I was staring at Teacher Ai in disbelief. I had originally wanted to report directly to Headmistress Teresa Taylor, but a student did not simply walk into the headmistress's office without any reason. If I had anything to report, it had to go through the teachers first. While some people might deride this, it was perfectly logical. In the military, we called it chain of command. You simply didn't go straight to the top, you had to report to your superior first.

Similarly, the school bureaucracy operated in the same manner. Before I could bring the news to the headmistress, I had to go through the teachers first. So I brought the recording from both my gla.s.ses and my smartphone to Teacher Ai, and let her look at it. She did, and then laughed.

"I know about this. Both Xu Wu Cheng and Nan Gong Ji Yan have already informed me of this."

"Huh? They did?" I had stared at her blankly. She had nodded in reply.

"Yeah. They were acting out a play. They told me that you misunderstood and interrupted their acting halfway, and got into a fight, but because of the content of the play, they didn't blame you for it."

…what?

I wasn't sure I believed what Teacher Ai was saying. However, that didn't change the fact that I now had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I had been outwitted by Xu Wu Cheng and Nan Gong Ji Yan. They predicted that I might report this to the teacher, and so fabricated a reasonable story to prevent any repercussions. I had been naïve to think that everything would end if I told the teachers, but they had stayed one step ahead of me.

"Man, their acting must have been really incredible if it was real and convincing enough for you to panic and attack!" Teacher Ai laughed. "I wish I could have seen it! I think that's pretty impressive. However…" She looked at me sternly. "In future, make sure you confirm the facts before you start attacking people, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." I hung my head, frustration burning inside me. Like h.e.l.l that was an act! Unfortunately, I had no way of persuading Teacher Ai or any of the teachers. Xu Wu Cheng and Ji Yan served as perfect alibis for each other, and it was the word of the two of them against the one of me. No one would believe me over them, especially since I was just an exchange student and Ji Yan had been here for quite a while. Not only that, Xu Wu Cheng was so much more handsome, popular and richer than I was. He could get away with practically murder (and definitely rape). No one would question him.

d.a.m.n it!

"Well, if there's nothing else, you should go back to cla.s.s," Teacher Ai advised. I grimaced, but knowing that I couldn't do anything, I complied and left the staff room. Sighing heavily, I headed for my cla.s.sroom. I contemplated telling Teacher Einsberg as well, but he would have learned from Teacher Ai that the whole thing was a performance by Xu Wu Cheng and Ji Yan, and obviously he would accept the explanation from a fellow teacher instead of me. He would tell me the same thing after "investigations."

The two b.l.o.o.d.y f-ers had me in checkmate.

My mind was burning and I was understandably distracted by this whole issue. Unable to pay much attention in cla.s.s, I wasn't surprised when time flew by like a bullet. The next thing I knew, morning cla.s.ses had ended (I had went straight to the staff room first thing in the morning, right before the first cla.s.s), and lunch break had arrived. As I ate a bento on my desk, I glanced down from the window near my front row desk and caught sight of Ji Yan wandering around the courtyard below. She evidently looked uncomfortable as she staggered into the shade provided by the trees, taking shelter from the sunlight and sitting sullenly by herself somewhere.

Take note, I didn't actually see this with my own eyes. But being a busybody, I had summoned Corvus to spy on her. Sending the crow after her, I had him watch her every movements and report back to me, just in case she did something stupid.

Right now, Corvus was watching as Ji Yan sat in the shade of a particularly large tree.

Am I really a vampire?

It was clear that Ji Yan was questioning what Xu Wu Cheng had told her. The stupid girl still refused to accept reality. According to what I had read, vampires had the ability to pa.s.s down the "curse" or inherent traits of a vampire by injecting his demonic mana into a victim while sucking her blood via a complex process. Some sort of spell, a soul-binding curse. Of course, if he didn't cast that spell, he could just drain the victim of her blood without ever turning her into a vampire…if she survived, but that was up to the individual vampires. Suffice to say, Tai Yi had obviously chosen to turn Ji Yan into a vampire.

Watching through the eyes of Corvus, I continued ploughing into my food even as Ji Yan stared blankly into s.p.a.ce.

Fortunately, the forest in the campus is always isolated. Zhao Yan and the other students will not be coming here. If they do, things will be troublesome.

Wait, what? There was a forest in the campus? Was she serious? The garden couldn't be counted as a forest – had she not seen a real forest before? Then again, given what an amateur she was, it was clear that she hadn't gone through actual combat in a real forest throughout her entire life. It was pretty weird for a school to actually have a forest of its own within its premises. For one thing, as ma.s.sive as the academy was, it wasn't big enough to house an actual forest. Also, why would an academy grow its own forest?

Before I could question the ludicrosity of having a forest exist within a school, someone approached Ji Yan from behind, causing me to almost spit out my lunch.

