Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 116

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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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15. A Story Jin Hali Doesn’t Know (8)

After parting with the three people and returning to my room, Erich asked.

[Contractor, do you happen to have memories from when you were born?]

“What?”

When I yawned and asked back in confusion, Erich asked again in a somewhat serious voice.

[Or how old were you when your oldest memory is from?]

[What a trivial thing to ask. My lord, there’s no need to humor him.]

“Hmm.”

I lightly petted the lion who had interjected with a sulky expression, then smiled at the lion whose face immediately softened and answered Erich.

“Well. Why do you ask?”

[Hmm. Since you’re not answering right away, perhaps…]

“What is it, what is it?”

[It’s nothing much. The air around this area has been unusual lately.]

“When you say this area, what range are you talking about?”

[I’d say about the entire Academy.]

I went “hmm,” then put the lion down on the bed, took off my earrings, and said.

“I’ll go wash up first.”

[Alright.]

[My lord, I know a spell that can make you clean in an instant!]

“It’s okay, Lion. I like washing up. It’s like healing time for me. Just wait a little bit.”

I was sleepy, but since Erich had held back and said something, it seemed better to answer with a clear mind.

‘Besides, it would be troublesome if they found out I possessed this body.’

After washing up and returning, I sat half-lying on the bed and spoke to Erich.

“To be honest, I don’t have many memories.”

[You don’t have many memories?]

[Excuse me?]

Both showed puzzled reactions to my vague words.

“Actually, I hit my head hard before entering school. I couldn’t go to the hospital then, so maybe it’s an aftereffect – my memories became patchy.”

I spoke with as little lies as possible.

It was also true that I had been hit on the head and couldn’t go to the hospital.

It wasn’t that I had no personal memories of Jin Hali, but they weren’t very detailed memories either, so I had no choice but to speak vaguely.

At most, only brief memories remained that allowed me to understand the situation when I first possessed this body.

[This is the first I’m hearing of this!]

[My lord, why couldn’t you go to the hospital?]

“Well. There was no one to take me there after I collapsed.”

[Didn’t you say you had family?]

I recalled when he asked about me staying at the boarding house during vacation, I had only answered that it wasn’t that I had no family, but that it was uncomfortable.

[No matter how uncomfortable, how could they just leave you injured like that?]

Erich showed the most human-like reaction I’d seen from him so far.

The lion also showed the same reaction as Erich for the first time.

[Such inconsiderate humans. Ah, how dare I speak of my lord’s family members… I apologize.]

“No. They are inconsiderate people.”

When I spoke calmly, both of them strangely began watching my reaction.

This is quite a human reaction, which makes me rather flustered.

I thought they’d just accept it since they’re non-humans.

“As soon as they found out I was an awakener, they took out an awakener guarantee loan in my name.”

[What’s that?]

“It’s an illegal loan where they lend money on the condition that if you become an awakener, you become that organization’s slave for the next 10 years. The country manages it, but they can’t catch companies with bases overseas. They borrowed money from quite a large-scale place too.”

That’s why entering Narin Academy was the only answer.

Of course, knowing the original story, I knew all those places would collapse anyway due to the aftermath of the Annihilation Dungeon, but I didn’t know what might happen before then.

“With the money borrowed that way, they settled the trouble my older brother caused and paid off all the household debts, but they mismanaged the remaining money, so my mother and brother’s situation probably isn’t very good right now. That’s also why I stayed at the boarding house during vacation.”

[…So you’re saying a huge debt was illegally incurred, and you have to pay it back?]

“Well, if I graduate safely, I don’t need to pay it back. The state settles debts for national awakeners, whether illegal or legal. Quite a few illegal lending institutions get caught in this process too. That’s why they usually target minor awakeners in advance, lend them money, then take them to their guilds or organizations almost immediately… But after lending to me, they found out I was an F-rank healer, so it was probably awkward to handle.”

You could say my family scammed that illegal organization.

They said I was a healer when they borrowed, though they didn’t know the rank yet.

That place that lent money based only on that guarantee is quite something too, but considering the rarity of healers, it’s somewhat understandable.

[So that’s why you came here?]

Erich asked with a strangely subdued voice, clicking his tongue.

The lion had a sinister expression.

