Chapter 1. Surviving as an F-Rank Healer (6)
Yeah. Of course it’s your first time seeing one.
F-rank healers were rarer than even S-ranks. They were called congenital failures.
Worse than being just F-rank, they were known as completely useless.
Among ordinary people, most clustered around D-rank and E-rank.
Even among non-hunters, F-ranks were rare. So an F-rank in an academy? There was probably only one.
Jin Hari.
“Is this her? She’s a girl?”
Following the others’ gaze, one of them spotted me and swaggered over.
Bang!
He slammed his hand on the desk, and cracks spread across it.
This was an Awakener Academy facility. It should’ve been reinforced to withstand awakened strength.
‘If a light hit does this much damage, he’s probably C-rank.’
How nice.
I needed to lay groundwork in front of as many people as possible.
“Hey, what kind of confidence did you have to come to the academy? Just live as a civilian.”
“More than half our classes are team-based. Because of you, our entire year is going to suffer. You get that?”
I looked at the delinquents chewing me out and smiled faintly.
Like I understood. Like, I was a little down, but not resentful.
For some reason, they flinched.
Then they started stumbling over their words.
“Why the hell are you smiling like that? Don’t pretend you’re not scared. It won’t work.”
“We could rip your arm off and call it an accident. We wouldn’t even get punished. You know that?”
“Why don’t you just drop out quietly?”
Maybe because the Awakener Law was so strict, but their words were oddly mild.
‘Damn, bitch. You’re worthless. Ungrateful little thing.’
‘We raised you even without money, and this is what you do? Your father died because of you, and now you want to go to an academy? What, are you trying to run away? Huh?’
When I remembered what Jin Hari’s mother and brother had said before she left home, these kids felt like angels.
‘They’re saviors, really.’
They gave me exactly the situation I wanted.
I spoke loudly enough for the gathered onlookers to hear.
“I know. But I didn’t come here to interfere with anyone. Even if my rank is like this, I’m serious. My dream is to become someone useful to the world. I’ll do my best in my own way to help, so… will you watch me?”
First, lay the groundwork for handing out potions later.
“What? What did you say?”
They clearly hadn’t expected a calm reply.
They really were innocent kids.
Cute, in a way. But I didn’t forget to gently threaten them using the Awakener Law.
“And about ripping my arm off… I really hope you don’t do that. I’m more worried about you than myself. You could be misunderstood and lose points. And the law about violence against minors was revised recently. What if you get punished?”
Do I really have to keep spouting nonsense like this?
I felt a bit hollow inside, but it seemed to work on them.
“Huh?”
“I’m just saying, just in case. I know everything, really. You’re worried I might get hurt in a dungeon, right?”
I curved my eyes gently and smiled brightly.
The delinquents’ faces all turned red at once.
Why?
“Thank you. You be careful too.”
“W-Well… yeah.”
“The law says so, so we’ll let it slide! Hmph!”
“…You don’t even get mad. This is boring. Let’s go.”
I carefully managed my eyes before they turned hollow.
‘What kind of delinquents are these?’
They didn’t even glance at the broken desk.
They nodded awkwardly, threw out a few empty threats, and left.
…Yeah. Something was already strange, even then.
If I had known that speaking gently stood out more in this school, I would’ve just thrown a punch instead.
As students got used to using awakened abilities, they grew closer to beasts. That was an obvious social shift the original novel didn’t bother explaining.
I didn’t know that.
And by the time I realized it, it was too late.
Because the protagonist was watching.
***
“I’ll do my best in my own way to help, so… will you watch me?”
Yoo Hanseong was looking at her.
This was his final return, and he had spent the first week after enrollment more fiercely than anyone.
There was a lot to do.
He had to lay groundwork to recruit future S-ranks and personally gather opportunities and magic tools for them.
Yet despite all that, that F-rank kept catching his eye.
Someone he had never once seen at a graduation ceremony, across countless regressions.
Why?
‘An F-rank trying hard…’
He swallowed the thought.
‘Even if she increases her mana through hellish effort, the best case is D-rank. Maybe E-rank.’
Even with multiple miracles stacked together, C-rank would be the limit.
Unless she had an SSS-rank skill like him, reaching S-rank was impossible.
And yet, her eyes shone with a strange, quiet certainty.
“I know everything. You’re worried I might get hurt in a dungeon, right?”
Was she stupid? Or just naive?
Hanseong was about to turn away.
He didn’t understand why she bothered him, and that made him wary.
‘Maybe she has a charm skill.’
He even had such an ungrounded, insulting thought.
Then he saw her smile.
That foolishly gentle smile.
“Thank you. You be careful too.”
That was when he realized it.
Ah. Right.
She had always been like that.
No matter how badly she was treated, that soft, warm presence never disappeared. Sometimes it dimmed, and those moments bothered him even more.
That was why, earlier, when she pretended to focus on her textbook while her expression dulled, Hanseong hadn’t been able to look away.
She was useless for stopping the apocalypse.
But undeniably, she was a rare kind of person.
Hanseong suddenly thought:
‘…She’ll probably try.’
If she said she would, she probably meant it.
Just like he once had.
Long ago, when he was born D-rank and clawed his way to B-rank, he had worked himself to the bone.
Did he want to be a good person?
Or was it just hero syndrome?
What mattered was that, as the end approached, he had wanted to help save the world.
Reaching A-rank had required a miracle.
Becoming S-rank had cost him everything.
Before regression—
What he saw was hell.
He stole the Fruit of Yggdrasil that granted wishes and turned back time.
He wished for the power to save the world.
Reviving the dead was meaningless.
Many of the living were already beyond repair.
People who died protecting him. People who died cursing him.
Hell never ended.
The power to save the world was endless regression.
And so another hell began.
He lost countless people again and again. S-ranks never stayed together. They helped him, then died beyond his reach.
Eventually, counting regressions lost meaning.
Only then did he obtain two SSS-rank skills.
and.
The names were childish. The abilities were not.
Clairvoyance allowed him to see everything about a person’s talent.
Veil of Night allowed him to control all impure things awake at night and all shadows visible during the day.
Because they were SSS-rank, the skills retained their rank even after regression.
And after all that—
The only time he had not been a burden to others was when he was S-rank.
That was why he sought only S-ranks.
And why he saw her as foolish.
“…Meaningless
He rolled the F-rank’s name around in his mouth.
She would burn herself out with pointless effort, and that spark in her eyes would fade soon.
“She won’t even last a year.”
Maybe she’d die before then.
Only after muttering that did he realize he was angry.
For no good reason at all.
