Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 179

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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 Has Opened Their Eyes (18)

People’s appearances had changed dramatically since the Great Change.
For Awakeners, genetic influence weakened, while the Mana and Skills they possessed came to bear instead.
Even ordinary people could not escape the influence of Mana from the Other World, so colors that could never appear through genetics often emerged—two-colored hair combining purple and yellow, for instance.
Yet, in truth, there were almost no cases where someone deviated too far from human form.
Not unless they were actively using a Skill.
But the one who had fled was restrained by at minimum an A-grade Restraint Specialization Hunter, making it difficult for them to freely use their Skills.
And if they had used a Skill, the Hunter teacher maintaining the restraint would have noticed immediately.
“My apologies. I failed to sense it.”
In a space swept by collective shock.
That Third Year Hunter teacher lowered his head slowly, apologizing.
He had immediately sent a tracking Summoned Beast, only for it to be Counter-Summoned, and by the time he reported to the Principal, it was already too late.
Choi Ji-hyeong shook his head, seeing the teacher’s expression as though he bore all the blame.
“Even being generous and assuming what we just saw was a form caused by a Skill, it was unnatural. There must be something else at play.”
“Right. For now, our job is to hold this position, so let’s focus on that.”
Most of the teachers had already returned to their own classes.
At Hong So-yeong’s words, the other teacher exhaled and nodded once before heading back to his class.
“What about you, Ji-hyeong?”
Only then did Hong So-yeong turn back to regard Choi Ji-hyeong meaningfully.
She had expected him to be among the first to return to his class, so his lingering presence suggested something was amiss.
Choi Ji-hyeong, staring at the spot where the culprit had vanished with an oddly rigid expression, finally spoke.
“That person just made contact with Isang Hee.”
“What?”
“As for the students, I’m already monitoring them, so there’s no problem.”
“Wait, hold on. You shouldn’t just be monitoring—shouldn’t you go check on them?”
“I have something else to attend to.”
Choi Ji-hyeong glanced once toward the direction where Class 8’s play was in progress, then turned away without hesitation.
“What is it? Why?”
He didn’t spare a glance at Hong So-yeong, who pressed after him.
He looked deeply displeased.
“Aren’t you going?”
“I already went. My class is managing fine on their own.”
The way he added that they seemed to hint he was only getting in the way suggested there really was no problem.
Unlike Choi Ji-hyeong’s class.
“So what do we need to do?”
“The Summoned Beast was Counter-Summoned, but plants have eyes everywhere.”
“Ah, of course. I should’ve known. So where is the culprit now?”
All the other perpetrators had been turned over to the Principal. Except for the one who had escaped.
And it was Choi Ji-hyeong who had been tasked with apprehending that single fugitive.
The Principal had reported separately on Isang Hee before entrusting him with this task.
Choi Ji-hyeong had agreed readily.
If by any chance tracking them down led to something about Isang Hee, it was better that he be the first to encounter it.
‘If I catch those who want to kidnap her beforehand, then even if something goes wrong, I can rescue Jin Hali.’
That calculation lay beneath his decision as well.
Yet, in the process of tracking via plants, something unexpected had begun to unfold.
“……Why does your expression look like that? Where on earth is the culprit?”
Seeing Choi Ji-hyeong’s expression grow even more grave, Hong So-yeong sensed something and asked anxiously.
“I expected them to be in some back alley somewhere.”
“……Not there?”
“No.”
Having Hong So-yeong present would be more helpful.
So Choi Ji-hyeong shared the information in a cold tone.
“They’re heading to the highest point in the heart of the Capital.”
Hong So-yeong’s face went pale.
The highest point.
That was where the Awakened Management Center was located.
***
Simcheong, who had leapt into the Indan River, arrived at the Dragon Palace in the deep sea.
It would have suited Lee Hae-sol better, but since he had stepped back for external management, the one with the opposite Skill had been assigned instead.
There was supposedly something he was aiming for, but he wouldn’t explain during rehearsals either, so no one knew what it was.
“You’ve finally come.”
Seo Jeong-u, dressed as the Dragon King, greeted Simcheong with a thin smile.
It was a cold smile.
“Has it been nearly a decade? A human who reached this place alive.”
Flames whirled playfully through the empty air, resembling a small dragon.
A dragon of fire beneath the sea—it made no sense, yet precisely because of that incongruity, the Dragon King stood out all the more.
