My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros’ Obsession

Among the privates, Blair and Topio—lowest in seniority—grumbled incessantly as they demonstrated to Aquila and my cohort how to repair the barbed wire. Once they were done, I called out to them.

"Blair, Topio."

"What the hell do you want now?" Topio snapped, swearing as he turned to glare at me.

"Absolutely hopeless personalities."

Much like a teddy bear that says "I love you" when you press its stomach, their default response to being addressed by a junior was cursing.

Ignoring their attitude, I plastered on a friendly smile and spoke in an easy, cheerful tone.

"I’ve been learning how to read and write from Winter recently, and I heard that you both learned from him before as well. Is that true?"

"You mocking us, you little—?"

"You trying to say your seniors are stupid, huh?"

"No, no! That’s not it. I was just curious… Is Winter always so thorough?" I replied, letting my voice carry a hint of exhaustion.

Hearing the weariness in my tone, Blair and Topio’s expressions suddenly softened.

"Ha, kid… Rough time, huh?"

"Yeah, that bastard can be brutal…"

"But," I added, lowering my voice and glancing around as if sharing a secret, "he said he’s thinking about teaching the juniors the military code next…"

It wasn’t entirely untrue. Winter had mentioned the military code, though he was only teaching it to me.

Blair and Topio, unaware of the specifics, froze in place. Their expressions darkened like a storm brewing.

"What?! That’s bullshit!"

"You’ve got to be kidding me! That damn studying again?!"

"Well, it’s not confirmed yet," I said with a sympathetic tone, "but I thought I should give you a heads-up so you could mentally prepare…"

It seemed, however, that my words no longer reached them. The two of them stumbled off with dazed expressions, their shoulders slumped as they dejectedly returned to work. They even forgot about teaching the juniors the repair process.

Watching them retreat, I allowed myself a small smirk before turning toward Jaiden and Milphy’s direction.

"Anyone available to help over here?" I called out.

"Huh? Y-yes, coming!" Milphy startled and rushed over immediately.

"As if Jaiden would ever voluntarily lend me a hand."

And there was no way I’d bother asking Blair and Topio again, given the murderous scowls they were sporting. They looked ready to chew out anyone who so much as looked at them wrong.

So, I explained the repair process to Milphy while keeping an eye on Jaiden, who was clumsily fumbling through his work.

"He can stay over there and figure it out on his own."

***

The company commander, standing before us, began his familiar tirade.

"I’m disappointed in all of you."

If this were a dating sim, we’d easily have achieved a "Relationship Score: -200" by now.

The commander was nothing if not consistent—he never missed a day to express his disappointment. I was pretty sure he’d been disappointed in us more times than I’d ever written in a diary over the past year.

This time, the commander pointed at Jaiden’s section of the barbed wire.

"Which platoon was responsible for this mess?"

"I didn’t expect it to escalate to the commander."

At most, I thought it would catch the attention of our platoon leader. Still, it wasn’t outside the scope of my plan, so there was no need to panic.

The highest-ranking privates in our platoon, Carrot and Dream, exchanged uneasy glances. When Carrot hesitated, Dream answered on his behalf.

"Alpha Platoon, sir."

"I see. Get it redone," the commander ordered with a disapproving look before moving on.

Naturally, word spread quickly among the corporals. In the military, nothing stayed a secret for long.

"Agh, can’t we stop getting yelled at from higher-ups already?"

At the next assembly, Leon and Brave, who rarely showed their faces these days, appeared with irritated expressions. Nearing their promotions, they had been keeping a low profile, but they were still infamous as the embodiment of "violence and fear."

"Who screwed up this time?" Leon asked lazily.

Sensing there was no point in hiding the truth, Jaiden raised his hand.

"It was me," he admitted.

"Are you kidding me?"

"But… no one explained how to do it," Jaiden added, emboldened by a glance at Gagne. His voice carried more conviction than usual.

"What? You learn by doing, for crying out loud!" Brave snapped, looking exasperated.

