Please Give Me A Kiss, Healer! Chapter 62

Five lost baby chicks had been found.

For now, they were given temporary names: Ppi-il, Ppi-ee, Ppi-sam, Ppi-sa, and Ppi-oh.

Ppiiiiiik! Ppiiiiiik!

The Ppi-ppis woke up and cried so loudly it felt like their screams would tear ears apart.

“H-Heeseong, w-what’s wrong with them? Are they sick?”

“Maybe they’re just hungry?”

It was a pretty convincing guess.

Which led to the next problem.

“Then what are we supposed to feed them?”

“Uh… should we catch some bugs or something…?”

While they panicked, the crying only got louder.

Ppiak! BbuyaaAAAAAAAK!

“S-Sis! Just give them anything for now! Doesn’t the shop have bird feed or something?”

“Hold on!”

Jiwoo hurriedly opened the shop.

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“Parrot feed should be okay… right?”

Bbugyaaaaaaaaak! Ppiggyaaaaaaaaak!

“Just buy it, Sis! At this rate they’re going to pass out!”

Jiwoo bought the feed from the shop.

She was just about to roll a pellet into the crying birds’ mouths when—

Dongshik suddenly appeared and headbutted Jiwoo.

─ Don’t do thaaat!!

“Huh?”

─ If you give it like that, it’ll get stuck in their throats and hurt them! You gotta mix it with water, grind it up, and use a syringe!

It was suspiciously detailed advice.

Jiwoo bought a syringe from the shop as well.

Just like Dongshik said, she ground up the feed, mixed it with water, and slowly fed it to them.

The chicks opened their beaks wide and eagerly ate.

“S-So cute…….”

─ Jiwoo, they’re this cute—can’t we just raise them ourselves?

Dongshik rolled his black eyes around.

Even after hearing about the Whitebirds they’d met in the dungeon, Dongshik still couldn’t let go.

─ Leaving them lying around like that means they must be bad parents!

“There must’ve been a reason. We can’t just break up families that already have parents.”

─ Nyak…… You said those parent birds are dungeon monsters. If we leave them, they’ll die anyway, nyak.

Cold, but not wrong.

Before long, a rescue team would enter the dungeon to save Special Team 7.

No matter how strong the Whitebirds were, they couldn’t withstand organized attacks from hunters.

“Sis, you’re not just going to leave them like this, right? Right?”

While gently petting the chicks, Heeseong looked up at Jiwoo with desperate eyes.

Ever since hearing about the Whitebirds, he’d been like this.

He was sure they had to step in and save the chicks’ parents.

─ I’m against it, nyak. We’re not some monster rescue squad. Why bother saving birds like that?

“Hey, you cold-blooded penguin brat. You can say that after looking at them?”

─ What’s that got to do with anything, nyak? If you spend your life helping everyone, you won’t live long. That’s not kind—that’s stupid, nyak!

Dongshik and Heeseong started glaring at each other.

Jiwoo didn’t say anything, but her thoughts were tangled too.

‘Once the dungeon is cleared, these kids will all be orphans.’

The Ppi-ppis, fast asleep with full bellies, kept catching her eye.

Even if they returned the chicks to the Whitebirds inside the dungeon, in the end, they’d all be killed.

Hunters would never just let monster offspring live.

─ From the Ppi-ppis’ point of view, it’s better not to have parents like that. Living together in a dangerous dungeon is worse than being orphans—

“What do you think you’re saying, you stupid bird!!”

Heeseong shouted and shoved Dongshik.

─ Nyanyank! Why are you hitting a perfectly fine bird?!

“How is being an orphan better?! You don’t even know anything, so don’t say stuff like that!”

─ Nyak!! What’s wrong with you all of a sudden? Jiiwoo, stop him, nyak!

Dongshik flapped his wings, but Jiwoo stayed silent.

She understood why Heeseong was reacting like that.

Whitebirds that would die in the dungeon.

Baby chicks crying in the safe zone.

Parents who went missing in a dungeon.

Jiwoo and Heeseong, waiting at home for parents who never came back.

The chicks crying loudly inside the basket looked just like her and Heeseong when they were little.

Her chest felt heavy, like a stone had sunk into it.

“Sis, you’ll help them, right? Like you helped the Antmen?”

“…….”

“You said you needed more members anyway! And we have to make dungeon disease potions too!”

“…….”

“Ah, Sis!! Say something already!”

At last, Jiwoo’s lips moved.

“…I don’t know. I’ll just try.”

So far, Jiwoo’s favorability system had only appeared for certain monsters.

It didn’t work on goblins or skeletons, but it did show up for animal-type monsters like Dongshik and the Antmen.

‘Whitebirds are birds too… so maybe it’ll work.’

She didn’t know if she could communicate with Whitebirds who’d lost both their chicks and their reason.

