S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 3

Crazy.

I hurriedly shut my mouth. Since my hands were tied, I couldn’t cover my mouth even if I wanted to.

Silence instantly fell over the car.

While I was wondering how to recover from that, the bastard let out a snicker.

At that laugh, the driver’s head began moving even more busily. He seemed unable to even watch the road properly as he kept checking the situation through the rearview mirror.

“I was wondering what you were staring at so much.”

“…….”

“Do I look like Cha Seohae?”

The eyes that had been closed opened, and the blue eyes within slowly turned toward me.

His eyes were only half-open, their focus unfixed. He looked tired. So tired that I wondered how he could even see people properly with those eyes.

“Hm? I’m asking you. Do I look like Cha Seohae?”

“…If not, then never mind.”

“No. That’s not how you’re supposed to answer.”

Cha Seohae lightly rubbed his eyes before leaning his upper body toward me.

‘Why is he acting like this when we’ve only just met…?’

Reflexively, I backed away as he approached.

Then, thud, my back hit the car door.

With nowhere left to run, I looked at Cha Seohae.

Up close, I could see his face in greater detail than before.

The skin around his eyes was red from rubbing them. It looked irritating, as if someone had dabbed red paint onto a clean sheet of paper.

“Instead of saying ‘if not, then never mind,’ you should beg me to spare you if I really am Cha Seohae.”

“What?”

“You must not know because this is your first time being kidnapped, but that’s how hostages usually talk.”

“…….”

They said he was crazy. Was it not because he was overwhelmingly strong and impossible to stop, but because his words and actions were like this?

Cha Seohae’s lips curved into an arc, as if he found something amusing.

“Try it….”

“Fuck off.”

I cut him off and cursed him with my eyes. If my hands had been free, I would have kindly given him the middle finger too. It was a shame I couldn’t.

He narrowed his eyes before abruptly moving away.

He was the one who had done something deserving of an insult, so what exactly was he unhappy about?

“Pfft! Ahem. Sniff. Hng.”

What was wrong with the person in front of us now?

The sound was ambiguous, making it impossible to tell whether he was laughing or clearing his throat.

“Childeuk, let’s just drive quietly.”

“Yes, sir….”

It was confirmed now. The intimidating-looking driver was speaking politely to him. That meant this bastard was of a higher rank.

‘He really must be Cha Seohae….’

So I had been fearlessly picking a fight with someone like that this whole time.

It was embarrassing, but the milk had already been spilled.

It would be strange to suddenly say, ‘Could you forget what I said?’ And saying, ‘Please spare me just this once’ would hurt my pride.

I didn’t want to grovel in front of the guild just because I had been treated terribly by the Association.

Thinking about it made me resent the fact that I had to do something. Being a hostage didn’t necessarily mean I had to humiliate myself, did it?

After confirming that Cha Seohae had quieted down, I simply said nothing.

‘More importantly, what should I do from now on?’

He had already learned my name and face beforehand. That meant this was a planned kidnapping. And if this was the Baekyang Guild, it certainly wasn’t somewhere I could easily escape from.

Besides, Baekyang wasn’t the only problem.

The Association absolutely hated unauthorized departures.

If someone disappeared without saying anything, they would realize that the person had either been kidnapped or betrayed them. But neither option ended well.

It was a night when I couldn’t sleep. At dawn that day, I witnessed a hunter who had been kidnapped getting scolded by his team leader.

At first, I thought he was being comforted. But as the voices gradually grew louder—

“I told you! Why did you give them an excuse to kidnap you?! I told you to be careful because those bastards have no sense of decency!”

“I-I’m sorry!”

The hunter who had been kidnapped was apologizing to his team leader instead.

I couldn’t understand what was happening, so I continued watching to figure out the situation.

Just as I was wondering whether I should record it, a patrolling hunter called out to me, so I had no choice but to leave.

I went back once things had quieted down, but no one was there anymore.

‘He was the one who was unlucky enough to get kidnapped, yet instead of taking better care of him, they just scolded him. And as for betrayal… I never saw anyone who came back after doing that.’

The Association was so sensitive about unauthorized departures that they were willing to blame the victim.

I had been suspicious even back then. From the beginning, it didn’t seem like an organization that actually advocated for welfare and safety.

But strangely, whenever I stayed inside, that sense of discomfort never lasted long.

It was because of helplessness. The self-loathing that came from thinking, Even if I know the truth, what can I do without the Association’s protection?

A healer became cut off from the outside world from the moment they joined the Association.

It started with being unable to freely leave the Association grounds, and even their sources of information were limited.

I often browsed online communities using my phone, but it was useless.

Every healer worth anything belonged to either the Association or a major guild. Moreover, because there were so few of us, every little thing we said could easily be traced back to us, so there were very few posts.

‘And the news only ever showed healers who had gone through dangerous situations or been exploited.’

There were so few healers to begin with, and we were scattered everywhere, so healers had little sense of solidarity.

On top of that, we had no offensive skills, so individuals had no power to protect themselves.

We were easy prey, vulnerable to danger both inside and outside.

That was why healers avoided going into the field whenever possible. If it was unavoidable, they were positioned toward the back. Somewhere they could stay safe with allies surrounding them on all sides.

Evaluation is relative.

Even when being exploited for healing, it felt safer compared to the healers seen in the news or online communities.

If you started thinking that way, hadn’t you already fallen for the Association’s scheme?

After that, you became desperate to prove your usefulness and clung to your sense of belonging just so you could remain in the Association.

And the Association was perfectly pleased to watch it happen.

‘Even I made an effort to get along with the members of the first team.’

