Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 166

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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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18. Who Opens Their Eyes (5)

His cold palm warmed slightly against my meager body heat.
It felt awkward at first—not just holding hands, but interlacing fingers—yet there was something right about it in its own way.
Truth be told, Lee Hae-sol hadn’t shown this kind of instability since becoming S-rank, so I’d been a bit worried.
‘He looks better now, though.’
His eyes, calm as a settled sea, glimmered like water catching moonlight as he gazed at me quietly.
“So if you don’t want to worry me, don’t say you’re fine. Tell me what’s bothering you instead—it’ll be faster that way.”
I spoke in a lighter tone and gently swung our joined hands back and forth, watching his eyes widen slightly.
“……Okay.”
“Even if it’s hard to talk about, just being together like this is enough, right?”
The way they’d all been for me.
Could that meaning have been conveyed as well?
“Yeah.”
His faint smile spread all the way to his eyes.
The shimmer that had only lived in his gaze now radiated across his entire face—it was dazzling.
I felt people around us pause for a moment when they saw that expression. I understood.
I’d lost myself for a moment too.
The blue eyes of Westerners were beautiful, and so were the changed colors of those whose eyes had been altered by dungeon influence, but Lee Hae-sol’s eyes felt distinctly different from anything else.
At least in that moment.
“Hali.”
That’s when I heard Seo Jeong-u’s voice.
When he hadn’t gone along with the others—when they’d escorted her back to where they’d been before, using the excuse of rehearsing lines for a theatrical scene to redirect Han Seong’s attention away from us—he’d stayed here instead.
I glanced past our classmates, including Yu Hee and the others from Eden, who were watching the excited crowd before the festival, and turned to face Seo Jeong-u.
Standing on the opposite side from Lee Hae-sol, right beside me, Seo Jeong-u kept staring at the door, indifferent to whatever was happening here.
Unlike usual, his expression was devoid of any smile.
He’d seemed odd earlier—tilting his head—but now his face had gone completely rigid.
“What’s wrong?”
I asked with concern, and he bit the inside of his lip for a moment before pointing at something with his hand.
“Look over there.”
“Over there?”
“Not the door. Beside it.”
Ah, so it wasn’t the shape of the door that startled him the way it had me.
I’d been wondering if he’d sensed something other than surprise at the door’s form, but it seemed I’d been overthinking it.
Still swinging our joined hands gently, Lee Hae-sol and I looked in the direction Seo Jeong-u had indicated.
And both of us stopped swinging our hands.
“Byeolrak?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Hae-sol murmured uncertainly, and Seo Jeong-u nodded in confirmation.
He lifted the corners of his mouth slightly to ease the tension.
“I was just thinking—Narin Festival is famous, but would Byeolrak really show up for it?”
“Hmm……. It’s not that kind of event, though? Isn’t that reporter famous?”
Byeolrak was among the top three most credible news channels in this world.
It covered both civilian society and hunter society, with a focus on balanced reporting of day-to-day hunter matters.
There were a few famous reporters on that channel, and one of them hosted her own program with a signature opening line.
That opening line went something like…….
“Lightning doesn’t strike just when the heavens rage. It also strikes when truth is hidden. This is Chai-ri’s Lightning Report! Starting now.”
……Right, that’s it.
Despite the distance, Lee Hae-sol and Seo Jeong-u, being high-rank hunters, seemed to have heard it clearly from where they stood.
I gathered as much from watching the reporter’s lips move.
In front of the reporter, who was narrating the atmosphere of the scene, there floated an Image Orb.
Think of it like the Image Orb that Eden Guild had brought when they applied to Narin—but this one seemed to have additional equipment attached, and appeared to be controllable through Chai-ri’s mana or skills.
And there weren’t many Image Orbs like that visible in the surrounding area.
“Chai-ri was A-rank, right?”
“So that reporter is Chai-ri.”
As expected, I murmured, and Seo Jeong-u nodded and told us:
“Right. And I’d be careful about what you say. That reporter is famous for catching sounds from a distance too.”
Hyun I-seo, who had been standing over there muttering stage lines in a gloomy voice while holding theatrical clothes under her arms, snapped her fingers.
“Now you won’t hear us anymore…….”
It seemed she’d been listening to our conversation this whole time.
We all laughed awkwardly and thanked her, though I-seo’s usual brightness had darkened into something more ominous.
Seo Jeong-u glanced at the door again—which wasn’t yet open since it wasn’t the appointed time—felt my gaze, awkwardly looked away, and asked Lee Hae-sol:
“But A-rank? So that’s why her hearing is so sharp.”
“It’s not widely known, but there are times when reporters visit my family, so I know. She’s definitely A-rank. I’m not sure about her specific skill though.”
Lee Hae-sol tilted his head slightly as he continued:
“But she shouldn’t be coming to a place like this.”
