There’s only one explanation: Vinny and Vanessa’s magical aptitude and elemental affinities are separate.
Vinny is Vinny, Vanessa is Vanessa. Vinny’s magical aptitude is only one star, and he has no affinity for light or dark elements.
He’s a complete and utter failure, but what does that have to do with Vanessa?
Conversely, no matter how strong Vanessa’s affinity for light elements is, Vinny doesn’t get even a shred of it.
“This is too strange. How can someone have absolutely no affinity for light or dark elements? This is unprecedented. I must report this to the academy,” the instructor muttered to himself.
“For now, I’ll mark your light and dark elemental affinities as ‘none’ in your file. If there are any changes later, we’ll update it.”
“Thank you for your trouble,” Vinny stood up, waiting for his report. Once he received his elemental affinity results, he left the trial hall with Fred, who had already finished his test and was waiting for him. He didn’t pay attention to the murmurs about him.
“How can someone from the Varelis family have only one star in magical aptitude? Doesn’t that mean they can’t even draw from the Saint Envoy’s power?” someone asked.
“Haven’t you heard? There’s been a rumor for a while that the Varelis descendant is a fake. The true Saintness’s family has already died out.”
“I get that, but having only one star in magical aptitude... tsk tsk, that’s just too embarrassing. In front of so many people, it must be mortifying.”
“Your Highness, don’t you agree?” A young noble from the empire tried to start a conversation with the black-haired girl beside him.
“Having only one star in magical aptitude isn’t a disgrace. The one who should be embarrassed isn’t him.” Expecting only a perfunctory “hmm” in response, the noble was surprised when Princess Isatia actually spoke up.
The black-haired girl glanced coldly at the students behind her, her imperial aura instantly silencing the room.
“The ones who should be embarrassed are those ranked behind him, who can’t even defeat a one-star Soul Armament,” she said slowly, her voice calm and steady.
“Uh...” The empire nobles who had been secretly mocking Vinny froze, their smiles turning awkward.
Isatia’s words were clear: a group of people ranked below 50th were mocking someone in the top 23. How absurd was that?
Were those people really mocking themselves?
Moreover, if Vinny could perform so well with a one-star Soul Armament, imagine what he could do with a higher-star soul?
A young master from a declining family, wielding a one-star Soul Armament, could hold his own against the pampered scions of noble families with high-star Soul Armaments. Who was really the disgrace here?
“It’s better to have a little shame,” Isatia said coldly, playing with her hair as she stepped forward and left, leaving the embarrassed nobles behind.
These nobles were eager to curry favor with the princess and wouldn’t dare offend her. They all fell silent, not daring to bring up the topic again.
Vinny had no idea what had happened in the trial hall after he left, nor did he care.
Let them laugh. Their mouths were their own; he couldn’t stop them from laughing.
He looked at his elemental affinity report and fell into deep thought.
His affinity for light and dark elements was nonexistent. Apart from his affinity for ice, which was “excellent,” his affinities for other elements were either mediocre or poor.
Aside from his ice affinity, he was a pure hexagon warrior, a small hexagon, with no mastery in any area.
Such elemental affinities wouldn’t even be considered good for an ordinary person.
However, having one standout element was better than being mediocre across the board.
At least his ice affinity was high, and he had already formed an ice storm, which seemed to be much stronger than the average “excellent” level.
“Alright, alright, stop looking at it. There’s nothing interesting about it,” Fred waved his own elemental affinity report in front of Vinny. “At least you have one element that’s ‘excellent.’ I don’t have a single ‘Excellent’ element; the highest I have is ‘Good.’ Sure, I have a few of those, and I don’t have as many weaknesses as you, but your potential is much higher than mine, okay?”
“Besides, that’s ice elemental affinity! Do you know how rare that is?” Fred, thinking Vinny was upset about it, patted his shoulder.
“I’m not bothered by it,” Vinny put the report away. “I’ve just always been curious about my elemental affinities, so I took a closer look.”
“Exactly. Just glance at it and move on. Don’t dwell on it. You made it to the top 23 without these affinities, so they clearly don’t determine everything,” Fred said carelessly.
“You really don’t care, do you?” Vinny glanced at Fred’s indifferent expression.
“Heh, as long as I don’t strive for improvement, I’m invincible. Nothing can hurt me,” Fred said proudly. “Anyway, don’t forget about the card game tonight.”
“I know, I know.” Since classes hadn’t started yet, Vinny’s mindset was similar to Fred’s. Both of them had a bit of a slacker attitude after entering the academy.
Their talent ceilings were set in stone. Why should they push themselves so hard? Even if they trained like crazy, could they ever catch up to the protagonists? It was hopeless.
In that case, why not just slack off? After all, they were just minor characters who didn’t affect the story’s direction.
Vinny and Fred’s dorms were in different areas. After parting ways at the corner, they each returned to their own rooms.
Vinny opened the door to his house, stepped inside, and took off his shoes, replacing them with slippers. He felt as if all the pressure had been lifted as he flopped onto the luxurious velvet sofa, hugging a pillow and rolling around.
He glanced at the living room. It seemed someone had moved the items on the table, but he didn’t see another pair of shoes at the entrance. His roommate must have come back to drop something off and then left.
Vinny yawned, feeling a bit tired.
He sat up on the sofa, took out a card box from his pocket, and began counting the cards inside one by one.
The card box was a gift from Fred, containing only basic cards that weren’t worth much.
The cards in this game had different rarities. Even cards with the same design could have varying levels of rarity, and the card materials were of high quality. Perhaps that was part of the game’s appeal.
