I Must Deceive
I had to deceive her.
I'd always figured I would run into Radiant White someday. Honestly, I'd even been looking forward to the meeting a little.
But not like this. I wasn't ready at all, I had no idea what to say, and the situation itself was the absolute worst.
I didn't know what Shining White looked like, yet it wasn't hard to guess that my current human form resembled her to some degree.
After all, the body I was using right now was literally Shining White's body!
Even with vampire, dragon, and monster elements added in, with my starlight suppressed at the moment I was just an ordinary human.
Monsters went without saying, and vampires could be considered a kind of monster too—their power ultimately came from the stars as well.
I hadn't expected even the dragon traits to be suppressed… but if they had made this body specifically for me, they would have accounted for that side of things too.
They might have thought of it as careful consideration on their end, yet right now it felt like nothing more than a giant middle finger.
Strip away the vampire, the dragon, and the monster from me, and all that remained was a magical girl—Shining White.
…Though saying that, I didn't look particularly white no matter how you looked at me.
The real problem, however, was that I had no idea what Shining White actually looked like.
If this appearance was identical to hers except for the hair and eye color, I might get kidnapped on the spot—no joke.
Considering the obsession Radiant White had shown toward her older sister, it wouldn't have been strange at all.
What should I do? Just keep my mouth shut? Yeah, she was a magical girl. There was no way she would commit trespassing—
"Is anyone there…? The tracker can't be broken. Hmm, it should be fine to just take a quick look around, right?"
Oh for fuck's sake, she was a magical girl! Follow the law!
"There's someone inside! A person!"
I barely held back a scream, urgently calling out that there was someone inside while knocking on the door.
"Oh my, Korean? Why are you in a place like this? Don't tell me those bastards locked you up?! Just wait a moment, I'll get you out right away!"
But Radiant White seemed to have completely misunderstood, and she started trying to smash the door even more violently than before.
After desperately racking my brains over why she was acting like that, it seemed Radiant White thought I was currently being held captive by vampires.
If this continued she would tear the door off just to get a look at me. What now? What the hell was I supposed to say?
"It's not—it's not like that! This is my house! So don't smash the door! Or I'll report you for property damage!"
Since I wasn't even wearing clothes at the moment, I just said whatever came to mind to keep her from coming in.
"Uh… your house? In a place like this?"
It was a pretty flimsy excuse even to my own ears. Still, it stopped the immediate disaster. I was completely naked right now.
"Yes! My house! Have you been living under a rock or what? More importantly, just wait a second, please! I'm only in my underwear right now!! I'll put some clothes on and come out!!!"
I was too embarrassed to tell a magical girl I was naked, so I lied and said I was at least in underwear.
This wasn't the time to worry about what to wear, so I just threw on whatever caught my eye. When I looked in the mirror afterward, it was a complete disaster.
The clothes belonged to people who had been drained dry by the bloodsuckers, so the bloodstains were bad enough, but the outfit itself looked like I could walk up to someone on the street and say "Hey, oppa, got some free time today?" without it seeming the least bit strange.
The shirt buttons around the chest wouldn't even close properly, leaving it half-unbuttoned, and the pants were way too tight.
The only silver linings were that the shoes were sneakers and there was a long coat that could cover my whole body.
Ah, I was going crazy. What about the corpses? Leaving them because I was too lazy to clean up was going to bite me in the ass. At this rate I would get branded a murderer for sure.
No—maybe they would treat me as a vampire.
And there were those documents here too. It would be really bad if she found them.
I didn't know. I had been thinking too hard; I could feel my head heating up in real time.
…Ah, I really didn't know. I would just play the illegal immigrant card. Or lie and say I had been sold by a human trafficking ring or something.
Pressing down on my throbbing head, I opened the front door and stepped outside.
No matter what, I could not let White inside.
For a second I worried I might burn up in the sunlight, but thankfully nothing like that happened.
Coming out from the dark into the bright light made my eyes hurt, and the skin the sun touched prickled strangely. That was all, though.
She looked at me wearing a coat in the middle of summer and muttered in brief confusion.
"You…"
Those words made me feel like ice was freezing me down to the marrow. Don't tell me my worry was real? Did I look like Shining White?
I waited for her next words with my heart in my throat, but she made a dubious expression and then told me to forget what she had just said.
…She must have seen the resemblance for about three seconds.
"Just to be sure, I'll ask again. Is this really your house?"
She asked me with a serious expression, as if trying to recompose herself.
At her reaction I wiped the sweat from my brow—mentally, at least. At least the worst I had feared had not happened.
But the relief did not last long. The situation was still just as shitty.
Behind me there were still plenty of things that could not be discovered, and she was still showing interest in me.
Radiant White was probably asking out of genuine concern, yet every word felt like a death sentence to me.
The extreme stress made my stomach churn. I did not want to get caught this easily here. Not looking this pathetic, at least.
And if I got rescued by Shining White I would definitely get handed over to some US military base or somewhere similar, and once there this disguise would be found out immediately.
