*
The next day, at the campground.
Iromi and Nayeon, who had pitched their tent at a spot with a sweeping view of the mountains, unfolded the last of their camping chairs.
Gru waddled over with a children’s camping chair and settled down beside them.
Nayeon and Iromi gazed at him fondly, as though he were adorable, then scratched his tiny chin and praised him.
“Good job, our Gru.”
“Oh, aren’t you cute? Aren’t you cute?”
“Heehee.”
Having basked in the affection of the two women, Gru smiled with his cheeks flushed bright red.
“Shall we barbecue now?”
Nayeon rolled up her sleeves.
Iromi nodded and began taking the ingredients out of the cooler she had brought, but as Gru watched her intently, he spoke up.
“Gru will do it! You two worked hard setting up the tent!”
Rustle, rustle.
Gru busily rummaged through the camping cart he had brought himself.
“Gru?”
“Our baby?”
“Found it!”
Up it went!!
After grunting and digging through the cart for quite some time, Gru lifted a children’s cooking utensil set with both hands.
“Yeees. Just wait a little, big sisters. Gru will make yummy meaty-meat for you.”
“Ooh!”
Click, click, click!!
Finding the sight too cute, Nayeon and Iromi squealed as they took picture after picture.
“So cute~”
He was going to make them food with toys. It was both admirable and adorable.
“Should we help you? Then I think we could eat a lot more—”
But.
Clatter! Sizzle!!!
Iromi couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence at Gru’s next actions.
Even though he hadn’t used any fire at all, the butter he spread across the plastic frying pan vanished like snow melting in the sun.
Then, when he placed the beef—which looked delicious enough to eat raw—on top, the sound of meat grilling on a hot plate began to ring out.
For a moment, Iromi even wondered if Gru was making the sound with his mouth and checked his lips.
Flip, flip!! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Every time Gru turned the meat over, the savory aroma of cooking beef tickled their noses and stimulated their appetites. Nayeon and Iromi could do nothing but gaze as the steaks grilled, as though bewitched.
“Phew……. Food is served.”
The steaming meat placed on a wooden cutting board and lightly sprinkled with herbs looked astonishingly delicious.
“Wow……. What is this?”
Iromi couldn’t close her mouth as she stared at Gru, who had created such an impressive dish with toys and no fire whatsoever. Was it a Hunter item after all?
“Mmm, yummy.”
“Waaaaah, it’s so delicious! Gru! You’re like a chef, a chef.”
“Heehee.”
Gru twisted his body shyly at Nayeon and Iromi’s praise, then struck a dignified pose and returned their compliments with a gentlemanly bow.
“Munch, munch. Iromi big sis, what do you think Hyeonak is missing?”
Gru, who was busily attacking the steak the women had cut into bite-sized pieces for him, asked Iromi what she thought.
Since Nayeon was a member of Hyeonak and therefore couldn’t look at it objectively, he had asked Iromi, an outsider.
“What Hyeonak is missing?”
Iromi popped open a can of beer and gave a sly grin.
“If I had to name something, it’s not as though Hyeonak has nothing.”
Gru perked up his ears as he struggled to open a can of orange juice after Iromi.
“What is it?”
Iromi opened Gru’s can for him, then took a deep swig of beer.
“Gru, do you know why grown-ups work?”
“To earn money and eat yummy food?”
“That’s right. But that’s not all.”
Iromi held up her index finger.
“People don’t want only money. They want money, power, and honor.”
“Ooh……!”
Gru’s mouth formed a perfect circle.
“But Hyeonak has no honor.”
“Why?”
“Because they have no manners.”
“Gasp……!”
The alcohol was beginning to go to Iromi’s head. She took another gulp of beer and chuckled.
Nayeon tilted her head to the side as she opened her own can of beer.
“Really?”
“You don’t even know that your guild has no manners? Can its members not tell?”
“Maybe not…….”
While Nayeon pondered this seriously, Iromi continued, looking at Gru.
“So, Hyeonak has money and power! But what I’m saying is that it lacks honor.”
