This Novel is not my Novel

"This... is far too different from the contents of Yor's skill description window that I can see."

"What does the skill description window you see say?"

As I muttered with a sour expression, Reisir barely suppressed his laughter and showed interest.

For the baby dragon's honor, I couldn't let his skill description be remembered as 'meow aung.'

I pulled up Yor's 【Dragon Fear】 skill description window and read what I saw.

Of course, I omitted the word 'dragon.'

"'Reveal the presence of a great... and suppress the opponent's mind with dignity.' That's what it says."

"Pfft...!"

For some reason, the protagonist of someone else's novel reacted the same way he had when he'd seen 'meow aung.'

He started laughing under his breath again, his shoulders shaking.

I had no idea which part of the skill description I'd just read had struck him as so funny.

So I frowned and questioned him...

"What are you laughing at?"

"The part you just mumbled over originally said 'cat,' didn't it?"

...was the reply I got.

Since Reisir didn't know Yor was a dragon, he seemed to have mistakenly thought the original text was, 'Reveal the presence of a great cat and, with dignity...' and so on.

If that was why he laughed, then it wasn't something I couldn't understand... or so I thought.

"Are you now even embarrassed to say the word 'cat'?"

Not only did the other party spout such nonsense with a smiling face, but he also moved the board marker from his right hand to his left, which was supporting the whiteboard, then used his now-free right index finger to poke my cheek repeatedly.

Worse, perhaps because the bright red warning window was obscuring his vision, his right eye was tightly closed as if he were winking.

It was the most annoying I had ever seen Reisir.

'Would he snap out of it and stop his damn cat obsession if I actually bit his finger like a cat?'

The impulse struck me for a moment.

But to preserve my dignity as a human, I slapped away the finger poking my cheek instead of biting it.

"Stop the nonsense and get back to what you were doing."

"I don't think it was nonsense, but fine, I get it."

The protagonist of someone else's novel looked disappointed, as if he wanted to tease me more, but he finally looked away from me.

He must have realized that if he didn't stop fooling around now, I might become genuinely angry.

Reisir turned his head to look at Yor, who was right in front of him, and opened his right eye again.

Then he wrote the following.

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【Mental Interference Immunity】 - (A)

: Immunity to mental interference

==========

The skill description was just as half-hearted as 【Enlargement】's.

Besides, Yor's 【Mental Interference Immunity】 was definitely SS-rank, but it seemed to appear as A-rank to Reisir's eyes.

It couldn't even see the truth, let alone the Truth, yet I wondered whether the skill could really be called 【Truth-Reading Eye】.

'If I were to guess the reason for this...'

The original protagonist's 【Truth-Reading Eye】 was an EX-rank skill, but aside from that, S-rank was the highest.

For Yor, who was merely the familiar of a 'supporting character,' to possess an SS-rank skill...

Perhaps it had been marked as A-rank because it would break the balance of the novel's world.

Or perhaps the original author had predetermined how Yor's and my status and skill windows would appear through 【Truth-Reading Eye】.

That content could be reflected in Reisir's eyes.

'If it's the latter, what happens to the 【Encouragement】 skill?'

I had often shown Yor using his 【Dragon Fear】 skill, and I had told the protagonist of someone else's novel about my 【Character Analysis】 skill in chapter 232.

But I had never told anyone about the 【Encouragement】 skill.

It was a secret known only to Yor and me.

In that case, wouldn't I be able to get by without Reisir finding out about the 【Encouragement】 skill?

...Just as I was starting to hope.

"Karvaldr, what are you thinking about?"

I was asked this question.

Since it wasn't something that would activate the 【Character Analysis】 skill, I had completely revealed that I was lost in deep thought.

"Are you nervous? I've checked Yor's last skill, so now it's your turn for me to see your status and skill windows."

I wasn't particularly nervous.

Seeing as Yor's skill names and ranks weren't being displayed correctly, it was almost certain that he wouldn't find out I wasn't the real Karvaldr.

But even so...

'I can't exactly say that I was getting my hopes up because if you found out about the 【Encouragement】 skill, you'd obviously tease me, and it looked like I might be able to hide it, could I?'

I couldn't think of another excuse either.

With one eye closed, he stared at me with the other, his facial muscles looking so relaxed.

How did he maintain that state so well? I should have been the one winking with such a natural expression, and so on.

Useless, distracting thoughts took up residence in my head and refused to leave.

"...I wasn't thinking about anything in particular."

"If you say so, I guess that's that."

His expression said he thought otherwise, despite his words.

And yet, the reason Reisir didn't press the matter and simply let it go was probably—

"So, can I look now?"

—because his desire to quickly read my status and information windows took precedence.

As proof, Reisir didn't merely turn his head toward me. He turned his entire body to face me directly.

But at this rate, the text Reisir wrote on the whiteboard would appear upside down to me.

It wasn't that I couldn't read the letters, but it was still inconvenient.

I moved to Reisir's right and then gave my permission.

"You can look now."

The moment the words left my mouth, Reisir opened his right eye again.

Only then did I properly meet his silver eye.

Although I wasn't looking at it from directly in front, we were close enough that observing it wasn't a problem.

Like his left golden eye, it had a delicate and subtle luster, as if sprinkled with pearl powder.

The impression that it was truly strange and mystical came to mind.

