How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

At those words, Vinny fell silent once more.

Seeing that Vinny did not find the question strange, Brill nodded slightly. Some things did not need to be said aloud.

It seemed Vinny also knew about Aesphyra’s issue in that regard. Brill was not surprised by that.

“I understand, Mr. Brill.” Vinny nodded, then thought for a moment before asking carefully, “Those words just now... were they conveyed on behalf of the family head?”

Vinny quickly realized what this implied. Aesphyra had caused such a huge commotion in order to save him, even mobilizing her family’s power. As the true helmsman of the Galathus Family, the current head of the house could not possibly be unaware of any of that.

If a father learned that his precious daughter had mobilized family resources for the sake of a boy, there was no way he would not pay attention to it.

Especially after finding out that this person was apparently the same useless playboy and notorious young delinquent of the royal capital.

It was not hard to imagine what kind of reaction that family head must have had.

So Vinny probed Brill in that indirect way, testing whether the family head was dissatisfied with him—whether he had sent his capable subordinate not only to help, but also to warn this impoverished dreamer from a fallen house and make him understand his place.

That was not impossible.

On the contrary, Vinny felt the odds of that were rather high.

After all, what father, upon learning his daughter was dating, did not first feel like some pig had come and rooted up his family’s cabbage? And this was a great noble house on top of that, with Aesphyra’s special status added in. How could something like this possibly be taken lightly?

That was also why this old butler had chosen a time when no one else was around and come to see him alone. Aesphyra definitely did not know about this.

“Young Master Facilis, both the master and I support and understand many of the Young Lady’s personal habits and preferences, because those are her freedom and her pursuit of happiness. But the premise for all of that is that the family line must continue, and that is precisely what gives the master such a headache.” The old butler looked at Vinny calmly, hands behind his back, and spoke in an even tone.

“So I believe the master’s expectations in this matter have always been set very low. If the Young Lady one day comes around, that would naturally be for the best. I imagine the master would be very pleased.”

The old butler had made his meaning very clear. For certain reasons, the head of the Galathus Family had no real expectations regarding Aesphyra finding a partner. So no matter what kind of person it was—even if it were some random cat or dog—so long as Aesphyra truly liked that person, the Galathus family head would accept it.

That left Vinny somewhat at a loss for how to respond.

From the sound of it, this did not seem like he had come to warn him because he was dissatisfied.

“Oh... is that so?” Vinny scratched his head.

“However, Young Master Facilis, do not misunderstand. Not just anyone can enter the Galathus Family’s household. It is only that the master has sufficient faith in the Young Lady’s judgment.”

Vinny understood that much well enough.

In other words, they had complete confidence in Aesphyra’s shrewdness.

Which made sense. Really, what kind of man could possibly fool Aesphyra?

Vinny certainly could not think of one.

If anyone was doing the fooling, it would probably be Aesphyra fooling other people. Vinny himself felt like he kept falling for her tricks and getting spun around in circles.

“Still, love is the sort of thing that makes people lose themselves emotionally and forfeit their basic reason and judgment, so some matters cannot be generalized. For the Galathus Family, ambition is a good thing—but a person must have a basic understanding of what he is. Without the strength and awareness to match that ambition, it is only a matter of time before misfortune follows.” The old butler spoke flatly. “That is our family motto.”

Vinny’s expression turned a little strange.

That sounded very much like Brill was implying, in a roundabout way, that even if someone gained the favor of a direct member of the Galathus Family, that person should not get inflated with self-importance and start thinking he could command the family, or that everything in the family belonged to him, or that he could somehow reverse the hierarchy and become the master instead.

The Galathus Family had plenty of ways to deal with that kind of person.

Anyone who wanted to use such a relationship to climb upward empty-handed and then steal the host’s place—man or woman—the Galathus Family had more than enough means to make that person behave and remember his place.

“Do not misunderstand. I am not referring to anyone in particular. Young Master Facilis, you have relied on your own strength every step of the way. Though your material conditions were not abundant, you still entered Carillian Academy through your own efforts and advanced to Magus. Setting all else aside, diligence and ambition are qualities that anyone can appreciate.” The old butler nodded.

