How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

There was no daylight in the underground research institute, so Vanessa had no way to tell whether it was day or night. Which meant she had no idea how long she had been unconscious.

Back when her awareness had been dim and blurred, she vaguely remembered seeing Milian crying in the Demon God Abyss.

Vanessa tried to move her body, only to discover that the only part of her she could still move at all was her fingers.

After that life-and-death battle against the monster from the Demon God Abyss, she felt as though every tendon and bone in her body had been ripped out. She lay limp on the ground, every part of her body aching as though each piece had been unscrewed and torn away.

Still, thankfully, she had forced down a mouthful of mana recovery potion and stamina recovery potion earlier. That had helped at least somewhat, and enough time had passed for a fair amount of mana to recover.

With difficulty, Vanessa raised a hand and cast [Healing Orbs]. Several points of cherry-pink light flew into her body and healed her injuries.

Vanessa recovered somewhat, but she still had no real strength left. Leaning against the rock wall behind her, her eyes dull and unfocused, she looked over the underground research institute, now left in utter ruin after being ravaged so thoroughly.

The Abyss-Dweller’s corpse had already been burned to ashes.

But had she really won?

It was not that she had won.

She had merely survived.

Tilting her gaze, she saw the Virtue points she had gained on this trip.

[Virtue +700.]

[Current Virtue: 7539.]

A full seven hundred Virtue points.

Vanessa remembered that even the last time she had driven back a Demon Pillar while possessed by Selena, she had only gained 2000. After all, that had not been accomplished by her own hand.

Leaning against the rock wall, she hugged her knees. Her peach-pink eyes were blank and empty, with no focus in them at all.

The [Armor Fortress] on her body had already been heavily damaged from how brutal the battle had been. Her white high-heeled boots had been reduced to short boots and ultra-short boots. Her skirt hem was ragged and full of holes. The wing-shaped hair ornaments that had bound her twin side ponytails had vanished somewhere. Her soft pink hair hung loose around her, and feathers were scattered all over the ground nearby.

She had won, and yet she looked like someone who had been utterly defeated.

The sight could not have been more miserable.

This had simply been a disaster.

She did not even dare imagine what kind of catastrophe would have spread across Tyrelis Continent if that monster had been let loose. How many people would have had to die before anyone managed to suppress a creature that was so obviously beyond what humanity should have been able to deal with?

And on top of that, Vanessa had the distinct feeling that this monster had descended upon Tyrelis Continent carrying out some kind of mission.

With how sinister the Demon Pillars were, they would never do something as pointless as sending a minion over just to cause trouble and kill a few people.

Everything they did had a powerful purpose behind it.

Perhaps that monster had been here to open the way—to clear a route for the others of its kind still in the Demon God Abyss, tear open a breach, and let them enter Tyrelis Continent.

Fortunately, they had not succeeded.

But...

Even if that monster had been destroyed by her hand, some people would never be able to go home again.

Silently, Vanessa clenched her fist and, with trembling fingers, pulled out the emerald bead from inside her clothes.

Within it was half of an elf’s soul.

Milian had entrusted it to her.

Vanessa suddenly remembered what Milian had once told her about the meaning of an elf’s Soul-Heart.

It was the crystallization of an elf’s soul, something incomparably important to elves.

And precisely because of that, an elf would give that Soul-Heart to the most important person in their life, using it to express just how much they valued and trusted the other person—and how blazing their love for that person was.

Ordinarily, if the other party loved that elf back, they too would hand over their own Soul-Heart.

If they did not, they would refuse it.

That was an elven custom.

To bear something carrying that much trust and grace from another person felt unbearably heavy to Vanessa.

At that moment, her mood was terribly low, filled with guilt and self-reproach over her failure to protect Milian—only for Milian to give up her life to save hers instead.

And those two emotions were dangerous things.

Back in her previous life, people always said that if you wanted someone to fall in love with you, the first step was making that person feel guilty and indebted toward you.

Vanessa did not know what she herself was thinking anymore.

But right now, she felt awful.

