Vol 3. Chapter 145: The Scent of One of My Own Kind

After hearing the nun’s words and watching the nun’s back, Vinny’s heart couldn’t help but go thunk, and then he followed after her with a noticeably heavy mood.

The subtext of what she said was already telling him Dale’s situation wasn’t good—maybe it could even be described as terrible. If it was an injury or illness that could be treated in a church or convent, why would they specifically call her roommate over??

Wasn’t this basically the same kind of thing as “come accompany the critically ill”??

No, no way. No matter what, Dale was still a Destiny Heroine. She had fortune’s favor and reinforcement. Even if something really did happen, she would definitely be able to turn danger into safety.

Following this nun the whole way, Vinny arrived at the Cathedral of the Dawn inside Carillian Academy. Passing the Dawn Goddess prayer statue standing before the courtyard gate and the cathedral’s central main hall, they went into the rear courtyard behind it.

There was a constant flow of people inside the cathedral—coming and going without end. Normally there were plenty of people, but lately, it was more crowded than at any time before. It gave him the suffocating packed feeling of a Blue Star hospital. Weekends or weekdays, it was always packed to the brim.

This was clearly a sacred place where devout believers came to pray, yet it was filled with a kind of low pressure. Vinny saw many injured students being supported by companions into the cathedral’s back courtyard. Quite a few priests and nuns were also carrying students on stretcher boards—people who couldn’t move, or had even fainted, with life and death unclear—into the back courtyard.

“This is simply a disaster.” The nun leading Vinny murmured softly, then turned around and prayed devoutly toward the Dawn Goddess statue. “Goddess above, please—out of your boundless mercy—protect these innocent children who have fallen into calamity.”

“Sister, there seem to be a lot of wounded this time. Can you handle it over here?” Vinny asked, glancing at the priests bustling back and forth.

A lot of these front-line priests and nuns were genuinely kind-hearted. As for the problems at the top, they clearly didn’t know—and wouldn’t know.

“Yes. This [N O V E L I G H T] unexpected calamity truly is an accident among accidents.” The nun sighed. “After hearing about it, and fearing medical resources would be insufficient and the wounded could not be rescued in time, the Church of the Dawn has provided Carillian Academy with many priests and nuns free of charge, to express condolences and regret over this accident. May the goddess look kindly upon the Tyrelis Continent.”

Vinny listened in silence. After a moment of contemplation, he suddenly smiled. “Is that so? Then the Church really is as kind as ever.”

The two of them threaded through the crowd and the packed corridor, heading deeper inside.

Seeing, in vague glimpses, that the rooms on both sides of the corridor were crammed full of people—noisy voices spilling out, heavy murmurs of discussion, and painful wails—Vinny’s heart sank bit by bit.

He clearly hated loud places, yet the atmosphere here was unbearably oppressive.

The nun stopped in front of a room deep in the corridor, said a quick apology for the interruption toward the door, and then gently pushed it open.

Vinny followed her in with tense nerves and found two nuns standing inside, speaking in low voices about something.

There were two people in the room he recognized. One was Milian. The childishness that usually lingered on her face was gone. She no longer looked lively and brimming with energy. At this moment, her cute, pretty face was covered in worry, filled with confusion, helplessness, and a hollow, lost look. Even the little tuft of hair that usually stuck straight up on her head had drooped.

Even with someone opening the door and coming in, she didn’t react. Her gaze was locked tightly on the silver-haired elf lying motionless on the bed with eyes shut—the person Vinny was so familiar with he couldn’t be more familiar with.

Dale.

Vinny stared at the Moon Elf girl on the bed and walked toward her step by step.

“Sister Feili, this is that elf boy’s roommate,” the nun who had guided Vinny said as she approached the shoulder-length-haired nun.

“So you’re the student named Vinny?” Feili’s gaze shifted to Vinny.

“It’s me.” Vinny looked at Dale lying there with eyes closed and a pale face—he had never seen Dale fall into such a state—and then lifted his gaze back to the three nuns.

