Wide-open eyes and perked-up ears.
Seeing the woman, Gaeul stood still in that state for a while.
"Gaeul?"
Gaeul wasn't moving.
She just stared at , only moving her eyeballs in her frozen state.
It seed like she was waiting for my signal.
I gestured towards the woman with my eyes, signaling to Gaeul.
I was letting her know that the woman had co to apologize.
"......!"
Gaeul nodded as if she understood sothing.
Without hesitation, she started running around the woman randomly.
"Heh."
She circled around us, then changed direction and circled the opposite way.
She ran left and right, then straight ahead.
It was impossible to predict Gaeul's movents.
She looked like a dog running around chaotically.
Why was Gaeul suddenly acting like this?
After watching Gaeul's movents for a few more seconds, I realized.
Her movents were the sa as when she was herding monsters.
"Oh..."
Was Gaeul treating the woman who had hurt her as a monster?
She might have thought the woman had co to fight us.
After all, she had been quite fierce and scary.
I decided to stop Gaeul for now.
"Gaeul, that's not it."
I waved my hand at Gaeul, who was running back and forth.
Realizing she was wrong, Gaeul stopped in her tracks.
"No whoosh?"
"No. It's not whoosh."
"Whoosh" was the sound of an arrow flying.
It was my first ti hearing it too, but sohow I understood its aning.
"Whoosh?"
Yeoreum and the woman expressed confusion.
I didn't bother explaining the aning of "whoosh" to them.
I just laughed awkwardly, "Hehe," and looked at Gyeoul.
"Gaeul, this person ca to apologize to you. She's sorry for getting angry."
"Apologize...!"
Gaeul's ears perked up.
Then she put on an expression that looked like she'd learned it from Levinas.
Her eyebrows were raised, but unfortunately, it didn't look fierce at all.
"I-I'm sorry..."
The woman bowed her head to Gaeul, looking quite cowed.
Gaeul, who had been staring blankly at this, pointed towards the playground.
"I want to ride that!"
"Let's go on the slide next ti."
The playground was already full of children.
Gaeul's tail wagged rapidly at the sight of the happy children.
"Happy~"
Gaeul smiled brightly, watching the playing children.
I could fully understand what Gaeul wanted to say.
"Gyeoul, what does she an? Your sister still doesn't quite get it."
"She's just saying to play in the playground."
"In the playground?"
"Yes. She says that will make you happy."
Gaeul had judged that the woman wasn't happy.
We shouldn't judge others' happiness arbitrarily, but honestly, I didn't think she was wrong.
"...Do I not look happy?"
"No..."
"...Why is that?"
"You're watching over the children, getting stressed from the surveillance, and when stress builds up, you can't help but get angry often."
"......"
The woman closed her mouth.
She looked like she was deep in thought.
I watched her carefully, then cautiously spoke up.
"Of course, we were wrong to co to the playground secretly in the first place. We're really sorry. But you don't need to stress yourself out and self-destruct over this."
It's just a children's playground, after all.
I bowed my head to the woman.
After all, it was a playground operated with the apartnt residents' money.
As soone who knew how precious money was, I could fully understand why she had acted that way.
It would have been better if she had persuaded us well without getting angry, though.
"......"
The woman's gaze turned towards the playground.
The children were playing happily, not caring about our situation.
"Um..."
Did I say sothing too harsh?
As I was watching the woman's reaction, Yeoreum spoke up.
"You're blocking the children's happiness while doing sothing that stresses yourself out."
"Ah..."
"I know the maintenance fees are precious. I've learned the value of money thanks to Gyeoul too. But there must have been a better way. Like charging an entrance fee, for example."
"...You're right."
The woman closed her eyes.
Then she let out a deep sigh.
When she opened her mouth again, she seed very different from before.
"I'm truly sorry. I've been doing sothing terrible."
She had been apologizing continuously until now.
Yet this ti felt the most sincere.
"Yes. We're really sorry too."
I apologized once more on behalf of everyone.
Thanks to this, unlike when we first t, we were able to part with smiling faces.
The woman's smile was very faint, but a smile was a smile.
---
---
Leaving the children at the playground, I made a short trip to the dungeon.
