Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 137

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

16. Strange Portents (14)

Before distributing the Festival Dungeon’s interior map to the entire school, the faculty had conducted investigation after investigation without a proper night’s sleep.
The exploration was a process to keep that map current with the latest data.
Normally it would have been a thankless, tedious task since there were rarely any significant changes, but this time was different.
The dwindling exploration teams had this time been expanded to deploy ninety percent of the faculty.
“I’m going to die.”
The three first-year homeroom teachers had grown quite close through that process.
Yes, that’s exactly what had happened!
“Choi Ji-hyeong, you don’t have any Hali Potions left?”
It was lunchtime, before the map was distributed.
The three teachers who had been singled out and worked hard on the exploration were currently lodging and eating around the Festival Dungeon.
“I really feel like I’m going to die.”
“For the ninety-second time, I don’t have any.”
“Only ninety-two times? If I make it to a hundred, what will you give me?”
Choi Ji-hyeong no longer even bothered to respond.
He merely glanced at Hong So-yeong with the eyes of someone looking at worthless trash.
That’s right. First-year Class One homeroom teacher Hong So-yeong had become accustomed to that immediate reaction. She let out a sigh while giggling softly.
And she looked at the other first-year homeroom teacher, Gong Si-yun, who had been worked just as hard alongside them.
“Are you holding up okay, Si-yun?”
“Well…….”
Had he mentioned once that his older brother’s family had sold his nephew as a child and he became a teacher to find him……?
With only that nephew left as family now, his longing was even more desperate, yet even in such gloomy moments, this teacher brimmed with vitality.
“How did we end up on a team with you two?”
“Heh heh.”
Gong Si-yun produced an artificially pathetic laugh and spoke.
“So won’t you spare a single potion for this poor colleague?”
“Right, shouldn’t you take pity on me for having to look at such a pathetic colleague and spare just one more potion?”
Today they had been poisoned by a frog monster but survived thanks to the Hali Potion.
That frog—they’d been fooled because it was a tree frog, not a bullfrog.
Tree frogs were among the unusual species that hadn’t been contaminated or undergone form changes due to dungeon influence, and they belonged to the creatures toward which Koreans held particular affection, along with the rose of Sharon and forsythia.
It was an excuse, but regardless, that’s how they’d let their guard down!
Their colleague had an obligation to take pity on his teammates.
“Jin Hali did agree to temporarily assist the faculty, but she’s busy enough as it is with her festival preparations—she made what little surplus she could spare. Do you really need to drink it?”
Aren’t they outside the dungeon?
While they’re making progress?
And Gong Si-yun even has an unusual constitution with higher natural healing ability than ordinary people, so he’d be fine in two days anyway?
Her glare said more than words ever could.
“Give up.”
Hong So-yeong raised both hands in surrender. Gong Si-yun had already focused entirely on eating the moment Choi Ji-hyeong mentioned “Jin Hali.”
She slowly straightened up from her sprawled position on the table.
Her exposed upper body had three sections wrapped in bandages, one area still seeping blood, and above all else, dark circles hung beneath her eyes.
“Still, what I need now isn’t an Awakening Agent or a recovery potion—it’s sleep.”
The moment she straightened her back, she collapsed onto her side beside the simple chair she’d been sitting on, muttering in that sprawled posture.
“Though I suppose I should be grateful that the kids have fewer dungeon visits now……?”
The other two shared that sentiment.
During the festival preparation period, practical training was drastically reduced, so accidents decreased.
Of course, that didn’t mean they had free time. With the reduction in training personnel, the remaining faculty excluded from the Festival Dungeon exploration were meticulously recording rank changes in the Practice Dungeons.
In other words, it wasn’t just these three who were so busy.
Then Gong Si-yun swept back his lime-green hair, his eyes with their dark circles widening as he began laughing like a madman.
“Teachers, look over there.”
Looking in the direction he pointed, Choi Ji-hyeong and Hong So-yeong found themselves sharing the same sentiment—a rare occurrence.
“Why are the tree frog monsters we dealt with…… outside the dungeon?”
“Parasitic Form. Choi Ji-hyeong, I need a barrier potion.”
“Body Barrier Special Potion is quite expensive since it was made recently.”
“You don’t know my salary? Anyway.”
Though she spoke casually, Choi Ji-hyeong was already administering the Body Barrier Special Potion that Hali had given him to Gong Si-yun.
“Gong Si-yun. Did you forget that you’re supposed to brush yourself off before leaving the dungeon?”
“Yes…….”
