This Novel is not my Novel

"Promise me you won't deny it and just accept the facts... Ouch."

I kicked the shin of the person spouting nonsense.

Then Reisir, feigning pain even though it didn't hurt, took his hand away from my mouth.

I have no idea why this guy only stops his bullshit after getting hit.

"Let me be clear, my inclination is not that crap you mentioned."

"Then what is it?"

"......"

I felt I had to correct Reisir's misunderstanding, so I uttered words of denial, but his follow-up question left me speechless.

Since I couldn't just tell him about my {Author} and {Possessiveness} inclinations.

As I stood there silently, unable to offer any refutation, I saw Reisir's eyes curve into a smug crescent.

"Why can't you answer? So you really are a tsundere cat?"

"It is absolutely not that."

"Then what? Shy and bashful? A prude?"

"......"

At this point, I even started to think it might be better to just reveal my {Possessiveness} inclination.

At least if I said that, I might become someone to be avoided, but I wouldn't be flooded with shame.

Or would I? Knowing Reisir, would he somehow connect this to 'tsundere' and use it to make fun of me?

But I couldn't talk about my {Author} inclination, either.

Not only would Reisir ask how that could possibly be an inclination, but it was obvious he would persistently demand to see any novel I might be writing.

Lying my way out of it was an option, but it would be the worst possible move.

Because once the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 skill develops further and its Stage 3 option unlocks, it will be able to read inclinations.

It's better not to tell a lie that's bound to be exposed from the start...

Wait a minute. Given the circumstances, even if the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 becomes able to read inclinations, isn't it highly likely that it won't be able to properly read the {Author} inclination and will distort it into something strange?

It might only show the {Possessiveness} one, but that's literally just a 'might'.

If the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 succeeds in detecting both inclinations, the {Author} one would be replaced and displayed as one of those embarrassing and cringey words Reisir had just thought of.

Therefore—

"Reisir."

"Hm?"

"If your skill gets stronger and you're able to read much more information, don't use it on me. If you're curious about changing elements like stats or skill grades, I'll tell you anything you want. Just never try to read them directly."

—I had no choice but to say this while setting a serious mood.

If the word {Tsundere} was actually engraved on my status window as seen through Reisir's 【Truth-Reading Eye】,

I would be so, so mortified that I wouldn't be able to show my face.

"You have an inclination so embarrassing you have to make a request like this?"

"It's not exactly like that... A-anyway, if I say don't read it, don't read it."

"Alright, if that's what you want."

He had never used the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 on me carelessly in the first place.

But now that we've made a promise, Reisir would never use that skill on me in secret.

Judging by the way he's grinning, he seems convinced my inclination is one of those words...

Still, it's better than it being confirmed outright.

I tried to take comfort in that fact, but.

I couldn't suppress something welling up inside me, and I found myself glaring and muttering the following.

"With a personality like this, how can his representative inclination possibly be {Justice}...?"

I suspect a 'smug, sly prankster' is a far cry from the kind of protagonist Author Senna was aiming for.

In the original work before the remake, Reisir was described as a serious and weighty character, after all.

His extraordinary nature, different from ordinary people, and his heroic aspects were also constantly emphasized.

It's only natural that a word like 'prankster' wasn't registered as the original protagonist's inclination.

Still, couldn't he have had {Persistence} or {Tenacity} as his inclination?

Of course, {Justice} was much cooler and gave off more of a protagonist-like feel than those words.

After all, a 'righteous protagonist' is what you could call a guaranteed bestseller.

What's more, doesn't the word 'justice' contain the meaning 'the right moral path that aligns with truth'?

Therefore, it could be said to be very fitting as the inclination for a person who possesses silver Ether with the 'Truth' attribute.

However...

But if you ask whether Reisir is an absolutely just person, that's not quite right, is it?

Of course, if you were to weigh whether he is just or not, you could say he is certainly on the just side.

However, Reisir only moved toward his own goal; he didn't step forward to fight for the sake of justice.

This doesn't mean that in the original work he turned his back on the oppressed weak and yielded to injustice.

It's just that the original protagonist was never given a situation where he could champion justice and strengthen his resolve.

His goal was to find out the cause of the Demon Realms' creation and completely eliminate the phenomenon, and he mainly fought monsters.

Demon Realms and monsters are, at the end of the day, just 'disasters'.

They aren't injustices that oppose justice.

He did occasionally encounter and eliminate villains like Karvaldr in the Demon Realms, and he did take down the suspicious organization that turned Nidr into a monster, but.

When you look at it, it was closer to responding to a fight the other party picked rather than him enacting justice.

