How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

Seeing the scene before her, Rina felt a little superfluous. Sensibly, she withdrew and went outside to stand watch.

“Little Vanessa, while you’re here, just think of me as your real big sister.” Kaleni held Vanessa close and murmured softly. “You’ve had such a hard road, little Vanessa. You lost your parents young. When you were five or six, your family declined, and the entire burden of the Facilis Family fell onto the shoulders of a child. You’ve worked so hard.”

You’ve worked so hard.

Vanessa said nothing.

It seemed no one had ever said those words to her before.

Then again, hearing them from an ordinary person would have felt one way. Hearing them from Kaleni—someone who might be connected to her by blood—felt entirely different.

Vanessa usually did not dwell too deeply on her own past. But when someone tied to her by blood said such things to her, it felt as though all the slander, abuse, discrimination, exclusion, danger, and hardship she had endured finally found an outlet.

The bitterness kept spilling out, making her nose sting.

“I’ve always wanted a little sister, honestly. It’s a shame. If you absolutely have to return home, I really would have liked to keep you here with me.”

Vanessa lay quietly in Kaleni’s arms, pressing her lips together as faint rosy clouds drifted across her flawless face.

The Facilis Family had one particularly striking trait.

As healers, they were extremely well-endowed in every conceivable sense.

That thunderbolt was terrifying.

Before she knew it, warmth and exhaustion seeped through Vanessa’s body as she rested in Kaleni’s embrace. Her eyelids slowly drooped shut.

Kaleni stroked the cherry-haired girl’s head and hair. The two shared the same hair color, the same eye color, and even similar features.

Only after a long while, when Vanessa’s breathing gradually settled into an even rhythm, did Kaleni realize that the girl had fallen asleep.

Kaleni smiled gently. Vanessa seemed exhausted, so she had no intention of waking her.

But just as she carefully tried to withdraw her hand, her fingertips touched something warm and damp.

She looked at the glistening moisture on her finger, then lowered her head and sighed softly.

With gentle movements, she took out a silk handkerchief and wiped away the girl’s tears.

“Your Eminence.”

It was already deep into the night when Rina entered the sanctuary hall again.

Kaleni, seated on the sofa, pressed one finger to her lips and made a quiet shushing gesture.

Rina’s gaze lowered to Vanessa, asleep in Kaleni’s arms. Understanding immediately, she nodded.

“Rina, it’s late. You worked hard today. Go and get some rest,” Kaleni said in a voice barely louder than a whisper, afraid of waking the cherry-haired girl.

“Then shall I have a room prepared for Lord Vinny?” Rina asked tentatively.

Kaleni shook her head.

“No need. Leave her to me.”

“Understood.”

Rina nodded and withdrew.

They were both girls. Both belonged to the Facilis Family. Both were Dawn Saintesses.

One could even call them counterparts from different worlds.

There was nothing for Rina to worry about.

She sympathized deeply with Vanessa’s circumstances and felt furious at what the Church of the Dawn in Vanessa’s world had done to her.

But there was only so much they could do for her.

After Rina left, Kaleni slipped one arm beneath Vanessa’s back and the other beneath her knees, then carefully lifted the sleeping girl into her arms.

Vanessa had always been a light sleeper.

But tonight, in Kaleni’s arms, she slept soundly.

She felt as though she had never slept so well in her life.

Even her dependable internal clock failed to wake her this time. For once, she overslept.

No.

It was not that she had overslept.

The bed was refusing to let her go.

It was wide and soft, the blanket fluffy and warm. She felt as though she were drifting through a warm sea, unable to swim her way out no matter how hard she tried.

Could that really be blamed on her?

Hm?

Wait.

Why was there light shining beneath the sea?

The beam of light striking her face made Vanessa deeply uncomfortable.

It reminded her of school days back on Blue Star, when she was still dreaming of summer vacation, only for sunlight leaking through the curtains to ruthlessly shatter the fantasy and remind her that morning reading was waiting for her.

“Mm.”

Vanessa frowned and pulled the blanket over her face.

“Time to get up~”

A gentle voice with a teasing, mischievous lilt sounded beside Vanessa’s ear, delivering a serious blow to her sleepiness.

“Mm... let me sleep a little longer. Just a little...”

Vanessa wanted to cover her ears, but her mind was still foggy. She could not think clearly enough to remember that both hands were already clutching the blanket.

She had no hands left to cover her ears.

And what was with that voice?

No matter how she tried to hide, it remained so loud.

It was like someone was pressed right against her ear, speaking directly into it.

That was not right, was it?

When waking someone up, weren’t you supposed to stand at least a little distance away from the bed?

In her half-conscious state, Vanessa could not think the question through.

“Has little Vanessa never heard this saying~?”

