Chapter 76: Where There Is Nationalism, There Is Duoexini (3)
After Yumir successfully extracted the demon seed from Ermina,
[I trust you. You truly are the protagonist.]
[I wanted to tell Yumir this…]
Only the protagonist could possess such power; thus, you must be the protagonist.
The ‘purification’ ability - a privilege given to just one person in this world, that lay at the very foundation of this world. An ability to counteract the side effects of ability users: ‘Runaway’ and ‘Demonization’.
[Aaaah! I, I’m not a killer!]
[Calm down! The Goblin aims to turn you into a murderer! Don’t fall for his charm!]
[Give up! You’ve already become a demon!]
[Aaaah!!! No…! I don’t want to become a demon and kill people!!]
[Damn it…! There’s no choice! Everyone, step back! I will do it!]
The protagonist suppressed the ‘Runaway’ of several heroines through this purification ability, turning them back into humans.
[The touch of Hwanwoong—!]
[Oh, thank you…]
[What is that power?]
[It’s a technique that transforms non-humans into humans, imbued with the power of mugwort and garlic! Understand it that way!]
However, this ability was introduced around the third volume, so I did not expect it to appear in what could be considered the first volume storyline.
‘Anyway, it’s a relief.’
I was a little hopeful.
‘She appeared as a woman but doesn’t seem to be a bad person.’
If Yumir was indeed the protagonist.
If Yumir had resolved to let Ermina die as a human.
‘I’m really glad she’s not the type to kill or ignore all heroines who have turned into demons just because she’s turned from a man to a woman.’
While I was intercepting Duoexini, Yumir must have been trying to revert Ermina back to being human, not killing her as a demon.
Thankfully, that assumption proved to be correct.
[Hey, Solar Platina. You intend to hide that ability, don’t you?]
[…….]
[You had no choice but to use your power to purify Ermina, but you don’t want your ability to be exposed, right?]
Yumir nodded heavily. Now that it was known that Yumir had the power of purification, knowledge of Yumir’s ability must not be allowed to be spread indiscriminately.
In this world, there were countless demons, and demons were imprisoned all over the place. If it became known that Yumir had the power of purification, the country would immediately turn Yumir into a ‘tool’ for demon purification.
To exert their authority over an instrument.
[Go over there. Then undo your transformation and lie down as if you’ve fainted. I’ll take care of the rest.]
I pointed in the direction where the mana powder was, and Yumir hesitated to step forward.
[The heroes will arrive within 30 seconds. There’s no time. Do you want your identity to be discovered?]
“I just want to say one thing.”
Yumir reached out to me.
[I’ll return the Durumagi you lent me, so let’s meet there again at midnight on the full moon.]
[… Alright.]
Yumir extended her pinky finger to me, and I made a promise with her, interlocking our pinky fingers.
“It’s a promise.”
Yumir, who was running backward after removing the mask part of her costume, left.
[A promise, huh. I guess I need to escape from here to keep that promise.]
I held the golden orb Yumir had left behind, and the demon seed trapped inside it and waited for the heroes to arrive.
There was not much time left.
So.
‘What scenario would be best?’
Firstly, Yumir fainted in the cave after being ambushed. Then, as for Ermina…
[Huh?]
She was still alive.
The vital signal of the Taeguk Watch was almost extinguished, but she was definitely alive.
[You didn’t die?]
I thought she died the moment the demon seed was ripped out from her belly, but it seemed she was still alive.
However, she had ended up being an existence that was alive, yet not.
[I feel no magic from her body.]
The Human Ermina Sternfert was alive.
But ‘Ability User Ermina Sternfert’ was dead.
Everything that could be said to be the foundation of her power now resided within this golden orb I was clutching, which we can conveniently call the ‘Golden Cradle’.
Even the ‘Female Ermina Sternfert’ was dead.
The part where the demon seed resided was inside the cradle of life, which was meant to hold the seed as it turned its host into a demon while simultaneously giving birth to a new demon.
Once contaminated by the demon seed, her body could no longer give birth to humans.
Given this situation, a ‘scenario’ was needed to protect Solar Platina and Yumir.
[Hmm.]
The answer was here.
Among the numerous scenarios in my head, if I wanted to prevent harm to Yumir and hide the tremendous abilities Yumir had, I needed to draw the aggro.
“Gah, eeuugh…!”
[Ho. You’re still alive?]