Shining White might just think of my choker as some weird accessory, but those people over there were thorough.
Then it's really over.
"Um… are you sure you're okay?"
Seeing me silent, White asked if I was okay, looking genuinely worried.
"I already said it's my house. What? First time seeing a semi-basement?"
Whether it was the excessive stress frying my brain, a vicious remark no ordinary citizen would ever make to a magical girl came flying out.
"No, I didn't mean it like that… There's the smell of blood coming from inside…"
But that seemed to have been the right answer, as Radiant White looked noticeably flustered and started rambling a bit.
Finding a sliver of hope in that, I racked my brains again over how the hell to break through this situation. Think. What was Radiant White weak against…
…
……
………That's right. Worldly, explicit, reality-soaked stories. She was weak to that kind of thing.
She was a magical girl who lived in her dreams, after all.
So I just had to act in that direction. I wondered for a moment if the act would work, but then confidence surged.
I was the one who switched IPs every night to roleplay as a doctor, a lawyer, a shut-in NEET, a women's rights activist, and more.
I can do this. If it's me.
"Tsk… Maybe I should've sprayed some air freshener before coming out. Yeah, you're right. It's not my house. Ha, take a hint already. How can you have so little tact?"
Acting like "someone weak who has no manners and doesn't know how to bow to the strong"—I "sincerely despised" that kind of behavior, but…
If I just took off this choker I would be strong, so maybe I could count as the same kind of strong person?
Brainwashing myself like that, I went full shameless.
"Huh? Uh… I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong…?"
By this point White seemed to be getting dizzy herself, looking noticeably confused.
"No, no. It's my fault for expecting a magical girl to have any tact. Haa. This is a blood-selling club."
Answering nonchalantly with an indifferent attitude, I saw her face turn noticeably red.
"A-a club?!"
Seeing that, I let out a snort of laughter because she looked just like the pure little thing from the original. Yeah, she was that kind of girl.
"Yeah, a club. A club where we sell blood and this and that to bloodsuckers. First you've heard of it?"
Crossing my arms and treating her like an idiot, White was completely flustered, waving her hands around.
"Th- uh… ahh… Why is a Korean in a place like this…"
"Why do you think? Because of this."
I curled my index finger and thumb into a circle and splayed the rest of my fingers as I answered.
"There are a lot of soft-hearted cowards who say they can't bring themselves to suck the blood of random civilians. I came to squeeze money out of those little shits. Do you know how expensive hospital bills are?"
To her, who had turned completely red like a tomato, I casually adjusted my coat and subtly propositioned her, asking if she wanted to suck some blood herself while I was at it.
"A-aaaaabsolutely not! Never, never!!! Ahh…"
"Heh, cute. So… if you didn't come here to suck blood, what brings our magical girl all the way to a shabby place like this?"
I naturally seized the initiative in the conversation and asked why she had come.
I was genuinely curious. I really wanted to know why.
White stammered as she carefully explained the reason.
"So you followed the trail of someone using something like starlight and ended up here?"
I was speaking casually, but my heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst.
Didn't that mean they had pinpointed my location from the magic I used to fly around?
I knew the Americans were on another level, but these guys were seriously scary. I needed to be more careful from now on.
"Yes… So, um, about that, have you… seen anyone strange or unusual…?"
Making a mental note, I twirled my hair as if thinking it over.
"Hmm, not sure? I didn't really look at faces… And everyone looks weird to begin with, so I wouldn't know."
"Is that so… Maybe they just stopped by briefly… Th-thank you for your cooperation. Um, may I ask your name?"
Radiant White, though embarrassed, politely greeted me while asking for my name.
"Ha, you're asking for my name while knowing I work in a place like this?"
I couldn't help asking, dumbfounded by that. White, no matter how naive you are, people who work in places like this aren't going to give out their personal info.
"I wanted to help. I don't know who it is that's sick, but I wanted to contribute a little toward the hospital bills…"
Ha, seriously. It was a lie, and now it had come to this.
It was my fault for not considering that she was this kind of good person to begin with.
Name, name, name… Hmm, I could just make one up on the spot, but I wanted something pretty.
I closed my eyes and randomly matched first and last names until one name flashed through my mind like lightning, and I said it as is.
"Seong Min-a. Just call me Min-a."
"…Alright. I-I'm sorry for interrupting your work!"
Radiant White, upon hearing that much, tried to fly up into the sky as if fleeing.
I could have just let her go quietly, but at the end my mischievous side flared up and I added one more line for no reason.
"You, I don't know who you are, but there's someone you're desperately searching for, right? I hope you find them for sure."
Hearing that, Radiant White briefly made a face like "How do you know that?" before disappearing.
Hmm, was that it then?
"…Um, uh… should I call you Min-a…?"
Na-rae, who returned almost right after Radiant White left, asked that, but I didn't even have the energy to answer right now.
"Don't talk to me, Na-rae. Too much has happened… I'm exhausted for real…"
It was only the next day that I took the photo to put on my ID or passport and changed every name field to Seong Min-a.