131: Protector

Protector

"Haha… This guy is good!" Ethan laughed out loud, patting Kai's head.0

"Still, you're quite the reckless one. I ordered you to retreat alongside Michael, but you had a change of mind and decided to disobey my command." Nathan sighed, not knowing whether to praise him or be mad at him.

"It was needed. After considering everything, I changed my mind. It was best to strike back at our enemy."

"You should be praising him, Nathan. After all, this boy changed his mind and made the best decision at that moment and saved us." Ethan shrugged.

"Though, I want to ask about that…" Kai looked at Nathan and Ethan, expecting an answer.

"All right. I will answer your question after this." Nathan nodded while looking at the party. After having a big battle, they should enjoy themselves with a big party like this, after all. "We're going back tomorrow, so meet me after this party."

He left Kai alone after that.

As the hero of this war, the general and commanders from their respective armies thanked him. Although only a few soldiers knew he was the one who commanded them through the battle, the thought alone was enough. 

His presence slowly disappeared, and before long, he slipped out of the party.

After the party, Kai walked out of the base without anyone accompanying him.

Inside the hangar were Nathan and Ethan, chatting about some random things while waiting for Kai.

It was easy for him to locate both of them without Nathan telling him where to meet.

Nathan glanced to the right as he noticed Kai's presence. He waved his hand, beckoning Kai to come and sit beside him.

Kai glanced at the round table with three chairs and nodded. He walked to the base without rushing while checking the base's situation and if they were alone in this place.

"Don't worry, I've told Michael to make them drunk until tomorrow," Nathan assured him before sipping his wine.

"Yeah. I've also informed my son." Ethan shrugged, looking at Kai slowly sitting on the empty seat. "In any case, I want to thank you first for taking command in this war. Not only have you displayed your abilities brilliantly, but we also lost only a third of our soldiers thanks to you. Even my son wouldn't be able to do that."

"This is only because of my ears," Kai humbly said. "Besides, the soldiers did a good job. Without them fighting bravely, we wouldn't have been able to win this battle. And if General Sanders has this hearing ability, he would surely do a better job than me."

"Indeed." Ethan nodded before continuing, "Anyway, you're going to learn about the beings called 'protectors.' Only you can know this as you're one of the Zodiac as well as Ria Ross's apprentice. Your rank is still being processed though. It usually takes a year or so to give you the perms for information and other confidential things."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Just know that this is still unofficial, so don't tell others about it. In fact, just treat it as non-existent. The official document will be given to you after the process is finished," Ethan finished his pieces and glanced at Nathan, asking him to continue.

Nathan pondered for a moment before explaining, "Hm… I don't exactly know where to begin this as we also don't know about the protector that well. They are something like magical beasts with human intelligence and such. They're not always like those mythical creatures in your mind, such as mermaids.

"Back in the day, I met a talking frog from the sea. His power was so strong that it ended with my group being defeated. There are numerous conspiracy theories among the higher-ups because of these protectors.

"However, there is certainly one thing that's for sure… Kai, if I ask you where their magic power came from, will you be able to answer?"

Kai fell into silence. In the books he read and the lectures he attended, there was not a single time where this topic was discussed. He wondered why Nathan mentioned this when they were talking about mermaids and realized the answer. "Under the ocean?"

"That's correct. Then, which ocean do you think it is?"

There were only five oceans on Earth, and one of them was answered. Kai pondered for a moment before answering, "The Pacific Ocean?"

Nathan smiled and shook his head. "It's the Atlantic Ocean… or more accurately, the Bermuda Triangle. We have tried locating the exact locations, but we don't know anything except for the general position. At first, I thought you might be able to hear the sound if we send you there since sound can travel better in the waters, but the plan carries so many risks.

"First, we'd need to carry you by plane because you wouldn't survive if we were to travel with boats. Then, we'd need to get closer to the water surface or enough for your head to dip into the water. Before long, we would be attacked by tens of thousands, if not a hundred thousand magical beasts. Yeah, that's not possible.