I had only started looking at things skeptically now because I was the one who had been unilaterally told that I was being expelled. If you didn’t become directly involved in an incident yourself, you would never know.

“Hey.”

“…….”

“Cha Seohae.”

I called out to Cha Seohae, but the response came from the driver’s seat.

Seeing the driver, who was still only mouthing words, I called out to Cha Seohae again.

“I’m listening.”

The indifferent answer that came so casually startled me instead.

‘Can I call him by his name?’

It had taken me three whole months before I could call the members of the first team by their names.

Remembering that left me feeling strangely empty inside.

“How are you planning to use me?”

“Use you?”

“You must have had a reason for kidnapping me. Are you going to kill me?”

“Hah.”

Cha Seohae scoffed as if he found the question ridiculous.

“I told you there was nothing dangerous waiting for you.”

“That came with the condition that I followed you quietly.”

“So you knew I was loud. I thought you didn’t.”

“…….”

“Why are you asking? Do you want to die?”

Crazy bastard…. He sure knew how to say things harshly.

Because his tone never rose or fell, it sounded as though he would kill me on the spot if I asked him to.

“I was curious about what you’re going to do with me.”

“I’m going to put you to work.”

“…….”

I think I had gotten myself into trouble.

‘How big are the buildings of major guilds usually?’

If I estimated it to be roughly the same size as the Association, then even if they only made me do basic cleaning….

“W-Will I be the only one?”

“Yeah.”

That was too much.

Seeing how serious I had become, Cha Seohae corrected himself.

“I’m planning to make a deal with the Association. Since you’re the healer the Association Master has been hiding so carefully, I thought you might be useful, so I brought you here.”

“A deal?”

There was no way he would tell me what kind of deal it was.

‘Come to think of it, I’m not the first team’s healer anymore.’

I wondered whether I should honestly tell him.

‘No, even so, it would be dangerous to tell him while my safety isn’t guaranteed.’

I decided to hide it for now, at least to keep myself alive as long as possible.

“The Association gave me a gift.”

“…….”

“So I’m on my way back after thanking them in return.”

The gift the Association had given a major guild couldn’t possibly have been anything good….

My instincts told me that I shouldn’t just hide it—I absolutely could not let him find out that I had been pushed out of my position on the first team.

‘If the deal doesn’t go smoothly, I’ll be the one in danger.’

The problem was how I was supposed to hide it.

They had publicly announced it with reporters present. Even now, the internet must already be buzzing with the news.

“If the Association’s response isn’t favorable, I’m planning to recruit you into our guild.”

“What?”

While I was anxiously furrowing my brow and thinking things over, he made an unexpected proposal.

“How about it? Either the conversation goes well and you return to the Association, or it doesn’t and you come to our guild. Either way, I don’t think you have anything to lose.”

If you only considered his words, that was true. At least I had somewhere to go either way.

‘Would going to a guild really be the right choice just because I don’t want to return to the Association?’

I absolutely did not want to go back to the Association. But that didn’t mean I could say the guild was safe.

The Association at least claimed to guarantee our welfare, while guilds didn’t even offer that.

If an organization that promised to protect us was already like that, what could I possibly trust about a guild that made no promises at all?

‘What decision do I need to make here to stop being the powerless “lesser party” who can only be pushed around?’

Thinking too much gave me a pounding headache.

“Master.”

The driver, who had been quiet until now, called out to Cha Seohae.

I was still lost in thought, but I subtly raised my head, wondering if something had happened.

“I know.”

How do you know? You’ve been talking this whole time.

I was curious, but the atmosphere made it impossible to ask.

“What should we do?”

“Ignore him and keep going.”

“The other party is Hunter Do Juyeon.”

Do Juyeon?

At the familiar name, my body instinctively turned around.

‘It really is him….’

It was definitely Do Juyeon. The person driving the white car closely following us was him.

‘Since when has he been following us? Is he coming to rescue me?’

The disappointment I had felt just moments ago disappeared, replaced by a strange sense of surprise as I watched Do Juyeon.

“Do Juyeon?”

Cha Seohae’s voice was chillingly cold as he said the name.

He hadn’t even said my name. Yet simply because it was a familiar name, it made me shrink back.

“Ah, what a headache.”

Why did it have to be that guy?

The ominous atmosphere I had sensed wasn’t just my imagination.

Cha Seohae clearly didn’t like Do Juyeon.

‘The first team didn’t like Cha Seohae either. It must be because they have a hostile relationship.’

Although the tension was even stronger than when the first team had openly expressed their dissatisfaction.

The driver must have sensed it too, because he quickly drove the car as ordered.

Vroooom.

“Keep driving like this. There’s no way he’ll speed.”

“Yes.”

I bit my lip at the speed that made it impossible to see the scenery outside properly.

Cha Seohae was right.

‘Would Do Juyeon, who follows rules to the letter, really speed just to catch up to us?’

He was what you would commonly call a by-the-book type. In a good way, he was honest; in a bad way, he was inflexible.

‘Though if it was an order from the Association Master, things might be different….’

The fact that I had to trust the Association Master to escape from this kidnapping was horrifying.

“Have you already decided to forgive the Association?”

His voice was strangely sarcastic.

‘…Forgive the Association?’

Something about his words sounded suspicious. As if he knew something.

Since this concerned my own situation, I couldn’t hide my confusion.

With a nervous heart, I turned toward Cha Seohae.

He looked at my expression and gave me a dry smile.

“I guess you thought I wouldn’t know.”

“…….”

“The fact that you’re no longer the first team’s dedicated healer.”