Neither Ally Nor Enemy
No matter where you went, people like this always turned up. They must have taken Seo Rin for some kind of human trafficker or kidnapper. The world hadn't completely gone to rot yet—it was still a place worth living in. That thought crossed his mind, but right now they were only getting in the way.
"She's my half-sister."
Seo Rin said it in a slightly awkward tone.
In truth, Maria was of Germanic stock while Seo Rin was a mix of Slavic and Mongolian blood. For the two of them to be siblings, you would need a family tree twisted enough to fill an entire palace-intrigue period drama.
But ordinary people couldn't tell Germanic from Slavic if their lives depended on it. Pale skin meant American, end of story. Seo Rin himself looked mixed enough that the half-sibling story held water, and the way he deliberately mangled his Korean left the men with nothing more to say. Seo Rin's silver tongue had already graduated to the level of an entire platoon of slippery snakes. Still, just to be sure, the men checked with Maria.
"I-is that true?"
Speaking formally to a little girl years younger than themselves… Yet Maria's looks and dress carried a quiet force that overwhelmed people. Or maybe it wasn't the looks or the clothes at all—maybe it was the natural dignity of a Jinma. Even as Seo Rin tugged her along by the hand, Maria nodded.
"Yes. H-he's my big brother."
"…You heard her?"
When Seo Rin shot the question back at them, the men fell silent and withdrew. Seo Rin led Maria toward the Ferris wheel. It was parade hour, and crowds had gathered around the great wheel to watch the fireworks and laser show.
"Why here? Are we actually riding that?"
"Yeah. Inside the cabin we can talk properly. So come on—level with me. I still don't buy it. Weren't you and Tetra Anax on the same side?"
Tetra Anax, overlord of the vampires, foresaw everything and steered human hearts, and by that power alone kept the vampires hidden from mortal eyes. Control over information and the mind was exactly what had made them the ruling force of the night.
So for a vampire like Maria to move against Tetra Anax's core policy was hard to swallow.
Maria saw it differently.
Her older sister, Messiah, had been a pro-Tetra Anax vampire of considerable strength. There had been no reason for her to die in this little eastern country. And a death of that magnitude… Tetra Anax would have foreseen it.
Yet Tetra Anax hoarded every scrap of truly important intelligence and never shared it with anyone else. Or perhaps they had deliberately buried it.
"Tetra Anax… knew vampires were going to be murdered in Korea. But they looked the other way on purpose so they could reorganize the factions around Successors under their own control. That's how my sister ended up dead. So I'm not cooperating with them."
Whether Maria's words were pure truth or not, one thing was clear: she believed them completely.
Still, Flex Medical had poured more than two hundred billion won into Korea. The Seoul headquarters alone had been an eighty-billion-won building; add the plant and research facilities near Onyang and the employee welfare complexes, and the whole enterprise had been reduced to rubble by Se-gun before the company finally pulled out.
Even after the headquarters withdrew, Flex Medical drugs continued to circulate through local distributors. The damage done inside Korea remained enormous.
From the vampire side the blow cut even deeper, because the insurance on the Flex Medical Korea building had been underwritten by a company under Tetra Anax's influence. Proof that they had casually insured their own affiliate just to pad the insurer's premium intake. If they had truly foreseen that Han Se-gun would blow the building sky-high, shouldn't the policy have been placed elsewhere?
Of course, vampires who could grow rich on nothing but the interest of immortal bonds might not care much about money. Even so, the damage Se-gun had inflicted on Tetra Anax was staggering—material losses were one thing, but the humiliation was beyond words.
Would the overlord of the vampires willingly swallow that kind of disgrace just to restructure vampire society?
"Maria. Doesn't that put you in danger? Aren't you having a hard time just surviving?"
Worry suddenly overtook Seo Rin and he looked at her. Maria clenched her small fists.
"I still have the fortune my sister left me. I handed management over to the executives, and Tetra Anax and Phantom and a few others snatched some of the shares, but I've still got bonds, stocks, and rights certificates left. All told… maybe around ten billion U.S. dollars?"
The wealth Jinma Messiah had accumulated over seven centuries came to roughly ten billion. A sum no ordinary human could even dream of. Even ten billion won would make eyes pop; ten billion in American dollars? Seo Rin spun around and stared at her.
"…Wait. Ten billion?"
"Mm-hm."
Maria nodded.
"Maria, marry me."
"…!"
Maria looked at him, startled. Seo Rin only snorted and waved a hand.
"Kidding, kidding. Hahaha. Come on, a joke's supposed to get a joke back—if you go all straight-faced and shocked like that, what's the fun? But ten billion, huh… Hmm. Aha-ha-ha! Guess I'd only need to win the lottery a thousand times or so?"
"…You're the worst, Seo Rin."
Maria said it as if she couldn't believe him, yet she didn't sound angry.
"Still… even as a joke, that's the first time anyone's ever proposed to me."
"Well, you don't exactly look old enough to get married under the law. Whatever the reality might be."
Seo Rin smirked and took Maria's hand again. The long queue finally thinned, and it was their turn. A park attendant who was clearly a part-timer looked them over and asked if it was just the two of them.
"Have a wonderful day, then."
After checking their free-pass tickets, the attendant rattled off the habitual farewell like one of Pavlov's dogs salivating at the bell and moved on to the next guests. Seo Rin and Maria stepped into the Ferris-wheel cabin and sat facing each other.
"So… okay, we wandered off topic again. Why are you treating me this well?"
"Hm?"
"I've always wondered. Let's say I really am a descendant of Lilith. No—it's probably certain. I get that a child of Lilith is valuable; the way heavyweight monsters keep swarming after me makes that pretty clear. But you're different, Maria. Why approach me at all? And didn't it ever occur to you that living with Se-gun hyung makes me dangerous? Honestly, I'm still wearing a transmitter right now."