Oh no! I couldn't allow the guy to meet her! It was too dangerous!

However, even as Corvus sqwaked and flapped his wings frantically, both the newcomer and Ji Yan blatantly ignored him. In any event, I was unfortunately too late.

Ji Yan had noticed the guy behind her as well, and had turned her head around in confusion. Her brow wrinkled and her mouth dropped open.

"Huh?"

"h.e.l.lo, Ji Yan. My name is Jiang Xue Yang, and I'm from Cla.s.s 2B."

It was a bespectacled guy who looked almost exactly like me, except that his hair was brown and his eyes were swirls for some reason instead of normal eyes. Was the original author making fun of gla.s.ses-wearing characters like us?! What was with this unflattering depiction?!

The next lines that came from Jiang Xue Yang's mouth almost had me throwing up from disbelief at how cheesy they were.

"I…I like you. I saw you in the forest, so I wanted to ask you if you could be my friend."

WHAT THE f.u.c.k?!

Seriously. WHAT THE f.u.c.k?!

Yeah, it was so absurd that I had to repeat my swearing twice.

The dude confessed to Ji Yan…okay, that was normal. A bit unnatural, but I didn't condemn people for going straight to the point. Though you would normally build up to a confession rather than blurting it out right from the beginning, but I would chalk that up to social awkwardness. But then, he mentioned seeing her in the forest, which made him sound like a stalker. I mean, seriously, even if you did see her in the forest, did you have to tell her that?! Who says that in real life? Like, "I saw you in the café, so I wanted to ask you to be my friend."

The dialogue had completely no link at all! How did one sentence go from a confession to seeing her in a forest, and then jump into "let's be friends!"?! Did the original author not think things through before writing such a ridiculous dialogue?! It sounded like the original author was merely rus.h.i.+ng through the scene and throwing in dialogue for the sake of it because the intention was to push the plot forward and make this poor guy Ji Yan's first victim.

Ugh, what poor writing.

As I suspected, Ji Yan stood up. Corvus tried to attack, but Ji Yan swatted the poor crow aside and then ignored him as he lay crumpled on the ground. Jiang Xue Yang gave Corvus a weird stare, but his attention went back to Ji Yan again. Cursing, I bolted from my seat, sprinting out of the cla.s.sroom past surprised cla.s.smates and rus.h.i.+ng down the stairs. Why didn't I jump out of the window? Because the cla.s.sroom windows were locked and it would take me quite a bit of mana and strength to bust through the reinforced and enchanted gla.s.s (remember that this was a school for mages).

"Nan Gong Ji Yan?" Jiang Xue Yang asked, confused when she slowly approached him. Even though Corvus was down, he remained in this dimension to serve as my eyes and ears, seeing everything that had transpired. Jiang Xue Yang watched as Ji Yan placed a hand on his chest, slowly raising it to his shoulder and to his face. The poor guy began steaming in embarra.s.sment, his face turning bright red. "Nan Gong Ji Yan…you?!"

Whatever pleasant shock he felt was erased by unbearable pain as she sank her fangs into his neck, causing him to scream as she drained the blood from his body, unable to control her thirst. I slowed to a stop helplessly at the bottom of the stairs, still too far away to help. I could only watch as Jiang Xue Yang flailed about and died.

My fault. This was my fault.

I had left Ji Yan to Yi Tai's mercy in a fit of petty rage, allowing her to be transformed into a vampire because I was annoyed by her att.i.tude. I could have done more, maybe if I had fought to the end, or knocked Ji Yan out and escaped with her, but I just let her get toyed around by Yi Tai and turned into a vampire all because she p.i.s.sed me off. I even thought she deserved it.

But it led to an innocent schoolmate's death. A death I could have prevented if I had put aside my pettiness and anger and actually did the right thing.

Jiang Xue Yang's death was as much my fault as it was Ji Yan's.

"Richard? Are you all right?"

I looked up shakily when Teacher Einsberg spotted me. He frowned in concern.

"You look really pale. Go to the infirmary."

"Teacher Einsberg…somebody has been killed…"

"Huh?"

"Nan Gong Ji Yan. She murdered somebody and drank his blood! She killed Jiang Xue Yang!"

"What? Calm down! What are you talking about?!"

It took a while before Teacher Einsberg believed me, and that was after he confirmed with the teacher of Cla.s.s 2B that she had a missing student. Even though I told them what I had witnessed through the eyes and ears of my Corvus, all I had was my word that the culprit was Ji Yan. I didn't have any real evidence, unfortunately. Corvus didn't wear gla.s.ses, after all, so he had nothing on him that could record the whole thing.

In any event, the teachers contacted the police, who searched in the "forest" and found the corpse of poor Jiang Xue Yang.

The next thing I knew, Teresa Taylor placed the whole school under lockdown and sent everyone back home. As they were sent back home, the students restlessly chattered and gossiped among each other. I was separated from the other students for questioning, and even though I told the police the same thing I had told Teacher Einsberg, none of them believed me.

