How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

“Understood, Your Majesty. I’ll wait outside, then—I leave it to you.” Vinny nodded, thinking he had caught Friane V’s meaning.

“No, Vinny. You don’t need to wait outside. You’ll come in with us.” The King clearly didn’t mean that.

“Wouldn’t that... be inappropriate?” Vinny hesitated.

“Inappropriate? You’re Mirexia’s childhood companion, and I’ve watched you grow up myself. What could be inappropriate about it?” Friane V chuckled. “Or are you worried the royal bedchambers aren’t safe?”

“Of course not.” Vinny shook his head quickly.

“Then there’s nothing improper. Come.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Since the King himself said so, Vinny couldn’t argue. He followed behind Mirexia and Friane V into the royal bedchambers.

Vinny noticed that the Dragon-Knights who had escorted them stopped outside, forming ranks to stand guard.

It seemed that even Dragon-Knights could not enter the royal bedchambers except in special circumstances. Likely only the royal butler, the commander and vice-commander of the Dragon-Knights, the Princess’s chief maid, and a few high ministers with the King’s express permission could step within.

As royal guards, the Dragon-Knights understood better than anyone just how much trust and favor Vinny was being given tonight.

Even the dukes and great nobles had only ever seen Friane V in the reception hall. Almost none had ever been granted the honor of entering the royal bedchambers to speak with him.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness, you’ve returned.” An elderly man in formal butler’s attire came forward to receive them. His eyes lingered on Vinny, but he showed no surprise, as if he had already been informed in advance.

Vinny recognized this butler. In his childhood, when he used to play with Mirexia in the palace, he had often seen this old man standing silently at a distance, always watching.

He remembered him well: always in solemn black butler’s dress, wearing a monocle, clean-cut, and unsmiling.

“It has been a long time, Young Master Vinny.” The butler’s manner of speaking was still as concise as ever.

“Yes, Butler, I hope you’ve been well.” Vinny nodded politely.

The old butler inclined slightly and led the way, with Vinny following Mirexia and the King deeper inside.

Within, Vinny glanced around at the structure and furnishings of the chambers.

As a child, he had only ever seen the palace from outside, never inside. To gawk around now would be impolite, so after a few glances he withdrew his eyes.

The interior was resplendent. From the decorations to the furniture to the placement of art, everything radiated nobility and beauty. Vinny had heard that every item and arrangement here followed tradition, ancestral wisdom, and yet carried innovation as well.

The palace was vast. Just looking down the seemingly endless corridors was enough to tell.

Led up to the third floor, they stopped before a sandalwood door adorned with porcelain tulips.

The butler opened it and gestured them inside.

The moment the door swung open, a faint fragrance of books mixed with the light scent of orchids washed over Vinny, refreshing and intoxicating.

Stepping through, the space opened wide—a grand library, towering sandalwood shelves filled with volumes upon volumes, dwarfing the people within.

Vinny stood in awe, staring up at the shelves crammed with books of every kind. This must be the Camella royal library, containing every text ever collected in the kingdom, both civil and official.

Many lost works could be found here.

The library alone took up an entire floor of the bedchambers, far larger than the great hall below.

Yet, Vinny had heard, the Camella royal library wasn’t even the largest. Each royal house had its own archive and Spirit Soul vaults. The greatest had been the elves’ and the ancient Tyrelis Empire’s—though that empire had been destroyed, its once-glorious imperial library burned. Later, the Tyrel Empire salvaged what it could, but less than a tenth remained.

Now, the most complete and grand library on the continent was said to belong to the Golden Elves.

War destroyed civilizations most of all, and knowledge was always the first casualty.

After leading them in, the butler bowed and closed the door, waiting outside.

Vinny was left both impressed and curious—why would Friane V bring him here of all places? Did the thing to be returned have something to do with this library?

Vinny said nothing, watching instead. The King, scepter in hand, walked straight to a central shelf. He lifted a drape, shifted aside several books on the third tier, and knocked on the edge. The wood revealed a hidden recess, a lock-shaped slot appearing.

Vinny’s eyes widened. He almost wanted to flee the royal library immediately.

This was the royal family’s private library. Surely, across generations of rulers, countless secrets were hidden here, treasures and forbidden scrolls locked away.

The King was really showing this to him? Was he supposed to see this?

He was just a man who wanted to live quietly. He didn’t want to be dragged into dangerous secrets!

Friane V was about to beckon him closer, but when he turned, he saw Vinny frozen in place, clutching the jeweled box he had been given earlier, unwilling to move. The King couldn’t help but laugh.

“Vinny, don’t be nervous. If I brought you here, it means you’re allowed to know.”

