“This is quite… I intended to have Reysir come to me for lessons every Wednesday after the afternoon lectures.
Now it looks like I’m aiming for an incentive.”
Marquis Caldrun, who had more money than he knew what to do with, joked in a light tone.
Then, with a meaningful smile, he continued speaking while looking at the original protagonist.
“Ah, right. If you manage to land even a single attack on me within this month, I’ll give you the entire incentive I receive. Does that motivate you a bit?”
As expected, Caldrun seemed destined to be a giving tree in this remake version too.
I had already guessed as much from the moment he offered to buy Reysir a new weapon if his old one broke, so it felt entirely natural.
Unlike me, Reysir seemed quite shocked by Caldrun’s unconventional proposal.
His eyes widened, and he spoke in a dazed voice.
“Is that really all right…?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? It’s my money, and I’ll use it however I please.”
As he spoke, Caldrun glanced at Fjodra as if asking if she had a problem with it.
Naturally, Fjodra replied that she didn’t care.
“Or are you not confident in your ability to land an attack? You only need to succeed once.”
Caldrun shifted his gaze back to Reysir and spoke provocatively.
Not only was he trying to hand over his wages to the original protagonist, but he was also providing a justification for it.
He truly was a model example of a supporting character in a mentor role.
“No, I’m confident!”
“As you should be.”
When Reysir reflexively protested, Caldrun nodded with a satisfied expression.
That look wasn’t the heart of a teacher cheering for a student’s growth.
Rather, it came from the expectation that a promising sprout would grow quickly and entertain him as a sparring partner.
“Now then, let’s begin the lecture in earnest.”
The Practical Combat Techniques lecture focused on having two students duel with their full strength while the others observed to broaden their horizons and develop tactical thinking.
After the duel ended, Caldrun would point out problems and suggest directions for improvement.
While it was possible for two or three teams to fight at once if the space was managed well, the lecture was conducted this way for more than just the reason mentioned above.
It was also to ensure the students had time to rest and to prevent any potential accidents.
The skill test scene that started in chapter 200 continued until chapter 204.
If I were to describe all the duels that took place over the remaining three hours, the length would be enormous.
Therefore, I will postpone the description of the students’ sparring scenes for later.
During lunch—
“Professor Skadi said she would look over each of us twice a week, so she asked us to decide on our preferred days and let her know tomorrow.”
Hailga shared this announcement, and we discussed it.
To put it simply, I decided to take Skadi’s private lessons on Mondays and Thursdays, Hailga on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Pret on Fridays and Saturdays.
Since the next afternoon lecture was Biology, it would have been appropriate to use a scene transition marker and move on to the next day’s narrative.
However, the protagonist of another novel brought things to a halt.
“Karbaldr. If you aren’t busy, could we talk for a moment before the next lecture starts?”
“Are you not going to the Library today?”
“Yeah, I haven’t finished reading the books I borrowed yesterday evening yet.”
‘Then shouldn’t you be reading those books instead of talking to me?’
That thought crossed my mind, but I nodded to signal my agreement for now.
I judged that he had requested a conversation because something more important than studying magnetic fields had come up.
I followed Reysir to a secluded spot on the promenade.
It was the same place that appeared in chapter 158.
‘I didn’t think much of it back then…’
But for a bench to be sitting right here, this space was undoubtedly created for the convenience of the original author.
In other words, this was a space with the setting: ‘While the protagonist talks with a supporting character here, no extras will come by.’
To put it another way, any conversation held here had a high probability of being observed by Senna.
I opened my lips tensely.
“So? What is it you want to tell me?”
“I couldn’t say it during the lecture because there were so many people I’m not close with and I thought you might feel pressured. But both you and Yor were truly amazing.”
“……?”
What did this protagonist of another novel just say?
I thought he had something important to discuss, but he asked to talk just to say something like this?
Because it was so unexpectedly baffling, I found myself staring blankly at him with a stunned expression.
Then, the protagonist of another novel grinned and added the following.
“You mentioned before that Yor is special and great, so he isn’t the type to fight on the front lines, right? Honestly, I didn’t really understand those words back then, but seeing Yor fight today, I realized it’s exactly as you said.”
“……”
“I was really surprised he could fight so well without using Aether Attribute Skills! Usually, firing such a large quantity of arrows made of compressed pure Aether would quickly lead to Aether exhaustion, wouldn’t it? Yet Yor was perfectly fine even after doing that several times. Just how much Aether does he have?”
“……!”
I knew it.
