How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

Yes. He liked Aesphyra. He had liked Aesphyra very, very much since his previous life.

That was the truest thought in his heart. Without a chance like this, perhaps even he would never have fully understood his own feelings. Only in a situation like this, with the atmosphere pushed to this point, could these words finally be spoken.

The two of them fell into a tacit silence again. Even Aesphyra did not speak first this time.

Right now, Vinny was like a hamster being roasted over a fire. There was definitely no way to retreat, and he could not even chicken out anymore. On top of that, his emotions had surged up, so he had poured everything out in one breath.

Vinny’s face was flushed scarlet. He turned his gaze away, his eyes drifting everywhere.

“Riiiiiiing...!”

A clear, bright class bell rang out.

Both of them sank into silence.

Even so, everything had already been said without words.

“Hm? Student Aesphyra, Student Vinny, what are the two of you standing here for?”

The history teacher, holding textbooks and teaching materials under one arm, came around the corner. When he saw Vinny and Aesphyra standing there in a daze, he frowned.

“Class is about to start. Aren’t you going into the classroom? If you enter after I do, that counts as late, and credits will be deducted.”

Hearing that, Vinny could only brace himself and return to the classroom together with Aesphyra. Because the history teacher was walking behind them, neither of them said a word along the way, but they moved with an unusual tacit understanding, as though both had come to understand something.

The history teacher himself was not in any great hurry to enter the classroom. He simply did not want Vinny and Aesphyra to be late and lose credits. After all, he was famous throughout the Academy for being strict.

But he felt both of these children were good children, so he deliberately took his time and let the two of them enter the classroom first.

After Vinny and Aesphyra entered, neither of them spoke. The other students in the classroom were already sitting neatly in rows, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Only these two slipped in right at the last second, and immediately after they entered, the history teacher walked in.

Everyone’s eyes fell on Aesphyra and Vinny. They were all used to the two of them bickering every day, but it was still strange that the two had come into the classroom together.

What had they been doing together before this? They could not have been bickering for the entire long break, could they??

Their curiosity was destined to receive no answer or explanation. After returning to their seats, the two of them said nothing, as though nothing had happened at all.

Because Aesphyra had placed her textbook at the seat behind them, she did not sit together with Vinny.

At her seat, Isatia watched Vinny sit down again. Her gaze drifted back and forth between Vinny and Aesphyra, then finally withdrew, full of meaningful implication.

“Eh, eh??”

Shicodale originally did not think much of it. After all, Aesphyra had said earlier that she could make Vinny feel better, so presumably she had gone to counsel Student Vinny.

And honestly, Student Aesphyra really was amazing and reliable, huh? After being counseled by Student Aesphyra, Student Vinny really did not look as gloomy and worried as before. But.

Even so, when Shicodale saw Vinny’s slightly stiff neck, as though he were deliberately avoiding someone’s gaze, she still felt an indescribable strangeness.

It was as though Student Vinny was deliberately not looking in a certain direction, and did not dare meet someone’s eyes.

Was it... Student Aesphyra?

Shicodale looked at Vinny, then at Aesphyra, who was seated at the desk behind them. The silver-haired girl, beautiful enough that even Shicodale had no choice but to praise her appearance, was still as calm and graceful as ever. She brushed the hair at her temple aside with one hand and elegantly opened her textbook.

Just like usual.

But.

Shicodale hesitated.

She very much wanted to take the initiative and remind Aesphyra that she had opened the wrong textbook.

This class was history, but the book she had opened was geography.

“What are you looking at? What are all of you looking at?”

The history teacher tapped the blackboard with a piece of chalk.

“All right, put those mischievous little glances away. Stop paying attention to other people. Class has already begun. Look here. Don’t look at other people’s faces. There aren’t any words written on their faces.”

“Everyone, at the start of the semester, I still hope you can settle your minds. It is like this at the beginning of every semester. You all play yourselves wild, and I hope you can adjust your state as quickly as possible.”

With that, the history teacher opened his teaching materials and textbook.

“All right, everyone. Turn your new textbooks to page two.”

The quiet classroom filled with the sound of pages turning.

Aesphyra also turned the page along with everyone else.

But.

Ever since Shicodale noticed that Aesphyra had taken out the wrong book, she could not help watching her.