He did confront the Imperial Family, which was rife with injustice, but.

It stopped at the level of passive resistance, rather than him planning a rebellion and confronting them in earnest.

Though it's not like that wasn't partly because it was impossible for him to gather a faction, as everyone he kept by his side ended up dying.

If I were to look for the fundamental cause...

In the first place, the reason Author Senna depicted the Imperial Family as a corrupt group was to inflict pain and trials upon her protagonist.

It wasn't for the sake of writing a revolutionary narrative that would overturn the social system.

Towards the latter half, Reisir becomes incredibly strong and is reborn as an existence that even the Imperial Family can't touch, but that's it.

When I read it as a novel, I just skimmed past it without much thought...

Thinking deeply and weighing various things, I came to the conclusion that the original author had made a mistake with the setting.

If you're going to grant your protagonist the {Justice} inclination, then you should prepare a story that befits it.

If you have no intention of changing the story you've planned, shouldn't you at least have revised the inclination registered on the protagonist's status window?

"Why? You don't think I'm a just person? Because I prank you so much?"

As the 【Character Analysis】 skill ended, I heard Reisir's voice, tinged with a question.

Seeing his bright smile, he was definitely teasing me.

"I know that being playful and having a just character are two different things. It's just that as a representative word to define you, I don't think {Justice} fits—..."

I paused in the middle of my annoyed retort.

Because I realized that the word 'jeong-ui' isn't just one thing, that numerous homonyms exist.

Author Senna probably intended 'justice' as Reisir's representative inclination, but since she didn't specify the exact meaning.

"Then what word do you think suits me?"

"......Definition."

"Huh? Didn't you just say that doesn't suit me?"

It's impossible for me to arbitrarily change the letters written on Reisir's status window.

But there is room for a different interpretation.

"I wasn't talking about the 'justice' in 'to be just', but a homonym with a different meaning and usage."

Among the words with the same sound, if I were to find one that could be an 'inclination' and would suit Reisir.

There is 'jeong-ui', meaning 'affection and duty'.

Or, by changing just one character from the previous word, there's 'jeong-ui', meaning 'affection and intent'.

"So, what is your definition of my {Justice}?"

"If I tell you... are you willing to accept it as the word that defines you?"

"Yeah. To be honest, the idea of me being 'just' never really resonated with me. Besides, you have that 【Person Analysis】 skill, don't you?"

"That skill doesn't directly help in analyzing someone."

"That's why it's more trustworthy, isn't it? It means you're already someone who knows how to carefully observe and understand others, so all you need is time to think."

I always feel this, but he's so good at saying such blush-worthy things.

And with such sincerity, too.

Because of that, more weight was given to the word 'jeong-ui', but.

What if the single phrase I utter right now is what determines Reisir's inclination...?

I spoke cautiously.

"Not 'justice' as in 'righteous', but 'definition' as in 'to define'. The 'jeong-ui' that means 'to clearly state and stipulate the meaning of a word or thing'. I believe this word suits you best as your representative word."

Compared to 'jeong-ui', which emphasizes a warm heart, this one is much more fitting for the kind of protagonist Author Senna aims for.

In that it exudes a sense of authority and weight.

So it would be easily accepted as an official setting.

Furthermore, according to the original work's content, Reisir later obtains a skill called 【Discernment of Good and Evil】.

This is a silver Ether attribute skill derived from the {Justice} inclination.

I came to the conclusion that 'definition' was more suitable than 'affection and intent'.

"Why? Because I defined you as a tsundere and treated you like a cat?"

"......"

I can't say that's not part of the reason.

So when I silently averted my gaze, just rolling my eyes, Reisir chuckled softly.

I don't know why, among all the words pronounced 'jeong-ui', there isn't one that means 'so annoying I could die'.

"More importantly... Weren't you about to write down your status window contents for me?"

"Ah, right. I was, wasn't I?"

Lest Reisir change his mind and say he couldn't accept 'definition' as his inclination.

I conveyed my intention to end the conversation on this topic and move on.

Fortunately, this was accepted without issue, and Reisir immediately readjusted his grip on the board marker and moved his hand.

==========

[Physical Strength] 119

[Stamina] 126

[Agility] 107

[Mental Power] 82

[Ether (Truth)] 100

[Ether (Lightning)] 128

[Defense Power] 105

[Attribute Resistance] 99

==========

Since he had made his 【Spear Techniques】 skill S-rank earlier than in the pre-remake, I had wondered if his stats would also be higher than back then.

And indeed, it was as I expected.

Even his lowest stat, Mental Power, was much higher than mine, and the rest were at a level that defied comparison.