Vol 5. Chapter 27: Dramatic

“Vinny, have you never imagined it? No way, right?”

“Just picture it. In this seemingly ordinary training match, you encounter a soft, delicate, adorable little junior girl. Then you show the bearing of an upperclassman and protect her all the way to victory, winning the match and love at the same time~ In the end, the little junior girl secretly falls for you. In common terms, you set a maiden’s heart on fire.”

“As for what happens after that, do I even need to say it?~” Aesphyra said playfully.

“Can you stop spouting nonsense? Setting a maiden’s heart on fire? What am I supposed to say, praise you for having such professional terminology? Say you really are worthy of being a green-eyed rotten player queen?” Vinny clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes at Aesphyra.

“The way I see it, these are obviously things you’re fantasizing about right now. Can you stop pinning whatever you’re thinking onto this young master?”

“Tsk. Is spring almost here or something? Even a nut is fantasizing about getting lucky in love now? A seed landed on a nut, and the nut started blooming.” Vinny looked utterly disgusted.

“Oh? What, Vinny? Am I not allowed?” Aesphyra said ambiguously.

“Tsk, what do you mean, allowed or not allowed? Who’s managing you? This young master can’t be bothered to manage you. Hmph!” After saying that, Vinny turned his head aside and began doing his warm-up exercises with meticulous focus.

A nut really couldn’t stop spinning. This girl was hopeless.

Right now, Vinny felt a little sour both in his mouth and in his heart.

Soon, the two teachers finished organizing the number plates and had everyone line up to receive their own.

Vinny stood toward the back of the line, listening to the other male students whispering.

“Hey, speaking of which, which first-year class is next door?”

“You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? How would I know which first-year class this is?”

“Huh? Aren’t you usually the best informed? You know the names of every class beauty in the entire second year like the back of your hand. Not only that, you know the name of every girl who’s even a little pretty. And you’re saying you don’t know this?”

“Shh, shh! Keep it down. The teacher’s listening up front. If the teacher hears that, what will she think of me?” The sharp-faced, monkey-cheeked male student glared at his friend.

“I have to maintain my image as an upright person.”

“An upright person? Come on. It’s been a year. Is there anyone in our class who doesn’t know what kind of person you are?” his friend teased.

Vinny knew that sharp-faced, monkey-cheeked boy. His name was Bopp, and he was famous in class for being unserious.

Vinny was not someone who liked judging people by appearances. Disrespecting someone else’s looks was an awful thing to do. Unfortunately, some people were simply like that. Their inside and outside matched; their hearts were shockingly consistent with their faces. Bopp was one of those people.

There was no need to speak to him. Just looking at the boy’s face gave people the impression that he was dishonest, always plotting petty moves, and the facts were exactly that. He loved studying all sorts of “unorthodox paths” in class, and the thing he was most passionate about was collecting information on the class beauties from every class.

Of course, written information was limited in the end, so sometimes he would take the initiative to strike up conversations with unfamiliar girls. After all, his skin was very, very thick—the kind thicker than a city wall—and he also had a way of acting familiar with people right away.

After all, out of politeness, most girls would not make their words too final when someone spoke to them.

And Bopp, who was so passionate about learning about class beauties, naturally would not miss the flowers in his own class. For example, last semester, he had tried talking to Aesphyra and Isatia.

As for the result, one smiled on the surface while keeping him a thousand miles away, and the other simply chose to ignore him, giving him two closed doors in a row.

He seemed very unconvinced by this. After all, there were quite a few good-looking girls in class, and even several school beauties. How could he fail to get close to even one of them?

After that, no one knew what he was thinking, but he seemed to want to create a few chance encounters.

However, while that trick might have some effect on girls whose hearts were just beginning to awaken to romance, using it on Aesphyra and Isatia meant he had chosen completely the wrong targets.

How could his little tricks and petty thoughts fool these two top-tier fate heroines?

With just a slight glance at his behavior, Aesphyra read him from top to bottom. Then, like she was sorting garbage, she very fairly classified him as a certain type of person in her mind.

As for Isatia, she was simply uninterested in that kind of person.

Then, later on, no one knew what had gotten into that guy—whether his spirit had shattered or what—but he actually went to strike up a conversation with Shicodale.

