Vol 3. Chapter 80: Shadow of an Old Friend

“What did Lady Sophia say before she died?”

The golden-haired little angel stayed silent for a long time before finally asking again.

“How would I know? I wasn’t there. You’re actually asking me that? Do you not know how many generations my era is away from theirs?” Vinny shot the golden-haired little angel a sidelong look.

“And even if you wanted to find people who were there back then, there probably aren’t many left.”

“...”

The golden-haired little angel once more fell into a deathly silence.

Just when Vinny thought her emotions had finally calmed down and was looking around, he suddenly heard the faint sound of a little girl sobbing.

“Hm?”

Vinny snapped his head toward the golden-haired little angel. Sure enough, the sound was coming from her.

Her head was bowed, both arms wrapped around her knees, and a string of tiny clear pearls kept falling down from her face.

“Hey, you, why are you crying again?” Vinny said helplessly.

“If anyone should be crying, it should be me, right? Who’s the victim here? It’s me, okay? From way back then till now, it’s always been me, hasn’t it? If anyone should be crying, it should be me—what are you wailing for?”

“I, I...”

The little golden-haired girl’s voice was filled with a girl’s softness and fragility now, all hiccuping sobs that actually made you feel a bit bad for her.

“I just... feel so useless.”

“You were right. I am really useless, boohoo. As the unbreakable shield of the Dawn Saintess, in the end I couldn’t protect Lady Sophia.”

“If... if I had just been a bit more useful, would the ending... have changed?”

“So what good does it do you to think about that now?” Vinny couldn’t help asking.

“I just... feel so sorry. I’m sorry to Lady Sophia, boohoo...”

“I’m guessing that all these years you were asleep, you were still conscious, right?”

Vinny watched the heartbroken golden-haired little angel for quite a while before he slowly spoke.

“When I was asleep I wasn’t, but I wasn’t always asleep. Most of the time I was actually awake,” the golden-haired little angel answered haltingly.

“Then you’ve really had it rough.”

Vinny crouched down in front of the golden-haired little angel and spoke softly.

“Eh—eh?”

The golden-haired little angel lifted her small head.

“If you’re alone in a closed space and still fully conscious, then every moment you’re constantly doubting what you did in the past, regretting it, even growing to hate yourself, right?” Vinny said in a low voice.

“Days like that are hard to get through—I know, because I’ve personally lived them. No one to talk to, no one who understands you, no one who’ll even acknowledge you. It’s like the world has only you left in it. Days like that really aren’t something a person can keep living through. Without anyone to talk you off the ledge, you’ll go insane sooner or later.”

“The fact that you held out and didn’t fall onto the wrong path already says a lot.”

“Fall onto the wrong path? That’s absolutely impossible! I’m a dependent and follower of Blessing Angel—how could I ever go astray? That would disgrace the Goddess and all the Saintesses through the ages!”

Hearing Vinny’s words, the golden-haired little angel’s reply was exceptionally firm, without the slightest hesitation.

It was like no matter how much mental torture she suffered, nothing could drag down her will.

“Amazing.”

Vinny did not stint on his praise.

“U-um... why’d you suddenly say that?”

Being praised out of nowhere by the Vinny who had been sparring with her tongue-to-tongue a moment ago, the golden-haired little angel also got a little flustered.

“Because it really isn’t easy. I almost didn’t hold out myself, so I really do respect you.”

“You?”

The golden-haired little angel stared at Vinny.

His smile seemed to contain a lot of stories. In that moment, she began to feel curious about, and interested in, this blue-haired young man.

“Don’t dwell too much on things that have no outcome.” Vinny went on.

“I used to regret a lot of the choices I made too, and I’d often wonder: if I hadn’t done that back then, would the result have been different?”

“But what’s the use in thinking like that? It only makes your own mental state worse. Beyond that, it changes nothing. That kind of thing has no result—it only makes your current condition sink further, and then you’ll just do even more things that your future self will regret.”

Vinny’s tone was calm, as if he had gained some insight into all this.

“If you’re still tangled up in all that, you don’t have to be. It’s completely meaningless.”

“People don’t come back from the dead. Time doesn’t run backwards either. And I think if my great-grandmother knew what you’re thinking now, she’d definitely tell you that she never once blamed you.”

“It’s just that there are some things in this world that are set in stone.”

