‘Was it that obvious…?’
I felt a prickle of embarrassment. Not only was I caught worrying that Reysir Daudabina might listen to the villain and become disappointed or suspicious of me, but I was also caught feeling relieved when I saw his attitude remained unchanged.
‘Still… I am grateful.’
Seeing him act so casually meant he hadn’t accepted the villain’s words and didn’t define me as ‘that kind of person.’ Just as I was sinking into that relief—
“Do you like Vigdis that much? To the point where you decided to give up your obsession, but still can’t fully let go?”
Suddenly, the protagonist of another novel tossed out this question. I thought he believed in me, but I guess I was wrong. Was his usual friendly demeanor just a way to lower my guard? I would have rather he brought this up from the start so I could have accepted it calmly.
“You said you wouldn’t talk about what happened yesterday…”
The sense of betrayal and sorrow rushed in because he had reassured me like that only to strike at my weak point. It was at that moment that the sweet baby dragon snuggled into my arms. He must have sensed my mood and acted to comfort me.
As expected, Yor is the best. I only have Yor. As I reached that conclusion while burying my face in the baby dragon’s mane—
“I said I had something to say about Fret. I didn’t say I wouldn’t mention yesterday at all…”
The protagonist of another novel offered this pathetic excuse. By now, my anger outweighed my sorrow, and I found myself naturally glaring up at him. Yor also let out a threatening sound toward the protagonist.
Gyaooo…!
Only then did the original protagonist offer a proper explanation.
“No, I only asked because, from what I can see, it doesn’t seem like you actually like Vigdis that much. As long as you maintain your engagement with her, you’ll hear things like what was said yesterday over and over again. Some people might even look down on you. I just wondered why you would maintain your relationship with Vigdis even while enduring such insults. I couldn’t understand why you were so obsessed with her early last year, either. Anyway, I had absolutely no intention of blaming you.”
He poured out such a long string of words so rapidly without stumbling once. His diction was so perfect that every word was clearly etched into my ears. If the genre of this novel were a modern idol story, Reysir would have definitely been a rapper. He was so impressive that I briefly forgot the gravity of the situation to think of something so trivial.
“I can guess why Vigdis accepted and maintains the engagement. She was only able to enter the Academy after becoming engaged to you.”
I nodded slowly. Since this was a fact anyone who knew anything would be aware of, there was no point in denying it. Tridric often threw it in her face, saying, ‘To think you can attend the Academy all thanks to Young Lord Karbaldr.’ More than a few people had heard that talk.
“But you gained nothing but dishonor from the engagement, didn’t you? Even if you were kind enough to offer her a helping hand, the damage is just too great. More than anything, there were already too many people around you trying to use you, and you were exhausted because of it. You wouldn’t have volunteered for a relationship where you were being one-sidedly used.”
Karbaldr had proposed the engagement because there was something he wanted to get from Vigdis, so Reysir’s guess was somewhat accurate. It was just that Karbaldr hadn’t been able to get what he wanted.
‘At this rate, isn’t he going to realize that Karbaldr was just acting out because he wanted to be loved by someone, but didn’t know how?’
If that happened, I couldn’t even fathom how Reysir would treat me, given his meddlesome personality. No, it wasn’t that I couldn’t fathom it—I just didn’t want to imagine it.
‘I’d rather he misunderstand and think I was a fool who pitied Vigdis…’
Unfortunately, Reysir had just declared that such a possibility was nonexistent. Such a claim wouldn’t work on him.
“Are you not considering the possibility that I briefly cared for Vigdis and then moved on?”
“That’s what I thought at first. But if you had been so obsessed because you loved her that much, Vigdis would still be wary and afraid of you. Yet, I realized that even on the day we first introduced ourselves, there wasn’t a trace of such feelings from her.”
“That is because I apologized to Vigdis the day before and promised her I would no longer be obsessed.”
“I think that even if Vigdis is naive, she wouldn’t have been able to simply believe the words of the person who was obsessed with her and let her guard down.”
As I listened quietly, I could sense a certain conviction in his voice. It was the attitude of someone who had already found what they believed to be the answer and was testing me to confirm if their thoughts were correct. If that was the case, this kind of conversation was just a waste of time.
“So, what is the answer you’ve come up with?”
I threw the question out directly without beating around the bush. It felt awkward to go into the long details of Karbaldr’s story myself, starting with ‘I’ve never been loved by my family…’ My plan was to just offer a vague affirmation if Reysir gave an answer.
However.
“You knew that as soon as you entered the Academy, countless female students would chase you and attack you with confessions, right? So you needed a camouflage fiancée to prevent that.”
