Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 181

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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 Opened Their Eyes? (20)

“Next scene!”
Backstage.
Goi-deun called out.
“Sim Hak-kyu and Ppaeng-seo!”
“……Or rather, the old woman Ppaeng-deok?”
Hyun I-seo responded darkly, but no one paid attention.
“Anyway, are you both ready? Remember! Romance! Romance, got it?”
“I’ve said it countless times—give up on that idea.”
“Just follow the script!”
“Where exactly are the people here who are actually following the script?”
At Hyun I-seo’s remark, Eden looked at a loss for words. Then, gazing toward the stage, he murmured wistfully.
“Well, that’s true enough…….”
Even Yuhan Seong, who had been serious until then, let out a soft laugh at how ridiculous the situation was.
“The audience’s expressions are worth watching.”
“……I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that it’s only people from school.”
This is how the original Sim Cheong Legend goes.
There was a blind man named Sim Hak-kyu who had a daughter called Sim Cheong, but since Sim Cheong’s mother passed away after giving birth, Sim Bong-sa raised his daughter alone and made his living by begging.
One day, Sim Bong-sa fell into the water but was rescued by a monk, who told him that if he made an offering of three hundred stones of rice, he could regain his sight.
Unaware of their dire circumstances, the father rashly promised to do so, and Sim Cheong, to fulfill his wish, prepared three hundred stones of rice and agreed to be offered as a sacrifice to the Ingang Water.
After striking a bargain with merchants, she cast herself into the river.
Sim Cheong did not perish in the sea but was guided to the Dragon King’s Palace, for the Jade Emperor had taken pity on her filial devotion.
In the palace, she met her mother, and at the Jade Emperor’s command to return to the human world, she floated up cradled in a lotus flower.
The one who retrieved the lotus was a king, who, captivated by Sim Cheong’s beauty when she emerged from it, made her his queen.
As queen, Sim Cheong was swindled by the old woman Ppaeng-deok in her absence, robbed of all three hundred stones of rice, and set about searching for her father, whose eyes still had not opened.
And at the moment father and daughter were reunited, Sim Bong-sa finally regained his sight—that is the tale.
We had stripped away the fantastical elements and added a few realistic touches, but we hadn’t altered the fundamental framework of the original.
‘We did recast the old woman Ppaeng-deok as a virtuous character and changed the Jade Emperor’s role to the Dragon King…….’
So it would have been easy to just stick to it, but Isang Hee was acting wildly, quite unlike the rehearsals.
You’d think she’d taken on Sim Cheong only for this.
“If she’d just followed the script, she’d have had plenty of chances to clash with Yuhan Seong on stage early on. I don’t know why she’s doing this.”
At Hyun I-seo’s blunt remark, Sim Bong-sa—Lee Si-hyeon—giggled and said something.
“Seems she doesn’t have to do it! ……Huh?”
And having spoken, as if she’d just realized something, her face went blank.
Everyone else wore the same expression.
Even Lee Hae-sol, who was heading off to swap positions with Yu Hee, stopped short.
“……You were looking forward to it like that during rehearsals? This is unnatural.”
At Lee Hae-sol’s words, Han Seong said flatly:
“It’s now.”
Though he said nothing more, everyone backstage understood.
That now was the moment Isang Hee would make her move.
An attitude suggesting that it didn’t matter if the following scenes became a mess—because she’d already known that at some point, someone would vanish from the play.
“But how? I thought she’d try something while we were back here.”
“It seems she means to do it on stage instead.”
“Lee Hae-sol?”
Yu Hee came looking for Lee Hae-sol, who hadn’t appeared.
Reading the unsettling atmosphere, she barked orders to the Direct Line, then joined them backstage.
“Looks like the terror situation outside is being resolved. But why’s the mood like this?”
“Isang Hee seems to be trying to openly abduct Hali on stage.”
Baek Ha-yan answered with a bewildered expression.
“What?”
Kim Myeong-hyeon, who had been assigned the narration and barely had time to rest while casting skills, stopped by briefly, heard that remark, and swallowed hard with a gasp.
Then, glancing idly at Lee Hae-sol’s shadow, his eyes went wide.
‘A goblin……?’
He thought it must be a coincidence, but a shadow shaped like a goblin at this very moment—suddenly the usually mild-mannered Lee Hae-sol seemed as terrifying as that goblin itself.
“It’s something we’ve been waiting for, but I’m still worried.”
“Waiting for it? That sounds strange.”
“What I mean is, if it hadn’t happened at all, Hali would probably have been happy about it.”
Speaking in hushed tones, they all ratcheted up their tension.
It was something they’d known about, something they’d been bracing for.
Isang Hee wasn’t about to kill Hali on stage, and they’d reasoned she’d go the route of mental manipulation or knocking her unconscious for the abduction—so they’d accepted the plan as is.
