WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 49: Pretending to Be Weak for Now

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Bang!

A thunderous noise pounded against my ears as I slept peacefully. It sounded like someone opening a closed door. Or possibly breaking it down.

Then Weakling’s Premonition sent a sharp warning through me. Was it because the effect had been quadrupled? Strangely, I could even sense the approaching Awakened’s rank and affinity.

The Awakened approaching now had S-Class stats, an SS-Class skill, and fire as their primary offensive affinity.

It was Yoohyun.

Yerim and Kim Seonghan were with him too.

As Yoohyun came closer, Weakling’s Premonition activated even more strongly. It felt like it was whining directly into my ear, asking why I wasn’t running away immediately. At the same time, Fear Resistance gave off a calming effect, saying, It’s fine. There’s no problem.

He’s terrifying, I’m scared shitless! versus He’s only S-Class, don’t be scared! Something like that.

Naturally, the latter won. It was an L-Class skill.

‘Will it be like this every time I encounter someone A-Class or above for a week? How annoying.’

Could I turn off the premonition skill? Still, leaving it on would be useful for hiding my current condition. I could quickly notice any A-Class or stronger person approaching.

Creeeak.

I heard the sound of iron bars bending. Then, Crack, they broke off altogether.

Should I start pretending to wake up now? Peace was being far too quiet, so it might seem strange if I woke up first. But if it was my damnedly perceptive S-Class little brother, he would probably notice I’d been pretending to sleep.

I’d just say I hadn’t taken quite enough of the drug.

“...Hyung.”

A deeply subdued voice reached me.

Let’s see. Should I act surprised first? Since someone had suddenly approached me, being scared, then hearing my little brother’s voice and becoming surprised, happy, and relieved would probably be a natural reaction.

Slowly turning my head, I opened my eyes slightly.

Trying to look a little frightened.

My little brother’s face, looking down at me, came into view. Good grief, he looked full of worry. A relieved smile would be appropriate here. Still not fully awake, but with some happiness mixed in.

...This wasn’t easy either.

“...Yoohyun, is that really you...?”

“Yeah, Hyung. Are you okay?”

“Uh... y-yeah.”

I was a helpless, pitiful kidnapping victim. I’d suddenly been kidnapped, dragged to an unfamiliar place, and locked up.

And I had only recently Awakened, with F-Class stats, practically a non-Awakened person who had lived an ordinary, uneventful life until now. Of course I was terrified, scared and frightened, grateful and happy that my little brother had come to save me, and should cling to him with tears in my eyes. Fuck, let’s not overdo it.

Making an appropriate expression of relief, like Thank goodness, I’m alive, I picked up Peace, who was starting to squirm faintly as the drug wore off. Then I pushed myself up.

“Ugh.”

“Hyung?”

I forgot about my injured ankle.

Yoohyun’s face, which had relaxed as though trying to reassure me, immediately hardened. He was not the only one who reacted.

“What was that? That was Mister’s voice, right? Don’t tell me you’re hurt? What crazy bastard did this!”

“Are you injured? No, what did they do to someone so frail? I’ll call a healer immediately.”

Yerim and Kim Seonghan’s voices joined in. Yerim, watch your language. How could you be worse than Mr. Seonghan?

Then my little brother lifted me into his arms. Ah, wait a second. They said they were calling a healer.

‘I can’t push him away, either...’

He would definitely notice and ask, Hyung, don’t you seem stronger than usual?

“I mean, I can walk...”

But I couldn’t strongly say, I hate this, put me down, get lost, either. I was a kidnapping victim who had surely been beaten and terrified. ...How long did I have to keep this up? Couldn’t I start acting normally soon? Was it too early?

“Which bastard was it? Which bastard hurt you, Mister?”

Yerim stuck close beside Yoohyun as he carried me toward the door, repeatedly demanding an answer in an angry voice. I’d already killed the guy.

“...I don’t remember very well.”

Maybe because I’d just woken up, my memory really was hazy. Not that there was any reason to remember a dead man’s face for long. What was his name again? It was Kim something.

“Not even a little? His age, or his height...”

“Hunter Park Yerim.”

Yoohyun spoke sternly.

“You should let him rest first before asking such things.”

“Ah... I’m sorry.”

Yerim lowered her head dejectedly. Well, I couldn’t exactly tell her it was okay.

Outside the door, I saw the healer Kim Seonghan had brought. Haeyeon Guild still had only B-Class healers.

I needed to find Haeyeon a healer, if nothing else. Should I pick a day and tour the country?