“Sisters, may I ask... what happened to my roommate?” Vinny drew a deep breath. His tone was calm, but so heavy it was terrifying.

The nun named Feili let out a long sigh. “She’s not in immediate danger of dying. Don’t worry.”

“The injuries on her body have also been healed and stabilized by us.”

Hearing the nuns say that, Vinny’s heart relaxed a little.

“But that isn’t the main point. This student Dale... seems unable to wake up.”

“Unable to wake up??” Vinny frowned, not understanding what that sentence was supposed to mean.

“Yes.” The nuns explained. “For some reason, she has closed off her own heart. Perhaps it’s because she saw something too shocking in the cube space—something that contaminated her mind—so after she fell unconscious, she couldn’t wake up.”

“Or you could say... she’s unwilling to wake up again.” The nuns continued. “We’ve already examined student Dale. In truth, her injuries aren’t considered severe, and she didn’t suffer anything especially troublesome. Compared to the other students, the place she’s truly injured is here.” A nun pointed to her own chest.

“Her heart?” Vinny hesitated.

“Yes.” The nun thought for a moment. “We can heal the wounds on her body, and now she has no major physical issues. But the wounds in her heart—no one can heal those. She can only rely on herself. No one can help her.”

Hearing that, Vinny said nothing. He only stared at Dale with her eyes closed.

“For now, we have no other choice but to report this matter to the Church’s headquarters. Hopefully, headquarters has a way.” Feili said. “And don’t be too despairing. The Church has existed for so long. Over the years, there have been quite a few expert priests and nuns who specialize in healing the mind. Many of the notes they left behind can be put to use.”

“But it’ll take a long time, right?” Vinny suddenly asked.

“That’s how it is. There’s nothing we can do about that.” After a brief silence, Feili said helplessly. “After all, we still haven’t fully understood what the mind truly is. People are complicated and ever-changing.”

“Student Vinny, you’re student Dale’s roommate. In daily life, you’re the one who’s spent the most time with her. So we’d like to ask you to take care of her. If anything unexpected happens, you can immediately notify us at the front desk. We’re always here.”

“Of course. You’ve worked hard, Sisters.” Vinny could tell they’d been run ragged these days. They hadn’t been able to rest properly—there were heavy dark circles under their eyes. They’d probably been up for several all-nighters.

“It’s not hard. This is our duty. We’ll be relying on you and student Milian.” After looking at Vinny, then at Milian, the nuns left the room.

In an instant, only Vinny and Milian were left in the room.

Vinny stood there for a while, found a chair, and sat down by Dale’s bed, quietly watching her.

“How long have you been keeping watch here?” Vinny asked.

Only after a long time did Milian seem to realize Vinny was speaking to her. Those bloodshot, lifeless eyes stared blankly at Vinny.

“What?”

“Forget it.” Vinny shook his head. “Earlier, in the cube space... did you run into student Dale?”

“...No.” Milian looked like she had to think for a long time to answer even such a simple question, as if her brain had jammed. “I didn’t run into her.”

“If I had run into her, I definitely wouldn’t have let her end up like this.”

“Then why are you...” Vinny glanced at Milian’s current state.

“It’s all my fault.” Milian covered her face like she was emotionally collapsing. “If—if I hadn’t drawn that weird cube back then, none of this would’ve happened.”

“This isn’t on you.” Vinny kept his eyes on Dale as he spoke. “Didn’t you see how many patients there are outside? They all saw the cube we saw that night and entered that strange anomaly space because of it. Even if you hadn’t drawn that cube, it would’ve appeared anyway.”

“Even if that night we hadn’t played that game—if we didn’t play anything and just went to sleep—it still would’ve appeared in our dreams.” Vinny said evenly.

“...” Milian stopped moving. She lifted her gaze, those helpless olivine eyes staring at Vinny. “So you, you bastard... you really don’t have any reaction at all.”

“What reaction?” Vinny looked at Milian just as calmly. “Student Milian, emotions can infect other people. If you keep radiating that kind of negative energy here, it won’t just affect me—it’ll affect student Dale too, and make her even more unwilling to wake up.”

