This Novel is not my Novel

The buff still has quite a bit of time before its effect disappears, so I shouldn't need to cast it again, right?

If I had my way, I would have observed the confrontation between Reisir, Ríolíkin, and Lausa, fulfilling my duty as the narrator, but regrettably, I couldn't do that, as I also had to enter combat.

That was because Fjodora, who had drawn her bow at some point, came into view, pulling back the bowstring as she aimed at me.

Using the 【Spatial Leap】 skill to snatch the ribbon is impossible. So she'll leave the role of taking the ribbon to Pret, and she intends to draw my attention by keeping me in check with her arrows, is that it?

With that thought, I initiated the activation of 【Character Analysis】.

To strike down the arrows flying at me, I took a whip from my Inventory and swung it.

For reference, the reason I took out a new whip was that the one I had used to bind Ríolíkin was nowhere to be seen.

Did Pret take it when he released Ríolíkin from his restraints, thinking I wouldn't be able to fight properly without a weapon?

It was a good thing I'd had the foresight to put several whips of various lengths in there in preparation for just such a situation.

While that was truly fortunate, the current situation was not.

The reason was the speed at which Fjodora was firing arrows; it was anything but ordinary.

She pulled an arrow from her Inventory while in the motion of drawing the bowstring...?!

Kaldrun's "Practical Combat Preparedness Skill" lecture was on Wednesday morning.

Today was Friday, so a mere two days had passed since then.

But not only had she already drawn an arrow immediately without her gaze being drawn to her Inventory, but she had also managed to accurately nock it on the bowstring at the same time.

It took me over a week of practice to be able to freely draw a dagger from my Inventory...!

And was that all?

To avoid making mistakes in actual combat, I had steadily reviewed it throughout the entire vacation to make the sensation second nature.

It was a technique I had painstakingly learned after investing such a long time.

Seeing someone else learn and use it so quickly made me feel wronged for no reason.

I had to practice so I could draw a dagger no matter what movement I was making. But the motion of drawing a bow is always the same, so was the difficulty of practicing it lower?

Thinking that gave me a little comfort.

But that didn't mean the current situation had improved.

Since no time at all was consumed in taking out an arrow and nocking it, and she was only repeating the motion of drawing and releasing the bowstring, the speed at which Fjodora fired her arrows was simply too fast.

What's more, not only did she increase the speed of the arrows themselves with her 【Wind Control】 ability, but she even occasionally altered their direction.

Because of that, I had to keep watching the arrows' movements until the very end.

Every time an arrow's trajectory curved, I also had to control the Ether enveloping my whip to correct the course of its swing.

Attempting to get closer to a user of the 【Spatial Leap】 skill would be meaningless, right? The moment the distance closes, they'll just use that skill to escape.

Just as I thought that, Yor fired many arrows made of Sky Blue Ether at Fjodora, and Fjodora dodged them using 【Spatial Leap】.

Kaldrun had pointed out in Chapter 203 that you could guess the location where she would reappear by observing the direction of her gaze.

As such, Yor also predicted that location and pressed on with a second attack, but—

There's no way Fjodora, the person who received that feedback, wouldn't have prepared some kind of countermeasure.

Immediately after her spatial movement, Fjodora dodged Yor's attack by throwing her body to the side and escaping behind a tree.

Then, a teal light erupted from behind that tree.

Wanting to know whether she had moved to another spot, I reflexively looked around my surroundings for an instant.

Fjodora popped out from behind that very tree and fired an arrow at me.

Was the light I saw just now a trick?

Fortunately, the timing was perfect, and I was able to see Fjodora emerge from behind the tree and react.

But if I had been looking away, I might not have been able to knock the arrow aside in time.

She was using blunt-tipped training arrows and wasn't aiming for vital points, so I wouldn't receive a fatal injury even if I were hit.

Even knowing this, I felt dizzy and uselessly clenched my teeth.

Fjodora, wearing an expression of regret that her confident attack had failed, hid herself behind the tree once more.

And again, a teal light erupted from behind it.

Is this another trick using the light of Ether? Or did she really use 【Spatial Leap】 this time...?

As I thought that, I tensed up and scanned my surroundings.

Vigdís's fighting form against Pret briefly entered my field of vision.

So that's why Pret wasn't launching a surprise attack. He was busy dealing with Vigdís.

Vigdís, who possessed the 【Iron-Blooded Strong Body】 skill, could disregard Fjodora's arrow attacks and charge in.

But as long as Fjodora used 【Spatial Leap】, Vigdís's sword could never reach her.

On the other hand, since Fjodora knew her arrows couldn't cause much damage to Vigdís, she would feel at ease firing arrows imbued with Wind Attribute Ether at the vital point of the neck, aiming to sever the ribbon Vigdís was wearing.

That was why having Vigdís face Pret was a matter that had already been decided during the meeting.

However—

This... I have a really bad feeling about this.

I shifted my gaze back toward Vigdís and Pret and, at the same time, released my control over the Sky Blue Ether.

As I did, its flow regained its original speed.

The Thought Acceleration Effect I had arbitrarily slowed also returned to its original state, making the figures of the two people in my sight appear frozen.

