My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 4Vol 2.

‘Why here of all places?’

Aquila glared at Winter with a wary look in his eyes.

He had known for a while that Winter harbored feelings for Salvia. Salvia might have thought this situation was just a coincidence, but Winter had definitely made moves to meet her.

‘Damn...’

Back when they were in the Border Defense Army, whenever Aquila faced off against Winter, all he could do was offer casual responses. Winter had been his superior.

Now, there were no ranks between them anymore.

Yet, since Aquila didn’t have the kind of relationship with Winter where he could speak casually, he spoke with a more aggressive expression than usual.

"Winter, can I speak comfortably with you now?"

"...Sure. I can't impose any restrictions on that, but..."

This time, Winter turned to look at Aquila with a chilling expression.

"I heard you're planning to join the special forces for dark magic search with Salvia. In that case, I’ll be your superior again, so keep that in mind."

Aquila clenched his teeth after realizing that Winter had already anticipated Salvia's actions and had joined the special forces for dark magic search in advance. He had been one step ahead.

The tension between them flared up again. They now looked at each other with the same intensity as when they were facing monsters.

Screech!

At that moment, a carriage passed by with a loud noise.

"Salvia!"

Aquila quickly pulled Salvia into his arms, narrowly avoiding the carriage. Salvia, surprised, looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Are you alright?"

Winter, after confirming that Salvia was okay, turned his head toward the carriage.

"Be careful when driving the carriage next time..."

But Winter couldn’t finish his sentence. Salvia shouted loudly, cutting him off.

"Ah, damn, can’t you drive properly? Hey, look ahead when you’re driving!!"

"..."

"..."

Salvia was still glaring at the carriage as it disappeared.

A tense silence lingered between Winter and Aquila. At that moment, they both locked eyes, realizing something.

No matter how fiercely they competed, the winner would always be Salvia...

***

After the awkward stand-off between the two, for some reason, Aquila and Winter stopped their rivalry.

Aquila seemed reluctant toward Winter, but we had no other choice. The house Winter had offered was very decent, while the other houses the agent showed us were all a mess. If we tried to avoid Winter and lived in one of those, we’d end up living with ghosts.

Acknowledging that we had to sign the contract with Winter, Aquila was grim-faced but didn’t protest. After all, changing my life to a horror genre all of a sudden wasn’t ideal.

So, we signed the contract with Winter, and after we finished, Winter seemed ready to leave, putting on his coat.

"By the way, Winter!"

"Yes?"

"The key you gave me, shouldn't you take it back?"

The idea of holding someone else’s house’s vault key made me feel like an imposter. Since I wasn’t married to Winter, I should return it to him as soon as possible. When you give someone a key, it’s almost like proposing, right?

I offered the key to Winter, but he stared at it, murmuring.

"You’ve kept it."

Well, who wouldn’t keep someone else’s vault key? It was odd if you didn’t.

But Winter seemed strangely touched by the fact that I still had the key.

"Salvia, you can ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) keep it from now on."

"Excuse me?!"

I exclaimed, but Winter didn’t even blink.

"If I ever need it, I’ll ask for it back. Until then, you can hold on to it."

"When will that be?"

"...When I’m preparing for my coffin?"

Was that a joke? But I knew Winter didn’t joke like that.

So, he was serious! He meant he would love me until the end of his life!

I was dumbfounded, and just as I was frozen, Aquila intervened.

"Winter, we don’t have a place to keep the key at home. Please take it."

"Oh, is your house too small? Should I have shown you a bigger place?"

...Aquila shot back with that. He shut his mouth again.

By the time I was still fumbling with the key and not knowing what to do, Winter had already gone off in the distance. I called out to his back.

"Winter, are you going back home?"

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"Yeah."

"Is it the same castle we saw before?"

Come to think of it, Biotun was far from that northern village, wasn’t it? Did he just come to the capital to check on his houses?

While I was pondering, Winter casually stepped out the door and said.

"No, I’ve moved out."

"Oh, right. You’ll have to commute to the dark magic search special forces, so you must be living nearby. Where are you staying?"

"Next door."

...Damn, I fell for the male lead charm again.

***

"Hmm..."

After parting ways with Salvia, Winter was deep in thought.

"I’ll take responsibility, since you’ve decided to marry me."

When Winter heard those words from Aquila, he couldn’t hide his shock. He froze, not even considering how his expression might appear to Salvia.

Soon, after stopping their rivalry and seeing Salvia nearly hit by a carriage, he reluctantly let it go. But even after returning to his house, he couldn’t stop thinking about Salvia.

He had always disliked Aquila.

Whenever Salvia was around Aquila, she acted like a different person. They knew each other best and had spent the most time together.

