5. The Ordinary Returning Student is Exploding Inside
The Four Idiots. A few days after Selena’s fiancé, the Four Kings, vanished without a trace.
“Karl?”
Marcus looked up from his desk the moment I stepped into the TA office and fired the question at me without preamble.
*
I never imagined scheduling classes would be this hellish.
Why were there so many overlapping lectures? Hadn’t the professors reached an agreement?
You four, stop competing over who gets more students!
What did we do in the first year? How did I handle university life in my previous life?
I suppose I managed back then, but after two military rotations it feels like the whole thing reset.
And right now my instincts are screaming that if I try to schedule like this, I might actually die.
Normally I would have gone straight to the seniors for help.
But on a grade-by-grade basis my peers had already claimed the top spots.
Under them sat a sea of juniors I’d never even seen before.
I didn’t know their faces, so asking them for scheduling advice felt impossible.
Even though rolling around with soldiers had sharpened my social skills, I still hadn’t sunk that low.
In the end the only living fossil left was Marcus the TA.
I figured he might actually give me useful advice on how to build a timetable.
I walked into the office ready for that.
But the moment I stepped inside, the same question slammed into me.
At first I just blinked, completely lost.
“Senior?”
“You did it, didn’t you.”
“No, if you cut the front and back like that—”
“Schlippen. Wilhelm. Alexander. Joachim.”
“Yeah.”
“They all just disappeared overnight.”
“…Ah.”
It was about the Four Idiots. Okay, that made sense.
“Evidence?”
I didn’t know. First rule of interrogation: be brazen. Ah, you want evidence? You don’t know about evidence-based justice?
“Evidence? There is. It’s not that you jumped up saying it wasn’t you, but the fact that you told me to bring evidence first is evidence, you bastard!”
Tsk, busted. But I was still bold. Honestly, did I shove a gun in Karl’s face and demand he enlist?
They themselves heard my words and immediately jumped ship and did the exact opposite.
“I only said military life was helpful in every way possible?”
“Yo, you crazy bastard.”
“Why are you like this? Honestly, is the guy who bragged about learning so much in the military the crazy one? Or are the ones who vanished the second they heard that and immediately enlisted the crazy ones?”
“Both! You bastard! Those kids were crazy too, and among them the craziest is you!”
Ouch. That one stung. Why me? Really?
“I don’t know because you asked! The first high noble in imperial history to enlist as a private and drop out is you! This is because you’re the only one who actually lived the soldier life and you’re trying to send your peers to hell because you’re upset!”
To hell? I saved the pitiful commoners from the hell of being a fiancé instead!
Unfair! So unfair I want to scream! But the military really is hell, so I can’t argue with that.
“Uwaaaah… What the hell did you do the second you enrolled? What are you—”
“Stop asking why. I went because they were taking on the sacred duty of national defense.”
“That’s not the issue. Karl. Damn it, that’s not the issue.”
The senior who’d been lecturing me suddenly rummaged through something on his desk and hurled it across the table at me.
“This is the issue. This.”
“Is this a leave application?”
“Look closer.”
I examined the four leave applications spread out in front of me.
Schlippen, Wilhelm, Alexander, and Joachim. Names properly entered.
They had written in excruciating detail why they were suddenly taking leave, so it passed.
No confirmation stamp yet, but since they’d submitted the form, it was fine.
“…Everything seems normal?”
“Normal?”
“Yes. Nothing wrong with the names, nothing strange written. If I just process these, the leaves will be confirmed automatically, right?”
The senior muttered, “Not the content. Look from the top again.”
From the top. The top was the leave application. Ah, it was written properly. Applying for leave. Pass.
Below that, the form listed the type as leave, and under the student’s name it said sick leave…
“Ah.”
…Shit?
“Wait. This, isn’t it?”
“You finally saw it? What kind of leave applications did those guys actually write?”
“No…”
“Sick leave, no matter how long, is only three months. But military enlistment, as far as I know, is at least twenty-four months. You can’t do anything with that leave application.”
“….”
Guys… guys! You main-character bastards!
No matter what, how can you stuff military enlistment leave onto a sick-leave form!
Did they think sick leave meant soldier enlistment because I said soldier life was the best?
