"Little cub, you..." His eyes widened upon hearing my pretty unreasonable idea. Well, I thought so. It sounded ridiculous and I couldn't guarantee it'd work, anyway.
"Nevermind. Forget I said anything." I stepped back and sighed.
"Ahahahah!"
"What?" I annoyedly asked, although his laughter did catch me by surprise.
"Ahaha! You-- you never fail to amuse me, little cub!" He kept laughing while holding his stomach.
"And you never fail to give me the creeps." I frowned.
"I didn't expect you to be this ballsy." He grinned and wiped the little tears from his laughter that was forming on the edge of his eyes.
"I'm not ballsy, I'm just trying to find the most reasonable solution." I pouted.
"Explain to me how is it reasonable?" His eyes glinted.
"Alright, let's confirm what we've gathered so far," I started explaining, "we have 4 possible targets, but we only know the exact location of 2."
"Yeap, yeap."
"And the weakest one, the orc kingdom, is out of the list because the elves were faster, so we're kinda stuck with the hard one, the minotaurs."
"Yeah, true. And then?"
"If we look at it from our perspective, we're pretty fucked because it seems like we have to rescue the hostages with even less manpower than before, which is pretty impossible."
"That one's not true. I'm stronger than them, so it's more manpower." He said as he proudly crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"You're awfully confident for someone who got beat up by Eli." I snickered.
"He and I have a complex relationship." He smirked at me.
"Anyway, we're at a heavy disadvantage if we see it from our perspective," I shifted the topic back, "but, our position is actually not that bad."
"How so?"
"You see, the minotaurs have to keep them alive so we won't attack them, right? So they're not going to die as long as we don't attack, even though they may not be treated so nicely there..." I looked down. I felt bad for postponing hostage extraction and making them have to wait a little longer, but I thought it was better than risking so many of our soldiers' lives in an impossible mission.
"Yeah, but it would be better to get them fast before they break." General Zhang responded.
I bit my lip, "I agree. That's why we will immediately get them after we've gathered enough army."
"Army? We have an army at home." He raised one of his eyebrows.
"No, not our army. We're going to yoink another army." I sighed.
"Oh~? Does that mean you want to work with monsters?" He hummed.
"Almost correct. But not entirely." I scratched my cheek while looking upwards.
"Explain~"
"We're going to join forces with the orcs and fuck up those elves." I declared.
"Heee?" His eyes widened again.
"If the elves have taken over their kingdom, the orcs should be oppressed now, yeah? Isn't it the perfect timing to help them overthrow the elves and help them reclaim their throne?" I shrugged.
"Oh, the mission never mentioned that you can't overthrow a claimed throne, indeed." He raised a finger in realization.
"True that. If we join forces with the orcs, I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to handle the elves, right? I mean, you did boast that you're strong, so we should be fine, right?" I snickered.
"Passing the responsibility to me. Very sly of you, little cub." He grinned.
"After we successfully defeat the elves, that will be the perfect timing to force them to help us conquer the minotaur's kingdom. The elves will have no choice but to obey us, while the orcs will hopefully lend us a hand too, after we help them. What do you think?" I looked into his eyes as my heart kept racing. Was my plan too absurd?
"That..." He paused for a bit.
I clenched my fists in nervousness.
"That's actually not bad~" He chuckled.
A long, relieved sigh came out of my mouth once I heard his response.
"Defeating the elves shouldn't be a problem for me," he hummed, "but I doubt most of our soldiers can get out unscathed. Tee-hee!"
"Tee-hee your ass. Let's not bring too many soldiers, then. No point in raking up casualty count." I said as I kicked his knee lightly.
--------
We finally arrived at the infirmary that was packed with injured soldiers everywhere. New patients just kept coming in even as we searched for Wolf and Dmitri's room.
"The nurse said it was room 204, right? Should be around here..." I mumbled to myself as my gaze went right and left repeatedly, scanning every room number carefully.
"Ah, there it is~" General Zhang pointed at a room on the right side of the hallway.
I immediately ran towards the door and opened it, only to find those two happily playing with a cat.
"You guys look fine?" I sighed as I approached them.
"Ah! Chae! We missed you!" Dmitri greeted me with a huge, beaming smile.
"Food lady. Food lady not dead?" Wolf scooted over his bed and tugged my sleeve.
"Dmitri, how's your condition? And Wolf, long time no see!" I ruffled his head affectionately and hugged the little boy tightly.
"Our injuries are not that bad, I guess. But I still worry about Wolf, haha!" He scratched the back of his head.
"Wolf, are you hurt anywhere?" I asked as I scanned him from head to toe.
"Not really. Wolf strong," he replied while he snuggled under my neck, "Wolf happy food lady is alive."
"Well, yeah, I'm alive? By the way Wolf, next time you have to go somewhere dangerous, remember to take me with you, alright?" Why was he surprised that I wasn't dead? Did he want me dead, or..?
Anyway, I was worried that he'd suffer some serious trauma like I did when I first saw the warzone, but I guess he was fine. Not sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign, tho.
"Ah, Wolf said you should be dead... I'm not sure why, though." Dmitri explained.
"Nah. This boy makes it sound sinister. By dead, he meant 'no-mana' dead. He thought humans work the same way as monsters. You know, just like how having no mana means death for monsters. He doesn't discriminate creatures." General Zhang patted Wolf's head that was resting on my neck.
"How'd you know that?" I asked while I squirmed a bit since he was now standing very close to me and Wolf.
"Huh? How would I not know my own godson?" He tilted his head innocently.
My eyes went wide, "your what!?"