This Novel is not my Novel

The day after I kicked Pret out of the personal training ground, at the breakfast table, I couldn't help but recall one regret.

"Oh, right! Senior Karvaldr, you know that I had a private lesson with Professor Skati all afternoon yesterday, right?"

Because Pret had abruptly brought it up.

Judging by the favorable tone and overflowing sense of familiarity in his voice, it seemed I had failed to lower his favorability after all.

I should have told him not to act so friendly before kicking him out...

As you can tell from the content of chapter 205, Helga, Pret, and I were learning weapon techniques from Skati, and because of that, we had a discussion about who would get private lessons on which day of the week.

So there was no way I didn't know that Pret had spoken with me yesterday morning and then received instruction from Skati in the afternoon...

But that's the same for everyone else, isn't it?

Since that discussion had taken place during a meal, everyone else sitting together for breakfast now also knew this information.

Even so, Pret had singled me out.

As if he was certain that while others would obviously hear it and forget, I alone would surely remember.

Perhaps he had no particular intention and was just lightly starting a conversation with me on a topic related to Skati.

But the original protagonist, at least, didn't seem to think so.

As proof, Reisir looked at Pret with wary eyes and said.

"I know that too, so why bring it up all of a sudden?"

"Ah-ha! Well, you see, I ate with Professor Skati last night, right? And I heard a story related to Senior Karvaldr then! Is that why~? Now that I'm eating with Senior Karvaldr like this, that story suddenly came to mind!"

It seemed this successor to the Head of the Information Guild had extracted information about me from Skati.

Reisir couldn't know Pret's true identity yet, but...

Still, he must have guessed that Pret had sweet-talked the somewhat naive Skati and induced her to talk about me.

What's more, Pret was acting as if he was about to bring up the story he learned right now.

Reisir already viewed him with displeasure, so for his gaze to grow even fiercer was truly an inevitable reaction.

"......"

"Oh? Why so quiet? Aren't you going to ask what the story is?"

"It sounds like a story I already know. And it doesn't seem like something to talk about in a place like this."

"I guess so! After all, Senior Reisir is already super close with Senior Karvaldr. You'd obviously! Naturally! Very well! know all about Senior Karvaldr's friend criteria."

Repeating a specific meaning with different words and even adding emphasis, it was a clear display of him boasting, I know something you don't!

At that, Reisir's golden pupils began to tremble uncontrollably.

I, for my part, couldn't hide my own agitation and snapped my head toward Pret.

The thing he heard from Skati... It wasn't the matter related to her being ostracized by her fellow professors, but that...?

Just as I was feeling utterly bewildered.

Pret turned his head to meet my eyes and gave me a sly smile.

Judging by that look, I was certain he had also found out about the process through which Skati had managed to escape her ostracism.

Because yesterday, when Pret willfully distorted my words just like Reisir did, he made that exact same facial expression...

Was he originally going to bring up that story, but then Reisir intervened and he changed the topic?

Or did he intend to talk about the friend criteria from the very beginning?

"Come to think of it, Senior Reisir, you were always wary whenever someone tried to approach Senior Karvaldr to get close, weren't you?"

The very person who was that "someone" was running his mouth with such social ease, as if it were someone else's business.

Reisir's expression soured in an instant, as if he'd bitten into something foul.

As if enjoying that reaction, Pret raised his index finger to his lips and delivered the final blow with the following remark.

"Ah, ah. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about this. Let's just make it our little secret~."

It was somewhat fortunate that Pret didn't seem like he would go around blabbing about what was basically my dark history.

But I have no idea what he's thinking, provoking the original protagonist like that.

"I-I don't know yet... I want to know..."

"Everyone stop with the useless talk and just eat."

"Hng..."

I felt sorry for Ríolíkin, who had only just uttered a single word, but I had no choice but to mercilessly put a stop to his remark.

Because it would be a predicament if Pret suddenly changed his mind and started rambling on about the "Friendship Narrative Theory" I had argued for in chapter 124.

In the original work before the remake, Reisir and Pret displayed a strong friendship and were extremely close. It's oddly uncomfortable to see those two clashing like this because of me...

Feeling my state of mind grow complicated, I moved my hand, which had stopped at some point, and picked up a side dish with my chopsticks.

Then, after about thirty seconds had passed.

"Come to think of it, the apple pie I had with my friends yesterday was so delicious. I want to have it again."

Unlike Ríolíkin, who was busily moving his fork, taking my words to "just eat" literally, Helga had no reason to watch my expression and do as she was told.

Instead of continuing the meal in an uncomfortable silence, she had confidently opened the preface to some small talk.

"Right, Vigdís?"

