How Dare You Curse Her Majesty?

How dare they try to cast a curse on Her Majesty?

Moonlight pooled across a darkened room.

A gentle-looking woman with soft light-green hair sat perched on the edge of a bed, staring at the rankings before her.

"……."

The woman's pupils trembled.

4th — Fairy King.

Her vision held nothing but that fourth-place name.

"At last……—"

A strange light kindled in her widened eyes.

"At last I've found you. O Great Mother."

The next morning.

"Uuunnngh!"

I seemed to be living pretty healthy these days.

Early to bed, early to rise — the picture of a well-behaved little kid. Maybe that was just the thirteen-year-old body talking.

I stretched long and slow, then gently opened my eyes — only to find a notification floating right in front of my face.

"Oh."

So this was the ranking reward I'd only ever heard about. That explained the random rock sitting by my pillow.

"Pin, Arwen~"

"Ppi?"

"Ppyu?"

"Magic crystal. Here."

"Ppi-ppi!"

"Ppyu!"

My fairies always woke up earlier than I did. Maybe fairies didn't sleep at all — they were already up even on the nights I went to bed first.

"Haaawn~ What time is it, anyway?"

I'd gone to sleep ridiculously early last night, so maybe I'd gotten up ridiculously early too. I checked my phone. Nine in the morning.

"Hmm……."

Not as early as I'd thought. I'd figured it was seven.

Was this body making me sleep more because it was so young?

More importantly — today's the day, right?

Monday. The start of working-adult life. I'd rested well over the weekend, so I'd planned to begin proper healer work starting today.

I'd meant to head out, but—

Ugh, so much effort.

Five years of shut-in living didn't just vanish overnight. Honestly, last week had been the most aggressively outdoorsy week of my entire life.

So maybe one more day off, and then I'd start for real tomorrow?

Haa…… No. Get a grip.

Skip one day and you want to skip a week. Skip a week and you end up skipping a month. I'd sworn to become diligent after awakening as a hunter, hadn't I?

Resting could wait until I'd earned enough money to live on forever.

I rolled straight out of bed and got ready to leave. A quick shower in the bathroom, backpack packed, and I was good to go.

From what I'd researched, independent healers basically had two ways of working. One was joining a team through HunterMon's auto-matching. The other — the method most healers preferred — was spot-sitting.

The first paid better, but most healers refused to use it.

Because the first one's basically hazard pay.

Auto-matching meant walking into a gate that actually needed a healer. Those were higher-rank gates by definition, which was why the money was good. Unless you were a true veteran or a guild-affiliated healer, nobody touched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that method.

A baby healer like me had to earn money the spot-sitting way, no question.

So which gate was I headed for?

I'd already decided.

Eunpyeong Gate 3.

C-rank — high enough that injuries came frequently.

"Ready? Pin? Arwen."

"Ppi!"

"Ppyu!"

"Good. Let's go."

And so I set off toward the gate with great energy! ……Except the moment I stepped outside, a freezing wind went whoosh—

"……."

Right. Staying out too long might give me a cold. I'd work until lunch and then head home. That was the plan.

You didn't strictly need a gate staffer's permission to spot-sit outside a gate. But if you told them in advance, they often helped out with little conveniences — a sign that said "Come get treated," a chair so you could wait comfortably for injured hunters, that sort of thing. For a genuinely seasoned, well-known healer, they would even set up a whole stall, supposedly.

Hoping for those small favors myself, I headed for the ticket booth.

"Yes, fifty thousand won—"

The staffer started quoting the entry fee, assuming I was buying a ticket — then actually looked at my face and short-circuited for a second. Familiar reaction. A little kid loitering in front of a gate would look weird to me too.

I quickly wrote my business in the notebook I'd brought and handed it over.

"Ah— y-you're a healer? What rank, if I may ask?"

……?

Huh. Good question.

What was my — no, Pin's — healer skill rank, anyway?

Uh. Hmm……

I went with C-rank, roughly. No point claiming something high and creating awkward pressure. When you don't know, middle of the road is safest.

"C-rank. Then here's a sign and a chair. Thank you for your hard work today."

He even gave me a polite little bow. This was probably the standard courtesy manual for dealing with healers. He even handed me an electric hand warmer and a pre-heated canned coffee so I wouldn't freeze. Healer privilege was real.

I took the folding chair and the sign, looked around — and spotted a healer already set up nearby.

Huh?

Someone I knew.

The person who'd said yesterday that if I came by, she'd tell me all about the healer business. HealingGirl — Yun Doa.

Whoa…… I did not expect to run into her here.

She'd said she'd explain things if I talked to her, sure — but now that the moment was here, my feet refused to move. How was I even supposed to start a conversation? What if she was cold in real life, unlike on the gallery?

A dozen anxieties bubbled up all at once—

Haa……

Thanks to the skill, my heart settled all at once. The anxiety drained away, and I could think calmly.

Right. Let's just not talk to her.

Casually striking up conversation with a stranger was the exclusive domain of social butterflies. No need to force myself to do something I couldn't do, right?

