How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

“Everyone, this assessment uses a points system. Students of different years will be assigned to different zones. The rules allow you to fight over prey, but you are absolutely forbidden from attacking each other. If you’re caught, the lightest punishment is expulsion, and the heavy end is prison time. Understood??”

Up on the platform, the instructor announced the competition rules.

“Next, each of you will be given a magic card. This magic card can record your points, and when you’re in mortal danger it will protect you and teleport you to the instructor’s safe zone. But if that happens, it means you can’t return to the competition—you can only withdraw with the points you currently have.”

“Everyone, you’re no longer the brand-new freshmen you were back then. You’ve been through all kinds of real-combat assessments. For you, this is nothing more than a little quiz.”

Standing in formation, Vinny very quickly received his magic card as well. His name and year were written on it. It was a magic card inscribed with special patterns: black as the base, blue as the lines, drawn with an image that looked like a spellbook.

Vinny slipped the card into his chest pocket.

Only first-years had gathered here. As for where the upper-year students had gone, Vinny guessed that because their hunting grounds were different, their zones—and therefore their waiting areas—were also different.

Led by the instructors, the first-years arrived at the entrance. One of the instructors took out a magic-card key and swiped it at the forest’s entrance. After that, it was as if some barrier that had been covering the forest’s canopy suddenly dissipated. The forest ahead, which had carried a hint of gloom, instantly gave people a sense of bright openness.

Vinny took off his ice-crystal earring and tossed it. It transformed into the Frostfang spear. He spun a few spear-flowers with it in the air, then walked in.

Shicodale followed right behind Vinny and walked in with him.

Honestly speaking, Vinny felt this points assessment had come at a really bad time—of all times, they just had to schedule it when his Spirit Soul was sealed. Right now, the only things he could rely on were his combat experience and the enchanted weapon in his hands.

It wasn’t some huge test, but if it came down to scrambling for points, there was no way he was going to out-scramble the other students.

After leading everyone along the forest path for a while, the instructor stopped and went no farther. Clearly, from here on out, the road ahead would be up to the students themselves.

After so many real-combat assessments, the students had long since been desensitized to live training. This time they’d simply swapped out human opponents for spirit beasts. So when the instructor stopped, no one took it too seriously. They each started looking for their own paths. Every team hoped to get far away from everyone else so they wouldn’t have their points stolen. As a result, the big group quickly scattered.

The crowd that had started out all together peeled off in twos and threes. By the time they walked farther in, Vinny glanced around and saw that there were no more students from other teams nearby—only him and Shicodale remained.

Very soon, a black rabbit the size of a dog hopped out of the brush. This rabbit was different from ordinary rabbits: a red mark was on its forehead, its eyes were bloodshot, and sharp fangs jutted down past its lips.

The spirit beasts here were clearly much larger than the spirit beasts in the outer forests. Vinny mulled it over and guessed it was because the magic elements in the air here were too dense, or the soil had some special properties.

He had to admit, the Carillian Isles really were a treasure land. No wonder the ancient Tyrelis Empire valued this place so highly, establishing an imperial academy and research base here, and even sealing Divine Authority in this place for research.

“Classmate Dale, here comes our first target. Go for it.” Vinny pointed at the black rabbit.

“Huh? We... we’re supposed to kill it?” Shicodale froze.

“What else?” Vinny was a little speechless. “We’re here to earn points, remember?? The magic-element aura on this island is way too dense, and the soil has special energy. It makes the spirit beasts grow like crazy. If we don’t come clear some out every year, they’ll spread everywhere sooner or later.”

“O–oh, okay, okay!” Since Vinny put it that way, Shicodale hurriedly fumbled to prepare a spell to bombard the giant black rabbit.

But why would a spirit beast just stand there and wait for death? The moment it sensed danger, the rabbit dove into the grass. A few rolls later, it was gone.

“Hey, hey.” Vinny shook his head. If he could cast spells right now, one cast of [Congealed-Ice Shackles] would have flown over, dragged the rabbit out, and let him grab and refine it on the spot.

“Vinny, was I... too slow just now?” Shicodale asked weakly.

“If that rabbit had any decent strength and thought it could beat us, it would’ve lunged in to bite us already.” Vinny gave Shicodale a helpless look.

