The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop Is Ranked 0th in the World - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop is World Rank 0

Chapter 61

The weight of the paper bags filled with items Ohyeongtaek bought pressed heavily on both my hands.

Being the finest ingredients from the Hunter Market, I could feel the subtle and luxurious scent of mana emanating even through the packaging.

Feeling sorry and grateful, I looked back at Ohyeongtaek who was humming beside me and smiled brightly.

“Ohyeongtaek, thank you so much for today. Let me treat you to a drink. I heard the new menu at that cafe up ahead is delicious!”

“Wow, you’re buying for me? It was worth coming without eating today. Can I get the largest size?”

Ohyeongtaek smiled innocently like a boy and lightly tapped my shoulder.

We were having a cheerful and casual conversation just like him as we headed toward the cafe entrance.

That’s when I saw them – on the terrace next to the entrance, under a colorful parasol, stood two familiar people I never expected to encounter here.

It was Senior Jinseong. And beside him… was Alice, the Saint of France.

My steps instantly froze like stone.

As soon as Alice’s eyes met mine, she tightly grabbed onto Senior’s arm, and the distance between them was close enough to hear each other’s breathing.

The sight of the two standing side by side under the sunlight harmonized perfectly like a scene from a photo shoot.

A cold, black-haired handsome man and a dazzling blonde beauty. I caught my breath at their surreal harmony.

‘Ah…’

A corner of my chest stung sharply as if pierced by a needle.

I couldn’t understand why.

I just… I just… I don’t know either.

I tried to look away as if nothing was wrong, but my gaze kept drifting to Alice’s white fingers wrapped around Senior’s arm.

Their appearance like affectionate lovers made my throat feel completely blocked.

Then, Senior coldly and harshly pulled Alice’s arm away with cold eyes.

Then he stared directly at me. When I awkwardly bowed my head in greeting, feeling flustered, Alice smiled brightly and spoke to me first.

“Oh my, aren’t you Hunter Ohyeongtaek? You must be out on a date. Just like us!”

‘Date.’

That word flew like an arrow and lodged in my chest.

Realizing that Ohyeongtaek and my outing appeared that way to others made my face burn hot.

I found myself unnecessarily conscious of Senior’s reaction.

Instead of me who was flustered and stammering, Ohyeongtaek lightly placed his hand on my shoulder and stepped forward.

“Hey, I just pestered her into coming out with me. You said you’d buy me a drink, right? Let’s go quickly. I’m dying of thirst.”

Ohyeongtaek faced Senior’s cold gaze from the opposite side head-on and led me away.

I bowed to Senior and Alice, then fled the scene as if escaping.

I kept stumbling because it felt like Senior’s intense gaze was touching my back.

* * *

Jinseong’s eyes sank deeply as he watched the two figures walking away.

Their natural conversation and comfortable laughter flowing freely. The large shopping bags suggesting they’d spent considerable time here and their flushed skin.

Jinseong had many thoughts in that brief moment.

The longer his thoughts continued, the more his mood sank into the mud.

“Are those two dating? The atmosphere between them is really good, isn’t it?”

When Alice’s light voice, pretending to know nothing, reached Jinseong’s ears, he irritably turned his body around.

Jinseong looked down coldly at Alice, who was smiling like a victor beside him, and muttered lowly.

“You knew and did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Huh? What? Are you asking if I knew those two would be here? No way~”

Alice widened her eyes and asked back, pretending to be innocent. But Jinseong wasn’t fooled.

“I know your skill isn’t just healing.”

Jinseong’s voice carried a deadly warning.

Alice shrugged nonchalantly and twirled her blonde hair around her finger.

“Hmm, well. I’m not a prophet, so how would I know everything? Aren’t you being too sensitive, oppa? We just happened to run into them, so don’t be so scary. I’m getting hurt.”

Jinseong turned around as if she wasn’t even worth answering and left the scene completely.

Left alone as always, Alice watched Jinseong’s broad back moving away and smirked, lifting the corner of her mouth.

“He has good instincts… Still, thanks to that I got to see something interesting. I didn’t know Gangjinseong could make that kind of expression.”

Alice took out the sunglasses she had tucked in her chest and placed them on top of her head.

Then she flashed a fresh smile at the hunters and merchants whispering around her.

“Nice to meet you. Yes, I’m Alice. May you prosper.”

After bowing repeatedly and leaving the Hunter Market, Alice put on her sunglasses and muttered quietly.

“Boring people.”

* * *

Returning to the store, I roughly set down the shopping bags Ohyeongtaek bought me on the table and buried myself in the sofa as if collapsing.

Rather than feeling excited about unpacking the shopping boxes piled up on one side of the wall, I had no energy left in my body.

The afterimage of the two people I saw in front of the cafe kept replaying automatically in my head.

“Well, it’s natural they’re close since they’ve known each other since childhood. They could come to the Hunter Market together… Alice is so beautiful and amazing that Senior probably found it hard to refuse. Plus, since she’s from France, he’s probably just being her guide.”

While I kept rationalizing what I saw today with my mouth, grumbling continuously, my shoulders kept drooping.

“Sigh.”

To think jealousy was such a childish and bitter emotion.

Wait, jealousy? Am I jealous of the Saint?

How could I have such feelings toward Senior… Could it be…?

“Do I… like him?”

Do I like Senior?

“This is serious.”

Originally, you don’t know a wound hurts until you notice it.

But the moment you discover the wound, the pain you didn’t know before instantly paralyzes your reason.

The heart works the same way.

Once I realized I liked someone, it grew uncontrollably in size.

Completely regardless of my will.

[WHP Asia Regional Director, former Hunter Jang Dohun…]

The anchor’s voice from the news that Mimi had left on was playing softly in the store.

I stared blankly at the ceiling before naturally shifting my gaze to the TV screen.

On the screen, Senior Jinseong, Alice, and WHP Regional Director Jang Dohun were standing side by side, being broadcast live as they moved to the official investigation site.

Senior’s face on screen was indifferent and rigid.

Beside him were Alice with her serene smile, security guards restraining the surrounding crowd, and Regional Director Jang Dohun responding to interviews with a dignified expression.

Normally I would have admired their glamorous appearance, but now I just felt heavy-hearted.

Just as I was about to look away from the screen.

The camera showed not the three people but the space where the investigation would take place.

There, under WHP’s strict security, specially manufactured coffins transported from foreign countries were lined up.

Suddenly, my eyes snapped open.

Without realizing it, I got up from the sofa and moved closer to the TV.

On screen, inside coffins covered with transparent reinforced glass, lay the bodies of hunters who had lost their lives in the recent Maze Gate.

“Adam Hunter…?”

Although lying in cold coffins, the bodies were neatly arranged and showed no signs of contamination.

They simply looked as if they were in peaceful sleep.

Adam and the others were heroes who fought to the end for gate conquest, for their countries, and died in battle.

The bodies of such people were now being investigated in a cold laboratory, broadcast live to the entire world.

Instead of mourning those who met unjust deaths, the reality of using them as tools to judge someone felt heartbreaking.

“To treat the deceased like that…”

Now I could somewhat understand why Senior was standing there with such a hardened expression.

He would be gritting his teeth and enduring it all to protect the honor of his fallen comrades and to ensure their final journey wouldn’t be in vain.

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