Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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3. Baridegi’s Domain (5)

A night with a dim moon.

An ambiguous light that was neither completely dark nor bright covered the campus.

“Moving around as a group at this hour. We might have to write apology letters if we get caught, you know?”

Gong Seo-yun laughed as he stretched his arms upward.

“But the moon is nice though.”

Yuhan Seong casually responded to those words.

Hyun I-seo grumbled but didn’t fall behind, and Lee Hae-sol remained silent.

I also caught my breath and loosened up my body.

The wind was cool, and there was a scent of grass.

I wasn’t sweating, but I felt my body gradually relaxing.

Meanwhile, casual conversation naturally flowed between us.

What was on the dinner menu today.

Why training has been so intense lately.

Even rumors about who slipped in the dormitory shower room again.

“Hari, aren’t you scared of entering dungeons?”

Gong Seo-yun asked casually.

I thought for a moment.

“It’s not that I’m not scared.”

“But? Why deliberately enter such dangerous places?”

I looked at the moon once and continued speaking.

“If I don’t do it because I’m scared, I feel like something even scarier will happen. And the reason it has to be that dungeon is because I need the rewards from that place.”

The atmosphere became quiet for a moment at those words.

Yuhan Seong smiled and said.

“That’s just like you.”

Lee Hae-sol nodded at those words.

Gong Seo-yun laughed “Pahaha” and said.

“You’re tougher than I thought.”

I didn’t dislike that assessment.

Hyun I-seo didn’t say anything as if he was being shy, but his expression had softened a bit.

While chatting like that, before we knew it, we were conducting a search.

We were naturally scanning places where a dungeon might appear.

No one had given instructions.

As the moon grew dimmer, everyone was unconsciously heading in that direction.

Near the wall by the cafeteria, the air changed.

It felt like the wind had stopped, and sounds seemed to arrive a beat late.

I stopped walking.

The others also stopped at similar moments.

Above the stone wall, darkness was gathering.

It was a black and cozy mist.

It was a presence I had grown familiar with.

But being familiar didn’t mean I could feel at ease.

Rather, this time, I felt like the dungeon was recognizing more people.

“Was this dungeon always supposed to feel like this?”

Gong Seo-yun said in a low voice.

Yuhan Seong swallowed, and Hyun I-seo looked at his waist as if thinking of rope.

Lee Hae-sol hardened his expression.

I took a step forward.

On the wall by the cafeteria, there was definitely a door.

It was a gap that hadn’t been there during the day.

Moonlight was dimly brushing over it.

The lucky dungeon, Baridegi.

Toward the final door.

I was about to enter but hesitated and glanced back. There were more faces than I expected.

I had no way of knowing what the main characters from the original story were thinking.

But at least right now, I was grateful.

I guess I was a bit nervous too.

“I’ll be back!”

The darkness was slowly opening the door.

***

This time there were no branching paths.

From the moment I entered, there was only one passage leading straight ahead.

There was no left, and no right.

I couldn’t see the option to turn back either.

It felt like a declaration that it wouldn’t let me hesitate anymore.

Hardly any mist appeared either.

The black and cozy darkness didn’t wrap around my body like before.

It didn’t grab my ankles or press down on my shoulders to make me sit.

The air was clear, and my vision was sharp.

That made me even more tense.

Because I felt like this dungeon had now abandoned its lulling methods.

I walked while steadying my breathing.

This time I didn’t take out a potion.

I felt it wasn’t necessary.

This path didn’t cloud my mind.

Instead, it presented something else.

Treasure appeared ahead.

It was a chest placed on the ground.

The lid was open, and inside were sparkling materials.

Things I had wanted to get my hands on at least once while making potions.

Crystallized forms of rare herbs.

Refined mana crystals.

They were materials that seemed like they would raise my grade with just one use.

I didn’t stop walking.

I didn’t even look at the treasure.

What appeared in this dungeon was always what I had wanted.

What was in front of me now was greed from a stage I had already passed.

