Vol 3. Chapter 114: Lady Saintess?

“She shouldn’t have to stop forever because of this absurd, senseless disaster,” Fennia murmured.

“Yeah. That’s exactly what I think too,” Vinny agreed with a firm nod.

Fennia shifted her gaze to Vinny, surprise flickering a few times in those gold-flame eyes.

“Someone like her definitely has the goddess’s favor,” Vinny said lazily. “How could something happen to her that easily? Otherwise, how could they be called God-Attendants?”

“Hopefully,” Fennia said.

“It’s a sure thing.” Vinny smiled. “So relax. Don’t look so worried.”

“...Mm. I believe you.” After a brief silence, Fennia finally let it go.

“Oh? You believe me?”

“You’re the only descendant left of the goddess and the Saintess,” Fennia said in a light voice that still carried a kind of resolve. “If I don’t believe you, who am I supposed to believe?”

“Huh? Fennia, weren’t you the one who always insisted I was some fraud—someone stealing a name and pretending to be House of Facilis’s descendant?” Vinny teased. “Why are you choosing to believe me now?”

“You know I don’t have any traits of Facilis blood on me at all. My magic aptitude is only one-star. All I can learn is trash-tier Spirit Soul stuff in normal people’s eyes. And reaching the Magus realm was basically just because my Spirit Soul aptitude was too low and I got lucky.”

“Honestly, their guess isn’t completely unreasonable. Maybe I really am not a legitimate descendant of House of Facilis.” Vinny kept talking, half joking, half serious. “You believe that kind of claim too, don’t you?”

“Vinny... I believe you are. And I hope you are.” After a pause, Fennia spoke with a tone that felt oddly meaningful.

“Oh?” That caught Vinny off guard—and it made him curious what, exactly, Fennia had gone through over this break to change this much.

They kept moving through the woods, alert to every shift around them, guarding against monsters that might burst out of the brush.

“...I smell blood.” Sharp as ever, Fennia stopped short and said it out of nowhere.

“Blood? You mean human blood?” Vinny frowned.

If it was human blood, that meant their classmates were here—hurt, and in a very bad state.

“Mm.” Fennia nodded, then immediately sprinted in one direction.

Vinny followed, and the two of them forced their way through a thicket tangled with demonic vines and sharp barbs.

“This is...?” Deep inside the brush, they found bloodstains—and several monster corpses.

The humanoid monsters had heads shaped like flower buds that hadn’t fully bloomed yet. Their bodies were wrapped in purple demonic vines studded with barbs. Their feet were like tree roots, and every one of them stood over 6 feet tall.

“This blood isn’t from these monsters.” Fennia stabbed one of the bud-headed monsters on the ground with her sword. What flowed out was a blue-green liquid, like tree sap. “It should be from another student. A student was injured.”

Vinny didn’t just stand around either. He spotted marks on the corpses—damage patterns from light-element magic.

“This is [Light-Cone Strike]?” Vinny said.

“[Light-Cone Strike]?” Fennia leaned in to look.

[Light-Cone Strike] was a light-element spell. Anyone with a mage-type Spirit Soul who reached Sorcerer-class and had decent light affinity qualified to learn it.

Fennia checked—and yes, the traces matched [Light-Cone Strike].

Fennia came from a Church of the Dawn knightly family, the Cassius Family. Most of the people around her—friends and familiar faces—had Church backgrounds of one kind or another, and most used [Saint’s Envoy]. So even though she hadn’t learned [Light-Cone Strike] herself, she’d seen it plenty of times.

It also made sense that Vinny could recognize it. There were plenty of light-element users at Carillian Academy, and it wasn’t some ultra-niche spell. As long as you had a mage-type Spirit Soul, you could basically use it.

“But clearly, these [Light-Cone Strike] casts didn’t do much to the bud-heads.” Vinny prodded the blasted impact marks on a corpse. “It didn’t pierce their hide. That means these bud-head monsters have some level of resistance to light-element magic.”

