I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 52

52

[A person with faith has been added.]

“…What?”

Sung-hyun stared blankly at the spear that had appeared between him and the man.

‘Why now…’

It should have been a welcome event, but he hadn’t done anything that would cause someone to develop faith in him.

All he had done today was hunt with the association and come to the gate.

‘Could it be…this person?’

The look in the man’s eyes beyond the spear was hard to decipher.

However, one difference was that it wasn’t much different from the look he gave his companion.

“Am I…going to die now?”

In that brief moment, the man’s eyes had turned submissive again.

“…What are you?”

“What is it?”

Sung-hyun couldn’t very well ask why he had faith in him, so he could only stare blankly.

“Are you going to save me?”

“What?”

The more he talked, the stranger the man seemed.

It was as if he had never had a relationship with anyone else.

“I’d be grateful if you saved me.”

“What about the people you killed?”

“They said it was okay to kill them.”

The man’s expression was confident.

It was as if he had received some kind of absolution.

“Then if that person had told you not to kill them?”

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious? I wouldn’t have killed them.”

There didn’t seem to be a hint of falsehood in his expression.

He was just an adult in body, but he felt like a child.

“I’m going to kill your companion.”

“Hmm. I understand.”

“Aren’t you going to save your companion?”

“You’re too strong. It’s not that I’m not saving him, it’s that I can’t.”

He looked genuinely regretful, but even that he accepted.

“What if you die too?”

“I don’t want that!”

Sung-hyun raised the sword he was holding and approached the man.

He looked a little scared, but he didn’t show any particular movement, perhaps because he already felt that he had no chance of winning.

Sung-hyun slowly raised his sword.

Deliberately filling it with excessive killing intent.

Thanks to that, the man squeezed his eyes shut.

He seemed to be forcibly accepting death.

“…Huh?”

But the result was different from what he had expected.

Sung-hyun’s sword, which seemed like it would cut off his neck, only ended up causing a slight scratch on his skin.

Sung-hyun stared at the wound on the man’s skin.

If he didn’t feel even a little pain when healing that wound, then this man undoubtedly had faith in him.

He already knew that there was no one else who could have faith in him other than this man, but Sung-hyun needed definite proof.

‘Heal.’

“Oh…”

The man, who had been staring at the small wound on his skin, widened his eyes as the wound disappeared cleanly, and looked back and forth between Sung-hyun and the wound.

“So…you are…”

The man fiddled with the spot where the wound had been, then looked at Sung-hyun and continued.

“A god.”

“A god?”

“Yeah. A god.”

Sung-hyun stopped trying to explain anymore.

He seemed to have grown up in a different environment from ordinary people, so everyday conversation was a bit difficult.

As he was wondering what to do with the man, his fallen companion let out a small groan and woke up.

“Ugh…”

Sung-hyun looked at his awakened companion and used his stigmata again.

“Ugh…”

His awakened companion fell again, and the man watching this carefully asked Sung-hyun.

“My companion. Are you going to kill him?”

“Yes. Are you thinking of stopping me?”

“…It’s impossible.”

Sung-hyun looked at the fallen man.

What should he do with this man?

Of course, he had no intention of letting him live.

But even using his own hands to do so made him feel unpleasant.

‘This is…the gate, right?’

Sung-hyun approached his fallen companion, raised his sword, and slashed.

Not his fallen companion, but his own arm.

The man who was watching this couldn’t say anything or do anything, and just stared.

A considerable amount of blood flowed from Sung-hyun’s skin.

He let the flowing blood drip down.

One drop, two drops.

The blood that had been dripping in drops now began to flow, and when a considerable amount had flowed, Sung-hyun used healing.

“This is a fitting end for you.”

Sung-hyun lowered the stigmata [divine mark or symbol] he was using to a level where it was just difficult to support his body.

Now, the monsters would smell the blood and flock to him.

His companion, who was now struggling to support his own body, was destined to die soon, and the man who was staring blankly would have to survive on his own.

As Sung-hyun, who had decided on his companion’s end, turned around, the man looked at Sung-hyun with a slightly stiff expression and asked.

“What should I do now?”

“Just one question. What is your relationship with that man?”

“We were orphanage friends.”

“Orphanage?”

The man sat down next to Sung-hyun and continued.

“We came out of the same Pyeongrim Orphanage.”

“Pyeongrim Orphanage?”

It was the name of an orphanage that he seemed to have heard somewhere.

‘Pyeongrim…Orphanage…’

He could remember it quickly without having to go back to his regression [reincarnation or time travel].

When Sung-hyun’s father was still alive.

When he was watching TV with his father and mother like any other ordinary family, he remembered what his parents had said.

‘Tsk…that’s why orphanages are like that…’

‘They don’t even feed those young ones properly…’

Eventually, the facts were revealed, but the Pyeongrim Orphanage had not been operating like this for just a day or two.

Of course, many people had suffered until then, and the young man in front of him would be included among those many people.

“What are you going to do in the future?”

“In the future? I don’t know. Now you’re my companion.”

“What? Who decided that?”

“I can do whatever you tell me to.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t feel sympathy.

