Before coming to Hyeonak, after doing some light preliminary research, Jurim seemed to have many enemies.
In fact, from Geuru's perspective as well, he was a bit……. His consistently listless and unfriendly attitude, which had even been exposed on broadcast, looked like it would incur the wrath of many people.
The Chick class teacher had said that you should be kind and polite to everyone…….
‘Could it be that the Guild Master didn't go to kindergarten…….’
Seeing how he lacked basic manners, that might actually be the case. The thought of Jurim being unable to finish kindergarten made Geuru a little sad.
‘I should ask him to take classes with me later.’
Jurim might not be a very good person to everyone, but to Geuru, he was her one and only guardian.
‘He might be mean to others, but he's a good person to Geuru! I have to protect the Guild Master!’
But since Geuru had no strength—
‘I have to tell the Guild Master.’
The moment Geuru took out her kids phone from her bag and pressed the call button hard to call Jurim and tell him there was danger.
The boy slashed his own wrist with a dagger. Bright red, fresh blood began to flow down his arm toward the blade.
‘……?’
At the sudden situation, Geuru’s mouth fell open.
She had seen someone slash their wrist like that before. Scenes where they shouted, ‘If you don’t listen to my demands, I’ll die!’
So what do you call this again?
‘A suicide threat!’
Geuru turned deathly pale and ran toward him with quick steps.
“Nooo!”
“Huh?”
Gidan swiftly snatched up the tiny thing running toward him. Looking at the child hanging limply by the scruff of her neck, Gidan narrowed his brow.
“Hmmm?”
He spun Geuru around 360 degrees this way and that.
“Ugh… dizzy…….”
“Ah.”
When Gidan stopped spinning her with a short exclamation, Geuru clenched her fist and said,
“……Stooop.”
“Stop what?”
“Dat.”
“This?”
Gidan twirled the dagger, reversed his grip to hold it by the blade, and lifted it toward Geuru.
Geuru stretched both arms out and flailed before grabbing Gidan’s arm and examining his wrist.
“……???”
Why was there no wound? Rather than a scar, blood should be dripping down, but she couldn’t see anything.
‘I definitely saw him slash his wrist.’
Geuru looked back and forth between him and his wrist with a puzzled expression. Then Gidan showed a mischievous smile, as if he understood.
“You saw something you shouldn’t have.”
“……Yeath?”
She had definitely seen something, but it disappeared?
Gidan lifted Geuru even higher to meet her eyes.
“You saw it, right?”
As their eyes met, Geuru’s eyes trembled.
This line, this situation. It was familiar.
This was definitely a scene that came out often in cartoons. A situation where an extra happened to witness a villain’s secret.
The fate of the one who saw? Death!
Dun-dun!
Gulp. Swallowing hard, Geuru shook her head violently from side to side.
Gidan burst into giggles.
“Are you going to lie? I’ll swallow you in one bite.”
Hiiik! I’ve been found out!! Thrashing about with tears welling in her eyes, Geuru cried out,
“P-please thave me! Geuru doethn’t tathe good!”
“Hmm, should I?”
“Eh?”
Gidan put Geuru down on the floor and crouched in front of her, observing the small child with interest.
Since On Jurim never replied, Gidan had contacted various places to find out news, and had heard the shocking story that On Jurim had adopted a kindergartener.
The profile of On Jurim’s adopted daughter, obtained from the secretariat, was as follows.
Han Geuru, 4 years old, mixed blood, adopted from an orphanage rather than kidnapped, small and precious and cute and lovely……. The rest is omitted.
Seeing that she suited the descriptors of being a kindergartener, small and precious, and cute, the child before his eyes was most likely the rumored Han Geuru.
‘She is cute, admittedly.’
Gidan, who had thought all kids looked similar, revised his thinking a bit after facing Geuru.
‘This tiny thing is S-rank, they say.’
Gidan pressed the child’s cheek. Geuru’s face, her eyes wide open, tilted to the side and then returned to place.
After poking that soft and squishy cheek several times, Geuru repeatedly tilted her face like a roly-poly toy and straightened it back up.
Looking at her wide eyes like a frightened little chick, Gidan showed a sly grin.
“Tell me why I should save a liar.”
“I’ll give you all of thith.”
