My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 102

Once we had the dark sorcerer bound at the wrists and gagged to prevent him from pulling any tricks, Karon arrived with the rest of the unit.

The soldiers took one look at the beaten, groaning dark sorcerer sprawled on the wooden floor and the suspicious passage leading underground, and their eyes widened in shock.

“Salvia, excellent work.”

Winter inspected the unconscious sorcerer as he spoke to me.

“You kept your cool and made the right call.”

“Thank you.”

But even as I responded, my eyes were on Karon.

The dark sorcerer. The children he had exploited. Seeing them here, right in front of him, might bring back bad memories.

“Karon.”

“Yes?”

As expected, he couldn’t take his eyes off the ragged-looking children. I quickly nudged Aquila’s arm, signaling him before calling Karon over.

“Wow! You did a great job bringing the rest of the unit! You really worked hard to gather everyone! That’s seriously amazing!”

I started clapping, and Aquila reflexively followed suit. Karon’s expression immediately brightened.

...He’s so easy to read.

With that, the dark sorcerer situation was pretty much wrapped up. Except for one lingering issue.

“What about the children still bound by magic?”

“The higher-ups will send specialists to take care of that once we turn in the sorcerer.”

That was the official response. But knowing how slow the upper ranks worked, I wasn’t exactly reassured.

That was when Sanchez, who had been watching the dark sorcerer from a short distance, spoke up.

“These kinds of spells usually have a medium. If we destroy it, the contract should break.”

“A medium?”

“Yes. There are two ways to undo a contract spell. One, the caster willingly releases it. Two, you destroy the artifact anchoring it.”

Sanchez began explaining in detail.

“Most contract-based dark magic relies on an artifact to serve as the medium.”

He stroked his graying beard as he continued.

“The dark sorcerer I knew once tried to place a contract spell on me. But I smashed the artifact with a hammer first. And then I took that hammer and—”

“Yeah, I think I get the gist of what happened next. No need to elaborate.”

Now that I thought about it, Sanchez’s connection to a dark sorcerer before enlisting had nothing to do with them being allies. He hadn’t been working with a dark sorcerer—he had been blackmailing one.

The complete opposite of the usual relationship between Arkons and dark sorcerers.

Finishing that thought, I met Winter’s gaze and spoke.

“Winter, wouldn’t it be better if we broke the contract spell ourselves?”

If we left it up to the higher-ups, who knew how long the children would remain under the spell? And if the dark sorcerer managed to escape in the meantime, things would get even worse.

I glanced toward Altair, who had been standing nearby. Catching my signal, he nodded and backed me up.

“She’s right.”

“And what’s your reasoning, Altair?” Winter asked.

“Honestly? I didn’t catch any of what you were saying. But Salvia saved my life, so whatever she says has to be correct.”

Winter’s face twisted in mild disbelief, but he quickly recomposed himself, turning his gaze toward the children. After some thought, he moved to speak with the commanding officers of the other units. When he returned, he had an answer.

“By protocol, we should step back and let the higher-ups handle this. But given how slow they are, it would be better if we broke the spell now. The other units have agreed to delay their reports until after we’ve dealt with it.”

The tension in the air lifted. The soldiers who had been looking at the children with pity now wore hopeful expressions.

“There’s no chance this sorcerer will release the spell willingly, so we need to find and destroy the medium.”

“Can’t we just threaten him into undoing it?”

Frankly, scouring the area for a hidden artifact seemed like a hassle. It would be far easier for Sanchez to just grab a hammer and convince the sorcerer to do it himself.

That was when Karon, who had been standing beside me, leaned in and whispered.

“Salvia, I don’t think the dark sorcerer will ever break the spell voluntarily. Because if he does, he’ll just be captured and locked away. But if he resists until the end, he still has a chance.”

“A chance for what?”

“If we let our guard down, he could order the children to free him. Or to attack us and create an escape route.”

“...Ah.”

I narrowed my eyes at the sorcerer. Right now, he was completely immobilized and gagged, unable to give any commands. But if we had left him unchecked...

“So he has total control over the children?”

“If they disobey his orders, they’ll experience unbearable pain.”

That was almost identical to the magical contract binding us in the Border Defense Army. If we violated the terms, we suffered consequences—either death or agony.

And Karon... he spoke as if he had firsthand experience.

So that’s why he’s whispering....

The last time we encountered a dark sorcerer, Karon had told me he wanted revenge. He said he held a deep grudge. But when the moment came, he had let me handle everything.

And now, faced with another dark sorcerer and another group of exploited children, Karon wasn’t angry. He wasn’t trying to take revenge.

Instead, he had drawn close to me, quietly feeding me information.

That could only mean one thing.

Karon is afraid of dark sorcerers.

No matter how much he resented them, when he was actually in front of one, his fear took over.

“Karon.”

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

I pulled him into a hug.

Even though I was furious, boiling inside, Karon just smiled brightly.

...April, I wish you the best of luck.

At this point, the number of times I’d found myself rooting for April had officially surpassed five.

What an absolute nightmare.