Vinny carefully examined the finely crafted cards. Even though they were the lowest rarity, there were still many impressive aspects to them.
The materials were top-notch, as this was the most popular card game on the continent. The officially issued cards were of excellent quality and had anti-counterfeit measures.
The characters on the cards were all historical figures. It was unclear who the original creator of this game was, but they must have had significant influence to gain the tacit approval of multiple factions.
The game included historical figures from the Tyrell Empire, the Church of Radiance, the Camella Kingdom, the Grand Duchy, and other nations.
Among them were emperors, kings, and even Vinny’s ancestors, the successive Radiance Saintness and the Goddess of Radiance Varelis.
However, the Saintness and the Goddess were ultra-rare sapphire cards with no low rarities.
This was a clever way for the game to gain approval from various factions while also making a hefty profit.
After all, the Saintness couldn’t have low rarities, right? That would be disrespectful to the Saintness and the Church.
And since they were the Saintness, it was only natural for their strength to be above average. If they were any weaker, it would be disrespectful to the Goddess.
Using this reasoning, the card company could release powerful, high-rarity cards without issue.
“It’s not that we’re making them overpowered. It’s just that these historical emperors and wise rulers were truly this strong. We dare not make them weak, or the royal families would come after us.”
With this excuse, the card players had no choice but to accept it.
Poor players could only play against other poor players. When they encountered whales, it was like a laser sword against a caveman, a total mismatch.
Vinny flipped through his basic cards. None of them featured his ancestors, as the Saintness were all high-rarity, must-have cards.
The basic packs didn’t include them.
The only card from the Church was one he didn’t recognize, and the rest were obscure historical figures he didn’t know.
But he was just playing casually and didn’t care about the strength of the cards.
Just then, he heard the sound of the door opening, followed by someone changing shoes.
Huh?
Vinny looked up.
Was his roommate back?
He hoped it was someone easy to get along with.
But...
Vinny frowned. The footsteps sounded unusually light.
Perhaps because he often transformed into Vanessa, he had an unusual sensitivity to such things. The footsteps didn’t sound like a guy’s.
It seemed the person had noticed another pair of shoes at the entrance. They hesitated for a while before finally stepping into the living room.
“Hey, you’re here? From now on, we’re roommates, so let’s—” Vinny had prepared his introduction, but the words caught in his throat when he saw the person’s face.
The person had long, silvery hair as cold as moonlight, tied into a high ponytail that cascaded down. Unlike Aesphyra’s bright silver hair, this person’s hair resembled the chilly moonlight under the night sky.
Their clear, night-blue eyes held a hint of shyness and hesitation, evoking an involuntary sense of pity.
Their flawless, snow-white skin was like unblemished jade, and their delicate, beautiful features were perfect, like a glowing moon blooming in the vast, dark night, captivating but not blinding.
Their slightly pointed ears with a hint of red revealed their identity — an elf.
“Miss, you’ve got the wrong room. This is the male dorm,” Vinny said after a moment of thought, then wondered if he had left the door unlocked earlier.
An elf girl mistakenly entering his room — was this some kind of harem plot for the protagonist?
But he wasn’t the protagonist; he was just a former villainous cannon fodder trying to transition into a background NPC.
Wait, was it his imagination, or did this elf girl look familiar?
“I, I...” The elf girl seemed flustered, stammering as if she wanted to say something but was overwhelmed.
“This is my room. You must have been in the wrong place. Look, I have the key here, and my luggage is in the room,” Vinny said, showing his key to avoid any misunderstanding.
“N-no, that’s not /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ it! I, I didn’t mean...” After stammering for a while, the elf girl finally managed to form a coherent sentence.
“Sigh,” Vinny was a bit exasperated. What was wrong with this elf girl? Was this her first time away from home, and she was nervous around humans?
It was as if he was going to eat her or something.
“Don’t be nervous. This is the Carillian Academy; there are no bad people here. I won’t do anything to you. It’s just that you must have the wrong room.
This is the male dormitory, and my roommate should be a guy. Miss Elf, you’ve got the wrong place,” Vinny spread his hands. The Carillian Academy wouldn’t allow mixed-gender dorms, right?
Aside from the inconvenience, everyone was at an age where they were curious and impulsive. If something irrational happened, it would be a mess.
“N-no, I, I...” The elf girl lowered her head, seemingly struggling to say what came next.
“I, I’m also staying here.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I’ve told you multiple times, this is the male dorm!” Vinny frowned.
“N-no, I mean, I’m actually... a guy,” the elf girl’s voice grew softer and softer until it was barely audible.
“...???” Vinny’s head was filled with question marks. He looked the elf girl up and down, his expression saying, “Are you kidding me?”
No way, how could this be a guy?
Before his bloodline awakened, Vinny, or any other guy, might have believed in the existence of “cute boys.” But after his bloodline awakened, Vinny had gained some understanding of the female body.
No matter how feminine a guy looked, he couldn’t confuse the two.
Seeing Vinny’s intense gaze, the silver-haired elf grew visibly nervous.
Virtue +50.
Current Virtue: 884.
Huh??
Vinny was stunned. He looked around, scratching his head, confirming there was no third person in the room.
What was going on? Why did his virtue increase? Did Aesphyra suddenly think of him and get angry?
Probably not. Then could it be...
Vinny suddenly looked at the elf girl in front of him, who was standing there with her head down, not daring to say a word, like a scared little hamster.
Wait, miss or mr., are you one of the original story’s heroines?
At this point, Vinny also noticed that the other person’s chest was flat, and they were wearing male clothing, a pair of shorts that revealed their pale legs and a pair of white socks inside bunny slippers.