What should I say?
It was something you needed.
To me, it's nothing much.
He tried to spit out a few words, then smiled wryly and lifted the child.
“You cried thinking it was because of you?”
“Ung?”
“I ran into someone I didn’t like at the center and was trying to chase them away, didn’t you know?”
“……!”
Geuru’s pupils trembled as if she had been struck.
“You are the smartest kid in the Chick class, right?”
Tsk. When he gently provoked her, Geuru puffed her cheeks like an angry pufferfish.
“Ooh-hoo.”
When Jurim pressed her puffed cheek with one hand, air hissed out.
Geuru shook her hands like an angry rabbit and brushed his hand away.
As Jurim smiled slightly and dodged, the child raised her eyebrows high and grumbled in a sulky tone.
“Even so. Don’t get hurt.”
“Yeah.”
Jurim ran his hand through his disheveled beige hair. Geuru meekly entrusted her head to the gentle hand.
He had thought bringing her here and feeding and clothing her would be enough. Had he thought too easily? In fact, he seemed to have forgotten that the other party was an intelligent being simply because she was a child.
‘It’s not easy.’
Well, if a guardian suddenly collapsed and fell asleep for about a week, it would be difficult…….
He stroked the soft cheek with his thumb, then let go and checked the date on his phone.
The date he remembered was the 16th, so it should be around the 21st at least…….
……Not that, but it was the 16th.
‘What?’
Jurim furrowed his brows slightly and stared at Geuru.
The only thing that changed was that little one. The only thing that came to mind right now was Geuru.
He decided to check right away.
“What did you do to me? Did you feed me some syrup or something…….”
“Ye-s. Filial Piety Skill.”
“……What?”
“Filial Piety Skill. When Geuru holds strength like this, mana goes whoosh and splashes onto the Guild Master, and pop, the Guild Master’s eyes went wide.”
Geuru completed the incomprehensible explanation using both hands and looked at him with a triumphant expression.
“Skill penalty? Are you hurt anywhere, or did a debuff (an effect that weakens stats) activate?”
She shook her head.
“So you did do something?”
“Ye-s, Filial Piety Skill.”
“That’s enough.”
Jurim, who had been watching with cloudy eyes, passed a hand over his face.
‘Ha…… I can’t even guess what else might come out.’
An ability being too good was also a problem.
An ability to recharge depleted mana in a short time without any penalty.
If this became known, the already precarious safety of this child would obviously be jeopardized.
Geuru, deeming that Jurim hadn’t understood properly, tried to whoosh and splash again, but Jurim raised his hand to stop her.
“Okay…… For now…… it’s a secret from everyone except me.”
It’s difficult. Too difficult.
Are all the parents in the world communicating smoothly with these little humans close to animals? Respect welled up anew.
To think he’d receive help from such a little one who couldn’t even properly explain what she did…….
A slight sense of self-loathing washed over him.
By the way, filial piety……. He let out a short laugh. To think he’d hear a word he never expected in his lifetime.
‘Not bad.’
“Thank you.”
Jurim ruffled Geuru’s hair until it became a bird’s nest and got up from the bed.
‘……!’
Geuru, who had opened her mouth wide, shook her head, stood up, and followed Jurim as he left the room, asking.
“Was Geuru helpful?”
“Very much.”
‘Geuru was helpful!’
Geuru is a useful person to the Guild Master!
Jurim, who had come out to the living room, put ice in a towel and held it to Geuru’s eye area.
‘Haah— refreshing.’
While Geuru was melting limply into the ice, Seojun’s voice could be heard talking to someone on the phone.
“No, I know that too. But this one is a kindergartener.”
He was taking someone’s call in a corner of the living room.
If he means a kindergartener, is he talking about Geuru?
Jurim also looked at Seojun at the mention of a kindergartener.
“Yes, I know, me too……. Anyway, I’ll contact you again. Yes, goodbye.”
Seojun ended the call with a sigh.
“What is it? Is it about Geuru?”
“Guild Master?!”