Geuru took out syrup bottles from the crossbody bag hanging at her side and showed them to him.
“What are these?”
Geuru had recently learned the exact term for what this was.
“A bribe.”
Gidan burst out with a pfft.
“You’re asking me to let this go with this?”
Nod, nod.
Smoothing things over with bribes was what Geuru did best. After all, she had gotten into Hyeonak by offering a bribe too.
Geuru whispered in his ear like a skilled negotiator.
“I’ll thpecially give you thweet thweet thtrawberry thyrup, oppa. Thith ith expenthive.”
“Ah, ahem, sweet…….”
Gidan twitched the corner of his mouth, holding back laughter.
If she was that confident, he could let it slide once. Gidan, who had been examining the items without much thought, soon opened his eyes wide.
“These can stack too?”
“Yeath. But you can only eat a widdle. Or you’ll get thick.”
No item could be strengthened infinitely. It was because one needed basic stats to support it in order to fully accept the strengthening effects.
“Still, if it’s someone like me……. This much should be fine—”
Gidan, who had been inspecting this and that, paused as if realizing something.
Item containers that seemed to bear the touch of a child…….
“You, don’t tell me you’re a Production-class?”
“Yeath…….”
Ha. Gidan burst out laughing as if truly amazed.
“Wow……. Hyung really picked up something incredible.”
If she was a Production-class user, her level of rarity and versatility was on another tier entirely.
Normally, equipment made from highest-grade dungeon byproducts of S-rank or above was merely S-rank.
The masterpieces that raised the grade even further through artisan skill using those highest-grade materials were the current S+ rank known as the Amakusa Series.
Made by Japan’s S-rank artisan, the only one in the world, currently there were four Amakusa Series items released on the market.
Since that existence was revealed, countless artisans had worn themselves out trying to challenge S+ rank, but all failed.
Rumors were circulating that unless a new S-rank producer appeared, there would be no new S+ equipment.
And in such a situation, an S-rank Production-class.
On top of that, a kindergartener from an orphanage.
‘……If this gets out, Korea will completely explode.’
Guilds from all over the world might rush in saying they would raise the child themselves.
Gidan recalled the hunters rushing in like a herd of buffalo and shuddered as if shaking them off.
Of course, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t covetous of an S+ rank masterpiece.
Gidan stared at the child intently.
‘……She’s so tiny.’
Like a chick that twitched about. It seemed like she would burst if poked.
He understood why Jurim had gone as far as to adopt the child, and the feeling of being unable to leave her alone.
He took the child’s hand and placed the syrup bottle on her palm. Her hand was so small that the syrup bottle, the size of a chestnut, filled her entire hand.
He smiled a little at how cute it looked, and Geuru—who had been sneakily inching backward while looking for a chance to escape—hunched her shoulders.
Gidan smiled mischievously again.
The child’s reactions were amusing.
They made him want to tease her more and more.
“You look useful. Should I kidnap you?”
“Eh?”
Geuru flinched, then held up her kids phone with trembling pupils.
“K-kidnapper…….”
Just as she had been taught tirelessly in kindergarten, she pressed the 113 button with her trembling hand, and Gidan poked her cheek again.
“You should call 112, dummy Geuru.”
“Geuru knowth. It wath a mithtake.”
“I don’t think sooo~ dummy Geuru.”
Geuru’s face puffed up in a pout.
“They say the one who calls others a dummy is the bigger dummy.”
“But someone who knows 112 isn’t a dummy though? It’s the one who doesn’t know who’s the dummy.”
“……!”
Gidan smiled mischievously, and Geuru’s eyes shook.
This person, even though he’s an adult, he won’t lose to a kindergartener……!
“Dummy Geuru.”
Bong!
This was absolutely unforgivable.
Should she fight to restore the fallen honor of the Chick class’s smartest student?
Just as Geuru clenched her fist, about to make a firm resolution, Gidan—who had enjoyed teasing the kindergartener—stood up from his spot.
“Up we go.”
He lifted Geuru into his arms.
“Let’s go see Guild Master-hyung. We need to go to the Center to get your rank measured.”
Guild Master-hyung? Rank measurement? Then that meant…….
“Excuse me, are you Dan oppa?”