Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 36: Claim one of the cardinal thrones (4)

"U-um... Generals? Are you really going to bring a child to war?" Dmitri raised a question. He scratched his cheek in concern for the little boy beside him.

"If he can be more useful than 10 soldiers, I don't see why not." General Emilio answered.

"What is he capable of, exactly?" Jeanne let out a nervous sweat.

Instead of answering, general Enzo held out his two fists towards Wolf, both enclosed, "boy, pick a hand. You can have what's inside."

Wolf looked at Dmitri for a bit, until the older one noticed and gave him a slight nod. After he had gotten his approval, he leaned in closer and started sniffing both hands.

"Wolf wants this." He tapped lightly on general Enzo's left hand.

"Smart boy." General Enzo opened both of his hands, revealing a piece of candy in his left hand. He gave it to the boy, whose eyes immediately lit up at the sight of the sweets.

"As you can see, this boy has outstanding smelling ability. Last time we tried, he could smell even smell my candy stash from a few meters away." General Emilio explained to the rest of the group.

"Oh, I see. So you want to use his smelling ability to navigate through the maze?" Dmitri clapped his hands together proudly, thinking that he had cracked the case.

"Well yes, but no." General Enzo said flatly.

"Aw, I thought I had it figured out." Dmitri laughed in defeat, while Wolf patted his shoulder out of pity.

"To navigate the maze, we will use his other ability, his magic," general Emilio turned towards Wolf, "boy, can you roughly tell how many birds there are around here?"

Wolf nodded, "yes. Lots of birds. More than 10. Wolf only knows count 10."

"Ah, he said there's a lot of birds, but he can only count up to ten," Dmitri translated, "sorry, Wolf. Big bro will teach you how to count later, okay?" He patted the boy's head with a sad smile on his face.

"Okay." Wolf answered him.

"Alright, boy. Can you tell me what one of them is doing?" General Enzo asked him.

"Hmm. Bird Jose is taking twigs. Heavy, but for home. Over there." Wolf pointed out of the window, where there was a little white bird flying around. The bird tapped the window a few times upon noticing Wolf, and then flew away shortly afterwards with a twig in its mouth.

"Oh, that bird called Jose is picking up twigs for his nest. But twigs around here are pretty heavy," Dmitri fluently translated, "by the way, I just knew that animals have names among themselves? And it's just like human names."

"Do you get it now?" General Emilio asked the group. His face was still as flat as a newly fixed road, but everyone could tell that he was proud of the boy, seeing that he kept handing the boy candies.

"Um, I'm actually still a bit confused... Sorry, my brain's not really useful, aside from fighting, haha!" Dmitri scratched his head, "anyway, general Emilio, general Enzo, too many candies are really bad for a child's health."

General Enzo froze upon hearing that, and immediately pocketed the rest of his colorful candies.

"It's okay, Dmitri. I'll explain it," general Owen sighed, "general Emilio was implying that we can ask Wolf to guide us through the maze using the information provided by the birds."

"Ah! That's a brilliant idea! Now that I think about it, the maze is just made of walls, and it has no roof! We won't get lost, then!" Dmitri exclaimed with happiness.

"No, it's not that simple." General Jeanne added.

"Yes. The birds may be able to see the maze from above, but they lack the ability to find the correct path." General Owen crossed his arms.

"That's true. We will ask the birds to tell us the maze's shape and our position, even though that may be limited to a fairly close range. And then, we will have to deduce the solution ourselves. At least, we can know which path leads to a dead-end" General Emilio explained.

"There's still a possibility that we'll be trapped for days, or even weeks inside the maze, but that's our best bet for now." General Enzo continued his twin's speech.

"We shall go with that plan for now. General Jeanne, remember to bring writing materials so that we can draw a map and keep a track of our progress." Owen looked at Jeanne.

"Yes. I will also bring paint and I'll go get spikes for our shoes to mark the walls and ground."

"Should we use breadcrumbs? You know, like in those children's stories..." Dmitri raised his hand.

"No. Breadcrumbs can be blown away or stomped by the enemies." General Emilio immediately rejected his suggestion.

"Ah, right. Sorry..." Wolf patted Dmitri's slumped shoulders again in pity.

"Now that we have a plan for our pathing, it's time to plan for the traps." General Owen started.

"There's not much that's known about the traps inside. The records in the library mentioned that the traps have kept them safe from the invaders for hundreds of years. Even though many were able to find their way inside the maze, none of them have been able to survive the traps." Jeanne explained swiftly.

"That's why I'm against this operation, honestly. But orders are orders." General Enzo said with a slight frown that was barely visible.

"Well, since we have no choice, we shall use that boy's help again." General Emilio gestured towards Wolf, who was munching down the candies he received. A faint smile could be seen on the twins' faces upon seeing Wolf enjoying their gifts.

"Wolf help." The fluffy-haired boy nodded in response.

"How so?" Jeanne asked.

General Enzo poked Wolf's nose, and a slight blush appeared on the older one's cheeks, "his sense of smell."

Confusion could be seen in the faces of the entire group upon hearing that half-hearted explanation.

"Boy, are you familiar with the smell of blood?" General Emilio asked.

"Yes."

Dmitri, Jeanne, and Owen simultaneously held their breath. It was hard for them to hear that a child as young as Wolf was already used to the smell of blood.

"How about the smell of corpse? Decaying bodies?" He continued his questioning.

"Wolf knows."

"Excellent," general Emilio ruffled the boy's hair, "we'll look forward to your cooperation."

"In case you guys haven't noticed yet, it doesn't matter what trap it is, as long as we know that they're deadly." General Enzo stated.

"We will ask for Wolf to sniff out the areas where there are strong smells of blood or corpses. That's where the traps are."