More so even than Isang Hee, who still wore the radiance wrapped around her body.
And her costume was orange, at that.
‘I chose orange instead of red for the dragon robe, but it actually stands out even more in this setting.’
I finished preparing to go on as Yeonbong.
If Simcheong had arrived as a living person after ten years, then Yeonbong was the living person who had arrived in the Dragon Palace ten years before that point in the story.
She seemed to have a substantial backstory, but Yeonbong was just a supporting character—that’s all she was.
A supporting character prepared purely to become Simcheong’s limbs and extensions, one might say.
“……The boatmen said they’d rescue me.”
“How naive. You actually believed that?”
The Dragon King, toying with the flames in a bored manner, let out a soft laugh as he spoke.
“They must surely believe you’re dead by now.”
“I have to go back.”
As if Mana was running short, the light surrounding Isang Hee began to fade.
It was odd.
If it were merely a matter of making Mana visible, it shouldn’t have dimmed in this span of time.
Yet to say it was being deliberately obscured for dramatic effect—right up until just now, as Isang Hee delivered her lines, she had been straining to create a light brighter and more intense than the Dragon King’s flames, as if locked in confrontation.
‘Judging purely by her demeanor, it does seem her Mana is depleting……. Then she must be using a Skill?’
As the Dragon King spoke of treating a living person well and asked them to name what they desired, I heard Simcheong ask to be sent back to the surface, and I pondered this.
Isang Hee’s Skill was Barrier.
Since Isang Hee hadn’t been present during Class 8’s group training, I didn’t know the details of her Skill well, but I possessed information about her from the original work.
‘I think she had some purification ability too. Or was it regeneration? It wasn’t healing exactly, but she had a Skill that could serve as a healer’s substitute.’
But that Skill required a target to use.
So within the scope of what I knew, the Skill of Isang Hee capable of producing that light was not.
‘Not Barrier. Barrier has a distinct form you can clearly see.’
There was only one other option. Stigma.
‘……An offensive Skill.’
B-grade Skill, Stigma.
Despite its name evoking a saint, it was a Skill that poisoned anything touched by the light.
While the radiance persisted, there was no antidote, but against those of a higher rank, it had no perfect effect, and the radiance exposed that poisoning was occurring—so for Isang Hee, it was a Skill better kept hidden.
In the original work, it was a Supporting Skill that had earned decent scenes in a late-stage episode that let Isang Hee occupy the heroine’s position…….
But until just before that scene, the original Isang Hee had never openly used that Skill.
So I wanted to believe otherwise.
‘Just how much does she hate me?’
Soon Yeonbong would have to approach Simcheong. On the surface, it would be harder to move while staying as close as we are now.
So if there’s a reason for maintaining the fading light with all her might, it had to be me, didn’t it?
‘I don’t understand.’
No matter how young someone was, I couldn’t fathom killing without such hesitation.
No one in my vicinity was like that, so I couldn’t attribute it to the nature of this world’s people.
Yet remembering that in the original work Isang Hee had been something of a yandere heroine, it wasn’t entirely without precedent, so I had accepted it and moved on.
But that too changed when I saw the circumstances suggesting she had a hand in the terrorism.
If she hated me enough to want me dead, at least I could attribute it to emotion. But if it’s not that—if for her own purposes she doesn’t care who dies or how many…….
‘Even this light. While it’s said the poison won’t seep into the target unless intended, the children were still exposed to it up close all this time.’
She was openly using an offensive Skill.
I couldn’t bear that the children were defenseless against such danger.
With Isang Hee’s high Mana rank, those at a similar or slightly lower grade could be driven to the brink of death.
‘I was careless too.’
No matter how overwhelmed with information about terrorism and everything else, I should have thought of that Skill beforehand.
I had just bitten the inside of my lip and hardened my expression when it came.
‘Hali? You okay?’
The voice of Seo Jeong-u, playing the Dragon King. I composed my face.
‘I’m fine.’
Potions might be useless.
Then it was only healing.
‘Three times only, and I might have to use one on stage.’
That degree was within my calculations.
I readied the healing I had practiced daily and kept my gaze fixed on Isang Hee.
The Dragon King, speaking from atop a platform far from her, looked disinclined as he said:
“Then I shall need someone to guide the lotus maiden. Who will fetch Yeonbong?”

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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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