I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 172: Catch the Mouse

It was common for adults to offer alcohol to minors.

Yoo Sang-ah also learned to drink from her father when she was seventeen.

The reason was that learning from an adult in advance would prevent future mishaps.

Who wouldn't understand a father's dream of drinking with his child?

At that time, Yoo Sang-ah was a minor, but she learned to drink, swayed by the father-daughter atmosphere.

Dad! One more drink!

No, stop drinking...

For Yoo Sang-ah, alcohol remained a good memory.

She enjoyed drinking even on ordinary days.

Therefore, she didn't see adults offering alcohol to minors as entirely bad.

However, there was a certain limit.

At the very least, one should offer alcohol to a high school student with a mature enough mind.

An age where they knew enough to muddle through.

But how old was Gyeoul?

Only eight years old.

Yoo Sang-ah still believed in Santa Claus at that age.

An age when one didn't know how the world worked.

Forcing alcohol on Gyeoul at eight, or possibly even younger?

They laughed at the staggering child.

If this happened two years ago, Gyeoul was six.

People called this infancy.

My goodness.

Forcing alcohol on an infant?

Barbaric!

That was the conclusion from Yoo Sang-ah, who hated violence.

"A truly terrible person."

Yoo Sang-ah gently stroked Gyeoul's cheek.

Even with her soft touch, Gyeoul hesitated.

The friend who forced alcohol on him wasn't as bad as Yoo Sang-ah thought.

"Hmm..."

Despite being mischievous, he was a decent guy when serious.

She regretted bringing it up, making him a target of scorn in this world.

"What kind of person is he?"

"Well, he's not actually a bad person."

"Not bad?"

"Yes. Sometimes he even bought me delicious food."

Gyeoul tried to defend his friend as much as possible.

However, Yoo Sang-ah misunderstood his words.

Buying food for a staggering child, finding it funny.

Treating the child like a clown, throwing money at him.

It was something only a wastrel from the backstreets would do, but Yoo Sang-ah knew.

That the wastrel's mockery was a lifeline for Gyeoul at the time.

To Gyeoul, who had never felt human affection, the cruel prank seemed like kindness.

Am I criticizing a benefactor?

For the first time, Yoo Sang-ah tasted the bitterness of alcohol.

"Gyeoul, I'll buy you something delicious too."

"Something delicious?"

"Yes. I want to be a good friend to you."

Huh?

What did she mean by that?

Gyeoul tilted his head in confusion.

"We're already friends."

"Ah! That's right!"

Yoo Sang-ah, who valued manners and etiquette, had her heart wide open due to the alcohol.

"Then we're best friends."

She rubbed her cheek against Gyeoul's.

Ooh.

Gyeoul pretended to resist out of embarrassment.

In truth, she was so happy her tail wagged.

Yoo Sang-ah laughed softly at Gyeoul's wagging tail.

Her best friend was such a lovely child.

---

---

The next morning.

After returning from the dungeon, I wandered the park with the kids.

Even though we didn't do anything special, just strolling with them was fun.

"Wow!"

Levinas ran far away and then returned for no reason.

Even though it was a purposeless run, Levinas giggled, saying it was fun.

Kids were always so energetic, which was great.

I was absorbing positive energy from Levinas.

From a distance, I heard someone's grumbling voice.

"Don't they maintain the park these days?"

"Why?"

Though whispered, I heard it all.

I usually refrained from eavesdropping on people's conversations in the park, but I couldn't ignore their complaints.

After all, I had been formally appointed as the park manager.

"Guess what I saw over there?"

"What did you see?"

"A rat! I've never seen a rat that big in my life!"

A rat in the park?

That was undoubtedly my responsibility.

I quickly ran toward the two women who were talking.

"I'm sorry, so sorry..."

I apologized to the two women, my ears and tail drooping in earnest remorse.

"Huh? What for?"

The women smiled as if nothing had happened, showing they were good people.

"It's just, I'm in charge of cleaning the park..."

"...Did you hear us?"

"Yes... I was passing by."

The women's gazes shifted to my ears perched atop my head.

They both looked embarrassed, realizing that beast-kin ears were much better than human ones.

"Sorry, we didn't mean for you to hear that. We were just talking among ourselves."

"Oh, no. It's my fault there's a rat."

"Still, we're sorry. We know you work hard to clean the park. We shouldn't have said anything."

Work hard?

