Chapter 129: Do Ji-hwan's Ambitious Project (6)
After spending time with Yumir and Baek Seol-hee,
I prepared dinner for them, and their slightly haggard faces struggled as they came to sit at the table.
“Was it that tough?”
“…….”
“Is that what you call talking now?”
Baek Seol-hee silently drank the tea I gave her while Yumir let out an incredulous chuckle.
“Teacher, are you perhaps an ability user?”
“Me?”
“Somewhat like that. If not, this doesn’t make sense.”
Yumir seemed to be criticizing me, but in reality, she was gaslighting Baek Seol-hee.
“Be honest. You’re an ability user, right? The kind that can endlessly generate stamina?”
“Not at all.”
I was not an ability user.
Do Ji-hwan was not the Goblin.
Though not the Goblin, I was presenting myself as someone with even more exceptional counseling skills for women than the Goblin.
“Being Do Ji-hwan is just one of the many advantages I have.”
“How many advantages do you have, teacher?”
“There are countless if you look. Like cooking.”
I prepared a perfect dinner so that all they needed to do was sit at the table.
The ingredients for dinner were already prepared by the pension owner, and I used them to make revitalizing food for the two.
“Eat. Abalone is said to be very good for the body. You too, Seol-hee.”
Originally, these were foods good for hangover recovery, but they needed something to restore their energy right now.
“Was it very tough?”
“……It was so different from last time.”
Baek Seol-hee glanced at Yumir and then sighed deeply, picking up her spoon.
“I thought I had given my all last time, but it turns out I hadn’t shown even half of that… Sigh.”
“Last time you had to go to work the next day, Seol-hee.”
“What would you have done if I didn’t have to go to work?”
After doing more with Yumir and Baek Seol-hee today than before.
“I guess we would have gone stronger than today. But at least tonight, there’s time to get a good night’s sleep.”
“…What if tomorrow is a day off?”
“Then, well, no need to say more.”
Baek Seol-hee looked pale.
Given how much she was already exhausted by what happened this time, it seemed she might have a fit if I casually brought up patriotism.
“Yumir, how about you?”
“I agree with Seol-hee. It’s a relief we stopped there. Ugh, it was my first time losing consciousness.”
Yumir felt the same.
“I’ve never experienced that, even when fighting villains with my powers.”
“Yumir, is speaking so openly after revealing your identity okay?”
“What’s the problem? Seol-hee and I are in the same boat, after all.”
“In the same boat….”
Baek Seol-hee blushed and fiddled with her chopsticks.
“It sounds somewhat profound.”
“Seol-hee, when Yumir says that, she means it literally, not profoundly. She meant it that way.”
“Teacher, you know too much about me.”
“You know me better than anyone else, too.”
It sounded like we were talking about understanding each other’s personalities in a relationship, but we were actually referring to the Goblin and Solar Platina.
“Have you two become close by talking so often?”
Our naive hero would inevitably be swayed by this.
“There’s a lot we find we have in common as we talk, and above all, Yumir is very quick to catch on, often understanding what I want to say before I even say it.”
“That’s right. I’ve always been good at reading people, growing up always mindful of others’ gazes. It’s partly innate.”
Yumir grinned at Baek Seol-hee while holding up her water cup.
“I noticed that Seol-hee stopped disliking me after we had a deep conversation in a three-way meeting with the teacher.”
“…I still dislike you.”
Baek Seol-hee responded bluntly and started moving her spoon again.
It seemed a bit uncomfortable for her to be led by the much younger Yumir, who tended to take the initiative and lead.
‘Or not. Does she feel like she’s being pushed to the background?’
That seemed more likely.
Yumir, being very perceptive, had made herself seem closer to me and more knowledgeable about me than Baek Seol-hee in their conversations.
While that was not entirely untrue, it was not 100% true either.
But as I always said, if it was to my advantage, I didn’t mind.
Yumir was helping me thoroughly conceal the fact that I was the Goblin.
“Seol-hee, it’s a bit awkward to ask this here, but please take care of Yumir. Unlike me, who can only offer mental care and meals like this, you can help her a bit in the field.”
