After that, Vanessa helped Mirexia handle official duties. The two of them made lunch and dinner together in Mirexia’s dorm. Though basically Vanessa did all the cooking—Mirexia, who didn’t really know how to cook, just waited at the side and helped by handing her a few things.

At night, when the twenty-four hours were up, Vanessa changed back into Vinny. He changed back into men’s clothes, then walked out of Mirexia’s villa courtyard while putting on an act like nothing had happened.

He didn’t head straight back to his dorm. Instead, he detoured to the commercial street and entered a budget perfume shop.

“Boss, I need a bottle of Direwolf brand perfume, Foxtail Herb scent.” Vinny walked up to the counter and asked for a bottle of the usual brand and the usual scent he always used. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Foxtail Herb was a common medicinal herb that grew on the grasslands, and it gave off a fairly distinctive smell. As for whether it smelled good or not... that depended on the person. Some people thought it was fine, some people thought it smelled really good, and some people thought it stank so badly they could die.

He had always used this perfume. At the start, the reason he picked it to cover up his own scent had nothing to do with personality or anything like that—purely because the ingredients were cheap, and the cost to make it was cheap. Sure, it had a “brand,” but it was basically no different from those street-stall perfumes back on Blue Star. You could tell just from the smell that it was roadside junk. The only upside was that it was made from herbs, so it didn’t damage the skin.

“Direwolf brand? Foxtail Herb? Little brother, that perfume doesn’t smell good??” The boss, who had been reading the newspaper, put it down and sized Vinny up, unable to stop himself.

“It’s fine. It’s better if it doesn’t smell good.” If it smelled good, it’d be harder to cover his scent. Vinny was basically soaked in Vanessa’s scent right now—white tea flowers and lavender. He felt like he was about to get pickled into Vanessa’s flavor.

As he spoke, Vinny set three copper coins on the counter.

“Alright. Here you go.” The boss handed him a bottle of perfume with no packaging at all.

“Thanks.” Vinny took it, and the moment he stepped outside, he sprayed himself a few times. Then he sprayed his collar, his sleeves, his pant legs—everywhere. Only after he was sure he’d completely covered all traces of Vanessa’s scent did he head in the direction of the dorm.

Just like usual, Vinny arrived at the dorm door. He figured Shicodale should already be back by now. He trusted Luna and the others a lot, so he knocked, and just like he always did when he came home, he called out, “I’m back.”

Thinking about how he’d finally return to a warm, ordinary daily life, Vinny’s eyes softened without him noticing.

Very soon, he heard footsteps from inside—footsteps he knew extremely well. Warmth rose in Vinny’s chest.

“Vinny, you’re finally back? Welcome home.” The door opened, and that familiar voice came through, stirring a surge of emotion in Vinny.

The warmest thing in the world was nothing more than this—after surviving disaster, you could still reunite with family and friends, still return to your warm home.

Being safe and sound was already the greatest luck within misfortune. There were people who couldn’t even make it home, forever separated from loved ones by life and death.

“I’m back, Dale, you’re awake? It’s good you’re oka—” Vinny lifted his head. He hadn’t even finished when, the instant he saw Shicodale in front of him, his expression froze stiff.

“You finally decided to come back, human.” Shicodale folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe, the corner of his mouth hooked in mockery.

[Virtue +50]

[Current Virtue: 9844]

That was a tone Shicodale would never have. So who was standing in front of him was obvious.

“Ah! I just remembered I forgot something at the shop earlier. Sorry, Dale, I’ll go back and get it— you stay hom—ow, ow!!” Before Vinny could finish, Shicodale grabbed him and yanked him inside, then slammed the door shut.

“No need to be in such a hurry, right?” Shicodale pinned Vinny against the wall. He was clearly much shorter than Vinny, but in terms of presence, he suppressed him completely.

“D-Dale? Um, what are you doing? I really did leave something at the shop.” Vinny instinctively shrank back. For some reason, he didn’t really dare to meet those icy almond-shaped eyes head-on.

