Chick 330

330

Instead, as Groo hugged Joorim tightly, she pointed at Gidan.

“Daddy, Daddy.”

“Hmm?”

“Dani oppa’s bleeding.”

Gidan was streaming a nosebleed.

At this, Sergey shrieked in alarm.

“Aaah! Gidan, you’re bleeding from your nose!”

“Huh?”

“You maniac! Get some treatment, quick!”

Gidan absentmindedly wiped his nosebleed with the back of his hand.

Joorim frowned at the sight.

“Did you get beat up?”

“Ah, I mean, I did, but putting it like that kind of hurts my pride… No, hyung! That’s not important—the thing is, Groo just! The hoe, she—!”

“Yeah! She was just like, with the hoe, like this! Like this!”

“Uh, sure.”

What was up with the hoe? And why were all three of them holding one?

Joorim’s confusion persisted all the way to the infirmary as he herded Sergey and Gidan down the hall.

“So—Groo opened up a snowy field, turned an SSS-grade monster into a quail, fed it to Mephisto, and the bosses all submitted?”

“Why are you taking this so calmly, hyung?!”

“Well…”

Joorim trailed off, recalling all the strange things Groo had done in the past.

Frankly, the moment he heard she’d opened a snowy field, he’d suspected it.

Thinking of it that way—

“She could do it. It’s Groo, after all.”

“Yup! ‘Cause it’s Groo!”

Groo added, beaming.

“So you wouldn’t even be surprised if Groo started dating Wooju, huh?”

At that, Joorim slammed his hand on the desk.

“You’re going to date Wooju?!”

“No!”

As Groo hastily denied it, Joorim returned to his previous, listless expression.

Gidan smiled wryly, thinking that Wooju would feel hurt by this.

‘Sorry, Wooju.’

Meanwhile, Sergey was prodding Groo with a serious face, muttering something like, “This dork is the king of monsters?”

Groo, in response, covered her left eye and let out a sinister laugh.

Sergey began to seriously wonder if extreme dorkiness might be the secret requirement for being a Monarch of monsters.

“Anyway.”

Even if Groo had resolved the incident by opening the snowy field…

“So there was a mutation in the dungeon? And an SSS-grade monster appeared…?”

“Yes, it looked like the dungeons were merging. I even heard voices from other hunters in different dungeons.”

“And now everything’s cleared?”

“Yes. Groo…”

Gidan glanced at Groo, then trailed off.

Joorim nodded.

If the bosses had submitted, breaking the core would have been easy.

At that moment, Sergey interjected.

“It was probably Gnosis.”

He looked up with a sulky expression, as if dragging something out from deep in his head.

“Irina did experiments merging dungeons once before.”

Gnosis again.

Joorim looked down at his left hand. Was it Gnosis who’d tried to snatch Shea from him as well?

He deliberated, then glanced over at Groo.

The same coral-colored eyes as the man who’d greeted him before met his, smiling radiantly.

Meeting that smile, Joorim couldn’t stop from smiling himself.

At that moment, Groo pulled a folded slip of paper from her bag and spread it open accordion-style.

All worries vanished as Joorim, forgetting his earlier seriousness, burst out laughing when he saw the coupons she had handed him.

Massage coupon, wish coupon, TV restriction coupon, don’t interrupt naptime coupon…

Joorim pulled the child—still wearing her oversized carnation headband—into a tight hug.

She smelled so sweetly of baby powder.

She was almost unbearably adorable.

Whatever Gnosis’s plans, no one would ever lay a finger on this child.

With his nose buried in Groo’s neck, he swore it.

Chapter: The Small Ball Sent Forth by Iromi

Since starting to raise a child, Joorim had often found himself at a loss.

Before bed, Groo would always chatter away, recounting every detail of her day and her feelings about it.

Today, after an enjoyable field trip to a folk village with her kindergarten, it seemed she’d come up with a new dream.

Her dreams changed fifty times a month, so it wasn’t anything unusual. But for once, Joorim didn’t feel great about cheering this one on.

“Daddy. Groo wants to be a yeot peddler.”

Joorim had no idea what sort of inspiration she’d gotten from visiting the folk village.

“Why?”

He decided to omit the words ‘of all things?’

“It’s cool.”

Her very first dream, he recalled, had been to become an egg.

She seemed to be drawn to food and the idea of being a travelling merchant.

“Well, I guess you could…”

Raising a child means growing more accommodating.

“Groo, you like the idea of being a yeot peddler?”

“Not bad. Daddy will buy you lots of yeot.”

Apparently, that was the right answer—Groo burst into delighted giggles.

“Daddy, did you want to be a yeot peddler when you were little, too?”

“Ha, as if.”

“Then what did you want to be?”

“Nothing, really.”

“Ehh. Liar.”

“No, really. Nothing.”

“No way! Why?”

“If you’re too full of self-confidence, you might not want anything. Hard to explain, but…”

When he was young, he’d felt capable of anything—so he’d wanted nothing in particular.

He wondered how to put that so his child would understand, when Groo slapped her palm in realization.

“Aha!”

“Do you get it now?”

“Groo knows. That’s… conceit!”

“…You hit the mark, huh?”

Is my kid a genius?

“If you get too conceited, you grow up to be like Daddy.”

“Are you going to say stuff like that to me?”

“Why? Did I say something bad?”

When Groo looked up at him with those innocent eyes, Joorim shook his head.

“No… I guess I just felt a little called out.”

“So what about now? Now what do you want to be?”

“Now?”

Joorim lay on his side and looked at Groo.

“A good dad.”

Groo’s mouth twitched with a little smile.

“What if you’re already a good dad?”

“I’ll be an even better dad.”

Groo grinned, then burrowed close into Joorim’s embrace.

“Then Groo won’t be a yeot peddler after all.”

“So what will you be?”

“A good daughter.”

“That’s perfect.”

After a hesitant pause, Groo added,

“And… a good daughter to big uncle, too.”

“Big uncle?”

She nodded.

“You mean my brother?”

“Yep. You’re the younger brother, so he’s my big uncle.”

“Ahh…”

Joorim chuckled.

It was confusing, but there was something charming about her childlike logic.

“If you call him Dad, he’d probably like that.”

Groo blinked, then asked cautiously,

“What about you?”

“I’d like it, too.”

Joorim brushed her bangs back and cupped her small face in his palm.

“You don’t have to worry. I’ll always be your dad, Groo. I promise to be your good dad for life.”

Groo’s face flushed red. She nodded faintly.

“Go to sleep. You said you’re going camping with your friends tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I can’t wait.”

“Close your eyes.”

Groo squeezed her eyes shut.

Joorim kissed her forehead and gently patted her back. Soon, she slipped into quiet, peaceful sleep.