Huh?

Vinny stared, dazed, at Isatia’s receding figure.

Why were almost all these fate-favored heroines riddlers?

Oh—except for that little fool Shicodale. With his IQ, he probably didn’t even know how to speak in riddles.

Vinny turned over what Isatia had just told him. It was completely at odds with the textbooks’ cause and effect for the Old Tyrelis Empire’s fall.

Which version was the historical truth?

Still, any history that’s been buried is bound to have logical seams—hard to spot, but there all the same, no matter how well it’s whitewashed.

His gaze drifted to the distance—to the energy spire that could be seen from anywhere on the main isle of Carillian Academy.

It was the Academy’s most mysterious place. In the original text, as he remembered it, the reason Carillian Academy was called a seductress in the eyes of Demon Pillars and cultists was precisely the existence of the Order Spire. For reasons unknown, Demon Pillars led by Erunios showed keen interest in it—and so did many of their zealots.

And the Academy administration? They definitely knew the Demon Pillars and their cultists were targeting the Order Spire, yet never made the reason public—tacitly acknowledging the fact.

“The ‘thing’ kept in the Order Spire is the same kind of ‘thing’ that destroyed the Old Tyrelis Empire?”

If Isatia was right, why hadn’t they disposed of something so dangerous? Why keep it at the Academy—weren’t they afraid it would blow one day and send every last teacher and student to the afterlife?

Or had Carillian Academy reached a point of no return—left with a legacy from the Old Empire that, after its fall, they no longer had the technology to resolve?

Quite possible. The Academy had originally been under the Old Tyrelis Empire. One day, the direct superior vanished in ash. The Academy would be headless; factions would have sprung up within, each with its own ideas.

Ugh, forget it. Why think about this? Let the fate-blessed heroines, buoyed by fortune, worry about the worldline’s drift. What did it have to do with him? If the sky fell, wasn’t there still that white-haired shorty to hold it up?

Vinny headed back to the dorm. Tomorrow was the first day of term—back to work.

At dawn the next day, roused by Shicodale’s wake-up service, Vinny put on his uniform and stood dazed before the mirror. The sleep-haze and the back-to-school syndrome—his “fragile-heart” malaise—cleared in an instant. He woke right up.

Well well—handsomer again, huh? Another punctual morning, woken by his own face. What a menace to society.

He ran a hand through his hair, thoroughly pleased with himself.

Downstairs, after eating the breakfast Shicodale made, the two set off for school together.

“Dale! Dale! Over here!” A familiar, slightly childish voice piped up along the way.

He knew that voice instantly. Without a word he shifted his gaze to the golden-haired elf brat chirping at Shicodale like a little magpie.

“Dale, Dale, where did you go this break? I told you before—come with me to the Elven Forest to find my sister, and you said no,” said Milian, a lively Golden Elf girl in a girls’ uniform with a high single ponytail. She bustled right up, completely ignoring Vinny—and even trying to edge him out.

Oh? This annoying elf brat didn’t put the notorious Camella-capital bad boy in her eyes at all?

“Mm. Nowhere worth mentioning,” Shicodale’s tone cooled the moment he saw Milian. He had no intention of elaborating.

The golden-haired elf brat, oblivious to his expression, didn’t notice he didn’t want to answer. She barreled on like an old acquaintance.

“So you just stayed at the Academy alone? How boring! You should’ve said so, Dale—come to the Elven Forest with me. There are so many of our kin there. Everyone sympathizes with what you’ve been through—doesn’t that sound nice? Not like here, where it’s full of these nasty humans.” Milian puffed out her cheeks and shot Vinny a glare.

Vinny chuckled. He’d been letting it slide, and she wanted to push it?

“Tsk tsk, you silly golden brat. Ever heard ‘look at the sky outdoors, read the face indoors’? You can’t read the room at all, can you?” Vinny said, all solemn mockery.

“Dale clearly doesn’t want to talk to you. Didn’t you notice? Yet you keep pestering. No sense at all.”

“Hmph, you blue-headed reprobate! Don’t think just because you share a dorm with Dale he’ll like you,” Milian huffed, eyeing Vinny like a rival.

Mm. As expected. The golden elf brat did have that kind of feeling for Shicodale.

Well then—he’d tease her all the more.

“You silly elf brat, do you know where your precious Dale went over the long break?” Vinny drawled.

“What’s it to you—wait. You—you can’t mean—Dale, you—?” Realizing what he was hinting at, Milian’s eyes went wide.

“Heh. Take a guess,” Vinny said, refusing to answer, leaving her to stew.

“Dale, did you—this break—go with this blue-headed jerk... to his home?” Milian looked utterly appalled.

“That’s none of your business, Milian,” Shicodale said, refusing to give even a clear answer—flatly shutting her down.

Which, in effect, confirmed Vinny’s line.

Milian felt several arrows pierce her chest. Ice-cold.

Piercing. Brutally so.

Like having the childhood friend you’d grown up with—your green-plum, bamboo-horse—led off by a blue-headed human.

And she was the blonde one, too.

[Virtue +150.]

