This Novel is not my Novel

Monday passed without any particular incident. At dawn, I had Basic Physical Training, and after breakfast, I attended the Ether Meditation Art lecture. After lunch, I spent the entire afternoon learning the Whip Technique from Skati. And for dinner, I ate with her to continue our lesson, but Professor Radvisin and the senior research students were also there.

I know Professor Radvisin's case can't be helped, but I was planning to cut back on my interactions with the senior research students...

In Episode 179, I realized there was a high possibility that the senior research students were also characters created by the original author. If they got entangled with me and ended up having a point of contact with the original protagonist, Reisir, they could die. If that happened, I felt I would end up blaming myself.

As I headed to the basement of the campus cafeteria with Skati, I was very worried about what I would do if I ran into the senior research students. I was afraid they would be hurt if they sensed the distance in my attitude.

But all my inner turmoil was for nothing. When I actually met them, I found myself treating them with the same attitude as before.

Is affection really something you can't take back once it's been given...? Or is it because I've never been close to anyone, so I haven't learned how to distance myself from people I've grown close to?

Thinking back on it now, a wave of complicated feelings washed over me. But at that moment, I think I was quite happy.

The senior research students would bicker and have playful, affectionate quarrels, but they also chatted intimately with Skati. They also showed great interest in me and expressed their concern.

"Hey, junior, how's the Special Class for Awakened Ones training? Isn't it tough?"

"Oh, our dear junior... He still looks so young and fragile, and to think he has to enter that dangerous Demon Realm..."

When such talk came up, the mood did become quite somber.

But even in that moment, I felt a strange joy.

I had no choice but to accept the fact that it was impossible for me to be the one to push them away and cut ties.

Today was the next day, Tuesday, and the day I was to attend Professor Radvisin's lecture.

Yesterday, when the senior research students expressed their worries to me, he couldn't hide his own distress. But now, he seemed to be in much better shape.

Perhaps he thought that it wasn't enough to have made his disciples worry throughout the vacation, and that he couldn't continue to do so during the semester. Or maybe he reasoned that it would be shameless to show his anxiety in front of students who might enter the Demon Realm at any moment.

In any case, he seemed to have gotten his feelings under control.

"Reisir, you will practice forming and controlling a magnetic field with me. The rest of you, please continue the training you were doing last time, and if you need advice, call for this old professor."

Watching Professor Radvisin take the original protagonist to a corner of the lecture room, I felt a sense of unease for some reason.

I was afraid that the original protagonist would gain a great epiphany from Professor Radvisin's teaching. And that he would come to sincerely follow and rely on him, making Author Senna decide that Professor Radvisin had to be killed.

But I couldn't interfere with Reisir's learning. Besides, I had my own training goal to achieve, so I tried my best to tune that side out and focus and refocus on my training.

Still, using a skill for the entire four-hour lecture would deplete my Ether. So, inevitably, we were given break times in between, and during those times, I could pay attention to the protagonist of someone else's novel.

While everyone else, including me, was resting, Reisir did not take a break and instead had a serious discussion with Professor Radvisin.

Is something not working out...?

After carefully observing the movements of their mouths, it seemed that although lightning itself generated a powerful electric current that automatically formed a magnetic field, he was having trouble at the stage of maintaining and arbitrarily controlling it.

Still, he'll figure it out somehow. Reisir is the protagonist of this world, after all.

As expected, the result was just as I had anticipated.

Around the time the lecture was about to end.

"I did it!!"

Such a cheer erupted from Reisir's mouth.

Was it because he had practiced for a full four hours and racked his brains with Professor Radvisin without a break? He rejoiced at the fruit of his labor and hugged the old professor who had worked hard for him.

So they've gotten close after all...

Professor Radvisin was an incredibly good person, so I knew this was bound to happen.

I was watching the scene with a lingering sense of unease when it happened.

Reisir suddenly whipped his head around, met my eyes, let go of the professor, and ran over to me.

"Alright, Karvaldr! Now, fulfill your promise!"

He said this as he spread his arms wide open.

There was no way I wouldn't know what he wanted. But that didn't mean I could just jump into Reisir's arms, so I feigned ignorance.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You promised we'd have a moving embrace if I succeeded in forming a magnetic field with my Lightning Ability, didn't you?"

"You're the one who arbitrarily declared you'd do so. I never said I would agree to it."

"But you didn't say you wouldn't, either, did you?"

...Did I?

I replayed the events of Episode 197 in my head and realized that Reisir was telling the truth.

And my fox-like opponent did not miss the moment I paused to search my memory.

"I was afraid you'd tell me not to get ahead of myself and postpone it like last time, so I didn't just stop at forming a magnetic field. I succeeded in maintaining and controlling it, too! So, come on! Hurry up and...!"

"No, but... Even if I had flatly refused, it was something you had to succeed at anyway, wasn't it?"

"But people can only do their best when there's an immediate reward scheduled. And if they don't receive a reward they believed without a doubt would be given, their motivation gets crushed, and they can't muster their strength for a while, right?"

