D-1460 Until Discharge.
Today marked exactly four years until my discharge.
Let me emphasize that again—four years left.
And what that meant was...
“XX, I got promoted...?”
Today, I was officially promoted to senior private.
In this miserable, godforsaken place, I had finally made it past the halfway point of my service. If I thought about it that way, my survival odds had just skyrocketed. That alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Ha, so this is what a taste of social mobility feels like...
Of course, I knew that with my new rank, there’d be a fresh batch of responsibilities waiting for me. But even so, I was happy!
“Karon.”
“Ah, Salvia! Congratulations on your promotion!”
Karon spotted me and came running over, his face lighting up with a bright smile. I patted him on the shoulder before asking about Aquila.
“Have you seen Aquila? He said he was stopping by the barracks, but he’s taking forever.”
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“Oh! He was talking with Senior Isina earlier!”
“Hm, thanks.”
These days, my life was nothing short of perfect.
Sure, the military was an unpredictable, chaotic mess on any given day, but lately, things had been relatively calm. Jason was learning how to keep Patty and Matty in check, and with both Aquila and me now senior privates, our lives had gotten much easier.
Even the sociopaths from Batch 85, who still acted up now and then, were kept in line thanks to Winter.
Karon was due for a promotion soon as well, and Benny, with her exceptional swordsmanship, had earned some level of respect among the newer recruits.
...Though, to be fair, she still hadn’t fully recovered mentally from Angel’s death. But things like that were a common occurrence in this hellhole called the Border Defense Army. No point dwelling on it.
The important thing was, I had finally reached the position I had dreamed of—I held absolute power in this unit.
...Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?
There was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t think of anything I’d messed up today. Probably just Patty and Matty causing trouble again.
Either way, what mattered now was that I had rank and stability in this place.
“Perfect~.”
As I hummed to myself in satisfaction, Aquila suddenly appeared from around the corner.
“You waited?”
“Not really. What were you talking about with Senior Isina?”
“...Just squad stuff.”
“Yeah? Oh, by the way....”
I casually linked my arm through his as I started talking about our bright, peaceful future.
“You know, before, talking about what we’d do after discharge felt like a meaningless joke. But now... it actually feels real.”
“Yeah. Same here.”
“Especially after going on external assignments and seeing the outside world. It’s so foreign.”
I muttered, lost in thought.
It made sense. I had been thrown into this insane world and drafted into the army almost immediately. Ever since enlisting, I had followed the rules without question, just trying to survive.
But once I was discharged, I’d have to step into the outside world. A world governed by rules I didn’t know. And if civilian rules were even more vague and complicated than military ones, then adjusting to society was going to be even harder.
“That’s why you’ll have to help me when we get out.”
“I’ll always be there.”
“Mm, good.”
We sat side by side, nodding in agreement, when the sound of footsteps rushing toward us echoed in the distance.
“Looks like a new recruit.”
“Seems like it.”
It was obviously one of the juniors running over to inform us about the arrival of a new recruit. After all, handling newbies was our job.
...Then why do I still feel uneasy?
Given the ominous feeling I’d had all morning, I was almost certain Patty and Matty were up to something. If I caught them, they were dead.
Well, at least we had experience dealing with new recruits by now. This time should be easier.
Up until last month, the only other senior privates were Blair, Topio, and Isina. That meant an overwhelming amount of work had fallen on their shoulders. So even before our promotions, Aquila and I had been unofficially handling senior duties. We had even trained the last batch of four recruits ourselves.
...Two of whom had died.
It felt strange, losing recruits we had personally trained. But no matter how much we grieved, they weren’t coming back.
All their deaths did was reinforce one lesson:
I needed to push the next batch even harder.
...Damn it, I swear I’m forgetting something.
That ominous feeling only grew stronger, but I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. All I could do was tilt my head in confusion.
Whatever. Right now, the priority is the new recruit. I’ll figure out what I forgot later.
“New recruit incoming!”
Just as expected, Jason came running up, breathless from delivering the message.
“There’s one recruit this time. The platoon leader has already briefed them and ordered them to be handed over to you two.”
“Got it.”
Aquila stood up, and I grabbed his arm for support as I pulled myself to my feet.
Once again, another peaceful day in our military life was about to begin.
***
And that's when I realized what I had forgotten.
"This, this insane..."
I felt my body trembling.
