This Novel is not my Novel

"Helly?! What happened to you...? How did you end up like that?"

"Haa... I'll tell you later..."

As though she did not even have the energy to explain right now,

Helga postponed answering her childhood friend's question, laboriously pushed herself upright, and staggered past the sign.

It was not merely her clothes. Helga herself looked utterly battered.

"Um... I'm sorry..."

Had the sight of the haggard Helga made her feel guilty?

Despite looking just as disheveled herself, Lissy hesitantly approached Helga and apologized.

"No, it's fi... not exactly fine, but you don't need to apologize, Lissy. I was the one who came after your treasures first... And this is what the training is supposed to be like."

Apparently, Helga's current state was the result of something she had brought upon herself.

Perhaps defeating the confession villain with her Fire Fist had gone to her head, and she had underestimated Lissy because she was considered the weakest among us.

Or perhaps she had been short on treasures with very little time remaining and simply had no other choice.

Either way, she seemed to have attacked Lissy and paid dearly for it.

I could roughly imagine how the fight had unfolded.

Helga had probably intended to bind Lissy with Ether-reinforced wires, just as she had done to the confession villain, and then steal her treasures.

However, Lissy's Strength, enhanced by 【Giant Strength】, was incomparable to that of a mere confession villain.

She had likely torn through the wires with brute force and taken all of Helga's notes instead.

Still, judging by how both of them look as though they rolled across the ground several times... Did Lissy hold back because she was worried about hurting Helga, while Helga struggled with everything she had...?

Just as I reached that conclusion and deactivated 【Character Analysis】,

"Helga, I am sorry as well."

This time, Vigdís apologized to Helga.

Apparently, Vigdís had been the one who stole the treasures Helga found and put her in a situation where she had no choice but to attack Lissy.

"You don't have to apologize either. You were only doing your best in the training, weren't you?"

Once again, Helga readily forgave Vigdís without holding a grudge.

Then she turned her gaze toward the person she apparently expected to speak next...

"Why dost thou look upon me in such a manner?"

"Everyone else was apologizing to me... so I wondered whether Your Royal Highness might as well?"

"Is this truly a matter that requires an apology? We merely participated in the training and strove to accomplish the objective given to us."

"That is... true. I was only wondering."

After listening to Fjodora and Helga's conversation to the end,

I looked at Reisir and spoke.

"Have you nothing to say to me?"

"I'm sorry. But I'm not giving back the treasures I took from you."

"......"

Unless he intended to return them with interest, giving them back now would be pointless.

I could no longer avoid the punishment anyway.

Even so, I could not help finding the protagonist of someone else's novel's response irritating.

"Oh! Sveinn is coming! You were waiting for Sveinn, weren't you?"

As I glared at the protagonist of someone else's novel and contemplated whether to kick him,

perhaps sensing my mood, he pointed somewhere and attempted to redirect my attention.

His intentions could not have been more obvious.

However, as he had said, I had indeed been waiting for Sveinn to arrive.

So I postponed kicking the protagonist of someone else's novel until later and turned my gaze in the direction he indicated.

The last person to appear did not run straight toward those who had arrived before him.

Instead, he walked slowly while rummaging through the surrounding bushes.

Only his footsteps were slow.

The hands combing through the undergrowth looked exceedingly busy.

From the lingering reluctance in his behavior, I could easily guess how many treasures Sveinn possessed.

Not enough to reach the required five and avoid punishment,

but enough that abandoning the search entirely would feel too regrettable.

"You appear to be missing exactly one."

This was perfect.

Unlike me, however, Sveinn's expression crumpled.

"Th-That may be true, but I'm not giving you any...!"

He seemed to think I was trying to steal from him again.

I could understand why he would say that.

What I did not understand was why, instead of clutching his bag tightly with both hands, he wrapped both arms around his body.

Don't tell me... Did he also take the treasure notes out and hide them inside his clothes?

I did not know whether Sveinn had come up with the idea himself or whether Fjodora or Helga had spread the strategy around.

But none of that concerned me, so I simply proceeded with what I had intended to do.

"Yor. Return what you are holding to him."

"Meow."

At my words, Yor answered with an expression that seemed to say, "As expected."

True to her nature as a wise baby dragon, she appeared to have realized why I had been lingering in this location.

Yor swam through the air toward Sveinn.

She transferred the wish-granting orb in her right hand to her left, then held out the palm on which the note rested.

Sveinn picked it up with an expression of doubtful hope and unfolded it.

Then he stared at me with his eyes wide open.

"Ah... th-this...?"

"Was it not originally yours?"

"I-It was, but..."

"It is of no use to me now anyway. Thanks to someone..."

I briefly looked away from the dazed Sveinn and once again glared at the "someone" I had just mentioned.