Milian—that girl had been so timid, and yet in the end she had managed to summon her courage. She had pretended not to care, handed over the Soul-Heart that contained her own soul, sent Vanessa away, and stayed behind in that deranged hell by herself.

Back then, Milian had very clearly been trembling in fear, yet she had still shouted for Vanessa to treat Shicodale well from now on, to live a good life together with Shicodale.

That little elf princess, who since childhood had been cherished by the whole elf forest and doted on by countless elves, had still found it in herself to cast aside her life and save Vanessa.

All one could say was that elven feelings truly were simple.

And pure.

What they liked, they liked.

What they hated, they hated.

They hid nothing, and they were intense to the extreme.

Shicodale was like that.

Milian was too.

She would not just give up like this.

Vanessa looked at the bead lying quietly in her palm. Half of the emerald light within it still remained.

That half had not yet withered away.

Did that mean Milian was still alive?

Still waiting for her to come save her?

It had to mean that, right?

If Milian really had...

Then this Soul-Heart should have gone completely dim as well.

That was what Vanessa told herself.

As a Blessing Angel, she knew how to heal people.

But she did not know how to resurrect the dead.

And she knew even less about how to save someone stranded in the Demon God Abyss.

Milian, moreover, was an elf.

As for how to save an elf, Vanessa was obviously a complete amateur.

Maybe the Eternity Forest had a way.

Vanessa did not plan on running from the problem. However the elves reacted after learning the truth, there was nothing she could do about that now. Milian had been trapped in the Demon God Abyss because of her to begin with.

Just so happened, once the practical assessment ended, a long vacation would begin.

She planned to head to the Eternity Forest and seek out a solution.

She would go see Milian’s sister, the current Elf Queen, Selivlin.

Perhaps Selivlin would have a way.

As for whether an elf could survive being separated from a Soul-Heart across such an immense distance, and whether Milian could hold on that long...

Vanessa did not dare think about it.

All she could do was fight for it with every bit of strength she had.

There was no meaning in thinking too much now.

She had to save Milian.

Vanessa pulled the dropped travel bag over, then rummaged through it and took out the bread and water inside.

Thankfully, the earlier battle had not affected the food or water. Otherwise, she would not even have been able to fill her stomach right now.

Wrapping the bread in a silk handkerchief, Vanessa ate it in small bites. Then she drank some water and took another mouthful of stamina recovery potion and mana recovery potion.

After that, she got to her feet, lifted her bag, and noticed another bundle that had been tossed off into a corner.

That was the one Milian had brought.

It was a cloth bag with a distinctly elven style, and a clover ornament was attached to it.

Vanessa picked up Milian’s bag too and slung it over her back.

Now, it was time to think of a way to leave this place.

The [Nym-Gud Vine] passage was definitely impossible.

It was too high. She might not be able to fly that high, and even if she did, she would very likely still fail to get out. The red-eyeball priest had sacrificed so many people just to make the [Nym-Gud Vine] move once.

Vanessa noticed that the stone door from earlier had not fully closed. At some point, it had been left half-shut.

But no more multicolored light was shining from inside it, and all movement had ceased.

Vanessa hesitated for a moment, then pushed the stone door open.

She found that the gate connected to the Demon God Realm inside had vanished. Beyond the stone door there was now nothing but darkness, and of the stone stairway below, only the third step remained. The steps beneath it were nowhere to be seen.

After thinking for a moment, she cast [Strong Light Art] into the stone doorway. With [Break-Shackle]-grade light-element affinity behind it, the spell illuminated almost the entire cavern.

It seemed that all the steps below had already collapsed.

She could not clearly make out the path ahead, but one thing seemed certain:

the road leading to the Demon God Abyss had likely been sealed shut.

That Demon Pillar minion had been defeated.

The only result it had managed to leave behind was Milian being stranded in the Demon God Abyss. Perhaps because of that, the entrance leading into the abyss had also been blocked off.

But inside...

there was very likely only a dead end.

Was that it?

Vanessa pondered.

Then she remembered that she had not checked the free item refreshed in the Virtue System shop in ages. All this time, her attention had always been fixed on her growing Virtue total.

