Vol 5. Chapter 5: Margaret
That was...?
When he saw that familiar cherry-blossom color, Vinny initially thought he had seen wrong. He turned his gaze over again, fixing it on that dazzling shade of cherry pink.
In the crowd, that bright, beautiful cherry-pink figure moved through the marketplace like the moon surrounded by stars. The students who admired and followed her surrounded her in their midst. These Church nobles, bathed in the glory of their families, looked humble on ordinary days but were incomparably proud in their bones. Yet toward this cherry-haired girl, they were deferential, respectful, and obedient.
These boys and girls with Church backgrounds all had extraordinary appearances and outstanding bearing. Every movement carried the noble air inherited from illustrious families.
As hereditary nobles who protected the Church, their very bones held a natural pride. In their eyes, they were envoys who served the Dawn Goddess and the Saintess. Only the Goddess and the Saintess could make them bow their heads. No one else could—not even the king of a nation or the emperor of an empire.
Making proud people like them bow their heads to anyone was almost impossible.
Yet now, they treated a girl about their own age with utmost respect and adoration. It truly left people shocked.
But the strange part was that, even so, it did not feel out of place.
These glamorous, magnificent Church students, each of whom looked as if they could be the protagonist of a story when walking outside, were now all gathered around this girl’s side, willingly serving as green leaves to set off the flower.
And when people shifted their gazes to that cherry-haired girl, they discovered that she was so magnificent they could not look away at all.
A naturally formed elegance. An otherworldly appearance. She was like an envoy from the high heavens descending into the mortal world, sacred and untouched by dust. It was as if, so long as she stood there, anything else could only become her foil.
The girl’s dazzling cherry-pink hair was braided into a long plait. She wore Carillian Academy’s female uniform, her hands naturally lowered and elegantly folded before her abdomen, a peaceful faint smile at the corner of her lips as she conversed at ease with the followers beside her.
She wore Carillian Academy’s female uniform. It was clearly the same skirt, leather boots, and over-the-knee socks, yet on her body, they looked like a formal gown for a banquet.
Although saying this was very rude and hurtful, she truly put a vast distance between herself and the girls beside her who wore the same uniform.
The cherry-haired girl’s appearance was simply too radiant and dazzling. So dazzling that beautiful girls of other styles could not be compared to her at all.
When Vinny saw the cherry-haired girl, he was carrying his stool and preparing to leave. Seeing this scene, he froze and stared silently.
That pink-haired girl surrounded by the crowd was holy, noble, and beautiful enough to scorch the eyes. She received the reverence and love of the Church’s favored children.
The proud children of heaven were willing to become green leaves to set her off. The Church nobles followed her lead.
It was as if she was the true Dawn Saintess, while he was only an outsider who had stumbled into this strange world by a twist of fate, an ordinary person with no specialties at all, yet foolishly dreaming of overstepping his bounds and becoming the Saintess.
Vinny stared at that pink-haired girl, his blue eyes, like a cold spring, flickering with an unreadable color.
If he and this pink-haired girl were placed together, anyone would be able to tell who the real Dawn Saintess was, right?
The identity of this cherry-haired girl was obvious with just a little thought.
Among the students gathered beside her, many wore the Church’s crest.
So many students with Church backgrounds had gathered around her and behaved with such respect. Her features were pink hair and pink eyes. The aura on her body was also this familiar. Then was it hard to guess what her public identity was?
Vinny suddenly remembered the information Vera and the cardinal had revealed to him inside the Sanctum of the Sacred Tree.
They had seen the so-called “true Saintess.”
After they had laid out their purpose, Vinny had still thought they were making things up offhand.
Facts proved that such a person really did exist.
No wonder those few students with Church backgrounds had said such things to him before, saying something about the true descendant of Facilis being about to descend. So the Church of the Dawn really did have someone like this.
But...
Vinny still found it very strange. The Facilis Family had always had only one heir in each generation. He had never heard of any branch family. Even if the Church of the Dawn wanted to replace him and bring some branch or distant cousin of Facilis into the Church of the Dawn as a puppet, there should have been nowhere to find one.
