"Waaaaah—!"

The moment I turned my gaze back to the stage, a thunderous roar erupted from the audience.

The outcome had been decided.

Vigdís had lost by being pushed out of bounds.

'Even if it's thanks to her Ether Attribute Ability, she lasted longer than I expected. And she held out remarkably well.'

Anyone would have no choice but to acknowledge that.

That was probably why such an enormous roar broke out. It meant that many people had been watching the match with intense concentration.

Though I can't know for sure, wouldn't about half of that cheering be praise for Vigdís?

Although she lost, perhaps because it had been such a satisfying match, Vigdís was smiling brightly, her face full of excitement.

I saw Nidr approach her and offer a handshake.

'Come to think of it, Nidr offered Reisir a handshake even after losing to him in the original work.'

Seeing him accept defeat cleanly and acknowledge Reisir's skill, no one expected Nidr to be a villain at that point.

People simply thought a character positioned as the protagonist's friend and rival had appeared.

In any case, it wasn't strange for Nidr to offer a handshake to an opponent who had refused to give up until the very end despite the obvious gap in skill.

However, because the opponent was Vigdís, a small question came to mind.

'Doesn't he think Karvaldr would get jealous and cause trouble for him? Or is it already known that I don't interfere with Vigdís's relationships, so he judged a handshake would be fine?'

The two released hands and parted after exchanging a few words.

Afterward, Nidr headed straight back to his seat, while Vigdís returned to us after receiving treatment from a healer.

"You were really cool!"

"Ah...! Th-Thank you...!"

At Reisir's praise, Vigdís smiled happily despite her embarrassment.

Just as suspicion arose that ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) perhaps she had developed feelings for him, as she had in the original work...

Vigdís turned her gaze toward me.

"Kar."

"Do you have something to say to me?"

"Isn't it you who has something to say right now?"

Surely not.

"...Good job."

"......"

"......You have the aptitude to become an excellent swordsman."

"Thank you—!"

Following Ríolíkin, even Vigdís was trying to extort praise from me.

"Karvaldr. You'll praise me later too, right?"

Reisir, even you?

For some reason, my head started to ache.

Just as I placed a hand on my forehead and let out a sigh, Ríolíkin timidly asked a question.

"Ol-Older Sister isn't..., n-not feeling it's unfair...? Y-You lost in Round 1...? A-And you were unlucky enough to face an i-incredibly strong opponent..."

Come to think of it, Ríolíkin was the only one who hadn't heard the conversation we'd had before Vigdís went out to compete.

It was understandable that he would ask something like that.

"I probably would have felt that way if it weren't for what Kar said to me before I went on stage."

"Wh-What did Lord Karvaldr s-say...?"

"He said that worrying about not being able to win when it hasn't even been a year since I started learning the sword is arrogant. So before the match started, I asked my opponent how long he had been learning swordsmanship, and he said this is his ninth year. After hearing that, I realized how arrogant my worries had been."

So that was what she had asked while speaking with Nidr as the host chatted away?

It wasn't exactly special information.

In this world's setting, if someone intends to pursue martial arts, they generally begin training around the age of ten.

Though I couldn't know for certain, most of the main tournament participants had probably trained for around nine or ten years.

At the very least, five years or more.

'Still, unless they intend to make martial arts their profession, or they're suffering from trauma like Reisir, they probably didn't spend all that time doing nothing but training. There's no need to be overwhelmed by the difference in years and become pessimistic.'

If you lose in Round 1 despite doing your best, it can't be helped.

But there was no reason to give up before the fight even began.

As I reached that conclusion, Ríolíkin spoke with a gloomy expression.

"I-I'm jealous... That you d-don't have to win..."

Looking at it now, Ríolíkin hadn't been worried that Vigdís would become discouraged after losing.

He had been worried about himself, who now had the misfortune of facing a strong opponent in the next round.

"Surely you're not laying the groundwork for an excuse now? Something like saying it couldn't be helped because the opponent was excessively strong after failing to fulfill the condition I gave you?"

"Th-That is..., uh... I-I'm not doing it on p-purpose...! B-But... Lord Ka-Karvaldr saw it too, didn't you...? H-He fought incredibly well... A-And he's been learning the sword for a whole nine years..."

When I spoke with a suspicious expression, Ríolíkin visibly panicked and started piling up excuses.

Judging by the way he kept darting glances at Reisir, he seemed to be hoping Reisir would take his side.

He must have realized by now that Reisir didn't dislike him.

"Even in my opinion, I don't think Ríolíkin can beat that kid named Nidr. Not because Ríolíkin is weak, but because that kid is simply too strong."

Just as Ríolíkin had hoped, Reisir stepped in to defend him.

After all, wasn't he the one who had self-righteously declared back in Chapter 89 that I was soft, saying, 'My point is that I don't think you can abandon Ríolíkin'?

"Unexpected. Reisir, I didn't know you'd say something like that."

