A God in White
Is that you?
Lee Yuha suddenly woke from her sleep.
She sat up in bed, pushing the covers aside, then swept her loose silver hair—still tied with its long daenggi ribbon—behind her ear and pressed a hand to her forehead to check her temperature. The high fever that had raged since evening had finally subsided, leaving behind a refreshing coolness instead.
‘Professor Kurobe’s medicine must have worked.’
Lee Yuha had been suffering from unexplained weakness and mental fog. Professor Kurobe of the Department of Magical Studies had called her in and analyzed her blood.
He speculated that her anemia was caused by an external force draining her blood and prescribed medicine to prevent her body’s blood essence from leaking out.
The intense fever that followed her taking the medicine had been a minor side effect—her mana, which usually flowed out naturally, had instead built up inside her body.
That side effect had now passed, and her fever had broken.
After checking her forehead, Lee Yuha glanced out the window at the dead of night. She wondered why she had woken up, only to realize belatedly that the commotion was coming from downstairs.
‘……?’
What could be causing such a racket in the middle of the night? She threw off the rest of her blanket and rose from the bed. She was wearing the dormitory’s standard sleepwear—a flowing, pure white cotton nightgown.
With her silver hair cascading freely down past her waist, she slipped on the rubber shoes issued by the dormitory and left her room. The noise from below grew clearer.
『Then I shall return to my laboratory.』
『I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Professor Kurobe.』
『……Then how long exactly am I expected to remain here?』
She descended the stairs toward the source of the murmurings on the first floor and found Professor Kurobe surrounded by men in suits.
‘Professor Kurobe?’
Why was he here, and who were these men surrounding him? As Lee Yuha stood halfway down the stairs in confusion, Aikawa, who had spotted her, came running over.
『Miss Ri! Are you all right?』
Lee Yuha nodded and asked Aikawa,
『What is going on?』
Aikawa explained everything she knew. Baek Chulyeon had declared that Professor Kurobe was definitely a vampire and ordered the suited men to detain him. After listening, Lee Yuha understood the situation.
‘Chulyeon must have misunderstood and grown suspicious of Professor Kurobe.’
With her long silver hair swaying behind her, Lee Yuha strode forward without hesitation toward Professor Kurobe, who was still surrounded by the men in suits.
『Uh… Hey! Wait! P-please don’t come any closer! Miss!』
Takahiro, spotting the approaching Lee Yuha, was somehow overawed by her presence and accidentally addressed her as “Miss.”
Professor Kurobe, seated in a chair, also noticed her. His sunken eyes fixed on her as he spoke.
『Miss Ri.』
『Yes.』
『How are you feeling?』
『Much better.』
『I’m glad to hear it. The blood essence should no longer be drained from you, but it will take time for your depleted blood volume to return to normal.』
Lee Yuha bowed to Professor Kurobe, then turned back to Takahiro.
『Release Professor Kurobe.』
Startled by her natural, commanding tone, Takahiro hesitated before answering.
『……But this is an order from Young Master— I mean, from Student Shirabayashi.』
『……』
『He should be here shortly. He said he was in the research building, so he won’t be long. Please wait, Miss.』
Lee Yuha thought to herself.
‘Baek Chulyeon, you…’
His suspicion of Professor Kurobe had stemmed from a misunderstanding, but it had all been done out of worry for her. It was Baek Chulyeon who had asked Aikawa to look after her, and who had run around desperately trying to find the cause of her illness.
『I understand.』
With that reply to Takahiro, Lee Yuha walked straight past him toward the dormitory exit.
Even though he was on his way here, she wanted to go meet him first and express her gratitude. After all, no one had worried about her or worked harder on her behalf.
『M-Miss! If you go outside—!』
Takahiro hurriedly blocked her path as she tried to leave the dormitory. Since Baek Chulyeon had ordered him to protect her, he couldn’t simply let her wander out.
『Student Shirabayashi also ordered us to protect you, Miss. You must stay here so we can—』
Lee Yuha cut him off, looking up at him with firm resolve.
