“Nom, nom... what is it? Do I have something on my face??” Vinny asked as he ate the brand-name cake ice cream Aesphyra had given him.

“This young master knows this young master is handsome, but you keep looking over at me at the drop of a hat, and I’m gonna feel really uncomfortable too, you know? Especially when I’m eating. Next time you look again, I’m charging you.” He swallowed a mouthful of ice cream and spoke with his words slightly muffled.

It wasn’t like he ever ate particularly neatly. He’d always been pretty carefree about that, and he didn’t care if people saw him eating without grace.

But when Aesphyra looked over, it was different.

Somehow, it just felt... off. Even Vinny didn’t know what the feeling was.

“Ahh~ Then how much are you going to charge, exactly? Let me see if it’s reasonable.” Aesphyra smoothly took his words and ran with them. With one hand propping her cheek, she watched Vinny with a soul-hooking smile at the corners of her lips.

“N-no. Wait. You—did you think of some new way to mess with me again?!” Vinny instantly turned wary, staring at Aesphyra as he tried to figure ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ out whether this sour nut had some new bad idea bubbling in her belly.

“Eh? Do I really make you feel that unsafe, Vinny?~” Aesphyra looked amused at how he was acting like he was facing a deadly enemy.

“Yeah. Obviously. What else?” Vinny said with complete certainty.

“That’s so mean, Vinny. In that whole trip earlier, I was thinking about you every single moment.” Aesphyra lifted her pretty brows.

“Y-you... what kind of nonsense are you saying?!” Vinny blurted, and all at once his hands got a lot less coordinated.

Seriously—how was it that after not seeing her for so long, the moment she came back, she was saying stuff this shameless??

But Vinny knew it. Everything this white-haired nutball said like this was definitely meant to tease him. Not a single word was sincere. If he believed her, he’d be the one getting played.

“Is that not allowed? Don’t tell me even thinking about you costs money?” Aesphyra teased.

“Tch. Why would you think about me? Don’t. Every time I imagine someone like you setting your sights on me, I get nightmares.” Vinny shoved another bite of ice cream into his mouth as he complained.

Mm. As expected of Kontro—this ice cream was incredible. Soft and fluffy, like he was eating cake, but it still had that sweet richness and refreshing smoothness that belonged to ice cream.

“Is it good, Vinny?” Aesphyra asked.

“Mm. The taste is... barely passable.” That was just how Vinny was. Even if he was practically melting from the sweetness inside, he still had to talk tough. The hardest part of his body was his mouth.

“Oh, I see. So Vinny likes desserts that are sickeningly sweet.” Just like Vinny had become fluent in Dale-speak after spending so long with Shicodale, Aesphyra was equally proficient in Vinny-speak.

If something could make Vinny’s mouth soften even a little, then it had definitely hit him right in the heart.

“Tch. I do. So what? Mind your own business.” Vinny shot Aesphyra a side glance and snorted.

“Nothing at all. But it’s midday—Vinny ate this much. Aren’t you afraid you’ll gain weight?” Aesphyra glanced at the several bowls piled up in front of him.

“Afraid of what? I’m not a girl—why would I be afraid of gaining weight? What, are you scared I’m gonna eat all your ice cream?” Vinny took huge bites like he could bankrupt her just by eating.

“Vinny, come here.”

“...? What are you doing now? Are you losing it again?” Vinny hesitated.

“Come on.” Aesphyra smiled like a fox, her voice full of seductive sweetness.

“What the hell do you want?” Vinny could tell he absolutely shouldn’t go over. He immediately scooted his body back.

“Mm-hm.” Aesphyra smiled. “Come on. You’re a grown man—are you really scared of a little girl like me?~”

“How could I not be? You terrifying nut are the kind that eats people!” Vinny warned.

“Oh? Eats people? And how, exactly, do I eat them?” As she spoke, Aesphyra rose lightly and walked up to Vinny. The smile on her face was even sweeter than the cake ice cream on the white porcelain plate.

Vinny hurriedly shrank back until he was pressed into the sofa—but Aesphyra didn’t stop. She leaned in closer, planting one thigh-high-stockinged knee against the sofa beside his leg as she pitched her body forward.

