Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 142

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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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17. Treading Shadow (4)

“So Goi-deun knows about Lion too?”
“Not at all. I didn’t mention anything like that. I asked her to investigate the more personal aspects of the early Awakeners.”
“Looks like she was already on it. That’s why she reached her conclusion so quickly.”
Lee Hae-sol said.
Somehow, we’d all settled beneath the shade of the trees, each in our own comfortable position.
[Well, what that one said is the truth, anyway.]
Just then, Erich cut in abruptly.
He’d been fidgeting a moment ago, but now that his suspicions had eased somewhat, he seemed fine.
I’m telling you, he’s surprisingly simple-minded.
[Perhaps refrain from interjecting when you don’t know much, hmm?]
Lion spoke with a spinning smile.
[You lot’s circumstances are naturally beyond my ken. But I can say with certainty—that System you speak of does not belong to our world.]
Erich drawled the words with an air of doing them a favor.
“I see.”
Yuhan Seong’s eyes gleamed with a curious sort of delight for a moment.
“……So that’s what it was.”
What was he remembering?
While Erich and Lion and the rest of the group murmured through their information, I found myself thinking about all the hardships Yuhan Seong must have endured across his many regressions.
The Protagonist, having experienced every kind of suffering an Awakener could know, emanated a tranquility as if some knot inside him had finally loosened.
I couldn’t say what emotions flickered behind his downcast eyes, but I watched as he slowly lifted his gaze and swept it carefully across all of us.
Then our eyes met.
Without thinking, I held his gaze steady—those silvery eyes.
And suddenly I found myself remembering him as he’d been at first.
‘He looks happy now.’
The contrast was so clear that my lips curled up of their own accord.
The Original Story could be divided into sections: his Academy days, the period just after graduation, and the Final Dungeon.
Of those, the Academy section at the beginning—the best part—was Yuhan Seong’s process of escaping his loneliness thanks to his teammates.
‘Yuhan Seong’s healing, the way he melted into warmth, was so poignant that the tragedies that followed hit all the harder.’
It also served as the mechanism that gave his corruption in the latter half narrative weight.
After all, he was finally made to feel a happiness he’d almost forgotten—only to have it ripped away.
The Original Story, unlike our current group, never portrayed their bond as a truly close friendship with all its bickering and friction. Yet even so, Yuhan Seong found healing simply in knowing they trusted one another.
Which meant, I dared to believe, that the Yuhan Seong before me now would be happier than that version in the early chapters.
And since this is reality, I hoped that contentment would carry through to a true happy ending.
[……I don’t know. Didn’t I say I don’t know? Damn it, what would I know about why a Dungeon appeared here? I woke up sealed in this place!]
[As I suspected. Even if I wanted to cross-verify, that one knows nothing useful. In any case, no help there. Wouldn’t you agree, my lady’s friends?]
“Wow.”
“……Hali, you’re not getting parenting stress or anything, are you?”
Lee Hae-sol asked me.
I’d been gazing at Han Seong with a calm smile, but I turned naturally to face Lee Hae-sol instead.
“I’m fine. I’ve gotten to the point where I can just let it roll off.”
“……Sounds like you’ve been through a lot.”
“Yeah!”
[……!]
[……!]
I felt the two non-humans tremor at my unhesitant answer, but I didn’t care.
Then Yu Hee burst out laughing.
I looked at her and grinned, giving her a wink.
As if to ask: are you feeling a little less anxious now?
I’d been sensing that over the past week, Yu Hee’s nerves had been wound tight, what with her family troubles piling on top of everything else.
She just smiled at me, genuinely happy. A smile far more natural than her usual cheerful one.
‘I’m glad the Clan Leader of the Yoo Clan didn’t see that expression.’
If she had, Yu Hee would have suffered even more in other ways.
That psycho Clan Leader has a tendency to treat it as a sin whenever Yu Hee does something without her knowledge.
In any case, we reached a conclusion that day.
My protection would be delegated to some degree to Erich and Lion, and to the Dungeon Bosses I’d make Summoning Contracts with going forward.
“Sounds good.”
As I smiled contentedly and expressed my approval, everyone looked slightly sulky.
“So what we’ve been doing wasn’t good enough……”
