“……Daddy?”
“Yeah. Did you sleep well?”
“Daddyyyy?!”
Gru got up without even properly opening her eyes and called Joorim’s name at the top of her lungs.
“That’s right, Daddy.”
At Gru’s commotion, all the retainers woke up, rubbing their eyes and yawning.
Joorim wrapped his arms around Gru as she came into his embrace.
“Daddy, Gru missed you so much.”
“Mm-hmm, Daddy missed you too.”
He indulged Gru as she whined about how much she had missed him, then suddenly turned his gaze toward the retainers.
“Wait a second. About Mephi.”
“Mm-hm.”
“It wasn’t made with eggs from the refrigerator?”
Gru, who had been yawning wide enough to split her face, tilted her head.
“Mm-hm? Nooo. I made it with a dungeon core.”
“That’s possible…… I guess. With you……”
Thanks to the child, he was amazed anew every single day.
Her abilities as a creator were not merely outstanding—they far exceeded even his expectations.
He retraced his memories, then stopped at one particular point. The part where Mephisto had become human.
Joorim’s sharp gaze turned toward Veilrak and Mephisto.
“You can’t turn Mephi back into a dungeon, can you?”
“Yeah, can’t.”
“Bbi-bbi!”
Mephisto angrily launched a kick, and Joorim turned his head to the side to avoid it, letting out a sigh.
He had somehow ended up with two dangerous specimens clinging to him……
“Fine.”
But what else could he do? Joorim, who always ended up giving in to Gru, raised both hands in surrender.
Gru giggled and burrowed farther into his arms. Joorim whispered into her soft, tiny ear.
“I love you. My daughter.”
Gru turned over, giggling as though ticklish. Her cheeks flushed red with mischief and happiness.
“Gru loves you too.”
Joorim smiled. He thought he heard Sheyer’s laughter from somewhere.
Chapter PPL
Several days after the Hyeonak Guild Master’s memory-loss incident had been resolved.
An announcement stated that Inoue Haruna’s special exhibition had been canceled due to certain circumstances, drawing the ire of the hunters.
Haruna had apparently shut herself away in the hotel and had not shown her face.
The Japanese side was nervous that it might become common knowledge that the items displayed at the special exhibition had not been made by Haruna, but—
Joorim’s side showed no particular movement, as though canceling the special exhibition had been enough.
However, there was another reason Joorim had not taken any further action.
Gru brought her face right up to the camcorder lens.
When her face was reflected in the lens, Gru gave a silly grin and spoke quietly.
“Hello, I’m Gru.”
For the past few days, Gru had been filming Hyeonak’s own original content, “Today’s Gru.”
Apparently, she had received the Guild Master’s permission, but how she had managed to obtain that permission from Joorim—who had been wary of exposing Gru to any media connected to the guild—was anyone’s guess.
Both Joorim and the head of the PR team had told her several times that she could quit whenever things became difficult or tiring, but—
‘I think it’ll be fun!’
There was a manual to follow, to some extent, and……
“Um. Today, Gru will patrol Hyeonak, keep everyone in line, and crack down on people who break the rules.”
……more importantly, there was a concept!
Today’s Gru was more enthusiastic than usual, dressed in a police uniform covered in sponsor logos and wearing a police cap.
Today, she was a one-day police officer!
It was the day Gru, who had always been the one getting reprimanded, could do the reprimanding herself!
“Oh, and today’s Gru has an assistant to help her.”
Drumroll, drumroll, drumroll—
Gru imitated a drumbeat with her mouth.
“Who could it be? It’s Gru’s daddy! Daddy is very cute today. Everyone, please look forward to it.”
Kikikik.
Gru giggled like a mischievous little imp and spun the camcorder around.
“……”
Joorim, dressed in a police uniform plastered with the exact same sponsor logos as Gru’s, appeared in the lens.
He stood there with his eyes narrowed, making his displeasure abundantly clear.
He had said he no longer needed to wear gloves, but perhaps explaining the matter of the gloves every time was too bothersome, because he was still wearing one on his left hand.
“Daddy! You have to introduce yourself!”
“On Joorim.”
“……?”
Gru moved right up to Joorim, who had answered in an unnecessarily gruff tone.
Tilting her head to the side, Gru looked up at him and asked,
“Daddy, are you crying?”
“I’m not crying, so stop asking.”
It was already the tenth time she had asked since he had put on his sour expression.
Gru then solemnly brought her face right up to the camcorder and said,
“Everyone, the Guild Master of Hyeonak doesn’t cry even when he’s sad.”
