This Novel is not my Novel

The buff that should have expired long ago was still active.

That meant Karvaldr had extended its duration before falling asleep.

Could it be... that he told me to keep fighting because he was activating 【Encouragement】?

Absurdly enough, Reisir seemed to have mistaken Karvaldr's final words before losing consciousness for nothing more than a simple cheer.

Even though the line had bewildered him back in Chapter 335.

If the person who had desperately activated the buff skill while his consciousness was fading ever learned of this, he would surely be dumbfounded.

Then when did he use 【Exhortation】 and 【Exaltation】? When he came running to save me from the trap?

At the time, Karvaldr had swung his whip to snare and uproot the stem of the plant bearing white buds.

The process had produced a loud noise.

Reisir surmised that Karvaldr had activated the buff skills then, and that conclusion was correct.

However—

Karv was extremely wary of the monster's 【Germination】 skill, but he didn't know exactly what would grow from it. It isn't as though he has a skill like mine that lets him uncover information about all sorts of things...

—this thought was wrong.

Since Karvaldr was possessing someone else's body, he knew exactly what dangers the plants grown through 【Germination】 posed.

But Reisir did not know this truth, so he continued down the wrong path.

Besides, even though it had been cut in half, there was still a living monster near me at the time. Karv ran straight into a place fraught with unknown danger. To save me.

Once again, no.

Not only did he know precisely what the danger was, but he had also been certain Reisir, the "original protagonist," would not die.

He had acted solely to ensure his own survival and that of his spirit beast.

Perhaps Karv thought something might happen to him. That must be why he cast the buffs on me in the middle of all that. He wanted at least one of us to survive and escape from this place.

No.

As he inhaled the pollen and gradually lost consciousness, he might even have mistaken it for dying...

The one laboring under a misconception was Reisir.

But no one was there to correct him now.

He even made me promise to protect him, yet he was the one who threw himself into danger to save me... What am I supposed to do with this tsundere cat?

The misunderstanding continued.

He kept insisting it wasn't true, but Karv clearly thinks of me as a friend. He must genuinely care about me and like me.

......

Had the monsters known Reisir was entertaining such thoughts, perhaps even they would have been too dumbfounded to continue attacking.

However, Reisir had not voiced any of these thoughts, and according to the original work's setting, most monsters could not understand human language anyway.

The battle continued.

Even while indulging in such absurd thoughts, Reisir somehow managed to defeat three monsters.

Or perhaps it was precisely because those thoughts drove out his negativity and reignited his resolve that he was able to do so.

For reference, these three were not among the monsters that had joined the battle later. They were the ones that had appeared before that.

They had already been exposed to Yor's 【Dragon Fear】.

Reisir had selected those three as his priority targets because he knew the skill's effects weakened after a target had been exposed to it once.

"GRRRAAAAAAA─!!"

Only after Yor roared and activated the skill did the battle pause for a moment.

Seizing the opportunity, Yor handed Reisir more Potions. Unlike before, she gave him four bottles this time.

One healing Potion to treat his injuries and one Ether Potion to replenish the Ether he had expended.

And two antidote Potions to cure the poisoned condition.

As this selection of Potions made clear, what Reisir had feared in the previous chapter had finally happened.

Pollen that the handkerchief had failed to filter out had entered their airways, poisoning both Reisir and Karvaldr.

Karvaldr was in far worse condition, so Reisir tended to his friend before himself.

The existing handkerchief was covered in pollen, so he removed it entirely.

Then he carefully parted Karvaldr's closed lips and trickled an antidote Potion between them.

Serenity returned to Karvaldr's face, which had been creased between the brows and covered in cold sweat.

His lips, which had turned purple, quickly regained their natural color.

After confirming this, Reisir let out a deep breath of relief, took his own handkerchief from his Inventory, and covered Karvaldr's nose and mouth again.

This process took some time.

The monsters began to twitch, showing signs that their stiffness was wearing off.

"MYAAAAOW─! GRRRAAAAAAA──!!"

Yor activated 【Dragon Fear】 once more.

Only then could Reisir replace the handkerchief he was wearing and drink the antidote Potion and Ether Potion.

He then picked up the glass bottle containing the healing Potion.

But instead of opening it and drinking the contents, he put it into his Inventory.

The monsters had been exposed to 【Dragon Fear】 twice in succession, so they would begin moving again very soon.

However, opening a bottle and swallowing the small amount of liquid inside would take only an instant.

It was not that he lacked time.

Rather, because the monsters had scattered so many seeds for 【Germination】 this time, he had not suffered any injuries severe enough to impair his movements.

