"What on earth happened for Ríolíkin to end up like that?"
Reisir voiced the question I wanted to ask.
In response, Yor pointed to his own eyes with his index and middle fingers, then twisted his wrist and made a poking motion toward the air while keeping his fingers extended.
For a moment, I was horrified, wondering if he had actually poked Ríolíkin's eyes, and quickly checked his face again.
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
His eyeballs were intact, and blood wasn't pouring from his eye sockets.
"Are you trying to say... you just glared at him?"
"Nyang!"
At my question, Yor nodded vigorously.
If that was the case, it meant Ríolíkin had ended up like this simply because Yor frightened him with a glare.
Even though Yor was a dragon, he was still only a baby, and to the people here, he looked like nothing more than a very long cat.
"That's... hopeless."
"Mya mya!"
This time, Yor shook his head from side to side.
Then he took a whiteboard out of the Yeouiju and began writing something.
「 Fear vs. Greater Fear 」
The content was about pitting fear against a greater fear.
I tilted my head, wondering what exactly that phrase meant, but after pondering it several times, a plausible interpretation came to mind.
"Does it mean that if he experiences a greater fear, he'll start seeing the fear he felt before as trivial and be able to move past it?"
"Nyang nyan nyang~!"
Yor infused his meowing with the rhythm of saying, "Ding dong deng~!"
It was an excessively cheerful sound for someone discussing fear, but in any case, it meant I had guessed correctly.
"Wow... how on earth did you understand that strange writing...?"
I was about to tell Vigdís, who had exclaimed in admiration, that her own messy explanations had also contributed to improving my ability to decipher vague sentences.
But I stopped.
Because right now, making Vigdís reflect on her writing skills was far less important than considering whether Yor's theory would actually work.
'It doesn't seem like a proper method of improving mental resilience, but... it does make sense. If the threshold for feeling fear rises, he'll naturally become less frightened by trivial things.'
Moreover, doesn't Ríolíkin's fear stem from no particular experience?
It's an almost illusory emotion created simply because the original author gave him the setting of being a coward.
Therefore, the wise baby dragon's theory might actually be a suitable solution to Ríolíkin's problem.
However, it was still absurd that the "greater fear" Yor had chosen was merely a baby dragon's glare.
Far from being a greater fear, it wasn't even a minor one.
He just looked cute.
Yet even that seemed overwhelming for the current Ríolíkin.
'For now, is it best to leave things to Yor...?'
He probably couldn't handle any fear greater than that at the moment.
Later, once Ríolíkin became accustomed to the baby dragon's glare, it would be enough to frighten him using other methods.
If the intensity was gradually increased like that, wouldn't he eventually be able to handle not only sparring but actual combat as well?
When I woke up, Yor was pushing his face right up against mine and meowing sorrowfully for some reason.
My confusion over why he was doing that lasted only a moment.
I quickly realized the reason.
An amount of light far too bright for morning was pouring through the window.
'Someone who always wakes up at dawn regardless of whether it's a weekday or weekend only opened his eyes at noon, so of course he'd worry...'
What's more, after receiving Skati's private lesson yesterday, I had washed up and gone straight to bed as soon as I returned, without even eating dinner.
And yet I had slept until now.
Although I briefly visited the health center before lunch, regrettably, the staff member on duty possessed a trait capable only of treating trauma.
As a result, the bruises on my body could be healed, but my stamina couldn't be restored.
All I received was a scolding.
"Student, if you're tired, then sleep. What kind of person comes to the health center with dark circles under their eyes asking for their stamina to be restored?"
'When Senior Elska criticized the negligence of the health center staff before, I should have joined in...'
In any case, because of that, I had to maintain the stamina enhancement trick through buffs even while learning whip techniques.
The result was exactly this situation.
"Sorry for worrying you, Yor-ya. From now on, I'll pay more attention to managing my stamina."
"Miyaong, nyaang, nyaaa~!"
When I apologized while stroking the baby dragon's head, Yor meowed with a prim expression.
It seemed he would genuinely sulk if this happened again, so I should refrain from repeatedly drawing on future stamina through buffs from now on.
"You ate properly while I was asleep, right?"
"Mya..."
"Good. Well done."
After finishing my training with Skati, I had instructed Yor to go eat dinner by himself and come back afterward.
In the past, I never would have sent Yor to the campus cafeteria alone.
I would have worried that some ill-mannered person might speak rudely to him.
But now, since I had unintentionally ended up sharing a table with the original protagonist, I told Yor to go, thinking Reisir would naturally prevent anything like that from happening.
Still, since I never imagined I would sleep until this hour, I hadn't left instructions regarding any later meals.
If the growing baby dragon had waited for me to wake up and gone hungry the entire time, I would have been overwhelmed with guilt.
Fortunately, the wise baby dragon seemed to understand even those concerns of mine and had taken care of his meals on time.
Feeling relieved, I got up and checked the time.
'It's already two o'clock...? It feels too late to go to the campus cafeteria for lunch...'