“……”
After saying that, Gru took a square sticky note out of her little bag. It was a piece of paper that would be used to issue countless tickets in the future.
This time, instead of writing a ticket, she wrote [Certificate of Commendation: Did Not Cry] and handed it to the Guild Master.
Joorim crumpled it up and threw it away, but Gru scampered after it like a puppy and brought it back.
“……”
While Joorim covered his face with both hands and suffered in silence, Gru stuck the sticky note to his collar like a medal, then patted it several times to make sure it would stay on.
“Now, Daddy is the cameraman.”
When Gru held out the camcorder, Joorim accepted it with an utterly unmotivated expression.
“Then let’s go!”
“Where are we going?”
“The parking lot!”
Gru checked the time and stamped her feet.
“Hurry, hurry!”
Joorim boarded the elevator, led by Gru’s hand, and pressed the button for the first basement level. Then he looked down at the child, who was rummaging through her bag as she fussed over her preparations.
“What are you doing?”
“Speed……!”
“Speed?”
Gru pulled out the sheet containing the one-day police officer’s work manual and cheated by reading from it.
“Speeding, violation, enforcement!”
After reading it out brightly, Gru let out a mischievous “Hehehe,” and took a toy gun she had prepared in advance from her bag.
“A speed gun! We can see how fast they’re going with this. We’ll catch everyone going over ten kilometers per hour.”
Ten kilometers per hour. She really seemed intent on catching everyone who came to work in their own cars.
“……Is this a sting operation? Speeding violations only apply inside the building, so do something else.”
“Hmph……”
Gru narrowed her eyes into triangles and pouted.
Joorim snorted and pinched her tiny lips. It seemed to have really bothered her that she had been the only one getting reprimanded.
“Let me see. What else is there?”
“Gru will read it for you. Um…… cracking down on suspicious people, helping people in trouble, checking the safety of important places……”
Just as Joorim was thinking that they were assigning surprisingly genuine tasks for a variety show, the elevator doors opened.
“Gru?”
“Nayeon unnie!”
“Oh my goodness! Are you a little police officer today?”
Nayeon and Gru clasped hands and squealed.
Joorim wondered how they could be so delighted to see each other every time despite meeting every day, then shamelessly met the gazes that fell upon him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Ahem. Good morning, Guild Master.”
Team Leader Kim of Raid Team One, who had boarded with Nayeon, glanced at Joorim before belatedly greeting him.
Even after finishing his greeting, he leaned against one corner of the elevator and continued sneaking glances at him.
“What? Is there something you want?”
“No, it’s just that you look especially handsome and cute today……”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is~ Our Guild Master even got a certificate of commendation for not crying……”
The Team One leader desperately held back his laughter, while Joorim crumpled the sticky note again and looked at him through narrowed eyes.
It seemed to be a gesture saying that he would crumple the team leader up like this too if necessary, so Team Leader Kim firmly shut his mouth.
“……”
“……”
Just as an awkward silence settled over the two men, Gru took out a sticky note and spoke to Nayeon.
“Gru is a one-day police officer today. I have to give you a ticket, unnie.”
“Why? What did I do wrong?”
“Mm-hm, you’re too pretty, unnie.”
At Gru’s smooth remark, Nayeon burst into giggles.
The men, who had been swept up in the chilly atmosphere, smiled at the sight of the two of them looking as though flowers were blooming, but when their eyes met, they cleared their throats and turned their heads away.
Nayeon stuck the sticky note Gru had given her to her chest.
It was a ticket that read [Too Pretty].
Team Leader Kim watched this with a broad grin, then, when Gru put the sticky notes back into her bag as though she had finished her work, eagerly asked,
“Gru, what about me? What about Uncle? Aren’t you going to give me a ticket?”
Gru opened her mouth in an “oh” and stared blankly at Team Leader Kim.
“Looks like she’s not going to give you one.”
Joorim twisted up the corners of his lips and sneered. Embarrassed, the team leader cleared his throat and turned around.
“No, well, it’s not like I was expecting anything……”
At that moment, Gru struggled to stick a ticket reading [Ugly] onto his back.
“……!”
Joorim spotted it, snatched Gru up by the back of her collar, and carried her dangling off the ground as he got off at the middle floor.
“I didn’t get to stick it on……”
“That would be rude!”
Rude? Gru asked in shock,
“Team Leader’s face is……?”
“It’s rude to say he’s ugly!”
“Ohhh!”