『Did he also order you to block the path I wish to take?』
『……!』
『If not, then step aside.』
Unable to argue against that, Takahiro finally gave way.
Lee Yuha left the dormitory building still dressed in her pure white nightgown and stepped onto the wooded path leading to the research building. She hoped she might meet Baek Chulyeon along the way.
B-class Body Transformation and A-class Blood Essence Absorption.
Blood Essence Absorption was the ability to absorb blood components and convert them into energy. He had likely been supplementing his insufficient mana with this ability to maintain his transformation. Maintaining a transformation for 121 days meant he had been in that state nonstop for at least four months. With only E-class mana, that would have been impossible otherwise.
‘So it wasn’t Professor Kurobe. This bastard was the vampire.’
But what shocked me more was the name “Choi Seonggil.”
The name displayed in the status window wasn’t something you could simply change on a whim. It wasn’t pulled from some household registry either. It showed the name the person had considered their own since childhood—the one deeply engraved into their “ghost” over a long period of time.
‘He was Korean?’
Just who the hell was this guy?
A Korean who had been pretending to be Japanese all this time? Had he stolen the face and identity of the real “Saigane Seiji”? And he had even acted as if his Korean was clumsy, just like a real Japanese person would.
‘……What now?’
The status window had confirmed he was the culprit, but that was proof that existed only in my head. I had no physical evidence.
Besides, this fake persona of “Professor Saigane Seiji” was a kindly Japanese professor who had influence even with the police and was well-respected on campus. Even if I accused him, there was no way to prove it or have him punished.
Still, I couldn’t allow a vampire that threatened students’ lives to remain at the school I had to attend and graduate from. In the end,
‘I’ll have to take care of it myself.’
I spoke to Professor Saigane—no, to Choi Seonggil.
『Um, Professor. It’s rather late, but since the opportunity has arisen, I was hoping to consult with you. Is there a place nearby where we could speak privately?』
『Oh! A consultation? Consultations are always welcome. But didn’t you say you were in a hurry?』
As expected, suddenly asking for a consultation in the middle of the night after I had been running around as if I were busy—was it suspicious? I quickly made up an excuse.
『Ah, well… It’s about a girl. I thought you might be knowledgeable in that area…』
When it came to woman troubles, most men would gladly listen as if they were experts, and Choi Seonggil was no exception.
『Haha! Woman troubles can’t be helped. I’ll assist you with all my heart.』
Still wearing that kindly smile, he pointed to a side path branching off the wooded trail.
『There’s an old, currently empty temple further up the path. I often take night walks and stop there to catch the breeze. How about that spot?』
The place he indicated was a narrow mountain path lined with wooden stairs. It wasn’t too steep, but it led deep into the woods.
『That sounds good.』
『Then I’ll lead the way. It’s dark, so follow closely.』
Choi Seonggil began climbing the wooden stairs first. I started to follow behind him when I suddenly thought,
‘Wait a second.’
My plan had been to ambush and kill him up there where no one would see. Even though he possessed blood-sucking abilities, he didn’t seem to have any notable offensive skills, and he would never expect me to attack from behind. It should have been foolproof.
But what if my plan failed? What if I ended up being the one overpowered by Choi Seonggil?
If I died in that deserted mountain temple, no one would ever know.
‘I can’t risk that.’
There needed to be someone who could notice, someone who could help—or at least reveal the truth if I fell.
『Aren’t you coming?』
The guy ahead turned back to ask.
‘……Hmm.’
There wasn’t enough time to leave a proper message here, and it might arouse his suspicion. Still, I needed to leave something…
『Ah, just a moment, Professor. It’s nothing. There’s dirt in my shoe.』
I crouched down, took something out of my bag, and neatly placed it on the ground.
‘This should be enough for someone to notice.’
Then I stood up again and followed him up the mountain path, thinking,
‘All right. Time to go catch a real vampire.’
‘I’m going to die first, damn it.’
The narrow mountain path lined with wooden stairs was only a few dozen meters long, but it left me completely winded. If I were still my 21st-century self, I would have flown up this without breaking a sweat. But this weak 17-year-old young master’s body was already gasping for air.