As Seojun ran over in surprise, Jurim moved slightly to the side with a horrified expression.
“How are you already up? Why in the world?”
“It was me—”
Geuru raised her hand high to explain that she had done it, but Jurim blocked her way.
Aww. She had wanted to be praised.
“We’ll talk about that later. Where was that call from just now?”
“Ah— Guild Master, I got a call from the Management Bureau just now. They said they couldn’t brief you today because things have been so chaotic…….”
“What kind of brief?”
Could it be that a re-measurement was needed? Jurim pressed with an anxious tone.
Seojun pondered how to explain this and cautiously opened his mouth.
“You know the advertisement that came in recently to promote the implementation of the ‘Awakened Special Law Amendment,’ right?”
“Mm, I know.”
Jurim furrowed the bridge of his nose and nodded.
He had heard that an offer to be a model had come in for Gidan.
True to his nature, Gidan had insisted on running one more dungeon in that time, but the PR team had been incredibly disappointed and clung to Jurim’s pant legs asking him to persuade Gidan.
“That’s why they called.”
Seojun swept his hair up as if frustrated.
“They said Miss Geuru needs to go to a dungeon to get a Hunter’s license.”
Jurim, who was slowly processing his words with a dull mind, frowned terribly and repeated.
“Dungeon?”
Following his words, Geuru perked up and raised her head.
“Dungeon?”
Chapter 4 Let’s Go to the Dungeon!
On the Awakened Management Bureau’s webpage, the mandatory three-hour preliminary Hunter education video was nearing its end.
The Hunter qualification practical exam had been proposed at the end of last year.
It was to prevent Hunter licenses from being indiscriminately abused as specs for university entrance exams or corporate employment, to weed out the unqualified and select those with proper qualifications, and to prevent in advance accidents that could occur when rookie Hunters entered dungeons knowing nothing.
When the actor smiled and raised a fist, Geuru also raised her fist in response.
“Hwaiting!”
Jurim, who was on the phone with the Management Bureau, looked at Geuru and put his hand to his forehead.
“Even so, you should at least give me dungeon entry permission.”
Jurim seemed to be talking with the bureau chief, but the conversation kept going in circles.
Jurim demanded they grant him special permission to enter F-rank dungeons since he couldn’t enter them due to his rank, or half-threatened that he would trespass illegally.
Because by national law, Hunters could not enter dungeons two or more ranks below them.
The chief, perhaps annoyed by Jurim’s constant pestering, suddenly shouted through the receiver.
—Then get someone to bus you! (When a high-rank Hunter takes low-rank Hunters through a dungeon.) I’m busy, so hang up!
Bus? Geuru tilted her head, and Jurim ended the call lost in thought.
*
Finally, the day to go to the dungeon dawned.
Geuru, sitting on the sofa in the Guild Master’s office, looked at Gidan while drinking a chocolate latte that the secretary unnie had brought her.
Gidan was straddling the backrest of the sofa, finishing up Geuru’s dungeon early education.
“Rawr, you encountered a scary monster inside the dungeon. What did Oppa tell you to do?”
Geuru put her chocolate latte on the table, got up from the sofa, and glared fiercely.
“Scaddew, Cheongbongang!”
Geuru pulled a dry twig that Gidan had given her from the bag slung across her body and used her skill while shouting lines from an anime that had once been popular.
[Fluttering Cherry Blossom Petals (A)]
When the caster is within the range of the scattering cherry blossom petals, all physical attacks are evaded for 12 seconds. Defense increases by 100%.
Durability (1/5)
It was an A-rank shield activated in the form of fluttering petals.
“Puhahahahahaha!”
As Gidan laughed his head off, the sofa shook.
Jurim, who had returned to the Guild Master’s office after having the car brought around, looked at the two’s antics and furrowed his brows with an annoyed expression.
Gidan was almost falling over, and Geuru was immersed in “Scatter, Cheonbonaeng” beneath the translucent fluttering petals.
“Gidan, are you teaching the kid something good?”