Chick 197

197

“So, will you do it?”

Kazuki merely smiled, and Joorim nodded.

He had expected as much, yet a bitter taste filled his mouth.

From what he’d discovered, the curse was a blood-bound spell, laid with a charm passed down through the Takahashi family of omnyoji. To unravel at once a curse compounded by centuries, woven even with the family’s own karma, would be no simple task.

And all of this, ultimately, was born of Takahashi’s desire for power.

The reason Takahashi was able to outmaneuver his formidable rivals and seize the position of Prime Minister was largely thanks to having the “S-Class Artisan” securely in his grasp.

“Most of the senior lawmakers already know about your debuff, you know.”

“Haha, I’m not even surprised.”

Kazuki shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms.

Japan ran on a parliamentary system, and gaining control meant having the support of those senior lawmakers, so it was inevitable. Takahashi would naturally have shared what he did to Kazuki with them in the process.

In the end, Kazuki was the only one out of the loop.

“Feels like I’m on ‘The Truman Show’~”

“…….”

Kazuki forced a nonchalant laugh, and Joorim turned away, a frown forming between his brows.

Amakusa Kazuki.

He had brazenly approached Joorim, who, having descended the Tower, became hated by the world, offering admiration and helping him prevent full synchronization with the master of the 99th floor—a self-proclaimed ‘friend.’

He felt nothing special toward him. In private, he neither wanted nor needed to become further entangled…

Joorim, having turned away, met Guru’s gaze.

Draped in monk’s robes as if it were a pinafore, Guru seemed to be trying to gauge what the two adults discussed.

For a child, these would be troubling topics.

Perhaps it was better not to understand any of it.

He could perfectly picture Guru’s sorrowful face if he heard that people he called his uncle and master were suffering.

Noticing the glance, Guru hesitated, then, like a puppy meeting its owner, pattered over and sat by his side.

Joorim brushed the dirt from Guru’s knees and spoke bluntly.

“I’m going to topple Takahashi. Searching the Prime Minister’s mind isn’t easy, but it’s not hard if he becomes an ordinary man.”

His plan was to strip Takahashi of his office, then scour his mind for a way to remove the curse.

“Uh?”

But… is that something to say in front of a kid?

Kazuki, looking troubled, protested,

“On-chan, you don’t need to go to such trouble for me…”

“I think this is broken, so I need someone to make me new gloves.”

Rather than say Guru would be saddened, Joorim just waved his left hand.

Kazuki, at first taking it as a joke, soon saw from Joorim’s serious expression the truth behind the words, and asked with gravity,

“Seriously? No matter what, I should be moved, right?”

“We’ll see.”

Joorim replied offhandedly, and precisely as he was removing the monk’s robe from Guru’s head—

Guru swiftly covered his crown.

“What’s wrong?”

At Joorim’s question, Guru pouted, shielding his head with hands as big as maple leaves, and replied in a voice full of impending tears,

“Papa, Guru’s going to become Groot…!”

Joorim sometimes couldn’t understand a word Guru said.

He looked genuinely baffled.

“But Guru, you like Groot.”

Didn’t you play Groot in the play, always saying “I am Groot”?

Dori-dori.

After some hesitation, Guru gathered resolve, spread his hands wide, and revealed his crown.

“Papa, please take this off. Otherwise… sniff!”

Hiding inside the sprout Guru clutched so tightly was an acorn, no bigger than a fingernail.

“Otherwise… Guru will become a tree…! Hic!”

Joorim was left speechless.

---

[Activating skill: ‘Potter of the Seventh Night.’]

Pop!

As Kazuki’s skill touched Guru’s head, the sprout that soon would have turned him into Groot sprung forth.

Rather than simply hand it over, Kazuki crafted a tiny flowerpot and planted the sprout inside.

“Sniff!”

Guru hugged the small pot tightly, the acorn no bigger than a nail now secure within it.

A sprout with snowballs for roots.

An acorn nestled in the bud, unmistakably an “elixir.”

[Immature Elixir… 33%]

It had not yet fully matured…

“That’s something that grows?”

Joorim asked with a grave face, and Guru tilted their head.

He didn’t know.

It had always been a sprout—most often a weak and feeble one—so he’d never imagined it would actually grow.

But.

“Sprouts are supposed to grow, you know.”

With the corners of his brows drooping in a frown, Guru spoke in a tone of gentle condescension, as if to say, “You didn’t even know that?”

“…Right.”

At a loss for words, Joorim picked Guru up, still clutching the pot like a jar of honey.

“Guru-chan, is that really an elixir?”

Kazuki, who’d been observing their conversation, spoke in disbelief.

He must have wondered if something like an elixir could actually exist—just as Joorim had at first.

“Yes!”

“Why does it grow from your head? Is it supposed to?”

Dori-dori.

“Guru got an acorn at RP… Um, so I planted it in my head.”

The middle parts of the story were missing, but at any rate, Guru felt proud, having explained how the elixir had ended up growing from his head.

And Kazuki—

“Wow! That’s seriously amazing, Guru-chan!”

—took him at his word.

“Hehe!”

While those two kept babbling to each other, Joorim fell briefly into thought.

‘Am I the only one who doesn’t understand what’s happening here?’

Turns out the one planting things in her head was his own daughter—with an elixir, no less.

“…?”

It was confusing, but he was starting to get the hang of it.

He had to understand his daughter’s actions not with his head, but with his heart.

For a child like her, “I see” was far more important than “Why did you do that?”

Joorim swallowed down the urge to ask “Why on earth did you plant it in your head?” and instead forced his mind to think about something else.

“…Well, now I won’t need to topple the Prime Minister and dig through his head after all.”

“Hm?”

“Because of this. It’s still growing, but…”

Joorim gestured at the pot with a nod.

“You’ll use it? For me…?”

Kazuki wore an expression that could only be described as bewildered.

Judging by the stakes, using an elixir was a far weightier matter than dethroning the Japanese Prime Minister and rifling through his thoughts.

At that moment, Guru, eyes wide, quietly asked,

“Why? Is Master sick?”

“You’ll be all right now.”

Joorim pinched Guru’s cheek gently and nodded toward the elixir.

Guru’s eyes rounded, then he nodded as if understanding, clutching the pot even more tightly with a face full of relief.

Smiling a little at the child, Joorim shot a sidelong glance at the now speechless Kazuki.

For a man who had been ready to risk death to remove this debuff, he looked more disconcerted now than before.

Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? Could it be he thinks this puts him under too big a debt?

‘Such a hassle.’

Joorim heaved a deep sigh and set his mind to work.

He needed a reason that would offset any sense of personal indebtedness.

Preferably something that would also let him give a piece of his mind to those pesky officials of the Japanese government who made his life difficult.

And what would hit Prime Minister Takahashi the hardest? What did Japan prize most dearly?

The answer was right in front of him.

Joorim found it and voiced it at once.

“Naturalize.”

“Hm? What did you say?”

The merciless villain On Joorim took the tiny acorn hostage.

“If you want the debuff lifted, you have to become a naturalized citizen.”

“…?”

Kazuki stood there, mouth agape, entirely blindsided by the idea of switching citizenship.

“Until your elixir is fully grown, Monk Hyeongak can look after you. So, come to Korea.”