Aesphyra’s eyes, like spring water rippling with jade-green waves, always looked extraordinarily bright. Only this time, she seemed not even to notice that Shicodale was looking at her.

That left Shicodale rather surprised. In her impression, this Student Aesphyra had always been someone who handled everything with flawless seriousness, and she was also extremely perceptive.

After confirming again and again that Aesphyra had taken out a geography textbook, Shicodale was incomparably shocked.

This class... should be history, right??

If anyone else had taken out the wrong textbook, Shicodale would have thought the other person had been careless and dazed for a moment. But because it was this Student Aesphyra, Shicodale even began to wonder whether the history teacher on the podium had remembered the schedule wrong. Maybe this class was supposed to be geography, not history, and he had walked into the wrong classroom.

Because of that, Shicodale even took out the class schedule and checked it. She discovered that it really was history. The history teacher had not entered the wrong classroom.

But why would this happen??

After confirming it repeatedly, Shicodale finally determined that Aesphyra had taken the wrong textbook. Everyone else had the right one.

Uh, uh? So what exactly was going on??

Shicodale thought this was very strange, but if she had to explain why it was strange, it was not actually that strange. After all, everyone made mistakes sometimes. Even someone as perfect as Student Aesphyra was no exception.

But why had she made this small mistake at a time like this??

Or could it be that Student Aesphyra had some deeper meaning in doing this, something Shicodale had failed to comprehend??

Speaking of which, this could not have anything to do with Student Aesphyra going to counsel Student Vinny earlier, right?

It probably did not, right? She was clearly the one doing the counseling, and from the way things looked now, the results had been very good.

Shicodale did not understand. But after hesitating several times, and seeing that Aesphyra still had not moved the correct textbook over, she finally could not help whispering to Aesphyra at the desk behind her.

“Um, Student Aesphyra, Student Aesphyra?”

“Teacher asked everyone to open the history textbook.”

Shicodale called her twice, drew Aesphyra’s attention, then reminded her tactfully.

“Thank you for the reminder, Student Dale.”

Aesphyra glanced at the textbook in front of her and laughed softly, then switched to the correct textbook and opened it.

“It’s nothing.”

What? She looked just like usual.

Student Aesphyra’s reaction was perfectly normal. After being reminded, she did not even seem dazed as though she had just come back to herself.

This was probably just a tiny little mistake on Student Aesphyra’s part. Besides, with Student Aesphyra’s grades, it probably made no difference which textbook she opened. If the teacher asked a question, she could even answer better than the teacher himself.

Thinking of it this way, Shicodale instantly felt that everything was very normal again. She had overthought it.

As for Vinny, he did not hear the quiet exchange between Shicodale and Aesphyra.

He was busy sorting out his thoughts right now.

His reason told him that class mattered right now, and he had to focus fully on the lesson. Otherwise, if he fell behind in progress, he would have to trouble Isatia to tutor him again.

Reason was reason, but his emotions were clearly overpowering it right now.

His hand groped here and there, and he ended up grabbing the sheet of paper he had scribbled all over during the previous class. He picked it up and looked at it, then froze unconsciously.

No, who had drawn his current mental state onto this thing??

Ah, no, no.

Only then did Vinny realize that these were the ghostly scribbles he had drawn during the previous class. He flung it aside, picked up his pen, opened his history textbook, and put on a serious, proper-looking posture as though he were taking notes and listening attentively. In reality, the teacher had not asked them to take notes at all right now, and he simply began marking key points in the history textbook.

His behavior was fully taken in by Isatia beside him. Isatia watched Vinny for a while, then cast a deep look in Aesphyra’s direction.

It looked like her own progress had been temporarily thrown behind.

In summary, Vinny no longer had even the spare capacity to listen to class. His neck seemed locked in place, as though behind him was a blind spot—or some kind of invisible thing that would electrocute him if he looked at it. He did not dare turn back at all.

No, no, what exactly was wrong with him? Was he still embarrassed about what he had said earlier?

He had already said it. Words spoken were water spilled. Why had he not felt embarrassed when he said them earlier? What meaning was there in thinking about it now??

Vinny repeated this fact in his mind again and again. But precisely because he cared too much about it and kept repeating to himself that he must not care, it became extremely hard for him to concentrate.

In the end, when the class ended, Vinny felt as though he had heard nothing at all. All he had done was loop the phrases “Don’t care about it” and “Listen seriously” inside his own head.

