Vol 4. Chapter 19: Taste Is Really Awful

“Blue-haired student, what’s your name?” the cooking-class teacher asked.

“Me? Vinnia,” Vinny answered.

“Student Vinnia, you don’t know how to make chocolate at all, and you were late. So can you tell me what happened today that made your mood this terrible?” the teacher continued.

“No. Nothing happened.” Vinny turned his head aside and insisted stubbornly.

“Let me guess—could it be that you got rejected or snubbed by the person you fancy?” The teacher acted like she’d automatically filtered out Vinnia’s stubbornness, as if she’d seen this kind of student a thousand times.

“I—how could I? Teacher, what kind of weird guess is that? Why would you even think that way??” Hearing that, Vinny immediately denied it like some passive had triggered. In his view, whether it was subconscious stubbornness or not, that was something that absolutely did not exist.

When had he ever been rejected or snubbed by someone he liked? When did that happen? And who was it that he liked, anyway? Even he didn’t know, alright??

All he could say was, women loved gossip by nature.

Vinny thought with a head full of black lines.

“Why worry about one blade of grass? I’m not asking this to lecture you. Everyone’s been young before—we all know what it feels like, at the age when hormones are at their peak, to fall for someone. I just want to tell you that a pretty girl like you definitely won’t lack pursuers. If that person doesn’t like you, that’s his loss. He’ll understand someday.” The teacher wore an expression that said, as expected.

“Teacher, what are you even talking about? I already said it’s not like that!” After hearing her, Vinny couldn’t lift his head any higher. He instinctively pinched the hem of his skirt and raised his voice a little.

And yet, with Vinny acting like this, anyone would think he was forcing himself to be stubborn—no matter how little he believed it in his own heart.

“Alright, alright, I won’t talk about that. But if your mood is this bad, the chocolate you make won’t taste good either. Whether Ainolin Festival chocolate is delicious is closely tied to the feelings you pour into it when you make it,” the teacher said.

“Even if you learn how to make chocolate today, don’t give it to anyone. At least, don’t give it to that person.”

“I never said I was going to give it to someone!” Vinny couldn’t help saying.

“Then why did you come here to learn how to make chocolate? Don’t tell me you just want to learn a craft for the fun of it.” The teacher pierced right through him.

“I, I...” That left Vinny unable to speak. He couldn’t exactly say he hadn’t come here solely to learn chocolate-making, could he? It was a reason he wouldn’t even admit to himself—how could he say it out loud??

“I—this is!”

“Alright, Student Vinnia. Teacher won’t ask you that anymore. Focus on making chocolate.” The cooking teacher had pretty much figured out Vinny’s personality by now—he was clearly the kind of girl who was extremely twisted up inside. If she kept asking, the teacher felt like Vinny would get so embarrassed and furious he’d have nowhere to put himself.

Under the teacher’s careful instruction, Vinny gradually got the hang of making chocolate. But maybe because his mind was a mess right now and he wasn’t focused, he learned slowly—and poorly. One step had to be repeated several times before he could barely copy it.

“Tsk. This young lady refuses to believe it!” As he kept going, Vinny’s competitive personality flared up.

After wasting who knew how many rounds of ingredients, Vinny finally remembered the rough steps of making chocolate and a few small tricks. He could successfully make it on his own, but as for appearance and taste... there was no point in hoping for too much.

After the chocolate was unmolded, Vinny tried cutting it, but he always cut it into a shattered mess. Forget whether it was tasty—just the look of it was ugly, like a bloody chunk of hacked meat. Looking at it killed your appetite.

“No matter what, you did learn it yourself and finish it.” Staring at the final product, the teacher fell silent for a long time, then let out a long sigh. “You barely scraped past the passing line.”

Vinny didn’t say anything. He felt like the teacher was completely just comforting him. By her standards, how was this anything that had passed??

“For a beginner, getting to this point is already pretty good.” Seeing Vinny’s silence, the teacher patted his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s wrap it up.”

“Do we really have to wrap it?” Vinny was silent for a moment, looking at the black, sticky mass in front of him. It didn’t look like a shape, it didn’t look like anything. Even he couldn’t stand looking at it.

