Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 150

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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. Shadow Treading (12)

‘Those three in particular are nothing but headaches.’
Was it the day before yesterday?
It was when I discovered Jin Hali alone, barricaded inside the Old Teacher’s Alchemy Lab.
Since she was a healer decent enough at making usable potions, I’d been careful to avoid places thick with potion bottles whenever possible.
“When she’s in the Lab, those three get touchy. Let’s leave them alone.”
“Yeah, they show up the moment we breathe.”
Yu Bin and Yu Seop were trading opinions with each other, their voices barely audible.
They were only about three meters from Jin Hali. But if anyone came looking, they were ready to slip away in an instant.
That day she’d seemed alone, but I’d learned caution the hard way—not once or twice had I felt eyes on me when I least expected it.
Still, that particular day her solitude seemed to stretch longer than usual.
No one was waiting outside the door either.
Yu Seop was beginning to fidget.
“Seven seconds is all we’d need.”
“Don’t be stupid. We need at least thirty minutes, not seven seconds.”
Knocking someone unconscious and killing them in a remote spot—that part was simple. But factoring in the escape afterward? Better not to try at all.
“…Isn’t something off about her, though? Even alone like this, I genuinely don’t see an opening.”
Yu Seop muttered more nonsense.
Yu Bin said nothing.
He agreed with the sentiment, but couldn’t quite pinpoint why.
Yeah, something about her is wrong.
In truth, even unguarded like this, watching her set off the honed instincts of a trained assassin.
Run, it screamed.
Yet they couldn’t simply waste such a golden opportunity.
That day, for whatever reason, Jin Hali stood completely unobserved and undefended for a full thirty minutes.
It was rare for everyone in Class 8 to miss her presence even once.
Much later, and they wouldn’t get another chance before the festival began.
The other direct descendants were restless too.
Handle it now, they urged. Then go to Yu Hee, go to the older sister.
So the two of them steeled their resolve and raised their hands to signal—
The air turned cold and heavy.
It’s not just footsteps that disturb the air; mana does too. Temperature, faint traces of magic, the ripple of breath—ordinary people have no idea how much noise all of that makes.
Yet strangely, he was silent.
The man entering the Lab moved like a beast that had set its trap and never dropped its guard—a predator slipping toward its prey with perfect discretion.
“That’s… whoosh.”
“…Lee Hae-sol?”
Neat and polished in appearance though he was…
The predator’s aura that never showed in ordinary circumstances, the S-rank aura, hung subtly around him.
His blue eyes seemed bright at first glance, but the two who met them knew better.
They could see the killing intent coiled tight in his depths.
Those were the eyes of someone who had taken a life.
Not a murderer, though.
Hunters driven to extremity by persecution often wore that look.
But for a young noble—the heir at that—to have such eyes at merely seventeen…wasn’t that far too young?
This wasn’t even the Yoo Clan, who faced assassins from age five.
The Lee Family had a reputation for grace both inside and out, but could this be the truth beneath the surface?
The thought didn’t linger.
Lee Hae-sol’s eyes hadn’t turned in their direction by chance.
Watching him briefly lock eyes with each direct descendant crouched in the shadows, ready to strike—
Ah, now that he thought about it, there had been rumors. The Lee Family’s direct line had been suffering repeated assassination attempts ever since falling under a curse.
If true, he’d lived a brutal life. Surviving with only B-rank ability before reaching S-rank was remarkable, if nothing else.
Lee Hae-sol’s expressionless face finished its assessment, then, as if nothing had happened, he turned toward Hali.
His steps were measured and refined, as always—which somehow made it more chilling.
The Lee Family heir had the makings of an assassin.
After a long pause, Yu Seop’s strangled voice drew hollow laughs from a few of the direct descendants.
But Yu Bin shook his head.
“That’s not talent. That’s something else.”
“Right, his mana’s way too loud.”
One of the Glass Bottles Jin Hali had been working with—left uncapped while cooling—suddenly tipped and fell.
Before it touched the floor, it stopped.
