Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 191

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

19. And the Pinwheel Turned (9)

I must have been holding it in all this time.
‘Safety first, safety second! Information gathering comes after that.’
At my words, the lion’s eerie aura lessened.
And it answered with a cheerful grin.
[Spoken truly, sir! Have no worries. We shall move as you see fit!]
Just then, Lee Hae-sol spoke.
‘Passed the word. Everyone agreed.’
I’d been cooking up various arguments, thinking persuasion might be necessary, so I was a little taken aback.
That was when Yuhan Seong’s voice came through.
‘Time’s short, so we decided to follow your orders. First, Hali—how’s your body now?’
I answered so that Teacher, all of Class 8, and all the direct line members could hear.
‘As you can see, my mind’s sharp. My body—I’ve done this on purpose, so I plan to let myself be dragged along until these people reach their base.’
‘……All right. So we’re just delaying when we ambush the perpetrators?’
‘That’s the gist of it.’
Beyond that, the number of people staging the ambush had simply changed.
‘Have you met with the Teacher?’
‘We just met with him now.’
Yu Hee answered.
‘Sister, you’re really sure you’re okay?’
I heard Seo Jeong-u’s voice too.
I answered that I was fine, then paused to think.
The Yuhan Seong Party alone might be enough. With an ordinary organization, you just grab the evidence, escape, and hand the rest over to the teachers.
But when you don’t know the opponent’s true strength or even what they are, it was better to engage with full force if possible.
Which meant the entire Class 8, including the Teacher, was coming.
Including the Yoo Clan direct line members.
But we needed a strategy.
‘When we go in, Hyun I-seo and Isang Hee take point, and Jung Eun guides us through the shortcut right after.’
‘Got it!’
‘Telekinesis and Curse.’
‘Yeah.’
I answered Hyun I-seo’s murmur.
‘If possible, I’d like to handle this quietly without any direct contact.’
Naturally, we’re not killing anyone. Killing people is still forbidden for us.
But as long as we don’t kill, anything goes.
‘Good, I’m confident!’
Hyun I-seo’s control over Telekinesis was outstanding.
What we saw on stage was child’s play. He could apply the skill meticulously to invisible things, and with any opponent, he could instantly grasp and control exactly how much mana he needed in one glance.
Throwing a person with enough force not to kill them was easy.
Hyun I-seo’s Curse was another matter entirely.
I’d been worried he might be reluctant to use the skill on people.
‘I don’t mind.’
Not only had he been fine using it on people, but in fact he’d barely used his Curse ability in the Dungeons we’d entered before, so it didn’t even show up in the footage that Hyun I-seo was a Curse user.
But then—
As if reading my concern, Hyun I-seo spoke.
‘From my perspective, the play was a complete success.’
‘You revealed your Curse ability?’
‘Yeah. The situation was so absurd, it didn’t really matter.’
‘Then it’s no problem.’
As long as the focus on the performance didn’t break, it was a success.
It was subtle, but Hyun I-seo’s work as a supporting bit part had probably helped with that too.
“Damn it! Do we have a tail? ……Or not?”
In the meantime, the outsider, who’d been moving frantically and cursing every now and then, shouted as if he’d sensed something.
But unable to be certain, he cocked his head, then swept his wary eyes around the surroundings, and suddenly yanked my hand hard.
And hoisting the “Jin Hali” who’d gone limp, he swung me roughly onto his shoulder.
[You rude fiend!]
The lion cried out, but I was surprisingly fine with it.
‘It’s comfortable, actually. I was already breathless from running so fast.’
I wanted to protest that he was being too rough with this F-rank weakling.
The sensation of blood rushing to my head wasn’t pleasant, but Erich’s doing something made it all right soon enough.
‘Hali!’
‘Hali, are you okay?’
‘Sister!’
And not long after, from the voices that rang through my mind, I realized everyone had arrived nearby.
‘But why can’t I see them?’
The landscape that unfolded after we broke out of the Academy was a desolate field.
For a very brief moment, it had been dominated by the strange sights unique to the area around Narin Academy Subway Station.
‘A city of Awakeners itself.’
But before I could take it all in with my eyes, the outsider ran as if folding space itself.
