Vol 3. Chapter 65: Return to Daily Life

After the mentors finished their post-incident records, Vinny stayed a few more days in the Academy Sanatorium, and during these days, every morning, pretty nun-sisters would come to his room to deliver his three daily meals and give him checkups.

During this time, Mirexia, Shicodale, and Aesphyra had all come to visit him, and Shicodale had even said he would bring Vinny food every day, but Vinny turned him down.

The Sanatorium already had people in charge of meals, and there were regulations against bringing outside food, so the little elf cook could only give up.

Mm, not gonna lie, it was actually pretty blissful—lying in bed all day without moving, having all three meals delivered, and getting the daily care and concern of those soothing-to-the-eyes nun-sisters.

Ahh, a life this wonderful, a single week is way too short! Even if it went on for another month or a whole semester, he’d be totally fine with that, okay?!

But during this time, it wasn’t just Aesphyra and the others; his card buddies also came to visit him.

“Vinny, my man, you okay? We came to see you.”

“Oh, nice, thank you all so much for sacrificing your precious card-playing time to come visit me,” Vinny said with a laugh.

“Hey now! Vinny, my man, how can you say that? You’re one of our pillars here; how could we not come see you? Don’t blame us for being late, okay? We did get the news the last few days, but we also heard that you were pretty blessed in the romance department. Sure, you were in trouble, but when you came back, you were being carried in the arms of the empire’s First Princess, and once you got to the ward, a bunch of top campus belles came in one after another to visit you and personally look after you. I mean, if we’d come barging in at a time like that, how tactless would that have been, right??” Ferdi jeered shamelessly.

“Tactless, my ass! Do you have any idea how miserable I was that day??” Vinny said irritably.

“Vinny, my man, this is what we call getting a bargain and still complaining, not knowing how good you’ve got it. Drop the act already, seriously—if you keep pretending like this, we’re not gonna be able to stay friends, you know. Do you realize how many brothers were standing there wanting to punch you in the face?” Ferdi clicked his tongue.

“Get lost! I’m telling you the truth,” Vinny said, rolling his eyes.

That day had felt like going through a bloodbath on the battlefield of love; even if it technically wasn’t that big a deal, it still felt like he’d been interrogated by four destiny heroines in a row.

A 1v4—this was a full immersive replay of what the Vinny from my second previous life went through.

“It’s not that I’m saying this to brag, but I seriously almost died this time, and you guys come visit me and just talk about this kind of crap?? No love, no love at all.”

“All right, all right, Vinny, my man, look what we brought you.” As he spoke, Ferdi fished out a delicate little box from behind his back. “See this? A brand-new card box. I bought it for you!”

“Tsk, tsk, you think just doing this will make me forgive you? You think I’m that easy of a person?” Vinny clicked his tongue a few times, but his gaze was already drifting over the box in Ferdi’s hand, and then he snatched it with one grab. “Gimme that!”

“You already said you were giving it away, and you’re still clutching it in your hand—stingy as hell, honestly!” Vinny held the box like a treasure, clearly not willing to let go.

“Vinny, my man, you just survived a huge disaster, which means you burned through all your bad luck in one go, and now all you’ve got left is good luck. So? Isn’t it time to reward yourself with a few packs?” Ferdi chuckled. “Who knows, maybe something good will drop.”

“Well, obviously, did you even need to say that?” Vinny put the box on his legs, rubbed his hands together, spat into them a few times, like he was blessing his hands with some kind of buff.

“All right, all right, Vinny, my man, quit spitting already—what are you doing, trying to consecrate your own hands or something? If you keep going, they’re gonna turn into salty pig trotters and lose all effectiveness.”

“Go die, your hands are the salty pig trotters! What do you even know? This is spellcasting, okay? Opening card packs needs ritual, don’t you get that?” Vinny said irritably.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Oh right, Vinny, my man, let me ask you something. Do you have any other family members besides yourself?” Seeing Vinny like this, Ferdi suddenly seemed reminded of something and asked.

“Nope. Why are you suddenly asking that?” Vinny was still tearing open the card box, with no idea what Ferdi was trying to get at this time.

