The Squad Leader Refuses to Refuse
“Send him to Squad 10.”
Scarlet fixed Hanswel with a pointed glare as she spoke.
“He's been assigned teaching assistant duties anyway. Moving him to Squad 10 is good for him and good for us. The Chief Guard said so himself, didn't he?”
When she invoked sound logic, Hanswel clicked his tongue in irritation.
Scarlet pressed on.
“It's a direct order from the Chief Guard. People already look at Squad 42 sideways, and if we go defying the Chief Guard's orders on top of that? Oh, that would be quite the spectacle.”
At that moment, Milo sprang to his feet.
“Spectacle, my ass! Every time he's sent out on support duty, other squads try to poach him because he does such a damn good job! Instead of treating him right, you want to kick him out?! Unbelievable!”
Seething, Milo looked to Hanswel as if seeking confirmation, and the rest of the squad's eyes naturally drifted toward him as well.
Hanswel surveyed his subordinates one by one.
Reading the room, he found Milo firmly on Grave's side. As was he himself, for that matter.
Volcan, the gentle moderate, would doubtless declare neutrality as always—
Even split, then.
Having finished his calculations, Hanswel spoke up.
“First, let's hear the squad's opinion. Anyone who believes Grave should transfer to Squad 10, raise your hand.”
Hanswel asked while scanning the room, planning to manufacture a rough tie and stall for time.
As expected, Scarlet's hand shot up immediately. Ludric, who would normally have followed suit without hesitation, paused for a beat. Only when Scarlet shot him a look did he reluctantly raise his hand.
Volcan did not raise his hand.
As far as Hanswel knew, Volcan was a moderate who always maintained strict neutrality. Ordinarily, he'd have raised his hand for both sides—
But this time, he had sided with the newcomer.
“……Volcan?”
Startled, Scarlet stared at him, and Volcan met her gaze squarely as he spoke.
“I believe it would be wise to end this petty territorial squabbling here. He is a man Squad 42 genuinely needs. His abilities are quite remarkable, I must say.”
“What?”
“I oppose Grave's transfer to Squad 10.”
Shocked that Volcan of all people had taken Grave's side, Scarlet's face twisted violently.
Just then—
“I'm also opposed, for what it's worth.”
Grave had the audacity to chime in.
Scarlet's expression turned ugly.
“Nobody asked for your opinion.”
“Then whose opinion matters? Last I checked, the vote seemed to be going against you.”
Scarlet curled one corner of her mouth into a sneer.
“The squad leader's opinion, obviously.”
The moment the squad leader came up, Hanswel couldn't help but groan.
She had a point. No matter how much the rank-and-file bickered, a single order from the squad leader settled everything.
It was Evelyn who had created Squad 42's culture of freezing out newcomers. Ask her, and she'd say throw him out on the spot, no question.
This matter could not be allowed to reach Evelyn's ears. Hanswel steeled his resolve.
But to his astonishment, Grave nodded along readily.
“Fine by me. Let's ask her right now.”
Grave rose, walked over, and knocked on Evelyn's door.
Thump-thump!
“Wake up and get out here, ma'am.”
“……I'm awake.”
Evelyn's gravelly, half-dead voice drifted from inside.
“Awake, are we? Wonderful. Let's ask her, then.”
“You absolute moron.”
Smirking, Scarlet slipped inside without missing a beat. Hanswel hurried in after her.
Evelyn sat there, face contorted in misery, pressing her fingers hard against her temples.
Evelyn, suffering from a hangover—it was a sight none of them had ever witnessed before.
“Booze.”
“Ah, here you are.”
Scarlet handed over a bottle with practiced ease. Evelyn clamped it between her teeth and drained the entire thing, then smiled with deep satisfaction.
“Now I feel alive again. Thanks.”
“Don't mention it.”
Smiling sweetly, Scarlet eased into the matter at hand.
“The Chief Guard has ordered the newcomer transferred to Squad 10. We should send him, shouldn't we?”
She asked with a voice brimming with certainty.
“Hmm…….”
