This Novel is not my Novel

"Well, this worked out nicely! Now we don't have to wander around looking for those people when we're already exhausted. Let's hurry up, see what we came to see, and then all go rest."

Pret suddenly thrust his head in front of me, blocking my view as he said this.

Could he possibly be doing this because he mistakenly thought I was feeling envious or conflicted as I watched Helga in her father's arms?

The thought suddenly occurred to me and left me deeply uncomfortable, but this was no time to explain myself.

"See...?"

The confession villain reacted more noticeably to Pret's remark than anyone else.

His voice was full of puzzlement, and his bewildered expression practically screamed, What is that commoner suddenly talking about?

Apparently, it had never even occurred to him that he was the spectacle.

So I decided to remind him what he was supposed to be doing.

"Ah, yes. Now that you're here, stop standing around and finish your business so you can get lost."

"Pardon?"

"Did you not come here to apologize to the Bitnir father and daughter?"

As expected, Dyuf's eyes widened in surprise, evidently because neither the villain brothers nor Valtraus had told him anything.

But he was not the one whose reaction I needed to watch right now.

My gaze returned to the confession villain.

"Right now, in front of everyone...?"

His face stiffened as he swept his gaze around the area.

The gesture made his complaint obvious: did he really have to apologize here, with so many people watching?

But sending the spectators away would not make that grievance disappear.

If anything, he might think I had gone easy on him, grow arrogant again, and start voicing even more complaints while trying to walk all over me.

"I don't believe this is appropriate."

"What exactly is inappropriate about it?"

"Helga and Professor Dyuf are at least nobles.... But aren't those people mere lowly commoners?"

Still obsessing over social status. He truly was remarkably consistent, in the worst possible sense.

By exploiting Dyuf to bring them all the way here, the villain brothers had once again proven what irredeemable pieces of trash they were.

That alone had completely closed off the relatively peaceful route in which this episode ended with a humiliating apology.

There really is no end to this....

The villain's gaze skimmed over Sveinn before fastening on Pret's face.

The glare he leveled at Pret was brimming with rage.

He must have realized that Pret was treating him as a spectacle.

Is he going to try to kill Pret at this rate...?

No matter how exhausted he might be, Pret was still the heir to the head of the Information Guild.

For someone like him to be killed by a villain who had been beaten one-sidedly by Helga would strain credibility far beyond its breaking point.

There was no need to worry about that.

Should I redirect all his aggression toward Pret instead?

The thought flashed through my mind, but I could not adopt that approach.

Some innocent circus troupe wholly unrelated to Pret might suffer his misplaced wrath.

Worse, he might vent his anger on Sveinn, another commoner. If that happened, the original work's future traitor might decide that I was the root cause of the problem and try to kill me.

An enemy within was always more dangerous than one without.

No fool would trade the confession villain's murderous intent for the original work's future traitor's murderous intent.

Besides, I don't want to watch this villain strut around spouting nonsense about differences in status.... And nothing good can come from giving him an excuse to become entangled with the members of the special Awakened class later.

Fortunately, the original protagonist was standing beside me.

I could draw the villain's aggression, then use the original protagonist—who could not possibly die no matter what happened—as a shield and hide behind him.

Considering that my possessed body belonged to a ducal family, the mere fact that the confession villain had targeted me would be enough to ensure he could no longer attend the academy, regardless of whether I was actually hurt....

And he would receive a punishment severe enough to satisfy the readers of the original work.

Having settled on that conclusion, I glanced sidelong at the original protagonist.

For reference, the moment the villain brothers had appeared in the distance, he had hurriedly turned around, taken a spare eye patch from his Inventory, and put it on.

He now met my gaze with one golden eye and silently mouthed, "Why?"

Naturally, I could not tell him why I had looked at him.

After all, I would have to say, That villain looks like he might hurt someone, so I intend to draw his aggression. If he actually charges at me and tries to hurt me, stop him.

The first thing Reisir would ask was why I intended to do something so dangerous.

The opponent had been beaten one-sidedly even by Helga, and I was already anticipating his surprise attack.

I was perfectly capable of handling him alone.

Yet I could hardly explain that, even so, I had prepared an additional safeguard in the form of the original protagonist for the remotest possibility that something went wrong.

Thus, without saying anything to Reisir, I abruptly turned away and fixed my gaze on the confession villain.

