Chapter 90

SMH 90

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 90

TL: Boko

Editor: Frost

Chapter 30: A Dangerous Character (2)

Three men emerged from the darkness.

One was tall, while another was short, and the last of them wore glasses. It was difficult to identify their faces due to the dense darkness.

It was as if they were plotting something shady, as they examined their surroundings, and moved cautiously.

“I heard that you were followed,” the glasses wearing man said, and the short man nodded his head.

“Yes. He also wasn’t caught on the CCTVs. If it weren’t for the ‘Clairvoyance’*, we wouldn’t have noticed him.” (*The author doesn’t specifically say that it’s the item. He just gives the name, but I assume from the context that it’s the stealth detection item.)

“Who was following you?”

This time, the tall man asked the question.

“We were barely able to ascertain his car’s license plate number. We tried looking into it, but failed.”

“You could only find out that much, despite using the ‘Clairvoyance’?”

As soon as the glasses-wearing man berated him, the short man bowed his head, and opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry. It seems like the perpetrator was a Hunter that possessed special abilities.”

“He took out three of the Hunters that accompanied the transport. He has the skill of at least an A-rank Hunter,” the tall man reported.

“It’ll become troublesome if it gets out that we possess the ‘Feast of Poison’,” the glasses-wearing man said. The mood turned serious, and the short man opened his mouth.

“Should we take care of him?”

“We obviously have to take him out. I’ll back you with some Hunters. Two A-rank Hunters and three B-rank Hunters should be more than enough,” the tall man said.

Because the only information they had acquired was his car’s license plate number, they didn’t know that their opponent was Sung Joon, an S-rank Hunter.

They just vaguely assumed that he was an A-rank Hunter after receiving the report that he took out three  B-rank Hunters.

That was their fatal mistake.

* * *

Sung Joon arrived about twenty minutes early. However, he didn’t have to wait long. That was because Seol Ah had also arrived early.

“You came early.”

Seol Ah appeared with a beaming smile. She had almost died in the dungeon, yet she hadn’t lost her smile.

Of course, the shock had changed her personality a bit, and she smiled less than before.

“I came early since I didn’t really have anything else to do,” Sung Joon frankly responded, and Seol Ah approached him while giggling.

“We still have some time left, so would you like to drink some coffee?”

“That sounds nice.”

Sung Joon nodded at Seol Ah’s offer, and the two went into a cafe inside the building.

“Why did you come out today wearing a hat?”

“I didn’t wash my hair.”

“You’re being too honest.”

It seemed as though Seol Ah was upset from his honest answer, and she pouted unbeknownst to herself. She thought he wouldn’t be so honest with her if he had feelings for her.

Their tea time was over, as it was almost time for the movie.

The two entered the fifth movie theater and enjoyed the movie. They were sitting in an out-of-the-way couple seat, but nothing happened between them.

When the movie was finished, it was past ten o’clock.

‘It’s a little upsetting…’ Seol Ah thought after leaving the movie theater. Contrary to Seol Ah, whose heart was slowly being moved, Sung Joon saw it this as ‘business’ like always.

From the start, she was the one who drew a line between them. Therefore, she had no choice but to push down her complaints.

“You’ll drive me back, right?” Seol Ah asked.

“That won’t be difficult. But where did everyone else go?”

“I let them have a break for today.”

“I see. I understand. Let’s go.”

They conversed briefly, and arrived at Sung Joon’s parked Hunter sedan.

“Please get in.”

Sung Joon sat in the driver’s seat first, followed by Seol Ah sitting in the front passenger seat. After that, Sung Joon gripped the steering wheel and departed.

And he drove to the location that Seol Ah had told him.

“The guards are as busy as ever,” Sung Joon said.

He had felt presences watching over him in the movie theater, and even now, there was a full-size van carefully following behind Sung Joon’s car.

“I didn’t bring any guards today,” Seol Ah said.

Since it wouldn’t feel like a ‘date’ if there were guards watching them from afar, she had been a bit unreasonable this time, and came out alone.

“Is that so…?” Sung Joon replied with a grave expression. If the ones following him weren’t Seol Ah’s guards, then that meant that they were ‘shadowing’ him.

‘It’s become troublesome.’

The only ones who would follow him right now are the Il Sung Group.

Sung Joon slightly bit his lip.

Rishubalt had followed them, so it should’ve been perfect. If that’s the case, then it was highly probable that he either left traces of fighting the B-rank Hunters, or something fishy had gone on while his car was parked nearby the Il Sung guild house.

Sung Joon thought it was the latter.

“There’s someone following us.”

“Someone following us?”

“I can’t explain in detail, but it’s because of me.”

Sung Joon checked the rear-view mirror. The suspicious van was still following behind him. They were trying to move covertly, but they couldn’t escape Sung Joon’s eyes.

“If we keep going like this, you might get hurt, Ms. Yoon Seol Ah. Even if it troubles you, I’ll take care of them on the way.”

“Thank you.”

Seol Ah heard a sincere concern in his voice.

Seol Ah was able to slightly blush, despite the upcoming fight between them and their shadowers, due to her faith in Sung Joon.

She was well aware of how safe she would be in Sung Joon’s protection.

“I’m going to go somewhere a bit dark.”

And Sung Joon drove his car to a secluded alleyway.

‘Do they have a different goal in mind?’

Entering into an alleyway meant that he had noticed that they were following him.

When normal people are caught following someone and are discovered, they would usually back off, but the people currently following Sung Joon actually sped up as soon as they entered the alleyway and were closing the distance.

“It seems like their goal isn’t to follow you; it’s to kill you,” Rishubalt said.

Sung Joon was in agreement. Since Seol Ah was riding next to him, he very slightly nodded his head.

