Rather than a “production research lab,” the place was no different from a kids’ café.
And no wonder—the room was filled here and there with toys children would like.
Not only that, it was divided into areas: a place to play with clay, a role-playing zone, a zone piled high with blocks, a drawing area, and more.
“All of this is…”
“It’s all the latest models.”
Geuru said it proudly, rubbing her nose.
As far as Geuru could tell, Grandpa seemed amazed by this parade of cutting-edge toys.
“This is just a kids’ room!”
“Grandpa! You can’t be loud at the company!”
Geuru stuck a [Noisy] label on Genzo.
But after checking the note through the translator, Genzo only made an even bigger fuss.
“The kiln! The wheel! The anvil! The hammer! Where are they supposed to be?”
“…?”
Geuru pattered off and came back holding a toy hammer.
“Hammer, right here!”
“…Ha.”
Genzo stared blankly at the child waving the children’s hammer around.
Whether he did or not, the child led Genzo over to the block-play zone.
Genzo squatted down with the child, stacking Lego blocks as he let out a sigh.
“…”
How was this a production research lab? The child had clearly brought him to the kids’ zone.
Yes, it’s my fault for asking a child who obviously can’t tell things apart to guide me. What could the child have done wrong?
But then…
When Geuru suddenly placed the hammer in his hand, Genzo raised an eyebrow.
“Hm?”
“You go thump-thump like this.”
“Wait, isn’t this a real item?”
[Children’s Toy Hammer (A)]
No matter what is struck, it can be driven in as much as desired in a single blow. Made for children; it does not cause injury even if someone is hit.
An A-rank toy item handed to children for fun? There were limits to wastefulness.
He looked around and checked the information on the toys.
“…Are all of these magic tools?”
Though their ranks varied, every single one was a magic tool with options.
Genzo’s face filled with shock.
“Could this truly be Hyeonak’s production research lab?”
Geuru blinked at him as if asking whether he hadn’t seen it earlier.
“Yees. This is where Master and Geuru play while thinking about what to make.”
“Master?”
“Uncle Kazuki!”
Geuru grinned broadly.
“Kazuki comes up with magic tools here…?”
Now that he thought about it, traces of the mana Kazuki had used remained here and there on the magic tools.
“Hah…!”
That Kazuki had come to Korea to play with children’s toys like this?
“You outrageous scoundrels!”
Genzo clenched his teeth.
For an instant, he was so furious his eyes burned.
Amakusa Kazuki was Japan’s treasure, envied by the entire world.
And they had taken a man like that and made him build children’s toys and act as a babysitter?
Was this not clearly meant to humiliate Japan?
Just then, Geuru, who had been smiling brightly, tugged at his clothes.
“This one, see. It’s what we’re making this time.”
At that, Genzo straightened his clothes and spoke coldly.
“That is enough. It is not even worth looking at.”
Geuru’s mouth fell open.
“While I’m at it, I ought to take Kazuki back to Japan as well!”
No matter how angry he was at the Japanese government, he had no intention of letting Kazuki stay at Hyeonak while enduring such an insult.
The prime minister had changed anyway, so he could take this opportunity to act as a bridge between Kazuki and the Japanese government.
“It was a good thing I came in person. Insolent bastards!”
Then Geuru wriggled as she wrote something on a memo pad and stuck a [Be quiet when a friend is presenting] label on Genzo.
“Hm? What does this one say now?”
After checking the label’s contents with the translator, Genzo’s face turned red.
“Y-you little brat!”
Geuru stuck another [Noisy] label on him and pressed her index finger to her lips.
“Shh!”
“Hah!”
Dumbfounded, Genzo shut his mouth like a clam, and Geuru brought out two robot toys.
“Ta-da! These are combining toys! When you combine them like this, a different option comes out!”
Geuru joined the two robots together and transformed them into a unicorn.
“At the end of the day, a toy is still just a toy!”
Shocked by Genzo’s words, Geuru asked back,
“Do they have things like this in Japan too?”