Where had this “descendant of Facilis” come from?
As he stared at that cherry-haired girl, Vinny’s expression gained a bit more depth.
It seemed the Pope of Dawn had slowly realized something as well: in the end, the Church of the Dawn still could not be without a Dawn Saintess. No matter who the actual ruler was, there still had to be a Saintess on the surface.
Where would they find this Dawn Saintess? Whether the only surviving blood descendant of the current House of Facilis had awakened remained in doubt, and he was also their mortal enemy. Because he had enrolled in Carillian Academy, he was difficult to act against. The situation was slowly becoming troublesome.
But that did not matter. If they had no Saintess, they could manufacture one.
However, Vinny still could not understand where this Dawn Saintess had come from. Could she be some distant cousin of the Facilis Family?
But that probability was very low. After all, it was common knowledge that the Facilis Family had only one heir in each generation. There was only one Dawn Saintess per generation.
And just as Vinny fell into a storm of thoughts and his mind overloaded, those beautiful pink eyes, for some reason, noticed him at that moment.
Those beautiful eyes first moved onto him, looking at this blue-haired young man who, for some unknown reason, was staring blankly at her. A trace of doubt flashed in the depths of her eyes. Then her gaze slowly moved to the advertising board and recruitment slogan hanging above him.
“Card-player-soul club? If you’re my brother, come...?” The pink-haired girl murmured, reading aloud the strange recruitment slogan written on it. Perhaps because it was too strange, or perhaps for some other reason, she let out a soft laugh, then walked gracefully in this direction.
“Your Eminence?” When the pink-haired girl seemed to be drawn by something and turned in another direction, the other Church students beside her all froze for a moment, then hurriedly followed her steps.
“Hello, Senior.” While Vinny was carrying the stool and standing silently, he suddenly heard a soft, gentle greeting and woke up all at once.
What entered his eyes was a pair of pink starry eyes, like peach blossoms melting into spring water.
“Hm?” Vinny was jolted awake. When he realized that the girl he had been paying attention to had already arrived right in front of him, he was slightly stunned.
“Sorry, did I startle you? My apologies, Senior, I didn’t mean to.” Seeing this, the pink-haired girl hurriedly apologized. Then her gaze moved to the recruitment slogan laid out at Vinny’s stall. “I was merely somewhat interested in what you wrote. May I ask, is this your club’s recruitment slogan?”
“Yes, it is.” Vinny recovered his expression, his eyes falling on the pink-haired girl as he answered calmly.
Sure enough, to outsiders, this did not look anything like a club recruitment slogan. It was far too postmodern.
“Card-player-soul club. What kind of club is your club?”
“Playing cards.” Staring at the curious pink-haired girl in front of him, Vinny explained with crisp simplicity.
“Playing cards? You mean?” The pink-haired girl blinked, as if she still did not quite understand.
“Sain—Lady Margaret, why did you suddenly walk so quickly?” Vinny was just about to say something when the Church students following the pink-haired girl caught up as well. When they saw Vinny and the slogan advertising board behind Vinny, a flash of doubt crossed all their eyes.
“Lady Margaret, are you... interested in this club?” a female student asked tentatively.
“Yes. It’s quite interesting, isn’t it?” The pink-haired girl let out a laugh like silver bells.
“Uh...” Those Church students looked at the slogan above Vinny and then looked at one another.
They did not find it interesting at all. On the contrary, they thought this club was very uncanny and strange.
But since the Saintess herself had said so, then it was definitely interesting.
“Lady Margaret, do you want to join this club?” another Church student could not help asking.
“Mhm. If I do, is that not allowed?” the pink-haired girl said softly.
“Well, it is allowed if you want, but...” The Church students looked at one another, all somewhat unable to speak.
“Um, sorry, may I ask something? They’re calling you ‘Lady.’ What is your identity, Junior?” Vinny asked with his head tilted.
The pink-haired girl fell silent for a while, then looked back at the students behind her with a somewhat reproachful gaze.
“Ah, uh, it slipped out.” The Church student behind her shrank back slightly, knowing that a mistake had been made.