The healer treated my ankle and removed the drug’s effect from Peace. Yet my little brother still didn’t put me down. A sprained ankle could be treated by a C-Class healer, no, even a D-Class one. Put me down already.

“You can put me down now...”

“I’ll take my brother back. Hunter Park Yerim, please investigate this place. I trust you know what you need to be careful about.”

“Yes. I’ll make sure it’s handled thoroughly.”

Was he planning to have her use White Corpse? The warning was probably telling her not to let anyone discover the skill. Yoohyun, even so, Yerim was still a middle school student.

“Um, could Yerim come with us too?”

“Don’t worry, Hyung. I’m here. No one will be able to touch you.”

That wasn’t what I was worried about. I’d already melted all the corpses, and the rest were alive, so it should be fine.

Still, as Yerim’s guardian, I should warn her later.

In the end, my feet didn’t touch the ground until I was placed in the back seat of the car. Once I settled down, Peace gave a faint whine and burrowed into my arms. Peace’s ears and tail drooped, and Peace looked completely drained.

“Yeah, yeah. You were really scared, weren’t you? It’s okay now.”

Even if Peace was a dungeon boss monster, Peace was still a baby. Just a baby.

Yoohyun got into the seat beside me, and the car started moving. Come to think of it, where exactly were we? Outside Seoul?

“Let’s go straight to the hospital. You can get a full checkup while we’re at it.”

My little brother said this as he pulled out his phone. Why were you suddenly saying something so troublesome? The healer had already treated me!

“I’m not hurt anywhere except my ankle.”

There were probably some bruises on my stomach. A few hairs had been pulled out. When I was thrown down, my shoulder and back had also... There was quite a lot. I’d been roughed up more than I thought.

“And right now, I want to go home...”

I deliberately spoke in a weak voice. Going to the hospital was absolutely out of the question. If I got a medical checkup now, there would be a huge fuss. My overall stats had risen, so even my durability would be different. When an injection needle failed to pierce me, they would immediately say, “You don’t seem to be F-Class.”

“Can’t I just go home and rest? I don’t want to meet any more strangers today, and if I get examined, I might have to be anesthetized or something... I don’t even want to think about that for a while.”

I disliked hospitals even without kidnapping trauma. In any case, not for at least a week. At my words, Yoohyun put his phone away.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Let’s go straight home. You really aren’t hurt anywhere else?”

“I’m fine.”

Thank goodness. He wouldn’t tell me to get a checkup for a while now, right? Relieved, I changed the subject.

“Still, you found me sooner than I expected. The guy who kidnapped me swore no one would know until I got on a ship.”

“The MKC Guildmaster gave us a tip.”

“The MKC Guildmaster? Was the Guildmaster involved?”

“The Guildmaster wasn’t behind it. You could call it poor management. Apparently, the person sent wasn’t the one originally ordered to go. There was a slight problem with MKC’s internal chain of command... It isn’t something to discuss in detail here, but they were probably different from the people sent by the other guilds.”

That was certainly true. Their rank had been different, but more than that, they’d shown far too little interest in mounts.

“I thought MKC was simply trying to save manpower. Things must be bad over there.”

They’d originally lasted about three more years. At this rate, would they collapse earlier than they had before I regressed?

“It’ll be fine from now on. MKC will be excluded from bodyguard duty for the time being, and the guildmasters of the other guilds have agreed to personally provide information about visitors.”

“The guildmasters themselves? Aren’t they busy? They have dungeons to enter too.”

“They have no choice. As long as there’s a risk of information changing along the way, it’s the surest method. Of course, none of the other three guildmasters is like MKC’s, unable to properly manage even their direct subordinate Hunters, but just in case.”

Now there really wouldn’t be any threat to my safety. No, I still couldn’t be one hundred percent certain. Nothing in the world was perfect.

“Even if you’re that careful, there’s no guarantee a guild member won’t betray you.”

How could anyone know what was in every person’s heart? Yoohyun hesitated a little before speaking.

“Well, direct guild members are a little different. Usually, if they’ve cleared high-rank dungeons alongside their guildmaster, it’s safe to say they won’t betray them. You could call it... camaraderie between comrades.”

“Really?”

Camaraderie between comrades? There hadn’t been anything like that among low-rank Hunter teams, not even enough to use as medicine. Of course, that didn’t mean there had been no good people.

The problem was that they all died soon enough.

There were close-knit fixed low-rank teams bound by trust and friendship, but cases where they lasted long were extremely rare. If even one person died from such a tightly united team, the others couldn’t withstand the shock and fell apart. Even if they didn’t, once the team started doing well, there were often Hunters who disliked the sight of them, and they could be attacked from outside.

