"You've got nothing better to do, so you're using me for entertainment, huh? You're afraid I won't eat the horse's hoof, aren't you?" Vinny grumbled irritably.

"Well, that's uncertain, you know? This is a rare opportunity. Why don't you take advantage of it and go back to your dorm, change into a female school uniform, and maybe this little cutie will be in a good mood today and accept you?" Aesphyra continued, smiling and offering her sarcastic remark.

"I think you must be hallucinating from eating some poisonous mushrooms." Vinny cursed. "Keep acting, go ahead, you’ve already decided I won’t be able to sit on it, but if I could sit on it, you wouldn’t be happy. You wouldn't dare say this if I could sit on it."

"Vinny, what you're saying hurts my feelings. It's as if I often deceive you and treat you like a monkey."

"Heh." At the woman's acting, Vinny sneered coldly without replying.

What a joke. This white-haired woman had long stopped treating him like a monkey. She had already evolved into treating him like a dog!

"The academy is almost empty now, we’re in the last batch. Let's get moving quickly, or we won’t make it in time." With that, Vinny climbed into the carriage.

This woman—she was always so used to stealing the spotlight, even when riding a carriage, she had to sit on the horse herself.

Sigh, the protagonist.

With a light neigh from the unicorn, the carriage set off.

"Vinny, traveling this late, are you prepared for it?" Though Vinny was in the first carriage and couldn't see Aesphyra, he could still hear her voice from atop the unicorn.

The surroundings were noisy at high altitude, and Aesphyra had used a basic magic spell to protect her voice from interference.

"Prepared? What preparation?" Vinny was confused.

"Isn't it because you've done your homework at home, Vinny? You're not just setting off late for no reason?" Aesphyra continued teasing.

"Uh..." Vinny scratched his head.

What preparation? The task scroll had only just been handed to him. The reason for leaving so late was simple—he was lazy and didn’t want to wait in the crowd for the task. So, he waited until most people had taken their tasks before going to pick his.

"Of course, I’m Vinny! I must be well-informed." But in front of Aesphyra, Vinny didn’t want to admit that, so he pretended. "But I must admit, maybe you’re more of an expert on this matter than I am."

"Oh? How much do you know about Lake Village, Vinny?" Aesphyra asked.

"Lake Village? Yeah, I know. It's in the northwest of the Empire, next to a small border town," Vinny replied.

"And?"

"And what?"

"What about Lake Village’s historical background, local customs, and the ratio of residents?"

"...I'm not checking the census, how would I know all that?"

"Oh, so you know that the place is called Lake Village, but not the specifics? If the coachman intentionally goes in the wrong direction, you might not even notice, Vinny."

"...Since when would a coachman be that bored? You’re overthinking it."

"When you're out there, anything can happen. It’s better to be prepared than sorry. If you think everything will be fine, you might end up as a corpse in the wilderness with no one noticing." Aesphyra’s tone became serious.

Vinny fell silent but quickly switched to a more flattering tone. "Oh, you're right. But isn’t that why I have a big sister like you?"

"Heh heh heh. Looks like I’ll need to rely on you more than I thought, big sister. We’re just too lucky to have the Goddess of Radiance always bringing us together, don’t you think?" Vinny rubbed his hands together. "The more capable, the more work, right?"

"Ah? Weren’t you just complaining, saying you drew the short straw and got stuck with me?" Aesphyra teased.

"Ha ha, you’re joking, big sister. I was just in a bad mood before. I didn’t mean it, don't take it to heart," Vinny laughed, not feeling awkward at all.

Though it was indeed unlucky to run into Aesphyra, so what? As a mature and composed scoundrel, for Vinny, the only thing that mattered was the score. Wouldn’t completing the task perfectly be great?

With Aesphyra leading the way, although he might end up being constantly scolded, from another perspective, isn’t this situation pretty stable?

Still, one thing was clear: you could question Aesphyra in many ways, but her power, talent, and professionalism were untouchable—qualities unique to a destined female protagonist.

With her as the leader of this adventure, the rest only needed to stay out of her way and let her shine.

"Oh, so Vinny plans to be a slacker in this practical test?" Aesphyra asked.

"Well, what can I do? Doesn’t it make you look even better, big sister? I won’t even get a chance to fight, the battle will be over before I can do anything," Vinny grinned. "I’m looking forward to how you’ll perform!"

"So, does that mean I’ve helped Vinny again?" Aesphyra’s voice held a light chuckle. "That’s the fourth time, right? I’m really curious how Vinny will show his appreciation."

"Ah, about that," Vinny frowned. "Ah, this is getting to be too much. I guess I can't pay it back. But, big sister, if you don’t mind, I’ll have to offer myself to you!"

With that, Vinny made a show of sacrifice, of course, to disgust the annoying green-eyed woman, Aesphyra.

"Offering yourself, huh? How about no..."

"But... What? If you want something else, big sister, I really can't give it to you. You know my family’s fallen; we’re poor—so poor we can’t even buy food. There’s only me left in the family, no inheritance at all." Vinny said with a helpless tone.

"Just you left?"

"Yeah, you know that the Fasylis family is a single-bloodline family, right? Now, there’s only me alive from the family." Vinny lamented.

"Oh? Are you really the only one left?" Aesphyra’s tone turned more mysterious.

"Of course, isn’t it common knowledge?"

