My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros’ Obsession

Even in a military novel, politics can still happen.

Discharge D-2462 days.@@novelbin@@

“Life…”

On yet another terrible morning like any other, I crouched at the entrance of the training field, sighing heavily.

“Why?”

Aquila, who was sitting next to me, asked in a low voice after hearing my repeated sighs.

“I suddenly feel like deserting.”

“That makes sense.”

Perhaps he found the reason convincing, as Aquila nodded calmly. Karon, who was clinging to my left side, whined softly with his sparkling eyes.

“Lately, the food has tasted worse than before….”

“Right. Did they change the cook?”

Or maybe it’s because the taste of the food we had when the Crown Prince visited is still so vivid in my mind that everything now feels bland in comparison…

“Hey, it’s Commander Elliot.”

“What?”

At Aquila’s words, I quickly turned to my right.

Sure enough, the commanding officer Elliot was strolling over, yawning with his mouth wide open. It had been a while since I’d seen him, as he usually hid away somewhere, nearing his discharge date.

“Time.”

Elliot tossed the word at us nonchalantly, prompting all of us to turn toward the clock hanging in the training field and respond swiftly.

“Commander Elliot, you have 2 months, 29 days, 13 hours, and 48 minutes until discharge.”

“As expected, you’re quick, Salvia.”

Elliot spoke with a satisfied expression and strolled past us with a face that looked like he owned the world.

“Wow! How do you calculate so fast, Salvia?”

“Well…”

It’s probably because I worked harder on arithmetic in my previous life than people in this world, but it wasn’t something I could explain here and now.

Anyway, Elliot, who was nearing his discharge, always asked about the time left until he was free, grinning as he bantered. Occasionally, if someone responded even a bit slowly, he would nag them, or even if we answered on time, he seemed to take pleasure in watching our faces twist as we thought about our own distant discharge dates.

“Damn it, two months… I haven’t even been here for two years yet…”

It’s no wonder Elliot enjoys tormenting the juniors like this—living in the hellhole that is the Border Defense Army for so long has definitely twisted his personality. And after the Crown Prince’s visit, he seemed even worse than before.

“New recruits are arriving today.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s hope they survive longer this time. It’s been too long since we’ve had any new faces.”

“True.”

Aquila and I exchanged dry remarks.

The last two recruits, who joined during the Crown Prince’s visit, had died recently, making Karon the youngest in the unit for a year now.

The fact that even after all this time, Karon is the only junior we have is nothing short of miserable for me too, damn it…

“I need to escape this laundry hell as soon as possible.”

Why does laundry keep piling up no matter how much we do it? I could swear we finished everything just a few hours ago, but somehow, there’s never a single usable towel, and we keep getting scolded for it. This is absurdly unfair.

Currently, the only trainees left in this unit are Aquila, Karon, Ishina, and me. Considering Ishina’s dark circles grow deeper by the day, we desperately need some stronger reinforcements.

“Hey, you guys are here?”

“Ishina.”

When Ishina poked her head around the corner to call out to us, I stood up.

“The new recruits just arrived. Aren’t you going to see them?”

“Oh, we’re coming!”

This was the news we’d been waiting for! With a brightened face, I followed Ishina inside the building.

“There are the new recruits.”

The new recruits stood stiffly, listening to Winter’s explanations.

Grabbing Aquila and Karon by the arms, I pulled them along and leaned against the wall.

“Hm… What do you think?”

Narrowing my eyes, I scanned the new recruits and asked. Aquila responded in a disinterested voice.

“They just look clueless.”

“That’s how they all are at first.”

Honestly, thinking back, my peers also looked clueless when we first arrived. And I’m sure I had the same expression too.

This batch had five recruits, all men, and all clueless-looking. It’s always the same at first; who among them will survive to the end is anyone’s guess.

“Hmm…”

As I continued scrutinizing the recruits, Aquila muttered from behind me.

“Why are you so interested? You’re not going to take care of them, and you’ll lose interest soon enough.”

“Hmm…”

Aquila really knows me well. Ever since Reina’s cohort all died, I haven’t cared much about the new recruits.

In truth, the only reason I pay attention when new recruits arrive is to see if any familiar faces show up.

Specifically, whether anyone from the original novel, Four Obsessed Madmen Cling to Me, is among them.

“It’s hard to tell just by their faces…”

After reading so many romance fantasy novels, the characters all blur together in my head. Remembering the side characters, let alone the male leads, is no easy task.

“Isn’t it supposed to be easy to recall the original story after transmigrating into it? Why doesn’t that happen for me?”

Well, if there’s an important character, I’ll probably remember when I hear their name later. With that, I lost interest and dragged Aquila and Karon back outside.

***

However, it didn’t take long for me to form a bad relationship with one of the new recruits.

That day, we were on our way back to the platoon after finishing training at the large training field at the company headquarters.

The training involved lighting fires to prepare for scenarios where monsters might breathe flames. Since there was a risk of the fire spreading to the forest, we used the spacious training ground at the company headquarters.

After several hours of training, trudging along the mountain path back to the platoon felt especially exhausting.

“Do we have anything scheduled before dinner?”

“No.”

Aquila’s response brightened my face a little. I was dead tired, but at least I could rest once we got back to the platoon… probably.

At that moment, footsteps sounded from behind us. The hurried pace suggested someone was chasing after us, and the group turned around in unison.

“Ranella?”

A woman in the same uniform as us appeared, sprinting up the mountain path. She stopped when she spotted us, panting heavily. Recognizing her, Plato called her name.

Judging by the small mark on her uniform, she appeared to be from Beta Platoon.

