How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

Was it... an illusion?

The figure he had longed for day and night was crouching in front of him, seemingly speaking, saying something.

Vinny wanted to hear it clearly, wanted to see clearly. Even if all of this was only a hallucination, he still wanted to get as close as possible.

But he no longer had even that much strength.

The last taut string in his mind snapped. Darkness soaked through his consciousness, his body gave way, and he pitched forward.

[Virtue +200.]

[Current Virtue: 7139.]

Naturally, Vinny noticed none of that at a time like this.

Was it a hallucination?

So he really missed her that much?

Even the hallucination appearing at the very end of his life was her.

How infuriating.

Vinny’s consciousness sank into sleep. But unlike the freezing, bottomless black sea from before, though he still did not wake, he felt as though someone had pulled him out of that icy black ocean, dragged him ashore, lit a bonfire, and covered him with a warm quilt.

Warmth surged through him, stirring every drop of blood in his body. Vinny felt like a tender shoot that had endured bitter frost and winter at last reaching early spring, breaking through hardened shell and packed earth with vigorous life.

The warmth drove away the cold, telling him that the agony he could barely endure was over.

The unease in Vinny’s heart finally settled, like a little boat battered and tossed by wind and rain in a storm finally finding a safe harbor.

He even tugged at the quilt and edged closer toward the bonfire, clutching the blanket tightly, afraid that this feeling would fade away, abandon him, and leave him behind.

That wonderfully sweet, pleasant scent drifted to the tip of his nose. Vinny instinctively didn’t want to leave it. He wanted to be closer to it.

Closer still.

So his hand tightened further.

“...Purple sweet potato sago,” Vinny mumbled in a few strange broken words. Suddenly, the light pressing against his eyelids felt red and glaring. He frowned and instinctively wanted to raise a hand to block it, only to realize that his hand seemed to be holding onto something very important—something he couldn’t let go of.

What... was going on?

Vinny laboriously forced his eyelids open and found himself looking at a ceiling that was unfamiliar, yet somehow slightly familiar too. The lamplight from the crystal fixture set into the flat ceiling was painfully bright to eyes that had not seen light for far too long, and he couldn’t open them all the way.

Under that intense light, his sleeping mind finally began working again.

He wasn’t sure where this was, but one thing he could say for certain was that he definitely was no longer in that ancient imperial underground research institute.

“Where... is this?” Vinny asked instinctively, his eyes still half-squinted.

He began trying to think back to what he had done before losing consciousness.

“Where else could it be? On the way back to school, of course, Student Vinny.”

“Huh??” The moment he heard that familiar graceful, pleasant voice with its faint thread of teasing in it, Vinny froze and slowly shifted his gaze to the side.

Only then did he realize that he was lying in a warm room, on a bed, under a quilt, with a heater beside him.

And sitting there at his bedside was the silver-haired girl he knew all too well, propping her cheek up on one hand and watching him with a playful, loaded gaze.

“A-Aesphyra??” Vinny stared in shock. “Why are you here?”

“Oh my~? Student Vinny, shouldn’t you be the last person asking me that? Or does your head need a reboot too?” Aesphyra crossed her black-stockinged legs and teased him. “Who was the one who had no idea what to do and could only use a [Telepathy Scroll] from far away to beg me to hurry over and save him?”

“Do you need me to repeat the message you left me word for word? ‘Please, save me...’”

“Stop, stop, stop!” Vinny’s ears were already red after hearing only the beginning.

“I-Is this really not a dream??”

“Oh? So Student Vinny suspects this is a dream? Then I’ll keep reading it out loud.” Aesphyra arched a fine brow.

“N-No need, no need!” Vinny hurriedly cut her off.

“But didn’t Student Vinny just say you thought this might be a dream?” Aesphyra said with obvious amusement.

“So you’re trying to make me so embarrassed that I claw out an entire villa with my toes just to prove this isn’t a dream, is that it??” Vinny snapped.

“Honestly, is this really how Student Vinny treats the person who saved his life? With the wording you used in that message, I could practically picture exactly what kind of state you were in at the time—”

“Enough, stop talking!” Vinny pressed his lips together, then turned his face away. “How was I supposed to know you actually got it?? I thought... I thought you might not receive it. I was only trying it as a last resort.”

