“Hey, seriously—I've never once seen you get unhappy over anything before. Can’t you show a little mercy and say it so I can be happy for once?~ We’re friends, at least. What’s the big deal?” Christine toyed with her pale-pink, slender long nails.

“Miss Christine, do you know the effect of the love-at-first-sight potion?” Aesphyra suddenly asked.

“Of course I do. I’m the one who had you brew it—how could I not know? The effect is that it makes one person develop feelings of affection toward another. But the effect is very unstable, and besides... love itself is a mysterious, unfathomable emotion. Does anyone really believe that just one bottle of potion can make someone fall in love with them?” Christine laughed. “Even if it could, that love would be fake. You might as well call it an aphrodisiac.”

“Miss Christine knows it very clearly, yet still insists I personally brew this batch of useless alchemy potions.” Aesphyra kept her gaze focused on the alchemy crucible in front of her and spoke without lifting her head.

“No choice, is there? Because Ainolin Festival is coming up soon.” Christine wore a profiteer’s smile. “The little brats on campus—oh, no, I mean the little couples—they believe in this. When the time comes, they’ll definitely consume in huge quantities, buying this kind of potion and drinking it together.”

“This has already become a tradition among Carillian Academy students. Every year I have to rake it in—oh, no, I mean every year I have to follow the trend and, with great reluctance, take out my masterpiece to help them heat up their feelings.”

“Hey, do you know how hard it is for me? This money—I earn it with tears.”

“And who says this potion is useless? Miss Aesphyra, have you ever drunk this potion yourself?”

“This kind of thing that has no meaning and no sense of ceremony—I don’t think I would try it.” Aesphyra gave a teasing laugh. “Take ten thousand steps back—even if it were real, someone needing a potion to make the person they admire fall in love with them is low-class enough. All you can say is, there’s a reason nobody loves them.”

“Then since you’ve never tried it, how can you say it’s useless?? I’m telling you, it is useful. It’s just that it’s only useful under specific conditions, in specific settings, between specific people.”

“Go ask around outside. Ask the upperclassmen who made it work—ask them whether my love-at-first-sight potion is useful. Out of a hundred, at least ninety-nine are satisfied.” Christine lowered the brim of her hat and boasted.

“So amazing? Then if you ask the students who didn’t make it work, wouldn’t it be ninety-nine out of a hundred who aren’t satisfied?” Aesphyra asked, amused.

“Your question is sharp. This is an alchemy potion I developed personally—my unique secret formula. I taught you the brewing method without holding anything back, and you’re still looking down on it. Do you know how many of my peers drool over this recipe? Do you know how profitable it is?”

“Miss Christine, just remember that recipe yourself. Don’t write it on paper. It’s a bit of a waste of paper.” Aesphyra raised her brows.

“Really—if you haven’t used it, you don’t have the right to speak.”

“Miss Christine, your so-called love-at-first-sight probably only gives people who already love each other a psychological effect. And people who don’t love—if they drink it, they still won’t love.” Aesphyra glanced at Christine.

“Besides, if someone doesn’t love another person, how could they possibly drink a love-at-first-sight potion given by them? It would probably end up in a trash can around the corner.”

“Right, Aesphyra—see, you’ve got a great business mind. That’s the logical paradox.” Under the brim of her hat, Christine revealed a sly smile like a black cat. “How could a love potion offered by someone you don’t like be accepted? So it definitely won’t be drunk. But a love potion offered by someone you already like is completely different, because they already like each other.”

“That way, no one dares say my potion doesn’t work. If you offer it and the person who likes you refuses to drink it, that can’t be blamed on me, right?”

“Aiya~ what’s wrong with you? Suddenly talking about this—are you trying to change the subject?” Christine continued to tease, throwing Aesphyra a mocking look. “Or is it that Miss Aesphyra just happens to be... hurt by love recently? The scene stirred your feelings?”

