that's how you already know about a lot of stuff that was happening here," Jeanne nodded, "as for that lady, she has been here since we first stepped foot in this place."

"So she has been planted here since before we came~ They were faster." General Zhang said with a smirk on his face.

"We're up against some troublesome humans." I sighed. Ahh, I would like to avoid another human versus human situation, but well, I mean, if I had to...

"Most likely, yes. I'm not sure what she was here for, but she mostly just took notes and checked the supplies here, and checking on the orc leader once in a while," Jeanne explained, "she was the one who taught us about the blood transfusion method, and she was also the one doing it."

Ah, so that was how they got the IV line in place. It would've been funny if there was a smartass orc among them who got delicate fingers.

"So the humans over there are pretty knowledgeable." General Emilio remarked.

"I think they're supplying the orcs with the equipment in the armory. She was frequently taking notes of their numbers and complaints about the weapons and armor over there." Jeanne added while holding her chin with her hand.

"... Not gonna lie, I thought they made it upstairs, in their blacksmith workshop thing." I scratched my head in embarrassment.

"Nah, the quality's too good for an orc's handicraft," general Zhang surprisingly chimed in, "still far from Koji's work, though~"

"Oh, great idea! We should bring some home and ask Koji to check them. Maybe he can figure something out?" I clapped my hands together excitedly. I thought it was a pretty good idea. It felt good to not always be the dumb one in the group. Hehe.

"Will grand blacksmith Koji agree to that, though? He's quite busy..." Jeanne worriedly asked.

"Don't worryyyy~ He will agree if I ask him." General Zhang giggled.

"I kinda feel like he will be forced to agree, but at least it works..." I sighed.

"For now, that's all we know about the lady. She has never spoken a word to us, and she has never left this area, either. We can just hope that we'll find out more as we progress. We will eventually meet the other humans, anyway." Jeanne concluded her explanation about the lady and turned to look at the little girl on the bed.

"I guess it's time for me to explain about the crest." Firiell beamed with happiness. Huh, she was still so positive despite the series of unfortunate events that kept happening around her. This girl got a steel-hard mentality.

"Hey, eel. Show me the heart." I tugged at general Zhang's sleeve.

"Here you go~" He grabbed my hand and put the slightly pale heart on my hand, "your hand is cold--"

"No." I immediately withdrew my hand just before he could start rubbing our hands together, just like how I did earlier. Howww could he mock me now, of all times? Ack!

"Here, before I start explaining about the crest, let me extract it for you." Firiell grinned and offered her hand.

"Ooh, how will you extract it, though?" I asked curiously and kept the heart in my hand, instead of handing it to her. Not yet.

"Ah, it's actually quite simple. See, when you have royal blood inside you, as I do, the heart will automatically react once you touch it and fill it with mana," she explained, "there will be three phases to initiate a new crest, and yes, mom taught me how to do it before, so don't worry!" She proudly exclaimed.

"I see, so as long as the blood is inside you, it works, huh?" I nodded, "what about the three phases? What are they like?" I continued asking.

"Yep, that's true. My mom said that the phases are there to help the crest to 'settle' into its new owner. As for the three phases..."