—The wrong answer came out.
“Why on earth did you reach that conclusion…?”
“First of all, you’re the youngest of the Austri Ducal Family, aren’t you?”
“Ah, so…”
“And you have an exceptional brain along with striking beauty.”
“……?”
“You look arrogant and haughty, but you get embarrassed easily. You pretend to be indifferent, but you can’t hide your meticulous and kind side. You’re fun to tease, and the more I see you…”
“S-Stop teasing me…!”
“I’m not teasing you.”
He had just said I was fun to tease, yet the protagonist of another novel played innocent as if he couldn’t believe I would say such a thing. It was truly abominable.
“Anyway, the way you excessively controlled Vigdis’s social life and acted obsessed… that was just a show to prove how madly you loved her and how painful it would be to deal with that love, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t think he would believe me even if I said no.
“Since you explained the situation to Vigdis and asked for her forgiveness, she was able to believe you when you said you wouldn’t be obsessed anymore, right?”
I had explained the general circumstances, but it wasn’t anything like that.
“Is the reason you’re speechless right now because you’re embarrassed to admit that you’re so great that your popularity is a problem?”
The situation itself, having to listen to this, was simply humiliating.
‘But he could actually misunderstand it that way!’
Even though Karbaldr was branded as a ‘defective product,’ he was a direct bloodline of a Ducal House and had outstanding looks, just as the protagonist of another novel had blathered on about.
If I had broken the engagement immediately because I felt uncomfortable keeping someone who contributed to Karbaldr’s death in the original work by my side, things might have become very tiring.
‘From the perspective of the real Karbaldr who craved love, engaging Vigdis might have been a huge mistake, but…’
Regardless, it was a fortunate thing for me. I wasn’t sure if it was fortunate that Reysir had this specific misunderstanding, though. Since I didn’t want to continue the conversation on this topic and had nothing left to say, I decided to change the subject.
“More importantly… shouldn’t we be talking about Fret now? You read his information with your skill, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
We had a bit of time since we finished lunch early, but because the protagonist had brought up an unscheduled topic, that spare time had long since evaporated. Reysir himself seemed well aware of that. Instead of wasting more time teasing me, he immediately said the following:
“Fret said his full name was ‘Fret Hullid,’ right? That’s a lie.”
“That was a pseudonym?”
“The name ‘Fret’ is correct, but the surname is wrong. ‘Fret Grimur.’ That’s his real full name.”
“That is vaguely suspicious.”
“Pffft! Right? If he was going to use a fake name, it would be safer to change everything. I wonder why he changed it so vaguely.”
If I showed a shocked reaction just because the surname was different, it might raise suspicion that I was acting. Since I couldn’t just pass it over calmly either, I gave an appropriate response. At my mediocre comment, Reysir burst into laughter as if it were amusing, while also expressing his doubt…
‘Why else? It’s probably because the readers would get confused if the author suddenly changed a supporting character’s name just because their real name was revealed.’
The answer naturally came to my mind, but I couldn’t tell that to the protagonist. So, I acted as if I had just brushed it off and led Reysir to continue.
“Did you find out anything else besides the fact that his original surname is different?”
“Fret’s [Camouflage] skill doesn’t just change the color of Aether; it can even change his physical appearance.”
“That is… an extraordinary skill.”
“He also lied about being able to handle traps because he worked with stage devices in a circus troupe. There was a skill called [Trap Master] right there in his general skill list. And it was S-rank.”
When Fret appeared in the original work, that skill was SS-rank. Since his appearance had been moved up, the original author must have adjusted the grade of Fret’s skills considering the level of the protagonist, Reysir.
Still, it was time for me to show surprise. I widened my eyes and looked at Reysir, and he continued with an expression that showed he understood my reaction.
“And he has an A-rank general skill called [Phantom Glide]. The description says he can move without making footsteps. He also has [Stealth] to hide his presence, and skills like [Infiltration], [Lockpicking], and [Parkour] registered. Besides those, he has [Lip Reading], [Ventriloquism], and [Voice Modulation]…”
This was also all information I already knew. Thus, I wasn’t surprised at all, but I let out a small gasp while keeping my eyes wide to make him think I was very shocked.
“Oh! He also has an [Acrobatics] skill, but it doesn’t mention anything about a cat like yours does.”
“……”
Without realizing it, my expression went cold, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t a moment where I needed to act surprised anymore, and Reysir didn’t just take my reaction for granted—he was busy snickering and enjoying himself.
Chapter 261 is repeated