After Sung Joon had stopped the car, he disembarked from the driver’s seat.

“Come out.”

The van that had been following behind him halted, and five men disembarked.

“Who sent you?”

“Do you really think we’ll tell you that?” the man who appeared to be the leader replied.

They still hadn’t realized that Sung Joon was an S-rank Hunter, as he was still wearing the hat.

And Sung Joon was also skilled at concealing his mana. There wasn’t any way that they would have figured it out.

“They’re all Hunters. There are two A-ranks and three B-ranks,” Rishubalt reported, after measuring their mana.

‘It seems as though they don’t know that I’m an S-rank Hunter…’

Two A-rank Hunters, and three B-rank Hunters may have been an impressive force, but they were far from enough against an S-rank Hunter.

“Don’t hate us too much.”

“That’s my line.”

When the A-rank Hunter was about to use his high-speed movement, Sung Joon threw his aura-clad dagger with as speed akin to lightning.

“S-Shield!”

When the A-rank Hunter, who was about to attack Sung Joon, saw the dagger rushing towards his throat, he hurriedly used his Shield.

He didn’t know if it was an inherent special ability, or perhaps an item’s ability, but it blocked Sung Joon’s dagger throw.

“Return!”

And Sung Joon recalled the dagger.

The other A-rank Hunter who hadn’t been attacked, as well as two B-rank Hunters, raised their weapons and rushed Sung Joon. It seemed like the remaining B-rank Hunter was a Healer, since he wore priest vestments.

‘A Healer, huh… This has become a pain in the ass.’

Healers were tiresome foes to go up against in battle. That’s why it’s a top priority to kill them first in battle, but Sung Joon currently had someone he needed to protect, and it made it difficult for him since he couldn’t move very far away.

Therefore, he thought of one method.

‘I’ll kill them in a single blow.’

If he killed them, Heal wouldn’t have any effect; that’s what Sung Joon was aiming for.

The A-rank Hunter rushed Sung Joon. He stepped quickly, and four afterimages appeared. It seemed as though he wanted to confuse him.

“Hahaha!”

The four afterimages, as well as the main body all raised their aura-clad swords at once. From the side, it may be hard to distinguish the main body from the afterimages, but Sung Joon could see it.

When he grasped the real one, Sung Joon immediately fiercely swung his blade.

“AH!”

His swung sword severed the A-rank Hunter’s left arm. The Hunter had barely seen the sword that had aimed for his neck, and he had attempted to block it, but that had been a feint.

Sung Joon had turned his sword at a critical moment, and by the time the Hunter had noticed, his left arm had already been severed.

“H-Heal…!”

The B-rank Healer Hunter, who was watching the battle from the rear, hurriedly yelled ‘Heal’.

“It’s already too late.”

Sung Joon’s sword had already pierced through the crumpled A-rank Hunter’s throat. His throat was pierced, and he instantaneously died.

The Hunter, who had used his Shield, as well as the other two B-rank Combat Hunters, urgently used their high-speed movement towards Sung Joon.

“We’ll take care of this! You go take the girl in the car hostage!”

The A-rank Hunter ordered one of the B-rank Hunters. The B-rank Hunter did as he was told, and approached the Hunter sedan behind Sung Joon; the remaining two blocked Sung Joon’s path in order to deal with him.

“I’m confident in my endurance.”

The A-rank Hunter spoke with a voice overflowing with confidence. He didn’t know how many special abilities he had, but Sung Joon was sure that one of them was ‘Shield’.

The B-rank Hunter accompanying him in blocking Sung Joon was an aura-user.

They were formidable opponents, but Sung Joon relaxingly laughed, and gripped his sword. He slowly dropped his offensive stance, and opened his mouth.

“Two seconds is enough…’

“What are… AH!”

The B-rank Hunter spurted blood and collapsed. Sung Joon had unleashed his ‘Flash Cut’.

‘I-I didn’t see his sword…?’

The A-rank Hunter didn’t have time to be flustered. Sung Joon had already rushed at him with his next attack.

“Shield!”

“Illusionary Sword.”

Twelve blades were summoned and pounded on the Shield.

“A-AH!”

The Shield was futilely shattered, and Sung Joon lunged with his sword, piercing through the Hunter’s shoulder. The A-rank Hunter screamed in agony, and Sung Joon had already drawn his dagger and slashed his neck.

That wasn’t the end.

Sung Joon followed up by throwing the dagger at the Hunter aiming for the Hunter sedan.

“AH!”

The dagger lodged into the back of his head, and the Hunter weakly fell; after Sung Joon confirmed that he was dead, he turned his sight to the B-rank Healer Hunter.

The Healer was extremely terrified, and couldn’t even think about running away. He had sunk to his knees, trembling, and his pants were damp.

Sung Joon quickly closed the distance.

“I-I can’t tell you…!”

He was conquering his fear; he may have been properly trained since he tried to look all tough.

When Sung Joon saw his tough act, he nodded his head and opened his mouth with a calm expression.

“I know.”

And he swung his sword, striking his neck.

The Healer wasn’t even able to let out a scream, and when Sung Joon saw him weakly fall, he smiled cynically and raised his hand.

“Absorb.”

And the mana was absorbed.

“Your synchronization rate has increased by 1%. It’s at 38% now,” Rishubalt reported, as soon as his absorption was complete. Sung Joon nodded with a satisfied expression at the fact that his synchronization rate had gone up.

‘As expected, hunting people is best for increasing my synchronization rate.’

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After Sung Joon had sent Jung Chul a message stating that he needed a clean-up crew, he approached the Hunter sedan, opened the front passenger seat, and checked on Seol Ah’s condition.

She was safe.

“Are you alright?” Sung Joon asked, and Seol Ah smiled faintly.

“You saved me today as well.”