This Novel is not my Novel

'Where am I supposed to get information...?' Lost in thought, I walked without realizing it and ended up at the campus cafeteria. Helga, Vigdís, and Ríolíkin had arrived first and secured seats, so after picking up our ordered food, Reisir and I joined them at the table.

"Helga, do you happen to know anything about Professor Skati?"

As you can tell from the tone alone, the one who asked the question was Reisir, not me.

Although he said there was nothing he could do to help with Skati's problem, it seemed he still couldn't completely let go of his interest in it.

Seeing him ask something like that the moment he planted himself in his chair, he must have judged that confirming my concerns came first.

Helga is the type who actively engages in social activities, so she picks up all kinds of information from here and there.

That's why I also wanted to ask her about Skati.

But since Helga dislikes my transmigrated body, asking her for help felt more than a little awkward.

'But for Reisir to bring it up first like this?'

Thanks to him, things became easier... or so I mistakenly thought.

At that moment, I genuinely believed that.

"Yes, she's very famous, you know. In a bad way."

"In a bad way?"

Hearing his childhood friend's words, Reisir raised his eyebrows and asked for a more detailed explanation.

At his reaction, Helga looked puzzled for a moment, but immediately answered.

"Haven't you heard that the professor is a criminal?"

"A criminal?! How can someone like that work as a professor at the academy?"

"She was sentenced to serve society by teaching students at the academy."

Hearing that, Reisir looked at me in surprise.

He was probably checking whether I already knew Skati was a criminal. I subtly nodded with a calm expression, answering his unspoken question.

Then Reisir's expression turned bewildered.

"But why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"Because Karvaldr is taking that professor's... no, that professor's lecture, and apparently she took issue with the fact that he bullied me last semester."

A strange tension spread through the atmosphere.

Reisir deliberately corrected himself by dropping the honorific suffix from the title 'Professor'. The muscles in his face revealed displeasure that went beyond simple reluctance.

Helga accepted her friend's reaction as perfectly natural and voiced her exasperation toward the absent Skati.

"Why is someone who has nothing to do with Reisir bringing up something that's already in the past?"

"Exactly... I wonder why... That professor shouldn't have the right to do that." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Even after clearly hearing from me that Skati seemed to be suffering workplace bullying, Reisir answered as though he had no idea.

It seemed that, in his mind, Skati had already become nothing more than a 'shameless person who, despite being a criminal, is trying to persecute a student over nothing more than a quarrel between children.'

'From the standards of modern society, school violence really is a crime if you want to call it that...'

This was a world inside a fantasy novel, and since I had possessed the body of the perpetrator of that school violence, it wasn't my place to say anything, so I could only remain silent.

"Helga, do you happen to know what crime that professor committed?"

"Nothing is known for certain. But if it had been a minor crime, she would have served a short prison sentence and gotten out, or been released on bail. Since she's been assigned to work at the academy indefinitely, people say she must have committed a serious crime."

"......"

"Besides, the subject she teaches is 'Dagger Techniques,' which naturally makes people think of assassins, right? Daggers aren't weapons used exclusively by assassins, and they're more commonly used for self-defense or to support a primary weapon, but according to rumors, that professor often appears and disappears without a trace..."

It seemed Skati's position as the successor to the head of the Assassination Guild was not publicly known.

Come to think of it, that information wasn't included in the directory of names I received from the family either.

Surely it wasn't that the Austri Ducal Family, one of the pillars of the Four Great Ducal Families, was unaware of something like that.

Did they hide it because they thought I didn't need to know?

"Rumors tend to become more sensational as they spread, so you can't take them at face value, but I still find it a little eerie."

"Yeah... I think I should look into it."

Reisir, the protagonist of 《NaSE》, is not the type of character to be swayed by rumors, but neither does he dismiss everything he hears.

He is the type who reserves judgment until he confirms the truth for himself.

So if Reisir said he would look into it, those definitely weren't empty words. It meant he truly intended to act on it.

'Conveniently enough, he also has a way to verify what Skati's previous profession was.'

The ability to peek into other people's stats and skills, the 【Truth Reading Eye】, was exactly that.

As though confirming that my thoughts were correct, Reisir began fiddling with his eyepatch.

'Even if people have guessed that Skati's former profession was assassin, they're probably underestimating her abilities. That's likely why bastards who bully Skati appeared in the first place.'

Skati was still in her early thirties, which was fairly young.

She would have been even younger when she first entered the academy as a professor, and her tone was also rather casual.

It wasn't hard to understand why bastards who didn't know their place would look down on her.

She was an assassin, but one so full of openings and so clumsy that she was captured alive with ease.

