This Novel is not my Novel

The time it takes for a Demon Realm to form after the first warning signs appear varies from case to case.

At most, there can be as much as ten minutes. Usually, though, it takes three to five minutes, and at the shortest, a mere thirty seconds. At least, that was the setting in the original work.

What was more, we currently had no way of knowing how far the Demon Realm extended.

Blindly rushing down the mountain was not necessarily the answer. There was no guarantee that the foot of the mountain lay outside the Demon Realm.

Instead, we needed to prioritize taking out our weapons and other necessities in case this was a Demon Realm where the Inventory could not be used.

We also needed to let others know that we had been caught in the formation of a Demon Realm—

"Yor! Fly up into the sky!"

—and so I gave the baby dragon that order.

There was no way to estimate the breadth of the Demon Realm, but the upper limit of its height tended to be fairly clear.

I thought that as long as we had about two minutes, Yor might be able to escape its range before it finished forming....

As the ellipsis at the end of that sentence suggests, it failed.

The instant those words left my mouth, a powerful tremor surged beneath my feet. Thorny vines sprang up in the blink of an eye, not only across what had once been the path but through every gap between the trees.

Then a translucent gray barrier covered the sky.

"M-Myaaow...."

Yor, who had swiftly shot upward, descended again with a miserable expression.

"It is not your fault."

This was by no means because Yor had been too slow. The Demon Realm had simply formed too quickly.

Thirty seconds minimum, my ass.

I had not been counting the seconds in my head, so I could not say exactly how much time had passed, but it had felt like barely ten seconds.

Even if Lausa had been here—an eagle-shaped spirit beast known for rapid flight, with a high Agility stat, the ability to control wind, and even a spatial movement skill—

she still would not have escaped the Demon Realm's range.

No. The original author would have made sure she could not.

Just like now.

It seemed the original author was determined to isolate us inside this Demon Realm.

For quite some time, at that.

No one knew that Reisir and I were here right now.

It had not been a particularly secretive outing, but since there had been no reason to announce it, we had told no one.

It was still early dawn, before even the workers hired for the construction had arrived, so there had been no witnesses either.

And that was not all.

We had decided to skip the group training sessions held at dawn during the school closure so we could focus more intently on practicing with our primary weapons.

Our absence would not be noticed until breakfast.

And that will probably be around the time the professors remaining at the academy notice the Demon Realm's formation as well.

To discover the enormous dome surrounding the Demon Realm, they would first have to come outside.

Even if someone discovered it early, that would change nothing.

No one would imagine that students might climb a mountain rigged with traps at dawn.

They would not launch an immediate expedition.

Believing there was no possibility of casualties, they would decide there was no urgency and leave it alone for the time being.

Because that was what the original author wanted.

"Um.... I'm sorry, Karvaldr. If I hadn't brought you somewhere like this...."

"No, there is no need to apologize. No one could have predicted that a Demon Realm would form here today."

In the pre-remake original novel, it was exceedingly rare for Demon Realms to form repeatedly in the same area.

Even when they did, there was usually an interval of at least a week between them.

More importantly, given the timing, this had to be the beginning of the story. I had assumed there was no chance I would be caught in one Demon Realm after another.

Yet here I was.

Only four days had passed since the entire academy was swallowed by a Demon Realm, and now I had come to the mountain directly behind it—

only for a Demon Realm environment to establish itself instantly, preventing us from even calling for reinforcements.

I knew the phrase was crude, but nothing described our current situation better than saying the whole thing was blatantly rigged against us.

Especially since our isolation inside this Demon Realm is almost certainly no coincidence.

This was a situation the original author of 《NaSE》 had forcibly engineered.

And the purpose was probably, with an extremely high degree of certainty....

To kill me. Right in front of Reisir, no less.

To think the original author would go this far to erase my existence.

Just what was it about me that Author Senna and the original readers found so objectionable?

Was it uncomfortable for them to see the possessed body of a school bully described as a good person by Reisir, the victim and protagonist?

Or maybe my behavior and remarks had simply become intolerably unlikable.

As if I have ever been someone who received other people's affection in the first place....

The original protagonist kept smiling at me, showing genuine concern for me, and praising me. I had been so delighted by it all that I had gotten carried away and started thinking I was somebody important.

Protect me. Trust me. Take my side.

I had forgotten my place and kept making demands of the original protagonist. Of course the original author and readers would come to hate me.

I found myself reflecting on how excessively I had pushed myself forward.

Back in Chapter 329, I had said that Reisir had been acting far too full of himself lately, but apparently, the one who had truly grown conceited was none other than me.

If I withdrew all those requests even now....

"Karvaldr! Snap out of it!!"

"Mrrrow! Myaarrr! Meow meow!!"

The sharp cries pierced my mind.

At the same time, rough hands seized my shoulders and shook me violently.

Only then did I abruptly come to my senses.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah...."

