S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 9

“…You mean this is my room?”

“Yes.”

Once Cha Seohae woke up, the contract would be finalized. But at the moment, the only person who knew that was Childeuk.

‘Childeuk must have stayed waiting because Cha Seohae told him not to leave the door.’

Then… was this room prepared beforehand?

Even if they had prepared it on the way from the Association to the guild, it still seemed strange. Back then, I had been nothing more than a hostage.

‘Would he really have told them to prepare a room like this for a hostage? And did Cha Seohae order it?’

Even if they had simply given me any available room, its condition was exceptionally good.

It was so clean that it could rival a five-star hotel, and there were even desserts placed on the table—not just welcome snacks.

There was also a balcony, a bathroom with a bathtub, a coffee machine, an electric kettle, and various other amenities.

Of course, I probably wouldn’t be free to come and go as I pleased, but this was still quite luxurious.

‘There’s an intercom phone.’

I walked over to check it, and as expected, it couldn’t be used to contact the outside. That was more or less what I had expected.

‘Not that I need one.’

Satisfied, I looked around the room before approaching the large window leading to the balcony.

“It feels like you were planning to recruit me as a healer from the beginning.”

There were currently no healers in Baekyang.

Whether the previous healer was on vacation or had simply been away for a long time, Cha Seohae had said there was none, so that much was certain.

Taking all that into consideration, it was reasonable to assume they had ulterior motives from the very beginning.

I looked at Childeuk as if asking whether I was right, but he merely shrugged.

“It’s not within my jurisdiction, so I don’t know, Yeonhee.”

“Then who is in charge of me?”

“Probably the Master?”

“Just him?”

“Yes.”

I guess they really were desperate for a healer if the guild master himself was taking charge of me.

“The door can only be opened and closed from the outside. What should we do?”

“What?”

“Should we keep the door locked? Or leave it open?”

What was he talking about?

‘Is it really okay to give me a choice? If they lock it, they can catch me again if I change my mind and try to escape, can’t they?’

Confused, but deciding it was better to be honest just in case, I answered,

“Leave it open….”

“You mean you’d like us to leave it open?”

I clicked my tongue inwardly at how he asked me again despite clearly understanding what I had said.

‘Figures.’

My words would probably only be relayed to Cha Seohae. I assumed they would lock it from the outside anyway, so I simply nodded.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Yes. Then we’ll leave it open.”

“If possible—huh?”

I was about to ask him to make sure Cha Seohae received the message.

Thinking I had heard him wrong because our voices overlapped, I looked at Childeuk.

He tilted his head when our eyes met, apparently puzzled that I had stopped talking.

“Was there something else you wanted to say?”

“You’re leaving the door open?”

“Yes. That’s what you asked us to do.”

“I had the authority to decide that?”

“Of course. This is your room, after all.”

“I’m still a hostage.”

I never thought I’d have to say that out loud myself.

But Childeuk remained unwavering.

“Even if you’re a hostage, we still have to respect your human rights.”

What was he talking about?

‘A major guild is this lenient?’

Something about this felt strangely off. He had been saying odd things in front of the hospital room too. Was this just his personality?

‘Could there have been some mistake with my room assignment? What if I get caught up in some trouble because of this?’

My trust in Childeuk gradually declined, along with my anxiety.

“…Please tell Cha Seohae to come here when he wakes up. And tell him that I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Understood. We’ll be bringing your meal shortly, so please wait.”

“…Okay.”

If I said that, surely nothing would happen even if I stayed in this nice room for a while, right?

Childeuk left and closed the door.

There was no sound of a lock clicking behind the quietly closed door.

They really intended to leave it unlocked.

What a strange guild.

“Finally, I’m alone.”

I hadn’t had any time to calmly think since leaving the Association.

I immediately sat down on the bed in front of me.

“Kidnapped, getting into a car accident, and awakening as an S-Rank all in one day… Is this even real?”

It had been such a hectic day that it felt like I had lived a month in a single day.

‘Come to think of it, how did my body recover when there isn’t even a healer here?’

Until now, I’d assumed that the Baekyang Guild’s healer had treated me.

“I never even used self-healing.”

I reached behind me and rubbed my lower back.

“Should I ask Cha Seohae later?”

I wasn’t particularly eager to, but this concerned my own body, so it left me uneasy. I didn’t think this feeling would go away until I found out exactly what had happened.

I decided to do that later and was about to leisurely read the other descriptions in the system window when—

“…Come to think of it, what if my rank drops again when I open it?”

A sudden wave of tension surged through me.

If you thought about it, my rank had already gone up and down twice.

At first, I had been brutally demoted from S-Rank to B-Rank, and now I had shot back up from B-Rank to S-Rank.

“I can’t guarantee that it won’t drop again.”

I had seen the system message saying the error had been resolved. But I had already witnessed my rank change twice, so I couldn’t help feeling nervous.

‘It seemed perfectly fine when I healed Cha Seohae….’

