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After returning to the unit, we got completely wrecked by Blair and Topio. Hoho.

It had been a while since I last thought of the days when April ruled the camp, but after getting utterly beaten down, we felt like recruits all over again.

"I’m going to kill Dalin. No one can stop me."

Of course, no one even tried to stop me, so with eyes blazing, I stormed toward the training field where Dalin was supposed to be.

"Dalin!"

Just as I had instructed beforehand, she was standing there waiting, and she turned to look at me.

"Salvia-nim...!"

"AAAH! FOR THE LOVE OF—!"

The moment I saw her face, I felt my blood pressure skyrocket, so I screamed before anything else. Then, I immediately started interrogating her—what the hell was she thinking when she lost her sword?

Her answer was... by the time she came to her senses, the sword had already fallen off a cliff.

I was going insane.

"Alright... you’re ready to get wrecked, aren’t you?"

I smiled sweetly, suppressing my rage. Ah, is this what April used to feel?

"You hate me, don’t you?"

Dalin probably despised me. Ever since she enlisted, I had been shadowing her every step, beating discipline into her.

I asked with a mocking tone, but Dalin’s answer was completely unexpected.

"Huh? I like you."

“...What?"

"I like you, Salvia-nim!"

"WHAT?!"

Unbelievably, her golden eyes were filled with genuine sincerity as she said it.

Why? Where did that come from? What the hell?

‘Does she have a weird fetish? Does she enjoy getting wrecked?’

No, but that didn’t make sense. That wasn’t how Dalin was in the original story.

As I stared at her in bewilderment, she spoke with the utmost confidence.

"Of course I like you, Salvia-nim!"

"And why, exactly?"

When someone you never expected to like you suddenly does, the first reaction is sheer terror.

"You kept telling me I could do it, didn’t you?"

“...Huh?"

I blinked slowly at her words.

Suddenly, flashes of my past conversations with Dalin came to mind.

"You can do it! You absolutely can!"

"You can use elemental aura too!"

"You can do it! You can! You have that power!"

"See? You moron. I told you, didn’t I?"

I said those things because I knew the story. I knew Dalin had Arkon blood running strong in her veins and that she had immense potential.

But from Dalin’s perspective... I must have looked like the perfect senior—always encouraging her and boosting her confidence.

Right, Winter mentioned something like this. That recruits who made frequent mistakes needed to be reassured so they could build confidence.

‘Damn it, that wasn’t my intention...’

I hadn’t meant for this to happen, but it seemed like I had unintentionally helped Dalin gain self-assurance.

When I finished processing my thoughts and looked at her again, her bright golden eyes were practically sparkling.

Compared to when she first enlisted, Dalin had clearly become much more confident. Back then, she had been afraid of everything and was always ready to give up.

And at that moment, I realized something.

"Dalin, you..."

"Yes?"

"When exactly did you start feeling confident?"

"Um... I don’t know the exact moment, but it just built up as you kept telling me I could do it. Especially when I first used elemental aura, and when I succeeded in attacking the dragon, I was really happy!"

"You didn’t have any confidence before you enlisted?"

"Not at all!"

She answered with an innocent, beaming smile, completely unfitting for the situation.

...I had vaguely noticed it before, but Dalin really did have extremely low self-esteem when she first enlisted.

At the time, she had absolutely no confidence in herself.

Most troublemakers in the army lose confidence because they keep making mistakes in an endless cycle of failure, but...

Dalin’s issue was even more fundamental than that. She didn’t just develop low self-esteem from repeated failures—she had been like that from the very beginning. It was strange.

‘Was she like this in the original story? What moment in the original gave her confidence?’

In the novel, Dalin had always been passive in front of the male leads who obsessed over her, and some readers even found her indecisiveness frustrating. But I didn’t remember any particular emphasis on her having low self-esteem.

How did she live before she came here?

According to the original story, Dalin worked as a maid before enlisting.

"...Ah."

A maid in a romance fantasy world.

And not just any maid, but one in a world that discriminated against hetero sapiens.

I knew exactly how maids were treated in these kinds of settings. They had strict rules about what they could and couldn’t do, and they were always expected to "know their place."

Since I had been thrown straight into the Border Defense Army after reincarnating, I hadn’t personally experienced the rigid social hierarchy of this world.

But Dalin... she must have been conditioned to a life of resignation and submission.

And among maids, those who were hetero sapiens and hadn’t served in the military would have been the lowest of the low.

Only now, after enlisting, gaining some real accomplishments, and awakening her light attribute aura, had she started to build confidence.

"I see now..."

A dry chuckle escaped me.

I finally understood why Dalin had been so dependent on the male leads in the original novel.

I remembered the way people whispered hetero sapien when we were out on external duty.

I saw, once again, the girl in front of me—the Arkon who must have had her self-esteem completely shattered at some point.

And so, I hated the world outside the Border Defense Army even more.

