The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 313

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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 134

An S-rank Gate?
The words alone made my spine stiffen instinctively.
“Understood.”
Kang Han’s voice grew noticeably lower as he responded.
“For now, this evening at 8 o’clock….”
Kang Han gave me a subtle nod before leaving the Break Room, continuing his conversation on the phone.
“Phew, they’re going to have their hands full.”
An S-rank Gate, no less.
I didn’t know who would be going in, but I shook my head sympathetically, imagining the hunters who would have to face whatever lay within.

+++

But why was I here?
I stood blankly by the window on the top floor of the Justice Guild Building, where Gyeongbokgung Palace and the statue of General Yi Sun-sin were visible at a glance.
This was the main conference room where the S-rank Gate countermeasures meeting was being held.
The nighttime scenery of Sejongno and Gyeongbokgung Palace glittered beautifully, but I’d expected to be home by now, eating the dinner my mother had prepared.
“You must have been quite surprised to be called in so suddenly?”
“Ah, Guild Master.”
Kang Young Won approached me with her characteristic playful smile.
“I’m sorry about this, on your first day too.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m just a bit flustered.”
“That’s understandable. A sudden joint raid, after all. But now that our guild has an A-rank healer, I wanted to show her off a bit. Having a healer join us in the Gate makes us feel much more secure.”
“I… see. But will my presence actually be helpful? I’ve only entered a few Gates during my training at the academy….”
I couldn’t help but let my anxious thoughts slip through subtly.
The thing was, right now it was just Kang Han, Kang Young Won, and a few other Justice Guild members, but other guilds would be arriving soon.
Did it really make sense for me, on my first day of work, to be caught up in all this?
Then suddenly, I heard a sound like air escaping from a balloon right beside me.
“Pfft.”
Kang Young Won was covering her mouth, trying to suppress her laughter.
“Yeo Joo, you really do wear your heart on your sleeve!”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“No, no! I actually like that kind of personality!”
She patted my back enthusiastically, shaking my entire body with the force of it.
It hurts a bit.
But I lack the audacity to tell the company owner to stop, so I simply stand there and endure it silently. Then Kang Han, who had approached without my notice, stopped Kang Young Won from continuing.
“Please stop, ma’am. Yeo Joo is in pain.”
“Oh? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I deal with combat-type Hunters every day, so I didn’t think about it. My apologies.”
“It’s fine. Really, don’t worry about it.”
In truth, my entire back is tingling and sore.
Kang Han glanced at me briefly to confirm my condition, then spoke to Kang Young Won.
“The guests are arriving, Guild Master.”
As if his words were a signal, the doors to the Conference Room swung wide open.
The first people to appear were faces I recognized well.
“It’s been a long time, Guild Master Kang Young Won.”
“Indeed it has, Guild Master Sung Ro Sa. I hear Fantasia has been thriving lately? Oh, and Sub-guild Master Han Ji Sung is here too?”
“You’ve been well, I trust?”
True to the enigmatic name of their Guild, Fantasia, both the Guild Master and Sub-guild Master possessed an otherworldly, almost unreal beauty.
Especially the Sub-guild Master, Han Ji Sung.
Silver hair and blue eyes—the kind of appearance you’d only see in animation.
‘Here we go again.’
In truth, when Kang Han asked me if we’d met somewhere before, I felt a pang of guilt.
Because when I first encountered Kang Han in the elevator, I’d thought his face looked familiar too.
I’d assumed it was simply because I’d seen his face so often on television, but seeing Han Ji Sung now, that same uncanny sense of recognition washed over me.
‘…Is this just what happens when I see attractive people?’
My premonition proved accurate.
When the Utopia people arrived afterward, I felt nothing unusual, but the entrance of Sa Ma Young from the Sama Guild triggered that same intense sense of déjà vu.
Sa Ma Young, dressed in an extraordinarily expensive three-piece suit alongside Sub-guild Master Woo Jun Kyung, resembled a dazzling poisonous flower
(毒花)
that lured foolish wanderers to their doom.

