Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 195

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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 (13)

“Ugh, hnn.”
“……!”
The sharp cry escaped before “Master” realized I’d regained consciousness from that escaping moan.
“That sly thing! When did you wake up…… Ugh!”
Crash!
“You……!”
Master staggered backward, momentarily rattled by Yuhan Seong’s explosive blade.
And in that instant, Hali’s delicate, chick-yellow face flickered into view.
……Somewhere, a tremor like an earthquake roared.
Yuhan Seong’s coldly glinting gaze snapped toward me in that moment.
And I, gripping the umbrella handle in my hand, sent my will flowing through it.
My intention pours in through the umbrella handle, converted into a tangible sensation like liquid. At the same moment, several handles appeared right in front of the hands of Class 8 and the direct line.
“Take hold!”
Before the shout finished, everyone had seized the handle.
Yuhan Seong grasping his as well—the instant Master’s mana burst struck the handle before him.
We were pulled straight through, whisked away to another place.
A single violet-tinged leaf, and part of the Teacher’s foliage with us.
***
A familiar space received us.
I could sense that everyone my will had touched had arrived safely together. But that was all.
A searing pain continued without break.
The voices of the students gathered around me grew distant, then close, then distant again.
I flailed at empty air several times, gasping.
Tap.
Someone caught my hand.
A solid hand.
Even as everything seemed to crumble, the warmth transmitted through that grip remained vivid.
***
“Teacher, I’ll explain everything later, but for now, please keep this place secret.”
The vines that followed Yu Hee were surrounded by the direct line of the Yoo Clan huddled together.
The other half gathered around Hali with the other students of Class 8.
Yu Bin had been beside Yu Hee but moved to Hali’s side. Yu Hee had gestured for him to check on Hali’s condition.
“How is Hali?”
Gong Seo-yun answered Yu Bin’s worried voice by breathing warmth onto the bed in the dungeon where he’d laid Hali down.
“……She still seems to be in pain. Hyun I-seo, isn’t the potion working on Hali?”
Hyun I-seo’s already dark expression sank further.
He was pouring the potions Hali had given him into her mouth one after another, but no improvement was showing yet.
“It’s not. Not at all.”
“What do you mean?”
Yuhan Seong, who had been watching, spoke.
“Even a small scratch won’t heal.”
“What?”
Some had already realized more and gone pale.
“Lion, what’s going on?”
Lee Hae-sol asked.
Lion, without emerging from Hali’s embrace, answered as if he’d been waiting.
[I believe it’s because I am Protagonist.]
“Surely not.”
[Yes, the God Killers’ mana touched me…… and it seems that influence reached my master, Protagonist, as well!]
“Is that even possible?”
“It shouldn’t be.”
Yuhan Seong spoke gravely.
“Even if they’re connected, a lesser being can’t just influence a greater one like that. Can it?”
[That’s correct. Since we belong to Protagonist, in principle such a thing shouldn’t happen. However, it seems…….]
“……That last thing must have been the problem.”
Lion nodded.
That last thing?
Everyone quickly recalled one thing.
The umbrella handles that had appeared right before their hands just before arriving here.
“That, that handle was purple, so could it possibly……”
[No. It was originally purple. It’s Hali’s favorite color, after all.]
“Hali? Who’s Hali?”
[The second boss Protagonist made a temporary contract with just a moment ago.]
Lion continued dejectedly.
[His nature is the complete opposite of Baridegi. Different from me as well. If I am death and the princess is life, then he is everything else.]
The dregs that fall outside of life and death.
All things that neither live nor die, but wander the Nine Heavens.
“You mean ghosts?”
Baek Ha-yan asked, shoulders tensing.
Lion shook his head.
[It would be more accurate to say it includes even that. Precisely speaking, Hali is the totality of all resentment.]
According to Lion, Hali originally had no such form, nor was he an entity created by merely gathering only bad things like resentment.
[If I may, he was an existence that symbolized that resentment—the one called ‘Hali’ in the sentiment of this land. But upon becoming a boss and being trapped in the realm of the Underworld, he became the boss of resentment itself.]
It was uncharacteristic of Lion to explain Hali’s second boss so thoroughly to everyone present when even Hali couldn’t hear.