Moreover, taking healing Potions repeatedly at short intervals reduced their effectiveness by half.

Reisir decided to hold off on drinking it in case he suffered a serious injury later.

...That was the primary reason.

And the existence of a "primary reason" naturally meant that there was a secondary one.

......I'm sleepy.

Poisonous flowers were not the only plants that had grown from the 【Germination】 seeds scattered by the monsters.

Both men had inhaled pollen that induced sleep along with the toxic pollen.

Karvaldr had consequently fallen into an even deeper sleep, while Reisir's eyelids grew steadily heavier and kept trying to close.

He needed a stimulus to drive away his drowsiness.

The pain from his injuries was serving that purpose, so Reisir had decided it was better to leave them untreated.

"Karv, I promise I'll keep my word. I'll protect you. No matter what."

Taking advantage of Karvaldr's unconsciousness, Reisir used the nickname however he pleased and reaffirmed his resolve.

Then he lifted Karvaldr once more, rose to his feet, and prepared to fight.

Yor's Ether spike had again pinned down one of the Seed Blooms. Reisir killed the monster with the power of lightning, now replenished by the Potion.

And then...

Rustle, whisper, swish.

As though they had been waiting for that very moment, three more monsters appeared.

They had barely managed to reduce the monsters' numbers to three, only for that number to double.

They could rest once the battle ended, but no matter how many times they reduced the enemy's numbers, more kept appearing. There was no chance to rest at all.

Even Yor was so exhausted from evading the monsters' attacks that she was panting heavily.

Reisir was in far worse condition.

No matter how exceptional his physical abilities were, that was inevitable after fighting while carrying and protecting an unconscious man.

His breathing had grown extremely ragged.

Both the arm holding Karvaldr and the one wielding his spear were trembling violently.

His palm had split open and begun bleeding again, making it slippery, and his grip had weakened so badly that he had nearly dropped his spear.

Had Reisir not thought to use the physical force of his Ether to bind his hand to the spear, the situation would truly have become dangerous.

Anyone could see that he had reached his limit, and Reisir himself thought so as well.

His grim prediction that the handkerchief would not block the pollen completely had also proven correct.

He could easily have succumbed to even greater anxiety and despair than before, yet Reisir's fighting spirit showed no sign of breaking.

I will never give up. I can't allow the life Karv risked his own to save to be wasted.

Once again, this was a misconception.

I haven't even reclaimed my family's territory yet...

The monsters with physical bodies were not Reisir's only enemies.

He also had to defeat the bodiless enemy of sleep.

There are only two months left. I can't die in a place like this.

To resist the temptation of sleep whispering that everything would be easier if he simply closed his eyes, Reisir reminded himself of the reasons he had to live.

If I die, the Daudaviner territory will be fully absorbed into the imperial family. If that happens, moving my parents' graves there will become impossible. Someday, the land will be bestowed upon another family, and even its name will be changed.

Such thoughts fiercely stimulated his will to survive.

Another thought followed.

Come to think of it, I only managed to secure the imperial family's promise to return the territory because of Karv.

Reisir was certain that if he lost Karvaldr here, he would be unable to feel unreserved joy even when the territory was returned to him.

He felt as though his late parents would scold him as well.

Crushed beneath the weight of his indebtedness, even living would surely become unbearable.

So there would be no point in surviving alone. Karv has to survive with me...!

From that moment onward, Reisir's mind was filled with a single conviction: Karv and I will survive together.

That thought alone was enough to defeat the pull of sleep and cling to his desire to live.

He had no need for any others.

But there was a limit to how far mental strength could overcome the limits of the body.

By the time he could no longer even lift his feet, he had no way to stop the negative thoughts creeping back in.

If, by some chance, only one of us can survive, it has to be Karv.

In Reisir's eyes, Karvaldr was someone capable of exerting a beneficial influence on those around him, whereas Reisir himself was merely an ordinary person.

Moreover, if Reisir died, he would die alone. But if Karvaldr died, his spirit beast would lose her life as well.

That made it seem only reasonable.

If Karv disappeared, my life would become terribly dull and tedious.

Reisir had been close to Karvaldr for only about half a year.

Even so, the thought came to him naturally. He found it both strange and self-evident.

And so—

Karv is someone I cannot live without.

—the moment he reached that conclusion, he heard a sound that had not once reached his ears since he became trapped in the Demon Realm.

Shatter—!

The thorny vines froze solid, then burst apart, scattering shards of ice as a familiar figure appeared.

Only then could Reisir finally relax and surrender to sleep.

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