Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 196

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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 Windmill Turned (14)

—Teacher, I’ll explain everything later. For now, please keep this place secret.
Choi Ji-hyeong’s brow furrowed at the words transmitted through Yu Hee’s Plant Communication.
‘Jin Hali, what on earth has she been up to?’
The owner of a Dungeon.
He didn’t know what kind of Dungeon it was, but judging by how easily the students came and went, it seemed either remarkably stable or quite cooperative with its master.
Yet Dungeons were things you couldn’t trust.
History showed plenty of cases where those who had owned Dungeons ended up ruined or vanished because of them.
Choi Ji-hyeong had always thought of Jin Hali as sincere, bright, and at ease.
‘At ease,’ he thought again.
Looking at Jin Hali’s actual circumstances, there could be no word less fitting.
No matter how excellent her track record, how remarkable her crafting skills, or how exceptional her talents, there was no way she could feel at ease with F-rank Mana while surrounded by powerful Mana-wielders.
Yet Jin Hali seemed comfortable in an ordinary school alongside ordinary students.
More than merely comfortable.
Honestly, she carried herself with more ease than they did.
Class 8, influenced by Jin Hali’s presence, remained largely composed in situations where ordinary students would have broken down under psychological strain more than once.
That composure was also what made Jin Hali the center of Class 8.
‘I was always a bit worried whether she was truly all right, but I never imagined she’d be attempting something so reckless.’
Keep it secret and watch over it?
That was absurd.
It had been a long time since Choi Ji-hyeong had reported everything about Class 8 to the higher authorities.
‘With the Awakener Management Bureau in that state, there’s no way I’d be reporting everything exactly as it is.’
Ordinary teachers shared everything with the Principal. Choi Ji-hyeong shared more with the Principal than most, but that was it.
Class 8 had grown far too substantial to manage by conventional means.
It was entangled in matters that held the fate of humanity itself, and large organizations as formidable as the Bureau were watching them in droves.
The Principal had authorized this arrangement because of the Bureau’s condition.
Choi Ji-hyeong would oversee it entirely, and if anything needed doing, he could make demands without explanation.
So that’s what he was doing.
Secrets and such were nonsense.
And the request to watch over them—
“That won’t work anymore.”
He muttered it quietly, twisting one corner of his mouth upward.
He’d attached the finest Plant Communication to Class 8—with whatever plant matter, Choi Ji-hyeong could imbue properties that made it superior—and so he had returned with Isang Hee.
That one was handed over to the Investigators.

“Everyone abandons their posts to search for that one kid? There’s a limit to stupidity. What’s so special about that F-ranker……!”
“I’d rather not get tangled up with such ridiculous people anyway.”
“I treated them half decently to be personable, and this is what I get? Ha!”

The entire way back, Isang Hee had spouted words like a two-dimensional villain straight out of some hack novel, ceaselessly.

“Jin Hali’s finished anyway. The moment she was captured, she was as good as dead. Because she was sold to that kind of place.”
“That kind of place?”
“A place where incredibly powerful people gather—nothing like a teacher. The kind of people who’d crush you just by looking at you.”

Isang Hee seemed to have no intention of reducing her charges.
The way she kept talking without being asked was telling enough.
It was fortunate.
Choi Ji-hyeong emphasized in his report that Isang Hee had confessed.
And he spoke.

“Inferiority is a terrifying wall. You’ve suffered greatly, haven’t you?”

The grotesquely twisted expression on Isang Hee’s face surfaced in his mind.
It was clear she found the very word inferiority insulting.
Whether or not, Choi Ji-hyeong said what he needed to say.

“I should have known and helped you sooner. I failed in my duty. I’m sorry.”

At those words, her face contorted as if she’d swallowed an entire drum of bile.

“When you go back, you’ll pay for your crimes. But remember this. The abilities you possess were never given to you for comparison with anyone else. They were given to you alone, because they suited you best. You need not overvalue them, nor overly despise them. You need not hope that someone will recognize them. Sharpen yourself toward what you want. And even if you never obtain it, what you’ve sharpened doesn’t go anywhere.”

