Chapter: A Day Without Dad
It was the very next day after being summoned by the President that Jurim went to the Blue House.
Leading a whole contingent of lawyers, he had said, "Dad has things to do, so he'll be very busy for a few days."
From what she overheard, it seemed to be because of an apology regarding this incident, and a contract for the Mephisto Series mk.3.
Jurim had looked extremely worried about Geuru, but Geuru's eyes sparkled.
'If that's the case?'
Today is a day without Dad!
As soon as the sitter dropped her off at the company building by car, Geuru begged to have the trunk opened.
"Why? You're going to ride your bike today?"
"Yeth!"
"Didn't you say you hated getting stopped by the police?"
Geuru shook her head and said,
"Uh-uh, today is special."
Because.
'No Dad = No police checks!'
Instead of a long answer, Geuru put on her star-shaped sunglasses.
Should she pick up the pace a bit today?
There was no one to stop Geuru's mischief today!
Clack, clack—Geuru climbed onto her tricycle, waved a "Bye-bye~!" to the sitter, and sped off across the lobby.
'This feeling, this freedom.'
That was exactly what Geuru had wanted.
Intoxicated by a speed of fifteen kilometers per hour, the child arrived at the first-floor café.
"Geuru, hello! You're wearing cute glasses today."
"Hewwo."
Geuru greeted the employee politely and squinted her eyes as if looking at the menu.
"Shall I get you a choco latte?"
"No!"
Today's Geuru was an adult. So she would go to work holding an americano.
As befitting an adult, she had to consume an adult's potion.
"Gimme the udult's amewicano."
"Really? Can you drink that?"
"Yeth! Geuru is an udult today."
"...An adult?"
Nod, nod.
"So gimme the udult's potion."
Geuru urged the employee, opening and closing both her hands.
The employee smiled with a troubled expression.
"Hmm...."
In the end, with practiced hands, she clacked down a shot, diluted it with just a little water to make it very weak, and handed it to Geuru.
Geuru held the takeout cup with both hands.
Thump, thump.
'This is the adult's potion.'
They said if you drank this, eyes drowsy with sleep would become wide and clear, and strength would return to a limp body.
*Ahem.* After clearing her throat, Geuru took a sip of the coffee.
"Bweh...."
Trickle.
The coffee, unable to swallow even a single drop, trickled back into the cup.
'Bitter!'
Stunned, Geuru wiped her lips with the back of her hand.
Adults drank something this bitter every day? And the adult called On Jurim drank this every day like water...!
This wasn't potion consumption; it was closer to torture, wasn't it?
'No wonder your eyes go wide when you drink this! Is Dad a complete idiot?!'
The employee looked at Geuru, who was trembling, and asked with a soft laugh,
"Shall I switch it to an adult's choco latte?"
"But...."
"If I secretly switch it in the same cup, no one will know."
"Yeth...."
In the end, the contents of the takeout cup were switched to an adult's choco latte.
To wash away the lingering bitter taste in her mouth, Geuru slurped the adult's choco latte so hard her cheeks puffed up like balloons.
*
Geuru went up to the Guild Master's office on the top floor and sat down.
Dad thought that without him, Geuru would go around causing trouble, but that was a huge misunderstanding.
As the Guild Master's daughter, she had a sense of responsibility. Today, she had to protect the guild in Dad's place and act like an adult.
Whenever she sensed someone might be coming, Geuru hurriedly stood up and wiped the leaves of the potato plant, mimicking the powerful figures she had seen in dramas.
She also sat Mephisto, Vellark, Lucifer, and Yurian in a row at the edge of the desk and pretended to hold a modest meeting.
"Now then, the topic of this meeting is...."
Having opened the meeting, Geuru pondered what she should do to boost the guild members' morale.
Unlike Vellark and Yurian, who were just yawning wide, Mephisto and Lucifer participated enthusiastically—beep beep, squeak squeak—but—
'I can't understand them at all.'
"Mmhmm."
Geuru pretended to understand and wrote whatever she pleased.
- Give free hugs (Dad)
- Remove the company speed limit (Good!)
