S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 5

[Reorganizing the system window.]

[Congratulations, Moon Yeonhee.]

[You have awakened as an S-Rank Pope (Healer).]

The system’s ding sounds rang out one after another, noisily.

But I couldn’t finish reading the messages before closing my eyes.

[The system window has detected that the caster is in critical condition.]

[‘God’s Grace’ will automatically activate.]

[The S-Rank privilege description will be temporarily omitted due to automatic system output.]

 

***

 

“Hey!”

Moon Yeonhee’s eyes slowly closed.

Seeing that, Cha Seohae realized that shouting any more would be useless.

Right now, he needed to call an ambulance as quickly as possible.

“Master! Are you all right?!”

Childeugi turned around with a thin stream of blood running down his face. It seemed he had injured his forehead in the collision.

The sight of him being injured bothered Cha Seohae, but thankfully, he seemed to be perfectly conscious.

“Call an ambulance right now.”

“What? But if we do that, we might have to return the hostage to the Association….”

“The kid looks like she’s about to die. Is that really important right now?”

That’s exactly why you kidnapped her in the first place.

Childeugi couldn’t bring himself to say that out loud, so he simply nodded.

Of course, he had no intention of going through another life-threatening race like this, so he immediately called the Baekyang medical team.

A fight during an attack would have been one thing. But having to drive safely, worry about civilians, and use his skills according to orders at the same time? He wanted no part of this kind of high-difficulty operation ever again.

‘Though I do follow Master because his decisions are so impressive.’

Without even checking whom Childeugi was calling, Cha Seohae pulled Moon Yeonhee out of the car.

“Ugh….”

Pain surged through his entire arm at once. Fortunately, his history of frequent injuries had made it bearable.

“Is it okay to leave her here?”

It would be easier to breathe outside than inside the car, which would soon be filled with smoke.

He knew that Moon Yeonhee had taken a tremendous impact to her back. The expression of pain that had twisted her face when he had seen it from the front remained vivid in his mind.

He didn’t possess a single healing skill that could heal other people. Once again today, he had no choice but to helplessly watch someone else suffer.

It happened every time, but he never got used to it.

He clicked his tongue and sat Moon Yeonhee against the wall. He couldn’t lay her down either, because he was worried it would put more strain on her back.

“Stay here for a moment.”

He knew she was unconscious and couldn’t hear him, but he spoke to her anyway. As if saying it aloud was enough to reassure him.

He was about to stand up to deal with the scene when golden particles suddenly scattered over her head. They looked like a skill effect.

Her pale complexion gradually regained its color, and the traces of blood around her mouth from her internal injuries faded.

He couldn’t determine the condition of the most important part—her spine—with his naked eyes. But Cha Seohae expected that her condition had improved.

‘A heal?’

But how could she use one while unconscious?

He stood rooted to the spot for a while, unable to take his eyes off the strange phenomenon.

“Master! The enemy has disappeared!”

He had been staring blankly when Childeugi’s shout quickly brought him back to his senses.

“What?”

He turned around and looked at Moon Yeonhee.

‘Wasn’t he doing all this because he wanted to take her back?’

Then he should have attacked at least one more time.

Throughout the entire incident, Cha Seohae had kept an eye on Do Juyeon. He had clearly looked fired up, with eyes that showed he had no intention of holding anything back.

‘Did he come to his senses after causing all this?’

Thinking about it carefully, there had been many strange things about his behavior, starting with the fact that he had chased them even while speeding.

It seemed as though he had some other motive besides taking the healer back.

‘Maybe something I did became the trigger that set him off, and that changed things.’

Watching someone who had been his team’s healer until yesterday being kidnapped and taken away, Do Juyeon must have felt the urge to win as well.

Someone like him was more than capable of that.

‘But even if I think about it that way, something still feels wrong.’

The suspicious part had started with the replacement of the healer in the first place.

The Association Master was undoubtedly a dirty person, but he wasn’t the type to openly show that side of himself to outsiders.

And yet he had used his nephew as an excuse to kick the existing healer out of the team.

‘Suppose that’s possible. He could bury the previous healer simply because she was B-rank.’

But would he really allow them to speed, threaten civilians, and use abilities outside of combat just to bring back the healer he had pushed out? Even at the cost of damaging his public reputation?

At most, he would have waited for another opportunity. He wouldn’t have ordered them to threaten civilians.

The Association Master didn’t seem like someone who intended to remain involved in the hunter world forever.

For someone under that kind of Association Master, Do Juyeon’s actions had been far too reckless.

Even if he managed to escape, everyone knew his face. If he wandered around while injured, people would find it suspicious. And he wouldn’t be able to avoid CCTV cameras either.

‘Am I missing something?’

Cha Seohae stared at Moon Yeonhee with an impassive gaze.

‘What if the Association is operating in an even more abnormal way than I thought?’

If that were the case, it would explain why they had subjected the healer they supposedly cherished so much to such humiliating treatment. It would also explain why they had chased after the car as though they were willing to kill just to retrieve her.

‘Was Do Juyeon after me, or was the Association Master after the healer?’