“They didn’t die from [Light-Cone Strike].” Vinny continued his analysis.

Fennia parted her lips like she wanted to speak, then quickly shut them again. She stared at Vinny’s serious face and listened without saying a word.

“Found it.” Vinny crouched and checked for a long time, then rubbed at something under one of the corpses—powdery light dust.

“This... should be the kind of light dust that only forms after [Singularity Burst].” Vinny explained to Fennia.

“[Singularity Burst]?” Fennia felt like she’d heard that somewhere. “Is that a spell?”

“It is. And it’s a spell only [Saint’s Envoy] can use.” Vinny explained. “You also need extremely high compatibility with [Saint’s Envoy], and extremely high light-element affinity, to learn it.”

“...How do you know that?” Fennia asked, looking at him like he was a mystery.

Vinny’s Spirit Soul wasn’t [Saint’s Envoy]. He didn’t even have light affinity.

So how did he know this much about light-element magic? How did he know more than she did?

“I’ve seen it before. This isn’t the time for that.” Vinny smoothly steered the topic away. “The student who used this spell might be in really critical condition right now.”

“You said... [Singularity Burst] needs high compatibility with [Saint’s Envoy] and high light affinity to learn?” Fennia asked hesitantly.

“Yeah. And you can tell whoever cast it hadn’t learned it long. They weren’t that proficient,” Vinny said, thinking.

“Then... it might be...” Fennia suddenly lifted her gaze toward the blood-stained grass.

“Let’s follow the blood.” Fennia and Vinny got up and followed the trail into another patch of brush.

But as they walked, the blood trail abruptly ended.

“What is this...?” Fennia frowned.

“Stay calm.” Vinny said. “Based on what we know, that student is probably a [Saint’s Envoy] user. We’re not the only ones who’d follow blood—those bud-head monsters would too. She probably realized that and used [Saint’s Envoy] healing on the way to close the bleeding wound.”

“It doesn’t mean something happened to her. She could be hiding nearby.” Vinny pointed. “We’ll search around here. You take that side, I’ll take this side. If anything happens, notify the other immediately.”

Fennia nodded in agreement, and the two split up into the woods.

Vinny scanned the ground for traces. As he walked, he noticed faint signs of trampled grass—barely visible now.

He crouched to check. The footprints were small, completely different from the bud-head monsters’ tracks.

So that student passed through here?

And from the footprint size... it was probably a girl.

Vinny looked around, but the trees and weeds were thick, blocking his view.

That made it hard to pinpoint where she was hiding.

As Vinny passed a thick-trunked tree, something clicked in his head. He backed up a few steps, turned around, hesitated, then walked toward it.

Was there a strand of thread hanging at the tree hollow...?

Vinny moved closer and confirmed he hadn’t imagined it. A white strand of thread really was caught at the mouth of the hollow.

His brow lifted slightly. He pressed a hand to the hollow and slowly pushed his head inside.

Light poured into the dark cavity, falling across a girl’s beautiful lashes like spun gold, and skin so pale and delicate it looked like milk.

Seeing the girl lying inside the hollow with her eyes tightly closed—so refined and doll-like—Vinny blanked for a moment.

The sunlight in this world was clearly cold, carrying a bland, faint emptiness. But on her, it turned warm and gentle in an instant.

A moment later, Vinny realized it wasn’t the sunlight that felt warm.

It was the girl in the hollow—pale-gold, slightly curled hair, and a softness that made the whole space feel brighter.

She was unbelievably exquisite. It was like the Dawn Goddess herself had shaped her face and features by hand, carving and polishing her into perfection.

Maybe because Vinny had never seen this “type” of girl before, he froze for a beat.

She looked fragile—like a pale-yellow moth orchid that could break if you touched it wrong, like a porcelain doll you had to hold with both hands and a careful breath. Just looking at her made you want to protect her. Vinny had never really met someone with an aura like that.