The refresh timing was supposedly irregular, but after so long, maybe it had updated with something useful?

Vanessa opened the Virtue System shop.

Sure enough, the free item had updated.

Except...

Vanessa stared blankly at the newly refreshed free product in the Virtue Shop.

The words Telepathy Scroll were painfully glaring.

It perfectly demonstrated what it meant for cheap goods to be worthless.

Was this not the same item that had refreshed last time when Aesphyra and she had run into Jiulixue?

It had already been a mediocre, barely-useful item back then.

Now it was completely useless.

As expected, she should not have gotten her hopes up.

Vanessa also knew she should not blame the Virtue System shop for failing to refresh something useful. After all, the system itself had never complained about her being poor and unable to afford the paid items in the shop.

Then what about the paid items?

Forced into a situation like this, Vanessa had no choice but to consider spending Virtue on those disposable shop items.

“[High-Concentration Charm Shampoo]: After use, greatly increases your attractiveness. A must-have for couples??”

“[Enchanted Charge-Storage Quill]: Can be filled with mana to restore its ink supply??”

“[Magic-Page Notebook]: Can be filled with mana to increase the number of pages??”

“[Replication Catalog]: Replicates the frequency of a certain magic previously written down.”

“[Amplification Spell Page]: Weakens part of one magic’s effects while strengthening another part??”

After seeing what kinds of paid items the Virtue Shop had refreshed for her, Vanessa stopped speaking.

She did not expect the free item to refresh something rare like spatial teleportation. After all, anything involving space was extremely profound. Anyone below the [Purgatory] realm could forget about properly understanding it.

But even at a moment like this, the functions of the paid items still looked so absurd that she hardly knew how to criticize them.

Absurd was one thing.

But why did these seemingly useless things have to be so expensive too?

Every single one cost hundreds of Virtue.

Even at a few dozen Virtue she would have thought they were overpriced.

It was not like they were something like a nuclear flashlight. These things even required mana to use.

Mm.

Very faithful to the law of conservation of energy, at least.

“Ah... I see now.” Vanessa tilted her head, a faint smile curving her lips.

“So that’s it. Endless notebook pages and a quill that never runs out of ink. System, how thoughtful of you. How considerate. You prepared all this so I could leave a suicide note in a predicament like this, is that it?”

‘Sister Vanessa, are... are you okay?’

The little angel had only just woken up too, and with her strength spent, seeing this scene—especially hearing Vanessa smile so sweetly under circumstances like these while saying nothing but self-mocking words—could not help but make her worry about Vanessa’s mental state.

“I’m fine.” Vanessa smiled gently and shook her head.

‘Really? ...All right.’

The little angel did not believe her at all, but considering Vanessa’s current condition, it felt better not to make things worse.

The little angel had originally wanted to ask Vanessa how they were supposed to get out of here.

But after thinking about it, she chose not to.

If there had been a way, why would Vanessa still be stuck in this sunless place?

If she asked a question like that now, Sister Vanessa’s mental state would definitely only get worse, right?

Especially since that blonde elf who had come here with Sister Vanessa earlier might already be...

Vanessa fell silent.

The little angel did not dare speak either. She had no idea what to say to Vanessa, or how she could possibly comfort her.

“Miss Holy Shield.”

‘Ah—ah?? What is it, Sister Vanessa? Do you need something?’

Hearing Vanessa call for her on her own, Radiant-Cross Holy Shield was so touched that she immediately responded.

“Would you say a Telepathy Scroll also counts as a kind of magic?” Vanessa asked.

‘If it’s that... I think it probably does? Since a Telepathy Scroll is also a kind of magic scroll, and magic scrolls more or less count as magic cast by the user, right?’ the little angel said uncertainly.

“In that case...” Vanessa looked at the goods displayed in the Virtue Shop and made up her mind.

Since things had come to this, all she could do was try.

A sudden idea had come to her.

At the moment, there was no better option.

She spent six hundred Virtue to purchase [Replication Catalog] and [Amplification Spell Page].

[Virtue deducted: 200.]

[Current Virtue: 7339.]

