Vol 3. Chapter 26: No One Knows What Aesphyra Is Thinking

“Lady Vinnia, what are you suddenly talking about?” Aesphyra gazed at the pale–blue-haired girl before her with a look of surprise.

“Tch, there’s no one here anymore. You can drop the act, yeah?” Vinny planted his hands on his hips. “Back at the table when I ignored you, you kept playing along—keeping it up now isn’t fun at all. Out with it: how did you figure out Lady Vinnia was me?”

Aesphyra only smiled at him in silence.

“Quit pretending, okay? If you keep it up, I’m ripping this wig off.” Knowing there was no point in circles anymore, Vinny chose to blow himself up directly.

Either way, Aesphyra already knew. If he blew his cover himself, he might even cut his losses and make Aesphyra admit defeat.

“Honestly—can’t you let me have the full, proper experience just once, Lady Vinnia?” Aesphyra fell quiet for a beat, then chuckled.

“Experience my foot. Don’t tell me you really got into character? And another thing—change how you address me back. Don’t call me that name anymore! You think this is hilarious, do you?” Vinny snapped.

“I’m not the only one who got into character, you know.” Aesphyra beamed at him, leaning in, amethyst eyes glinting with a dangerous light.

“W-what are you doing? Watch it, hey? Yours truly is a man—a real man! Nowhere near your range of interest, okay?” Vinny pressed his lips together and took a step back.

“Pfft—Lady Vinnia almost failed to correct how she calls herself. First time crossdressing and you slipped into the role so smoothly you can’t switch back. Seems you’re better suited to being a girl, hm?” Aesphyra’s tone was thick with playful relish.

“Scram, scram, scram! And whose fault do you think that is? I still haven’t settled the score with you, you accursed white-haired nutball. You actually tricked me! You didn’t tell me the full rules and let me step on rakes—and on top of that you were the organizer?!”

“You dug those pits on purpose and claimed you didn’t know the rules. Bah! You terrifying nut-person with a belly full of bad water and black water—how can you be this rotten?” Vinny had switched his self-reference back to “yours truly,” but he was still using the falsetto, which created a bizarre dissonance.

A boy who usually stared with dead-fish eyes, all fierce and thuggish, self-proclaimed scourge of the capital—right now dressed like a delicate schoolgirl, using a tender voice to call himself “yours truly” while scolding, saying “you’re bad.” Especially to those who knew him—it was plain he’d never actually done anything truly bad; at bottom, he was a good person.

That contrast slammed Aesphyra with a wave of emotion.

“[Virtue +60].”

“[Current Virtue: 11784].”

...Well, hell.

Vinny was shocked all over again.

He felt he’d discovered yet another incredible secret today: Aesphyra, who was essentially an S, seemed to have the potential to be an M as well.

Judging from how her Virtue shifted, her emotional surge clearly wasn’t anger from being scolded. Come on—targeting her weak points couldn’t even pop her Virtue; how would this kind of harmless rant do it?

Then it could only be a positive emotion. But how did her Virtue go up when he was scolding her?

Uh-oh. This white-haired nutball really is sick.

“Huh? But Lady Vinnia usually calls herself the scourge of the Camella capital, doesn’t she?” Aesphyra said, amused. “Oh—no, now I should say the scourge-girl?”

“Scram! The farther you roll, the better—oh, wait, you’re not allowed to roll. You need to admit defeat, say you lost, and meow. You didn’t forget that, right? Don’t even think about weaseling out.” Vinny jabbed a finger at Aesphyra.

“Oh? Lady Vinnia’s that fixated on it?”

“What, planning to renege?” Vinny tilted his chin and huffed.

“No~ If Lady Vinnia wants to see it, I absolutely can.” Aesphyra smiled sweetly.

“You—huh?” Vinny froze. He’d thought Aesphyra would try every trick to dodge admitting defeat. He hadn’t expected her to be this decisive.

