I Became the Academy’s Kibitz Villain

After completing the final check on the upcoming events at Ji Cheon-hyang’s house, I returned to the pension.

On the way back, I gathered information and data on Ji Cheon-hyang, which the original work didn’t provide. I could fully understand the background of her twisted eating habits.

“Why do you look so pale, oppa?”

As soon as I returned to the pension, I met Yumir, who was cooking.

She was preparing some stir-fried rice in the kitchen, and there was no trace of anything resembling ‘fruit’ among the vegetables she was using.

“I had a conversation with someone who has a truly horrible diet.”

“A horrible diet…? Who are you talking about? Se-rin unnie?”

“Mint chocolate isn’t that horrible.”

I tried to launch an attack on her personal taste as soon as she left the room, but Yumir would surely freak out if she heard it.

“Ji Cheon-hyang, she puts tangerines on ramen and takes a big bite.”

“…Did you say oysters?”

“Tangerines.”

Even Yumir, as if she had heard it wrong, filtered it through her brain and asked again, but she had heard correctly.

“Oranges? Mandarins? That kind of tangerine?”

“Yeah. And even later, when she mixes rice into the ramen, she also stirs in the tangerines.”

“Oppa, is it possible she has some sort of limitation that forces her to do that to maintain her S-rank ability?”

Yumir turned off the heat for the stir-fry and asked me seriously.

“The ability where you have to mix tangerines into your rice to keep your powers… If that’s the price she pays to protect Jeju Island, oh my… That’s just… tragic.”

In this world, abilities were a matter of imagination becoming reality.

However, among the various abilities in fictional works, there were some cases where abilities came with a ‘risk.’

For example, you might have to pay some kind of price whenever you use your power.

Or, excessive output might cause your body to revert to a younger state due to overuse.

In fantasy stories about abilities, it was common to set some kind of drawback for using powers.

“To protect a region as a hero, she has to eat tangerine rice for all three meals? That’s just too much.”

If you thought about it like that, was Ji Cheon-hyang’s habit of mixing tangerines into her rice a drawback of her ability?

Half right, half wrong.

“Yumir, just because she controls tangerines doesn’t mean she has to put tangerines into everything she eats.”

“R-right?”

Yumir, nervously touching a peeled Hallabong, was on edge.

“O-oppa, this isn’t going to explode like shrapnel or anything, right?”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“I’ve already secured the area around the pension with Se-rin, so nothing will happen. Also, we’ve removed all the magical connections from the Hallabong.” řἈŊȯВƐ𝒮

“Are all tangerines connected with some sort of magic?”

“They’re connected by scent. It’s like a kind of collar…”

“A collar? Orange-colored?”

“Think of it like a network. A tangerine network. Again, the only reason it’s tangerines is just the nature of it. Just like how objects with electricity have magnetic fields, these tangerines have a specific scent that spreads out like a wave.”

I finished peeling the Hallabong and placed the segments in front of Yumir.

“If objects with electricity have magnetic fields, then these tangerines create a field based on their unique scent. Ji Cheon-hyang controls all the tangerines across Jeju Island through that scent. You’ve seen the extent of her power, right?”

“Yes. I’ve realized how powerful regional dominance-type heroes can be.”

It hadn’t been long since Yumir went out as Platinum Sun, but she witnessed firsthand the control Ji Cheon-hyang had over Jeju Island.

“Even though the Hero Association officially announced that Seon Ga-eul was defeated, all those bone suckers that landed on Jeju were imprisoned in tangerine jails. Some of them were put inside rotten tangerines, too.”

“Yeah. She’s powerful enough to select and attack with tangerines based on their freshness across the entire island. But that doesn’t mean her obsession with tangerines is some kind of ability drawback.”

I popped a big piece of the Hallabong into my mouth.

“She’s just a freaky eater. She loves tangerines that much.”

“Tangerines….”

“Remember what I mentioned last time? Each ability user manifests their powers differently, and the biggest influence on these abilities is mental.”

“Yes. Magic power is something you’re born with, but abilities are developed in the mind. You taught me that over dinner the other day.”

Now more composed, Yumir resumed cooking and continued talking with me.

“A child who awakens their powers usually does so because they’ve undergone intense brain activity, demanding something strongly even as a child. In most cases, it’s manipulating specific objects or using magic power as an energy source.”

“Ji Cheon-hyang has been controlling tangerines since she was a baby. Do you know why?”

“…It wasn’t on the Hero Wiki.”

“It was a survival instinct.”

I bit into the Hallabong peel, squeezing out the juice from inside.