“What?”
Geuru turned the unicorn back into robots, then snapped them together into a unicorn again.
“Combine!”
“That’s…!”
At a loss for words, Genzo kept his fierce expression as his eyes darted about.
Combining toys might be a dime a dozen, but what if it was a combining magic tool whose options changed?
“…”
“Ahh, they don’t.”
When Geuru nodded in understanding, Genzo burst out angrily.
“The Inoue family could make something like this as much as they—!”
…As much as they wanted? Could they really?
Unable to finish his sentence, Genzo opened and closed his mouth before snatching up the unicorn.
If the goal was merely to combine items, it could be done. But that would not create a new option.
Creating an entirely new option like this was a method usually used only in mixed potions.
“Is the magic stone in the center colliding and causing some sort of reaction?”
A combining magic tool. Though it was a toy, it was certainly a new mechanism.
Click, clack. Clatter-clatter.
Genzo eagerly analyzed the toy, separating it and fitting it back together, until his eyes met Geuru’s.
Geuru smiled brightly.
“…Ahem. Hm.”
It wounded his pride to have been swept up by a child and left fiddling with a toy, but since he was a creator by nature, he could not easily let go of a new magic tool.
Genzo gave a few awkward coughs and examined the toy again.
Geuru watched him happily and said proudly,
“It’s the supreme combining toy.”
Genzo let out a snort of laughter.
“It is not supreme.”
“Chit.”
“But it is new. Worth examining.”
A flexible idea conceived from a child’s perspective.
A fresh mechanism invented as a result.
It was entirely different from the Inoue family, who produced precise and delicate results through standardized, uniform training.
Of course, that did not mean he intended to deny the Inoue family’s traditional methods.
After all, the existing methods had given birth to countless S-rank items and the Amakusa Series.
But Genzo was not so narrow-minded as to ignore a new technology right before his eyes.
“From what I can see, Hyeonak seems to be a fairly decent place.”
At Genzo’s sincere praise, Geuru rounded her lips.
“Ooh…”
After letting out an impressed sound, Geuru pulled out a cart and offered him an O2 Vitamin Water.
“What is this?”
“It’s tasty.”
Then she took out a camcorder and began filming Genzo holding the O2 Vitamin Water.
Unable to resist the expectant look in the child’s eyes, Genzo gulped down the drink.
“One more time!”
Geuru placed the camcorder on the table with the lens turned toward Genzo and herself, then stood beside him and drank the beverage with him, gulping it down.
Then she held it out so the drink label showed clearly and delivered her line in a flat, textbook-reading tone.
“When you’re thirsty, it’s O2 Vitamin Water!”
“…?”
Leaving the bewildered Genzo behind, Geuru pattered over to the camcorder, confirmed that it had recorded well, and gave a thumbs-up.
“Good.”
“What is good about it? You cannot even act. Is this supposed to be a beverage advertisement?”
“Yees.”
He had turned down countless advertising offers until now, and yet to think he would come to Korea and end up appearing in an advertisement with this terrible little actress.
“You are making very efficient use of this old man. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Genzo shook his head, though the smile did not leave his lips.
It was then.
Beep-beep-beep!
The door to the production research lab flew open.
“Grandfather!”
“Master Inoue!”
The ones who appeared at the door were Haruna and Kazuki.
Following behind them, Jurim tilted her head to the side as she checked on Geuru.
Because Genzo had boarded a plane right after ending his call with Haruna, saying he would go straight to Hyeonak, word had come from Japan.
Haruna had hurried to Hyeonak, and when she heard that Genzo had received Geuru’s guidance in the lobby and gone somewhere, she had no choice but to feel her mind go blank.
‘He seemed like a cantankerous old man.’
While she was a little worried whether that problem-child daughter of hers had behaved herself, Jurim found it.
The [Noisy] labels and [Be quiet when a friend is presenting] label stuck all over Genzo’s body.
At the traces that made it painfully clear Geuru had not behaved herself, Jurim squeezed her eyes shut.