Seo Jeong-u whimpered with only his mouth, and I gave him a sidelong look without malice, then shook my head.
“What are you talking about?”
And I brought up something I’d been wanting to say for a while.
“You know. About the Annihilation Dungeon. By now, don’t you all have a sense of certainty? I think you’ve all reached a conclusion after hearing what Lion said—like I did.”
“……What?”
Seo Jeong-u dropped his teasing and asked seriously.
“The Annihilation Dungeon. I don’t know how many will open this time, but one thing’s certain—it’s hunting us.”
More precisely, all of Class 8 except Isang Hee.
“That’s also why I agreed to make Isang Hee the lead in our play this time.”
“Ah, so that was it.”
Isang Hee will be needed later.
So it was necessary to take measures to keep her from being left out. Unlike the Original Story, she’s willing to kill people—and she still has those intentions now, which is a headache. But for the moment, there’s no alternative for the Light Attribute.
However, beyond that consideration, there was something else we could gain from her right now.
“Isang Hee isn’t a target the Annihilation has in its sights.”
“The Annihilation has in its sights.”
Han Seong murmured.
This phrasing was one that would become common in the Original Story from about the midpoint onward.
It was that apt an expression for the situation.
“That’s a chilling way to put it.”
“It is. Even more so because it’s targeting Academy first-years, not veteran Hunters.”
A heavy silence fell after Han Seong’s and my words.
Everyone was bringing out what they’d all been experiencing and had all become certain of, just never said aloud.
“I don’t think you need to save the world. I hope you’ll do everything in your power to save yourselves.”
I was certain of their victory.
And I’d do my best to make it happen.
“When I say ‘yourselves,’ I don’t mean just your bodies. I hope you’ll keep pursuing what you want, protect your hearts, and hold tight to your desires. We’re only first-years, after all. We should be at a stage where we do that, shouldn’t we?”
Knowing the Original Story as I did, I had confidence that Yuhan Seong would lead them well enough that through the ninth iteration at least, they wouldn’t die.
So perhaps that confidence seeped into my words.
And I thought that seeping confidence would help in the current situation.
It was the right call.
The agitation was fading from the children’s faces.
“Don’t let the Annihilation steal from us. So then.”
I pointed sharply with my hand to mark out the space we occupied and spoke.
“I’m inviting you now. Come in. Welcome to Baridegi’s Dungeon.”
Lion enlarged his form.
Hyun I-seo clicked his tongue in disappointment. He’s obviously obsessed with that cute side.
While planning the direction of Hyun I-seo’s upcoming birthday gift, I watched Lion stand at the entrance to his territory and bow formally to my friends.
[Welcome to the Netherworld, my friends.]
As expected, King Yama’s palace loomed grandly beyond the opening door.
“Let’s go!”
The informant inside the Academy sent by the Clan Leader of the Yoo Clan to search for Yu Hee, and perhaps the shadow-assassins already dispatched, would likely find no trace of Yu Hee for the next half day or so.
Or of any of us, for that matter.

***

“Teacher, can we talk for a moment?”
“Of course.”
Choi Ji-hyeong rose from his seat to respond to Goi-deun’s request for counseling.
The first-year homeroom teacher Hong So-yeong and Goh Sang-shik, having just wrapped up some guidance work and returned to the Faculty Office, watched the two with tears in their eyes.
Goh Sang-shik in particular made no effort to hide his worry about Goi-deun.
He’d come looking for his niece, had he? That niece—he’d actually found her right away.
His niece bore a striking resemblance not to her older brother but to him and to their shared mother, and the result was an appearance that made the blood connection between Goh Sang-shik and his distant relation obvious at a glance.
But he couldn’t tell her.
He’d discovered by chance just how deeply Goi-deun despised her birth parents.
Goh Sang-shik just hung his head with a mournful expression, and got a whack on the back of the skull from Hong So-yeong for his trouble.
“If you keep acting like that, you’ll never find your niece in her lifetime. It seems like she’s already caught on anyway.”
“No, no. From what I know, she probably wouldn’t figure it out unless I told her directly……? My father and older brother are like that. They’re completely oblivious to anything outside their immediate interests.”
“Ah.”
It was the sort of information that made you involuntarily sigh.

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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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