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Chapter 68: It's Not Only Riders Who Transform (5)
After hearing this somewhat shocking story from Yoon Iseon.
I had no choice but to think once again about the plan to ‘find Duoexini’ as the Goblin.
I worried that harm might come to Yoon Iseon, who was trapped by the disgusting adults’ schemes.
I worried that harm might come to Yumir, who was preparing her own plan.
I worried that harm might come to Baek Seol-hee, who was participating in this large event for the first time as a faculty member.
…No.
In fact, all of those were merely secondary reasons.
What I really wanted, what I was truly aiming for, was to ‘watch’ for a certain woman.
“Heh, heh, heheh.”
A blonde woman was visible as she walked and hummed down the street.
Not just her blonde hair, but with a split bun hairstyle, also known as a ‘lady’s hair’, a woman who had packed something into a black plastic bag and was walking alone on the street.
The time was nearly 1 in the morning.
All the neon signs were off, and even the street lights were partially out at this hour.
The woman walking alone in the darkness was my target.
‘A link to the protagonist.’
What should I hide?
The blonde lady, confidently walking alone with a black bag, was indeed the cover heroine of the first volume, a woman called ‘Ermina Sternfert’.
What? Didn’t such characters exist in academy light novels?
-I cannot accept you!
-Ohohoho!
A character who irritated the protagonist with her noble lady-like speech, causing trouble with the protagonist and then, after a bit of incident, the protagonist would come to save her, and she would end up having infinite affection for him.
In terms of light novels, she was the heroine of the first volume, a character that the author intended to push.
However, the real heroines in the reader’s mind were Baek Seol-hee and the Chief. Ermina ended up becoming normal heroine A as the story progressed.
Speaking in terms of status, she might be the granddaughter of the chairman of a major corporation in Germany.
Such a woman, without any attendants, at this time approaching 1 in the morning, alone, and even hiding her identity with a black hat, mask, and scarf, was buying something and heading somewhere. freew(e)bnove(l)
It was not in the direction of the dormitories.
It was probably a private room, not a dormitory, or the German embassy, or perhaps a mansion on Sejong Island, bought for a huge sum by the major corporation ‘Stern’.
“……?”
I thought she was aware, but she quietly headed towards the park while watching the people’s reactions.
Moreover, the place she was headed was a women’s bathroom in the park.
‘What is she going to do in such a public bathroom at this hour?’
I was curious.
But I was not a pervert who secretly followed women into the bathroom, no matter how much information I wanted to get.
[Maybe she just needs the bathroom.]
Especially now, when I was in the form of the Goblin.
[That’s tricky.]
I needed to know what she was doing there.
To be exact, I needed to know what state she was in right now.
-Ugh, I can’t forgive the insult that you’ve given me!
Because that woman should be planning to kill the protagonist right now!
-No, why does a heroine want to kill the protagonist?
-A woman from abroad wants to kill the protagonist? At the Academy? Isn’t that strange?
-What kind of heroine wants to kill the protagonist. She’ll be killed before becoming a heroine.
-Yeah, Ermina is an attempted murderer~ If the protagonist wasn’t strong, he would have been dead~
A heroine who tried to kill the protagonist couldn’t exist.
But the author wrote the story with Ermina set as such a heroine.
In the end, she was criticized for the direction of the first volume by the other heroine followers, and the author started giving more weight to the real heroine that the readers preferred, a woman of misfortune.
-Run, run away! I’ll try to stop her!
-I, I tried to hurt you…! I could have killed you! Why are you saving me!
-Because… I’m a hero…? You’re such a, an idiot…!
If there wasn’t a process of falling for him with such words, she would have continued to slander, envy, and become a villain or a demon out of jealousy towards the protagonist.
After the first volume, she was the woman that the Goblin tried to persuade and brainwash the most when his plans were thwarted by the protagonist.
‘Come to think of it, the Goblin did show up here.’
He wandered around trying to corrupt the masses just by sticking his face in wherever.
To be exact, another villain of the conspiracy was foiled by the protagonist, and then the Goblin came to help, which marked the start of the bad relationship between the Goblin and the protagonist.
Just as I had come here and tried to coax a capable woman into joining the conspiracy, in the original work, the Goblin and the members of the Gyeolsa tried to recruit people that fell out from the treasure hunt.
Like those who were angered because they had their treasure taken by stronger ones.