“Trying it as a last resort? But when Student Vinny was in that kind of situation, the first person you thought of was me after all, wasn’t it?” Aesphyra pierced straight through to the truth with a single easy sentence.

“Ah, ah, y-you narcissistic idiot, stop getting full of yourself! W-Who was thinking about you?? Tch, self-absorbed nutcase, don’t flatter yourself!” Vinny instantly reacted like a cornered cat, bristling the moment his defenses were breached.

“Oh~ I see.” Vinny’s reaction had already completely sold him out. Anyone could see what he really thought, much less Aesphyra.

“T-That’s right, so what if it was? Besides, it was only because you’re the only person I’ve ever used a [Telepathy Scroll] on! If there’d been anyone else, I definitely would’ve used it on someone else!” Vinny stubbornly insisted.

“Someone else? Which someone else?” Aesphyra asked with a smiling face. “I don’t recall anyone else willing to help Student Vinny.”

“How is there no one? There are plenty. Like Mirexia, or Student Isatia, or even Student Dale! Uh...” The moment he got to Shicodale, even Vinny couldn’t keep going.

All right, forget that one. There really was no counting on Shicodale being able to help. If she had been the recipient of the message, she probably only would have panicked herself into circles while being completely helpless.

“Oh my~ Mirexia dear and Student Isatia?”

“Y-Yeah? So what?” Vinny tried to sound tough, but his head had already shrunk back a little.

“But Student Vinny’s true thoughts don’t seem to say that at all,” Aesphyra tilted her head.

“What ‘true thoughts’? What, do you know mind-reading magic or something? How would you know what I’m really thinking??”

“I don’t.” Something had clearly occurred to Aesphyra, because the smile at the corner of her mouth was impossible to hide now. “For example, something like... right before losing consciousness, you desperately used that quill to write my name on the ground, and collapsed completely halfway through. I know absolutely nothing about that sort of thing, of course~”

“Mmgh?!” Vinny’s whole face turned scarlet on the spot.

What was that supposed to mean??

He clearly knew nothing about any such thing. He didn’t remember doing that.

So why, the moment Aesphyra said it, did he feel an unbearable wave of shame by reflex?

As if...

as if he really had done it??

“A-Ah, you really are such a weird person. You say the weirdest things. Who would even do something like that?” Vinny no longer dared meet Aesphyra’s eyes.

“Right, exactly. Who could it possibly have been~?” Aesphyra lifted her chin and looked down at Vinny meaningfully. “It’s so hard to guess. I’m curious too.”

“Tch! So how long was I out, anyway??” Vinny decisively tried to change the subject. He knew perfectly well that continuing this topic would end badly for him.

Vinny’s sensitivity to verbal pressure was several times sharper than an ordinary person’s. The moment he felt uncomfortable, he instinctively pivoted away.

“Several days,” Aesphyra answered. “If Student Vinny had stayed unconscious any longer, we’d have reached the Academy.”

“If the priest and the nun hadn’t both said you were fine and just severely weakened, I might already have had to prepare your funeral.”

“Prepare your head! So you were hoping to handle my funeral, huh?? Get lost, get lost, get lost! I knew it, you white-haired nutball, you’ve never got good intentions! Even if this young master really dies someday, I still won’t hand over funeral rights to you!”

“Why not?”

“Why not? So you can dance on my grave??” Vinny shot Aesphyra a glare—then immediately sensed something was off.

“Wait. Don’t tell me... you’ve actually been sitting here keeping watch for days and nights?” Vinny asked in surprise.

“Mhm.”

“You... tch... You really have some nerve saying that, don’t you. Cough.” Vinny gave a dry cough to hide how embarrassed he was. “Well... I didn’t expect you to treat this young master pretty well, actually.”

He cleared his throat again.

“Anyway, thanks. You worked hard!”

“It wasn’t hard. Student Vinny, do you know what the most interesting thing was during all this time?” Aesphyra said with a teasing lilt.

“?? What?” Vinny could tell from her expression alone that she was up to no good.