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠set up nearby and prepped the sign. A whiteboard sized to fit was attached to it; all I had to do was write the price of one heal with a board marker.

I sneaked a look at Yun Doa's rate.

Thirty thousand won?

Funny — that was exactly what I'd planned to charge. Brand-new beginner healer, first day on the job; that price had seemed about right. But wasn't Yun Doa supposed to be pretty skilled?

Hmm…… Actually, this might be lucky.

You know the thing — setting up next door to a shop selling the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same product, then undercutting them. I'd been planning to go cheap because I was a total newbie starting out, but it looked like I wouldn't have to worry about that after all.

I wrote my price on the sign.

That ought to do it. I unfolded the chair and sat down.

Time to start making real money.

Yun Doa turned her head and looked at the girl with the light-green hair.

The child gave off such a quietly mystical air that it was hard not to stare even if you tried. Folding chair and sign in hand — so she was a healer, then……

Was there a healer kid like that around?

Healers were so few that most of them knew each other by face, at least. A newly awakened healer, then?

Ah. Right.

Seeing the same thirty-thousand-won price written on the girl's sign sealed it. Definitely a newbie.

Haa…… If she posts a price that low, the Healer Cartel's going to mark her.

There was something called the Healer Union. Officially, it existed to protect healers' rights. In practice, if you did anything that even slightly undercut the rates they pushed, they went after you with underhanded sabotage. Offering treatment far below market price, for example. Or healing someone for free in an emergency.

She herself had been marked for the latter.

Absolute garbage people.

Just thinking about it made her angry all over again.

Casting Dispel mid-heal, of all things……

Her reputation as a healer had tanked for a while because of it. Word got around that she was a healer who couldn't heal properly, which was why she was selling heals below the usual market rate now.

Maybe that was why she felt worried this girl would run into rough treatment. From the look of it, the kid simply hadn't known how to price herself on her first day and had copied hers.

Nothing for it, then.

Yun Doa got up and walked over, intending to clue her in.

Business was worse than I'd expected.

Or was that actually a good thing? No customers meant no one was getting hurt, right?

"Hey. You can't sell heals that cheap."

Someone spoke up. Yun Doa.

I blinked blankly up at her. She smiled gently and went on.

"First time selling heals, right?"

—Nod, nod.

"If you go that low, people assume you're not any good."

Ah. So that was why nobody was coming.

"If you're just starting out, fifty thousand is about right. Once your skill grows and word gets around, you can raise the price. Thirty thousand is more for……—"

She dropped her voice so only I could hear.

"—healers with a few issues, you know?"

My eyes went round before I could stop them. Wasn't that basically her admitting her own healing had a few issues?

"And the Healer Cartel might mark you for it, too."

"……?"

"Anyway, everyone around here will have already seen your price today. When you set up somewhere else later, try fifty thousand. People will flock over."

In other words: today's business was already dead. I'd written thirty thousand, everyone had seen it, and there wouldn't be many customers after that.

Ah.

If I'd known she'd be this nice about explaining things, I would have talked to her from the start.

"Just a second."

Yun Doa went back to her spot, then dragged her chair and sign over beside me.

"Well, looks like both of us are done for the day, so want to chat? What's your name?"

I scribbled my name in the notebook and handed it over.

"Ellie? Ellie, can you not talk?"

—Nod, nod.

"I see…… If you've got any questions, just ask your unnie anything. Here's my number."

—Nod, nod.

Yun Doa ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was incredibly kind. She explained everything with the friendly, approachable air of someone teaching a complete newbie. She told me all sorts of things.

"Be really careful with the Healer Cartel crowd. They act all image-conscious up front, then pull shady sabotage behind your back."

—Nod, nod.

"And if you're going to work, Jongno Gate 2 is good. The difficulty there is pretty brutal, so a lot of people get hurt."

—Nod, nod.

"Heh. Want to grab a meal with unnie after work?"

—Nod, nod.

Between all the information and the constant chatter, I wasn't bored at least.

That was when it happened.

"Um……"

"……?"

"Oh? A customer, Ellie."

Oh.

So we weren't completely abandoned. First customer of the day. Looking at the cut on his arm, it seemed like a slash wound.

"Go on and treat him. Unnie wants to see what you can do, too."

I nodded and gave my backpack a couple of taps. Out came Pin.

"Ppi?"

I pointed at the man with the slash on his arm. Pin seemed to understand, nodded, and floated over.

"Uh……? A fairy?"

The man — and Yun Doa, for that matter — both short-circuited at the sight. Well, Pin was pretty cute.

And right as Pin was about to heal the man's wound—

"Ppyu."

Arwen, who had been quietly resting inside the backpack, gently opened her eyes.

Curse-type magic detected.

Target: a curse aimed at her queen.

How dare they try to cast a curse on Her Majesty?

She emerged from the backpack with wary eyes, swept the surroundings, and identified the caster. Then Arwen gave her staff a light flick.

That simple gesture sent several layered curse magics flying straight back at the one who had cast them.

And in that instant—

"GYAAAAAAAH!!"

A man in mage robes nearby collapsed, howling in agony.

"……?"

Ellie could only tilt her head at the sudden chaos.