This Novel is not my Novel

My prediction was accurate.

While Vigdís practiced her swordsmanship, I was able to activate the Thought Acceleration Skill frequently.

But if you asked whether I had succeeded in controlling the flow of Ether, the answer was not yet.

'Far from controlling it, even tracking that flow is proving to be a difficult hurdle...?'

I pressed firmly against my throbbing temples and lamented inwardly.

Even tracking the flow of Ether while keeping the skill active through analyzing another person's movements was difficult. It felt as though I was just about to grasp it, only for it to slip away.

And that wasn't even the end of it.

After grasping it, I would then have to intentionally slow its flow.

'I feel like it would be easier to draw a square with my left hand while simultaneously drawing a triangle with my right... And on top of that, I have to move my body and even spar?'

This wasn't merely unreasonable. It was simply impossible.

Although it was something I had to accomplish someday, haste makes waste.

I shouldn't blindly charge toward the final goal. Instead, I needed to establish intermediate goals and build a foundation step by step.

First, I needed to succeed in controlling the flow speed of Ether while maintaining the skill.

Only after becoming familiar with that should I move on to sparring.

Thus, even after lunch and moving to Reisir's personal training ground, I had no choice but to choose the option of sitting and observing.

"Although I received instruction from Professor Skati last Friday, all I did was learn and practice a few basic movements necessary for actual combat. For that reason, sparring would still be meaningless, so today I'll just observe."

After all, I had somehow ended up being invited here, and the main character of this place was someone else.

Vigdís, whose purpose was sparring with Reisir, had no reason to be disappointed by my decision.

The same was true for Reisir, who already had experience sparring with me.

Thanks to that, without any objections, I was able to sit with my back against the wall just as I had done that morning.

While deciding whether to analyze Vigdís's movements again or try analyzing Reisir's this time—

"Ka, Karvaldr niiim..."

Ríolíkin sat down beside me with a tearful face, practically folding his massive frame into a curled-up ball.

Surely he wasn't asking me to comfort him.

Ríolíkin knew as well as anyone that this possessed body did not have that kind of personality.

First, before continuing.

For the Readers who may have assumed that only three people—me, Reisir, and Vigdís—were participating in this sparring gathering.

There was nothing strange at all about Ríolíkin being here.

Because he had insisted on joining even the midterm study group despite my absence. It was only natural that Ríolíkin would also follow me here.

Judging by the way he had buried his face in his knees, he didn't seem prepared to overcome his fear and actually spar.

Still, he probably wanted to be able to say, 'I tried hard, but it just didn't work out.'

'I thought that maybe after hearing something from Reisir during the morning, he would finally develop the will to change... but somehow nothing seems different.'

Was Ríolíkin truly so hopeless that even a growth event through the original protagonist's influence failed?

Or perhaps Reisir had not followed Ríolíkin for the sake of triggering such an event in the first place?

I turned my gaze toward the being who knew the answer.

「 Rsr→Rllk : Not srry to Krbldr? Not thnkfl? Just hrsh? 」

As if anticipating what I would be curious about, Yor pulled out a whiteboard and wrote those words.

Apparently, Reisir had asked whether Ríolíkin felt neither apology nor gratitude toward me and only saw me as cruel.

It was an interesting point to consider.

If I thought deeply enough about it, the Thought Acceleration Skill would activate.

So I closed my eyes before my thoughts could wander further.

I figured I might be able to focus a little better on the flow of Ether if I blocked out visual information.

'What would Ríolíkin have answered to Reisir's question?'

I could get the answer immediately by simply asking Yor or Ríolíkin.

But I deliberately chose not to.

Instead, I decided to infer the answer myself.

The more material I had to think about, the longer I could maintain the Thought Acceleration Skill.

'Most likely, he couldn't answer at all.'

It wasn't that Ríolíkin was incapable of feeling gratitude or remorse.

He simply possessed an extreme tendency toward avoidance.

At the same time, he pitied himself far too much.

Naturally, he would have avoided answering and responded evasively instead.

He might even have convinced himself that Reisir was bullying him.

Simply because the question made him uncomfortable.

Because he hated acknowledging the fact that he was a selfish person who wanted only the benefits without putting in any effort while refusing to reflect on his own mistakes.

No, not "might."

He definitely thought that.

'Isn't that why he's squatting beside me right now, wallowing in self pity?'

Although Ríolíkin usually acted oblivious, it was closer to pretending not to notice than genuinely failing to notice.

And even if he truly were oblivious, it wouldn't change anything.

There was no way he didn't know that Karvaldr was not the sort of person who would comfort others.

'Or is that not the case? During the Helga kidnapping incident, while riding in the carriage, Ríolíkin also heard me say something resembling words of comfort to Reisir...'

Perhaps because he noticed things more quickly than anyone else.

Perhaps he came to my side thinking that while the old Karvaldr never would have comforted him, the current me might.

'Or perhaps it's simply habitual behavior.'

Because Ríolíkin had followed Karvaldr all this time to escape the anxiety of being bullied by others.

Even if the setting were that he felt safe beside this possessed body, it would still make sense.

'Then why did Reisir ask Ríolíkin that question?'

Since the flow of Ether remained frustratingly elusive, always seeming just within reach, I decided to speculate about Reisir's intentions as well.

