Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 154

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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 on Shadows (16)

Honestly, I couldn’t be certain how many direct-line members I actually needed to keep alive.
It was because of the Yoo Clan’s Concealment Technique.
According to Yu Hee, there were a few others as skilled at concealment as she was now?
“The Yoo Clan’s Concealment Technique ranks in the top three in the world.”
“……So you’re saying it’s not a skill but an actual technique passed down through people?”
Hyun I-seo asked with a look of shock, and Yu Hee only smiled silently in response.
She went on to say she’d never focused entirely on concealment at full strength up until now.
“I mean, the thing is, there are cases where even Mana Detection can’t catch them sometimes.”
Han Seong’s eyes grew interested at that. A concealment technique advanced enough to evade even S-Ranks without relying on mana—that was something else.
Though reaching that level seemed to be a rare case limited to those with true genius in concealment or assassins who’d trained for decades.
That’s why I hadn’t known the exact number of people earlier.
‘We were detecting up to ten. There were two more.’
“Whether those two made it here, I’m not sure. They should be on assignment abroad right now. If they did come, it’s safer to assume we won’t detect them.”
Those two seemed to be the people Yu Hee had warned me about.
“……It’s possible if I concentrate, but you said I can’t do that, Hali. Are you really sure about this?”
“Don’t worry. You have training you need to focus on anyway, don’t you?”
Yu Hee seemed to be gaining insight from her training in the Lion’s Domain—it was a critical moment.
Just as the protagonists of martial arts novels achieve enlightenment and become masters, Awakeners in this world experienced rapid growth whenever they began grasping the essence of mana and power.
Sometimes it was dramatic enough to change their rank entirely.
‘Such moments don’t come often.’
Yu Hee looked intently at the Lion and my Earring—Erich—then nodded with difficulty.
And now.
Those two people she’d mentioned, likely the direct-line members whose names were the only ones mentioned in the original when they rushed Yuhan Seong, were now radiating killing intent at me.
I gauged that my newly developed Painless Potion had about thirty minutes of effect left, then opened my mouth.
“You want Yu Hee to be sincere to you all, don’t you?”
At the same time, I spoke inwardly to Erich and the Lion.
‘Erich, you didn’t forget our deal, right?’
[……Damn it…….]
Erich responded as if grinding his teeth.
He had suggested I let him borrow my body for a moment to wipe these people out. He didn’t trust assassins like this.
When I insisted on my plan, he’d been sulking hard about it until just now, when he finally told me the real number of assassins was twelve, not ten.
But I didn’t change my plan in the end.
After one curse, Erich seemed to give up and said nothing more—he took quite a bit of my lifespan.
‘Actually, it’s less than I expected?’
Since I’d pushed my physical recovery to an extreme rather than exchange mana, I couldn’t even verify the amount of mana.
But I didn’t ask about it.
Without any warning, a blade entered just below my throat and began gouging through.
“Ah.”
“……Ah?”
The opponent, moving with hidden subtlety and deliberate slowness to gauge my reaction, let out an astounded laugh.
This was probably Yu Seop, who’d charged Yuhan Seong first in the original story only to end up with a handful of blood left—nothing more.
A moment passed.
The attacker’s face, bewildered by my casual reaction, began to stiffen gradually.
He’d realized the blade couldn’t push deeper into my throat.
As I smiled thinly while blood trickled out, the breathing of a direct-line member approaching from behind grew ragged.
It had to be Yu Rim, the one who used poison.
He was said to have the Vampire Skill. The problem was that thanks to it, he showed exceptional ability at injecting poison—but smelling blood made him lose his composure.
And the blood scent he was particularly vulnerable to was either that of civilians with low mana or S-Rankers with excessive amounts.
“Ah, ugh……! Urgh…….”
“Take him out.”
Among them, only Yu Seop and Yu Bin would have the skill to extract Yu Rim without killing him once he lost his composure and was on the verge of rampage.
Whish.
Before Yu Seop’s words even finished, Yu Bin pulled Yu Rim back.
Yu Seop paused as he glanced at Yu Rim, who was embedded (rather gracefully, all things considered) in the wall by a Greatsword through his side.
The F-Rank Healer whose throat I’d pierced was gone.
“……! Where did—”
“Whoosh.”
I was sitting on a black tree stump, hovering in midair through the Lion’s power.
Then I teased them by tapping the empty space with my finger.
