My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros’ Obsession

But right now, my bigger problem wasn't Violet—it was the guerilla training itself.

The next day's training was hell once again.
The calisthenics and shooting drills from the first day felt like a warm-up. Now we were doing extreme obstacle mountain training and rappelling…
"XX, are they really out of their minds?"

The second day, right after finishing the obstacle mountain course, that was the first thing that came out of my mouth. Everyone said we'd gotten strong training, but guerilla training turned out to be way tougher than I expected.
‘Why on earth is there even guerilla training in a romance novel?!’
I was sitting on the ground, contemplating this unfair reality when I saw Aquila approaching me from a distance. He had just won the wish-granting privilege after achieving the best performance in the obstacle training.

"Sarubia."
Aquila crouched in front of me and pulled out a water bottle.
"You’re going to get dehydrated. Drink."

I obediently took the water he offered, and while I was drinking, Aquila’s eyes lingered on my hand. He must have noticed the red marks left from rappelling.
"Is it from the rappelling?"
"Yeah. It's not scraped, just a little hot right now."

Aquila lowered his gaze and gently pressed on my hand.
"By the way, you came first in training, huh? Must feel good?"
"I don’t know, it’s frustrating."

"Huh?"
"All that stuff doesn’t matter."
I knew he was referring to the marks on my hand, and he had always been sensitive about anything related to me, his only peer.

"Have you decided on your wish?"
"No, I’ll decide after training’s over."
"Well, you did well. You were amazing."
The moment I said that, his ears turned bright red. I knew he was weak to compliments. He couldn’t even make eye contact with me and kept looking down at the ground, but he couldn’t hide his red ears and the corners of his mouth trying to lift.

"Let’s do our best for the remaining training."
"Salvia, don’t get hurt."
***

The next day, Aquila was once again the top soldier. He achieved amazing results in the rappelling training.
The following day, he was the top soldier again. He dominated in the obstacle training, which had become even more difficult.
Other soldiers from different companies also admired Aquila, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud. This was the true power of the original male lead. And that’s my peer, damn it.

A long time passed, and today was finally the last day of training. I could finally finish this hellish guerilla training and return to the base!
‘Of course, we’ll probably have to deal with a monster hunt along the way, but XX.’
Honestly, it might be better than the training.

...No. Thinking about Violet, who had been glaring at me every day with those triangle-shaped eyes, I realized that escaping this guerilla camp as soon as possible was the best option.
"To win in rappelling… I need to consider the direction of the wind and take the inside rope! Ha, Salvia-nim! This time it will be my victory!"
"Obstacle mountain training? Ha ha, Salvia-nim! I’ll make even more obstacles for you!"

‘That crazy XX, really…’
Violet, who would’ve been a typical competition addict, had become a ‘crazy competition addict using unfair methods’ because of me…
I had already earned a wish-granting privilege, and I knew I needed to conserve my stamina, so I just let her win. Seeing Violet’s smug look, I figured that was enough.

‘Women in the Border Defense Army are like that, huh…’
Women who survive in this place tend to be overly competitive and can’t stand losing. So, I could roughly understand her obsessive focus on winning.
Well, anyway, now she’s someone I don’t have to deal with. There’s no way I’ll have to compete with her again, right?

And so, we began the return march and arrived at the base.
"Wow, we finally made it…"
While other junior soldiers expressed their joy, I alone scanned the surroundings with a wary eye. Something was definitely going to happen soon…

"Hey! Get the stretcher!"
"Block the barbed wire first! That’s the priority!"
As expected, the atmosphere at the base was chaotic. The officers still in the base and soldiers from other units on dispatch duty were running around frantically.

It was obvious something big had happened, and the soldiers froze in place while the officers approached to assess the situation.
"What’s going on?"
"Well, the thing is…"

The personnel officer, who had been outside, answered with a troubled expression.
"One of the soldiers on dispatch duty is dead."
"...What?"

