How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

Vanessa rose to her feet and gathered every last feather she had dropped onto the ground. After making sure she hadn’t missed a single one, she sat back down, curled up, and wrapped both arms around her knees.

The time should be close.

She had been unconscious for far longer than she’d imagined. A whole day might already have passed.

Vanessa tried to see whether she could turn back into Vinny. She spread her pure-white angel wings and wrapped them around herself. Cherry-colored radiance burst outward—then immediately drew back and dimmed.

The shelter of the wings faded, and the blue-haired young man appeared again. He sat there listlessly, his Carillian Academy uniform in tatters.

The emergency exit the ancient imperial researchers had left behind was already useless. The odds of going deeper and somehow finding another exit were low, and the way back was no longer something he could count on either.

At this point, all he could do was place all his hope in outside help.

Please let the distress signal I sent get through.

As for whether the person he had asked for help would come after receiving the distress signal from the [Telepathy Scroll], and whether she would be able to find him down here, Vinny had no doubt at all.

It was strange. It felt like as long as that person knew he was in danger, he would definitely be fine. Even when disaster struck him, she had been the first one he thought of.

Vinny stared blankly at the rock wall above him for no reason at all. It was hard to tell what he was even looking at.

He took out his bottle of cheap perfume from his bag and sprayed some on himself to cover Vanessa’s scent.

Leaning back against the rock wall, Vinny let out a long sigh.

Compared to Vanessa’s neat, proper posture with both arms around her knees, Vinny’s movements were far more unrestrained. He normally didn’t care much about posture in the first place, and even less at a time like this.

Even though he kept telling himself in his heart that things would be all right in the end, being alone underground in a place with no light of day made the oppressive atmosphere hard to bear. Even Vinny couldn’t stop the unease from rising in his chest.

What if Aesphyra still didn’t receive his call for help because the distance was too great?

Vinny didn’t know.

He didn’t really dare think about that possibility.

After all, Vinny had no idea where Aesphyra’s assessment site was this time. And even if she did receive it, she would still have to figure out where he had gone for his assessment, and after reaching that area, she would have to investigate too.

If it came to that, then dangerous and uncertain or not, he would have no choice but to try seeing whether the collapsed route beyond the stone door could still be passed through.

The underground cavern was so silent that the only thing Vinny could hear was his own breathing. He started missing Milian and all her noisy chattering.

Loneliness really was a kind of slow poison.

Especially in an oppressive environment like this, two people were absolutely better than one. When someone was beside you, when you could feel the other person’s presence, that terrible sense of lonely panic weakened a great deal.

Vinny took out the two potions Mirexia had given him again and drank a few mouthfuls, as though drinking more might somehow calm his mood.

This wasn’t the first time he had crawled back from the edge of death, but it was one of the rare times he had lost a companion.

Milian, who had saved him only to end up trapped alone in the Demon God Abyss with her life or death unknown. His own post-disaster survival, yet still not being out of danger and having no idea what to do. And the confusion of not knowing how to bring Milian back, while the hope he was clinging to gradually wore away as he waited.

All kinds of negative and tangled emotions were twisted together, leaving Vinny at a loss.

Right now, all he wanted was to go back to his own little nest, shut the door, calm himself down, sit quietly, and think about what to do next.

But instead, he was trapped in this cavern and couldn’t get out.

In the worst-case scenario, he would be trapped here forever, until who knew how long later, someone found this place, dragged out his corpse, and marked him down as one of the dead.

Vinny’s mental state really was in bad shape right now. All he could do was repeat to himself over and over in his heart that he was fine, that someone was still waiting for him to save her.

He had survived this many catastrophes already. Even that monster from the abyss hadn’t managed to kill him completely. So how could he let his own fear crush him here of all places??

People always said that when someone was in danger, that person would think of home, think of family.

But the place Vinny wanted to return to most right now was not that cold house where no one lived except himself.

It was Carillian Academy.

His dorm room.

‘If one day you disappear, I’ll go find you. I’ll keep looking, without ever stopping.’ The Moon Elf girl’s voice from before he departed echoed by his ear.

Shicodale.

How was she doing right now?

Her assessment was escorting a merchant caravan, and she had several teammates with her too. Nothing should happen, right?

