Skadi is an elite assassin beyond first-class.
Although she has long since quit the assassination business, her skills certainly haven’t vanished.
Moreover, she must have been continuously using her stealth ability to avoid the professors who troubled her.
Yet here she is, revealing herself like that.
This is a moment that clearly shows how shaken Skadi was by Reysir’s words.
It also reveals just how deeply wounded she was when the students turned their backs on her.
“No matter how painful your own wounds are… no, that’s precisely why you shouldn’t act like that, right?”
Reysir must have definitely heard the sigh of someone possessed by Skadi.
Still, he didn’t turn back.
He simply looked at me with a numb expression.
Avoiding his worried gaze, I glanced over his shoulder at Skadi.
She stood there frozen like a statue, her face twisted in torment by guilt.
She didn’t even seem to realize she needed to disappear again.
Taking in that scene of Skadi, I spoke with a self-deprecating tone.
“Reysir, why do you speak as if I was hurt because of Professor Skadi?”
“What, you weren’t hurt?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I just happened to take a moment to sympathize with her situation, recalling the mistakes I made last semester. I never got close to Professor Skadi, so why should I be hurt just because her attitude changed?”
No sooner had I said that than a weary sigh escaped.
Not content with merely sighing, Reysir wore a look of frustration as he said, “Are you really concerned about the person who hurt you? You’re telling me not to feel so sorry?”
“I never cared for her. I’m just telling you in advance not to make a fuss pretending to feel sorry and seek atonement when I’m perfectly fine.”
I had already become too deeply involved in Skadi’s affairs.
That’s why I decided to clearly draw the line before it was too late.
“Let me make it clear again—I was not hurt.”
“That can’t be true. You’re sensitive to other people’s situations and can delicately consider how they feel. How could someone like you be indifferent to your own matters?”
It seemed Reysir neither heard that I wasn’t hurt nor that I wasn’t being considerate.
Truly frustrating.
I exhaled deeply and lowered my head, letting my hair fall down.
Then I put on a mask of arrogance, swept my hair back, and lifted my head to meet Reysir’s gaze.
“If I were such a person, I wouldn’t have tormented you so much last semester.”
“I’ve always found that strange too. What on earth did Tridric say to influence you into going down such a dark path?”
“Tridric’s influence was there, but I had my own issues that enabled me to do those things. The image of me engraved in your mind is just an illusion—you should correct it as soon as possible.”
The original protagonist seemed to regard me as too good a person, so I reminded him of the things the owner of this body did last semester.
But that attempt didn’t work at all.
His face was filled with disbelief.
“Hey, Karvald, you seem to define yourself as a bad person, but you’re not at all.”
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
First of all, Karvald Austri is definitely a bad person, no matter what anyone says.
And I… no, I’m a bad person too.
Because I desperately turn a blind eye even knowing the misfortunes about to befall Reysir…!
I stepped forward to help Skadi so I wouldn’t be a bystander, but in truth, I’ve remained a bystander all along.
The original protagonist’s misfortune is harassment orchestrated by the author, who is like a god of this world.
‘Isn’t it true that only I, coming from outside the novel, can save Reysir from his predetermined fate?’
Possessors are supposed to be irregulars who twist fate!
I haven’t stopped myself from thinking this way.
***
‘As a reader of Reysir’s story, I had hoped he would overcome all hardships and reach a happy ending.’
‘Besides, the real Reysir has often spoken words of care toward me.’
‘If I can help, I want to help.’
‘But the misfortunes awaiting Reysir go beyond mere fate.’
‘If a few of the characters connected to him die, that might be their individual fate.’
‘But if they all die, that’s the law of this world.’
‘The settings and rules created by the author here are absolute.’
‘Isn’t that why Yor, who can hardly be called a cat, is treated like one?’
I could try a few times to prevent supporting characters from dying.
But if I linger around Reysir, death will come for me as well.
I cannot afford to focus on saving others’ lives.
I don’t have that confidence.
“You’re kind. And very fragile.”
“…I’m not that kind of person.”
“Yes, you are.”
“In your eyes, it looks like I’m covered in defenses because I’m terrified of being hurt by others. But that’s your delusion and misunderstanding.”
“Why do you deny the conclusions you reached after perfect self-objectification?”
“……”
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
When Reysir spoke of “self-objectification” before, it had seemed like nonsense, but now it was true.
I fear being hurt and so keep my distance from him as a defense mechanism.
“Can’t you just… leave me alone?”
