Vol 3. Chapter 0: Prologue ~ This Young Master Always Values Loyalty!

Poem title: Ah, Carillian Academy, I’m back!

Poet: Vinny, Camella’s Idea Guy.

And then... the body of the poem... I’ve got nothing.

Having returned to the academy and finished the check-in with Shicodale, Vinny was suddenly moved by the scene and wanted to recite a poem. The feeling was there, the poetic mood was peaking—yet not a single line would come out of his empty, inkless belly.

Fine, drop the cultured act. They say a desperate man can do anything, but poems and math problems are the exceptions—you can yank your hair out and still get nowhere.

Vinny told Shicodale to head back first while he wandered the Student Council offices to see if anyone needed help. After all, he was at least a member of the Student Council. Judging by his performance last term, a promotion this term was unlikely, but he still drew a salary. Even if he wasn’t enthusiastic, he had to look enthusiastic.

If the boss saw him... well, the biggest boss happened to be his childhood friend.

Thinking that, Vinny suddenly spotted a familiar petite white figure out on the patio garden by the lounge.

Wasn’t that the pint-sized dinner roll he hadn’t seen all term—the white-haired short stack?

Tch. Vinny had hoped to put off seeing her; he hadn’t expected to run into her the moment he stepped back into the Student Council.

Yep, the beautiful first day back ended the instant he saw Aesphyra.

She seemed to be in the same boat—just finished check-in—and was standing alone in the empty garden, back to him. The silver hair at the back of her head and the big black bow swayed in the wind. He had no idea what she was doing, and it looked like she hadn’t noticed him at all.

Vinny couldn’t help finding it odd. With how sharp this pint-sized dinner roll usually was, she should have noticed him already. Every interaction between him and Aesphyra always started with Aesphyra teasing him; there’d never been a time when he noticed her but she didn’t notice him.

Probably just his imagination?

Vinny mulled it over for a moment, and a bad idea bubbled up. The corners of his mouth curled.

Heh. That pint-sized dinner roll messes with him every day—so today he could mess with her, right? If luck was good, he might even pop some Virtue out of it.

So Vinny tiptoed closer from behind, sneaking up on the white-haired short stack who was doing who-knows-what and, in any case, had zero awareness of his approach.

But as he drew near, the weird feeling only grew.

Something’s off. Normally, with Aesphyra’s vigilance, she should have noticed ages ago. Why is she so slow to react today?

Vinny forced the thought down and decided to give the white-haired short stack a scare anyway.

Closer, closer, even closer—perfect! The prey hadn’t sensed him at all!

Now! Go, Poké Ball!

However, just as Vinny was about to leap up and fling the Poké Ball, what Aesphyra did next made him freeze mid-motion.

Only when he was close did Vinny see it: Aesphyra, still turned away, had a disposable handkerchief pinched between her fingers and coughed lightly into it a few times. The sound of the cough was fragile, ready to shatter—like glass about to crack to pieces.

When the coughing stopped, a vivid smear of red bloomed on the white handkerchief.

...Huh?

Vinny froze, motion gone—and then fell straight down out of the air. The balled-up paper in his hand slipped free, dropped, and bonked him on the head.

“Ow!”

That, of course, got Aesphyra’s attention. She turned and caught sight of Vinny, who’d landed hard on the ground. One look at the paper ball lying there and she instantly understood what he’d been about to do. Her apricot eyes narrowed like a cat’s, wearing that classic smile-that-isn’t-a-smile as she looked at him.

“Oh? First time seeing each other after a whole term, and Classmate Vinny’s already performing acrobatics—playing the clown to make me laugh?” Aesphyra folded her hands behind her back, watching Vinny sprawled on the floor with amused interest.

“Tch. Just a little accident. A misstep, that’s all.” Vinny stood up, rubbing the jaw he’d smacked. “Your reactions are awfully dull today. I nearly walked right up behind you and you still didn’t notice.”

“If I’d been your enemy, you’d already be dead,” he huffed.

“Is that so? Then I hope fate favors me, and every enemy I meet is as stupid as Vinny,” Aesphyra drawled.

“Che!” Vinny almost never won a war of words with Aesphyra. Today was no exception.

But that wasn’t why he’d opened his mouth.

His gaze dropped to Aesphyra’s hands, now tucked behind her back. He snorted and gave her the dead-fish stare.

