Chapter 7
Chapter 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Not a Doctor, Not a Healer, an Artist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Not a doctor, not a healer, just an artist.
After finishing my meeting with Cheon I-ryeong, I got back into the car driven by Lee Jae-hoon and left the Heavenly Flame Guild.
She's actually a decent person.
I figured she was arrogant and overbearing since she tried to recruit a newbie on the first floor of the Tower so boldly, but surprisingly, she was quite gentle.
It felt like she really cherished me or something.
Is it just because I'm a healer?
Anyway, seeing Cheon I-ryeong in person, she seemed to have a childlike quality somewhere beneath that flashy exterior.
'But is she really okay?'
When I first met her, I got this feeling like a thick darkness was gathering around her.
Combined with an air of extreme exhaustion, I genuinely asked if she was alright out of worry, and she looked subtly moved.
Being a guild master must not be easy at all.
How much overwork does it take for an S-Rank hunter to end up like that...?
"Did the talk go well?"
"Yes, thanks to you. It was a pleasant time."
Lee Jae-hoon glanced at me through the rearview mirror, keeping his cool expression as he continued.
"Still disappointing, though. Well, I'll wait until the time is right."
"Ahaha... yeah."
I had no intention of joining the guild, but I left a bit of room due to a slight pang of guilt and regret toward Cheon I-ryeong.
I was so startled when she suddenly approached me at the end.
'She's incredibly pretty, though.'
Her heavy makeup actually seemed to diminish her charm a little. The red hair suited the bold look well enough, but she might look even better with a warmer vibe.
In any case, the unexpected invitation to the Heavenly Flame Guild had yielded major gains.
Not the bag of money sitting next to me.
It probably held 120 million won, though I hadn't counted.
Of course, that qualified as a big score too, but anyway.
What I'd truly gained was confirmation of the spirits' existence.
Spirit user Yeon So-ah.
The moment I saw the spirit moving with its own ego, an idea flashed in my mind.
...What if I draw a spirit?
If the Tower system recognized it as a creation, maybe I could have a spirit with its own will too?
And take it further—test the possibility of dragons!
I desperately wanted to transfer to the Tower visible outside the window and try it out, but since my class outside the Tower was known as healer for now, I held back.
They were kindly driving me all the way home; it'd be rude to bail.
As I drowsily gazed at the scenery passing by, I spotted dozens of people gathered on a side street. An accident?
Lee Jae-hoon noticed it too, letting out a short sigh as he turned the wheel to detour.
And then I saw it.
A black sedan and a small leg pinned beneath it.
"Stop the car!"
"Pardon? ...It's none of our concern. Emergency services will be here soon."
Lee Jae-hoon shook his head.
The number of awakened hunters was fundamentally low.
Gates overflowing every day.
Hunters barely keeping up with those.
Awakening rates had risen lately, easing things a bit, but hunter fatigue was still immense.
That's why most hunters didn't get involved in civilian matters. Their stamina couldn't handle everyday accidents on top of everything else.
There was also the hunter superiority complex from their unique powers.
'Be grateful we even block the gates for you.'
That was what A-Rank healer Chae Jeong-ah actually said when a family of a critically injured accident victim grabbed her.
Hunter elitism had spread due to circumstances and treatment, intensifying especially among those with rare classes.
'Both are about protecting people.'
Accidents and gates—no one forced protection in both, but I couldn't agree with prioritizing one over the other either.
Emergency Rescue #2
🎁 Reward: All Stats
"Pull over."
At my low murmur, Lee Jae-hoon quietly stopped the sedan without protest.
I jumped out and rushed to the accident scene.
In my haste, I forgot to pull up my hood, pushing past the sympathetic crowd to the center.
"Huh... what?"
"Whoa— no way..."
The scene was gruesome.
The child, somehow pinned between the curb and the road under the sedan, had already vomited a mouthful of blood and was unconscious.
A woman who seemed to be the mother clutched the child's hand, wailing.
"No, Ha-yeon, sob! No! Please, open your eyes... ugh..."
"Step back please. The child is still okay."
A faint white light flickered around the child.
But it was precarious, like a candle flame about to go out.
"Waaah— sob— who, who are you...? Is 119 here?!"
"Not yet. Please step back."
