S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 19

The headquarters suddenly became much busier with the return of Cha Seohae and Na Ye-ri.

Until recently, while the first floor was always bustling, the other floors had been relatively quiet. But now, the elevators were constantly moving, and the number of times I was asked to heal people had increased noticeably.

One day, while I was quietly keeping my head down amid the tense atmosphere surrounding the guild, the day for my rank reassessment finally arrived.

“Welcome.”

“Hello.”

When Cha Seohae suggested that I have my rank reassessed, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

It simply felt like something that had been bound to happen eventually.

During the time I’d spent with Cha Seohae, I had learned more about him. The expression I’d initially thought was emotionless when I first healed him turned out to actually be the face he made when he was deep in thought.

After that, I noticed that his expression subtly changed whenever he received healing from me.

I had a feeling.

This guy has probably figured out my rank.

“Especially if Han Seongwoo told him that I managed to apply four buffs to him, then he’d have solid evidence.”

I glanced to the side. Cha Seohae, Han Seongwoo, and Na Ye-ri, who had come with me, were standing together within my field of vision.

Na Ye-ri waved her hand.

“Yeonhee, after this is over, let’s go get the ice cream you like.”

“Don’t try to trick her into going out just because you want to.”

“So what? If you don’t want to go, stay here.”

“Who said I didn’t want to go?”

I quietly sighed as Na Ye-ri and Han Seongwoo immediately began bickering the moment they opened their mouths.

“You’ve been tested before, so you know how it works, right? It won’t take long.”

“Yeah.”

“Ms. Moon Yeonhee. Please come in!”

Just then, the researcher called my name, so I approached her. She attached several devices to me for the measurement and guided me into the testing machine.

“When the machine starts, a system window will appear. Follow its instructions and activate your skill toward the center point.”

“Okay.”

[Beginning measurement.]

[Please use Heal.]

“Divine Grace.”

A gentle yellow glow, like honey, appeared.

[Measurement complete.]

[Please use Buff.]

Do I need to stack it?

I hesitated, wondering what to do, when the researcher spoke as if she had read my mind.

“If stacking is possible, please stack the buffs.”

Perhaps she knew because I hesitated, or perhaps she’d heard something from Han Seongwoo. Either way, it was the instruction I needed, so I stacked only two of my skills.

Right now, I felt that whether I could stack buffs at all was more important than how many I could stack.

The machine took longer to load than it had when measuring my healing.

[Measurement complete.]

[Please use Shield.]

A laser gun emerged beside me along with the system window.

“Divine Protection.”

Expecting an attack instinctively, I activated my shield.

Zzzzt!

As expected, a laser shot out and struck the shield.

At first, it was as thin as a thread, but it gradually grew stronger until it was about as thick as a sturdy tree branch.

Even then, the shield didn’t budge.

[Measurement complete.]

[Measurement result: Healer – ? Rank]

[※ERROR※ Accurate measurement is difficult due to predetermined records. Please accumulate new information.]

Seeing the word ERROR written in red made me tense up.

“Nothing went wrong, right…?”

I was staring at the system window displayed by the machine when the door suddenly burst open.

“Yeonhee…!”

“Ah! Vice Master! Don’t open the door like that! You could damage the machine! Do you know how expensive this thing is?!”

“Yeonhee, your rank…!”

Na Ye-ri completely ignored the researcher’s despair.

“Were you S-Rank?!”

 

***

 

“Wow. You really are slow.”

Han Seongwoo teased me.

“…Shut up. You’re the last person I want to hear that from. More importantly, I need to have a talk with Yeonhee about why she hid her S-Rank from me.”

“Huh?”

Ye-ri’s sharp eyes turned toward me.

“You didn’t just hide it from me. Neither I nor Cha Seohae knew.”

“Whether you knew or not has nothing to do with me, so why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

Cold. So cold.

Apparently thinking the same thing as me, Han Seongwoo wore an incredulous expression.

