The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 79

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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 079
I couldn’t save everyone.
Even knowing this, there were moments when my inability to rescue all of them crushed me with such overwhelming helplessness that I could barely breathe.
I administered emergency treatment to those still clinging to life, then moved on to the next person.
My healing restored their physical condition instantly, but the psychological stress ran so deep that additional treatment was necessary, or so I told them.
“I can also ease your mind a little. I’ll apply that buff as well.”
“Thank you, Yeom Ye-ah. But it won’t last long.”
Sung Ji-wook spoke with cold precision, yet I found myself deeply empathizing with him.
Even if my buff could dilute the immediate memory of their abduction, the trauma of losing someone they’d spent up to a decade with would linger for years to come.
Leng-leng was truly fortunate.
The reality I’d refused to acknowledge until now descended upon me with clarity. I had no choice but to accept that at least they could remain—that this alone was a mercy.
Now I understood why Dan Myeong-ah had been so overjoyed.
We handed the remaining perpetrators over to the Hunter Association, sent the abducted victims to the hospital, and entrusted the Association with handling the deceased.
Dante and two others firmly refused to show the bodies, so we had no way of knowing who among the dead had perished.
“Someone needs to go and confirm anyway, so we’ll handle it. Besides, Hunter Dante got tied up at Hanttae the moment he arrived in Korea, so we need to take care of some external matters.”
“External matters? I don’t want to.”
Sung Mi-ju fixed Dante with a sharp glare as he answered with feigned innocence, then let out an exasperated sigh.
They too were desperately struggling to endure this cruel situation.
Because things that should never happen were occurring. Those who’d actually seen the bodies would bear an even heavier burden.
Witnessing many deaths doesn’t naturally make one accustomed to all of them.
“Hunter Dan Myeong-ah, please be careful on your way.”
“Yes, I’ll see you again at the Hunter Association. It seems I’ll have to transfer to desk work now, whether I like it or not.”
Dan Myeong-ah’s face looked sorrowful as she offered her final farewell.
It wasn’t merely because she could no longer do the work she’d loved and enjoyed until now.
Though I’d only met her today, I couldn’t shake the thought that her solitary departing figure looked terribly lonely.
“I’ll escort you to the Dormitory.”
“You will? For some reason, I can’t seem to put on a brave face today….”
[Liri: Ye-ah, you look very tired.]
The divine blessing of your Handler descends upon you.
Sensing the immense psychological stress, a single white feather drifted down from the sky alongside Liri’s concerned words.
It touched my face, then gently warmed my entire body.
It felt as though someone had tenderly spread a warm light across me.
While there was no dramatic change in my stats, that warmth alone lifted my spirits.
I could have teleported directly to the Dormitory, but I asked to be dropped off nearby so I could walk.
Jung Hwan-jae agreed without question, as if he understood all my inner turmoil.
“How many Hunter Association members were among those abducted?”
“Three in total, including a regular college student intern.”
Considering that five people had been caught up in this incident today, it wasn’t a small number.
Typically, teams of five to eight members are assembled to clear a single Dungeon, so the number of abductees was calculated with meticulous precision.
It was a perfectly convenient number to disguise as tragic deaths during Dungeon raids or mysterious deaths in B-rank Dungeons.
My steps back to the Dormitory felt impossibly heavy.
Noticing how much I was stumbling despite myself, Jung Hwan-jae turned and crouched before me, offering his back.
“We’re almost there.”
“Even if it’s just this last stretch, I’d like to carry you. Please let me do this.”
He spoke with genuine courtesy and earnestness.
It was me borrowing his back and being carried, yet he spoke as though he were the one receiving kindness.
This was Hanttae territory where few people ventured, yet my face flushed with embarrassment anyway.
With such genuine consideration, I couldn’t simply refuse. I quietly climbed onto his back.
He rose smoothly, carrying me as though my weight meant nothing at all.
“Ye-ah.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve noticed it before, but actually carrying you now—you’re remarkably light and small.”
I found myself laughing softly without meaning to.
I’d thought this was no time for laughter, that I had no reason to smile, yet his words drew it out of me anyway.
“You’re right, I’m smaller than most people my age. I was a picky eater as a child and didn’t sleep much, so that probably contributed.”
“Being carried like this, I can hear your voice clearly up close. It’s nice.”
Normally, he was always willing to bend down to hear my words.
It was a habit born from my tendency to lower my voice deliberately, worried that those around us might overhear our conversations.
But now, with my arms wrapped around his neck and my body pressed against his back, my words naturally became whispers against his ear.
“I didn’t even ask that staff member how to prepare, and I couldn’t ask about the Holy Power fusion either… Honestly, I should have moved faster…”
“Ye-ah, you’re overthinking this.”
Perhaps because my body had gone limp against his back, I found myself speaking more than usual.
Just as my thoughts began churning again, Jung Hwan-jae gently cut me off.
The chain of thoughts that had been about to continue suddenly stopped. My lips parted slightly without my meaning to.
“You’ve been through enough today. Not just today—recently, you’ve endured a great deal.”
“…”
“So it’s alright to rest today. I’ll get you safely to the Dormitory, so you can sleep if you’d like.”
My thoughts had stilled, but there was no way I could actually sleep in this situation—yet he spoke with such genuine concern that I didn’t have the heart to argue.
I wasn’t so lacking in judgment as to question someone worried about me, so I answered readily enough.
“I know it wasn’t my fault either.”
“When I first awakened, you see.”
It felt like it had been quite some time since he’d shared something about himself.
At some point, between handling various matters, even the time I spent comforting him had disappeared, and it had become difficult to find moments alone together.
I’d been caught up in the staff member murder case for over a week.
I tightened my arms around his neck, signaling that I was listening carefully.
“The truth is, I didn’t grow up in a particularly good home environment. I thought my own deficiencies were showing themselves in this way. Others didn’t need staff members to breathe Holy Power into them, and it seemed even Leng-leng had no luck meeting a contractor.”
“I see.”
Suddenly, Jung Hwan-jae’s shadow seemed to lengthen, but we both ignored it.
“But everyone demanded things of me. The rank of number one and the honor of Hanttae. Because of that, whenever something went wrong in the country or at Hanttae, it all felt like my fault. As though my power wasn’t complete enough.”
I started to say it couldn’t be true, that it made no sense to place such a burden on your shoulders, but I stopped myself.
It was precisely what he had meant to say to me. Reading my reaction, he let out a low chuckle.
“I thought I had to do it alone. I believed that if I just did better, everything would work out.”
“…I felt the same way.”
“But sometimes there are things that cannot be accomplished by one’s strength alone.”
He spoke.
He had learned this truth in the Hunter Association’s world through direct collision, through stumbling and shattering, and because of that, he could share this story with me.
He was clumsily telling me that he wanted to be my strength.
We circled the same walking path repeatedly, the Dormitory right before us.
“And then you appeared, as if that debuff that had tormented me my entire life was a lie. So I don’t have to blame myself anymore. That’s why I want to be helpful to you too.”
“You’re already helpful enough….”
In that instant, a blood-red light washed over my body. An irresistible drowsiness crashed down upon me.
I bowed my head deeply, surrendering to the inescapable tide of sleep.
Traitor, fool—putting me to sleep like this is cowardly. Even as I voiced my grievance internally, his voice reached me.
“Please let me sing you a lullaby sometimes.”

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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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