"Well, a lot of 'common knowledge' turns out to be false." Aesphyra smirked.

"I'm sure this is true. Otherwise, what? My family’s just over there, and even thieves wouldn’t bother with it."

"Vinny, how about we make a deal? If there are any other female members in your family, how about you flirt with them for me?" Aesphyra proposed.

"Eh?" Vinny froze for a moment, immediately realizing what Aesphyra meant by "flirt."

"I’ve helped you so many times, Vinny. You can’t possibly not help me out with this one, right?" Aesphyra continued, playing with her elegant, gloved fingers.

"...You better come up with another request," Vinny frowned.

"Oh? So you admit there’s another female member in your family?" Aesphyra’s voice grew louder.

"What? When did I admit that? Don’t over-interpret things, okay? My family really only has me left. That’s the truth. I swear on my name." Vinny’s face turned black.

Why did it feel like every time he spoke to her, she was trying to trap him into saying something?

It was impossible to defend against her.

"My point is, there really is only me. No one else. This request is invalid. I advise you to come up with something else, or don't blame me for not returning your favor."

"No need, this is fine. Vinny just needs to agree." Aesphyra was determined.

Fine, whatever. Vinny agreed, but it wasn’t like he’d lose anything. He could always play along; after all, his family really did only have him left. Aesphyra's imagination had run wild, thinking that Vanessa and Vinny—two completely different people—might actually be one.

"Alright, it's a deal. But if there’s no such person, I’ll consider this null." Vinny agreed.

Since his family truly had no one left, no matter how imaginative Aesphyra was, she couldn’t guess that Vanessa and Vinny were actually the same person.

"Okay~ Let's make a pinky promise. Whoever goes back on their word will swallow a thousand needles!"

"Pinky promise? How about we skip that and save the gloves?" Vinny glanced at the outside of the carriage.

"It’s fine. Just put your hand out, and we’ll do a virtual pinky swear."

"Are you serious?" Vinny was speechless but did it anyway—this agreement wasn’t costing him anything.

"Now, back to the topic. How much do you know about the magic serpent?" Aesphyra asked.

"I just know it's a snake from the demon race, that’s it." Vinny answered.

"It’s not that simple. Actually, magic serpents are the minions of the demon race, and within the demon race, only three groups keep such minions: the Serpent Demon Tribe, the Night Witch Tribe, and the Succubus Tribe." Aesphyra explained with her expert knowledge.

"Serpent Demon? Night Witch? Succubus?" Vinny frowned, catching an important keyword.

Succubus.

But wait, what about succubi? Was there something wrong with them?

No problem, right? Succubi are just another demon race. What’s the big deal?

But, for some reason, when Aesphyra mentioned succubi, he felt something cross his mind. It was as if he had encountered °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° someone closely related to them before.

No way? How could he have met a succubus? He had no impression of what a succubus looked like in this world, so it was impossible.

And besides, not only succubi raised magic serpents. Vinny felt that, since they were snakes, it was most likely the Serpent Demon Tribe causing trouble.

Of course, that wasn’t too likely. The demon race was in turmoil, each faction fighting for the Demon King’s position. The Serpent Demon Tribe should be busy fighting with other demon tribes, not engaging in attacks. With the Northern Continent in such chaos, they had to be cautious of other demon factions.

So, Vinny thought this might just be a case where the Serpent Demon Tribe hadn’t controlled their pets properly, and they wandered into human territory for food.

Vinny had assumed the task given to the top fifty students would be significant, but now it seemed that it was just to deal with a few serpents. That would be easy, especially with Aesphyra leading the charge.

"Which demon race do you think is most likely to be causing trouble?" Vinny asked.

"Not sure, I haven’t seen the details. I only have written reports. Any judgment would be biased." Aesphyra replied.

Vinny didn’t say anything further.

The two fell silent.

Honestly, life on the carriage wasn’t bad—everything was in abundance, and they could eat whatever they wanted.

After enough time showing off on the unicorn, Aesphyra finally returned to the carriage.

In the blink of an eye, a few days had passed.

The unicorn carriage arrived at the southern continent, and the two of them disembarked at a small town in the Camella Kingdom.

The unicorn carriage from Carillian Academy had only brought them this far; the rest of the journey was up to them.

Aesphyra decided to take a luxury carriage from here, and Vinny had no objections, though his wallet did.

Just as he was getting worried, Aesphyra, seeing his discomfort, teased him, "Vinny, if you call me ‘mom,’ I might consider reimbursing you."

"Never mind, my mom isn’t that young," Vinny shot back, glancing at Aesphyra’s chest.

"...." Aesphyra smiled silently.

'Virtue Points +50.'

'Current Virtue Points: 7454.'

Ha ha, this was self-inflicted humiliation.

In the end, to keep pace with Aesphyra, Vinny reluctantly agreed and chose a luxury carriage as well.

At least they were in different rooms during the journey, and the unicorn carriage had been spacious enough, leaving no time for them to be alone. Otherwise, Vinny would have probably ended up losing more virtue points to Aesphyra.

A few more days passed, and the journey ended. They disembarked at the frontier town in the Tyrell Empire.

As soon as they stepped off the carriage, Aesphyra went off to town for some unknown reason. Vinny didn’t understand why, when the task was supposed to be at Lake Village on the town’s edge, Aesphyra had run off to town first. What was she up to?