“Huh? I didn’t see you at morning training today, so I thought you slept in, but your dark circles look the same as always. Did you train alone in the private training hall?”
As I came out to the dormitory lobby at breakfast time, Reysir, who had been sitting on a chair, approached me deliberately and said this.
Judging by the content of his words, Reysir, Hailga, and Vigdis must have gathered at the first small auditorium and trained together as usual until five in the morning.
“I just stayed in my room. Since it’s a suspension period, I tried to sleep a bit more… but it didn’t work.”
“Oh, that’s too bad…”
My answer just now was a lie.
I got up early this morning as usual.
Except instead of moving my body and working out, I sat at my desk and typed on the typewriter.
But Reysir, unaware of this, sighed with genuine sympathy.
It made me feel a little guilty for no reason.
“By the way, was the supervising professor there?”
“No. Professor Vanahilda didn’t show up. I guess she went home instead of staying at the Academy.”
I knew this would happen.
The reason I deliberately didn’t join the morning training was that I expected Vanahilda to be absent.
My goal during this suspension period was to raise my Whip Technique rank to ‘C.’
Since I was going to be swinging a whip all day anyway, I couldn’t afford to waste stamina on training where I couldn’t even get the professor’s help.
It was much more efficient to save that energy and invest it when I received instruction from Skadi.
“Come to think of it, Professor Vanahilda did mention she has a young son, so it makes sense, I guess?”
The protagonist of another novel muttered this and brushed it off as unimportant.
But my dear readers know very well that his guess was wrong.
‘Her son died a long time ago.’
As it happened, Vanahilda had been put in charge of our morning training, including weekends.
But how could she track down a wanted criminal with just a few hours invested each day?
Then the opportunity called ‘suspension’ came.
If not now, she wouldn’t be able to go find her enemy until the break.
No matter how much money the Academy offered, there was no way she would stay.
‘I hope Pret and the Hrafnin Information Guild members find her enemy quickly…’
Just as I finished these thoughts, Reysir grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the neatly arranged buffet.
“I took a quick look around earlier, and there’s a lot of food that looks good. Plenty of things you’d like.”
He handed me an empty plate and said this, so I tried to snap back at him—what did he know about my taste?—but I couldn’t.
Because I spotted kimchi and kkakdugi right away.
It seemed that what Reysir meant by ‘things I’d like’ was Korean food.
Among the various salad vegetables, there were bean sprout muchim and bracken fern, and among the dressing choices, there were gochujang vinegar sauce and sesame oil prominently placed.
Lobster butter roast, braised cod head, and sushi sat side by side.
Next to the lamb chops were bulgogi and Peking duck.
‘It’s not just Korean food mixed in…? No, well… hmm, okay.’
I decided not to think too deeply.
“Karbaldr. Over here.”
After loading a plate with a little bit of food from both East and West, I turned toward an empty table—was it character breaking to head straight to where people were gathered?—
The protagonist of another novel said the above, took my plate, and headed toward the table where people had gathered.
‘I expected him to drag me over there, but I didn’t know he’d use this method…’
Dyuf was among those sitting at the table, so I felt a bit awkward.
I worried he might think that I had ordered the protagonist of another novel to do this.
Even though Dyuf had seen with his own eyes that it wasn’t the case, his expression as he watched me sit down empty-handed was clearly reluctant.
“Good morning, Young Lord Karbaldr.”
“Yes.”
“……”
“……”
The greeting with Dyuf ended very awkwardly, but the atmosphere didn’t completely sink.
That was because Skadi immediately opened her mouth in a lively voice.
“Karbaldr~! Good morning~! I heard you’ll be training with me every day during the suspension period~?”
“I was the one who brought that up in the first place.”
“Really~?! Thank you~! Thanks to you, I won’t be bored during the suspension~! And I can eat proper meals like this~!”
“It’s not something you need to thank me for. I only wanted to raise the rank of my [Whip Technique] skill.”
“Great~! Then let’s both work hard together~!!”
She raised her fork with a cube steak on it and shouted, looking full of fighting spirit.
From a student’s perspective, a professor’s enthusiasm like that was quite welcome, but from an introvert’s perspective, it was an overwhelming energy.
So I answered, “Ah… yes…,” cutting off the conversation.
Then—
“U-um, Kar!”
This time, Vigdis spoke to me.
Her attitude seemed like she had been waiting for a chance to speak and then hurriedly opened her mouth, afraid of missing the timing.
I was wondering why she bothered to pretend to be friendly when hardly anyone was watching, but—
“There’s someone I’d like to introduce to you.”
These words came out of Vigdis’s mouth.
The people gathered here now were me, Yor, Reysir, Hailga, Vigdis, Skadi, Dyuf, and the Awakened professor who had served as a duel witness with Skadi back in Chapter 273.
