I focused back on Aquila’s eyes. That warm yet intense orange glow—under certain lighting, it even took on the deep red of the rubies I liked.
Suddenly, I felt my face growing hot. Unsure of where to look, I awkwardly cast my gaze downward.
"Lady Salvia, are you sure you weren’t offended by that bastard earlier?"
A voice abruptly interrupted the moment between me and Aquila.
Karon.
His voice was full of genuine concern. Yeah, genuine—but I knew what he was really asking. Can I go beat the shit out of him or not?
"I’m fine. Don’t worry about it."
"Are you sure? Because I feel like my heart is breaking...."
Karon was about to continue, but Aquila cut him off without hesitation.
"Salvia, about the letter you sent me—"
...Oh, shit.
I knew exactly what this was.
Two male leads, each trying to win my attention—classic romance fantasy standoff.
It was inevitable in any reverse harem story or in any situation where a strong second male lead appeared.
Karon might be the possessive little brother type, but at the end of the day, he was still obsessed with me.
...Damn. So my life really was a reverse harem. Whether this story ended in a one-and-only or a poly ending, one thing was certain—it was a reverse harem.
Even when Aquila and Winter had squared off over me before, I had been too oblivious, thinking, Wow, I guess they’re just clashing because of their opposite personalities. Haha.
How was I any different from the original heroine, Dalin?
I had no idea how to react to this, so I seriously considered playing dumb to escape the situation.
And then—
"Salvia."
Of course.
If two male leads were already engaged in a silent power struggle, it was only natural for a third one to enter the fray.
The moment Isina gently called my name and approached, I wanted to collapse on the spot.
I am now surrounded by three men.
"You’re making her uncomfortable."
Isina chided both Aquila and Karon in a scolding tone.
Karon hesitated for a moment before stepping back, looking dejected.
Technically, Isina was more of the obsessive older brother type rather than a full-blown possessive romance lead, but when it came to obsession, the difference was purely semantic.
Caught between them, I was forced to confront something truly baffling—
I’m actually debating between my potential love interests.
It still didn’t feel real, but here I was, seriously considering my options.
What the hell am I supposed to do with these guys moving forward?
I liked Isina.
He always listened to my concerns, took care of me like I was his actual family, and yeah, he nagged a little too much, but it was all out of concern.
Karon, on the other hand, was the one I took care of. Raising him alongside Aquila felt like raising a kid, and over time, he had become my family.
I wanted to continue treating them both like family.
Fortunately, while they both clearly cared about me, they didn’t seem to be seeing me entirely as a romantic interest—yet.
Which meant that as long as their obsession stayed at ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) its current level, things could probably remain the same.
But I needed to test whether they actually saw me as family or not.
"Isina."
"Hm?"
Isina looked at me with his usual warm gaze.
But then—
"What if I were to openly rebel against one of the officers in the Snowy Mountain Battalion?"
His expression instantly changed to one of sheer horror.
"What?! Salvia, absolutely not! There are other ways to handle things if you don’t like something! Wait, what happened?"
His voice took on the tone of an adult trying to reason with a reckless child.
"Please, stop giving me stress... Let’s just talk things through first."
I turned to Aquila next.
"Aquila, what about you?"
"If you did, you must have had a good reason."
Unlike Isina, he answered calmly, completely unfazed.
As expected.
I glanced at Isina, who was sighing in exasperation, looking thoroughly drained. A stark contrast to Aquila’s absolute trust in me.
This confirmed it—Isina truly thought of me as family.
Now, all that was left was Karon.
"Karon."
"Yes?"
His eyes sparkled the moment I called his name.
"Even after we get discharged, you’ll be living near me and Aquila, right?"
"Of course!"
Aquila’s expression darkened slightly, but I nudged him with my elbow, silently telling him to play along.
"You’re basically family to us. You’ll always be with me, won’t you?"
"Ah..."
Karon’s eyes shimmered with emotion.
"You really won’t abandon me?"
"Of course not."
"Even if you two get married, you still won’t abandon me?"
...So that’s what this was about.
I had been wondering why he kept subtly eyeing Aquila like a threat. Turns out, he thought that if I married Aquila, I’d leave him behind.
"That’s ridiculous. You’re our—"
Wait. What exactly was Karon to me?
A younger brother? A son? A pet dog I raised...?
"You’re... Anyway, you’re basically family."
I ended up lumping it all under the umbrella of family.
But the specific term didn’t seem to matter to Karon—just hearing that was enough to satisfy him.
"...Even if I marry Salvia, you’ll still be around," Aquila added. "She’s practically your older sister, isn’t she?"
That finally seemed to reassure him.
Finally, problem solved....
They were still obsessed, of course, but at least I had managed to smooth out the tangled mess of relationships.
Feeling lighter, I quickly changed the subject.
"By the way, today’s training was completely ridiculous, wasn’t it? I mean, it’s nice that we all got to meet up like this, but seriously—who the hell came up with this stupid exercise?"
"...Yeah, haha."
Isina let out a slightly awkward laugh.
Why did that look so forced?
...He didn’t not see me as family, right?
"Is this kind of training even safe?"
"Hm?"
"There are a ton of battalions gathered here just to measure combat strength. Isn’t anyone worried about leaving the border so lightly guarded?"
"There are still plenty of troops left behind. There won’t be any issues."
Isina reassured me.
"Unless a national emergency happens and we all get deployed, there’s nothing to worry about."
"Ah, I see."
As I nodded, a familiar sense of foreboding washed over me.
Ever since joining the Border Defense Army, I had personally witnessed every kind of bullshit disaster imaginable.
The moment I thought, There’s no way something could go wrong here, right?—something always went wrong.
And right now, I had a bad feeling.
"F—fuck. That was a flag."
"What?"
"We just triggered a fucking death flag!"
My face went pale with realization.
Aquila instinctively wrapped an arm around my waist and patted my back reassuringly.
"Nothing’s going to happen, Salvia."
"No, you don’t understand! You still haven’t figured out how this world works—"
"It’s just a coincidence."
But even as I buried myself into Aquila’s warmth, I couldn’t shake my unease.
And then—
A frantic officer came sprinting into the training grounds, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Emergency deployment! Everyone, grab your weapons and get ready!"
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"FUCKING HELL! See?! Every single time!"
I was basically a walking disaster sensor at this point.
I knew this world’s bullshit too well!
"...It really happened."
"Wow, Lady Salvia! How did you predict that?!"
As Aquila sighed and Karon stared in awe, I clenched my fists in frustration.
The officer’s voice rang across the field.
"The remaining forces of the Second Prince’s army are moving toward the capital! We have to stop them!"
Of course.
My instincts had never been wrong.
Today was shaping up to be another great day to desert.