My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 149: Side Story 4: The Secret of Four Obsessed Madmen Cling to Me

In front of the imperial palace square, several corpses hung in the open air.

At the center of them was the body of a woman with golden hair cascading lifelessly down her shoulders.

“...I was too late again.”

The moment she took in the sight before her, Salvia murmured under her breath. Her tone was calm, yet a chilling coldness laced her voice.

Aquila swiftly pulled her away from the scene. Though Salvia kept glancing back, they had to leave. If they lingered too long or acted suspiciously, they might be captured as well.

She was strung up in a way they had never imagined, a grotesque contradiction to how she had lived.

The official charge: Spreading seditious ideology and attempting treason.

And for that, she had been executed.

“This is all my fault.”

Salvia had tried to stop it, but she had failed.

Despair gripped her. If they had arrived just a little earlier—if they had acted faster—perhaps she wouldn’t have been executed.

Salvia hadn’t been particularly close to her in life. They had barely spoken, and she only realized later that the woman had been preparing, just like her, to change this world.

That was why, when she heard about the execution, she couldn’t just stand by. She had spent time with her in the Border Defense Army, after all. Even if it was too late, she had wanted—desperately—to save her.

“...I’ve failed again.”

As Salvia wept, Aquila silently led her up the mountain. If an Arkon were seen at the execution site, they too could be accused of harboring seditious thoughts.

By the time they reached the peak, the sky had turned crimson with the setting sun.

Looking out over the horizon, Salvia gripped the hand of the person beside her. The warmth of his touch grounded her, slowing the tears that had refused to stop.

“Aquila.”

“Yeah.”

“Where did we go wrong?”

Everything they had attempted had ended in failure.

They had failed to stop April’s execution.

They had failed to return Salvia to her original body.

Aquila had always told her there would be another way, but in the end, they had never found one.

Just obtaining the Black Dragon’s heart to summon Salvia’s soul had been an extraordinary stroke of luck. Dragons were rare to begin with, and killing one was a near-impossible feat. It wasn’t a chance they could replicate.

Salvia bit her lip.

She would never be able to return to her original body.

But more than that, she had failed to return this broken, self-loathing Arkon girl to her own body.

The girl had died in despair, unable to find happiness, and because Salvia had taken over this body in the heat of a reckless decision, she could never find happiness in it either.

“What... what should we have done?”

She thought of the people who had died in the Border Defense Army. Her fellow recruits. Altair. The countless juniors who had followed after them.

The dark mages who had long exploited the Arkons had now pledged loyalty to the Emperor, growing stronger than ever. And in her desperation to reclaim her body, Salvia had paid them—directly feeding the very force that upheld the Emperor’s power.

The Emperor had brought in the dark mages to crush the Second Prince’s faction, and the money Salvia had funneled into their hands had only bolstered his strength.

And so, the Emperor remained in power.

The Arkon resistance, scattered into factions, had failed to change the system.

If they had been united—if they had acted together—they might have stood a chance. But they hadn’t.

And today, the leader of the largest faction had been executed.

All their struggles to break free from oppression had crumbled to dust.

We should have at least succeeded in overthrowing the regime.

After failing to return Dalin to her body, after failing to reclaim her own, Salvia had thrown herself into the revolution. If Dalin hadn’t been left helpless as an orphaned Arkon girl, she never would have suffered the way she did.

But even this had ended in failure.

Salvia had accomplished nothing.

As she looked down at the unchanged Adolph Empire, fresh tears welled in her eyes. She rarely cried. But today, the tears wouldn’t stop.

Aquila wordlessly reached out, wiping them away.

“It’s okay, Salvia. This wasn’t your fault.”

But she shook her head. Her lips trembled as she fought back another sob, her eyes red and swollen.

“No... I could have changed it....”

Even if the people around her didn’t understand, she knew the truth.

She had had the chance to change everything.

And she had let it slip through her fingers.

Dalin...

『Leave my name behind in this world.

I don’t think I can do it myself.

One way or another, I want my name to remain.』

As Salvia recalled Dalin’s letter, the one that had sent her into a spiral of shock and disbelief, a realization struck her like a bolt of lightning.

“...No. You did it, didn’t you?”

Tears spilled down her face again.

How had she been so blind?

How had she not noticed?

The novel she had read before reincarnating—Four Obsessed Madmen Cling to Me.

Why hadn’t she ever thought about who wrote it?

Dalin... it was you, wasn’t it?

It was said that when an Arkon bound by contract magic died, their final wish could sometimes manifest in a burst of magical energy.

Salvia glanced down at her wrist—at Dalin’s wrist.

The contract magic that should have been there had vanished without a trace.

That meant Dalin’s soul had completely disappeared.

She was gone.

But before she died, Dalin had activated a wish.

And so, her wish—to leave her name in the world—had been granted in the form of a novel.

By leaving behind a story that bore her name, she had immortalized herself in the world.

That was why Salvia had been able to read her story.

Before she had ever entered this world, she had read about Dalin’s life in the Border Defense Army.

Four Obsessed Madmen Cling to Me.

A story that chronicled one girl’s life.

A story Salvia had read.

Their lives had been entangled.

Salvia had read Dalin’s story before arriving in this world.

And after spending three years here and dying, she had been reborn in Dalin’s body.

