Chapter 05
Several days after the Four Male Leads—the so-called Four Heavenly Kings who’d been rejected by Selena—vanished…
“Was it you?”
The moment Karl stepped into the teaching assistant’s office, Marcus shot the question at him without any warning.
Good grief.
Who would’ve thought making a class schedule could be this difficult?
Why are so many lectures scheduled at the same time?!
Didn’t the professors coordinate with each other?!
Stop competing over who can steal more students!
How did I do this back in my freshman year?
Better yet, how did I manage it in my previous life when I actually went to college?
I distinctly remember handling it just fine back then.
But after serving in the military twice, it feels like my brain got factory-reset.
And now my instincts are screaming:
“If you build your schedule like this, you’re going to die.”
Normally, the fastest solution would be asking upperclassmen for help.
The problem was…
According to student year, my classmates were already the seniors now.
Below them was an entire campus full of juniors I’d never even met.
I barely knew the faces of my own classmates.
How was I supposed to ask complete strangers for scheduling advice?
Sure, spending years in the army with ordinary soldiers had made me much more sociable.
But I wasn’t crazy enough to walk up to random underclassmen and ask them how to build my timetable.
So I chose the only remaining option.
The living fossil.
Teaching Assistant Marcus.
Surely someone like him could give me some advice about class schedules.
…Or so I thought.
“Was it you?”
The moment I entered the office, that was the first thing he asked.
At first, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
“…Senior?”
“I asked if you did it.”
“Could you maybe include the beginning and end of the sentence?”
“Schlippen. Wilhelm. Alexander. Joachim.”
“…Oh.”
“The four of them suddenly disappeared.”
“…Ah.”
So that’s what he meant.
The whereabouts of the Four Male Leads.
Well, if we’re talking about that…
“Do you have any evidence?”
I don’t know.
When in doubt, act shameless.
Come on.
Where’s your evidence?
Ever heard of innocent until proven guilty?
“Evidence? Of course I do! The fact that your first response wasn’t ‘It wasn’t me!’ but ‘Where’s your evidence?’ is all the proof I need, you little brat!”
Damn.
Busted.
Still, I wasn’t worried.
I had every reason to stand proud.
Seriously.
What did I do?
Did I hold a sword to their throats?
Point a gun at them?
They’re the ones who heard what I said and immediately enlisted.
“I merely mentioned that military life had helped me in many ways.”
“You insane bastard.”
“What’s wrong with that? Tell me honestly—which is crazier? The guy who says he learned a lot in the military, or the four idiots who hear that and immediately decide to enlist?”
“Both! You idiot! They’re crazy, but you’re the craziest one of them all!”
Ouch.
That hurt.
Why am I the craziest?!
“You seriously have to ask?! You’re the first high-ranking noble in imperial history to enlist as an ordinary soldier! And now you’re dragging your classmates into hell because you couldn’t stand suffering alone!”
Dragging them into hell?!
I rescued those poor souls from the hell of getting rejected!
How unfair!
This is outrageous!
…Though I couldn’t exactly argue with the “hell” part.
The military really was hell.
“Gaaaah… What the hell did you do the moment you came back…?”
“Why do you keep saying that? They simply chose to fulfill their sacred duty to defend the Empire.”
“That’s not the problem, Karl. Damn it, that’s not the problem.”
Marcus rummaged through a stack of papers before suddenly tossing something onto the desk in front of me.
“This is the problem.”
“A leave-of-absence application?”
“Look closer.”
Wondering what the big deal was, I carefully examined the four applications.
Schlippen.
Wilhelm.
Alexander.
Joachim.
Their real names were all written correctly.
Each had carefully explained why they were requesting leave.
The approval stamp hadn’t been added yet, but they’d properly submitted the paperwork.
“…Looks normal to me.”
“Normal?”
“Yeah. They didn’t misspell their names or write anything weird. Once these get approved, won’t their leave just become official?”
Marcus sighed.
“Forget the contents. Look at the very top.”
The top?
Application for Leave of Absence.
Looks fine.
Below that…
Category of Leave: Medical Leave…
“…Oh.”
…
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“You finally noticed? The kind of leave application those idiots filled out?”
“No…”
“Medical leave lasts three months at most. Military service is at least twenty-four months, isn’t it? Those forms are completely useless.”
“…”
Guys…
Guys!
You idiots!
You protagonists!!
You actually filed for military leave using medical leave paperwork?!
Don’t tell me…
Did you hear me say “ordinary soldier” and somehow think it meant “medical leave”?