After finishing my rank assessment, the three of us somehow ended up at an ice cream shop.

Cha Seohae had left to have his equipment maintained.

“No way. You bastard! How dare you hog the chance to clear a dungeon with Yeonhee all to yourself? Why didn’t you call me?!”

“Hey, hey! I can’t—breathe!”

“I’ve been dealing with nothing but annoying people lately, so I want to see some monsters for a change!”

“Ye, Ye-ri….”

I tried to stop Na Ye-ri, who had suddenly grabbed Han Seongwoo by the collar.

“You…! Cough! You didn’t clear the dungeon, you destroyed—”

“You’re still able to talk?”

“Ghk!”

Amazing. He can still provoke her even in that situation.

I considered giving up on stopping them, but when I saw Han Seongwoo’s face getting redder and redder, I reluctantly called Na Ye-ri.

“Um, Ye-ri. I have something to tell you.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Hmph!”

The effect was immediate. As Ye-ri’s attention shifted from Han Seongwoo to me, he finally managed to escape her grasp.

Han Seongwoo hurriedly inhaled as if he’d just survived. Then he looked at me with watery eyes full of gratitude.

I told Na Ye-ri about what had happened at the Association.

She would find out eventually anyway. Nothing would help her understand why I wanted to remain in the guild that had kidnapped me more effectively than telling her about the atrocities committed by the Association.

“…So that’s what happened at the Association?”

By then, her cup of ice cream was completely empty.

“Yeah.”

“Park Jiwon… Yeah. There’s no way I wouldn’t know that name. So you were the healer who joined afterward, Yeonhee.”

Na Ye-ri muttered while holding the spoon to her lips, seemingly organizing her thoughts.

“And that bastard Do Juyeon is still living the same way.”

The way she spoke as though she knew Do Juyeon well made me freeze mid-scoop.

“Hey.”

However, Han Seongwoo hurriedly interrupted her before I could hear anything more.

“What, you crazy bastard? Why are you suddenly getting so aggressive? You’re acting even more suspicious.”

“…Wasn’t that a little too harsh?”

Even Na Ye-ri, who was famous for being oblivious, seemed to realize she’d better hold back.

I was curious about what they were talking about, but judging by their serious expressions, neither seemed willing to explain.

He said Do Juyeon is still the same. Do they know each other?

While I wandered through a maze of questions, Han Seongwoo and Na Ye-ri started talking about something else.

“So, are you staying at headquarters from now on?”

“Yeah. I’ve finished everything I had to do in the provinces.”

Na Ye-ri twirled her spoon in the air.

“I feel like Cha Seohae is going to work us to death now.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to get stronger.”

“Stronger?”

Judging by his reputation, Cha Seohae already seemed incredibly powerful.

Unable to follow the context, I looked at Han Seongwoo questioningly.

I was asking whether he knew something, since he’d been with me the whole time.

“Already…?”

“Yeah.”

“Haah. I had a feeling something like this would happen when that bastard said he’d move personally. He went through all the allied guilds in just one week.”

Han Seongwoo kept muttering, “Crazy bastard, Cha Seohae.”

Though perhaps he wasn’t shocked so much as screaming internally in his own way.

“He’s got good instincts. Anyway, this strawberry ice cream is really good. It’s close to headquarters, but I’m only trying it now. So you’re saying you ate this with Yeonhee alone every time I was away working in the provinces?”

“…I haven’t eaten it that many times either.”

“Hey, I’m curious. What kind of training does the guild use?”

“Oh, right. Yeonhee doesn’t know about Baekyang’s training methods.”

Na Ye-ri gave a sinister grin.

“It’s training designed to maximize efficiency in a short period of time. If you do it for too long, it damages your body, so we train for a month, rest for a week, and repeat.”

“……”

“Hunters never know when they’ll be called out unexpectedly, so we prioritize short-term training.”

