Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Choice
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"...Cadet Charlotte."
"Huh?"
As I shook the body of Charlotte, who had fallen asleep clutching her blanket, she woke with a cute little noise and blinked her bleary eyes.
"It's your turn for night watch."
"Hwaa... Is it that time alreadyyy...?"
She mumbled with her lips, then stretched her petite body out long, yawning as she extended her arms.
For some reason, her face looked refreshed... Probably because she'd slept so soundly, right?
Yeah, that had to be it. In the rotation, Charlotte had drawn what people commonly called the "sweet spot"—the enviable last shift, the one where you basically got to "suck on the honey."
I couldn't help but chuckle as Evelyn's grumpy expression from when she'd woken me up flashed in my mind.
Charlotte tilted her head at my laugh, smiling back innocently without a clue, then wriggled around a bit.
...She's so cute.
It was hard to believe this was the same girl who'd had a "wet dream" just a little while ago. She was that adorable.
My resolve to quickly resolve this issue with Irene's help burned brighter than ever.
"It's the last one, so... it shouldn't be too bad. Good luck."
"Yes! You did great, Teacher. Sweet dreams!"
"...Yeah."
Not sure how much sleep I'd actually get.
If Charlotte's "last shift" was the honey-sucking dream slot, then my "final watch" was notoriously the worst one in the rotation.
In my fuzzy memories, I'd close my eyes only to open them to the sound of a bugle... Ugh, my head...
I could practically feel the clammy touch of leather boots on my feet already. It felt like I'd have to stagger out of a creaky bed any second now.
Sitting in the now-quite-dark tent, all sorts of thoughts swirled through my head.
"That's awful..."
To chase away that lingering image, what I chose was...
Ridiculously enough, to lightly fondle my chest.
No, there's a reason for this.
Sure, I'm an officer now, but I'm from the enlisted ranks. So there definitely wouldn't be any female soldiers in my memories.
Which is why... to imprint that in my mind, I fiddled with the chest that no man would have.
See?
Just lightly touching the soft breast was enough to scatter the awful thoughts cluttering my head.
Maybe it was simply that breasts felt that good.
Honestly, if they weren't attached to me, I'd think they were pretty great.
...Of course, if they weren't, I couldn't fondle them like this either.
Guess I'm just a guy, after all.
"Haa..."
If they weren't so sensitive, I might touch them more often.
A weird moan escaped, so I pulled my hand away and tugged the blanket up.
Now that I was calm, I tried to catch a quick nap, but then a voice came from outside the tent.
"Teacher...?"
What? Already...? Morning?
Is she crazy?
As I trembled in dread, Charlotte's voice drifted in from outside.
"I heard something... Are you okay? Not hurting anywhere?"
...False alarm.
I pulled down the blanket covering me and replied.
"It's nothing."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
I felt my face heating up.
If she found out I'd been kneading my chest like some perv and let out a strange noise, the look on Charlotte's face... It'd be horrifying.
Thankfully, she didn't seem suspicious and headed back to the campfire.
Maybe she was too far away to be sure.
Anyway, once she'd gone, a wave of self-loathing hit me.
...Should I be grateful that the lingering image in my head was finally gone?
As I closed my eyes and lay back down, a different thought started tormenting me this time.
But it wasn't some pointless worry like memories from "that place."
If anything... it felt like something serious enough to warrant getting serious about.
Truth be told, at first, I hadn't thought much of it.
The first field training event had started, so I vaguely assumed the incident that always happened on the second day would too, and I didn't sense any real issues.
But sitting by the campfire, mulling over what that incident was, I kept wondering: Is it really okay to just leave this as is?
That nagging feeling made time fly, but I still hadn't settled on a clear stance.
The incident that occurred on the night of the second day of field training.
In the game, it was just a minor event to build tension, not treated as a big deal.
But the sensations I felt now made it impossible to think of it as just a game.
All I could do was let out a sigh.
"Teacher? You look kind of tired."
"...Ah, yeah. I woke up in the middle of the night, I guess."
"Oh..."
Charlotte gazed at me with a pitying look.
...Just like she was worried about, I'd ended up tossing and turning, so I was a bit fatigued.
It had hit me just a little while ago: with no memory of who the victim was, there wasn't much I could do right now.
