516 Chapter 516: Acting (1/2)
”Are you serious?”
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 glasses 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 hell 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.
Damn it!
”Well, if there's nothing else, you should go back to class,” 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 classroom. 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 bloody 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 class, I wasn't surprised when time flew by like a bullet. The next thing I knew, morning classes had ended (I had went straight to the staff room first thing in the morning, right before the first class), 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 pass 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 space.
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 massive 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?”
”Hello, Ji Yan. My name is Jiang Xue Yang, and I'm from Class 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 glasses-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 FUCK?!
Seriously. WHAT THE FUCK?!
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 rushing 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 classroom past surprised classmates and rushing down the stairs. Why didn't I jump out of the window? Because the classroom windows were locked and it would take me quite a bit of mana and strength to bust through the reinforced and enchanted glass (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 embarrassment, 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 attitude. 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 pissed 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?”