I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild

It wasn't up to me to decide whether the divine beasts went hunting or formed parties with other adventurers.

What mattered most was the divine beasts' own opinions.

After asking the adventurers for their understanding, I gathered the divine beasts.

"Is there any divine beast who'd like to go hunting individually or form a party with adventurers?"

Most of the divine beasts showed aggressive responses to my question.

Only two showed different reactions: the wolf and butterfly divine beasts.

"Keeng..."

The wolf divine beast Meongmui let out a soft whimper.

It scratched at the ground, indicating it didn't want to go hunting.

I was confused since it had fought quite aggressively last time.

Maybe it didn't particularly enjoy hunting?

As I looked puzzled, Meongmui's ears drooped.

"Hek..."

I didn't know why, but somehow I could understand what Meongmui wanted to say.

It seemed to mean that it didn't want to go hunting without us.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to. This isn't a command, I'm just asking for opinions."

I patted its head, assuring it there was no need to force itself. Meongmui's previously drooped tail began to wag vigorously.

After watching the rejuvenated Meongmui, I looked up at the butterfly divine beast, Yuri.

"Hmm..."

The massive butterfly divine beast sat on a tree.

It was the only divine beast without any expressions or sounds, making it impossible to know what it was thinking.

"Hmm..."

Yuri truly was mysterious.

I wasn't even sure if it was looking at me.

I turned my gaze away from Yuri and approached the adventurers.

"I think we should first ask Master if this is okay."

"Yeah, understood."

After saying goodbye to the adventurers, I looked up at the guild building.

It seemed I needed to visit Master's office.

**

"Uncle."

While the children were playing, I went to check Master's office.

But there was no one on the top floor—neither Master nor the security guard who usually watched his office.

"Huh?"

Maybe they stepped out for a moment.

I scratched my cheek, feeling like I'd made a wasted trip.

'I'll have to come back later.'

I took the elevator down to the first floor where the children were.

As I perked up my ears on the first floor, I heard piano music along with the children's laughter.

'Are the children playing the piano?'

It was surprisingly elegant and sophisticated music.

Who could play the piano this well?

When I ran toward the source of the music, I discovered the children dancing to the piano.

Ting-ting—

Levinas was bobbing her shoulders left and right in rhythm with the piano.

Bom and Gaeul were holding hands and doing a ballroom dance, while Saebyeok stood still, watching the others dance.

'So it wasn't the children playing the piano.'

I approached the children while listening to the beautiful piano music.

Just as I stood next to Levinas, who was swaying her waist from side to side, Bom raised her hands that were joined with Gaeul's.

"Gaeul, want to try a spin?"

The spin—one of the techniques in ballroom dancing where you rotate using your feet as an axis while holding hands.

Unfortunately, Gaeul didn't understand what Bom meant by spinning.

"..."

After pondering with a blank expression for a moment, Gaeul let go of Bom's hand and crouched down.

Then she put her head to the floor and rolled over once.

"Wow."

After showcasing her impressive roll, Gaeul remained lying on the floor, looking up at Bom.

Her eyes seemed to ask if she'd done it right.

"Gaeul's rolling was impressive, but this is how it's normally done."

Bom came over to me and took my hands.

Then she spun around once in place, using her feet as the axis.

Her dancing skills were quite remarkable—I wondered if she'd learned from someone.

"...!"

Watching Bom's dance, Gaeul suddenly sprang to her feet.

And then she started spinning in place.

Round and round and round—

Gaeul kept spinning without stopping.

With her arms stretched out as she spun, she looked like a propeller.

She was going to be extremely dizzy when she stopped.

We just stood and watched Gaeul spin.

Gaeul finally stopped after exactly thirty spins.

"Aeeng..."

Unable to maintain her balance due to dizziness, Gaeul's body swayed.

I quickly caught her as her wobbling body was about to fall.

"Gaeul, are you okay?"

"Hek...!"

Was she happy to be hugged despite the dizziness?

Gaeul flashed me a bright smile.

"Huok."

Levinas, who had been watching, spun around in place.

She only turned around once, but very quickly.

"Levinas is dizzy tooooo."

Levinas staggered toward me and fell into my arms.

I couldn't help but giggle, seeing right through what Levinas wanted.

"Me too, me too!"

"..."

Bom spun around once and came to hug me, while Saebyeok simply approached without spinning and joined the hug.

My tail wagged at our five-person embrace.

"Kids, do any of you know where our un— Master went?"

