Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 175

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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 (14)

“It seems to be blurring out certain specific memories.”
Jin Hali remained composed.
But her eyes examining the Yellow Candy were sharp.
“How? No, wait… is that it?”
That strange shadow over there…
She looked as though she were talking to thin air, which would have seemed mad, but the others appeared to take it seriously rather than dismiss her.
“For now, Tak Jeong-eun and Goi-deun are dragging things out with their boatman conversation, but… what do I do? There’s not much time left, is there? Ugh.”
Baek Ha-yeon bounced impatiently on her heels.
Catching sight of that for a moment, Jin Hali bit her lower lip and concentrated harder.
Isang Hee grew somewhat anxious, thinking the conversation might veer toward identifying the culprit or that Jin Hali would figure out the potion’s effects.
She could always deny everything, of course.
“Was it just sitting here? The basket looks new too.”
“Yeah… so I thought you’d left it to help me relax, and I ate it…”
Isang Hee’s expression didn’t change. She merely gazed at Lee Si-hyeon with poorly concealed contempt and something like pity.
Then, feigning caution, she raised her hand and spoke.
“…Um, well then, I-I can, c-come up with the lines for you.”
“…Huh?”
Lee Si-hyeon stared at her with a vacant expression.
“The, the play can’t f-fall apart…”
A look of bafflement gave way to something peevish mixed with dawning comprehension.
It was clear she’d realized that Isang Hee, too, wanted the play to succeed.
This was, after all, a place to showcase one’s skill—so a failed production would also be a loss for Isang Hee.
In the normal sense, anyway.
“Y-yeah, I suppose…”
“How?”
Jin Hali asked urgently.
“I-I wrote the lines on m-my hand and can show them to you…”
Strangely, Jin Hali seemed almost pleased.
Unlike the others, whose expressions grew complicated as Isang Hee spoke on.
Isang Hee felt irritation welling up, but suppressed it as much as she could and concluded her proposal.
“I c-can write them out for each s-scene, so it w-won’t be too m-much…”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
Hali nodded, her tone uncomfortably warm.
‘What’s she thinking?’
There was no way she couldn’t sense the malice directed at her. Did she not fear for her life?
How could she be so fearless?
Right—it must be because of all those people surrounding her, shielding her. That’s why she didn’t understand the situation.
Isang Hee tamped down her displeasure, deliberately overlooking the fact that Yuhan Seong was among those people.
Lee Si-hyeon looked uncertain, but seemed to realize there was no other way out and eventually nodded.
“Sorry. Thanks. I’m counting on you.”
A flash of satisfaction surged through her.
This was it.
This was the atmosphere Isang Hee had wanted.
She needed to be the center.
If only she could possess what Jin Hali possessed…
“Never mind. We, we need to get ready soon, so let’s go in…”
Of course, she had no intention of teaching the lines correctly.
She’d twist the flow so Shim Chung’s role expanded while the Boatman’s faded.
‘If I get the lines wrong deliberately, they might just dismiss it as mistakes a few times.’
By the time someone might notice and take over the role of feeding her lines, the play would already be underway—too late to fix.
Isang Hee stepped toward the stage first.
Tak Jeong-eun and Goi-deun, who had been congratulating themselves on successfully deceiving the young lady, received her signal and returned.
And naturally, the darkened stage brightened.
***
“Should we do this properly?”
“Let’s just watch once.”
I recalled the urgency I’d seen in Isang Hee’s expression earlier.
‘Friction smoothing out naturally through class events is the sort of thing you’d only see in boys’ manga, but…’
Still, since this is a world within a novel, it’s not bad to accept this much and observe for now.
That’s what I thought.
“Anyway.”
“Tell me about it.”
Hyun I-seo and Seo Jeong-u muttered while shaking their heads.
Han Seong had been watching me with an odd look the whole time.
Just then, Lee Hae-sol, who had come backstage after trading places with Yu Hee earlier, tapped my shoulder.
“You’re not thinking you’ll let her off the hook if she does well, are you, Hali?”
“Huh?”
I opened my eyes wide, trying to grasp the meaning of what he’d said.
What, let her off? If she acts well?
“Like, kidnap you or something.”
“What?”
“…I hope that’s not the case.”
A shadow fell lightly across Lee Hae-sol’s face.
It was just the shadow of the stage equipment falling by chance, but for a moment it looked uncannily like the shadow that falls across a character’s face when they become corrupted in manga.
…It must be my imagination.
“More importantly, how are things outside? The audience reaction and all that…”
“The audience reaction is fine, but… it’s confirmed that those strange people she was in contact with are targeting only the first-year class.”