Except for the last person, I was already acquainted with everyone else.
So it was very easy to guess who Vigdis was referring to.
“This person is the professor in charge of the swordsmanship lecture I’m taking this semester. He also helps me with my training outside of class time, and he stayed at the Academy during this suspension to teach me.”
I expected as much.
In the original work, this character was a knight-errant before becoming an Awakened, wandering the world and helping people.
And his weapon was none other than a sword.
Freedom, knightly status, and excellent swordsmanship—
These were all elements that Vigdis admired endlessly.
Moreover, this character was even female…
‘If such a person belonged to Valhalla Academy as a professor, it would be only natural for her to take charge of Vigdis’s training.’
If I had truly loved Vigdis and become engaged to her, I would have bowed politely to this professor and asked her to take good care of Vigdis.
But Vigdis and I had a relationship promising to break off the engagement instead of marrying, and Karbaldr, the possession body, wasn’t the type to do that either.
So I opened my mouth to reply nonchalantly,
“I see.”
But then—
“And! She was also the one who protected me as my escort knight when I was little.”
These words came from Vigdis’s mouth.
A certain setting about her flashed through my mind.
This was content mentioned back in Chapter 93.
“Even though Father changed escorts not long after, so the time I spent with Sir Hiyaltin was short, I still realized through Sir Hiyaltin that women can be proud, strong, and cool, and I wanted to be like that. And I became attracted to swordsmanship itself.”
Vigdis’s face, as she poured out her words, was full of excitement.
The expression of ‘Hiyaltin Einar’ looking at her was like watching a cute little child.
So it really was that female knight mentioned in Chapter 93.
“I thought it would be impossible to meet Sir Hiyaltin again, but not only did we reunite as professor and student at the Academy like this, I even get to learn swordsmanship from her personally…! Kar, don’t you think fate is amazing and wonderful?”
In the pre-remake original, there was no connection between Vigdis and Hiyaltin.
That was because, in the original, Hiyaltin was employed at Valhalla Academy as a professor, but instead of belonging to any one place, she was called to various Einherjar teams that needed support, devoting herself to Demon Realm Conquest.
That was also how she became close to the original protagonist.
At that time, Reysir was also active individually and dispatched here and there, so they often ran into each other.
Then they built a friendship and even moved together…
‘And met their deaths!’
That happened even before Vigdis graduated from Valhalla Academy.
So I never imagined that the female knight in Vigdis’s memories was Hiyaltin.
Did these two have such a connection in the remake version as well?
Or did the original author, when introducing Hiyaltin as a professor in the currently serialized version, think it would be perfect to connect her to Vigdis’s past and add this setting anew?
Doubts arose, but no one in this novel’s world knew the answer, so I couldn’t ask.
“…It seems you’ve been wanting to say this for quite a while.”
“Yes! I’ve wanted to since the orientation when Sir Hiyaltin—no, Professor Hiyaltin appeared! But the atmosphere wasn’t right then… Later, I thought it would be better to talk about it when the two of you met and greeted each other, so I held back.”
“‘The two of you,’ not ‘all of us’… That makes it sound like you were waiting for an opportunity to introduce Professor Hiyaltin to me.”
“Well, that is what I meant, isn’t it?”
“……?”
A question rose in my mind:
‘Why?’
Surely she wasn’t trying to tattle to her former escort, ‘He bullied me, so punish him!’
I was puzzled, unable to understand, but then Vigdis explained the reason.
“Professor Hiyaltin is the one who instilled in me the desire to learn swordsmanship, and Kar is the one who gave me the opportunity to learn swordsmanship, aren’t you?”
It wasn’t me who provided that opportunity; it was the real Karbaldr.
And the real Karbaldr hadn’t intended to give Vigdis a chance—he had only tried to create a reason for himself to be loved.
‘She doesn’t know I’m a fake Karbaldr, but she knows why the real Karbaldr enrolled her in Valhalla Academy…!’
Yet she said something like that with a bright, childlike smile.
I really don’t know how to react.
Seeing me silent and just staring at Vigdis with my mouth shut, Hiyaltin opened her mouth and spoke to me.
“Nice to meet you, Young Lord Karbaldr. My name is ‘Hiyaltin Einar.’”
Her voice was firm yet calm, and her faint smile showed ease.
If she was the female knight from Vigdis’s memories, this image must be the ideal Vigdis pursues.
But it didn’t resemble the original Vigdis at all, who was always stiff and expressionless.
However, I couldn’t take this as evidence that a new connection between the two had been added when 《Nas-e》 was remade.
Because this image didn’t resemble the current Vigdis either.
The original Vigdis hadn’t deliberately pursued that stern appearance—she had changed that way due to her environment.