Chapter: A Day Without Daddy

Jurim went to the Blue House the very next day, after being summoned by the President.

He took an army of lawyers with him and told Guru, “Daddy has work to do, so I’ll be very busy for a few days.”

From eavesdropping, Guru figured it was about apologizing for the recent incident, and about the contract for the [Mephisto Series mk.3].

Jurim looked quite worried about leaving her, but Guru’s eyes sparkled.

'Then that means...?'

Today was a day without Daddy!

As soon as the sitter dropped her off at the guild building, Guru begged her to open the trunk.

“Why? Planning to ride your bike today?”

“Yeshhh!”

“But you said you hated it when you got scolded last time.”

Guru shook her head.

“Uuung, today is speciaww.”

Because—

'No Daddy = No Rules!'

Instead of a long explanation, she put on star-shaped sunglasses.

Maybe today she’d speed things up a bit.

No one could stop Guru’s mischief today!

Hop, hop—she climbed onto her tricycle, waved to the sitter with a “Byebyee~!” and sped off through the lobby.

'This feeling, this freedom.'

Exactly what Guru had wanted.

At fifteen kilometers per hour, she soared straight into the first-floor café.

“Guru, hi! Cute glasses today.”

“Annya haseyo.”

Guru gave a polite bow to the staff, then narrowed her eyes at the menu board, pretending to study it.

“Want a choco latte?”

“Nooo!”

Today, Guru was an adult. She would go to work holding an Americano.

After all, adults had to consume adult potions.

“Gwuu want an aduwt Awi-menoka, pwease.”

“Really? Do you think you can drink it?”

“Yeshhh. Gwuu ish aduwt today.”

“...You’re an adult?”

Nod, nod.

“So give da aduwt potion, pwease.”

She opened and closed her little hands insistently.

The staff smiled awkwardly.

“Hmm...”

In the end, she pulled a few espresso shots with practiced ease, watered it down until it was very weak, and handed it over.

Guru accepted the takeout cup with both hands.

Thump-thump.

'This is the adult potion.'

They said that drinking it would clear sleepy eyes and give strength to a tired body.

Clearing her throat, Guru took a sip.

“Ubeeeeh...”

Sluuurp—

Not a single drop made it down. The coffee just flowed back into the cup.

Bitter!

Shocked, Guru wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

Adults drank this kind of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) bitterness every day? And especially On Jurim—he gulped it like water every single day!

This wasn’t potion drinking, it was torture.

'No wonder his eyes get so wide open! Daddy’s a total dum-dum, huh?!'

The staff, watching her shudder, chuckled softly.

“Want me to switch it to adult choco latte?”

“But...”

“If I swap it secretly into the same cup, nobody will know.”

“...Yeshhh.”

So the contents of the cup became an “adult choco latte.”

Still shaken by the bitter taste, Guru sucked it down with puffed cheeks until her face bulged round.

***

Guru went up to the guildmaster’s office on the top floor and sat in the big chair.

Daddy thought she’d cause trouble if left alone, but that was a huge mistake.

As the guildmaster’s daughter, she would act with responsibility—today, she would guard the guild and play the adult role in Daddy’s place.

Whenever she sensed someone might come, she leapt up to dust the leaves of the potato plant, imitating the powerful figures she had seen in dramas.

She sat Mephisto, Veilach, Lukshifer, and Yurian at the edge of the desk and pretended to hold a solemn meeting.

“All wight, today’s meeting topic is...”

She wondered what would raise the guild members’ morale.

Unlike Veilach and Yurian, who only yawned, Mephisto and Lukshifer eagerly joined in with pip-pip, kkyu-kkyu.

'I can’t understand a thing.'

“Mmhm.”

Guru pretended to get it, then scribbled down whatever she pleased.

Give free hugs (by Daddy)

Lift guild speed limit (Good!)

Stock yogurt in pantry (Best!)

Adult potion = garbage (Booo-)

“Mm.”

She wrote neatly on A4 paper, then slumped into the chair. Creak—it spun sideways.

Boring.

Being an adult was truly no fun.

'Maybe I’ll watch dramas.'

Nobody could scold her for binge-watching today!

“Uhi-hi.”

Giggling mischievously, Guru opened Jurim’s laptop.

“Youtoob~ Youtoob~”

At the word “YouTube,” Veilach’s eyes gleamed as he climbed onto her shoulder.

Mephisto fluttered down onto her head, and Lukshifer burrowed into her arms.

Humming cheerfully, cloaked in followers, Guru clicked around the desktop and spotted a folder marked “G.”

“G is fow Gwuut~ G is fow Gwuu~”

She was singing nonsense lyrics when she froze.

Inside the folder was a PDF with Chuen’s face and information.

“Chu unnie?”

Her eyes sparkled. Did Daddy know Chuen too?

She opened a video file next to it.

Soon, Chuen’s voice filled the room—a recording of a call with Jurim.

Yes, Guildmastuh On.

Dead, you say?

'Hm?'

Guru’s eyes went wide at Jurim’s blunt voice.

Who was dead?

Then Chuen’s calm reply:

Yes, just as I texted. The one who placed Hanguru in the orphanage has died.

Guru blinked, dazed.

The one who put her in the orphanage...

'The one who gave me my name.'

She had thought that person must be one of her parents.

'Mom or Dad.'

Her small hand replayed the recording.

The one who placed Hanguru in the orphanage has died.

'Has died...'

Has died. Has died. Chuen’s words echoed in her head like a refrain.

The person who put her in the orphanage was dead. That meant Guru’s mother or father might already be gone.

Thud—her heart seemed to fall all the way to her toes. Darkness filled her vision.

A chill colder than even the snowfield swept over her.

It stole her breath and froze her body stiff—the sudden, crushing weight of loneliness.

Crack—

A sharp noise came from her chest.

It was the sound of Jurim’s photo card, always hanging on her neck as a charm, splitting apart.

***

Chuen walked across the snowfield. She hadn’t expected the museum to connect to such a place.

After confirming that Guru had safely reunited with her father, she had slipped away from the investigators’ eyes and gone back underground.

She needed to find out where the A-Rank monsters had come from.

Exploring the basement exhibit halls, she discovered a path concealed by illusion magic. Following it brought her here.

“Haa...”

Her breath puffed white into the air.

She had been here so long she had lost her sense of time.

This snowfield warped time and space. There was only a blue sky—no sunset, no night.

It was clearly a pocket dimension, free from real-world time.

Were those “failure” monsters created here?

'What does this have to do with Guru?'

Guru had once produced a snowfield like this, too.

This place looked almost the same as Guru’s, though the chill wasn’t quite as deep.

Crunch, crunch.

As she walked across the snow, Chuen stopped at a distant figure.

A man stood in the middle of the field.

Where heaps of monster corpses had piled into a mountain.

The man turned back.

“Hello, Chuen. Didn’t think we’d meet here. I was looking for you anyway, so I guess I should call this lucky.”

When he smiled, deep dimples carved his cheeks.

Chuen looked up at him without expression.

“What is all this?”

“Failures. They just won’t turn out the way I want. Maybe because it’s an artificial snowfield...”

Artificial snowfield? Chuen clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms.

She was certain now. The museum’s monsters had been fabricated by this man.

“And what is this place?”

“Welcome to the 99th Floor I created.”

The icy wind bit at her skin as the snow-laden air howled.