“If you want to be miserable, low, and complain, fine. Do it when you’re alone—do whatever you want. But when there are other people around, rein it in as much as you can. Even if someone can tell, it still won’t infect them as much.”

“...” Milian sniffled, looking at a loss for what to do, and then Vinny handed her a handkerchief.

Don’t ask where it came from. He didn’t have a habit of carrying handkerchiefs. This was a disposable handkerchief he’d grabbed from Aesphyra’s place to wipe his mouth, but later Aesphyra wiped his mouth for him, and he left while cursing and ranting and forgot about it. So this handkerchief ended up staying with him.

“Thank you.” Milian seemed a little surprised, but she still took Vinny’s handkerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes.

[Virtue +30]

[Current Virtue: 8014]

“You bastard... you’ve gotten more decent than you used to be.” With the handkerchief clenched in her hand, Milian said that suddenly after pulling herself together.

“Have I?” Vinny didn’t react much. In his memory, it seemed like someone had already said that to him before.

But how should he put it? He didn’t know why, but whenever he was bickering and messing around with Aesphyra, he never thought about anything deeper. His brain went completely loose and relaxed—no restraint, no masking, no pretending.

To be honest, Vinny didn’t hate that state.

And what he didn’t know was that he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Aesphyra did too.

Those sanctimonious people who put on masks even when they met—Aesphyra had seen them since she was little, far more than Vinny ever had. And precisely because of that, she valued people she could talk to without calculating, without weighing gains and losses, without needing to wear a mask.

The two of them stayed in the room like that, silent. Neither spoke again. They only watched Dale in silence.

“You bastard... did you know from the beginning?” Milian broke the silence.

“Know what?” Vinny asked.

“You know what I mean.” Milian stared deeply at Dale.

“If you don’t say it clearly, how would I know what you mean?” Vinny kept playing dumb.

“You... forget it. If you don’t want to say it, then don’t. Anyway, I don’t believe you’re so dense that even now you still haven’t noticed.” Milian scrunched her nose.

“Back then, if I could’ve reached out and helped her, it wouldn’t have turned out like this. Everything... we brought it on ourselves.” Milian said deeply. At this moment, maybe because her emotions had swung too violently, that usual “you smell it and you want to say ‘that’s way too strong’” bratty little-gremlin vibe of hers was almost gone.

“Back then?”

“You might not know this, but for elves, inner demons are terrifying.” Milian mocked herself. “You humans always envy and praise our long lifespans, but when it comes to the troublesome traits, you never mention a word.”

“Elves can really die from grief. They can die of a broken heart.”

“When the Moon Elf homeland was invaded by the tribes and destroyed... Dale’s heart had probably already died halfway.” Milian pressed her lips together.

“I knew back then it would definitely end up like this. But back then, we couldn’t support them because of certain reasons.”

“Now that I think about it—if we hadn’t been so selfish back then, so many Moon Elf companions wouldn’t have suffered disaster, and Dale wouldn’t be like this today.”

“In truth, Dale’s resentment toward us is correct. We’re all children of the Mother of Earth, the Mother of Forest, but for our own sakes, we failed to save our own kind.”

“I’ve been base and selfish, trying to compensate her just so my guilt would feel a little better.”

“But how could something like that ever be compensated?? ...We’re truly hypocrites.” Milian lowered her head, her words full of disgust and self-blame.

“So student Dale’s problem right now wasn’t something that happened all at once. It was because her homeland was destroyed before—because her kin either died in battle or became slaves?” Vinny asked.

“You sensed it long ago, didn’t you? Student Dale has actually always been lonely. As a human, you might not understand what it feels like to lose your home and lose every single one of your own kind.” Milian stared blankly at Dale. “That feeling is like floating duckweed with nothing to anchor to.”

“Student Milian... how do you know this isn’t because student Dale smelled the scent of ‘someone of her own kind’ on me?”

“...” Hearing that, Milian glanced at Vinny and didn’t speak again.