Chapter 96: The Accidental Persuasion

This is bad.

I ended up succeeding at a Persuasion Event I never even planned to attempt.

And the target? Of all people, it’s the Original Protagonist, Reysir Daudabina, who’s at the very top of the list of people I should avoid!

My already aching head throbbed even more.

“What should I do to reclaim my territory?”

“Why are you asking me that? Your business is yours to solve.”

“Haha, you’re right about that.”

I tried deliberately speaking curtly and coldly, but there was no particular effect.

Reysir didn’t even seem offended; he just smiled sheepishly, agreeing with what I said.

A furtive glance at his face told me everything—his gaze toward me was filled with trust and affection.

He really has been thoroughly won over. How troublesome.

“Ugh… Why are we even having this kind of conversation…?”

I groaned, clutching my throbbing head.

Then—

“Really now…! What are you doing, holding up a patient who needs rest?”

Vigdis Shalbrady chimed in, scolding Reysir for my muttering.

“Ah! Sorry, Karvald Austri. Are you still feeling bad? No more nosebleed, right? And… maybe a bit of a fever left?”

Reysir fussed, lifting my face to check under my nose and laying a hand on my forehead.

Then he declared the towel had gone lukewarm and, before I could stop him, left to the shower room to re-wet it with cold water.

He probably has no idea that these blatant acts of concern are what really put me in a bind.

‘And Vigdis, she surely didn’t expect mentioning her insomnia would lead to this. She can’t know how troublesome it is for me that she’s made Reysir worry and become fond of me like this, either.’

What’s the use in resenting someone who, knowing nothing, was only trying to help, when I can’t even properly explain myself?

Besides, Vigdis only said it out of genuine concern for me.

‘The Persuasion Event—I can’t blame anyone but myself! Should’ve chosen my words more carefully. Is it an excuse if I say my judgment was clouded by this headache?’

I felt like sighing, but I held back, afraid I’d just make people worry more. Instead, I stroked Yor, who still refused to leave my side.

That’s when I realized: Yor’s body temperature was quite low.

‘Honestly, there’s no need to bring a cold towel—if I just rub my face against Yor, it’d probably cool me off just fine…’

I thought about it, but didn’t do it.

Doing something like that in front of others just isn’t in Karvald Austri’s character, and besides, Reysir returned from the shower room with the towel right then, looking even more stiff-faced than when he left.

“Come to think of it, we were discussing your safety, weren’t we?”

Apparently, recalling the original topic was the reason for his odd mood.

“It’s needless concern. Since nothing’s happened so far, the culprit probably can’t get into the Academy. Or maybe they never intended to kill me—just wanted to see if I’d react to poison.”

“If you really think that, why isn’t your insomnia going away?”

“Well, what you think with your head and what you feel with your heart aren’t always the same, right…?”

“So you’re still anxious, after all?”

“……”

I was anxious, all right.

I had no idea what Reysir was planning to do, saying things like that.

‘No wonder… web novel protagonists are the sort who’ll do anything to protect those in their sphere, aren’t they?’

In the original story, Reysir went through all sorts of hardships and sacrifices. Sometimes, he even betrayed his own beliefs.

But still…

I decided not to think about it any further. That seemed best for now.

“Vigdis. Could you look after Karvald Austri for a bit?”

Instead of cooling my fever himself like before, Reysir handed the towel over to Vigdis.

Both my hands were clean now, so I could easily cool my forehead with one while petting Yor with the other, but regardless, I decided to take the towel from Vigdis myself.

“Hand it over. I’ll do it myself.”

“But Kar, you’re still a patient…?”

“I’m just tired and a bit feverish with a nosebleed, right? Even if I went to the Infirmary, they wouldn’t do anything special.”

“Wouldn’t they at least give you some fever medicine?”

“……”

I wondered if this back-and-forth even meant anything.

So I just shut my mouth and yanked the towel from her hand.

Reysir let out a deep sigh, and Vigdis gave a brief groan at my action, but I just pressed the towel to my forehead, pretending not to notice a thing.

“…Liolikin, what are you going to do now?”

“Y-Yes…?”

Taking his eyes off me, Reysir addressed Liolikin, this time with a serious, heavy tone, quite unlike his usual self.

In contrast, Liolikin answered in his usual dazed, clueless manner.

Their attitudes contrasted so much that Reysir’s presence felt positively threatening.

“You heard everything, didn’t you? That someone tried to kill Karvald Austri.”

“Uh, w-well…”

“Are you still going to stick by Karvald Austri’s side? Or are you going to just leave?”

It sounded like he was giving Liolikin a choice.

But really, it was as if to say: If you keep cowering and doing nothing, you’re only going to make things dangerous for everyone, so just get lost.

Faced with Reysir’s words, Liolikin…

“I, I just… I’d like to keep things as they are, I guess…”

He gave a vague, ambiguous reply, shuffling awkwardly.

Depending on how you interpreted “as they are,” it could mean he wanted to keep following Karvald Austri and stay protected, or that he wanted to keep things the same without making any effort to overcome his fear.