“Hey. Are you taking this young master for blind, or stupid? That handkerchief with a big smear of blood—you think I didn’t see it? What are you hiding? I saw it all!”

“Well, perhaps both?” Aesphyra tilted her head without missing a beat.

“Don’t you dodge the point, you white-haired short stack. What’s wrong with you? Why are you coughing blood?” Vinny pressed.

“Classmate Vinny, it seems you didn’t fully learn the lesson I taught you last term. Probing too deeply into a girl’s privacy is a bad habit,” Aesphyra said. Seeing there was no fooling him, she simply stopped trying. She tossed the blood-stained handkerchief into the trash and put on her usual it-doesn’t-matter look, the same surplus of confidence on her face as always.

“Is this the after-effect of that ability you used last time?” Vinny frowned hard and kept pressing, ignoring her deflection.

“Classmate Vinny, I thought you were someone I could have a reasonable conversation with. Try to remember what we said last term?” Aesphyra arched a brow.

Last term... what we said?

Vinny’s expression went odd.

He’d said so much to Aesphyra—exactly which line did she mean?

But maybe he’d been around her long enough to pick up how she thought, because Vinny figured it out.

She meant the tacit promise they’d made when they debriefed afterward and wrote the field report last term:

They would not pry into certain secrets of each other’s.

For example, Aesphyra hadn’t probed the secret of his Recording Stone, and he wouldn’t probe into the secret art Aesphyra used to get them out of danger.

Of course, he had no need to probe—what secret of Aesphyra’s didn’t he know? From bloodline to background, Vinny knew every last thing. In front of him she was transparent.

“This isn’t the same, white-haired short stack,” Vinny said.

“How is it not the same?” Aesphyra crossed her arms, amused. “Classmate Vinny, if you don’t want people to dislike you, you need to manage distance properly. Boundaries are important.”

“It’s better for both of us.”

Which was a polite way of telling him to drop it. Pretend he hadn’t seen anything, and everyone’s life would be easier.

Vinny said nothing.

Aesphyra finished speaking and, without another word, turned to go.

Just when she thought Vinny had given up, she found her path blocked by the blue-haired youth.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t care about your secrets,” Vinny said, enunciating each word.

“Oh? Then what do you care about?” Aesphyra asked, smiling.

“I care about a certain heartless, carefree, white-haired short stack who looks close at hand but keeps everyone a thousand miles away,” Vinny tipped his chin. “A certain someone who thinks she’s very clever, yet keeps her guard up even against a classmate who’s shared life and death with her.”

“She’s an idiot. If people really meant her harm, why did they brave all that danger to go back and save her? We entrusted our lives to each other, and now she hems and haws about her troubles like she’s terrified people will kick her when she’s down.”

“If she won’t accept someone’s goodwill, I can understand it—everyone has their choices. But what is she afraid of? Why does she assume people will kick her when she’s down?” Vinny blocked Aesphyra without looking at her, jabbing a finger at the air beside them and letting it all out, like none of it was actually directed at her.

“If someone thinks a person who owes her a lot of favors will hurt her, there’s only one reason: she doesn’t trust his character. She thinks he’s rotten to the core.” He finished, then looked Aesphyra in the eye.

“Aesphyra, tell me—do you think that?”

“Do you think, like they do—like all those people out there—that someone spit on by the world must be a fraud and a villain, vicious through and through?” If others thought so, Vinny didn’t care. He didn’t care about them, so there was no burden on his heart; he’d just toss back something abstract and heartless.

But what if the person thinking that... was someone he cared about?

Emotional knives cut the deepest.

That thought left Vinny a little desolate. He would respect Aesphyra’s choice. If she truly thought that way, he would walk away—politely.

From then on, they’d go back to how they were at the very beginning: nodding acquaintances. Care about nothing, interfere with nothing. Excise each other completely from their lives, as if the other didn’t exist.

Seeing his expression, Aesphyra’s eyes changed.

His fierce surge of feeling touched her.

[Virtue +100]

[Current Virtue: 8734]

For some reason, she had a strong hunch that if she really chose to draw a line here and strode off without hesitation, she’d regret it for the rest of her life.

She didn’t know why, but her body and heart were pushing her that way.

Besides, she’d never actually intended to do that. Everything she’d said earlier was just because she didn’t want Vinny getting dragged into trouble on her account.