Given the circumstances, there was no clean answer.

As he considered the various possibilities, the silence stretched on.

Childeugi, who had been waiting, tilted his head and asked again.

“Judging by the condition of the car, the enemy definitely isn’t unharmed either. Should I go catch him now?”

“Leave him.”

Just like Do Juyeon, neither Cha Seohae nor Childeugi was in perfect condition.

‘Even if we chase him and fight now, our side would suffer considerable damage too.’

Cha Seohae hadn’t staged the kidnapping because he wanted to die, nor had he punctured Do Juyeon’s tires because he wanted to kill him.

‘No. I can’t say there was absolutely no such intention.’

The image of Do Juyeon firing his gun was still vivid in his mind.

The reason he had copied Cha Seohae’s ability instead of using his own ability while Childeugi was right in front of him was obvious.

Once he had adapted to an ability, he could copy it much faster.

“What? You’re going to let this opportunity slip away?”

“Now isn’t the time for that.”

Childeugi was about to ask, “Then what are we supposed to do?” but quickly caught on.

“What do we need to do… Huh?! What the hell happened to our wall?!”

“Looks like there was some kind of accident here! My goodness, look at that car. It looks expensive….”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“Hey, you guys! You’re the ones who smashed our wall, aren’t you?! What are you going to do about this?!”

They needed to deal with the aftermath.

“The wall, well….”

“Compensate them in full.”

“Yes, sir.”

That was what they needed to do right now.

 

***

 

The sharp smell of medicine and disinfectant made my eyes sting instinctively.

“Looks like you’re waking up.”

“I have eyes too.”

“Yes, sir.”

Then, when I heard an unfamiliar voice beside me, I stopped myself from opening my eyes.

‘I was kidnapped.’

They had found out that I wasn’t a member of the first team, and on top of that, a major accident had occurred because of me.

‘No, was the accident really because of me?’

It was suspicious that Do Juyeon had pursued us so recklessly, but technically, I was the cause of it all.

‘Maybe he’ll kill me and use me to provoke the Association Master.’

This was how I had come to define Cha Seohae.

A man who could be somewhat warm toward civilians, but was merciless toward hunters.

I was afraid to open my eyes because I had nowhere to place my hopes.

‘Wait.’

Didn’t the system window appear earlier?

‘I think several of them popped up.’

But I had to open my eyes to see the system window. I hesitated for a few seconds, knowing that once I opened them, there would be no going back.

“I know you’re awake, so open your eyes.”

Guess I have to.

At the words of the sharp-eyed man, I cautiously opened my eyes.

‘And I was worried enough to even tell him to move inside. Couldn’t he have waited even that long?’

Silent complaints continued to pour out in my mind, feeling unfairly wronged.

“Are you okay?”

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Cha Seohae. He was sitting with his legs crossed, resting his face against one hand, several bandages stuck to his face.

‘So he really did get hurt.’

Well, the car had been crushed that badly. There was no way he could have escaped without a single scratch.

“Who told you to pull me like that?”

“What? The hostage pulled you, Master?”

“Hold on.”

Cha Seohae pushed the driver’s face aside and waited for my answer.

“…Because it looked dangerous?”

“Didn’t you hear what I told Childeugi before that? I told him to tie the car to me.”

I had heard him.

‘Come to think of it, how did he tie it?’

It was different from when my hands and feet had been bound. I couldn’t see any chains around him.

“You look like you heard me.”

“…….”

“Because I was tied to the car with invisible chains, if I moved inward, the car would be dragged inward with me. That’s why you got hurt earlier, and Childeugi had trouble controlling the steering wheel.”

“Ohhh.”

So was I supposed to apologize?

‘I was the one who got hurt the most, and I’m the one who has to apologize too…?’

What kind of unfair situation was this?

“I didn’t know.”

“Yeah. You wouldn’t have done something that reckless if you had known.”

Was this what it felt like to grind your teeth in frustration?

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he simply chuckled as if I wasn’t intimidating at all.

“I appreciate that you were thinking of me, but don’t ever do that again.”

“Oh, I wasn’t planning to do it again anyway.”

“That’s good to hear.”

He didn’t seem willing to lose a single exchange.

I glared back at him before turning my attention to the driver, wondering if Childeugi was all right.

“Are you, um, okay…?”

Why did he look like that?

There was a large bandage near his forehead, presumably from hitting his head.

But what caught my attention first was his expression.

‘Why is he staring at Cha Seohae with such a horrified look?’

His gaze swept up and down, making me tense as well.

‘Should I heal him first?’

Strangely, my back, which surely had been badly injured earlier, no longer hurt at all. There was so little pain that I wondered if my nerves had died. I slowly raised my upper body.

“…It really doesn’t hurt.”

“Just lie down in case.”

“I’m going to lie down.”

After I heal him first.

My physical condition wasn’t merely fine—it felt almost refreshing. Because of that, seeing the driver’s injuries triggered an incurable occupational habit I couldn’t suppress.

I shook Cha Seohae’s hand away and opened the system window.

[Would you like to check the S-Rank privilege of the skipped ‘God’s Grace’?]