However, Plato, ever the stickler for fairness, seemed to take Jaiden’s words seriously. He scanned the privates before asking firmly, "Weren’t you supposed to teach him? That’s your responsibility, isn’t it?"

"Yes, sir. We left it to Blair and Topio," Dream answered.

All eyes turned to Blair and Topio, who froze in place. As expected of the Disaster Duo, they scrambled to defend themselves.

"We—uh—we definitely explained it."
"Yeah, yeah, we did!"

"‘Definitely explained it’? Are you kidding me?" Plato pressed.

"Uh, no, I mean, we did explain it!"

Watching them lie so brazenly brought back memories of my early days in the unit. I’d suffered a lot under these two disasters.

In the military, the higher-ranking soldiers’ words were usually taken as truth, so attention shifted back to Jaiden.

For once, the usually cocky Jaiden looked flustered, which was satisfying to see. But then, he dropped a completely unexpected excuse.

"Actually, I was late because Gagne sent me on an errand…"

It was an instinctive lie to escape the situation, but it was the wrong move. With higher-ranking corporals present, it only made things worse.

Plato raised an eyebrow and turned to Gagne.

"Gagne, is that true? Why do you keep sending him on errands lately?"

Gagne wasn’t oblivious to the thinly veiled reprimand.

"Gagne’s problem is he never considers how his actions look to his seniors."

He was too focused on pampering his fellow hometown recruit, Jaiden. He also spent much of his time undermining the Cool Mint Ice Trio of the 78th generation, likely out of resentment for the constant comparisons.

If Gagne admitted to Jaiden’s claim, Plato—who valued fairness above all—would tear him apart for being biased and irresponsible.

Gagne had no choice but to deny it.

"I’ve never done such a thing, sir," he replied.

The look of shock and betrayal on Jaiden’s face was priceless.

"So you were lying, then?"

"Tch. What a useless brat," Brave muttered.

With Gagne’s denial, the seniors’ scorn turned squarely onto Jaiden, leaving him floundering and defenseless.

This was inevitable.

Gagne’s favoritism toward Jaiden had always been obvious. But in the face of Jaiden’s glaring mistake, Gagne had to abandon him to avoid backlash from the higher-ranking corporals.

Jaiden’s failure to recognize the limits of their relationship had been his downfall.

Step one: sever Jaiden’s support. Success.

But this was far from over. Jaiden was still defiant toward me, and Gagne’s response after distancing himself from Jaiden was unpredictable.

"If things get worse… I’ll use my wild card."

Fortunately, I still had an ace up my sleeve.

***

As expected, the rift between Jaiden and Gagne didn’t go unnoticed. Afterward, Gagne became increasingly hostile toward the juniors.

"Memorize today’s menu!"
"Who the hell was breathing loudly in their sleep last night?"
"I dropped this laundry—redo it!"

It was obvious why Gagne was acting this way.

"He’s trying to consolidate his authority."

Failing to build a faction with his hometown recruit, Gagne was now working to solidify his position before the Cool Mint Ice Trio’s influence grew stronger.

Jaiden, meanwhile, had quieted down significantly, proving that his previous behavior had been entirely dependent on Gagne’s backing. But with their hometown connection, there was always the risk of reconciliation.

"Time to go for the extreme option."

It was a risky move, but it might be the right time to act decisively.

While watching Gagne berate the juniors during repair work, I leaned over to Karon and whispered, "Karon, you’re not a fan of this situation, are you?"

"Huh? No, not really…" Karon replied, wide-eyed and unsure where this was going.

I had a plan, but it required an ally.

Of course, Ishina would try to stop me, and Aquila would never agree to help. This plan carried a certain amount of risk for me as well.

But Karon? Karon would never betray me.@@novelbin@@

"Karon, listen carefully to what I’m about to say," I began, swallowing hard. What I was about to propose was weighty enough to make anyone nervous.

"Let’s write a letter."

"A letter? What kind of letter?"

"A love letter," I clarified.