The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 197

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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 – Side Story 1-3
We didn’t enter this Dungeon to go on a date.
Yet anyone watching would think that’s exactly what we were doing.
Watching Dan Myeong-ah trudge forward, sweat pouring down her face, made me feel oddly guilty.
The burden had grown heavier for us too, but I couldn’t help focusing on the man ahead.
“Dan Myeong-ah, would you like to rest for a moment?”
“Oh, no. I’m fine.”
She gasped for breath as she pulled a mana potion from her inventory and drank it.
Signs of dehydration were setting in.
Her mana was depleting by the second, and without it to restore her vitality, her life force was running dry.
‘How much further do we have to go?’
[Liri: There’s no predetermined end to this place.]
[Liri: Have you ever seen knowledge come to an end?]
‘What? So you’re saying we walk until we die? What is this?’
[Liri: Calm down. Just calm yourself.]
Watching Dan Myeong-ah gasping for air while I could do nothing infuriated me.
And when Liri gave me that vague answer about knowledge having no end, my anger only burned hotter.
Noticing my rare display of unbridled rage, Liri quickly tried to placate me.
[Liri: It’s probably proportional to what that Awakened One knows about their Assigned Staff Member.]
‘Knows about?’
[Liri: Yes. How much they know about that Staff Member. What emotions they feel toward them. Things like that.]
I blinked and turned my gaze to Dan Myeong-ah walking ahead of us.
If that were true, then we might truly never reach the end.
From what I knew, Dan Myeong-ah had spent ten years with her Assigned Staff Member.
She was someone who had shared countless moments with him—joy, sorrow, and everything in between.
No ordinary span of time could ever heal that.
“Dan Myeong-ah.”
I called out to her carefully, and she turned to face me.
“How much do you miss him? Leng-leng?”
It was an abrupt question for her.
Jung Hwan-jae, who had been walking silently beside us, also looked at me with confusion.
Perhaps the answer was already predetermined, but I wanted to hear it anyway.
Yet I could already feel the ache of her longing so keenly.
Knowing where someone is—that’s almost the same as measuring the distance in your heart.
Then, just as Dan Myeong-ah was about to answer, she coughed up blood.
“Dan Myeong-ah!”
Before I could reach her, Jung Hwan-jae moved first, catching her as she stumbled.
He waved his hand dismissively, as if to say he was fine.
My vision blurred.
“Her soul is taking heavy damage. The holy power is consuming her mana.”
Dan Myeong-ah’s stats couldn’t handle the sheer divine power emanating from the Assigned Staff Members who remained in this land.
My hand, which had reflexively moved to cast a heal, froze mid-motion.
Dan Myeong-ah retrieved something from her inventory and placed it in her mouth.
“It’s… it’s Okwanhdan that Hwa-jon gave me. Taking this helps, somewhat.”
After steadying her breathing, she barely managed to push herself upright and resume walking.
She walked with determined focus, as though she’d forgotten the question I’d asked, when suddenly she stopped and turned back to face me.
“Ah, I apologize. I momentarily forgot what you asked me.”
“It’s fine. Please, go ahead.”
“I… I miss Leng-leng so terribly, so very much. I’m sorry, and I long for him. I want to see his face and convey my heart to him.”
The profound emotion woven through her voice transmitted itself directly to my chest.
My heart ached with an inexplicable heaviness. Without thinking, I looked toward Jung Hwan-jae.
He wore an expression remarkably similar to my own.
Lucy parted his lips as though murmuring something.
“Longing reaches across even sealed boundaries. Close your eyes and feel it—sense where he is.”
The words came from someone who fancied himself a sealing specialist.
I kept my eyes closed and felt the currents flowing around us. Countless waves of divine power brushed past us.
A dizziness washed over me as though I’d ridden one terrifying ride after another, but I didn’t stop.
Then, suddenly, it became unmistakably clear.
The moment I opened my eyes, everyone bore the expression of having heard the same thing.
“I hear the sound of waves.”