He was saying that I should give him a reward so he could continue to do his best to improve his skills.

It seemed that the moving embrace with Professor Radvisin wasn't enough.

It's not like the protagonist of someone else's novel is demanding something outrageous, and bickering like this every time is a bit much... Maybe it's better to just close my eyes and hug him once?

I had already been subjected to a "Princess Carry" several times. If we argued over a mere hug, I thought the original readers might think, "Why is he being so extra?"

Especially since Professor Radvisin had accepted Reisir's hug just before without any fuss.

Moreover, the dear readers who are reading this text have also seen a similar situation repeated in the library, so they might even be feeling a sense of boredom.

So, to prevent any more waste of volume.

I decided, with great reluctance, to grant the request of the protagonist of someone else's novel.

"F... Fine. I will do as you wish."

"Really?!"

Reisir's eyes lit up as he beamed at the words I had squeezed out.

It was then that I heard a mutter from somewhere.

"Wow, he's actually giving in?"

I reflexively threw a glance in the direction of the sound, and Helga, her mouth demurely closed, tilted her head slightly as if asking why I was looking at her.

She said she would slowly let go of her pretense...

I thought her method was truly unique. But now was not the time to be concerned about such things.

"Instead, it's for just one second."

"Aw, one second is too short. A minute, maybe."

One second is certainly on the short side. Still, one minute is too long.

"...Then three seconds?"

"It has to be at least 30 seconds."

"......Ten seconds."

"Twenty seconds."

"Fifteen seconds. If you don't like it, then let's not do it at all."

"I'm good with 15 seconds."

After we agreed on the time, Reisir once again spread his arms wide.

He's the one who wants the hug, but I don't understand why I have to risk embarrassment and walk over to him to be hugged. He could just come over and initiate the hug, and I'd reluctantly stand still.

The thought crossed my mind, but if I said it out loud, it was a foregone conclusion that the other party would just laugh at me.

Thus, feeling awkward, I had to timidly approach the protagonist of someone else's novel.

Fortunately, or perhaps not, when I got close enough, he did grab me in a sudden embrace.

"Karvaldr, you smell really nice, you know?"

"You're not some kind of dog... Stop sniffing."

"Are you wearing cologne? Or is it the smell of hair oil?"

"Hasn't it been 15 seconds yet...?"

"Not yet. Anyway, your hair is so fluffy, it feels nice."

"......"

"And I like that you're warm, too."

I don't know why he's giving a running commentary.

Just as I heard Ríolíkin's voice muttering, "Me too, someday, I'll definitely..." and felt the intense urge to shut everyone's mouths, on this side and that, Reisir let me go and took a couple of steps back with a disappointed expression.

Then he came to the following conclusion.

"Karvaldr. So this is why you're always hugging Yor at the slightest provocation?"

In this world, Yor is perceived as a cat, so that was his way of saying he was treating me like a cat.

Come to think of it, his comments about smelling nice, being fluffy, and being warm were exactly the kind of sentiments one would feel when holding a cat.

"...If you wanted to hug a cat, you could have just hugged Yor, couldn't you? Of course, you'd have to get Yor's permission."

"Nyong."

At my words, Yor asserted that he was a dragon, not a cat.

He was one hundred percent right. But by that logic, I was also a person, not a cat.

"When I petted him last time, Yor's fur was really soft and fluffy. I didn't smell him, but since you take good care of him, he must smell nice. But his body temperature is low, so he feels cool rather than warm... In the hot summer, maybe, but right now, I'm more drawn to the warm one, you see?"

"...Whatever. I have no intention of ever being hugged by you again, so give it up."

"Well, are you so sure about that?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's a common thing for once to become twice, and twice to become three times, until, at some point, it becomes a part of daily life, isn't it?"

Somehow, Reisir's statement sounded like he intended to grab and hug me whenever he had the chance.

But he was the protagonist of a male-oriented novel where many heroine candidates appeared.

Could this be his ambition to use the excuse of it becoming a habit to hug people nearby at the slightest provocation, just so he could grab and hug the female students around him?

"You shameless fiend..."

"Um... Unless I'm mistaken, it feels like you're genuinely disgusted, not joking..."

"Have I ever joked with you?"

"Have you... not?"

"I have not."

"Uh... Well... I was planning to get permission..."

"Hmph!"

After ending my conversation with the protagonist of someone else's novel, I turned my head and looked at Professor Radvisin.

He, too, seemed to find the behavior of the protagonist of someone else's novel absurd, and he had a look on his face that said he had no idea what was going on.

"Professor, the lecture time is over."

"Ah... Has it gotten that late already? Well then, I hope you all enjoy your meal."

The old professor, having erased his confused look and returned to his gentle expression, said as much.

After shooting a brief glare at the protagonist of someone else's novel, I snorted, "Hmph!" once more and walked past him out of the lecture room.

It was an action meant to say, "I have no intention of talking to you for a while, so don't you dare talk to me," but I don't know if he properly understood.

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