- Put Yoplait in the break room (The best!)
- Adult potion is trash (Boo-)
"Hmm."
After writing meticulously on an A4 sheet, Geuru plopped her body deep into the chair. Squeak—the chair spun sideways.
Bored.
Being an adult was really no fun.
'Maybe I'll watch a drama.'
Today, no one would scold her for watching dramas all day!
"Ooh hee hee."
With a laugh full of mischief, Geuru turned on Jurim's laptop.
"YouTube~ YouTube~"
At the sound of YouTube, Vellark's eyes sparkled as he climbed up onto her shoulder.
Mephisto flew in and sat on her head, and Lucifer burrowed into Geuru's embrace.
Surrounded by her kin, Geuru hummed a cheerful tune while browsing the desktop, and her eyes sparkled when she saw a folder labeled 'G.'
"G is for Groot's G~ Geuru's G~"
The song, to which she had been attaching random lyrics as they came to mind, came to an abrupt halt.
Inside the folder was a PDF file containing Chuen's face and personal information.
"Chuen?"
Sparkle! A happy look entered her eyes. Did Dad know Chuen too?
Geuru also opened the video file next to it.
Soon, Chuen's voice came through. It was a recorded file of a call with Jurim.
- Yes, Guild Master On.
- Dead, you say?
'Hmm?'
At Jurim's abrupt question, Geuru's eyes went wide.
Who died?
Then, Chuen spoke in a calm voice.
- Yes, it is exactly as I texted you. The person who sent Han Geuru to the orphanage has died.
For a moment, Geuru blanked out and blinked her eyes.
The person who took Geuru to the orphanage....
'The person who gave Geuru her name.'
Geuru had thought that it was probably one of her parents.
'Mom or Dad.'
A tiny hand replayed the recording file once more.
- The person who sent Han Geuru to the orphanage has died.
'Has died....'
Has died. Has died. Chuen's words echoed in her head like a reverberation.
The person who sent Geuru to the orphanage was dead. That could mean Geuru's mom or dad was already a dead person.
Thud. It felt like her heart dropped to the tips of her toes. Her vision went pitch-black.
A cold she hadn't even felt in the snowfield suddenly crept over her.
What choked her breath and froze her body cold was the sudden loneliness.
Crack—
A bursting sound came from her chest.
It was the sound of the control device Geuru always wore around her neck—Jurim's photo card—cracking.
*
Chuen walked across the snowfield. To think the museum was connected to a place like this.
After confirming that Geuru had safely met her father, she had evaded the investigators' eyes and gone back underground.
It was to find out where the A-rank monsters had appeared from.
While looking around the exhibition hall on basement level 1, Chuen had discovered a path hidden by illusion magic, and following it all the way had led to this snowfield.
"Ha...."
When she blew out, white breath escaped.
She had been here so long that her sense of time was now growing hazy.
This snowfield was distorting time and space. There was nothing but a blue sky with no sign of afternoon sunset or night darkness.
It was clearly a subspace unaffected by real-world time.
Were the monsters called "failures" created here?
'What relation does this have with Geuru?'
Geuru had also created a snowfield like this.
It didn't look very different from the snowfield Geuru had made. Though it didn't feel as cold as the one Geuru had made.
Crunch, crunch—it was the sound of stepping through snow. Chuen stopped at the human figure seen in the distance.
The man was standing in the middle of the snowfield.
In a place where the corpses of monsters formed a mountain.
The man turned around.
"Hello, Chuen. I didn't expect to meet you here. I was going to look for you, so I suppose I should call this lucky."
When the man smiled prettily, deep dimples formed on both cheeks.
Chuen looked up at him expressionlessly.
"What is all this?"
"They're failures. They don't turn out as well as I'd like. Perhaps because it's an artificial snowfield...."
Artificial snowfield? Chuen felt strength enter her hand and clenched her fist.
She was certain. The monsters at the museum were clearly artificial creations made by this man.
"What on earth is this place?"
"Welcome to the 99th floor I created."
A cold wind carrying snow blew bitterly.