“Student Vinny, your snoring in your sleep was quite nostalgic. It reminded me of the lift in my family’s underground wine cellar. The sound the gears make when they turn is about the same.”

“And besides that, Student Vinny’s sleeping posture is also rather distinctive. It’s like you were dreaming about something delicious. There’s a sort of beauty to it that feels entirely untouched by knowledge. I like it~”

“Get lost!!” Aesphyra managed to make Vinny go red all over again.

He had only just woken up and seen her again, and already his emotions had gone through so many violent swings it was hard to count them. Did this white-haired nutball secretly have some shameless hidden system that was farming his Virtue the entire time??

“And another thing, don’t make things up! This young master sleeps very quietly, no sound at all. And you’re actually claiming I snore in my sleep?! I’m accusing you of slander, you know??” Vinny said. Though, on this point, he had absolutely no confidence. There was no way for him to know whether he snored in his sleep or not. He had never slept beside anyone before, so naturally he wouldn’t know.

That said, back during the Academy field assessment, hadn’t he and Shicodale slept in the same tent once?

If he really snored, there was no way Shicodale could have slept so soundly, right?

Vinny had no real confidence.

For some reason, though, the mere idea of snoring felt awful to him.

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with it, exactly, just...

it was far too damaging to his image.

And people would definitely find it off-putting, wouldn’t they??

As he thought that, Vinny cautiously stole a glance at Aesphyra.

“Pfft.” For some reason, when she saw his reaction, Aesphyra suddenly laughed out loud.

“W-What now? What are you laughing at [N O V E L I G H T] this time? You really are absurdly hard to understand, you know that??”

“Nothing. I just think Student Vinny is so ridiculously cute. You actually believed me?” Aesphyra rested her cheek on one hand.

“You—?” Vinny blanked for a moment, then his fists clenched. “So everything you just said was fake??”

“If Student Vinny wants to believe it was real, then you’re free to believe it was real.” Aesphyra’s tone was full of delight.

“Ahhh! Y-You—!”

“I really had no idea Student Vinny was this easy to fool. What should I say? Meeting Student Vinny has truly been wonderful.” Aesphyra spoke with immense significance.

That tone of hers made it sound like she planned to start selling him miracle health tonics once he got old.

Hm?

Wait a second.

Hadn’t he said something exactly like that to other people before??

“You! You watched my sleeping face for days too? How are you this bored and this annoying??” The instant Vinny realized that while he’d been asleep, this white-haired nutball had been crouching there observing him the whole time, he became unbearably embarrassed. “If you keep paying this much attention to men, I’m really going to have to start questioning your orientation.”

“Speaking of which, what a pity.” Aesphyra raised a brow. “Student Vinny, why don’t you just grow your hair out and wear women’s clothes from now on?”

“What did you just say??”

“Student Vinnia really is much more pleasing to the eye. Student Vinny, why don’t you just consider bowing out and letting Student Vinnia take over instead~?” Aesphyra teased.

“You—what sort of spiritual preparation did you have to go through to say something like that with a straight face?? Go die!”

“If Student Vinny had said that in Student Vinnia’s voice, I would’ve been very happy.”

“...” Faced with this shameless white-haired nutball who feared boiling water no more than a dead pig did, Vinny was utterly speechless.

“All right, go away already! Stop disturbing this young master’s rest. I already told you, I’m allergic to nuts!”

“Hm? Student Vinny, what exactly are you talking about?” Aesphyra tilted her head. “Do you think I don’t want to leave?”

“? What do you mean?” Vinny asked blankly.

“Student Vinny, would you like to take a look at what you’ve been holding this entire time?”

“Huh??” Vinny froze.

Only then did he realize that he had only been seeing one of Aesphyra’s hands this whole time. Her other hand seemed to have disappeared inside the blanket.

Vinny made an odd face and lightly squeezed whatever it was he had been holding all this time.

His face turned scarlet in an instant.

It seemed to be...

a hand.

Yes.

It felt soft, smooth, and the slender jade-like fingers were pretty long too.

Hard to tell, considering how short this girl looked.

The more he touched it, the redder Vinny’s face became.

W-What the hell?!

Had he really spent the entire time he was unconscious clinging to this white-haired nutball’s hand like it was his lifeline??