“Hehe. Didn’t expect it. Even the perfect, all-capable Miss Aesphyra has someone she loves but can’t get, huh? I really couldn’t tell. What kind of handsome, outstanding man could make you love and fail to obtain?”

“If that’s the case, then for the sake of how long we’ve cooperated, it’s not like I can’t help you a little.” Christine kept teasing recklessly, like a fox that didn’t realize it was about to fall into a sharpened wooden trap.

After all, even in Christine’s eyes, Aesphyra was too perfect—so perfect she even wondered whether Aesphyra was human, and whether she had human emotions at all. Naturally, she seized every chance to probe out more.

“Miss Christine, what I mean is: I found a new direction for your love-at-first-sight recipe.” Aesphyra smiled instead.

“Oh? A new direction. Impressive. No wonder it’s you, Miss Aesphyra—I really didn’t misjudge you. But does that have anything to do with what we’re talking about right now?” Christine laughed.

“Of course it does. That new direction I developed produces a byproduct—just enough for a small bottle of high-strength adhesive.” Aesphyra looked at Christine’s lips with deep meaning.

“I’ll give this bottle of adhesive to Miss Christine for free. I’ve already decided how it’ll be used—right on that mischievous, adorable little mouth of yours~?”

“H-hey? Alright, alright! I won’t talk about that topic anymore, okay? I won’t, I won’t.” Christine hurriedly waved her hands, then muttered in a low voice. “Cheapskate. Can’t even take a joke.”

Aesphyra didn’t care about Christine’s grumbling. After finishing this batch of potions, she handed them to Christine, took the materials she needed, and left.

“Hey, seriously, Miss Aesphyra—why don’t you just take a bottle back as a keepsake? Really.” Looking at the bottles of vividly colored orange-red potions lined up on her counter, Christine said while doing the final adjustments.

Bang, bang. What answered her was the crisp sound of a door shutting, followed by footsteps fading farther and farther away.

“Seriously, why are you slamming the door? You’re not usually like that. I was just making a harmless little joke—why are you being so cold? Don’t tell me she really is hurt by love?” Christine muttered in complaint.

She didn’t dare keep offending Aesphyra. After all, if Aesphyra left and stopped working here, Christine would lose this rare and valuable helper—and laborer.

Aesphyra was a young lady from a great household. She didn’t lack money at all. She was only doing odd jobs at Christine’s shop because this wasn’t her home, and she wanted to brew high-grade alchemy potions here—but couldn’t get scarce materials on short notice. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Honestly, sometimes Christine felt like Aesphyra wasn’t her laborer at all—more like a little ancestor she couldn’t afford to offend, who needed to be coaxed in everything.

“Alright, alright, forget it. This batch is all very high-grade. I should be able to sell it for a good price.” Christine sighed, shook her head, and kept packing her potion bottles.

“Honestly, this little ancestor doesn’t even help me clean up. I’m already this old, and I still have to wreck my back like this.”

———

The tense exams were finally over. Some people were happy, some people were miserable—though most people were basically miserable. But whether you did well or not, the exams were done.

In the following week, Carillian Academy was decked out in lanterns and decorations. Walking down the street, Vinny had no idea what was going on. He didn’t care about these various messy festivals in the first place. Because of the environment he grew up in, his mindset had always been: celebrations are for rich people. He was poor, so he didn’t participate.

Even though he wasn’t exactly poor anymore now—just the compensation Isatia gave him, if he found a place to sell it, he’d instantly be rich.

But even so, everyone knew Vinny had always been an old poor person. He’d been scared poor, so naturally he still inserted himself into the identity of “poor.”

“What’s going on? Every street and alley looks like some kind of celebration. Is our school’s anniversary coming up?” Vinny asked Ferdi as they wandered around on the weekend.

“Huh? Vinny, you seriously don’t know?” Ferdi immediately looked at Vinny with a strange gaze full of deep meaning.

