I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 417: Gyeoul Detective Agency

Being a group of animal lovers, there were many adorable animals around.

Horned rabbits, cats, and more.

After playing with various animals, I suddenly remembered I had an appointment with the Master.

"Ah...!"

I quickly checked the time.

If I ran fast, I could just barely make it.

"What's wrong?"

"We have an appointment but we played too long..."

"Oh dear, did we keep you too long?"

Though they hadn't done anything wrong, I felt bad seeing her expression.

"No, not at all. I had a lot of fun playing together. But we should get going now."

"Yeah. Thanks for playing with us."

After brief goodbyes with the woman, I went over to the children playing with the animals.

Levinas was playing with a cat, Gaeul with a horned rabbit, and Saebyeok with a dog.

I expected them to play with their own symbolic animals, but they surprised me.

"Kids, we need to go now."

"Oh! Right! The appointment!"

"...!"

The children jumped up from where they'd been sitting on the grass.

Then they waved to the group members and called out:

"Have your meeting at our park next time! It's called Yeomyeong Park!"

"Okay. We'll come visit."

After saying goodbye to the group, we ran to the coffee shop where we were meeting the Master.

We found him waiting by the window with four glasses of milk.

"It's Master uncle!"

"Uncle."

We quickly ran over to him.

Thankfully, we weren't late for the appointment.

"You're here."

"Yes. Why did you suddenly call us to the cafe?"

"I have an urgent task for you."

"Huh?"

The Master had a task for us?

Surprised, I couldn't even drink my milk as I stared up at him.

"What kind of task?"

"Tracking stolen goods."

"Um..."

Tracking stolen goods.

I wondered if we could handle it on our own.

I started feeling a bit worried.

"What about you?"

"I have other business to take care of."

"Ah..."

"Well, think you can do it?"

I carefully shook my head at the Master's question.

Honestly, I wasn't confident we could succeed.

"I'm not sure if I can do it..."

"Of course you can."

"M-me...?"

My eyes went wide at the Master's confident assertion.

I couldn't understand what made him think I'd succeed at this mission.

"Missions are primarily given to those most likely to succeed."

"We have the highest chance of success in our guild?"

"By a narrow margin, yes."

Best in the guild?

If the Master said so, there was no reason not to try.

"Then I'll give it a shot."

"Good."

**

An artifact worth 50 billion won had been stolen.

It was a helmet worn by a hero who saved humanity in the distant past.

'This is insane.'

Yoon Gyeong-tae, a private collector in his fifties, anxiously bit his nails.

Forgetting his usual dignity, he paced restlessly around the museum.

'I heard Yeomyeong took the request.'

Just knowing Yeomyeong would help brought some relief.

After all, Yeomyeong was known as the world's only top guild, not just in Korea.

'Wonder who they'll send.'

These days Han Yeoreum's team was rising in prominence.

Though Lee Jae-seung's team was still stronger, wasn't it?

After various worries, Yoon Gyeong-tae came to a conclusion.

It didn't matter who came.

They were Yeomyeong adventurers after all.

Whoever came would handle things well.

Just as he reached this conclusion, someone came running toward him.

"Woah!"

"Yak!"

Four children running like they were in a race, full of innocence.

They were Yeomyeong's beast-kin children, whom Yoon Gyeong-tae knew well.

Surely not these children?

Yoon Gyeong-tae found himself frozen in place.

"Hello."

"Ah, yes, what brings you here?"

"We're here to complete our mission."

Mission.

Those brief words made Yoon Gyeong-tae's heart sink.

An artifact worth 50 billion won was stolen, and they sent children like this?

Though they were beloved children, work and personal matters should be kept separate.

Yoon Gyeong-tae wanted to complain to Yeomyeong Guild immediately, but he couldn't bring himself to do so in front of the children.

'This is hopeless.'

The longer it took to find stolen goods, the harder they became to track down.

Yeomyeong must know this, yet they sent such young children.

Were they just trying to give the children some experience?

This wasn't some kids' game.

Ugh.

Yoon Gyeong-tae could only suffer silently, unable to voice his complaints.