While Yu Hee was over here, the Teacher had shared this information with Lee Hae-sol from outside.
The movements of those External Threats who’d been in contact with Isang Hee…
It looked exactly as I’d anticipated.
“If they’re planning a large-scale kidnapping of Narin Academy students, they might’ve prepared other things too.”
Han Seong finally broke his silence and spoke.
The others listened in on our conversation while watching the scene where Ppaeng Deok-eomeom takes measures to keep Shim Bong-sa away for a few days, and then Shim Chung’s entrance.
The next scene would be between Shim Bong-sa and Shim Chung.
Lee Si-hyeon was already inside Shim Bong-sa’s Thatched Cottage.
“The Teacher’s expression was amazing when passing this on.”
“Wasn’t that something the Teacher told us about through conventional means?”
“This one they told me directly.”
“So the Teachers are moving after all, it seems.”
“Probably.”
Han Seong nodded.
And then said to Lee Hae-sol, who was murmuring that he’d expected as much:
“If the play finishes safely, can we join in afterward without issues?”
A question about whether we could skip the afternoon performance.
Surely those ruffians planned to complete the kidnapping before strong Hunters from outside descended on the Festival in force.
“With us stuck here doing the play, it might actually be safer.”
“Right, let’s leave what’s outside to the Teachers.”
Seo Jeong-u offered his thoughts carefully, and Baek Ha-yeon seemed to agree, nodding.
Yuhan Seong thought for a moment, glanced at me once, then spoke.
“As long as nothing happens to you, I don’t really mind.”
“Let me think about it until this is over.”
Right now, several problems are converging on us.
It would be ideal if we could safely arrest them this morning or if I could avoid being kidnapped, but it seems they’re targeting other classes too.
Beyond their movements, I can’t be certain what form the original work’s events will take, and in the meantime, we need to get the direct line of the Yoo Clan out safely.
‘And those direct descendants probably won’t try to leave until those External Threats are cleanly dealt with.’
There are people trying to kidnap the heir of a major clan, after all. I couldn’t be sure those External Threats didn’t harbor such intentions.
So it came down to what happened after the play ended—how much the situation with the External Threats would be resolved by the Teachers.
Whether we’d continue the afternoon performance to keep Class 8 in place, or scatter and play some role in the chaos ourselves.
“If we don’t perform, skipping just the first day’s afternoon slot shouldn’t be a major problem if we report it to the Student Council. But from tomorrow on, there can’t be any cancellations.”
“We need to wrap things up before then.”
The Festival spans several days, after all.
If Isang Hee, following her original plan, causes serious harm to the Academy itself…
We’d have had to cancel the afternoon performance anyway since the protagonist would be gone.
But if it doesn’t come to that, I wanted to keep Isang Hee within a range where cooperation was possible in some form.
Yes, for now.
‘You shouldn’t give up on people easily. Especially if they’re young.’
When Yuhan Seong became corrupted, what stood out was how readily he treated people as tools and discarded them. I didn’t want to repeat that approach, if I could help it.
So, Isang Hee.
In the end, it all depends on her.
Whether things become the worst or merely the second-worst outcome.
…While we talked quietly like that, mulling over what lay ahead, we suddenly fell silent with ridiculous expressions on our faces.
“If you just stay hidden here for a few days, your eyes will start to see again, Father!”
“Is that true? Then the whole world will see just how remarkable our daughter is!”
A brief silence fell backstage.
“…What was the original line again?”
“It’s true. Then I’ll be able to see our daughter’s face. …I think.”
“Why would she do that on purpose?”
“And the line itself is way too…”
“How are we supposed to continue after that?”
“Lee Si-hyeon, you idiot—she’s just reciting it all straight…”
“Hali, you don’t think that Oblivion Potion had some kind of stupidity drug mixed in, do you?”
I sighed while watching Lee Si-hyeon deliver her lines in confusion.
And I let go of most of the faint positive expectations I’d been holding onto regarding Isang Hee.
“Sorry. We’re going to have to change the flow of our play.”
Shim Chung and Shim Bong-sa won’t have much reason to be together from here on anyway.
“How remarkable are the abilities our Chung has…? Possess?”
Shim Chung giggled shyly and added a sparkling effect from light scattering at the ends of her Hair Ribbon.
You could almost see question marks appearing in real-time on the audience’s faces.
…That’s not Lee Si-hyeon’s fault—that’s Isang Hee’s blunder.
We couldn’t watch anymore and retreated backstage, carefully writing out Lee Si-hyeon’s lines in Ppaeng Deok-eomeom’s hand.

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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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