While it seemed he gave information readily, he only did so when it would help Hali.
So naturally, we could infer that to save Hali, everyone would need to understand her second summon.
The direct line tactfully kept silent and didn’t interfere.
[If purified, he would gain strength in its truest meaning. But Hali is an existence that could become poison to Protagonist merely through making a contract.]
“But we did make a contract.”
To save themselves.
Even accepting the risk of the Teacher finding out about this space.
[Yes, temporary though it was, it clearly seems to have taken effect.]
“So now we’re dealing with a poisoned state from his influence?”
[Half right, half wrong.]
Lion slowly emerged from Hali’s embrace and poked his head out tentatively.
His face was worn with fatigue.
[It’s true that Hali’s influence has struck Protagonist’s body and soul. However, that will recover given time—it was a temporary contract, after all. The problem is that due to the nature of resentment’s power, a temporary crack opened in the Hierarchy Order between us and Protagonist, allowing the God Killer’s mana that touched me to affect her.]
“What are you saying?”
Someone murmured.
[Resentment is usually born from sacrifice through power and violence. So it carries an innate impulse to harm those above it.]
“Are you saying mana has a personality, not just an attribute? Like a human?”
[Hali is unusual. He’s a collective of resentment that has developed will. So yes, his mana does possess personality.]
An impulse to harm those above.
[If Protagonist simply learns to digest it, that impulse will prove useful when facing someone stronger than her. So it can’t be called entirely bad. But it’s premature. For now it’s poison to her. ……Even with a temporary contract, she couldn’t escape the influence of that impulse entirely.]
So Hali’s mana acts as poison, harming Protagonist’s body and soul temporarily while fundamentally creating a crack in the Hierarchy Order between them.
Taking advantage of that crack, the God Killer’s mana I was digesting struck Hali twice over.
Those who understood nodded.
[Hali’s mana’s influence will fade soon. But the problem is that before it does, the God Killer’s mana could harm Protagonist further! That fool of a sword is only a temporary measure!]
Erich—that fool of a sword—ground his teeth, the sound reaching only the ears of the Yuhan Seong Party.
No wonder he’d been quiet.
Yuhan Seong clicked his tongue quietly and, after thinking a moment, pulled something from the potion pouch Hali had given him.
[So you’re saying you want us to divide our souls piece by piece……? What is that?]
Lion made a sound he hadn’t imagined and tilted his head.
Yuhan Seong didn’t respond and simply shook the potion he’d pulled out.
Light dust was visible in Hali’s ordinary potion. But the color was strange.
No, the strangeness wasn’t in the potion’s color, but in the veil wrapped around its surface.
“It seems to be nighttime. The Ability to Handle Dark Things—it’s become possible to use on Hali’s potions.”
Veil of Night.
One of his two SSS-rank Skills, which hadn’t been planned for use until the final part of the Annihilation Dungeon.
An ability to manipulate all dark things that wake at night and all shadows visible in daylight.
An ability he’d only been testing usage on because there was a condition attached due to level requirements for full deployment.
“You’ve obtained a new skill?”
Lee Hae-sol, who had been holding Hali’s hand all this while, asked.
“……No, rather—didn’t that Lion just say something difficult to let slide?”
At Gong Seo-yun’s words, Hyun I-seo nodded. It wasn’t that they were unwilling to give their souls for Hali—it was that the very idea of fragmenting and separating souls was astounding.
But Lion seemed more concerned with the veil-covered potion right before his eyes.
“Hali’s potion is being recognized as a dark thing, so for now I can move this potion by my will.”
[I was going to ask for two fragments each from those with dark attribute souls anyway! It looks like that won’t be necessary now. Right away, right away, hand it over!]
‘So it’s on the level of being able to substitute for soul fragments.’
Yuhan Seong nodded with an inscrutable expression. And he quietly gazed at the girl who, without abandoning a single person, had resolved to save everyone, even accepting the destruction of her own body and soul.
Soon, the potion flowed into Hali’s mouth.

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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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