Chapter 78: Where There Is Nationalism, There Is Duoexini (5)
Sejong Island, inside an abandoned container warehouse in the military base.
“Ugh, ugh, heok….”
The young man coughed up blood and collapsed onto the concrete floor. He was full of pain, and the blood wouldn’t stop.
“Damn, that damned Goblin…!”
“That’s what you get for jumping out like that.”
A woman with a cast stepped up to the young man’s side. The woman, who was as red as blood from head to toe, except for her chubby skin, reached out her hand towards the young man.
“I’ll heal you soon. Just wait.”
“…….”
A cluster of red light seeped out from the woman’s hand, and the wounds that had filled the young man’s body started to heal rapidly.
The rapid healing of the wounds?
Or the accelerated repair time of the cells in the wounded area?
It was hard to tell just by looking at what the principle of her ability was, but it was definitely a power that was different from regular hemostasis.
“I’ll put it on the tab. Pay ‘Boots’ unnie a shot later. Duoexini, sir.”
“You’re noisy.”
The young man, Duoexini, put on the mask he had laid on the floor again. Although the eye part was broken and the torn eye line was fully exposed, Duoexini only gritted his teeth as he fiddled with the painful part.
“Damn, that damned Goblin…!!”
“Why don’t you just admit it if you were one-sidedly attacked? It’s not for nothing that he’s an S-class.”
“But his magical power is below average at best!”
“But he uses that magic so efficiently. Did he have any waste in using his magic? Did he overuse mana like you? No. And we still don’t know what type his power is.”
“…….”
Duoexini bowed his head heavily.
A clear defeat.
His best trick, ‘High-speed combat’, was immediately followed by the Goblin, who intercepted him even as if time had nearly stopped.
“Damn it. What trick did he use to get that power… No, this is clearly strange. He doesn’t have enough magical power for that. He’s bringing mana from somewhere to use more than just using it efficiently.”
“Then what, do you think he’s drawing power from something like solar energy?”
“Solar energy…?”
“Yes. How could he pull in such large amounts of mana in a natural state? He’s probably just cramming mana into his body and using it as needed.”
“……”
Duoexini pressed his mask with his hand, lost in thought.
“Utilizing mana to the limit of efficiency while simultaneously drawing mana from an external source…?”
“Either way, your defeat remains the same.”
“…I won’t lose next time.”
Duoexini flashed a determined look in his eyes.
“I will not be interfered with next time and will definitely not lose. And I will recruit that woman, ‘Solar Platina,’ into our group.”
“The Gold Knight woman you’re into?”
“Yes. I think I have a rough idea who she is.”
Duoexini tapped the screen of the Taeguk Watch, which didn’t have the Taeguk pattern, and soon, a cluster of light rose from the Taeguk Watch and began to twinkle like a hologram.
It was a 3D display.
The twinkling blue light formed a figure, and the dispersed mana around it flashed the woman’s profile in text in mid-air.
“Ermina Sternfert?”
“Yes. The woman I made into a demon this time. Her name is Naberius.”
“You hate using English that much.”
“Would you put our language on a demon or a villain?”
“Haha, really.”
Even though they were using a technology that didn’t even exist in the mass-produced type Taeguk Watch, it was technology that was two to three generations ahead. They casually continued their conversation as they played with the hologram as if it were something they had been using all along.
“So this woman is the Gold Knight?”
“Are you out of your mind? Not this woman. Her partner…this woman is the Gold Knight.”
Flash.
The hologram sparkled.
There, within the profile information registered in Sejong Academy, was ‘Yumir’.
“How are you going to deal with this kid? E-class? Was it wrongly noted?”
“It’s correct. She’s been hiding her identity. That’s why a woman like Ermina dared to mess with her.”
Duoexini handed one of the documents about Yumir to the woman in red, and the woman twisted the corner of her mouth into a smirk as she read the document.
“Ermina Sternfert, hiding the fact that she was consuming mana powder while searching for treasure, attacked Yumir. Who was her teammate?”
“It seems it’s not a lie.”
“So, it’s interesting. She concealed her power, was attacked, and then revealed her original strength, embodying justice.”
“We need to manage this well going forward.”
Duoexini clasped the woman’s hand.
“Hongryeon. Listen carefully. Don’t disclose anything about her identity to others. When you report, keep anything about the Golden Knight a secret.”
“What?”
“As of now, only you and I know about this. There’s nothing about the Golden Knight anywhere.”
“You want to keep it a secret from the organization?”
“Yes.”
Duoexini struggled to his feet.
“The existence of the Golden Knight must not be known. She’s still a green apple. It needs to ripen a bit more, to become red, to taste good…”
“What do you mean by that?”
“She needs to make her first appearance in a more dramatic setting. It’s not cool to debut against someone like Ermina. We need to set up a bigger stage….”
Duoexini’s eyes curved into half-moons.
“Isn’t the practicum at Hero Development University in April?”
