The promise

"Why don't you want my help?" Doelloos continued to question Milly, remaining kneeling. "I promise I'll be useful!"

"You won't be." Again, with indifference, the girl replied, looking down at him.

"I, as an honorable knight, magician, martial artist, and thousands of other titles, promise to be useful." Doelloos said with the most serious face imaginable, to make a good impression.

"What the hell is this?!" Showing surprise for the first time, Milly exclaimed to Doelloos.

"I'm serious." Doelloos remained serious when talking about these titles and persistent in wanting to compensate her.

"I said no..." The girl seemed to be getting more and more irritated with every word Doelloos said.

"Please trust me."

"Oh yes, trust the person who almost killed me." Her sarcastic tone hit Doelloos hard.

Ouch!

"But I didn't kill you." Doelloos was a little unsettled after Milly's sudden verbal attack.

"Really, Mr. Know-It-All? I thought I was in heaven talking to you."

"Although it's more like hell, considering you're here."

"What?!"

"Where is this sudden aggressive and sarcastic behavior coming from?"

"Enough. You said your name is Doelloos, right?"

"Yes. Have you decided to accept my help?"

"I'm going to make one thing very clear."

"I don't trust you." Her serious tone and emotionless face were enough to make Doelloos shiver all over.

"But I'll allow you to stay with me."

"And to be clear, I don't expect anything from you."

"So is that a yes?"

"Maybe."

After this short conversation, Milly threw the comb she was holding in her hands somewhere in the room. Her golden hair was stunning after a few brush strokes.

 I just noticed, but is this some kind of fantasy world...?

 She looks a lot like someone from a royal family.

"Hey, Milly..."

"What?"

"This may be a strange question, but what is the name of this planet?"

"It would also be interesting for me to know our location and the current state of the world."

Before Doelloos could ask any more questions, he looked at Milly and noticed a look of contempt on her face.

"What's that look for?"

"Did you hit your head while I was carrying you?"...

"..." A silence echoed. Doelloos decided to ignore what she had just said.

"So, could you answer me?"

"You're so tiresome..."

"Well, starting with the dumbest question, the name of this planet is Earth. Something very obvious."

 Huh?! 

 Is it the same planet Earth?

 It can't be...

"What's that surprised look? Have you really forgotten everything?"

"Oh, no. Go on."

"Well, our current location is the Elrtoon Forest, a forest on the border of Elrtoon and Portier. Elrtoon is a city well known for its high supply of resources, although they are all monopolized by the Butchers, a clan of human survivors who practice cannibalism.

 Cannibalism?!

"Is that allowed?"

"What do you mean? Who would prohibit it?"

"What about the government?"

"The one that left the world in this situation?"

"In this situation? What do you mean?"

"Then let's move on to the last answer."

"The world is currently doomed to end. A year ago, an angelic voice echoed from the sky across the world. That voice created a prophecy that in a year's time, 10 great disasters would befall planet Earth. It revealed the first nine, but not the last.

"The first would be a blizzard, the world would be covered in snow, the temperature would reach five degrees Celsius everywhere, and animals would change completely to adapt. The second would be the fog, a dense fog would circle the entire world, and anyone who inhaled too much of the fog would have their memories erased. In addition, he said that the fog would bring monsters to this world, which would emerge from it, but the government had already managed to screw everything up before this disaster."

"What do you mean?"

"The governments of all countries got together to make preparations for disasters, and so it was done. They started doing various experiments that haven't been leaked yet, but one of them was. They tried to use radioactive materials to make a gene-modifying potion to create resistance to disasters, and they used it on a human."

"As punishment for their ignorance, it didn't work. The human had his genes modified, of course, but he turned into more of a beast. This beast completely destroyed the laboratory, including the potions that were being mass-produced for experiments, causing the fluid to spill into the ocean water."

"Yes, they were doing this in an underground base in the ocean, what a stupid idea. With the water infected, marine animals consumed parts of the bodies of those who touched the potion, some animals just inhaled the potion, enough to catch the mutation. In small fish, the change was not so visible, so these infected fish were caught, marketed, and sold."

"As a result of all this, the human population also became infected, and the infection spread to simply everyone, whether animals or humans. A tragic story, isn't it? Because of the negligence of their superiors, everyone is paying the price."

"Now I understand your hatred for the government..."

"I don't hate them, I just don't like them."

Isn't that the same thing?

"Returning to the disasters, the third disaster would be the heat wave. The earth would enter a kind of global warming, the average temperature would reach 60 degrees Celsius, animals would die, droughts would come, and some humans would die due to the heat. The fourth disaster is the blackout, the world will be dominated by darkness, staying in the dark for too long will cause your consciousness to be trapped in a temporal subspace, it's good to acquire light sources until then."

"The fifth would be the fall, huge and infinite holes will appear all over the earth, whoever falls, does not return. The sixth is the meteor shower, small meteorites will fall all over the earth. The seventh is flooding. The water level of the oceans will rise enough to flood entire cities. The eighth would be strong winds, strong enough to knock down a wall."

"And lastly, although not the last, is the reflection. They didn't give any description of it, but they mentioned it as the penultimate disaster, even though the voice didn't mention a tenth disaster."

 My God, so much to take in...

 That's practically a world during the apocalypse.

"But how long does each disaster last? And when will new ones appear?"

"There are no details. The blizzard started two months after the announcement, and it's still going on after a year."

"What?!"

"It's been a long time!"

"Yes."

"So you're not royalty."

"Obviously not."

"What about that clan of survivors you mentioned? How many are there, and why?"

"The clans of survivors are endless, there are thousands everywhere, they were created for humans to join forces in a group to have a better chance of survival. Some clans are normal, while others are basically lunatics, like the butchers."

"Hmm..."

While Doelloos was processing the information, Milly began to walk toward the wall, touching it gently. A secret passage opened, and a cold wave circulated in the room.

Ssshhhhh...

"My God, it's cold!"

"Wait, a secret passage that leads outside?"

"Yes, I need to be safe."

"Wait, are you leaving?"

"What do you think?"

"Wait for me!"

Doelloos quickly walks over to Milly, and when he reaches the door, he notices the unusual cold.

"What's with this cold?"

"You're not wearing a shirt."

 Ah...

 I was so engrossed in the explanation that I forgot I hadn't put on my shirt...

Doelloos then goes back and quickly puts on his shirt to travel with Milly.

 This is strange.

 Disasters, mutants, and even with all that, this girl lives alone...

 It must be so sad...

 I promise myself that I will help this girl.

 So that she doesn't end up like me.

Doelloos then returns to the open door, already outside with Milly, ready to leave.