Though he was wealthy, he found it difficult to express dissatisfaction with Yeomyeong's precious children.

"We heard an expensive artifact was stolen."

"Y-yes, that's right."

"May we take a look?"

"......"

Yoon Gyeong-tae silently nodded at Gyeoul's question.

He couldn't believe his 50 billion might disappear because of the children's detective game.

Ah.

With a helpless expression, Yoon Gyeong-tae led the children to where the artifact had been.

Gyeoul interpreted his expression as shock from losing such an expensive item.

"The artifact was here?"

"...Yes, it was."

"Hmm..."

Sniff sniff.

Gyeoul focused all her senses on scent, trying to catch any traces where the artifact had been.

The other children joined in sniffing too.

'This is the smell of metal.'

They said the stolen item was an iron helmet.

Gyeoul could detect the strong lingering scent of metal.

The metal scent led to...

'The window?'

Gyeoul looked toward the window.

The other children turned to look at the same time.

Their sensitive beast-kin noses had detected the iron helmet's path.

"That way!"

"The thief went through the window!"

"It seems to be that direction."

When the children spoke almost simultaneously, Yoon Gyeong-tae couldn't help but be surprised.

How did they know when there wasn't even CCTV footage of the theft?

Seeing the children's confident actions, Yoon Gyeong-tae couldn't help feeling hopeful.

"Can you tell where they went?"

"Yes. We'll track them."

Pitter patter-

The children ran out of the museum.

Yoon Gyeong-tae belatedly chased after them.

The children would stop to look around, then run again.

Though they kept stopping, they moved so fast it was hard to keep up.

'...So this is Yeomyeong, even if they're children?'

Though he wasn't sure if they really knew where they were going, Yoon Gyeong-tae held onto a small hope.

He desperately prayed they would find the artifact.

Dragging his heavy body, he followed the children.

**

Sniff sniff.

We followed the scent - running, stopping to sniff again, then running more.

The metal scent led all the way to an apartment far from the museum.

"King...!"

"Yeah."

An old, run-down apartment.

The metal scent led down to its basement.

Though the dark basement was scary, we gathered our courage and slowly stepped down.

"Should we go down quietly?"

"Yeah...!"

"Okay..."

We walked as quietly as possible with the children.

Walking on tiptoes, we could see the apartment's basement facilities.

Drainage pipes of unknown purpose, exposed concrete, and various junk.

There were many things in the basement, but no iron helmet.

"Huh..."

The scent definitely ended here.

Why couldn't we see the helmet?

Confused, I looked around aimlessly.

"Ha... hah... haven't found it?"

"N-no..."

"Ah..."

The client who had followed us down slumped his shoulders.

Seeing his disappointment made me feel sorry.

"B-but it was definitely here..."

As I frantically looked around, I spotted a cat sitting among the junk.

It was a black cat, watching us while calmly yawning.

'What's this?'

The strong metal scent was coming from the cat.

The children must have noticed too, as they were pointing at it.

"King! There's a kitty in the dark!"

"Yeah."

I slowly approached the cat.

This cat was our only remaining clue.

"Kitty, have you seen a helmet? An iron helmet..."

"Meow."

"What...?"

The cat meowed at us.

My ears perked up at the sound.

'Meow?'

Though we could generally understand cat language.

We couldn't understand what this cat was saying at all.

It sounded more like a human imitating a cat.

I looked at Saebyeok beside me.

Saebyeok nodded at me.

This wasn't a cat.

That's what Saebyeok's eyes were telling me.

We needed to catch it.

Smiling brightly, I reached for the cat's head.

"Thank you."

Grab-!

Instead of petting its head, I snatched whatever was imitating a cat.

The black cat I caught struggled, and its strength was so great I thought I might lose my grip.

"S-Saebyeok...!"

Saebyeok joined in to help hold the cat.

Thankfully, it couldn't overcome Saebyeok's strength.

"We caught the thief!"

This one was definitely the culprit.

I held the cat out toward the client.

"What..."

But the client just looked dumbfounded.

To him, this probably looked like just an ordinary cat.

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