This Novel is not my Novel

'I can't let him gouge out his eyes with those claws!!'

I screamed inwardly.

No matter how important hiding my status window is, I can't let the baby dragon gouge out the original protagonist's eyes.

So I approached Yor, who was floating behind Reisir, grabbed his finger, and shook my head.

Then I stroked the baby dragon's tail, which was covered in soft fur.

"Myang...? Nyaha!"

Yor let out a puzzled sound for a moment, but soon seemed enlightened.

He must have understood that just because I poked Reisir's eyes with my fingers didn't mean he needed to copy it exactly, and that covering his eyes with his tail was also an option.

I need to engrave it in my mind that although Yor is a wise dragon, he is still a baby and inevitably has clumsy aspects.

"Karvaldr...? What are you doing with Yor?"

Reisir asked in a voice full of puzzlement.

In this world, there were many instances where ignorance was bliss, and the fact that Reisir had nearly shed tears of blood because of Yor was one such instance.

Therefore, after exchanging glances with Yor, I concocted a lie.

"Yor seemed worried about me, so I'm soothing him."

"Nyang nyang!"

Yor was quick-witted enough not only to nod his head but also to wrap his long body around me and rub his head against me.

It was a superb performance, put on with all his heart and soul.

At this, Reisir didn't even think to doubt my words and instead spoke words meant to reassure Yor.

"You don't need to worry. Since I obtained the silver Ether a whole 10 years ago, making a mistake and hurting your master will absolutely never happen."

The crux of the matter isn't how long the silver Ether has been settled in Reisir's head.

It's the fact that he is the protagonist of the original work.

The protagonist steps up confidently to help, only to accidentally inflict great harm on the target?

Unless the protagonist has a troll concept, such a thing is absolutely impossible in a web novel.

Although Yor wouldn't know such web novel rules, he must have instinctively realized there was no danger since I wasn't anxious.

Since he had never been worried in the first place, Yor obediently let go of my body.

Reisir offered words of thanks to Yor for trusting him.

"Since Yor seems reassured too, let's start now."

Feeling guilty over a single lie seemed trivial, as every moment since possessing this body in this world had been riddled with lies.

Thus, I casually told another lie and sat down with my back facing Reisir.

Then I felt the protagonist of someone else's novel touching the possessed body's hair and idly playing with it.

"Why are you suddenly touching someone else's hair?"

"I have to place my hands on your back, but your hair is covering it, isn't it? So it couldn't be helped."

I accepted it.

Indeed, it was unavoidable.

Although I tied this body's hair up high, its original length was very long.

"By the way, your hair is truly remarkable! It's thick and wavy, yet incredibly soft! You must take diligent care of it, don't you?"

Surprisingly, that wasn't the case at all.

It's a fact I only learned after coming to the academy, where I could no longer receive the attendants' care, that this body's hair remained soft and glossy even without special maintenance.

I suspect it's due to a character setting that gives Karvaldr the appearance of a refined young master.

Naturally, I couldn't explain that to Reisir.

I silently pulled the hair out of his hands, parted it in half, and draped it over both shoulders.

"Then I'll really start now."

Around the time I heard Reisir's voice turn serious, I felt two palms press against my training uniform top.

As soon as I closed my eyes and contemplated the inside of the body I was wearing, I felt Reisir's Ether flowing in through his left palm.

At the intrusion of the unfamiliar Ether, the purple Ether reflexively went on guard and tried to move to drive it out.

However, I consciously held the purple Ether tightly around the core.

Thus, Reisir's Ether was able to travel up the spine and enter toward the head without meeting any resistance.

As I concentrated on the energy entering in a long line, it felt as though its trajectory was being engraved into this body.

It seemed the body would remember it on its own without me deliberately memorizing it.

Just as I had that impression, Reisir's Ether, having entered my head, spun round and round around a certain point.

The movement seemed to tell me that the core was right there.

Reisir's Ether circled the upper dantian about three times, then changed direction.

It passed through the neck and descended into the back along a different path from the one it had used to enter the head, then flowed into its master's right hand.

Only then did the influx of Ether from Reisir's left hand stop abruptly, leaving a tail along the line.

I extracted the sky blue Ether from the core below the navel and moved it along that tail.

Then I guided the sky blue Ether into the location Reisir had identified as the core.

Since it was help the original protagonist had personally proposed and provided, the result was naturally successful.

The sky blue Ether settled safely into the core.

Not long afterward, all of Reisir's Ether that had entered my body withdrew.

His hands, which had been resting on my back, fell away.

Since the purple Ether no longer stirred to drive out the unfamiliar energy, sending the sky blue Ether up to the head became much easier.

Even so, I refrained from rashly increasing the flow rate or speeding up the circulation.

I focused on steadily moving an appropriate amount of sky blue Ether at a suitable speed and filling the vessel in my head.

This continued until none of that energy remained in the lower dantian.

'The amount is... about half the total amount of purple Ether?'

Until now, even when practicing familiarizing myself with the sky blue Ether, I had only extracted and used it little by little while pushing through the purple Ether.

Therefore, this was the first time I had checked the total quantity of sky blue Ether.