“You couldn’t leave Professor Skadi alone, and now you say that?”
“Ah, speaking of Professor Skadi, it’s been a while since she dropped her stealth and revealed herself. And now she’s watching us with a flustered expression.”
“Don’t change the subject. What does that matter? The person you’ve been talking to all this time is me.”
“Isn’t that irrelevant?”
Reysir seemed to have forgotten the original purpose of this conversation.
No, my purpose is to help Skadi, but his purpose is to help me.
So he’s moving straight ahead according to his goal.
“Uh… hey… guys…? Don’t, don’t fight…”
Though the main character of this chapter, Skadi’s voice cracked out, timid and weak like a straw doll left alone.
Only then did Reysir turn around.
For some reason, Skadi briefly hid in the shadows before stepping out again.
“Karvald, you still haven’t received an apology or thanks from Liolikin, right?”
Reysir said something a little out of the blue as he looked at me again.
But his words were definitely related to the current situation.
“Make sure you get those from that professor properly.”
He rested his chin on my shoulder and said that, then pushed me aside and opened the classroom door, stepping out into the corridor.
He even closed the door behind him, as if to say he wouldn’t interfere and we could talk comfortably.
If he still considered Skadi dangerous, that would be impossible behavior.
“Well, um… you see…?”
Skadi, standing at a distance, glanced nervously at me and barely started to speak, clearly unable to come closer.
We weren’t too far apart for a conversation, but I saw no reason to approach, so I stayed put.
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“I’m sorry for getting angry… you really didn’t do anything wrong~.”
“You didn’t do nothing, did you? You tormented Reysir and obsessed over his fiancée, making things hard for her.”
I subtly mentioned Karvald’s obsession with his fiancée to Skadi, fearing that a similar incident might repeat once she learned about Vigdis.
Of course, unless she forgets what happened today, she probably won’t blame me again for past mistakes.
But just in case.
“Oh… so there was another victim too…?”
“We’ve now come to a peaceful agreement with that person as well.”
“Ohhh~, well then~. Of course, you handled it well yourself.”
Though it was the first time hearing about Vigdis-related matters, Skadi neither asked what it meant nor showed curiosity.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care; it seemed she believed she had no right to care.
“Normally, a criminal like me could have said something absurd like, ‘What right do you have to get angry at me?’ But you tried to understand why I did it and worried about me… Instead of blaming me for being a bad criminal, you said I was just raised in a bad environment… You understood my heart… I’m really… so thankful…!”
‘Had she gotten emotional?’
Tears began welling in Skadi’s eyes, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably.
“To have discriminated against and hated a student like this… I’m such a terrible professor…!! Huuuuuu~!! It must have been terrifying to have an ex-assassin dislike me~! And yet you stayed alone in the classroom, trying to talk to me…!”
Strictly speaking, she wasn’t alone. Yor was always by my side.
Besides, I knew the ex-assassin no longer kills people, so there was no reason to be scared.
She had summoned this much courage, and yet the professor was hiding away..!
“I’m really so, so sorry…!!!”
Skadi cried out like a child, helpless and loud.
I felt extremely awkward.
I wanted to tell her not to cry, but considering Karvald’s character, I knew I shouldn’t.
Also, I was concerned about how much my favorability rating had risen.
‘I’ve already heard both “thank you” and “sorry,” so maybe it’s fine if I leave the classroom now…?’
That naughty thought crossed my mind briefly, but running away from someone crying seemed wrong, so I stayed silent and still.
Fortunately, Skadi soon calmed down and stopped crying.
Though she replaced her tears with sniffles and a runny nose.
“Today’s exam, sniff! You did really well!”
“I know. You don’t have to tell me.”
“You’re the only one who completed the test using fewer than fifteen daggers, so of course I would notice even if I didn’t say anything… But I felt bad for not praising you after all your hard work…”
I wanted to ask if she had been worrying about that, but feared she might feel hurt if I did.
So I asked something else instead.
“By the way, do you plan to continue enduring things quietly?”
“No! As a teacher, I shouldn’t worry my students~!”
“I wasn’t exactly worried… but then, how do you plan to respond?”
“I can’t take it anymore, so I’m thinking of telling them to stop bothering me…”
“Would that be enough?”
“Hmm~. So I plan to visit one person each night while they’re sleeping~.”
Indeed.
If an ex-assassin breaks into someone’s room in the middle of the night and says she can’t take it anymore, they’d have no choice but to listen.