Since talking to herself without any reaction from those around her was just as uncomfortable as silence, Helga used these words to bring Vigdís into the conversation, and then.

They reminisced about yesterday together, talking at length about how this was good for this reason, and that was good for that reason, before...

The topic naturally shifted to the trends spreading within the academy.

For reference, around this time, Ríolíkin also joined the conversation.

He had belatedly realized that when I told them to stop the useless talk, I didn't mean they shouldn't talk at all.

That aside...

The moment she mentioned her friends, Helga's expression looked incredibly bright.

There was probably an element of her trying to lift the mood, which had sunk heavily due to Pret's provocation of Reisir, but.

Even considering that, seeing her face without a single shadow on it, I guess her conversation with her friends went well?

As the original protagonist, Reisir, had assured in chapter 187 that it would turn out that way, this was nothing more than confirming a predetermined outcome.

Besides, I couldn't even say I had a close relationship with Helga.

We hadn't had a deep conversation personally, and there was no direct connection.

Nevertheless, I suddenly felt that it was fortunate.

Even though Helga was the one who had deceived them first, her friends had accepted her for who she was.

Perhaps it's a kind of vicarious satisfaction.

As I briefly mentioned in chapter 168, I have experience with not being fully accepted and being cast out.

What's more, right now I was in the middle of hiding my identity and acting as someone else.

But for my emotions to stop at vicarious satisfaction without escalating to envy and jealousy was...

Could it be because there's someone who I feel would gladly accept me whenever I confess the truth, even if everything I've shown until now has been a lie?

As I was having these thoughts, my gaze unconsciously turned to Reisir.

But in reality, far from showing a reliable appearance, he was staring at me with eyes full of a sense of betrayal.

I don't know what thoughts he'd been having on his own, but...

Is he acting like that now because I didn't tell him the friend conditions...? Pret doesn't know because I told him directly, either.

Besides, I was only ever explaining from an author's perspective what characters in a novel should do to form a friendship.

I hadn't been preaching that one must satisfy these conditions to become my friend.

In the first place, you need to have made friends to have a reference point or whatever.

Anyway, it's a bit... of a predicament if the protagonist of someone else's novel is in that state...

The reason it's a predicament is because I had the intention to try and induce Reisir to use his 【Truth-Reading Eye】 on me today.

I'll skip the reason why, since it was already described in the latter half of chapter 205.

And just in case there are readers thinking, "Isn't it too soon?" let me explain the reason.

Because the proficiency of Reisir's 【Truth-Reading Eye】 skill is still low, the information it can read is limited.

As long as I have to continue my academy life with Reisir, showing him my status window as quickly as possible is the best method to hide my information to the utmost.

Besides, you never know when and at what timing the original author might intervene and create a situation where Reisir has no choice but to read my status window.

If Reisir were to encounter my status window for the first time then, his curiosity might be piqued, and he could carelessly read its contents.

But if he's already familiar with its contents beforehand, his curiosity would have nothing to latch onto.

He would immediately turn his gaze elsewhere, either to check his surroundings or adjust his eyepatch.

And conveniently, today is a good day to avoid the original author's observation.

It seems he was called around by this professor and that professor all day yesterday for sparring, but today, Reisir said he plans to hole up in the library and study magnetic fields.

Surely Author Senna isn't going to list out explanations on the principles of magnetic field creation in the novel.

The original author will surely bury all the scenes of their protagonist studying buried in books between the lines.

They would immediately skip to Tuesday, when Professor Radvisin's Ether Attribute Enhancement lecture is, and try to show the scene where Reisir acquires a new application method for his 【Thunder Dominance】 skill.

And decisively...

Inside the library, there exists a place that the original author's gaze will absolutely not reach.

There's no certain basis for it, but just vaguely.

I had a thought that if it's that place, filled with the web novels from reality that Reisir calls "Special Character Novels," the original author probably wouldn't be able to perceive our conversation.

When I weighed everything from various angles, every conclusion was telling me that today was the right time.

But now, Reisir was mercilessly shaking my resolve.

And all because he was played by Pret's glib tongue.

The reason I was able to make up my mind to show Reisir my status window was because he had affirmed last time that even if everything he'd seen of me so far was a lie, he wouldn't feel any sense of betrayal.

So I thought that even if by some chance my identity was exposed, he wouldn't turn his back on me, which is why I was able to just think about the problem of timing and place.

"...Karvaldr? Why are you glaring at me with such reproachful eyes?"

"Hmph!"

"No, seriously, why?!"

The nerve of him, looking at me like I was a traitor.

Without reflecting on his own mistake at all, Reisir instead made a facial expression as if he felt wronged.

The way he was looking around in that state made it seem like he was asking others what he did wrong.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!