The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 174

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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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Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 174
More than a week had passed since then.
I couldn’t even describe our relationship as having progressed much.
We were neither quite lovers nor colleagues anymore—something undefined lingered between us.
Jung Hwan-jae and I would exchange shy smiles whenever our eyes met, and we carved out moments alone together.
‘Could we perhaps think about this once all this chaos ends?’
‘Yes.’
He accepted my carefully offered proposal without hesitation.
He reasoned that burdening me emotionally when he had so much to worry about and protect would be unfair.
His consideration for me was unmistakable, though he never made a show of it. I could only feel grateful for such thoughtfulness.
We were running relentlessly, day and night, to prepare for a second catastrophe that could erupt at any moment.
“This feels like abuse, honestly.”
Kim Hwa-hyun spoke up, her expression noticeably haggard.
“I’m sorry. I heard there are other Hunters with training-related skills.”
“Oh, there are, but they’re all in the same boat as me. Even the ones ranked higher than us are stuck supporting people far above their level.”
“Do they treat people roughly?”
“Ah, well, those types get sent back to their home countries right away, so no worries there. It’s just that receiving their skills to help everyone else is what’s exhausting.”
Hunters with all manner of skills had converged from across the globe to conquer the Dungeon.
From the original Hunters who had experienced Ragnarok, to those newly ranked in this Ranking Tournament.
Countless training specialists from around the world, including Kim Hwa-hyun, had gathered to train for the Dungeon conquest.
They divided their approaches by individual style—Dungeon conquest and external apprenticeship—then subdivided teams further by skill.
The first three days had been chaotic, but now they were beginning to move in sync.
“Everyone seems ready to charge in at any moment?”
“Even if the Dungeon erupted right now, we could mount some defense. Experience really does matter.”
Kim Hwa-hyun pulled her cap down low, her expression exhausted.
Dark circles had descended nearly to her jaw—I felt a pang of sympathy.
“Will you be going in as well?”
“Not me. I’ll be waiting in the rear with the Crafting Hunters. They said we need more people outside.”
While we spoke, laughter erupted from the far end of the Training Room.
An elderly Hunter and the Vice Guild Master seemed to be conversing together.
They spoke of Ragnarok as they had experienced it, of those they had lost then, and of themselves who still lived.
“Things are different now than they were then, friend.”
“That’s right. Different.”
Yes, it would be different from then.
Those who had first faced the catastrophe had merely hoped to survive the chaos. Now, it seemed…
They believed they ‘could do it.’
Much time had passed since then. Hunters had grown stronger, and the Network had become more refined.
They looked like people preparing for a manageable threat rather than a calamity that had fallen without warning.
“Are you curious about those people? Want me to introduce you? They seemed pretty interested in Ye-ah.”
“Oh, no thanks. They seem like they want to talk to me anyway, so I’ve been deliberately avoiding them.”
“Ah.”
“I’m uncomfortable talking to people I don’t know….”
Everyone gathered to conquer the Second Ragnarok seemed intensely interested in both me and Jung Hwan-jae.
During the Ranking Tournament, they hadn’t known I was first place, so I hadn’t received this much attention.
Though I trained with them occasionally, being bombarded with questions from dozens of people made my head spin.
“What about conversations with me?”
“Of course, those are terribly uncomfortable too.”
Including Dante Brown, who suddenly interjected beside me with a serene expression.
After completing the Second Ragnarok conquest, he would be immediately repatriated to the United States to undergo further investigations with Rosalind Brown.
Rumors circulated that Nike would be dissolved or significantly downsized, but he remained silent on the matter.
“Ye-ah, ignore men who talk too much like that.”
“Rosalind Brown.”
Just as Dante was about to say something more, Rosalind’s arm gently wrapped around my shoulder.
The Brown siblings had entered Korea relatively early among the rankers.
Thanks to having coordinated with us several times, they didn’t require extensive training from Kim Hwa-hyun.
Both of them were naturally assigned to the Dungeon conquest team.
