Chapter 38
“ What are you talking about? That was the first time I talked with Milfi just now.”
“You never even tried to talk to her before….”
“Well, rather than paying attention to Milfi, I was more concerned with Blair and Topio’s personalities….”
At that, Karon looked displeased, but he didn’t argue with me further. It seemed he’d accepted my explanation about their personalities.
But Karon didn’t seem ready to drop it there.
“Then why are you paying attention to Zaiden?”
I couldn’t understand why Zaiden was being brought up here. As if I would put Karon behind Zaiden in importance?
“Why Zaiden?”
“Ah—Aquila said so.”
Karon glanced at Aquila as he spoke.
“He said Zaiden’s been annoying lately, so you’ve been trying to get closer to Winter and Altair….”
“No, hey….”
I turned to Aquila with a look of disbelief.
“Why would you tell a kid something like that?”
“Why, it’s true. I told you to take good care of him.”
“That didn’t mean you had to tell him that! Ah, I can’t stand this.”
Feeling a little suffocated, I lightly smacked Aquila’s arm. This was getting exhausting. Aquila—this is all for your future self’s sake.
I wanted them to cooperate with the big plan I’d been hatching, but Karon only complained about why I hadn’t been paying attention to him lately, and Aquila got prickly whenever he thought I didn’t need him.
No good. Big plan or not, I need to move things along faster.
First, I needed to find out exactly what reaction Zaiden wanted to get out of me.
I walked straight up to Zaiden again and met his gaze. Then I smiled brightly while looking square into his gray eyes.
It was one of the “three prettiest expressions of Sarubia” I sometimes admired in the mirror.
‘If he doesn’t enjoy me getting angry at him, then he must want me to behave meekly in front of him, right?’
Half a guess, but Zaiden actually blushed.
‘…this crazy bastard.’
Good — that confirmed it. The reason Zaiden has been rude to me is that he thinks I’m easy to push around, and he wants me to lose my composure in front of him.
And the reason is probably because Sarubia’s face matches his taste. That crazy bastard.
Objectively, Sarubia (me) does have a lovely face, but this guy was no better than a grade-schooler teasing a girl he liked.
“Damn it, I’ll do the exact opposite of what you want….”
He’s the one who’s going to be unnerved, not me.
I’ll take down the backing Zaiden has in Gagne, and the power Gagne holds, one by one.
To do that I’ll need Winter’s help.
‘Yuri is the kind who scolds her peers’ behavior and then follows along…’
For now, it seems I should keep spending time with Winter and Altair like this.
“Sarubia, alphabet.”
At that I checked the letter I’d just written.
…There was a trace where I’d flipped one alphabet letter and written it like an S backwards. No matter how many times I practice, I get mixed up; writing an S mirrored just never felt natural.
“Then that’s it for today’s lesson. If you just fix that one thing I told you repeatedly, there’s nothing more to practice.”
At those words I looked up at Winter with glittering eyes.
“So the lesson’s over now?”
Winter stared at me quietly with his deep gray-blue eyes. That slipped out of me…
“…I suppose I still have room to improve.”
I rolled my eyes slightly and smiled, promising to keep working hard in lessons, and Winter opened his mouth — he’d been holding it shut.
“There’s something I’ve always found odd about you….”
“Pardon?”
“Have you ever known someone who looks like me?”
It was a completely baffling question, and I denied it with a blank face.
“No, never.”
There’s no way there’d be someone else in this world who looked like the story’s male lead Winter. He had flawless, sculpted features, deep blue-gray eyes, a perfectly symmetrical face, and an undeniably perfect body.
…Again, the body was really perfect. Only the other three main male leads had comparable appearances.
“Is that so? Then it’s simply that you have a fearless personality.”
“What are you talking about?”
Winter had often called me “bold” or “fearless” before, so this was probably related to that.
“You don’t find me difficult at all.”
“Pardon?”
“Usually they seem afraid of me.”
‘Ah.’
I realized why I must have seemed odd in his eyes. Normally, juniors would be stiff and nervous around Winter — they didn’t dare strike up a conversation. They would even find it hard to meet his gaze.
Probably because… was it his flawless face? Or those eerie, steady steel-blue eyes that wouldn’t shake even before countless monsters?
Ah, it could be that stone-cold expression that stays calm no matter what happens in front of him. Or the fearsome air like an unfeeling tyrant.
I didn’t know which was the problem — maybe all of them.
