The Brother's Shadow
Winter Rain.
One week after Eid's death.
I opened the classroom door and stepped inside to thwart the Black Star Society's conspiracy.
The professor asked me to introduce myself to the students.
When my face came into view, Sophia and many other students widened their eyes.
Through permanent polymorph engraving magic, I had increased my height slightly and sharpened my features to appear rougher.
Yet traces of Eid still lingered beneath the surface.
"You... you...? Eid...!?"
Sophia shot up from her seat.
Her expression was that of someone witnessing the dead return to life.
She looked beautiful in her black mourning clothes.
Her trembling blue eyes, red lips, and disheveled blonde hair completed the image.
"I'm Winter Rain."
I spoke to Sophia in a cold, indifferent tone.
"You're not Eid...?"
Her face crumbled.
I swept my gaze across the students and opened my mouth.
"After my brother died, the family sent me to the academy."
Then I deliberately made my next words even colder.
"Don't try to find my brother in my appearance."
"Um... Winter? Perhaps that's enough?"
The female professor with antlers on her head tried to stop me with an awkward expression.
But I cut her off and continued.
"I hate all of you."
The classroom froze at those words.
"Why didn't any of you do anything while my brother was dying?"
The students' faces hardened.
"Of course, I think he met a glorious death saving people at the academy. But blood ties are different. Eid's death was a great shock to me as well."
I paused to catch my breath.
"So..."
The classroom fell silent.
"I'm going to take revenge on the ones who killed my brother."
I slowly looked over the students.
"Is there anyone who wants revenge?"
A few students quietly nodded.
"Then I hope you'll join me."
With those words, I returned to my seat.
Elenora.
Eid's most trusted friend.
She possessed the power to see through the essence of things and souls.
That was why she nearly burst into tears the moment she saw Winter.
"I can definitely feel Eid's presence from Winter...!"
There were two possibilities in this case.
The first was that Winter had absorbed Eid's soul.
"Could Winter be a member of the Black Star Society?"
After the terrorist incident, everyone now knew of the Black Star Society's existence.
"No... that's unlikely. He claimed to be seeking revenge for his brother. Still, we can't let our guard down. He might be trying to lower our vigilance."
Elenora decided for now that Winter was someone to be wary of.
The second possibility was that Eid was pretending to be Winter.
"Maybe he faked his death because it was difficult to continue as Eid...? But his personality is far too different from the kind Eid..."
It was an inference that came dangerously close to the truth.
But in the next moment, her mind turned into a flower garden.
If the second possibility was correct.
If Winter was truly the same person as Eid.
Then she alone could monopolize Eid.
The thought that she could take the place Sophia had shared with him made a laugh escape her lips.
But soon she scolded herself for having such thoughts.
"To think I would have such thoughts... how unladylike of me..."
That was when Winter appeared.
"Talking to yourself, I see."
"Hic!"
"Your name is Elenora?"
"Hawawa...!"
Elenora nodded with a deeply startled expression.
She had always been shy and thoughtful by nature.
"Stay behind after class. I have something to say."
Sophia quietly watched the scene unfold.
Class ended.
I approached Elenora, who was waiting nervously.
"I'll be direct. I heard you have the ability to see through essence. So how does my soul look to you?"
"I... even if you suddenly ask me that..."
Elenora pretended to gauge my reaction.
Having spent so much time with her, I could tell.
That expression meant she was being cautious while trying to extract information.
"Are you suspecting me of being part of the Black Star Society?"
Elenora's face stiffened at those words.
But soon she looked at me with a composed expression and spoke.
"Yes. I do suspect you of being with the Black Star Society. And your very existence as well."
"My existence is confusing? What do you mean?"
I asked, pretending not to know her ability.
"Why are Eid's soul and your soul mixed together?"
Her tone sharpened.
Eid was me, Kim Min-sung from Earth, who had possessed this body.
In other words, two souls had been mixed in Eid Rain's body from the very beginning.
The soul of the boy Eid Rain from this world.
And my soul, Kim Min-sung, who had lived on Earth.
To be precise, there was no separate soul called Winter.
Winter Rain was merely a new identity I had assumed.
Even before faking my death, Kim Min-sung's soul had existed, of course.
But normally, I had kept Eid's soul at the forefront while hiding Kim Min-sung's soul behind it.
Conversely, after taking on the identity of Winter Rain, I hid Eid's soul as much as possible and brought Kim Min-sung's soul to the forefront.
As a result, I was now much closer to Kim Min-sung than the old Eid had been.
Moreover, because my death had been clearly recognized by everyone, the effect was even stronger.
That was why Elenora had judged that both Eid's soul and another soul existed within me.
Of course, I already had an answer prepared for this.
"Let me ask first. You've been seeing Eid's soul from the beginning, right?"
"Yes. It was a warm and radiant light. Yours is cold and dark. But Eid's light remains inside it."
"Then you must have known from the start that Eid's soul was originally two souls."
"What?! How did you...!"
Of course, it was all a lie.
