Standing side by side in front of the bathroom sink, Jurim lifted Geuru onto the stool. When Geuru held out the yellow toothbrush she had used last night, Jurim squeezed a long strip of toothpaste onto it.
'Too much toothpaste!'
Geuru filled her mouth with the mountain of toothpaste and began brushing. *If he squeezes out this much every time, he'll have to buy new toothpaste every week.*
When Geuru looked at Jurim's face reflected in the mirror with displeasure, he was swaying back and forth drowsily like a sick chicken.
"Guildmashter, you're shleepy."
"...I'm not shleepy."
Jurim cracked his eyes open again and stuck the toothbrush in his mouth.
"There's already toothpash there."
"Mmh."
Half-asleep, he squeezed more toothpaste and stuck the toothbrush in his mouth again.
[Quest: Lazy Mornings Are Forbidden!]
[Completed!]
[Acquired 100 Filial Piety Points!]
'Oh!'
Using Filial Piety Points could raise stat points. It had the same effect as leveling up in a dungeon.
Stats went up just from brushing teeth together?!
It was nothing if not tremendous efficiency.
'I need to put the next caregiver in a slot quickly.'
She was just thinking that she would soon become a supreme hunter when—
Ding-a-ling—
The door lock clicked open.
'Who is it?'
Geuru peeked her head out.
The sound of the door flinging open rang out, and soon thudding footsteps approached the bathroom.
The person looked at On Jurim and opened his mouth with an incredulous expression.
"Why...?"
Why? Geuru stared at the man intently while brushing her teeth.
The gentle and tidy man's face was familiar. It was Mister Yun Seojun, who had driven him all the way to the orphanage whenever he was kicked out of the company these past few days.
"Why are you awake? What happened? How?"
Seojun's expression was so serious with shock that Geuru answered in his stead.
"Geuru woke him up."
"Huh? No, are you saying you did something so dangerous with this tiny body?"
Geuru recalled how Jurim had gotten up quickly even though she had only whispered softly in his ear. It hadn't been that dangerous... Still, it seemed like she had done something incredible, so she felt quite proud.
'So Geuru is pretty helpful too?'
When Yun Seojun asked if Geuru was hurt anywhere, groaning and fussing over her, Jurim spat out his toothpaste and glared at him steadily.
"If you don't want to get fired, stop overacting and get to work."
"Yes, Guildmaster."
The man's tearful face shifted into a poker face as if nothing had happened. Faced with the crisis of losing his job, he seemed to have regained his dandy composure.
"Guildmaster, I've brought everything you mentioned yesterday. Shall I bring them right in?"
"Yeah. I need them right away."
"I suppose so."
Seojun said so and tugged Geuru's clothes, which had slipped down, back up onto her.
'......?'
*
They soon found out what they had prepared.
Hunter Yun Seojun introduced himself as a guild member of Hyeonak, tasked with waking Jurim in the morning and delivering him to the company.
He had gotten as far as saying, "He sleeps so much that it's no small ordeal—" when Jurim, who had appeared out of nowhere, chased him out saying he was noisy.
Afterward, Seojun and two secretaries entered carrying armfuls of shopping bags. They had shopped combatively, practically raiding the department store children's clothing section per Jurim's orders yesterday, and had hurriedly brought them this morning.
"Hello, Geuru."
"Geuru is so cute today too!"
"Hewwo!"
They were people from the secretarial office whom Geuru had become familiar with after going in and out of the company several times. As soon as Geuru greeted them happily, their eyes lit up ominously.
"......?"
Geuru was promptly dragged into the dressing room.
"Let's put this on first."
"Great! Next is this!"
The secretaries dressed Geuru up in various outfits as if playing with a doll, letting out exclamations of delight.
"Oh my goodness, so cute! Is she a doll?"
"Try this on too, Geuru."
"This too!"
'Getting changed and prettied up feels good! It feels good, but...!'
They had been changing clothes alone for a full hour by now.
'Dizzy...'
Unlike at first, Geuru surrendered her body to their hands with her soul half-departed.
In the end, the exasperated Jurim knocked on the door and told them to stop.
The secretaries chose a dress with a sailor collar with dissatisfied expressions.
