Chapter 114: You're Not Ready Yet (4)
The S-class villain and demon, ‘Half-Toad,’ had gone missing.
“Find ‘Golden Priestess’! She must have disappeared this way!”
Suddenly appearing like a magical girl, the hero, Golden Priestess, had abducted Half-Toad with a red rope.
What, indeed, was the identity of this woman?
It would be understood gradually, but the immediate priority was the capture of Half-Toad.
After a long time, a demon had become S-class.
A demon of loneliness.
A demon of rage.
A demon that was transformed by the runaway feelings of inferiority about one’s own appearance and anger about others’ relationships.
Incidentally, since it was a male demon, if utilized well, it could greatly help ‘demon research.’
“Move quickly! Hurry! This way leads to the forest for sure! Spread out and search, and immediately report any abnormalities!”
The Headmaster of the Academy personally directed the faculty, heroes, and the agents mobilized for demon suppression on the field in pursuit of the Golden Priestess.
“We must find him! If the Golden Priestess is the person, we think…!”
The Headmaster swallowed his words.
“We might also learn about the ‘Total Erasure’ incident!”
He didn’t inadvertently utter something that shouldn’t be said to others. It was his excitement that interrupted his words.
“Headmaster.”
“Ah, Professor Jeong.”
“Do you hope that the demon Half-Toad undergoes Total Erasure, Headmaster?”
“…Certainly.”
The Headmaster couldn’t calm his excitement, continuously licking his lips in response to the professor who had come along.
“If he appears to have lost his abilities, we must naturally endeavor to help him recover his abilities, right?”
“Do you think the ability has been transferred to someone else?”
“Yes. I think so. Losing an ability isn’t simply its disappearance but its forcible removal to someone else. Remember the comics we saw when we were young?”
“I am not from that generation.”
“Hmpf.”
The Headmaster frowned but soon brightened at the news from the Taeguk Watch.
[Headmaster. The search party found Half-Toad in an empty lot. He’s a white-haired human, not a demon. It seems he has undergone Total Erasure.]
“Hm…! Did you verify by deploying an ability user if there’s any trace of magic?”
[I verified it myself. I didn’t feel anything. He has certainly lost his abilities.]
“Indeed… Ah, it’s so regrettable that he lost his abilities…!”
The Headmaster wiped his tears with the back of his hand, his eyes reddening.
“The Academy isn’t a place that abandons students because they encounter problems. Our ‘Foundation’ will take care of Half-Toad. After ensuring his limbs are sealed and moving him to the ICU to observe his progress. Once confirmed that there’s no more running wild, minimize his restraints.”
[Understood. If it’s going to the Foundation, will there be ‘rehabilitation training’?]
“Certainly. He lost his ability, but isn’t there a possibility of recovering it?”
It was still in the realm of possibility.
“The Academy doesn’t give up on students. This place, hehe, isn’t it where we cultivate talents who will lead the future of our country?”
[Understood. We will proceed as directed.]
“Yes. Good work.”
The Headmaster covered the Taeguk Watch with his hand.
As soon as the call ended, the Headmaster took out a white pack labeled ‘Hanrasan’ from his pocket.
“I hope to meet the Golden Priestess. And if it’s not about destroying the demon’s abilities but stealing the abilities of the one who became a demon…”
He smirked.
“If abilities can be treated as objects, then legally transferring ownership of unclaimed property to another is also possible, isn’t it? Hence, those who are not ability users can also become ability users.”
The eyes of the Headmaster were shining like a child’s.
“This country will become even stronger.”
[The demon’s heart is a bit different from what you’ve extracted. However, it’s similar in that the demon’s ability is an object that has escaped from the demon itself.]
“So it’s just a difference of whether it’s the heart or some other part?”
[Yes. It differs depending on the extraction method, but like coffee is coffee, whether it’s brewed or dripped.]
“Mentioning coffee makes it feel strange. Does drinking coffee make one an ability user?”
[If it does, it would be coffee that turns one into an ability user. It grants a predetermined ability.]
In this world, imagination was the basis for abilities.
[So far, there’s been no official case in this world where abilities have materialized. However, as you’ve extracted the demon’s ability, maintaining it in a form resembling an ether cluster, there are also those who study demons, extracting their abilities.]
