The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 253

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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
Part 2, Episode 74

I’d read the article restricting Healers from entering Double Dungeons, and fury had driven me straight to the Korean Awakeners Association. There I found Ji Jung Hwi, the Association Director, leisurely polishing tea utensils.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Director, is this really happening?”
“Sit down. Let’s talk once you’re seated.”
Watching his dismissive hand gesture, all my momentum deflated.
I’d lost my window to be angry, I suppose.
I deliberately flopped onto the sofa with an audible thud.
As the tea utensils clinked softly in the background, I belatedly surveyed the Association Chairman’s Office.
“You’ve changed quite a lot, haven’t you?”
The office had been completely transformed under its new occupant.
Where golf clubs once lined the wall, an elegant display cabinet now held obviously antique tea utensils. The large green putting practice mat had been removed entirely, revealing the pristine stone floor beneath.
The wall that had been plastered with photographs of famous politicians now displayed classical ink paintings in traditional style.
The sofa, which gleamed with an expensive sheen yet never quite looked it, now appeared like late Joseon-era vintage furniture thanks to its transformed surroundings.
“I tried to touch as little as possible, but my predecessor’s taste was simply unbearable to look at.”
Ji Jung Hwi settled onto the sofa with his freshly polished tea set, shaking his head and clicking his tongue.
“It was rather much. But why three cups?”
Was someone else coming?
I asked out of curiosity, but the Director tilted his head instead.
“Hmm? Isn’t Kang Han Guild Master coming too?”
“He would have come in with me if he were.”
“I thought maybe he was parking and would follow.”
“Our Guild Master is busy.”
“Is that so? Hmm.”
Even though I’d said Kang Han wasn’t coming, I watched Ji Jung Hwi finish setting up all three cups and wondered what he was doing, but that wasn’t the important issue right now.
“Director, what’s going on with that article?”
“Ah, well, you see.”
Slurp.
Ji Jung Hwi took a sip of the pale green tea steaming gently before him and shrugged.
“There was nothing I could do. The moment the article about increasing conscripted S-Rank personnel went out, Gong Gil Yeon, the representative of Sama Guild, sent a statement.”
He handed me a file folder containing the printed statement.
Though worded with bureaucratic verbosity, the gist was that Gong Gil Yeon opposed the increase in conscripted personnel and threatened that if the Association proceeded, Sama Guild would refuse to participate in all Double Dungeon raids.
“Sa Ma Young, you bastard.”
Seeing Sa Ma Young’s signature scrawled at the bottom of the official document, I couldn’t help but curse.
I had been feeling reassured that his favorability was increasing, but he stabbed me in the back like this.
Not only did he refuse to help, but he’s throwing sewage water onto my path forward?
If I can’t enter the Double Dungeon, the plan to prevent the apocalypse will crumble to nothing.
I drank the tea in front of me to calm my burning frustration, and despite my irritation, the tea tasted good.
“Since Gong Gil Yeon came out so strongly against it, I had no choice but to make this decision.”
“But we cleared it just fine last time, didn’t we? Why are you suddenly trying to increase the number of personnel?”
“Just fine?”
Association Director Ji Jung Hwi studied me quietly.
It was a gaze more effective than a hundred words.
“…But what happens if a healer doesn’t go in?”
“We can fill the entire Subspace with potions, or find some other way. Oh, and I heard that trauma treatment potion is incredibly effective.”
“Do you know that was jointly developed by our guild’s Potion Master and Director Seo? We could refuse to sell it to the Awakener Association.”
Even my threat didn’t move Association Director Ji Jung Hwi.
“Then the people going in will just have to suffer a bit.”
“…Ugh, seriously.”
Even throwing a childish tantrum had no effect before a true adult.
But I couldn’t give up on entering the Double Dungeon.
As I racked my brain trying to remember if there was some loophole to slip through without the Awakener Association noticing, Association Director Ji Jung Hwi poured more tea and spoke.
“They say that every time you clear a Double Dungeon, you’re ‘preventing the collapse of the boundary’?”
“Who told you that?”
“Between the Gate conquest reports and everything else—do you think I didn’t visit the Awakened Healer Hospital countless times because of that stubborn Kang Han Guild Master who refused to leave your hospital room for a week while you were lying there, and Guild Master Sa Ma Young?”
Association Director Ji Jung Hwi’s face as he chuckled wasn’t very bright.
“No one knows what will happen if we fail to prevent that ‘collapse.'”
I know.
A dungeon blast from a regular Gate would be child’s play compared to how many people would die and be injured.
How dare you act on your own without even knowing….
“I’m afraid too.”
His unexpected honesty cut off the thoughts that had been flowing recklessly.
When I looked up at Association Director Ji Jung Hwi, he was no longer smiling.
“But that doesn’t mean I can sacrifice a healer every time a Double Dungeon opens. I won’t tolerate such meaningless deaths—not while I still draw breath.”
“No matter what you say….”
“Someone who would completely agree with me is coming right now.”
With those words, the door to the Association Chairman’s Office burst open without warning.
“What? Guild Master, why are you here?”
“Ha….”
Kang Han, exhaling a heavy breath, stared at me while gripping the doorknob.
Then, as if checking my condition, his gaze swept over me once, and soon his face returned to the familiar Kang Han I knew.
“Ah, sorry, my apologies.”
The way he apologized while stammering over his words was like someone who had been momentarily possessed.
“I’ll wait outside, so please continue your conversation….”
“Don’t be like that. Come in and have some tea.”
Ji Jung Hwi, the Association Director, poured tea into the empty third cup as he spoke.
“Are you sure that’s alright?”
I nodded to Kang Han, who was asking for my consent.
I thought he would refuse, but after pausing to consider something for a moment, Kang Han strode in and sat down beside me.
“As I said before, I cannot permit access to the Double Dungeon unless the Healer’s safety is guaranteed.”
“It’s not like you’re talking to a wall. Isn’t there any room for negotiation?”
“Can you negotiate with the monsters inside the Double Dungeon?”
When he put it that way, I had nothing to say.
As I sat deflated and sipped my tea without responding, Ji Jung Hwi’s voice became noticeably gentler.
“A Healer in there is no different from a piece of glasswork. Gong Gil Yeon knows that too, which is why he’s unwilling to send out his Healer.”
“What do you mean? Unwilling to send out his Healer?”
“Ah, well.”
Ji Jung Hwi sighed as he answered.
“The knight only got half the story. The Association’s position from the start was: ‘If you don’t increase the number of dispatched personnel, we’ll ban Healer access.'”
“From the start?”
“Yes, from the start.”
The pieces of the puzzle clicked into place in my mind.
I drained the still-steaming tea in one gulp like soju, grinding my teeth.
Regardless of what other Gong Gil Yeon guilds might think, the Sama Guild wasn’t opposed to increasing dispatched personnel.
‘Their real goal was to block Healer access.’
Now I was beginning to understand Sa Ma Young’s true intentions.