Spirit beasts weren’t any sort of harmless creatures. That black rabbit just now wasn’t a herbivore either—it was a carnivore. The only reason it hadn’t attacked them was because these wild-grown spirit beasts were all very clever. If their instincts told them they couldn’t beat some living thing, they’d run. Especially mid-sized spirit beasts like that—their survival instincts were extremely strong. Once they discovered living creatures larger than themselves, they’d absolutely bolt at the first opportunity.

“I’m sorry, Vinny.”

“Why are you saying sorry again?? Dale, don’t be like that. A real man knows when he’s done something wrong and just does it right next time. Don’t apologize every other sentence.” Vinny sighed.

He was also using this to teach Shicodale how to pass as a boy properly. But obviously, that wasn’t going to happen in the short term.

Anyway, getting Vinny himself to do the hunting right now was kind of impossible—not because he couldn’t beat the prey, but because he currently had no ranged attacks. He had to rely on Shicodale.

If only [Sixfold Inferno] had already been delivered, things might be a lot better.

The two of them kept walking through the forest. Vinny sensed something off—he had the constant feeling that something was following behind them.

“Vinny! Something’s up!” Before Vinny could carefully probe, he heard Shicodale’s voice.

He looked ahead and saw a dark-colored stag with three tails. The moment this stag saw them, it lowered its head and displayed its antlers—its aggressiveness written all over it.

“This looks like a three-tailed deer,” Shicodale said. “An oddball among deer—a very vicious deer.”

“Oh ho? Finally, something interesting.” Vinny flicked the Frostfang spear in his hand, then stepped forward and crooked a finger at the stag in open provocation.

The three-tailed stag seemed to understand Vinny’s gesture. It let out an angry roar, lifted its hooves, and charged.

Vinny gripped the spear, timed it, and swept it in a sideways slash.

[Rimefrost Full-Moon Slash]

The spinning spray of ice shards whipped up into an ice wall, freezing the stag’s antlers deeply inside it.

The three-tailed stag tried to struggle, tried to yank its antlers free, but it was no use. No matter how hard it strained, it couldn’t pull them out of the solid ice.

Even though Vinny’s Spirit Soul was sealed, his strength was still partly there—and his spell power was the same.

Just as Vinny was about to raise his weapon and finish the stag off, a bolt from a crossbow trailed in firelight shot in first and blasted the stag’s body apart.

When the black smoke cleared, only a charred deer corpse remained in front of Vinny.

“The hell??” Vinny’s eyes went from stunned straight to seething.

Of all things, in his previous life he’d hated other people kill-stealing his targets in games the most. In this life, it was exactly the same.

Vinny was furious as he looked toward the two people walking out of the bushes not far away.

He recognized them. Weren’t these the two Imperial students he’d defeated in Combat Class last time??

“Well, if it isn’t Vinny and Dale. What a coincidence! You’re out hunting here too?” One of the Imperial students swaggered up and started chatting as if they were old buddies.

“Heh.”

Normally, in this sort of situation, other people would hold it in. After all, they were classmates, people they’d see with their heads down or up every day. And hey, what if the other side really hadn’t meant to do it on purpose?

In a case like this, it would be awkward to call it out directly. Just glare at them, tell them to stop following you, and that’d be that.

But Vinny was different.

There’s a saying: people with no manners are very bad at taking losses—at least, when it comes to their mouths.

“What a coincidence, my ass! I’m really about to lose my damn mind over here! You dare snipe my kill—did you buy your shamelessness wholesale? Stop shoving that ugly mug of yours in my face. I feel like puking just looking at you, you know that? I swear, I’m about to ascend—how can there be someone this ridiculous? Every expression you make is the same disgusting punchable face!”

Vinny dropped all pretense of personal cultivation and dove headfirst into the joy of talking shit, flinging out a full combo of mental attacks with zero start-up frames.

“Vinny, what are you talking about? We just happened to be passing by and saw you two looked like you couldn’t hold out anymore, so we lent a hand.”

Clearly they’d never been hit with mental damage of this magnitude before. The Imperial student’s expression froze for a moment, but he quickly adjusted and smoothed it over.