Before the heroes arrived, Duoexini glared at me with his mask half-broken, grinding his teeth as he looked at me with his red eyes.
“You…!”
He stared at me with blood-red eyes, and I pointed behind him.
[If you truly want to make that woman a patriotic hero, disappear from here.]
“……!”
[Do you plan to expose the identities of the Golden Priestess and Solar Platina to the world?]
“!!”
Duoexini glared at me with a face full of confusion, and soon, he—
“… I’ll remember this!”
Leaving cliched words like a promise, he turned swiftly and disappeared towards the sea.
That was a relief.
There wasn’t a situation like ‘Oh, you’re a woman?’ because of his feminine voice.
If he was purely a man, there wouldn’t be much burden about the fact that Yumir almost pounded on Naberius for nearly 30 minutes while I was trying to capture him.
If she were a woman, I might have felt a bit sorry.
[Phew.]
Duoexini left, and Yumir hid inside the cave.
Now, all that was left was to wait for the heroes to rush over.
[They’re coming.]
I readjusted my magic and transformed into the form of a Gentleman Goblin.
“Ah…!”
At the forefront of the approaching heroes was her.
A woman leaped off the cliff, whipping up a snowstorm while wearing a coat-like white mantle—Snow White assessed the situation as she glared at me.
“Who are you…exactly…?”
[You’re late, hero.]
Honestly, they were not late.
It had been exactly 5 minutes since Duoexini reported the villain.
[Sorry, but it’s all over. Demon Ermina is dead. All that’s left is the shell that used to be a demon.]
Phwoosh!
I squeezed my hand and shattered the demon’s cradle that had been extracted from Ermina.
Keeeeek!
The demon seed, crushed in my hand, burst out with a strange scream, and I created a Goblin Fire, burning all traces of the cradle remaining in my hand.
[The demon is dead. Now all that’s left is to kill Ermina Sternfert, who ‘tried to kill her comrades’.]
“…!!”
Snow White reached out her hand towards me, and I swung the Goblin Bat horizontally and backed away.
Zzuk!
In an instant, an ice wall sprouted from below.
The seawater seeping into the ground surged up high and formed a wall, and its speed was much faster than when the surroundings were flat.
[The terrain is unfavorable.]
“I’ve protected Ermina Sternfert! Medics! Attend to her quickly…!”
[How absurd.]
I pointed towards the cave where Yumir was ‘fainted’.
[So, they take care of the offender before the victim just because their rank is higher?]
“What did you say?”
[Inside there, Ermina Sternfert’s partner is present. They were attacked by Ermina and fainted inside.]
“……!!”
Baek Seol-hee, who was guarding Ermina, quickly ran into the sea cave after handing over Ermina to another staff member who had followed her.
I stayed still.
I deliberately stayed still and leisurely waited until the staff members spread out in a circle around me.
[It’s vulgar. A-Class or E-Class, both are still just one person. And they are the same ability users. They only see the injured A-Class offender in front of them, and the innocent victim who was unjustly attacked by the A-Class…]
“Medic!!”
Snow White’s scream echoed from inside the cave.
Next to Snow White, who was searching for a medic with a much more serious voice than before—
[?]
There was Yumir, covered in bandages and injured.
The clothes on their body were tattered as if torn by a sonic boom, and the exposed parts were full of marks as if their skin had been scraped by a sonic boom.
The injuries looked more serious than when Ermina was stabbed from behind by Duoexini.
However, to my eyes, those wounds…
“Quick, to the rear!!”
“Ah, yes!!”
Snow White handed over Yumir to another teacher, and the teachers who were about to depart after hastily putting Ermina on a stretcher hesitated for a moment but eventually put Yumir in the ambulance first.
“What… what did you see here?”
[What did I see? I saw justice disappear. I saw the strong unilaterally torment the weak. The weak were tormented solely for the reason that they knew the secrets of the strong.]
Although Yumir seemed to have added too much to the setting, I glanced at Yumir, who was being carried away on a stretcher.
Heheh.
If it was not my misperception.
I felt like Yumir, who was also bandaged on their head, made a gesture at me.
[…Ermina Sternfert. She was caught by that weak woman while taking the mana powder found inside. And she tried to kill her.]
The external scenario was perfect, thanks to Yumir’s script.
[I just killed a demon who tried to kill someone to hide their own faults.]
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om