Instead of answering, Evelyn lifted her head and looked over at Grave, standing in the corner.
“Shall I go tell the Chief Guard we're sending him to Squad 10, then?”
Scarlet asked again, practically vibrating with excitement, utterly certain that Evelyn would nod.
“No.”
“Right, so sending him would be……. I'm sorry, what?”
“I'm not giving up the newcomer.”
“Wh-why not?!”
Shocked, Scarlet's voice turned sharp as a blade.
Evelyn replied in her trademark deadpan tone.
“He's my boyfriend.”
Evelyn—declaring a boyfriend.
Hanswel was absolutely certain he would never, in his entire life, witness a more absurd sight than this.
Of course, that certainty lasted exactly until the next moment.
“I decline.”
Because Grave rejected her. Flatly and firmly.
While pulling a face as if something foul had gotten into his mouth.
“……?”
Evelyn blinked.
Logan, the Head of Student Affairs, was one of the very few genuinely likable characters in this cursed game.
That was why his Republic-hunting quest was such a honey pot.
There was, however, one critical rule to observe when running those quests.
Do not get entangled with the Republic. Because Logan, the Head of Student Affairs, was a severe, terminal paranoid where the Republic was concerned.
Get wrongly tangled up with the Republic, and you would be the one branded a Republican in Logan's eyes.
And being branded a Republican by Logan was every bit as dangerous as being marked by the Republic itself. Worse still, I had already lied to the man and told him I was with the Security Bureau.
In that situation, if word got around that I—Logan's trusted fake Security Bureau junior—was the boyfriend of Evelyn, a woman Logan believed was a Republican agent?
Absolutely not.
Of course, even setting Logan aside, becoming Evelyn's boyfriend was never on the table for me anyway.
That was exactly why I had refused so firmly.
“……Th-then, the bet?”
“What I staked in the bet was a friend. A friend, as in the literal word. Not a romantic relationship.”
Evelyn blinked slowly, twice. She seemed considerably thrown off balance.
The other squad members wore similar expressions.
Ludric, forever weighing down one hand with his cigarette, didn't even notice it had slipped from his fingers and sat sucking on his own fingertips. Volcan absently rubbed his polished bald head, a nervous habit.
Scarlet glared at me like a murderer staring down their parents' killer, while Hanswel had his eyes screwed tightly shut.
The only one unaffected was Milo, who shook his head with an expression that said, well, that figures.
“Why not?”
Evelyn asked, sounding genuinely baffled.
Because you're a Republic executive.
I swallowed the words climbing up my throat and answered.
“I have a girlfriend. Ah—though even if I didn't, I would still decline.”
A clean rejection that left not a sliver of hope.
Then something strange happened. Evelyn's eyes, which had been wavering with confusion, sharpened back into focus.
And they began to blaze hotter than before. Breathtakingly, unbearably so.
“Fine! I accept your challenge!”
Evelyn threw back her head and roared with laughter.
……A challenge?
My brow furrowed at the bizarre word choice.
“We'll start as friends, then.”
“Not 'start as,' we—”
“And!”
Cutting me off, Evelyn pointed a finger straight at me.
“I will make you my boyfriend.”
The eyes staring at me burned like oil thrown onto open flame.
The current was not flowing in my favor.
“I decline.”
I stated it firmly once more.
And Evelyn laughed—a bright, hearty laugh.
“Declination declined.”
We were not communicating.
I should have just killed her back there.
I genuinely regretted it.
Setting Volcan aside, every member of Squad 42 was a villain who appeared in the game's mid-to-late stages.
And with Hanswel—the Principal's literal meltdown trigger—among them, my plan had been to rehabilitate Squad 42 slowly and methodically, one step at a time.
Which was why Evelyn had been scheduled dead last.
That had been the plan, anyway.
A boyfriend. Unbelievable.
I pressed a knuckle hard against my temple and muttered inwardly.
“When the squad leader spits out a word, she never takes it back. Especially when a bet's on the line—never, never, never backs down.”
