Chapter 21
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Marriage Plan
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The unease I'd been feeling up until now suddenly coalesced into a single, clear realization.
Layers upon layers of misunderstandings and an insurmountable gap washed over me. But Drill Sergeant Kate jumped to her own conclusion and flashed me a gentle smile.
"Ah, I see. Your parents are coming for the graduation ceremony, huh? Then it might be tricky for us to be alone together."
In stark contrast to Kate's wildly off-base hypothesis, my mind instantly arrived at the [truth].
All those kind gestures she'd shown me so far weren't favoritism toward some lowly trainee.
I'd thought it was strange how much she'd changed.
The thing that had turned this prickly cat of an instructor into someone so sweet was...
"It's fine. I'll yield to your parents on that front. Of course I should. Yeah, yeah. After all, we'll be one family in the end..."
...none other than me.
Damn it, I had no idea where things had gone wrong, but Drill Sergeant Kate seemed to think I was her boyfriend.
Those lines and the emotions behind them couldn't be dismissed as something casual or purely physical.
Every expression, gesture, and glance she gave radiated enormous, pure love. Only now did I truly see all the affection and love for what it was.
How the hell was I supposed to untangle this disastrous misunderstanding? Our tangled mess of a relationship was giving me a pounding headache.
"No, wait—"
Should I clear it up right now?
Yeah, that would be the right move. In a normal situation between a guy and a girl.
I should've straightened it all out before things got even messier.
"Hm? What is it?"
"..."
But I couldn't even spit out the simple words that this was all a misunderstanding. My lips clamped shut tight.
I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to see that pretty face and cute tail freeze over in an instant.
And we'd already come too far. Kate was treating me completely like her lover.
Now it all made sense—the way she'd been acting. She was prickly and violent with everyone else, but so sweet to her boyfriend...
"Ahaha..."
For now, I forced a laugh too.
I had to figure out how this misunderstanding had happened in the first place.
And how to smoothly resolve it with Kate.
"Um, hey. But after training camp ends, we get assigned somewhere else, right?"
"Most do, yeah. But don't worry. If you apply to be an instructor, they'll snap you up for sure."
But the more I circled around the topic, the heavier the pressure on my shoulders grew. It was getting hard to even breathe.
Kate gently stroked my cheek as she spoke.
"Once you're picked, we just stick together for one month, then discharge. No rule violations for either of us, and we're done with service. You'll keep getting your pension after discharge, right? We can save it up nice and slow while we live together."
A chill ran down my spine. This was the first time I'd ever had a conversation like this with someone.
Hell, it was the first time a woman had gazed at me so warmly while caressing my cheek, let alone casually laying out serious, practical plans for our distant future.
Kate had already seriously pondered our life together and even mapped out a concrete plan to make it happen.
She was utterly sincere. Nothing but pure confession and future plans echoed in my ears, without a hint of deceit.
"Haha..."
I could only laugh it off. To avoid hurting her more, I knew I had to tell her the truth as soon as possible—but it sure as hell wouldn't be today.
Training camp was only midway through week two.
I still had a ton of training to endure.
And whenever I was training, Kate would always be right there beside me. She was the instructor for our barracks, and I was the squad leader trainee, so we'd inevitably be stuck together constantly.
If I tried to clear up the misunderstanding and botched it, things could get even worse. If Kate really lost her temper, what kind of hell would I catch? I couldn't even imagine.
Training camp was eight weeks total.
Six more weeks to go...
Could I even survive an enraged Kate for that long?
...No way in hell.
For now, I'd wait. Bide my time for the right moment.
Maybe a good way to resolve this would come to me as time passed.
This wasn't avoiding reality or trying to deceive Kate.
I just needed a little breathing room to resolve things smoothly. Rushing in thoughtlessly could lead straight to disaster, so I had to be as cautious as possible...
"Jeong-woo, why the long face?"
But while I'd managed to calm my inner turmoil, my facial expression refused to cooperate.
Kate lightly pinched my cheek. My awkward cheekbones and cold sweat must've been bothering her.