My gaze was locked on the girl standing right in front of me.
She had light orange hair, golden eyes, and an adorable expression.
"Ah, hello!"
"...Huh?"
How could I have forgotten this?
"Are you two hetero sapiens?"
"...Ha."
I could feel Aquila, who was standing next to me, let out a long sigh. I had no choice but to narrow my eyes and glare at the recruit.
"This insane... Huh? HUH?! Are you kidding me? You don’t think before you speak, do you?!"
"I-I'm sorry...!"
I saw tears welling up in her golden eyes, so I couldn’t help but yell again.
"What do you mean you're crying? Don’t you dare let a tear fall! What, did you leave your common sense outside?"
How could I have forgotten this fact?
With all the joy of avoiding my predicted death, I had been so focused on the good news that I had completely overlooked the most important thing that was about to happen in this unit.
‘Why, out of all the squads, did it have to be our platoon?’
But no matter how much I denied it, the reality was set. It was time to accept what lay before me.
The legendary troublemaker.
The unprecedented disaster.
The walking bomb, the one who brought chaos wherever she went.
Your imagination cannot prepare you for this recruit!
It was Dalin’s arrival.
***
Let’s think about the original protagonist, Dalin.
Of course, from my own experience in the Border Defense Army, Dalin was a hopeless, walking disaster. But still, there was one important thing to remember: Dalin was the female protagonist of the novel.
‘And not just any protagonist, but a major one....’
The female protagonist of a novel is supposed to be the most immersive character for readers, someone who can never become a villain.
The story had a unique setting, mixing the military with a fantasy world, a contrast that made the NemiJip novel stand out.
But uniqueness alone wouldn’t have kept the readers entertained.
NemiJip still had plenty of clichés:
Handsome, capable male leads, a reverse harem, obsessive male leads who only cared about the heroine, the male leads rescuing her from danger, a villain like Jaiden who wants to sabotage their love, and, of course, the heroine’s awkward but beloved junior who had a bit of a dark side.
Among these major elements, Dalin’s personality was included. She was clueless but lovable, with a certain amount of skill.
What kind of ability does Dalin have, you might ask? Well, she had the ability to use a light attribute aura—and that talent for aura usage was in her blood.
Despite making constant mistakes and failing at almost everything else, Dalin’s ability to use aura was something remarkable.
But most importantly, Dalin was charming.
The secondary characters and other soldiers in the unit liked her too.
When I read the original story, I passed over it without thinking much about why the others in the novel liked Dalin. But now, I understood.
She was completely blind to the darker side of the world, which made her both naive and pure.
For the soldiers who had suffered discrimination for being hetero sapiens, Dalin’s innocence was something they had never experienced and had longed for.
The soldiers, who had been beaten down by their background, probably found themselves drawn to Dalin’s bright, untouched nature.
And this made the process of secondary characters and male leads falling for her all the more entertaining. Readers, too, naturally connected with Dalin’s charm.
But above all...
‘A heroine who is just kind and pure doesn’t fit today’s trend...’
Once again, Dalin was the kind of heroine that fit the trends. A sweet, naïve heroine who always gets pushed around by the villains would not be loved by readers.
The main antagonists in the original were Jaiden and Dalin’s junior.
In the original, Dalin managed to outwit them with her utter cluelessness. Here’s an example of how she dealt with them:
“Ugh, what exactly can you do? Aquila keeps covering for you. Why don’t you go tell him yourself?”
“Sniff, alright... Aquila! Aquiiilaaaa!”
When Jaiden would lash out, Dalin would immediately accept whatever he said, and then:
“Can you really help me, Dalin?”
“I think I’m not qualified to help you... But I’ll go talk to Benny instead!”
“No, wait, why did you say that?”
“Eh? Didn’t you want help from someone else?”
At first, Dalin appeared to be the antagonist, but by the later half, she was the one supporting her junior, Jina. She would bluntly ask her dozens of times, making Jina even angrier.
‘If someone did that to me, I’d be pissed, but seeing her do it to others is hilarious...’
In the original, Dalin was genuinely pure and innocent, and that very characteristic was what made others uneasy, which is why readers found it so entertaining.
But now, having Dalin as one of my recruits would be extremely troublesome.
Why, out of all the recruits I could’ve gotten as a senior private, did it have to be her?
I really wanted to desert right then and there.