Ch.526Chapter 20. American Doblin (16)

There are various methods of resurrection, but if there are multiple options available, people tend to choose the better one.

“If you don’t want to be resurrected with my golden orb, I’ll have to find something else.”

“It’s not that I don’t want it! I just want a new one if possible!”

“You’re not a unicorn.”

“Even if I’m not a unicorn, I’d prefer a new one! Not the golden orb that was inside your body, but natural mana gold!”

Cheon Ju-yeon vehemently refused to accept my golden orb.

“Don’t humans come into being through orbs anyway?”

“What?”

“The seed of life inside the orb moves and takes residence in the body of the opposite sex…”

“Aah, I can’t hear you! Forget it, just get new mana gold and give me a new body then!”

“Says Cheon Ju-yeon, who’s currently shouting from inside a doppelgänger made from the Goblin’s golden orb.”

“Y-you…!”

Cheon Ju-yeon’s hair had grown long again.

And in her hair, the golden bridge that had been there before the explosion was engraved once more.

The apple had become a pineapple, and its size was the default value of Ymir’s doppelgänger.

Even at a glance, I could tell the form was Cheon Ju-yeon’s own, not Ymir’s.

Just as men secretly care about size, women’s concern about size probably had a significant influence on the doppelgänger.

“Cheon Ju-yeon. Regardless of what was used, isn’t it important that you’re ‘alive’ right now through this doppelgänger?”

“Ugh…”

“Whether it’s a used car or a new car, it’s better than walking, don’t you think?”

I understand the desire to have a new car when you’re looking to buy one.

But when you urgently need a car and don’t know how many months it will take for a new one to be delivered, you can’t just put down a deposit and wait idly.

If you really need a car urgently, wouldn’t you drive a used car or a leased one for the time being?

“Try getting used to the doppelgänger. Consider the golden orb I gave you as something that can be damaged without major issues, and use it freely.”

“Hmm…”

“After you get accustomed to the mana gold doppelgänger, you’ll be able to adapt quickly when you get new mana gold.”

It’s just a matter of used versus new; the principle of the ability is the same.

When you think about it that way, whether the mana gold is used or new isn’t really important.

“You people are still human after all. Once you have one thing, you want ten more.”

“…Isn’t that proof of being ‘alive as a human’?”

Seong Ji-eun approached Cheon Ju-yeon’s side and came to her defense.

“When you’re dead, all you want is revenge and resurrection, but it’s natural for other desires to emerge when you’re alive. For example…”

“If that desire is sexual desire, and if it’s directed at me, I’d appreciate some restraint.”

As I reached out toward Seong Ji-eun to cut her off preemptively, she fidgeted with her lips as if disappointed.

“You’d appreciate it?”

“By cutting out a word in the middle, you’ve completely changed what I said. Are you doing this too?”

“One thing you should remember is that I’m the same age as Baek Seol-hee.”

“Attacking with age, how cowardly.”

“Besides, neither I nor Cheon Ju-yeon can ask any other man. Isn’t taking care of executives’ mental health part of Manager Do’s duties? Isn’t that right, Chairwoman?”

“That’s correct.”

My last line of defense had crumbled.

“It’s my role to manage the executives, and it’s the Goblin’s role to monitor and deal with executives’ misconduct. But since this has become a difficult situation for me to manage, I’d like the Goblin to handle that management too.”

“Does that management include satisfying desires?”

“Of course. Since the Goblin brought us back to life, naturally the management of desires falls to the Goblin. We have physical bodies instead of spirit forms thanks to the Goblin and the intern Ymir on the Goblin’s team.”

The Chairwoman pointed at Ymir, who was just smiling quietly.

“Can’t you see Ymir’s face right now? What kind of face do you think it is?”

“It looks like the face of a hero with wholesome, bright thoughts who protects world peace.”

“Does that face really look like that to you?”

Ymir was smiling broadly, like someone putting on a fake smile in a home shopping advertisement.

It was a smile to hide her true thoughts, which could be confirmed through the lingering consciousness in the two doppelgängers without her having to say it directly.

“Teacher. Did you know? Console games are best with 4 players.”

“I know what you’re trying to say, so could you stop?”

“You be player 1, Teacher. Let’s have a match with us, a match.”

“It’s obviously going to be 1 versus 3, and I have other things to do right now.”

I pointed at Ymir and the two women.

“You three discuss how to deal with me. Meanwhile, I have something serious to discuss with the Chairwoman in private.”

“Hmm, sounds like a real serious business talk…”

Ymir is a perceptive woman.

Because she’s perceptive, she sometimes plays pranks that almost cross the line, and occasionally leaps far beyond it, but fundamentally she knows where that line is.

“Alright. I’ll check how much mana is supplied to the doppelgängers, how well the unnies’ bodies can be maintained, and how much output they can generate.”

