That was a magnificent offer of employment.
An Xiaoyi stood amidst the bustling crowd, glancing at the envelope in his hand, then looking up at the place names on the map board.
Beside him was the spacious and brightly lit train station hall, filled with people dragging suitcases and bags, separating him from the world.
He was practically fully equipped to enter his workplace.
His left hand braced a massive suitcase, and his backpack was bulging, stuffed with two laptops, two tablets, and four power banks.
Besides a universal pass, he also had a security badge.
A comforter, pillow, and other documents were all packed in a duffel bag.
An Xiaoyi, a native of Baihua City and a law-abiding “ordinary person,” carried his gear and ventured alone to a distant city.
He was about to begin a new life at the university where he had finally secured a job.
It was spring.
An Xiaoyi, male, was twenty-three years old, having graduated from university two years prior.
He had a slightly delicate appearance, broad shoulders, and with a bit of dressing up, he resembled a young professor at a school.
In fact, he was indeed going to be a professor this time.
The employment offer letter’s envelope bore a beautiful red rose, encircled by thorns.
St. Antiona University, also known as “Vampire Graveyard”
This was a semi-official, semi-private organization specifically designed to combat vampires, primarily training executive agents.
Its students came from all over the world, born with extraordinary abilities, possessing supernatural powers called “authorities.”
This group of people was known as Authority Users.
The origin of Authority Users could not be traced.
However, there were other anomalous monsters in the world also possessing authorities, collectively known as vampires.
These were not the vampires understood from novels, films, or other works.
They had existed for a long time, most of them grotesquely ugly like aberrations, while a small number disguised themselves as humans and mingled in society.
The common characteristic of these monsters was their bloodlust, their craving for human flesh.
Because of their bloodlust, they were collectively called vampires.
In reality, only a small fraction of monsters with human appearances and the ability to think skillfully deserved the title of vampire.
They were more advanced, with purer bloodlines, and often hid within high society, accumulating power and wealth.
Other monsters, with lower cognitive abilities and weaker strength, were called blood slaves or ghouls.
An Xiaoyi was an Authority User; or rather, he was a vampire cloaked in the identity of an Authority User.
His entire family were vampires, hidden in a manor in the suburbs of Baihua City.
If the vampires who mingled in human society, attempting to monopolize human power and wealth to rule the world, were called the “new elite,” then his family was ancient and unmotivated, commonly known as “slacking off.”
He had grown up living with his grandparents.
He had an aunt who was typically lazy and lived off her parents, still unmarried.
His parents worked hard elsewhere, rarely returning home more than once every six months.
His last meeting with his parents was two years ago.
From memory, he only knew that his parents worked for a very special organization.
Since he was very young, they would travel all over the world by plane, seeing him only a few times a year.
An Xiaoyi felt they were the ones who truly fit the vampire identity, always looking shifty and mysterious.
However, each time they returned, they brought many strange and rare items, like antiques that looked new, even newer than the previous week.
His grandparents could always exchange these strange items for money, allowing his aunt to comfortably live off them and be a homebody.
Yes, vampires also needed money and had to work to integrate into human society.
It was both contradictory and not contradictory.
An Xiaoyi didn’t consider himself a monster.
Although he also had bloodlust impulses, he had never felt the desire to kill.
Under twenty-three years of legal education in Huaguo, his values were quite strict: respect life, live in harmony.
The year he graduated, he worked at a convenience store and even as a caregiver in a residential area, mingling with everyone.
If it weren’t for the appearance of blood slaves nearby, forcing him to move after dealing with them to avoid exposure, he would have continued that life.
This world also had many vampires who “slacked off.”
The federal government turned a blind eye to them, dedicating its thoughts and energy to the vampires with higher threat levels.
But a year ago, his life took a turn.
After Christmas Eve a year ago, his parents never appeared again.
Before they hurriedly left, they only left a single letter, which stated not to look for another job or accept any other offers, but to wait for the university’s notice.
“How absurd,” he thought at the time.
