“Uncle?”
For an instant, Han Roun’s eyes flew wide. His pupils dilated, and his mouth fell open.
“Geuru-chan!”
Kazuki, who had approached before anyone noticed, snatched the child up into his arms.
Behind them, murmurs began to fill the hall.
It was because the monster specimens that had stood like pillars were turning their heads and swinging their arms.
“What the? Those things can move too?”
“Wow, awesome. They look so real.”
“shit! They’re so real!”
As the commotion rose, Kazuki moved even faster, and the baby bird sitting on his head and the child who had been holding Geuru’s hand followed after him.
Even as Geuru was carried away in Kazuki’s arms, he couldn’t take his eyes off Han Roun.
For a long while, their gazes remained locked, until the crowd lined up between them stretched out and blocked their view.
“…….”
Han Roun looked down at his empty hand, where the photo card had disappeared, and clenched his faintly trembling fingers tight.
“Master?”
Just then, a boy wearing a mask approached and called to him.
“Your face is red.”
“……Is it?”
Han Roun smiled and brushed his cheek with the back of his hand.
He let out a deep breath, calming his pounding heart.
“Maybe it’s because the crowd density is too high. That’s why I said I don’t like places like this. In Korea, they call people who come to places like this otaku. Did you know?”
“We agreed to drop that subject, and now you’re whining again? You’re already cute enough, so let’s stop, Yul. Did you get the photo card?”
Yulian, bristling, scrunched up his face.
“I’m not taking that crap!”
“No?”
Han Roun chuckled and continued.
“Anyway, how do you like Korea? Do you think you’ll be able to settle in well?”
Yulian lowered his mask slightly and smiled brightly.
“I like it. The infrastructure is good, and the people are kind. It’s a nice place. Except Dominic is a clown, and Rage is a psychopath.”
Han Roun laughed softly.
“You didn’t like the friends you met in Korea?”
“Why do you just leave those willful people alone? Every organization should have proper rules, and its members ought to follow them for the well-being of the organization, shouldn’t they?”
“Mm, you’re even poutier than usual today. Is it because I brought you to a place full of those otaku people?”
Yulian smiled sweetly, then quickly pressed his lips into a straight line and slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“Think whatever you like. But, Master.”
“Yeah?”
“Is that child also a test subject?”
Yulian pointed in the direction where Geuru had disappeared.
“Who knows. Perhaps so……”
His words trailed off.
Han Roun thought of Geuru, who had stared straight at him.
The child’s eyes had unmistakably been a pale coral color.
Originally, test subjects tended to have golden or red hues. So there was a high chance his eye color had changed after birth.
There must have been a reason Jurim had taken the child in and raised him.
After On Ijo died, the researchers had scattered with their own research data, and because of that, Han Roun had witnessed countless test subjects all over the world.
He was probably one of those countless children.
Then why had he reacted so specially to that child alone?
“Will you bring him over to our side?”
For a moment, Han Roun’s mouth hardened. Soon, he curved his eyes into crescents and said,
“Yul, let’s make today’s rule that you don’t ask any more questions.”
Yulian seemed to have more he wanted to know, but he swallowed his questions and answered briefly.
“Yes.”
Putting his mask back on, he opened his palm instead of continuing to ask.
Because this was the reason he had come here today.
“I extracted the core.”
The core of the Tower’s first floor, which should have been destroyed.
It was something Yulian had manifested from the specimen of the master of the Tower’s first floor.
“Well done.”
“But the specimens……”
“Hm?”
Yulian spoke as if he truly found it strange.
“They were moving.”
“Ah……”
“They didn’t look like they had that kind of function, but they suddenly started moving……”
Yulian roughly swept back his hair. It seemed he was annoyed because that had made the crowd even thicker.
At that, Han Roun smiled softly.
“They won’t do that anymore.”
“What?”
Why would they suddenly stop? Just as Yulian wondered, sensing that he knew something—
“I should get another photo card. Let’s go stand in line.”
“What?!”
Yulian was pushed along by the cheerfully smiling Han Roun and forced to move toward the line.
*
At that time, Geuru, sitting on a bench in the exhibition corridor, kept his eyes fixed on the restless Kazuki.
“Master, no……”
They had decided to call him uncle in crowded places, since calling him Master would draw unnecessary attention.
“Uncle?”
Ah. Only then did Kazuki sit facing Geuru and ask,
“Geuru-chan, did you perhaps use a skill earlier?”
A skill? Geuru shook his head.
“No. I didn’t use one.”
“Right?”
“It seems our master still can’t control his skill.”
“Peep peep. Peep peep—peep—”
The ones who cut into their conversation were Beilak and Mephisto.
When Mephisto explained that a spoon had moved before as well, Beilak nodded.