“Y-you... what are you doing?!” Vinny turned his face aside against the sofa, his cheeks flushing with scorching heat, like he’d been burned. He could even feel it—the cold scent on the silver-haired girl, roses mixed with rose, washing over him head-on.

He was getting sofa-pinned by Aesphyra??

No—what was she doing?? Even if she was just messing with him, this was way too—

Right now, Vinny wanted to resist. A grown man getting sofa-pinned by a girl was humiliating.

But he didn’t know why—when Aesphyra’s breath brushed his face, Vinny couldn’t muster any strength at all. His body went soft against the sofa, flustered and at a loss, completely unsure what he was supposed to do.

“Vinny, if you keep eating mint-flavored ice cream all the time... won’t you get tired of it?~” Aesphyra’s breathtakingly beautiful face drew close.

“W-what? Tired of what?”

“Do you want to... try my strawberry flavor instead~?” Aesphyra licked her lips. Her voice was so soft and bewitching, and paired with that intoxicating body scent that made it impossible to pull away, it left his mind in a mess.

“W-what the hell are you saying?!” Vinny even started wondering if he’d fallen into some illusion again—or if Aesphyra’s brain had suddenly broken.

No... not just Aesphyra. Vinny felt like his brain was about to break too.

W-what kind of outrageous, filthy line was she even saying?! Looking at that little soft tongue that seemed to still have a trace of strawberry ice cream on it, and that devastatingly gorgeous face soaked in seductive bloom, and those beautiful eyes that looked like they held stars—filled with rippling affection—

Vinny felt his mind turning into chaos, his eyes practically spinning. For a pure, innocent young master like him, this scene was just too explosive.

[Virtue +100]

[Current Virtue: 7984]

And yet, in this tense standoff—so heated it felt like something had to happen—Aesphyra only chuckled softly. A mischievous curve tugged at her lips as she pulled out a handkerchief she’d prepared ahead of time and wiped Vinny’s cheek.

“Honestly, Vinny. You eat ice cream and you still don’t pay attention—your mouth is messy everywhere.” As she spoke, she wiped the corner of his mouth.

Then she straightened up, tossed the handkerchief into the trash, and sat back down in her original spot, calmly returning to her own ice cream like nothing had happened at all.

Vinny was still frozen in place.

“What’s wrong, Vinny?” Aesphyra asked, playing dumb. “Why are you still spacing out? If you don’t eat, it’s going to melt, you know?”

Vinny still didn’t speak. After a long silence, he finally blurted, unable to hold it back. “You... just now... all that... was just to wipe my mouth?”

“Then what else~?” Aesphyra crossed her thigh-high-stockinged legs, one hand propping her cheek, those violet gemstone eyes watching Vinny with meaning and laughter.

“What did Vinny want to do? What was Vinny expecting~?”

“T-this young master... wasn’t.” Vinny’s face was so red it had climbed all the way to his neck. He stammered, unable to form a complete sentence.

“Oh? Really? Ahh~ It’s obvious you’re saying one thing and thinking another. Boys like you are really easy to read, Vinny. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s all written on your face.” Aesphyra teased.

“You really were messing with me!” Vinny finally understood—and his face flared red again. So, in a fit of rage, he raged for a moment, then stood up.

“Tch! I knew it—you white-haired nutball, pocket-sized little bun, sour little orange, you didn’t have any good intentions! Don’t frame this young master, okay? This young master is allergic to nut-type foods!”

“This young master doesn’t want to stay with you, you stinking nut, for even one second! I don’t want to deal with you, you rotten grape who’ll never grow taller in your whole life!”

With that, Vinny stormed toward the door. But when he reached the entryway, he suddenly remembered something. He didn’t leave right away—instead, he turned back and wolfed down the rest of his ice cream in a frenzy. Even when the cold made his teeth chatter, he still pulled a face at Aesphyra.

“You evil little nut! I curse you to never grow taller for the rest of your life—no one will ever want a shorty like you!”

With that, Vinny turned and left. He put on his shoes, then bang—he slammed the front door shut and walked out.

You could faintly hear him still cursing about something, but as he got farther and farther away, it became impossible to make out.

Watching Vinny’s back, Aesphyra didn’t know why, but she suddenly laughed out loud.

