This Novel is not my Novel

"Alright, alright. Anyway, now that the Team Division is finished, I'll explain the game we'll be playing today."

"A game?!"

"If you think about having to train all day at an age when you should be enjoying yourself, it's only natural that your motivation would disappear, right? So I thought long and hard about how to conduct Mock Battle in the form of a game! Uhahaha!"

At the word "game," Pret's eyes sparkled with interest.

Seeing that, Bjorn let out a hearty laugh and spoke with a proud expression.

According to the original work's setting, Bjorn was not merely a mercenary.

He was the leader of a fairly large Mercenary Company.

And a highly responsible one at that.

So the situation where he had to leave behind the members who followed him and come to the academy to teach students probably wasn't very pleasant for him...

In Chapter 172.

Do you remember that I mentioned there was a character who had been introduced as an Awakened Professor, even though I myself would not have become an Awakened One at this point in time?

That character was Bjorn.

After the outbreak of the Demon Realm Incident, Bjorn worked together with the members of his Mercenary Company as a Rescue Team.

Then, one day, he was caught up in a Demon Realm Generation Phenomenon and awakened.

Yet even after becoming an Awakened One, he did not join a Raid Team.

He remained with the Rescue Team and continued leading his members.

The reason an Awakened One like him was permitted to work as part of a Rescue Team was...

Because even when escorting rescued people outside the Demon Realm, the presence of an Awakened One was necessary.

If one of the rescued people was an Awakened One, they could escape the Demon Realm safely.

But—

If that isn't possible, they have to hold out until the Raid Team defeats the Boss Monster...

There were cases where it took days to locate the Boss Monster because it was hiding.

The problem was that Demon Realm subjugations often ended in failure because the Raid Team was annihilated or retreated without defeating the Boss Monster.

Normally, the Raid Team and Rescue Team operated together, so during a retreat, they would protect the Rescue Team.

But in the case of annihilation, there was no one left to do so.

Furthermore, Bjorn's Rescue Team did not belong to any particular Einherjar Team.

Since they had originally been a Mercenary Company, they were hired as mercenaries.

As a result, they were frequently abandoned in the middle of the Demon Realm.

Whether the Raid Team had not yet encountered the Boss Monster.

Whether the Raid Team had been annihilated.

Whether the Raid Team had retreated.

They had no way of knowing.

Anyone could understand how terrifying it was to continue an indefinite wait inside the Demon Realm, which was filled with monsters.

Bjorn was able to continue working as a Rescue Team even after becoming an Awakened One.

That did not mean he never participated in Boss Monster captures.

If an Awakened One arrived late and a raid only began after the rescue operation was complete, or if the Raid Team lacked enough personnel, Bjorn would provide support.

This should be enough explanation of Bjorn's actions in the original novel.

Returning to the current situation and continuing the narration.

Having the Mock Battle method conducted in a game format must have been Author Senna's decision to make the relevant scene more entertaining.

However, that did not mean the time Bjorn spent thinking carefully for the sake of students who had been forced into this training lost its meaning.

Therefore.

There was no doubt that Bjorn had accepted his role as a professor and was sincerely trying to treat the students properly.

"Ah! Let me say this beforehand. The team that wins the morning game will have food from the campus cafeteria delivered. But the losing team will have to either eat the food they brought in their Inventory or survive by grazing on grass in the mountains. You'll have to figure things out yourselves, so you'd better not slack off."

...

Or was there?

Was there really no room for doubt?

I suddenly became confused.

"Holding our meals hostage seems like an excessively harsh measure. Especially without any prior notice..."

Perhaps because this had not been something she had been informed about beforehand, Fjodora raised an objection.

However, even with the Princess stepping forward, Bjorn's attitude remained extremely firm.

"Well, does a Demon Realm give advance notice before appearing?"

"That it does not..."

"Exactly. It doesn't. So shouldn't you always be fully prepared to fight at any moment? Among those preparations, food is the most basic of basics. Now that you even have a convenient Storage Ability called Inventory, wouldn't it be a problem if you didn't bring food?"

Was it because Fjodora did not show any sign of taking offense even though he had completely abandoned Honorific Speech?

Considering how much he had hesitated before speaking informally to her, Bjorn's current attitude was astonishing.

He did not bend his will at all and stated his opinion without hesitation.

Furthermore, his argument itself was completely reasonable.

Fjodora nodded, showing that she accepted his words.

"Indeed, those are righteous words. Since this lecture also serves as Survival Training, it seems best to proceed according to your judgment."

It was a remark that made me wonder what the point of asking for someone's opinion was if she immediately accepted it anyway.

Even if that way of speaking, as though addressing a subordinate, was simply part of her personality and could not be helped.

If she wants professors to treat her like any other student, she should probably avoid speaking as though she personally grants permission for how the lecture will proceed...

If she had simply continued asserting her authority as the Princess, everyone would have accepted it.

After all, this was a society based on status.

But while she said with her words that she wanted to be treated like any other student, her actions still treated the professor like a subordinate.

It seemed she had not realized that contradiction was precisely what caused people to feel more resistance toward her.

"...The game we will be playing today is the Ribbon Snatching Game."

