My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros’ Obsession

D-898 until discharge.
"Ishina, what do you plan to do after discharge?"
"Hmm. I don’t have a concrete plan yet, but I’ll probably go back to studying."

"What kind of— Hey, Jason! Your boots are mismatched with your squadmates'!"
"Ugh! Thanks! Patty, Matty, for the love of—!"
In the past, I would’ve run straight over and grabbed my juniors by the collars whenever they messed up. But lately, I had been living a rather relaxed life.

That was because Jaiden and Milphy had both been promoted to senior private this month, and Benny had just joined them.
Oh, and in three months, Ishina would also be promoted and transferred to another unit.
The same went for Aquila and me. Which meant… we had less than three-digit days left until discharge!

Wow, less than three digits left… I’ve never been happier.
…In my previous life’s South Korea, wasn’t three-digit service days just the normal thing? Maybe I was just imagining it.
Anyway, that was why I had been feeling extra lighthearted lately.

Even Ishina, who had always had dark circles under his eyes, looked much more refreshed. Aquila, too, seemed completely at ease. And Karon—well, he was always smiling.
"Jaiden, you need to do a better job managing the recruits. Three of them died in training last time."
"…I’m sorry."

Just because we were both senior privates didn’t mean we were equal. Jaiden and I had over a year’s gap in experience, and even now, I made sure to keep him in check. Life was perfect.
"Hey, Salvia."
"Yes?"

"The new recruits are getting lazy. Are you slacking off?"
"…I’ll correct that, sir."
Yeah. Almost perfect.
A few months ago, a new officer named Rosan had arrived at our unit, and for some reason, he had a particularly sharp attitude toward me.

Normally, officers who transferred in from other units had far less authority than senior privates who had already spent five to six years here.
Because of that, officers usually didn’t pick unnecessary fights, and in return, we respected their rank and treated them with courtesy.
That was why there weren’t any abusive senior privates like in my past world’s military.

But…
Is he trying to take control openly?
Currently, our unit had two officers: Kaiot and Rosan.

Kaiot had been relatively quiet and followed the usual officer duties when Winter and Jay were still here. But after they discharged, he started playing harmless pranks on the juniors—not that I minded. He was the senior now, so it was within reason.
The real issue was Rosan.
For some reason, whenever he needed to call out a senior private, he always picked me specifically.

I was starting to wonder if he had something against me.
After Rosan left, I was still scowling when Ishina patted me on the shoulder.
"It’s not because he dislikes you," he explained. "It’s because you’re the center of the senior privates."

"…Excuse me?"
"Rosan wants to make sure the senior privates acknowledge his authority. And you’re the key to that."
I was about to ask what he meant, but instead, I mentally mapped out the senior privates’ ranking in my head.

The highest-ranking was Ishina. But since he would be leaving soon, he wasn’t the real power holder.
Jaiden, Milphy, and Benny were still new to the rank. Karon listened to Aquila and me.
Aquila was technically the busiest of all the senior privates, which gave him a lot of influence. But he usually just did whatever I asked him to.

Ah. So that’s it…
Rosan wanted to subdue the senior privates, so he was targeting me specifically to establish dominance.
How should I feel about this?

On one hand, it was nice to be acknowledged as the most influential senior private.
On the other hand… shouldn’t he just be quietly preparing for his own transfer instead of wasting time with power plays?
Either way, one thing was clear…

"I understand the situation now, Ishina."
"…What?"
Ishina’s expression instantly darkened with suspicion.

"Wait. You’re not planning anything, are you?"
"Sir? What do you mean?"
"You’re not going to pull another Jaiden stunt, are you?"

"Huh? No, I just meant I’d be cautious—since I’ll be transferring in six months anyway."
"Cautious? That word really doesn’t suit you, but fine."
Ishina gave me an almost pleading look.

"Please, Salvia. Just stay out of trouble for once."
"What do you mean? I haven’t done anything strange."
I was deeply offended.

He thought I was planning some elaborate scheme just because I understood the situation?
Ishina was acting like I was some kind of shadow mastermind.
I wasn’t.

I wouldn’t do something underhanded just because of a minor inconvenience.
…Probably.
***

Today, I was on border patrol with Aquila for the first time in a while.
Usually, we had to look after our own subordinates, so we almost never got assigned to the same shift. But now that we had more senior privates below us, this kind of thing was finally possible.
"Ta-da."

I pulled a gold pocket watch from my jacket, and Aquila’s gaze immediately followed it.
"The one you brought last time?"
"Yep. This makes things a lot safer!"

