Vol 3. Chapter 88: Again??

“Yo? Didn’t think you actually care about her that much?? That little dummy would definitely be really happy if she knew.”

Shicodale teased him. “So? Do you miss her? Or do you just not want to deal with me?”

(Ahaha, that previous line exposed it again. The next day ‘little girl’ was replaced with ‘little idiot.’)

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I mean, uh, uh...”

Vinny rushed to explain.

“So what do you mean?”

“Ahem! Nothing. I’m just worried about the other Classmate Dale’s safety, that’s all. When you log into the account, she’s fine, right?”

“You think I’d hurt that little idiot?”

Shicodale laughed.

“Ah, no, of course not. I know your whole existence is to protect her.”

Vinny shook his head.

“Exactly. If I’m here, she’s absolutely safe. Nothing will happen to her.”

As Shicodale spoke, his gaze stayed fixed on Vinny. “You, on the other hand...”

“Me? What about me?”

Vinny looked at him in total confusion.

“Heh.”

Shicodale didn’t explain. All of a sudden, he grabbed Vinny by the collar and yanked him in close.

“Wh-what is it?”

“You really can’t tell?”

After a short pause, Shicodale stared at Vinny with a look loaded with meaning.

“Huh? Can’t tell what?”

Vinny looked completely at a loss.

“Heh. You humans are the best at lying to yourselves.”

Shicodale slowly raised a hand and stroked Vinny’s cheek.

Holy crap, Classmate Black Dale, what are you doing?! That’s terrifying, cut it out!

Seeing this, Vinny hurriedly tried to shrink back.

“What are you so scared of? We’re all guys here, aren’t we?”

Shicodale chuckled.

“It’s because we’re all guys, okay?? Classmate Dale—no, Classmate Black Dale—you’d better not have any weird kinks, all right? I’m not on that side. I’m not into men, okay? Elf men included. Stop testing the waters already!”

Vinny’s face made the exact “mouth-twitching” emoji.

Now he was starting to understand what that earlier “you really can’t tell” line had been probing for.

She was testing whether he’d realized her real gender. After all, they’d been living under the same roof for so long—it was hard not to notice something.

Of course, if someone was just a big, careless blockhead with zero awareness, it was technically possible they’d notice nothing at all.

Vinny decided he’d just keep acting exactly how he always had. Since he’d always pretended not to notice Shicodale’s real identity in daily life, then right now he’d keep on pretending he hadn’t noticed.

As it turned out, this was a very far-sighted decision. Otherwise he’d be inviting all kinds of unnecessary trouble.

“Human. Don’t call me Black Dale. What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m very black?”

Shicodale stepped closer and pinched Vinny’s jaw.

“No, you’re very white.”

“So then the ‘black’ is about my heart?”

Shicodale smiled without warning.

“Not that either. But I can’t just call you Classmate Dale, right? I need some way to tell you apart,” Vinny said.

The main thing was that Black Shicodale’s personality was something he just couldn’t overlay on White Shicodale at all. They were complete opposites. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, who would’ve thought they were the same person??

“Don’t call me that. I don’t like that name.”

Black Shicodale’s tone was downright domineering.

“So... what should I call you then?”

Now Vinny was genuinely lost.

“Call me what you usually call me. Of course, if you want to call me Master, that’s fine too.”

Shicodale smiled.

“Uh, I’ll just stick with Classmate Dale.”

“Heh. What’s the matter, human? You really don’t have even the slightest interest in me?”

Shicodale closed in another step, staring at him with full, predatory intensity.

“It’s not that, Classmate Dale, but we’re both men! What are you doing??”

Still testing. Still testing!

Vinny obviously wasn’t going to fall for it.

“What, being a guy makes it impossible?”

Shicodale flashed a confident, overbearing smile. “Why let something like gender lock you down so hard?”

“Yeah, it’s locked that hard. It’s not changing. I was just born this way.”

Vinny pouted. “Classmate Dale, stop it. I really don’t like men.”

Though, with Shicodale’s looks and style, even if he really were a guy, as long as he was willing, he’d definitely never be short on men throwing themselves at him.

“Oh? Really? You sure about that? Then what are you so scared of?”

Shicodale’s words were razor sharp. “Heh, human, you’re not secretly thinking that way yourself, are you?”