In short, it looked incredibly dangerous.
“Sa Ma Young, it’s been a while.”
When Kang Young Won greeted him brightly and extended her hand, Sa Ma Young grasped it with a visibly displeased expression.
“There was no need to call the Sama Guild. It already looks sufficient to me.”
Sa Ma Young spoke while observing the impressive guild representatives already gathered in the conference room.
“Come on, the Sama Guild can’t be left out of an S-rank Gate coalition raid.”
….
I couldn’t tell what it looked like on the surface, but somehow I knew.
Guild Master Sa Ma Young was being overwhelmed by the invisible pressure emanating from Kang Young Won.
Like a porcupine bristling all its quills, unable to exert any real strength before a tiger.
But then the conversation suddenly veered in an unexpected direction.
“I haven’t seen you before. Who are you?”
Sa Ma Young’s blood-red eyes turned toward me.
“Ah, I’m Yeo Joo. I’m a healer with the Justice Guild.”
“Our newly recruited healer. Don’t get any ideas—she’s ours.”
“Ah, so that’s the healer.”
Sa Ma Young spoke as if he already knew about me.
It made sense.
Since I’d deliberated between the Sama Guild and the Justice Guild until the very end, the guild master would naturally have received a report.
I felt a lingering sense of apology for inadvertently appearing to have rejected them.
But that feeling scattered like dust at Sa Ma Young’s blunt remark.
“Really? I’m quite interested in you, Yeo Joo.”
Yeah, I made the right call not going there.
My instinct to choose the Justice Guild was spot on.
Fortunately, the awkward standoff with Sa Ma Young didn’t last long.
Kang Young Won smoothly inserted herself between us and called out.
“Well, it looks like everyone’s here now. Shall we start the meeting?”

+++

The guilds that gathered to prepare for the S-rank Gate were the Justice Guild as the organizer, along with the Sama Guild, Fantasia Guild, and Utopia Guild.
With only two or three people from each guild, barely ten in total, the massive conference hall felt as though it were packed to capacity.
It was because people with such overwhelming presence had gathered in one place.
Of course, wedged among them as I was, I found it difficult to breathe.
Still, fortunately, this wasn’t an entirely uncomfortable position.
I could grasp at a glance the matchups and dynamics between the top-tier guilds.
For instance, Fantasia and Utopia had a somewhat awkward relationship, the Sama Guild often took a confrontational stance against the other guilds yet wielded little influence over the Justice Guild, and so forth.
In fact, the Sama Guild wasn’t the only one that struggled to exert power over the Justice Guild.
The other guilds also frequently showed signs of subtly deferring when conversing with Kang Young Won.
The Justice Guild was essentially the central axis that skillfully controlled these formidable guilds.
Had the Justice Guild been absent from this situation, each guild would have been no different from wild horses running amok.
“It’s about time now.”
It was when Kang Young Won checked her watch and murmured this.
Pop—!
A hologram of a man materialized at the center of the conference table, which was arranged in the shape of the letter D.
The man, with hair long enough to cover his neck swept back, bore an exceedingly dark and gloomy impression.
Though he was certainly tall and possessed handsome features, the atmosphere surrounding him—as if shrouded in thick, black clouds—rendered these qualities completely unremarkable.
“….”
Despite being aware that the hologram had been generated and was being displayed, he sat motionless in his chair with not a trace of motivation visible.
Yet separate from that, the man felt strangely unfamiliar to me.
Unlike the hunters from other guilds whom I had come to know through television and broadcast media, this was a face I was seeing for the first time.
But the “unfamiliarity” I sensed wasn’t of that nature.
It was a kind of dissonance—a feeling that this person shouldn’t be in such a public setting, that he shouldn’t be revealing his face.
The very situation of this dark man showing his face before people felt strange to me.
Interpreting my gaze in some way, Kang Han, who sat beside me, leaned toward me and whispered low.
“He’s the Master, the guild master of the Maestro Guild.”
“That person is the Master….”
“For personal reasons, he no longer crafts items, but he frequently appears at meetings like this as he takes an active role in managing the Maestro Guild. After all, he’s the foremost expert in analyzing the data produced by the Gate prediction system.”
“I see….”
So he no longer makes items.
Though I had only just met him today and wasn’t someone waiting for items crafted by the Master, I couldn’t fathom why my heart felt so hollow.
[ “I will now provide information regarding the S-rank Gate that will open approximately eighty hours from now.” ]
The Master’s voice resonated throughout the hall.
[ “For convenience, we have classified it as S-rank, but according to the data, the predicted difficulty is expected to exceed that of any Gate we have encountered previously.” ]

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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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