***

The first place we needed to search was obvious.

The basement, of course.

It had already been filled with suspicious dark magic artifacts, and we’d even found a hidden room. There could be more secrets buried there. Since our search of the dark sorcerer’s body had turned up nothing, Sanchez also agreed with our conclusion.

Some of our unit would search the basement while the rest kept watch over the dark sorcerer. The other units were tasked with escorting the rescued children to a physician.

Winter peered down into the darkness below and spoke.

“Wait here. I’ll go check it out.”

...Was he seriously planning to go alone?

Before I could say anything, Aquila met my gaze before turning to Winter.

“You shouldn’t go alone. I’ll go with you.”

That was unexpected. Those two usually avoided each other, yet now they were teaming up.

“Salvia, wait here. We’ll be back.”

...Hold on. Was it just me, or...?

No. This wasn’t just in my head.

"Wait here. I’ll go check it out."

"Salvia, wait here. We’ll be back."

These bastards are walking straight into a horror movie cliché!

I had barely managed to keep Patty, Matty, and Dalin alive, and now Winter and Aquila—the male leads of the original novel—were setting off their own death flags?!

“Wait! I’m coming too!”

I grabbed Aquila’s sleeve on instinct.

“Winter! We should go in teams of at least three! I’m coming with you!”

Before my life turned into a horror movie, I needed to prevent these idiots from getting themselves killed.

***

“Salvia, this is against military regulations...”

“Yes, sir.”

Tch. Winter was sharp as always. I reluctantly let go of Aquila’s arm.

We thoroughly searched the basement once again. There was no guarantee that we had found everything the first time. But...

“Salvia. I found a creepy-looking doll.”

“Ugh! Get rid of it!”

“Salvia. Do you think this mirror could be a hidden passage?”

“Ugh! Don’t stare into it! Something might appear behind you!”

They kept triggering horror clichés one after another, and I had my hands full stopping them.

Eventually, we returned to the room where the children had been imprisoned. Our subordinates had already searched it, but... I wasn’t about to trust them completely.

“Salvia, over here.”

“Hm?”

“This part of the wall is hollow.”

Just like before, Aquila had found an empty space behind a wall. To get to it, we employed the tried-and-true method.

"Violence and fear will save us all!"

Aquila struck the wall with his sword’s hilt, shattering it instantly and revealing another hidden room. Thankfully, Winter didn’t even comment on our destructive tendencies.

“...This is...”

Instead, his gaze was locked on what lay inside.

Shelves filled the small room, each packed with neatly organized documents.

“Secret records?”

The papers were carefully sorted. If they were hidden this deep, they had to be more important than the dark magic artifacts. Maybe they even contained instructions for using dark magic.

“That one looks suspicious.”

Aquila reached for a section of the shelf, pointing to a bright red piece of paper.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

That color... something about it felt wrong.

Blood?

In that moment, I recalled something the dark sorcerer had said earlier.

"They are bound by a contract forged with their own blood."

Blood!

If that paper was stained with the children’s blood, it could be the contract’s medium!

“I think this is it.”

I stepped forward, intending to retrieve the paper.

And right then—

Whoosh—

The sound of something slicing through the air made me instinctively duck.

“Shit...!”

An arrow buried itself into the wall right where I had been standing.

But there was no one in the room with us. As I hesitated, trying to make sense of it, Aquila rushed over, pulling me up and shielding me. At the same time, Winter’s voice rang out in alarm.

“It’s a trap spell!”

Looking up, I saw strange symbols glowing on the left wall.

“What the hell is that?!”

The golden geometric patterns shimmered, reacting to our presence and launching more projectiles in our direction.

Dark smoke formed into arrows and throwing knives, narrowly missing us before dissolving into nothing. They were made of magic, but I had no doubt that getting hit would cause serious injuries.

“This damn dark sorcerer! So annoyingly thorough!”

Of course, it made sense. If he went through the trouble of hiding such crucial documents, he would’ve placed protective spells to ward off intruders.

“We need to grab that paper and get out of here!”

My voice automatically rose in urgency.

“I’ll get it!”

Ducking low, I sprinted toward the center of the room where the paper lay. Aquila and Winter stayed behind, deflecting incoming arrows with their swords to cover me.

If I moved carefully and kept my stance low, I could avoid getting hit.

Whoosh—!

Then, without warning, the number of arrows multiplied.

“Ahhh!”

I dropped flat to the ground just in time. Even Aquila and Winter, who had been blocking the projectiles, could no longer advance. The sheer number of arrows was overwhelming.

It was because I had stepped further into the room.

Can I still do this?

The source of the arrows was the glowing symbols on the left wall. We needed to push forward toward the document in front of us.

“Salvia! Stay put! I’ll get it!”

Aquila shouted as he dodged through the storm of arrows.

But I was so close. If I could just reach the shelf—

If Aquila could get close enough as well, all we needed was...

“Aquila.”

Our eyes met, and in that instant, he understood my plan.

“If that’s what you want.”

“Thanks!”

At the same time, we both lunged for the document.