I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 212: I'll Tell You Little by Little

Encia's group left to watch the finals.

I decided to stay outside with the children to keep Levinas company, since she couldn't watch the match.

Though we missed the finals, I felt no regret. Playing with Levinas was plenty fun.

"King, King," Levinas called, beckoning me over to a shop front.

It was a stall selling various types of hot dogs.

"Want a hot dog?" I asked.

"No...!"

Levinas recoiled at my question. The rabbit ears atop her head flapped wildly as she shook her head.

"You don't want a hot dog?"

"Dogs?"

She must have misunderstood the "dog" in hot dog to mean actual dogs. I was impressed our Levinas knew some English, even if she got it a bit wrong.

"Good thing King is a cat," she said.

"Why?"

"There's no cat dishes, right?"

Levinas sniffed the air, catching the scent of hot dogs. I found myself sniffing too. It didn't smell like dog at all.

"Well... I think there are cat dishes?"

"There are?!"

"Yeah. But they'd be hard to find."

In all my time in this world, I'd never once seen a cat dish. It certainly wasn't common cuisine.

'Like cat soup or something...'

Ugh...

It never bothered me before. But now that I was a feline beast-kin, just thinking about cat dishes sent shivers down my spine.

Levinas looked at me with concern.

"King, are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah. Thinking about cat dishes just scared me a bit."

"That's normal! Levinas gets really scared seeing horned rabbit dishes too!"

"I see."

It was the same when I saw the mana stones of feline monsters. Beast-kin clearly felt a kinship with the animals they resembled.

Whew.

As I placed a hand on my chest to calm my startled heart, Levinas's eyebrows suddenly shot up fiercely.

"When Levinas opens a restaurant later, it'll be a snake meat restaurant!"

"Snake meat?"

"Yeah! Then bad snakes will be too scared to come!"

I see. What an incredible strategy.

I decided to play along for Levinas, who hated snakes.

"The snakes will cry when they come."

"Yeah! Levinas will make the bad snakes cry!"

Hmph. Hmph.

As Levinas puffed out little snorts, something appeared before her.

It was a large, delicious-looking hot dog.

"Here little one, eat this and cheer up," a man said.

Startled by the hot dog that suddenly appeared right in front of her nose, Levinas hid behind me. She peeked out from behind, sticking just her face out to look at the uncle who offered the hot dog.

"Le-Levinas doesn't eat dogs though?"

"It's alright, it's just called a hot dog. There ain't no fish in fish-shaped either, right?"

"Huh...?!"

Well, there certainly isn't any fish in fish-shaped bread.

Realizing the truth belatedly, Levinas seemed shocked as she shook my shoulder from behind.

"King! Did you hear?! He said there's no puppy in it!"

"Yeah. That's a relief."

Levinas accepted the hot dog with a lightened expression.

There were three in total, including mine and Saebyeok's.

The uncle didn't charge us. He said it was thanks for promoting his stand.

And so we wandered the festival area, munching on our hot dogs.

As we were sightseeing, oblivious that the finals and awards ceremony had ended, some familiar faces approached from afar.

"Kids..."

It was an exhausted-looking Yeoreum and Jinhyuk, who now looked just like me.

Yeoreum in particular didn't look well. There were bruises all over her face.

'Her face...'

She looked like she was in a lot of pain. Would she be okay?

I watched Yeoreum worriedly.

"Gyeoul..."

Yeoreum trudged over and scooped me up in a tight hug.

I was glad to see her, but my tail didn't wag quite as vigorously as usual.

"You look tired."

"Yeah, I lost. Sorry..."

Yeoreum couldn't meet my eyes.

Following her downcast gaze, I could see the silver medal hanging around her neck.

"Wow."

I'd heard she made it to the finals. Seeing the medal really drove home how amazing Yeoreum was.

I found myself clapping without even realizing it.

"You're clapping for your big sis getting second place?"

"Yes. Isn't second place incredible...?"

Out of the thousands of participants, she came in second. To me, it was an astonishing result.

"It's a medal! We got two medals!"

Levinas bounced excitedly around Yeoreum and Jinhyuk.

Seeing Levinas like that, Yeoreum let out a chuckle.

"Not two, seven. Our guild got the most?"

"You got seven medals?"

"Yeah. Remember how you said we should compete by gender and weight class last time?"

"Ah..."

So they fought divided by weight classes. But why did Yeoreum fight Jinhyuk then?

My head tilted to the right in confusion.

"But I entered the open-gender unlimited class."

"I see."

While Yeoreum was fit, she wasn't built for the unlimited class. To take second place in the unlimited class with that small frame. It truly was an unbelievable achievement.

