I Became the Academy’s Kibitz Villain

I once watched a movie.

In it, someone who accumulated wealth through dishonest means was taken down by magicians, who used magic to deliver a major blow. The magicians then disappeared as if by magic, although it wasn’t magic in the real sense.

This might be a spoiler, but in this world, there were no movies like that after the great upheaval.

‘Honestly, switching corpses isn’t that much of a unique trick.’

Pretending to be dead wasn’t particularly special.

It was only special in how it’s done and in how you made it look like someone died.

Whoosh.

It burned.

The body of Nut Crusher melted away along with the fire.

“Open the door!!”

Bang bang bang!

Someone outside was banging roughly on the mortuary door.

As I strengthened the door with magic and set up a wind barrier while united with Hyeon Se-rin, no one could come in.

‘No one below S-rank can get through.’

Hyeon Se-rin’s magic and skills were being deployed by the Goblin. Who could possibly break through that?

No one below S-rank could break it, and even if an S-rank were to arrive, running like lightning—

Crackle!

As soon as the Thunder Emperor touched the barrier, she was thrown back.

She ran down to the basement from the first floor through the emergency stairs but couldn’t enter easily because of the barrier.

‘What amazing acting.’

In reality, she could break through if she wanted to.

If I were in the opposite situation, I would have either broken through the wall or climbed up to the ceiling to create a hole to reach the basement. There would be other ways.

But humans tend to have limited thinking in urgent situations.

When there was a door, and it’s being blocked, people became obsessed with breaking through the door. And during that moment, Goblin inside would do whatever he needed to.

“You, you crazy bastard! Do you know how much that’s worth?!!”

A man, who appeared to be the hospital director, shouted at me as his wig fell off and blood poured from his lower half.

“If you sell that, at least—”

[It would be worth trillions of won. And if sold for more, you could get an even higher price.]

I reached into the burning body of Nut Crusher and pinched a bit of white powder that looked like bone ash.

[Even if you just put a small amount of this in a capsule, you could sell it for tens of millions. Not to mention, if you grind down the bones of a guy this big, imagine how much mana powder you’d get. Don’t you think so?]

“You, you…!”

[Don’t think that money makes the world go round.]

Whoosh.

[Sometimes, there are things more important than money.]

I added more flames until Nut Crusher’s body was completely reduced to ashes.

Lighting matchsticks one by one, I tossed them like kindling onto Nut Crusher’s body.

Of course, this Nut Crusher corpse was fake.

I didn’t bring a mannequin because I didn’t want to raise the suspicion of the agents outside. It was just an illusion created by mana.

But if it looks like a corpse on the outside and a little bit of showmanship was added, anyone could be fooled.

[Thanks to you all, I was able to get rid of the flies drawn to the corpse in one go.]

“You…! Did you use us!!”

Not exactly.

I just came to deal with the fake Thunder Emperor, then built the foundation, and let you fill in the rest.

“Did you leave the body on purpose so the scavengers would come?!”

The ones who were filling in the gaps were those who could only see the situation from that angle.

Those who judged everything through the lens of greed rather than human decency.

[So what if I did?]

There was no need for long explanations.

Nut Crusher’s body was burned, the traces of magic were erased, and all that’s left is for the flames to die down.

[Can you even catch me?]

I raised the matchstick.

While suppressing the heat of the flames with Hyeon Se-rin’s power, the moment I lifted the match, the sprinkler system activated.

Whoosh.

Water began to pour down on the spot where Nut Crusher’s body had been.

Avoiding the water, I backed away toward the wall.

Flick.

As I released the magic I had placed on the door, I phased through the wall using my spirit form.

There was a storage room behind the mortuary wall, and as soon as I passed through, I exited the building.

A place with no crowd.

A place where no one would be rushing toward.

I casually walked through the corridor and out of the hospital.

No one noticed us, and no one could follow Goblin’s tracks.

Just like a phantom, Goblin burned Nut Crusher’s body and slipped past Thunder Emperor and the association agents.

Three hours later.

After releasing our spirit form in a suitable place and changing into ordinary clothes, Hyeon Se-rin and I returned to the house in Seoul to check how society was accepting the ‘truth’ through the Hero Wiki.

[Nut Crusher].

-This document is currently classified as “Villain.” Be careful when reading.