Milo repeated never with a face deadly serious. When my frown deepened, he added cautiously, gauging my mood.
“Why don't you two just, er, date, then? The squad leader's got a bit of a temper, sure…… but she's a beauty, isn't she? Tall, too. Not blonde, of course, but still.”
“I told you, I have a girlfriend.”
“……You actually do?”
“What's with that look?”
“With a personality like yours, how do you even have a—”
“Excuse me?”
“Haha, nothing, nothing! So where is this girlfriend of yours, then?”
“No idea.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“Don't know. If I knew—”
—she'd already be dead.
I forced myself to swallow the rest.
Milo's eyes narrowed into slits. It was suspicion, worn brazenly on his face.
“If you don't know where she is, seems to me you might as well just date the squad leader.”
“Impossible. My heart already belongs to her.”
“Ugh—”
Milo clutched his stomach and made a violent retching sound, his face a mask of disgust.
I meant it, though. My heart bore the Witch's brand.
“Then what are you going to do? The squad leader won't give up—she never gives up.”
Never gives up.
I turned Milo's words over in my mouth, thinking.
Had Evelyn genuinely misunderstood?
In the Republic, the word friend ran deeper than blood. It was a bond for which you would hand over your own life without hesitation.
I had clearly staked a friend in the bet. It was entirely possible she had steamrolled that into boyfriend as a way to smooth it over.
Because if it was a boyfriend rather than a friend, she could detach from me at the right moment with a convenient excuse.
Thump-thump! Just then, someone pounded on the door hard enough to make me wonder if it qualified as knocking at all. And before anyone could answer, the door swung open on its own.
In walked Evelyn, carrying something thoroughly charred.
“Here. Meat I grilled with my own hands. If you don't eat it, that means you're dating me.”
Evelyn held out the thing with a perfectly blank face. It was, indeed, a piece of blackened meat.
Not eating it means dating you? Shouldn't that be the other way around?
But one look at the charcoal on a plate and I understood. Just how hopeless a cook did you have to be to burn something this badly?
Absurd as it was, I quickly took the meat into my mouth.
I had, after all, roasted and eaten demons on the front lines. A burnt hunk of beef hardly qualified as a feast for me.
I chewed thoroughly and swallowed.
“Delicious.”
“Good to hear. Date me, and you can have this every single morning. So? Tempted?”
“I don't eat breakfast.”
“Oh, we're alike, then. I'd rather sleep through breakfast myself.”
“I, however, am of the school that sleeps like the dead—outside of breakfast hours.”
“Opposites attract, as they say.”
Contrary to her expressionless face, Evelyn kept clinging on and on.
A truly tenacious woman.
I ignored her and walked outside, where the squad members were waiting.
Their mood was sharper than usual. Scarlet in particular looked ready to run me through on the spot.
Then Evelyn placed a hand on my shoulder. A sweet waft of alcohol rolled over me.
“My boyfriend—”
“Not your boyfriend.”
“Then call him my pre-boyfriend. My pre-boyfriend has been working himself into the ground, I hear. So: no duties for him today at all. And from now on, only the easiest assignments. He is my pre-boyfriend, after all.”
At Evelyn's proclamation, every face in the room crumpled.
Scarlet glared at me like a parent-killer caught in the act; Hanswel pressed his knuckles into his temples over and over. Milo looked two seconds away from vomiting.
“Well? Date me, and I can arrange conveniences like this for you.”
Evelyn winked one eye at me. Since her face remained utterly blank, it was a magnificently mechanical wink.
She seemed to think she was laying down some kind of charm offensive, but she had the direction completely wrong.
My plate was already piled high with work, and she wanted to take duties away from me? I scrunched my brow into a hard knot.
“No, thank you. I like my duties.”
“……You like your duties?”
“Yes. I'd like more of them, in fact. If possible, I'd even volunteer for night shifts.”
Sincerity rang through my voice, clear and unmistakable.
For the first time, Evelyn's perpetually blank face contorted.
Clap, clap.
Delighted, Hanswel broke into enthusiastic applause.