I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 27

“Are you okay? Does anything hurt? Any pain?”

Even though his parents’ expressions weren’t great, Jinseok didn’t stop asking questions.

“Yeah… I have a bit of a headache, but it’s manageable.”

“Me too. Don’t worry too much.”

Not long after his father and mother woke up, the doctors arrived.

“How is this possible… There was clearly no chance of improvement…”

“May we take a look?”

“Yes, but please don’t overdo it.”

The doctors, having received Jinseok’s permission, began examining his parents.

“…This is truly amazing. The curse itself remains, but the pain they’re experiencing has lessened…”

“Th-Then, are they okay now? Can they be discharged?”

Jinseok’s wish was simple.

To get out of this hospital as soon as possible.

It wasn’t that he disliked the hospital or distrusted the doctors, but he felt like he could only truly feel relieved once they were discharged.

“I’m sorry, but we need to monitor their progress a bit more. The curse hasn’t disappeared yet, so the pain could worsen.”

“Ah…”

“Still, there hasn’t been a case like this before. When ordinary people are exposed to attacks from magical beasts, treatment is impossible.”

Unlike Jinseok’s still dark expression, the doctors’ expressions seemed to have found hope.

The doctors began installing various devices next to his parents’ beds.

“…”

For some reason, Seonghyun, who had briefly visited and left yesterday, seemed more trustworthy than the doctors installing all sorts of devices.

“Ugh…!”

“Is the pain getting worse?”

As if it was becoming too much to even answer the doctor’s question, Jinseok’s parents furrowed their brows deeply, panting and barely managing to reply.

“Yes, yes… Doctor…”

“I see…”

The doctor alternated between looking at the devices and his parents, writing something down.

After repeatedly checking the devices several times, the doctor approached Jinseok with the expression of a scientist who had discovered an unknown realm.

“We’ve obtained quite significant results. Perhaps… a complete cure might be possible.”

“R-Really? But why is my parents’ pain getting worse?”

Jinseok’s parents had already lost consciousness again due to the pain.

“That’s because the curse remains.”

“Does that mean…”

“But you don’t need to worry too much. The curse is still there, but the threshold for feeling pain is lower than before.”

The doctor showed Jinseok the document he had just written, continuing to explain.

“To put it simply, if the pain they felt yesterday was a 10, today they’re feeling a maximum pain equivalent to a 9.”

“Is that possible?”

“There has never been anything like this before. Not even similar cases. I don’t know what happened today, but if things like today continue to happen, someday only the curse will remain, and there will be no pain.”

It wasn’t an easy story to accept.

The curse remains, but they don’t feel the pain.

“Then, regarding their lives…”

“They should be fine. As the guardian knows, the end of this curse is reaching an unbearable level of pain, leading to death, but since they won’t feel that pain…”

It was a relief.

At least it meant they were out of the situation where they had to let go of their parents.

At the doctor’s bright voice and the matching glimmer of hope, Jinseok also let out a sigh of relief.

“Haa… Is it difficult for them to regain consciousness?”

“That might be a bit difficult. Right now, their bodies are instinctively refusing to wake up.”

“Is the pain that severe?”

Jinseok’s expression hardened again, finding it hard to even fathom how much pain it would take to refuse to wake up.

“…Don’t worry too much. We’ll do our best too.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“More importantly, what happened today? No matter what prescription we used, we couldn’t get these results…”

To the doctor’s question, Seonghyun replied as if nothing had happened.

“Ah, nothing special happened.”

Jinseok decided to keep Seonghyun’s actions today a secret.

Seonghyun hadn’t specifically asked him to keep it a secret, but he could immediately grasp which choice was better without being told.

The doctors soon left, and Jinseok sat next to his sleeping parents.

“Really… a treatment…”

He had spent time for someone he had never even met, and even felt the pain on their behalf.

Even the pain of two people.

There was no way to know exactly what kind of pain his parents were experiencing or how much, but if it was a pain that made them lose consciousness and their bodies were instinctively refusing to wake up, it was easy to imagine how great the pain would be.

“I should contact him first.”

Jinseok immediately called Seonghyun.

“Hello?”

“Hello, this is Kim Jinseok.”

“Ah, yes. What’s the matter?”

“After you treated my parents and left, they briefly regained consciousness.”

“Oh, really? That’s good.”

“And there was some progress.”

Jinseok explained to Seonghyun what the doctor had just told him.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you…”

Jinseok couldn’t easily continue the next words.

How could he ask him to treat that pain again, until they were completely cured?

“Then I’ll visit again later.”

“Yes, yes? You’re coming again later?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to treat them sooner rather than later?”

Jinseok was speechless at Seonghyun’s matter-of-fact tone.

‘Who is this person…’

“Hello?”

