"Winter, I'll give you the floor first."
Altair spoke in a solemn tone.
Winter frowned briefly at his role-playing antics but decided to let it slide. After all, Altair had always acted like that since their academy days.
"I think I’ve been underestimating Salvia all this time. She’s weaker than I thought."
"Go on."
"And I’ve come to a realization. It seems that I—"
"Wait!"
Altair quickly interrupted Winter, exchanging a glance with Yuri.
'Yuri, you remember our plan, right?'
'Of course.'
They both knew Winter was exceptional at everything, an elite among elites, but he was utterly clueless when it came to interpersonal relationships.
Back when Altair and Yuri were sharing their disastrous dating stories from their hometown, Winter had outright admitted that he’d never loved anyone before.
"Hah, Winter, why do you take relationships so seriously?"
"Yeah, if you think you might like someone, just go for it. It’s not that complicated."
Altair and Yuri had said as much, but Winter had responded with,
"No. Love is... it’s when you feel like you couldn’t possibly love anyone else for the rest of your life. That’s when it’s real."
“Right,” Altair had groaned back then, “I’ve been living my whole life wrong. Just call me Trashair from now on.”
"Me too," Yuri had chimed in. "I guess I’m Miss Failure now."
Either way, they both believed that fooling Winter about his own feelings would be a piece of cake.
If Winter really had fallen in love, as they suspected, he’d likely let it show and end up being transferred elsewhere. That had to be prevented at all costs.
...Well, and maybe, just maybe, they didn’t want to see their stoic friend turn into a lovesick fool either.
Thus, Altair and Yuri had made a pact: if Winter ever brought up love, they would shut him down immediately.
Altair spoke first, his tone deliberately casual.
"So, you’re saying you’re gonna start looking out for her more, huh? We were just talking about that. Honestly, you’ve been in her corner all along, you just didn’t want to admit it."
"Yeah," Yuri added, "you’re basically treating her like your little sister already."
Ignoring them both, Winter spoke with a steady, determined gaze.
"It seems that I—"
"Care about her as a subordinate?"
"Feel a brotherly bond, perhaps?"
But in the end, Winter said the one thing they were dreading most.
"—might be in love."
"No!"
"Ugh, I knew it!"
"Me too!"
As Altair and Yuri groaned in unison, Winter looked at them with a puzzled expression.
"Why are you both acting like this?"
"Because if you fall in love, it’s going to be unbearable to watch," Yuri said bluntly.
"And you’re gonna start broadcasting it and end up in the brig!" Altair added.
Winter nodded calmly, as if to reassure them.
"You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll act within military law."
Altair stared at him, utterly exasperated.
"What? You’re in love, but you’re following military law?"
"Of course. I can’t break the law."
"Then you’re not even planning to confess?"
"That would be a matter for after discharge."
Altair smacked his chest with both hands in frustration.
"Hey! Love isn’t like an assassination mission! You can’t just hide it!"
"But I can’t break military law either."
"...Ugh."
Seeing Altair at a loss for words, Yuri let out a deep sigh.
"Honestly, Winter... you were born to be a soldier. Just make it official and stay here forever."
Yuri could tell that Salvia was unlikely to ever notice Winter’s feelings. And knowing Winter, he’d keep them buried deep inside, as rigid and disciplined as ever.
***
“I was completely wrong.”
Winter had no choice but to admit his mistake. He had misunderstood Salvia entirely.
‘Everything. I was wrong about everything.’
He recalled the time when he had asked Salvia about her past before enlistment. She had hesitated, then replied that life had been better back then, though she didn't elaborate.
“I just grew up in an orphanage, uh... it wasn’t much, but I got by. Anyway, it was better than here.”
But then, when she had injured her arm and seemed emotionally unguarded, she had said she wouldn’t go back—she’d rather stay here.
“Before enlisting... sniff... this is better, better than before. So, no way am I going back.”
Maybe Winter had been naive. He had grown up with hetero sapien parents, in a wealthy family, following an elite trajectory. He had been sheltered from the realities faced by orphans without guardians. He was aware, of course, of the kinds of abuse they endured, but he had never truly considered how Salvia might have lived.
“Orphaned hetero sapiens are sometimes bound by black magic and exploited,” Winter himself had once said, but he had never connected the dots to Salvia's reality.
She hadn’t been cheerful and optimistic because she had been loved and nurtured. She had endured and survived, nothing more.
‘Come to think of it, she said something else once, too.’
