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CHAPTER 05
“Hey, how are the kids doing?”
As we stood at attention, gasping for breath, a man sauntered over with a casual gait and spoke to the supervising senior.
“As always, they’re trash, sir.”
“Ah, not that usual answer. Be objective.”
The supervising senior glanced at us, then replied in a hesitant voice.
“Well… they’re not bad. Their physical abilities are about average. We’ll only really know once we get them holding swords.”
“Good. This time, let’s actually try to keep more of them alive. I don’t want a repeat of last batch where they all dropped dead.”
“I’ll do my best to push them properly.”
I feel like I just heard something very strange.
Still holding our attention stance, I exchanged uneasy glances with my nameless fellow recruits. Did he just say the previous batch died off…? Must be my imagination.
No matter how I thought about it, something about this was wrong.
In most romance fantasy survival stories, it’s usually like, “Survive the tyrant emperor!” or “Survive the insane tower lord!”
And in the end, those tyrants or madmen would toy with the heroine but never actually kill her, always saying things like, “How interesting.”
But here? “Survive monsters at the border”?
What kind of world is this supposed to be? Monsters aren’t exactly the type to say “How interesting” while playing with you.
“Seems like we’ve checked their physical abilities enough. Can we move on to housing and feed them something to eat?”
“Do so.”
“Hey, you lot. Follow me.”
We followed the senior toward what he called “quarters.”
‘Okay… if they’re calling it quarters, maybe it won’t be that bad.’
Even if this was a border defense corps, maybe it would be like those maid-in-a-romance-novel dorms? Clean white beds, maybe four people per room…
But the moment I saw the “quarters,” I started shaking uncontrollably.
‘Y-you insane bastards… if you’re going to do this, just call it a barracks! Why call it quarters?!’
It was unmistakably the military barracks I had seen in Korean variety shows.
XX, where’s the personal space?
How did the original heroine even manage romance in a place like this?
…No, right. This might just be a parallel world with no romance at all.
“Ah, you’re over here. Follow me.”
The senior who brought us here tapped my shoulder.
Only then did I realize this was the male dormitory. It was for the seven male recruits standing next to me.
At least there was a separate female dorm. I let out a quiet sigh of relief and followed him.
‘They should’ve just created a separate female unit from the start, XX.’
But in the Adolb Empire, instead of spending money on separate facilities, they simply lumped everyone into one unit, as written in Ne-Mi-Jip.
Because of that, men and women served in the same unit, and the original heroine could also experience romance with the male leads.
‘Still, at least we sleep separately… I guess it’s fine.’
The senior who led me to the female quarters knocked on the door and said in a tense voice, “I’m bringing in a recruit.”
“Let her in.”
A clear female voice came from inside. The senior quickly opened the door, pushed me in, and shut it again immediately.
“…What was that?”
He acted like he didn’t even want to be near this place.
I stepped inside, confused.
The room was much smaller than the male dorm. And there were only two women inside.
One of them, a petite girl with shimmering long blonde hair, smiled brightly at me with light green eyes.
“You’re the new recruit?”
“Huh? Yes… that’s correct.”
The blonde girl scanned me up and down with a curious gaze but kept her bright smile.
The other woman, tall with black hair tied high, turned her head sharply the moment our eyes met.
“…What?”
“Yuri, you’re not going to greet the new recruit?”
“I’m not interested.”
Yuri replied coldly.
“So I’m already marked as disliked?”
I stood there awkwardly.
“Nice to meet you, recruit. What’s your name?”
“S-Sarubia.”
“I’m April. Let’s get along.”
April held out her hand. I shook it, still confused.
“Oh, looks like you didn’t bring your belongings. Tell me your size, I’ll prepare your clothes.”
‘Is she… not scary? Like a kind senior?’
She kept smiling warmly and speaking gently.
Of course, I only learned later that her smile was famously called the “devil’s smile” in the unit.
“Ugh… I still don’t get it. Why are they so weak?”
XX, what more do you want from us?
I thought this as I ran my thirtieth lap around the training ground. I could taste blood in my throat, and my head kept drooping forward.
‘I feel like I’m going to throw up.’
These insane people had no concept of restraint. Right after lunch, they immediately restarted this hellish training.
My fellow recruits and I were united in one thing during meals: survival eating.
After that hellish training, anything tasted like heaven, but the food here was genuinely good. The portions were also decent.
‘They sure cook well… honestly, if even the food was bad, I would’ve deserted already.’
After eating well, the senior said, “If you face monsters like this, you’ll die. Build stamina first,” and training resumed.
The senior in charge of us was named Plato, and he would be handling our training going forward.
“Hey! Your speed is too slow! Don’t stop running!”
‘If I could do that, I’d be a car, not a human.’
I gasped for breath and glanced at Plato.
Beside him was April, smiling brightly.
She was the insane woman of this unit.
“Hm… the kids are so weak it hurts my heart… Maybe we should all gather the seniors and have a nice little friendly talk.”
“Absolutely not! The recruits can still do more! Run! Run!”
Whenever April murmured about our condition, Plato would break into a cold sweat and intensify training.
‘She’s definitely the top predator in this unit’s ecosystem.’
Just seeing how respectful Plato was toward her made it obvious she held serious authority—and a terrifying personality.
“Hey! If anyone falls behind, they die! Don’t you know collective responsibility?!”
At that, I genuinely felt the urge to desert.
Even with my enhanced physique as a non-human race, I was still weaker than the male recruits.
“Hoho, do monsters now discriminate by gender?”
Because April said that with a cheerful smile, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and keep running.
“Ten laps left!”
The moment my legs gave out and I almost collapsed—
A firm hand supported my back.
“Keep running.”
Hot breath brushed my ear. I steadied myself and kept moving, then turned slightly to see who it was.
Black hair falling over his eyes, deep red-orange eyes beneath it, sweat running down his face, and lips bitten so hard they looked like they might bleed.
Aquila, the male lead—and my fellow recruit.
‘Is this… a romance fantasy development?’
My mind briefly lit up with hope again.
But then he spoke.
“No one is allowed to fall behind.”
His voice carried the tone of someone who would kill a lagging comrade without hesitation.
“…Yeah. He’s just worried about collective punishment.”
Right. This is the military.
And just like that, I had no choice but to accept it.
“Wow, it actually worked.”
The nameless recruit beside me muttered weakly, looking like he was about to die.
“Yeah… it actually worked.”
How did this even work?
We had somehow completed fifty laps without a single dropout.
Every time someone slowed down, April would smile while gently patting Plato’s hair and whisper something, and Plato would glare at us like he wanted to kill us.
So of course, we ran for our lives.
“Only violence and fear can save us all.”
April said this with a satisfied smile while we drank water like people who had just crossed a desert.
“That’s the official motto of this unit…?”
“Good. This batch seems decent. We might actually keep more of them alive.”
“As expected. Train them so they can function properly by the next monster attack.”
Her gaze swept over us.
Then stopped on Aquila.
“Your name?”
“Aquila.”
“You seem like you’ll survive anyway, so I’m not too worried. Take care of your fellow recruits. They’re the only ones you can trust here.”
Aquila turned his head and looked at us.
And for a brief moment, our eyes met.
‘Yeah… that’s definitely not a friendly look.’
In romance fantasy, the male lead often looks down on the heroine at first, like “You’re weak” or “I don’t need your help.”
But I had never seen a look that said, “You are a useless burden.” with this much sincerity.
Yeah. Sorry for being your useless teammate in the military, XX…
