I Became the Academy’s Kibitz Villain

After swinging the final breath.

Yaions knelt.

His body bore the marks of blades swung from three directions, and blood was streaming from his wounds.

Like a samurai about to commit seppuku, Yaions closed his eyes.

As an S-class, he realized that no matter what he did, he couldn’t defeat me.

And at the same time, the will to resist was broken.

There was no longer a reason to run wild to obtain Seon Ga-eul’s remains.

“Kill me. I’ve lost.”

He admitted his defeat in our one-on-one duel and humbly accepted death.

There was the death of a superpowered being, but also the death of a fool in love, which he accepted at my hands.

“You are strong, Goblin. It is truly unfortunate that such power is used for this country.”

[I’m not using it for this country. I’m using it for the nation the Society will rule.]

“What? Ha, haha. You say amusing things. Well… there’s nothing more for a defeated dog to say here.”

The man, who had renamed himself Okamoto Yasuo, spread his arms wide and looked up at the sky.

“Dawn is approaching. With my death, dawn will come to this land. A fine day to die.”

[Who said I would kill you?]

“What?”

[I’m not going to kill you. I won’t.]

Yaions’s expression twisted.

But I was not someone who killed recklessly.

[You may be a villain, an S-class villain from Japan, but you’re also a victim of Seon Ga-eul.]

[If I had intended to kill you, you wouldn’t have lived to see 2025.]

I didn’t summon him here, where Seon Ga-eul’s urn was, with the intent to execute him.

If I wanted to execute him, I would have crossed into Japan earlier, raided his base in Okinawa, and crushed his skull.

[The man I would kill is the fool lost in nostalgia for Seon Ga-eul.]

Yaions shut his eyes tightly without saying a word.

[You betrayed your country and sided with Japan because you were under her hypnosis.]

I pulled out the urn from the shattered ground.

“That is…”

[It’s all over now. At best, this is just rotten bone powder, no good even for your health.]

The thermos’s end was split by the blade of the wind, and the white powder inside spilled into the winds of Jeju Island.

The powder, carried by the wind, ascended into the sky, as if achieving enlightenment, scattering into the dawn sky.

[The evil spirit is already gone.]

“Ah….”

[Before you arrived, we had already dealt with Seon Ga-eul. The witch of the Rising Sun will not reappear in this land.]

“Is she really dead? If only I had come sooner… could I have met her?”

[Who knows? I can’t say for sure.]

While Yaions immersed himself in his thoughts, I glanced toward the distant gaze that watched me.

‘They’re probably thinking I’m lying about Seon Ga-eul’s death.’

The two women watching from afar looked bewildered.

Their eyes practically said, “Stop lying, already.”

‘It’s not a lie, though.’

As I always said, I only lied when necessary.

This time was no exception.

“How did Ga-eul noona die?”

[She kept gaslighting me until the end. Telling me we should live together forever. That if we teamed up, we could aim for an executive position in the Society. That we could conquer this country together.] ŗ

That was what she said.

Not in June of 2025, but in late autumn of 2024.

[Doesn’t that sound familiar?]

“…She whispered the same to me. Even as an evil spirit, I bet she said those things. She was always someone looking out for her own survival.”

Yaions had a skewed view of Seon Ga-eul.

“But still, I loved her. Damn it.”

It was Seon Ga-eul who tinted his vision with rose-colored glasses, hypnotizing him into thinking only of her.

[Are you coming to your senses now?]

“…Was my love for her a lie?”

[You should know the answer better than anyone. Let me ask you this.]

I pointed the Goblin’s bat toward Yaions’s chest.

[When you think of Seon Ga-eul, does your heart race?]

[When you love someone, even after death, thinking of them should make your heart ache and race. You revisit memories, reliving those cherished times, savoring the love.]

No one was as blind as a superpowered being in love.

[Love is the most powerful emotion for a superpowered being.]

Even if it was with a villain or an illicit lover, love could drive a hero to the brink of scandalous retirement. Love was that powerful—for anyone, not just superpowered beings.