After thinking it over, Jiwoo made one request of Heeseong.

“Heeseong, first, go down to Kangwoo’s place on the floor below our apartment and……”

 

 

***

 

 

“Shall we go to the sea to catch carp~♪ Or head to the valley to catch crucian carp~♬”

After catching fish in the valley, Jiwoo returned to the cave.

If she grilled these, the team’s food shortage would be solved!

The safe zone is the best! My skill is the best!

“I’ll just say I caught the fish in the cave lake!”

Giggling to herself, Jiwoo headed back into the cave.

She walked along the cave wall toward the lake where the team was gathered—

“Hunter Do Jiwoo.”

“H-Hwaaagh!”

Shin Il-guk, whom she thought was asleep, was standing there with his eyes wide open.

Arms crossed, blocking the path, he asked,

“Where exactly have you been?”

“Uh, the lake! I went to the lake to catch fish for us to eat.”

She was so nervous that her words came out tangled.

When Jiwoo tried to slip past him, Shin Il-guk squared his shoulders like a bear and blocked her again.

“Which part of the lake? You clearly came from the opposite direction just now.”

“Uh, well, you see……”

Cold sweat trickled down her back.

‘Why is he so sharp today?!’

He’s usually the type with zero awareness!

Jiwoo realized excuses wouldn’t work.

So she decided to tell the truth—seasoned with a little MSG.

“You know this already, right, Il-guk? That I’m a high-ranking Awakened. I only joined the Blank Guild because the guild master begged me over and over.”

“Yes. Woo-hyuk hyung hinted at it.”

“But I’m not just any high-ranking Awakened—I’m super, super, super top-tier. Hunters at my level usually have one or two skills nobody else knows about. Like a secret trump card they don’t want teammates to know!”

So please don’t ask for details. Understand?

With an innocent face, Jiwoo rattled this off at lightning speed, slipped past Shin Il-guk, and tried to scurry back to her spot.

But if life always went the way you wanted, would it really be life?

From behind her came a cold voice.

“…And what exactly is all this supposed to mean?”

Yoo Jaekyung walked over, frowning, looking at Jiwoo and Shin Il-guk, who both looked frozen—like kids caught doing something bad.

 

 

****

 

 

“So, to sum it up—Jiwoo is a high-ranking Awakened. An S-rank, at that.”

“…….”

“And yet I, the team leader, didn’t know. Only our guild master and the guild master’s cousin did.”

“Team Leader, it’s not because I’m related. It just sort of happened from the very first dungeon—”

“Quiet. I wasn’t asking you, Hunter Shin Il-guk.”

That single sentence knocked Shin Il-guk out cold. On top of that, he was sent far away under the excuse that Jiwoo needed a private talk.

Once they were alone, Yoo Jaekyung looked Jiwoo straight in the eye.

“Hunter Do Jiwoo.”

“…Yes, Team Leader.”

Jiwoo squeezed her eyes shut.

Yoo Jaekyung already didn’t have good feelings toward the guild master, and now this had happened on top of it……

‘She must think I disrespected her.’

From experience, Jiwoo knew that denying it or making excuses would only make things worse.

‘I should just apologize. No matter what.’

She prepared herself to nod like a sick chicken over and over.

All that remained was Yoo Jaekyung’s sharp scolding.

But instead—

“So what’s that trump card?”

“…Pardon?”

Yoo Jaekyung crossed her arms.

“If you’re a top-tier hunter, fine—I get why you carry expensive items and two staffs. But the skill you said no one else knows about. What is it?”

“Ah, well… that skill is something I decided to keep top secret since joining the guild—”

“You have to tell me. This is an emergency, and I’m the team leader. I need to know every possible variable, don’t I?”

Yoo Jaekyung wasn’t going to let it slide.

“…Only you can know, Team Leader.”

In the end, Jiwoo lowered her tail completely.

She revealed that she was a Second Awakener, and that she possessed the rare skill ‘Welcome to My Home!’.

“Please keep it absolutely secret. If this gets out, I’ll be dragged off by the Emergency Response Team.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I can see why. Those people are seriously crazy about dungeons.”

Yoo Jaekyung added another warning about how frightening the Emergency Response Team was.

“Hide it carefully. Even in combat, don’t recklessly bring people into your safe zone. Don’t be sloppy like today and get caught again—and don’t even talk to the Emergency Response Team if you can help it.”

Jiwoo flinched.

‘The team leader of the Emergency Response Team is my closest neighbor from downstairs.’

Just how terrifying was this Emergency Response Team for everyone to react like this?

Jiwoo’s shoulders trembled.

‘Kangwoo… you’re okay, right?’

They’re not bullying you with weird stuff over there, are they?

Thinking of Kangwoo—kind, gentle, and innocent like a puppy—made her heart ache.