Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 145

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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 (7)

What difference could there be between being called “Master” by a raven-black grim reaper and “Master” by a snow-white giant scholar? And yet the feeling was entirely different.
No offense to the lion, but the title “Hali” seemed to suit him better.
“But since he calls me ‘Master,’ it feels a bit…”
“Is that so? Then what shall I…”
……It seemed to be a matter of speech pattern, really.
‘A pristine scholar’s appearance paired with a noblewoman’s manner of speech—should I put it that way? Though I doubt noble daughters actually speak like that. So what would be the right way to describe it? ……It’s not exactly unpleasant, but.’
I laughed awkwardly and shook my head.
It would be odd to criticize someone’s manner of speaking.
“Call me Hali. I’d prefer that.”
Now that I saw it, atmosphere seemed genuinely important. The scholar before me was opposite to the lion in so many ways that I’d nearly fallen into formal speech without realizing it.
Where the lion’s true form carried an aura like the embodiment of an endless abyss, this one felt like a crane that had become human.
Clear, elegant, and natural. The atmosphere of the summit of some ancient snowy mountain, perhaps?
‘His face is such a vivid forsythia yellow, yet it looks natural—how strange.’
Despite those toy-like colors, he appeared remarkably beautiful.
There was an impulse to gaze up at him in reverence.
Yet when it came to being overwhelmed, strangely, I was not.
Perhaps because I was the master of this Dungeon?
“Very well, Master Hali.”
He answered gently, his jade-like voice flowing soft and warm.
“What would you like me to call you?”
“If you have not chosen another name for me, I would be grateful to be called Han.”
“Han?”
“The ‘Han’ in ‘cold Han settled over us.’ I thought you would not care for being called ‘Grudge.'”
“Ah, I see.”
Grudge. Now that he mentioned it…
I recalled what I had felt when I first encountered the second boss.
Resentment.
Grudge.
Abandonment.
Stories without names had seeped into the walls.
The stories were legible as if carved into stone, yet the walls themselves were clean—an eerie contradiction.
The tales of the abandoned are forever buried as if they never existed, until their weight grows large enough to reveal their solidity.
‘Han’ was telling me that this great mass was himself.
“Then Han it is. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“Please, ask freely.”
“You don’t speak like the lion does. How is that?”
Not just the lion—Erich does the same. All those bound to me by contract communicate through Telepathy, passing intention directly from mind to mind.
Of course they have voices, and if they wished, they could make others hear them speak aloud. But…
“It seems the lion’s voice isn’t actually produced by moving his throat. Is it because he doesn’t breathe?”
“Correct. Because he does not breathe, it sounds as it does to you.”
“And you?”
“I have intentionally composed a physical form and clothed myself in it, which is why you hear me as you do. Though I scarcely know how my voice sounds to human ears.”
“You can’t hear it?”
“I can hear it. I simply do not know what impression it makes on humans.”
“Mm. So… are you curious?”
“Whether it pleases Master Hali’s ear—yes, I am curious about that.”
Han smiled nobly and shyly, nodding his head.
Somehow he had spread clouds across the floor and settled onto them, and my neck no longer hurt.
I laughed playfully and was happy to share my impressions.
“It feels like I’m treading on an enormous cloud.”
“Is that pleasing?”
“I think it’s lovely!”
“I am truly delighted.”
Han laughed softly, his voice like jade beads rolling together.
Up close, his chick-yellow face was not pale like the lion’s.
“……So the lion could take a form like this too.”
“Indeed. Unlike me, he would be able to assume a shape much closer to human form. If you are curious, you need only command it.”
“Command? I’d rather not.”
Sensing my genuine distaste, Han tilted his head slightly with curious eyes.
His eyes were purple.
But unlike Jin Hali’s eyes as I’d seen them in the mirror, Han’s eyes had no focal point—they were a turbid mauve, like paint applied to canvas.
That slight cloudiness somehow suited his mysterious aura perfectly.
And.
“He’s beautiful……Ah.”
The more I looked, the more beautiful he became.
His features were so delicate and refined it seemed as if one had carved “dignity” into a face—pure, elegant lines in every detail. Yet when assembled as a whole, they created an ethereal mystery and a dreamlike atmosphere.
His long, abundant eyelashes, bright forsythia yellow, curved so gracefully that snow could collect on them entirely when it fell, while his arched, lengthy eyebrows were platinum blonde like his hair.
His platinum hair and brows shimmered as if dusted with gold powder.