Sick leave isn’t that! You got sick? Is there pneumonia here too?
You’re the protagonists! The main leads! The academy’s four handsome guys!
But why is your head full of flowers! How did you survive until fourth year?!
“This, this can’t be helped? Change it to another type of leave or something.”
“If it was that easy I wouldn’t be doing this. That’s document forgery. Even if you don’t know the rest, a leave application is a very important document that only the applicant can write.”
“Either way, you didn’t not write the application, right?!”
“I know! I know that, but that’s sick leave! It’s three months!”
The picture was really weird. The ones who caused trouble weren’t even sitting there.
Only me and the senior were in the TA office, pulling at our hair.
Ah, this was suddenly annoying? I told them everything as a favor.
These guys wrote some crazy leave application and then went off the deep end?
Shit. My life was already busy enough—why did I have to worry about these academy kids?
“…Marcus the TA senior.”
“Why suddenly call me senior. You, don’t. I can see exactly what you’re going to say.”
“Either way, this seems like something the TA senior would worry about, not something I should worry about.”
“Yo, yo!”
I shot to my feet and gave a crisp salute.
“Best of luck!”
“Yo, you bastard!!”
That’s all I have to say, senior. Unfortunately, what can I do? Go fuck yourself!
I barely escaped the senior’s hand as he lunged for my collar.
*
Sick leave. Sick leave. Haha, really. The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it got.
Because it said sick leave, did they think that meant soldier something and took it?
I was going crazy. Having a pretty face is one thing, but the thing on top wasn’t great.
Maybe the main leads are like this—lacking common sense or missing a screw.
Thinking about it, in the novels the male leads usually didn’t have that tendency.
Perhaps Selena’s reason for not liking any of you was right there.
“Karl.”
Even tigers come when called by name. This time the heroine appeared.
“Selena?”
“Time for a break?”
“Yeah… I’m fine. Are you fine? It wasn’t because of graduation that you were busy?”
“I filled credits early, so I have some free time. Let’s have a drink. Or coffee.”
“I’ll do coffee.”
In my previous life the foundation of my race was to drink ‘ah-ah’ even if it froze me to death.
Honestly, I didn’t like things like water steeped with leaves.
I sat back down at the same cafe where I’d sat with Selena yesterday.
Maybe this woman was also asking me about the Four Idiots’ whereabouts.
So I subtly checked her expression, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“U, Karl.”
“Yeah. Selena.”
“A few days ago’s story. U, about you enlisting as a soldier. Really because of me… right?”
Actually yes! Because of you! So bear the guilt! Hot!
…The guy who says that, I hope he doesn’t exist in this world. Please.
“That can’t be. No matter how much I confessed and it hurt because I was a fiancé, where’s the case where a noble son suddenly enlists as a soldier? Did it seem that weird to you?”
That case is right here. Really, this is triple Eva. Past me.
“That’s not it… U, it keeps bothering me.”
The good thing in the bad was that Selena’s answer—that she hadn’t seen me as crazy to that extent.
“U, that! L, let me hear more about the military.”
“Yeah?”
What? Military stories are a topic women hate more than soccer and games, right?
But why was such a word coming out of Selena’s mouth?
“Won’t you curse and get angry with me?”
“Yeah? Uh… It’s a bit, but I don’t need to. Right after enlisting the war started and I was dragged away. Some soldiers went through absurdity, while I went through hellfire.”
It wasn’t the whole empire’s war, but it was still fierce.
Two regular legions had been deployed, so that was all I could say.
“Even so, if you want to hear… from the first day of the war? At that time I was on duty when suddenly―”
Military stories are born just by sitting around.
Moreover, from my mouth in the middle of the battlefield, it naturally came out more.
I was rambling for a moment, and suddenly thirty minutes had passed.
I wondered if I’d talked too much, but when I checked, Selena was just nodding along.
Maybe I made up the story too wildly, so I subtly changed the topic.
“Yeah. Now that I think about it, did you hear anything from your brother? That guy?”
“Yeah? Uh… I didn’t hear much because it was very hard at the time. Even so, if there was something I heard… Yeah. About a soldier who rescued my brother and his unit members.”
“…Rescued? Soldiers?”
Selena. Let me hear more about your brother’s military stories.