“I’ll help. A hero helps those in trouble, and I have no intention of handing over Ji-hwan’s counseling partner to the trash targeting Yumir.”
Luckily, Baek Seol-hee decided to keep silent about the rumor of Yumir being Solar Platina.
“Thank you, Seol-hee. If there’s ever a person who becomes a demon, I’ll go and purify them.”
“Purify…?”
“It’s a ritual to dispel the aura of a demon when they have fallen.”
I spoke before Yumir could.
“Yumir’s power is to save demons. To turn those doomed as demons back into humans. That’s all there is to it. In fact, the demon Half-Toad became human again thanks to Yumir…the Golden Priestess.”
“What about her powers?”
“They…”
“Disappeared.”
I looked at Yumir, who immediately pointed to herself.
“The powers disappear along with the elimination of the demon.”
(From the body of a superpower user).
Since I opened the topic, Yumir chose the most plausible scenario we had discussed before.
“Purification might be a bit embarrassing to say, but if a demon represents negativity and wrongdoing, then purification is the right term. Yes, purification. If it turns something corrupted into a human again, then it’s fair to call it purification, isn’t it?”
One who stole powers from demons.
One who purified the aura of demons to turn them back into humans.
If asked which was better, the latter would be more positively portrayed.
“I see. Purification, then. …So, Yumir. You should tell the truth about this. I’m asking as Snow White.”
“What is it?”
“What is your relationship with the Goblin?”
“A nuisance.”
Yumir answered without hesitation.
“The Goblin tries to kill demons, and I try to save them. The Goblin mocks me. See? The demon you want to save ultimately attacks and despises you. What’s the point of saving such beings? It’s cleaner just to kill them.”
That was right.
That was essentially what I said to Solar Platina when I first met her.
“But I want to save people. Even if they’ve committed crimes worthy of death, they should live to atone, not just die like that. Right, teacher?”
“…Of course.”
Agreeing here hurt the Goblin’s pride, but Do Ji-hwan had to support Yumir’s statement.
“I once heard a story where heinous criminals were dying terribly, and the intensity of their death was determined by the victims or the bereaved of the crimes they committed.”
Was it in a foreign short drama?
A heinous criminal trapped alone in a room like an interrogation chamber, begging for his life, while the families outside didn’t pull the lever that would cause him pain.
“Such things might happen in reality, but Yumir’s view is not wrong. If there’s something wrong, it’s the forces that make us worry about such things.”
“The government?”
“Seol-hee. I didn’t say anything.”
“Heh.”
Baek Seol-hee laughed softly at my exaggerated gesture of surrender.
“Ji-hwan. You should get used to talking badly about the government. Like Yumir, hiding your identity isn’t easy.”
“What? What did you say?”
Yumir asked Baek Seol-hee as if she hadn’t heard properly.
“Hiding your identity…”
“It’s natural for Yumir.”
Wait.
The nuance just now felt like it wasn’t my place to worry about the Solar Platina issue.
“Ji-hwan should be careful from now on. Of course.”
Not about the Goblin?
I thought it might be because of Solar Platina and the Goblin, but apparently not.
“In about four months, when I announce I’m pregnant, everyone will start looking for who the father is.”
Ah.
In that sense.
“Ji-hwan. I’ve been told that by people before.”
“What is it?”
“I’mchoemom.”
“No.”
Was she saying that herself?
“What? I’mchoemom…? What’s that?”
An unfamiliar term for Yumir, who’d been in Korea less than three months, from a nationalistic novel with unnecessary words added by the author.
“It means ‘ideal body for pregnancy.’”
“Oh….”
Like Yumir, I was quite embarrassed.
Such a term was usually used in male-dominated communities.
“I may not know other things, but I’m confident about that. I’m widely acknowledged as I’mchoemom.”
“Seol-hee?”
“Hopefully.”
Baek Seol-hee placed her hand on her lower abdomen.
“Hopefully, I’ll have a child soon. For Ji-hwan.”
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