‘Sister Vanessa...’

“Perfect timing. Keep me company for a bit,” Vinny said when he heard the little angel’s voice coming from his Sea of Mind.

Even though the other side didn’t even have a concrete body, having someone to talk to was already good enough. Vinny urgently needed to distract himself so he wouldn’t be dragged down into the abyss of fear by his own negative emotions.

‘Huh? Keep you company? Um, do you mean you want me to chat with you, Sister Vanessa?’ the little angel asked tentatively.

“Yes. Chat with me.” Vinny sat up straight. “You pick the topic. I don’t have the energy to.”

‘Oh.’ The little angel agreed at once. Since it was Vanessa’s instruction, she absolutely had to carry it out perfectly.

But if she had to deliberately make conversation and come up with a topic, she couldn’t think of one right away.

Maybe she should just talk about something common.

‘Sister Vanessa, did you... eat?’

“I did,” Vinny replied weakly.

‘What did you eat?’

“Didn’t you just see it?” Vinny half-closed his eyes.

‘Ah, right, I did see it. Oh, I get it now. So I’m not supposed to talk about things I already saw, right!’ the little angel said in sudden realization.

“...Talking to you makes me want to die,” Vinny said after a moment of silence.

He’d wanted to distract himself, but somehow talking to the little angel only made him more irritated.

Then again, that made sense. Radiant-Cross Holy Shield had been asleep for around a hundred years. In all that time, she hadn’t chatted with anyone. Expecting her to be good at conversation was unrealistic.

‘Eh? Did I... did I say something wrong, Sister Vanessa?’ When the little angel realized she hadn’t helped Vinny at all, her mood instantly sank.

“Forget it. Let’s stop talking and sleep.” As he spoke, Vinny lay down on the ground and used his travel bag as a pillow. “Sleep, sleep.”

Didn’t people always say that when things got hard, the answer was sleep?

Sleep. Sleep for a while, and he’d pull himself together. Everything would get better. It would even let him fast-forward time a little.

Thinking that, Vinny forced his tightly furrowed eyes shut and tried to fall asleep.

He hadn’t slept for days. He’d also been fighting nonstop the whole time. Logically, he should’ve been exhausted enough to fall asleep the instant he lay down.

But he couldn’t sleep.

Normally, his sleep quality was excellent. It was practically baby-level—he could pass out the second his head hit the pillow.

But today, he tossed and turned and couldn’t fall asleep no matter what.

Was the floor too hard?

Was the environment too miserable?

Was the atmosphere too oppressive, his mood too low?

Probably all of it.

Vinny let out a long sigh. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do now. He couldn’t even keep spacing out, because whenever he did, his thoughts inevitably drifted toward things he didn’t want to think about.

Just earlier, he had been the one encouraging Milian, telling her not to imagine the worst in everything.

Maybe Vinny was really too tired.

Staring at the ceiling, after an unknown amount of time had passed, he finally fell asleep.

When he woke up, he had no idea how long he’d been asleep. What he saw was still that same dim rock wall.

Even though he had slept and gotten at least a little rest, Vinny still felt weak and utterly drained. He had clearly cast several [Healing Orbs] on himself earlier.

He had no idea whether the problem was physical or mental.

So tired.

Half-conscious, Vinny drifted off again. During that time, he kept falling asleep and waking up in broken stretches, over and over.

When he woke again, the scene before his eyes was exactly the same as before.

That dim rock wall gave off an intensely oppressive feeling, as though it could collapse at any moment, crash down on him, and bury him underneath it.

He almost didn’t want to wake up anymore.

He’d rather just keep sleeping.

But he had already slept. He couldn’t fall asleep again, even though his body was still terribly exhausted.

How strange.

He had slept this long, yet had no energy at all—and didn’t feel hungry in the slightest.

Vinny let out a long sigh.

Looks like he couldn’t keep skipping time after all.

Sometimes, he really wished all of this were just a dream.

If he wanted to take out food and water, he would have to sit up and lift the travel bag he was using as a pillow.

But right now, he had absolutely no desire to do that.

Whether it was because he had no appetite, or no strength, or was simply too sluggish to bother, he couldn’t tell.

Vinny rolled over onto his side and noticed a glowing crystal-like object not far away.

