novelraw Chapter 166 : Hero Jae-hee (2)
Chapter 166 : Hero Jae-hee (2)
“Huh,” Jae-hee mumbled, his eyes fluttering open. “That’s weird. I’m sure I was flying through the sky a second ago…”
He was lying in a bed, staring up at the fabric roof of a tent.
“Ah, Boy. You’re awake?”
Death-Medic approached his bed, muffling a giggle with her hand.
“Scrub, scrub,” she sang. “Getting knocked out by a single mission. What a scrub.”
“Huuuh…?”
“Don’t you remember? You jumped from the top floor, holding two civilians.”
“Oh, right.”
Jae-hee blinked, the scene coming into focus: a cot in a temporary relief shelter.
He managed to ask, “Th-the two people I saved…?”
“They’re safe, thankfully.”
Death-Medic’s smile was knowing. Of course his first thought was for them.
“You, on the other hand, were a total wreck. Widespread muscle tears, full-body burns, bruises, fractures, and your forehead was shredded by glass shards.”
“Eek? For real?!”
He’d been that badly hurt?
As Jae-hee recoiled in horror, Death-Medic winked and flashed a V-sign next to her eye.
“But the healing genius, Death-Medic, is here! So even a scrub like you is all patched up now!”
“Ooh! Thank you, sis! No wonder I don’t feel a thing.”
“Doesn’t mean you can get careless. Take care of that body of yours. You’re still a scrub, after all.”
Sitting beside the bed, Death-Medic unwrapped Jae-hee’s bandages and healed his minor remaining injuries. As she worked, she began to speak.
“…This is a story from when I was just a baby healer.”
“Huh? A baby?”
“When I was a rookie.”
It was a sudden trip down memory lane, but Jae-hee listened quietly.
Death-Medic pressed a long fingernail to her lip.
“I was in a small Hunter guild, and the guild master was this incredibly dependable guy.”
“Oh, really?”
“He was built like a bear. Carried a shield as big as he was. He protected the whole party.”
She smiled shyly, lost in the memory.
“Whenever I was in trouble, he’d show up, silently raise that shield, and save me. I can’t tell you how safe that made me feel.”
“He sounds like an amazing person.”
“Yeah. Honestly, I think I liked him. He might have even been my first love… Heh, but how could I show it? I just messed with him, smacking him on the back and teasing him, like, ‘You’re just a scrub who only knows how to tank.’”
Tightening the bandage on Jae-hee’s forehead, Death-Medic met his gaze.
“Then one day, he suffered a fatal wound protecting me. It was so severe that no matter how much healing I poured into him, it wasn’t working.”
“…”
“I tried so damn hard to save him. I begged and pleaded with him not to die, but he died anyway. Right in front of my eyes.”
Death-Medic concluded her story in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Watching him die… the shock of it made me Awaken as an S-Rank.”
“…”
“But what good was that? What’s the point of Awakening the ultimate healing ability if you can’t save someone who’s already dead?”
Her hand slowly fell away from Jae-hee’s forehead.
“The one person I wanted to save was already gone…”
“…”
“Boy. A Hunter’s job is to protect people.”
Jae-hee belatedly realized the point she was getting to.
“But if you die protecting people, you can’t protect anyone else.”
“Yes…”
“So, don’t push yourself too hard. I can’t stop you from testing your limits, but even if you’re torn limb from limb, I can save you as long as you make it back to me. Just don’t die.”
“…”
“If we’re going to save even one more person, we have to live to see another day. Right?”
Her serious expression shattered, and she let out her usual cheerful cackle.
“Well, I say this every time, but they all charge in like idiots, ready to die. I don’t know what they think is more important than their own lives. Fools.”
“…”
“Alright, you’re all healed. Get up, scrub!” Death-Medic lightly smacked his butt. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Huh? Waiting for what…?”
Jae-hee got up from the cot and stepped outside the tent.
“Ah, Sir Hunter!”
A mother and daughter, waiting in nearby chairs, smiled brightly and bowed.
“Thank goodness! You’re safe!”
“Huh? Ah…”
Jae-hee finally recognized them as the last two people he had saved.
Not just them, but everyone he had rescued from the fire had gathered to wait for him. They rushed over, showering him with thanks.
For a while, Jae-hee was flustered, overwhelmed by a flood of gratitude.
“Thank you…” the daughter finally said, bowing shyly.
A strange warmth spread through his chest, and Jae-hee wasn’t sure what kind of expression he should make.
At the same time, he realized he had felt this sensation a few times before.
A roar of applause erupted from the surrounding crowd, a wave of support for Jae-hee and the survivors.
“The fire’s out, too,” a voice spoke beside him. He looked down to see a small boy hunched over in a wheelchair.
