This Novel is not my Novel

It looks like the original author wants me to abandon Reisir and run away, but like hell I'll do that...!

I neither turned around nor froze in place.

I put my weight into the foot I had planted, pushed off the ground, and surged forward.

At the same time, I reapplied the 【Exhortation】 keyword to Yor and Reisir, then caught the stem whose flower was about to bloom with my whip.

I won't be able to extend their buffs once I'm asleep, so I have to do it now.

With my next step, I swung the whip and violently slammed down the flower stem coiled around its tip.

I infused the resulting shock wave with Ether and activated 【Exaltation】.

Then, as I took another step and threw a dagger to sever the rope suspending Reisir.

The monster spat out another seed and grew a plant bearing a white flower bud.

Its growth was incomparably faster than before, as though it intended to pretend I hadn't just uprooted and thrown away the previous flower.

Still, now that I've closed this much distance...!

I simply released the whip in my hand, threw myself forward, and caught Reisir as he fell upside down.

My center of gravity was already pitched forward, and when that considerable weight landed in my outstretched arms, I had no way to keep my balance.

I couldn't hold out for even a moment and fell over with him, but who cared?

What mattered was that I hadn't been too late.

"Thank goodness...."

I tightly embraced Reisir's head as though trapping it against my chest, letting the words of relief escape without realizing it.

That was when the white flower burst into full bloom and released an explosion of pollen.

A sweet scent filled my nostrils.

My eyelids grew unbearably heavy.

Only then did I remember that I had failed to extend the effect of 【Encouragement】.

I wanted to take out plenty of Potions while I was at it.... Yor has some too, but just in case.

But it didn't seem possible.

My mind was rapidly growing hazy.

Ah, but I still had to use 【Encouragement】. What was I supposed to say...?

"Um..., so...... You... can... do it...?"

"......??"

Reisir found it difficult to catch up with and comprehend the series of events that had unfolded in an instant.

From his perspective, that was only natural.

The monster he had thought he had just killed suddenly moved and tried to grab him.

When he dodged it, a trap activated out of nowhere, caught him, and left him hanging upside down before he abruptly plummeted.

His nose struck his friend's chest, and his face remained buried there, leaving him unable to breathe for a moment.

Then, at a time like this, he was unexpectedly treated to the rather adorable encouragement, "You can do it." Of course he was bewildered.

Worse yet, the person who had said it was none other than Karvaldr.

He wasn't the sort of person who would voluntarily say something like that without anyone making him, was he?

And just before that, he muttered that he was glad.

As Reisir began doubting his own ears.

All the strength suddenly drained from the arms Karvaldr had wrapped around his head.

"Kar... Karvaldr...?"

Finally escaping his friend's embrace and lifting his head, Reisir was startled.

No, he was horrified.

Karvaldr was already naturally pale, and now that he had gone completely limp, he looked like a dead man.

"KRROARRR──!!"

If an exceptionally peculiar feline cry had not assaulted his ears.

Reisir might have remained stunned until he failed to protect the person he needed to protect, leaving him to live with regret and self-reproach.

To avoid that future.

Reisir firmly suppressed his desire to examine his friend's condition immediately.

He seized the spear lying beside him and rose to his feet.

Then he drove Lightning Attribute Ether into both the flower and the body of the plant monster, which had been stiffened by Yor's 【Feline Spirit (=【Dragon Fear】)】.

Only then did the monster's vital activity cease completely.

Even when Reisir prodded it with the shaft of his spear, its bone-dry leaves merely crumbled and scattered, leaving behind nothing but soot.

I should have done this from the beginning....

Even if it resembled a head at first glance, it was merely a flower.

A plant did not die simply because its flower fell off.

Of course, this wasn't a real flower but a monster, which made that fact all the more relevant.

Reisir was dumbfounded by his own judgment. How could he have overlooked something so obvious and made such a foolish mistake?

Everyone around him kept praising his strength. He must have grown arrogant.

There was nowhere else to look for an answer but himself.

Anger toward himself surged within him.

Yet an inexplicable sense of injustice rose alongside it.

Unable to tell whom that emotion was directed at, Reisir concluded that he shamelessly wanted to blame someone else.

Self-loathing swept over him.

But he could no longer delay checking on the friend who had tried to protect him.

"Um... Karvaldr is......"

"Meow meow."

As he turned around and cautiously began to speak, he saw Yor holding a whiteboard.

「 【Truth-Reading Eye】 → 」

The arrow pointed toward a plant with a withered flower drooping from its stem.

Come to think of it, this had "germinated" from a seed spat out by the monster.

Karvaldr had advised him that whenever a monster used 【Germination】, he should always read the information about whatever it produced.

Recalling the conversation he had shared with his friend in Chapter 333, Reisir activated 【Truth-Reading Eye】.

