void *

[VLD/VMB]

You're mixing two features of malloc().  Malloc() should return (void *),
which is a generic pointer type to/from which all other pointer types
may be cast without loss of information.  (This is the only use of
(void *), and it is the only universal pointer type; other pointer
casts can be non-portable.)  Malloc() ALSO guarantees that the pointer
it returns is suitably aligned for safe casting to ANY pointer type.
This is a property of malloc(), not of (void *).