Meanwhile, Dalin had given up her body to Salvia and, in doing so, had ensured that her life story would be recorded as a novel.

Their timelines had twisted and overlapped, their wishes intertwining into a tangled mess.

“If only I had acted differently...”

Salvia’s face was soaked in tears, yet she made no move to wipe them away.

She had known how this world was supposed to unfold.

Because she had read Dalin’s story.

But she had erased that knowledge from her own mind.

When Sanchez, a recruit who had once joined the Border Defense Army, told Salvia about the existence of a "memory-enhancing candy," she had desperately wanted to regain her memories of Earth.

Back then, she had yet to love this world. She had not grown attached to it. Instead, she longed for the world she had come from.

And so, rather than sharpening her memories of the original novel, she had given them up as the price.

She had foolishly believed that she would be able to avoid her destined death in the original story. She had thought that knowledge of the novel would be of no use to her life.

At the time, all she wanted was to remember the place she had once belonged to.

If only she had used that memory wisely, Dalin could have survived and carved out a place for herself in this world.

Altair wouldn't have died.

The scattered Arkon resistance factions might have united and succeeded in changing the regime.

April wouldn't have been executed.

“...You don’t understand anything. This is all my fault. It turned out this way because I made the wrong choice back then...”

Her gravest mistake had been failing to anticipate one thing—how much she would come to love this ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) world.

She had never expected to love Aquila this much.

She had never expected to love the people who surrounded her.

She had never expected to love this world.

And because of that—because she had let herself love—she had failed to change anything.

She had failed to protect anything.

Salvia couldn’t stop crying as realization and regret crashed over her in waves. Aquila tightened his grip around her shaking shoulders.

“Salvia, tell me. What can I do for you? What can I do to help?”

His voice was raw, like he was spitting out blood. Nothing pained Aquila more than being powerless to help Salvia.

As she listened to his desperate words, a thought suddenly struck her. She lifted her head abruptly.

“Aquila, what if...?”

She drew in a breath.

“What if we try again from the beginning?”

If they could turn back time—if, back then, she had chosen to keep her knowledge of the original novel rather than memories of her past life—perhaps she could have saved everyone.

They had delved into every kind of dark magic in their search for a way to reclaim her body.

Curses that could kill.

Spells that could summon lost souls into empty vessels.

Even magic that could turn back time.

But as soon as she voiced the thought aloud, she fell silent.

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Turning back time...

Wouldn’t that erase all the efforts of those who had tried to bring her back?

Wouldn’t that nullify all the time they had spent together in the Border Defense Army?

But Aquila, as if completely unfazed, simply asked her in a steady voice:

“...Do you think you’ll do better this time?”

Salvia stared at him.

And in his eyes, she saw nothing but sincerity.

“You remember the price of time magic, don’t you?”

“...Yeah. Memory.”

The reason why, despite existing in theory, no one had ever used time magic in this world.

The price was everyone’s memory.

The conditions for turning back time were twofold:

First, the blood of someone who had died with deep resentment.

Second, the memories of every living person in the world.

If time reset and everyone’s memories were erased, there was no guarantee anything would change.

The world could simply repeat itself endlessly, trapping them in a meaningless cycle.

“Salvia, do you really think turning back time will let you change everything?”

She hesitated for a long moment.

Then, slowly, she nodded.

“Yes. As long as you’re with me.”

Even if memories were lost, emotions would remain.

Even if she forgot everything she had experienced with Aquila, she knew—without a doubt—that she would fall in love with him all over again.

But for that to happen...

“Aquila, will you love me again?”

She needed him.

“If we turn back time, you have to make me love this world again. You have to make me love you again. No matter what happens, I have to choose you. I can’t hesitate. You have to love me the same way, over and over again. It can’t take too long. From the very beginning, you have to love me.”

To do that, she would have to return to the time when she had first entered this world, when she had known nothing.

She would have to go back to the moment she enlisted in the Border Defense Army.

“That’s obvious.”

Even though Aquila didn’t understand what she meant by “this world,” he simply agreed.

If Salvia wished for it, he would love her again.

Because—

“Salvia, if I don’t love you, then I’m not me.”

He could promise her that much.

Fresh tears spilled down Salvia’s cheeks as she clasped his hand tightly.

Below them, the imperial city stretched out beneath the darkening sky.

And there, in front of the palace, hung a body.

The blood of someone who died with resentment.

She had no doubt that person had died with hatred in their heart.

That woman would never have died quietly.

If they used her blood for the ritual, the consequences would be unpredictable. It was possible they would become even more entangled in her fate.

But Salvia didn’t care.

And the second condition—memories.

“...Aquila, are you really okay with leaving this world behind?”

Her voice trembled.

She was afraid.

Aquila had spent so long trying to make her love him, to make her recognize his feelings.

Could he truly leave all of that behind and start over?

But without hesitation, Aquila answered.

“Salvia, wherever you are—that’s my world.”

“Aah...”

Salvia burst into tears again, unable to stop them from flowing freely.

Between her choked sobs, she let out a soft, almost teasing laugh.

“Then I’ll make you fall in love with me all over again, Aquila. I swear. You won’t be able to resist.”

They would love each other.

No matter what.

They would love, and because of that love, they would love this world as well.

This time, she would not make the same mistake.

This time, she would not choose the world she had left behind.

This time, she would protect this world.

Hand in hand, they stepped forward together.