Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 184

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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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19. And the Pinwheel Turned (2)

“Heading to the capital’s highest point, I see.”
Hong So-yeong heard Choi Ji-hyeong’s words and asked her class for permission to leave.
They all waved her on, muttering that she should just go and stop bothering them.
With her classmates’ dismissals at her back, So-yeong quickened her pace, her face set hard.
“What on earth is happening?”
Why the Awakener Management Center?
“Those criminals are sketchy enough, but this is excessive.”
An underground emerging crime organization launches a large-scale infiltration and terror attack during the Narin Festival — and now one of the perpetrators flees to the Awakener Management Center?
Was that their headquarters?
She didn’t want to believe it, but the circumstances left no room for doubt.
Hong So-yeong is a seasoned fire mage. That meant she could control not just the temperature of flames, but their size with meticulous precision. She moved with the speed of spreading fire.
At the entrance to the underground passage leading to the Awakener Management Center that Choi Ji-hyeong had mentioned, she released the flames that had been coiling around her body, sending them hurtling ahead.
A figure of flame mirroring her form shot forward with the exact momentum she’d been moving at moments before, disappearing beyond the corridor.
Hidden by a concealment magic tool, Hong So-yeong stood in an awkward crouch, muttering under her breath.
“This really isn’t my style.”
If she was being honest, she wanted nothing more than to charge straight in and catch the culprit.
With the target right in front of her, she couldn’t understand why Choi Ji-hyeong had been so insistent about waiting outside and moving carefully. Not when he knew her strength.
Yet—if he knew her strength and still said it, there must be wisdom in obeying.
And moments later.
“…It vanished? Just like that?”
She realized her decision had been the right one.
***
The moment he’d sent Hong So-yeong off, Choi Ji-hyeong planted plant scouts around Class 1 as a minimal gesture of reciprocal support—on top of those already placed around his own class.
And on his way back to Class 8.
“Something’s off.”
He frowned slightly as he scanned the stage and the area behind it in turn.
Jin Hali and Gong Seo-yun, among others, were still on stage, and Lee Hae-sol was backstage.
But that shadow….
‘Isn’t that a goblin?’
While goblins take many forms, some are instantly recognizable.
The most iconic is the demon face tile.
A decorative roof tile affixed to the edges of traditional Korean roof beams, carved with designs meant to ward off evil spirits and calamities while inviting good fortune.
Matching the form of the horned-less Korean goblin—its brows, nose, and teeth rendered similarly—it remained a well-known shape, still often used in accessories today.
The shadow’s head bore an expression with the face of a goblin, and below that, all the way down to where it connected with Lee Hae-sol, the goblin’s body extended.
It bore no resemblance whatsoever to Lee Hae-sol’s natural shadow—yet everyone around him was acting as though they didn’t see this bizarre form.
As if they’d been bewitched by mist.
It was possible someone other than Lee Hae-sol had transformed into this.
But nothing suspicious had ever caught on his plant scouts before.
Then what could it be?
“I need to check this out.”
Choi Ji-hyeong quickened his pace.
***
And then he watched the play unfold.
He was already aware of Isang Hee’s suspicious luminescence, but there was no way Jin Hali could have touched it without knowing—so he decided to observe for now.
When Lee Hae-sol appeared among the children who came on stage as lotus-pavilion bearers, Choi Ji-hyeong tensed further.
Because he’d caught a clearer glimpse of that shadow.
Yet strangely, none of the audience seemed to have noticed it.
“Class 8’s students really do have such good faces.”
“Though the play’s going a bit sideways.”
“It’s entertaining enough, though.”
“Well, the heroine doesn’t seem to be a filial daughter anymore, so this must be the script, right…?”
“Hmm, they titled it ‘Who Has Opened Their Eyes?’ rather than ‘The Filial Daughter Simcheong,’ so maybe it was adapted that way from the start?”
That was all the murmured commentary being exchanged.
He regarded the staff members beside him and the relaxed students farther ahead with an odd expression.
And as he observed Lee Hae-sol’s shadow covering half of them, his eyes narrowed.
Then his gaze caught on Gong Seo-yun’s expression.
“…….”
He understood at once.
Gong Seo-yun was aware of this shadow.
How? Why were only they cognizant of it?