“...Yes. Thank you for the praise.” Vinny was not entirely sure whether that really counted as praise.

“And although your family has declined, you are, after all, a descendant of the Dawn Goddess. In that sense, you and the Young Lady are quite well matched.”

“Ah... huh?” Vinny froze for a second. This butler’s change of direction had been far too abrupt. It was like the conversation had yanked the wheel all the way to one side so suddenly that Vinny could not process it.

No, wait. Up until now it had all been loaded implications and meaningful hints. How had it suddenly leaped to well matched?

Vinny’s thoughts derailed completely.

“Young Master Facilis, forgive my bluntness, but do you have that kind of interest in the Young Lady?” the old butler asked, raising a brow.

“Ah—ah? Sorry, what did you say?” Vinny instantly went mute, trying to dodge the question through sheer stammering.

“I am asking whether you are, on the whole, satisfied with my Young Lady.” The old butler clearly had no intention of letting the matter end there and pressed on.

“Uh, uh... of course I’m satisfied. Classmate Aesphyra is a very good friend.”

“You know that is not what I mean by friend,” the old butler pressed step by step.

“I... well...” Vinny hemmed and hawed and forced out a laugh. “That, well, of course not, haha. We haven’t even graduated from the Academy yet. I think things like that should be considered after we’ve actually accomplished something in life.”

“Is that so?” Seeing Vinny’s reaction, the old butler instead looked like he understood everything. “Very well. Actually, the Young Lady asked me to ask this on her behalf. Since that is the case, I shall go back and tell her just that—that you have no such intentions at all, and we cannot very well force the matter.”

“Eh—eh?!” Seeing the old butler actually turn to leave, Vinny panicked on the spot. “Wait! Hold on a second!”

That kind of thing really, really should not happen!

“I—I don’t dislike Aesphyra!” At this point, Vinny had no rationality left and just shouted it outright.

“Oh?” The old butler, who had already turned to go, slowly turned back again, the faintest curve at the corner of his mouth.

“Then that means you like her?”

What is this, does your whole Galathus Family use the exact same script? Even the wording is identical.

“...” Vinny said nothing. His lips were moving as if he were still arguing, mumbling something along the lines of I don’t and not disliking isn’t the same as liking, as though some passive skill had been triggered and he was symbolically insisting on a few last stubborn denials. But in truth, his voice had become so weak it was barely audible at all.

Even his head had sunk down like an ostrich trying to hide, as though something heavy were pressing on the back of his neck and preventing him from lifting it.

Maybe even he himself did not want anyone to hear those few words of protest.

But he still had to say them. Say them to himself, if nothing else, so his own heart could get past it.

Seeing Vinny react like that, Brill—who had kept a straight face the entire time—rarely showed an inadvertent smile.

He had originally assumed that a boy like this would be the calculating sort, the scheming kind, someone who approached Aesphyra with one purpose or another.

It was not that his master distrusted Aesphyra’s judgment, but love truly was the sort of thing that could make people lose their reason. And Aesphyra had never been in love before. So for safety’s sake, it was better to let a completely trusted old butler like him come and take a look himself, to see exactly what sort of person this boy from House Facilis really was.

After all, Brill had a great deal of experience reading people.

And the result was that this young boy was unexpectedly easy to understand.

Looking at this violent reaction, he probably had never been in love before either. The moment the topic came up, he became shy like a little girl.

Just from that reaction alone, the old butler could already imagine what the usual pattern of interaction between him and the Young Lady looked like.

The master had not been worried that the Young Lady might be tricked, but he had worried that because she had never been in love before, she might be misled by someone with ulterior motives. Parents were always prone to that sort of excessive concern.

But after watching Vinny react like this, Brill now seriously doubted who was fooling whom here, and who was baiting whom.

Of course, as a servant, he would never eavesdrop on his master’s private conversations with others. Still, when he had gone to report to Aesphyra earlier, he had overheard fragments of what she and Vinny were saying in the room.

