My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 9Vol 2.

“Salvia.”

“Yes.”

Hearing Winter’s voice, I reflexively responded in formal speech and turned around.

He stood tall, handing me something.

“Winter, what is this?”

As I accepted the pouch from him, he replied with an air of complete confidence.

“Pocket money.”

“...Excuse me?”

“It’s only natural for a senior to give their junior some spending money.”

...Judging by the way Ishina, standing beside me, looked like he’d just bitten into something rotten, it was anything but natural.

Still, I decided to just go along with it. After all, refusing a handout from someone willing to give it was weird, too. He really was a landlord through and through.

“Since today is your first day on the job, I figured you should have a good meal.”

“I’ll gratefully accept it!”

“Good. And also...”

Then, Winter casually dropped a statement that felt like an ominous foreshadowing.

“If there’s an emergency, multiple teams may be deployed together. We might run into each other in the field.”

“...Yes, yes.”

What was this? It had to be a setup for something.

A creeping sense of doom told me that at some point, while working with Ishina, I’d end up in some kind of perilous damsel-in-distress situation, only for Aquila and Winter to heroically come to my rescue.

“Haha... We’ll be on our way now.”

I tried to laugh it off and deny reality, but Winter’s words remained lodged in my mind.

Once we were far enough away that Winter was out of sight, I turned to Ishina.

“Ishina, what’s our assignment today?”

“Let’s see...”

Ishina unfolded the report he had received.

The Black Magic Search Special Forces dealt with suspected cases of black magic corruption. Reports from all over the empire were sent to us, and the higher-ups filtered them before assigning tasks to our teams.

If I could get promoted to a desk job where I didn’t have to go on field missions, that’d be ideal.

Of course, to reach that position, I’d have to rack up quite a bit of experience first.

“Today’s task is... consecrating cursed land.”

“...What? How are we supposed to consecrate land?”

Were we priests now? Was my life turning into an occult horror story? I stared at Ishina with wide eyes, but he quickly waved his hand to dismiss the thought.

“It’s just a figure of speech. There’s land that’s been corrupted by black magic, and we’re supposed to break the magic and purify it.”

“How does land even get corrupted by black magic?”

“According to the report...”

Ishina started explaining a phenomenon I hadn’t even considered before.

“The villagers have been growing increasingly hostile toward each other. There’s been a surge in conflicts, with people becoming more aggressive and blunt, constantly getting into fights.”

“And you’re sure that’s because of black magic?”

“Yeah. We recently captured a black magic user in that village. If any residual magic remains unbroken, the villagers could still be under its influence. We already destroyed the magic on the sorcerer’s home, so the corruption is likely affecting the entire village.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t much different from some of the assignments I had handled back in the Border Defense Army. I could adapt to this easily.

After joining the Search Force, I had received basic training on black magic, so I had a rough idea of how to dismantle curses affecting land.

With that, we were just about to set off for the village when—

“Salvia.”

“Ahhh!”

The only person who would call my name from that height was April. I whirled around in alarm.

“Yes! What is it?”

“Oh, nothing much.”

April twirled a lock of her hair around her fingers and gave me a sweet smile.

“Since this is your first mission, I just thought I’d give you some advice.”

“Yes! I’ll engrave it into my bones!”

“Should I do it for you?”

“I-I meant that figuratively...”

I instinctively took a step back, and April chuckled, waving her hands playfully.

“Hoho, I was just joking. But here’s what I wanted to say...”

At that moment, just like in the distant past, her light green eyes gleamed with an eerie light.

“Think through what you’re doing until the very end. Always ask yourself why you’re doing this job.”

“...Huh?”

I didn’t quite understand what she meant, so I cautiously asked for clarification.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hm... Salvia, even though we’re pretending to be ordinary Black Magic Search troops to fool outside eyes, what’s our real goal?”

“...The thing that must not be named— Ah, no, you mean revolution?”

“Exactly. Never forget that’s your real purpose.”

April added in a lighter tone,

“This applies to your personal life too. You’re a smart girl—I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Think about what you need to do, and do it.”

It sounded like she was telling me to take charge of my life and act according to my goals. But why was she suddenly giving me life advice? I blinked in confusion and hesitantly asked,

“...Why are you giving me personal advice all of a sudden? Not that I mind, but...”

“Well, I don’t know... It just seems °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° like you’ve been troubled lately.”

I immediately shut my mouth.

Because April was right.

Lately, I had been troubled.

It’s because of those damn male leads fighting over me...

I usually tried not to get involved when Aquila and Winter’s atmosphere turned strange, either distracting myself with hopeful delusions or hiding behind Ishina.

But as I recalled Winter’s serious face when he handed me that pocket money earlier, a realization hit me.