Unlike her usual—always somewhat standardized—smile, this was laughter from the heart.

Vinny. That idiot could always do this. Without any extra effort, without anything special—just his most ordinary little actions could make her laugh from deep inside.

If Vinny were really a girl, he’d definitely be an adorable, awkward-tsundere type.

But the reason Aesphyra had put on that whole performance wasn’t to make herself happy, and it wasn’t just to deliberately mess with Vinny.

*****

On the other side, after finishing the sweet Kontro cake ice cream, Vinny walked out of Aesphyra’s house. He felt like the cold scent of roses and rose that belonged to a girl was still lingering at the tip of his nose, like a lot of it had rubbed off on his clothes.

“Tch. Bad luck!” Vinny spat, his face full of disgust.

“Damn white-haired nutball—never changes! Messing with this young master is that fun, huh? Go on, laugh. Go on, enjoy yourself in secret! Anyway, this young master already ate you into poverty this time! Hmph!” Vinny kept muttering, whether to comfort himself or for some other reason.

If he knew that Kontro—the ice cream brand—was also an industry under the Galathus Family, who knew what his expression would look like.

“Just you wait, you stinking nut! Your good days are over! ...Forget it, forget it, there’s no need to argue with someone who can’t grow even one millimeter taller in her whole life!” Vinny snorted.

Vinny cursed Aesphyra the whole way, walking back toward his dorm. When he got back to his empty dorm, he was still angry on the sofa—everything he passed by, even the table, took a hit, slapped once by him.

Ugh, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. That woman really—

Who did she think she was? Who did she think she was, with all that charm?? 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Seriously—she actually thought he’d have expectations and fantasies about nut-type foods. What narcissism. Completely hopeless narcissism!

As Vinny slapped the sofa and thought, he suddenly realized—without noticing—his mood wasn’t that terrible anymore. All the negative emotions seemed to have found an outlet: cursing Aesphyra, that stinking nut, and drowning in his own shame and anger, to the point where he’d even forgotten the dorm only had him in it.

“...That idiot.” Thinking back, Vinny finally understood why Aesphyra had suddenly done something like that, but his mouth still refused to be nice.

Seriously. Sticking her nose into things. Who asked her to do all that extra stuff?

That woman... she must’ve noticed he was in a really low mood, and deliberately did all that to distract him, right??

In the past, Vinny might not have thought that far. But now, it was different. The direction and angle of how he thought about things had changed.

And honestly—after that whole mess with Aesphyra, Vinny’s embarrassment had gotten so intense that the weight of his other worries had obviously dropped a lot.

“Tch! Sleep, sleep!” Vinny flopped down on the sofa, shut his eyes, and decided to crash.

Another day passed.

Today, Vinny didn’t have the same trouble falling asleep as yesterday. His sleep quality was pretty decent.

The next morning, Vinny was woken by a rapid pounding sound. Half-awake, he instinctively thought it was Shicodale knocking outside, trying to wake him up to go downstairs for breakfast—but as his mind cleared, he remembered Shicodale hadn’t returned to the dorm at all. And the knocking was far away—obviously not on his bedroom door, but on the front door downstairs.

“Coming, coming.” Vinny threw on clothes and walked out, went downstairs, and opened the front door.

“Who is it? This early in the morning.”

“Excuse me—are you Vinny?” a voice asked.

“I am. And you are?” Vinny hesitated as he looked at the unfamiliar nun standing outside.

To be honest, after everything that had happened, Vinny was on guard against anyone with a Church background—except for Luna and the other two.

“You’re that Dale’s roommate, correct?” the nun continued.

“I am. Is... something wrong?” Vinny immediately felt something was off. Her tone sounded like those calls from Blue Star—when someone asked whether you were so-and-so’s family, and your heart instantly jumped into your throat.

“Goddess above.” The nun sighed, pressed her hands together, and prayed devoutly. “Vinny, your roommate—Dale—had an issue due to the Kamov Mountain incident. At present, he is receiving treatment inside the academy church at Carillian Academy.”

“...What happened to him?” Vinny unconsciously tightened his grip on the doorknob.

“It’s not something that can be explained in a moment. Student, please come with me.” With that, the nun turned and left.