“Coo-coo, ga-ga?”

Staring at the silver-haired girl in front of him, at those beautiful eyes that seemed foxlike enough to hook a person’s soul, Vinny’s brain crashed all at once. A few seconds later, he slowly remembered what he had said earlier.

Just now, had he gotten too anxious, failed to keep his mouth shut, and started saying anything that came to mind, including some excessively embarrassing things??

Ah. It seemed, maybe, probably, yes??

Vinny subconsciously wanted to cover his mouth, but clearly, it was too late. Words spoken were like water spilled. There was no taking them back.

Aesphyra gazed at Vinny with a smile, arms crossed, seemingly waiting for what he would say next, as if she would not leave until she got it.

Crap. Had he fallen into a trap again??

Seeing Aesphyra’s current expression, like some evil scheme had succeeded, Vinny suddenly understood.

This white-haired nut ball full of bad water could not have deliberately walked toward the classroom to make him panic, could she??

This hateful white-haired nut ball had cleverly laid a chain of traps, and this young master had mistakenly climbed onto the execution platform!

Vinny tilted his head, his face filled with confusion and bewilderment, looking absolutely packed with wisdom.

“Student Vinny?” Aesphyra tilted her head and feigned confusion. “Did you fall asleep?”

“But I saw Student Vinny looking rather energetic in class just now. You were restless in your seat, and your leg kept bouncing like you had hyperactivity disorder, you know?”

“Coo-coo, ga-ga.” Vinny remained unmoved.

“Student Vinny?”

“Gooji-gooji.”

“Student Vinny, do you need me to repeat what you just said for you?” Aesphyra asked with a pleasant smile.

“Ah, ah? What? What words? I feel like I seem to have lost my memory of just now.” Vinny looked blank.

“Oh, I see. Then, Student Vinny, let’s go. Time for combat class.” As she spoke, Aesphyra walked toward the arena.

“Huh? Isn’t the next class in the classroom?” Seeing this, Vinny could not help blurting out on instinct.

“Oh~” Aesphyra turned back and gazed meaningfully at Vinny. “Student Vinny, since you lost your memory, how do you still remember what the next class is?”

“Ah, I, uh, uh, I just happened to lose the memories from a few minutes ago. All my other memories are intact. Is that not allowed??”

“Oh, I see. Student Vinny’s amnesia is quite precise, isn’t it~?” Aesphyra leaned forward, looking at Vinny with an expression filled with ambiguity and teasing.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you??” Vinny ground his little fangs together.

“Did what on purpose?” Aesphyra looked utterly confused. “Student Vinny, you need to explain clearly. What exactly did I do on purpose? Otherwise, how would I know what Student Vinny is specifically referring to?”

“What else could it be? Earlier, you pretended you were about to go straight into the classroom. Wasn’t that on purpose??” Vinny argued, unconvinced.

“Huh?” Aesphyra immediately revealed a startled expression. “Student Vinny, didn’t you lose your memory? It recovered this quickly?”

“Uh, uh.” Vinny fell silent.

“Oh, I know. This time, Student Vinny ‘selectively’ recovered his memory, is that right?” Before Vinny could keep speaking, Aesphyra had already found an excuse for him, looking as though she understood completely.

“Ahem! In short, you were definitely teasing me on purpose before, weren’t you??”

“Student Vinny, I wasn’t teasing you.” Aesphyra’s lips held a gentle smile. “I said it, didn’t I? I came forward to soothe Student Vinny. Student Vinny insisted on thinking I was going into the classroom and leaving Student Vinny outside alone. I can’t do anything about that, you know.”

“Tch!” This girl’s explanation really was airtight?? Was even this within her calculations?

“Since Student Vinny’s memory has recovered, let’s continue the topic from earlier. Tell me~?” Aesphyra gazed at Vinny with a smile.

“Tell you what??” Vinny, feeling that he had fallen for Aesphyra’s trick again, wanted to stay stubborn to the end. “What is there to say?”

“Student Vinny, just now, you said there were many things about me that attract you, you know? As for the original sentence, do you need me to repeat it word for word?”

“Stop, stop! Ah, yes, fine, I seem to have maybe, probably said that. After all, who doesn’t like round, chubby, short nut balls? Who wouldn’t desperately want to keep a whole white-haired nut by their side?” Vinny’s brain overloaded, and he tried to bluff his way through with another dishonest denial, to the point that he was starting to speak without thinking.

“Oh? In other words, Student Vinny wants me by your side at all times~?”

“Yes—ah, no, no, no!” Vinny nodded, then shook his head, his head swaying like a rattle-drum.

