The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 24

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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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Yeo Joo Saves the World – Episode 24

Korea had a total of three Awakener Schools.
Yongsan in Seoul, Yangjeong-dong in Busan, and Doryong-dong in Daejeon.
Generally, awakening occurs between the age when puberty arrives and age twenty-five.
However, awakenings after age twenty are virtually nonexistent, which means most Awakeners currently active in Korea are alumni of one of these three schools.
Among them, the Seoul Awakener School located in Yongsan houses elementary through high school students all within the same grounds.
Students attending here fell into two broad categories.
The first comprised those who tested positive on the mandatory Awakening Potential Wave Test that all citizens must undergo at age five—the vast majority of students fell into this category.
The second, though rare, consisted of students who tested negative on the wave test but awakened later and transferred from other schools.
Lee Yu Chan and Lee Yu Eul, the two siblings, naturally belonged to the first category.
Both vividly remembered the day they turned five, holding their parents’ hands tightly at the health center as they underwent the Awakening Potential Test.

“Our children are going to be Awakeners! I’m so excited!”
“Dear, but isn’t it a bit dangerous?”
“Not at all. We never know when a Gate might open, so they need the strength to protect themselves—that’s what makes them safer!”
“I suppose that’s true, but…”

Then, on the second wave test administered just before entering elementary school, more precise results emerged.

“Expected Awakening Grade of A-rank or higher? My eyes aren’t deceiving me, are they?”
“We won’t have to worry about the children’s future!”
“What if… they really do awaken as A-rank? Will they do commercials like other Hunters later? That could help our finances… oof!”
“Get your head on straight! The children’s money is the children’s money! Don’t forget that!”
“Right, right. I was just saying, haha.”

The twins thus enrolled at the Seoul Awakener School located in Yongsan.
As they grew steadily, on a certain day when they were twelve years old and their expected awakening grade displayed the letter ‘S’, the twins’ world changed.
When I came out to go to school in the morning, reporters swarmed in front of my home like a hive of bees.
Lee Yu Eul, startled, grabbed her frozen younger brother Lee Yu Chan’s hand and fled back inside.
Within moments, the news was plastered with the faces of the two children holding hands tightly.
The twins soon received the expectations and attention of the entire nation.
An S-grade result from the expected grade assessment—which typically yielded results lower than actual ability—was unprecedented in history.
The term “promising prospect,” which had never existed before, began to circulate.
The public’s affection, which initially felt frightening and bewildering, became something I could genuinely enjoy once adolescence arrived.
Wherever we went, people recognized the twins and sent them their support.

“Could you give me an autograph?”
“Lee Yu Chan and Lee Yu Eul are so adorable!”
“This is a birthday gift we prepared for you, please accept it!”

Everyone eagerly awaited the day the two would finally awaken as S-grade hunters.
Their physical abilities surpassed any other “promising prospects” in the elementary and middle school divisions of the Awakener School.
Thus, the twins dreamed every night of the day they would finally awaken as S-grade.
And on a certain summer day when they were fifteen, the twins’ world changed once more.

Screeeech—!
“Honey! That truck!”
“Children! Protect the children!”

Hanging upside down inside a car so mangled its shape was unrecognizable, the twins found each other’s hands.
And I could instinctively understand.
The reason we were still breathing was because we had awakened at the moment of the accident.
I retched at the nauseating stench of leaking gasoline mixed with my parents’ blood, then lost consciousness.
Days later, when I awoke, I was notified along with my parents’ obituary.
That I had awakened not as S-grade, but as C-grade.
It was the aftereffect of an unprepared forced awakening.
And from that point on, the world was no longer favorable to the twins.

“Hey, move it, C-grade.”
“Hahaha, look at this bastard’s character.”
“Did you see him whining in front of the cameras when he was discharged from the hospital? What a pathetic kid.”