It was disappointing, but the realization that it couldn't be helped quickly followed.

It was inevitable, considering that the purple Ether was the only thing both I and the original owner of this body could cultivate.

Naturally, the amount of sky blue Ether was small.

'Still, according to Reisir, cultivation becomes more efficient if I circulate Ether through the head as well, so...'

I decided to circulate the sky blue Ether simultaneously.

I drew that energy out of the upper dantian and sent it down below the neck along the path Reisir's Ether had traveled.

Then, moving it along the original circulation route, when it neared the neck again, I returned it to the upper dantian through the path I had first used to send the Ether into the head.

Since it felt wasteful to stop cultivating immediately after creating a larger loop than usual, I circulated the Ether once more.

Following the Korean custom of doing things in threes, I circulated it one more time, completing three cycles in total.

I slowly opened my eyes while letting out a long breath.

If the genre of this novel were wuxia, a foul stench would have assaulted my nose from the impurities accumulated there being expelled as a result of opening a new energy channel.

But fortunately, since 《NaSE》 was a fantasy novel, no such mishap occurred.

I have to wash anyway because of the sweat I shed before starting the relocation of the sky blue Ether, but still, what a relief not to emit a stench in front of others.

"It's finally done?!"

While I was feeling relieved that Author Senna had selectively borrowed only the convenient parts of wuxia settings and applied them to this novel's worldbuilding, Reisir's voice rang out.

It sounded quite welcoming.

Moreover, if he used the word "finally," the meaning was obvious.

"How much time has passed?"

"Roughly four hours."

"The current time is...?"

"It's 2 AM."

"...I've passed the dormitory curfew."

It seems I won't be able to return to the dormitory until dawn.

In short, sleeping is out of the question tonight.

There is the option of sleeping on the floor of the personal training ground, but sleeping on bare ground without a blanket or sleeping bag would leave my body stiff all over rather than relieving my fatigue.

It's worse than not sleeping at all.

"Why were you waiting here until this hour? You should have returned to the dormitory first."

"Ey~, that's too heartless."

"I never wished for affection or anything of the sort from you."

"Okay, okay. Let's say that's true. If I say it's because I felt I should check the results of something I helped with, would that be acceptable?"

"......"

Since that was genuinely acceptable, no rebuttal came to mind.

When I shut my mouth with a sour expression, Reisir raised another question to lend credibility to what he had just said.

"More importantly, how is it? Can you freely draw out and use the sky blue Ether now?"

Since I had already drawn energy from the upper dantian and circulated the Ether, I could have answered yes immediately.

But I didn't.

I drew the sky blue Ether from the upper dantian, sent it down through my torso, and discharged it through my palm.

Using it, I created a small dark cloud about the size of two fists put together.

"Perhaps because drawing out and using Ether has become easier, using the ability also feels much easier."

Even as I acknowledged it was a good thing, I couldn't help but frown.

The amount of energy required to create such a tiny dark cloud was substantial.

Now that I knew the total amount of sky blue Ether was limited, the amount consumed felt even greater.

'With the amount of Ether I possess, creating a cloud large enough to cover the entire training ground ceiling and making it rain for about thirty minutes would probably be my limit.'

As I thought that, something suddenly came to mind.

Yor had said it was possible to make it rain for more than ten minutes over an area half the size of the academy grounds.

How much Ether, then, does my baby dragon possess?

'I suppose that, since dragons are described as masters of magic in Korean-style fantasy novels, they're depicted as overflowing with mana... 《NaSE》 uses the term Ether instead of mana, but it's the same thing.'

I once again reflected on the greatness of dragons and looked at Yor.

Then, all of a sudden, Reisir burst into complaint.

"Ah, right!! Come to think of it, I took off my eyepatch for a moment to look at your Familiar, and he suddenly smacked me in the eyes with his tail?!"

"......"

It seemed there had been a communication error.

Touching Yor's tail had been meant to convey the idea of covering the eyes with it, but he had interpreted it as a signal to strike the eyes.

However, I could fully understand Yor's strong reaction.

"Myamyamyak!!"

Because Yor was vehemently protesting while pointing at the Yeouiju he held in his hand.

Judging from that gesture, Reisir must have tried to examine the Yeouiju using the 【Truth Reading Eye】 skill.

Since even I didn't know the information regarding the Yeouiju, Yor's sensitive reaction was understandable.

More importantly, now that this trouble had already happened, a doubt arose.

Was the proverb "ignorance is bliss" that I mentioned earlier in this chapter truly appropriate?

Should I instead follow the proverb "knowledge is power," even now?

"Reisir, think about it. Isn't Yor only about two months old? He must have wanted to imitate me after seeing me poke your eyes. Consider yourself fortunate that you were struck by a soft tail instead of being poked by sharp claws, and refrain from taking off your eyepatch in the future."

"In short, you're saying the cause of all this is that you poked my eyes?!"

"I already apologized for that, so I won't repeat myself."

"No, why do you get to decide that??"

Dissatisfaction was evident on his face, but I paid it no mind and stood up from my seat, letting his words go in one ear and out the other.