The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 500

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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 3, Episode 104

“Confinement…… that?”
“Yes. We treated it, so it’s gone now, but we took photos and video beforehand.”
The phone he showed me displayed a wrist covered in pressure marks and faint bruises.
“And both ankles show signs of fractures that never healed properly. The bones weren’t broken cleanly—they were shattered into pieces, which is typical of fractures from violence…….”
“Wait, hold on. Just a moment.”
I raised a hand to stop Seo Yu Baek mid-sentence.
“So you’re saying Director that someone had Hunter Shin Se Hee restrained somewhere? And broke both her legs like that?”
“……Presumably.”
“She’s an A-rank combat-type hunter.”
Even without using skills, she was strong enough to match Kang Han in a direct fight—an A-rank hunter of that caliber.
“Is it possible she wasn’t fitted with a restraint device?”
“If someone tried to put a restraint on her, she wouldn’t just sit still…….”
She’d ram the device down the attacker’s throat first.
Shin Se Hee was no one to passively endure such a thing.
“What if the opponent was S-rank?”
“Then theoretically it might be possible, but…….”
Faces of the S-rankers I knew flickered through my mind like film rolling past.
Shin Se Hee’s weapons extended beyond her own formidable strength.
She had the backing of the Muwoon Guild.
Even if she’d lost in the succession dispute, the Shin family wouldn’t cast her out entirely.
“Wait.”
I sighed and shook my head.
Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner?
“Shin Tae Jung.”
“Shin Tae Jung…… ah.”
Seo Yu Baek’s eyes widened in realization, and he quickly nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. If it was him, certainly.”
“He wouldn’t have needed restraints or anything. He has his Brainwashing Skill.”
He might have even made Shin Se Hee put on the restraint herself with her own hands.
He was more than capable of something like that.
“The Brainwashing Skill alone seems to have been insufficient. The test results show all sorts of drug traces in her system.”
Seo Yu Baek spoke with a grim expression as he reviewed the findings.
“Mainly illicit narcotics for Awakened individuals, produced and distributed illegally overseas. Even an S-ranker—if Shin Se Hee had resisted strongly enough, the brainwashing wouldn’t have held stable.”
“Bastard.”
I wished I knew a curse more fitting for Shin Tae Jung.
One that wouldn’t do dogs a disservice.
I swept my bangs back roughly.
There was one possibility that had been nagging at me since earlier, though I hated to admit it.
“I suspect the foul play in the Guild Cup might not have been Hunter Shin Se Hee’s own choice either.”
“……That incident completely pushed her out of the running for succession at the Muwoon Guild. In the end, Shin Tae Muk, his older brother, became the guild master.”
“And that Shin Tae Muk was so heavily brainwashed that he didn’t even know his younger brother was already dead.”
The Muwoon Guild was founded by the Shin family, who researched and taught traditional martial arts.
What the guild—with its pride in martial tradition—made of the humiliation of committing a foul in the Guild Cup watched by the entire world, only to be rescued by the opposing side, was all too obvious.
It was scandal enough to make them immediately appoint Shin Tae Muk as guild master instead of Shin Se Hee, who had undergone years of succession training.
“And, Yeo Joo, look at this.”
“What is it?”
Seo Yu Baek handed me a crumpled scrap of paper.
“It was found in Shin Se Hee’s pocket when she changed clothes.”
“……An address?”

[ Yeongdeungpo Youngshin Complex Building B, Basement Level 1, Unit 7 ]

Shin Se Hee, who’d disappeared after the Guild Cup only to resurface in a state little better than a vegetable.
And the Vice Cult Leader of the Apocalypse Cult, Shin Tae Jung, who might very well be behind it all.
“We’ll need to call our guild master.”

* * *

I summoned Kang Han, Association President Ji Jung Hwi, and Shin Tae Muk, the Muwoon Guild master.
And while waiting for them, Shin Se Hee opened her eyes.
“Shin Se Hee.”
Shin Tae Muk called out to her in a low voice.
“Se Hee.”
The woman, who had been sitting motionless like a doll, lifted her unfocused eyes.
“……My… my name.”
Her voice was fragile, on the verge of collapse.
“I’m… Shin Se Hee.”
She stared blankly for a moment, then her face contorted like a child about to cry, and she grabbed at Shin Tae Muk’s clothes.
“I can’t forget. I can’t forget. I can’t forget.”
“S—”
I stopped myself mid-curse, unable to swear in front of a patient.
But imagining how Shin Tae Jung had brainwashed her, and what Shin Se Hee must have felt fighting back against it, I found myself short on curse words—an injustice that shouldn’t have been.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Shin Tae Muk held his sister’s trembling shoulders and kept apologizing.
Shin Se Hee and Shin Tae Muk were both victims of brainwashing, nothing more.
Watching the two victims cling to each other and hold on, my teeth ground together.
When they’d finally calmed down a bit, I approached Shin Se Hee.
“Hello, Hunter Shin Se Hee.”
“…….”
She didn’t answer.
But though she said nothing, her eyes were on me.
‘Recovery seems quick.’
Thanks to Seo Yu Baek and the treatment at the Awakened Hospital, certainly—but Shin Se Hee’s own mental strength was clearly playing a major role too.
She was someone who’d fought against brainwashing cast by S-rank Shin Tae Jung, after all.
“I’m Yeo Joo, a healer. We’ve met before.”
“……Yeah.”
“Treatment is going well, but would it be alright if I helped a bit with my skill?”
In that back alley in Yeongdeungpo it had been an emergency, but now that Shin Se Hee was conscious, I had to ask permission first.
“……Yeah.”
About to deploy my skill with the patient’s consent, I was caught off guard.
“Oh.”
Shin Se Hee reached out and grasped my hand first.
I could have been surprised, and physical contact had long since ceased to be necessary.
Pausing in my slight shock, I met her eyes.
She was watching my reaction, gauging whether I disliked it.
I quickly hid my surprise and smiled.
Then I heard a sound I hadn’t heard in a long time.
Ding—

《 ♥ 51 》

Shin Se Hee’s favorability was high.
And that made me sad.
She’d been viewing me kindly.
Enough to reach out and take my hand first, even with her cognitive abilities not fully restored.
Guilt followed in its wake.
Regret for not knowing what pain Shin Se Hee had been enduring all this time.

[ Using skill ‘Dark Purification’. ]
[ Using skill ‘Body Healing’. ]

I didn’t know how much my healing skills would actually help Shin Se Hee.
But I poured all my desire to help into the effort.
The system responded.

[ Your second reward from Synchronization completion has arrived. ]
[ Will you accept the second reward? ]

This felt different from the first reward with its strange dream.
‘I’ll take it.’

[ Skill ‘Body and Mind Wellness’ will be transformed as your second reward. ]
[ New skill ‘Healer’s Calling’ has been registered. ]
[ Using skill ‘Healer’s Calling’. ]

I didn’t have time to examine what ‘Healer’s Calling’ did.
But whatever it was, it worked like a miracle cure on Shin Se Hee’s condition.
“Ah…….”
Shin Se Hee staggered once.
I moved to catch her, but she steadied herself on her own strength.
Yet the grip of her hand in mine had changed.
The calloused palm hardened from years of gripping a sword had stabilized instantly.
“Hunter Shin Se Hee?”
At my call, she exhaled a long breath and closed her eyes.
“Hhh.”
And when she opened them again, I knew instinctively.
Shin Se Hee was back.
“Where the hell is that psychotic bastard Shin Tae Jung right now?”
Confirmed, of course, by the stream of colorful profanity that followed.

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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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