Ch.209Chapter 8. A Toast to Your Patriotism (10)

The finals were over.

From the moment Hayabusa intervened, from the moment the Goblin appeared, the championship match between Ray Huang and Yoon Yi-seon had come to an end.

Ray Huang had become a demon, and the Goblin had turned the demon Yeobongseon into a “Zenros.”

And then the Goblin vanished.

In front of everyone, he stirred up the wind and disappeared like a master who could control the wind.

Thanks to this, people learned three facts about the Goblin:

One. The Goblin could create duplicates of himself.

Two. The Goblin could turn demons into Zenros.

And three. The Goblin was exceptional at escaping, able to vanish easily even when surrounded by other S-class heroes.

As always, the Goblin disappeared much more easily than before, and no one noticed how he managed to vanish.

“Ugh…!”

Princess Bari, Tae Yi-rin, clenched her fist as she walked down the hallway.

“The Goblin has disappeared! Find the Goblin!”

“H-he’s not over here!”

She walked with her eyes peeled, carefully watching for any sign of the Goblin, but all she could see were confused students and faculty members hurrying through the corridors.

[What nonsense is this! Ray Huang clearly used mana powder! We should be discussing his punishment first!]

[Uh, first we need to address the fact that he became a demon and then turned into a Zenros….]

[Ray Huang is disqualified! Yoon Yi-seon is the winner! We need to make a clear decision!]

[Well, before the ruling could be made, Hayabusa intervened….]

Through the wireless earphones connected to her Taegeuk Watch, she could hear the academy principal and association agents arguing loudly.

[Principal, finding the Goblin should be more important….]

[What’s the use of looking for someone who’s already escaped! It’s always the same! Have we ever caught even a glimpse of the Goblin after he disappears?! It’s more practical to deal with the current situation!]

[But declaring a winner now is….]

[Enough! Yoon Yi-seon is the winner! After that, you can look for the Goblin or not, I don’t care!! Think logically!!]

She was already annoyed at not being able to catch the Goblin, and she hadn’t even seen how he escaped, but the “higher-ups” were once again arguing and getting red-faced over what seemed like trivial matters.

It could be an important issue.

A Korean victory.

They could wrap things up by declaring A-class Yoon Yi-seon the winner after defeating everyone else, but the aftermath made it difficult to cleanly call it Yi-seon’s victory.

If she had to be honest.

“The Goblin wins….”

The biggest beneficiary was the Goblin.

Hayabusa’s excessive intervention had caused Ray Huang to go berserk.

Ray Huang had become a demon due to his rampage.

Yoon Yi-seon had freely dodged Ray Huang’s attacks but hadn’t overwhelmingly defeated him.

Could she have won if they had continued fighting?

That was merely speculation.

Unless she fought Ray Huang again, Ray Huang was now a Zenros, no longer an ability user except for the Bangcheonhwageuk spear attached below him.

Who knows.

Perhaps the Dark Charisma might suddenly appear with a “hmph” from somewhere, kidnap Ray Huang, and then toss him back onto Sejong Island ten days later as an ability user who could use magic again.

But like other revived ability users, starting from the bottom as an E-class—and a physical enhancement type at that—it would take a long time for him to climb back to A-class.

So, they couldn’t immediately determine the A-class finals winner.

It made sense for Yoon Yi-seon, who had reached the finals, to lift the trophy, but the problem was that it would be too anticlimactic.

[If at least Hayabusa and Yoon Yi-seon had fought, it might have been different, but now public opinion about Hayabusa isn’t very good either.]

[There’s the issue of him talking about being the original and turning someone into a demon, but the biggest problem is that the Goblin made the Rider abandon his appearance….]

“Damn it.”

Tae Yi-rin gritted her teeth and spat out a curse.

“That damn Rider…. Everyone’s all Rider, Rider! I’ve heard the word ‘Rider’ on TV over a hundred times in the past two months! Don’t they ever get tired of it!”

Though no one was listening, Tae Yi-rin deliberately shouted to vent her frustration.

“It’s actually for the best! Now they can stop obsessing over Riders! Ugh!!”

She had grown to hate Riders.

At first, she had dismissed it as just another bizarre appearance, but when everyone kept shouting about Riders for two months straight, it went beyond tiresome to downright irritating.

Trends are fleeting, and hearing about Riders for two months—not just a week—was mentally exhausting.

The Goblin’s announcement about abandoning the Rider concept was welcome news, but Tae Yi-rin was also annoyed by people making a fuss about how “the Goblin, the leader of the Rider trend, has abandoned Riders!”

In fact.

-Hey, Irin. Check out your brother’s new Rider. What do you think?

-Sending photos at 4 AM doesn’t make it a Rider photo. Get lost.

-Then is 4 PM okay? Your brother made one with a Taegeuk Rider concept. The face has mugunghwa flower petals….

-Ah, you’re crazy. Get lost.