“Hey, Classmate Dale, you can’t just throw accusations like that around, okay??”

Even if Shicodale was a girl, how was that any different from directly saying he was into guys with blue eyes??

Aaaagh. Spending time with Black Shicodale was way too stressful. Vinny felt completely crushed.

Only now did he start to miss that fragrant, soft, squeaky-clean, knows-nothing, blank-faced Shicodale.

So when was Black Shicodale going offline, exactly? Vinny was at his limit here.

Just because Shicodale was easy to coax didn’t mean Black Shicodale was. In fact, the first time he’d ever met Black Shicodale, Vinny had instinctively realized he was the type that was very hard to placate and even harder to fool.

And hey—no, this wasn’t because Vinny was constantly coaxing and tricking Shicodale in daily life, okay?

Fine, he was coaxing him. But it was the kind sort of coaxing. And Shicodale liked being coaxed. That’s different, right??

“I have to say, you seem really scared of me.”

Watching Vinny keep backing away, Shicodale’s lips curled. “Right now, deep down, you’re hoping I’ll hurry up and go back, and let that little airhead come out again, aren’t you?”

Sure enough, he was hard to fool. He’d seen straight through Vinny’s heart.

“No,” Vinny said, trying his very best to hide how exposed he felt.

“No? Heh. You’ve really got a stomach full of dirty water, human.”

“Why are we back on that again??”

Sure, he was the Camella Capital Delinquent, but Vinny truly didn’t understand how Shicodale had looped this back around.

“You’re so used to lying to that little dummy every day that you’ve built yourself a habit, haven’t you? Tsk tsk. She trusts you that much, but you keep spinning stories even little kids wouldn’t believe.”

“Tell me I’m wrong?”

Shicodale’s words were sharp enough that Vinny felt like his heart had been stabbed again.

“When have I ever lied to the other Classmate Dale??”

“Oh? Really never?”

By now, Shicodale had driven Vinny all the way into a corner.

He had no idea when he’d started backing up, but at some point he’d just... run out of room.

“You’d better tell the truth, human. You can’t fool me.”

“I haven’t! ...Okay, maybe, possibly, a little. But those were minor things, okay? Completely harmless! And I’ve never had any bad intentions toward Classmate Dale, ever, all right??”

“No bad intentions? If you had bad intentions, do you really think I’d still be here wasting this much time talking to you?”

Shicodale arched a brow.

“Exactly!”

“So, if a lie doesn’t come with bad intentions, it’s not really a lie anymore?”

Then, once again, Shicodale caught Vinny’s chin between two slender, jade-like fingers, forcing him to look straight into his eyes.

No one really paid attention to what the two of them were doing. Everyone had just come back from the hunt and they were exhausted. With so many people around, nobody was interested in watching anyone else.

They were in a corner nobody cared about.

“Th-then of course it’s...”

Realizing his own presence was being completely crushed by the other side, Vinny desperately wished someone would show up right now and save him. But that didn’t seem very likely.

Until that familiar voice suddenly rang out.

“You two. Long time no see, hmm? How’d you do this round?”

The unexpected voice drew the attention of both Vinny and Shicodale at the same time.

Vinny froze for a second, then realized who it was—and instantly felt the joy of having timely rain arrive in a drought.

Unlike the helplessness he usually felt when he heard that voice—knowing he was about to get his [Virtue] blown up—or the despair of stepping into another messy battleground, this was the moment Vinny most wanted to hear Aesphyra’s voice. It felt like being bathed in celestial music.

“Buuuut~”

The tone of that voice flipped, tinged with a feeling Vinny didn’t quite understand.

“What exactly are the two of you doing right now?”

The silver-haired girl, all charm and poise, folded her arms and looked at them with a half-smile as the wind played with the tips of her hair.

“Aesphyra...”

Vinny started to speak but trailed off.

“Oh, it’s you? Tch. Your nose really is something else.”

Before Vinny could say anything, Shicodale had already released him. Clearly, the human silver-haired girl in front of them had diverted all of his attention.

“What are you doing coming over here to crowd us? This has nothing to do with you. If you know what’s good for you, get lost.”

Shicodale said impatiently.

...Wow.

Dumped straight onto the spectator bench, Vinny’s expression shifted.

