I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 390: We Can Be Friends Again

Shiver.

Gyeoul and Levinas's fur stood straight up.

Kwon Arin watched as their eyes grew wider and wider.

"Master?"

After backing away from the spicy smell, Gaeul approached the children again.

She grabbed Gyeoul's hand holding the fork and picked up a few strands of noodles.

What could it taste like?

Gaeul gripped Gyeoul's wrist and pushed the noodles into her mouth.

"Munch munch."

Gaeul chewed slowly while wagging her tail.

The ramen must have been quite tasty.

She went to move Gyeoul's hand for another bite.

"Nyaaah!"

Gyeoul flapped her arms up and down.

She moved so fast it seemed like she might fly away.

"Wah! Waah! Waaah!"

At the same time, Levinas shook her head back and forth violently.

Her characteristic long horned rabbit ears whipped back and forth, hitting the back of her head then her forehead repeatedly.

"Huh?"

Just as Gaeul tilted her head at their strange behavior-

The numbing sensation spread through her mouth and her tail shot straight up.

The spiciness hits later.

Gaeul had overlooked this fact.

"Chuuuiik!"

My mouth's on fire!

Not knowing how to handle the spiciness, Gaeul started frantically licking Gyeoul's cheeks.

Lick lick, Gaeul licked Gyeoul's cheeks with her face scrunched up.

Hoek, Gyeoul flapped her hands like she was breathing fire.

And Levinas kept shaking her head wildly.

Kwon Arin hurriedly waved the milk on the table.

"K-kids! Drink milk, milk...!"

Despite the sloshing milk, the children just kept showing their distress.

They must be too overwhelmed by the spiciness.

Kwon Arin brought cups of milk close to their mouths.

She gave two cups to Gyeoul and Gaeul who were stuck together.

Saebyeok gave milk to Levinas.

"Nyaah!"

Gyeoul, who had been squeezing her eyes shut in agony, stuck out her tongue toward the milk in front of her nose.

Instead of drinking the milk in one go, she stuck out her tongue and lapped at it little by little.

Her cat species instincts had kicked in despite being overwhelmed by the spiciness.

Lick lick-

As Gyeoul lapped up the milk bit by bit, she started coming back to her senses.

Gulp-

Gyeoul grabbed Kwon Arin's wrist and started chugging the milk.

The spiciness remained even after finishing a whole cup of milk.

But at least she could somewhat gather her thoughts now.

"Phew."

Gyeoul exhaled hot breath and looked around.

She saw the suffering children and Kwon Arin watching with worried eyes.

"A-are you okay?"

"Y-yes..."

After coming to her senses, Gyeoul's gaze turned to the remaining ramen.

They had cooked two servings but hadn't even eaten a quarter.

She fidgeted with the fork, not wanting to waste so much food.

"W-what should we do...?"

"What, you can't eat it?"

"No... it's too hard..."

We shouldn't waste this much food.

Just as Gyeoul was looking around anxiously, Kwon Arin carefully took the fork from her hand.

"Then I'll eat it, don't worry too much."

"But it's so spicy...? It feels like fire in your mouth...?"

Seeing Gyeoul's worried look, Gaeul beside her roared into the air.

Guaah, she kept roaring with her eyes tightly scrunched.

"It's okay, I can handle spicy food well."

Kwon Arin picked up a big bite of the Fire Chicken ramen.

Then Saebyeok perked up her tail and picked up a few strands.

"Dark King! That makes lava flow from your mouth!"

"It's fine. I can handle spicy food too."

Kwon Arin and Saebyeok.

The two ate the Fire Chicken ramen simultaneously.

One bite.

Then two bites.

Watching them eat the spicy ramen without any reaction, Gyeoul, Gaeul and Levinas's ears trembled.

Having experienced just how spicy it was, they felt admiration.

[LOL look at the babies freaking out LOL]

[She can handle spicy food well LOL]

[It's nice seeing Saebyeok eat it since the kids couldn't.]

While eating the ramen, Kwon Arin checked the viewers' reactions.

Though the children couldn't finish it, with this kind of story...

She decided to upload the video she filmed with the children.

Since there wasn't much time left in the event, they could see the results soon.

**

Going to dungeons, playing at the pool playground, sleeping together with everyone.

Though every day was similar, I was enjoying these happy daily moments when-

"Gyeoul."

"Yes?"

Han Yeoreum approached me as I was walking through the park.

For some reason, her face showed bewilderment.

"A lot of things came to the guild addressed to you, want to take a look?"

"Addressed to me?"

"Yeah. There are tons of packages that came for you."