-This document can only be edited by the ‘Day Shift Officer’ who is currently logged in. Be careful not to cause any document conflicts.

[Nut Crusher’s Execution and Cremation Incident]. (New)

“Chaos everywhere, huh?”

Hyeon Se-rin approached me, handing over a cold can of beer.

“You’re going to meet the Thunder Emperor soon. Is it okay to be drinking beer right now?”

“It’s not like we have to meet right away, right? Thunder Emperor is getting beaten down by people as we speak.”

“There’s no shame in failing to stop Goblin.”

“But she lost, didn’t she?”

“Well, she agreed to deal with it, so I’m not particularly bothered.”

We would eventually meet Thunder Emperor again, not necessarily now, but at a quieter time.

I continued reviewing the records kept by the officers who sorted through the incidents and accidents even in the middle of the night.

-…In the end, Goblin used Nut Crusher’s body to handle the thieves who were trying to steal the corpse all at once. After the body had outlived its usefulness, he personally entered the hospital and set it on fire. According to the testimony of a field agent (link: HeroTN Live, coordinates), it was burned until nothing but ash remained.

“It played out according to the scenario.”

We burned a fake corpse, but people didn’t know it was fake.

Perhaps even if we had burned a mannequin, as long as the smell wasn’t noticed, people would have been fooled.

“For an impromptu plan, everything fit together surprisingly well. It was more successful than I thought.”

“In that case, cheers?”

“Sure.”

I clinked my can with Hyeon Se-rin’s, celebrating the successful operation for the moment.

“So, the next step is making a deal with the Thunder Emperor?”

“Are you recruiting her as a member, or are you planning to make her a hired hand?”

“Do you really think I’m going to do some patriotic act against the Thunder Emperor? Weren’t you the one who didn’t like him in the first place?”

“I disliked the princess in the flower garden, not her.”

Hyeon Se-rin chuckled bitterly while watching a live broadcast of Thunder Emperor, Kim Yoon-ji, bowing at a press conference.

“Back when she was just a clueless little girl, of course I didn’t like her. But now, seeing her try to change the world and enter the slums, it’s natural to be concerned.”

“Still taking care of your S-rank junior?”

“Of course. If she decides to join the Secret Society, I’ll have to reveal that I’m not just a doppelganger, but the real me.”

“Hmm.”

Though Hyeon Se-rin said she was just testing Kim Yoon-ji’s resolve, if she ultimately became loyal to the Secret Society, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring her fully into the fold, even revealing Hyeon Se-rin’s involvement.

“I really didn’t expect we’d recruit another S-rank into the society.”

“You seem happier than usual.”

“Of course.”

I washed down the refreshing coolness of the beer.

“For once, we succeeded in recruiting someone through action. I’m happy.”

Not by using a honey trap.

Not by scandal.

“As a villain of the Secret Society, I managed to recruit an S-rank purely based on ideology and belief. How could I not be pleased? The people I recruited within the academy… ugh.”

Suddenly, a shiver ran down my spine.

It was all good when I lured them in with a seductive approach and turned them into patriots for the country, but two of them ended up turning into blind zealots as a side effect.

The only remaining hope now would be Yoon I-seon, the new S-rank…

“When we go to Jeju Island, do you think I-seon will try to become patriotic too?”

“Considering someone showed her the manual up close, probably.”

At the pension on Ulleungdo, I had shown Yumir, Yun Hye-ra, and Hyeon Se-rin exactly how yin and yang merge into one.

-They, they never taught us this so clearly at the academy…!!

Through a demonstration outside the academy, she learned how humanity thrived and prospered.

If what you learned in the academy was the bright side of preparing future laborers, the reality of the world outside the academy was cold, dirty, and harsh.

“Se-rin, if we’re going to recruit the Thunder Emperor for sure, we’ll need to set the stage, right?”

“What kind of stage? Judging by the look in your eyes, it seems like you’re planning to get rid of all those guys who were about to make bone soup. Didn’t you say you had to go to Jeju Island?”

“We don’t have to go. We can just call them.”

To Jeju Island.

“If we put mana powder up for auction at a hotel in Jeju, won’t the flies come swarming there?”

“…Are you planning to call everyone to Jeju Island?”

“Yeah.”

Summoning tactical nukes.

“Let’s start by calling chaos.”

The one with the most mana among the executives.