Side Story: The Secret of Four Obsessed Madmen Cling to Me

The final key to summoning Salvia—Dalin.

After reaching adulthood at the orphanage, Dalin started working as a maid at a nearby duke’s estate.

The ducal estate constantly needed new workers, and even someone like Dalin—who had no particular skills—was accepted. They provided food and shelter, which made it the best option for her.

Dalin didn’t know who her parents were, but she did know that she was a hetero sapien.

Her light amber hair, golden-brown eyes, and stunning features were unmistakably non-human.

So she had always known that one day, the Contract Magic would manifest, and she would be conscripted into the Border Defense Army. She also understood that it was more logical to enlist immediately rather than work as a maid.

But...

"I don’t want to go to the military."

Only a lunatic would willingly march into the Border Defense Army. It was always better to delay as much as possible.

So Dalin became a maid instead.

"Ah, so the new recruit is a hetero sapien."

It wasn’t until she left the confines of the orphanage that she truly felt the weight of what it meant to be a hetero sapien in this world.

Some people suggested she should take advantage of her looks and try to become a noble’s concubine.

Others were more direct.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

"Know your place. A maid should act like one."

So Dalin learned her place very well.

Oh, right. There’s almost nothing I can do.

"Hey! Be careful! That’s a dress you could never afford even if you worked your whole life!"

So Dalin quickly accepted her fate.

Oh, so I’m just supposed to bow my head to people above me.

"Let me give you some advice—your best bet is to use your looks to your advantage."

So Dalin figured out how she was supposed to live.

Oh, I’m supposed to cling to someone for the rest of my life.

"What? You expect me to remember the name of a mere maid like you?!"

And finally, Dalin understood.

She was nothing in this world.

Once she realized that, living life didn’t seem particularly enjoyable anymore.

Well, she was useless. She couldn’t accomplish anything on her own. So she decided to just go with the flow.

That was how Dalin thought.

And then, when the Contract Magic finally manifested, she was drafted into the Border Defense Army.

After enlisting, she suddenly found herself surrounded by people who seemed to fall in love with her—just like the people at the ducal estate had predicted.

"You... You remind me of someone who died a long time ago."

At first, it was because she resembled someone named Salvia who had once been in this unit.

The ones who approached her while thinking of Salvia looked like they loved her, but Dalin honestly didn’t care one way or another.

She was just curious.

Because in their stories, Salvia had been someone who had left a massive impact on them.

"Ugh, damn it. Hey, Topio, if Salvia were still here, the unit wouldn’t be in this state."

"Yeah, she’d have whipped everyone into shape."

And most of all—Salvia had been someone who could do whatever she wanted.

Dalin found herself feeling just a little jealous.

***

"...So you don’t actually love me."

Before Aquila was discharged, Dalin finally understood why he had been so friendly toward her.

She had no idea about the others, but well...

"Yeah. I need you."

"More specifically, you need my body, don’t you?"

Dalin was blatantly violating military decorum, but Aquila didn’t seem to care.

As he stared at her, she blinked slowly.

"Dying is a bit... much."

But as she spoke, she suddenly had a realization.

...Was she really afraid of dying?

She had spent her life avoiding risk and danger, convinced that she was incapable of anything. But had it really been death that she was running from?

There was something Dalin feared more than death.

A desire she had buried deep inside her while working as a maid—a desire she had accepted would never be fulfilled.

But if it were Salvia...

"Salvia-nim is really strong, isn’t she?"

Dalin’s heart pounded rapidly.

"Sometimes, yeah. Other times, she was weak."

"The other seniors all said she was incredibly strong. Fearless, with a fierce personality...."

"...Well. Yeah, I guess you could say she had a strong personality."

As she listened to Aquila hesitantly trying to phrase it in a diplomatic way, Dalin realized something.

She had a desire.

And maybe—just maybe—Salvia could fulfill it.

Life? Meh. Nothing particularly fun about being alive.

But even she had something she wanted.

And Salvia could make it happen.

"Alright. Summon Salvia-nim’s soul into my body."

"...What?"

Aquila looked startled by how easily she agreed, but Dalin’s voice remained dazed and dreamy.

"But I have a condition. Salvia-nim has to agree to it later."

And so, Dalin wrote a letter.

A letter asking for something only Salvia could do for her.

The more she wrote, the more her emotions spiraled, making her words sound increasingly deranged.

But all she wanted was for Salvia to understand her.

Because soon, Salvia would be living in Dalin’s body.

And to everyone else, Salvia would be Dalin.

So the one thing Salvia had to do for her was—

『Live under my name.

The Duke, his daughter, the butler, the nanny, and her two older brothers from the estate where I used to work—they were all unbearable.

I heard you’re strong. Surely you can handle them.

And live under my name.

Leave my name behind in this world.

Because I can’t.

No matter what, I want my name to be remembered.』

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