"You said that Nan Gong Ji Yan is the culprit, correct? The murderer?" the detective was regarding me suspiciously. I nodded, and he continued with his interrogation. "You claimed that she attacked him during lunchtime. That is the case?"

"Yes, sir."

"That can't be possible. During lunchtime, she was with Xu Wu Cheng. She had an alibi. Are you sure the person you saw was her?"

"Perhaps there was some sort of illusion. Or a flaw in the kid's summoning magic." Another police officer offered an explanation. The detective grunted, obviously not satisfied.

"Maybe."

After a while, they realized that there would no longer be any more useful information from me, and they let me go.

Despite their attempt to hush the event, while I was returning home, I could overhear the other students whispering amongst themselves.

"I heard the victim was Jiang Xue Yang from Cla.s.s 2B."

"Scary! It seems like he was killed by a vampire. His corpse was completely drained of his blood!"

The whispers didn't cease even as the students were ordered to go home or return to their dormitories. In the midst of it all, I caught sight of Nan Gong Ji Yan standing by herself, looking angry. Our gazes met for a moment, and she turned away in shame.

She knew I knew. After all, I had snitched on her, and it was only through the intervention and lies of Xu Wu Cheng that she was able to escape the clutches of the police. That f.u.c.king couple. They were always one step ahead of me. I didn't know why Xu Wu Cheng was covering for her, but he probably had some use for her. One thing was for sure, he would realize that I was a constant thorn in his side and would eventually move to eliminate me.

I had to prepare myself for the inevitable conflict.

As for Ji Yan, she continued to sullenly stand alone. There was a sudden jolt when her phone buzzed. She reluctantly flipped it open and stared at the text message that she had received, embroidered with the familiar blue rose of the Guang Zhi Yi Sect. Apparently it was a message from the sect, declaring an emergency and ordering an immediate meeting. Ji Yan stared at the message bitterly before replying with an apology.

"I'm sorry. I'm not feeling very well today so I will not be able to partic.i.p.ate in today's meeting."

What a lie.

However, given her pale complexion and trembling body, which an extremely concerned Zhao Yan could undoubtedly see, Ji Yan had the perfect excuse to skip the meeting.

However, she obviously wasn't going back home to rest.

I summoned Corvus to follow her again, but kept my distance because I wouldn't be able to do much if I followed her myself. I would get caught instead.

Ji Yan had gone to Room 5, as she had promised Yi Tai the other day. And when she entered the cla.s.sroom, she found him waiting for her.

"The whole school is in an uproar right now. Your thirst for blood must be really strong…" He shook his head. "If I hadn't acted as your alibi, you would have been arrested by the police and dissected, you know? Or perhaps immediately killed. You should be thankful."

"Thanks to you, I have no choice but to accept your offer," Ji Yan snapped bitterly.

"Oh?"

Yi Tai turned his head back with a smile. Approaching Ji Yan in an exaggerated manner, he slapped her.

"Ah…" Ji Yan clutched her reddening cheek as tears leaked from her eyes, and she descended into a daze from the sudden act of violence.

Yi Tai smirked as he gently cupped Ji Yan's chin, a contrast to his brutal action earlier. Despite the gentleness, Ji Yan couldn't help but tremble under Yi Tai's touch. For good reason, for the words that followed were cold and merciless.

"You need to beg me for my help."

Ji Yan shuddered under the icy tone. Ignoring her, Yi Tai continued glacially with a chilling smile.

"If you want my help, then you must absolutely change that arrogant att.i.tude of yours. You must understand that right now, you're nothing but my lowly servant. Therefore I should first teach you how you should talk to your master."

Ji Yan could only lower her head in frustration, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"I'm begging you, please help me…"

Yi Tai bit his finger, allowing a trickle of warm blood to flow unhindered. Sticking it out, he then placed his bleeding finger in the desperate Ji Yan's mouth.

"The blood slave must obey all of her master's orders without question."

Yi Tai smiled and waited patiently as Ji Yan drank deeply from him, before he dropped the bomb on her.

"Including killing enemies for your master…"

Ji Yan withdrew from him, her blue eyes wide in shock. Blood trickled from her lips as she stared at him, stunned. Yi Tai merely smiled and delivered the finis.h.i.+ng blow.

"For example, Guang Zhi Yi Sect."

"That's…"

"What's the matter? Don't you want to surpa.s.s your sister?" Yi Tai's sinister smile sent chills down Ji Yan's spine. "Destroying Guang Zhi Yi Sect is one way of proving your superiority."

"I…"

"Well, conceal your ident.i.ty for now and wait for my orders."

Yi Tai grinned as he left a trembling Ji Yan in the abandoned cla.s.sroom, leaving her to fear for the future.

Please go to to read the latest chapters for free