In fact, the only person among Salvia’s close circle who irritated Winter wasn’t just Aquila.

Ishina had always looked after Salvia, and whenever Salvia had problems, he would often confide in Ishina. In front of Ishina, Salvia seemed like a child.

On the other hand, Karon was a bit different. Salvia was desperate to take care of him. Even though they were only a year apart, Salvia treated Karon like a child she had to protect.

Aquila, Ishina, and Karon were all people who saw a side of Salvia that she didn’t show to others. But Winter was certain she still regarded him as just a senior.

But she had kept the key. At least, it seemed that she didn’t take lightly what he had given her, and for that, Winter felt a small consolation.

‘But this won’t do.’

He knew better than anyone that he was far from being close to Salvia.

He remembered how Yuri had once dismissed him, saying he had no chance, and Altair had urged him to try harder. Their words were right. He couldn’t just sit around, he needed to put in the effort.

But how could he break through the wall Salvia had built?

Fortunately, since he lived next door, he would have plenty of chances to meet Salvia.

‘Yeah, there are plenty of chances.’

Winter nodded firmly, steeling himself.

He hadn’t bought the house next door just for nothing. He was ready to do anything for Salvia.

And now, it was time to take action.

***

Now that we had secured a house, we began purchasing furniture at the market. It would take time to bring in all the furniture and buy everything we needed, so we had to proceed step by step.

We were quite satisfied with how the house was coming together.

In the living room, there was a cozy sofa surrounding a fireplace, and warm-colored curtains and carpets complemented the space.

The two-story house had one bedroom and separate rooms for each of us. The bedroom had a large bed and I ordered blue curtains. In my room, I decided to put in a spacious bookshelf and desk. I felt happy just thinking about filling my wardrobe with clothes I liked.

I also placed vases with pretty flowers around the house. All these flowers were picked by Aquila for me, and it was the first time I had received flowers in this world. Truly, everything I was doing for the first time was with Aquila.

After arranging some furniture, I decided to do one of the first things I had planned once we secured a house. That was...

"To Ishina,

Hello, Ishina! I’ve been discharged! ><

Now that I’m discharged, can I speak casually with you?

First, my address is the place I sent this letter from! I bought a house with Aquila!

Should I come to your house for a housewarming, or will you come visit me?"

"Salvia."

"Yeah?"

Aquila suddenly embraced me from behind, causing the fountain pen to press into the paper and ink to spill over the letter. I quickly set the pen down on the desk.

"What's going on?"

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

"You're beautiful."

I stared into his eyes and smiled, then turned my head to hug him back.

"Oh, what’s this!"

Though I said that, these simple moments were so precious to me. I held him in my arms for a long while.

After the hug ended, I placed the letter I had been writing to Ishina into an envelope.

Then, I took it to the post office. It was my first time using the post office in this world, but it wasn’t difficult.

Now, Ishina would finally know my news!

***

Knock knock knock-

"Letter."

Hearing the knock, Ishina set down the book he had been reading and went to the door.

When he opened it, the mailman handed him a letter. Ishina took it.

The envelope was plain with no decoration, but what caught his eye was the name written on it.

"Salvia..."

The past three months had felt like three years to him. If Winter had heard that, he would’ve laughed, but to Ishina, it really felt like time was crawling.

His thoughts had been consumed with Salvia, so he hadn’t really felt the excitement of his discharge. Instead, he had been praying every day that Salvia wouldn’t get herself into any trouble.

But when he saw the letter, he realized that, contrary to his worries, Salvia had completed her discharge safely without any incidents!

Ishina smiled in joy and opened the envelope.

However, as he read the contents of the letter, his face went cold.

"What is this?"

"To Ishina,

Hello, Ishina! I’ve been discharged! ><

Now that I’m discharged, can I speak casually with you?

First, my address is the place I sent this letter from! I bought a house with Aquila!

Should I come to your house for a housewarming, or will you come visit me?"

The letter was cut off abruptly.

And that wasn’t all. The ink was smeared all over the bottom of the letter.

Had something happened while she was writing it? Did she get into an accident? Was it some kind of code? Thoughts swirled in Ishina’s mind.

It was probably just that she had forgotten to finish writing the letter after something happened, but still, he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

And the part about buying a house with Aquila bothered him too.

He knew they would get married eventually, but thinking of them living together already felt too quick and inappropriate. Salvia was an adult, after all.

"Sigh..."

In the end, Ishina sighed deeply, put on his coat, and prepared to go out.

"She really knows how to make people worry."

With a letter like this, he couldn’t not go visit her.

It seemed like Ishina was destined to be troubled by Salvia, even after her discharge.