*
The next day.
As morning broke, a commotion arose among the staff.
The vegetable patch, which had been overflowing with crops only the day before, was completely bare.
“Isn’t there really some kind of ghost or goblin around?”
“Surely not. It must’ve been a wild animal…… Something like a wild boar…….”
“If a whole group came, wouldn’t it have been so noisy that we couldn’t have missed it?”
Eavesdropping on the production crew, Gru stood blankly in front of the empty vegetable patch.
‘That’s a lie.’
Sniff. Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes, and her cheeks puffed up roundly.
Because she had hidden under her blanket after hearing the ghost story yesterday, trembling and repeatedly waking up throughout the night, her eyes were heavy with fatigue.
‘There’s no way.’
There had definitely been some wild animal that stole the crops from the garden.
A wild boar, perhaps, or a rabbit, or a turtle!
“That son of a bitch even went and did this…….”
A dog…… perhaps!
“Hm?”
The person who had concluded that Seoribeom was the son of a bitch was Iromi.
She ground her teeth, apparently furious, and stared at the empty vegetable patch with a solemn expression. She even clenched her fists and trembled, as though deep in thought.
‘Was Big Sis Romi really that hungry?’
Gru was puzzled by her trembling rage when Producer Hwang clapped his hands and drew everyone’s attention, bringing the situation under control.
“Now, now, enough with the wild speculation! Isn’t the charm of filming on location that you never know what might happen or where? In any case, since things have turned out this way, if you carry out the punishment for yesterday’s incident, the production crew will specially prepare the ingredients for you today.”
“Punishment?”
When Uju asked for clarification, Producer Hwang raised his index finger and answered kindly.
“Children, there’s a rule here that you’re not allowed to buy ingredients! Hahaha!”
Ding-!
Gru and Uju opened their mouths wide, while Kazuki and Iromi smiled awkwardly.
Meanwhile, behind them, Joorim sat calmly as though none of this had anything to do with him. As if nothing that happened could possibly be a big deal to him.
After confirming Joorim’s gesture of disinterest, Kazuki raised his hand high.
“What happens if we don’t do it?”
“If you don’t carry out the punishment, you’ll have no choice but to go hungry. You know that, right?”
Looking at Producer Hwang’s slyly pleased face, Gru muttered sullenly.
“Bad guy…….”
“Hahaha!”
“Homeless…….”
“Gasp!”
Producer Hwang sucked in a breath.
As though proud of her, Iromi patted Gru on the shoulder, then asked warily,
“We’ll do it. We can’t let the children starve…… But what exactly do we have to do?”
“That’s my eldest daughter. You’ve got a remarkable sense of responsibility~ Ahem, then I shall make the announcement! As for what the punishment is…….”
Producer Hwang gave a sinister smile.
*
Jingle-!
The tambourine swayed rhythmically from side to side, producing a lively sound.
Iromi clenched her fists and belted out a high note, while Uju and Gru shook their tambourines dazzlingly.
The punishment mission assigned to Gru, Uju, and Iromi was to form a trio and put on an impressive performance!
For that purpose, they each took up a microphone or tambourine and climbed onto the stage set up in front of the village hall.
Jingle!
Behind Iromi, who was singing trot in front of the elderly villagers, Gru shook her tambourine with a stiff expression and spoke quietly.
“They’re not ghosts.”
Jingle!
Jingle!
“Hm?”
“Teacher said there aren’t any ghosts.”
Something that frightening couldn’t possibly exist.
Uju looked as though he had no idea what she was talking about, but Gru, who had firmly resolved to prove it herself tonight, spun around in time with the beat.
Jingle! Jingle-jingle!
The elderly villagers laughed and applauded at Gru’s choreography and dazzling tambourine skills.
Meanwhile, Kazuki had been assigned a different mission—
[Activating the skill ‘Tanabata Swordsmith.’]
A dough of stardust became sandpaper and fell into his hands.
As he ran the sparkling sandpaper over a kitchen knife, the old, chipped blade was honed to a sharp silver edge.
The elderly villagers, lined up with kitchen knives and farming tools clutched in their arms, whispered enthusiastically as they watched Kazuki.
“He’s good at sharpening knives because he’s yakuza.”
A large Japanese man with an intimidating appearance, his bulky body covered in tattoos.
Somehow, word had spread throughout the village that Kazuki was yakuza.
With his flashy appearance and skill with knives, no one seemed to suspect that he was actually an S-rank crafter from Japan.
“Huh?”
Kazuki, meanwhile, could not understand the villagers’ dialect very well and simply smiled at them innocently.
“What a nice yakuza boy.”
“That’s why he quit, I reckon.”
“Exactly.”
One of the elderly men patted Kazuki on the shoulder.
“Listen here, stop using knives now and make a living sharpening other folks’ knives. This is your calling. My word, it is.”
“Huh?”
“Arigatou, arigatou.”
“Aha! You’re welcome!”
The staff, who deliberately chose not to clear up the misunderstanding, burst into laughter.
