After Karon returned to his position, everything looked as if nothing had ever happened.
Though, of course, in the process of subduing the black magician—who was several times larger than her—April had used her sword’s scabbard to repeatedly beat him into submission.
"Urgh, you fools, bound by the very chains of black magic! You don’t even realize what a pointless battle you’re fighting! You will spend your entire lives fighting an endless tide of monsters, never knowing peace!"
Even as he was dragged away, the bastard continued spewing curses, so April casually picked up a rock from the ground and expressed herself in a way that was definitely not appropriate for public viewing.
Thank god I wasn’t the one on the receiving end of that.
Thud. Thud.
From a distance, the new Emperor approached atop a white horse, marching with stately grandeur.
A battalion of soldiers surrounded him, walking in perfect unison, their synchronized steps making the ground tremble with every beat.
‘They must’ve trained so hard just to match their footsteps...’
Even though they were Adolph Empire soldiers, not Arkons, I felt an odd sense of sympathy for them.
That XX Emperor XX, so overflowing with ambition. The world would be a much better place if he just stayed inside the palace and never came out.
It had been about four years since I last saw the Crown Prince, and now, as Emperor, he looked far more mature.
Before, he had been a brash yet youthful boy. Now, he carried himself with the ease and authority of a fully grown man.
‘Time really has passed, huh?’
He even had the audacity to look down at the people with an air of arrogance.
What an asshole.
The same Crown Prince who used to shout, “Ha! Are you looking down on me?!” every five minutes had now become this.
It was honestly hard to believe that the child from back then and the man before me were the same person.
Then again, considering all the recruits who had started as privates were now sergeants, it had been long enough for people to change.
...But seriously, why the hell was Border Defense Army service eight years long? Was this some kind of sick joke?
As the Emperor approached, Winter subtly raised a hand and brushed the back of his neck—only to quickly return to proper posture.
‘...His body must still remember getting stabbed with the paralysis needle back then.’
I flicked my eyes between Winter and the Emperor.
Back when Winter had dueled the Crown Prince, he had just reached adulthood, exuding the raw strength of youth.
Now, he looked far more composed and refined.
The contrast between him and the arrogant golden-haired Emperor was stark.
‘When they fought back then, the atmosphere was terrifying.’
Looking at them now, they almost resembled the main lead and a secondary male lead from a romance novel.
But that was never happening. A love triangle with the Emperor? Winter, straight to military prison.
Besides, even though the main lead was usually determined by rank, with black-haired and blond-haired characters facing off like this, Winter had to win.
Wait. That wasn’t important right now.
I quickly tried to shift my gaze back to focus—only to accidentally make eye contact with Aquila.
Aquila was about the same age as the Emperor.
Back when the Crown Prince had visited the unit, Aquila had still had the lingering traces of boyhood.
Now, though, he looked far more like a man.
His orange eyes, which I once thought looked like a sharp, guarded cat’s, now held a mature and intriguing depth.
‘You turned out well.’
I felt oddly proud of my fellow recruit.
Somehow, I wanted to brag about being in the same generation as him.
As all these thoughts ran through my mind, the Emperor continued down the road, riding his obnoxiously pristine white horse.
Keeping my eyes low, I watched as the white legs of the horse passed right in front of me.
Then—
Click.
The horse stopped.
I didn’t dare lift my head. Instead, I anxiously scanned the ground with my eyes.
‘What the hell? Again? Is he about to pull some stupid stunt again?’
I knew from experience—if that XX Emperor so much as breathed in the wrong direction, our lives would be immediately put on the line.
Everyone stood frozen, eyes locked to the ground.
And then, finally, the Emperor spoke.
"I recognize some familiar faces."
"Y-yes, Your Majesty...!"
I shifted my head slightly.
The Emperor was speaking to the company commander.
The commander looked moments away from collapsing on the spot.
"So this is the unit I visited in the past."
"Yes! It is an honor that Your Majesty remembers us!"
‘His tone changed.’
The once-snappy way of speaking was gone.
Now, the Emperor carried himself with the cold, imperious weight of royalty.
‘He sounds like a damn romance novel male lead.’
He was using that stiff, zero-social-skills kind of speech typical of cold-hearted, overbearing male leads in fantasy romance stories.
Of course, no one could call him out on his lack of basic human decency—there was literally no one in the empire above him.
But it still pissed me off.
Wait.
Was this XX also a romance novel male lead?
As a child, he had been a moody tsundere, subtly taking care of the heroine while failing miserably at hiding his feelings.