'Changing clothes is hard...'
Geuru came out of the room looking exhausted and plopped down next to Jurim.
Jurim, who had been contacting someone, glanced at the child who looked half-dead.
"You look pretty, so what's with the face?"
Pretty? Geuru's ears perked up and she lifted her face. Her somber expression brightened immediately.
"Geuru got pwetty?"
"Yeah."
"Weally?"
"Yeah."
The corners of her mouth melted into a wobbly smile.
"Guildmashter is cool too. Wow, you're handshome."
Geuru smacked Jurim's shoulder heartily, and Jurim chuckled softly in his throat.
Feeling good, Geuru decided to convey her gratitude through compliments. The highest grade of compliments!
"Guildmashter, you're that one. A man who makes lotsh of girls cry."
It was a compliment brimming with sincerity, but Jurim smiled coldly and stretched Geuru's cheek out long.
"Who taught you to say that."
"The orphanaghe..."
"Should you say that or not."
"I shouldn'th..."
Hmph. It was a compliment. Geuru rubbed her tingling cheek.
"Geuru's tearsh are coming out jusht a widdle."
Surprised, Jurim caressed her cheek.
"...Did it hurt?"
He had only pinched and let go. When he fiddled with her soft cheek and asked worriedly, Geuru spoke through her pouted-out lips in a small voice.
"A man who makes girls cry."
"You want to cry again?"
"Nwo."
Geuru clung to Jurim's arm.
Jurim shook his head and turned his gaze back to his phone, while Seojun and the secretaries smiled as they watched the two.
*
'Damn it, of all people.'
The administrative officer checked the name of the hunter assigned to field support on his phone and massaged his churning stomach.
Every guild in the Republic of Korea had a mandatory quota for public support requested by government agencies.
Hyeonak was no exception.
Large guilds usually sent rookies, but Hyeonak dispatched whoever wasn't busy that day regardless of rank. Literally just 'anyone.'
[Hyeonak, Gidan (S)]
He felt extremely dizzy. Hyeonak was the only crazy guild in the world that sent an S-rank for a simple field support assignment.
And Gidan, of all people. He massaged the back of his stiffening neck.
He had every reason to, for Gidan was notoriously infamous.
A mad battle junkie. A nightmarish berserker.
Rumor had it that only ruins remained wherever Gidan passed, so among public officials he had ranked first on the list of hunters they most wanted to avoid due to the cleanup.
Letting out a sigh, he got to work on the first thing he needed to do.
"The support hunter for this incident is Hunter Gidan of Hyeonak. All personnel, please move 10 meters behind the suspect's radius. I repeat. All personnel, please move 10 meters behind the suspect's radius."
The administrative officer, having spoken through the transmitter, approached Gidan, who wore headphones and was absorbed in checking his messenger.
"Hunter Gidan, thank you for coming."
Gidan, who had been staring at his phone as if his nose was glued to the screen, raised his head. Meeting eyes with the administrative officer, he smiled brightly and bowed at the waist.
"Hello. I'm Gidan of Hyeonak, responding to the support request."
After greeting him brightly, Gidan turned his eyes back to the screen and tapped his phone without pause. He had thought the music flowing from his headphones wouldn't be audible, but that didn't seem to be the case.
'Is this what it means to be S-rank?'
Moreover, surprised that Gidan was more outgoing than expected, the administrative officer calmed his nervous mind considerably.
For *that* Gidan of Hyeonak, he looked quite normal.
'Did they say he's a high schooler now?'
Information he had inadvertently learned because his middle school daughter had plastered Gidan's posters all over her room and chattered about him incessantly floated through his mind.
One of the few minor S-ranks in the world, countable on one hand.
Unlike the poster, where he smiled with eyes blazing madly in battle-lust, the boy he met in person had quite a youthful air about him.
Even as he thought this, Gidan's KakaoTalk chat window kept scrolling up.
When he glanced over, exclamation marks and shocked emoticons were rising in a steady stream.
"This way, please follow me. The suspect is Kim Seungbeom. B-rank, magic-type, fire-attribute."
'To send an S-rank to catch a B-rank. Like using a slaughterhouse cleaver to kill a bug.'