I gently stroked the lion’s head and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right. And since it was for impure reasons, I practiced potion making with the resolve to try my best conscientiously. I thought it would be meaningless, but it seems to have become meaningful, so even now it feels like a dream.”

When I answered with a gentle smile, the lion with the sinister expression stared up at me and muttered.

[Come to think of it, what my lord first wished for was to become the best potion maker.]

“That’s right.”

I still vividly remember the men in black suits who came to take me thinking I’d be useful, then cursed and left when they found out I was F-rank.

“If I hadn’t entered school, I probably would have been dragged to that organization within a week and died. Even when they found out I was F-rank, they treated me so harshly. I almost died from the beating then, but after that, Jin Hali came to her senses.”

Jin Hali did.

“…She didn’t want to die that way even if she had to die.”

So Jin Hali submitted an application to Narin.

Even knowing full well how F-rank healers are treated in awakener society, she thought that was still a better situation.

“I’m glad I came here.”

Of course, if I had possessed this body before entering school, I would have used my knowledge of the original story to hide somewhere, then emerged when the Annihilation Dungeon seriously erupted and the social system was paralyzed.

But that was only possible because it was me.

‘Poor Jin Hali.’

According to her original fate, wouldn’t she have lived in such a family, barely escaped, only to be torn apart by monsters in a dungeon?

If there was anything I could do for Jin Hali’s soul, I would gladly do it.

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I rattled off truthful information within what I knew.

As I traced back Jin Hali’s oldest memories, I unintentionally ended up revealing some of the remaining memories.

I spoke calmly as if explaining someone else’s business since it wasn’t my own.

Without realizing how that tone sounded to the two of them.

“After Father passed away, it was a mess in short. I thought things might get better after awakening, but an even worse hell was waiting. Anyway, this is about what I remember.”

[…]

[…]

I realized the two had fallen silent and hesitated, then tried to comfort them.

“…Erich, I did have some problems with my memory, but still, not many ordinary people remember being born either, so don’t be so disappointed. You too, Lion. Your expression is scary. What’s wrong?”

After a moment, Erich spoke.

[I understand. I’ll remember that. That’s enough.]

“Really? That’s a relief. But won’t you tell me why you asked such a thing, Erich?”

[Now doesn’t seem like the right time. I’ll tell you right away once I’m more certain.]

“You promised.”

[Yes. I promised.]

I thought I heard the sound of grinding teeth as background noise, but I passed it off thinking Erich was just being irritable as usual.

Rather, the lion’s expression was more of a problem.

[How dare those scum…]

“L-Lion?”

[I’ll kill them. I’ll break their bones and tear out their flesh… mutter mutter…]

“Lion!”

The lion, who had been briefly surrounded by an ominous aura and muttering words I could barely understand, stopped his incantation-like chanting.

Then he looked at me quietly and spoke in a voice that had regained composure.

[Do you know where they live, my lord?]

“I do know.”

[Could you tell me?]

“No.”

[What?]

At the lion’s single cry of dismay, I chuckled and lightly patted the lion’s head.

“It’s obvious what you’re planning to do, so why would I tell you?”

These non-humans are quite surprising, really.

Well, they have emotions and thoughts too. Even if it’s not by human standards, Jin Hali’s family members are trash.

It might be natural for those who are favorable toward me to be angry.

‘…I thought they all had their own purposes rather than genuinely being favorable toward me, so I didn’t expect them to react this strongly.’

The lion and I only met for the first time today. Come to think of it, what’s the reason for that sense of familiarity?

Could I really have become some kind of savior to them, as the lion said?

In any case, I can’t let them take action.

“I’ll do it.”

Even so, wouldn’t it be proper for Jin Hali to move and take revenge herself?

Even if what’s inside isn’t Jin Hali, at the very least the subject carrying out the revenge had to be ‘Jin Hali.’

After looking at me for a while, the lion and the silent Erich spoke almost simultaneously in ominous tones.

[We belong to you, my lord, so you may use us!]

[I’m not your possession, but I can offer some cooperation.]

I smiled slightly and yawned.

“Thank you. Both of you.”

So now let’s sleep.

Unaware that sinister glances were exchanged dozens of times between the non-humans, I slept deeply that night without even dreaming.

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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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