Just imagine it—how hard could it be for a professionally trained, bona fide transcendental to fight a bunch of ragtag transcendentals who only know how to bully ordinary people, whose combat power is only a notch above normal, and who’ve never had any proper cultivation or study?

Vinny, for his part, had been getting beaten up this whole time, sure—but he’d never once played in low-tier lobbies. Every fight he’d taken had been high-tier. If it wasn’t high-tier, it couldn’t even drag him in. And now, this practical assessment was sending him straight into the lowest tier of the low-tier.

Fine.

Let him get a little more down-to-earth.

For students, the one hurdle that “doesn’t quite go down easy” was killing someone—but this wasn’t Vinny’s first time killing irredeemable scum like that, so he didn’t have that kind of psychological burden.

“Vinny, your practical-assessment task—does it look pretty easy?” At that moment, Vinny saw Shicodale turn his head back to look at him. He seemed to have already finished reading his own task.

It was several full pages, too. But Shicodale was a top student—fast reading and fast learning were perfectly normal for him.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Vinny said. “Looks pretty easy. What about you?”

“Mine’s okay too. It looks pretty easy.” Shicodale gestured to his task details. “My practical assessment is to protect an imperial merchant who’s traveling to do business. And the task headcount is three, not just me—two other classmates got assigned to it as well.”

“Good.” Vinny felt a lot more at ease the moment he heard Shicodale wasn’t going alone. If Shicodale had to do the assessment by himself, Vinny really would’ve been worried.

Among the fate heroines, the one who needed the most worrying was this little airhead whose only real advantage was luck. Now that Vinny knew Shicodale’s task came with two teammates, he could relax a bit. Hopefully, Shicodale would get paired with two fairly reliable people.

“Vinny, how many people are on your practical-assessment task?”

“Just your Young Master.” Vinny pointed at the word “solo” on the headcount line.

“Huh?!” Shicodale looked genuinely startled. “You’re alone? Isn’t this supposed to be done in teams?”

“Everybody draws different task difficulty,” Vinny said. “So the headcount varies too.”

It was like drawing cards. Some people were just unlucky. Their luck was just black. What could you do? Who were you supposed to blame? Vinny was used to it by now.

Besides, with Vinny’s current strength, whether he had teammates or not didn’t really matter. He was going to run them over either way.

“Vinny... are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Dale, are you doubting your Young Master’s strength?” Vinny snorted. “Your Young Master is a real man who stands tall between heaven and earth. It’s just a pack of bandits. That’s a hand-to-mouth job, alright??”

“I’m not doubting you!” Shicodale shook his head like a rattle drum. “I just... I want you to be careful. You’re alone, so there’s no one to watch your back.”

Oh?

The little girl actually knew how to talk now. She’d learned how to sound like she cared about people.

Vinny was still pretty moved by it. He got this faint feeling like a daughter had finally grown up—like she’d gotten a little more sensible, a little more mature.

“A few murderous bandits? They’re nothing but speed bumps.” Vinny put on a solemn face and spoke in a heavy, earnest tone. “Dale, looks like you actually took my words to heart in your daily life. Not bad—you’ve grown. My painstaking education wasn’t wasted. You’ve finally got a bit of a real man’s responsibility.”

“Keep it up,” Vinny continued. “I’m telling you—if you keep this momentum, you’ll definitely become a real man who stands tall between heaven and earth someday.”

“Ah... thank you, Vinny.” Shicodale had heard those lines countless times, but he still never got tired of them, and he still gave Vinny sweet, positive feedback.

“Vinny, are you in a hurry to set out?” After the two of them put their kraft-paper file envelopes away, Shicodale asked.

They’d picked up their assessment tasks on the last day. They could choose to leave today for their task locations—or leave tomorrow.

“No rush. If I were really in a rush, your Young Master would’ve picked up the task on day one.” Vinny shook his head, then asked Shicodale, “Are you in a hurry to leave?”

“No.” Shicodale shook his head, hesitated, then finally said, “I want to make one last meal for you before we go.”

“....”

Vinny fell silent and looked at Shicodale.