"The reason you sent Ríolíkin into the tournament was because you wanted him to overcome his fear. Since that goal already seems to have been achieved, wouldn't it be fine to ease the conditions a little...?"

That couldn't happen.

If I had set the requirement at two opponents from the beginning, Ríolíkin would have felt a sense of accomplishment after his earlier victory and gained confidence.

But if I lowered the requirement from three opponents to two now and declared the goal accomplished...

'Not only would he fail to feel any sense of achievement, he'd end up settling here. Because Ríolíkin is exactly that kind of person.'

The idea that it's acceptable to compromise in the face of difficult challenges, and unavoidable to run away when confronted by an overwhelmingly strong enemy, would become engraved in his mind.

There was no need to imagine some distant future.

Now that the goal he had been chasing had effectively disappeared, wouldn't he just pretend to fight seriously against Nidr before giving up and withdrawing?

'And above all... If this were just a casual remark made during everyday conversation, that would be one thing. But this is a fairly important matter. I can't take back my words.'

Because if I did, the authority behind those words would diminish.

At the very least, when it comes to directives, I need him to regard my words as absolute.

Only then will he be capable of holding the front line instead of running away from terrifying monsters.

Therefore, I decided to insist that this entire situation had been within my calculations.

"I did not give him an impossible condition. I expected students to be frightened by Ríolíkin's appearance and withdraw during the preliminaries, and I also assumed from the beginning that he would eventually face someone in the main tournament who was too strong for him to defeat."

"Huh? That sounds contradictory..."

"Did you forget the condition I gave him?"

"......Ah!"

Reisir let out a cry of realization.

He had understood that my words, which seemed contradictory at first glance, were not actually inconsistent.

Then, since the only person who truly needed to understand was Ríolíkin, I shifted my gaze toward the coward standing at the crossroads of whether confidence would take root or not.

"I'll say this one last time. The condition I gave you is not victory. You simply need to physically knock down three or more opponents. Even if the person who falls gets back up immediately and defeats you afterward, the condition is still fulfilled."

"Uh, uh uh..."

"Surely, after I personally explained it this clearly, you still don't understand?"

"N-No...! I-I understand properly...!! I-It's just..."

If he understood, why was he dragging out the end of his sentence while carefully reading my expression, as though he wanted to say more?

Not wanting to reveal my own tension, I frowned for no reason and urged him to continue.

"Just what?"

"D-Did Lord Karvaldr... Th-think I could actually do it...?"

Fortunately, it wasn't the question I had feared.

If he had asked whether I had also considered the possibility of him encountering an overwhelmingly strong opponent in Round 1 rather than Round 2, I would have been in serious trouble.

Yes.

Even if my words weren't contradictory, there was still a loophole.

"Yes. I believed you could."

To prevent Ríolíkin from noticing that loophole, I decided to be generous with the lip service today.

At those words, the giant adolescent who looked like a Yaksha widened his barely visible eyes and stared at me with an unbearably burdensome expression.

"Tr-Truly moved... M-Moved...!"

Apparently overwhelmed with emotion, Ríolíkin repeated the same word twice.

In a situation like this, there was only one response available to me.

"Hmph!"

I sharply turned my head away.

The next thing I heard was Reisir and Vigdís laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

'Even Vigdís ended up like this...!'

As the saying goes, proximity to ink makes one black.

Thinking that this character with hair black as ink had eventually corrupted everyone around him with bad influence...

I realized that wasn't the only problem.

'Come to think of it..., when exactly did the protagonist of someone else's novel change seats?'

Vigdís's seat was supposed to be right beside me.

But Yor's seat had originally been between mine and Reisir's.

However, since I kept holding Yor in my arms, the baby dragon's seat had remained empty, and Reisir had quietly occupied it.

'If I tell Reisir to go back to his original seat now, will he think I'm acting distant out of embarrassment...?'

If anyone is curious about where Ríolíkin was sitting, he was behind me.

Apparently, as long as he was physically close to me, he didn't care whether he sat in the same row.

Since audience seating is noisy, voices actually carry better front-to-back than with one or two seats between people.

In that sense, I once again concluded that Ríolíkin's usual foolish and frustrating behavior couldn't be trusted.

"By the way, Karvaldr. I missed the timing earlier, so I'm only asking now, but Vigdís was holding hands while talking with a man. Doesn't that bother you?"

Perhaps because I showed no reaction even after he and Vigdís had laughed at me from both sides, Reisir brought up a new topic.

Rather than something I needed to agonize over, it was a question whose answer had already been decided long ago.

So I responded immediately.

"I would prefer you not ask me such questions in the future. Vigdís told me that if I interfere in her relationships again, she will come to dislike me very much. Even if you ask, there is nothing I can answer."

"I told you. Why were you so obsessed last semester...?"

Reisir clicked his tongue and looked at me with a gaze that seemed halfway between pity and exasperation.

Although it was a reaction I had already anticipated, the person who had accumulated that karma wasn't actually me.

Feeling unfairly blamed, a sullen expression formed on my face all by itself.