Fine. The facts proved that Shicodale disguising himself as a boy was still somewhat useful. With his level of mental maturity and depth, if he had not done that, the situation would only have been worse. At the very least, Bopp had only tried talking to Shicodale during the second semester of first year, instead of racking his brain over him back in the first semester.

Naturally, Vinny would not just sit there and do nothing about that. The greasy stench in that guy’s words was far too strong. It reminded Vinny of the slick old social veterans from Blue Star in his previous life.

That kind of person was one of the types Aesphyra hated most, and Vinny was not much better. At the time, he had slammed the table with a hammer and scared the guy away.

The fate heroines could afford to provoke Vinny. That did not mean everyone else could, too.

So Vinny had never had much goodwill toward Bopp, and Bopp naturally had no goodwill toward him either.

That said, because Vinny was strong and Bopp could not afford to provoke him, he did not dare show Vinny any attitude. No matter how much resentment he held in private, on the surface, he always spoke to Vinny in a pleasant, polite manner.

“Hey! Let me tell you, I wanted to go take a look while we had free activity just now, scope things out while I was at it. But, well, sigh, forget it. Freshmen these days really don’t respect their upperclassmen at all. So rude. No upbringing whatsoever,” Bopp sighed.

“Don’t say that. Maybe they saw that you had improper designs on the girls in their class,” his friend said, amused.

“Improper designs? What improper designs? That’s called everyone has a love of beauty, all right?” Bopp said indignantly after hearing that. “Those juniors, every single one of them looked at me like they were guarding against a wolf. On what grounds?”

“With that face of yours, I think it makes sense for them to treat you like a bad guy.”

“Bah! What a bunch of people who judge by appearances!” Bopp said resentfully.

“Hey, but I wonder if I’ll draw some cute little junior girl from the neighboring class. Maybe even draw their class beauty? Hehehe.”

“Keep fantasizing. You’re not getting a little junior girl. I think getting matched with a young junior boy with eight-pack abs is more likely.”

“Get lost! Stop cursing me, all right? Hey, hey, I’m not even picky. As long as they’re cute, even if it’s a boy, I’ll endure it!”

No, seriously, this guy?

Listening from behind, Vinny’s brow twitched hard.

He couldn’t still be refusing to give up on talking to Shicodale, right?

Soon, it was his turn to take a number plate.

Vinny drew his number plate and glanced at it. Number 15.

“Aww! Why did I draw a guy?” Then, as Vinny leaned against a pile of soft mats to rest, he heard Bopp’s complaint from not far away. Apparently, Bopp had discovered that the student from the neighboring class who had drawn the same number as him was male.

“What rotten luck! Huh, isn’t that Vinny?” As Bopp walked along, he saw Vinny not far away, and his eyes lit up. That punchable face immediately leaned over.

“Get lost,” Vinny said, arms folded. His reaction to him was extremely concise.

His tone was cold and hard, without the slightest bit of the outward toughness and inward weakness he showed when talking to Aesphyra.

“Hey, Vinny, you look pretty good today. Did something good happen?” Hearing Vinny’s poor attitude toward him, Bopp showed no change in expression whatsoever and still stuck to him like a dog-skin plaster.

“Spit it out if you have something to say. This young master doesn’t have time to talk nonsense with you.” Vinny’s face was expressionless.

“Oh, Vinny, you really are as helpful as ever. It’s like this, Vinny. My number plate drew my unlucky number,” Bopp said with a perfectly serious air.

“Oh.” Vinny’s reaction was flat.

“Do you think you could switch with me?”

“Get lost.” Every time Vinny answered him, his reply was extremely concise.

“Tsk!” After being rebuffed several times and getting a closed door in his face, Bopp could only leave resentfully. Only after walking to a place where Vinny could not hear him did he dare mutter a few things under his breath.

“What’s so great about you? Why act so arrogant? You’re obviously a fake who deceives the world and steals a reputation! Acting like you’re so capable. At least my family name wasn’t stolen!” Bopp said indignantly.

As he kept talking, Bopp had no idea why, but something tripped him. On the spot, he performed a flying monkey act, landed chin-first, and fell hard onto the ground.