With chocolate like this, even if you paid someone extra to take it, no one would want it, right? Even if they did take it, it would probably show up in a trash can around the next corner.

“But this is your own work, and it’s your first time making chocolate. That has commemorative value, doesn’t it?” The teacher brought over wrapping paper and ribbon.

“Come on—wrap it. Since it’s your personal work, you should do the wrapping yourself.” As she spoke, the teacher handed the paper and ribbon to Vinny and guided him from the side.

Vinny fumbled clumsily as he wrapped the chocolate he’d made. How should he put it... the wrapping paper was blue and the ribbon was pink, both very pretty colors. But somehow, maybe because the chocolate’s shape was too bizarre, what he wrapped didn’t look like chocolate at all. It looked more like a little pouch.

After tying the ribbon, Vinny stared at his “masterpiece” with a head full of black lines and pressed his lips together.

“Alright. No matter what, it’s done. There are only a few minutes left before this chocolate-making class ends. Clean up and leave.” The teacher patted Vinny on the shoulder and walked off. “Good luck, Student Vinnia. Happy Ainolin Festival.”

“Happy Ainolin Festival.” Vinny answered dryly, holding his finished chocolate in silence. Only after a moment did he set it down, wash his hands, and then suddenly remember something as he looked toward the earlier direction.

There was no one there anymore. Not only was Aesphyra not there—there wasn’t a single person left. A lot of the lights were already off, too.

Crap!

That spot was a bit far from where he’d been, and then he got dragged into making chocolate and forgot what he’d even come here for!

N-no, that’s not it. He’d come because he was interested in making chocolate in the first place. It had nothing to do with anyone else.

Right. Nothing to do with anyone!

Vinny carefully dried his hands with his scarf, held his chocolate without saying a word, and waited until most of the classroom lights were off and most of the people were gone. Then he let out a slow sigh and walked out of the classroom alone.

So... what had he come for, exactly?

Even Vinny didn’t understand anymore.

Walking out of the teaching hall, it was like the noisy, bustling environment from earlier suddenly went quiet. He looked toward the street—night was almost fully fallen, and many streetlamps had already lit up.

As he reached a corner of the teaching hall, Vinny lifted his head gloomily—and abruptly stopped.

He saw that familiar silver figure again.

Vinny focused his eyes and realized that bright, beautiful silver silhouette was standing face-to-face with a brown-haired girl. She was holding the chocolate she’d carefully made, as if she were saying something. Because she had her back to Vinny, he couldn’t see Aesphyra’s expression.

Under the streetlamp, the two girls’ shadows stretched very long. In that shadow, the blue-haired girl hiding at the corner silently lowered her gaze, turned around without a word, and walked away.

So that’s the person she chose to confess to, huh? She’s not even that good-looking.

Not as good as—yeah, not as good as crossdressing-me.

Taste is really awful.

The blue-haired girl with twin tails over her shoulders kept her head down, holding the chocolate she’d made, walking in the opposite direction as she thought that.

Taste is really terrible. Not even as good as the Aesphyra in the game—because the Aesphyra in the game only chased the best-looking one.

Vinny lowered his gaze another fraction, blue bangs covering his eyes.

More importantly, the Aesphyra in the game couldn’t hurt his heart.

Fine. Even if the process was a little different from what he’d imagined, the ending was the same.

He and Aesphyra really were people from two different worlds.

From now on, they probably wouldn’t have any intersections.

That was good, too. They were completely different people to begin with. Saying it clearly now was better than letting him be embarrassed later.

“Ahh! Student Vinnia, I finally found you!”

“Huh??” Vinny had already shut himself off from every outside sound, but that voice was way too familiar—and it even called his crossdressing name—so it forced his attention back.

“Student Vinnia, you—ah! You probably don’t know me yet, right?? Please allow me to solemnly introduce myself! My name is Ferdi! I’m the current president of the card-player-soul club, the vice leader of the class cleaning group, an honorary member of the polo club, and also...” Ferdi looked like he was worried he wouldn’t be able to grab the girl’s attention, so he excitedly dumped out every identity he had in one breath. As long as it was something he could say—no matter what position it was—he was going to say it. The whole point was “value display,” hoping to use it to attract the girl he liked.

