“How would I get upset? Go on. Do I look like that kind of petty person?”

Vinny had thought he would receive a very crisp affirmative answer, but what greeted him instead was a dead silence inside his Sea of Mind.

“Did you fall asleep?”

“No, no. Of course not. Sister Vanessa, you are naturally a, uh, very magnanimous person. You would never do anything like, say, smile sweetly and pretend you had no such intention at all while secretly taking revenge on someone who offended you. Nothing so black-hearted.”

“No, why did you deliberately describe it in so much detail?” Vinny smiled without warmth. “What exactly do you mean? You’re saying it fits, aren’t you?”

“Cough! No, no! So this involves a very important matter of how much experience one has. Someone who has never seen a true Saintess would very likely be misled by her, but someone who has seen a true Saintess probably would not.”

“Isn’t that nonsense? You’re not answering the question. I’m asking how you sensed it.” Vinny raised an eyebrow.

“If we set aside the many differences in aura and bloodline, then the most direct point is actually...”

The little angel paused again.

“What is it? Keep dragging this out and °• N o v e l i g h t •° I really will get angry.”

“But I already said the reason just now,” the little angel said weakly in the Sea of Mind.

“You said it?” Vinny froze, unsure whether his comprehension was bad or whether he had missed something.

“What did you say? What reason? Did you say it? Why didn’t I hear it?”

“Uh... do I really have to explain it that carefully?” the little angel could not help asking.

“Isn’t that obvious? If you don’t explain it carefully, how am I supposed to know what’s different?” Vinny said irritably.

“Actually, it is precisely that point.” The little angel had no other choice and could only speak helplessly. “I also said just now that some of your habits, Sister Vanessa, make you seem, um, like you still have a fairly mischievous and childlike side.”

The little angel was already trying very hard to choose her words.

“What exactly do you mean? Say it clearly.”

“Ah, of course! I am absolutely not saying that sometimes, Sister Vanessa, you are a little black-hearted, hold grudges, and are petty!”

“You already said it, all right?” Vinny fell silent for a moment.

“No, no. What I mean is, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Even the Dawn Saintess is no exception. It is only that the people who wrote Church history were concerned with the Saintess’s image and the Church’s image, so they subconsciously chose not to mention them. After all, they were only some harmless little flaws.”

That was true. Among them, the most ridiculous example had to be a certain Dawn Saintess who kept clamoring every day that she wanted to become an idol and hold concerts.

“So?”

“So, Sister Vanessa, what you may not know is that when your bloodline erupted, the reason I was able to confirm immediately that you were a genuine descendant of Facilis was not only through [Saint’s Favor] and the aura of your bloodline, but also because of certain personality traits.”

“For example, Sister Sophia’s personality is actually quite similar to yours. There are similarities in different forms. Sometimes she was also very fake-innocent and very... Oh no, I mean, she had very distinct personality traits. The kind where you could tell at a glance that you belonged to the same family!” The little angel realized she had said the wrong thing and hurriedly changed course.

“You mean I’m very fake-innocent, then? Don’t tell me you recognized Margaret as fake because she wasn’t fake-innocent enough.”

“No, no! Sister Vanessa, you misunderstood. I never said that!” The little angel desperately shook her head and denied it.

“All right. Thank you for your explanation. It was very well explained. Remember not to explain next time.”

Vinny stopped communicating with the little angel in the Sea of Mind. Otherwise, he did not think he could resist the urge to make trouble for her.

After all, if he really did that, would that not prove her right and make him look truly petty?

More importantly, Vinny had no way to do anything to her. She did not even have a physical body, so there was no way to get at her.

The next morning, after Vinny finished lunch and took an afternoon nap, he leisurely headed to the card-player-soul club.

Logically speaking, having a new member join today was an extremely rare occasion, and Vinny should have gone early to notify everyone. But Vinny knew exactly what those card players were like. Want to see them before noon on a weekend? Impossible.

Every last one of them would sleep until after twelve, get up drooling, eat lunch at a leisurely pace, then rush to the club only when they felt like playing cards.

As expected, when he arrived at the club, only a sparse few people were inside, and among them, he did not see a certain club president.