Then I raised only one corner of my mouth in a mocking smile and delivered my provocation.

"You cannot apologize because commoners are watching? Is that not rather absurd at this point? After all, far more people were watching you the evening before last. There must have been commoners among them as well."

The memory apparently resurfaced, because the confession villain trembled with humiliation and let out a strained groan.

If I stopped here, his anger would be directed toward Helga, whom he considered a relatively easy target.

"I hear you entered the academy grounds before the Demon Realm had even been cleared. In that case, you should naturally have expected them to be with us, since they were participating in the attack on the Boss Monster. Could it be... that you lack even that much intelligence?"

"Of course not!"

The confession villain raised his voice in an indignant denial.

Apparently, even he did not want to be treated like an idiot.

"Then this is even stranger."

"What is?"

"If you had not prepared yourself to apologize to the Bitnir father and daughter in front of all of us, including those commoners, why did you go out of your way to enter a Demon Realm that had not yet been cleared?"

"Because you and your brother had entered first...."

"Ah, you assumed it could not be particularly dangerous if my brother and I had entered? Because compared with you and your brother, our abilities are nothing remarkable?"

I cut him off and challenged him with feigned anger.

My words must have wounded Valtraus's pride, because he scowled fiercely, while his spirit beast, Raskatl, growled threateningly at the villain.

It was only natural that the confession villain recoiled and hurried to deny it.

"No! That isn't what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean? Were you planning to interfere while my brother and I were struggling against the monsters and thereby drive us to our deaths?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not? You had both motive and opportunity."

"Pardon? What do you mean by that...?"

"You looked down on the Bitnir father and daughter merely because they belong to a baron's family, and you were determined to avoid apologizing to them even if it killed you. Then, because of me, you found yourself in a situation where you were forced to apologize to them, just as my brother and I entered a monster den fraught with danger. It would hardly be surprising if you gave in to the impulse."

"Do not slander me with such preposterous accusations!"

Was it really entirely preposterous? I did not think so.

The people he intended to harm might not have been Valtraus and me.

But if the villain brothers had arrived before we finished attacking the Boss Monster, they would certainly have interfered, and someone might have died as a result.

"If that was not your intention... were you planning to deliberately let the Boss Monster attack and injure you, then accuse us Awakened Ones of failing to protect you non-Awakened? Attempted extortion through self-inflicted injury? How absurd. The duty of an Awakened One is to defeat the Boss Monster and clear the Demon Realm, not to protect non-Awakened people."

After extracting the promise that the villain would apologize, I had witnessed the Demon Realm appear while we were returning to the academy.

At the time, I had predicted that the confession villain would most likely barge in while we were in the middle of fighting the Boss Monster.

In the end, however, he had arrived only after the battle was over, and quite some time later at that.

Could the intrusion event have been pushed down the priority list and canceled because Reisir, the original protagonist, was undergoing his new skill awakening event?

In any case, anticipating all these possible developments in advance had proved extremely useful.

Though even I had not expected to use them to psychologically corner and provoke the villain rather than prevent his sabotage.

"The Demon Realm was cleared before you could reach us, so whichever plan it was, you must be terribly disappointed."

"It was neither...!"

"You offer no proper explanation and merely insist that it was not. How am I supposed to believe you?"

"You never even gave me a chance to explain in the first place!"

"Did I not? Or were you simply standing there in silence because you could not immediately concoct an excuse?"

"Y-You...!"

Until now, I had merely denied him a chance to speak by talking without pause. This time, however, rage itself silenced the confession villain.

Judging by his trembling fists and bloodshot glare, he was thoroughly enraged.

That must be why, even after finally being given an opportunity to explain himself, he could not manage a coherent sentence.

"There is a flaw in Lord Karvaldr's argument."

The older villain stepped forward and concealed his brother behind him as he spoke.

He could not entirely hide the hostility on his face, but unlike his younger brother, who had shouted and reacted violently, he appeared relatively composed.

"And what would that be?"

"If we had intended to harm you and your brother while disguising it as the work of monsters, we would not have asked that professor to accompany us. He would have served as a witness and reported us. Furthermore, entering the Demon Realm was our own choice, was it not? If we were to raise an objection because we were not protected, who would possibly listen to us? They would simply say we had brought it upon ourselves."

It was a fairly reasonable argument.

Even so, its logic was by no means so flawless that there was no room for rebuttal.