"If we want to use this plan, we can only stay around two kilometers (6,500 feet) and deal with the flying beasts. In other words, we can't search for anything right now. We need to conquer the land and the sky before exploring the sea like the old Earth.

"That's it. What do you want to ask about this protector? I will tell you the information and my personal opinion. You can search for the information legally after getting the formal document," Nathan finished with a shrug. 

Kai looked down, weighing something in his mind. "Why did they call us humans foolish?"

Nathan and Ethan didn't expect this to be the first question he'd ask.

"We don't know." Ethan shrugged.

"Maybe they are more intelligent than us, so they believe we're foolish?" Nathan joked. 

Listening to their heartbeat, he believed both of them were serious. However, he felt that there was another meaning behind those words, especially those last words. He asked, "What do you think about those last words? What's the shrill of this planet?"

Nathan and Ethan fell into silence. Ethan glanced at Nathan and sighed before turning to Kai. "Actually, we don't know. We're also thinking about this, hoping you know about it. After all, that protector had a dolphin beside her, so I thought your hearing could listen to it."

Nathan nodded in agreement. "I want to ask you that question, to be honest. Now I know you also don't have the answer. I will also look for the answer, but seeing how the message was directed to you, you are the one who needs to search for the answer."

Kai looked down and nodded. "There's no point in thinking about it. With how mysterious they are, I might only find the answer in the future through some kind of coincidence… I doubt it though. And since it looks like a big problem, I wouldn't mind not finding the truth."

"Haha… 'With great power comes great responsibility' can go to hell." Ethan laughed out loud. "I'm not a fan of this either. After all, one should do what one wants. That's what makes us human." 

Nathan coughed a bit. "Of course, if all of them are like you, then this world would have been screwed already. Sometimes, you need to give up your will to fight for the better. Though, if you're just going to fight blindly for the sake of humanity, you might as well make robots. I also wouldn't marry my granddaughter off to you."

"Haha… You know what, this old man's opinion is exactly the opposite of mine. He's the real fan of those sh*tty words. I fought it out with him, and both of our opinions merged and became what he said just now."

"All right, let's end this topic here and end the discussion. Any more questions? If not, why not accompany these two old men through the night?" Nathan looked at Kai before pouring wine for him.

"Actually, there is one more question…" Kai looked down, hesitant to ask.

"What?"

"It's more of a general question. Why are they called protectors, and what beings are they?" Kai asked the question he was supposed to ask first.

A trace of surprise appeared on Nathan's face before he started explaining, "Right. We haven't talked about it because of your absurd first question… Let's see… You know that magical beasts are ranked from F to S, right?"

Kai nodded. 

"And in those ranks, there are intelligent-type magical beasts which usually only appear on A and S-rank magical beasts. You've seen an A-rank here and an S-rank in Russia, that Snake God.

"Actually, there are two more ranks above them. SS and SSS-rank magical beasts. That protector is an SSS-rank magical beast. As for why we call them protectors… They called themself that. They said, 'We are the protectors of Earth, preventing the Earth from extinction.' and some other bullsh*t."

Kai looked at him for a few seconds, noticing something off. "What about the SS-rank magical beasts?"

"They…" Nathan hesitated to tell him despite his rank and exchanged looks with Ethan.

"If you want to learn about SS-rank magical beasts… It's better to ask your teacher about it," Ethan simply answered, dodging it.

Kai tilted his head before thinking about one thing. "Is my teacher related to this?"

Nathan and Ethan didn't answer him and sipped their wine. 

"Just ask her already, she quite missed you. Your birthday is on December 1, right? Why don't you visit her? I'm sure you will get quite a few presents from her." Nathan shrugged.

"Ugh…" Kai still felt a bit repulsive to meet his teacher because of his small trauma.

"Haha… All right, time to end this serious conversation. Just enjoy the wine after the battle," Ethan said nonchalantly.

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