“Hali won’t get seriously hurt, right?”
“She shouldn’t take major injuries.”
Especially considering Hali’s Potion.
Yet even as they told themselves it would be fine, they doubted they could maintain a passive watching stance for much longer.
Just then, Tak Jung-eun raised a question.
“Something’s off, isn’t it? Why is she struggling so hard to maintain that light?”
“……She’s probably just showing off her skill.”
“I thought the same at first. ……But if that were the case, would she really need to let it flicker and dim like that?”
At the sharp observation, Seo Jeong-u, who had been watching the stage intently, murmured, “You’re right,” tilting his head.
Isang Hee’s Light Aura was now blinking on and off like a firefly.
Yet she stubbornly maintained it, and when Hali drew near, the delight was palpable even from the back of her head.
Something felt deeply wrong.
Even as that thought crossed their minds, Hali approached Isang Hee with a calm expression, as if lost in her own considerations.
Before anyone could stop her.
And the moment she touched the light.
“……Did Hali just falter?”
“Her complexion turned pale.”
“Poison, maybe?”
“If it were poison, we could rely on Hali to handle it…… but we need to know what that light actually is.”
“Send in Ppaeng-seo! I mean, Sim Bong-sa, go!”
“The sedan chair bearers should go first!”
“Right!”
Several costumed as sedan bearers lifted the Lotus Sedan Chair and carried it onto the stage.
Whether the inexplicable tension had transmitted to the audience or not, the spectators, who had been nervously alternating their gaze between Isang Hee and Jin Hali, gasped in delight at the sight of the lotus sedan obscuring the pair.
“Please ascend.”
“……Very well.”
Had Isang Hee decided to phone in her performance of Sim Cheong?
No—she wasn’t even bothering to hide the fact that her usual shy demeanor and hesitant speech had all been an act.
With an arrogant tone befitting royalty, Isang Hee—or rather, Sim Cheong—ascended the sedan.
As Isang Hee’s profile appeared through the window-shaped opening in the lotus, the sedan paused, waiting.
It was a brief pause to allow Kim Myeong-hyeon and Seo Jeong-u, who had been temporarily serving as bearers, along with Lee Hae-sol, who had been disguised as a bearer, to remove their masks and quickly change into servant attire.
‘Hali!’
Unable to call out openly, he summoned her through the Direct Telepathic Communication, but no response came from Hali.
‘What is this?’
Ominous.
He had only just managed to keep Yuhan Seong, dressed as a king, from rushing out onto the stage.
“연봉, I was supposed to come with you.”
When he signaled with a look, Gong Seo-yun, who had been grinding his teeth and shifting restlessly, immediately called out:
“Then it shall be so. And……the attendant should go too.”
Just then, Hali gave a delayed response.
‘……I’m okay.’
‘You don’t seem okay.’
‘I’m managing for now, but once we get backstage, there won’t be any problem. Oh, but from now on, I don’t think I’ll be able to speak. Even if I do something strange, don’t worry too much about it. Got it?’
What followed were questions he desperately wanted to ask, but Lee Hae-sol simply nodded.
He considered himself to be in a remarkably composed state. Somewhat tense, certainly, but composed relative to how anxious he felt.
Yet in his single-minded focus on Hali, he failed to notice.
‘What is that.’
The shadow that Gong Seo-yun had just spotted.
“A goblin?”
“……What? How did that happen? A Shadow Art user? Yuhan Seong? Wait, that’s not it.”
“It looks like Lee Hae-sol…… Does Lee Hae-sol also use shadows?”
“Then it must be stagecraft. Wow, how’d they pull that off?”
The audience was murmuring over the goblin-shaped shadow, which looked like an enraged mountain spirit.
Thanks to that, Jin Hali’s abnormal state went unnoticed…… but Seo Jeong-u swallowed hard and thought:
‘Should I call this luck or not? Is it okay for that to be exposed?’
For now, Hali still seemed to be within their expected parameters, so they could wait and see.
But Lee Hae-sol’s shadow…….
He glanced over at Yuhan Seong, wondering what he might know, but it seemed Yuhan Seong hadn’t even noticed Lee Hae-sol’s shadow.
His expression was serious as ever, but it was clear that even having looked at it briefly, Yuhan Seong was currently uneasy.
Seo Jeong-u clicked his tongue, then spoke loudly as if delivering his lines:
“Perhaps it’s time I finally visited one of the human kings. The Dragon King’s Palace isn’t exactly a tourist attraction—visitors only call once every few centuries, after all.”
The audience, who had been murmuring about special effects on costumes and such, lightly refocused their attention.
“Send an invitation. I must warn humanity properly, lest they rashly throw themselves into the sea without cause.”
Never mind. For now, let’s just draw some attention to Yuhan Seong’s face and see what happens.
‘Someone just fill me in on what’s happening here!’
This was the moment when the framework of the original tale truly began to scatter in the wind.

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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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