Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 88

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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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13. Ten Treasures (1)

I pulled the chair over and sat down.

The desk felt familiar.

I remembered every small scratch on the wooden surface.

A moment later, Lee Hae-sol came in.

“Oh.”

He said, looking at us.

“Everyone’s here.”

“Hae-sol.”

Yu Hee greeted him first.

“Did you have a good vacation?”

“Yeah.”

Lee Hae-sol answered with a smile.

“Nothing happened to anyone, right?”

At those words, a very brief silence passed.

“Nothing happened.”

I spoke first.

Only then did the atmosphere ease.

Lee Hae-sol sat in the seat in front of me and said.

“Hali.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you make potions during vacation too?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded.

“It’s a habit.”

“I knew it.”

He laughed.

“I thought you would.”

Yuhan Seong had been quietly listening to that conversation and then said.

“It’s starting again.”

“What is.”

Gong Seo-yun asked.

“That kind of thing.”

Yuhan Seong answered.

“Ah.”

Yu Hee nodded.

“You’re right.”

The classroom gradually became noisier.

Other students were also coming in one by one.

Faces, voices, and atmospheres that had changed little by little during vacation mixed together as they entered.

I quietly listened to those sounds.

No one in this classroom knew what we had gone through during vacation.

And that was good.

For now.

I put my bag on the desk and thought.

I had returned to daily life.

At least on the surface.

“Hali.”

Yu Hee called again.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s eat lunch together.”

“Okay.”

Like that, as if nothing had happened.

The new semester was beginning.

***

It was near the end of lunch time.

When the classroom became a little quiet again, I felt an unfamiliar gaze.

More precisely, it was a blatant stare.

A male student standing by the door was scanning our class.

He had a large build.

Broad shoulders and upright posture.

He was the type whose awakener physique was clearly visible even through his school uniform.

“That guy.”

Yu Hee said quietly.

“He’s from another class.”

“Who is he.”

Gong Seo-yun asked.

“Jung Mi-hyeong.”

Yu Hee said in a low voice.

“A-rank Combatant.”

At those words, Yuhan Seong’s gaze briefly went in that direction before immediately turning back.

It was an attitude of disinterest.

But Jung Mi-hyeong’s gaze continued to be directed at me.

He slowly entered the classroom.

There was leisure in his gait.

It was the attitude of someone who knew too naturally that he was above others in this space.

“Jin Hali.”

He called my name.

I looked up.

“What.”

I deliberately made my tone calm.

I didn’t mix in any displeasure.

There was no need to show that kind of thing first from my side.

“You.”

He said.

“I hear you’re good at making potions?”

“So-so.”

“For an F-rank, that is.”

The atmosphere in the classroom subtly changed.

Several students turned their gazes.

Some pricked up their ears.

Since everyone knew that Jung Mi-hyeong’s older brother was an A-rank Healer, they couldn’t help but be concerned.

As much as that became Jung Mi-hyeong’s power, if things went wrong, Hali could suffer from unnecessary spite.

“So what?”

I said.

Jung Mi-hyeong took another step closer.

He stood beside the desk and looked down at me.

“I heard you worked part-time in dungeons during vacation.”

I didn’t bother asking where that information came from.

These things were bound to spread as rumors.

“Yeah.”

What was he trying to say?

I blinked my eyes.

Jung Mi-hyeong didn’t say anything after that, but it seemed certain that he found me disagreeable.

The change began secretly after that.

***

Jung Mi-hyeong always acted ambiguously in front of people.

To be precise, it was a way of stepping on the line while pretending not to cross it.

“Hey, Jin Hali.”

His voice came from the back of the classroom.

“I hear you’re doing well these days.”

It was precisely calculated distance with kids around.

His tone was also adjusted to sound like playful banter mixed with laughter.

I just raised my head while organizing my bag.

“Really?”

I didn’t say anything more unnecessarily.

Jung Mi-hyeong crossed his arms and grinned.

“It’s not easy for an F-rank Healer to climb this far. Whether it’s good luck, or someone’s backing you from behind.”

Someone giggled.

It wasn’t outright mockery, but the atmosphere became sufficiently uncomfortable.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well. We all took the same test.”

He clicked his tongue as if he didn’t like that response.

“Well, yeah. I was just asking out of curiosity.”