Now, years later, was he playing the role of the obsessive yandere male lead—the one who murders his father, takes the throne, and fixates solely on the heroine?
...Considering the kind of world we lived in, that actually sounded disturbingly plausible.
But, fortunately, it seemed like he hadn’t secretly killed his father in the dead of night.
His voice softened just slightly as he spoke again.
"How are you all doing? Are things better than before?"
He was addressing the soldiers now.
The company commander fumbled for an answer, struggling to reply.
Before he could embarrass himself, the highest-ranking person here—Winter—stepped forward.
"Yes, we are all carrying out our duties as expected, Your Majesty."
The Emperor’s golden eyes flicked toward him.
"I see. And you... weren’t you the one from back then...?"
The Emperor’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Winter.
“You sparred against me before, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I swallowed hard.
Oh, please. Please don’t let this turn into another Winter vs. Emperor showdown.
I prayed harder than I ever had in my life, and thankfully, the Emperor soon lost interest in Winter and shifted his gaze elsewhere.
“...I see.”
Instead, his attention landed on Dalin.
The Emperor was definitely looking at Dalin with interest.
‘What? XX, what?!’
Please, please don’t let him talk to Dalin.
I did not want the Emperor finding out what an absolute disaster Dalin was.
Had my meddling warped the original story so much that now the Emperor was going to be obsessed with Dalin?!
“Are you a recruit?”
“Uh, y-yes....”
Dalin fumbled her response under his scrutiny.
I immediately shot her a glare, and only then did she stiffen her back and straighten up properly.
“Do you have any suggestions for improving military service?”
“...What?”
XX!
Okay, so maybe he wasn’t personally interested in Dalin.
Maybe this was just his usual habit of playing politics, trying to gauge the sentiments of the people.
The civil opinion addict strikes again.
No one cares, just shut up and move on.
When he had asked us something similar years ago, we had all wisely laughed it off with, “Ha ha! Everything is great! Ha ha ha!”
But this was Dalin.
You never knew what Dalin was going to say.
And the thing about Dalin was...
Dalin was physically incapable of giving evasive answers.
If someone said, “Oh? Why don’t you go ahead and snitch then?”, she would literally run off and report them without hesitation.
She was absolutely going to say whatever she truly believed should be improved.
The air grew heavy as every senior soldier’s gaze locked onto her.
But even under all that pressure, Dalin remained completely innocent-looking, as if she had no idea why everyone was so tense.
This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.
“Hmm... I think....”
My heart slammed against my chest as she finally opened her mouth.
“The service term? It should be shortened!”
XX...!
The entire unit’s faces turned to pure horror.
And yet Dalin, ever unfazed, continued speaking as if she hadn’t just said something lethal.
“Oh, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but I really don’t like external duty? I should probably ask the others for their opinions too!”
“...That’s your complaint?”
The Emperor’s voice darkened.
Dalin smiled brightly at him.
“Who said it was a complaint~?”
“...You definitely made it sound like one.”
“I get told a lot that I’m too straightforward, so people misunderstand me all the time. It’s tough....”
She let out a sigh, looking genuinely troubled.
“I don’t actually have any complaints, though.”
Watching this in real-time, I came to a realization.
Dalin is fucking terrifying.
But since he had technically told her to be honest, the Emperor couldn’t outright reprimand her.
And since this was an official procession, he couldn’t afford to waste too much time here either.
Dalin had managed to express everything she wanted to say while simultaneously dodging any direct confrontation.
In the end, the Emperor—looking visibly displeased—could only mutter,
“I will take it into consideration.”
Then he turned away and continued on his way.
Only after the very last soldier in the procession had passed did our company commander’s legs give out, and he collapsed onto the ground.
“W-who the hell was that brainless soldier?!”
But he didn’t actually have to discipline Dalin himself.
Because the senior soldiers who had just lost ten years off their lifespans had already surrounded her.
“You—YOU CRAZY LITTLE XX! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!”
“WHERE IS YOUR SENSE?! DID YOU SELL IT?!”
The 85th Generation of Psychopaths, eyes blazing with fury, bore down on Dalin.
And since my own blood pressure had shot up, I made sure Dalin’s did too.
"What the fuck were you thinking?!"
“Eugh....”
Just as things started to calm down and the situation was wrapping up—
A voice we had forgotten to expect rang out.
“Salvia. It’s been a while.”
“Eh, eh, April-nim?”
I locked eyes with her, and my pupils violently trembled.