The hands of the pocket watch were moving slowly. That meant there were no monsters nearby.
That also meant we didn’t have to be on full alert and could relax a little.
"It really is the most comfortable when I’m with you."

"Same here."
Leaning lazily against the railing, I started saying whatever was on my mind.
"I feel weird about Ishina getting promoted. We probably won’t see him again for at least two years."

"You said you’d meet up after discharge."
"Yeah. It’s not like I have anyone else to visit out there."
I shrugged lightly but then suddenly stiffened as a realization hit me.

"This damn Border Defense Army. I should at least be able to get him a parting gift."
Not that I could expect anything in a place where even birthday cakes didn’t exist.
"Yeah… There’s nothing we can really give him."

"That goes for you, too. When we get promoted, we’ll be assigned to different units, and I don’t even have anything to give you."
I knew from the original novel that Aquila would stay here as an officer.
Since I wouldn’t be assigned to the same unit, we’d inevitably have to separate. The best we could do was exchange letters. That was frustrating enough just thinking about it—after all, we had seen each other every day for six years.

"It’s fine, Salvia. Once we discharge, we’ll be together again."
"Yeah… Wait, hold on. Weren’t we talking about Ishina?"
Half-listening, I almost absentmindedly agreed with him. But the moment I realized where the conversation had shifted, I snapped my head up.

"…Huh?"
The pocket watch’s hands, which had been moving slowly, suddenly stopped at a single number.
It pointed to 1.

A monster must have appeared nearby.
When the hands of the watch stopped and pointed at a number, it meant that the exact number of monsters had entered the vicinity. I adjusted my grip on my gun just in case.
Scanning my surroundings, I spotted it—a massive, snake-like monster slithering along the border fence.

"Aquila, we should take it down, right?"
"Yeah. It might try to cross the border."
Bang!

Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck the monster, and it collapsed on the spot. Since it was beyond the border, we didn’t even have to deal with the body.
As I watched its lifeless form, a thought occurred to me.

"When did that thing show up?"
"…."
Aquila didn’t have an answer.

Now that I thought about it, I had never really questioned this before.
I had been so focused on surviving and getting stronger that I had never stopped to consider the bigger questions—like how monsters were even created.
Sometimes, like today, a monster would suddenly appear near the border even though no one had seen it approach.

Up until now, I had assumed they had just been sneaky and evaded detection.
But considering that the pocket watch hadn’t reacted at all until this moment, that meant there had originally been no monsters nearby.
The one I had just shot down… had simply popped into existence.

So it’s not just natural reproduction? Are there other ways for them to be created?
I realized then—I still knew far too little about this world.
***

After that, I spent some time in the company archives, digging through books about monsters.
Aquila and Karon helped me search, but there wasn’t much useful information.
"Screw it. I just need to discharge and do my own research outside."

As always, the only solution to this hellhole was discharge.
Just like Ishina had suggested, I planned to lay low for six months, get promoted, then slowly collect information while waiting to be discharged.
But, as always, things never went the way I wanted.

"Salvia, why are you pissed again?"
"It’s Dalin. She—"
"She’s not even your responsibility anymore. Leave her to Jaiden and Milphy."

"Yeah… But she—"
As usual, I was fuming over Dalin while Ishina tried to hold me back. But this time, a voice I had been hearing way too often lately interrupted us.
"Hey."

"Yes, sir?"
I turned my head and locked eyes with Rosan.
With his deep red hair covering part of his eyes, he smirked at me, lifting the corner of his mouth.

"Why are you acting so cocky?"
"…Excuse me?"
"Why are you being so disrespectful to your superior?"

Here we go again.
I had literally been minding my own business, yet he was the one starting a fight.
He motioned for me to come closer. I didn’t bother hiding my irritation as I stepped toward him.

Since he was the one breaking the usual balance between officers and senior privates, I saw no reason to hold back either.
Seeing my expression, he let out an incredulous scoff.
"So this is how things are run in the Cledore Mountain Battalion? No respect for hierarchy?"

His purple eyes locked onto me, and I met his gaze without flinching.
Tension crackled between us.
And when I still didn’t look away, he let out a dry chuckle and raised a hand.

Shit.
He was about to hit me.
Between the two of us, I had far more power in this unit.

So instead of fighting back here, I figured…
I’ll just let him hit me.
If I took the hit first, it would be easier to break him later. I could escalate this from a squad-level conflict to a company-wide one. If I got the other squads and senior privates involved—

"What’s the problem, sir?"
But before Rosan could land a hit, Ishina yanked me back, shoving me behind him.
I hadn’t expected that at all.

Huh?
Standing in front of me, Ishina fixed Rosan with an uncharacteristically cold glare.