She caught her breath for a moment before lifting her head to speak to us.
“They need ten people for repair work at the company headquarters.”

“Ten people?”

“Yes. It’s Alpha Platoon’s turn this time.”

“Ugh, how annoying…”

At her words, Leon ruffled his hair in irritation and then turned to us.
“Hey, you heard that? They need ten people.”

And so, we all started glancing at one another. Though ten people were required, no one had been specifically assigned, and having just finished training, no one was eager to volunteer.

Damn it, can’t we just rest…?

Positive thinking started spinning in my head. Yeah, we’re still trainees. Shouldn’t this kind of task be handled by the privates?

Looking around, the recruits, including Karon, all wore expressions that screamed they didn’t want to do it.

…Though Ishina, seeming resigned, had already turned toward the company headquarters. No way… she wouldn’t…

“Hey, aren’t you guys moving?”

Leon’s face darkened again, prompting me to break the silence with a brave question.

“Leon, sir, who should go?”

At that, Leon suddenly flashed a cheerful smile. Considering his usual delinquent demeanor, that smile felt foreboding.

The seniors here were generally twisted. Even if they didn’t outright bully the juniors, whenever they seemed happy, it was usually because a junior was about to suffer.

“If you think it’s you, then go.”

Damn it… The ‘if you think it’s you’ line…

Resigned, I quietly turned toward the company headquarters. Aquila followed beside me, maintaining his impassive expression, while Karon trailed after Ishina, looking as displeased as ever.

Judging by the numbers, the group would likely consist of the five new recruits, the four of us, and one of the seniors from the 85th batch—either Blair or Topio.

Glancing back, I saw Blair and Topio intensely engaged in a game of rock-paper-scissors, their eyes burning with determination. It looked less like they were playing and more like they were about to punch each other out.

At that moment, one of the corporals, Magne, called out to one of the recruits.
“Hey, Jaiden.”

“Yes.”

Jaiden, a new recruit with golden hair and gray eyes, responded.

He wasn’t particularly exceptional, but among the new recruits, he was considered “the best of the bunch.”

“You need to check the new weapons later, so head straight back to the platoon. One of the other rookies can go instead.”

Oh, right. They’re close.

It was said that Jaiden and Corporal Magne knew each other from their hometown. Thanks to that connection, Jaiden had received a lot of help and was adapting more smoothly to the unit.

In other words, he was riding Magne’s coattails and enjoying some easy perks…

Honestly, Magne’s excuse about the weapons seemed like nothing more than a pretext to get Jaiden out of the repair work.

Damn it… lucky bastard…

While I was envying Jaiden’s escape, Blair and Topio both wore expressions like they’d stepped in something disgusting. Their rock-paper-scissors game had apparently been pointless, and now they were both stuck with the repair work.

Great… those twisted jerks are going to be unbearable.

With a grim expression, I headed toward the company headquarters, dreading the inevitable antics Blair and Topio would pull during the repair work.

***

“Snicker, they say cursing really makes work go smoother, huh?”

“Totally, nothing beats cursing to get the job done.”

From behind me, Blair and Topio’s twisted exchange floated through the air, but I didn’t bother looking back. Instead, I wore an exhausted expression as I stepped into the platoon building.

‘If you’re going to curse, do it quietly, you bastards…’

Those guys always made sure their curses were loud enough for the juniors to hear.

Now I understood why Ishina couldn’t get along with them despite them being her direct seniors. They were genuinely awful people, rotten to the core.

“Ugh, I’m starving to death.”

When I grumbled in frustration, Karon, eyes sparkling, quickly chimed in beside me.

“But at least it’s almost time for a meal!”

“Yeah, right… Aren’t you tired at all?”

“No, not really!”

Aquila and Ishina aside, seeing Karon still so lively made me once again feel the weight of his status as a male lead in the original novel.

Even in the original story, Karon was known for his near-limitless stamina and endurance.

“Well, see you later.”

After lightly patting Aquila on the back as he headed toward the dormitory, I turned toward the laundry room.

Normally, I would’ve gone straight to the dormitory myself to rest, even for a little while, but I’d left some towels in the laundry room before heading out for training earlier.

Being the youngest in the women’s dormitory was already a miserable situation, and while Yuri wasn’t unnecessarily strict, she was uncompromisingly fair when it came to mistakes. Best to avoid her wrath.

When I opened the laundry room door, I saw Jaiden was already there.

Did he handle the laundry while skipping the repair work?

“…Hm.”

For some reason, it felt like Jaiden was staring at me. Probably just my imagination.

But no matter how I looked at it, Jaiden really was staring at me. Then again, it made sense. The face of Salvia, the one I had transmigrated into, was undeniably beautiful.

Of course, I had no intention of letting a junior who rudely stared at a senior’s face get away with it. So, I turned my head sharply to glare back at him.

The moment our eyes met, Jaiden quickly averted his gaze and pretended to focus on scrubbing his jacket.

“Hey.”

I remembered April’s advice clearly—assert dominance early on.

At my firm tone, Jaiden flinched but didn’t reply, so I fixed him with an even sharper look.

“What are you staring at?”

“Ah…”

Though he quickly looked away at my words, his expression still betrayed clear dissatisfaction.

The silence stretched on as we both continued our respective tasks, washing laundry. Eventually, I noticed something and decided to speak again.

“Rookie, do you have any laundry soap?”

“…What?”

Jaiden blinked his gray eyes at me, then opened his mouth to reply.

“I just finished it. We’ll need to restock.”

“Is that so? Then grab a new bar from the supply room and report it to Altair. Every single supply needs to be strictly accounted for.”

“Am I the one who has to do it?”

…Hmm.

‘Did I just hear that right?’