Right. He had thrown Frostfang earlier.

Vinny was silent for a moment, then struggled to push himself up. Just the act of standing made it feel like every part of his body was shaking loose. Staggering slightly, he walked over to the icy crystal earring, picked it up, and checked its condition.

It looked fully recharged.

Since the moment he had used [Icefang’s Roar], twenty-four hours had already passed.

And still, nothing here had changed.

Vinny sat back down where he had been before and slumped over his travel bag, as if this place had become his respawn point.

There was still food in the bag.

But he didn’t want to eat at all.

He didn’t even feel thirsty.

How long had it been since he sent the [Telepathy Scroll]?

A long time, probably.

There was no starry sky here. No daylight, no night. It was as though everything had stopped, making it impossible to feel the passage of time at all.

It was like being locked inside an isolated anomaly space cut off from the world, with no one in it except himself.

So what?

Wasn’t that how he used to live too?

He had looked as though he lived in the lively, prosperous Camella Royal Capital, but in truth, that life had been no different from living in a world all by himself.

So what was different now?

Nothing.

If it was all the same, then why did he still feel so lonely?

So lonely it was suffocating.

Hadn’t he gotten used to it already?

Vinny closed his eyes, and memories from after his rebirth into this world surfaced one by one.

Then he realized that the memories most important to him were the bonds he had formed with other people.

So that was it.

He treasured those things that much.

Maybe... he really was someone who feared loneliness.

Even he himself had never realized that. If someone had said as much to him on a normal day, he definitely would have snapped back in a panic with something like, What kind of joke is that? This young master is a lone wolf! or Since when am I afraid of loneliness??

Sure enough, once a person had seen blazing light, that person could never go back to the cold darkness again.

“How far underground is this place, anyway?” Vinny murmured without thinking.

They had fallen for so long just getting down here. They had to be incredibly far below the surface.

Maybe they’d fallen straight past the center of the earth.

Vinny gave a dry little laugh. He felt like he was being hopelessly naive.

His [Telepathy Scroll] probably hadn’t worked at all, had it?

Never mind horizontal distance. The distance on the Y-axis alone was absurd.

Even she wouldn’t be able to find this place, would she?

And him too.

When their relationship had started out so terribly, when exactly had he begun getting used to relying on her?

She wasn’t omnipotent either, was she?

Then... he’d search along the stone door route.

Hopefully he’d find a way out.

When he woke up after sleeping again, he’d go look.

That was right. Vinny suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. It darkened his vision, made all four limbs go weak, and the sensation coming from his body grew fainter and fainter.

His breathing turned ragged, but he didn’t have the strength to move, much less call for help.

Well, great.

Earlier he couldn’t fall asleep, and now sleepiness had finally come.

Sleep.

Sleep for a while, and then he’d go look for the exit.

He’d definitely find one.

Vinny’s eyelids drooped. He was almost at his limit.

Even though he desperately wanted to slip into sleep, something about this drowsiness felt wrong.

He looked toward the charge-storage quill lying not far away from him. There was still some mana left inside it. It could still write.

Vinny grabbed the quill.

In this moment, with his thoughts in chaos and darkness gradually closing over him, he instinctively wanted to write something down.

‘Sister Vanessa, don’t sleep! Don’t sleep!’ the little angel cried out in alarm.

But Vinny could no longer hear her.

He was breathing hard, yet soon even the strength to pant left him. Clutching the quill, his sweat-soaked fingers moved in erratic strokes, writing something on the ground. Before he could finish, he lost his grip on the quill. It slipped from his hand, and no matter how he groped for it, he couldn’t catch it.

Good night.

Vinny slowly closed his eyes.

He felt as though his body were sinking into dark, icy seawater, descending deeper and deeper into the deep sea.

Then, all at once, something landed on the back of his hand—like snowmelt dripping beneath the warm sun of early spring—and spread from there.

Warmth rapidly spread outward, as though spring had arrived, driving away the ice and snow covering him, as though flowers and sunlight were pouring over his body.

With difficulty, Vinny forced open his heavy eyelids.

The silver figure that had flashed through his mind just before he lost consciousness was now crouching right in front of him, a warm light of hope seeming to shimmer behind her.

Was it...

an illusion?