That "someone" let out an awkward "Ahaha."

His reaction irritated me all over again, and I narrowed my eyes.

"Um... th-thank you, Karvaldr."

"Naturally, you should be grateful. Even if I had not taken it, Pret would obviously have stolen it from you instead. And Pret would not have returned the note at a time like this."

After replying sharply to Sveinn's thanks, I spun around and walked beyond the sign.

I felt relieved that the original traitor's hostility toward me seemed to have diminished at least slightly.

Although I have ended up in a position where I must receive the punishment... I should let go of what cannot be helped and focus only on the positive side.

It was remarkably fortunate for me that Sveinn had possessed four treasures, exactly one short of the required amount.

Thanks to that, I had been able to return a useless scrap of paper to its original owner,

receive his gratitude, and take credit for doing so.

I waited here just in case, but I never expected the circumstances to align this dramatically and produce the best possible result!

This must be what people meant when they spoke of turning misfortune into fortune.

It had been wise to think of a use for my single remaining treasure note and return here earlier than everyone else to wait.

As I privately basked in pride and satisfaction,

"So you did have another treasure note after all?"

Reisir, who had followed me beyond the sign, said this.

It was already over and done with, yet he remained remarkably persistent.

"Yor was the one carrying it, not me. Therefore, I did not lie."

"Then what about your claim that you hadn't found a single treasure yourself?"

"That was also true."

"But then the numbers don't add up... Ah! Did Yor find one?"

At last.

It seemed the moment had finally come to say what I had been forced to swallow until now.

"Regrettably, Yor has also failed to find a single treasure."

"Then where did the other one come from?"

"Pret gave it to me."

"Hmm...? You didn't take it from Pret? He gave it to you? To you? For no reason?"

There was no need for me to answer.

Someone else was present who could resolve Reisir's confusion for me.

"Yes, that's right! I gave it to him for free! Because I wanted to become friends with Karvaldr."

"Trying to buy friendship with a scrap of paper smaller than your palm? That's a thief's mentality if I've ever seen one."

"Ahah! But I only had the mentality of a thief, didn't I? Meanwhile, your actions were those of an outright robber. You held Karvaldr hostage, threatened to hurt him if he did not remain still, and intimidated both him and his familiar so they couldn't move. Then you searched through the clothes Karvaldr was wearing and took what you wanted."

"I suspected you might have... Were you watching back then? While hiding?"

"Yeees!"

I had expected as much.

Reisir apparently had too, and the readers had probably guessed it as well.

Pret had secured enough treasure notes, so unlike Fjodora, he would not have been seeking to profit from someone else's fight.

However, he was interested in Reisir and me.

If he had heard the sounds of us fighting, it was only natural that he would come over and secretly watch.

"...Since when?"

"Since Vigdís climbed on top of Karvaldr's stomach and placed her hand on his chest?"

That, I had not expected.

I did not mean that I had not expected Pret to witness my fight with Vigdís.

I meant that I had not expected Pret to phrase it in a way practically guaranteed to invite a strange misunderstanding.

"Th-That was an accident!"

"Does it matter? You're engaged anyway."

"Even so...! That is somewhat...!"

While Vigdís flustered helplessly,

"Ahem! Ahem! Hm, hm!!"

The person responsible for sending us on the treasure hunt appeared, loudly clearing his throat.

It was as though he could no longer stand by and watch the chaos continue.

Everyone's attention naturally gathered on Bjorn.

He did open his mouth.

"First... Well... Where do I even begin...? Haaah—"

Despite having drawn everyone's attention with his exaggerated coughing,

Bjorn failed to say anything coherent. He merely gazed into the distant empty air with an expression of disbelief and heaved one deep sigh after another.

Then he abruptly drew in a great breath and unleashed a torrent of words.

"I never thought I'd live to say something like this to the children of noble families after spending my life as a mercenary...! Kids, please, try to behave with some dignity!! Shoving your hands inside each other's clothes and—ugh...! Even if you're all doing it with someone of the same sex, don't you think that's going too far?! Why do you think I turned off the observation artifact?! It looked like things were about to become dangerous in an entirely different sense, and I couldn't bear to keep watching!! I thought you were innocent children, so all I did was arrange a treasure-hunting game that doubled as training...! How—how could you do something like that...!"

It could not have been a coincidence that every female student blushed in embarrassment at that moment.

Judging from their reactions, the strategy of hiding treasure notes inside one's clothes must have spread, and they had all wrestled with one another in attempts to steal them.

Feeling my own face grow hot, I glared at the protagonist of someone else's novel, who could be considered the one who had started this entire mess.

Yet shamelessly, he merely shook his head with an expression suggesting that none of this had anything to do with him.

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