Ymir lightly raised her magical power and changed her clothes.

Instead of a light t-shirt and hot pants, she put on her costume as the magical girl Platinum Sun, complete with a mask.

“Unnies. Shall we set up a barrier and check your doppelgänger output?”

A declaration of war.

“We can do one-on-one matches in sequence, or you can both face me at once.”

There was a clear intention to show her strength through an ability battle against the two who had dismissed her as a patriotic parrot, despite having resurrected them with doppelgängers.

“Hmm… you want to fight?”

“Yeah, Ymir. That’s right. Any ability user ranked S or higher should immediately charge their fists with magic when they feel disrespected.”

Perhaps slightly offended by the suggestion of a 2-on-1 match, they immediately raised their magical power.

Fwoosh.

Seong Ji-eun transformed into a suit, and Cheon Ju-yeon into a gown as they both summoned their magic.

“Output normal. Hmm, is this set with a double safety mechanism?”

“Yellow card if Ymir’s mana runs out, red card if the mana stored in the mana gold is depleted. If we use up our own inherent mana too… then we exit this world? That’s how it feels.”

“To immediately grasp the limits of your doppelgängers just by raising mana once. Impressive.”

I couldn’t help but admire how quickly they had assessed their limits and red lines.

“Huh? Goblin, do you want to join the fight too?”

“It’s not that I want to fight, just that my mana has decreased significantly and I feel empty.”

“You’re not jealous?”

“I am jealous, actually.”

I admit what needs to be admitted.

No matter how much mana I absorb or try to expand my mana container, I’m still around C-rank.

“Oh my. So that’s why you’re looking for me to discuss ‘external supply’?”

“Chairwoman.”

“Hehe, I think it’s fine to tell them now.”

The Chairwoman pulled my hand beside her.

“Ymir? Have you ever thought about this? That the Goblin uses much more mana than his own limit allows?”

“…It wasn’t borrowed from the executive unnies, was it possibly…?”

“That’s right. It’s me.”

The Chairwoman placed her other hand on her chest and lifted her chin.

“I’ve been regularly supplying magical power to the Goblin. The so-called yeouiju.”

“Yeouiju…?”

“Taotie hates when I call it a golden orb, and although it’s the same golden color, what comes from my body is different.”

“I’ve been receiving supplies once a month since before.”

Whether Qiongqi comes with the yeouiju for delivery.

Or Taowu visits Korea with his bike to feed me the yeouiju.

Of course they have their own mana, but ultimately, the foundation of their mana is the Chairwoman.

“Hehehe. Well, I need to feed the Goblin the yeouiju, so you three have a good match. I’ll give a small prize depending on the results.”

The Chairwoman winked at the three and pulled me inside.

* * *

“……”

After the Chairwoman and the Goblin left for the room.

Whirr.

The space changed.

The apartment-like space instantly transformed into a wide open field.

“This is…”

“One of the Chairwoman’s powers.”

Seong Ji-eun put her index finger to her lips.

“I won’t tell you specifically what it is because you’ll try to take that ability too.”

“Right, right. It’s enough that Baek Seol-hee and we got swindled; we absolutely can’t let you steal the Chairwoman’s omnipotence too.”

“…I wasn’t planning to.”

Ymir cleared her throat as she surveyed the surroundings, which looked like the middle of a prairie.

“If I win quickly, I can interrupt while the Chairwoman and Teacher are being patriotic, right? I need to protect Teacher.”

“…You, really.”

“There’s a terrifying law in Korea. I need to protect Teacher from having to wear an electronic ankle monitor.”

Ymir raised magical power at her fingertips with a serious face.

“I can’t let Teacher be labeled a criminal like that!”

“If anyone’s going to wear an electronic ankle monitor, it wouldn’t be the Goblin but—”

“Cheon Ju-yeon!!”

Seong Ji-eun raised her voice and shouted, but Ymir had already heard what Cheon Ju-yeon said.

“…not the Goblin?”

Ymir clutched a red cord and tilted her head.

“The one wearing it isn’t Teacher?”

“…Um, Ji-eun unnie?”

Cheon Ju-yeon covered her mouth.

“I said this without thinking, but the fact that I said it—”

“…It seems.”

Seong Ji-eun looked up at the sky.

“The time for ‘opening heaven’ has come.”

“…Could you please stop acting like an evil organization and just explain what’s going on? In a way that a normal person can understand. What exactly is the situation?”

“That.”

Seong Ji-eun nodded slightly toward Cheon Ju-yeon, then.

“I’ll tell you if you win.”

She raised her hand that had been pointing downward.

“If you win in an ability battle, that is!”

“Then…”

KWAAANG!!

“I’ll have to find out.”

Lightly stepping on the sharp stalactites rising from below, Ymir reached her hand toward the dark clouds filling the sky.

“One way or another.”