“Nice and clean.”
In the meantime, one of the direct-line members had woven a dense web dome above.
“What do you think would happen if fire broke out here?”
A direct-line member with an Ice Ability—one that froze people from the inside out as soon as it entered the body—had been floating dozens of pale blue ice crystals in midair but stopped.
“Rabbit, are you trying to kill us all?”
The person presumed to be Yu Seop threw several jet-black Daggers and caught them as he spoke.
He seemed at ease, but his eyes were tense.
There was no fire-wielding ability user among them. No earth-attribute user either.
So before that thick, dense web could burn away, they’d all just have to die, wouldn’t they?
“That’s a bit inconvenient. We really do need to meet our sister.”
“About that—what if Yu Hee refuses to listen to you?”
“Our sister would never do that.”
Their eyes were vicious as they stared.
As I let the blood drip without wiping it away, the direct-line member lodged in the wall growled.
From their actions, these members seemed not to want to kill each other.
This contradicted what Yu Hee had told me.
‘What could it be?’
I’d thought they were immature in the sense of being poor at managing emotional upheaval, but this was something else entirely.
And there seemed to be a strange obsession with Yu Hee on top of that.
“If I were in your place, I’d probably be pretty angry if relatives who’ve been trying to kill me said they went after my friend. My friends have done that for me.”
I stretched out time while smiling faintly, pressing that sensitive point they’d been reacting to since earlier.
Of course, silent attacks kept coming in the meantime.
“Of course, Yu Hee was the same.”
As I rose into the air and Yu Seop was forced to pull the blade from my throat, he bared his teeth in a wide grin and spoke.
“If you’d just cooperate with us, Rabbit, I think we could end this without anyone dying. What do you say?”
“I don’t know. The way things are going, it doesn’t seem like we’d miss each other at all. Wouldn’t it be better if I just showed these wounds to Yu Hee and reported you all to the School?”
“Too bad. Then I’ll kill you slowly. I’ll at least leave your rabbit ears intact.”
I was watching Yu Seop nod when my back was slashed.
Of course, the potion kept me from feeling pain, and since I’d taken special compounds—Painless Potion plus recovery enhancement and antidote simultaneously, with no diminishing effect from stacking—there was no real damage beyond the bleeding.
‘My recovery’s at monster levels right now anyway.’
True, this would mean my wounds would be slow to heal for a while, but that was fine.
What would an instantly-closing wound have looked like to an assassin’s eyes?
I turned around casually to find Yu Bin floating in midair, staring at me. His eyes were sharp with killing intent and fear.
‘So there was a Levitation Ability user among the direct line? Or maybe it’s a hidden skill of Yu Bin’s?’
Yu Bin’s Greatsword grazed the empty air once more as he stepped on something invisible.
‘I was torn between the Agility Potion and the Nerve Response Enhancement Potion.’
Choosing the response enhancement seemed to have been the right call.
I’d picked it partly because it had a synergistic amplification effect when combined with the Luck Potion, and it seemed better than the Agility option.
Habitually cataloging its efficacy, I dodged the Greatsword aimed at my throat—why was such a large blade moving so smoothly, like a serpent?—and kept moving.
Honestly, because of the Lion’s support, I only needed minimal tension; it felt like playing a game.
The Magpie I’d sent just outside the web dome was circling above it, crying out.
I could hear the Lion trembling and muttering something only I could hear.
[Damn, damn humans. How dare they touch my Protagonist. I’ll kill them. I’ll kill…….]
When I’d told the Lion to only let wounds appear on me, he’d genuinely sulked.
Still, he was doing well by what I’d asked.
‘Calm down, Lion. These are all recruitment targets.’
The Death Masquerade Potion requires conditions, after all.
‘I have to spray the blood I just shed before the Instant Death Potion.’
The blood acts as a neutralizer when the potion gets absorbed through the skin.
It doesn’t strictly need to be my own blood, but when it comes to applying the necessary amount to the necessary targets—it has to be mine or it won’t work.
That’s why I chose this moment.
Right now, when all of Class 8 except Isang Hee had entered the Lion’s Domain.
‘Lion, just to be safe, you need to seal the exit. You didn’t forget, right?’
[Yes, but, Protagonist.]
That was when I heard the Lion speak.
‘Huh?’
[Your friends inside are starting to notice this place. What should we do?]

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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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