==========

[Seed Bloom's Sleeping Herb]

: A plant grown by the monster "Seed Bloom" using 【Germination】. Its flower contained pollen with a powerful sleep-inducing effect.

==========

Given that the description was phrased in the past tense, the flower apparently could release its pollen only once.

Despite reaching that conclusion, Reisir did not leave it alone. He carbonized it with the power of lightning.

「 zzZZ ↓ 」

In the meantime, the writing on Yor's whiteboard had changed.

This time, the arrow pointed toward Karvaldr.

Only then did Reisir realize that Karvaldr was merely asleep, and the strength left his legs as he sank to the ground.

The information window read with 【Truth-Reading Eye】 mentioned a "sleep-inducing substance," and Karvaldr's familiar had also told him that Karvaldr was sleeping.

Even so, Reisir couldn't set his mind at ease.

He couldn't bear it without checking for himself.

He placed a finger beneath Karvaldr's nose and felt the tickle of his breath.

Then he pressed his ear to Karvaldr's chest, which rose and fell faintly with each breath, and listened to the steady thump of his heartbeat.

Only then could he truly believe that Karvaldr was alive.

He pulled Karvaldr's warm body tightly into his arms, overwhelmed with genuine relief.

"Thank... goodness...!"

The words had escaped him without thought.

Reisir wondered if Karvaldr had said the same thing because he had felt this way too.

Guilt, gratitude, overwhelming emotion, relief, joy, and more.

As countless emotions began to run wild within him, tears welled in his eyes and blurred his vision.

Yet something else grew clearer in contrast.

The sight of Karvaldr running toward him with his teeth clenched, his face filled with desperate urgency.

The faint smile Karvaldr had worn as he reached out toward him.

As Reisir replayed those memories, he was so deeply moved that his chest went beyond aching and began to feel painfully tight.

Come to think of it, his voice sounded incredibly gentle when he whispered that he was glad....

If Karvaldr ever learned of that thought, he would probably retort, "You're romanticizing the memory!"

Reisir tightened his arms around Karvaldr's body.

Watching them, Yor debated whether she should tell Reisir to let go of her master now.

But she decided that delaying matters this way would likely improve her master's chances of survival, so she allowed Reisir to remain immersed in his emotions a little longer.

And so, a considerable amount of time passed.

"Ah... We shouldn't keep doing this here, should we...?"

Once the flood of emotions subsided and Reisir could think rationally again, he loosened his embrace slightly.

But he did not immediately rise.

He needed to consider what they should do from now on.

"It should be about time for the professors to come outside for breakfast.... If I call down lightning strikes at regular intervals, will they immediately realize we're here and come running?"

Karvaldr remained asleep, apparently deeply so.

Reisir had not muttered those words because he wanted to discuss the matter with someone, but merely to organize his thoughts aloud.

Yet he received an unexpected answer.

"Meow meow."

Yor meowing was an everyday occurrence and could hardly be called "unexpected."

But one of the familiar's fingers was pointing upward.

Reisir reflexively raised his head and saw a single tiny, exceptionally dark storm cloud floating alone in the wide-open sky.

That was enough to qualify as an "unexpected answer."

"You mean you've already left a marker, so I shouldn't waste Ether needlessly...?"

"Meow."

"So Karvaldr wasn't merely flattering you when he called you a genius?"

"Myaa, myaa~."

Reisir's reaction was equal parts admiration and bewilderment, but Yor brushed it off as if wondering why he would bother stating something so obvious.

Then she took three handkerchiefs from the mysterious jewel she always carried with her.

She handed two of them to Reisir, then covered her own airways with the remaining one and secured it by tying a knot behind her head.

"You really are clever...."

Expressing his admiration once more, Reisir covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief. He placed the other over the lower half of the sleeping Karvaldr's face and secured it with a knot.

The fabric did not fit tightly against his face, leaving gaps beside the bridge of his nose while the lower edge fluttered slightly, so it couldn't block the sleep powder completely.

Still, it should filter out more than half of it.

"In any case, the professors should soon realize we're here. Should we just wait for rescue somewhere suitable? Or would it be better to keep moving with escape as our goal?"

Reisir had just witnessed Yor's remarkable intelligence.

This time, therefore, he spoke with the intention of discussing the matter rather than merely talking to himself.

But Yor did not meet his expectations. She only shrugged, adopting an attitude that said it was none of her concern.

"Hmm.... But does a 'suitable place' even exist here...?"

The first thing that came to Reisir's mind was a place with at least one side blocked by a solid wall, a boulder, or something similar.

That would reduce the number of directions they needed to guard.

As it happened, Reisir had discovered such a place while searching for treasure capsules the previous week, and he still remembered its location.

But for some reason....

It wasn't merely that he felt reluctant.

A strange aversion churned within him.

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