“James wanted to come too, but we had to leave at least one person as a hostage with the Hunter Association!”
“You’re using James as a hostage?”
“That’s why I told them if he resists, there’s no need to bother capturing him alive!”
“What?”
Rosalind laughed smugly as she spoke those ominous words.
“This is my first time going in on such a large scale, so I’m pretty excited. What about you, Ye-ah?”
“Well, I’m still nervous.”
“Are you concerned about the human inside?”
Dante turned his head toward me.
My sincerity made his expression subtle.
Now that I heard the question, I’m somewhat conflicted. Am I pitying him?
I lifted my gaze and stared at the ceiling for a moment before shaking my head.
“If I’m concerned about that person, there’s only one reason. Even if we lose like this, he won’t feel any guilt toward the people he’s harmed.”
“Well, once he becomes a Dungeon, there won’t be much of a self left anyway.”
If he creates innocent victims, it will become that man’s joy.
If someone cries out from his violence and cruelty, that will become his pleasure, his achievement.
It was simply that which bothered me.
I didn’t want to satisfy such a merciless man by any means.
“What about the two of you? Rosalind, are you only looking forward to it?”
“I never thought I’d enter Ragnarok with my own two feet again.”
Dante spoke in a subdued tone.
One of the few active hunters who remembered the horrific reality of Ragnarok.
“After all, no one expected Ragnarok to erupt again….”
The records he left behind and the testimony he willingly provided became the backbone of this conquest plan.
I vividly remember how silent that conference room had been as we watched young Dante emerge alive from whatever horrors he’d witnessed.
And I remember with perfect clarity just how heavy that silence had felt.
“When I first awakened, Nia told me this. The Goddess of Victory would stand with me, so Dante Brown would not die in that moment.”
“Is victory ultimately just about surviving?”
“That’s what it meant to me back then. But I won’t know what it means this time until I go in again.”
He shrugged his shoulders as he walked away, apparently suggesting that winning in the Ranking Tournament wasn’t victory by Nia’s standards.
Even without hearing his words, I could sense his mindset as he prepared to enter Ragnarok.
Worry seized me, and when I turned my head, Rosalind Brown’s arm caught hold of me.
“It’ll be fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes, because it’s different this time.”
“It is different. We’ve prepared a lot, and we have the rankers too….”
“If he dies, his sister will go in with him—and who knows what kind of trouble she’ll cause. So he won’t die.”
It was an emotion between family members that no outsider could dare to judge.
Even if they still appeared distant and cold to others, I could feel that they were different from how they’d been before.
Yet I couldn’t presume to involve myself so deeply in their lives.
“Besides, you’re still not going to talk about this?”
Rosalind Brown’s topic shifted back to me.
She tapped the ring on my left ring finger, her face breaking into a mischievous smile.
I tried hard to suppress the flush creeping across my face.
I’d moved it secretly, but she still noticed.
Even I could feel how awkward the smile I’d forced to deflect the situation looked.
“I-I’ll tell you once this Dungeon is over….”
“I know of more than ten people who’ve deflected me like that. Why not just make it public?”
“There’s nothing public to announce….”
Our relationship hadn’t developed into something romantic, and truly nothing had changed between us.
When I glanced away, she shook her head as if conceding this round and released her arm from around me.
“Fine, but once this is all over, I’m going to interrogate you more ruthlessly than the American Hunter Association ever could.”
After exchanging light farewells with Rosalind Brown, I moved to another floor.
On a different level, I could see Kim Myung-joo and Hwa-jon sitting down, reviewing how much equipment would be needed.
Somewhere outside this building, Kim A-jin and Dan Myeong-ah were running about installing protective measures for civilians.
The other hunters were doing the same.
I looked down at my left ring finger, where red mana rippled and flowed.
I covered my left hand with my right, accepting it as it was.
“Yes, I want to see you too right now.”
Green light poured into the ring.
That dawn when everything seemed like it would go well.
Harp burst through the door, tears of blood streaming down her face.

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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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