Was it this man’s fault that he grew up like this?

‘I don’t not believe him, but…’

His faith was guaranteeing it.

Looking at those who had become objects of faith so far, they had all received great favors from Sung-hyun.

Even if they were to betray him, they would naturally lose their faith, so it was easy to distinguish.

“What should I do?”

“…How about joining a guild?”

“Guild…?”

He seemed to be hearing about the existence of guilds for the first time.

“How many monsters have you hunted here?”

“I don’t know. Too many to count?”

“What? Then what about the cores [magical energy source]?”

“That strange stone? My dead companion told me not to touch it.”

It seemed like he had been living almost exploited by his companion from the same orphanage.

“A guild is a place that specializes in sending out subjugation parties to these gates and earns profits by selling the cores that come out.”

“Guild…”

“If you say you want to join a guild, I’ll recommend a suitable guild.”

“Is that what you want? If so, I understand.”

Sung-hyun didn’t think of this man as a companion, but he couldn’t just abandon him because he was someone who had faith in him.

“What’s your name?”

“Choi Hoon.”

‘Choi…Hoon?’

This time, he definitely remembered.

The name he had heard before his regression.

It was easy to remember because the name was only one syllable, and above all, he was more famous because of his personality, which seemed like a concept.

Of course, his abilities as a hunter were also not ordinary.

He was usually an assassin, and he wasn’t often exposed.

‘Was that kind of personality because he was from an orphanage?’

He was a hunter who had been actively working until just before Sung-hyun’s regression.

Since assassination was his main activity, his existence was rarely revealed, but he came to the surface because of one incident.

‘If I can make him my ally?’

The answer could be determined immediately without hesitation.

He couldn’t just throw away a talent whose growth had already been identified, especially one who had faith in him.

“Are you willing to follow whatever I want?”

“Yes.”

“Then join a guild and don’t kill anyone except those who are trying to kill you. Only subjugate monsters.”

“I understand.”

Hoon nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

“From then on, you stand on your own.”

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

This time too.

“When should I come find you again?”

“When you think you’ve become stronger than me.”

“That…seems like it will take a long time.”

“Then we can see each other later. Oh, and I’m just saying this in case.”

Sung-hyun raised his sword once again.

Then, he made a small wound on Hoon’s hand like before.

Choi Hoon didn’t even flinch during the time Sung-hyun swung his sword.

Unlike when he had asked to be saved until just now, it was as if he would accept death if Sung-hyun tried to kill him.

“…?”

Sung-hyun, who had made a wound on his hand, distanced himself from Hoon as much as possible.

Just enough to be barely visible.

‘Heal.’

Hoon, who had been looking at Sung-hyun with strange eyes, realized that the tingling sensation on the back of his hand had disappeared, and looked back and forth between the wound and Sung-hyun with surprised eyes.

“Did you see that?”

“Y-yes.”

Hoon’s rarely seen flustered expression was clearly visible.

“No matter where you are, I can heal you.”

“No matter…where?”

“Yes, and if you get hurt, I can even see the situation you went through.”

“You are a god after all…”

It seemed like Hoon was taking it in a wrong direction, but Sung-hyun didn’t think it was necessary to correct it now, so he continued what he was saying.

“If you try to kill someone, and a battle breaks out and you get hurt, that means I’ll know, right?”

“Ah.”

Hoon nodded vigorously as if he understood well.

“Okay. Now you make your own way.”

The price for killing innocent people was the hardships he would face alone in the future.

Of course, Sung-hyun didn’t have the right to decide what punishment to give, but at least to Sung-hyun, Hoon was a victim who had met the wrong person and gone down the wrong path.

“My way is mine…”

Hoon had a thoughtful expression, but Sung-hyun didn’t say anything more and left the spot.

Hoon blankly stared at Sung-hyun’s departing back.

For some reason, he seemed to see light, so he rubbed his eyes, but the light really didn’t disappear.

‘God…’

No matter how much he thought and worried, he couldn’t help but think that Sung-hyun was a god.

If a hunter who appeared with healing abilities that had never existed in the world before wasn’t a god, then who was?

“A guild.”

Hoon thought that Sung-hyun had given him a significant mission.

In the future, something that only Sung-hyun knew would happen, and he would be needed to stop it.

As his thoughts reached that point, his heart began to beat faster and faster.

The only time his heart had ever beat this fast was when he was hiding in a closet or warehouse to avoid the orphanage director, covering his mouth and nose with both hands and holding his breath.

“Only kill monsters.”

He wouldn’t deal with anyone who wasn’t trying to kill him.

Even reacting was a luxury.

For Hoon, the top priority now was to successfully complete the mission Sung-hyun had given him.

“Cores. I have to get them first.”

Until now, his companion had been providing the basics, but now Hoon had to continue on his own.

Joining a guild was one thing, but to survive until then, getting cores was a priority.

“10? 100?”

He didn’t know how many he had to catch, but if he hunted only monsters for at least a week, he would have enough.

Hoon, who had concluded that he would somehow make it to the guild with those cores, did not hesitate and strongly infused strength into the hand holding the dagger.