“Ow!” Bopp stood up in so much pain that his teeth were bared and stars spun before his eyes. The commotion also drew the attention of the people nearby. When they saw that the person who had fallen was Bopp, they could not help laughing aloud.

“Ahh, damn it. Someone’s actually littering in the Training Field?” Bopp had thick skin, but he still found it embarrassing that a transcendent like him had fallen so badly after being tripped by something. He could not help muttering in a low voice.

“Bopp, your number plate fell.” Just then, a pleasant voice reminded Bopp.

“Ah! Thanks.” Only after being reminded did Bopp realize his number plate had fallen. He picked it up, then suddenly realized who had spoken to him and froze for a moment.

“You’re welcome.” The silver-haired girl stood not far from him with both hands clasped behind her back. Her smile was so beautiful it seemed unreal, leaving Bopp stunned in place.

This was the first time Aesphyra had ever taken the initiative to speak to him, and his heart immediately grew smug.

Ah! One fall in exchange for a beauty’s smile. Not a loss!

“However.” Aesphyra’s tone abruptly changed. “As they say, the sky is full of starry eyes. Do not think loose talk goes unheard. If you fell because you did something rather improper, Bopp, you should be more careful in the future, all right?”

“Otherwise, if you don’t learn your lesson, you may fall again next time. And the fall you take may be much heavier than this one, too.”

“Huh?” Bopp froze when he heard that.

Aesphyra gave a soft laugh, turned with her hands behind her back, and left.

Next came the matching stage.

The neighboring first-year class had also taken their own number plates, and the two teachers called everyone over to “claim” their teammates.

Only after the students from the two classes mixed together did Vinny see the students of that class.

They were not completely unfamiliar. There were a few who seemed somewhat familiar.

Just as Vinny was thinking about where he had seen them before, he suddenly spotted a figure.

“Bern?” Vinny said in surprise.

Wait. If this was Bern’s class, then—

“Upperclassman Vinny, it’s you?”

“Hm?” Hearing that voice, Vinny immediately turned around. Sure enough, he saw that familiar, beautiful pink-haired girl.

“What a coincidence. The teacher said we would be having a mixed-class battle today, cooperating and fighting alongside second-year upperclassmen. I didn’t expect we would just happen to draw Upperclassman Vinny’s class,” Margaret said in surprise.

“I didn’t expect to draw your class either.” Vinny thought no wonder several people in this class had looked familiar. So they were the Church students from that day.

“Speaking of which, what number did you draw, Upperclassman Vinny?” Margaret asked.

“Fifteen,” Vinny said honestly.

What a small world. Last time, he had just happened to run into their class having an internal class battle, but none of them had known he was there.

This time was different.

“Fifteen? Vinny, you aren’t joking, are you?” Margaret grew even more surprised after hearing that.

“Why would I joke about that? Is there any benefit?” Vinny showed her his number plate, then frowned and looked at Margaret. “Don’t tell me your number plate is also—”

Before Vinny could finish, Margaret showed her own number plate. Written on it was the number “15.”

Vinny fell silent.

He heard noise coming from the neighboring Training Field. It seemed the Training Field next door was also conducting the same kind of mixed-class battle as them, the same combination of second-years leading first-years.

In other words, every class had to go through this stage. Yet, by sheer coincidence, his class had run into Margaret’s class, and he had actually been grouped together with Margaret as teammates.

Wasn’t that absurd?

“Lady Margaret.” The other Church students, who were constantly paying attention to Margaret’s safety, had not expected this either. After seeing Vinny approach Margaret, they immediately hurried over.

When they saw Vinny, they could only inwardly admit their bad luck and complain about why they kept running into this jinx.

“All right, students. Once you’ve found your teammate, stand with your respective teams. We’re going to arrange the battles now.” The teacher’s voice forced those people to return to their assigned upperclassman teammates.

Mm, they looked back every three steps. Then, after staring for a long while, they discovered that Vinny had not moved from his spot, and every one of them was dumbfounded.

“No way, right?”

The expressions on those Church students’ faces were a sight to behold.

The true and false Facilis had just so happened to be assigned to the same group. This pairing was far too abstract, far too dramatic.