Or was it truly only them?
He naturally turned his attention to Yuhan Seong, who served as the class leader.
Yuhan Seong took in the entire stage with his gaze, and he was a student whose expression was difficult to read even normally—and that held true now as well.
Choi Ji-hyeong carefully observed each student’s reaction one by one.
“How is an F-rank this beautiful?”
A third-year student’s voice reached him, mouth agape in murmurs.
“She’s really beautiful. The traditional dress looks great on her.”
“Right?”
Choi Ji-hyeong’s sharp nerves eased slightly. It was certainly unusual that Jin Hali’s appearance rivaled that of S-rank or A-rank students. Typically, a hunter’s appearance was influenced by their mana, and higher-ranked individuals tended to be more beautiful as a rule.
“Guess she was just born that way.”
“Even that’s remarkable, though. I’m surprised she didn’t pursue entertainment. Are the agencies blind?”
“She’s F-rank. A healer, too.”
Being an F-rank healer meant she’d likely never lived an easy life. Anyone would have grasped that much.
“It’s strange she got in at all.”
“Hmm.”
In the past, the nuance of that remark would have been different.
It would have reeked of outright contempt.
But now it stopped at merely conveying casual speculation.
Though they weren’t acquainted with Jin Hali, the overall atmosphere surrounding how people treated her had shifted.
It was all a result of her own efforts.
Though he didn’t make it obvious, his deep regard for Jin Hali stemmed largely from such reasons.
Jin Hali, regardless of her abilities, was someone worth acknowledging as a person.
So she absolutely could not be hurt in whatever was coming.
Of course, Lee Hae-sol’s shadow had been so shocking that he couldn’t help but pay attention to that as well—but his plant scouts continued to monitor the movements of all the students, including Jin Hali.
Both the goblin shadow and everything Jin Hali and the others were orchestrating.
Soon enough, he would know the outcome.
Choi Ji-hyeong adjusted his glasses as he watched Yuhan Seong step onto the stage.
His class leader—the one he worried about least, yet the one with the most to figure out—walked out into the light.
A spotlight turned toward him, the surroundings brightened again, and the scene shifted to him reading the dragon king’s letter.
“…A letter from the Dragon Palace itself, Your Majesty.”
“A letter from the Dragon Palace that exists only in legend? It seems the fish are writing letters these days.”
Hearing it for the first time….
They’re stringing this together on the fly.
He’d noticed it from when things started going off-script. He’d wondered if there was at least a partial script, but it seemed like individual actors were just improvising. Goi-deun was offering some guidance, apparently….
Yet watching them pull it off so smoothly was both amusing and impressive.
He let out a soft laugh, then shifted his gaze to backstage.
Following his plant scouts’ perspective to the sight revealed there, he clicked his tongue.
‘Jin Hali knew about it all along, didn’t she.’
What was he going to do with that well-behaved delinquent?
Moreover.
‘Some don’t recognize the shadow, but others have noticed and are pretending not to.’
Having keenly observed the bearing of several, his lips curved into a meaningful smile.
It seemed the goblin shadow hadn’t appeared for the first time.
Given that it looked normal most of the time, it appeared the shadow manifested when certain conditions were met.
And those conditions were likely….
“If anything happens to Hali, my family will move before I do.”
Rage, then.
“I just mentioned it in case you didn’t know.”
His tone was no different from usual, yet even through the plant scouts, a killing intent seeped through so chillingly it felt like frost.
“Tsk.”
The teacher sitting beside him glanced over at his sudden click of the tongue.
After shaking his head to indicate it was nothing, Choi Ji-hyeong fixed his gaze on the stage.
The scene was transitioning to where the king and the dragon king face off.
Gong Seo-yun kept sending desperate glances, but Yuhan Seong didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“The dragon king looks a bit weak, though. Is that intentional?”
“What does that matter? Yuhan Seong’s insane. Look at his face. Is he even human?”
“What are you suddenly going on about…? Who doesn’t know how talented he is?”
“How could red robes suit anyone that well….”
“Get your head straight, will you?”
And he was successfully drawing all the attention.
All of it.
It was as the situation became somewhat clear.
Choi Ji-hyeong’s shoulders stiffened.
“What—”
Jin Hali’s presence had vanished in an instant.

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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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