But he never expected his usually doting grandparents to become serious, firmly insisting that An Xiaoyi wait for this job, until that unknown academy extended an olive branch.
It was one thing for his parents to go crazy, but for his grandparents to follow along too?
Actually, An Xiaoyi wasn’t worried about finding a job; besides, he was still young.
He genuinely felt this whole thing was insane.
Not to mention whether that unknown academy was reliable, the entire situation was just odd.
What kind of job could he find at a school, when he wasn’t even a teaching major?
A janitor?
However, An Xiaoyi wasn’t rebellious.
Although he was confused, he obediently stayed at home, preparing himself.
“Yimei’er, your grandparents aren’t well and can’t travel far. I told your aunt too, but it was no use. You’ll have to go alone. Be extra careful on the road. Don’t take food from strangers…”
His grandfather repeatedly cautioned him during the farewell, treating him like a small child.
In the Baihua City dialect, older relatives called children, regardless of gender, “meiji.”
At that moment, An Xiaoyi felt a bit sheepish, thinking, “We’re all vampires, why the sentimentality? You could all run marathons if you wanted to!” And why did he feel like a girl about to leave home?
Actually, that statement wasn’t entirely wrong; his identity was a bit special, connected to authority.
His vampire identity was built upon this authority.
When he used it, he would transform into a vampire girl.
In that form, she would endure the mental breakdown of an unfulfilled bloodlust.
Since childhood, his family had publicly claimed he had a younger sister named An Xiaoxue—that was, in fact, his second identity, his true vampire form.
He had grown accustomed to the experience of both identities, and with a little manipulation, he could seamlessly blend into human society.
In any case, An Xiaoyi took his acceptance letter and boarded a train to Honghu City.
According to his planned itinerary, he expected to encounter crowded motorbike taxis outside the station, which would then take him directly to the peculiar academy mentioned in the acceptance letter: St. Antiona Academy.
The Chinese name was quite a mouthful; perhaps it was a branch campus of some foreign university?
The name itself sounded more like a person’s name, giving off the vibe of a private noble school, not quite serious.
Since it was meant to train executive agents to eliminate monsters, An Xiaoyi had rather hoped the university would be like Hogwarts, or perhaps a military fortress like Kassel, filled with students who were violent gun-wielders.
But now…
An Xiaoyi ran into trouble at the station.
Neither the motorbike taxi drivers nor the regular taxi drivers had heard of St. Antiona Academy.
“St. Antiona? Are you talking about Dean Qiao from the medical school? He’s an acquaintance, I know him, I’ll take you there right now… Not the medical school? Then it must be the polytechnic university. Not that either? Then I don’t know.”
No one could give a satisfactory answer.
Countless eyes were glaring at An Xiaoyi.
He shivered and quickly returned to the waiting hall with his luggage.
Any later, and those motorbike and taxi drivers might have personally come to kidnap him.
“Strange…” An Xiaoyi even thought he had come to the wrong city.
He looked up at the train schedule; this was indeed Honghu City.
It was Huaguo’s largest and most prosperous city, also ranking among the top three internationally, with international friends visible everywhere.
An Xiaoyi stared intently at the people leaving the station, hoping to find other new students also heading to St. Antiona Academy.
However, the chances were slim; not all universities provided uniform school uniforms, and besides, he didn’t even know what that university’s uniform looked like.
He hoped it wasn’t an all-girls school; he hadn’t aspired to become a “panda” at a girls’ school; that would be far too awkward.
The station was teeming with people, almost a sea of humanity.
The platform area was a bit more open.
An Xiaoyi, with a last-ditch effort, ran to the platform, hoping to luckily find a fellow freshman among his peers, and then froze in place.
“No way…” he muttered under his breath.
He actually saw a group of children in strange clothes, carrying owls, walking towards a pillar.
“Hello… Hello…” someone suddenly said softly behind him.
His Mandarin was not very standard.
An Xiaoyi had heard too much of it in the half-hour since he got off the train at the station; many international friends, like him, were asking for directions.
