Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 159
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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. Chasing Shadows (21)
The investigation was moving quickly at the scene.
It was partly because dragging it out would be burdensome, but mostly because the situation was far too obvious.
When Yuhan Seong, Lee Hae-sol, and Yu Hee approached the people still conducting the investigation, they hesitated upon seeing Yu Hee.
Yu Hee stepped forward naturally and spoke to them.
“Would it be alright if we examined the bodies?”
Even though she knew they weren’t actually dead.
Those unfamiliar with the situation, knowing these were people Yu Hee and her family had known since childhood, wavered in their response.
“We’ve already been briefed on the situation, so please don’t worry and hand them over to us.”
Since Yu Hee was now presenting herself not as an Academy student but as the heir of the Yoo Clan, the investigators nodded reluctantly.
The Verification Mark that Choi Ji-hyeong had provided also made it simple for all three to receive full authority on the spot.
Though it helped that they’d become famous high-ranked individuals.
“Faces I know.”
It was a situation where a gentle smile didn’t fit, but Yu Hee didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
And she didn’t care what people might whisper about it either.
The crucial parts of Jin Hali’s plan had been accomplished, so now all that mattered was that they could take these faked corpses to Hali and ensure those direct line members never dared attack her again.
Lee Hae-sol was examining Yu Bin’s Great Sword.
The blade that bore Hali’s blood.
He picked up the sword, then wrapped Yu Bin in mana and left him floating in midair.
Of course, together with the other three direct line members.
“Should we collect all the Hidden Blades?”
Yuhan Seong asked.
If he decided to do it, he wouldn’t miss a single Spider Web.
“Better to. They’re good quality, and some of them are hard to find anywhere else.”
Beyond that, taking them as keepsakes would be worthwhile.
These people would have to stay hidden until at least Class 8 graduated.
They’d finish quickly and return to Hali.
By now, Hali should’ve regained consciousness, shouldn’t she? Then they’d nurse her while nagging her relentlessly.
Not just Yuhan Seong’s team but all of Class 8 would do the same, so Hali might need a Potion pressed to her ear in advance.
“……There’s so much blood.”
Lee Hae-sol murmured.
The two didn’t respond.
They felt the same.
Their anger wasn’t roused merely by the sight of blood pouring out.
You could tell from the footage.
That these were deliberate actions. Even the injuries themselves were calculated.
The way she ignored her own wounds, unconcerned with scars, and scattered her own blood as if it were spring water drawn from nowhere—it was so coldly resolute that it made them burn.
Yuhan Seong bit his lower lip hard and, with rare emotional intensity, watched Yu Hee methodically arrange the bodies and their belongings.
Lee Hae-sol, his gaze fixed on Hali’s blood clinging to the blade’s edge like a mortal enemy, his expression sharper than usual as he collected the Spider Web with mana.
He genuinely empathized with them.
What good was it to regress multiple times?
Understanding the value of cooperation meant he’d learned how precious people truly were.
But protecting the most precious person and cooperating with her seemed impossible—no matter what epiphany he’d reached, no matter how many regressions had honed his senses and skill.
“If this incident—”
He suddenly spoke.
His voice carried farther since he’d confirmed the investigators had moved away.
Lee Hae-sol and Yu Hee glanced at him.
Curious what Yuhan Seong, who’d been silently and relentlessly active from the moment the Lion’s Domain was destroyed, wanted to say.
“If Jin Hali suffers any lasting aftereffects—”
“Then they should die.”
Of course, the direct line members who inflicted them.
“Good thing there are twelve of them.”
Lee Hae-sol murmured softly.
The Yoo Clan’s collapse could be handled later if necessary. Whether it took time or not, none of them wished for Hali to accept this cost.
There was a premise of survival in standing against ruin. So that was positive.
But if she bore scars enough to leave aftereffects, accepting them as if death were nothing, all for one person—not even to prevent ruin—they would stop her.
In that sense, what Isang Hee was currently orchestrating couldn’t continue to prioritize only Hali’s desired outcome.
“Hali sometimes seems not to understand what Hunters really are.”
Yu Hee murmured.
Behind her, Yuhan Seong and Lee Hae-sol were finishing up their work.
Wearing such a beautiful facade doesn’t mean you won’t be deceived by it.
