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

"Still, you are pretty reckless. I have ordered you to retreat alongside Michael, but you suddenly have a change of mind and disobeyed my command." Nathan sighed, not knowing whether to praise him or mad at him.

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

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

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

"Alright. 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. "We are 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 that 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 outside 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 even without Nathan telling where to meet.

Nathan glanced to the right as he noticed Kai's presence. He waved his hand, asking 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 whether they were alone in this place.

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

"Yeah. I also have 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 the command of this war. Not only you display your ability brilliantly, but we also lose only a third of our soldiers. Even my son wouldn't be able to do that."

"This is only because of my ears," said Kai humbly. "Besides, the soldiers did a good job. Without them fighting bravely, we wouldn't win the 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 are going to learn about the beings called 'Protector.' Only you can know this because you are one of the Zodiac as well as Ria Ross's apprentice. Your rank is still in process thought. It usually takes a year or so to give you the perms for information and other secret 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-existence. 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 but have human intelligence and such. They are not always 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, and it ended with my group being defeated. There are many conspiracy theories in the higher up because of this protector thing.

"However, there is certainly one thing that is for sure… Kai, if I ask you where the magic power came from, can you answer it?"

Kai fell into silence. After reading books or attending lectures, not a single time, they discussed this. He was wondering 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?"

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

Nathan smiled and shook his head. "It's the Atlantic Ocean… more accurately at 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 could hear the sound if we sent you there since sound can travel better in the water, but the plan carries so many risks.

"First, we need to carry you by plane because you wouldn't survive if we travel with boats. Then, we need to get closer to the water surface or enough for your head to dip inside the water. Before long, we would be attacked by tens of thousands, if not one 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 the information legally after getting the formal document." Nathan finished with a shrug.

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

Nathan and Ethan widened their eyes, not expecting this to be the first question he asked.

"We don't know." Ethan shrugged.

"Maybe they are more intelligent than us, so they call us foolish?" Nathan joked.

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

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

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 search for the answer, but seeing the message is directed to you, you are the one who needs to search for the answer."

Kai looked down and nodded. "There is no point in thinking about it. With how mysterious they are, I might only find the answer in the future through some 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 am not a fan of this either. After all, one should do something they want. That's what makes us human."

Nathan coughed a bit. "Of course, if all of them are like you, then this world is screwed already. Sometimes, you need to give up your will to fight for the better. Though if you just fight blindly for the sake of humanity, then it's better to make a robot. 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 is 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."

"Alright. We end this topic here and end the discussion. Any more questions? If 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 a general question. Why are they called protectors and what beings are they?" Kai suddenly asked the first question that he should ask.

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 see… You have known that the magical beasts are ranked from F to S, right?"

Kai nodded.

"And inside those ranks, there are the intelligent type magical beasts which usually only appear on A and S rank magical beasts. You have seen the A rank here and the S rank in Russia, that Snake God or something.

"Actually, there are two more ranks above them. SS and SSS rank magical beasts. The protector is the SSS rank magical beast. As for why we call them Protectors… They called themself like that. They said, 'We are the protector of Earth, preventing the Earth from extinction.' and some other bullsh*ts."

Kai looked at him for a few seconds, noticing something off. "What's 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 the SS rank magical beasts… It's better to ask your teacher about it." Ethan answered.

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 is quite missing you. Your birthday is on 1st December, right? Why don't you visit her? I am sure you will get many presents from her." Nathan shrugged.

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

"Haha… Alright. Time to end this serious conversation. Just enjoy the wine after the battle," said Ethan nonchalantly.