“Passing by, my ass!” Vinny was already sick of this phrase today. Earlier Aesphyra had said she’d wound up near him “by coincidence,” and now these two morons were saying they were “just passing by” too.

Damn it, do they think they’re Destiny Heroines or something? Always “just happening” to show up??

“Forget it, Dale. We’re leaving.” Tossing that line over his shoulder, Vinny walked off with Shicodale.

Very soon, Vinny and the others ran into a three-eyed ape. This ape had six arms; spirit beasts of this kind were called spider monkeys.

After a few bouts of fighting, just when Vinny was about to finish off the spider monkey, another meteoric arrow streaked in and killed it instead.

Vinny silently looked at the big fat zero on his magic card, then looked again at the Imperial duo walking out of the jungle.

“Well, well, Vinny. You again. What a coincidence!” The two Imperial students laughed loudly.

Vinny tightened his grip on the spear. Now he understood exactly why the competition rules had included that clause about not attacking other students. If not for that, he wouldn’t have been able to keep hold of Frostfang.

“You two seriously plan on picking a fight with me??” Vinny asked, smiling without smiling.

“Vinny, that’s not fair to us. When did we ever pick a fight with you? We’re good classmates, right? Same class, good classmates—we’re supposed to look out for each other.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hunting together, adding points together. There’s strength in numbers, right?” the other chimed in.

“You two clowns—no skill, your strength is complete trash, you can’t beat people head-on, but you’re really good at underhanded tricks. Fits your character setting perfectly.” Vinny leaned on the spear and cocked his head.

“Hey now, Vinny, that’s a little inconsiderate.”

“What ‘consideration’ is there between us?” Vinny chuckled. “If I’m not cursing out all eighteen generations of your ancestors, I’m already being very considerate.”

“Come on, Vinny, don’t be so petty. We just stole a few points from you, right? No need to get this mad.”

“Yeah, you’re way too stingy.”

“Then how about you two get lost right now?” Vinny raised an eyebrow.

“No can do, Vinny. It’s not like this place is your family’s land. We go wherever we want. Since when do we need your permission?”

“Exactly. The rules spell it out really clearly: you’re allowed to fight over prey. If you can’t keep up, that just means your strength isn’t enough. We’re following the rules very properly here.”

The two of them wore punch-worthy grins, like they were just waiting for Vinny to lose it and take a swing at them.

“Heh. A pair of dogs hiding behind their master’s legs, that’s all you are. You’re just leaning on the rules and thinking no one can hit you.” Vinny sneered. “Like a couple of turtles—it fits your character setting too. Love-struck mutts who can’t get what they want.”

“You—!”

That line finally broke their mental defense. Both of them flared with anger, but very quickly they calmed back down, smiling at Vinny with that “What can you do about it?” look.

“You two... you two are planning to make sure Vinny and I don’t get even a single point?”

At this moment, the always-silent Shicodale stepped forward.

“This isn’t about you, Dale. We’ve got no beef with you. It’s just that you’re roommates with this guy—can’t be helped. You’re just collateral.”

The Imperial student spread his hands. What he said sounded like that, but there wasn’t a shred of apology in his tone.

“Today, if you manage to snag even one prey, I’ll wipe my Spirit Soul [Life-Chasing Crossbow]!”

On top of that, they even tossed out a bold declaration.

“Hahaha, what are we going to do? One of the only three Magus realms among the freshmen is going to end the day with zero points?? Hahahaha!”

These two idiots were useless at everything else, but when it came to stealing kills, they were absolute pros. Clearly, among the spells they’d learned, there was some kind of lock-on spell.

If his Spirit Soul weren’t sealed, it would be one thing. But right now...

In this state, competing with them for kills really was difficult.

As Vinny frowned in thought, he suddenly felt a hand press down on his shoulder and push him back.

Huh??

Vinny instantly knew something was off—but besides Shicodale, who else would do that?

And Shicodale’s personality was...

Then he saw Shicodale, chest lifted and back straight, one hand on his shoulder as he brushed past him and walked toward the two of them.

“Sure. Then how about we make a bet?”

Shicodale showed a cold, wild grin.

“Only, we flip it. I bet that from this moment on, you two won’t get a single point.”