It was Captain Nerd in his true form. Pushing up his large glasses, he typed furiously on a keyboard mounted to his chair.
“I called in every robot I could. The fuel cost is going to be insane, but still…”
Jae-hee could see Captain Nerd’s robot legion maneuvering through the sky. Having extinguished the last of the embers, they were now pulling back.
“Well, thanks to everyone’s hard work, there were zero casualties.”
“Really?”
“A few people were hurt, but our medic here patched them all up.”
Death-Medic, who had just stepped out of the tent, grinned and flashed V-signs with both hands.
“You did good, Boy,” Captain Nerd praised him, his voice uncharacteristically warm. “If it weren’t for you, there would have been casualties. You saved those people.”
“…”
“I have no choice but to give you a perfect score on today’s test mission.”
Death-Medic covered her mouth in shock. “Oh my god, holy crap. What’s gotten into you? Never thought I’d see this grumpy, compliment-hating scrub actually praise someone.”
“Shut up. I’m just scoring him accurately.”
Just then, a large figure came stomping over.
It was Chosen One, dressed as Santa Claus. Shaking his soot-stained beard, he shouted, “Hey, Captain! Since you already deployed your expensive robot army, are we just going to put out the fire and call it a day?”
“Ughh…”
“It’s Christmas! Let’s get in the spirit!”
Muttering under his breath, the Captain waved his hand. “Fine, what the hell.”
The withdrawing robots immediately reformed into an orderly squadron, painting a picture across the sky with trails of colorful smoke and sparkling lights.
Soon, the image of a giant Christmas tree was etched across the sky. The citizens gasped in awe.
“Ahahaha! I’m glad you’re all alive! Me-rry Christmas!”
Chosen One laughed heartily through his burnt beard, tossing gifts in every direction like Santa.
Captain Nerd, Death-Medic, Jae-hee, and Miss Never—who had just returned after a final check for anyone left to rescue—all watched with smiles on their faces.
It was then that a voice called out.
“There you are, Dong-ha Shin.”
“Huh?”
Captain Nerd’s face went pale as he whipped around at the sound of his real name.
“J-Ji-ye.”
His childhood friend from next door, Ji-ye, was standing there with a pout.
“Oh, sorry, I, uh, the time we were supposed to meet… I didn’t forget.”
He had spotted the fire and rushed to deal with it, completely forgetting he had plans.
While the flustered Captain Nerd stammered, Ji-ye crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
“You stood me up? On a date I asked you on? You’ve got some nerve.”
“A d-date? You just said you needed help buying something.”
“Whatever. What were you doing that made you so late?”
“Ah, well, you see…”
As Captain Nerd hesitated, trying to think of an excuse, Ji-ye suddenly broke into a grin.
“Idiot.”
“Huh?”
“The thing is… I already knew. That you’re Captain Nerd.”
She calmly walked up and stood before him.
“Did you really think you could hide it? I just pretended not to know because you never said anything.”
“S-since when…?”
“Hmm? Probably from the beginning?”
“Then the reason you asked to meet me today… was it because of that?”
Captain Nerd was reeling in confusion. Had she asked him out just to scold him for hiding that he was a Hunter?
“Well, I was planning on telling you to feel free to talk to me about your Hunter work from now on…”
Ji-ye scratched her head, her cheeks flushing as she snapped, “Hey, what do you think it means when a girl asks a guy out on Christmas Eve?”
“Huh?”
“You’re so dense. I guess that’s why you never confessed, no matter how long I waited.”
Ji-ye shot him a sideways glance and smiled. “Were you going to make me wait until I was a grandma?”
“Huh? Huh?” Captain Nerd’s face turned beet red as he stuttered, “B-but… look at me.”
He glanced down at his own scrawny body, frozen at the age of thirteen, and swallowed hard.
“I’m stuck like this…”
“You haven’t stopped at all.”
The Christmas tree painted in the sky, and the survivors looking up at it with joy... Ji-ye took in the scene, then held out her hand to Captain Nerd.
“You’ve come this far.”
“…”
“You’ve accomplished so much over the last ten years. You’ve come all this way. And you’ll keep going forward.”
“…”
“Our timelines have been out of sync. But even so…” Ji-ye spoke with conviction. “From now on, I don’t want to pretend anymore.”
“…”
“I want to spend all my time with you.”
Swallowing back tears, Captain Nerd kept his head down and mumbled, “I’m… I’m always going to look like a thirteen-year-old.”
“I don’t care.”
“I’ll never be able to walk. I’m stuck with this illness forever.”
“I don’t care.”
“When I get called out on a mission, I’ll break our dates again.”
“I don’t care.” Ji-ye crouched in front of his wheelchair, meeting his gaze. “No matter what you look like, I’ll still love you.”
“…Since when?”
“Since the very beginning, you idiot.”