"Not thrilled, huh? Hmm."
It stung more than it should. She hadn't put much force into it, but it still made my eyes water a bit.
"No need to worry. You're a guy, right? It's normal to overthink at a moment like this. I get it. So I'll take the lead."
She was strong. I'd always known it, but the women here were on a whole other level compared to me.
"Just follow me, okay?"
Her personality was fiery too. Drill Sergeant Kate was leading our relationship with the bold confidence of couples from the '70s or '80s eloping without a second thought.
Honestly, it wasn't all bad. Kate was seriously gorgeous. Back on Earth, I'd never even held hands with a woman like her.
Still, a heavy lump settled in my chest. Like choking down food too fast and it getting stuck in my throat.
Marriage...? Wasn't that way too soon?
We'd only just met...
And I was only 22...
Kate was turning my brain to mush, but our conversation gave me solid info about this otherworld.
Especially about men and women.
Or the society and military system here.
First.
In this world, men were rarer than women and physically much weaker. The culprit behind that gap was something called [mana]—men were born unable to absorb it into their bodies.
Second.
Women here had mandatory military service. Men could choose between social service or military duty, and naturally, almost no idiots picked the insane option of enlisting.
Third.
Which made me special.
"Enlisting here, keeping up with running drills, acing shooting with perfect scores—it's all insanely impressive."
Kate praised me as she spoke. Even in our brief rendezvous today, we spent more time on real talk than physical stuff.
"Y'know, I never thought there'd be a guy like you. I figured all men were just excuse-makers, schemers, and cowards who only peeked around corners."
She'd caught my awkward expression earlier. Now Kate was opening up about her true feelings to win me over.
"But you, Jeong-woo? I think you'd be okay."
Thanks for the compliment, but...
Launching straight into marriage talk was making my head spin.
"Um, isn't it a bit too soon?"
"Too soon? Nah. You get to know each other while living together. Why wait?"
Women in this world had completely different values. If marriage was on the table, they tied the knot quick and popped out kids ASAP—that seemed to be the culture.
It was worlds apart from the tragic marriage culture back home where birth rates dipped below 0.4. But compared to modern folks marrying and having kids in their mid-to-late 30s, it wasn't exactly primitive.
Maybe this was the right way. Maybe Korea had it all wrong.
Still,
even so,
marriage talk this early felt like a huge burden...
"...Why are you like this?"
Kate furrowed her brow and sat up. She was starting to get impatient too.
"What's the problem? We've already checked each other out. Hell, you came to me first."
Strictly speaking, I hadn't done a damn thing. Hell, I still didn't even know what the situation was.
"Uh... Did I...?"
"You did. And you were rock hard the whole time, loving it. If you didn't like me, why get hard? Time to be honest."
No one was around to defend my ignorance. All my Earth logic and values got utterly demolished here.
An erection was more biological instinct than willpower, but Kate was pinning it on me like it explained everything.
She said it so confidently that I almost felt like the bad guy.
"Enough dumb talk. Yeah, I get why you're hesitating. Guys who pick the wrong wife suffer for life."
No, damn it.
That bad?
Was marriage a warzone where people dropped dead?
"So just trust me. I'll keep your hands clean and take care of everything."
Kate gripped my hand tight as she said it.
A forceful proposal.
The manly marriage vow women here probably dreamed of.
"I'll take responsibility for you. Got it?"
But I couldn't enjoy it.
The red tattoo on my wrist kept flashing ominously. It'd been doing that since earlier.
I tapped it—tok—and like clearing a major achievement, a flashy display popped up with the completion message.
[Achievement: 100 Days Remaining]
[Your expected military service period has been reduced to within 100 days.]
[*However, in the case of special discharge due to pregnancy, you cannot return to your original world.*]
Just reading the message made my head spin.
And Kate, still holding me, stared straight into my eyes...
"Jeong-woo."
Pushing forward with total manly aggression.
Or, in this world, womanly aggression?
"Your answer."