I asked while maintaining the hug.

The quiet Saebyeok spoke up.

"I know. Master said he was going to a meeting."

"A meeting?"

"Yeah. A meeting of guild masters."

"I see."

That's too bad; I had something to tell him.

I should probably do something else until Master returned.

I was just wondering what to do next in this situation.

"Adventure!"

"Adventure?"

"Yeah! Let's go on an adventure to find Master!"

"Hmm... should we...?"

Since we had nothing better to do, we decided to accept Levinas's suggestion.

**

Despite it being a simple task of finding Master, the children put considerable effort into the preparations.

They gathered sticks as weapons for the adventure and prepared snacks for everyone.

"Weapon!"

Levinas shouted, pointing at Gaeul.

Gaeul immediately raised Woodcalibur high in the air.

Nodding with satisfaction, Levinas pointed at Saebyeok and shouted:

"Snacks!"

"Here."

Saebyeok unfolded a several-times-folded newspaper.

Inside were plenty of dried anchovies.

After confirming this, Levinas pointed at Bom.

"Tricks!"

"Yes. I'm ready to play tricks too."

Levinas seemed satisfied with the black mana Bom showed her.

Finally, she pointed at me and shouted:

"King!"

"Yes. I'm the king."

"If everything's ready, let's depart!"

Levinas raised her stick high in the air.

Seeing this, Gaeul raised Woodcalibur high.

"Yah!"

With a brave shout, Gaeul ran out of the park.

We followed behind her.

"Saebyeok, where did Master go exactly?"

"That tall tower we went to before."

"That's..."

Completely the opposite direction from where we were running.

I had no choice but to stop in my tracks.

When I suddenly stopped, the children stopped running too.

The only one who kept going was Gaeul, who was a step ahead of us.

Swoosh, swoosh—

Gaeul waved Woodcalibur as she ran far away.

We stood still, watching Gaeul's retreating figure.

"Gaeul?"

"Hek...?"

When Gaeul looked small enough to be smaller than a forearm, I called her name.

Realizing the distance between us, Gaeul was startled and ran back.

"Gaeul, we need to go that way, not this way."

"Dat way?"

"Yes."

"Aratto...!"

Gaeul smiled brightly and this time ran in the direction I pointed, waving Woodcalibur.

We followed behind her again.

After running ahead of us for about five minutes, Gaeul suddenly stopped in her tracks.

She stared at a busy road, then started wagging her tail.

"Gaeul, what are you looking at?"

"Beep-boop beep-boop!"

"Beep-boop... police?"

Gaeul pointed at a police car, imitating the siren sound.

Levinas liked the police too.

Did the children have some sort of admiration for law enforcement?

"Beep-boop beep-boop!"

Gaeul approached the police officers while making siren sounds.

Levinas, who also liked the police, quickened her pace toward them.

"Pwolish car!"

"It's a police car! Levinas thinks police cars are the coolest thing in the world!"

"Uh... yes?"

A male officer in uniform looked bewildered at the sudden approach of Gaeul and Levinas.

I bowed politely to the officers on behalf of the bouncing children.

"Hello. My family really loves the police."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I'm sorry for the interruption."

"No, it's not really a disruption."

At a little distance down the road, someone who appeared to be the partner officer was stopping passing cars.

The officer was having people blow into a device—it looked like a breathalyzer test.

"He keeps going hoo-hoo! What's he doing?!"

"They're conducting sobriety tests."

The officer kindly answered Levinas's question.

Unfortunately, Levinas didn't know what sobriety meant.

"Sobriety?! What's a sobriety test?!"

"It's testing if someone's been drinking alcohol. Driving after drinking can cause big trouble."

"Huok...! Does that mean I can't drink coco and drive...?!"

"Coco?"

The officer's eyes darted around.

He seemed to be wondering what coco was.

"Coco is sweet and delicious and warm black drink!"

"Ah, cocoa. Cocoa is fine."

"Huok...! Levinas dreams of driving while drinking coco in the future..."

Just as Levinas was talking about her dream:

Vrooom-!

With a loud engine noise, a car sped past the officers.

A car zoomed down the road at tremendous speed and disappeared.

The officer who had been chatting with us urgently picked up his radio.

"What's going on...?"

"Uh... looks like someone drove drunk and is running away..."

"...!"

Levinas raised her eyebrows fiercely and lifted her stick high.

I had a feeling I knew what Levinas was about to say next.