“Mhm.”

It was completely different from the Association. The Association emphasized doing it consistently every day.

“This way, the work-life balance is pretty good, and we have enough time to clear dungeons.”

“Of course, at first, you spend so much time bedridden while adapting that there’s hardly any such thing as work-life balance.”

Han Seongwoo chimed in to help explain.

“You can think of it as restarting our activities. During inactive periods, Baekyang believes in resting properly. People can clear dungeons if they want to, but otherwise they’re free to enjoy hobbies, side jobs, and so on.”

“This way, when we gather and resume activities, the excitement and efficiency are higher, and everyone becomes more united. Constant exposure to blood drives some people crazy, so it’s also good for refreshing our minds. Most importantly, there are fewer complaints.”

“What kind of complaints?”

“If we constantly dragged everyone around clearing dungeons, people would become dissatisfied rather than happy, especially since the dungeon income wouldn’t always justify it.”

“True. It’s not like S-Rank dungeons appear every time.”

“And if you run into a linked dungeon like last time, there are days when you don’t get paid at all.”

Right. Guild hunters weren’t government employees.

Before government protection, they had to consider practical benefits first.

Now I understood why their system was so different from the Association’s.

“Then why are we suddenly resuming activities?”

Na Ye-ri pointed her spoon at me as though I’d asked the perfect question.

“To punish the Association.”

…Huh?

I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly, so I asked again.

“The Association?”

“Yeah.”

“…You’re going to attack them?”

“That’s right.”

Na Ye-ri answered calmly, seemingly unaware of the shock in my voice.

The more I thought about it, the more bewildering it became.

It would be a lie to say the words punish the Association didn’t resonate with my heart.

But objectively speaking, it was a fight with very low odds of success.

No matter how famous Baekyang was, the Association had more S-Rank hunters, more ordinary guild members, more healers, and a wider variety of advanced equipment. They would probably have plenty of outside support as well.

To me, the Association president might be a fraud, but his reputation among the public was still excellent.

“Looks like you don’t think we can win.”

When I couldn’t answer right away, Na Ye-ri continued as though she’d expected my reaction.

“So this time, we’re doing something different.”

“What?”

“We’re going to make some allies. That’s why we’ve been meeting with members of the allied guilds. We’re also looking for the guy who’s been leaking information about us to the Association.”

A traitor.

After hearing everything, I finally understood why Han Seongwoo had repeatedly called Cha Seohae crazy.

I also understood why Cha Seohae had been accumulating so much fatigue.

He really is a mad dog.

Especially because once he bites, he doesn’t let go.

“So, did everyone agree?”

“No. Not everyone. It’s understandable that they’re afraid to break the peace by going against the Association.”

“I suppose so.”

“Still, I didn’t expect Sawol to agree so enthusiastically. Having the second-ranked guild cooperate with us is like having an entire army on our side.”

Na Ye-ri’s expression relaxed.

As I watched her, I took another spoonful of ice cream.

Training.

It was exactly what I needed most right now.

I was glad I could start it immediately.

I thought back to my performance in the B-Rank dungeon we’d recently cleared.

I definitely couldn’t call my movements skillful. If Han Seongwoo hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have even secured the high ground, and I was also slow at applying buffs.

If the dungeon had been A+ Rank, or even S-Rank… I couldn’t guarantee that I would have been of any help.

In high-level dungeons, even being one second off could create a huge variable.

Besides, now that I belonged to a guild, I would probably be going all over the place as a healer.

I had joined much later than the other guild members, and as a healer, I was likely to be behind them physically as well.

Do Juyeon….

He was someone I would encounter once we entered higher-class dungeons, A+ or S-Rank.

What exactly is the secret connecting Baekyang and him?

I’d found it strange when he chased after me during my kidnapping, but I had a feeling there was more to him than simply being a member of the Association’s First Team.

Lost in thought, I chewed thoughtfully on my spoon.