S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 26

How could you have been so shocked? And I heard something bad happened on the way here, too.

“…Are you going to do it?”

“I should, too. Whether I knew about it or not, I’m one of the people responsible. Of course, I’m not planning to just make a half-hearted apology and move on. I’ll gather everyone together and do it properly.”

Na Ye-ri spoke with a serious attitude, shedding the playful demeanor she had shown until now.

She didn’t make excuses about having some unavoidable reason why they absolutely had to kidnap me.

It was as if the victim didn’t need to understand the circumstances of the person who hurt them.

‘Looks like we’ll all be gathered together soon.’

If they apologized, I was willing to accept it.

Whatever had happened in the past, we were guild members now.

For the sake of maintaining our relationship in the long run, there was a need to set the past right.

Besides, she was offering to apologize first. There was no reason for me to refuse.

“Sure. Let’s talk about it next time.”

I changed the subject because I wanted to talk about something else.

I had finally come outside after such a long time, and I didn’t want to spend it talking about gloomy things like the day I was kidnapped. Besides, Na Ye-ri hadn’t even been there that day. If I complained to her, she would only blame herself.

What I wanted to gain through forgiveness was a comfortable relationship, not an advantage over them by holding their past actions over their heads.

Fortunately, Na Ye-ri seemed to understand my signal to talk about it later. Her stiff expression relaxed, and she gave me a mischievous grin.

As usual, she made a playful face and scooped up some ice cream, bringing the spoon toward my mouth.

“Stop….”

I was about to refuse, saying it was fine, when I suddenly felt an unsettling presence.

I looked around, searching for the source of the eerie sensation.

“What’s wrong?”

Na Ye-ri tilted her head.

‘Someone was definitely watching me….’

I hurriedly scanned the shop, but all I could see were a couple and three students.

None of them were Hunters.

‘They seemed to look away right when I turned around. Was I too late?’

The uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away, and I couldn’t bring myself to relax.

But apparently, my actions had attracted more attention than I realized, because the people around us also began looking around.

I had no choice but to straighten up.

“What is it? Is there something here?”

Na Ye-ri stood up and positioned herself behind me. She looked worried that someone might be trying to attack me.

“There’s no one, but….”

“So you’re saying you’re sure you didn’t imagine it?”

“Yeah.”

In my answer, Na Ye-ri searched the second floor thoroughly.

“There’s no one who looks like a Hunter.”

Apparently finding nothing, Na Ye-ri shook her head.

‘If someone can give off that much killing intent, they have to be at least A-rank.’

An A-rank Hunter could easily conceal their presence, but even so, they shouldn’t be able to evade an S-rank’s senses.

Something about it felt wrong.

‘If the gaze was coming from behind me, shouldn’t Na Ye-ri have noticed it before I did?’

Yet Na Ye-ri, an experienced S-rank, hadn’t sensed any killing intent.

‘A killing intent that feels strangely familiar to me… That means I’ve encountered it before.’

I narrowed down the possibilities as if closing in on a target.

Eventually, someone came to mind.

“Ah.”

Could it be him?

There was one person who flashed through my mind like lightning.

“Yeonhee? Did you figure something out?”

I looked up at the ceiling and spotted a CCTV camera.

When I stared into the camera lens, it felt as though I were making eye contact with a person.

It was chilling.

It didn’t take long for my suspicion to turn into certainty. I left the shop as if fleeing, leaving the ice cream behind.

“Yeonhee! Yeonhee!”

Na Ye-ri, who had been dragged along without knowing what was going on, called after me.

“What’s wrong? What did you see that scared you so much? I’ll go beat them up! Who was it?”

“There, the shop—huff—there’s no one!”

My words came out ragged as I ran, my breath mixing into my voice.

“What are you talking about? You said you sensed something. But there’s no one there? Was it the building next door?”

Na Ye-ri hurriedly asked question after question, still looking completely confused.