Dimwitted as he was, he was still the only tanker in this party. Choi Ji-hyeong suppressed his rising fury and spoke.
“If you don’t dispose of those creatures immediately and return, I’ll make sure you can’t eat for the next three days.”
“H-how would you do that?”
“One way or another.”
“Y-you wouldn’t use potions like that…….”
“I wouldn’t use potions for that.”
The normally cold-hearted Choi Ji-hyeong actually curled his lips at the persistent insect.
Hong So-yeong grabbed Gong Si-yun by the back of the neck and hurled him into the air.
The culprit—no, Gong Si-yun—landed not far from the entrance of the Festival Dungeon and began making whooping sounds, beating his narrow chest with both hands.
Skill name: Gorilla (A rank).
True to its straightforward name, Gong Si-yun, whose idol-like frame belied his true nature, actually looked like a real gorilla at that moment.
The gorilla burst forth and, multiplying into dozens, crushed the tree frogs that had begun spraying their toxic liquid onto the ground.
‘The mana I barely recovered is already depleted.’
The gorilla’s eyes darkened further beneath its brows…….
Hong So-yeong watched this unfold with Choi Ji-hyeong at leisure, then—before the gorilla, no, Gong Si-yun could return—she casually broached something she’d been wanting to ask the whole time.
“What are you going to do about Isang Hee?”
“…….”
“At first it seemed like she was just covering it up with a sense of alienation, but that doesn’t seem to be it. She’s been sowing discord in various places around campus, so we should probably do something about it.”
That’s the polite version of it.
Isang Hee was friendly with people throughout campus who were ignorant of or misunderstood the actions of Class 8, particularly the Yuhan Seong Party.
And what was she actively doing while blending in with them?
Spreading dangerous rumors about Jin Hali.
“At the very least, rumors like Jin Hali using potions to condition people and then mass-poisoning them all at once—that’s not right, is it?”
The problem was that such talk sounded plausible to anyone already inclined to think poorly.
The teachers, especially the first-year faculty who had taught Jin Hali directly, knew well.
That such rumors were absolute nonsense.
But the students would be different.
Teachers too might show signs of unease as one moved to higher grades.
If that happened, Jin Hali could become very much in danger.
“That girl needs to be allowed to conduct her research freely through graduation, at least. And she must absolutely never be sent to the Awakened Management Center. Right?”
“Yes.”
“I understand it’s difficult because Isang Hee is your student too, but I think we need to consider whether putting perpetrator and victim on equal footing is really the right thing to do.”
“You seem to care quite a lot about Jin Hali.”
“I’ve received her favor, and I still do.”
Hong So-yeong gestured toward Gong Si-yun, who had stacked the frog monster corpses into a pile and set them alight, now collapsed beside them.
“And you’re also trying to repay a favor, halfway.”
“I’m not.”
“Then?”
Choi Ji-hyeong was doing quite a lot of things that Jin Hali didn’t know about.
While facing off multiple layers of higher authorities, he spoke unflinchingly about prioritizing Hali’s convenience, and he was protecting not just her but the whole of Class 8 in the same manner.
Even regarding Isang Hee—the circumstances of her becoming caught up in the Annihilation Dungeon clear, as she’d been trapped by Jin Hali—he kept those circumstances hidden and protected her.
“Why would you go that far?”
At first she’d thought he was just unusually conscientious, but after working alongside him and observing from the side, she could tell.
This man was absolutely not someone who would naturally engage in such good deeds carelessly.
So if he was doing this, there had to be a reason.
By now, surely he wouldn’t avoid answering.
Sure enough, this time Choi Ji-hyeong didn’t dodge the question.
“Someone kept repeating an action that people said shouldn’t be done, and eventually she achieved results. She’s completely different from those who contradict others just out of a contrary streak. Jin Hali is the real deal.”
“Oh, that’s quite…… a direct assessment, isn’t it?”
“That girl will become someone significant.”
“So you’re building a connection with someone destined to become significant?”
“No. If she gets broken in the process of becoming significant, I think I’d find it absolutely unpleasant—to the point I couldn’t forgive myself.”
Hong So-yeong’s expression became complicated.
“Gems that could shine, people worthy of soaring high. If they get broken, I think I’d find it unpleasant, so I’m doing this for now. If I decide otherwise, I can stop anytime.”
“I’m sure you will…….”
While Choi Ji-hyeong used his vines to bind the gorilla, which was whining that it couldn’t move a single step, she found herself muttering without quite meaning to.
“He really has a strange way with words.”
In other words—he was delighted to have found disciples worth cultivating.
His pride was on the line.

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