The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 12

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

Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 012
Sensing that I had finished saying everything I needed to say, he picked up the thread of what he’d been about to tell me.
“There is one persistent problem with my body. However, I cannot speak of it right now because there are too many listeners present.”
“Listeners?”
Even if I searched this place with my eyes wide open, I couldn’t sense any presence at all.
I reflexively looked around, but he shook his head. It meant I couldn’t detect them with my abilities.
If there were spies hidden in the cracks of this Guild Building, concealed so secretly, they would certainly be beyond my reach.
“Yes, and I have lived my entire life experiencing this. It was Yeom Ye-ah who stopped it.”
“Am I actually helping?”
“Yes, absolutely. Because this is a problem that doesn’t show on the surface, I had nowhere to seek help.”
That wasn’t all. I could roughly read what lay between the lines of his words.
The world of Rankers appeared excessively brilliant on the surface. There were indeed those who enjoyed their lives to the fullest. But beneath that facade, there were certainly other problems.
Battles of will between people trying to kill each other, international issues between nations—all tangled together in a complex web.
Those who sought to kill someone to reclaim their position as a Ranker, those who were killed. The higher one’s station, the more true this became.
“Well, but why do you trust me?”
“I don’t trust you. If I did, I would have told you about all my problems one by one.”
….
Shouldn’t this be where I naturally continue the conversation? At some point, I felt an unbreakable bond of fate connecting us. I hadn’t even hoped for this much.
I’d thought perhaps a warm event would appear where we’d build trust—saying Yeom Ye-ah’s abilities were precious, or that you seemed like someone I could trust.
But it was nothing like that.
Reality truly is unforgiving.
“Right now, Yeom Ye-ah does not pose a great threat to me. Even if you were to learn of my problems, I could handle them on my end before you could pass that information to anyone else.”
“So you’ll spare me.”
“I haven’t done anything yet. And I have no intention of doing so.”
‘That’s just to say it could happen,’ he said plainly, turning his gaze away.
Beyond the window stretched a panorama visible only from a high-rise building.
But Jung Hwan-jae’s gaze seemed to look beyond that, not at it. A sensation that touched nowhere at all.
His appearance suddenly seemed lonely, so at odds with the situation that my words caught in my throat. And the thought that came with it was somewhat shameless.
‘If I said something like, “Then you’re the only one who can understand my wounds like this,” wouldn’t we both become tender toward each other?’
I’ve clearly read too many novels. The problem was that my thoughts could easily drift elsewhere if I wasn’t careful.
After shifting my posture, as if breaking free from my private thoughts, he let out a short sigh—ah—and an apology followed, causing me to reflexively avert my gaze.
“Still, your expression doesn’t look as frightening as I expected.”
“Pardon? Should it be?”
“No, it’s just that when I say things like this, everyone usually shows at least a little shock or fear in their expression.”
Because his voice was so matter-of-fact, what I’d just heard might have been a threat.
A statement that I was weaker than anyone else right now and posed no threat to him, coupled with a declaration that if his affairs were exposed to the outside, he would not remain idle.
But I had a vague sense that he wouldn’t actually do such a thing. I didn’t know where this confidence and conviction came from.
I could feel it when I looked into his eyes.
“Well, but if I just quietly keep my promise, there’s no probability at all that anything would happen to me, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And once I’ve grown strong enough, you’ll tell me where the problems lie as well.”
“Until then, I’ll remain your healer.”
Unlike before, this statement sounded less like a declaration and more like a plea—a request for me to be his healer even then.
Or perhaps it was just an auditory hallucination born from my own desire to renew my contract with Hanttae.
When I nodded along with him, he pulled his lips up ever so slightly. A smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
“If I still please you by then, please let me know. I’d like to work here as long as possible.”
“Yes, don’t worry. In return, I hope you grow much stronger. Strong enough that I can no longer underestimate you.”
This man’s way of speaking is rather peculiar. It’s as if he deliberately casts himself as the villain to awaken something in me.
He speaks without hesitation the way only those who view themselves as bad people do.
“If I become strong enough to be a threat, what will you do? Will you dispose of me to keep the secret?”
I’d clearly meant it as a joke, yet his eyes widened ever so slightly.
I shouldn’t joke around with this man.
“Then you’ll leave me once I’ve grown that strong?”
“What?”
“Even if I become strong enough to be a threat, if I don’t reveal the secret, I’d have no reason to attack you. So it sounds like you’re saying you want to leave me now.”
His tone carried a hint of something like dejection.
He sounded like a child saying, ‘I’ll do better, so won’t you stay and play with me?’ Though the conversation was far too grim for such a comparison.
He’d firmly said no just moments ago, yet now he’s asking if I’ll leave him. People’s hearts are truly incomprehensible.
Not suitable as a friend, but useful as a healer when other factors are considered—is that what he’s saying? I simply smiled ambiguously.
I’d said I wanted to stay here as long as possible, but who knows? Perhaps an overseas Guild might offer better terms.
Jung Hwan-jae, whose eyes had been darting around as he tried to interpret my silence, finally opened his mouth and spoke quietly, almost muttering.
“Don’t abandon me.”
“What?”
“Even after I’ve grown strong enough to be a threat to you, don’t leave me. Because then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
“…Yes!”
“You may go now.”

* * *
Yeom Ye-ah left the room. Her face still bore the question of what on earth I was talking about, but I chose to ignore it.
Then silence descended. It was only natural, after all—I was alone in that space.
Or was I?
I would have been alone if not for the chat window that suddenly blazed into existence before my eyes.
[Lucy: Your delivery could use some work. Pretty outdated, if you ask me.]
“….”
[Lucy: Though I’ll admit, if she’d heard it, you might’ve sounded like a man falling head over heels at first sight.]
I averted my gaze, clearly unwilling to engage in banter at a moment like this. The chat window flickering mockingly before me soon blurred away with a soft noise.
In its place, a shadow perched itself on my desk. A perfect shadow—one where you couldn’t distinguish eyes, nose, or mouth. It scrutinized me ominously from head to toe.
Yet I, the subject of that gaze, paid it no mind, as if accustomed to it. It was obvious our relationship wasn’t particularly good.
“I manifested myself directly, and this is how you treat me? Walking through the pocket dimensions I open for you, going here and there together.”
“I’m grateful for that.”
“Then you should be more affectionate with me. Did you say you didn’t like this form? It’s perfect for hiding without drawing attention.”
The shadow rose from its perch and circled my desk for a moment before naturally seeping into my own shadow.
To any outside observer, it appeared perfectly natural—nothing amiss.
But when I showed no reaction whatsoever, a long sigh soon followed, and the shadow leaped back into the air.
“Lucy.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll stop teasing.”
Lucy gradually shrank in size, transforming into a small grim reaper figurine that settled onto the back of my hand. The thick, masculine voice shifted seamlessly into that of a boy.
Sitting atop my hand and swinging his legs playfully, Lucy studied my expression—my former staff member, now my faithful summoned creature and friend.

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