“Children who sleep in late get their bottoms roasted by Mr. Sun~”

“Mr. Sun is... awfully rude,” Vanessa mumbled with her eyes shut tight beneath the blanket.

“So little Vanessa should get up quickly. Otherwise, Mr. Sun might make you very embarrassed~”

“Mr. Sun, please stop shining on me.”

Vanessa continued burrowing beneath the blanket, trying to escape the voice that kept following her.

“Pfft. Little Vanessa, you’re absolutely adorable~”

The voice sounded as though it could barely hold back laughter.

“Mm... stop bothering me. Mom said I can sleep a little longer.”

Vanessa was still drowning in sleep. Her mind could not distinguish memory from reality, and she thought she was back on Blue Star, with her mother waking her up.

The moment she said that, the voice fell silent.

There was only a crisp click.

Vanessa paid it no attention.

But before she could return to peaceful sleep, she felt a tickle at the tip of her nose.

Mm.

What was it this time?

After being tormented like this, most of Vanessa’s sleepiness had vanished. She slowly opened her still-heavy eyelids.

This time, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

She was not waking up in the Academy Sanatorium church.

Still half-asleep, Vanessa had no idea where she was.

“Finally awake?”

Hearing the voice, Vanessa blinked her sleepy eyes and turned toward its source in confusion.

A cherry-haired girl was lying on her side beside her, her long hair loose around her shoulders, wearing a faintly meaningful smile.

Vanessa froze for a moment.

Then every trace of sleep vanished.

A beautiful woman lying beside her in bed was something Vanessa was certain had never happened to her in either life.

“Did you sleep well last night, little Vanessa?” the cherry-haired girl asked, her lips curved in a slightly wicked smile.

“??”

It took Vanessa half a second to understand what exactly she was looking at.

She remembered arriving in a parallel world.

She remembered somehow becoming far too exhausted last night and falling asleep in Kaleni’s arms.

Then she had lost consciousness.

And when she woke up, this was what she found.

Wait.

Had she slept in the same bed as Kaleni?

Then she—

Vanessa thought of something and slowly lowered her gaze.

Her cheeks immediately flushed crimson.

Of course.

Sleeping while still dressed was uncomfortable. There was no way she could have slept this well that way.

No wonder she had slept so deeply and comfortably.

Which naturally meant that she was not wearing anything right now.

Vanessa looked up at the cherry-haired beauty lying on her side and watching her with amusement. Then she looked at her own cherry-pink hair scattered across the pillow.

Her embarrassment exploded.

She immediately burrowed beneath the covers, hiding the lower half of her face and leaving only her eyes exposed.

Those heart-shaped eyes were filled with panic as they darted helplessly about.

At that moment, she even forgot that what she ought to be most embarrassed about was sleeping in the same bed as a stunning woman she had only met once.

“Oh my. Little Vanessa is such an easily embarrassed child,” Kaleni said with undisguised amusement.

“H-How did I end up here?” Vanessa stammered. “And who changed my clothes?”

“Oh? Who else could it have been?” Kaleni curled her lips. “I certainly could not let someone else change little Vanessa’s clothes.”

“So...?”

“Little Vanessa, not bad at all~ Your skin is beautiful. And even within our family, you’re remarkably gifted.”

Kaleni covered her mouth and laughed softly.

What she meant was obvious.

“Please stop saying things that make no sense!” Vanessa’s pale skin shifted from faintly pink to thoroughly red. She lowered her head, unable to look up.

With the lower half of her face hidden beneath the blanket, her voice sounded soft, muffled, and adorable.

“Little Vanessa, if you keep acting like this, I’m going to have to spoil you very thoroughly.”

Kaleni felt as though something had struck directly at the softest part of her heart.

She licked her lips, and those eyes so similar to Vanessa’s filled with a flirtatious gleam.

Vanessa said nothing.

But she quietly wriggled backward until she reached the edge of the bed.

“Pfft. Little Vanessa, you’re far too cute. Come here, come here~ Why are you being so shy? Come to your big sister.”

Kaleni resisted the urge to grab Vanessa and squeeze her senseless, instead beckoning with one hand.

“I lost control last night. I’m very sorry,” Vanessa said, glancing at the sunlight leaking through the window before quickly looking away.

“Little Vanessa, I’ll get angry if you keep acting like that. You even called me big sister last night. Why are you suddenly being so formal this morning?”

Then Kaleni seemed to remember something and smiled.

“You even called me Mom this morning.”

“That never happened! Please do not say things that make people uncomfortable!” Vanessa’s face grew even redder.

“Oh? It did not?” Kaleni tilted her head. “Really? Little Vanessa, are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

She said that, but Vanessa could not even look at Kaleni while speaking.

Just now, she might have—

Possibly—

Maybe—

Said something that embarrassing?

