I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 37

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 37
At last, the days passed without incident.
My only pressing business was work at the company.
I checked the emails that had come in since morning as usual, and finished the approval documents.
It meant the busy work was coming to an end.
When I took a breath and sipped some water, my phone rang.
Ding—
I picked up the phone at a leisurely pace and opened the screen.
The alert on my phone was from the Gamja App.
When I opened the app, I saw a message from Seo Jo-yang.

Healer. Do you happen to have any schedule next week?

If your schedule allows, I’d like to suggest a dungeon raid.

This is a proposal from the guild. We’ll make sure to sort out the payment and raid distribution properly.
I glanced at my calendar.
It was an ordinary weekday with no holidays mixed in.
In other words, I had work.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it because of work.

Ah, in that case, there’s nothing we can do.
Seo Jo-yang seemed to back off readily.
But then he started typing again.

Would it be difficult even if we adjusted the timing and payment as much as possible?

We absolutely need a healer for this raid.

If you’d like, we can work around your schedule as much as we can.
I was somewhat taken aback by Seo Jo-yang’s sudden shift in persuasion.
Did that mean he needed a healer that desperately?
I hesitated, then pressed on the most important point.

How long will the raid take?

At minimum ten days, at maximum about two weeks.
That wouldn’t work at all.
I typed with a slight smile on my lips.

The raid schedule is too long, so I’m afraid it won’t be possible.
Seo Jo-yang didn’t send an immediate reply.
He was probably trying to convince his team members.
Whether he’d come up with another solution or eventually give in was impossible to know.
I put the phone down and continued reviewing the documents.
While I was checking the Gamja App, an internal document had come in.
[Internal Investigation: Sideline Work]
The document that landed on my desk was like a hidden blade.
“What…?”
I clicked on the attachment as if possessed. My heart began to pound.
[Investigation Targets for Sideline Work]
[Real estate income, SNS income from YouTube, blogs, etc., Dungeon Raid income……]
“What?”
I stared at the screen with my mouth hanging open.
It felt as though my ankles had been caught in a trap I never saw coming.
[We inform you that in cases of sideline work, depending on the circumstances, you may receive a recommendation to resign or be terminated.]
“What?!”
My voice was loud enough that people poked their heads over the partition.
I covered my mouth with one hand and lowered my head.
But my trembling eyes were beyond my control.
Even as I rushed through the documents, I couldn’t suppress a wave of panic.
‘I’m ruined… completely.’
I’d never once considered taking sideline work, so I hadn’t bothered learning the guild’s regulations on it.
As a result, I’d already been selling items obtained from dungeon raids and turning a profit.
There was no way to escape this investigation.
Even if I lied now and said I wasn’t doing sideline work, it would all come out next year.
Why?
‘Because consolidated income tax will catch it!’
So this was how honesty in selling items through the Hunter market was rewarded.
Now I understood why Hunters resorted to illegal brokers.
I wrapped both hands around my head.
The investigation period lasted until next Wednesday.
Staying silent wouldn’t help—it would only make things worse.
With tears threatening to spill, I rose from my seat. This wasn’t something I could simply report through normal channels.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Team Leader, do you have a moment?”
Like a fragile glass about to shatter, I called out to the Team Leader.
* * *
Seo Jo-yang, the tank, gripped his trembling legs tightly and stared at his phone screen.

The raid schedule seems too long and difficult.
It was a polite but cold rejection.
Seo Jo-yang glanced sideways at Baek Moon-il, the man looking at the screen with him and his guild leader.
Ever since Baek Moon-il first heard reports of the healer’s abilities, he’d been eyeing her recruitment—even after that chance encounter at the auction house.
But he’d only been troubled, unable to find a pretext to draw the healer into a dungeon raid.
Then he heard that Hunter Lee Ji-eum had managed to secure the healer’s personal cooperation on a raid.
‘So I tried making the same request…’
Baek Moon-il stared at the final line of text with restless eyes.
The last message to the healer had been timestamped four hours ago.
He could barely justify delaying a response any longer.
At last, Seo Jo-yang called out carefully to Baek Moon-il.
“Um, Guild Leader? Should I send her a message saying we understand?”
Baek Moon-il leaned back in his chair without enthusiasm and waved his hand.
At his gesture to send the message, Seo Jo-yang picked up his phone.
Baek Moon-il watched with a wry expression and sighed.
“Finding a healer just isn’t easy. Our current healer’s contract ended, and I can’t recruit a new one.”
Seo Jo-yang’s fingers, which had been typing furiously, went still.
Baek Moon-il thought the message had been sent and began to rise.
“Never mind. I need to review the raid plans. Without a healer, we’ll have to prepare thoroughly.”
“No, no—please wait a moment, Guild Leader.”
Seo Jo-yang jumped up and grabbed Baek Moon-il’s arm.
Baek Moon-il turned to look at him in confusion.
“What?”
“A message just came back from the healer.”
“A message? What message?”
Seo Jo-yang tilted his head, equally bewildered, and answered.
“She’s asking if we could start the raid the week after next instead of next week.”
Baek Moon-il’s eyes widened, and he snatched the phone from Seo Jo-yang’s hands.
It happened so fast Seo Jo-yang couldn’t react.

I apologize for the sudden change of heart.

But would it be possible to start the raid the week after next instead of next week?
A smile spread slowly across Baek Moon-il’s face.
He didn’t hand the phone back to Seo Jo-yang; instead, he typed a response himself.