“Know what?” Vinny felt a whole bunch of card players beside him also shooting him weird looks, and he didn’t understand. “If I knew, why would I ask you? Wouldn’t I just know in my own heart?”

“Vinny, Ainolin Festival is coming. You don’t know?” Ferdi sized Vinny up from top to bottom.

“What is Ainolin Festival?” Shicodale, obediently walking at Vinny’s left side, looked hungry for knowledge as he asked curiously. Since he didn’t belong to human culture and didn’t understand human culture, naturally he didn’t know what Ainolin Festival represented, or what it meant.

“Oh—when you say it like that, I kind of remember.” Vinny slapped his forehead.

He did have some impression of it, after all. He’d still grown up under the influence of human culture.

Ainolin Festival was basically like Valentine’s Day on Blue Star—just with a different name.

Ainolin was the god on Tyrelis Continent who governed love, so it was called Ainolin Festival.

At first it was only a festival commemorating that deity, but later it slowly evolved into Tyrelis Continent’s special version of Valentine’s Day.

“Yeah. Finally remembered, huh.” The group of card players around him all spoke in a tone heavy with meaning after hearing Vinny say that.

“?” Vinny didn’t understand. “What’s wrong with you guys? At the end of the day, this kind of festival is for couples. It has nothing to do with single dogs, right? Why are you forcing yourselves to remember it so clearly?”

“Alright! So you’re saying it outright, huh?! You even dare mock us single dogs? Vinny, you’ve provoked public anger, you know that?!” Ferdi stared at Vinny with a look of grief and ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ indignation.

“Vinny! This heretical festival—I thought us card players, pure and sincere in our feelings, would never get involved with it. But who knew—you would become the first traitor to celebrate this heretical festival!”

“Come on! Bring out the card-player torture!” As he spoke, Ferdi started to call on the executioners under him to seize Vinny.

“Hey, hey! Don’t mess around! When did I mock you?? I meant us single dogs! I wasn’t only talking about you!” Vinny hurriedly said.

“Big brother Vinny, stop pretending! If you keep pretending, it won’t be interesting anymore!” a card player shouted. “You’re already eating delicacies and you’re still mocking us, who can’t even get soup!”

“What delicacies? What are you even talking about??” Vinny couldn’t help saying. “It’s a weekend—don’t go crazy today.”

“Uh, uh—so what is it, exactly?” Shicodale also looked completely lost.

“Dale, you still don’t know? Vinny secretly ran off behind our backs!” Ferdi pointed.

“So what are you talking about?”

“Stop pretending, Vinny. Earlier, John and Aiden already reported to us—on exam day you went out on a date with a girl, and they saw it! Tsk tsk. And it was even Isatia! She almost kissed you!” Ferdi looked like he was grinding his teeth.

“This festival—none of us can celebrate it, but this crafty blue-haired brat gets to!”

“K-kiss...?!” Shicodale’s eyes widened.

[Virtue +120]

[Current Virtue: 1704]

“Kiss?? Who the hell made up that ghost story? Kiss??” Vinny rolled his eyes. “People who spread rumors have to take responsibility, okay?”

“Heaven has eyes—my first kiss is still here!”

“Oh, so that means you really did go out and have lunch with Isatia, yes?” Ferdi attacked from a sharp angle. “Vinny, you really don’t treat us like brothers. You even hid something like this!”

“When did I hide it?” Seeing everyone already knew, Vinny felt like there was no point acting anymore. “Wasn’t I always telling you the truth? You’re the ones who didn’t believe it.”

“T-this...!” Ferdi and the group of card players all fell speechless.

Hey, when you put it like that—Vinny really hadn’t hidden anything. He really had been telling the truth the whole time. They just thought he was bragging and didn’t believe him.

“Your death penalty can be spared, but you won’t escape punishment alive! Brothers—grab your weapons! We must give the traitor the lesson he deserves!”

“H-hey?? I’m telling you, don’t do this! Isatia and I are just purely friends—don’t spread nonsense, ahh?!”