Chapter 13 – Suspicious

R̀ëãd̀ ̀õn̈​ ̂Ḱát̂R̂éàd̃ín̂ĝĆâf́ê

 

Radiant White, Baek Jua, tried to find the woman she met in Romania as soon as she returned to Korea.

She visited large hospitals in Seoul, meeting patients who were struggling with medical bills and politely asking if they had such a family member. She even slightly abused her magical girl authority to access the guardian lists of critical patients.

She used every legal method at her disposal, but a woman named Sung Mina, who was supposedly struggling with hospital bills, did not exist.

Every patient she asked had never heard of such a person, and her name was nowhere to be found on any guardian list.

It would have been understandable to give up, but Radiant White did not.

It was partly because she had a principle of never making promises she couldn’t keep, but more than that, Mina’s appearance strangely kept nagging at her.

White did not think Mina was her sister.

The first reason was that their ages didn’t match at all. The second was that the location where she found Mina was completely random. The third was that Mina didn’t recognize her.

Even if, for some reason, her sister had lost her memory and was living another life, White couldn’t believe that her sister would have fallen to such a place.

Still, because Mina resembled her sister, she wanted to help. That was her true intention.

If Mina didn’t exist in the light, could she be in the shadows? Naturally, Radiant White’s suspicions turned to society’s darker side.

Logically, an illness that couldn’t be treated in the light shouldn’t be treatable in the dark.

However, among the monsters, there were those with abilities that defied common sense.

Perhaps Mina had entrusted her family’s treatment to one of them. Or maybe she had been tricked by a fraud.

Whatever the case, White had to find Mina first in order to help. So, she called Pegasus and asked him to look into Mina’s information.

“White, you called me even though you know what I’m going to say?”

The moment Pegasus activated, a sulky-looking pony character appeared on the screen, preparing to lecture White.

“But it’s not like I’m trying to do anything bad, right? Besides, if Mina is being used by a monster or a scammer, she’s in danger. And saving people is a magical girl’s duty. Right? Pleaaase~”

“Yes, if that’s the case, we should rush to rescue her immediately, White. But laws exist for a reason.”

“…My sister said that sometimes heroes have to act boldly!”

Pegasus displayed an exasperated expression on the screen and continued his text.

“We call that arrogance, White. That attitude is very dangerous. Even if your actions are right, once you start breaking rules one by one, you’ll eventually cross a line you shouldn’t. Well… actually, I think you’ve already crossed it.”

“Ehehe…”

White chuckled awkwardly, knowing that Pegasus had a valid point.

“White, you do realize that I’ve been overlooking things because you were searching for your sister, right?”

Faced with Pegasus’ serious tone, White found herself unconsciously kneeling and staring at her phone screen.

“…This is the first and last time I’ll be looking for someone other than my sister, so please. Lend me your strength, Pegasus.”

“Is that a promise? If you take it back later, I’ll get really mad. I’ll tell the association president everything—every single rule you’ve broken behind his back.”

“T-That’s too much!”

White hesitated for a moment but then agreed, knowing she wouldn’t have a reason to do this again.

“I recorded and saved that, so no take-backs. Give me a moment! It’ll take some time to hack into the data servers.”

Leaving her phone alone while Pegasus worked, Baek Jua decided to catch up on her backlog of online classes.

Even after she finished, Pegasus remained silent, which was unusual.

Feeling something was off—since it shouldn’t take this long—White asked if he had found anything.

“Nothing at all.”

“Nothing… at all?”

“Literally nothing! She just doesn’t exist! Are you sure she’s even Korean?”

Jua wasn’t the only one surprised—Pegasus, too, seemed genuinely flustered, an unusual reaction for him.

“Then… was she lying to me the whole time?”

“It looks that way.”

Instead of feeling empty after all her efforts went to waste, only one thought occupied Jua’s mind—“Why?”

Why had Mina lied to her? Was the person she had seen back then truly the real her?

And before that… who was she?

“Oh, wait a second. On this CCTV footage… doesn’t this person look a bit like that Mina girl? The outfit’s different, though.”

It happened just then. While combing through data, Pegasus stumbled upon a CCTV recording and displayed it on the screen.

Even though it was in black and white and the hairstyle was different, White was certain that the person briefly caught on camera resembled Mina.