My mood was sour.
If Evelyn were standing in front of me instead of Charlotte, I might've flicked her forehead.
Dark circles under my eyes or not.
Morning arrived right on schedule, and the people in the tents started crawling out one by one.
The first one I noticed was Michelle.
Unlike how she looked in the dorms, her hair, tail, and ears were all sticking up in sharp spikes.
She didn't seem angry about it, and with golden threads and pale pink ones tangled in there, I could roughly guess what had happened.
...Looks like she has some nasty sleeping habits.
Good thing I didn't sleep with her.
Come to think of it, I'd shared a bed with Michelle and Philia before, and neither had habits that bad.
Evelyn.
You again?
Our Evelyn was like an onion.
She just kept revealing more layers to gripe about.
Following Michelle came Philia. There wasn't much difference in their timing, but Philia was dragging something like luggage in her hand.
Looking closer, it wasn't luggage—it was Evelyn.
...You onion of a girl.
Philia, dragging Evelyn out, had her hair sticking up in all directions just like Michelle's, probably from all the static friction.
Michelle's black tail fur and pale pink threads were clinging to her golden blonde hair.
...If some slightly lewd images popped into my head, it wasn't really my fault.
"Heh."
"Teacher?"
"Tch, it's nothing."
Seeing my earlier gloom lift made me wonder if this was some kind of illness, but I had no intention—or way—of curing it.
Suddenly feeling pain and waking up in another world? Keeping my sanity this well was pretty impressive.
This was trivial by comparison.
...Or maybe it was just the lack of sleep.
Anyway.
The second day dawned.
The group roughly handled breakfast with the leftovers from yesterday, then scattered to where they were supposed to be.
...Though that just meant Charlotte and Evelyn would stick with me.
As I did, I approached Philia, who was preparing to move, and cautiously asked.
"Um, President?"
"Ah, Teacher. Something wrong?"
If it were El, she might've tacked on, Finally thought to go into the forest with me?
But Philia looked up at me with a clear expression, waiting patiently for me to speak.
...She's such a good girl.
For some reason, she and Michelle didn't get along great, but I was curious what kind of spark they'd make together.
"Teacher?"
"Ah, yeah. Um, by any chance... Is there a red-haired cadet among the new arrivals?"
"Red hair..."
Philia pondered for a moment, then shook her head with an awkward smile.
Well, even she couldn't remember every little detail like that.
...A redhead would stand out among black-haired or bald ones, but cadet hair colors were pretty diverse to begin with.
The only feature I remembered about the victim was red hair, so I'd asked, but it was a dead end as expected.
When Philia asked why, I brushed it off as personal curiosity, earning a lukewarm look.
But I had no choice.
I had no idea how to explain it.
I couldn't very well say this world was from a game and I knew about it.
...If she didn't get it, best case she'd think I was crazy; worst case, I'd end up in a psych ward.
Not that I knew if they even had those here, but I wasn't taking the risk.
And I couldn't go around checking every scattered cadet one by one either.
I had my own duties.
Unlike yesterday, injured cadets were being carried in sporadically, so I couldn't leave the makeshift infirmary.
"Have you seen a red-haired cadet among the ones who came with you?"
"Huh? No...?"
"I see..."
Treating the carried-in cadets and asking that was the best I could do, but it yielded no results.
As the recovered cadet left, Evelyn approached and spoke up.
"Why are you looking for a red-haired cadet?"
"Hm... It's a thing. Just a thing."
She stared at me with a look that screamed she wanted a forehead flick.
Afraid I'd get in trouble for nothing, I raised my fist, and she flinched, hiding behind Charlotte.
Smart girl.
As I massaged my fist to loosen up, Evelyn grumbled with an aggrieved face.
"Teacher, don't you think you're treating me a bit too harshly?"
"...You earned it. You know I know about the milking yesterday, right?"
"Ah, no, that... Haa..."
The guilty party hung her head.
Time to etch some manners back into her.
Then.
"Oh, red hair? We have one in our group. What's up?"
"...Really?"
Heaven helps those who help themselves, huh?
I hadn't decided what to do yet, but at least I'd found her.
...Now what?
I'd sought her out because it kept nagging at me.
But time waited for no one.
The moment of choice had arrived.