I passed by it.

After walking a bit more, the scene changed.

A peaceful landscape unfolded.

The school courtyard.

People were laughing.

Faces that should have died in the original story were alive.

As if nothing had happened.

A world without dungeons or tragedies lay before my eyes.

For a moment my heart beat loudly. Like someone facing something they had desperately longed for.

‘It’s a good thing, but why is my body reacting this much?’

Could there be something about Jin Hali that I don’t know?

That kind of cliché does happen quite often, doesn’t it?

But whatever it was.

‘This isn’t a choice for now.’

I gritted my teeth.

This was a result, not a reward.

I didn’t turn my gaze away.

Instead, I passed through that scenery.

Like passing through fog, the scene scattered into thin air.

Next, power appeared.

People called my name.

An existence that could change the tide of battle with a single potion.

A scene where dungeon raids revolved around me.

It was a position where respect and expectations followed simultaneously.

I laughed inwardly.

‘It’s just funny how they’re showing me completely irrelevant things as desires?’

How much time had passed like that?

This dungeon was no longer testing me.

It was confirming.

How far I had come.

The path continued onward.

Temptations appeared, changing their forms.

Safety.

Fame.

A life free from responsibility.

All things I had wanted to grasp at least once.

But those were things that people of this world desperately wanted, and for me, they weren’t enough to shake my resolve.

As I continued walking, the end of the passage began to come into view.

There was a door there.

It was different from the previous doors.

A picture was carved across the entire door.

It was Baridegi.

Exactly as depicted in the folktales.

A figure standing on a path.

A being that both takes people away and sends them back.

The picture wasn’t ornate, but it was solid.

Standing before it, my footsteps naturally came to a halt.

The door was closed.

I couldn’t see any locks or handles.

Only the carved surface faced toward me.

I raised my hand and touched the door.

It was neither cold nor warm.

It was the sensation of reality and boundary meeting.

The door began to open.

Silently, slowly.

Light leaked through the gap.

And the moment the door opened, I heard a voice.

“Greedy one. What do you seek to gain by coming this far?”

Was that directed at me?

***

The figure of Baridegi standing beyond the door was quieter and more beautiful than any folktale illustration I had ever known.

It wasn’t the appearance of a deity who overwhelms people with majesty, but the form of a being who had stood on ancient paths, silently seeing people off.

Her robes flowed softly as if swaying in the wind, and a faint light permeated their edges.

The light was neither dazzling nor dark.

It was a color that lingered at the boundary between night and day.

Her face was clearly visible, yet gave the impression that it wouldn’t be remembered distinctly.

She seemed like someone’s mother, and also like a guide who leads lost children home.

Meeting that warm gaze, I felt as if I had come home.

‘Though her first words were strange.’

So I neither bowed my head nor ran away. I steadied my breathing and slowly opened my mouth.

“If possible, I want to see a future where more people survive.”

My voice didn’t tremble.

These words didn’t shake me.

The figure of Baridegi looked at me for a moment.

Her gaze settled gently.

“Humans are destined to go to death anyway.”

My heart beat a little faster at the quiet, deeply resonant sound.

“Do you know that without being able to prepare for parting, one cannot grow either?”

I simply nodded.

“Still, I want to see it.”

I spoke again.

“Not a future where tragedy becomes the material for awakening. If possible, one where we lose less along the way.”

At those words, the corners of Baridegi’s mouth seemed to soften just a little.

“You know many things.”

“That’s right.”

I smiled at those words.

“Do you also know that humans must not become salvation?”

“I’m not trying to become salvation, I just want to see a good ending. I was a reader, you see.”

Baridegi was silent for a moment, then nodded.

With that single movement, the texture of the space changed.

Her hand extended toward me.

Her palm appeared to hold nothing.

But I knew.

What was placed there.

“This is my land.”

Baridegi declared.

“Though it is a place for the dead, it is also a space that the living can borrow.”

I accepted it with both hands.

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