“Why?!”
“You’re asking me why……?”
“Was he experimented on too?”
“Like hell he was!”
“There’s only one S-rank production type in the whole world…….”
“Now there are two, including Geuru.”
Hmph! Geuru snorted and put her hands on her hips.
- As I said, Geuru is secretly OP.
Serhi looked back at Geuru with a peculiar expression.
“Shouldn’t you hide this?”
It was obvious every eye in the world would be on her, wasn’t it?
- Geuru is hiding her power.
“That’s what they say.”
Gidan smiled and continued.
“For now, on her hunter license, she’s F-rank. We pulled a few strings at the Awakener Center. This is top secret, so don’t go around telling people.”
“Like I’d tell anyone…….”
No way. That’s an S-rank production type? That thing?
Serhi staggered over to the sofa, sat down, and leaned his head against the backrest.
“I feel like I’ve been losing my mind ever since I came here.”
- ……!
Geuru pattered over to Serhi.
- Serhi, does your head hurt?
Gidan followed after Geuru, smiled prettily, and stroked her head.
“What Serhi means is that Hyeonak is so great he’s going crazy.”
“Ah, you’re seriously going to drive me insane.”
“See? I was right.”
Gidan burst into giggles, and Geuru looked at Serhi with eyes full of fellow feeling.
‘Serhi oppa ended up as another one of Dan oppa’s new toys too, huh?’
In her own way, it was a gesture of solidarity toward a comrade being teased, but Serhi’s face crumpled as if he felt even worse.
Hmph, he was exactly the same himself.
Grumbling, Geuru took off the bear head and sat down beside Serhi.
Gidan perched on the armrest of the sofa and searched through the “Knock Knock, Where’s the Dungeon?” app.
“There’s nothing much today. We can’t go if the rank’s too low.”
Meanwhile, Serhi looked at Geuru, whose face had turned rosy from the heat of wearing the bear head, and smirked.
“Why do you go around wearing that? Look at all that sweat.”
“Because…… it’s Geuru’s equipment!”
“Good grief.”
While Serhi wiped Geuru’s face with the back of his hand, Gidan, quick on the uptake, went looking for a towel.
“Yap!”
When he threw the towel, Serhi caught it with one hand.
“Oh, nice.”
“Ooh!”
Serhi wiped Geuru’s sweat with the towel, and Gidan took off the rest of the bear outfit for her and fanned her with his hand.
Geuru closed her eyes, her face going all melty as the breeze hit her.
Hyaa, an S-rank fan really is cool.
“Hey, Serhi. Wanna go play catch in a dungeon?”
“No.”
“Come ooon~ There’s no one else I can do it with but you.”
“Ask the guild leader.”
“You think that’d work?”
“I don’t want to either, so stop bothering me.”
While the two bickered, Geuru squirmed over and lay down with her head on Serhi’s lap.
Geuru felt like she understood why Gidan had so easily accepted Serhi, who was Gnosis.
The same age, the same rank. Someone of a similar age would feel special.
Just like how Geuru had readily warmed to Uju, who she could talk to easily.
A sweet potato growing among potatoes had finally made a sweet potato friend.
Serhi seemed like he was trying to keep his distance, but…….
‘I hope the two of them get closer soon.’
Before she knew it, Serhi and Gidan were both fanning Geuru with their hands, and just as Geuru was getting drowsy and blinking sleepily,
Serhi and Gidan both looked toward the door at the same time.
“……?”
She felt like she had seen this exact situation before.
‘Is someone coming?’
The moment Geuru sprang upright,
Knock, knock. Along with the sound of knocking, the door flew open.
Gidan visibly panicked and half-rose awkwardly.
“Dan, it’s been soooo long, hasn’t it?”
The woman, sweeping back her long straight hair, adjusted her glasses as she spoke.
With an innocent-looking impression, she smiled at Gidan.
“……Y-Yejin noona?”
Unlike the woman, who was being all sweet and familiar, Gidan was completely on guard.
“Wh-what brings you here?”
Geuru stared, mouth falling open, at Gidan even stuttering.
‘Gidan oppa’s going that far?’
Usually, Gidan was slick even with Jurim.
But seeing him endlessly flustered before a petite woman who looked pure and delicate, Geuru unconsciously tensed and broke out in a sweat.