All I did was pick up a few pieces of trash while collecting empty bottles.

I scratched the back of my neck in embarrassment.

"No, it's really my fault. Do you remember where you saw the rat?"

"The rat was running around in the inner forest over there."

"I see... I'll make sure to catch it."

"Uh, okay..."

After parting with the apologetic women, I took the kids and went deep into the park.

I brought Seol along to track the rat.

A cat was the best for catching rats.

"Seol."

"Meow!"

"We need to catch a rat. Can you track it?"

"Meow! Meow!"

Seol dashed ahead confidently, sniffing the ground.

The kids and I followed her, our noses twitching as we ran.

"Meow..."

Seol let out a small yelp and then crouched low.

It meant to hide our presence.

With beast-kin instincts, the kids and I naturally concealed ourselves without any training.

We crouched behind the bushes together.

Levinas' long ears stuck out from the bushes.

"Levinas, your ears."

"...!"

Levinas pressed her ears down, which covered her eyes as well.

With both her eyes and ears covered, she sniffed the air.

It seemed she was smelling the rat right in front of us.

"Rat..."

Levinas got down on all fours like a four-legged beast.

Boing-!

Her springy rabbit ears perked up again, and Levinas, with her rabbit-like eyes, appeared.

"Catch the rat...! Rat...!"

Saebyeok showed excitement, her cat instincts kicking in.

In this state, the kids could easily catch a single rat.

We spread out in four directions as if we had planned it.

The signal to start the hunt was given by my tail.

When my tail rose toward the sky, we all pounced on the rat.

"Squeak!"

Even though the rat was as big as my forearm, it moved incredibly fast.

If I were still human, I wouldn't have dared to try and catch it, but now I was different.

Thud-!

I quickly caught up and kicked the rat.

The rat flew up and hit Levinas on the head before bouncing off.

As the rat fell, Saebyeok lunged at it.

She bit the rat's neck and shook her head.

Growling like a puppy.

The rat's life ended in an instant.

"Great job, everyone."

I took the rat from Saebyeok's mouth.

I planned to show it to the women to prove we caught it.

"Levinas headed it!"

"Yeah, it was really cool."

"Meow! Meow!"

"Yes, Seol, you did great tracking it."

Though I could have hunted and tracked it alone, I chose to do it with the kids.

The result was fairly successful.

Feeling elated with the kids, we left the park forest.

"Gyeoul."

Saebyeok wrapped her tail around mine.

The entwined tails swayed gently.

"Yes."

"Are you going to eat the rat?"

"Well..."

The old me would have definitely eaten it.

But should I eat it now?

I knew that rats were riddled with germs.

I brought the rat close to my nose and sniffed it.

"Ahhh!"

A scream came from somewhere, and I looked up.

Yeoreum was a bit further away, shuddering as she looked at me.

"A rat! A rat!"

"Yes, we caught a rat..."

"Gyeoul! Spit it out, quickly!"

Spit it out?

Did she think I was holding it in my mouth when I was just smelling it?

Startled by her loud voice, I dropped the rat.

"I wasn't biting it..."

"Ahhh!"

Yeoreum grabbed me and ran to the pond.

The kids and Seol followed behind us.

"Wait, hold on..."

Yeoreum, holding me in her arms, jumped into the pond.

Before I could stop her, she started splashing water on my face.

"Gyeoul, how could you bite a rat...!"

Splash splash-!

She splashed water so hard that it was hard to breathe, rubbing my face with her hands.

The pond had a purification function, so just the water washed my face.

"Mmmpf...!"

"We need to clean your teeth too!"

Scrub scrub-

Yeoreum used her fingers to scrub my teeth.

Even though my canines were sharp, she didn't care and kept scrubbing.

"Ouch..."

It wasn't me who bit the rat, it was Saebyeok.

I looked at Saebyeok with an aggrieved expression.

"Gyeoul, you must not bite rats..."

Saebyeok, who had been watching, turned her gaze toward the guild building.

Saebyeok, who was usually fearless, trembled.

"Sa-Saebyeok..."

Splash-!

Before I could explain, water splashed on my face again.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth for more than twenty minutes.

"Huff, huff..."

Yeoreum wiped the water from her forehead.

Thump thump thump-

Her heart was beating faster than ever before.

She really hated rats.

I decided never to touch one again.

At least the washing was over.

Phew.

Just as I sighed in relief, pond water splashed onto my face.

Phase 2 had begun.

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