Aesphyra looked deeply at Vinny, then gave a small laugh whose meaning was unclear before turning around and walking toward the classroom without looking back.

Wait. What was with her this time?

Could it be that she thought he was too awkward and was dissatisfied with him?

This time, could she really be dissatisfied??

“Hey, wait! Come back. I—I really do feel, uh, uh, a-a little like toward you!” In the end, Vinny could not help shouting it out.

[Virtue +150.]

[Current Virtue: 11559.]

“Oh~?” Aesphyra stopped. Then she turned around with a smile and looked at Vinny. “What kind of like is it?”

“You used the same trick twice??” Vinny said through gritted teeth. “Are you really that short on moves??”

“Although I didn’t use any trick, if Student Vinny insists on saying that, doesn’t that mean you fell for it twice yourself?” Aesphyra tilted her head. “That makes me wonder whether Student Vinny willingly fell for it on purpose, you know?”

“Tch!” Vinny was inexplicably displeased.

This girl—why could she always hold him in the palm of her hand so completely??

“So, Student Vinny, shouldn’t we return to the topic from before~?” Aesphyra asked playfully.

“The one from before.” Vinny lowered his head slightly, then quietly turned his gaze aside and complained in a small voice, “You ironclad green-eye, you really aren’t messing with me, right?”

“Mhm~ I am still very tolerant toward Student Vinny, but if you randomly say nonsense or answer carelessly on this question, I really will get a little emotional, you know?~” Aesphyra lifted her gaze.

“D-Do I have to say it here?” Vinny glanced around, somewhat guilty.

“What, Student Vinny is embarrassed now? There’s no one else here.” Seeing Vinny’s expression, Aesphyra’s playful mood instantly swelled.

[Virtue +100.]

[Current Virtue: 11659.]

“You really say things like that!” Vinny pressed his lips together and also asked himself a question. When exactly had he been attracted to Aesphyra?

Was it during the Demon Pillar invasion? Or when they shared hardships together? Or perhaps the affection from all the times she had saved him?

Vinny thought it over and felt there were too many points, and they were too scattered, to the point that he did not even know which one he should say first.

“What? Is this question still too hard for Student Vinny to say out loud?” Seeing Vinny look like words were stuck in his throat, Aesphyra’s tone did not change, but her dark brows lifted almost imperceptibly.

[Virtue +80.]

[Current Virtue: 11739.]

“No. To be honest, I don’t know which one I should say first.” Vinny still found it somewhat hard to speak. He thought again and again.

“It’s really strange. You’re clearly such an annoying person. You clearly should be nothing more than a rotten player queen who only knows how to flirt with girls and cheat her way through everything, a life winner. That would’ve been enough. That was how it should have been.” Vinny was silent for a moment, as if speaking to Aesphyra, yet also as if murmuring to himself.

“I clearly only needed to think of you as that kind of person. So why did you have to make me get close to you and understand you??”

“Make me understand the pride buried in your bones. Make me understand that a flirtatious person like you also understands righteousness, and dares to love and hate openly.”

Although Vinny did not say it aloud, he had always felt that Aesphyra was someone who absolutely would not harm the innocent, someone capable of setting aside personal feelings to distinguish right from wrong.

Why say that?

If Aesphyra had really been like the protagonists from the novels he had read in his previous life, relying on luck’s favor and acting on personal gratification alone, seizing life and death from others without restraint, viewing life with indifference and arrogance and without the slightest respect, then Vinny would have died at the very beginning of his transmigration in this life.

But Aesphyra had not done that. That was the essential difference between her and the protagonists of other games and novels. She could have killed him and settled everything once and for all, permanently eliminating future trouble. Yet she had deliberately not done so. After confirming that he was different from the demon of the previous life, she had even given up on taking revenge against the person who had once killed her.

This was also the point Vinny admired most about Aesphyra, but he had no way to say it. First, matters like reincarnation or memories from a previous life were simply too absurd. Second, Vinny did not know whether Aesphyra could accept it.

She was the protagonist, a reborn person favored by luck, the fate heroine. Whether in background, bloodline, or ability, she was the most perfect, one-of-a-kind existence on the entire continent. Yet such a person happened to possess noble character. Aside from liking to flirt with girls, she had a very strong sense of morality.

That was something those game protagonists who had no core at all and only flirted with girls for the sake of flirting could never hope to match.

“You, this person, lack nothing in background, appearance, talent, ability, family, or skill. Your luck is also extremely good. From childhood until now, you’ve probably been used to everything going smoothly. Logically, someone like you would definitely be extremely arrogant, disdainful toward others, and look down on those beneath you from the bottom of your heart.” Vinny subconsciously spoke his feelings.