Black Shicodale was just as aggressive as ever, but this was not the opponent to talk to like that, okay??

The atmosphere tightened in an instant, almost visibly.

“Huh?”

Aesphyra tilted her head, as if also curious why this usually harmless, adorable mascot was suddenly breathing fire out of his mouth today. Did he have a fire spell tucked in there or something??

“Classmate Dale, just because the exam didn’t go well doesn’t mean you should be discouraged. Taking it out on someone else is very rude and bad for your health.”

Aesphyra said with a bright smile.

“Taking it out? Which eye of yours sees me taking anything out on anyone?”

Shicodale flicked her a glance. “I’m just telling you this has nothing to do with you. There’s nothing here for you. Move it.”

“Classmate Vinny, is Classmate Dale not feeling well today?”

In the face of Shicodale’s extremely aggressive words, Aesphyra didn’t get angry. Instead, she looked at Vinny with concern and asked about Shicodale.

“That’s, uh... hard to explain. I’ll tell you in a bit—”

“Tch. Green-tea. Who are you pretending for, exactly? You think nobody can see through you?”

Before Vinny could finish, Shicodale cut in with a look of sheer disdain.

It’s over. It’s so over.

With those words, things really had gotten out of hand.

Vinny had already seen what it was like when Aesphyra and Isatia got into a fight. And it made perfect sense for those two to clash. They were both hardline types.

He’d never imagined Shicodale would get into it with Aesphyra.

Okay, fine—he had underestimated the Black Shicodale factor.

“Oh?~”

As expected, Aesphyra looked over Shicodale with open amusement, scanning him from head to toe before speaking slowly.

“You’re not Classmate Dale.”

Truly, crouching tigers and hidden dragons everywhere.

“So that’s how it is. Classmate Dale has multiple personalities, huh?”

As expected of Destiny Heroine Aesphyra—she saw it in a single glance.

“Silver-haired human woman, this doesn’t concern you. Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t stick your nose into things that have nothing to do with you?”

Shicodale’s laugh was cold. “Honestly, human woman, you’re really a pain to deal with.”

“Oh? Why do you say that? Why do you need to ‘deal with’ me? I don’t think there’s supposed to be any hostility between me and Classmate Dale, is there?”

Aesphyra sounded utterly innocent.

“Ugh.”

For some reason, Shicodale rubbed his forehead.

“That little idiot really makes people anxious just to look at him. But I can’t be there to help her all the time.”

“I am very grateful for everything you’ve done to help that little idiot before, but... it’s just that you insist on...”

Shicodale folded his arms and lifted his chin.

Only now did Vinny notice that Shicodale was actually taller than Aesphyra. It was just that White Shicodale’s presence was so weak, with his head always ducked like a quail, and Aesphyra’s presence was so strong, that Vinny had subconsciously assumed Shicodale was shorter.

In reality, even Shicodale was taller than Aesphyra.

If you lined the heroines up by height, Aesphyra was either dead last or second to last—she might even be shorter than Milian. Her powerful presence and top-tier beauty were doing all the heavy lifting.

Black Shicodale, by contrast, was every bit as forceful as Aesphyra, and more than confident enough. That made it obvious at a glance that he stood taller.

“Insist on...? Insist on what, exactly? What is Classmate Dale trying to say?”

Aesphyra looked genuinely puzzled.

“Heh. You know exactly what I’m trying to say.”

Shicodale stared at Aesphyra with a meaningful look. “No wonder that little idiot always ends up eating dirt. You’re really not easy to mess with.”

Just from a single head-on clash, Shicodale could more or less tell what kind of creature Aesphyra was.

“You knew all along, didn’t you?”

Shicodale arched a brow.

“Knew? What is Classmate Dale referring to?”

“You know what I’m referring to.”

That was the only sentence Vinny understood.

All the lines before that had sounded like they were speaking in riddles. He couldn’t follow their exchange at all, like they’d switched to some encrypted channel.

Was this that infamous secret code only women could understand??

As for this sentence, he could just barely follow it. It should be referring to how Aesphyra had known about Shicodale’s real gender for quite a while already.

Vinny wasn’t surprised.

After all, trying to hide something like that from Aesphyra’s eyes was asking a bit too much.