But if it was a high-rank dungeon raid team, where such misfortunes were rare, perhaps a strong bond could form and continue.

‘Still, thinking he’d never be betrayed just because he trusts in something like camaraderie. He really is young.’

Was this really okay, Haeyeon Guildmaster? I knew he would have a thriving future, but I was a little worried. Because of me, MKC had developed a flaw it hadn’t originally had, so anything else could change as well.

“By the way, Hyung, are you really okay?”

“I’m perfectly fine. Why?”

“No, um... You seem a little different from usual.”

At those meaningful words, my heart gave a jolt. Had he noticed my changed stats? I’d stayed still. But what he said next was unexpected.

“There’s something like a reptile smell...”

“...What?”

“I’m not saying you smell, Hyung, but were you hit by a curse or poison?”

...He was damnedly sensitive. Could he sense that I’d received a skill from Blackie? I weakly used Lizard on the Wall and shook my head.

“If I’d been hit by something like that, I would’ve known first. The healer didn’t say anything either.”

“A healer might notice poison, but unless they’re high-grade, they can’t detect curses well. Haeyeon still has only mid-grade healers, so... Just in case, here.”

Yoohyun removed the bracelet from his wrist, pulled my hand over, and fastened it around my wrist. There was no need for that. Then he brought his nose close enough to nearly touch the back of my hand and sniffed.

“It definitely seems weaker than before.”

“...Is that so?”

Thank goodness Lizard on the Wall was working. S-Class stats really were troublesome.

“Can S-Classes sense things like that too?”

I asked as I pulled my captured hand away using as little strength as possible.

“Only a little, if it’s right after the skill was used. With a scent as faint as the one I sensed from you, Hyung, it would indicate that you have a skill rather than that you’ve been affected by one. But I can’t be certain.”

Wow, could he really sense even that? What a cheat. I needed to be careful, even more careful. But I had plenty of other skills. Couldn’t he sense those?

‘If he could, he would’ve questioned me about them long ago.’

Since he had only noticed Blackie’s poison and curse skills, it seemed he could only sense offensive skills, and only those with certain attributes.

It was only a smell like a reptile’s stench, so he couldn’t detect it precisely. Maybe it was simply a hunch.

“Here, take it back. If I’d really been cursed, it would’ve been broken already.”

I took off the bracelet and held it out. You don’t know it, but I have L-Class Curse Resistance. You should keep carrying your curse-breaking items.

“Your curse-breaking and antidote items were confiscated too, right? I’ll get you better ones soon.”

Yoohyun said as he accepted the bracelet. Hmm, I hadn’t been wearing them, so they were intact in my inventory. Should I pretend they’d been taken and give them to Myeongu? Come to think of it, that guy was probably worried too.

“Mana-increasing equipment is more urgent than that. My earrings were taken too.”

I had plenty of mana now, but in a week I’d be running dry again.

“Right now, I only have equipment that increases it by a percentage. Should I give you that at least?”

“I don’t have an immediate need to use skills, so it’s fine.”

It was a little embarrassing that my little brother kept trying to take care of me. Setting aside that we were family, I was someone worth looking after from a business standpoint too, but I was still his older brother. If I was going to fleece someone anyway, it was more comfortable to deal with another guild.

Especially MKC. Shouldn’t they compensate me handsomely?

* * *

It was already dark when we arrived at Haeyeon Guild.

“Your home would be safer than the dormitory.”

Yoohyun said as he pressed the elevator button. It would certainly be safer, but I had an ominous feeling that if I went in now, it would be difficult to come back out again.

“No. You need to go back right away anyway. I’d feel better with other people around, even if they’re only F-Class, than being alone.”

“I don’t necessarily have to go...”

“Please get going, Guildmaster. I can get there by myself from here.”

“Still...”

“The sooner you find the mastermind and clean this up, the sooner I’ll feel at ease too.”

Had I pretended to be too weak? Stop hovering over me and go do your work already.

Though I said I was fine, Han Yoohyun only left after taking me all the way to my dormitory door. It would be nice if this was the end of it, but he wasn’t going to become even more overprotective from now on, was he?

“Peace, we’re finally home.”

Let’s sleep early today. Should we sleep together for the first time in a while?

I soothed Peace, who still hadn’t recovered its energy, and opened the door. Then I opened the inner door too.

“...Yujin.”

Yu Myeongu stood there with an utterly miserable expression.

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