After readily spilling information about the requests she had received, she ended up under protection and surveillance within the safety of the academy.

It wouldn't be strange for people to misunderstand her like that.

However, Reisir would immediately realize that Skati was a formidable individual.

Not only were countless assassination-related skills listed in her skill window, but most of them were S Rank or above.

And the stats displayed in her status window were similarly absurdly high.

'Was bringing up Skati to Reisir a bad judgment call...?'

Even before reviewing the contents of Skati's skill window, concern was already obvious on Reisir's face as he looked at me.

No, it wasn't just Reisir.

Vigdís and Ríolíkin, and even Helga, who claimed to dislike Karvaldr, all wore similar expressions.

'They must think I've been targeted by some terrifying criminal for no reason.'

I couldn't help worrying too.

I was worried that if Reisir encountered Skati later in the Demon Realm, the two of them might end up fighting instead of joining forces to defeat the dungeon boss.

In that case, Reisir would never accept Skati as a companion, and once their relationship became hostile, Skati would eventually die.

Perhaps far sooner than in the original work.

And Reisir would also suffer an enormous loss, since he would no longer be able to learn the various survival skills Skati was supposed to teach him.

'Why... why did things turn out like this...? They say the original work is bound to change from the mere presence of a transmigrator from another novel, but I feel like it shouldn't get twisted like this...'

Maybe because this was a world inside someone else's novel, I truly couldn't predict even an inch ahead.

I never could have imagined things would develop in this direction.

If any reader predicted this, please leave a comment saying, 'I knew this would happen,' and possess this body instead of me.

Things had become twisted to this extent.

If Skati wasn't actually being bullied by her fellow professors, then things would become very troublesome.

I wouldn't be able to prove that she was no longer a dangerous person, nor prove that she had every right to be angry at Karvaldr.

In other words, there was one professor I was personally close to.

If you don't know who that is, it means you haven't been reading my story properly, so please go back and reread from chapter 22.

Currently, to prevent exam questions from leaking, ordinary students were prohibited from entering the research building until exams were over.

However, by sheer luck, the 'Dagger Techniques' lecture had been on Wednesday, while the 'Ether Attribute Enhancement' lecture was held the very next day, Thursday.

Thanks to that, I didn't have to wait until midterms were over to speak with Professor Radvisin.

"Professor. I know you're busy preparing for exams, but I would appreciate it if you could spare even a moment."

As soon as the lecture ended, I hurried over to Professor Radvisin and spoke to him.

Perhaps my expression seemed urgent, because confusion and concern appeared on Professor Radvisin's face at the same time.

"What is it, Karvaldr? Has something happened with the sky blue ether?"

"It's not related to ether. There's something I wanted to ask about another professor."

"Hoh..., another professor besides me... Surely you're not saying you've found another professor you want as your advisor."

"That is absolutely, resolutely not the case."

Since I had absolutely no intention of becoming a research student, I denied it firmly with a serious expression.

Professor Radvisin seemed deeply satisfied by my reaction.

Even though choosing a different advisor professor didn't automatically mean I would become his research student.

"Hohohoho, if that's the case... then I shall answer to the best of my knowledge. Go ahead and ask."

I wanted to ask for every piece of information he knew about Professor Skati, but that would be too much of a nuisance.

Since each student's ether attribute differed, the methods used for ether attribute enhancement training were also semi-customized.

That meant the grading criteria for exams must also differ from person to person, and balancing them fairly was probably difficult.

I didn't want to take up too much of the professor's time, so I decided to ask only the key points as quickly as possible.

"Why does Professor Skati deliberately reveal that she's a criminal during the first lecture of her class?"

"Half a semester has already passed, and you're only curious about that now?"

"At the time, she said she was unwillingly carrying out the role of professor. But as time passed, I saw that she was finding genuine fulfillment in teaching someone... and that felt contradictory to me."

"As expected, Karvaldr truly has the makings of a scholar! To feel doubt and investigate something most people would simply overlook."

Today as well, Professor Radvisin showered me with praise in an attempt to lure me down the path of becoming a research student.

It happened the moment I let my guard down because of his usual demeanor.

The old professor standing before me suddenly threw out a sharp remark.

"In that case, I must ask. Why did you urgently need to ask such a question now, with the midterms right around the corner? Even knowing how busy I am."

"......"

"You're not asking out of simple curiosity, are you?"

Skati had started to disapprove of me, and the moment everyone learned she was a criminal, they all began worrying for my safety.

Because of that, this time I intended to obtain only the necessary information without revealing my circumstances.

I didn't want to cause concern for the professor, who already helped me so much.

'But to think he would question me immediately...'