For no reason at all, those words made him think of his family in his previous life—how they’d come back from outside and ask whether he was hungry, how when he was leaving to study far away, they’d always prepare a table full of food for him before he left.

That was the taste of home.

In this life, Vinny’s closest family had died when he was still a child—but at least he’d experienced that feeling before.

Back then, he’d been short on food and clothing, and even the money the king issued him had been skimmed and withheld by servants. Now, he no longer lacked for material conditions. With his realm as an Intermediate Magus, even if he dropped out and went home today, plenty of factions would fight to recruit him.

No one would ever imagine that the stinking little brat from a ruined household—the kid who’d lost his parents young and grown up under cold stares—could make it this far.

“Thank you, Dale.” With that thought, Vinny smiled. “Of course I’m not in a hurry. I don’t even know how long this trip will take. I don’t know how long it’ll be before I get to eat your cooking again.”

“Before I head out, I have to savor it properly.” As he spoke, his eyes fixed on Shicodale’s. “And, of course... the most important thing is that I don’t know how long it’ll be before I can see you again.”

“I want to stay with you a little longer.”

“Mmph...” Hearing that, Shicodale’s cheeks immediately flushed a little red.

In Shicodale’s impression, Vinny never said mushy things like that. So when he suddenly said it, it hit that much harder—like a block of deadwood that usually had zero sense of humor suddenly saying something ambiguous and intimate.

[Virtue +80]

[Current Virtue: 5289]

“What? Is there something wrong with what I said?” Vinny teased.

“N-no. There isn’t.” Shicodale lowered his head a little and nodded. “I also really want... to stay with you a little longer.”

Then he stood up.

“Um... it’s almost mealtime. I should go prepare dinner.”

Watching Shicodale flee like that, Vinny almost laughed.

But they were about to leave the academy and head to their separate assessment locations. He and Shicodale would be apart for a while.

Even though the last practical assessment had been the same, that time he’d had Aesphyra with him—so it wasn’t like there were no familiar faces at all.

Whether it was during breaks or ordinary school days, he was always with Shicodale. The only time they’d been apart for a long stretch was during the Kamov Mountain incident. This time, while he was out there, he might genuinely miss Shicodale a lot.

Just like always, Shicodale cooked, then called the Vinny who’d been sprawled on the sofa over to eat. After dinner, they sat on the sofa and chatted.

They weren’t talking about anything they couldn’t normally talk about—just ordinary things. It was as if today were no different from the usual days, the two of them talking about the little bits of today and their worries and hopes for the future.

They were both in sync.

When Vinny spoke, Shicodale listened seriously. When Shicodale spoke, Vinny thought carefully.

They always had things to talk about, and the words they used to comfort each other always landed right where they were supposed to.

Maybe it was partly because they had so much in common.

But more than that, it was probably the tacit understanding and habit that came from being together day after day.

They were used to the other person existing in their living space.

Used to the other person’s small warmth, their concern.

Used to everything the other person brought into their life.

“Vinny... do you know?”

“Hm?” After a long silence, Shicodale’s sudden words drew Vinny’s attention. “What?”

“If I hadn’t met you...” Shicodale spoke as if sighing. “Maybe I would’ve been defeated by the demon in my heart.”

“....” Vinny stayed quiet for a moment before he spoke. “Don’t say that. Good people have heaven’s protection. Dale, didn’t I tell you? If even you think you’re no good, then no one can help you.”

“At the end of the day, it was you—your own persistence—that carved a road out of a hopeless situation.”

“So, Dale.” Vinny’s tone turned firm. “No matter when, you have to remember that darkest time. Back then, you weren’t crushed by reality. Now you have even less reason to be crushed.”

“Don’t belittle yourself. A real man who stands tall between heaven and earth—pull out some confidence.”

“I’m not belittling myself, Vinny,” Shicodale said, staring at him deeply. “I’m just... truly grateful to you.”

Vinny looked into Shicodale’s eyes—and in that instant, he was pulled into those clear, spotless, apricot-shaped eyes, so clean they looked like they didn’t belong to the mortal world.

Those eyes were beautiful enough to feel unreal.

Shicodale and Aesphyra were different.