With that, Vinny stood up, hands in his pockets, looking down at the golden-haired little angel.

“So. Aren’t you still going to look for your true master? Then stop being hung up on the past. Don’t lie there crushed forever—stand up and face forward.”

The golden-haired little angel’s eyes widened as she stared fixedly at Vinny.

Their personalities and vibes were totally different, their looks didn’t resemble each other in the slightest, yet in that moment she saw the shadow and outline of Sophia in this blue-haired youth standing before her.

She herself didn’t know why Saintess Sophia, who had once shone so brilliantly, could have anything in common with this blue-haired guy who looked so cocky and so completely lacking in self-awareness.

Maybe... it was that ability to understand others.

Maybe this blue-haired man who looked arrogant and showy was, in truth, a very good person.

“Vinny, right?”

The golden-haired little angel wiped the tear tracks from the corners of her eyes.

“Right now, I still can’t be sure whether you’re really a descendant of House of Facilis.”

“Because inside your body, I can barely feel any Facilis blood flowing at all.”

“But even so, I clearly did sense a powerful inheritor’s signal just now, and that’s how I ended up being trapped in your body.”

“I’ve been hiding in that tower for a long time. I thought I’d run out of hope already. Now that I think about it, whether you’re an inheritor or not, maybe this is an opportunity. At least I’ve left that spire behind... please forgive the way I was speaking before, when I went overboard.”

“It’s fine. After a hundred years, you were probably on the brink of a mental breakdown anyway.”

Vinny glanced at the golden-haired little angel, looking like he completely understood.

Sometimes that’s just how it is—if you’ve had similar experiences and actually talk them through, you really can understand the other person better.

“Exactly, that’s it. You kind of get it now, don’t you? ‘Tormented by loneliness and mental burnout for a hundred years, then bumping into a fake inheritor’—don’t look at it that way. Let’s change perspectives a bit, doesn’t it suddenly feel a lot more open?” Vinny said with a smile.

Right now Vinny seemed steady and deeply understanding, and that couldn’t help but make the golden-haired little angel see the figures of the Dawn Saintesses of ages past in him.

“Then... can you prove your identity?”

The golden-haired little angel flew up in front of Vinny and looked straight into his eyes.

“I can. Just not right now.”

Vinny spread his hands.

“For certain reasons, I can’t expose my identity at the moment.”

“If you don’t have Facilis blood, then you can’t activate me,” the golden-haired little angel said.

“I didn’t always look like this. This face is my ‘energy-saving mode.’ Only when I meet an inheritor and get activated by Facilis blood can I reveal my true form and lend you my strength.”

“Hahaha.”

“? What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking—this must be the first time you’ve ever been this nice to a man, huh?” Vinny suddenly teased.

“H-how do you know that?!”

The golden-haired little angel’s expression suddenly grew embarrassed.

“Is that so shocking? I’ve seen someone like you before,” Vinny said, entirely unsurprised.

“All the people I’ve ever dealt with were Blessing Angel big sisters—Saintesses of Facilis through the ages. Men... honestly, I don’t like dealing with them,” the golden-haired little angel said.

Mm. Understandable.

All Vinny had to do was remember what kind of game world this was and it made sense.

In an Orange Games world, of course even a sentient weapon would tend to have “orange” preferences.

“All right, but I am a bit curious—have the Dawn Saintesses only ever had you as a weapon?” Vinny asked, puzzled.

The Dawn Goddess was a real deity. Even though a high-grade [Divine Armament] was already extremely powerful—the ceiling of weapons, basically—it still felt like something was missing if a true god didn’t have at least one [Legendary] weapon.

“Of course not. And my role is far more than just being a high-grade [Divine Armament] weapon—ah, I can’t keep talking about this with you. You haven’t activated me yet,” the golden-haired little angel said, cutting off her own chatter just as her words started to flow.

“Click, click. So stingy, acting like it’s some big mysterious treasure, like anyone even wants to know.” Vinny rolled his eyes at her.

“Hmph.”

The golden-haired little angel planted her hands on her hips as well.

Clearly, she still found it hard to believe that a man could show up in the descendants of House of Facilis—and not only was he a man, his hair and eye color didn’t match up in the slightest.

Traits like that absolutely did not change.