Bjorn hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure how to respond to Fjodora's remark, before changing the subject.

He then took one teal ribbon and one purple ribbon out of his Inventory and handed one to each of us.

I guess this is a game where you tie the ribbon somewhere on your body and steal the opponent's ribbon without letting them take yours.

He probably won't allow us to hide it under our clothes... Would tying it around my ankle be best? Then it would be difficult to take without bending down.

As if to mock the thought I had while holding the purple ribbon I received, Bjorn personally specified both the location where the ribbon should be tied and the method.

"Tie the ribbon you received around your neck. Make it into a butterfly shape so that it comes undone immediately when the string is pulled."

After following his instructions, everyone's training uniforms looked slightly cuter because of the butterfly-shaped ribbons.

Even after hearing the reason, the thought "Did it really have to be done this way?" naturally came to mind.

That thought became even stronger when I looked at Ríolíkin.

Pret, who was on the same team as him, evaluated the situation very positively.

"Wow! Senior Ríolíkin's ribbon is going to be hard to undo, isn't it? The part of the ribbon that can be grabbed is incredibly short!"

The length of the ribbon string provided to everyone was the same.

However, everyone's neck circumference was different.

And among them, Ríolíkin, who had diligently built up his muscles, had an especially thick neck.

After tying the ribbon into a butterfly shape around that thick neck, just as Pret said, almost no ribbon tail remained.

"Is that good...?"

"Of course it's good! Besides, Senior Ríolíkin's Ether Attribute Ability creates armor with Ether, right? If you protect your neck with that, wouldn't stealing your ribbon become completely impossible?"

"Eheheh..."

After Pret praised him in a slightly exaggerated tone, Ríolíkin smiled foolishly, clearly pleased.

How long had it been since he had despaired over having no close friends on his team?

The speed at which he opened his heart was truly incredible.

"By the way, I'm a junior and a commoner, so why do you use Honorific Speech with me, Senior? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"It is not that. This manner of speaking is simply comfortable for me."

"Aha! You're the opposite of Professor Bjorn!"

"That is so."

It seemed Pret would take good care of Ríolíkin.

I considered that fortunate.

In exchange, however, it seemed he would extract all kinds of information from Ríolíkin under the guise of casual conversation.

He doesn't sell information about people he has personally formed friendships with, so it should be fine.

For example, in the original work, his Information Guild never sold information about Reisir.

Not even after Pret's death.

The guild maintained a friendly relationship with Reisir and provided him with the information he needed.

Of course, it was not free. They sold it for money.

Even so, when people offered enormous sums to purchase Reisir's information, they never accepted.

It could only be described as an extremely convenient setting created by the author.

But if you looked only at Pret's tendencies and those of the people in his Information Guild, there was no other way to describe them except as people overflowing with loyalty.

However, because the current Original Protagonist did not know this fact—

"That Pret... isn't he trying to figure out a way to approach you through Ríolíkin? Wouldn't it be better to warn Helga and have her keep a close eye on him?"

—he said something ridiculous like that, revealing his wariness toward Pret.

It was not merely unfortunate.

The fact that he decided to warn Helga instead of directly warning Ríolíkin made me realize just how little Reisir trusted Ríolíkin's judgment.

"Since everyone seems to have finished putting on their ribbons, I'll continue the explanation. As you can tell from the name Ribbon Snatching Game, the team that steals more ribbons from the opposing team wins."

Fortunately, Bjorn began speaking before Reisir could approach Helga and spout his nonsense.

"And anyone whose ribbon is stolen is not eliminated. Instead, they must immediately return to the starting point and put the ribbon back on."

Since Reisir's ability was overwhelming, this was essentially a restriction.

It prevented a situation where Reisir alone defeated the opposing team by stealing every ribbon.

No matter how perfectly Reisir protected his own ribbon, if his teammates continued losing theirs, his team would inevitably lose.

"You cannot participate in combat while your ribbon has been stolen, and you must put the ribbon back on within ten minutes of it being stolen. If you fail to follow this rule, there will be a penalty, so keep that in mind."

The name Ribbon Snatching Game initially reminded me of Capture the Flag.

But after hearing the explanation, I thought it was closer to a Team Deathmatch mode from an FPS game.

The only difference, if you could call it that, was that the respawn process was manual.

But if victory and defeat are decided this way, isn't having more team members actually a disadvantage?

Furthermore, that team contained Lissy and Helga, who had never even sparred before.

Although Fjodora and Lausa's 【Spatial Leap】 could potentially be used effectively in this game.

Since they should essentially be considered ranged attackers, wasn't there also a possibility that they would be caught and have their ribbons stolen?

Of course, our team also has a weak point named Sveinn, so Fjodora and Lausa will probably target him relentlessly...

Ríolíkin had to hold a shield and mace in both hands, so stealing other people's ribbons would not be easy for him.

And Pret was not a specialist in close combat either.

Just as I thought our team was overwhelmingly superior in many ways, even without Reisir's combat ability—

"Ah, right! There are numerous traps set up inside the mountain, so it would be best to fight while carefully observing your surroundings."

Bjorn's next words interrupted my thoughts.