The escape condition for this Level 2 dungeon I entered was to defeat a nad monster.
"Hmm..."
When I defeated the nad monster, Red Nol, it dropped an unfamiliar red orb.
It didn't seem to be a monster's mana stone, so what could this be?
Even after leaving the dungeon, I kept staring at the orb endlessly.
'Should I ask soone?'
I approached a nearby rchant and held out the item.
The rchant's eyes widened when he saw the orb.
"Wow, you got the most expensive one? The rchants around here won't have enough money to buy that!"
"E-expensive?"
"Yeah. It'll be worth at least a million won."
"Gasp...!"
A million won?
Could such an item drop in a dungeon of this level?
Surprised, I hid the red orb in my chest.
The middle-aged rchant chuckled, seemingly amused by my reaction.
"Why don't you try using it yourself?"
"...? What is it...?"
"It's an orb that makes you an adult. You'll grow tall quickly."
An orb that makes you an adult?
For , with a child's body, it was a dream-like item.
I wanted to use it right away, but I didn't know how.
"How do you use this?"
"Well? I'm not sure about that part."
"I see."
Then I'll have to ask when I get ho.
I sold the monster by-products I got from the dungeon to the rchant, hid the orb in a safe place, and returned ho.
"King!"
"Heh...!"
At ho, there were children with soaking wet bodies.
Their clothes weren't dry, so they must have just co from playing at the playground.
"Did you have fun playing? Was Gaeul well-behaved too?"
"Heh!"
Gaeul wagged her tail.
It was a sign of affirmation.
Gaeul always followed around, but now I could at least stop her from following into dungeons.
"King, did you catch a lot of monsters in the dungeon?"
"Yeah. I caught monsters and got sothing interesting."
I put the red orb down on the table.
Curiosity swirled in the children's eyes.
"King, what's this?"
"They say it's an orb that can make you an adult. It makes you grow tall quickly."
"An adult...?"
"Yeah. I'm going to use it."
As soon as I said this, the children all clamped their mouths shut at once.
Saebyeok, Levinas, and even Gaeul maintained silence and just watched each other's reactions.
After a while, Saebyeok spoke up as the representative of the children.
"Gyeoul shouldn't use this."
"Why not? If I grow taller, I can do more things. Isn't that good?"
"It's just that Gyeoul..."
Saebyeok trailed off and glared at the orb on the table.
In the world that suddenly started moving in slow motion, I could see Saebyeok reaching for the orb.
She was trying to grab the orb with the nimble movents unique to felines.
However, I was several tis faster than Saebyeok when it ca to movent.
I easily snatched the orb that had co onto the table.
"I'm going to use this to beco an adult."
I stood up and held the orb high in the air.
I didn't know how to use it, I was just trying to keep it out of Saebyeok's reach.
And then.
"G-Gyeoul!"
A loud voice ca from the entrance.
It was Yeoreum's voice.
Swoosh-!
Yeoreum, who had run quickly, reached out for my orb.
I dodged once, but couldn't avoid her grabbing my wrist.
Yeoreum, who had grabbed my wrist, pinched the orb with her index finger and thumb.
Crack-!
The orb shattered between Yeoreum's two fingers.
"M-my orb...!"
The orb that could make an adult was shattered.
An orb worth a million won.
In shock, my ears and tail stood straight up.
---
---
'That's not it.'
Yeoreum looked down at the orb that had turned to powder.
She thought it was an item that could make soone an adult, but she realized it wasn't after breaking it.
Of course, such an item wouldn't appear in a dungeon Gyeoul frequented.
Items that transform one into an adult form were quite rare, after all.
She had acted without thinking, too surprised by the ntion of becoming an adult.
'It's an illusion item.'
This was absolutely not an item that could turn soone into an adult.
It was just a consumable item that showed what you might look like ten years in the future.
And even that wasn't accurate, it was just a party item that gave a rough idea.
"My million won...!"
Gyeoul, who didn't know the true nature of the item, fell to her knees with a thud.
Seeing this, the children let out sighs of relief.
-Well done...!
Levinas mouthed silently.
It was truly sad to see Gyeoul upset, but it was better than her becoming an adult.
All the children seriously thought this way.
---
3/6 Enjoy the chappy!
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