At first, there was some sympathy for the two middle schoolers who had lost their parents and bright futures overnight, but it was short-lived.
After the accident, even those who had pitied them for their changed demeanor—no longer smiling easily, always appearing sharp and guarded—turned their backs.
When the twins, once called promising prospects and beloved by the entire nation, joined the Justice Guild where they had connections, they became perfect objects of ridicule.
So in a way, what happened today wasn’t particularly special.
“Ugh, get to another table! You’re ruining my appetite. Do you really think I’d share a table with you?”
Kwak Ji Hyun, who had recently awakened as a Grade A Hunter and signed with the Dongbaek Guild, shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.
“We were sitting here first. If you don’t like it, you move somewhere else.”
Lee Yu Eul, who had been enjoying the hamburger steak served in the cafeteria, spoke with a frown.
But Kwak Ji Hyun kicked the chair next to Yu Eul, only making the situation worse.
Lee Yu Chan thought to himself.
He’s deliberately picking a fight.
Ever since Kwak Ji Hyun had awakened as a Grade A Hunter, entered the youth training program, and become an official member of the Dongbaek Guild, his already nasty habit of bullying others had only intensified.
Lee Yu Chan firmly gripped his sister’s arm with one hand and quietly continued eating.
He wasn’t foolish enough to get worked up over a fight someone was deliberately starting.
“Ugh, yeah. Let’s stay calm. Deep breath.”
Lee Yu Eul muttered the same to herself and picked up her spoon again.
But the tray she was about to eat from disappeared.
Crash!
Kwak Ji Hyun had snatched her tray and thrown it.
And its destination was terrible.
Lee Yu Eul instinctively dodged the incoming object, so the food only splattered slightly on her gym clothes, but Lee Yu Chan took the full brunt of the tray.
Moreover, it happened just as he was about to eat soup, so the edge of the tray struck his forehead, knocked off his glasses, and clattered across the cafeteria floor.
“Lee Yu Chan! Are you okay?”
Lee Yu Eul gasped and examined her brother’s face.
“Damn it, he’s bleeding!”
Blood was flowing from where the edge of the tray had cut through.
Though the wound was barely the size of a fingernail, blood was already flowing quite profusely.
A mixture of curry, soup, and blood dripped down Lee Yu Chan’s long eyelashes, which were now exposed without his glasses.
“Ah, come on! For a Grade C Hunter, you couldn’t even dodge that?”
“You hit someone and now you’re acting like the victim? That’s crossing the line!”
“It’s your useless brother’s fault for not dodging! If he had, he wouldn’t be hurt! Are you showing off your lack of home training?”
“Don’t cross that line.”
Lee Yu Eul gritted her teeth.
These were always the words that triggered the twins’ breaking point.
Mom and Dad.
But they were also like the favorite karaoke songs of those trying to provoke them, so they had become somewhat hardened to it over time.
Her clenched fists trembled.
She struggled with all her might to hold onto her reason.
Then Kwak Ji Hyun, surveying the gathered students with a smug expression, added one more thing.
“You defective trash. That healer woman who just joined your guild—she’s probably broken too, just like you…”
Thwack!
Kwak Ji Hyun’s face snapped to the side as the punch connected squarely.
He stumbled backward, grabbing the chair with him, and it toppled over with a deafening clatter.
“Take that back, you bastard. Take it back.”
It wasn’t Lee Yu Eul who had struck Kwak Ji Hyun.
It was Lee Yu Chan.
Blazing with fury, his large and piercing eyes bore down upon the fallen Kwak Ji Hyun.