Ah, this is weird. Why does it feel like I went outside to fool around with a mistress behind my wife’s back, then got caught on the spot the moment I came home??

Is that right??

Ah, no, no—first of all, he cured Shicodale, and because of the identity problem he had to leave and couldn’t come back until tonight. That was an irresistible force, something he couldn’t do anything about, alright?

And he could only go to his closest childhood friend, Mirexia, right? What problem was there? There was no problem. Not even a little.

Also, the roles obviously didn’t match!

This sense of déjà vu is totally, completely wrong.

“Oh, you left something behind? Sounds like it’s something really important. Then let’s go, human. I’ll go with you to get it.” Shicodale suddenly smiled.

“Ah, no, no, I can go by myself. If I trouble you to go, Black Dale, that’d be awful.” Vinny hurriedly said.

“That won’t do. What if the boss tries something and refuses to admit it’s what you dropped?” As Shicodale spoke, a ball of cyan-green nature magic gathered in his hand. “If the boss dares to do that, then with me there, you’ve got a guarantee. If he dares to deny it, I’ll use magic to hang him up. I’ll hang him until he admits it.”

“Hey, hey, there’s no need to make such a huge fuss. That’d be really bad, wouldn’t it?”

“It’s fine. You put in a lot of effort to save me before. Now your body’s in bad shape, so of course I have to follow wherever you go.” Shicodale grinned. “What if something happens to you?”

“No, no, Black Dale, you’re praising me too much. What effort did I put in? It was Fennia and Senior Luna who were reliable. That wasn’t my specialty, so I had to ask other people.” Vinny laughed awkwardly. “And this is inside the academy. Nothing will happen.”

“Didn’t I tell you? Don’t call me Black Dale.” Shicodale raised an eyebrow.

“But if you say that, it really is hard to tell you apart. Look—if you’re called Dale, and the usual Dale is also called Dale, then when I call out, who knows which one of you I’m calling?” Vinny spread his hands.

“What’s there to not tell apart? We can’t appear at the same time anyway.” Shicodale smiled. “Just like you, human, can’t appear at the same time as that pink-haired older lady, right~?”

“Huh? Pink-haired older lady?” Vinny went silent for a moment, then looked at him with a strange, startled expression. “Black Dale, who are you talking about?”

There wasn’t a single flaw in his face or reaction. The brief silence, then the hesitation and confusion—perfectly measured.

What a joke. Who did he, Vinny the master schemer of Camella, think he was? He’d already anticipated this move back when he was saving Shicodale.

He knew fooling Shicodale, that little airhead, was easy—but fooling Shicodale’s second personality was harder, so he’d prepared for it in advance.

“Tch. Are you treating me like an idiot? Did I ever say I have all of his memories?” Shicodale raised an eyebrow.

“So what are you even talking about?”

“What else could it be—don’t you remember what happened before?”

Vinny scratched his head, looking completely lost. “Before? I just asked Fennia and the others to save you. They even said I was in the way and kicked me out. Other than that, I didn’t do anything.”

“Black Dale, are you still dreaming and not awake yet? Why are you talking nonsense?”

“Also, Black Dale, I remember that after Dale woke up, he had part of your memories, right? You’d better stop misleading him.”

“Is that so?” Shicodale crossed his arms. “Then explain this: all day today, where did you go? Why didn’t you even come back to eat dinner?”

“Uh... what does that have to do with that pink-haired older lady you mentioned?” Vinny said with a weird look.

“Of course it has to do with it. So where did you go today? Normally, shouldn’t you have been waiting at home this morning for us?” Shicodale raised an eyebrow.

“I got dragged off to work.” Vinny looked utterly speechless. “Black Dale, it’s not like you don’t know— I’m a Student Council member. Our home—no, our dorm—doesn’t it live off that? And then such a huge incident happened. Total disaster out of nowhere. Right now the Carillian Academy Student Council is insanely busy, busy to the point of collapse.”