That was it.

In front of people, he always went only that far.

Words that were too ambiguous for anyone to call picking a fight.

A method where fighting back would make you seem oversensitive instead.

The problem was what came next.

After class ended, when the classroom was almost empty.

I remained alone, organizing things on my desk.

I was about to write down one more assignment before returning to the boarding house.

That’s when I heard footsteps.

This time they were steps that weren’t deliberately hidden.

“You haven’t left yet.”

It was Jung Mi-hyeong.

This time he wasn’t smiling.

I took a breath inwardly and slowly raised my head.

“What’s the matter.”

He leaned against my desk and spoke in a low voice.

“My words were a bit short earlier. Because there were many people around.”

There were only the two of us in the classroom.

Light from the playground was shining through the window, but inside was quiet.

He took something out of his pocket and placed it on the desk with a thud.

It was a small capsule.

A hazy color was mixed inside the transparent shell.

At that moment, the inside of my wrist became cold.

I felt the sensation of the snake’s contract scale faintly heating up.

‘Dangerous.’

I didn’t know the reason.

I couldn’t tell the components or effects.

Only the sense that I shouldn’t keep this thing close was clear.

“Do you know what this is?”

Jung Mi-hyeong asked.

“It’s popular these days. Among awakened ones.”

I looked at him without looking at the capsule.

“I don’t know. If you take it, your ability stats spike temporarily.”

He continued speaking.

“There are some side effects, but well. I thought it might actually help an F-rank.”

He deliberately emphasized the words ‘F-rank.’

I pushed my chair back slightly and stood up.

I created distance between the desk and myself.

“Isn’t possessing something like this on campus not allowed?”

I spoke as calmly as possible.

“The regulations about drugs are strict.”

Jung Mi-hyeong’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, suddenly talking about regulations?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded.

“I don’t want to be misunderstood for no reason.”

He looked down at me for a moment, then snickered.

“You’re quite timid.”

“Because I’m a healer.”

I didn’t bother making excuses for that comment.

Jung Mi-hyeong picked up the capsule again.

At that moment, footsteps were heard from the classroom door.

Someone was passing through the hallway.

I glanced in that direction.

It was deliberate.

“What.”

Jung Mi-hyeong said in an annoyed voice.

“You’re doing this on purpose.”

“No.”

I said while shouldering my bag.

“I’m just leaving now.”

He took a step closer but didn’t move any further.

It was a situation where someone might come in.

“Lucky you.”

He said in a low voice.

“Think you can keep acting like that?”

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I opened the classroom door and went out.

The moment I stepped into the hallway, the coldness inside my wrist gradually subsided.

The snake’s scale didn’t say anything, but it was enough.

‘Don’t confront him directly.’

This wasn’t a head-on confrontation.

That’s how I judged it.

Jung Mi-hyeong was still remaining in the classroom.

The type who smiles in front of people,

but only draws his blade when no one’s around.

That was fine.

At least for now.

I walked down the hallway, slowly exhaling.

This was only the first time.

Jung Mi-hyeong’s gaze always followed me half a beat slower than I moved.

To be precise, he was targeting moments when I seemed about to disappear from sight.

I first felt this in the practical training building corridor.

It was after lunch, when students were moving around in droves.

He deliberately brushed past me and said,

“I’ve been seeing your face quite often lately, Jin Hali.”

His voice was light and mixed with laughter.

It was a tone that would sound like just a greeting to anyone listening.

I only nodded.

“Yeah.”

He didn’t answer right away, but continued speaking a beat later.

“Classes in other sections aren’t too overwhelming, are they?”

There were several more people around.

The students’ gazes naturally went back and forth between me and Jung Mi-hyeong.

“It’s fine.”

I said briefly.

Jung Mi-hyeong raised the corners of his eyes as if he didn’t like that response.

“Still though. You making it up here is kind of strange, isn’t it.”

The air trembled very slightly at those words.

But he was smiling, and his smiling face wasn’t an attack.

“Tests are judged by scores.”

I didn’t explain further.

He shrugged and backed away.

“Well, that’s true.”

In front of people, he always stopped here.

A word or two, an ambiguous look, then backing out.

The problem was what happened next.

That evening, in the practical training building basement storage.

I had come down alone to organize the healing potion inventory.

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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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