Of course. We still have time. Will you be joining the raid?
The reply came back without any long wait.

Yes. Next week will be difficult, but I think it’s possible the week after.
“Excellent!”
Baek Moon-il let out a loud cheer, momentarily forgetting his dignity.
Seo Jo-yang was somewhat taken aback by this side of the guild master he’d never seen before.
Ordinarily, the guild master seemed like a young self-made success that people dreamed of come to life.
His bearing, his manner of speech, his appearance—all of it.
It was the first time he’d seen someone who cultivated himself with such precision and refinement lay bare his emotions so transparently.
“I think the healer is A-Rank or above, but I can’t make reckless plans based on incomplete information.”
Baek Moon-il paced across his spacious office, murmuring to himself.
He seemed unable to contain his joy.
“I’ll plan as if she’s a B-Rank healer, like before.”
Seo Jo-yang raised his hand slightly.
“Then, how should we handle the commission fee and raid distribution?”
“Ah, I need to think about that too.”
Baek Moon-il promptly picked up his phone.
“I’ll need to discuss it with the accounting department, but for a healer, roughly twice the amount of a hunter of the same rank seems appropriate. Ask if they’ve assigned her a rank yet.”
“Yes!”
“And if they haven’t assigned a rank, ask if it’s all right to measure her as B-Rank to match our plans.”
“Understood.”
Seo Jo-yang diligently typed out the message as instructed.
In the meantime, Baek Moon-il connected with the accounting department.
“Ah… Guild Master, they’re saying the healer hasn’t been assigned a rank yet.”
“Still?”
Baek Moon-il made no effort to hide his bewilderment.
Seo Jo-yang let out a sigh, seeming to share the sentiment.
Above all, as he recalled the guileless healer, Seo Jo-yang muttered with concern.
“When you think about safety and taxes, she really should register as a Hunter…”
“That’s not something we should meddle in. Surely she has her own reasons, doesn’t she?”
Baek Moon-il cut short Seo Jo-yang’s worry and returned his attention to the phone.
“So? What do they say about setting the commission as B-Rank?”
“They say that’s acceptable.”
Seo Jo-yang turned his phone screen toward Baek Moon-il and smiled.
Baek Moon-il returned a satisfied smile.
“Given what I know of that healer’s ability, the commission fee is modest. Tell them to raise the raid distribution instead.”
“Shouldn’t you discuss that with the accounting department?”
Baek Moon-il shrugged his shoulders.
“I decide what happens in my guild. Who else would I need to talk to?”
The words came out with the natural authority of a guild master.
“Regardless of what accounting says, an investment like this is necessary. Normally we’d set it at around five percent, but tell them I’m allocating ten percent instead.”
Winning the goodwill of a high-rank healer was worth a modest loss.
And if he could recruit that high-rank healer, the loss would vanish entirely.
Baek Moon-il clenched his fist, his eyes gleaming.
“I’ll handle convincing accounting. Don’t worry. Make sure the healer knows—tell her we value her this highly.”
Boasting didn’t suit his nature, but in situations like this, one had to lay it on a bit.
‘Judging by her personality when I saw her before, she seems like someone with a basically soft temperament. But that’s all the more reason not to take her lightly.’
That way, the healer would think well of him going forward.
Baek Moon-il wore a confident smile.
But then, Seo Jo-yang spoke again.
“By the way, Guild Master, she’s asking if she could conduct the transaction anonymously.”
“Anonymously? It’s not impossible, but… why would she want that?”
The smile vanished from Baek Moon-il’s face, replaced by confusion.
Yet Seo Jo-yang’s expression was equally bewildered.
* * *
Team Leader’s initial reaction wasn’t bad.
‘Cho Eun, you were an Awakened One? Why didn’t you mention something like that?’
So I was able to bring up the matter of sideline work investigation without much difficulty.
‘Ah, that? That’s fine as long as the income doesn’t show up. Even if you made some profit, unless it’s in the thousands per year…’
He didn’t state an exact figure, but I admitted frankly that my profit had well exceeded the thousand mark.
‘More than a thousand? No, exactly how much did you…’
At that point, Team Leader’s expression darkened.
‘No, no—Eun, our company doesn’t tend to be strict about sideline work, so you might not have known the internal regulations. But if the income is that substantial, that does put us in a difficult position.’
The kindness threading through his words only made it hurt more.
The Team Leader’s face had grown genuinely troubled as he began leafing through the company handbook.
‘So it says here that if your sideline income exceeds your current salary, we’re supposed to recommend resignation. Surely you didn’t earn more than your salary?’
I finally managed to nod, though it took effort.
The Team Leader’s expression darkened considerably.
He let out a series of long sighs and even clicked his tongue.
I suspected he’d refrained from snapping at me not out of professional decorum, but out of caution toward Awakened Ones.
After all, if he pushed an Awakened One too hard and they snapped, there was no managing the fallout.
‘I’ll inform the HR director, at least. Let me see if there’s any way around this. But if your income is really that high, I’m fairly certain a resignation recommendation is inevitable.’
The Team Leader dragged a hand through his hair, resignation etched in every movement.
‘Start preparing for a handover.’
So what was the upshot of all this?
“Thank you so much for coming, Healer! I’m truly delighted we can raid dungeons together again.”
“Yes, of course. I’m glad to see you again too.”
Here I am now—silver-haired healer, standing before an S-Rank Dungeon with the Haje Guild.
Unemployed.
Damn it all.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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