* * *

“Excuse me? You’re saying it was Lee Yu Chan, not Lee Yu Eul, who hit your student?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. I have no idea why the quiet one suddenly did that. It’s giving me quite the headache.”
The twins’ homeroom teacher grumbled, but I could barely respond properly.
It was somewhat shocking.
I had assumed Lee Yu Eul’s volatile temper had gotten the better of her and she’d lashed out.
But Lee Yu Chan, who was rather timid by nature?
“From what I gathered, Lee Yu Chan suddenly attacked. Of course, there was apparently some physical scuffling before that during a heated argument.”
This was strange. Lee Yu Chan wasn’t the type to explode over a mere argument.
After entering the Teacher’s Office, Kang Han, who had been sitting quietly like an obedient student listening to the conversation, finally spoke.
“Where are Lee Yu Chan and the other student right now?”
Now that I thought about it, that was odd.
Normally in situations like this, both students involved in the fight and their guardians would all meet face-to-face, wouldn’t they?
“The injured student returned to his Guild due to his wounds, and Lee Yu Chan is currently in the Counseling Room.”
They’d isolated Lee Yu Chan alone?
Was this right?
My temper—even dirtier than Lee Yu Eul’s—began to boil over.
“Isn’t that an unfair decision?”
“Unfair? Guardian, you’re the one speaking strangely here. Are you suggesting I’m treating Lee Yu Chan unfairly out of personal feelings?”
“If not that, then what? You said there was physical scuffling first. If it’s unclear who started it, why are you isolating only Lee Yu Chan?”
“Well, I…”
The homeroom teacher removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with an exhausted expression, speaking without conviction.
“The other student belongs to the Dongbaek Guild.”
“And?”
“You don’t understand? He’s part of the Dongbaek Guild, one of the Four Major Guilds. He’s an A-rank Buffer.”
I understood perfectly.
So the other student belonged to a powerful Guild and was a Buffer—someone who couldn’t actively heal like a dedicated healer, but could enhance the healing power or increase the speed of nearby Hunters.
“But what does that have to do with this situation? This is just two students fighting.”
“Guardian, this is an Awakener School. It’s different from a regular school. It may sound harsh, but Guild affiliation and rank are essentially equivalent to grades here.”
In other words, the problem was Lee Yu Chan—an inferior student—hitting a superior one.
This was making me increasingly furious.
That was when Kang Han intervened.
“Let’s move to the Counseling Room for now. I’d like to confirm things directly with Yu Chan, so please guide us there.”
“Really, there’s nothing more to ask about. Ugh, fine, I understand. This way, then.”
The Counseling Room was located one door down from the Teacher’s Office.
When I saw Lee Yu Chan sitting alone there, looking utterly dejected, I found myself at a loss for words.
“Your face….”
Above his left eyebrow was a wound crusted with dried blood and bruising, and judging by how much he’d bled, the white school uniform was stained with blood that had darkened to a rusty brown.
On top of that, his clothes were still covered in curry and unidentifiable side dishes.
They left the kid like this, didn’t even treat his wounds, and locked him away in a back room?
“Lee Yu Chan, turn your face this way.”
I strode over and gently healed the wound on his forehead first.

[ Yeo Joo : Stamina 90 → 75 ]

This pathetic efficiency!
I’d burned through 15 stamina to heal him, and the yellow bruising still remained incomplete.
I could eliminate it entirely if I spent more stamina, but I needed to preserve enough strength for the confrontation ahead.
“Are you okay?”
“…I’m fine.”
But there was no strength in Lee Yu Chan’s voice as he answered.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what.”
“Because of this incident, you’re going to get criticized again. Not just you, but the Justice Guild too.”
The moment I heard Lee Yu Chan’s dejected words, something snapped inside me.
I straightened up from the posture I’d bent into to meet his eye level as he sat in the chair, then turned toward the homeroom teacher and spoke.
“Call that other student and the Dongbaek Guild Master here.”
“What, what did you say?”
The homeroom teacher asked back as if bewildered.
“We may not be the Guild Master and Vice Master right now, but I’m here representing something similar anyway. So it’s only fair that their side brings their Guild Master too.”
“No, wait. The Dongbaek Guild Master is such a busy person…. Summoning them? That doesn’t make sense. Let’s just wrap this up amicably.”
“Amicably, you mean ending it with Lee Yu Chan taking all the blame. But that doesn’t seem like the right way to resolve this.”
My voice grew quieter with each word.
“Please make the call, teacher. The Dongbaek Guild Master and that other student—Kwak Ji Hyun, was it? Tell them to come now.”
“That’s exactly why Hunter Yoo Myung Hwa wouldn’t come all this way over something like this.”
“No, she will.”
Yoo Myung Hwa was the type who, once she set her sights on something, would stop at nothing to achieve it.
Considering that Dongbaek had been the most aggressive of the Four Major Guilds in trying to recruit me all this time, Yoo Myung Hwa would come.
Without question.
“She’ll come, so please call her, teacher.”
“…Sigh. Fine, I’ll try calling the Dongbaek Guild, but don’t expect much.”
The homeroom teacher pulled out their phone, pressing the button with an expression of obvious reluctance.

Exactly thirty minutes later.
“Good day. I regret that we must meet under such circumstances. I am Yoo Myung Hwa, Guild Master of the Dongbaek Guild.”
Yoo Myung Hwa, dressed in a sharply tailored suit that complemented her tall frame, entered the Counseling Room with a subtle smile.

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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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