"What did you just say?!"

The Yanluo King pointed at Ling, terror flashing across her face like lightning caught in ice.

"You're not joking, right?! You want to turn her into a Yokai?!"

Ling didn’t understand why she was that shocked. She still nodded, calm as a stone under rain.

"Do you even know what you’re saying? That’s a Yokai! Not some Daemon or Beastfolk mutt. You can’t throw that word around."

Her voice rose like a windstorm. She seized Ling’s shoulder in a white-knuckled grip. A needle of pain pricked in. How much strength was that?

Ling slapped the hand away. Her eyes went flat, a deadpan like still water.

"What are you so worked up about? It’s just a Yokai."

The Yanluo King stared like Ling was a creature in a jar.

"You… really don’t know what a Yokai is?"

Ling shook her head. She knew what Yokai were. She just didn’t get why the Yanluo King feared them like a plague wind.

The Yanluo King sighed. Pity and sorrow drifted off her like cold mist over a pond.

"Long ago, back then, Yokai appeared—"

"Hold it."

Ling clapped a hand over her mouth. Annoyance first, then action. If this one started a flashback, she’d never stop. Alicia was still taking hits from the world itself.

"Skip the lecture. I don’t care what Yokai are. I need one thing. Can we change Alicia’s race or not?"

Being cut off left the Yanluo King a little angry. But one look at Alicia, and even she knew it wasn’t story time.

"It’s not complicated. To make this girl a Yokai, you need one drop of Yokai blood. If the blood is strong, it invades and assimilates her. But Yokai are extinct now. Even common ones are rare, let alone a powerful—"

She didn’t finish. Ling bit her fingertip without hesitation. A bead of blood welled, then fell onto Alicia’s battered skin. It slid in without resistance, like spring rain sinking into dry earth.

Ling’s wound closed at once, skin knitting like a ripple healed. Alicia stayed still. No stir, no spark. Tension rose in Ling’s chest like a tight drum.

"Hey! Does this even work? Why isn’t it working?"

Ling was anxious. The Yanluo King, strangely, exhaled like after a nightmare.

"Scared me to death. I thought you were a Yokai. I told you, it has to be Yokai blood. You aren’t a Yokai, so how could it—"

She swallowed her words. Wounds on Alicia’s body began to glow green, like new leaves in sunlight. The torn flesh drew together, soft light threading the edges.

The Yanluo King went silent. There was only one answer. The harmless little loli beside her was one of those Yokai from millennia past.

Fear flooded her limbs like winter water. She wanted to turn and run. Her body, eaten by terror, refused to move.

Ling didn’t care about the Yanluo King’s panic. Her gaze stayed fixed on Alicia, intent as a hawk watching dawn.

It was just as Ling had guessed. The world judged like a game. Human-Alicia had a unique ID that had to die. Yokai-Alicia had another ID. Under that ID, Alicia didn’t have to die. With Yokai bloodline bonuses layered on, Alicia would only get better.

And… that was exactly how it went.

The healing light spread from each wound, then swept her whole body. Green sealed her like a cocoon. When it faded, she stood unscathed. Her red hair snapped back to life, a flame relit. And her height dropped by ten centimeters. From 1.8 meters to 1.7.

Don’t scoff at ten centimeters. Ten centimeters put Alicia just low enough for Ling to tiptoe and pat her head. That was the change Ling had always, always wanted.

Seeing her own blood work this strongly, with a bonus “loli-fication” effect, Ling’s mind briefly raced toward loli-fying the whole world. The thought popped like a soap bubble. She didn’t have that much blood to waste.

"Mmm…"

Who decided everyone has to hum when they wake? Still, Ling didn’t hate that soft, cute sound from Alicia.

Alicia’s eyes opened, full of fog. Confusion rolled in like morning mist.

"Did I… just go back to sleep for a second round?"

Ling answered with a mysterious smile, a little fox waiting for a gasp.

Alicia couldn’t read her. Her body felt off. She glanced at her hand. The old calluses were gone. The hand looked smaller. Younger. Even the angle felt strange.

"Stand up and see. Maybe there’s a surprise."

Ling’s whisper brushed her ear. Alicia didn’t doubt her. She swung her legs off the bed and stood.

And froze. Looking at the floor, she felt the ground come closer. Shorter. She was shorter.

"I… I… what happened to me?"

Worry fluttered in her chest like startled birds. She didn’t know if the change was good or bad.

"Relax, Sis Alicia. I only tweaked your race a little. Don’t worry."

"What?!"

Not human anymore. The shock hit hard. How did a nap change her species?

"You just became a Yokai. No big deal."

The word meant nothing to Alicia. Empty as an unknown rune.

"That’s not, like… some weak race I’ve never heard of, right?"

A race she’d never even heard named?

Ling shook her head, fringe swaying.

"Nope. I’m a Yokai too. Do I look weak to you?"

Alicia thought it over. If Ling was what “Yokai” meant, it wasn’t weak. Maybe she’d lucked out.

Maybe the big-chested airhead stereotype had some truth. Alicia accepted not being human with lightning speed, even a hint of excitement.

Watching her accept it so easily, Ling let go of the quiet fear in her heart. The worry that Alicia might hate becoming a Yokai melted away like frost in sun.