“Ah... is that so? Thank you, Your Majesty.” Vinny wasn’t sure what face to put on.

Allowed to know? Really??

What if, in the future, something here was stolen or exposed? Wouldn’t he be the first suspect, the only outsider who had ever seen inside?

Wouldn’t that be disastrous?!

Even if he had nothing to do with it—anyone would use their toes to think, and still suspect him first.

Such a misunderstanding would be terrible.

“Come closer. I have something to entrust to you.”

“...Yes, Your Majesty.” Since the King said so, Vinny braced himself and stepped forward.

Friane V placed the end of his scepter into the recess and turned it. The slot retracted, and from within, a compartment slid out, presenting a box.

This box was fixed to the shelf’s base, immovable.

The King tapped it lightly with his scepter, and with a click, the lock inside disengaged.

Vinny peered closer. Within the box lay a white notebook. Its color didn’t seem original—time had bleached it, scratched and worn, pages frayed, battered by the years.

It didn’t take guessing to know this wasn’t ordinary. For something to rest in the royal library, hidden and sealed away, it had to be priceless.

“Vinny, do you know what this is?”

“I...” Vinny almost said of course not. He wasn’t Aesphyra, that monster of knowledge—he barely passed history, how could he know?

But then he noticed, on the spine, a faint emblem nearly scraped away. It looked like wings.

In his mind he filled in the missing piece—if there had once been a cross in the center, encircled by holy fire—wasn’t that the emblem of the Dawn Church?

Combined with the King’s earlier words about “returning to its rightful owner”... the guess wasn’t hard.

“Your Majesty... this notebook, it wouldn’t happen to be connected to the Dawn Church, would it?” Vinny asked carefully.

“Yes. You guessed correctly. Not only is it tied to the Church, it is tied to the Saintess of Dawn herself.” The King spoke plainly.

“Oh?”

“This notebook is a relic left by your ancestor—the Saintess of Dawn, Elusha Facilis.”

“Elusha... Saintess?” At the name, Vinny’s first thought wasn’t her deeds, but the high-rarity card he had drawn once, bearing her likeness.

Well, thanks to that card, at least he recognized the name. Otherwise he might have asked, Who’s Elusha?

“That’s right. This notebook has been preserved with us for many years,” Friane V continued. “No—more precisely, it has been kept within the Peono family for a very long time.”

“It was passed into our keeping in the age of the last Saintess of Dawn—Sophia Facilis, your great-grandmother. At that time the Church still had a Saintess, and the peerless Radiant Cross Knights.”

“Sadly, Saintess Sophia led all those knights in battle against the Fox King of Ten-Thousand Beasts, who had invaded the southern continent. He was the strongest of the demon lords, commanding others by sheer power, one step short of the Demon King himself. At his height, he declared war on mankind. Only the Dawn Church could oppose him—no other single faction could.”

“For the sake of the people, Sophia Facilis led the Radiant Cross Knights into that war. In the end, there was no victor. She and the Fox King perished together. The Church was gravely wounded. The Radiant Cross Knights were annihilated. Nearly all the elite perished.”

“Many noble houses of the Church were the same—their very foundations shaken.”

“Later, the knights were rebuilt, but...” The King let the rest hang unspoken.

Vinny understood. The current Radiant Cross Knights, rebuilt under the Pope after the last Saintess’s death, bore only the name and the uniforms. Their strength and devotion could never compare.

“I’ve digressed. This notebook was entrusted by Saintess Sophia to the King of Camella then, the Peono patriarch Hilatis—my grandfather.”

“She left instructions.” The King’s eyes fixed on Vinny.

“I showed this notebook to your grandfather. And to your father.”

“And... then?” Vinny, drawn in by the story of his family, listened closely.

“‘Unless a miracle occurs, the decline of the Facilis is inevitable. This means the Tyrelis Continent will no longer need us. Do not force it. If the kingdom has the means, I only ask that you treat my descendants kindly.’ Those were Saintess Sophia’s exact words.” Friane V sighed. “Your great-grandmother’s words.”

“My... great-grandmother... did she say anything else?” Vinny asked.

“Yes. According to the record, she also spoke of her hopes for you.”

“For me??” Vinny was stunned.

“Yes. She said, if her family was no longer needed, then let her descendants live as ordinary people, walk the land quietly, live simply. Do not join struggles, do not be drawn into whirlpools of power.”

“She had saved the people, but at the cost of her own family. She hoped, therefore, that when our Peono line met her descendants, we would pass on her words: that she was sorry. That she had abandoned them so irresponsibly. That even as a grandmother, a great-grandmother, she could not hope for their forgiveness.”

“That is what she said.”

“......”

Vinny stood there, struck silent for a long, long time.