The scenery around us actually seemed to break apart several times, and soon only that desolate field remained.
[These bastards……. They’re one of theirs, aren’t they.]
Erich muttered.
‘If they’re ‘one of theirs,’ then surely……’
[Yeah. Those Sinsal-ja who use violet mana…….]
‘Sinsal-ja?’
[They have the ability to use Dungeon skin as a transit passage. Don’t let your guard down. Tell the two at the very front to keep their bodies hidden if possible, just like now.]
‘They’ve been hiding their forms the whole time? How?’
[That Lee Hae-sol has quite a bit of power. Anyway, the one dragging you is either not very high-ranking among them, or a Hunter on this side being controlled by them. But the ones ahead are different. So we need to be careful.]
[Just as he says. Nari, please make escape your absolute priority! If we’re not careful, there could be casualties!]
‘……!’
If I were the type to insist on my plan while facing an unknown enemy, I’d already be dead.
I immediately relayed what both of them said to the others.
After a brief silence, Yuhan Seong asked.
‘……Sinsal-ja? That’s…….’
Yeah. Sinsal-ja.
To be honest, hearing that from Erich made me switch my top priority from information gathering to escape.
Because a group called that definitely existed in the original work.
‘……Damn it. Hali, this seems like something we shouldn’t touch.’
‘Why?’
At Hyun I-seo’s question, Yuhan Seong answered with an unusual show of agitation.
‘I’ve met one before. Someone who goes by that name.’
A fragment of Yuhan Seong’s past, rarely heard from, spilled out.
‘The one I met was someone who stole a Hunter’s mana. Whether the one I met could only do it to one person at a time, I don’t know. But a Hunter whose mana was drained either loses all their abilities or goes insane with only a fraction of their power preserved—one or the other.’
‘How on earth……?’
‘Not just anyone can do it. It seems like they can only absorb Hunters of a lower rank than themselves, and only after completely subduing them. There seemed to be limits to the absorption too.’
Everyone fell silent.
Stealing an Awakener’s mana—it was unprecedented.
Even though I already knew, I gnawed at my lips.
‘When they said they were from the Other World, I had my doubts, but if they really are Sinsal-ja, then people are definitely going to die.’
‘……Then Hali’s in danger!’
The empty space behind us rippled very briefly.
It was Seo Jeong-u.
‘But they’re not absorbing her now. It means they have a use for keeping her alive.’
‘Why in the world do they want me…….’
I thought back to the ‘Sinsal-ja’ from the original work.
They were the shadow figures who revealed themselves after graduation.
The sinister ones who’d been obstructing Yuhan Seong’s conquest of the Annihilation Dungeon.
The individuals who, even when the world was on the brink of destruction, answered the question of how there could still be someone trying to hinder Yuhan Seong.
In the original work, what those figures desired was the destruction of this world.
I thought they were just nihilists.
But they were beings from the Other World?
That was information not in the original work.
Moreover, when they began to recognize Yuhan Seong as a potential threat and started seriously obstructing him was when he entered his second year.
And even while those countless obstruction schemes played out, they never revealed their true identity until the latter half, when they ran out of places to hide.
But now they’re moving this brazenly and openly?
‘They’re going to this much trouble just to kidnap me? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘……Hali, I think I need to tell you something.’
‘Eden?’
That was when I heard Eden’s voice.
Had he decided to research my potion?
‘Do you remember what that person called you by when he first called you out?’
‘……That was……’
Salsal Flower.
I did remember.
The lion in my arms flinched, then let out a sound like [Ah……?]
‘What is it?’
“Who’s there!”
Finally confident of something, the outsider stopped in front of a back door of a tall building and shouted quietly.
There’s something odd about this building.
And wait, isn’t this neighborhood three stations away?
As I looked around, marveling and trying to memorize every detail, Eden spoke to me.
So everyone could hear.
‘The Salsal Flower is a flower of the Underworld. ……I thought it only appeared in folktales, but it seems like it actually exists.’
And the moment those words ended, the back door in front of us silently swung inward.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————