“Ahahahahaha!”
When I tightly shut my mouth and glared at the protagonist of another novel, his lips, which had been forming a graceful arc, parted and he burst into loud laughter.
Just as I thought I had lost by revealing my worried feelings.
He stopped his guffawing, wore only a faint smile, and then said the following.
“I’m fine too. Thanks to someone.”
“What does that mean…? Oh, are you referring to the person who rescued us from the Demonic Realm?”
“No, no. I’m talking about you. You, Karbaldr.”
I wondered what kind of outlandish talk this was again.
I had been asleep the whole time, so I would have only been a burden…
“Are you perhaps talking about the time I took the flower dust for you instead?”
“Why does your sentence start with ‘perhaps’ all of a sudden?”
Reysir let out a snicker, replying in a tone that questioned why I couldn’t accept the obvious as obvious.
After all, he didn’t know that he was the beneficiary of a ‘protagonist buff.’
He also didn’t know the inside story that even if he fell asleep in the Demonic Realm, he would not be killed by monsters but would survive unscathed.
So it was understandable that he mistakenly thought he had survived because I fell asleep in his place.
“I only chose the best answer to save myself. It was right after I realized that with just my and Yor’s combat power, we couldn’t even escape the Demonic Realm, let alone hold out until help arrived. To survive, I had to save you.”
“As expected… I knew you’d say that.”
The protagonist of another novel nodded his head, but that was by no means an affirmation of my words.
Rather, not only did he deny my words, but he also committed the outrageous act of treating me like a tsundere.
On top of that, his eyes, staring straight at me, even shimmered with what seemed to be emotion.
“You seem to think I took a risk to save you, but that’s wrong! Absolutely not!”
“Wow! With a blushing, angry face and even pointing fingers, you really… pfft!”
“Who’s blushing?! I’m just angry because you’re denying my words without even listening to them!”
“Puhahahahahaha!!”
The protagonist of another novel couldn’t contain his laughter and burst out again.
His expression looked so happy.
It was so ridiculous and absurd that my anger subsided.
“Karbaldr. Earlier, right before you fell asleep, you said that cute cheer, ‘Fighting!’ didn’t you?”
After laughing for a while, the protagonist of another novel barely calmed down and started talking, and what he said was quite a sight.
Ignoring the suddenness of the topic, his actions were also cringeworthy.
The moment he said the word ‘Fighting,’ he made a pose with both hands clenched into fists and brought them to his face.
I felt his determination to somehow turn the word ‘Fighting’ into a cute cheer at all costs.
“Don’t say such horrible things! Isn’t ‘Fighting’ just a commonly used cheer? You’ve said it many times yourself, so how can you call it ‘cute’?!”
For reference, the scenes where the protagonist of another novel says ‘Fighting’ can be found in chapters 99, 100, and 207.
“Huh…? Just asking in case. Are you telling me that every time you used the [Encouragement] skill on yourself, you internally cheered yourself on with ‘Fighting!’? And that’s why the urgent cheer you let slip while losing consciousness was ‘Fighting!’?”
Whenever the protagonist of another novel mentioned that problematic cheer, he lightly shook his clenched fists.
I felt an impulse to tie his hands behind his back to prevent him from making that damn gesture.
But there was no way the protagonist of another novel would let himself be tied up so easily.
Since I knew I would just end up looking like a weirdo trying to tie the other person’s hands during a conversation, I had no choice but to endure.
“N-no… Not always… Only when a proper cheer doesn’t come to mind…”
“I see~?”
His face, smiling slyly and dragging out his words, was just…
Even though he was clearly teasing me, for some reason I sensed a hint of delight.
I truly felt that reading the psychology of the protagonist of another novel was not easy.
I had no idea why he was acting like that.
“Hey, Karbaldr. If you really tried to save me for your own survival, you would have left a different word, not ‘Fighting!’ For example, something like ‘If you let me die after I went this far, I won’t forgive you.'”
“I wasn’t in a comfortable enough situation to speak so long.”
“Still, you could have at least said ‘Keep your promise!'”
It’s not hard to guess what ‘promise’ Reysir just mentioned.
I’m sure the readers have also caught on right away.
He was referring to his vow to protect me.
Since it was such an easy thought to come by, I couldn’t claim I hadn’t thought of it.
In fact, I also considered whether I should say that.
Because there was no better way to stimulate his resolve and make him desperately protect me than to bring up that promise.
However, I simply couldn’t do it.
Saying something like that to the protagonist of an angst genre and then immediately losing consciousness would be nothing short of a death flag.
