“Ah, Gwuu didn’t get a stamp!”
“Stamp?”
From her arms, Guru pulled out a laminated sheet the size of a clipboard.
It had three little boxes printed on it for stamp marks.
“If Gwuu becomes a good powice and fills aww dese with stamps, Honghong Team Team Leadeh wiww give Gwuu a pwesent.”
“Let me see. I’ll just stamp them all for you.”
When Jurim took the sheet, Guru clung to his arm, shaking it hard.
“Nuuuuh~ Don’ do iiiit~!”
Eventually reclaiming the sheet, Guru gave him a narrow-eyed glare.
This is what happens when you always try to take shortcuts—no one will help you when you actually need it.
“Daddychann needs to wive good.”
Jurim felt an odd pang of guilt and answered lazily.
“Where are you going to find anyone as good as me?”
Guru turned her head away in a huff and pulled a cart from her bag.
On the cart were a bunch of neatly stacked beverage bottles.
Reading stiffly from a script, she said,
“Daddychann, twy dis dwink. It’s weawwy cowd an’ sweet. Gwuu’s nevew had anyfing wike it in her wife.”
She said it with the solemnity of someone announcing to the whole world that they were filming a beverage PPL.
Guru handed him the script too.
It was very detailed, with exact directions on how to shoot the PPL scene.
Jurim’s face twisted in pure dislike, but with Guru standing there holding the camera and staring him down, he had no choice but to play along.
Following the script, he took a sip and delivered his line:
“You’re right. It really washes the thirst away. When it comes to quenching thirst, nothing beats O2 Vitamin Water.”
“Cut!”
Guru waved her hand dramatically.
“No souuul, no souuul.”
“Where did you even learn to say that?”
“On set.”
...He was never letting her shoot anything again.
While he was silently making that vow, Guru made him redo the PPL scene over and over.
It grated on him that with the same level of acting as everyone else, only he was getting criticized—but in the end, after all her badgering, he had to give her the soul-packed performance she wanted.
“Good job!”
When Director Guru finally gave the OK sign, Jurim slumped onto a bench in the hallway.
Guru trotted over, leaned down, and looked up at him.
“Daddychann, awe you cwyin’?”
“...Yeah.”
She hugged him tight, patting his back as if to comfort him.
“Cheew up, Daddychann. Dewe awe tings you got to do even if you don’ wike dem.”
“...Yeah.”
He really did sound like he wanted to cry.
Just then—
“Guildmaster, there you are! But your clothes...”
It was Yoon Seojun, the chief secretary. He stopped mid-sentence, as if suddenly understanding the situation.
“There’s a call from Japan you need to take.”
“From Japan?”
Jurim got to his feet.
“Daddychann haz to go wowk. Ish dat okay?”
“Yesh. Gwuu ish fine ‘cause Gwuu ish shooting P-P-P.”
“PPL, you mean.”
“Mhm, dat.”
“I’ve got something to take care of, so how about you go with this uncle for now?”
“Otay.”
Jurim took the stairs up to the guildmaster’s office. Guru, following obediently behind Seojun, stared down at her stamp sheet in deep thought.
“Chief Seojun, where awe de most peopwe who need hewp?”
“If it’s help you mean... probably the lobby? Lots of visitors who don’t know Hyeonak pass through there.”
“Ah-ha!”
Inoue Genzo stood outside a building in Yeouido, looking up at it while wearing an automatic translation earpiece.
When he saw the Hyeonak logo, his granddaughter’s words rang in his ears:
[—The truth is... making things hasn’t been fun for me for a long time.]
Genzo knew exactly how timid his granddaughter was.
What in the world had happened to her in Korea for her to say such a thing?
She’d said not only was it no longer fun, she had no talent for it, so she was thinking of giving it up.
She hadn’t dared say it to his face—she’d called instead. But even that was a big step for her.
Fine. That part, at least, was good. Even if he resented the fact that she’d been carrying such thoughts, it meant she had gone through something that made her reevaluate and steel her resolve.
But Haruna’s bombshell hadn’t ended there.
[—When I graduate, I want to go to Hyeonak in Korea.]
She dared to say she wouldn’t come back to the family?
And for the reason that she wanted to go to Hyeonak?
Even in Japan, Hyeonak’s cunning reputation was well known.
And she was saying the reason she wouldn’t return was because of them?
