Leaning against the bus window, Rea peered through the gaps between the seats at Thomas Kunz, the coach of the German team.
Scrolling furiously on his phone, he looked so angry that even the tips of his ears were red.
Beyond that, the heated clamor of the other team members and coaching staff could be heard as well.
Even though the Korean team had two S-Class players, most of them were worked up, claiming that bringing a kindergartener along was excessive arrogance and contempt.
‘I’ll have to work hard.’
Letting out a small groan, Rea buried herself in her seat, trying not to stand out.
Now, losing to the Korean team had become unthinkable.
Beyond national humiliation, it was obvious that sparks would fly at Rea, who had pushed for the friendly match.
‘But if that kid is in Korea…….’
In truth, Rea wasn’t very interested in the exchange match. She had simply needed a reason to go to Korea to find that child.
Just then, the bus came to a halt.
[“Are we here?”]
[“Typical Justitia.”]
[“It really doesn’t look much different from our school.”]
Looking out the window at Korea’s Justitia International School, the children voiced their impressions one by one.
Shortly after the coaches, the students got off the bus.
The German team was scheduled to stay in the dormitory here until the exchange match ended.
The coaches headed to their lodgings chatting amongst themselves, while the students stood in place, looking around the building.
[“Take a quick look around and then come straight back to the dorms.”]
When Coach Kunz handed over card keys to the children, a brown-haired boy who appeared to be the leader answered, “We’ll be right back.”
And there was a child secretly watching them from afar…….
Gru poked her head out from behind a tree near the parking lot, spying on the German team.
Perhaps because there were so many furtive glances, they paid her no heed.
‘All the better.’
Gru was well aware of how many worried gazes people were casting her way since her addition to the Korean team.
Everyone thought of Gru as merely “a spare wheel,” “a spare string,” “a 2+1 freebie,” and “a drone body,” but—
“Gru will be helpful too.”
“Beep!”
Mephisto, sitting atop her head, flapped its wings as if to say it could do it.
Today was the first operation of “Being Helpful to the Korean Team.”
Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.
She was on a stealth mission to uncover the German team’s weakness.
The moment Gru, wearing her uniform and carrying a duffel bag, tried to secretly follow the German team—
“Wait.”
Thump!
An unfamiliar voice came from behind.
‘Could it be the German team?!’
Had they noticed Gru was spying on them?
Creak, creak.
Turning her head like a broken robot, Gru blinked at the person who had spoken to her.
It hadn’t been the German team who called out to Gru, but a completely unexpected person.
Standing before Gru was none other than the bespectacled boy she had met at the Administration Bureau.
With thick glasses whose compressed lenses made his face barely visible, today he was wearing the Justitia uniform. His nametag read “Julian.”
Julian observed Gru intently before abruptly asking,
“What on earth did you do to Dominic?”
Dominic?
‘What’s a Dominic?’
Gru let out a blank “Huh?” making a face that showed she had no idea.
“Dominic. That SSS, no…….”
Julian hesitated, looking like he had a headache, then spread his hand wide.
“This. You know this, right?”
Above Julian’s palm, a slimy, liquid-like substance gathered and tangled together, beginning to take shape.
Before long, it transformed into two forms: Dominic’s upper body and that of a demonic beast.
“Gasp!”
Gru covered her mouth with both hands.
That was—
‘Haengttai?!’
It was the monster that had kidnapped Vailark and Mephisto, which Gru had turned into takoyaki and fed to Mephisto.
Recalling that moment, Gru narrowed her eyes.
‘It was a bad one.’
The instant she was about to say she knew it, Gru clamped her mouth shut again at a sudden thought.
Why was this guy looking for that bad creature? Was Dominic a monster?
Gru tilted her head, lost in thought.
There was no reason for a person to look for a monster. Seeing as he wore a school uniform, he didn’t seem to be a police officer investigating either.
If so, there was only one possibility.
‘Could it be…… a friend?’
Couldn’t he be a human friend of Dominic’s, just like Gru and Vailark?
The moment she thought that, her heart dropped, and cold sweat began to pour from her head to her toes.
‘Then I absolutely can’t tell him I turned it into takoyaki and ate it!’
Eating a friend was not only troublesome, but barbaric and horrifying.