‘Once this is over, I need to start training my stamina…’
The scene that finally appeared was a half-collapsed temple with its doors fallen off and a moss-covered stone pagoda—an abandoned hermitage.
Choi Seonggil, who had arrived first and was breathing in the air as if savoring it, spoke.
『Huuu… Haaaa… Well? It’s a temple from the Joseon period, but it was abandoned when our school was built.』
『I… see…』
『I come here often. The quiet, lonely atmosphere puts me in a humble state of mind.』
After muttering to himself like that, he suddenly turned to me, who was still catching my breath, and asked,
『Student Shirabayashi, have you ever kept a pet?』
It was an out-of-the-blue question. I didn’t know his intention, but since my 21st-century self had raised a dog, I answered roughly.
『Yes.』
『You must have been truly sad when that pet died, right?』
Without waiting for my answer, he continued with a lonely look in his eyes.
『I’m sure you were. I was too. And it happened only a few days ago.』
『I’m… sorry to hear that.』
『He wasn’t exactly obedient, but he was a good boy. When I let him loose in the mountains, he would bring me useful things. …But a few days ago, some wicked children killed him.』
‘……?’
The more I listened, the stranger it felt.
‘……No way?’
A few days ago, during the preliminary practical training, that medium-sized magic beast—an onigumo—had entered the training area. At the time, over a dozen students had nearly been captured and killed by it.
My squad and I had killed that onigumo… Was he talking about that incident?
‘Was that his doing too?’
I was inwardly horrified. Not content with secretly sucking students’ blood, he had even used a monster to actively hunt them down.
And the fact that he was telling me this story meant he intended to kill me out of that grudge.
‘So he brought me here to kill me?’
I might end up being the one killed instead. I tensed up and gripped the scalpel from my pocket in a reverse hold. But then I suddenly felt dizzy and staggered.
‘……Anemia?’
I hadn’t even been attacked, so how…?
At that moment, moonlight broke through the clouds, and I saw something like red vapor rising in front of my eyes. Just like steam rising from a hot potato, red vapor was rising from my own skin.
‘This is…?’
I was shocked. Blood was seeping out from between the cells of my skin in the form of red vapor and being absorbed by him!
‘So this is A-class Blood Essence Absorption…!’
I had never imagined he could suck blood this way.
He didn’t need to sink fangs into anyone or even create a wound. Ever since we started climbing those stairs, I had already been under his blood drain!
I had thought I could kill him easily if I ambushed him, but now I was the one being ambushed.
I quickly rolled my body and hid behind the half-collapsed stone pagoda. As if his ability didn’t work when I was out of his direct line of sight, the vapor rising from my skin stopped.
‘Huff… Huff…’
『You have good instincts, Student Shirabayashi.』
His voice rang out. I leaned my back against the stone pagoda and answered. Since I had already been attacked, there was no longer any need to treat him as Professor Saigane.
“Fuck off, Choi Seonggil. I know you’re Korean, so you can drop the Saigane act.”
“Hoo…!”
A voice full of admiration came from a spot slightly shifted from before, as if he had moved to bring me back into his line of sight.
“My, my… I thought I had erased all traces from that time.”
Having apparently decided to stop pretending to be the Japanese Saigane, he now spoke in fluent Korean. I slowly shifted my body behind the pagoda to keep my back to the direction of his voice.
The matchup was terrible.
Without an artifact or potion to stop my blood from draining, I was completely helpless.
Moreover, the only weapon I had was the small scalpel I’d grabbed from the lab. To hurt him with it, I’d have to get close, but I would clearly collapse from blood loss long before I could reach him.
‘……Damn it.’
“What did you do to the real Professor Saigane? There must have been an actual person, right?”
I asked questions to buy time.
“Ah, that was when I was living in the mainland as an international student… I met him then. He was so arrogant about having graduated from Tokyo Imperial University that it pissed me off. In a fit of anger, I killed him and stole his identity! Haha!”
“Still, it was a nice skin to wear! Thanks to his academic background, I was invited to become a professor here, and his family connections reached even the police… That let me erase most of my past as the Korean Choi Seonggil!”
