“Teacher said… you have to tell the truth. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know.”
“…….”
As the silence dragged on, Gidan leaned his back against the bathroom wall and folded his arms.
“……I was worried. And I was trying to look after you, in my own way.”
Gru stared up at Serhi, as if telling him to answer quickly too.
“Uh… Oh, you were…”
After finally forcing out an answer, Serhi’s face flushed red.
Gru smiled happily and nodded.
Serhi squeezed his eyes shut. Damn, this was annoying!
“But you kept saying I wasn’t your friend and all that, so I got a little pissed—no, angry, and I said some harsh things. Sorry.”
At Gidan’s apology, Gru tugged on Serhi’s finger. Serhi nodded a couple of times and haltingly opened his mouth.
“I just… I mean… I’m not used to… other people worrying about me… So…”
Unable to continue, Serhi bit down on his tongue.
Gidan and Gru only listened in silence, while the sound of his own heartbeat rang loudly in his ears.
Ah, it would be better to die than say anything more.
As the world began spinning before his eyes, Serhi was just about to bang his head against the bathroom wall when Gidan pulled him back.
“All right, all right. I understand. That’s enough.”
Muttering that this was seriously annoying, Serhi cooled his burning cheeks with the back of his hand.
Gru and Gidan watched him with broad smiles.
That was when it happened.
[Would you like to register ‘Jin Siwon’ as a guardian?]
‘Huh!’
Why now?
Gru opened her eyes wide and looked around, only to lock eyes with Jin Siwon, who had been secretly watching from beside the door.
Siwon scratched his chin and smiled mildly before stepping forward.
“Ahem. I didn’t expect Gru and Hunter Gidan to come by. I only just arrived myself, so I didn’t see anything.”
Serhi ground his teeth at the clumsy act, while Gidan chuckled softly.
‘Come to think of it, Mister hadn’t been registered as a guardian!’
Registering Mister Hungsam as a guardian too!
The moment Gru happily completed the guardian registration—
[With the number of guardians reaching five or more, the filial piety skill ‘Reliable Daughter!’ has been unlocked.]
[Reliable Daughter!]
Once during the skill’s duration, you can lend your strength to a guardian! Through the power of a reliable daughter, the guardian’s skill effects are enhanced by 100%!
‘Ooh!’
Maybe she could perform some truly amazing filial piety!
While Gru was examining her new skill, Gidan, having heard the basic mission objectives from Jin Siwon, raised his voice.
“SSS-rank?”
‘SSS-rank?’
Gru lifted her head.
An SSS-rank monster was two ranks higher than the Malikian she had caught before.
Gidan also asked incredulously,
“How could something like that be brought in? It’s not as though there are no Hunters at the airport. Something as high as SSS-rank would give off such a sinister aura that there’s no way it could go undetected.”
“We also think the possibility is low. Still, since we received a tip, it would be best to keep it in mind for now.”
So there really was a terrifying monster on Jeju Island.
Just as Gru began to tremble—
- Team Leader Jin! We found the tablet!
Siwon and Serhi simultaneously touched their earpieces.
- I’m on my way.
- Me too.
Siwon and Serhi replied one after another.
“Hunter Gidan, we’re going to check out the tablet rendezvous point—”
“Let’s go together.”
Before Siwon could finish, Gidan answered with a grin.
“Since things have turned out this way, it’s better if we all go and wrap it up in one big swoop.”
“If you’re going too, take this.”
Serhi handed him a spare earpiece from inside his coat. Gidan accepted it.
“Oh. So we can communicate without speaking? That’s neat.”
“Ugh, my head’s noisy enough already, so can you stop saying random things?”
Siwon watched Gidan and Serhi bicker as usual with a smile, then casually rubbed the area around his chest.
At that moment—
Ding!
[Emergency! Danger detected for guardian ‘Jin Siwon’!]
Gru tilted her head at the notification window floating before her eyes.
‘Huh?’
