Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 102
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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14. I Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? (11)
I quietly looked at Gong Seo-yun, then suddenly burst into laughter.
“What? Why are you laughing?”
“I like good people.”
“What are you talking about out of nowhere? Even if you change the subject, I’m not letting this slide, so deal with it.”
“What if you don’t let it slide?”
“I’m not the type of person who sees my friend acting like this and just thinks, ‘Oh, this is crazy,’ and moves on.”
“What are you going to do?”
As I responded calmly, Gong Seo-yun’s expression softened slightly.
But as if he didn’t want to be caught with his guard down, I could clearly see him deliberately hardening his face again.
Really funny.
“I’m going to tell Yuhan Seong.”
“Huh?”
As I burst out laughing, Gong Seo-yun spoke in a deliberately more threatening voice.
“You’ve never properly seen how he works people to the bone, have you? That thing isn’t human. But if this gets out? Even you would get angry.”
“Ahahaha.”
“It won’t end with just words then. I’m serious, but you don’t believe me?”
“You too, pfft, is there someone who complains that much?”
“Of course there is. I don’t know what you think of me in the first place, but there are a lot of them.”
“A lot of them?”
“You don’t know that Yu Hee controls her strength in front of you, right? She manages her image most strictly when she’s in front of you. Don’t be fooled. She’s a complete schemer.”
“Our Hee can be like that though?”
“Ridiculous. Lee Hae-sol is the same, and that bastard Hyun I-seo.”
“Hey, calling him a bastard?”
“…That, kid, well, I have nothing to say.”
“What? Ahaha.”
As I giggled and listened to his words, Gong Seo-yun, who had been glancing at me, looked at me with surprised eyes.
I looked at him with a face full of laughter and tilted my head.
“Why?”
“…”
Gong Seo-yun didn’t answer.
Then after a moment, he smiled wryly and just lightly touched where my wound had been before lowering his arm.
“Ah. This won’t do.”
“Why.”
“My anger is fading.”
“Oh?”
“No, I’m still angry. Let’s say I’m angry. Come on, let’s go.”
“Huh?”
After spouting nonsense, Gong Seo-yun made a heaving sound as he pulled me to my feet.
Then he pushed me outside while saying.
“I really have no intention of letting this slide, Hali.”
I thought I’d wrap things up once we talked and the mood lightened, but damn.
“That’s what I said earlier,”
“Right, it would be.”
“I need to practice too.”
“That’s also true.”
Gong Seo-yun’s eyes were benevolent as he waited for my next words.
He looked ready to listen to whatever I said and then drag me in front of Yuhan Seong anyway.
“…Ugh.”
“Oho.”
He made encouraging sounds as he spoke.
I was already being pushed along the hallway with my back against him.
…This is fun, but is he going to do this even outside the old school building, not just in the hallway?
“Unusually, you’re not saying you won’t do it?”
“…Hm?”
“Given your personality, by now you’d probably say you hate telling Yuhan Seong so much that you’ll never practice by hurting yourself again.”
“Are you doing this hoping for that?”
“Not really. But for you, this is unexpected behavior.”
What if I say I’ll tell Yu Hee instead of Yuhan Seong?
I almost nodded unconsciously at those words but stopped myself.
“That’s pretty much the same thing.”
“You do know. Right, so you know there are people who like you that much, so why are you doing this?”
According to him, hurting my body itself wasn’t good behavior toward people who like me, whether they knew about it or not.
“I wouldn’t call it wrong exactly. More precisely, it’s only wrong to yourself.”
I knew that Gong Seo-yun was kind, sincere, and cheerful, but he wasn’t the type to have serious conversations like this.
I also knew he’d rather just bring Yuhan Seong and sit him in front of me than have this kind of talk.
‘The one acting out of character is him.’
Naturally, I felt sorry wondering if my earlier actions had been that shocking.
Actually, I wasn’t unaware of what he wanted to say.
‘If this were the modern society I lived in, I wouldn’t have done such things in the first place.’
But this is a fantasy world, isn’t it?
Even though I hadn’t expressed it all in words, there were often times when I felt how fundamentally different the people of this world were from the people of Korea where I used to live.