“Yo! Little Brother Vinny, you came pretty early today. Rare to see you so diligent. What, could there be good news?” Not long after Vinny arrived at the club, Ferdi strolled in unhurriedly through the front door with a bag of fried snacks tucked in his arms.

“Brother Ferdi, if you keep eating that stuff, it won’t be as simple as having a swimming ring around your waist anymore,” Vinny said, glancing at Ferdi.

“Ah, how could I not know that principle? But you see, losing weight takes strength. How can I have strength if I don’t eat my fill?” Ferdi said with righteous conviction.

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

“Heh heh! So? Little Brother Vinny, did you make progress?”

“Get lost. You shoved this miserable job onto me just to mess with me, didn’t you? And you’re asking whether I made progress? Don’t you know in your heart whether there would be progress?” Vinny rolled his eyes at Ferdi.

“How can you say that? Knowing how to appoint people according to their abilities is a necessary strength for a president. Only you, Little Brother Vinny, could handle this matter perfectly. Look around our club. Is there anyone better-looking than you?” Ferdi seemed to have long expected Vinny to say this when he came back and spoke with an earnest, heartfelt air.

“Even someone as handsome as me has no choice but to admit I am indeed just a little worse-looking than you, Little Brother Vinny. I could not go with you.”

Was it really only a little?

Vinny looked strangely at Ferdi’s abstract appearance. It was as if the man had been beaten up while still in the womb.

One could not say he was born abstract, only that he was rather human-shaped.

“All right, all right. Hurry and tell us the result, Little Brother Vinny. How did it go? Did you recruit anyone or not?” Ferdi asked curiously. “Hey, hey, I’m serious. Even if you didn’t recruit anyone, it’s fine. Heroes and outstanding talents from all paths have already gathered in our club. If we can’t recruit anyone, that only means Carillian Academy no longer has talents like us!”

“Can you stop bragging?” The bragging was making Vinny’s skin crawl.

“I did recruit someone.”

“Oh?” Ferdi was instantly overjoyed. “Good, good! I knew I could count on you, Little Brother Vinny! You really are amazing. Not bad. You have a bright future!”

The moment they heard that a new person had been recruited, the card players idly playing cards nearby all gathered around in shock.

“No way. We actually recruited someone?”

“That’s too strange. Brother Vinny, you really have methods. You didn’t rely on trickery, swindling, kidnapping, and fraud or something, did you?”

“What trickery, swindling, kidnapping, and fraud? Is our club some bandit den? Do we need to use methods like that to attract new people?” The moment those words came out, Ferdi was immediately displeased and shot back at that member.

“Uh, no.”

“So, Brother Vinny, is the newly joined member a junior boy or a junior girl?” one member asked the question everyone cared about most.

Male or female?

Vinny swept his gaze over these guys’ eyes. He knew perfectly well what they were thinking.

If it was a girl, that would practically be like drawing an SSR. They could finally experience the feeling of being called “Senior” by a cute junior girl.

They had to protect that feeling fiercely.

If it was a guy, well, go play on the side.

The seniors would make him feel all their love.

Of course, that was a joke. As long as a new member came in, they would already be satisfied. As for gender, they could not be too demanding. It would be a miracle if any girl were interested in this club.

“A girl,” Vinny said, one word at a time.

“Huh? What? A junior boy? Fine, fine. Little Brother Vinny, you handle teaching that kid the ropes... Wait. You said she’s a girl?” Ferdi and the other card players all looked shocked when they heard it.

“Mm. She’s a girl.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa?!”

“Is... is she pretty?”

“Very pretty.” Vinny gave an objective evaluation without the slightest ripple.

“Really?!” The card players could hardly believe their ears.

These bastards.

Vinny was left speechless watching them.

It could be seen that all their usual talk of “card players don’t need partners” was fake, though that was something everyone tacitly understood.

“She is a very pretty girl, but I need to give you all a warning. Don’t get any ideas about her. Her identity is very special.” Vinny folded his arms. “If something happens to you because of that, don’t blame this old brother for not warning you.”

“Huh?” Hearing Vinny say that, the card players instantly calmed down, each of them looking at the others.