Someone had been sending her photos every day of themselves covered in steel armor claiming it was a new Rider concept, which irritated Tae Yi-rin even more.

“I hope he doesn’t show up anymore. Really, geez. He could just wear normal suits….”

Grumbling, Tae Yi-rin soon reached her destination.

The women’s restroom.

Swoosh.

Tae Yi-rin caught water from the sink in her hands and covered her face with it.

“…….”

After cooling her face with water once.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

She grabbed the sink and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Haa, haa, haa.”

She had wanted to scream.

Afraid of looking like a crazy woman if she screamed in the hallway, she had deliberately come to the restroom to let it out.

At least if you scream in the restroom, people understand that you must be under a lot of stress.

“Ugh…!!”

Rustle.

“!!”

After relieving some stress by screaming, Tae Yi-rin was startled while roughly drying her face with a paper towel.

“Huh, uh…?”

She had entered thinking no one was inside and had let out a shout, but was there someone in here after all?

“…….”

Tae Yi-rin perked up her ears.

She heard rustling sounds coming from the farthest stall in the women’s restroom.

“…….”

The sound of her heels echoed loudly.

There was definitely a sound coming from the back of the women’s restroom, and Tae Yi-rin’s heart sank.

“Um, is someone there…?”

There was no voice in response.

But the indicator on the bathroom stall showed “red” for occupied, and Tae Yi-rin’s face reddened.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately….”

Suddenly.

When Tae Yi-rin’s gaze dropped downward.

“…Huh?”

Her heart sank.

They were shoes.

Men’s shoes.

Men’s shoes that shouldn’t be in the women’s restroom, placed “upside down.”

“…….”

Shoes?

Suit?

Women’s restroom?

Somehow, such a possibility crossed Tae Yi-rin’s mind.

Perhaps the reason they hadn’t found the Goblin yet was, as the principal said, because they weren’t thinking “logically.”

Right.

One could easily change their appearance.

Even their voice.

In a world where people can suddenly open spaces and appear, spread wings of ice and fly around, and turn into demons, what would be impossible?

“…Excuse me.”

Tae Yi-rin lowered her voice and gathered her magical power.

“I am S-class hero, Princess Bari Tae Yi-rin. Whoever is inside, I need your cooperation.”

Tae Yi-rin knocked on the door.

There was definitely someone inside making sounds, and Tae Yi-rin counted to three in her mind.

Three. Two. One.

Whoosh!

Tae Yi-rin jumped high from her spot, then grabbed the top of the adjacent bathroom stall and leaped over.

“Ah.”

And she saw.

“…….”

“…….”

A black-haired man.

And a blonde, blue-eyed woman.

The man was standing still, and the woman was sitting on the closed toilet lid.

And they were engaged in an act that Tae Yi-rin couldn’t describe—something that, given her age, she absolutely shouldn’t be describing.

“Ah, uh, uhhh…?”

Tae Yi-rin froze in place.

The two people inside also froze.

Whether the man was handsome, or the woman was incredibly beautiful, or they had magical reserves that couldn’t compare to Tae Yi-rin’s—none of that registered.

What registered was—

“…….”

Tae Yi-rin quietly climbed down.

She pressed her body against the wall as far back as possible, not knowing what to say.

Rustle, rustle.

Some sounds came from inside.

-I told you someone was coming.

-But I was desperate. You’re the one who said it was okay.

-Well, haah. Just wipe your mouth first.

-Ugh. We were just getting to the good part.

-Be quiet. Lower your voice more.

-Hiing.

“…….”

Tae Yi-rin scratched her cheek.

And while she was waiting for the people inside.

“W-what’s happening? Ah, Princess Bari!”

“…Who are you?”

“Yes! I’m Hero Association agent Park Eun-jung! I heard a scream and came running!”

The short-haired woman from the Hero Association, Park Eun-jung, saluted on the spot.

“Is it the Goblin? I’ll call for backup right—”

“Ah, no. I was just… frustrated because we couldn’t find him. Stress relief, just stress relief.”

“…Oh, I see! Understood! I’ll look elsewhere! Excuse me!”

Park Eun-jung saluted again and disappeared.

Tae Yi-rin covered her face with her hands and knocked on the door again.

“…I’m sorry for interrupting your patriotic act. But please, be mindful of time and place….”

“……Yes.”

Finally, a response.

The sticky quality of the voice must have been her imagination.

“…….”

Tae Yi-rin still couldn’t calm her flushed face, and as she was about to leave, she slightly turned her head.

The moment she looked inside.

The moment she made eye contact with the black-haired man and remembered what was below.

“…….”

Tae Yi-rin’s face reddened again.

“……Oh my goodness.”

She hadn’t found the Goblin, but.

“……I didn’t make a mistake, right? Yeah, that must be it. There wasn’t any… ugh….”

She had witnessed a patriotic act.

Without any.

Obscenity whatsoever.