“…”
“What about you?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Captain Nerd’s lips slowly parted.
“…Me, too. I’ve liked you… from the very beginning.”
Ji-ye pulled him into a tight hug.
As the two embraced, their faces bright red, not only the watching heroes but also the citizens whistled and applauded.
Miss Never clapped along, grumbling, “What the hell, they didn’t even need our help.”
The three of them—Jae-hee, Death-Medic, and Miss Never—had been on a secret mission to help Ji-ye confess to Captain Nerd.
The sudden fire had thrown a wrench in their plans, and all they had managed to do was tell Ji-ye where to find him.
“But it all worked out in the end, so that’s what matters, right?” Jae-hee gave a thumbs-up.
The two women nodded in agreement.
“Hah, what a beautiful Christmas…”
“Yeah, for them. We’re still single. Sigh.”
Death-Medic shouted, “All the romance-scrubs, let’s go get drunk!”
“Sounds good to me! Let’s go, Boy!”
“Oh, me too? Will there be snacks?”
Leaving the happy new couple to their bliss, Miss Never and Death-Medic flanked Jae-hee and trotted back to Hero Tower.
Beneath the Christmas tree in the sky, the scene was a picture of peace: the department store, its fire extinguished; a soot-stained Santa handing out presents to children; and two people who had just become lovers.
***
That night, a wild drinking party broke out in Hero Tower.
Mu-gung, who had been dispatched to another region, returned late with Chosen One, bringing a mountain of snacks. Miss Never and Death-Medic broke out the liquor they had stashed in their rooms.
Cursing the newly coupled Captain Nerd, the singles drank their way through Christmas Eve.
Jae-hee, who couldn’t hold his liquor at all, stuck to the snacks. “The last time I drank, I ended up using my Domain Break…”
“Holy shit,” Death-Medic said. “Don’t you touch a single drop.”
So Jae-hee happily stuffed himself with snacks and was put on cleanup duty for the trashed Hero Tower.
After carrying the blackout-drunk heroes to their respective rooms and cleaning the common living area, Jae-hee was proudly wiping the sweat from his brow when the main door to the residential floor opened.
“Oh, Rain Man bro!”
It was the leader of the New Five Heroes, Rain Man.
“Welcome back from your trip.”
“…Mm.” Rain Man nodded, walked over, and stood before Jae-hee. “I heard about what happened today, Boy.”
“Ah, yes, sir.”
“You did well.”
“Hehe. It was nothing. Just doing my job.”
As Jae-hee scratched the back of his head awkwardly, Rain Man continued.
“Many virtues are required of us Hunters. Especially to be part of the Heroes’ Association, the last line of defense for the world.”
“Uh… yes.”
“Beyond your S-Rank ability, Domain Break, you need basic mission competence, the social skills to cooperate with teammates… and above all, the heart of a hero, willing to save others.”
Rain Man stared intently at Jae-hee, his eyes hidden in the shadow of his hood.
“You may have come from a prison… but you have proven everything. Your ability, your social skills, and the heart required of a hero.”
“Uh…” Jae-hee blinked. “Does that mean…?”
“Merry Christmas, Boy.” Rain Man pulled something from his coat and handed it to Jae-hee. “Welcome to the Heroes’ Association.”
It was an ID card.
[Jae-hee, ‘Boy’ — Member, New Heroes’ Association]
A card proving he had passed his test and become the New Sixth Hero.
“All the members have unanimously agreed to accept you into the Association.”
“…”
“Rest well over the holidays. You’ll be busy starting next year.”
Rain Man clapped Jae-hee on the shoulder and headed to his room.
Stunned, Jae-hee stared at the ID card for a long moment before it finally sank in. He leaped into the air and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Yesssss!”
Tears welled in the Boy’s eyes, a testament to the joy of being acknowledged.
“Now… I’m a hero, too!”
***
“But everyone got a happy ending!”
Aboard the prison cruise, Paradise Lost.
Deck 1, also known as the Newbie Hunting Ground.
Razor couldn’t hold back any longer and cut in.
“That’s an ideal ending! It was practically set up to be the finale! You should have just debuted as a hero right then and there!”
Status Window was fuming, too.
“Wasn’t Death-Medic prime heroine material desu? The tragic backstory flashback is basically the final step before you max out the relationship stats! After leveling up your rapport with all those top-tier heroines, how the hell did you end up back here?!”
Patissier seemed just as baffled.
“That was only a few days ago, wasn’t it…? How could you possibly fall from that story right back into this prison? How is that even possible?”
“That’s what I was just about to get to…” Jae-hee let out a deep sigh. “The problem was… I figured something out.”
“Figured what out?”
“The truth is, among the New Five Heroes…”
His next words made the jaws of his three cellmates drop.
“…there’s a traitor.”