‘I overstepped my bounds with all my requests, which made the original author and readers resent me. As a result, everyone might have ended up wishing for my death.’
That’s why I inadvertently left the character-breaking line ‘Fighting!’ and fell asleep.
Because I couldn’t bring myself to tell Reysir, the original protagonist, to protect me.
But revealing these circumstances was also not allowed.
“……”
I had no choice but to remain silent, unable to correct Reysir’s misunderstanding. This only ended up solidifying that misunderstanding.
“So that’s how it was…? Karbaldr, you really………!”
As if overwhelmed with emotion and not knowing what to do.
Even seeing him cover his mouth with his palm just baffled me.
“Stop your useless nonsense and tell me what happened after I fell asleep.”
“Ah…! I’ll tell you outside.”
“Outside…?”
“It’s almost lunchtime now.”
Reysir got up from his seat and gestured with his eyes toward the clock on the wall.
Following his gaze, the hour and minute hands were racing toward the common target point of ’12.’
‘We left the dormitory around 5 AM…
I’m not sure exactly what time I fell asleep.
Even if I conservatively guess I fell asleep around 6:30, it means I slept for nearly 5 hours.
Adding the time I slept at night, that’s about 10 hours in total?
No wonder I felt refreshed. I really slept for a long time.’
‘Well, it’s obvious that others will also ask us various things and demand explanations. So there’s no need to hear the same thing twice.’
For this reason, instead of pressing Reysir for an explanation, I decided to follow his suggestion.
Although noon was approaching, there were still over 10 minutes left.
Yet when we arrived at the dormitory lobby, everyone was already gathered.
Among them, the first to react was Dyuf.
“You’re awake…! I was debating whether to go wake you up. Are you feeling okay? Do you have any pain or discomfort?”
As soon as we stepped into the lobby, he rushed over, grabbed Reysir, and poured out these words.
Perhaps seeing him worried made Reysir feel apologetic?
With an awkward expression, Reysir seemed at a loss.
“Ah… Thank you for worrying. But I’m fine.”
“Fine? I saw you lost quite a bit of blood earlier. If you feel dizzy, don’t hold it in and make sure to tell me.”
It seemed Dyuf had no intention of letting Reysir go anytime soon.
This was none of my business.
Just because the protagonist of another novel was caught by his guardian didn’t mean I had to stay by his side.
I picked up a plate with Yor, selected food, and sat down.
Reysir only managed to escape from Dyuf then.
After a little more time passed, the conversation began only after Reysir sat down.
“But how did you two end up going to the Back Mountain so early in the morning?”
The one who asked was Fjodra.
In Chapter 322, it was conveyed through Dyuf that she had returned to the Imperial Palace.
For readers curious as to why she was here, let me explain: even I don’t know yet.
Of course, I have a guess.
She probably rushed back after hearing that a Demonic Realm had appeared in the place just mentioned.
“Reysir recently obtained a new skill and asked for my help with it, so that’s what happened. However, Your Highness the Imperial Princess, what brings you back so soon?”
“That’s a foolish question. A Demonic Realm appeared on the Academy’s Back Mountain. How could I not come see it?”
As expected, the answer came back just as I guessed.
“That makes sense.”
“And you, Reysir-kun? What kind of help did you ask from him that required moving secretly at such an early hour?”
“Early morning, no one predicted that a Demonic Realm would appear there. So there’s hardly any fault in him going there today. Yet I wonder why you’re asking in a tone that sounds like an interrogation.”
“……”
At my words, Fjodra flinched and showed a hint of embarrassment.
Now that I think about it, Fjodra’s habit of interrogating seemed to be a sort of mannerism.
One she herself wasn’t even aware of.
“…I had no such intention. I was just speaking strongly out of worry. I’m hurt that you felt that way.”
“I apologize for misinterpreting Your Highness’s intention.”
“It’s fine. I forgive you.”
I hadn’t truly apologized by seeking forgiveness.
But since I certainly didn’t want to create conflict by arguing with Fjodra, I decided to ignore her unique Imperial family ‘pass-the-blame rhetoric’ and continue the conversation.
“Anyway, to finish the explanation, Reysir speculated that he might be able to find traps with the skill he acquired. However, when he actually walked around the Academy’s Back Mountain and checked, he couldn’t find any traps, so he asked me to go there with him.”
“Because you have a skill that enhances your Aether Characteristic Ability?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s not something that needed to be kept secret from everyone here. But since there was no need to mention something uncertain in advance, I just didn’t say anything… I never expected something like this to happen.”
I let out a sigh with an innocent expression.
So that Fjodra would not be able to make an issue out of it any further.