I Became the Academy's Kibitz Villain-Chapter 385: Realization Of A Romance (2)

Tae Irin saw it.

The remote-controlled weapons, called “Bits,” moved as if they were dancing.

Scattering green magic power, they flew with fine particles—a sight beyond the archetype of remote-controlled weapons seen in childhood movies.

And most astonishingly, each of those weapons moved as if it were alive.

It wasn’t strange.

Those Bit weapons were controlled by ability users, and since they moved through abilities, it was only natural they seemed to move more like a human-controlled device than a mere machine.

But why was it?

Why did these Bits evoke the sensation that they were imbued with something like a soul?

The existence of a soul had never been scientifically proven before the Great Cataclysm, but in this era of abilities, people now believed that souls could indeed exist.

In a time where psychics and demons were a reality.

Who could definitively say that souls do not exist in this era where thoughts and mana trigger peculiar phenomena?

That’s why a chill ran down her spine.

If each Bit was infused with a soul—not just controlled remotely through advanced multitasking, nor individually managed by numerous Goblin subordinates—

If each Bit carried the soul of a human or an ability user—

Whether it was one soul or multiple souls within each Bit—

If that were true, such attacks would not seem strange.

The Bits rampaged.

Circling around the demon, centered on Marado Pyapyas, they spun as if drawing a ring and pierced the demon with beams.

“Kyaaaah, haaah…!”

The demon let out a scream filled with pain and collapsed.

Her body, riddled with holes far exceeding the eyes hidden beneath her bangs, poured dark purple blood from every inch of her being.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

“I… I, an S-rank, to be defeated so miserably…!!”

Certainly, she was an S-rank.

No matter how her form had transformed into that of a demon, she had once been a powerful S-rank ability user.

But as her opponent remarked, the match was terribly uneven.

Click.

As all eight of her legs shattered and her body dragged along the ground, the Goblin appeared before Marado Pyapyas with a handgun.

[Checkmate.]

Aimed directly at her crown, with the Bits all targeting the center of Marado Pyapyas, he declared the end of the battle.

[Any final words you’d like to leave?]

“…Huh.”

The demon drooped her head.

Her despair-filled eyes, all of them, turned downward.

The demon was now utterly defeated in spirit—

“Watch out!!”

In that instant, Baridegi noticed the circular, glowing parts at the front of the spider body—what looked like the spider’s face—begin to glimmer.

“Hya-ha!”

Suddenly, a red glare burst out from the spider’s lower body, where its face-like structure was, and that glare pierced straight through the Goblin’s heart.

“Ah, aah…!”

“Ha-ha-ha! He’s fallen! Goblin, you let your guard down!”

[Where are you shooting?]

Bang.

A gunshot rang out.

The sound came from behind the demon, and as if emerging from a fragment of the wind, the Goblin revealed himself behind the demon.

[That was my—]

“A decoy?!”

Bang.

[Main line.]

Was he about to say “decoy”?

The Goblin’s decoy, pierced by the red glare, slowly dispersed into the wind, and a much larger hole than before was blown into Marado Pyapyas’s abdomen.

“Ha, haa….”

[A power to control spiders. Tempting, but forcing innocent spiders into human battles isn’t my way.]

“J-just an insect…!”

[Spiders are living beings too. Creatures that share this Earth with us.]

Gradually, Marado Pyapyas’s hair began turning white.

The spider’s lower body crumbled like burned ash, and the part below her waist slowly reverted to a human form.

“Kill… me….”

[As an ability user, Queen Spidey dies today. Congratulations. Welcome to the rebirth of Lee Chae-hyun, the human.]

“You… you….”

[I’d play a birthday song, but unfortunately, I don’t have a Taeguk Watch right now.]

Had he played a birthday song, it would have been the ultimate act of mentally breaking the demon.

After all, for an ability user, the death of their former self meant losing their entire past life.

“I curse… you…!”

[Living with that curse isn’t so bad. Spend your life cursing me. And watch from prison how we dominate the world in the Secret Society’s way—not by controlling other lives.]

Thud.

The defeated and naked Lee Chae-hyun, now fully human, fell to the ground.

Her abdomen bore three triangular holes as she bled out.

[Whew…. Baridegi. Could you heal her?]

“…Heal her?”

[Demons can be killed as much as needed, but killing humans feels unsettling.]

The Goblin stepped slightly to the side.

Though his face was obscured by the mask, if one could see it, it would have surely been a very sorrowful face.

