[NEWS BREAK: Cases of NtBM have spiked, with 20 new cases reported yesterday and 10 deaths. It is believed that the numbers are not accurate as there may be many unreported cases in the community. Health experts advise people to stay aware and keep away from people who are pale looking. It is also recommended that those who suspect themselves are infected to seek medical attention immediately.]

If we go by the original, Rurita Nightingale, who is supposed to play the role of the villain, is a transfer student for next year. The original story is that Rurita Nightingale becomes enrolled into Saint High alongside the heroine. They were originally from the same school.

And, as the story goes, Rurita always bullies the heroine. Except she doesn’t do that in the story because she regained her memories.

It was somewhere then, accidentally stepping into the baking club, that Rurita got converted into a vampire.

Put it basically, I can expect Rurita to act as the MC the moment she steps foot on school grounds. That said, she’ll most probably realize that the story is different from the one she read. That’s because I’m the external factor at play.

How different you ask? I’ll be removing the vampires in the school. That way, there’d be no chance for her to become a vampire.

Though I’m not sure if I should be altering the story as such, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave the situation be. I don’t know what Novelle is building up towards. And I’d rather live a peaceful life.

is a weird, clickbaity title for a story. But Novelle didn’t arbitrarily pick the name without reason.

NtBM is a disease with 2 stages, semi-vampirism and total-vampirism, stage one and stage two respectively. At the current progress of the world, they are not aware of the difference between the two.

A semi-vampire needs blood in their system before the 120 day mark, if not, anemia will set it. They need to ingest blood, into their stomach to activate a certain error factor in the nanomachine to activate the hematopoiesis system to keep the host alive.

It’s slightly different from a total-vampirism whereby they need large volumes of blood in the stomach, to stimulate the nanomachines to release the hematopoiesis suppression.

In the beginning, health care personnels made the mistake of performing blood transfusion. It isn’t only a waste of blood, the efficacy is also worse when compared to ingesting blood directly.

The science behind it all is quite complex. I had trouble making sense of it all when Novelle drew up a pathophysiology chart. Whatever that is.

The first infection in Saint High begins with a student in the baking club. That student infects another student out of desperation, as in, drinking blood. The two students then begin slowly infecting other members of the club, until they realize that there was a way to stop the loop of infection.

That was to simply drink blood from each other. A semi-vampire can set off the error factor in the nanomachine by drinking a small amount of blood from another vampire and vice versa. They no longer had a need to infect other people.

Of course, drinking each other’s blood so openly is dangerous. Novelle didn’t miss this detail.

Next year, one of the two stage 2 NtBM victims will die due to infection of the blood, septicemia. The death of the student will then be ruled out as a compilation of NtBM. The emotionally unstable first vampire refused to drink blood from another vampire due to fear. Eventually, she lost to thirst and was how the new victim came to be.

Rurita Nightingale.

Get the picture? No? That’s alright. The details add to the story, but that isn’t what readers are looking for, was what Novelle once said.

Back to the point. Rurita Nightingale awakens with her memories, tries to help the vampire, and gets bitten herself. That begins her story of survival as a member of the baking club.

, is the aspect of baking, being the blood sharing rituals and how they are one small clique that can only depend on each other.

Thus, how this universe got the name .

===

“Be careful in school,” Avner’s mother, Narie warned.

“Yes.”

“Will do.”

My mother was driving us today. Father apparently had some issues last night at his office which no adult was willing to enlighten us on. My guess is that it had to do with NtBM, since my mother and father kept talking about it since this morning. She also put extra emphasis on telling us to avoid strangers or people that are pale looking in general.

I’m glad she’s no longer in a bad mood. Makes things convenient.

We were dropped at the gate. Waving her goodbye, we entered the school.

“Are you really not a vampire?” Lia asked again.

“I’m not.”

Hirs fears are justifiable. A stage one vampire can go at least 60 days without biting anyone.

Just a side note, the nanomachine disease only takes place through saliva-blood contact, not through food or air transmission.

A number of notifications popped up in front of me, warning me of the homeworks that I had to submit today. Today is a Friday, go figure.

Avner, I would’ve loved it if you didn’t wipe out all memories regarding your duty as a student before I began sharing you with your body.

Pinching between my eyes, I greeted Lia goodbye and rushed to class to get the work completed.

===

“Avner, here..”

A panel of xe’s working was pushed in front of me.

“Thanks.. no thank you. I can do it myself.”

I pushed it away.

“Huh? Why.. oh. Okay then..”

Pu’er took back hirs workdata and unconsciously pinched hirs ears.

“I appreciate it,” I showed hir a bright smile.

“Yes,” xe reciprocated with a troubled smile of hirs own.

I just recalled from Avner’s memories that he borrows from Pu’er often whenever he forgets to do his homework. Nothing too suspicious about Pu’er taking the initiative to pass hirs homework to Avner. I suppose.

Xe kept behind me and watched as I resolved a few simple algebraic equations.

“Did you always know how to do these?”

“Not particularly. I just know.”

“Did something happen to you?” xe asked worryingly.

“I guess so. And just for your information, it’s not because I was bitten by a vampire alright.”

I got a silent reply. I turned around to look at hir.

“I’m not lying.”

“Everyone thinks you’re acting odd.”

“I know.”

Should I have acted like Avner? To be honest, I don’t know how to act like him even if I wanted to. Having our memories merged, it’s difficult to differentiate between what Avner would do and what Shin would do.

“You’re.. really fine right?”

“I’m fine. I’m really fine, I need to get my homework completed.”

I returned my focus to my work.

I hadn’t realized how my actions affected the others around me. The cardinal symptom of NtBM is a sudden change of behavior in patients. That had totally slipped my mind.

Should I continue to act like how I am? Or should I attempt to act like Avner? It’s a difficult choice. I don’t have enough guts to not complete my homework, nor could I ever sleep in class.

Maybe I should seek a counselor? That way perhaps I could perhaps paint it over as flipping over a new leaf?

Pu’er pulled hirs chair over and sat beside me. A quick glance would tell you that xe’s playing a strategy game. I didn’t log in yesterday.

“You weren’t online yesterday.”

“Exam is coming up, you know?”

“Because of your parents?”

“You know me well,” I broke into a tired laugh.

“My parents are like that as well.”

“Really?”

I turned to hir. Hirs eyes sparkled, I felt my heart rate speed up and my mind swirl. Avner, you seriously have a crush on this woman huh? Not a chance. Shin doesn’t allow it.

“I played it sneakily last night,” xe winked, placing a finger to hirs lips.

“I didn’t even touch it.”

“The date hasn't been refreshed yet, it's not too late to log in.”

I pondered a bit and decided to start up the game. I solved another question while the loading screen was on display.

Pu’er took the window of my account and began helping me claim the login rewards and materials from the farms and mines.

If I were Avner, this would mark the most intimate he had had with Pu’er. Never had Pu’er once come to approach him in this way. Some gazes were pooled here.

Maybe I could use this to my advantage? To have people think that I changed because there was something between the two of us? It’s not like the class isn’t aware.

Even Ares was giving us some space. What a gentleman.

“Thanks Pu’er.”

“No problems.”

She played my account while I drew equations with my fingers.

I managed to complete everything before the first period.