“Meow~ I lost, meow. Lady Vinnia won, meow. Lady Vinnia is the best, meow. I was wrong to tease Lady Vinnia, meow. I’m sorry, meow~” Before Vinny could react, Aesphyra lifted one hand and, like a beckoning cat, meowed in a lusciously charming pose.

Mm. The princess cat had truly become a princess cat.

She actually admitted in front of him that she was wrong—and that she lost?

Well. This was a first for Vinny.

For Aesphyra, who had always been proud and never admitted defeat, this really was something rare.

He didn’t quite dare look straight at a scene like this, afraid those luscious eyes would hook his soul away.

“A-hem. Hmph. That’s more like it.” Vinny unconsciously shuffled back a couple of steps, angling his gaze aside.

“To express my apologies, Lady Vinnia, would you allow me to offer a further apology, meow?~”

“Mm—huh? What kind of further apology?” Vinny blanked, thinking she meant more prizes. He agreed on reflex. “Fine. Since your sincerity... basically clears the bar, yours truly will reluctantly accept your tokens of regret.”

“Thump!” Before he finished, a breeze of rose and damask rose swept into his face and robbed him of a breath.

Vinny’s pupils pinched tight. He curled into a corner of the wall, speechless.

At this moment, Aesphyra had slammed him into the corner of a back-alley wall—palming the wall beside his head.

Ah... ah?

Only after a long beat—only when those violet eyes bloomed with an uncanny brilliance under the moon—did Vinny barely register that Aesphyra had corner-walled him.

He, the scourge of the Camella capital, had been corner-walled in an alley by this iron-blooded green-eyed girl.

Protagonist and villainess of the original—two mortal enemies like water and fire—now appearing in an alley in such an ambiguous posture.

I-isn’t there a mistake somewhere?

Right now Vinny was both shocked and lost, unable to believe Aesphyra would do this to him—a grown man.

Moonlight spilled down, striking sparks off the girl’s lustrous silver hair and those dazzling eyes.

Was this still the Aesphyra he knew?

Breathing that fragrance by his nose, Vinny found it hard to meet her gaze.

The petite silver-haired girl leaned in; her delicate nose twitched, as if she were scenting something.

An inexplicable itch traced Vinny’s neck, even though the two of them hadn’t actually touched.

“Uh, hey—you, you’re—?”

“Lady Vinnia, are you nervous?” Aesphyra laughed, crisp as silver bells, clear as a nightingale. “Blushing this hard? Honestly. Clearly Lady Vinnia should be the one taking the initiative.”

“...” Vinny held his tongue. She was saying that he was the boy here, and yet he was the passive one.

“As expected—should I say, no surprise for direct blood relatives? Two different people, yet Lady Vinnia gives me so many of her same feelings.” What Aesphyra said next made Vinny’s heart jolt.

Who she meant needed no explanation—it could only be Vanessa.

“Y-you—what are you—”

“So then, Lady Vinnia, what exactly is your relationship with Miss Vanessa?” Aesphyra’s soul-hooking eyes were inches away, as if to draw his spirit out—like every secret hidden in his heart had nowhere to hide before them.

“Well, you won’t say anyway. Asking is asking in vain, isn’t it?” Before Vinny could answer, Aesphyra smiled, meaningful. “But that’s what makes it interesting. If you know the answer too early, there’s no fun.”

“So please, let me keep this curiosity a while longer, okay?” Aesphyra’s whisper was like a feather skimming his palm—itchy, soft, and sweet.

“W-what curiosity?” Vinny was dazed.

“Mhm~” Aesphyra let out a murmur with no clear meaning, offered no explanation, then lifted her steps and drifted away. “Good night, Lady Vinnia—and congratulations on your championship.”

Wait—she’s leaving again?

The tension bled out of Vinny’s body, leaving him with a lingering fright.

Meeting Aesphyra’s gaze was too much pressure.

Also—what did she mean by that line just now? What did she think his relationship with Vanessa was? She wouldn’t even give a conclusion before walking off.