“…What are you thinking?”

Tae Irin took off her coat and covered Lee Chae-hyun, placing her hand on Chae-hyun’s back to channel magic power into her.

While healing her, Tae Irin couldn’t help but question the Goblin.

“Aren’t you the type who kills villains without hesitation?”

[I usually eliminate all future threats. Even if Lee Chae-hyun survives, she’ll spend her life cursing me, posting malicious comments, or inciting others.]

The Goblin stretched out his hand, and the Bits shot forward, starting to form into a new shape.

[Hearing bad things isn’t pleasant, but killing someone unnecessarily and then dealing with the backlash is mentally exhausting.]

Buzz.

As magic power flowed out, the Bits transformed into the bike the Goblin had ridden earlier.

[Arachne was defeated with this. If any more S-class demons appear, our Secret Society will not stand idly by. Especially those after the Phoenix Feather.]

“…I knew it! You’re also after the Phoenix Feather!”

[Correct. Ah, don’t misunderstand. To you, we’re villains, but on an international scale, we’re a very sound corporation.]

The Goblin mounted the bike.

The black-and-white clothing gradually reverted to his original suit, and he gripped the handlebars without even putting on a helmet.

[We act according to the logic of capital, but we haven’t abandoned our humanity.]

Vroooom—!!

With a powerful gust of wind, the bike soared into the sky.

It headed directly toward Jeju Island, and Tae Irin could only blankly watch it fly away.

“…Huh?”

Behind the bike.

Something, like a white female figure, seemed to be riding with the Goblin.

Thinking she might have seen it wrong, she rubbed her eyes and infused magic power into her vision, but the Goblin had already disappeared far away.

The Goblin vanished with the wind, leaving behind only the fallen Zenros villain on Marado.

“…This is Baridegi. Situation resolved. Please dispatch agents to exterminate any remaining demon spiders on Marado.”

Later.

Together with Hero Association agents who had arrived by boat, they scouted every corner of Marado, but not a single demon spider could be found.

What would have happened if even one had remained, no one could say, but indeed, not a single one was left.

“Goblin….”

Tae Irin could only clench her fist tightly and silently watch the direction where the Goblin had disappeared.

“Next time….”

“Congratulations, Marado Pyapyas Slayer.”

“They could at least give the demon a proper name. Tsk.”

After returning to the pension, I joined Hyeon Se-rin, who had exhausted a considerable amount of magic power, for a light shower and entered the hot springs.

“Taking down two S-class targets in one day. Yeah, this is good. For a while, even the S-classes might refrain from doing anything strange after hearing this news.”

“That would be ideal.”

The man became a hareubang , and the woman became a Zenros.

It wasn’t about gender discrimination; the woman had turned into a demon, and if it had been the man instead, he would have become Zenros.

“Good work, both of you.”

Yun Hye-ra, who had been resting at the pension, brought us drinks.

It was banana milk in plastic containers, perfect for replenishing sugar levels.

“Hye-ra, don’t they have a mint version of this?”

“Jeju Island seems to think even Haegneul is normal, so they don’t have mint-flavored milk.”

“Haegneul, completely useless. They make products but only sell them in Busan? They should bring them to Jeju and sell them properly. Anyway, Chief Do, what are you looking so serious about?”

“Official Association Report.”

As Hyeon Se-rin grumbled, I fastened the recovered Taeguk Watch and focused on the Association’s communications.

“The world will now know how to weaken ability users.”

Since I showed two cases directly in front of Tae Irin, all ability users would now be more cautious.

[This is the Association President. Today, I stand here to share an important piece of information with you all.]

The President, visibly tense, stood before the reporters and displayed photos of two ability users on the screen.

[We have confirmed the existence of two Zenros. According to the testimony of S-class hero Baridegi, the Goblin neutralized these two ability users by destroying their reproductive organs. To state the conclusion directly—]

Beep.

The next image resembled something out of a middle school health textbook.

[For men, the testicles; for women, the ovaries and uterus. When these parts are destroyed, ability users lose the ability to contain magic power.]

Now.

[To all ability users: the vital points are not only the head and heart. And—]

The entire world now knew.

[Beware the Goblin, the Gender Breaker.]

Now.

A new method had been added to the Goblin’s executions.

“Wow. Chief Do, another villain nickname added?”

“…Better than Egg Breaker, at least.”

It felt worth it, dealing with Arachne.

[He has already dealt with Marado Pyapyas….]

Arachne, gone.