The original protagonist hadn’t called me here just to give out compliments.
‘The praise was just a pretext, and your real goal was to check Yor’s Aether capacity, wasn’t it?’
I reflexively hugged Yor tightly.
Perhaps reading the wariness in my stance, the protagonist of another novel made an awkward expression.
“I just meant it as a compliment. I wasn’t planning to pester you about what Yor’s Aether stat is.”
‘Of course you weren’t, because you could just check it yourself with the Truth-Reading Eye if need be.’
‘Wait, did he already see it? While Yor and I were sparring, did he sneak a peek under his blindfold?’
It was a plausible theory.
Reysir had tried to look at Yor’s Yeouiju with the Truth-Reading Eye before, but he had never tried to look at me or Yor directly.
I thought he was trying to respect my privacy out of consideration, but maybe he just couldn’t use the skill on us because he thought I or Yor would poke his eye again.
Had he been waiting for an opportunity?
Or did he peek at our status windows according to the original author’s will?
‘Is he trying to test me now…?’
Whatever the reason, if he had confirmed all our information and was doubting my identity, the first question he would likely ask is, “Is Yor really a Feline Familiar?”
Since it was too risky to reveal the Truth-Reading Eye to a suspicious entity occupying someone else’s body and say, “I know you’re not the real Karbaldr!” he would probably start by testing me on various things, beginning with the species of Yor—who doesn’t look like a cat and even possesses the Dragon Fear skill—to see if what he saw was true.
“I thought you’d be happy if I praised Yor.”
Did he decide to back off for now because I showed excessive wariness?
Or was my suspicion that the original protagonist used the Truth-Reading Eye on us just a delusion, and Reysir was truly praising Yor’s abilities out of the goodness of his heart?
A strange bitterness lingered on his face as he gave an awkward smile.
Seeing him look sad, as if he felt a sense of distance from my attitude and was pained by it, made my heart sink.
‘What if I’m suspecting him for nothing? What if Reysir concludes that it’s impossible to become close to me and decides to distance himself…?’
I stole a glance at Reysir’s expression.
No matter how I looked at him, he seemed lost in deep thought.
If the conversation ended like this, anxiety would swell by the moment and threaten to swallow me whole.
“…It’s a little over 600.”
To see his reaction and confirm if he had actually read Yor’s status window, and to soothe Reysir’s hurt feelings, I revealed Yor’s Aether stat and watched the person next to me closely to see how his expression changed.
“Huh…? What is?”
“The thing you just said you wouldn’t pester me about.”
“You mean… Yor’s Aether stat…? It’s over 600…??”
The face of the person in front of me was painted with shock.
Not only that, the question in his voice grew, and his volume increased step by step.
“Lower your voice.”
“Ah…! S-sorry. I was just so surprised…”
At my reprimand, Reysir hurriedly covered his mouth and looked around.
Judging by his series of reactions, it seemed he had only just learned Yor’s Aether stat.
While Reysir wasn’t bad at lying or acting, deceiving someone with such a performance wasn’t in his nature.
‘Thank goodness… I guess I was just overthinking out of paranoia.’
Although I felt relieved for the moment, my worries hadn’t completely vanished.
For now, Reysir had no choice but to wear a blindfold because he couldn’t control the Truth-Reading Eye, and the information windows that popped up randomly cluttered his vision.
However, as he frequented the Demonic Realm and read various information, his proficiency with the Truth-Reading Eye would increase, and it would turn into an active skill.
And just like in the original work before the remake, Reysir would soon take off the blindfold.
Covering one eye weakened depth perception and reduced the field of vision, which significantly hindered combat performance.
‘If he doesn’t wear the blindfold normally, it will become impossible to tell whether Reysir has activated the Truth-Reading Eye or not…’
I couldn’t just keep poking his eyes every time he took off the blindfold to prevent him from increasing his skill proficiency.
There was no guarantee I could always do that anyway.
It would be exhausting to worry every single day about whether he had read my or Yor’s status window.
‘Should I just tell him to go ahead and read it? Just as everyone else mistakes a Dragon—which looks nothing like a feline—for a cat, he might not properly perceive my real name or Yor’s Dragon Fear skill.’
Rather than trembling in anxiety and being wary of Reysir only to cause unnecessary misunderstandings, I felt it might be better to take the risk and go on an adventure.
‘Not that I’m going to act right this second…!’
When Senna isn’t observing and I can control the situation, I should try to induce Reysir to use the Truth-Reading Eye.