And beside them, Joorim……
He looked up at the enormous pile of logs.
“How’s a young’un supposed to chop all that, honestly…….”
Normally, chopping firewood like this was the job of the young men’s association president or mercenaries who came from Northern Europe during rice-planting season.
“Why’re you just standin’ there all stiff? Get to it, get to it.”
When Joorim accepted the axe and simply stood there blankly, the young men’s association president began urging him on.
“……Hmm.”
He gently set the axe down on the ground.
“I don’t think we need this.”
“Oh? Then what’re you gonna do?”
Joorim leaped onto the pile of logs in a single bound and seemed to gauge their size.
Then he lightly tapped the pile of logs with the tip of his foot.
At that very moment—
Crash!
The logs, split neatly into quarters all at once, came tumbling down.
Everyone stared with their mouths hanging open, as though their jaws had come loose.
The fact that he could use a skill with such precision was a clear demonstration of just how high his mastery was.
There were plenty of Hunters who could chop firewood by one means or another, but only Joorim could use a skill with this level of experience and finesse.
Kazuki’s eyes sparkled as he exclaimed that he had witnessed a precious sight.
[“As expected of On-chan! What an outrageous monster!”]
He even applauded as he laughed without a hint of malice. Joorim muttered with a dubious expression,
“A monster…….”
[“You can’t even be considered human anymore!”]
Kazuki continued to smile brightly.
Was he mocking him now?
Joorim seriously wondered whether that idiot’s words were meant as praise or sarcasm.
As expected, innocent idiots were the hardest people to deal with.
In any case, he had finished everything he needed to do.
“Then I’ll be heading back now—”
“You can’t do that!”
Producer Hwang quickly stopped him and held out ‘the thing’ to Joorim.
Jingle-
Joorim stared at ‘the thing’ in his hand, mouth hanging open in a stupid expression.
Why?
Jingle-
Why me?
Perhaps finishing his work too quickly had become a crime.
Joorim had no choice but to play the tambourine alongside the children.
“……?”
Why was he playing a tambourine?
Gru, who was keeping the beat with dazzling skill and enthusiasm, giggled.
“Daddy is really bad at keeping the beat.”
“Mister, hit it half a beat faster.”
“……?!”
Jingle-
And the hot clip of this legendary scene held the number-one spot among trending videos for quite some time.
*
[Trending Videos]
1. [ENG/JPN] The Number-One Ranker Shakes a Tambourine, While an S-Rank Crafter Sharpens Kitchen Knives
(Thumbnail of Joorim shaking a tambourine with a stiff expression and Kazuki sharpening knives)
[7,824 comments]
@447393
The special S-rank double shot is absolutely insaneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
I can’t believe this is realㅋㅋㅋㅋ
No, they brought those two here and made them do that?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Producer Hwang is absolutely unhingedㅋㅋㅋㅋ
@duehaka
01:10 Look at Gru’s tambourine snap. Our little chick🐥 is a total tambourine masterㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ🔥
F-rank dad and S-rank daughter
Ah, a real kindergarten student’s choreography is on another levelㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
For real, even On Joorim can’t match a kindergartener at her actual professionㅋㅋ
@eueu988
Seeing On Joorim shaking a tambourine from my room, I really have seen everything… I guess the world really is ending this time
ㄱㅊ I’ve been stanning Joorim for five hundred years, and if he’s shaking it like that, he isn’t actually upset
So he isn’t happy either
Do you really think Joorim looks like the kind of person who’d enjoy shaking a tambourine? Are you a spy?
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’m dyingㅋㅋㅋ I was talking nonsense, my bad
@qwer1234
Is Producer Hwang still alive?
The youngest writer uploaded it.
A beam of condolences to the deceasedㅠ
Producer Hwang, your final work is a masterpiece of the variety-show industry,,
@hyeonakofficial
Our Gru is adorable as always today🐥❤❤ Our guild leader is the cutest tooㅎ
Oh my god
That’s really the official Hyeonak account
Someone upload this so the guild leader can seeㅋㅋ
Hyeonak manager, if the guild leader has you held hostage while writing this comment, shake the tambourine
@rachelXX
so lovely family i love big on and little on!
@tuski-333
[The Koreans took Amakusa-sama and made him do this www]
[Why has the Amakusa-sama whom the Japanese cherished become a yakuza sharpening knives in Korea.. But if Amakusa-sama is happy, then it’s okay]
[Since you took one, we have to take one too. Equivalent exchange. Bring Gru-chan over ww]
[Agreed! Gru-chan is incredibly cute, after all ww]
[He’s the only F-rank and she’s an S-rank, though? Is that really equivalent exchange?]
[Super-cute girl yakuza]
[You’re right, it is equivalent exchange www]
@yuurii
[If only Prime Minister Takahashi Norio hadn’t existed.. Gru-chan would have been ours]
[Hey, snap out of it. Amakusa was ours, remember? wwww]
Stop targeting Gru, you Japanese bastards👊👊