Lots of packages for me?

There's no reason for that.

My tail automatically formed a question mark.

"Should we go check?"

"Let's do that."

When we arrived at the guild's first floor with Han Yeoreum.

There was a small mountain of packages there.

"...Are these all for me?"

"Yeah. The delivery person dropped all these off."

Han Yeoreum handed me a paper.

The words 'Popularity Award' were written at the top.

[Popular people must have lots of friends? Share with everyone!]

'Popular? Friends?'

What could this mean?

I carefully picked up one of the packages.

"...It's not dangerous, right?"

"No. We did basic checks. Though we don't know what's inside."

"Then..."

I peeled off the tape and opened the sealed box flaps.

Inside were dozens of Fire Chicken noodles.

"Nyaah!"

Are all these boxes full of Fire Chicken noodles?

My whole body's fur stood on end.

I jumped up without realizing.

When I came to my senses, I was clinging tightly to Han Yeoreum.

"G-Gyeoul, what's wrong...?"

"This is that spicy ramen..."

"R-really?"

"Yes..."

Why did they give me so much ramen that I can't even eat?

I climbed down Han Yeoreum's body and slowly backed away.

"These are all spicy ramen... oh? This box looks different."

While I was gradually moving away from the boxes, Han Yeoreum opened the one box that looked different.

Inside was the premium pot I had wanted so badly.

"Oh! Gyeoul, there's a pot here too!"

"......"

Han Yeoreum held out the pot to me.

Fire Chicken noodles were piled high all around her.

It's just ramen, so why am I feeling such fear?

Is this some kind of beast-kin instinct too?

My body froze up.

As I stood rigid with just my tail bristled, Han Yeoreum rolled her eyes around.

"...Gyeoul?"

"......"

No, no matter what, a person can't be scared of ramen.

Like Levinas had done before, I fiercely narrowed my eyes and ran toward Han Yeoreum.

Stretch-

When I reached toward Han Yeoreum, she handed me the pot.

As I hugged the clearly high-end pot to my chest, Han Yeoreum picked me up.

Feeling Han Yeoreum's warm embrace, I started to feel at ease.

"Gyeoul, what event did you participate in?"

"I was going to, but gave up."

"Huh? Then why did prizes come?"

"I don't know...?"

We looked at the mountain of boxes.

Then examined the note that said 'Popularity Award' again.

"It says to share with friends? Since you're popular, you must have lots of friends."

"Friends...?"

Han Yeoreum gently patted my head.

Then spoke in a very kind voice.

"That's good. You have lots of friends, Gyeoul."

"Um... I don't really have many friends..."

"H-huh...?"

The hand patting my head stopped.

I could feel her bewilderment through her touch.

"Don't you have lots of friends? There's Levinas, and Saebyeok, and Gaeul. That's already three right there."

"But Levinas and Saebyeok and Gaeul aren't friends..."

"Huh...?"

"We're not friends, we're family."

"Ah! Right! Family! Sister got the words mixed up for a moment."

Ahem, Han Yeoreum cleared her throat.

I looked up at her and said:

"Can I share these with family instead of friends?"

"U-um... probably."

"Then..."

I'll share with the guild family.

The only ones I could really call friends were probably the Sacred and Taesan Guild masters.

I should share with the masters too if I get the chance.

While hugging the pot tightly and distributing ramen everywhere-

Pat pat pat-

Outside the guild building.

A dog was peacefully walking with its owner.

The female owner was someone who had a small conflict with us in the past.

The woman who said leashes made dogs uncomfortable.

Surprisingly, she was now walking peacefully with her dog on a leash.

"Ah...!"

She always walked around here.

I grabbed a box of spicy ramen and ran toward the woman.

Though there was quite a distance, I could quickly catch up with beast-kin speed.

"Um, excuse me."

"You're..."

"This is a gift."

"A gift?"

The woman accepted the box I held out.

The dog seemed happy to see me after so long, wagging its tail.

"I got lots of spicy ramen, but it's too much so I'm sharing with people around."

"...You're giving some to me too?"

"Yes. Since we're neighbors in the same neighborhood."

"Ah... thank you, I... it's not much, but would you take this?"

The woman handed me a bag of snacks.

Is this like exchanging gifts between neighbors?

My tail wagged quickly at the pleasant situation.

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Thank you too."

She smiled at me.

Then waved goodbye as she left.

Though she seemed really scary when we first met, talking to her again like this, she seemed quite nice.

Had our awkward neighborly relationship improved?

Somehow I felt happy.

A smile spread across my face without me realizing.