Isang Hee, who had mimed vomiting several times while listening, finally couldn’t hold back and screamed.

“Stop spouting that bullshit!”
“Yet there are still boundaries.”
“What?”
“First, taking a life. Second, involving External Forces. Both are treated as felonies in Hunter society.”

For a moment, Isang Hee’s expression seemed to waver.

“Killing is obviously a felony. Especially for Hunters, who can easily kill—even if they don’t pull the trigger themselves, they’re treated more severely because there’s a risk they’ll think lightly of the act of murder itself.”

Well, there are countries where it’s not like that, but this is Korea.

“And involving External Forces is a felony because, historically, most serious crimes have been premised on collusion with External Forces. ……As you’re still a student, we won’t go so far as eradication, but your path ahead will be difficult.”

It was his last counsel as a homeroom teacher.

“Still, it would be better to remain a Hunter under the Awakener Management Bureau than to turn Freelance. You have talent, so if you focus only on refining your abilities without being swayed by emotion from now on, you might achieve great things—enough that your past record becomes meaningless.”

The momentum with which she’d been raging furiously and spouting unsolicited grievances had dimmed.
The expression saying she didn’t want to hear it remained, but she couldn’t very well refuse to listen.

“But that path is only available if you come to your senses. Leaving crime aside, shall we address the problems one by one? First, you cannot face reality as it is. For example, however you evaluate Jin Hali is your freedom, but your inability to make an objective assessment of her abilities makes you unfit to be a Hunter. Second, the way you build yourself up is one-dimensional. Elevating yourself by tearing others down is a mark of contempt wherever you belong. Third,…….”

By the time he’d gone past fifteen items, she couldn’t even muster the expression of not wanting to hear it—her spirit was hollow.
Well. It seemed he’d done all he could in that brief time.
The moment Isang Hee was handed over to the Investigators, her expression became remarkably lighthearted.

“That was me. I did it! I did everything! Come on, let’s go!”

Going to pay for her crimes, yet wearing an expression of elation.
Had his words given her some influence?
‘Hardly.’
He chuckled softly, then sliced a flying Stone Boulder in half in an instant.
After settling this, he’d need to grab hold of the remaining members of Class 8 too.
He’d been far too lenient in raising them.
“Hey! What’s that! You’ve been carrying something like a sword?”
“Hey?”
“No, sorry, Teacher!”
“The Whip Sword? You don’t know it?”
“I know it! That swishy sword thing! I know it, but why didn’t you use it during the last scouting and now……!”
“Tsk. Step back.”
The blade that swished through empty air shattered a massive boulder with a thunderous crash.
“……Is that Whip Sword shaped like a bomb, by any chance?”
Hong So-yeong had the presence of mind to speak nonsense, which meant she was certainly composed.
That meant her class had completed evacuation.
……Unlike Class 8, who’d evacuated into some Dungeon, they’d gone somewhere actually safe.
Choi Ji-hyeong allowed himself a moment of bitter self-reproach.
This would later serve as good material for counseling all of Class 8.
“Still, your footwork is pretty good, I have to say? It’s almost comparable to mine?”
“Spare me the nonsense.”
He brushed aside Hong So-yeong’s compliment—or taunt, he couldn’t tell which—bluntly, adjusting his glasses.
Then he asked.
“What happened here?”
After handing over Isang Hee and joining the Festival Site, what lay before his eyes was Hunters shielding themselves from ricocheting Stone Boulders.
“……A Dungeon within a Dungeon ruptured.”
Hong So-yeong answered, her playfulness stripped away.
It seemed she’d approached him to share the situation.
“Whether it’s connected to the terrorism, I’m not sure.”
Connected or not, one thing was certain: Isang Hee’s escape route had been completely sealed off.
“Still, it looks like it’ll be contained quickly. ……This festival really is piling on the bad luck.”
Choi Ji-hyeong swallowed a sigh and joined Hong So-yeong at the front line.

And in that moment, the wind that had been crouching stirred and stretched.

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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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