“He says there was a time before when you failed to control your skill.”
Kazuki pressed a hand to his forehead as if to say, I knew it.
Only Geuru, who had no idea what they were saying about him, tilted his head and asked,
“Why? What happened?”
“It means our master’s skill control is trash-tier.”
“Twash-tie?”
Kazuki also repeated, “Twash-tie?” before saying,
“Ah, well…… I mean Geuru-chan’s skill. It seems to activate even when Geuru-chan doesn’t want it to.”
Gasp! Geuru inhaled sharply.
“It was definitely like that until just a moment ago, but now……”
“Mm. It certainly can’t be felt now.”
Kazuki and Beilak met each other’s eyes.
Had he suddenly become able to control it in the meantime?
There was definitely something going on.
Just then, Kazuki noticed two photo cards clutched in Geuru’s hand.
Photo cards were supposed to be limited to one per person, weren’t they?
On top of that, he could even feel mana from the pew-pew-eyed photo card Geuru had wanted.
“This……”
“Huh?”
Kazuki took the photo card from Geuru and lightly licked the edge.
After confirming the information in the photo card, he asked with a grave expression,
“……Geuru-chan, where did you get this?”
“Ah! Right. I was gonna trade with some mister, but I just brought it with me……”
In truth, rather than simply bringing it with him, the other person had handed him the card in that brief instant.
Geuru remembered that the mister had slipped the photo card into his hand the moment Kazuki carried him away.
“This is functioning as a control device.”
“That’s right.”
Kazuki nodded at Beilak’s words.
The skill was being controlled only to the extent that it would not burden the child’s body.
Since it was in the form of a photo card, it couldn’t have been made in advance. If someone had noticed the child’s mana leaking out in such a short time and created a control device, then they had to be at least an A-rank expert.
There were many Hunters among those on today’s tour, so it wasn’t strange, but……
Kazuki met Beilak’s eyes.
As if he knew what Kazuki was worried about, Beilak shook his head.
“He was an ordinary human. I sensed no sign of danger.”
At those words, Kazuki seemed to relax a little, but some unease remained, and he rose to his feet.
“Still, just in case, let’s head back for today.”
“Okaaay.”
Geuru nodded gloomily and hopped lightly down from the bench.
“Let’s go.”
Geuru started to take Kazuki’s hand, then hesitated and asked,
“Uncle, did Geuru do something wrong?”
“No! Absolutely not. Why would you think that?”
Fidgeting with both hands, Geuru said in a small voice,
“Umm, ’cause it feels like things got difficult because of Geuru……”
They had to go back without even finishing the tour. It felt as though he had caused trouble without realizing it.
“No, no. When babies grow up, all sorts of things happen. It is absolutely not Geuru-chan’s fault. Uncle was making too much of a fuss over nothing. Right?”
Kazuki lifted Geuru up in his arms.
When Geuru wrapped his arms around his neck, Kazuki patted his back.
“When Uncle first awakened, I was much more of a mess. Back then, everything I touched broke, so I had to go around wearing really thick gloves on my hands.”
“Really?”
“Of course. That’s why Uncle is good at making gloves.”
When Geuru giggled, Kazuki kissed Geuru’s flushed cheeks again and again.
“But make sure you keep this photo card with you. It’s helping stop Geuru’s skill from going off at random. Got it?”
“Okaaay!”
Geuru nodded with determination.
Holding the pew-pew-eyed photo card preciously, Geuru rolled his eyes.
Since he had received Pew-Pew, he needed to give the mister the drowsy-drowsy card……
If that mister happened to be on the same tour bus, he planned to return the drowsy-drowsy card.
“Good. Then let’s hurry back and rest.”
The two of them left through the gate.
As he rested his chin on Kazuki’s shoulder and passed through the gate, Geuru thought of the drowsy-drowsy mister whose eyes had met his until their view was blocked.
‘It felt ticklish.’
When he looked at that mister, for some reason his head felt ticklish and his heart went thump-thump.
Was it because he was a pretty mister?
Somehow, he had seemed to resemble Dad too…… But when Geuru tried to think about it again, for some reason his face became blurry, and he couldn’t remember it.
‘Hm? That’s weird.’
A face that looked like Dad’s……
Nngh. As Geuru wracked his brain, thinking of Jurim from every angle, a sudden thought occurred to him. He lifted his head sharply and asked,
“Ah, Uncle! Are Dad’s gloves all made now?”
“Of course. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Wooow—”
“……That.”
Just then, Beilak, who had been listening to their conversation, opened his mouth slightly, then closed it again.
“Hm? Beii, why?”
“It’s nothing.”
There was no need to add one more worry right now.
They would find out soon enough anyway.