Jurim snatched the poster away.
It was an absurd course.
There was a city tour going around the three major guilds, a dungeon exhibition that had recreated the ecology of the Tower exactly as it had been, and, in one corner, even something like, “Experience the combat rations On Jurim ate in dungeons!”
Why would anyone experience that? It was enough to give him chills.
Of course, he had heard from the PR team that a proposal had come in from the Korea Tourism Organization.
He was the one who had permitted it, too.
Jurim tended to be generous, as long as it was about things that did not bother him.
He had thought it was far better than having to dress up in some outfit and take photos or videos.
But if I’d known my daughter would go, I never would have allowed it!
While Jurim was shuddering, Geuru made her will clear.
“I hafta go.”
Jurim simply could not understand.
“Why?”
“Because every time you collect stamps along the course, they give you one of four Dad photo cards from when he was attacking the Tower! Random!”
Geuru clenched her fist as if to say, I have to get this.
“That’s right. You can’t pass up On-chan photo cards from those days.”
Kazuki nodded beside her, adding an infuriating interjection.
With a truly unconvinced look, Jurim asked,
“Can’t you just take a picture of Dad now?”
“Mm, nooo.”
“That’s right. That wouldn’t be a photo card.”
“Why?!”
“Because it’s different from the pictures back then.”
“Totally different.”
“This one’s cooler. You look all sharp and snappy.”
“Yeah, On-chan now is a little less sharp and snappy.”
Exhausted by that brief exchange alone, Jurim clasped his hands as though praying and covered his mouth.
“Master, Geuru wants this one. His eyes are all pew-pew.”
“Mm, Master thinks this one’s the best too.”
At last, the aliens were even reviewing his photo cards right in front of his eyes.
Feeling both faint and humiliated, Jurim squeezed his eyes shut.
Now that it had come to this, he could not let them go as they were.
They were already like this; he was afraid of what they might do in front of him after they obtained those so-called photo cards.
“You two will stand out if you go, won’t you? You know that, right? If people swarm you, you’ll be too busy taking pictures to experience anything.”
Because of recent variety shows, Geuru’s face had become quite well known, and requests for photos and autographs had noticeably increased.
Even Geuru, the social butterfly of social butterflies, seemed to be growing tired of having dozens of cameras thrust at her, and had begun gradually avoiding crowded places.
So he thought that if he scared her like this, she would not go—
But contrary to his expectations, the aliens laughed sinisterly. “Hehehehehe.”
“……?”
What now?
“We’ve got everything prepared.”
As if to show him, Geuru came down to the floor and firmly pressed the antenna attached to her hat.
Then, as if black paint were settling over her, her hair and eyes began turning black.
“Ta-da! Black Geuru!”
The child with black hair and black eyes beamed and twirled around.
It seemed she had not worn the alien hat for no reason.
Though he could not understand why they had not made it into a more ordinary item.
In the first place, as a sensible Earthling, it was impossible to deal with aliens whose thought structures were entirely different.
“Now it’s okay, right~? Right?”
“Of couuurse~”
Jurim clenched his molars. There was no way to stop them from going.
He racked his brains, then said quietly,
“If only production-types go…… it could be dangerous…….”
At his strained words, Kazuki opened his mouth as though shocked.
It wasn’t as if they were saying they were going somewhere dangerous, and yet he was bringing up production-types.
[“This is why attack-types…….”]
Just as Kazuki was about to protest Jurim’s unfair remark, Geuru slanted her lips upward.
“It’s okay, Master.”
Geuru took a hamster out of her bag.
Soon the hamster humanized, and Geuru placed a green alien hat identical to her own on Beillak’s head.
“SSS.”
Geuru pointed at Beillak triumphantly as she spoke.
Beillak merely yawned with a face that said everything was nothing but a nuisance.
“We can go now, right?”
“Right?”
“You’ve got nothing left to say, right?”
“Nooothing, right?”
Jurim bit his lip.