Lee Jae-hoon, who had followed me, helped the mother up and handed her to nearby people.
Then he reached out, grabbing the sedan's frame.
Krunch, thud—
He lifted the car and tossed it into the middle of the road, revealing the child's lower body, dyed blackish-red and twisted.
'...Ugh, it's too severe.'
The child's life force was shattering and scattering everywhere. The legs were bent unnaturally, unable to straighten.
Whole-body internal bleeding, bones shattered, no internal organ intact.
An injury beyond what I could handle with my newly awakened skills.
Even A-Rank healer Chae Jeong-ah had no record of treating a patient this critical.
"Are you sure you can manage?"
"...I have to try."
Still, I picked up my brush and infused mana with vitality.
As far as I could. At least until emergency services arrived.
As I entered hyperfocus, plunging the glowing brush tip into the child's body, the murmurs around me faded away.
In the sensation of just me and the child in this space, I focused all my nerves on her internals.
'Bleeding first.'
Bones were too fragmented to realign quickly.
To stop the bleeding from internal organs, I sought wounds where red blood was gushing, ruining the canvas.
Not just one or two spots—blood overflowed everywhere, but especially the dark crimson areas.
I swiftly overpainted with vitality to seal them.
Dozens of overpaints.
Sweat poured like rain, but I'd at least put out the immediate fire.
My brush-holding arm trembled, but I supported it with my left hand and kept painting.
Reposition organs, connect torn muscles to hold them in place.
I knew no medical knowledge or anatomy, but the vitality seemed to guide the brush, knowing its own path.
'Ugh!'
Suddenly, my mind reeled, the brush blurring.
Damn, mana running out now of all times.
My low-level mana pool couldn't withstand the repeated healing and faltered.
With depletion came splitting headaches, blackness threatening.
"Iroha-nim! Are you alright?!"
"I'm... fine. Just a bit more... a little longer..."
Almost done.
The most dangerous abdominal organs and muscles were mostly restored. Just reconnect the glass-shattered leg bones and restore muscles.
Beep-beep— beep-beep—
The ambulance siren grew closer, repeating sharply.
Did the sound make me let my guard down?
Dizziness hit again, vision blurring, sensation in my brush vanishing.
'No... not yet...'
Complete mana depletion.
I blacked out.
* * *
"What happened?! Why did our guest come back unconscious? How did you handle things—!"
"...It was the Saintess's will."
Saintess?
Cheon I-ryeong yelled at Lee Jae-hoon upon seeing the carried-in unconscious Iroha, then puzzled over his word.
After losing a comrade denied healing by Chae Jeong-ah, Lee Jae-hoon had a particularly poor view of healers.
Even while recruiting Iroha, he'd only curtly said things like, "The healer is still unavailable."
His attitude made her doubt keeping him, but without him, the guild wouldn't run properly.
She'd earnestly instructed him to greet any healer lavishly and bring them back, and as expected, his skills brought Iroha.
'But calling her Saintess?'
Before taking Iroha home, they'd briefly chatted, and Lee Jae-hoon was still aloof.
Yet in that short time, Iroha collapsed and was carried back, while Lee Jae-hoon—always stone-faced—now called her Saintess with a softened expression.
"What on earth happened...?"
"She overexerted a healing on a civilian child who was nearly dead on impact."
"What?!"
Injuries at instant-death level made even A-Rank healers shake their heads.
Lee Jae-hoon's comrade had died that way.
And a newly awakened healer touched such a wound? Risking mana backlash?
"Fortunately, it only resulted in mana depletion."
"Chief Secretary Lee! You didn't stop her and just watched?!"
"Fortunately" didn't suit his calculating nature. Why hadn't he stopped her?
"...The atmosphere didn't allow it."
"Atmosphere?"
"...It felt warm."
Cheon I-ryeong doubted her eyes. A spring breeze softened the face that rivaled a north wind blizzard.
Incomprehensible, but she focused on the unconscious Iroha first.
"...Phew, so the child?"
"No threat to life. Transferred to hospital for further treatment."
"...That's a relief."
Cheon I-ryeong brushed back the sweat-soaked hair from Iroha's forehead with a wry smile.
'...Why go this far, like she's a real saintess?'