His turbid mauve pupils, despite their cloudiness, radiated warmth rather than eeriness.
Dressed as a white-robed scholar with his platinum hair neatly pinned and coiled, he wore no official hat—closer to the image of a scholar reading books in his private study.
‘……Why does he look so beautiful?’
He is beautiful, yes, but the color combination feels like looking at someone entirely painted white—why is that?
It creates a cognitive dissonance.
“Ah. Sorry. It just slipped out.”
Yet because he was beautiful, laughter bloomed across his gorgeous face at my unguarded words.
“That I have pleased your heart, Master Hali—Han is filled with boundless joy.”
“W-well, sure.”
I learned then that no matter how beautiful someone is, if their manner of speech doesn’t suit your taste, you simply can’t accept it.
I shook my head with a laugh, then asked him a question.
“So, Han. Would you like to make a contract with me?”
Why drag this out any longer?
I’d come here for this in the first place.
Through the lion, I’d often sensed the presence of the two bosses.
Though he never spoke of it, now facing them directly, I could be certain: Han and the final boss, Baridegi, had been watching over me all along.
If I contracted with them, I’d sense their attention even more clearly, wouldn’t I?
A boss embodying grudge—perhaps he possessed skills even more aggressive than the lion’s.
While I was thinking such things, the beautiful giant scholar, whose expression had shown such gratitude at my proposal, spoke words entirely at odds with that face.
“I am sorry, but that is not possible.”
“……What?”
I’d made the offer immediately, thinking the other two were also waiting to contract with me. Had the lion misunderstood something?
But before I could dwell on it, Han spoke.
“If you contract with me now, your body will collapse.”
“My body?”
“Yes, Master Hali.”
Han looked off toward the Heavens for a moment, sighed softly, and extended his hand to me.
……Was he asking me to hold it?
I hesitated, then carefully reached up my hand. He extended it a bit further toward me, clearly asking me to take it.
As I entrusted my body to his large, beautiful hand, he moved at an achingly slow pace—like the mechanism of an amusement park ride—lifting me up to his face level.
Face to face with him, I sat comfortably and listened to what he had to say.
“In truth, the Princess was meant to appear at this summons, but I took the liberty of coming first to see you instead.”
“Is that so.”
But if we weren’t going to contract, why do this at all?
“Then why? Do you have something to tell me?”
“Yes, Master Hali.”
He spoke with a serene smile.
“What is it?”
Already fond of him, I smiled cheerfully and nodded once to show I was ready to listen.
“……You must not contract with us until after the Festival ends. A stronger Protective Barrier summons stronger trials, you see.”
“A stronger… trial……”
Suddenly, I recalled why I had wanted to contract with the second boss.
‘It was to gain even a little more safety from the Yoo Clan’s threat.’
Of course, I had factored in the Festival Dungeon as well.
In other words, Han’s words could be interpreted as: if I gained strength beyond my current level, more serious trouble might come after the Festival, even in navigating those two episodes.
The problem was: how did he know this was true?
“I read Destiny.”
“Destiny……Good grief. You have a prophecy skill?”
“Skill……Yes, one could say it that way. I, Master Hali, do exactly as the ancients of old often did—I listen to the Whispers of the Stars.”
“Stars that gossip, no less.”
“Ahaha.”
He burst out laughing.
A tender light deepened in his purple eyes.
“Their gossip goes on all day long. Ah, but the stars I speak of are not planets, of course.”
“I was actually about to say something about that.”
After all, explaining that shooting stars are just rocks burning in friction would ruin the mood entirely.
He nodded as I spoke playfully.
“The stars I perceive are of a different dimension. The sky is not composed solely of this universe. Countless souls pass through the Underworld and ascend to the Heavens.”
“Do they all go to heaven?”
“No, they simply form the sky of another dimension. That sky acts as a Protective Barrier to shield the souls of this world. But currently, this barrier is barely holding together and has begun to degenerate—so much so that eighty percent of the Whispers of the Stars have become mere jest.”
All I understood was that eighty percent of the Whispers of the Stars were nonsense.
“……Then what you said earlier too……”
“No, that belongs to the remaining twenty percent—words of perceived Destiny. ……A Destiny that can be changed.”
A brief, intense emotion flickered in his eyes.
Complex-looking, yet something like discontent beneath it.
“Though the stars seem to wish greater trials upon Master Hali……we do not. That is why I came to see you.”

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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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