No.

That could not be right.

She definitely had not said it.

Probably.

“Oh? Then what should we do if you really did say it?”

“I did not say it.”

Vanessa lowered her head, turned her eyes away, and activated her refuse-to-admit-anything mode.

“All right. Little Vanessa is certain she did not say it? Ah, ah. Little Vanessa is such a bad girl, lying like this.”

“I am not lying,” Vanessa insisted stubbornly.

“What a shame.”

Kaleni spoke in a deliberately mysterious tone.

“What is?”

“Little Vanessa, being true inside and out is a Facilis Family virtue.”

“I am not lying,” Vanessa insisted.

Also, was sincerity really a Facilis Family virtue?

Really?

Could the words Facilis and sincerity honestly belong in the same sentence?

“All right, then. Since little Vanessa insists.”

Kaleni regretfully took out a gemstone from beneath the blanket.

“?”

At first, Vanessa only thought the gemstone looked strangely familiar.

Then Kaleni pressed her slender finger against the pattern on the recording stone.

“Mm... stop bothering me. Mom said I can sleep a little longer~”

The clear, familiar voice blasted through Vanessa’s ears like thunder.

“Here~ If little Vanessa did not hear it clearly, I can press it again.”

With a wicked smile, Kaleni pressed the switch again.

Vanessa sat there in a bizarre silence and listened to her own soft, sleepy voice—filled with laziness and a hint of spoiled affection—for a second time.

“Oh? Did little Vanessa hear it clearly?” Kaleni asked. “If not, I can play it one more time~”

When Vanessa tried to play dead and muddle through it again, Kaleni naturally had no intention of giving her the chance.

“N-No need! Turn it off!” Vanessa hurriedly said, reaching out to snatch it.

“Oh? Little Vanessa, what are you doing? Are you in such a hurry to throw yourself into big sister’s arms?”

Kaleni naturally did not let Vanessa have it and tucked the recording stone away again.

“Miss Kaleni!”

Vanessa hugged the blanket tightly, biting her lip as she looked at Kaleni with aggrieved eyes.

“Why would you do something so mean?”

“Mean? How is it mean?” Kaleni looked utterly confused.

“Isn’t it mean enough? Taking things out of context is not something a proper lady should do!”

“Taking things out of context? How did I do that? I recorded the entire sentence little Vanessa said.”

“Anyway, Miss Kaleni, how can you carry a recording stone around with you everywhere, ready to collect other people’s embarrassing history at any moment? That is incredibly rude!”

“Oh? Could it not be for my own use?” Kaleni tilted her head.

“With all due respect, if you carry one around everywhere, what else could it possibly be for?” Vanessa argued reasonably.

What kind of normal person carried something like that around every day?

She could not imagine what kind of mischievous, black-hearted person would do such a thing.

“That makes sense.”

Kaleni nodded in wholehearted agreement, then handed the recording stone that had just played Vanessa’s voice to her.

“Here, little Vanessa. Take it back.”

“Ah?”

Vanessa stared blankly at the recording stone.

Wait.

Something was wrong.

She had thought it looked familiar earlier, but had not paid attention. She assumed it was simply the same model.

But apparently, that was not it.

“Why are you staring? Take it, little Vanessa. Does this recording stone not look familiar? It’s yours. Did you even forget that?”

Kaleni smiled sweetly at Vanessa.

At that moment, an angel’s smile looked more like a demon’s.

“Don’t worry. I did not play any of the other recordings stored in your recording stone. Though it seems there are quite a few of them?”

“You did well, little Vanessa. Like you said, that would be incredibly rude, wouldn’t it~?”

Imitating Vanessa’s earlier tone, Kaleni pulled another recording stone from beneath the blanket.

It looked completely different from Vanessa’s.

“That one is yours. Mine is this one~”

Vanessa’s expression froze as though she had put on a mask.

“Little Vanessa, I could not tell before~ Tsk, tsk. You like playing with these too. There must be plenty of other people’s embarrassing history stored in that recording stone, right~?”

Kaleni toyed with her own recording stone as she spoke.

“...”

Vanessa said nothing.

Before those heart-shaped eyes so similar to her own, it felt as though every little habit and secret of hers had been laid bare.

Like someone who loved a particular trick getting completely crushed by an old master of that very same trick.

“Little Vanessa, you said just now that if I was not carrying this around to collect other people’s embarrassing history, then what else could it possibly be for, right?”

Kaleni smiled wickedly.

“Oh, little Vanessa really does understand me. After all, it would be difficult to reach that conclusion without personal experience, would it not?”

What Blessing Angel?

She was clearly a little demon, wasn’t she?

“I... I did not... I do not know.”

Vanessa stuffed the recording stone into her chest and wriggled back beneath the covers.