'Is that why Hyeonak hasn’t revealed Haruna isn’t S-rank?'
Korea would want to poach Japanese power, and hiding the fact that Haruna wasn’t S-rank would be to their advantage.
That way, they could announce they’d recruited a Japanese S-rank.
And in Japan, it would be hard to admit that someone they’d publicly declared S-rank «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» was a fake.
'...I was a fool.'
He’d gone along with the false S-rank act because of his own petty pride.
The absence of an S-rank crafter in the Inoue line had festered like an unhealed wound.
Even if it came out she wasn’t S-rank, he thought if the family could produce an S+ together, it would smooth everything over.
They only needed to buy time—but who could have guessed the truth would come out so easily?
Now, with the family’s prestige not just tarnished but staring into the abyss—
[“You want to go to Hyeonak? Are you out of your mind?!”]
[—There’s someone there who taught me to love crafting again. I’ve already made up my mind, Grandpa.]
Suddenly she wanted to go to Korea? And to Hyeonak?
'Someone who taught her to love crafting again?'
Ha! Genzo snorted.
It would’ve been easy to lure in a naive kid who knew nothing.
If On Jurim had leaned in with that smooth face of his, of course she could’ve been swayed.
'On Jurim. Was Kazuki not enough? You had to go after Haruna too...!'
Even if she was lacking, Haruna was a direct descendant of the Inoue family.
'I won’t hand her over to someone else.'
Today, he had come to give On Jurim a sharp warning for seducing his granddaughter—
—and to take Haruna back to Japan.
Step, step, step.
He strode into Hyeonak’s headquarters.
'Where’s On Jurim?'
Scanning the surroundings with sharp, angry eyes, Genzo was about to move when—
Someone gently tugged at his sleeve.
“Ha’wabbajee! Do you need hewp?”
“...What?”
The voice was from a child, maybe five years old.
Dressed like a security guard, she tilted her head and asked with sparkling eyes, “Help? Hewp?”
“Hyeonak even makes little kids like you do security work?”
Not understanding his words, Guru opened her mouth in a little “o.”
Well... she was doing guild work, so...
Nod, nod.
“Tsk, tsk.” Genzo clicked his tongue.
“Just like those cunning bastards.”
“Kansha? “Kamshahamnida!” (she chirped — her baby-talk way of saying “thank you” in Korean.)
“...Can’t even understand properly, huh.”
“Kamshahamnida!”
“...Right.”
Guru grinned widely.
At that smile, the heat in Genzo’s anger dissipated a little, and he let out a dry chuckle.
“Ha’wabbajee, Gwuu can take you anywhewe.”
“All right. Then take me to On J—no, wait.”
“...?”
He stroked his chin.
As much as he wanted to storm up to On Jurim and roar, he doubted the girl would come back just because he pressured him.
Kids like Haruna, once they made up their minds, could grow even more stubborn.
So maybe it was better to show her Hyeonak’s true nature and persuade her slowly.
After all, these people had little kids doing security jobs—of course their crafting support would be terrible.
If she’d really fallen back in love with crafting, she needed to realize that the only place to nurture that was the Inoue family, with its generations of master artisans.
Not some fly-by-night outfit like Hyeonak!
“All right, kid. Where’s the Hyeonak equipment workshop? Take me there.”
“Gasp! The cwrafting woom... You can’t just go in dewe...”
“Is that so? Then forget it.”
Resigning himself to confronting On Jurim instead, Genzo was about to turn away when Guru, staring at her stamp sheet, suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Gwuu wiww take you! But Ha’wabbajee haz to give Gwuu a stamp.”
“Stamp?”
She held the laminated sheet up with both hands.
“Dis one.”
“...Sure, why not.”
“Heehee!”
Genzo smirked faintly.
Guru took the lead like a guide, heading into the elevator.
The moment the employees inside saw her, they lit up, greeting her warmly, taking photos, cooing over her.
'So this kid’s... like a mascot for Hyeonak?'
Genzo found himself thinking, strangely, that they’d picked a cute mascot for the company, and followed her out when they reached their floor.
[Production Research Lab]
As they walked down the hall, Guru used a keycard to unlock the door while Genzo folded his arms, his expression fierce and ready to find fault with anything.
Beeep—
The door finally opened, and as Genzo stepped inside the workshop, a low sound slipped from his throat.
“...What... is all this...?”

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