“???” Vinny’s face was blank. He hadn’t expected to get intercepted by Ferdi here at all. The other guy pinning him down with a machine-gun barrage completely stunned him.

What the hell is wrong with this guy?!

There were too many things to complain about, to the point Vinny didn’t even know which one to complain about first.

No—what is going on in this guy’s brain logic?? What is he doing??

Who meets a girl they like and immediately starts saying this kind of nonsense??

And is this supposed to be “value display”? President of the card-player-soul club—if he weren’t a guy who understood this stuff, real girls wouldn’t care at all. They wouldn’t be interested in any of it, alright??

And what the hell is “vice leader of the class cleaning group”? A cleaning-group leader—and the vice one at that. And he’s saying that out loud??

The identities after that were even more ridiculous. Anyway, if he said any of this to other girls, he’d definitely get treated like a harasser, or a lunatic.

“Wait!” Seeing Ferdi already lost in his own art, Vinny hurriedly cut him off.

Fine. He admitted it—he was wrong. He shouldn’t have taught Ferdi to do it like this.

By the goddess above, even as a guy, Vinny thought it was baffling and unbearable—let alone an actual girl.

“Sorry. You’re... what was it, Student Ferdi? Sorry, but I really don’t have the mood to talk to anyone right now. Excuse me.” Vinny’s eyebrow twitched.

“Huh? Oh, I understand. So Student Vinnia, you mean you didn’t hear clearly and want me to repeat it, right? Okay, I understand!” Hearing that, Ferdi instantly interpreted it through his own thinking, and his motivation filled up on the spot.

Vinny bro wasn’t lying to me! Only by taking the initiative can you know whether a girl is interested in you, right??

What a psycho?!

Vinny didn’t want to say a single extra word. He directly walked around Ferdi and left without a sound.

He’d even said earlier that Vinnia wouldn’t appear again, so he wouldn’t run into Ferdi.

So you really shouldn’t jinx yourself, huh??

“Ah—ah??” Ferdi instantly went silent.

If it were anyone else, seeing a girl’s expression and state like that, they would give up. But Ferdi was clearly not like ordinary people in this respect.

“Sorry, please wait, Student Vinnia! I’m your fan! I-I have something very important I want to tell you!” Ferdi hurriedly said.

“Um, Student Vinnia, you—you came to make chocolate today, right? Ah, perfect! I love eating chocolate!” Looking at the chocolate Vinny was holding, Ferdi blushed hard and forced himself to say it.

“......” What kind of straight-male line is this??

Vinny almost got straightened into stupidity.

That kind of line was like a club to the head—hitting you out of nowhere and leaving you not even knowing how to keep talking to him.

As expected of a card player—his level in this area was low beyond belief.

“Anyway, today is Ainolin Festival, ahaha, what a coincidence.” Seeing the blue-haired girl not speaking, Ferdi thought she was shy and immediately tried to find a topic.

What’s the coincidence??

Vinny was so embarrassed he couldn’t stand it.

“You—um, Student Vinnia, are you free later? I-I want to invite you to dinner.”

Vinny stood there rigidly, silent.

To think that he—a dignified high-tier Sorcerer-class—had gotten silenced twice in two days by two different people.

He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, but it also seemed to confirm that alchemy old lady’s prediction about him.

Right now, Vinny felt exhausted in both body and mind. This kind of life—he’d rather go line up and fight the Church of the Dawn’s bastards three hundred rounds. At least that wouldn’t be this torturous.

Just as Vinny was about to open his mouth and refuse Ferdi, he suddenly realized that his Virtue had, at some point, been credited with 200, and it was 3934 now.

[Virtue +200]

[Current Virtue: 3934]

Huh??

Vinny stared at the Virtue change message. It seemed like it had already been there for a while, but earlier he’d either been making chocolate, or secretly observing Aesphyra, or feeling low—he hadn’t noticed it at all.

When had this Virtue been generated? Who provided it?

Was there some female lead nearby??

“Sorry~ Student Ferdi, Student Vinnia can’t accept your invitation, because she already has an appointment with me~” A familiar voice arrived with a cold fragrance of roses and red roses, and a hand rested on Vinny’s shoulder—making Vinny’s whole body shudder.