“But you just happen to be someone very good to ordinary people. I felt it when I carried out practical missions with you. You aren’t some arrogant, cold-blooded creature. You have flesh and blood. You are full of courtesy and respect toward those ordinary, mediocre people, full of the simplest sympathy toward those who suffer misfortune, and you uphold righteousness for them.”

“Whether it’s me or anyone else, their birth and status can’t change your attitude toward them. If you like someone, you like them. If you don’t, you don’t.”

“That is the part of you that attracts me the most.” After saying this, Vinny paused. But in truth, that sentence was not completely finished. There should have been two more words after it: “one of.” But Vinny did not say them.

[Virtue +150.]

[Current Virtue: 11889.]

Aesphyra withdrew her smile and gazed at Vinny calmly.

She had originally thought he would praise how outstanding her strength was, how far above others her family background stood, or even her appearance.

After all, since she was young, those who admired her, favored her, and pursued her all said those things when she asked them.

But he had only mentioned those things in passing. He even believed that those things were instead a hotbed that encouraged a person to become arrogant and inhuman. He described the part of her he liked in great detail.

“And?”

“And.” Vinny paused, as if he had thoroughly opened the box of his feelings. “Although I always call you narcissistic, your abundant confidence really is very attractive. It’s like no matter what happens, you can handle it properly and perfectly.”

“To be honest, that really is dazzling to me.” Vinny pressed his lips together.

People were always attracted to what they themselves lacked.

For example, confidence.

Vinny knew that he was actually not a confident person at all. He always emphasized that he was the Royal Capital’s notorious young master of Camella, always emphasized how ruthless and evil his actions were, but all of that was nothing more than protective coloration he had disguised himself with.

But Aesphyra’s confidence was so real and so dazzling. Being beside her was always full of security, as if as long as she was there, everything would be safe and sound. She would handle everything thoroughly and impeccably.

Vinny’s fake confidence, once it encountered Aesphyra’s easy confidence built from everything she had experienced since childhood, was shattered all at once.

His little bit of self-respect was too fragile compared to that elegant confidence of hers.

Vinny knew.

Perhaps it had also been in that moment that he had been attracted to Aesphyra.

He longed for that kind of confidence. He hoped he could also become someone truly confident like that. But he could not do it. This was something related to personality, and it was simply too difficult to change.

Not in this world—even back in his previous life, he had already been attracted to Aesphyra.

All he could say was that Aesphyra’s character art had truly captured her spirit. When Vinny saw Aesphyra’s character art, he could imagine what kind of girl she was from that image alone. That outwardly displayed confidence and flawless perfection had been so attractive to him.

Although Vinny had vaguely known these things, this was the first time he had put them into such concrete words. It also made him understand himself once again.

Vinny spoke these words, and Aesphyra listened to them all.

How should she put it? It was somewhat unexpected, but not overly unexpected either.

Because she was the same.

If one asked her when she had first developed an interest in Vinny, it had probably been when she realized this person truly was not bad, and was even a little good. After all, the Vinny from the previous life had been an out-and-out great demon.

In the end, when she realized that the Vinny of this life was actually a dishonest, kindhearted good person, she discovered that she suddenly no longer hated him. Instead, she became full of curiosity and interest toward him.

Especially after she learned that, despite bearing so much grievance and so much misunderstood abuse, despite eating countless cold eyes and contempt since childhood, he had not fallen completely. Instead, he only pretended to be fierce so others would not dare bully him, while in truth, his heart remained kind.

Even after bearing so much slander, suffering so much defamation, and being misunderstood by so many people, his method of fighting back was only to show outsiders that he was not someone to be provoked, then stubbornly cling to the simplest kindness.

Very useless, and very cute.

On normal days, when he could not win arguments against her, he would pretend to be an ostrich. But at critical moments, he was so brave, always stepping forward to protect the weak.

Swap his gender, and he really would be just like a Saintess.

Simple kindness, emerging unstained from the mud—this was one of the things Aesphyra appreciated most about Vinny, for someone like her, who had long grown used to seeing the ugly faces of spoiled young heirs.

So much so that his easily understood dishonesty had become a lovable merit.

Sometimes, she also felt that this world was very interesting.

The filthy, dirty people all desperately tried to shape and perform personas in front of her, doing everything they could to make their personas seem nobler. Meanwhile, the truly moral and kindhearted people were forced to act as all kinds of villains and evil people, desperately trying to make others believe they were very hard to provoke.

To Aesphyra, both kinds of people had acting skills so terrible and full of holes that she saw through them at a glance.

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