“Vinny, my man, for real, I saw a really pretty blue-haired girl at the Academy the other day, and everyone said she looked a lot like you. I was saying right then and there, that’s impossible—if you had such a gorgeous little sister at home, you’d definitely introduce her to all of us, right?” Ferdi snickered, then glanced back at the card buddies behind him, all of whom were wearing expectant expressions.

“...” Vinny’s hand froze on the card box, and he abruptly fell silent.

He suddenly realized a terrifying fact, and then slowly lifted his gaze, sweeping a meaningful look across the faces of all his card buddies, each with a different expression.

Holy crap.

Holy crap??

These bastards actually went to that beauty pageant that day?!

Damn it, usually every one of them swears up and down that card nerds don’t need women, that women will only mess up their thinking and slow down their plays, and then as soon as there’s a chance to look at pretty girls, they all run faster than anyone else—and not only do they run, they didn’t even call him?!

Not that calling those little bastards would have helped; it’s not like he could have made it to the audience that day anyway.

What he hadn’t expected was that his utterly mortifying public cross-dressing performance that day had been fully taken in by all these “good brothers” of his.

What the hell—having Aesphyra, that white-haired nutball, know about it was already bad enough, and now his own brothers knew too.

Absolutely cannot let this slip. If it ever got exposed one day, his prestige as Camella Capital Delinquent, Camella Idea King, would be completely ruined, and he’d have to start seriously considering emigrating to another planet to survive.

“Vinny, my man, what’s wrong with you? Why are you not saying anything?” Seeing that after being asked, Vinny only looked around at everyone and stayed silent, one of the card nerds, not understanding, spoke up.

“Yeah, what’s wrong? You not happy? You’re about to open card packs—cheer up, don’t make that bitter face. Come on, open one. With that bitter face, Lady Luck’s not going to smile on you,” another card buddy said, thinking Vinny had remembered something sad and trying to comfort him.

“How am I not happy?? Don’t talk nonsense, I’m very happy right now!” Vinny said irritably.

“And about that so-called family member, that °• N o v e l i g h t •° ‘little sister’ you mentioned—I don’t have one. It’s not like you don’t know I’m the last descendant of House of Facilis. Once I’m gone, House of Facilis is finished too—there’s no such thing as ‘other descendants’!”

“Really?” Ferdi looked doubtful. “But the girl I saw that day really looked a lot like you, Vinny, my man—in both mannerisms and appearance.”

“I say you’re the one who’s too repressed and seeing things. How could there be a girl who looks like me, huh?? Are you indirectly calling this young master girly or what? If you are, then get lost. I, this young master, am a proper seven-foot man with masculinity overflowing, and you dare say there’s some girl who looks like me—aren’t you just asking to get punched?” As he spoke, Vinny lifted his sandpot-sized fist.

“Uh, uh.” Seeing Vinny bristling like this, Ferdi knew he couldn’t keep going on this topic.

Still, how to put it...

It actually made the resemblance even stronger.

The way he was bristling right now really did look just like Vinnia bristling on stage that day when she was met with silence, didn’t it??

Ferdi suddenly realized a very serious problem—why had he started unconsciously giving way to Vinny?

Had he, without realizing it, started treating the other party like a girl?

No, no way, right? That’s not right, is it??

But, you know...

A strange thought spread rapidly through Ferdi’s mind.

What if—what if Vinny actually wasn’t a guy to begin with? What if he really was a girl, and for some reason couldn’t reveal his real gender, so he disguised himself as a boy to enter Carillian Academy??

Ahhh, for god’s sake, what the hell is his brain even doing right now??

Could it be that Vinny was right, and he really is too repressed? Actually imagining his own good brother as a beautiful girl—what kind of thought process is that??

Besides, the whole “my good brother’s real identity is actually a beautiful girl, and not just any beautiful girl, but a high-status, noble beautiful girl”—isn’t that kind of thing only supposed to happen in novels?

Seriously, he really was being a bit neurotic, actually confusing novels with reality.

Ferdi shook his head hard, temporarily tossing that idea aside.

Depressing.

After that mess, Vinny didn’t even enjoy opening card packs anymore, and whether it was because of that or not, his luck was as trash as always. There was absolutely no sign of hardship giving way to good fortune; it was just like that infamous total meltdown at the card shop last time—he didn’t pull a single decent card. Everything was white cards, with only three blue cards mixed in, which counted as the best of the entire batch.