But to deceive Elenora's ability, I had to tell a lie as close to the truth as possible.
"There was a similar case in the family. After the previous head died, part of his soul was overlaid onto Eid. And it seems I inherited that soul after my brother's death as well."
It was an explanation made possible because I had hidden Eid's soul beneath Kim Min-sung's soul.
Elenora lowered her head without a word.
She looked like someone who had lost something important.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"So that's what it was... That's why Eid's soul is inside you..."
She reached out with a trembling hand toward my face.
I swatted her hand away.
"I told you not to treat me and my brother as the same person."
At that moment, a loud voice came from outside the classroom.
"That can't be true!"
It was Sophia.
She strode in and shouted as if she were about to grab me by the collar.
"You inherited Eid's soul?!"
"What's all this commotion?"
I looked at her coldly.
"Shut up! That's not what's important right now!"
Tears welled in her eyes.
"Are you really saying you have Eid's soul?!"
"I do. Elenora confirmed it."
"I... I can't let Eid go like this!"
She cried out in anguish.
"I will... I will definitely bring Eid back to life."
"Eid is dead."
"Shut up!"
Sophia burst into tears and ran out of the classroom.
"Sophia!"
Elenora tried to follow her.
But I grabbed Elenora's arm as she tried to leave.
"Wait. We're not done talking."
"Let go...!"
She resisted weakly, but I pulled her closer and spoke in a low voice.
"To stop the Black Star Society's plot, I need your and Sophia's strength."
"Ugh...!"
Elenora looked up at me with a flushed face.
"This terror won't be the end. We need the same methods Eid and you all used to stop them."
Of course, since I had been Eid, I knew this well.
But to resolve what lay ahead, their help was absolutely necessary.
And above all, Sophia was the most dangerous one right now.
"Sophia isn't in her right mind because of Eid's death. I want you to help make sure she doesn't go down the wrong path."
Only then could I properly see Elenora's face.
It was flushed bright red.
I slowly released her.
She muttered softly.
"Don't say things like that with a face that resembles Eid..."
"What did you just say?"
"Ah... it's nothing."
Elenora avoided my gaze and spoke quietly.
"I still haven't accepted Eid's death either. But... seeing you, I'll try to find some strength."
"You haven't moved on from my brother's death either?"
I deliberately put on a disappointed expression.
Elenora shrank her small body and her eyes welled with tears.
"I probably never will..."
"Disappointing."
But she smiled faintly instead.
"Still, I saw hope."
"What?"
"Because Eid still remains inside you."
A new light began to gleam in her eyes.
"The rest of my life that I tried to cut off... I should try living it again, shouldn't I?"
Sophia.
She was the female protagonist of this game.
Following the protagonist Eid, she had solved countless incidents at the academy.
From minor tasks like searching for medicinal herbs at the professor's request to stopping the Black Star Society's terrorism.
Sophia had always been by his side.
She had believed, as if it were natural, that she would spend the rest of her life with Eid.
But in the end, Sophia had failed to prevent Eid's death.
Eid had breathed his last coldly before her eyes.
The bullet that pierced his head.
His figure collapsing while bleeding.
And those red eyes that had looked at her until the very end.
That scene remained vividly in her mind even now.
"It's... all my fault..."
Sophia muttered in a trembling voice.
Ever since hearing about Winter's identity from Elenora, her mind had grown even more chaotic.
"He inherited Eid's soul...?"
At first, she had been fooled by the similar face and thought Eid had truly returned.
But that wasn't the case.
Winter resembled Eid, yet was far too different.
"Eid... was never that cold..."
Sophia curled up in the corner of the room, hugging her knees, and began to cry.
She shed tears for half a day like that.
Memories of the time she spent with Eid flashed through her mind.
The moments they laughed together.
The moments they fought together.
And even his back as he protected her.
"If only I had been a little stronger..."
Her voice trembled faintly.
"If I die... this pain will end too..."
Sophia's pupils were already losing focus.
But at that very moment, a new light slowly began to gleam in her eyes.
"Wait..."
Sophia slowly raised her head.
"Eid's soul... still remains, doesn't it...?"
In that instant, something connected in her mind.
Forbidden magic to revive the dead.
A ritual to return the soul.
Ancient spells that dealt with life and soul.
Sophia stood up as if possessed by something.
Then she began walking straight toward the academy's underground archives.
The underground archives held ancient texts and forbidden books that ordinary students were prohibited from accessing.
Numerous sealing spells and detection spells were in place, but they posed no problem for Sophia.
As the female protagonist, she already knew most of the academy's structure and security systems.
A short while later.
In the dark, cold archives, Sophia pulled out several books.
Black leather covers.
Blood-red patterns.
And forbidden contents recorded about human souls.
But she hid them inside the covers of other ordinary magic books and tucked them into her arms.
As if embracing a precious treasure.
A small voice escaped Sophia's trembling lips.
"Wait for me, Eid..."
Her eyes began to fill with mad obsession.
"This time... I'll definitely bring you back to life."