Or those too weak to do anything but struggle and get kicked out even from there.
Those with abilities but who harbored dissatisfaction and thoughts of rebellion against the country.
Those were the people that the Gyeolsa in the original work mainly tried to ensnare during the treasure hunt.
When that overlapped with Ermina’s attempted murder…
[I’ve already tossed the original work into the trash bin, should I really care about this?]
I calmed myself.
The story had changed since the Goblin had become an S-grade villain.
The original work had been twisted even before I came to the academy, and I know the big flow of the original work could be fundamentally twisted and not proceed.
But if there was one possibility and hope, it was the character of that woman who wanted to get the protagonist, her ‘classmate,’ involved.
Before she became a heroine, I had no choice but to rely on her character as an attempted murderer who deserved to die.
If there was a person that she wanted to kill.
If there was a person who became her classmate.
If that person was a ‘man’, then the possibility of him being the protagonist was quite high.
‘It’s about time she came out.’
What was she up to?
Ermina Sternfert.
‘Should I just go in as Do Ji-hwan? Pretending to be crazy?’
I would probably get reported if I did that, but it was more time-consuming than I thought, and it was baffling.
‘She’s 17, right?’
She looked like an adult because she was a foreigner, but strictly speaking, she was not legally an adult.
-Stop it! You’re not an adult!
-In Germany, I am an adult! Ohoho!
-That’s ridiculous!
-Really. The law to lower the age of adulthood for ability users that is being discussed in Korea. Where do you think it started? Ohohoho! You are an adult in Korea! I am an adult in Germany! Therefore… It’s legal!
-St, stop it!!
In the context of this world, Germany had already lowered the age of adulthood for ability users according to their laws.
Of course, from my perspective, she was still a minor.
‘No. Let’s not think too conservatively.’
Wasn’t that what was repeatedly reported in the news?
Using secret SNS to carry out truly detestable and heinous crimes…
At that moment.
The glass door opened, and someone revealed herself.
Holding a black bag tightly in her hand, she disappeared leisurely after pushing the bag into a trash can on one side of the park.
[…….]
As much as I didn’t want to check the garbage, there might be traces of an assassination tool to kill the protagonist in there.
‘Reveal yourself, Ermina.’
Whether she was trying to kill the protagonist as in the original work or she was trying to kill the protagonist in a different way.
With a thud.
I took out the plastic bag.
Something was rustling inside, and I carefully ripped the bag open.
[……Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.]
The contents of the bag were…
[Before she becomes a heroine, she’s given me a reason to take care of her.]
It was a worse item than I had thought.
Early Friday morning.
The time when the morning sunlight was slowly brightening.
“What’s going on, so early in the morning?”
“It’s time to prepare for the operation, Brewer.”
As soon as dawn broke, I went straight to Brewer’s house.
“I thought you would come after getting off work on Thursday or around 9 o’clock today, but you came at such an ambiguous time?”
“Isn’t it time to smash a bowl of soup before setting off?”
“Why smash a soup?”
“Roll one for me. Even an instant one is fine.”
“I knew you’d say that, so I boiled the broth in advance during the week. Have a seat. I’ll prepare a bowl for you.”
Brewer immediately put a stone pot on the gas range.
“So, you’re going to search for Duoexini while wandering around today?”
“Yeah. And while searching, I’m going to deal with some other things.”
“Other things? Like what?”
“Demons turning black due to winnowing. Specifically, the ones who are going to be Goblin hunt marks.”
I took off my Taeguk Watch and put it on the table.
“I feel like there are more people trying to hunt the Goblin rather than find him.”
“…Huh?”
Brewer, who was scooping broth out of a pot like a kimchi container, frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“As I heard through a phone call with Baek Seol-hee, and as I obtained information through official documents and informants, people are trying to find the Goblin in the current treasure hunt, right?”
“Right?”
“But somehow, the way things are going seems a bit peculiar.”
“In what sense? I don’t have any information specifically about the Goblin?”
“Then ask this way. Something that has nothing to do with the Goblin but seems likely to be spread in the current treasure hunt.”
I pinched a bit of salt from the salt container on the table.
“Do you know how many drugs are filling this Sejong Island?”
“……Of course. I obviously know.”
Brewer spread her arms and laughed in frustration.
“The whole of Sejong Island is a neighborhood filled with drugs. Enough to be found in garbage bags rolling around on the streets.”
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