If I wanted to resolve their issues, I had to take action myself.

I clenched my fists. Yes, I can do this.

“Thank you, April. That was helpful.”

“Of course, it was! Hohoho!”

“...W-Well then, I’ll be going now.”

With her laughing like a complete lunatic, I quickly read the room and dragged Ishina out of the headquarters.

I decided to push that issue to the back of my mind for now. It was time to work.

We traveled for quite some time toward our destination.

“This is the place?”

“Yeah... It is.”

As we stood before the village, Ishina’s face twisted slightly in displeasure. Mine probably looked the same.

Because, to anyone with working eyes, this place reeked of black magic.

Despite it being daytime, a thick mist hung over the village, and the sun’s light barely reached the ground, making everything look dim and eerie. The air was damp, musty, and heavy with an unsettling stench. Goosebumps crawled up my arms.

“...Wouldn’t it be weirder not to suspect black magic at this point?”

“No wonder the villagers reported this.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

As we exchanged comments and prepared to step into the village, I suddenly hesitated.

“Ishina, if the entire village is under black magic’s influence, doesn’t that mean we could be affected, too? Like, what if we suddenly turn aggressive and start fighting each other...?”

“Hm.”

Ishina took a moment to think before replying.

“Even if I were affected, I doubt I’d get angry at you. I’ve already put up with so much—there’s no way some weak-ass black magic would push me over the edge.”

“...Excuse me?”

“And you? I don’t think you can actually get more aggressive than you already are.”

“...Excuse me?”

“No, no. I meant that we’ll be fine. Haha.”

I had the distinct feeling Ishina had just insulted me to my face. But since he was my senior and he seemed confident about it, I had no choice but to follow his lead.

The moment we stepped past the village’s boundary, an odd sensation welled up inside me.

A sudden, overwhelming urge to let out all my pent-up emotions, as if I wouldn’t be able to endure it unless I released everything right now.

“...Ah.”

Something hot was bubbling up from deep within me. The same kind of anger I felt whenever I had to deal with Patty, Matty, or Dalin.

“...Oh, for f—this is pissing me off.”

“...Salvia, what did you just say?”

“Gasp—my apologies! I didn’t mean to!”

Hearing Ishina reprimand me snapped me back to my senses. My eyes widened in shock. Did I just curse out loud? In front of a senior? That was a complete lapse in judgment.

“I can’t seem to control my emotions! I’m impulsively letting things out—I must be under the influence of black magic. I sincerely apologize!”

But instead of scolding me, Ishina only shook his head with an odd smile.

“No, I was just surprised because you’re acting exactly like your usual self. You can just go ahead and do what you normally do.”

“...Excuse me?”

“...Anyway, are you okay?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Mm, I can feel some weird frustration creeping in, but I’m always frustrated anyway. I can handle this much.”

“....”

Why did it feel like I kept taking indirect hits from him today?

At any rate, since the black magic didn’t seem to be affecting us too badly, we decided to continue investigating the village.

If black magic had covered the entire village, there were two possible explanations.

First, there might be a massive magic circle drawn across the village. Large-scale magic circles were often hard to notice, so we would have to carefully examine the ground and the walls of buildings as we moved.

Second, there could be an artifact somewhere. If a black magic artifact was spreading its influence over the village, it would likely be an eye-catching object—either something huge or something overly extravagant.

Keeping those two possibilities in mind, we began our search.

That was when we noticed a group of villagers in the distance.

They were pointing fingers at each other and shouting angrily.

“Ishina, I think the villagers are fighting.”

“We might be able to find some clues. Let’s check it out.”

As we moved closer, the scene became clearer. A young man and woman were standing face to face, their body language tense as if they were about to throw punches.

When I listened to their conversation, however...

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“I told you I love you!!”

“I love you too!! But what am I supposed to do when my parents don’t approve?!”

“Let’s elope!!”

“I can’t just go against my parents’ wishes! I am a dutiful daughter!!”

“But I love you!!”

“I love you too!!”

I stared at them in utter disbelief.

“...Are they actually fighting?”

“Well, the black magic’s effects supposedly make people brutally honest. I guess these two are just... being really honest.”

They were so deep in their own world that they didn’t even acknowledge our presence.

“Alright! Then let’s stop fighting!”

“Agreed!”

“And let’s elope!!”

“Oh my, how romantic!”

“Now that some outsiders have come to town, I got some info on good places to run away to! I know the perfect village for us!”

“Then let’s leave right now!”

“Yes!!”

And just like that, they grabbed hands and ran off together...

I looked at Ishina.

We both decided that stopping them wasn’t worth the effort.

There were no useful clues to be found from those lunatics.

There really are all sorts of crazy people in the world...

Little did I know, I was about to encounter some next-level crazy myself.