Yumir could steal abilities from demons, had sufficient magic to realize it, and her will could even touch the world’s laws, allowing her to extract abilities from the demons.
[If abilities can be stolen, then they can be eradicated, right?]
“Is that the Goblin’s Bat’s power?”
[It’s one of the many abilities of the Goblin. It’s difficult to explain how.]
“Because it’s become possible, it’s being used?”
[You know well.]
I felt the same.
[I can erase abilities. It may synchronize with your abilities, but it’s a power I originally had.]
“How is it possible?”
[I can’t disclose the company secrets. But if there’s a condition, it’s possible when the ability isn’t owned by anyone and is manifested like this.]
He subtly leaked information.
If Yumir was astute, she would surely notice.
“…So there is such an ability user? In the firm?”
As expected.
Yumir was sharp.
It took a little time, but she accurately caught my intention almost instantly.
“I thought you took Ermina’s ability to make it yours. I was watching how. But Goblin, you erased Ermina’s abilities in front of everyone. I have suspected since then, and indeed.”
[Ermina. That seems like a pretty old story.]
It happened less than a month ago, but it felt much longer due to many intervening events.
[It feels like digging up an old story. Strange.]
“The world is moving fast, with many things happening. What wasn’t mentioned then is being mentioned now. And thanks to that… I could confirm it again. And.”
Yumir, with a serious face, turned toward me.
“I learned about the demon’s heart. Thanks to that, I realized it again. My ability seems special, but there can be others with similar abilities.”
[A good mindset.]
“There might be more ability users like the Goblin? Merging with other ability users, pulling out rider suits, and erasing abilities.”
[Of course.]
The abilities I used with the Goblin Bat were all based on the subculture of this world, of Earth.
“There seems to be more in the world I don’t know about.”
[It’s the dark world unknown to Solar Platina. And this dark world is more profound and strange than you think. Once they learn that Solar Platina can materialize demon abilities, they’ll pursue Solar Platina.]
“To become ability users?”
[Yes. Whether it’s Total Erasure or whatever, the Golden Priestess has revealed herself. And she has erased the toad demon’s ability.]
Human thoughts were diverse.
And it was not just ability users who could think of unique abilities.
[Even the non-ability users can think of that. Whether the ability was erased or stolen? If stolen, does it transfer as it is, or is it stored and transferred in some form?]
“The background to think of that…”
[Even before 2000, numerous creative works came out, and there were actually settings that perfectly matched them. They’re still being serialized.]
Demon’s seed.
Demon’s heart.
If a seed grew well and bore fruit, it would be correct to use the word fruit, but the reason society was not directly using it was because it was not polite to refer to a bad thing.
‘I’m observing well, thanks to you.’
A brother was fighting with his younger sibling without being executed.
Whether the worldview had changed around 2000 or because abilities actually existed, there were many different stories than what I knew.
Would the protagonist’s older brother die in a boys’ comic that gave dreams and hopes to children?
The ability users who read comics could go berserk due to the culture shock.
[The world will try to catch you to create a demon’s heart. They’ll start investigating you everywhere to understand your identity. The world won’t spare you. Rather, they’ll scrutinize you obsessively.]
“I’m prepared.”
[Really?]
“Yes. Whatever difficulty… Is difficulty a bad word? Whatever adversity or hardship comes, I can overcome it. If my identity is revealed, I just have to live hiding the fact that I’m an academy student.”
[Optimistic. You don’t know being chased by the world until you experience it.]
“Goblin, an S-class villain, is living well, isn’t he?”
[It just seems that way.]
Every time I went out, I had to take off the Taeguk Watch, worry about becoming naked when I transformed back, and always had to worry about the depletion of magic.
“That’s enough. And the resolution as a hero? That…”
Yumir, with a smirk, approached me.
“The resolution to enter the house of a man I like alone was much harder.”
[…Is that comparable?]
“Goblin wouldn’t know. The mindset of a girl entering a guy’s room alone.”
Yumir leaned her upper body toward me with a smile, her back to the sea.
“If I’m resolved to steal the Goblin from the secret society as a woman, can I not say that I can charge at the world?”
I thought she wasn’t ready.
She was.
[You were a hero ready from the beginning.]
“As a hero. And also…”
She grinned.
“As a woman.”
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