The officers froze, startled by the news, and Karon widened his eyes in shock.
It’s not that unusual for privates on guard duty to die, but since only sergeants or above were supposed to go on dispatch duty, the death of one of them was rare. It was especially tragic that a soldier from another unit had died.
But the problem now wasn’t just the death of a soldier from another unit. The personnel officer, who had been urgently waving his hand, shouted at us.

"When the soldier died, the wish-granting magic activated, causing all the nearby monsters to die, and as a result, the barbed wire got destroyed! We need to fix it quickly."
***
Without even properly explaining what this ‘wish-granting magic’ was, we had to move, exhausted, to repair the barbed wire.

At the site where the soldier had died, there were only bloodstains left, and his body had already been taken and disappeared.
The area was in complete disarray, as if there had been a huge explosion.
The enormous eagle-shaped monster that had attacked the soldier was hacked to pieces and lying dead, and even a few monsters from beyond the border were lying dead on the ground.

It wasn’t just the monsters that were in disarray. The barbed wire close to where the soldier died was all torn apart and crumpled.
"What the hell happened here…"
All the monsters in the area were dead, but we had no idea when more would cross the border, so we hurried to fix the barbed wire. In fact, some monsters had already crossed the border, and the soldiers on dispatch duty had witnessed it but couldn’t stop them in time.

"What exactly is this ‘wish-granting magic’?"
"I’ve never heard of it either."
Usually, when I asked Aquila about something in this world, he would explain it in detail, but this time he seemed as clueless as I was.

Even in the original story, it only said ‘the border’s barbed wire was destroyed due to an accident,’ but there was no mention of anything like ‘wish-granting magic.’
"I think I’ve heard of it before, but I can’t remember…!"
Karon said this, and it seemed related to black magic, so…

"Sanchez!"
"Yes."
"Do you know what this ‘wish-granting magic’ is?"

And as expected, Sanchez, the black magic expert, answered my question.
"Yes, I know."
"Of course! Quickly explain it!"

It’s frustrating when he doesn’t speak up until I ask, but at least I’ve gotten him used to answering by now.
Sanchez began to explain the ‘wish-granting magic.’
"To understand wish-granting magic, you first need to understand contract magic. Those who are affected by contract magic have a little magical power in their bodies."

Since we were all under contract magic, that meant we also had a little magic left over in our bodies. I understood that much.
"And when the affected person dies and desperately wishes for something, the magic left in their body moves in a direction that can fulfill their wish."
"What? Really?"

So does that mean every Arkon who is affected by contract magic will have their wish fulfilled when they die?
"But the possibility of their wish coming true is really low. It has to be an incredibly desperate wish, something they’ve wanted for a long time, even before they died."
Well, I’ve seen enough deaths in the Border Defense Army to know that no one’s wishes were ever fulfilled. To amplify magic and make a wish come true, you must have a deep, desperate desire.

"So, what was the dead soldier’s wish?"
"Seeing that all the monsters in the area died, I think his wish was probably to get rid of the monsters."
"Aha…"

One might think his life-long wish would be something more than just the removal of monsters, but for someone who spent so much time in the Border Defense Army, it was probably a simple and heartfelt desire. He had seen many comrades die because of the monsters and had always thought that if it weren’t for the monsters, he wouldn’t be in this situation.
Just like how I hold a grudge against the emperor and the black magicians, he must have had a deep hatred for the monsters.
At the moment of his death, the ‘wish-granting magic’ activated, his magical energy exploded, and the monsters died, causing the barbed wire to be torn apart.

"But why are we just hearing about this now? It’s related to us."
"Well, it’s probably been kept secret because it’s related to forbidden black magic. The personnel officer probably knows about it because he’s been in the military long enough to witness something similar, though it’s rare."
"Is that so."

I nodded in agreement with Aquila. After all, the personnel officer had been in the military for so long.
Of course, even though this magic was directly related to us, I was pissed that the royal family hadn’t told us. But then again, the royal family had never helped us, so whatever.