As if worried that the dagger Pret was throwing would sever the ribbon around her neck, Vigdís's left hand was hovering near her neck.

She held her sword with one hand.

And her body's center of gravity was leaning heavily forward.

No matter how you looked at it, she had the appearance of someone chasing after him, running to close the distance with Pret.

On the other hand, Pret is...

Was he leaping backward?

His body, which seemed to be floating in midair, had its center of gravity tilted backward.

A dagger was in the middle of leaving the hand he had stretched toward Vigdís, and his other hand was pulling a dagger from empty air.

He's mastered the technique of drawing a weapon immediately from his Inventory too...? And a dagger at that...

At this point, I wondered whether my own learning speed was slow, and a feeling of futility briefly washed over me.

But Pret was a character with the setting of possessing exceptional manual dexterity, so it was only natural for him to pull this off.

Rationalizing it that way, I examined his facial expression closely.

The corners of his mouth were turned down and pressed firmly together, causing his cheeks to stiffen.

His glabella was deeply furrowed.

Since his appearance exuded a sense of urgency that anyone could see, it felt as though he was cornered, but—

That can't be right.

No matter how much of a natural genius of swordsmanship Vigdís was set to be, having only recently started her training, she was bound to be inferior to Pret in terms of physical attributes.

The difference in their "Agility" stat, in particular, would be overwhelming.

Besides, this is in the mountains, where the ground is uneven, isn't it?

Vigdís had only ever trained on flat, hardened ground.

On this bumpy ground, where your feet were prone to sinking due to fallen leaves or mud, there was a great danger of tripping without even falling into a trap if you ran around carelessly.

On the other hand, Pret could move as freely as he would on flat ground, even if the ground was uneven and there were many obstacles.

In fact, with the terrain features so intricately entangled, he would have more to exploit and thus hold the advantage.

In many ways, there was no reason whatsoever for Pret to be cornered by Vigdís.

If he had been wearing a relaxed smile, I would have been rather relieved...

Because when he was cornered in a crisis, he had a habit of smiling instead to prevent his opponent from noticing.

He would also smile for the purpose of provoking the enemy and inducing them to show an opening.

Conversely, for him to harden his face like that and blatantly reveal his predicament was to give his opponent confidence that they could win.

That way, they wouldn't give up and would chase him to the end, falling straight into a trap he had prepared in advance.

So, if you end up fighting Pret in a situation where he could have set traps in advance, you have to induce him to approach while staying in one place as much as possible...

Since I couldn't tell her that Pret was skilled with traps, it was simply unfortunate that I couldn't offer this advice either.

From the looks of it, it was only a matter of time before Vigdís fell into a trap and had her ribbon snatched.

And if Pret joined forces with Fjodora, I wouldn't be able to protect my ribbon either.

What's Reisir's situation?

While I was at it, I checked the original protagonist's side as well.

Reisir was deflecting Ríolíkin's attacks by tilting his spear diagonally.

Teal arrows created by Lausa were flying toward him, but there was no great cause for concern.

Since he's the original protagonist, he wouldn't get his ribbon snatched away by them, right?

But I couldn't be completely relieved.

Because I could only see a single moment that was practically frozen without being able to grasp the overall flow, it wasn't certain, but Lausa seemed to be supporting Ríolíkin well.

It seems like it would be difficult for Reisir to break free from their mark and help Vigdís or me...

If the current state was maintained, first Vigdís's ribbon would be taken, and I would follow suit.

Then Reisir alone would have to face Fjodora, Ríolíkin, Pret, and even the familiar, Lausa.

Even for the original protagonist, isn't this a bit much?

He had almost no experience facing many people at once.

There was no need even to consider the risk of falling into a trap.

He can't even break free from Ríolíkin and Lausa's mark right now. If his skills suddenly improve the moment Vigdís and I lose our ribbons, and Reisir alone snatches the ribbons of the entire opposing team, wouldn't that be strange?

Unless Reisir enjoyed playing at being a hidden master like Nidr, it would be a development no different from destroying plausibility.

If this were actual combat where lives were being taken instead of a ribbon-snatching drill, it wouldn't be strange for the protagonist to suddenly become stronger and wipe out his enemies.

But that wasn't the situation right now.

At this rate, there is no chance of victory at all...

It was time to make some kind of change.

So, after organizing my thoughts, I adjusted the flow velocity of Ether again and slightly slowed my thought speed.

As I did, I saw a teal light forming behind a certain tree.

Blocking the arrow fired by Fjodora, who revealed herself from that spot, with my whip, I said the following.

"Yor, go help Vigdís. If Pret joins forces with Her Royal Highness the Princess, I can't hold out."

Even if Yor helped Reisir, it wasn't as though she could snatch Ríolíkin's ribbon.

Rather, it would be better to protect our team's ribbons while, at the same time, hoping that Reisir grew accustomed to the joint attack from Ríolíkin and Lausa so that he could break free from their mark on his own.

And above all, when thinking from the perspective of preparing for actual combat, it would be right to tell her to help Vigdís, not Reisir, who would survive just fine on his own.