[Obtained [Replication Catalog].]

[Virtue deducted: 200.]

[Current Virtue: 7139.]

[Obtained [Amplification Spell Page].]

[Virtue deducted: 200.]

[Current Virtue: 6939.]

[Obtained [Enchanted Charge-Storage Quill].]

She had earned 700 Virtue on this trip and spent 600 of it, with no guarantee this would even work.

Meaning all she had truly gained was a net profit of 100 Virtue.

And she had almost died for it.

But at this point, none of that mattered anymore.

Vanessa opened the [Replication Catalog].

In an instant, it filled with a dazzling array of spells. Those spells changed from pure energy symbols into words she could understand.

Looking at that thick [Replication Catalog], Vanessa’s heart sank a little.

Every spell she had ever used was written in it.

All of them except [Saint’s Favor].

Maybe it even recorded spells she had used half a year ago.

Maybe... there was hope.

Vanessa searched through it rapidly, her gaze flying line by line. She turned each page in less than half a second.

The little angel had no idea what Vanessa was trying to do. Afraid of disturbing her, she did not dare ask. She could only watch from the side.

“Found it.”

No one knew how much time had passed. Vanessa’s expression remained calm as her slender, pale fingers stopped on one particular spell written in the catalog.

‘Ah??’

Curious, the little angel looked over and saw that the cube-script spell Vanessa was pointing at was:

[Telepathy Scroll].

What was this magic notebook?

And why was Sister Vanessa pointing at this spell?

The little angel could not understand.

“Selection complete. Replicate this spell’s incantation frequency.”

Vanessa spoke calmly, then redeemed the free item from the Virtue Shop:

that [Telepathy Scroll].

The moment she selected that magic, every other spell recorded in the [Replication Catalog] vanished. New characters appeared in their place, showing the exact frequency of that particular magic.

Vanessa poured mana into the quill in her hand and copied the precise frequency of that magic onto the [Telepathy Scroll].

“I see. Even if it’s the same magic, the frequency still isn’t identical. The same spell differs slightly every time in power, target, range, and all kinds of other details. So the frequency recorded from it differs too.”

Even though the principles involved were extremely complicated, Vanessa quickly understood what this [Replication Catalog] actually did and what principle it worked on.

Put simply, every spell was like a piece of code.

And because every casting varied slightly in power, target, and range, the spell it wrote out was never exactly the same.

By taking advantage of that, the [Replication Catalog] could perfectly reproduce a specific magic she had once used—

including its target.

At first glance, that might not sound particularly useful.

But right now, it gave Vanessa a sliver of hope.

That was right.

The important thing about the magic she was trying to replicate was not the [Telepathy Scroll] itself.

It was the target from the last time she had used the [Telepathy Scroll].

Because [Telepathy Scroll] had to lock onto a target within her field of vision in order to activate.

And right now, that target obviously was not within her field of view.

But through this method, she could align herself with that person’s unique frequency once again.

However, that still was not enough.

This likely already exceeded the normal range of a [Telepathy Scroll].

Which was why Vanessa needed to use [Amplification Spell Page].

And what she intended to weaken this time was the duration of the [Telepathy Scroll] and its method of expression.

She would reduce the duration to a single sentence.

She would reduce the expression method to written words alone.

And in exchange, she would use all of that to strengthen the range as much as possible.

That was the absolute limit of what she could do right now.

The sentence Vanessa wrote down with the quill was very simple.

Very short.

Please, save me, Vinnyliu.

As for whether that person would be able to find her here or not—

Vanessa believed that if it was her, then she definitely could.

There was not much room to write. She only wrote that one sentence.

Every other bit of the spell had to be used to strengthen the range. Vanessa did not dare write more, so she trimmed it down as far as possible.

In truth, no pile of adjectives would have been as effective as a single please.

The moment that person saw it, she would absolutely understand just how much trouble Vanessa was in.

After those words were written down, the [Telepathy Scroll] vanished, as though it had burned itself out.

And along with it, those disposable magic items vanished too.

Vanessa had no idea whether the message had actually been sent.

All she could do now was wait quietly.