[You gave Seon Ga-eul that fiery moment of love.]

At one point, this man fell in love with Seon Ga-eul.

He thought her sweet whispers were love.

Though they were merely words meant to use him.

[But does your heart burn as intensely now as it did when you decided to betray your country, change your name, and become Japan’s dog?]

“I… I don’t know.”

[Compare your past self with who you are now. You were Lee Jae-min, who decided to immigrate to Japan following Seon Ga-eul’s proposal. Now, you are Okamoto Yasuo, married to a Japanese woman and an S-class villain among the Okinawan yakuza. How does your love for her feel now?]

[Let me drive the nail in for good. Do you still love Seon Ga-eul?]

“……I don’t love her.”

With great difficulty, Yaions opened his mouth to speak.

[Why can’t you love her anymore?]Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Because I discovered who she really is.”

[Exactly. Once her hypnosis broke after her death, and you saw her true self, your love faded.]

His love faded, regressed, and began to be forgotten as he gradually realized the truth behind Seon Ga-eul once the hypnosis broke.

[If you could still love her, even after seeing her flirt with other men and brainwash them, if you chose to stay by her side regardless, you might have been considered the ultimate romantic. But isn’t your heart now directed toward someone else?]

On Yaions’s left ring finger, a ring shimmered.

It was a simple silver couple’s ring, but it looked cheap, unlike the typical wedding bands often seen in Korea.

[Under hypnosis, you became Japanese. Water that’s been spilled can’t be retrieved. The moment you abandoned your nationality for love, you had no choice but to live as a Japanese citizen. And while I could execute a villain of Japan…]

I withdrew the Goblin’s Bat.

[I can’t treat you differently from the others. If you’d killed a soldier or civilians while landing on Jeju Island, you and your comrades—those “Mushi Rangers”—would have been killed on the spot. The Goblin’s Bat has no mercy for murderers.]

[While landing on Jeju, you killed no people but did kill whales.]

The question was: Had Yaions and the Mushi Rangers committed atrocities severe enough to warrant execution?

They hadn’t.

They weren’t demons, nor had they done anything unforgivable.

[Therefore, I will pass a suitable judgment on you. Now, confess your sins.]

“What?”

[What do you think your sins are?]

Slowly, Yaions got up from his kneeling position.

He wasn’t going to fight, but like a condemned man standing on the gallows, he steadied his breath and answered.

“Being deceived by a femme fatale into giving up my nationality. Illegally entering Jeju Island. And… allowing hatred and contempt for my homeland to become the source of my strength.”

[You know well. But you left out the most serious sin.]

“…Wanting to hear just one thing from the woman who never truly loved me.”

[What was that?]

“I wanted to ask her if she loved me.”

A feeling of pity arose, and I let out a sigh.

Even now, as we talk, remnants of his longing for Seon Ga-eul linger.

[It seems your head is still not entirely cleared.]

“Calling it a head instead of a brain… How crude.”

[If a beast like you, completely obsessed with a woman who tried to manipulate him, stands before me, should I call that a human head or a beast’s skull?]

“…So, I’m nothing more than a pitiful beast still clinging to a woman.”

[Exactly.]

Finally, Yaions realized the ugliness of his own actions.

[Now do you understand what you must do?]

There was a reason I was sparing this man.

[I’m a busy person. I don’t have the time to swing my bat at every love-struck fool still mesmerized by someone like Seon Ga-eul.]

“Are you telling me to do that?”

[Exactly. Go and enlighten those who are still fixated on her. Reveal the truth about Seon Ga-eul to them.]

I pointed the Goblin’s Bat in the direction of Japan.

[Tell those buffalo fools still dreaming that they were Seon Ga-eul’s first, to wake up and face reality.]

“…That’s the reason you’re sparing me.”

[Of course.]

I despised troublesome tasks.

After all, I had an important mission: to recruit S-class talents on Jeju Island for the sake of my nation.

[Let them know that the woman they loved, the one they thought was so special, was nothing more than a queen bee who toyed with hundreds of drones.]