Putting that together with everything else, he got the distinct sense that his Young Lady was the hunter here—the one laying down every kind of plan and “trap” to catch this innocent young boy.

Which was to say, as expected of the Young Lady. She always knew what she was doing and what she wanted, and once she knew it, she never hesitated. She was always the one in control.

Of course, all of these reactions could have been an act.

But Brill had watched every minute change in Vinny’s facial expressions from beginning to end. Everything had shifted so smoothly, so naturally, without the slightest trace of deliberate performance. It was all genuine.

There were certainly people whose acting could be that natural.

But it definitely would not be some young man barely grown.

And even if it were acting, to perform it to that degree would still require genuine emotion.

So this is the type the Young Lady likes?

But after thinking about it, Brill found it easy enough to understand.

His Young Lady was not an ordinary girl. Even her orientation had never exactly been ordinary, so why would the type of man she liked be ordinary?

If anything, the fact that her orientation had finally straightened out at all already felt like cause to thank the heavens. Who would still dare ask for the man’s type on top of that? The fact that he was a man at all was already good enough. To be perfectly honest, even Brill still found it hard to believe that his Young Lady had actually become interested in a man.

Watching Vinny still trying to recover, still stammering some half-formed explanation without seeming to know who exactly he was trying to explain himself to, the old butler felt he could finally understand why Aesphyra was interested in him.

A boy who was this passive, this shy, and this stubborn in matters of affection really was... kind of adorable.

And in that regard, wasn’t he rather similar to a girl?

Brill had watched Aesphyra grow up.

He knew all too well that this was exactly her type.

Really, with how delicate the Young Master of Facilis looked, if he changed clothes, there would not be the slightest sense of incongruity at all.

Besides, the Young Lady had been surrounded since childhood by noble young masters who were false, slippery, and blatantly purposeful. How could those aristocratic heirs possibly enter the Young Lady’s eyes?

A boy like this, whose feelings were pure and easy to read, would instead be more likely to attract her. Aesphyra might be deeply calculating herself, but that did not mean she liked calculating people. A person who wore a mask every day would grow tired of staring at other people’s masks, and would naturally find those without any scheming much more likable. Being around such people was simply easy. There was no need to constantly worry about being stabbed in the back.

With that thought, Brill suddenly understood everything.

Following Aesphyra’s own line of thought, he felt he had finally grasped how his Young Lady saw this matter.

Now it was clear.

It was not that his Young Lady had been baited or deceived at all.

She was the hunter.

Brill decided he should stop getting in the way of the Young Lady’s good thing. Besides, this would also give him something he could take back and report properly to the master.

“All right, Young Master Facilis. I believe I already understand what you are thinking.”

“W-what do you understand exactly?!” Vinny blurted out.

“Rest assured. My Young Lady did not send me to ask this.” Brill lowered his gaze. “My deepest apologies. For certain reasons, I lied just now.”

“What?!” Vinny visibly relaxed after hearing that. “Don’t joke around like that!”

Thinking about it, that made sense.

There was no way Aesphyra would ask him something like that.

That question was way too—... right?

The two of them obviously did not have—did not have anything like that going on.

Right?

There really was nothing going on at all.

“Sorry to disturb your rest. Farewell, Young Master Facilis.” With that, Brill turned and left.

“Huh?” Vinny stared at Brill’s departing figure in total confusion.

No, what was all that even supposed to mean?

Were the people in the Galathus Family all like this? A whole family of riddle-speakers?

Why had he come looking for him, exactly? On whose orders?

“Young Lady.”

After leaving Vinny, Brill ran into Aesphyra at a corner just as she happened to be passing by.

“Good work, Uncle Brill~” Aesphyra smiled and nodded at him.

“?” A flicker of surprise passed over Brill’s face, but he quickly returned to normal.

The “good work” his Young Lady meant should have been about how he had brought people along earlier to help.

After all, what he had done before had been at the master’s instruction, and the Young Lady knew absolutely nothing about it.

Probably.

Right?