The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 27

—————
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 027
“So you take that into consideration when selecting opponents?”
“Generally we do, but I’ve heard that rather than weighing the severity of the debuff, they consider how long the person has had it and whether there’s room for improvement.”
“So there’s no publicly disclosed criteria.”
“That’s correct.”
Jung Hwan-jae nodded, then glanced at me cautiously.
Since I’d never properly explained my debuff to him, he seemed hesitant to speak carelessly. Theoretically, I could tell him everything about this situation and ask him to help find a solution together.
But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Every hunter carries at least one secret.
‘No matter how favorable he is toward me, we won’t be together forever. I can’t reveal my weaknesses like that.’
There are areas where I can accept help and areas where I must handle things alone.
I couldn’t possibly reveal all my weaknesses to someone I’d known for less than a month. When I avoided the topic with a reluctant expression, he quietly withdrew.
We weren’t planning to enter a Dungeon together today, and I was considering whether to leave when a name I’d seen earlier came to mind.
“Would it be possible to hear about Hunter Kim Kyung-hoon? I didn’t seem to find any particularly meaningful information in the files.”
Though the file did say he was inconsiderate, that wasn’t information that would help in a one-on-one match.
I’m not one to back down from probing someone’s sore spots, but I can’t just ask them to wait while I catch my breath either.
At my question, a puzzled expression crossed Jung Hwan-jae’s face. As if wondering why that name came up.
“Among healers, it seemed like there wasn’t much properly documented about him, so I thought I’d ask.”
“Ah, that person… Well, I haven’t fought him myself, but I’ve heard he doesn’t play very cleanly.”
I thought “doesn’t play cleanly” was a rather sanitized way of putting it. His expression proved exactly that.
But there was clearly something more he wasn’t saying.
“Is there a reason you can’t talk about it? Is it about cruelty? Or is it something I don’t need to know?”
“Well… you could say it’s cruel in a way, but it’s more that it’s really dirty, so to speak. His character itself isn’t very clean.”
He was elegantly rephrasing the word “inconsiderate.”
The more I heard, the clearer the picture became. Though I didn’t even know his face, he sounded like a typical bad guy who spread slander and rumors.
And it felt ironic that such a person had been given the ability of a healer. Hadn’t they said they consider aptitude and such things?
“Did something happen?”
“Haven’t you heard? Among healers, there was someone whose assigned staff member died, causing problems with their mana.”
The name I saw was Harp.
I’d been curious whether Harp meant the half or referred to the instrument, but it seemed to be something far more serious than that.
Why would the story suddenly shift to this when talking about Kim Kyung-hoon? I’m not particularly perceptive, but I could sense the anxiety in his voice.
He let out a heavy sigh.
“Generally, fights between hunters shouldn’t occur outside of ranking matches, but we can’t intervene in what happens inside Dungeons.”
“Ah, yes… I see.”
“After Harp defeated Kim Kyung-hoon in a ranking match, he was pushed down several ranks. And in a large-scale raid party, due to various circumstances, his assigned staff member was lost instead.”
It seemed he couldn’t share the details, but I could understand without seeing them.
Whatever dirty thing Kim Kyung-hoon did in there, something that could have harmed Harp—the staff member chose to sacrifice themselves to save him.
Keeping silent about what happens inside Dungeons is an unspoken rule. I decided not to ask him for more details.
The moment I thought I should ask Harp about it if I got the chance, he looked at me.
“Be careful yourself. That person doesn’t consider his opponent’s weaknesses.”
No—rather, he considers them far too well, which is exactly why he does such things. He would never challenge anyone he couldn’t beat.
I’d attacked someone named Harp because I thought I might actually win. I couldn’t know the details, but that much was certain.
“He won’t do anything reckless inside the Dungeon.”
“Outside the Dungeon, the Hunter Association keeps a sharp eye on things, so he wouldn’t cause trouble in broad daylight on the street. Still, he must have some social standing to consider.”
Jung Hwan-jae, who had been blinking, nodded. Even he, who was essentially ranked first, didn’t cause incidents on the street.
I’d never even heard the name Kim Kyung-hoon before. Though I’ll admit I’d never taken much interest in the world of Hunters.
He was an extremely threatening target to me, but Jung Hwan-jae didn’t need to warn me like this already.
“I’ll be careful. But before entering the ranking tournament, is it common for people to harm those they might fight against?”
“It goes unrecorded, but of course it happens. People harbor malice over the most absurd things, and that malice can become murder.”
“I thought most Hunters just died of old age, aside from dying inside Dungeons.”
The statistics actually supported that. I’d even seen such graphs in videos that played occasionally.
He nodded lightly.
“They did die inside the Dungeon. But the culprit might not have been the creatures or environment within it.”
In other words, humans could account for a higher percentage. I found myself smiling bitterly without realizing it.
I’d experienced human malice countless times throughout my life, but it was strange how it manifested for such trivial reasons.
From today on, I should do nothing but shuttle between the Dormitory and the Office. No matter how I looked at it, I was my own most precious asset.
I pushed myself up to prepare to leave.
“If anything else comes up, I’ll contact you right away, so don’t worry.”
“You could contact me by phone, but you might need this too. Please take it.”
As I turned toward the door, he placed something in my hand. It gleamed, and I panicked thinking he was giving me a ring or something.
It was a small silver piercing with a tiny gem embedded in it.
“What is this?”
“Ah, it’s like a wireless earpiece. But you can only communicate through it using mana, so if you suddenly enter a Dungeon or something happens, you can contact me about it.”
“I see….”
When a Dungeon Gate closes, ordinary people can’t enter it.
But he could tear through subspace and enter, couldn’t he?
Recalling the information written in the document, he could enter through subspace to rescue me. I’d prefer not to need that, but still.
“Thank you.”
“I noticed your ears are pierced.”
“Ah, yes.”
I hadn’t worn them in a while. When I gently inserted it to check if the hole had closed, it slid in perfectly.
When I showed him my ear slightly, a satisfied expression crossed his face. Honestly, I just hoped I’d have no reason to contact him.
I smiled briefly, bowed respectfully to him, and stepped outside. For some reason, I missed Liri.

* * *
Twenty-four hours had passed since Liri received her punishment, yet she still hadn’t returned.
I sang with all my might on my own, struggling desperately to raise my Vocal Mastery. Now, even if the vibrations wavered slightly from outside interference, I could manage to aim or cast healing spells.
The problem was targeting non-human entities. Healing was manageable since there were instruments capable of measuring output to some degree.
‘My healing output has improved somewhat.’
The healing energy itself would sometimes scatter, or fly off in unexpected directions. I could now perform self-healing, though only to a very limited extent.
To illustrate how limited my self-healing was—I could barely manage to remove a splinter from my finger.
The only disappointment was that my Vocal Mastery stat remained unchanged. I blinked and resumed walking.

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