Chick 355
by Cristae355
Daniella opened the car door before it even came to a full stop, bursting out in a rush of breath.
Her heels clattered urgently against the ground, and her heart raced as she hurried toward the hospital entrance.
Groo.
Daniella waited anxiously for the elevator.
Groo… Chloe’s daughter…
What she’d just learned from On Joorim had left her shocked.
The child he had adopted was On Ijo and Chloe’s daughter, and she was in deep distress—please, look after her, watch over and protect her.
Protect.
Yes—she hadn’t been able to save Chloe.
But at least she could protect Chloe’s child.
She had to believe she could.
At least, until she stepped off the elevator and met the nurse in the VIP ward.
“If you mean Groo—she just left.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Interpol agents came to collect her a moment ago.”
Daniella stared at the nurse in disbelief, her expression frozen in confusion.
For a moment, the sounds around her faded into nothing.
All she could hear was a ringing in her ears.
Interpol?
Daniella, meaning to call her supervisor, paused with her phone in hand.
If Interpol had really planned to protect Groo, there’s no way headquarters wouldn’t have informed her.
Fake.
Daniella’s mind snapped to attention as she spun on her heel. She didn’t have a moment to lose searching for Groo.
[“Damn it!”]
Slamming the elevator button, she rushed inside and hit the ground floor.
When she reached the lobby, she looked toward the main entrance.
Men in suits were loading a child into a car parked by the curb.
Platinum hair—an image of Chloe herself.
“Groo!”
Daniella barreled through the crowd, pushing people aside to sprint out front.
But the black car carrying the child sped off at once.
“No! Groo!”
She raced after it, but the vehicle quickly accelerated out of reach, vanishing from view.
Her breath seized in her throat.
Pulling out her phone, Daniella hurriedly dialed On Joorim.
The ring echoed endlessly.
“Pick up, Joorim! Come on—!”
Where are they taking her?
Who’s impersonating Interpol? Gnosis?
She couldn’t bear to let Groo slip away like this…
Just as she turned, clutching her phone, her gaze met a pair of huge coral eyes.
She could scarcely believe it.
The platinum-haired child from the car stood there, not gone after all.
At her side was a pale woman watching Daniella warily.
“Do you know my dad?”
“Stay back.”
The black-haired woman yanked Groo close, tense and guarded.
“Is she… a villain?”
Groo’s hand was already clutching a duckbill tongs.
“She probably is.”
As Groo raised the tongs with a fierce expression, the black-haired woman braced herself, but Daniella cried out,
“Ch—Chloe Han!”
“…!”
“I’m a friend of your mother…”
“…I’m sorry, so sorry—I had no idea and acted so rudely…”
The woman who introduced herself as Chuen bowed repeatedly, her pale face flushed with embarrassment.
“No, it’s fine. The circumstances were confusing, anyone could have—”
“I’m truly sorry…”
“Rather than that—could you explain what happened back there—?”
“Chuen unnie saved Groo from a really bad villain!”
Only then did Chuen manage a faint smile, and Yurian snorted in relief.
Nothing terrible had happened.
Here was the situation:
Chuen, previously under the influence of Gnosis’ Eye, had noticed the controlling power weakening.
When she was ordered by On Ijo to retrieve Groo, she pretended to comply—and switched Groo out in the process.
“So the child just now was…?”
“This.”
Chuen raised a hand, and a goldfish fluttered up, transforming into a Groo-sized doll.
An Awakened…!
Daniella’s eyes widened. She hadn’t sensed any magic at all…!
If she could mask her mana this thoroughly, she was certainly Daniella’s superior.
Chuen crushed the goldfish lightly in her hand, and it vanished.
“That should buy us a fair bit of time.”
“I see.”
Daniella replied, while Yurian yawned on the floor.
“…”
“…”
A brief, awkward silence passed, until Daniella pointed upward.
“Shall we go upstairs and tell Chairman On, and regroup?”
Chuen shook her head.
“It’s dangerous for too many people to know where Groo is.”
“What?”
“They could be controlled too, just like I was.”
That one sentence was enough for Daniella to grasp what Chuen had been through.
She said,
“Then let’s head to where I’m staying. It’s close by.”
The three made their way carefully, staying out of sight of security cameras, and arrived at Daniella’s lodgings.
“Phew! But why are they after Groo? Do you know anything?”
Once they got inside, Daniella gulped down some water and turned to Chuen, her nerves showing.
“Who knows… Maybe just because she’s On Joorim’s daughter, they want her close.”
Groo shook her head, downcast.
“It’s because Groo bit my uncle.”
Daniella and Chuen both moved to console the child.
“It’s okay, Groo…”
“It’s nothing, honestly.”
But Groo shook her head again, her big coral eyes shimmering.
“Groo took it… Uncle’s eye.”
“…Eye?”
“Yes…”
Groo explained how she’d gone to the RP dungeon, met the witch who’d lost her eye, and received a blessing that allowed her to steal the eye’s power.
“I see now. The eye must be the source of the power—no wonder I was freed from its control. Now that I hear your story, it all makes sense.”
Chuen remembered when she had met On Ijo’s gaze.
Daniella set down the water and asked,
“Chuen, do you know where On Ijo is now? If so, we should send a search party immediately.”
“I was in a subspace. You can’t get there by normal means. Once we left, the entrance vanished.”
“Then maybe we can at least find the spot where it opened. Please show me.”
“Yes… It was about one stop from the hospital…”
Daniella pulled up a map app, confirmed the precise location, and shared this info with the task force before exhaling deeply.
Another uncomfortable silence fell.
After a brief hesitation, Chuen fished something out of her pocket.
Oh. Groo, who had been sitting quietly, gaped at the sight.
It was a straw doll—a curse doll.
Chuen grinned eerily.
“If we summon On Ijo’s soul here…”
She drew a finger across her throat with a squelching sound.
No need to wait around then.
Daniella squealed and grabbed her arm.
“As brazen as things are, cursing a child’s biological father is a bit…”
“Biological father?”
On Ijo is Groo’s real father?! So that’s why they’ve been after her.
“I j—just thought it might lighten the mood, I was joking, really…”
Flustered, Chuen hastily tucked the curse doll away.
At that moment—
“You’re just the person to set this mess straight.”
A child with jet-black hair, black eyes, and stars in his gaze spoke haughtily. It was Bailach, now in human form.
All eyes turned to him.
Bailach, unfazed, declared with arrogant confidence,
“Right now, On Ijo’s soul is trapped in his own body.”