Reisir had told me many times before that I deserved to hear words of gratitude and apology from Ríolíkin.

So the issue wasn't that Reisir had pressured him.

'Why did he choose to say it only now...? That's what I should be thinking about.'

Reisir could have pressured Ríolíkin at any time and pushed him toward apologizing and thanking me.

But instead, he had only emphasized that I deserved to hear those words.

Until now, I had assumed he was waiting for me to become capable of receiving them on my own.

Perhaps the one he had actually been waiting for wasn't me, but Ríolíkin.

Waiting to see when he would sincerely reflect on himself and voluntarily offer words of gratitude and apology.

But after seeing Ríolíkin blame only my cruelty without reflecting on his own faults, perhaps Reisir finally reached the limit of what he could tolerate.

'That's not the only possibility.'

Perhaps he feared that if he pressured Ríolíkin into saying those words, I might mistake them for genuine sincerity and forgive him.

If the apology and gratitude were forced anyway, perhaps he judged it better for me to pressure Ríolíkin directly and receive them that way.

Then there would be no possibility of mistaking them for sincere repentance.

'By the way, the fact that Reisir followed Ríolíkin not to encourage him but to rebuke him...'

It probably wasn't that the original protagonist failed to initiate an influence event.

The target simply wasn't Ríolíkin.

It was me.

Normally, I would have stopped thinking the moment I realized that.

No, I would have stopped much earlier.

I would have turned away from the fact that Reisir, who had carefully watched over me and considered my situation out of concern, had eventually become angry at Ríolíkin because of me.

But the flow of Ether seemed close enough to grasp.

And because I had no idea when another opportunity would come if I let this one pass, I continued thinking despite the uncomfortable reality.

'Since Reisir has an extremely generous disposition, he probably forgave Ríolíkin's wrongdoings against him long ago. Yet despite that, he still can't tolerate Ríolíkin's attitude toward me...?'

Though I continued denying it over and over.

Reisir does not see me as some kind of "potential friend."

I am already inside his boundaries.

He even seems to cherish me quite a bit.

'That must be why he helped separate the Ether. And why he came all the way to the Dagger Techniques lecture room during exam season to inspect Skati's Status Window.'

I had deliberately avoided thinking deeply about it at the time, but Wednesday afternoon was not one of Reisir's free periods.

Since he said he was taking a theoretical course, he must have had a written exam at that time.

Which meant that Reisir had likely rushed through his exam, submitted it early, and run straight to the lecture room where I was.

All so he could arrive before I had the chance to request a private audience with Skati after the dagger skill practical exam ended.

Given Skati's former profession, perhaps that initiative had been driven by the resurfacing fear that someone around him might die.

But he had not acted self important, saying he sacrificed an exam because he was worried about me.

Nor had he demanded anything in return.

'If anything, he worried about whether I disliked his interference...'

Perhaps because I had continued piling thought upon thought, even dredging up old memories to keep the Thought Acceleration Skill from ending.

I finally succeeded in grasping the path of the Sky Blue Ether that had flowed out of the Upper Dantian of its own accord.

The moment I thought I should capitalize on that momentum and try controlling the Ether—

"Ugh...!"

A sharp "Ping—" rang inside my head, and tremendous pain erupted through it.

Naturally, there was no way I could continue thinking.

I instinctively clutched my head and groaned, but almost immediately had to move one hand to cover my lower face.

Because I felt something hot flowing from my nose.

"Nyaaaark!!"

The first to notice the unexpected situation was Yor.

The baby dragon was so startled that he screamed and even threw away the whiteboard he had been holding.

Then he wrapped his long body around me and cried out frantically.

"Kar...valdr...? Why did you suddenly...?"

"O, oh my god...! B blood...!!"

The attention of those who had been standing across from each other with weapons in hand immediately turned toward me.

At the very least, if the blood had not been visible, I could have brushed it off somehow.

But despite my hurried attempt to cover it, blood seeped through my fingers.

Unable to simply gather at the tip of my chin, it dripped down, staining my pure white shirt with red.

It was only natural that Reisir and Vigdís looked utterly shocked.

"Uh, uh uh...?"

Ríolíkin, who had been hiding his face in his knees, finally looked up, only to freeze in confusion at the sight of me.

Aside from Yor, who was crying loudly, Ríolíkin was physically the closest person to me.

Yet not only was he slow to understand the situation, but even after he did, he merely stiffened awkwardly.

In the end, it was Reisir and Vigdís who moved to help.

Of the two who had been farther away, Reisir reached me first thanks to his superior physical abilities.

Without warning, he placed a hand against my forehead.

Rather than warmth, his hand felt strangely cool.

Only then did I realize that my head was burning with fever, and Reisir looked appalled.

"Why is your head so hot?!"

"I'll go wet a towel!"

Vigdís, who arrived a step later, crouched beside Reisir. The moment she heard his words, she immediately stood back up and rushed into the shower room.

Her reaction was quick.

But I couldn't exactly call it wise.

'I feel like the cleanest and most efficient solution would be for me to go into the shower room alone, stop the bleeding, clean off the blood, cool my fever, and then come back out...'

I wanted to put that thought into action immediately.

But I couldn't.

Because Yor had wrapped his body around me so tightly that it felt as though I had been bound with ropes, completely restricting my movement.