Gru listened with his mouth hanging open.
“Then, big sis, how do you get honor?”
“Hmm……. Honor is…….”
Faced with the difficult question, Iromi tilted her head in thought.
Just then, Nayeon cut in.
“By donating?”
“Exactly! Something like that. Making a name for yourself by doing good deeds.”
“It’s not as though Hyeonak doesn’t donate…….”
Iromi shook her head.
“Who’ll know if you do it secretly? This is the kind of world where you have to shout at the top of your lungs that you’re doing good deeds before anyone will acknowledge you. And honor doesn’t come from donating alone. You have to build an image. Donations are just one way of doing that.”
“An image…….”
Gru repeated Iromi’s words blankly.
Gru had once even played Santa to help manage Hyeonak’s image……!
Gru fidgeted with his hands, rolled his eyes around, and said shyly,
“What about Jjapso? Jjapso did good things too.”
“Oh, right. Hyeonak had Jjapso, didn’t it?”
“Yeees!”
Nayeon smiled and chimed in.
“Jjapso made the S+-rank Mephisto series this time too.”
“Right! They made something amazing, and they appeared on YouTube a lot because of it.”
Gru vigorously bobbed his head, and Iromi gave his cheek a gentle pinch, finding him adorable.
“Exactly. That happened.”
Gru smiled proudly, and Nayeon patted him on the head.
Watching the inexplicable exchange between the two, Iromi spoke seriously.
“If Jjapso made more things like that, perhaps Hyeonak could build up some honor.”
“More things like that?!”
Gru’s eyes widened in shock, and Iromi draped an arm around his shoulders.
“Gru, honor isn’t easy to earn. You have to donate, come in first in the rankings, win a few awards, and so on. That’s how it gradually builds up.”
At Iromi’s words, Gru’s eyes grew round and began to sparkle brightly.
*
Thanks to Iromi filling his head with unnecessary ideas, Gru developed a misguided notion of filial duty and made up his mind.
‘We need honor.’
And to achieve that—
Gru waved the paper in his hand.
[Justitia International School Children’s Bazaar!]
It was a charity event where kindergarten and elementary school students made and sold goods, then donated the proceeds.
“Gru’s team is abolishing protection fees.”
When Gru made this declaration, Uju and Huiyeon, who were sitting in front of him, stared at him with their mouths hanging open.
A few days earlier, when the bazaar announcement had first been posted—
Gru, Uju, and Huiyeon had formed a team and sworn an oath of brotherhood, vowing to make lots of money at the bazaar.
The three of them had pondered how they could make the most money and, based on the idea of ‘protecting the shops of our friends and collecting protection fees,’ decided to open a ‘Chick Mercenaries’ shop, but……
“The Chick Mercenaries have no honor.”
Gru shook his head vigorously.
Uju was relieved that Gru knew what honor was and agreed without needing to hear anything more.
But Huiyeon, who understood the law of the jungle as the daughter of the NAG Guild Master, shot her hand into the air.
“Huiyeon thinks protecting the small businesses around us is honorable!”
Was that so? Gru, who was easily swayed, perked up his ears, but Uju waved both hands frantically.
“No! Taking money under the pretext of protection isn’t honorable. Do fire stations put out fires and then take money? No, right? That’s why firefighters are honorable people! Because they protect people without taking money!”
“Ooh.”
Persuaded by Uju’s words, Gru nodded.
“Then does that mean guilds that get paid to clear dungeons aren’t honorable?”
At Huiyeon’s pointed question, Uju’s eyes trembled.
“That’s…….”
“Guilds are honorable too. But they’re less honorable than firefighters.”
Gru cut in and answered in Uju’s place.
“Th-that’s right!”
Uju hurriedly agreed.
Huiyeon didn’t look pleased, but she didn’t offer any further objections.
Instead, she muttered through her lips, which jutted out like a beak, and asked,
“Then what do we do? All the decent shops have already been picked by the other kids.”
“Gru already thought of something!”