If someone was better than him, he killed them, wore their face, and lived as them. To maintain that, he became a vampire who sucked other people’s blood.
That was how he lived.
“Being a professor at this school is truly wonderful. To maintain this face I need the blood of awakened individuals, and here I can absorb fresh blood essence from them whenever I please.”
Exactly. With an ability that could absorb blood essence without even needing to bite, he could have sucked students’ blood while pretending to counsel them, or by disguising himself as a dormitory supervisor.
Lee Yuha and Aikawa had been among his unwitting victims.
But he could drain blood without killing his victims, so why had he killed the cafe robber Gye Hyeongbok?
“Why did you kill Gye Hyeongbok? You didn’t need to kill him, did you?”
Choi Seonggil answered in a deliberately somber voice.
“Well, that couldn’t be helped. Student Shirabayashi… Our compatibility was terrible. As you saw, his poison had the effect of destroying my transformation control. It really took me by surprise… Yes, if someone like that was left alive, he would always be a threat to me, wouldn’t he?”
I had kept asking questions only to buy time, but at this point I was genuinely furious.
“So you plan to wear Professor Saigane’s skin for the rest of your life, killing others to keep up the act?”
I shouted, but his reply was completely unexpected.
“No, no! Of course the title of Professor Saigane is nice, but… I can’t be satisfied with just this! In a few days, I’m thinking of becoming the principal of this school, Student Shirabayashi!”
The principal!
The principal I had seen in his office a few days ago had looked like a powerless, indecisive old man propped up as a figurehead. If this bastard wanted to, he could easily kill the principal and steal his position.
‘If that guy becomes the principal…!’
That alone was absurd, but he laughed heartily and continued.
“Hahaha! And of course that won’t be the end! I am a man of great ambition, Student Shirabayashi… After principal comes Director of Academic Affairs! Or, hmm, since I have connections in the police, Director of the Police Bureau would be nice too!”
“Then I’ll enter the Government-General! Naturally, the next step is to become Governor-General of Korea! …After that, I’ll cross over to the mainland and become Prime Minister! And then… and then… Do you understand, Shirabayashi my dear?”
“Hahaha! What comes after that! Think about it! The Prime Minister can have private audiences with the Emperor! So of course I can become the Emperor too! Hahaha!”
Spreading both arms wide, he shouted loudly.
“This body shall become the Emperor, a living god!”
This guy was insane. Completely insane.
“Yes. You too shall one day offer your blood as nourishment to me, a god. Didn’t I tell you before? Even a worthless Korean awakened has plenty of ways to contribute to society…”
Saying that, Choi Seonggil circled the stone pagoda at a distance until he finally came into my view. But I no longer had the strength to even stand. Holding onto consciousness was my limit.
When he reached a hand toward me, red vapor began rising from my skin again.
‘Ugh…!’
As my blood drained helplessly and my vision began to darken, he suddenly stopped the blood drain and let out a scream.
“Ugh…? Gah, GAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Crack!
Frost clung to the palms of the hands he had stretched toward me, freezing them thickly, while ice began climbing up from the ground to encase his feet.
And then I caught a glimpse of silver hair and heard a clear voice beside me.
With those words, something was placed with a thud in front of me as I sat collapsed on the ground.
‘……?’
What lay before me was a pair of shoes. They were the ones I had changed out of for rubber shoes when entering the research building, stowed in my bag, and then neatly set down on the mountain path earlier in the hope that someone would notice them.
I lifted my head. The girl with her silver hair untied and flowing long, dressed in a white dormitory nightgown, turned her head back toward Choi Seonggil. A faint smile played on her lips as she continued.
‘……As expected.’
I thought. Yeah. I knew someone would notice. I never imagined it would be her, though… Still sitting on the ground, I looked up at Lee Yuha and greeted her.
“……Yuha.”
“……? Chulyeon.”
Lee Yuha, still emitting frost toward Choi Seonggil, tilted her head in confusion and awkwardly returned my greeting. Sigh. She still had a long way to go before becoming a proper modern person.
It’s “Chul-yeon,” you idiot.