Even if I wanted to explain, this wasn’t the right place. Even now, I felt as though people were watching me from all directions.

After running as fast as I could, the Baekyang Guild building soon came into view. Only when I saw the guard standing at the main entrance did I feel as though I had escaped those unpleasant gazes.

I caught my breath and carefully explained.

“They were watching us through the CCTV.”

“The CCTV?”

I had already expected the Association to keep an eye on me to some extent. After seeing Kang Sihyeon and Jang Jeongin on the news, I assumed they were hiding somewhere nearby, waiting for me to show myself.

‘But no. This was Woo Chan-hyeok’s doing.’

Woo Chan-hyeok. He was an A-rank Hunter in the Association’s 3rd Team who possessed clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance was an ability belonging to the mental-affinity category, like illusions.

It had no direct destructive power, but its applications were virtually limitless. He could use the information he gathered to confuse enemies or quickly complete preliminary investigations, among other things.

It was such an unusual ability that I occasionally heard rumors about his exploits, but there was another reason I knew him.

‘He spied on me under the Association President’s orders.’

I bit the inside of my cheek at the unpleasant memory.

The higher the rank of a clairvoyant, the wider the range of objects they could see through.

As an A-rank Hunter, Woo Chan-hyeok could imbue objects with his clairvoyance.

The clairvoyant’s skill, Red Eye.

It allowed him to see through things remotely using a device he had obtained, rather than having to look through his own eyes.

Anyone who had never experienced that ability would be unable to sense anything at all.

That was why Na Ye-ri hadn’t been able to detect his presence.

“Then what about that?”

Na Ye-ri pointed at a CCTV camera in a nearby shop.

“Yeah. The CCTV near the ice cream shop seems to have been tampered with, but this one is fine.”

“…So that’s how it is.”

Na Ye-ri nodded and took out her phone.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

She began making a call with a serious expression.

I listened carefully, wondering who she was calling.

“Childeuk, check all the CCTVs from the subway station to the ice cream shop. Right now! I don’t think people without experience can sense it. I couldn’t tell, either. So take someone who has either fought against the Association or cleared dungeons with them….”

“If possible, someone who has dealt with the 3rd Team.”

“Yeah, preferably someone who’s fought the Association’s 3rd Team before. Okay. Thanks.”

Na Ye-ri hung up and looked at me.

Maybe because she had encountered so many Hunters, she was quick to understand the situation despite not sensing anything herself.

“You’re certain it’s someone from the 3rd Team, and if you can identify it just from the feeling, then you know something about that ability, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“…Fuck!”

Na Ye-ri stomped her foot hard against the ground.

“I won’t ask anything else, so cheer up. We went out because I wanted to get a change of scenery for once, and now I regret coming out today.”

“No. I’m really glad we came outside.”

When I tried to reassure her, she only looked more upset, her face crumpling as though she might cry.

I felt sorry, but I didn’t have the luxury of comforting Na Ye-ri right now.

Just thinking about that day made the back of my neck crawl.

I still hadn’t escaped what happened.

With the trauma resurfacing so vividly, even telling her honestly about it was difficult.

The clearer the memories became, the more erratically my heart beat.

I felt suffocated and miserable.

 

***

 

Bang!

“What are you suddenly doing?”

That day, Do Ju-yeon barged straight into my room without warning. I was shocked by his rude behavior and asked what he was doing, but he was too busy doing what he had come to do.

After looking around my room for a while, he spotted the camera on my desk and smashed it in one swift motion.

The absurd turn of events left me speechless, and I glared at him.

But Do Ju-yeon completely ignored my reaction, as though he had expected it.

“Did you leave the dorm today?”

“…Yeah.”

He absentmindedly examined the broken pieces of the camera as he answered. It was ridiculous, but I decided to at least hear his reason.

“Try not to leave the dorm when we’re not around.”

“Why? Is there a reason?”

“There was clairvoyance placed on that camera.”