Look at them even now.
For just a moment, as if a trick of the eye, a mana field took shape around the two of them in a visible form.
It was a phenomenon that only occurred in S-rank Hunters.
Depending on emotion, or according to the direction of one’s will and thoughts, mana would reveal the shape of one’s essence.
‘But what are those?’
A black tiger and a goblin form.
‘A goblin? Somehow Lee Hae-sol’s side looks even more ferocious?’
She’d thought he was docile because he usually flowed like water.
Yu Hee caught a glimpse of their mana fields over her shoulder and her eyes grew thoughtful for a moment.
“……They’re basically wild animals, all of them.”
There was no need to linger on forms invisible to Hali.
A red hawk form flickered briefly through Yu Hee’s shadow before vanishing.
***
I opened my eyes at the sound of someone sobbing.
‘This sounds like… a lion’s voice.’
It was practically wailing with anguish.
Startled, I opened my eyes fully and instinctively turned toward the sound, when someone slapped my shoulder.
“Stay still, you disaster magnet.”
“……Huh? What?”
It was Eden.
Eden looked at me with his eyes tilted even higher, then said:
“Hali, even your Potion won’t prevent scarring on your throat.”
“My throat?”
“……Don’t tell me you don’t remember?”
I felt the air turn cold and swallowed hard.
What’s going on? Oh, right. I did something to make them angry.
“I’m sorry I startled you by getting trapped. I’m truly sorry.”
Friends who’d gathered around me while I was training—when had they even adapted to this space enough to ride clouds? Terrifying.—their expressions all clouded at once at my apology.
Lee Si-hyeon’s optimism and our party members’ slight cynicism in the same expression.
It was straight-up horror.
I was scared, but I’d done wrong, so let me just bow my head first.
“If you all joined in, later when I communicate with those direct line members, my presence would keep causing static. So I made a slight… adjustment. There wasn’t time to discuss it, so I just…”
I didn’t expect the Yoo Clan direct lines to already have such blind loyalty toward Yu Hee.
Of course, with just that brief encounter, I couldn’t judge if they truly possessed proper loyalty to Yu Hee, but I’d glimpsed obsession rooted in goodwill and the stubbornness of a spoiled child demanding attention.
So the timing of my friends joining in became slightly, just slightly later than originally discussed.
[What kind of nonsense is this.]
Erich cut in bluntly.
[You nearly died.]
Since even Erich seemed genuinely furious, I ended up on my knees.
“What are you doing? Why are you kneeling?”
Yu Hee, with an anger I’d never seen before, forcefully made me comfortable.
……It didn’t feel like the right time to sit cross-legged.
Baek Ha-yan shouted with the face of a vengeful spirit.
“Hali! You’re under confinement for at least four days! We all decided together!”
“Confinement?”
“Recovery is faster here, right? Confinement until the scar on your throat disappears!”
“We’d rather be awful than watch you die.”
At Hyun I-seo’s murmured words, I was shocked.
“What? Die? I wasn’t even in mortal danger—!”
[Mortal danger?]
At Erich’s flat tone, I hesitated, and Yuhan Seong, who’d been watching, spoke curtly.
“People die when they lose too much blood. You should know that.”
“That’s true, but I took precautions.”
“……Are you saying you increased your recovery speed to the point of replacing the blood you lost so you wouldn’t die from blood loss? Hali, you’re fine with us doing that?”
I reflexively cried out.
“What—no, that won’t do! What am I even—oh…”
“Haha.”
“Now I understand exactly why we’re angry~!”
Yuhan Seong drew a soft smile across his shadowed, refined face. Seo Jeong-u added a laugh with bitter satisfaction.
The lion, who’d been ignoring my calls and weeping sadly while very slowly rebuilding his palace—now I saw he was doing it slowly on purpose for me to witness.
“Hali.”
Lee Hae-sol laid me down properly, his expression hurt.
“You’ll accept confinement, right?”
I’d be recovering until just before the festival.
‘It’s not so bad. The important work finished safely. The direct line members will need time to recover too.’
Unaware that those direct line members had never been given any recovery time in the first place, I obediently nodded.
Endearingly, everyone’s expressions softened as if they’d been waiting, and they spent a while playing around my sickbed.
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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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