The cackling aliens kept needling him without pause, but he was short on excuses to actually stop them from going.
“…….”
Tch. Clicking his tongue, he threw the poster at Kazuki’s feet as though he did not want to look at it any longer.
“Hurry up and disappear with her.”
“Permission complete! We sortie!”
As Kazuki put Geuru back on his shoulders and spoke, Geuru spread both arms wide and pretended to be an airplane flying.
“Shoooong—”
“Shoooooo— kugugugugu—”
The aliens noisily left the guild master’s office.
“Haa…….”
Could he finally get some sleep now?
It wasn’t as if he had spent that much time on it, but feeling distinctly more tired, Jurim leaned back in his chair, lowered his eye mask, and folded his arms.
“…….”
Sitting with his legs crossed, he kept twitching his ankle and index finger without rest, then furrowed his brow and quietly said,
“……Pew-pew?”
What was that supposed to mean? What about it was better than now?
Jurim put his eye mask into the drawer, then, for no real reason, searched up his own photo cards with strangely wide eyes.
*
As they climbed onto the top of the double-decker city tour bus, a headwind pushed against them.
Because Mephisto was sitting on top of her head, her hat did not fall off, but the hat’s ears kept smacking her cheeks.
“Geuru’s ears are flapping.”
When Geuru whined, Kazuki laughed and gathered the ears together, tying them in a ribbon under her chin.
“Hehe!”
Seeing the affectionate Geuru and Kazuki, the passengers on the city tour bus smiled with motherly warmth.
It was clear they did not recognize the two of them with their eyes and hair dyed black.
“Heheh.”
Very pleased by that, Geuru chuckled and picked up the guide booklet.
The bus was heading toward the ecological experience exhibition hall after first making a loop around the three major guilds, including Hyeonak, and tourist attractions all over Seoul.
“Tower Ecology Experience Exhibition Hall!”
These days, even depleted dungeons had many uses.
After all, in a land already so narrow, subspaces were more than enough to attract the eyes of many wealthy businessmen.
Because of that, only a few months after the bill approving the use of depleted dungeons was passed, Doan Atrium, in collaboration with Hyeonak, opened the first dungeon experience exhibition.
After its opening, it became explosively popular and received tremendous praise, and the Korea Tourism Organization had quickly caught on and turned it into a tourism product.
Soon the bus stopped in front of the gate.
With Geuru in his arms and Beillak’s hand held in one hand, Kazuki stood in line before the gate.
“There are so many people…….”
Perhaps because of the language barrier and cultural differences, On Jurim was more popular overseas than domestically. Thanks to that, the tourism product had become a huge hit, and the place was packed with foreign tourists and children who wanted to become Hunters.
When they stepped through the gate, the pillars of an old palace that had recreated the first floor of the Tower exactly as it had been came into view.
“Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Dungeon Ecology Experience Exhibition. I’m Jo Hyeonyeong, the docent who will be assisting with your experience. From now on, we will explore the various areas of the Tower and learn about its history and ecology…….”
“This is the Tower……”
Following behind the docent, Geuru opened her mouth in awe.
She had sometimes watched documentaries recreating the Tower, but seeing it implemented so that one could experience it directly left a completely different impression.
Though it was old and covered in moss, the splendid patterns and delicate decorations showed that the place where the Tower had existed had once been a flourishing civilization.
Beillak looked around the Tower as though lost in reminiscence, and Geuru quietly whispered to him.
“Beii, weren’t you in the Tower?”
Beillak replied indifferently.
“If I’d been in the Tower, I’d be dead by now.”
Ah.
Had she asked something too obvious? Since the Tower had been conquered, all the monsters inside must have died.
Beillak did not seem to care much, but Geuru needlessly became cautious and rolled her eyes.
“But y’know, what’s the Tower?”
At that question, Beillak seemed to recall something, then spoke as if sneering.
“A testing ground set up by a madman who kidnapped an emperor.”