Compared to him, Seol Yejin was full of composure. She winked and smiled coyly.
“Am I not allowed to come by? It’s not that there’s some reason you don’t want to see me, is it?”
“Eyy! Of course not! But didn’t you say you were busy?”
She gave a slight snort.
“Oh, I was very, very busy. Because of you chicks.”
You? Geuru blinked.
“……Ah, so it was because of us…….”
Gidan, speaking haltingly, looked very much like he was in deep trouble.
Just who was she for him to be this nervous?
Geuru gulped and hid half her body behind Gidan.
Then, suddenly, her eyes met the woman’s.
“H-hewwo…….”
“My goodness, you’re much cuter than I heard.”
As if Geuru, stiff as a board, was adorable, the woman swallowed a laugh and elegantly swept back her hair.
“This is our first time meeting, right? Our team goes out on external work fairly often too, so I’m late in greeting you. I’ve heard about you. I’m Seol Yejin, the head of the Management Team.”
As soon as she finished introducing herself, she spoke to Gidan.
“Even though I was veeeery busy, I’ve been keeping up with the news. Hunter Gidan, I heard you got a ninth-grade score on your midterms?”
“……Well.”
“Dan, I told you that since you’re going to enter university through special admissions, you only needed to meet the minimum requirements for early admissions.”
“That’s…….”
“I can’t very well let a hunter I’m managing fail to get into university, can I?”
“……No, um, I had circumstances too…….”
“And to make matters worse, another minor comes in.”
Seol Yejin turned her head sharply toward Serhi.
At her piercing gaze, Serhi flinched.
“The newly arrived minor apparently has no record of compulsory education. Where did you live? A deserted island?”
“Kirus lab—”
Just as he was about to say he was a former experimental subject from Kirus’s laboratory, Gidan swiftly clamped a hand over Serhi’s mouth.
“Kirus?”
When Seol Yejin asked back, feigning surprise, Gidan quickly made an excuse.
“The orphanage he stayed at in Kirus was apparently run by a cult. That’s why he couldn’t go to school.”
Serhi’s brow furrowed violently.
A cult? If he was going to make up a backstory, why did it have to be that?
Now Serhi had gained a past as both a middle-school delusional and someone from a cult.
“Ah…….”
Seol Yejin trailed off.
If he was from Kirus, he must have gone through all sorts of twists and turns. And on top of that, a cult-run orphanage.
Her expression was pitying, as if asking, ‘Is that why you ended up with middle-school syndrome?’
Serhi pressed his lips shut and turned his head away.
“So that’s why Team Leader Jin Siwon from the Administration became your guardian? Because you’re both from Kirus.”
“What? Who’s my guardian?”
“Did you not know Team Leader Jin was sponsoring you?”
“……I didn’t know.”
Serhi mumbled.
“Now that you know, you can greet him the next time you meet him. Right?”
Seol Yejin smacked Serhi on the shoulder and beamed.
“Now then, shall we get to the point? The Management Team will be managing your education and overall daily life.”
She strode over to the sofa and sat down. Then she spoke to those staring blankly at her.
“This looks like it’ll take a while, so let’s sit down and talk instead of standing around, shall we?”
*
“Everyone, do you know what affiliation a minor can have?”
“Hunter?”
“Gnosis.”
“Nakasan!”
Gidan, Serhi, and Geuru answered one after another.
“……Hmm.”
Seol Yejin looked as if she had lost all hope from their answers.
Meanwhile, Serhi quietly asked Geuru,
“What’s a Nakasan?”
“An amazing person nobody can touch.”
“Aah…….”
Incorrect knowledge was spreading from kindergarteners to foreigners.
“Ahahahahaha!”
Gidan burst out laughing, and Seol Yejin sharply cut him off.
“You there, don’t have Q&A sessions among the undereducated.”
“……!”
Deng—!
The two of them turned to face forward with shocked expressions.
Seol Yejin smiled brightly and clapped her hands together.
“The answer is: a student.”
Student? Geuru’s eyes went round at the completely unexpected answer.
“So, under the special direction of the Management Team, we will be forming a class to prepare for entrance exams and final exams to prevent instant rejection from early admissions. Now, applause!”