If someone ate Vailark too…….
Gru shuddered.
In the end, instead of confessing to such a horrifying deed, she was about to feign ignorance.
Before Gru could even open her mouth, Mephisto chirped out proudly without reading the room.
“Peep peep!” (I ate that bad guy!)
“Gasp!”
Gru looked up at Mephisto with wide eyes.
Regardless, Mephisto snorted haughtily from atop Gru’s head.
Fortunately, the other party didn’t seem to understand. In fact, Gru had only figured it out by intuition as well.
But even though he couldn’t understand, he seemed to sense something was off; Julian observed Mephisto as if studying it.
‘I don’t know what skill it has, but if I leave it be, we might get found out……!’
There was only one way to gloss over this here.
‘Run.’
“Gr-Gru doesn’t know anything like that!”
Hugging Mephisto from atop her head to her chest and covering its beak, Gru bolted away.
“H-hey!”
Julian hurriedly gave chase and tried to grab Gru by the scruff of her neck, but she ducked down to avoid him.
“……!”
Surprised by that nimble movement, Julian faltered.
Gru, who had instinctively dodged, glanced back for a moment before scurrying away again.
‘My heart is pounding!’
Julian belatedly chased after Gru.
“You, stop right there! You know something, don’t you?”
“No! Gru doesn’t know anything!”
Judging that she would be caught if she ran in a straight line, Gru turned a corner along the outer wall of the gymnasium.
The judgment was correct, but her ankle twisted at the sharp turn.
“Yikes!”
A shriek burst out as her body collapsed. Gru’s knees hit the ground.
It was then, as Julian momentarily panicked.
Swish—
From somewhere came the sound of wind splitting, followed by a fast, resolute, yet slender fist flying in.
Thud!
The fist dug deep into the wall between them. Pieces of the solid concrete wall clattered down.
Gru’s eyes, pale with fright, swayed like a ship caught in a storm.
‘The wall caved in……!’
Rea glared fiercely at Julian, who had narrowly dodged by a hair’s breadth.
[“What do you think you’re doing to a baby right now?”]
When she shouted at Julian, Gru blinked blankly.
It looked like the boy was tormenting an innocent baby, but in fact, Gru was the one at fault.
‘Because I lied saying I didn’t know anything and was running away!’
But what bewildered her was Julian’s reaction.
Without bothering to explain the circumstances or make any excuse, Julian raised his arm to cover his face and swiftly vanished.
Rea’s forehead creased at that suspicious behavior.
But there was no way to find someone who had already disappeared.
Sighing, Rea approached the fallen Gru and helped her up.
[“Baby, are you okay?”]
She even dusted off Gru’s tennis skirt and tidied her clothes.
‘Huh?’
Wavy ash-brown hair. Below it, keen coral-colored eyes were visible.
When their eyes met, the two stared at each other as if observing one another.
Gru kept her gaze on those eyes of the same color as her own, then rolled her eyes toward the broken wall.
Gulp. Swallowing hard, Gru took a step back and repeatedly bowed her head.
“Th-thank you. Th-thank you.”
In her head, thoughts like ‘The German team…… destroying walls with their fists……’ were spinning round and round.
‘Scary!’
As Gru trembled and tried to stealthily inch away, shhh, shhh, her shoulder was suddenly grabbed with a thud.
“Eeeek!”
[“You’re hurt.”]
Rea tucked her hair behind her ear and bent down.
Her gaze fell on Gru’s knee, where red blood had formed.
Then, the starting players of the German team sauntered over from behind her and asked,
[“What’s with all the running?”]
[“Rea. What are you doing over there?”]
Rea effortlessly scooped Gru up, hugging her tight, and said,
[“Look at this. Isn’t she cute? I just picked her up.”]
[“Don’t just pick up strays.”]
[“She is cute. But is she hurt?”]
[“Yeah, looks like she fell while running. Let’s treat her. Where’s the coach?”]
[“He probably went to the dorms ahead of us.”]
[“Then let’s head to the dorms. We can’t let a baby get scarred, so we need to get some potions.”]
Rea tucked Gru under her arm and started moving toward the dormitory building.
Gru, who had been carelessly swept along to the German team’s dormitory, sported question marks above her head.
‘Huh?’