“If you’re talking about the academy’s regional practicum, then it’s in April. Why? Do you plan to hold everyone there and stage a massive hostage situation?”
“For the most perfect and dramatic entrance.”
Duoexini stood up with his arms spread out.
“Can a great Class A Hero like Golden Knight make a name for herself just by catching someone like Naberius?”
Clang.
The sound of the warehouse door opening could be heard from outside.
“Hey, Sergeant. It’s real. We heard a ghostly voice inside…!”
“Hey. There’s a lock outside. How could we hear voices….”
“…….”
Duoexini moved at the speed of light.
Then he reached into a soldier’s clothes and pulled out an object, grinning wickedly.
“You were smoking a cigarette.”
Whoosh.
Something pierced through the soldiers’ hearts.
After the commotion ended in the evening,
I immediately returned to the safe place, Brewer’s house.
“There was quite a commotion, right? The Goblin tried to kill an A-Class Hero.”
“It wasn’t an A-Class Hero. It was a demon. Duoexini appeared.”
“…Out of nowhere?”
“He suddenly jumped out of the sea.”
“……Really unexpected.”
While she didn’t specifically contact me, Brewer was already aware of all the situations she could find on the internet.
“The situation was…”
I told her everything I had experienced, and Brewer earnestly organized the keywords on the whiteboard.
“So, then the Four Heavenly Kings would pretend to be Pandemonium, trying to promote an S-Class super-powered individual named Yumir as a hero?”
“Yes. They would want to create an environment where the hero has no choice but to step in. Whether it’s a hostage situation or terror.”
“So, they’re having a Western demon put on a villain’s mask while a hero in Korean traditional dress resolves the problem? That’s fun. It’s not even a child’s idea, seriously.”
“Because they are children.”
They were super-powered individuals.
They were also, at most, 25 years old.
Even if someone tempted them, they were the ones who would fall for it.
“So, what do you want to do, Director? Now, it seems like you’re working on recruiting this student named Yumir.”
“I’m thinking it might be a good idea to start recruiting seriously.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I intend to do my assigned task and prevent her from falling into the rival’s hands.”
The boss had said.
Observe the situation at the academy and recruit those with outstanding abilities.
“We have recruited Baek Seol-hee to a certain extent, but there’s a world of difference between switching due to reason and switching as a diehard. However…Yumir is a bit different. She’s not a hero, just an ordinary college student.”
“It’s easier to recruit her because she’s different from the already-affiliated princess? Hehe. You do know that the same applies to them, right?”
“Of course.”
Even when I didn’t think of her as the original main character, I had plans to draw her to my side.
But now that she was the main character with purification abilities?
She had become nothing short of a top priority, not first, but level zero priority.
“So, do we need to gather information about their group for Pandemonium?”
“Second priority.”
“First priority is? Student Yumir?”
“Yes. Specifically, the curriculum targeting Yumir.”
This was my prediction, but I had a strong feeling that I didn’t always need to watch Yumir.
“Those guys, especially Duoexini, will set up an extravagant scenario. They may appear in daily life and casually chat like a normal person, but it’s more for warnings or simple persuasion. They won’t intend to cause any large-scale incidents.”
“So, they will show up in more attention-grabbing places, and that’s likely to happen within the Academy’s curriculum?”
“That’s right.”
It could be said that it was following the original story’s flow.
It could also be considered a predetermined large-scale event.
Several large events existed in the regular curriculum of the Academy, such as field training, outdoor on-the-spot training, and overnight training.
Originally, these were special events for romantic engagements with various heroines, but now their meanings will probably change a bit.
“Now, every time a big event unfolds around Yumir, I expect Duoexini to cause a ruckus, and I need to step in each time.”
“Wouldn’t Duoexini try something else? Like attacking on a weekday?”
“Absolutely not.”
There was a certain assurance as a villain.
“He wants Yumir, the magical girl Gold Priestess, to become a hero. And he hopes that the hero will walk the same path as they do.”
Just like a certain clown who exhausted all means to shatter the identity of Batman while knowing he was a rich man but never touching the rich man himself.
“I’ll make Yumir come to our side.”
“But what if something goes wrong, Manager Do?”
“What?”
“Manager Do, you’re currently recruiting Baek Seol-hee as well. Isn’t it like walking on thin ice, trying to two-time?”
“…For that, I have a good plan.”
I raised my cup filled with soju toward Brewer.
“Even if I’m two-timing or octopus-legging, I just need to make them like me.”
“…And on what grounds?”
“That is, of course….”
After I put down the soju-filled cup, I pointed upwards with one hand and downwards with the other.
“With the Goblin Bat.”
“…You seem pretty confident.”
“Of course. I’ve been doing business with that until now.”
Me.
The inept Manager Do Jihwan, also known as the Goblin.
“Do you think I’m in the same rank as the four directors under the chairman for nothing?”
A man who could ‘persuade’ anything with a Goblin Bat.
“I think I need to change the policy.”
If it was a man, I would have killed him.
But if it was a woman.
That was.
I killed men.
And women, I-
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