“Pegasus, where was this footage taken?”

“Near Incheon.”

“Incheon…?”

It was a place where ordinary people would never choose to stay.

No matter how poor one was, no one would stay there unless they had a death wish.

Living near such a place?

Suspicion toward Mina began creeping into Jua’s mind.

 

It had been about a week since I had met Suhyeok.

There was still roughly a week and a half left before the main story began.

With nothing much to do, I was just lazing around in my room.

“Achoo! Sniff… Ugh, damn. Am I actually catching a cold? Why do I feel so chilly today?”

“If you’re cold, just turn on the heater. Why do you keep complaining…”

When I silently raised my fist toward Narae, the girl immediately bowed her head in submission.

Violence really was the best way to make people humble.

Even Narae, who usually had an attitude, was utterly silent in front of her.

“It’s summer. Why the hell would I turn it on? It’s not just cold, it’s… eerie. I don’t know why, but it is.”

“…Why are you looking at me? I’m not some all-knowing genius. You already took my money—what more do you want?”

“Ehh, I told you I’d pay you back later. Why are you whining so much?”

“Whining? Ugh… I should just stop talking.”

Narae, clearly frustrated, stopped arguing and pulled out the laptop she had recently bought from an electronics store.

She acted as if she had so much work to do, even though she had nothing better to do.

Still, it was better for her to be occupied than idling around, so I let her be.

Bored myself, I browsed the internet and stumbled upon an article about Radiant White.

It was nothing more than trashy clickbait. But it made me think.

“Hey, have you seriously considered pretending to be a terminally ill patient?”

“I told you, if I were actually beaten into becoming terminally ill, sure. But faking it? No way. I don’t want to get involved with magical girls.”

Radiant White would definitely try to find me.

But when she did, how was I supposed to explain myself?

I still hadn’t figured that part out.

If possible, I wanted to stick to the story I told her back then—a woman struggling to earn money for her sick family.

…But it was too late for that.

A meticulous person like her would have started searching for me the moment she returned.

She had likely already seen through my hastily crafted lie.

The only silver lining was that there was little actual evidence linking me to anything.

On paper, I practically didn’t exist.

My identity, passport—everything was meticulously stolen and forged.

The only thing I couldn’t avoid was CCTV footage.

But if she went through that much effort to find me, wouldn’t it be rude to not let her?

And honestly… part of me wanted to meet her again.

Hmm, then how should I introduce myself? Should I just say I’m a vampire, like I did with Suhyeok?

Ah, but if I do that, a sword might come flying at me the moment I say it—something like “Evil must be vanquished!”

Her older sister… who was also about 33% of who I was… was a real headache in many ways.

How should I put it? Rather than calling her crazy, she was just completely uncompromising. The kind of person who would rather break than bend.

She pursued justice unconditionally and despised evildoers.

Growing up under such a sister, Radiant White naturally came to admire her and took after her in some ways.

So if I said I was a vampire, she might just kill me on the spot.

Then, hmm… should I say I’m a messenger? A herald? No, considering I’d eventually get involved with Suhyeok, it was probably better to let her know the truth.

Forcing my dull brain to work, I could almost hear the gears creaking in my head.

When your head hurts, the best thing to do is get some fresh air and exercise.

Might as well check up on Suhyeok while I’m at it, and grab a drink of blood.

Deciding to take a stroll through Incheon’s city streets in my true form, I got up.

“I’m heading out for a bit. I’ll probably be back around dawn, so don’t lock the door.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just don’t come back with anything weird stuck to you this time.”

She was getting sassier by the day.

I made a mental note to discipline her properly in my monster form sometime later and walked toward the ruins of Incheon’s city center under the full moon.

Once I found a secluded spot, I stripped off my clothes.

No matter how I thought about it, there was no way my clothes would survive the transformation intact.

I made sure to memorize my location using nearby landmarks, then removed the choker I had worn for so long.

And with a bit of confidence, I called out,

“Transformation release!”

Immediately, blood flowed from my body, and my flesh melted into a fluid state.

At least it didn’t hurt.

With that thought, I slowly emerged from the pool of my own blood.

Stretching my wings wide, I shook off the blood and clothed myself in it.

And then, a single thought came to me.

“…I’m thirsty.”

I was parched. Severely.