“No matter how scary someone might look, there are things in this world much scarier.”
Salvia had said that without batting an eye, even when looking at him. She wasn’t brave; she had simply witnessed horrors far worse than most could imagine.
‘Much scarier things....’
Winter mulled over her words as an image of Salvia, crying and clutching her injured arm, flashed in his mind. She had whined to Ishina, who wiped her tears away. It was a side of her Winter had never seen. He thought they were casual with one another, but it was clear she was even closer to Ishina, comfortable enough to let her guard down entirely. Ishina, in turn, seemed used to her behavior.
‘And that bruised shoulder....’
Bruises were a given during shooting drills, but when Winter had noticed them on her, his heart had sunk inexplicably. At that moment, he realized something:
Salvia had never been strong from the start.
She had only become strong—or pretended to be—for the sake of survival.
But in truth, she was incredibly fragile.
The realization left him with a strange feeling.
When others failed to live up to his standards, Winter usually found it irritating. But for some reason, Salvia could do no wrong in his eyes.
He imagined her breaking military law—or even imperial law—and he realized... he wouldn’t even feel compelled to stop her.
‘How strange.’
Perhaps it was because he had come to see her as someone who fought tooth and nail to carve out her own path.
Winter tried to rationalize this feeling, to explain why he was content to let her be.
‘...But maybe all of this is just an excuse.’
There was no denying it anymore. Salvia had completely disrupted his neatly ordered principles, yet all he wanted was to watch her more closely.
“...Trying to find a reason for something when you already know the answer is a waste of time.”
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Winter knew what this feeling was. He couldn’t ignore it any longer.
And so, Winter made a decision.
Though he had reassured Altair and Yuri earlier that he would stick to military regulations, he thought to himself:
‘As long as I don’t blatantly break the rules, it should be fine.’
From now on, Winter decided, he would simply follow his heart.
***
“Salvia, what are you doing?”
“Ah.”
At the sound of a familiar voice behind me, my pupils began to tremble.
I had just crushed some flowers in the garden by accident and was hurriedly trying to erase the evidence.
‘Busted.’
I finally turned to face Winter, my eyebrows drooping to show my remorse.
“Winter... I might have accidentally crushed the flowers, but I wasn’t trying to cover it up or anything—”
I began explaining, but Winter’s response was surprisingly nonchalant.
“I see.”
“...What?”
“Do as you wish.”
“Pardon?”
“If that’s what you want, go ahead.”
‘...Does that mean he’s planning to lecture me after I do whatever I want?’
But Winter simply walked away without saying another word.
‘...What just happened?’
Normally, I’d be stuck listening to him nag for twenty minutes about crushing the flowers and then trying to hide it.
Thinking back, Winter hadn’t been nitpicking me as much lately. It wasn’t because I was ‘in his circle’ or anything like that. He seemed to let me do whatever I wanted, which was... unsettling.
There was no way this was some romantic cliché where he’d fallen for me. After all, in the original story, Winter had tried to control even Dalin, the heroine.
‘So then... could it be?’
After furrowing my brow and thinking it over, I came to a realization.
‘He’s given up on me!’
...Granted, I’d made a few mistakes here and there, but to give up on me entirely?
While it was oddly freeing, it also left me feeling strangely irritated.
***
Winter’s change wasn’t limited to me.
“Aquila, be careful not to clash with others.”
“Uh... yes.”
“An altercation could result in injury.”
Winter and Aquila seemed to have these odd standoffs during training.
It reminded me of the tension between them in the original novel when they were competing for the heroine’s attention.
‘...Could this be a romance trope?’
Alright, time to reactivate my optimistic mode.
Maybe, without me realizing, I’d become the novel’s heroine, and these two were competing over me.
“How exactly do you plan to freeze fire?”
“Do you think I can’t?”
...Oh, it was just elemental incompatibility.
Winter was probably finally comfortable enough to show his disdain for Aquila. Back when Aquila first awakened his fire attribute aura, Winter had reacted similarly.
‘Sigh, it’s not a romance trope after all.’
I won’t be fooled again, you idiots!
***
“Hmm.”
Benny, crouching nearby and watching Winter, Aquila, and a slightly distant Salvia, mumbled to herself.
“This is delicious.”
“...What are you eating?”
Ishina’s bewildered voice interrupted her musings. Benny quickly flashed a grin.
“Nothing!”
...But it was still delicious, so Benny nodded in satisfaction. Life in the military might be harsh, but small joys like this made it bearable.