The campus cafeteria operated continuously from five in the morning until eleven fifty at night.
Because of one thoughtless setting made by the original author, the workers of this world ended up horribly overworked.
In any case, the reason I thought it was late despite that was...
"It's almost time to go see Professor Radvisin... First, I need to wash up..."
I trailed off and glanced sideways at Yor.
Having already worried him by oversleeping, I felt self-conscious about openly saying I intended to skip three meals in a row.
"Hyaa..."
Yor stared intently at my face, let out a deep sigh, and pointed toward the top of the table.
Naturally, my gaze followed.
There, I spotted some bread.
"Yor-ya, did you buy it?"
"Yanyang."
At my question, Yor shook his head.
Then he took out the whiteboard and scribbled something.
「 R S R 」
"Reisir left it here...?"
"Yaong~."
"...When?"
「 L N 」
"Last night... perhaps?"
"Yaong!"
Given Reisir's personality, there was no way he wouldn't have asked for the reason after hearing that I had skipped a meal.
Especially considering he was the protagonist of a Korean web novel, someone who took food very seriously.
Then he heard that I had passed out from exhaustion without even eating because I had learned whip techniques from Skati while already drained from sparring with him.
It was understandable that he would feel guilty and worried enough to volunteer as a bread delivery service.
'Did he leave it here in case I woke up hungry during the night...?'
Since it was exactly the sort of thing one would eat when hungry, I sat down at the table.
Perhaps assuming I wouldn't touch the cheap bread sold at the campus store, the bread Reisir bought had come from a proper bakery.
Since he must have gone out after dinner, most bakeries would have been closed by then.
'Even if it had been someone other than me who skipped a meal, if it were Reisir, he would have taken care of them just as meticulously.'
That's simply the kind of person a protagonist is.
Naturally, Reisir, the protagonist of the original work, was no different.
In other words, this was nothing more than an influence event.
Even as I repeated that to ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) myself and tried my best to stay on guard—
'Honestly, it's a little... no, very touching...'
—that thought slipped into my mind before I knew it.
At least now, having slept well and cleared my head, I could still think about influence events and things like that.
But what if I hadn't merely fallen asleep from exhaustion?
What if I had collapsed because I was sick, and my condition hadn't fully recovered?
'I might have completely fallen for this influence event scheme...'
The number of reasons to manage my stamina and physical condition properly had increased.
There is no time when the mind is more vulnerable than when the body is ill.
At the very least, I should take good care of my health and avoid getting sick this semester.
Having reached that conclusion, I picked up the bread.
At that moment, Yor set down a 200 mL carton of milk on the table with a thud.
It seemed he had taken it out of the Ether Mini Refrigerator in the room, but I didn't remember putting anything like that in there.
"Did Reisir buy this too?"
"Yaong~."
"......"
It would be better not to think about it any further.
Trying to empty my mind, I devoured the bread and milk.
Then, after hurriedly washing up and even changing clothes, I headed toward the lecture room where Professor Radvisin would be waiting.
"Are the Research Student Seniors not coming anymore?"
After arriving and exchanging greetings with the professor, I asked about the absent students, puzzled by the strangely subdued atmosphere.
"There's nothing they can help with in future training. Still, we agreed to have dinner together, so don't be too disappointed."
For some reason, a distinctly pleased expression appeared on the old professor's face as he answered.
That made me feel embarrassed for no apparent reason.
So, partly to change the subject and partly to seek help from someone who specialized in Ether attributes, I said the following.
"By the way... I obtained a new buff skill while sparring during yesterday's martial arts lecture, and I'd like to consult you about it."
Unless you skimmed the previous chapter, you must have noticed that I was lying.
Because the thought acceleration skill consumed sky blue Ether, not purple Ether, which possessed the buff attribute.
Nevertheless, the reason I referred to it as a "buff" was because of Yor's advice.
Immediately after yesterday's martial arts lecture ended, I returned to the dormitory room to wash off the dust and sweat covering me.
There, I explained the newly acquired skill to Yor.
Then, when I asked whether sky blue Ether also possessed a thought acceleration attribute, I received the following answer.
「 ? I can't do such things 」
It was the first time Yor had written such a complete sentence on his whiteboard.
Unfortunately, the content was deeply disappointing.
So when I asked whether I should seek advice from Professor Radvisin, another sentence appeared beneath it.
「 Tell O but sky talk X 」
In other words, it was fine to talk about the thought acceleration skill, but it would be better not to reveal that it consumed sky blue Ether.
Professor Radvisin was already fruitlessly researching a thesis titled Correlation Between Ether Color and Attributes.
Not only did I have no desire to burden someone like that with an additional topic such as "Are the two abilities possessed by dual-attribute Ether really related to each other?"...
'There must be a valid reason why the wise baby dragon told me not to mention it.'
Based on that belief, I decided to follow Yor's advice.
Even though I had no idea what that "reason" was, since the baby dragon hadn't told me.