Among the Destiny Heroines, Aesphyra’s beauty carried noble pride, Mirexia had a clean and pure charm, Isatia was a cold beauty, and Shicodale had that airheaded cute vibe. But someone who felt this much like a doll you wanted to shelter—he really hadn’t seen.

But Vinny quickly realized he was doing something completely inappropriate.

Why the hell was he spacing out staring at a girl?

And now? Now of all times?

Vinny hurriedly climbed into the hollow. The girl was wearing Carillian Academy’s uniform, so she was clearly a classmate—or an upperclassman.

But the hollow was too small. Carrying her out wouldn’t be easy.

Vinny thought for a moment, then summoned [Armor Fortress] and forcibly broke the hollow open into a wide gap.

“Hey. Hey—can you hear me? Are you okay?” Vinny crouched and tried calling to her.

No response. She didn’t wake up.

Vinny checked her pulse. It was weak, but at least {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} she wasn’t in immediate danger.

When Vinny leaned closer, he saw her lips moving slightly, like she was trying to say something.

He couldn’t hear her, so he leaned in.

“Water... water...”

“Water...?” Vinny heard it clearly and patted his pockets.

He didn’t have any water.

But that reminded him—how long had it been since he’d eaten or drank anything?

He was hungry. And thirsty.

“Ah.” Vinny’s hand brushed something beside her. He picked it up and saw it was a canteen—with water still inside.

She must’ve dropped it here earlier.

Vinny opened it, brought it to her lips, and fed her some water, then capped it again.

When her condition stabilized a little, Vinny decided to take her out. The hollow was too dark—he couldn’t tell where she’d been injured.

He secured the canteen, slid one arm behind her back, and lifted her by the knees, then carried her out of the broken hollow and headed toward Fennia’s side.

The girl’s hair was long—almost reaching her knees—so as Vinny carried her, his hands brushed against those silky, pale-gold curls.

Vinny pushed the stray thought away. This wasn’t the time for any of that.

Once he steadied her in his arms, he walked while calling out toward Fennia.

“Fennia! Fennia? I found a student—she’s unconscious!”

“Where?” Not long after, Fennia emerged from the other side. The moment she saw the girl in Vinny’s arms, her pupils tightened.

“Amisha?!” Fennia rushed over to check her condition.

“Amisha? That’s her name? You know her?” Vinny asked.

“Yes.” Fennia’s voice went taut. “Do you remember the friend I told you I was worried about?”

“This is your friend?” Vinny was startled.

“Yes. Her name is Amisha Merif.” Fennia explained quickly. “She’s my childhood friend, my closest friend, and clergy-in-training from the same generation as me. She’s the one I told you about—the girl a White-Robed Branch Clergy member designated as a successor.”

As she spoke, Fennia reached out to take Amisha from Vinny.

And yeah—this was an emergency situation, but he was still a guy holding someone else’s close friend. The longer he carried her, the more awkward it looked, like he was trying to take advantage.

So Vinny moved to hand her over—

—and realized he couldn’t.

It was simple. At some point, the girl had wrapped her arms around Vinny’s forearm and locked onto him like a clamp.

“Uh...” Vinny caught the sweet, milky scent coming off Amisha and froze, suddenly self-conscious. “Fennia... is Amisha having a nightmare or something? Why is she clinging to me like this?”

“Amisha. Amisha?” Fennia lowered her voice. “It’s me. Fennia. Are you okay?”

No response. Amisha’s eyes were still shut tight. Like a drowned kitten, she kept hugging Vinny’s arm and refused to let go.

That made Vinny even more embarrassed. This was her childhood friend. Her best friend. If he held her like this too long, wouldn’t it look like he was doing it on purpose?

Just as neither of them knew what to do next, Amisha suddenly spoke.

Her soft lips moved gently. She nuzzled against Vinny’s sleeve and murmured in a sweet, sticky-soft voice—

“Saintess... Lady Saintess.”

“...Huh?” Vinny and Fennia both stared blankly.