The most representative example?
The fact that discrimination based on rank is often perceived as legitimate distinction rather than unfair discrimination?
Not everyone, but most hunters are like that, so you could say it’s the social climate.
Even among Academy students, there were quite a few people who wanted to make an issue of me being F-rank even in unique situations like now.
Things like saying I should remove the F-rank label if I wanted to be treated well, or asking if I stupidly thought of F-rank as some kind of honor, or whether I was just trying to stand out.
Even if it didn’t reach my ears directly, there were times when I could tell what kind of things they were whispering just from the atmosphere.
Though I was benefiting from such solid prejudice.
Being an F-rank healer probably played a role in this announcement being able to pass through.
Now, what I want to say is not criticism, at least not primarily.
This society naturally had to establish principles that favor the strong, as it’s a society that needs heroes to fight monsters in dungeons.
What I wanted to say was that it was fascinating how my friends, who were born and raised in such a society, treated me with the consciousness that would be common in modern society.
They want me to ‘respect’ myself. In a society where survival is more important than that.
‘In other words, they’re trying to take responsibility for my survival themselves.’
When they tell me I don’t need to overdo it for survival, they’re saying that we’ll protect your survival so you don’t have to worry about it.
Gong Seo-yun is the same way now.
Even though it’s true that I need practice, and even though he knows it would definitely benefit those around me if I could use heal—and even though as a Narin student with built-in altruism, it’s the efficient and right choice—he’s trying to make me stop my method.
I knew they were giving me feelings far more precious than their original purpose.
How could I not know?
But even so, I didn’t expect even Yuhan Seong to have this attitude toward me because of those feelings of affection.
Right, because this is a world where that’s unnatural.
Why is that?
“I don’t feel particularly sorry to myself for getting hurt to that extent.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m someone who needs more emotional fulfillment?”
“Is your emotional fulfillment practicing heal by deliberately hurting your body?”
“It both is and isn’t.”
Gong Seo-yun walked alongside me, quietly listening to my words with a face that wasn’t entirely light.
“First, my healing skill is low-grade and I’m not confident in it, so there’s also the reason that I don’t want to practice on injured people.”
“Ah. And?”
I was reluctant to talk about the misfortune.
Because I suddenly felt an unnecessary anxiety that everyone might distance themselves from me if they heard about it.
Really, me.
I say getting too close isn’t good, but then I don’t like it when they grow distant either.
Maintaining proper distance is always difficult.
“M-mana.”
“Hm? Mana?”
I averted my gaze and mumbled to finish my words.
“To save mana.”
“Huh?”
Gong Seo-yun tilted his head a beat late.
He seemed not to understand.
“If the mana I use returns to my body, it’s like I didn’t use any mana at all. Then I can run an infinite factory.”
“…”
He stared at me intently as if looking at an alien he’d never seen before, then confusion and realization crossed his face simultaneously.
And then.
“Pfft.”
“…Is it funny?”
“N-no?”
When I stared holes through Gong Seo-yun who was making a funny face trying to hold back laughter, a look of amusement flashed across his face.
He giggled and nodded before saying.
“It was a funnier reason than I expected, but it sounded even funnier because you said it so seriously.”
“I was being serious, you know?”
It’s not like I said something completely nonsensical.
I actually thought about it that way and considered it killing two birds with one stone.
Erich, who had been silent, made his earring ring sharply as he shouted.
[You, what kind of ridiculous worry is that! Saving mana because you’re afraid of running out? While daring to own me?]
‘Says the one whose price is lifespan.’
Though he fell silent immediately after that.
Of course, I’m in a position where I don’t mind that price.
As I was chuckling inwardly, Gong Seo-yun muttered.
“I see. Ahem, and here I thought.”
“…What were you thinking?”
“I guess I was thinking about the part you didn’t mention.”
I thought Gong Seo-yun was being particularly annoying today.
“…You’re thinking it’s because I could never hurt people even for practice, right.”
“Hm?”
My quiet mumbling went unheard as he was busy soothing Erich who had started making a racket again.
Even when I asked again, Gong Seo-yun just flashed his usual cheerful smile.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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