"You're still not all right, are you?"

"......"

Allow me to correct myself.

I had not come to my senses. I had only just managed to pull one foot out of the mire of negative thoughts.

"Karvaldr. Who am I?"

"......Reisir."

"And who is she?"

"Yor."

"So you do know."

Reisir suddenly pointed first at himself and then at Yor as he asked me those questions.

I assumed he thought I still seemed out of my mind and wanted to check whether my cognitive faculties had returned to normal.

Apparently, however, he had another purpose.

"The person and spirit beast you trust most are both right here beside you. So what is there to worry about?"

Reisir tried not to reveal his own tension, deliberately speaking as though it were no great concern.

He lightly rubbed my back and put on a relaxed smile.

It was impossible not to realize that everything he said and did was meant to reassure me.

"And the situation isn't entirely bad. It may be just the two of us here, and we may have failed to call for reinforcements, but there isn't a single civilian anywhere around us, right? That means there's no need for us to take unnecessary risks trying to clear the Demon Realm on our own."

He went on, forcing cheerfulness into his voice as he tried to present our current circumstances in a positive light.

"Judging by the angle of the dome, the Demon Realm's boundary seems fairly close. And this place we're standing in isn't a monster spawn point either. That's lucky, isn't it? Thanks to that, we can take our time assessing the situation like this."

"That is.... certainly fortunate."

As soon as something positive left my mouth, relief spread across his face, and his feigned smile became genuine.

The fact that his reaction somehow felt more than I deserved suggested that I really was not in a normal state.

Especially where my self-esteem was concerned.

The mere possibility that the original author might have decided to kill me was already terrifying beyond words.

But when I considered that the reason might be because an enormous number of people utterly despised me, my chest tightened and my fear doubled.

Part of me wanted to demand to know what I had done that was so wrong—why they hated me enough to want my very existence removed.

Yet at the same time, it felt as though everything really was my fault, and that I needed to apologize and beg forgiveness from anyone who would listen.

Even though I fully understood how irrational those thoughts were.

They simply drifted through my mind as they pleased.

"Oh, right! I just checked, and the Inventory works normally too. And also... um...."

"You do not need to force yourself to invent more things to say. I have mostly come to my senses."

"Uh... you have?"

"Just as you said, the situation is not particularly dire.... Yet I made a disgraceful spectacle of myself. I apologize."

"No, no! It wasn't disgraceful at all.... If we're comparing, I was much worse during the closing ceremony. It's just... should I say it was unexpected? I thought you would be calmer than me in a crisis like this...."

It was only natural for him to wonder. All the more so if he remembered the day of the closing ceremony.

Back then, even though the very concept of a Demon Realm had yet to be established, I had remained calm and swiftly begun dealing with the situation.

Yet now I had behaved as though I were panicking. Of course it would strike him as strange.

But even knowing that, I had no way to explain myself.

I could tell him neither about the original work nor about my past as Ymir rather than Karvaldr.

I could not speak of any of it, and I could not even think of a plausible excuse.

"I just... I.... Am I not allowed to be shaken sometimes?!"

"Yeah, of course. Anyone can be. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was questioning you."

"No, well.... I am the one who should apologize. I was being oversensitive."

"No, no. It was because I said something unnecessary. So...."

If we continued like this, we might end up exchanging apologies indefinitely.

It seemed best to interrupt the conversation for a moment, so I lightly waved a hand to signal that he should stop.

Then, after taking a deep breath and collecting myself, I returned the backpack containing my weapons and other necessities—which I had taken out of the Inventory at the beginning of this episode—to the Inventory and gripped my whip.

"What do you intend to do now? Shall we move and try to escape the Demon Realm, or remain here and await rescue?"

I asked out of respect for the original protagonist, but the answer had effectively already been decided.

We had yet to determine whether this Demon Realm's monsters remained stationary like the golems in the last one.

If they could move freely—especially if they were highly intelligent monsters—we absolutely could not remain still.

We would most likely end up surrounded.

So, for the time being, moving was the correct choice.

Not that the original author would simply allow us to leave the Demon Realm.

Still, it was safe to assume that there was no chance the monsters here would obediently remain in place.

If the original author planned to use that sort of monster, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) there would have been no reason to isolate us here in the first place.

Just as I swallowed my resentment at that thought, Reisir said something unexpected.

"First, let's eat something."

"......What?"

"We haven't eaten anything yet. If we don't replenish our energy now, we won't have enough strength to fight properly when we encounter monsters."

"......"

"And you know what they say. A full stomach helps you think clearly and come up with positive ideas."

"Hmm.... Yes.... You have a point."

No matter how determined Author Senna might be to kill me—

no, precisely because of that, the original author would surely leave us alone while we ate.

Since the original protagonist himself had suggested it, there was also no chance that monsters would swarm in and surround us while we filled our stomachs.

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