"A transmitter?"
Maria's expression changed in an instant. A chill rolled off her and darkness began to seep into the air. Her already porcelain skin turned even whiter; blue light flared in her eyes. The pressure felt like a cold blade pressed against the throat.
Sensitive subject after all? Looking at her now, there was no doubt Maria was a true Jinma. Moments ago she had been nothing but adorable; the second killing intent rose, the very air seemed to freeze. Seo Rin stayed perfectly calm even so.
"Yeah. Hyung won't let me out without it. No bugs, though."
"Oh. That's all?"
Maria was quick on the uptake. Realizing she had reacted to nothing, she flushed with embarrassment and reined in her aura.
The transmitter was only Se-gun's insurance policy; Seo Rin had never intended to lure her into a trap. Lucky for him Maria was both quick-witted and slow to strike… Had it been Se-gun, fists and feet would already have half-killed him.
"Um… s-sorry."
Maria suddenly looked on the verge of tears and apologized. Of course she hadn't wanted Seo Rin to see that side of her. Seo Rin only grinned and waved it off.
"It's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it."
"Mmm. Still…"
"Hey, look—the final fireworks are starting."
Seo Rin turned his head and watched the sky bloom with light. As the last fireworks of the parade painted the night, he smiled softly. No matter how you sliced it, Maria was simply too kind to him. A girl like this wasn't trying to trick him out of something.
"Plus she's loaded."
"Hm?"
"Nothing. Hahaha."
Seo Rin smirked out the cabin window. Maria's face turned sulky again.
"You're always dodging."
"Nah, it's fine. I got the picture. Thanks, Maria."
In a world where everyone wanted to use him, he had confirmed that Maria alone had approached him out of pure goodwill. That was enough to make him grateful. Why she felt that goodwill remained a mystery, but asking would have been rude.
"Hmph! Why the sudden thanks? You were doubting me like crazy a second ago. Tch."
Maria turned prim the moment his attitude flipped. She looked so thoroughly like a little kid that Seo Rin felt oddly reassured. Even among vampires there were good ones and bad ones, each with their own personality—that simple confirmation settled some of the confusion that had been swirling inside him.
"Hahaha. Well, I appreciate the offer, but I'll pass."
Following Maria would place far too heavy a burden on her. And if he did, would Han Se-gun ever forgive him? Almost certainly not.
He didn't want Se-gun to hate him, and he didn't want to weigh Maria down. So the present situation was still the best. Maria, however, simply could not understand him.
"What? Why not? He's dangerous. He's the incarnation of madness. And… the second he doesn't need you anymore, he'll kill you."
"Well… even now, one wrong word and he kills me once or twice a day. Still, I don't know. Deep down he doesn't seem all that bad."
"Not that bad at the core? So a man who's already gone mad is somehow going to turn kind again?"
"Ahh, somehow it all still falls inside the range of things I can understand."
Maria was speechless. As far as she knew, Han Se-gun never cut anyone slack just because they were human. And Seo Rin called that "understandable"? Then Seo Rin's range of understanding must be about the size of a communications satellite's coverage area.
"You're something else, Seo Rin."
Maria had no choice but to give him a thumbs-up. Seo Rin sighed and took her hand.
"And Maria—please, stay away from Se-gun hyung. He's only human. From the perspective of someone who lives centuries, if you just leave him alone he'll vanish in the blink of an eye."
"That's exactly why I can't leave him alone. If time slips by and I lose him, how am I supposed to avenge my sister's death?"
Maria exhaled. One way or another, Seo Rin's mind seemed already made up.
"You've completely decided, haven't you?"
"Yeah."
"Then next time we meet… we'll be enemies?"
It was half a threat, but Seo Rin only snorted.
"I don't want that. Do you, Maria?"
Faced with Seo Rin's shamelessness, Maria threw up her hands.
"Honestly… not allies, not enemies. What kind of relationship is that?"
"I still think we can be friends. Don't you?"
With that, Seo Rin stood and brushed off his seat. The Ferris wheel had completed its slow circle and returned to the ground.
"Yeah. I'd like that."
Maria smiled as she stepped off the Ferris wheel with him. She clasped her hands behind her back, spun once on her heel, and looked back at Seo Rin.
"Today was really fun."
"Yeah, same here. But Maria—even if sunlight doesn't kill you, don't push yourself like that next time."
"Next time?"
Maria blinked in surprise. Seo Rin scratched his cheek with a crooked grin.
"Yeah. Next time."
"…"
Maria lowered her eyes for a moment of thought, then answered with a bright smile.
"Okay!"
"Then let's walk out together. Come on—link arms."
"Okay."
Maria cheerfully hooked her arm through his.
People had gathered at a construction site stacked with materials. Strangely, most of them were foreigners—Norman, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, African, Native American… Enough different races to stock a human zoo.
Among them a white-haired Norman youth sat atop a concrete pipe, blowing bubblegum. Baseball cap pulled low, a bandage across the bridge of his nose, glittering earrings in his ears—at a glance he looked no older than late teens or early twenties.
He wore jeans so thoroughly worn they were fraying everywhere and sneakers with unusually thick soles. Still chewing his gum, he surveyed his companions.
"…Everyone here?"
"Seems like it."
Beside him a Black man with meticulously gelled hip-hop braids was grumbling.
"I'm broke as hell. Tourist visa means I can't even work. Once we finish what we came for, can we just go home?"
They were Esprit, the vampire clan that prided itself on being the most open of all. The youth perched on the pipe was their leader—the Jinma Argon. While other vampire Jinma had spent centuries amassing fortunes, Argon had simply lived as he pleased. As a result, Esprit was the poorest clan among all the vampires.