Had she discovered something, or did she still lack decisive proof?

Perhaps only Aesphyra herself knew.

Vinny felt that if he kept guessing, he’d just be grinding his psyche down—draining the last of his energy and spirit.

He carried his prize tray back to the dorm. After the day he’d had, he felt spent to the bone, limbs like noodles. The sight of a bed made him want to collapse and not get up again.

“Ah—Vinny, you’re back?” Hearing the knock, Shicodale opened the door and peeked out with his small head—then saw a thoroughly exhausted Vinny holding a black-and-gold prize tray with a glittering medal, a golden rose, and a vial glowing ice-blue.

“Eh—eh?” Once she saw what Vinny was carrying, Shicodale’s eyes went wide.

“Vinny, d-did you... win?” Shicodale asked in disbelief.

“Win?” Vinny echoed the question, and only after a while did he give something like a nod. “Seems like I won.”

But then again, maybe he didn’t. Who knew? Hard to say.

“Eh—eh?” Question marks filled Shicodale’s eyes. Either you won or you didn’t—what was with “seems like”?

But she didn’t press. She could feel the heavy fatigue rolling off Vinny.

How to put it—if the Vinny who’d put on makeup at noon was factory-fresh, then now he was battle-worn, like a hostess who’d been on her feet all day and finally got home.

She had no idea what had happened, but it really looked exhausting.

So what on earth had happened at a beauty pageant?

Shicodale felt her own thoughts were nowhere near enough to make sense of it.

“Vinny, are you... really okay?”

“No. Not okay at all.” Vinny said listlessly. He handed the black-and-gold tray to Shicodale, toed off his shoes—didn’t even bother taking them off properly, which showed just how wiped he was.

“Aaah.” Vinny staggered into the living room, then flopped onto the sofa with dead-fish eyes like a dried salted herring, not moving a muscle.

“Vinny—um, do you want to take your makeup off?” Shicodale came over, unable to hold back.

“Makeup off?” It took Vinny ages to process the words, then he shook his head with effort. “Ugh... later. I’m really beat.”

So he kept lying there in that pose for a long time.

Only after Shicodale finished putting away his prizes did she come over again. Seeing the pale–blue-haired girl so spent, she couldn’t say why, but it felt like a different kind of charm.

Vinny in girl’s clothes was really, really pretty—like he was born for it.

At that thought, a faint blush colored Shicodale’s face.

“[Virtue +30].”

“[Current Virtue: 11814].”

As for Vinny, he couldn’t be bothered to care about Virtue fluctuations anymore. He was so tired he wanted to pant with his tongue out; where would he find time to fuss over Virtue?

“So—do you like it?~”

“Eh—eh—eh?” Shicodale blinked, stunned. After a while she snapped back and glanced around in a flurry.

Who—who had just spoken beside her ear?

Was it her imagination?

Shicodale couldn’t help wondering.

“Right—Vinny, did you eat?” Shicodale suddenly remembered. “I saved food for you.”

Shicodale was always that thoughtful.

“I ate. Thanks for the care, Dale.”

“Vinny, did something happen?” Shicodale couldn’t help asking.

“Don’t ask. Twisty and bizarre, that’s what it was.” Vinny let out a soft sigh.

“Mm?” Shicodale still didn’t understand what had happened, but she could tell Vinny didn’t want to talk, so she let it go.

Soon, after resting enough, Vinny rolled over, removed his makeup, took off the wig and clothes, washed up, and collapsed onto the bed—snoring like a dead hog.

The uproar seemed to settle just like that.

The next day, when Vinny saw Aesphyra again, he’d expected it to be awkward—but she treated him exactly as usual, as if nothing had happened.

Weird. Hadn’t she been suspicious of his relationship with Vanessa?

Vinny couldn’t figure it out, so he chose not to.

Same old line: whatever Aesphyra is thinking—only Aesphyra knows.

Soon, the weekend arrived.

Sign-ups for the Marsmo secret-realm expedition began.