He had kept reminding himself not to care about what had happened before and to focus on the lesson first. As a result, he had listened to the lesson even less.

It was over.

He was afraid he would have to ask Isatia to patch the gap in his knowledge again later.

Only when this class ended did Vinny think this helplessly.

How strange. For some reason, the previous class had been incomparably tormenting, but time had passed extremely quickly during this class. It was as though this class and the previous one were not in the same space, and the flow of time was different.

“All right. There was quite a lot of content in this class, but none of you are first-year newcomers anymore. You need a little adaptability. Go back and digest it. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you may come up and ask me.”

Just as the history teacher was putting away his teaching materials and textbook, a figure appeared at the classroom door.

All the students looked over and discovered that the person was their class’s combat teacher.

That left the students rather puzzled.

The next class was not combat class, was it?

Or rather, there was no combat class today at all. Logically speaking, they should not be seeing her. Could the teacher have remembered the schedule wrong??

“Sorry, sir. I hope I didn’t interrupt your class.”

The female teacher nodded to the history teacher.

“No interruption. Class is already over anyway. You came at just the right time.”

The history teacher looked up at the clock.

“I imagine you have something important to announce to the students. In that case, I won’t disturb you.”

With that, the history teacher nodded to her and left the classroom.

“All right, everyone. I know what you want to say. ‘There’s no combat class today, but we’re seeing you anyway,’ right? I’ll try to explain things quickly, so you won’t complain about having to see me somewhere other than the arena.”

The combat teacher stood on the podium with her hands on her hips.

“Everyone, I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the Carillian Academy Chosen Leader Tournament?”

“It doesn’t matter if you haven’t. Now, whether you’ve heard of it or not, sit properly and listen carefully. I’ll only explain it once.”

“Those who’ve heard it can treat this as hearing it again to deepen the impression. Those who haven’t heard it need to prick up their ears even more.”

The combat teacher clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention.

“I don’t know whether your year is lucky or unlucky. If I say unlucky, well, you’ve waited until the Chosen Leader Tournament that countless upperclassmen never managed to see even by the day they graduated. If I say lucky, it happens to be this year, when you are second-years. As second-years, you have only just barely reached the threshold for entering the Chosen Leader Tournament.”

“The holding of the Academy Chosen Leader Tournament is connected to a special celestial phenomenon. When this phenomenon is observed, this special and grand event will be held. Every single one of these tournaments is significant enough to be recorded in the history of Carillian Academy.”

“And as it happens, this celestial phenomenon was observed recently.”

“For a thousand years, countless proud geniuses have enrolled in Carillian Academy while waiting for an opportunity—a stage where they could display themselves to their hearts’ content, where they could shine and blaze. Yet fortune and circumstance have always been the most critical parts of creating heroes. Many among them possessed the strength and talent to forge legends, but alas, they were ultimately missing the most crucial piece of the puzzle.”

“That piece was opportunity.”

“Now, this opportunity has appeared before your eyes. Whether each of you can seize this chance to leave your name in Academy history depends on you.”

After saying this, the teacher swept her gaze across these students she had taught for a year and spoke in a deep voice.

“You are still far luckier than your upperclassmen. They clearly only needed to wait one more year to gain this chance to display themselves, but they fell short by that single year. They graduated, and forever missed this opportunity.”

“When I say these things to you now, you may not fully understand. As your experience grows, one day, you will understand that this is a tournament one can only encounter by chance, never seek on command.”

“If entering Carillian Academy means changing your fate, then this tournament will be an opportunity for those who are prepared to ascend to the heavens in a single step and forge a legend.”

“Even a thousand years from now, people will still remember the bearer of this title: ‘Carillian Chosen Leader,’ ‘Carillian’s Chosen One Granted by God.’ They will still be able to come to know you through history books, even if by then, you have long since passed into dust.”

Hearing this, all the students held their breaths and focused completely. Each of them seemed to sink into thought.

Aesphyra was like this. Isatia was like this. After Vinny adjusted his state a little, he was the same.

On this point, the teacher was not wrong.

An opportunity to ascend to the heavens in a single step.

Vinny’s expression settled slightly.

“I imagine my words alone are not enough to make all of you fully understand the scale and rarity of this tournament. Let me put it this way. Nearly every principal of Carillian Academy has been a champion of this tournament.”