If the man in front of her dyed his hair cherry-pink and wore colored contacts, she might be able to believe it a little.

“All right, all right. Before I activate you, anything I say is probably just something you won’t believe anyway. You’ll just take it as me spinning you fantasies.”

The golden-haired little angel didn’t respond, obviously choosing to default.

Vinny glanced up—and suddenly noticed that the strange, kaleidoscopic sky of this world was being pierced by a ray of dawn light.

“What’s that?”

“You’re about to wake up,” the golden-haired little angel said calmly.

Before she could say anything else, Vinny opened his eyes and abruptly pushed himself up from the bed.

“Huh?”

Vinny looked left and right.

This time there was no mistake—it was the familiar ceiling, the familiar room.

Mm, looked like he’d woken up.

But he didn’t for a second suspect that everything from before had just been a dream. He really had been knocked out by a star, and everything that had happened felt too real for him to think it was just a dream.

“Hey, little angel, can you hear me?” Vinny called.

Ten seconds went by with no response.

Seeing that, Vinny figured maybe their communication had to be done mentally, so he tried calling out again in his heart.

“Little angel, can you hear me? I’m talking to you. If you can hear me, tap a one, don’t play dead.”

He still didn’t get any reply.

Could it be that because he hadn’t activated [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] yet, he couldn’t talk to her?

Or was it that to talk to her, he could only do it in his sleep??

Vinny had no answer.

He climbed out of bed and moved his body around a little.

After that nap, he felt light all over. The negative effects from the star collision had completely vanished.

His waist didn’t hurt, his body wasn’t weak, he wasn’t burning up or freezing anymore. After getting some sleep, his spirits were refreshed, and now he felt full of vitality.

[Radiant-Cross Holy Shield], huh—so that was the weapon of the Dawn Saintesses through the ages?

Come to think of it, he really had left in too much of a hurry and hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask that little angel what [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield]’s specific functions were.

Vinny couldn’t help feeling a bit excited.

If he activated [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield], that meant he’d have a high-grade [Divine Armament] weapon. His combat strength would immediately take a qualitative leap.

With a Magus realm plus [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield], he’d be able to walk sideways through Carillian Academy in the future.

Aside from not being able to mess with the Destiny Heroines, no one else would be his match.

Straight to the top.

He’d always been troubled by the fact that Vanessa didn’t have a dedicated weapon.

Now, the dedicated weapon had arrived—and it sounded like that wasn’t even the half of it. From what that little angel said, [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] apparently had other, even more powerful uses too.

And that still wasn’t the most important part.

You know what the most important part was?

The most important part was... he could also get another [Magic Tool] weapon, you know??

Hey now, that couldn’t count as breaking the rules, right?

Just listen to what the little angel had said: [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] had been hiding in [Painting Hall Tower] for special reasons all this time. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even on the record. Not even Old Man Charles knew that [Painting Hall Tower] had this weapon.

And [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] had come looking for him of its own accord. He hadn’t gone looking for it.

The rules were that he chose a weapon, not that a weapon threw itself at him—how could this count?

And, and...

Most importantly, Vanessa had saved the entire Carillian Academy before.

Vinny wasn’t saying he was going to go around demanding rewards, but [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] had always been Blessing Angel’s dedicated weapon. Now that it had asked to “return to its original owner,” what was he supposed to do, say no?

All he could do was accept it while saying, “You’ve really made my life miserable,” right?

Yeah, yeah, he was being forced to accept it. Totally different, totally different.

And if the Academy ran into any trouble in the future, he’d be the one who had to go save them anyway, wouldn’t he?

So it really wasn’t greed.

Thus, Vinny headed to the front chapel of the sanatorium and told the priest and the young nuns that he was fine now.

At the priest’s insistence, Vinny still went through a checkup. Only after confirming that there really was nothing wrong did they let him leave.

When he got home, Vinny received an illustrated catalog from Charles, delivered via Shicodale.

It was a catalog recording all the [Magic Tool] weapons stored in [Painting Hall Tower]. Charles had come by earlier to hand it to Shicodale so Shicodale could pass it on to him.

At dusk, Vinny lay sprawled on the sofa, leisurely choosing his [Magic Tool] weapon.

From now on, a setup of two high-grade [Magic Tool] weapons plus one high-grade [Divine Armament] weapon could only be described as luxurious.