‘Judging from what I’ve seen of Liolikin’s behavior, it’s probably both!’

Maybe because I’d long since given up on expecting anything from him, I didn’t even feel disappointed anymore.

After all, he was always just a minor villain’s underling, never assigned any meaningful backstory.

Given his original role, it’s only natural his actions and thinking would be so unappealing.

So I just accepted it and moved on.

But Reysir, who didn’t know any of this, seemed thoroughly dissatisfied with Liolikin’s answer.

The Original Protagonist’s golden single eye flashed fiercely as he glared at Liolikin.

Startled by that look, Liolikin hurriedly opened his mouth.

“K-Karvald Austri said the Academy is s-safe, right…? And he said it’s n-not worth worrying about… so I thought w-we didn’t need to…”

Maybe he was trying to defend himself, but if a web novel protagonist would accept such an excuse, he wouldn’t be much of a protagonist at all.

Instead, Liolikin’s words only grated on Reysir’s nerves further.

“So basically, you’re planning to stay under Karvald Austri’s protection, but if he gets in danger, you’ll just run off and leave him behind?”

Was it because the unplanned Persuasion Event raised his affection for me so much?

This protagonist from someone else’s novel was acting like my problems were his own, getting way too emotional about it.

Judging from the look of embarrassment on Liolikin’s face, he probably felt just as awkward about it as I did.

“W-Why, why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Y-You’re scaring me…”

“Liolikin. For someone who’s afraid of so much, you sure don’t seem to empathize with or worry about others when they’re scared, do you?”

“I-I do worry, though…”

“Is that what you call worrying?”

Instead of raising his voice or letting his emotions boil over, Reysir spoke in a cold, slightly sharp tone.

Yet, his anger came across all the more clearly.

Liolikin, frightened, started to tremble and cast pleading glances at me, as if begging me to stop the protagonist. Reysir’s response to that was…

“You’re even trying to rely on Karvald Austri at a time like this?”

As expected. Anyone could have predicted that response.

But even so, Liolikin still turned to me for help. Did he not understand at all why Reysir was angry?

How clueless can he be.

Honestly, setting aside his last action, I wasn’t in any position to blame him.

“There’s no need to get so worked up. Liolikin was only hanging around me for his own benefit, not out of genuine loyalty. And it’s not like I ever made a point of looking after him.”

“Karvald Austri, why are you being so calm about this?!”

“Like you guessed, I was planning to use him too. I thought, maybe if I trained him well, I could use him as a guard. But from the start, that was impossible. Nothing is more important to people than their own lives… Staying with someone who might be in danger any moment—of course he’d want to avoid that.”

That’s why I’d been building a wall to keep my distance from the Original Protagonist in the first place, wasn’t it?

But when Reysir offered to help with Aether Separation, I jumped at the chance for my own gain.

Sure, Reysir volunteered to help me first, but… the way I put my own safety first, never thinking to repay his kindness, felt just like someone else I knew.

So without realizing it, a wry smile crept onto my face.

It must have looked quite sorrowful to the others.

“Is that… why you kept trying to keep your distance from me? Afraid I’d get caught up in danger? But with Liolikin, since he’s trying to use you, you figured it was okay to keep him around as long as it was a mutually beneficial arrangement?”

‘How am I supposed to take what Reysir just said?’

So this protagonist from someone else’s novel knew all along I was trying to keep my distance, and yet kept acting close every day?

‘Was he not misunderstanding me as a tsundere, not just thinking I was pretending to be aloof?’

“Ah… don’t tell me, that’s why…!”

I have no idea why Vigdis is reacting as if she’s just had some huge revelation at this moment.

Even in my own mind, the word “surely not” flashed by.

No way. Surely, he doesn’t think the reason I wrote up that cancellation contract was to keep him away from potential danger, does he?

“K-Karvald Austri… I… um…”

Liolikin seemed to want to say something too, as if hoping to jump on this bandwagon, but couldn’t form a proper sentence.

Honestly, that might be better than saying something pointless like the others.

“When I said I understood you, it wasn’t because I wanted to protect you. You don’t have the courage to confront anyone in my way, nor the guts to stand between me and someone trying to hurt me. There’s no point in taking in someone who’s useless in every way.”

“Uh… ah…”

“So from now on, things can’t stay ‘as they are.’ You have to choose. Will you try to overcome your fear and stay with me, or will you run away for your own safety and keep living with that fear?”

“I… I…”

“I won’t blame you if you choose the latter. But even if you choose the former, I won’t see you as special. We’d just be in a mutually beneficial arrangement—better than complete strangers, but only just.”

Even as I spoke, I wondered if I had the right to say these things.

Maybe that’s why, deep down, I wanted him to choose the latter.

Just like I’d chosen the path of running away out of guilt, I hoped Liolikin would just run away too.

If I weren’t the only one running, maybe my self-loathing would be a little easier to bear.

But…

“I-I’ll… t-try… to overcome it…”

Liolikin didn’t act as I wished.

‘Maybe that’s just the nature of being a character in someone else’s novel?’