“Ah, yes. Ah, I understand.”

An emotion that he couldn’t describe in words kept washing over him.

He hadn’t even offered to repay him.

And he didn’t have enough wealth or power to repay him for the pain he had experienced today and would experience in the future.

Jinseok was just an ordinary hunter, and living like an ordinary hunter was all he knew.

“Then I’ll see you in a little while.”

Hanging up the phone, Jinseok remained in the same position he had been in while receiving the call.

‘What… can I do?’

His abilities as a hunter?

Everything he had now?

His abilities as someone who wasn’t a hunter?

Even if he was stronger, the things Seonghyun could do and the things he could do were worlds apart.

“I have to do what I can.”

Seonghyun didn’t ask Jinseok for anything.

Even if using his healing abilities was helpful to him, it didn’t matter.

Reducing his parents’ pain was an undeniable fact.

Seonghyun was heading home but turned back to the hospital.

[A person with faith has been added.]

“Faith? Ah, is it Kim Jinseok?”

He hadn’t even finished the treatment properly, and he already had faith before knowing how the results would turn out.

“…Seeing this window pop up makes me feel like a cult leader.”

He felt uneasy for no reason, but Seonghyun didn’t intend to ask for money or ask him to sacrifice himself, so he figured he wasn’t a cult leader at least.

Arriving at the hospital, Seonghyun headed straight to the ward where Jinseok was.

“Ah, you’ve arrived?”

His tone seemed more polite, but what mattered was his parents’ condition, so Seonghyun immediately approached his parents.

Without hesitation, he began treating Jinseok’s parents.

‘The pain I feel is definitely less than before.’

The pain was bearable before, but now even less pain was coming.

Thanks to that, the treatment ended quickly, and Jinseok asked in a slightly flustered voice at the much faster time.

“I-Is it over?”

“Yes, I definitely feel much less pain than before.”

At the much more hopeful words than the doctor’s earlier answer, Jinseok’s eyes turned slightly red.

“I don’t know how to repay you for this…”

“It’s okay. I already… received it.”

“Yes…?”

Jinseok looked at Seonghyun with a puzzled expression at Seonghyun’s incomprehensible words, but his expression didn’t seem like he would answer.

“Then I’ll come again tomorrow. The doctor also said that a complete cure might be possible, so let’s do everything we can.”

“Yes. If there’s anything I can do, please contact me. I’ll go no matter what.”

“Your words alone are reassuring. Then I’ll be going now.”

“Be careful going back.”

Since that day, Seonghyun continued to treat Jinseok’s parents.

Sometimes he treated them once a day, and sometimes he treated them twice a day, but the time always shortened.

For nearly a week, Seonghyun combined subjugating Gates [dungeons] with treating Jinseok’s parents, and on the evening before the class representative competition, Seonghyun treated his parents for the last time.

“It’s over now.”

“Does that mean…”

Jinseok’s expression was confusion itself.

Whether Seonghyun’s words meant that his parents were completely cured and he didn’t need to visit anymore, or that even Seonghyun couldn’t do anything more.

“They don’t feel any pain now. I can’t say for sure, but since I can’t use the treatment, they won’t feel any pain anymore.”

“One more time…”

“You don’t have to say thank you anymore. You keep saying thank you, so I’m embarrassed too.”

“…I understand. Are you going straight home?”

“I have to. Tomorrow is the last match of the class representative competition.”

“Wasn’t your training affected because of me…”

“No. It was helpful instead.”

Thanks to Seonghyun’s ability, Sacrifice [an ability that transfers pain or damage from one person to another], it was no different from training.

Whenever Sangyeon or Inhwan got hurt during subjugation, Seonghyun healed them and used his Sacrifice ability, and even after the subjugation was over, he trained a little more thanks to Jinseok’s parents, albeit slightly.

“I have to go now. It’s late.”

“I’ll see you off…”

“No. You need to stay by your parents’ side, just in case.”

“…”

“I wish them a speedy recovery.”

Seonghyun left the ward without hearing Jinseok’s last greeting.

Leaving two bottles of materialized potions on the table.

What greeted Seonghyun first as he left the hospital was none other than the newly appeared window.

[Opening: Purification]

[Purification: Purifies all impure things from the target.]

“Purification?”

Seeing it open now, it seemed that Jinseok’s parents were completely cured as Seonghyun had expected.

“They’ll be discharged tomorrow.”

For some reason, being sure that Jinseok’s parents were completely cured made Seonghyun happier than the opening of a new ability.

“…Would I have treated Jinseok’s parents if I didn’t have Sacrifice?”

As he was about to head home with a light heart, a small question suddenly popped up.

But looking back on the emotions he had just felt, it seemed that he would have treated them even without the Sacrifice ability.