My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 10Vol 2.

“Ishina, this way—ah!”

As I walked alongside Ishina, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings and accidentally bumped into someone.

Of course, I immediately steadied myself and didn’t so much as stumble, but the man I collided with went flying backward.

“No!”

It all happened in slow motion.

I panicked. If a soldier injured a civilian, nothing good ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) could come of it!

No way, compensation claims!

I stretched out my arms with all my might—and successfully caught the man before he hit the ground.

“Gasp...!”

With a dramatic flourish, I pulled him into my embrace, just like a male lead in a drama.

That was when his eyes suddenly changed.

Wait, that’s...

Wasn’t this kind of thing only possible in fiction? How could it be happening in real life?

The man’s pupils had literally turned into heart shapes.

...No way.

“Haha, my apologies! Please continue on your way....”

Sensing a terrible premonition, I tried to make a quick exit with Ishina, but—

“Is this love?”

The man’s dazed voice rang out behind me.

“No, it’s not. Absolutely not. Ishina, let’s just—”

“Aha! This is love!”

“No, it’s not!!!”

“It was love at first sight! I love you! Please marry me!”

Damn it! Not this kind of plot development!

This has to be because of the black magic.

Normally, this would have just been a wow, what a dramatic encounter kind of situation.

Thinking back to those villagers earlier, yelling their love for each other with no regard for bystanders, this man was clearly under the same influence.

And, of course, I was absurdly beautiful and lovable. As the romance fantasy protagonist, that was only natural.

So, it made perfect sense that he had fallen for me at first impact, despite it making absolutely no sense.

I was about to yell, Don’t act like this to someone you just met! and leave, but—

Unfortunately, Ishina beat me to it.

“What do you think you’re doing to her?”

His expression turned deathly serious, and I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut.

“Salvia, come here.”

With a look I had never seen before, Ishina pulled me behind him.

“There’s no chance. Don’t talk to her.”

“Who the hell are you?! Don’t stand in the way of our love!”

“Ishina, I can just go knock him out and come back,” I whispered, clenching my fists.

Ishina flinched for a moment but then replied in an unyielding voice.

“No. If you even exchange words with guys like this, they’ll take it as proof that you like them.”

“...Then I’ll just punch him without speaking?”

“Do you think I’d ever let a useless nobody have a chance? If anything, I would be the better choice—absolutely not happening.”

Oh no. It happened.

I squeezed my eyes shut again.

Because this was not the first time Ishina had said something like this.

What was it he told me before?

"If you ever brought home some weird guy saying you were going to marry him, I would’ve stopped you immediately. I’d rather take you in myself, so don’t worry."

I had been so shocked by that statement back then. And now, a variation of it was coming out at this moment?!

This is definitely not over yet.

Just as I was processing my internal breakdown, another voice spoke up behind me.

“...Salvia. Who is that?”

Oh, no.

I turned with a pained, forced smile.

“...Aquila.”

And standing right beside him—Winter.

Of course, they were sent as backup.

And of course, they had seen everything.

And now, they were going to make my life miserable.

I shut my eyes in exasperation, bracing myself for the inevitable.

Aquila’s face darkened as he turned to the man.

“She’s already engaged to me. You should leave.”

He seemed to be trying to sound polite, but the seething anger in his voice was unmistakable.

Meanwhile, Winter was silent, but his icy glare was fixed on the man.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Under their sudden and overwhelming pressure, the man wavered slightly before steeling himself and shouting,

“Even so, my love for her will not change!”

Aquila took a single step toward him, his tone dropping dangerously low.

“...Who exactly do you think you’re in love with?”

Damn this black magic!

If I found the sorcerer responsible for this, I was personally throwing them in prison.

I finally snapped.

“Hey! Enough with the bullshit, you idiots!”

“.......”

“Can you stop interfering when I already know how to handle things myself?! The way you’re acting is ridiculous—utterly ridiculous!”

The air froze.

Even Winter, my senior, didn’t say a word. And rightfully so.

I glared at them furiously, breathing hard.

The unknown man flinched, terror flashing across his face.

“Eep...! H-How could she say such things?!”

With that, he turned and bolted.

Meanwhile, Aquila and Winter simply stood there, hands neatly folded, pretending like they had done nothing wrong.

Eventually, after Ishina calmed me down a bit, I realized something.

If I didn’t find a way to resolve their nonsense soon, they were going to drive me insane.

***

As I seemed to calm down, Ishina muttered under his breath with dissatisfaction.

“I mean, how could anyone propose to such a tiny little thing at first sight? That guy has no conscience....”

Excuse me?

Objectively speaking, I wasn’t even on the smaller side among women. Did Ishina have some kind of visual filter that made me look tiny? My conscience felt unfairly attacked.