“Right. Now that I think about the rank, I don’t get why she’d come to a children’s festival. It’s not even an A-rank dungeon.”
Seo Jeong-u muttered.
“Well, Byeolrak covers reporting everywhere anyway, so her being here isn’t that strange.”
Lee Hae-sol and I both nodded.
The Byeolrak channel only released carefully selected information, but the amount of reporting they actually did was enormous compared to what they disclosed.
The fact that they held back so much meant whatever they kept was that significant.
‘And as far as I know, Byeolrak will transform into an information guild rather than just a news channel within a year or two.’
Sending reporting crews to remote, small dungeons when they weren’t planning to release the information anyway—that was all preparation for that transformation.
She’d become an excellent ally for Yuhan Seong later, the kind who was both with him and apart from him……but that’s a distant matter.
In any case.
“If the reporting reporter is Chai-ri, then it’s different. She tends to report mainly on the Association or large guilds.”
The fact that Chai-ri had come, as Seo Jeong-u said, was indeed significant.
Even more so, knowing the original story.
‘Chai-ri is supposed to become the next vice-master of the Information Guild. She’s not just some famous reporter.’
The fact that she’d come meant…….
I told Seo Jeong-u:
“Right. It could be her personal choice, but……the odds seem low.”
“Why?”
“The Image Orbs reporters carry stand out, don’t they? But there are other reporters from Byeolrak here besides this one.”
Seo Jeong-u checked the Byeolrak area and its surroundings again, then went, “Ah.”
“You’re right. If they’d only sent her, it’d be different.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to think that Byeolrak wants to cover something through Chai-ri that can only be covered by her, separate from the festival coverage?”
“That’s a fair point.”
Just then, Hyun I-seo, dressed awkwardly with theatrical clothes layered underneath, walked over and stood beside us, speaking:
“Are you really not seeing this?”
“What?”
“I’d bet this skirt that reporter came specifically to cover Class 8.”
“But you can’t bet that skirt—it’s a costume piece.”
Seo Jeong-u spoke with a regretful expression.
Hyun I-seo, the only male student among them who’d ended up in drag, replied with a distasteful look:
“Damn……. Anyway, I’m saying she probably came to report on our class.”
“But…….”
Chai-ri was the type who didn’t do in-depth reporting on minors.
In the original story, that was her principle.
Whether for good or ill, she avoided covering minors when possible.
That’s why she had no connection to Narin Academy until after Yuhan Seong graduated, when she became a collaborator.
‘Since Narin Academy students aren’t exactly civilians, she wouldn’t refuse outright.’
But if Byeolrak wanted in-depth coverage of Class 8 the way I-seo suggested, there would have been more suitable reporters to send than Chai-ri.
“But?”
Hyun I-seo asked, confused.
Since I couldn’t discuss Chai-ri’s personal convictions, I decided to say something else.
……Besides, as we talked about this, Seo Jeong-u’s expression seemed to be loosening a bit as the topic shifted.
“If Byeolrak sent Chai-ri to cover Class 8, I don’t think the intent is favorable.”
“……Chai-ri’s specialty is exposing exaggerations, so that’s a fair point.”
Lee Hae-sol nodded quietly as he spoke.
To be precise, her thoroughness at not overlooking suspicious details combined with a power that ignores social barriers had made her the type who ended up exposing misconduct.
If a reporter with that kind of specialty had come, either Class 8 had been greatly exaggerated outside the Academy, or…….
“Maybe she came to report on the Annihilation Dungeon itself.”
Following Seo Jeong-u’s suggestion, we could assume that Byeolrak had sent the highest-ranking reporter—the one most likely to survive—specifically to cover the Annihilation Dungeon and Class 8 along with it.
Hyun I-seo shrugged as she spoke:
“Either way, if there’s ever a chance we need to use Gold Coins, I think it’d be best not to be caught on that reporter’s Image Orb. What do you think?”
“We’ve already distributed them.”
Including to Isang Hee.
“If we ever need to move using Gold Coins, maybe we should think up an excuse to tell people later.”
“True.”
We exchanged awkward glances and nodded in agreement.
Then we rushed over to our Teacher.
“I’ll hear the full explanation later. For now, I understand.”
Our class’s disposable instantaneous teleportation Gold Coins successfully masqueraded as a rare treasure that our Teacher had miraculously acquired from some Special Dungeon.
‘……I’ll eventually have to reveal the truth about my dungeon to the Teacher, but that was always the plan anyway…….’
Still, considering what would happen in the Festival Dungeon, the reporter probably wouldn’t have time to focus on the Gold Coins.
“Alright. Now let’s focus on getting the Yoo Clan’s direct line out safely and putting on a good show!”
At Seo Jeong-u’s words, all of Class 8, who had gathered by now, responded enthusiastically.
Dong—!
A massive bronze bell, enshrined at some temple, rang out to mark precisely nine o’clock in the morning, and its body trembled.
At the same moment, light began to spill through the cracks of the Gate of Divine Fate.

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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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