* * *

Crack!
“Ahhh!”
The shoulder of the body-enhancement Hunter who had rushed at Sa Ma Young rotated with a sickening sound.
Yet no one rushed over to check on his injuries.
Sa Ma Young himself, the very one who had shattered that shoulder, simply pushed him to the ground with a dismissive gesture, as if discarding an object.
“Th-thank you!”
The body-enhancement Hunter, whose entire body bore not a single unmarred spot, quickly rose to his feet and bowed deeply to Sa Ma Young.
Though he bore the collective gaze of hundreds of Hunters gathered throughout the vast training room, Sa Ma Young’s expression remained utterly indifferent.
Ignoring the towel Woo Jun Kyung offered, he left the training room and headed directly to his office located at the very top of the Trade Center.
The faint perspiration that had seeped through while consecutively facing multiple A-rank Hunters had long since dried.
Standing at the window overlooking Gangnam, Sa Ma Young gazed down at the streets below and found himself in thought.
What difference was there between those humans walking through the streets and ants?
He pondered briefly, but aside from basic biological differences such as size, he could find little distinction.
At least, not for Sa Ma Young.
The dozens of buildings bearing his name that jutted up sporadically along the Gangnam streets felt no different from toys made of building blocks.
It had always been this way.
To him, all others besides himself, everything that had been naturally given to him thus far—it all held no meaning.
Save for one person.
Grrr.
His Familiar, now a fully matured creature resembling a sleek black jaguar, nuzzled against him affectionately as if reading his thoughts.
“That’s right, Hong Joo. You’re here too.”
“Meow.”
It was precisely when a smile—or something resembling one—finally graced Sa Ma Young’s lips as he stroked the lustrous black fur.
A soft knock sounded, and Woo Jun Kyung entered the office.
“Master, the Healer Yeo Joo has come to see you.”
At that very moment, Sa Ma Young’s movements froze.
After a brief hesitation, he spoke.
“…Tell her I’m not here.”
“But she’s already inside, sir.”
When he spun around, there stood Yeo Joo with one eyebrow arched in amusement.

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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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