Meanwhile, Aquila, who had been listening, wore a face like he wanted to commit ritual suicide on the spot. So, he was self-aware about his own lack of conscience.

But when I shot Ishina a glare, signaling him to cut it out, he mercifully shut his mouth. As expected, he was the most perceptive among these guys.

With that fiasco finally over, we turned back to the actual mission.

“Since this is a large-scale black magic case affecting an entire village, Lady Louise sent us as additional support.”

Lady Louise, I didn’t know you lacked this much awareness....

“Salvia, have you found anything yet?”

“Hmm, not yet.”

Aquila nodded silently at my response.

“I see. Then let’s start searching.”

But, honestly, he sounded far more pleased about getting to spend more time with me than about the mission itself.

“Now that I think about it, did any of you feel more aggressive after entering the village?”

Realizing that Aquila and Winter could also be affected by black magic, I posed the question. Winter answered first.

“It’s only natural for Black Magic Search Forces to experience the effects of black magic. That’s why I train my mind daily to resist its influence. Ah, if you’d like, I can guide you through meditation—”

“Aha! Understood!”

Yep, of course, the male lead has to be good at meditation too.

“I did feel angry just now,” Aquila admitted, “but I’m not sure if it was because of the black magic or just my usual temper.”

“...Probably the latter,” I said with an exasperated smile.

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So that was why no one seemed affected—because they were already like this by default.

Just as I was nodding to myself, Ishina suddenly interjected.

“Alright. Then what about love?”

“...Excuse me?”

“I’m asking if, instead of anger, the emotion of love has been amplified.”

Ishina smirked as he added, “Because I don’t think I’m in my right mind right now.”

Ishina, how could you...?

Why was he making statements that would push this story into a melodramatic love triangle arc?!

Aquila, deep in thought, finally answered.

“Now that you mention it, I do think that’s the case.”

“See, I knew it.”

“Yes. Normally, I would be willing to give my heart to Salvia. But now, I feel like I could bring her other people’s hearts as well.”

“W-Wait, why would you express your love like that?”

Ishina stammered in shock, while I... turned red. How absurdly romantic.

Winter, meanwhile, nodded with realization.

“I see. That explains why I’ve had a harder time controlling my emotions than usual.”

No, you’re already bad at controlling them...

His words demanded an immediate correction.

My earlier outburst had kept them quiet for a while, but Ishina had just rekindled the flames. So, I sidled up to Winter.

“Winter.”

“What is it?”

“In my opinion, you haven’t been controlling your emotions very well lately. You haven’t been acting like your usual disciplined self.”

“...I haven’t?”

“No. So, I’d like to ask that you be more mindful of your emotional restraint going forward.”

Winter fell silent for a moment, then answered in a serious tone.

“If I’ve been losing my patience without realizing it... then I understand. I will make an effort.”

“I would appreciate that.”

“Yes, refining one’s discipline is always necessary. I shall work on improving my patience.”

...That’s the reason you want to improve it?

Anyway, I figured this conversation might finally help put an end to some of the recent conflicts.

But when I returned to my original spot, I noticed Aquila looking at me with a strange expression. He must have overheard my conversation with Winter.

“Salvia.”

“Yeah?”

“...No, just... I love you.”

“...That was random.”

But I had a feeling I knew what he meant.

By speaking to Winter that way, I had shown that I cared about him, in a way.

Which, to Aquila, meant that my love for him was just as strong—if not stronger.

Just as a strange atmosphere began forming between us, Ishina cleared his throat and summarized what we had gathered so far.

“There are no traces of a large-scale magic circle anywhere. So, it’s most likely an artifact causing this.”

“An artifact, huh?” Winter mused. “Artifacts that spread black magic are usually relics, gemstones, or books. Has anything—or anyone—suspicious stood out?”

“No, noth—wait.”

I was about to deny it when something suddenly clicked.

This village was positioned on a route leading out of the capital. It was secluded, meaning few outsiders ever passed through.

But what had that couple said earlier?

"Since some outsiders came to town, we got to hear some news from the outside! I found a great village for us to elope to!"

Why would outsiders have a reason to come to this village?

“Ishina, shouldn’t we investigate the outsiders who entered the village? As far as I know, this place is under official restrictions due to the black magic contamination.”

“...Outsiders?” Ishina narrowed his eyes. “Ah! That couple from earlier... Wait, could it be—”

His gaze sharpened as he voiced his suspicion.

“If there are suspicious outsiders in this situation, they could very well be the black magic users who started all this.”

“Then we need to find them!”

“To track them down, we need to catch that couple first.”

Realizing the mistake we had made, we all froze.

We shouldn’t have let those two leave!