The air froze like solid ice; only around that bottle did stillness reign—no illusion.
Yu Bin exhaled in disbelief. He’d seen thin frost form across the bottle’s surface.
Lee Hae-sol’s attribute was Water-type.
Frost and water overlap somewhat, but they’re fundamentally different attributes. Even for an S-rank, could mana conversion really be that fluid?
The bottle slowly rose through the air and settled back on the desk.
“Oh, Hae-sol?”
Jin Hali’s face showed no sign of alarm.
“Skipping practice? Now’s not the time for the Shadow Treading game, is it?”
“It’s been so brutal I needed a break.”
“That’s…not like you at all, Hae-sol. You sound like you’re making excuses.”
“…Is that so? My mistake.”
Where did this bashful boy with his faintly embarrassed expression and lowered eyes suddenly come from?
And what in the world was the Shadow Treading game?!
The direct descendants had no choice but to withdraw.
They still didn’t understand why Lee Hae-sol hadn’t simply eliminated them, but they’d learned one thing.
How insane it was to touch someone under an S-rank’s watch.
So the next day.
They tried to catch Gong Seo-yun—still listed as not yet S-rank—when he was at Hali’s side.
“The weather’s nice. There seem to be a lot of bugs around lately, don’t you think?”
“Bugs?”
“Yeah. Nasty little bugs, the really pathetic kind.”
“Bugs can be pathetic?”
“They can.”
Gong Seo-yun hadn’t seemed to notice anything, yet his words carried weight.
Jin Hali looked at him with an inscrutable expression, then returned to her work.
But memories of the previous day kept everyone from moving easily.
Only a select few, specialists in concealment, had planned to slip in fast, eliminate both targets, and escape before meeting with Yu Hee.
They’d thought anyone below S-rank was manageable—!
And they’d underestimated Gong Seo-yun because he wasn’t even from a prominent family with special training from childhood.
Gong Seo-yun subjected Jin Hali to an almost obstructive stream of talk—about his younger sibling, his ideal type, all manner of useless chatter.
While holding her attention, he gradually spread crimson mana across the floor.
Damn. F-rankers like them couldn’t even see the inferno spreading beneath them.
Fire—or rather, mana the color of deep red clouds, spreading thin across the floor before expanding its radius.
And every poison trap they’d laid around Jin Hali began burning away.
Without sound, without smell.
“…Should we touch it? Otherwise I feel like we’ll die unfulfilled!”
Yu Seop’s resigned voice prompted Yu Bin to push at his back and speak.
“I admire your self-sacrifice. I’m curious whether he’ll burn just the poison in your blood or incinerate you entirely.”
“I’ll burn, won’t I? Yeah…”
Another direct descendant couldn’t help but speak up to Yu Bin.
“But he’s not S-rank.”
“I heard he just became A-rank. Either the intel was wrong, or he’s growing faster than expected.”
Conversations among assassins aren’t conducted through sound alone—a small mercy.
Then the flames consumed them.
Had they lost consciousness?
When he came to, he thought he must be dead, arriving in the afterlife.
Yet no direct descendant was harmed, and they’d all awakened in some empty field.
Though most of the team members bore injuries.
‘He picked them out so precisely—only those reaching for Yu Hee. Like he knew exactly who they were.’
Remembering it, Yu Bin felt an involuntary shiver run through him.
Had it been only those two, he might have pushed hard for reinforcements from the clan, insisted on processing Jin Hali no matter what.
An S-rank, or even a top-tier A-rank—not threats that would frighten an old family.
But.
“Hali, you’ve got dust in your hair.”
“Huh? Where did that come from?”
“The magpie landed on your head earlier. I think it got on you then.”
“But our Magpie’s clean! Right?”
-I am clean. Dust does not touch my feet. Your master is terrible.
Unlike the two before him, Yuhan Seong had never deployed his own strength directly, yet it seemed he was the true master of that summon magpie that had been hovering annoyingly around Hali.
So he’d been assessing Yuhan Seong based on that alone—
“Guess I was mistaken.”
As he smiled faintly and brushed something from Jin Hali’s hair, three members of the direct descendants’ team vanished without warning and without a trace.
Clean. Complete. Gone.

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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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