Mister wasn’t in any danger at all right now.
Gru peered around Siwon, tilting her head again.
He had only fiddled with his chest for a moment, and was now once more discussing something serious with the others.
‘Where could Mister Hungsam be hurting?’
Maybe he was hiding his pain because of the Management Bureau business.
If so—
‘I have just the thing I carry around for times like this!’
Gru took an item from her bag and slipped it into Jin Siwon’s pocket.
“……?”
Feeling a hand put something into his pocket, Jin Siwon lowered his gaze. When Gru gave him a beaming smile, he smiled back and said gently,
“It would be best for Gru to go back to her room.”
“Eh!”
“Mister and your big brothers have work to do, so I don’t think they’ll be able to play with you right now.”
Doom—!
Shocked, Gru turned toward Gidan and Serhi, but both of them avoided her eyes, looking up at the ceiling and down at the floor instead.
‘That’s so mean!’
“Mister’s colleague will take you there, so go inside and wait, all right?”
As if she had been told in advance, Yun Arin approached just then, bent down, and met Gru’s eyes.
“Hi! Gru, you remember seeing me last time, right?”
Gru nodded.
She was an agent from the Management Bureau whom Gru had met previously, when Serhi had been working part-time in a mascot costume at the guerrilla dungeon.
“Oh my, you’re adorable. Come on, I’ll take you to your room.”
“Okaaay…….”
Gru looked back at Mister and her big brothers with sad eyes, but they were already running toward where they had been summoned.
‘Hmph.’
Just as Gru was walking along while holding Yun Arin’s hand, with the corners of her mouth drooping, Mephisto wriggled and struggled to poke his head out from the bag, which had been left slightly open when she took out the item earlier.
“Ah-cha, Mephi!”
She had put him in her bag when boarding the plane and completely forgotten about him.
When she opened the bag and took out the chubby baby bird, she saw a sprout growing from Mephisto’s head.
‘This is!’
Gru’s eyes widened.
Mephisto and the snow rabbit had fused!
‘Mi, Miracle Change……!’
Her babies had transformed!
“That’s amazing!”
Gru clapped her hands, and Mephisto spread his wings wide and spun around once. The sprout swayed and danced along with him.
‘I have to show Daddy.’
Gru placed Mephisto, sprout and all, on her head and once again toddled along beside Yun Arin.
She hadn’t been able to take part in this investigation, but at least she had made progress in improving her big brothers’ relationship……
‘But Gru’s an amazing Hunter too…….’
She had even appeared all over TV not long ago.
While Gru fidgeted with her fingers, trying to soothe her wounded feelings—
Ding!
[Under the influence of (Unknown Title), an SSS-rank subordinate who has lost its monarch has been detected!]
[Would you like directions to its location?]
‘Hmph!’
Looking at the simple map that appeared before her, Gru stroked her chin. It wasn’t far away.
More importantly, if it was SSS-rank, wasn’t it the very monster the adults had been talking about?
‘And subordinate.’
Judging by Ham Honggi’s case—
‘Subordinate = underling.’
Then……
1. Ham Honggi (subordinate) = SSS-rank (subordinate).
2. Ham Honggi = Gru’s underling.
3. SSS-rank = Gru’s underling.
4. Make it Gru’s underling and solve the adults’ problem too!
As soon as she reached this conclusion, a lightbulb flashed above her head.
‘All right!’
Having steeled her resolve, Gru looked at Yun Arin.
The adults would surely only get in her way and stop her from doing anything.
Gru cleared her throat with ahem, ahem, then tugged hard on her hand.
“’Unni, ’unni. Gru gotta go bafroom.”
“The bathroom?!”
“It’s coming out!”
Gru stomped her feet as though she were desperate.
It was a clumsy performance that would be exposed at once if anyone grew even slightly suspicious, but Yun Arin had never looked after a child before. Her face went pale, and she scooped Gru up and ran for the bathroom.