I narrowed one eye and opened the system window.

[Name: Moon Yeonhee]

[Awakening: Pope]

[Type: Healer]

[Rank: S]

[Skills: God’s Grace / God’s Protection / God’s Blessing]

[Trait: S-Rank Privilege Activated (Additional buffs applied to each skill)]

For now, everything was fine.

I let out a sigh of relief as I stared at the S that was still shining golden.

I wanted to search whether this sort of thing happened often, but I didn’t have my phone.

“I was comforting myself just a few minutes ago by saying I didn’t have anyone to contact.”

I couldn’t check what was happening with the Association or even read the news.

I’d have to put everything off until later.

“Let’s read the skill descriptions I was going to check.”

Even with God’s Grace, the unavoidable restrictions involving dungeons and monsters had disappeared. Since there were now more situations where I could use it, I needed to familiarize myself with my abilities beforehand.

I pressed God’s Protection.

“It’s still limited to the caster?”

God’s Protection was a shield skill.

It was slightly different from a tank’s shield. A tank’s skill could cover the entire party, whereas a healer’s could only protect the caster.

It was the healer’s only means of self-protection, considering they didn’t have any proper offensive skills.

“The important part is the privilege.”

If the S-Rank privilege applied to the shield, I expected it would probably increase its range. Even then, I didn’t expect the range to become particularly large.

A healer who could threaten a tank’s position? Surely that couldn’t happen.

“There’s no skip button.”

I looked around, but there was no button to skip the description.

Well, if there wasn’t one, I could just skim it myself.

I moved my eyes to the very bottom, where the main point was written.

[‘God’s Protection’ S-Rank Privilege: Reflects 100% of enemy attacks]

“Huh? Reflect attacks?”

‘That’s beyond merely “not bad.” That’s “really good.”’

“So this is the kind of amazing bonus S-Ranks get.”

Even B-Rank healers were highly coveted by other organizations.

The reason I knew this despite having been confined to the Association was because I’d once nearly been kidnapped after being sent outside.

It was the day an A+ Rank dungeon appeared in the provinces.

Because of the difference in rank, not only the hunters near the dungeon, but also hunters from Seoul were needed as reinforcements.

In situations like that, healers were also dispatched and sent into the dungeon.

After all, there was no point in having valuable hunters enter a dungeon exhausted from traveling. Usually, the healers accompanied them into the dungeon, continuously healing them and keeping their condition in check.

Unfortunately, on that particular day, the Association issued the order at the last possible moment.

It wasn’t as if they’d only been working for a day or two. Why did they have to rush everyone like that?

But complaining was a luxury.

I had been a newcomer at the time, and the tanks and damage dealers seemed accustomed to this kind of thing.

So, as we began fighting during my first field assignment—

“We’ve captured the healer!”

“Ugh! Who are you?!”

One of the damage dealers from the local guild that had been fighting alongside us struck me.

I’d used God’s Protection because we’d been taught never to trust other people.

But apparently, my B-Rank shield couldn’t withstand an A-Rank attack.

At the time, the boss monster and the hunters were facing off against each other, and no one heard my cry of pain.

The bastard threw me over his shoulder and ran away.

Later, Do Joo-yeon came and rescued me.

‘When I asked how she knew, she said she realized something was wrong because the heals and buffs weren’t coming in on time….’

After we returned to the Association, Kang Sihyun from the first team said,

“You can’t even keep up with the healing, and you couldn’t even block that?”

Why had I just listened to that without saying anything?

“Now that I think about it, wasn’t that just hazing? How could they say something like that to a B-Rank healer?”

I was treated like absolute garbage.

At the time, S-Rank hunters were people I’d only ever seen through the media.

So I’d been intimidated from the start.

“They probably blamed me first because they were afraid they’d get chewed out for failing to protect the only healer they had.”

Anyway, after that day, Do Joo-yeon stayed by my side and protected me.

I stopped putting much faith in God’s Protection.

“I thought I’d never have any reason to use it unless I became an S-Rank. And somehow, here I am, an S-Rank.”

A shield that didn’t merely block attacks but reflected them back perfectly.

It was amazing.

“I kind of want to try it properly… Can’t something happen that I can use it on?”

Healing was easy enough to test since tanks and damage dealers were everywhere.

But I couldn’t know how effective God’s Protection was until I actually took an attack.

“Isn’t there some way…?”

Knock, knock.

I stopped talking.

There was no one who should be coming to see me this late.

Especially not someone from Baekyang, who shouldn’t even know I existed yet.

‘Childeuk?’

But if it were him, he would have announced himself.

‘It can’t be Cha Seohae either. When I healed him, he was clearly suffering from severe exhaustion. There was no way he could have woken up already.’

It was strange that the person on the other side remained silent for such a long time after knocking.

The light in my room was bothering me. It was practically announcing my presence.

It was unfortunate, but I decided to remain silent.

“Your meal….”

Then, a quiet voice drifted through the door, barely loud enough to hear.