“So I got called to the Student Council to be a workhorse. President Mirexia personally called me, too. Sigh, what can you do? We’re short-handed right now.” Vinny acted like he was helpless. In reality, what he was doing was telling Black Shicodale that he went to work at the Student Council today—and Mirexia could vouch for it.

“Oh? Really?” Shicodale tilted his head, giving Vinny a sideways look.

“Really. Truer than pearls.” Vinny said firmly.

“Ah, then what a coincidence.” Shicodale shook his head. “That pink-haired woman’s way of speaking is strangely similar to yours, Vinny.”

“For me to just happen to dream about something like that... that really is a coincidence among coincidences.”

“So who is this pink-haired person you’re talking about?” Vinny still looked confused. “And Black Dale, dreams are chaotic. They don’t have coherent cause-and-effect or time order. Someone you’ve seen—or something you’ve seen—showing up in a dream in another form, isn’t that normal?”

“Oh, sure. That’s true.” For some reason, Shicodale’s mouth curled into a wicked smile. “Yeah, people can’t dream about things they’ve never seen, human. That’s what you just said, right?”

“But the problem is, I really haven’t seen that pink-haired woman from the dream.”

“So?” As Shicodale leaned in a little, Vinny silently shrank back again. “Black Dale, I think you’re asking the wrong person. I’m not a dream interpreter. I really don’t know much about what you dreamed before. How about I have Fennia ask for you again—see if she knows anyone in the Church who specializes in dreams, some dream-interpreting master?”

“......” Shicodale stared at Vinny for a long time without speaking.

“? Black Dale?” Vinny asked uncertainly. “A-Are you okay?”

“Ah, I see. So that’s how it is. Looks like I misunderstood you, Vinny.” Shicodale bared his teeth, smiling in a teasing way.

“You still don’t believe me? I’ve said everything I should say, I—”

“Thud!” He didn’t let Vinny finish. The next instant, Vinny was suddenly tackled to the floor by Shicodale.

Vinny only felt the fragrance unique to Shicodale—sweet rose—wrap around him, brush past his nose, and then those almond-shaped eyes that were usually so pitifully charming were right there, within arm’s reach.

“What the hell, Dale, what are you doing?! Don’t do this, alright— we’re both men! I’m not gay! My orientation is perfectly normal!” Vinny instantly panicked.

“Also, don’t make such a huge movement! You just recovered from a major illness—your body isn’t fully healed yet!”

“Human, you really are delicious~” Shicodale didn’t care about Vinny’s screaming at all, licking his lips with blatant aggression. “Your actions and your words tell me you’re full of secrets, but your eyes tell me you have no malice toward us at all.”

“Forget it. Maybe there are some things she really shouldn’t know too early.” Shicodale stood up, then looked down at Vinny deeply. “This time, thanks to you, human. Otherwise, maybe she and I really would’ve never woken up again.”

“Don’t move.” Just as Vinny tried to get up, Shicodale stopped him.

As he spoke, Shicodale lifted a foot wrapped in white ankle socks and pressed it against Vinny’s chest.

Mm. Not heavy. It was very light, like he was afraid of hurting him. It was more like a kind of teasing.

[Virtue +50]

[Current Virtue: 9894]

No, wait—why does Black Shicodale stepping on him give Virtue? Is he some kind of sadist??

“Human, why do you keep staring at my foot? Don’t tell me you like this?” Shicodale looked down at Vinny, baring his teeth as he joked.

“Black Dale! What nonsense are you muttering to yourself?? You step on me for no reason, then you ask if I like it??” Vinny pressed his lips together, annoyed.

“You human—out of every three sentences, at least one is a lie. Really bad.” Shicodale lowered his [N O V E L I G H T] foot, crouched down, and pinched Vinny’s jaw with his hand. “Do you like lying to that little one that much?”

“A bad guy like you... how about I leave a mark on you?”

“W-What mark?! What are you even talking about? Black Dale, don’t do this! I’m straight! Men and men shouldn’t—” Vinny hurriedly said.

“Oh, is that so?” Shicodale tilted his head.