* * *
We arrived at a Coastal Area where waves crashed relentlessly against the shore.
Dan Myeong-ah stood before it, pouring out her magical power without reservation.
I had told her she could do it, and Lucy had agreed, yet I watched her condition deteriorate with each passing moment.
The thought began to crystallize that she might actually die like this.
“Lucy.”
I called to him with urgency, but Lucy calmly shook his head.
His demeanor was resolute, as if to say it wasn’t time yet.
Dan Myeong-ah seemed desperate to wring every last ounce of strength from herself.
Unable to bear the sight of her anguish, I buried my face in Jung Hwan-jae’s embrace.
“Ye-ah.”
“I can’t watch… not when I understand what that longing and desperation mean.”
“…Yes.”
But I heard it. Though Dan Myeong-ah spoke no words aloud, her desperate voice reached me.
“Leng-leng, I was wrong. I said I wanted to live with you, that it was enough as long as you were alive—but that was a lie.”
Cutting you out of my life after all this time we’ve spent together is impossible.
Even if you can no longer offer me any help, that’s fine.
Your mere presence gives me strength. Stay by my side, just as you always have.
This time, let me be your strength.
Lucy’s expression darkened.
“If I can hear it, then wake up already, human’s Assigned Staff Member.”
Dan Myeong-ah wasn’t just coughing blood—it streamed from her eyes, nose, and ears alike.
She had wrung out every last drop of mana to apologize and plead.
Lucy seemed to catch Dan Myeong-ah’s final words.
‘Wake up.’
I pressed my palms together and prayed as well.
For I was a being who had poured all my sacred power for the Awakened One.
The one you cherished so dearly is waiting—please, come back to us.
Dan Myeong-ah had squeezed out every ounce of strength until she collapsed like a puppet with its strings severed.
“Myeong-ah!”
I rushed forward and caught her falling form.
Even now, she wouldn’t return?
Though she wasn’t my Assigned Staff Member, resentment and despair were blooming in my heart when Baram began to bubble and churn.
Baram, who had received a fragment of Dan Myeong-ah’s soul, resonated and slowly rose.
At last.
And Baram reached out a hand to Dan Myeong-ah.
“My Myeong-ah….”
Whether it would reach her, already lost to unconsciousness, I couldn’t say.
But everyone except her witnessed the miracle unfolding before their eyes.
Lucy exhaled deeply.
“The human soul truly is….”
Magnificent beyond measure.

* * *
Dan Myeong-ah opened her eyes five days later.
Apparently, her mana had been nearly depleted entirely.
Even after I poured mana into her at an almost violent rate the moment she emerged, it was still like that.
‘Ye-ah’s mana is so potent that it takes time for Dan Myeong-ah’s body to accept it.’
‘Ugh….’
‘And Ye-ah is my exclusive healer. You should be giving her that kind of unfiltered mana.’
‘Ughhhh….’
Jung Hwan-jae even received a jealous scolding from me.
Thanks to Kim A-jin’s meticulous care, he opened his eyes on the morning of the fifth day.
The moment his eyes opened, what greeted him was.
[Leng-leng: You awake?]
[Leng-leng: Seems like you’re sleeping way too much.]
It was the face of the person he had waited for so desperately.
The instant Dan Myeong-ah saw that message, she burst into tears and cried continuously for an hour, only to collapse again from dehydration.
Even Hwa-jon, who had been supplying her with Okwanhdan at every moment from beside her, couldn’t do anything in the face of such an absurd situation.
She seems mature at times, but she’s really quite undignified.
We didn’t bother visiting for the touching reunion with the Assigned Staff Member.
In fact, there was no room because Harp showed up the moment we heard the news that we’d successfully awakened the Assigned Staff Member.
She’s been eating and sleeping in the hospital room while bombarding Dan Myeong-ah and Leng-leng with relentless questions.
[If things progress well, I believe this will help those who have parted with the Assigned Staff Member. Thank you.
I will surely repay you someday.
From Dan Myeong-ah]
Afterward, she sent handwritten thank-you letters—five pages each—to Jung Hwan-jae, me, and Lucy.
A postscript mentioned that she was quitting her desk job again and returning to the field as a hunter mentor.
“Jung Hwan-jae. Liri.”
“Yes, Ye-ah.”
[Liri: Yes.]
I called out gently to Jung Hwan-jae, who seemed lost in thought as he read the letter he’d already read several times over.
He looked at me and smiled softly.
I found myself examining his face carefully, as if seeing it anew.
That face I thought I’d lost in Ragnarok, that longing, that regret.
His soul.
“I just suddenly wanted to tell you that I love you.”
A message appeared shortly after.
[Liri: Thank you.]
He widened his eyes slightly in surprise, then his expression softened into a smile.
“I love you more.”

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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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