“A baby who was abandoned, unable to nurse from her mother, instinctively tried to squeeze out juice from the abundant tangerines on Jeju Island.”

“A baby?”

“Yeah. A baby. Most ability users who awaken at a young age do so under extreme conditions.”

It was one of the bitter stories in this world.

It was not uncommon here for an abandoned child, unaware they were born with magical power, to awaken their abilities as a baby and grow up in an orphanage.

“And that’s why in this world, raising a child is the utmost priority. It’s a national and global duty not just to have children, but to raise and educate them for the future.”

“So… if you don’t take good care of them, they might grow up to wrap tangerines in ramen noodles?”

“Well, if you put it as a joke, yeah.”

She had to control tangerines to survive.

They were the only things abundant around her.

“Before anyone found her, before any adults came, she survived on tangerines. For her, tangerines were baby food, lifeblood, and sustenance. So, Yumir, when you have kids, you’ll have to be devoted to raising them.”

“Someone has to be there to take care of the child, no matter what….”

“That’s a given.”

Even outside the world of abilities, someone always had to be there to care for a child.

In a world of abilities, the difficulty of childcare rose even more.

“As you live in this world, there are times when you really feel it. This world is full of so much filth and corruption.”

“…….”

“Don’t you agree?”

“Yes….”

Yumir did not disagree.

“Sometimes, I seriously wonder if this is the right way to live. There are moments when I feel like we should just blow everything away together.”

A meteor ending.

“But every time I think like that, someone keeps flickering in front of my eyes. Someone who must have seen far more of this filth than I have, yet still pulls themselves together to clean it up.”

“Who?”

“You, oppa.”

Yumir placed the food she cooked on the table and sat down across from me.

“Instead of burning down the house because trash is scattered everywhere, you taught me, more than anyone else, that no matter how much trash there is, we need to clean up just the trash. And you’re showing me that firsthand.”

Swoosh, swoosh.

“Just like how having bones in fish doesn’t mean you can’t eat it.”

Yumir reached for the fish she had grilled herself and effortlessly removed the bones, laying the soft flesh in front of me.

“If we neatly remove and discard the useless parts, the world can become beautiful. Don’t you think so?”

“…Yeah. That’s the ideology and the way of the society.”

And that was why I, too, was loyal to the society.

As a ‘reader’ who once loved this world more than anyone, even when the author discarded it by dropping a meteor, I worked for the society because I wanted to protect the world I once cherished so much.

That, without a doubt, was love.

“We ended up talking about this while discussing tangerine rice. Anyway, when you have kids, raise them well. Otherwise, they’ll grow up eating tangerine rice. Got it?”

“Are you dissing me?”

“It’s unfortunate that the background of tangerine rice is sad, but that’s beside the point. Would you want your child to grow up picky and eat tangerine on rice instead of meat?”

“Of course not.”

Yumir clenched both fists in determination.

“How could I let my precious son do something like that?”

“…You’ve already decided it’s a son?”

“Hehe, oppa.”

Yumir smiled brightly as she placed a piece of fish on the rice I scooped.

“You’re not denying that it’s your child, oppa?”

“…….”

I just shrugged my shoulders lightly.

---

At that moment.

Somewhere along the dark, shadowy Olle Trail in Jeju Island, a white-haired woman—Hyeon Se-rin—was silently waiting for someone.

Rattle, rattle.

The sound of wheels scraping over the gravel of the Olle Trail drew near as a woman with orange hair, dressed in a suit, pulled a large suitcase towards her from afar.

“Rin-ah!! Unnie’s here!!”

“……You’re late.”

Hyeon Se-rin covered her face with her hand, smiling at the grinning woman.

“What took you so long?”

“The cross-country hike?”

“What?”

“I walked all the way from Seoul without getting caught.”

“…You walked?”

“Yep! Didn’t want to waste my magic power.”

“Ah, haaa… No.”

Hyeon Se-rin started to say something, but pressed her temple with her hand and closed her mouth.

“…So, did you bring the item?”

“Of course. Our section chief personally asked for it, so I brought it myself.”

Tap, tap.

The woman—Chaos—tapped the suitcase with her hand, her lips curling into a smirk.

“A globally anticipated auction item. Something all the S-ranks will drool over, a completely legal item for sale.”

Click.

As the suitcase opened, the moonlight peeled away the shadows inside, revealing what lay within.

“The Phoenix Feather.”

Inside the suitcase was a feather glowing blue like flames.

“It’s a one-time consumable item, but if it can revert your body to how it was 10 seconds ago, anyone would drool over it.”

It was the relic of a hero, containing the ability of time reversal (10 seconds).

“What do you think the bidding price will reach?”