He didn’t expect someone unlucky enough to find him this time, as he was also terrible with directions.
Turning around, he saw a blonde young woman pulling a suitcase.
She was surprisingly young, looking only eighteen or nineteen, wearing a swan-blue dress and what appeared to be very expensive designer shoes.
Her entire presence seemed to sparkle.
She shook her phone with her right hand; it displayed a translation app, probably to ensure An Xiaoyi understood, specifically translating her words.
“I don’t know, I don’t know either,” An Xiaoyi shook his head.
Although he was 1.75 meters tall, his appearance was rather youthful, far from his actual age.
“Are you not from around here?”
The girl finally realized An Xiaoyi was also looking for directions and dejectedly pulled out a piece of paper for a last attempt.
“Little brother, I want to go to this… place. It’s a school. Do you have the correct route to this place?”
“She must be reading from a translation app, doesn’t it sound clunky?” An Xiaoyi glanced at the paper.
He quickly took out his own envelope and compared them; they were identical.
Except for the notice itself, she seemed to be a student.
“Are you also going to St. Antiona Academy?” The blonde young woman became excited, her Chinese now fluent.
“You can see our envelopes are the same, so your next questions are quite redundant…”
An Xiaoyi thought to himself, but still extended his hand to shake hers.
“I’m a new professor. My name is An Xiaoyi.”
The job offer stated a professorship, so it was correct to say so.
“Oh, oh, oh, hello, Teacher! I finally found you!”
The blonde young woman immediately embraced him, her enthusiasm like melted cheese.
An Xiaoyi was momentarily out of breath and finally managed to push her away.
“Dorothea Felice. I’m a new student this year.”
The girl then grasped his hand as a gesture of friendship.
She had beautiful blue eyes.
It was An Xiaoyi’s first time looking directly at such colored eyes up close.
While not as deep as black eyes, they were as soft as clear lake water, making him can’t help but gaze at them a few more times.
Since both of them were going to St. Antiona Academy for the first time and didn’t know the way, Miss Felice, the international friend, proposed a very constructive plan.
She suggested they simply wait by the station for someone to appear (“guarding a stump to wait for a rabbit”), and they would eventually encounter senior students or other professors who knew the way.
An Xiaoyi inwardly thought this blonde girl was a bit of a dimwit, but outwardly, he enthusiastically praised it as a brilliant idea.
They then found a corner in the platform area and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.
Through their casual conversation, they became friends.
Teacher-student friends?
“Where are you from, student?” An Xiaoyi asked.
“Across the ocean.”
“Which country is across the ocean?”
“The United States, of course. Where else? Is it Japan? Do I look like a Sakura girl?” Felice’s Chinese was becoming more and more fluent.
“Why did you come to Huaguo?”
“To go to university.”
She frowned, leaned closer to An Xiaoyi’s face, and scrutinized him, trying to determine if this young man was foolish.
“Cough, cough, I mean… why did you come to St. Antiona Academy?” An Xiaoyi gently pushed the girl away from him, catching a pleasant, familiar scent that he couldn’t quite place.
He didn’t dwell on it.
“My family wanted me to come. I really didn’t want to go to university. After high school, I planned to open a bar…” An Xiaoyi suddenly realized he couldn’t get any more information about the school from her.
Felice, just like him, knew nothing about St. Antiona Academy.
“Teacher, what’s that badge in your pocket? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.” Felice noticed the corner of a badge sticking out of his pocket.
An Xiaoyi looked down and saw his security badge exposed, so he simply took it out and showed it to her.
“It’s a security badge.”
“You were a security guard too?” The girl’s eyes lit up.
“No, my family had someone forge it. They said that in academies related to authority nowadays, professors are too conspicuous and easily targeted by vampires. Carrying this will prevent them from coming after me.”
“Interesting,” Felice laughed.
An Xiaoyi felt particularly awkward saying this.
Did he really have to attend this university?
He had tried his best to argue it wasn’t necessary but had still been persuaded.
After all, it was the school his parents wanted him to go to, and there was a high possibility of finding clues about them there.