Aesphyra knew her path would one day diverge far above the ordinary, and there were very few peers she truly recognized. She didn’t want those few to be pulled into danger because of her.

“Classmate Vinny, if I really thought that, things wouldn’t have turned out like they did today.” After a long silence, Aesphyra finally chose to ease up. She didn’t look him in the eye; she looked past his shoulder.

It was oblique, but to someone who knew certain parts of the original story, Vinny understood.

She meant: if she truly believed Vinny was a hopeless villain, he wouldn’t be alive today.

For the first time, Aesphyra chose to soften her words and take a step back because of someone else’s huge emotional wave.

In every respect, Aesphyra had always been forceful. She had never taken a step back.

“In that case, there’s no need to hide it from me, is there?”

“Otherwise? You think you can help me?” Aesphyra’s tone carried a teasing lilt.

Think it through and it’s obvious: with the Galathus family behind her—wealth on par with nations—would Aesphyra ever lack medical resources? Top alchemists at home, top priests and nuns in the Dawn Church, even auxiliary bishops within the Galathus network—how could they fail to treat her?

Yet after a whole long break, her illness wasn’t cured.

If the Galathus family couldn’t handle it, what could one Vinny do?

Yes, he was a Facilis—but this wasn’t something solved by “being a Facilis.”

Even if Vinny were an awakened Facilis, he’d still be helpless.

Her illness sprang from an ancient imperial bloodline. It was irreversible.

Carillian blood was god-blood. Its power was unmatched—and so were the diseases caused by its backlash. Not even Saint Light could heal that.

Facilis blood was god-blood. Why wouldn’t Carillian blood be god-blood as well?

And besides, Aesphyra knew all too well what Vinny’s alchemy was like.

If even someone at her level of alchemy couldn’t cure herself, how could Vinny—or anyone else?

In alchemy, Aesphyra believed that while there was a gap between her and the top masters, it wasn’t that large.

“You won’t know unless you try, will you? Remember what I told you? I’m a well-connected delinquent of the royal capital. I know a very capable nun of the Dawn Church...” Seeing Aesphyra ease up, Vinny pressed on.

“Classmate Vinny, even if you ask Miss Vanessa, it’ll be useless.” Aesphyra cut him off before he could finish.

“Tch! Who’s Vanessa? I told you I don’t know any Vanessa! And how do you know I can’t do anything?” Vinny bristled. “What do you take me for? You’re looking down on this young master!”

“Save it. Since you don’t think that way, and you don’t want to tell me your secrets, then I won’t ask about that. Who’s dying to pry into a few lousy secrets of a white-haired short stack anyway? Acting like they’re some priceless treasure, as if anyone wants to know.” He shot her a glare and went on.

“Just say it straight—where are you hurt? That much you can tell me, right?”

Aesphyra said nothing.

Just when Vinny thought she was going to keep dancing around it, Aesphyra gave the faintest little tap at her chest. So small it was almost unnoticeable.

Vinny didn’t quip back. In the past, she would never have shown weakness to anyone, never exposed a vulnerability. She’d keep herself bristling like a hedgehog in front of everyone, making people think she had no soft spots—invulnerable.

Being willing to hint at something like this was already real progress.

It meant she’d started to build a little trust in him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have told him even that much.

“Got it,” Vinny said, about to turn away—when Aesphyra spoke up.

“So, what’s the occasion? What made Classmate Vinny suddenly care about me today? Usually, the moment you see me you look irritated, helpless, and speechless.” Aesphyra teased.

“Tch. Who’s caring about an impudent, shameless, annoying white-haired short stack? ...Didn’t you say before that we’re friends?” Vinny’s voice got smaller and smaller, and his confidence with it—as if saying the words had burned through the last of his shame reserves.

“When it comes to friends, this young master is, uh... very loyal.”

“Pfft.” Aesphyra couldn’t help laughing.

“W-what are you laughing at? You’re the one who said it first! What right do you have to laugh at me? I’m just repeating your own words.” The instant she laughed, Vinny flared up.

“Loyalty! That’s a core principle of a royal-capital delinquent. Get it?” With that, Vinny quickened his pace and left.

His emotions were surging so hard he didn’t notice he wasn’t the only one riding a wave.

[Virtue +90]

[Current Virtue: 8824]