"That guy's a real monster," Yeoreum glared at Jinhyuk, grinding her teeth.

Levinas, who had been bouncing around in front of Jinhyuk with her arms raised, froze mid-cheer.

"Did the giant turn into a monster?!"

"No."

"No?!"

Levinas started running circles around us again as if nothing had happened.

Yeoreum, who had been wallowing in defeat, suddenly straightened her back.

"Seeing our little ones is giving big sis her energy back."

"Me too."

"You too, Gyeoul?"

"Yes. Seeing my family gives me energy too."

My tail wagged vigorously as I watched Yeoreum regain her spirit.

Levinas, who was bounding towards me, got slapped across the face by my swishing tail.

Being held in Yeoreum's arms put me at just the right height.

"Oof!"

Levinas rubbed her cheek as she stumbled back.

She immediately grabbed Saebyeok's nearby tail and used it to poke my thigh repeatedly.

The soft fur made my tail wag even more wildly.

"S-sorry, I can't stop it..."

"If you're sorry, give Levinas a hug too!"

"Okay."

I climbed down from Yeoreum's arms and gave Levinas a hug.

Yeoreum smiled as she watched us.

"Shall we go home now?"

"Is everything finished?"

"Yeah. There's nothing left to do here."

"Then let's go home."

It had only been a few days since we left, but I already missed home.

I felt like I needed to get home and have a nice long rest.

---

---

We returned home.

It was dark by then, so we rested well that night and went to the park the next morning.

"Ahh."

The park air was refreshing.

Home really was the best.

As I casually looked around, I spotted a familiar face.

"Oh."

It was Momoa.

Wasn't Momoa from the Sacred Guild?

I quickly ran towards Momoa.

"Momoa."

"St-stop!"

Momoa held out her hand to stop me.

I slammed on the brakes urgently, sliding right into Momoa's arms.

I managed to keep my balance and didn't fall.

"What's wrong?"

I looked up from within Momoa's embrace.

I could see her face had turned bright red.

"Running so fast is dangerous! What if you fell?"

"Was I fast?"

"Of course! There's no way that could be considered slow... Wait, can you run even faster?"

"Um... yes."

Just now I was running at about the speed of a four-legged beast. It was my natural physical speed without using mana.

"Th-that's amazing. I couldn't even manage half of half that speed."

"Being fast is my specialty. You have your own specialties too, Momoa."

"My specialties?"

"Yes. You're great at taking care of others, and you're amazing at work."

"...Hmph."

Momoa averted her gaze from mine.

Seeing how she was patting my head, it didn't seem like she disliked it.

"Momoa, what are you doing here anyway?"

"Sang-ah asked me to join the team."

Team.

She meant the team centered around Yeoreum.

"It's because Momoa is a genius at work. It's an honor to work with you."

"A-ahem..."

Momoa squirmed around before checking her wristwatch.

She startled and began to move.

"I should get going now. It's time for work."

"Okay. See you later."

"Remember, don't follow strangers even if they offer you fish."

"Yes."

After seeing Momoa off, I checked on the crops in the field.

Despite three days without care, none of the plants seemed to have any issues.

It was thanks to Levinas's magic.

'I think I'll just pull up carrots today.'

I knelt down in the dirt.

Just as I reached out to pull up a carrot, someone poked my shoulder.

It was Saebyeok.

"Gyeoul, want to try this?"

Saebyeok held out a black mana stone to me.

It was a mana stone with an unknown purpose.

"What is this?"

"It's a mana stone with... information stored in it."

"Information?"

Did Saebyeok want to give me some kind of information?

I accepted the mana stone Saebyeok offered.

I wondered how to use this.

I tapped the mana stone with my fingernail while looking at Saebyeok.

For some reason, Saebyeok's complexion didn't look good.

"Gyeoul, what if..."

"Yes?"

"What if I did something wrong to you?"

Her voice was quite serious.

Even more serious than her usual gruff tone.

"Did you do something wrong?"

"...Yeah. In my own way, I did it for you, but..."

Saebyeok couldn't continue.

I patted Saebyeok's head as she was overcome with anxiety.

"It's okay."

"It's okay?"

"Yes. You did it for me, but maybe it was a bit misguided, right?"

"Th-that's right."

I didn't know exactly what method she used.

But I knew Saebyeok truly cared for me.

"Can you tell me what you did wrong?"

"...Well."

Saebyeok chewed on her lips.

After a long moment, she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Can I tell you... little by little?"

"Of course. Take your time."

I didn't ask why.

I simply trusted her.

I wrapped Saebyeok in a tight hug.

The usually strong Saebyeok felt particularly fragile today.

---

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