No matter how stupid you are…
It’s medical leave, not military leave!
Are you sick?!
Did the Empire have some contagious pneumonia outbreak too?!
You’re supposed to be the protagonists!
The handsome Four of the Academy!
So why are your brains full of flowers?!
How did you survive all the way to your fourth year?!
“C-Can’t we do something? Change it into the correct leave somehow?”
“If it were that easy, would I be panicking? That would be document forgery. Leave applications are official documents that only the student themselves is allowed to complete.”
“But they did submit an application!”
“I know! I know they did! But it’s for medical leave! Three months!”
What a ridiculous picture.
The idiots who caused the problem weren’t even here.
Instead, Marcus and I were the ones sitting in the office, tearing our hair out.
Seriously…
Now I was getting annoyed.
I’d only tried to help.
These morons went and filed the wrong paperwork, and somehow I’m the one suffering?
“…Teaching Assistant Marcus.”
“Why did you suddenly stop calling me ‘Senior’? Don’t. I already know what you’re about to say.”
“With all due respect… this seems like your problem to solve, not mine.”
“Hey! Hey!”
I immediately stood up and snapped a sharp salute.
“Good luck!”
“You little bastard!!”
This is where I take my leave, Senior.
Unfortunate, but what can you do?
Have fun suffering!
I narrowly escaped Marcus’s hand as he lunged for my collar.
Medical leave…
Medical leave…
The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it became.
So because it said medical leave, they somehow assumed it was the form for military service?
Unbelievable.
Who cares if they’re handsome?
The brains attached above those pretty faces are hopeless.
Do male leads all have to be this oblivious?
Come to think of it…
A lot of romance fantasy male leads do seem to be missing a screw or two.
Maybe…
Maybe that’s the real reason Selena rejected all four of them.
“Karl.”
Speak of the devil.
Now the heroine shows up.
“Selena?”
“Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah… I’m free. But what about you? Aren’t you busy getting ready to graduate?”
“I earned enough credits early, so I have some free time. Want to grab some tea? Or coffee.”
“I’ll take coffee.”
Back in my previous life, my people practically lived on iced Americanos—even in the dead of winter.
To be honest, water with leaves steeped in it had never really been my thing.
We sat down together at the same café we’d visited yesterday.
For a moment, I wondered if she was also going to ask where the Four Male Leads had disappeared to.
I discreetly studied her expression.
She didn’t seem to have that on her mind at all.
“Um… Karl.”
“Yeah?”
“The thing you told me a few days ago… about enlisting as an ordinary soldier.”
“…”
“That really… wasn’t because of me, was it?”
Actually, it was!
It was because of you!
Feel guilty!
Ha!
…
I sincerely hoped no one in this world would ever answer like that.
Please.
“Of course not. No matter how heartbroken someone is after getting rejected, what noble would suddenly enlist as a common soldier? Do I really seem that crazy to you?”
…Granted, that exact person did exist.
Past me.
Seriously.
That guy was beyond saving.
“I don’t think you’re that crazy… It’s just… I can’t stop feeling guilty.”
Thankfully, at least she didn’t think I was completely insane.
“Um… c-could you tell me more about your time in the army?”
“Huh?”
What was this?
Wasn’t military talk supposed to be one of those topics women hated even more than soccer or video games?
Then why was Selena asking for it?
“I just… want to be angry together with you. Or complain together. If there’s anything like that.”
“Huh? Well… I guess there is. But you don’t have to. A war broke out right after I enlisted, and I got thrown straight into the battlefield. While other soldiers dealt with hazing, I was dealing with literal hellfire.”
It hadn’t been a full-scale imperial war.
Still…
It had been fierce enough that two regular legions had been deployed.
That said everything.
“If you really want to hear… I guess I’ll start with the first day of the war. I was on guard duty when suddenly…”
Military stories practically generate themselves.
And someone like me—
Who’d actually fought on the front lines—
Had plenty to tell.
It felt like I’d only been talking for a moment.
Thirty minutes had already passed.
Maybe I’d monopolized the conversation.
Feeling a little guilty, I changed the subject.
“Oh, right. What about your brother? Didn’t he ever tell you any war stories?”
“Hm? Oh… He was having a really hard time back then, so he never talked about it much. But there is one story he told me.”
“…What story?”
“About an ordinary soldier who rescued my brother… and everyone else in his unit.”
“…Rescued?”
“…An ordinary soldier?”
Selena.
I think you should tell me a lot more about your brother’s military stories.