Even though I was watching his eyes so openly, and he was also looking in my direction, our gazes did not meet.

Right now, Reisir wasn't looking at my face, but at the letters written on the semitransparent window floating in front of it.

Reisir's gaze moved as if scanning the empty air, and his hand wrote the following.

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〔Name〕 Karvaldr Austri

[Physical Strength] 44

[Stamina] 53

[Agility] 61

[Mental Power] 64

[Ether①] 94

[Ether②] 50

[Defense Power] 31

[Attribute Resistance] 36

==========

Despite having trained so hard during the vacation...

Aside from the slightly embarrassing fact that almost nothing had changed from what was recorded in chapter 142, there was one part worth paying attention to.

'In the status window I see, the Sky Blue Ether is on top...'

Because Reisir's 【Truth-Reading Eye】 couldn't read the Ether Attribute names, they were marked as '①' and '②,' but judging by the values written beside them, the one on top in the status window Reisir saw must have been the purple Ether.

'Is it because what Reisir is seeing now is Karvaldr's status window, not mine?'

While I focused on the Ether values and had this thought, the interest of the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 skill user lay elsewhere.

"Your Defense Power... isn't it too low...? Even Heli's was over 35, but yours is only 31..."

"My status is my status. I don't tend to get hit."

"The same goes for Heli. She doesn't get hit either, you know? No, how can your Physical Strength and Stamina be decent, but only your Defense Power is that low?"

"......"

The reason this body's Defense Power was low must have been because the original author had set it that way.

But I couldn't say that out loud.

So I could only remain silent.

Reisir hid his silver eye behind its eyelid and seemed to stare at me with a worried expression for a moment.

Then he suddenly let out a deep sigh and erased the whiteboard completely.

It seemed he had somehow accepted that there was nothing I could do about this body's low Defense Power.

"That aside, you said you had more skills you hadn't mentioned..."

The moment his silver eye revealed itself again and looked at me, it held a peculiar luster.

Thanks to the remark Reisir had just let slip, I could easily tell it was because he had seen my skill list.

==========

【Exaltation】 - (S)

: A stat-enhancing buff. Not related to cats.

==========

"Reisir, don't joke around."

"I'm not joking. It was really written like this."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying either."

Reisir closed his right eye again and looked straight at me with his left, an expression of extreme grievance on his face.

"If I were joking, would I have written 'not related'? I would've written 'very related.' Or I would've added the letter 'i' after the skill name 【Exaltation】."

Hearing that, he had a point, so I withdrew the disgusted look I was giving Reisir.

But my suspicion hadn't completely disappeared.

In the original novel I had read before being possessed here, the skill description for 【Exaltation】 displayed by 【Truth-Reading Eye】 hadn't been like this.

Back then, the original protagonist had diligently raised his proficiency with 【Truth-Reading Eye】 and succeeded in unlocking up to the Stage 3 option.

The description had been more thorough, and it could even read 'Dispositions.'

'Regardless of the stage, I've never seen a skill description this playful in the original work.'

Considering this, the skill description for Yor's 【Dragon Fear】 was also more than a little strange.

I didn't know what was going on.

But if I had to guess the cause of this situation, two possibilities immediately came to mind.

'Either Author Senna is dead set on pushing Karvaldr as the comic relief, or 【Truth-Reading Eye】 was influenced by its owner Reisir's consciousness...'

Neither was certain.

Perhaps neither was the answer, and there was no guarantee Reisir wasn't simply messing with me.

"...I'll let it slide for now."

"Okay."

==========

【Encouragement】 - (B)

: A buff skill derived from {Disposition}. Can only be used on targets who meet a specific condition.

==========

What Reisir wrote on the whiteboard this time was exceedingly normal.

But instead of feeling relieved, I had to tense up.

Because—

"What's the specific condition? The skill description window you see says what it is, right?"

—it was obvious that a question like this would come my way.

"It's just, well... There's something like that. It's none of your business."

"Why not? If I want to receive this buff, I have to meet that condition, right? If all the members of the Special Class can meet that condition, our survival rate will be higher when we enter a Demon Realm."

"The stats I can raise with this buff skill are merely '3' points."

"If every stat except Ether goes up by 3, isn't that a lot? Besides, your 【Exaltation】 skill reflects even the stats increased by other skills and increases abilities by a certain ratio."

"That's... well, that's true, but..."

I had expected the protagonist of someone else's novel to be persistent and bombard me with questions.

But experiencing it firsthand wasn't merely burdensome. I even felt a strange pressure.

Perhaps because of that, I felt psychologically intimidated.

Feeling as though the other person's face was drawing closer and closer, I pushed his face back with my palm.

"It's not polite to dig too deeply into someone else's skills."

"I know that much."

"Then why..."

"You were the one who offered to show me your skill window first, right? If so, you must have guessed I would ask a question like this and prepared an answer, but you're too shy to say it. I thought you were waiting for an opportunity, so if I persisted, you'd tell me as if you had no choice."

If that wasn't sophistry, I didn't know what was.

Because of that, I was so dumbfounded that my jaw dropped...

"If it were just any condition, there'd be no reason not to say it. The fact that you can't bring yourself to say it, and that you've hidden the skill's existence until now... This skill can only be used on people you're close to beyond a certain point, right?"

As if he had been waiting for this moment, the other party suddenly made a sharp observation, catching me off guard.