“Um, Brother Vinny, what kind of identity does that junior girl have? The eldest daughter of some nation’s grand duke? Surely not that serious?” Aiden was very confused.

“Much more exaggerated than that.” Vinny glanced at Aiden.

“More exaggerated than that?!” Ferdi was also shocked. “Little Brother Vinny, what exactly is her background? Wait. Something seems off.”

“How would a young lady with that sort of status choose to join our club?” Ferdi had begun to react.

“You’ll know later. But before that, just remember what I said.” Vinny sighed softly. “Also, I’ve already approved her membership application.”

The card players looked at one another. Seeing Vinny’s expression, none of them knew what had happened.

“Little Brother Vinny, what kind of background does she have, exactly? Tell us already so the brothers can prepare themselves.” Ferdi keenly smelled that something was off.

“This is her membership application form.” Vinny handed Margaret’s completed form to Ferdi.

After thinking about it, this was something everyone would know sooner or later anyway.

Not just everyone in the card-player-soul club. Sooner or later, the entire school would know.

Ferdi hesitantly accepted it and read out the name written on it.

“Margaret... Fa... Facilis?!” Ferdi rubbed his eyes. When he saw the surname following the name, he thought he had read it wrong. He checked it several times and confirmed that he had not misspelled the word.

When the card players heard Ferdi read that name, they were first at a loss. Then, gradually, their expressions turned shocked. All of them looked at Vinny with faces that said they had mouths but did not know how to speak, their expressions filled with question marks.

Because of Vinny’s usual behavior and performance, and because his appearance had not inherited the traits of House of Facilis, everyone had almost subconsciously forgotten that Vinny’s surname was Facilis.

And as everyone knew, House of Facilis had a single-heir line.

So a very large problem now lay before everyone.

“That’s how it is.” Facing pairs of widened little eyes, Vinny spread his hands, surprisingly calm.

“Little Brother Vinny, she... this... Is she your relative?” Ferdi hesitated.

“No.” Vinny shook his head. “I promise I did not know her before yesterday.”

This time, Ferdi and the group of card players all fell silent.

“Is she... perhaps... this generation’s Dawn Saintess?” a voice as thin as a mosquito’s came out.

“Hey, what do you mean by that? Are you saying Brother Vinny isn’t from House of Facilis?” A card player immediately retorted.

“Exactly! As far as I’m concerned, the only heir of House of Facilis I recognize is Brother Vinny!”

“N-no! I really didn’t mean that. I only thought it was very strange.”

After seeing everyone’s reaction, Vinny was very surprised. Then warmth rose in his heart.

In the end, there were still people who believed in him.

“Don’t say that too soon. She looks more like a blood descendant of Facilis than I do.” Vinny smiled. “After all, I don’t have any of House of Facilis’s traits. It’s only natural that people would suspect me.”

“Little Brother Vinny, are you saying this girl named Margaret looks very similar to the previous Saintess?”

“Mm. She has the traits,” Vinny said thoughtfully.

Those familiar with his great-grandmother Sophia might be able to tell she did not actually resemble her at all. But in this era, how many Radiant Cross Knights who had seen Sophia were still left?

The line of Dawn Saintesses had been broken for nearly a century. Everyone’s impression of the Saintesses came partly from the portraits of successive Saintesses, but even more from each person’s own imagination of what the Dawn Saintess should be.

That made it far too easy to guide deliberately.

“Little Brother Vinny, what do you think about this?” Ferdi looked at Vinny’s expression, connected it to this matter, and faintly sensed something wrong. But because there were many things they had no information about, he had no idea what had actually happened.

“Eh, it’s nothing. Everyone, don’t worry so much. You only need to know that our club finally welcomed a new member after much difficulty. That’s all. Keep the music playing and keep dancing.” Vinny did not want to drag the card players into this. “But, like I said earlier, don’t get too excited, everyone. Don’t lose your heads just because a pretty girl joined. Church nobles spawn around her all the time.”

“I understand.” Ferdi nodded and patted Vinny on the shoulder. “Little Brother Vinny, this old brother doesn’t have much ability, but if there’s anything I can help you with, just say the word.”

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