Their environments had been different, and that shaped Aesphyra into someone who often hid her true thoughts behind what she said. In her eyes, if someone could see through her real intentions, she’d already lost half the battle—so she had a habit of doing that with everything.

But Shicodale wasn’t like that.

His feelings were pure. Like was like. Dislike was dislike. Anyone could tell at a glance.

Vinny had that purity too—only because of his personality, he would desperately deny certain real feelings. But that kind of denial, like a reflexive stress response after being poked, was the sort of stubborn posturing anyone could see.

People who were pure and simple—no matter how calculating someone was—were hard to reject.

Just like Aesphyra.

Even someone like her, layered in defenses, had been drawn in little by little—drawn in without even realizing it—by a blue-haired idiot who was pure and easy to understand.

For someone used to constant scheming, constant suspicion and calculation, suddenly meeting someone you could be with without any calculation at all—someone whose feelings were pure—was an attraction that was hard to measure.

She would realize that only when she was with him did she relax without meaning to.

She didn’t have to burn effort and brainpower calculating gains and losses.

With him, there was only feeling crashing into feeling, heart speaking to heart.

In front of something that pure, even someone as sharp and deep as Aesphyra couldn’t help but fall.

Or maybe...

Maybe it was because he’d seen too much of human hearts—their complexity, their ugliness—that Vinny held such strong attraction for Aesphyra.

No one could stay unmoved by that kind of emotion.

“Vinny,” Shicodale pressed his lips together. Maybe it was because they were about to separate and travel far tomorrow that he could say it so smoothly. “The first half of my life had a very dark time. But I’m glad—glad it was you. Even more glad that I met you.”

“...Idiot.” Vinny crossed his arms and looked away slightly. “Why are you suddenly saying something that mushy? Don’t say it again.”

“Your Young Master doesn’t like hearing that kind of thing.” Vinny kept his gaze averted. “You’re making it sound like we’re parting forever.”

“Get it straight—we’re just heading out tomorrow to do our practical-assessment tasks. We’re not separating forever. When we finish, we’ll come back.” Vinny shot Shicodale a look.

“What, you want to get rid of your Young Master that badly? Not happening. Your Young Master’s already fallen for your cooking—so for the next three years, I have to eat it. Got it??”

“No! Of course I wouldn’t dislike you, Vinny!!” Shicodale hurriedly denied it.

[Virtue +80]

[Current Virtue: 5369]

“Then why are you saying stuff like that?” Vinny puffed his cheeks a little. “You’re making it sound like we’ll never see each other again.”

“Don’t say things like that anymore. Your Young Master hates BAD END the most. Your Young Master believes that people make their own outcomes—any BAD END, I’ll crush it completely!”

“Mhm.” Shicodale nodded. “Vinny, you have to come back safely too.”

“After you come back... there are some things I want to say to you.”

“Enough. Don’t say it. I’m not listening.” Vinny immediately covered his ears.

“Huh? Why?!”

“That sounds like you’re raising a flag!” Vinny snapped. “What am I supposed to do—take it or not take it?? We’ll meet at the academy. Say it after I’m back.”

“Mhm. Then you have to come back safely.” Shicodale said it with sincere seriousness.

“If... if one day you don’t come back, I’ll go find you. I’ll keep looking for you.”

“Idiot.” Vinny muttered softly. He raised a hand and flicked Shicodale on the forehead.

“Just you looking for me? Don’t you have anything better to do? You should have more important things to do, right?”

“Mmph...”

“Relax. How could I not come back?” Vinny rolled his eyes. “My task location is a broken old castle ruin. What, am I going to find gold coins lying around there? Is there a gold mine buried under it? It’s freezing, and I’ll be sleeping rough. I can’t wait to finish sweeping up those bandits and get home!”

“Mhm!!”

“Alright, alright. It’s late. Sleep. We both have to get up early tomorrow.” Vinny glanced at the sky outside.

“Okay.” The two of them stood and went upstairs.

“Good night, Vinny.” Shicodale opened his bedroom door, then turned back and spoke softly.

“Yeah. Good night. Sweet dreams, Dale.”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.