I had heard that all the CCTVs in the training room had clairvoyance placed on them. Perhaps that was why Do Ju-yeon had immediately noticed it.

“Clairvoyance?”

“Didn’t you feel like that suffocating sensation disappeared?”

Come to think of it, when the camera broke, I felt as though something had suddenly been released from me.

“I’ll tell them not to monitor the dorm anymore, so don’t let your guard down.”

“…Okay.”

With that, Do Ju-yeon left the room.

“…Wait, is he expecting me to clean that up?”

And the next day, Association employees came around the dormitory. They had come to remove all the clairvoyance devices installed in the rooms where the Healers stayed.

 

***

 

‘If Do Ju-yeon hadn’t told me that day, I probably would have never known.’

There was probably nothing special behind Do Ju-yeon helping me.

Perhaps he was worried that if the Healer became a surveillance target, he and the other members of his team would become targets as well.

They had secretly placed clairvoyance while we were away.

Who knew what they had done to their own rooms?

Regardless of who was being watched, it was horrifying just to imagine.

Being monitored through clairvoyance in your everyday life was no different from being treated like a criminal.

‘And the fact that they placed Red Eye on the ice cream shop means they found out where I frequently went.’

Since there weren’t any around here, they must have deliberately avoided places close to Baekyang.

I hadn’t been outside for quite some time, so how had they figured it out?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find an answer.

With no conclusion in sight, my thoughts became so tangled that I felt dizzy.

“Yeonhee, Yeonhee? Yeonhee!”

“Huh, what?”

“Look at all this cold sweat. Are you okay?”

Maybe it was because I was anxious. When I came to my senses, I was drenched in sweat.

If Na Ye-ri hadn’t been there, I might have fainted on the spot.

“What’s wrong? Did you sense something again?”

“No… No, it’s not that….”

Na Ye-ri, who had been keeping watch around us, gently patted my back.

“Breathe.”

I steadied my breathing. Maybe because I had felt powerless for the first time in a while, my shoulders felt heavy.

“Moon Yeonhee.”

For a moment, it felt as though all the blood had drained from my body.

Na Ye-ri firmly grabbed my shoulders and called my name.

“Calm down. Even if someone is trying to attack you right now, I’m right here with you. And we’re in front of the guild. There are far more people here who would help you than people who would threaten you.”

“……”

“The guild members are stationed around headquarters. Cha Seohae must have told everyone to stop anyone from the Association who approaches. So don’t worry. If you’re too lazy to avoid them, just scream.”

“……”

“And you’re an S-rank now. You’re not the B-rank you used to be. No, you know I’m not saying being B-rank is something shameful, right? Anyway, you trained your ass off, so they’re not going to be able to bully you around anymore. You’re on the same level as them.”

Only then did my vision gradually begin to clear.

“I told you before. You’re not the only one with a weakness in God’s Blessing. The other S-ranks have weaknesses too. If it’s unfair that you’re being pushed around like this, then you have to fight back.”

Na Ye-ri gave me an encouraging, confident smile.

“When you’re on equal footing, what decides the winner isn’t some special trick. The one who refuses to give up until the very end wins.”

“Ah….”

“If you give up just because your opponent is stronger, you won’t even have the chance to use surprise as a variable.”

My eyes widened at her words.

Those words gave me more strength than hearing that there were many people who could help me.

The 1st Team had the ability to help me and the responsibility to protect me, yet they hadn’t even properly looked after me.

In the end, the only person who could protect me was myself.

Perhaps my resolve showed on my face, because Na Ye-ri’s grip on my shoulders gradually loosened.

“The Association President doesn’t know exactly what you felt. But one thing is certain: he knows you must have suffered, and he’ll try to dig up those memories.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t let him manipulate you whenever he does. Better yet, suffer in advance. You can tell me about it. If you don’t think I’m trustworthy, I’ll even buy you a doll. Tell the doll.”

“What?”

At the sudden mention of a doll, I blinked.