“Goddammit.” Vinny flung all the wrappers onto the floor.

“Hahahaha, Vinny, my man, looks like your luck is as bad as ever,” Ferdi and the card nerds, who had watched the whole process from the side, instantly burst into ridicule.

In truth, when Vinny started opening packs, they had all been pretty nervous.

They couldn’t help it—when your brother suffers, you suffer with him, but when your brother hits the jackpot, that hurts too. Ferdi still remembered vividly the scene of Vinny pulling UR Saintess Elusa from the last card box he’d left over!

He’d almost regretted himself into liver failure over that one; every night he’d wake up in the middle of the night and give himself two slaps, cursing himself for not opening that last box of cards, for deciding not to open it just because the odds were low, and giving it away instead.

This time’s card box was the very last one he’d bought, and he was honestly terrified—terrified that Vinny would pull something big again from the box he’d gifted him. If that happened, he’d be in for another round of sleepless nights.

Who understands the sheer hateful agony of something that should have been yours ending up in your brother’s hands instead!

So Ferdi had very wisely brought along the entire crew this time. That way, no matter what good stuff Vinny pulled, Ferdi wouldn’t be the only one suffering; the whole card nerd crew would be suffering together.

When you’re not the only one getting flexed on, it somehow feels a lot better.

Fortunately, this time Vinny didn’t have that terrifying luck from last time. All he pulled was garbage, not even a single purple card, and it wasn’t just Ferdi—every card buddy behind him let out a sigh of relief.

“Tsk, did you steal my rare cards and just throw a pile of trash you’d already opened together to fob me off?” Vinny looked at Ferdi unhappily.

“Hey hey, Vinny, my man, that’s not something you can say lightly. I’m not here to mess with you—if you’d pulled a good card, I’d be happy for you, really, why would I screw you over? You saw it yourself—the packaging was perfectly intact. How could I have messed with it?” Ferdi said, spreading his hands.

“Forget it, forget it, take this junk back. I don’t want any of it; you keep it for yourself,” Vinny said dejectedly, pouting.

“No, no, Vinny, my man—once it’s opened, it’s all yours; nobody’s gonna fight you for it, nobody’s gonna fight you for it, okay? Take your time putting it away. All right, all right, don’t get too discouraged. Not pulling anything is fate, yeah? Maybe this is actually blocking disaster for you; you gotta look on the bright side,” Ferdi said with a grin.

“Seeing you so full of energy, Vinny, my man, we can all relax. All right then, time for us to go back to class. You focus on getting better, okay? Hey, no need to thank your big bro here—just introduce your little sister to me once you’ve thought it through!”

“Get lost, I already told you I don’t have any little sister, do you not understand human language??” Vinny snapped, chasing the grinning card nerds out before gathering up the scattered cards on his bed.

A few days later, Vinny was formally discharged.

In fact, he’d been fit to leave for a while already. Aside from having his Spirit Soul sealed, he hadn’t suffered many injuries, and the priests and nuns all felt it must be either his good physical skills or Isatia’s protection that explained how some of his wounds had healed so quickly.

The reason he stayed so many days was purely because medicine is a serious business; they had to make sure there really was no problem before letting Vinny go.

Vinny had no objections to this at all; if anything, he would have loved to stay in the Sanatorium a little longer. No classes, people waiting on him every day—if that’s not an immortal’s life, what is??

That said, it wasn’t necessarily all a good thing, either.

“Vinny, I heard you got hospitalized because of that Marsmo Secret Realm exploration last time. Well, the fact you made it back alive is already a blessing, so I won’t say anything more about it. Judging by how you look, you don’t seem to have any major issues,” Fecolin said, looking Vinny up and down and rubbing his chin.

“I deeply sympathize with what you went through and hope you get back into top shape as soon as possible, but sympathy is one thing—these days’ assignments are another. You can’t just not do them. I’ll give you one week.”

Vinny collapsed inside.

He’d dodged going to class, but he hadn’t dodged the homework.

Not only did he have to do the assignments for all the required courses, he had to do the elective course assignments too.

He had no idea whether Isatia had been discharged yet.

She probably had, right? Judging by a destiny heroine’s recovery speed.

In any case, the Marsmo civilization Secret Realm exploration was officially over.

Vinny had to throw himself back into the heavy load of daily coursework.