[Current Virtue: 10734.]

And so the golden elf brat folded again—head down, blank-faced, even the ahoge drooping—slipping away with her tail between her legs.

Hah, folded the brat again. Feels good. And such a fat Virtue burst.

With this much banked, it was time to find an opportunity to spend it all, Vinny thought, barely able to wait.

Students trickled into the classroom. Vinny scanned his classmates—many familiar faces catching up, talking about their break, sharing new sights and experiences.

Vinny had fewer stories to share. Poverty limits your mobility. If he had money, he’d have spent the break traveling the world.

He didn’t have many friends in class, either. Male friends—almost none. As for girls, besides Shicodale, the only one he could talk to was...

“Good morning, Vinny~” A white-haired beauty rested her cheek in one elegant hand not far away. Vinny couldn’t help clicking his tongue inside.

The white-haired short nut looked in decent color. The Kiss of the Blessing Angel seemed to be taking effect—her injury was mending.

Ugh. An already unpleasant first day got worse the moment he saw Aesphyra.

“Oh? What’s this? That face—Vinny doesn’t look happy to see me?” Aesphyra tilted her ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ head and narrowed those bewitching eyes, knowingly coy.

“Say, Miss Aesphyra, you even came to class today. Truly iron will in a failing body,” Vinny said, all calm composure.

“Oh? Meaning?”

“Literal. Two days ago, didn’t you tell me you had uterine chill? You even had me get you sick leave, remember? So why are you in class today? If you’re unwell, lie down in your dorm and rest.” He didn’t speak loudly, but not softly either—enough for Shicodale beside him to hear.

The elf girl clapped a hand to her mouth, shooting Aesphyra a surprised look.

Aesphyra smiled without smiling at Vinny.

[Virtue +40.]

[Current Virtue: 10774.]

“Thank you for the reminder. Yesterday you delivered something and left so fast I didn’t even get to ask you to stay for tea,” Aesphyra said sweetly.

“Hey now, don’t be so formal. What are we, strangers? With our relationship, a cup of tea is nothing—doesn’t matter,” Vinny said, face shifting as he slid closer to Shicodale’s side.

“That won’t do. I haven’t even expressed my gratitude,” Aesphyra said, dimples in full bloom.

Gratitude? If he’d stayed any longer yesterday, he’d have gone and not come back.

Vinny thought it silently.

“How about this, Vinny—if you have time, let me treat you to a meal? You’ve resolved a huge worry of mine. Not thanking you would be shameful,” Aesphyra said, chin in hand, smiling.

“Eat? Where? Don’t tell me the maid café again?”

“Mmhmm~ If Vinny wants to go, it’s not impossible,” she teased.

“No need. Another day,” Vinny waved it off.

Soon, after a whole break without it, the class bell rang at last. Their homeroom teacher came in with a stack of texts, pushed up his glasses, and looked over the neatly seated students.

The Academy’s distinctive piano-bell stirred a little nostalgia in Vinny, though the back-to-school syndrome was strong.

“It’s been a semester, everyone. I hope you didn’t completely abandon your studies,” the teacher said.

“Before the opening remarks, here’s a reminder from the administration.”

“Recently, an entrance to a newly discovered historical-ruins secret realm appeared on the small isle at the far southeast of Carillian Academy. For now it’s unstable. To be safe, do not approach that southeast isle. It’s scarcely developed anyway; I doubt any of you go there,” the teacher said.

At once, the students buzzed with curiosity.

Ruins like these mostly belonged to powers that had once flourished—chiefly secret realms from the Old Tyrelis Empire.

“Teacher, what era is it from? Is it a Tyrelis Empire ruin?” a student asked at once.

“The internal situation is still unclear. What’s certain is that this newly found ruin is evidently not from the Tyrelis Empire,” the teacher replied.

“Huh?” The students were even more curious.

The most renowned civilization in current human records was the Tyrelis Empire—the only unified human empire in history. Its long rule linked all human cultures, giving rise to a shared identity.

But the oldest civilization plainly wasn’t Tyrelis. Before it, the continent held many scattered human forces—disunited, warring.

Some devoured others, growing into powerful states—yet in the end none escaped erasure by Time.

Even the Carillian family—masters of time itself—were consumed by the very Saint’s Grace they commanded, vanishing into the river of years.

“Is it a human-civilization ruin?” another student asked.

“At present, yes,” the teacher said.

“Then based on current research, can we judge which ancient civilization it is?” a student pressed.

“We can’t be certain yet. But from current research, it is very likely a relic secret realm left by the ‘Marsmo’ civilization.”

Marsmo?

Vinny frowned slightly. The name rang a bell, though he couldn’t place it.

That made no sense. He had no interest in history and never sought out history books. How could the name feel familiar?

He puzzled over it until his eye fell by chance on the black-haired girl by the window lowering her book and focusing intently on the lectern—then it clicked.

This Marsmo civilization—wasn’t that exactly what Isatia had been studying?

If he remembered right, the time she auto-shut down onto his shoulder, the book she’d been reading was about that civilization.