The Saintess had clearly instructed them outside not to call her Saintess.
“It’s nothing. We were just playing Truth or Dare earlier. Everyone was only joking around, so please don’t mind it, Senior,” Margaret said with a smile.
“Ah, right, right. We were all just joking around and calling her that casually.” The other students quickly chimed in.
“Oh, I see. Then may I ask if your name is Margaret?” Vinny asked.
“Yes, Senior.” The pink-haired girl nodded.
“Oh, so your name is Margaret?” Vinny continued asking.
“Are you asking for my full name?” Margaret hesitated.
“Yes,” Vinny confirmed.
“My full name is Margaret Facilis. It is a pleasure to meet you, Senior.”
“Facilis.” Vinny read that surname once in a lukewarm tone, then made a surprised expression and lifted his head slightly. “Ah, you’re from the Facilis Family?”
As expected.
Although he had still held some hope, the result was ultimately this.
The one in front of him was indeed the Church of the Dawn’s “new Saintess.”
“Yes.” The pink-haired girl nodded somewhat awkwardly. She seemed not to want others to know she was from the Saintess family in this kind of setting. It gave people the feeling that she had hung a signboard on her forehead.
That was also why she did not let people call her Saintess outside.
“Oh, pardon me for asking, but if I remember correctly, didn’t the Facilis Family decline long ago and fall into dead veins?” Vinny frowned.
“Well...”
“Apologies, Senior, but this question is inconvenient for Margaret to answer. It involves Margaret’s origins, so please do not press too far and pry into another person’s privacy.” Margaret was about to answer when one of the protective followers beside her answered one step ahead of her.
“Oh, sorry. I was being tactless and had no sense of propriety.” Vinny apologized. “I just don’t quite understand. The Facilis Family has only one heir in each generation, so could your great-grandmother be the last Dawn Saintess, Sophia Facilis?”
“Yes. My great-grandmother has always been the pride of our family,” Margaret said seriously.
Vinny frowned without speaking.
He said nothing, but a certain holy shield inside his Sea of Mind spoke first.
“Fake.”
[Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] did not hesitate at all. With the real and fake standing together, if she could not tell which was real, then she would have followed so many generations of Dawn Saintesses in vain.
“This person is even deliberately imitating Sister Sophia’s hairstyle.” The little angel gnashed her teeth.
Immediately after, she seemed very hesitant again. “But if that’s the case, then why does she have...?”
Vinny did not speak. He silently observed the pink-haired girl’s reaction as she said those words.
If it had been the him of the past, he would more or less have felt anger at someone else impersonating his identity. But now...
He had matured far too much. He could control and manage his emotions better, and the points he considered were more numerous.
“After saying so much, I still haven’t asked your name, Senior. May I ask what you are called?” the pink-haired girl asked. For some reason, she felt very interested in this blue-haired young man.
“Vinny,” Vinny answered casually.
“Vinny. Is that your full name?” Margaret asked.
“Mhm. I’m just an insignificant commoner, without a family name,” Vinny said calmly.
“?!” After hearing that this young man was called Vinny, the expressions of all the Church students behind Margaret changed. From the politeness of just now, they turned strange.
“Senior Vinny, then. I understand. It is a pleasure to meet you,” Margaret said. She clearly did not notice this change and continued speaking with Vinny.
“Margaret, we should go, shouldn’t we?” One Church student walked up and signaled to her.
“Eh? But I’m quite interested in Senior Vinny’s club.”
“Well, didn’t you agree with us earlier that we would go see another club? Besides, there are so many clubs. Perhaps this one isn’t the only interesting one.” Another Church student also stepped forward to echo the first.
“Yes, yes,” the other Church students all echoed.
“I’m sorry, Senior Vinny.” Seeing this reaction from her subordinates, Margaret was also very helpless and could only cast Vinny an apologetic look. “I have to go with them to see another club first.”
“It’s fine.” Vinny waved a hand.
“Mhm. I’ll take my leave for now.” Margaret left. The Church students following closely behind her cast Vinny a meaningful look.