I did find Winter imposing in his way. He was cool, minty, and icy.
But was he scary? Not really. Despite all the intimidating traits he had…
‘I’ve seen that face a lot on romance novel covers.’
After reading so many romance-fantasy covers, Winter was just a typical romance-novel male lead face to me. He looked like the textbook northern duke. He even felt familiar enough that I wasn’t particularly frightened. Sometimes I’d be disappointed when he acted without any swagger.
‘I might look strange to him that way.’
I could understand why Winter and Altair called me bold.
“I don’t think Winter looks frightening….”
“Is that so?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever looked at someone and thought they were scary, really….”
Of course, if I were trapped in an alley with ten thugs who looked like extras from a gang, I’d be scared. But I haven’t encountered such people in this world yet.
Maybe because this world is a fictional one, everyone is aesthetically pleasing, and my eyes find it enjoyable.
“No matter how scary someone looks, there are far worse things to fear than appearance.”
For example, monsters, April, or the apocalypse-world dragging us slowly to unavoidable death.
Hearing my answer, Winter looked convinced — he seemed to accept that judging people by appearance is wrong because there are far scarier things than looks.
“You have the right attitude. Judging people by appearance is wrong.”
“Yes….”
“As I’ve said a dozen times before, it’s better to answer with a stronger voice.”
He really knew how to annoy people.
“You always seem to stick firmly to principles, Winter.”
“I’ve always lived that way.”
“Then—”
I hadn’t been spending time with Winter merely to learn writing. Yes — it was time to probe Winter’s inner thoughts.
“Don’t you ever want to break your principles? What do you do in such a case?”
“I don’t think such a moment exists.”
“Really? There’s truly none? …Then which of Winter’s principles are the most important?”
Perhaps because I asked about his “principles,” a spark came into Winter’s eyes.
“The basic ethics humans should uphold are the most important. Next are the laws of the Adolbe Empire, and below that are the military laws of the Border Defense Force. And there are tacit rules that, while not written, are implicitly set.”
“Why do you follow the Adolbe Empire’s laws?”
“Because it’s the country we belong to.”
“Can Winter truly be wholly loyal to the Adolbe Empire? You’re an Arcon—how is that possible…?”
“Even if I’m a different species, I was born in this empire, and I feel loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor. To me, it’s simply natural.”
Now that he said it, Winter used the term “a different species,” not “Arcon.”
‘Maybe “Arcon” is a word the state forbids, so he chose a different phrase?’
…What a baffling person.
But this wasn’t about Winter’s loyalty to the Adolbe Empire. The important thing was this:
“Can you truly agree with all those principles?”
I met Winter’s blue-gray eyes.
“For instance, if you have a conflict with a senior, what about the military rule that says you must always respect your senior’s opinion?”
“I would obey.”
He answered so, but at that moment Winter’s eyes clearly wavered — as if he had several times endured a senior’s annoying behavior.
From that I realized something.
If I offered him a chance to weaken Gagne’s power, that opportunity wouldn’t be wasted. He wouldn’t let it pass.
The chance to put my targets in their place came sooner than I expected.
More precisely, the chance to put Zaiden in his place.
“Damn it, who messed the barbed wire up like this?”
While doing border repairs, I muttered when I found one section of the fence crumpled and mangled.
This was definitely a sign that monsters had crossed the border. Looks like we’d have to go out on a hunt soon.
Border repairs were large, important work — not comparable to repairing the company headquarters. To stop monsters from crossing, the barbed wire on the border had to be sturdy.
So this repair involved not just the trainees but also the corporals. Everyone was participating. Not a single trainee or corporal was missing. The sentry duties that corporals would normally have done were replaced by senior corporals.
“All right, corporals, teach the juniors properly as you work.”
At the orderly officer’s words, our squad’s Blair and Topio immediately scowled.
‘Sure enough, their personalities are rotten.’
For reference, I had decided to nickname the trio Winter, Altair, and Yuri from the 78th intake as the “CoolMintIce Three.” Before they were just the “CoolMint Three,” but that title felt insufficient these days. I planned to lengthen their nickname whenever I felt like it.
Likewise, I had a label for the 85th intake corporals Blair and Topio:
‘Personality-ruined 85th.’
They always had profanity on their lips, subtly bullied juniors, and wore permanently unpleasant expressions — their personalities were a total disaster.
‘…Wait, is this the opportunity?’
A brilliant idea flashed through my head.
And I decided to put it into action.
