The man who came running, angry at the dog’s howling.

His fiery gaze softened when he saw us.

Though the emotion in his eyes had faded, the club in his hand and the dragon tattoo were still threatening.

Faced with this man three times my size, I unconsciously clasped my hands politely.

“Um, excuse me, but the club seems a bit scary…”

“Oh shit!”

Startled by something, he threw the club he was holding behind him.

Thunk-!

The wooden club’s collision with the ground made a distinctively heavy sound.

It was enough to stir up the neighborhood dogs.

-Woof woof!

-Awoooo!

“Awoooo.”

Gaeul responded to the dogs’ howling.

The dogs reacted to Gaeul’s howling again.

The endless chain howling unique to canines.

It seemed like they’d keep at it until someone stopped them.

I put my index finger in front of Gaeul’s lips.

Shh.

It meant she needed to be quiet.

“Gaeul, we shouldn’t make loud noises. It bothers people who are trying to rest nearby.”

“Shh?”

“Yeah. We need to be quiet.”

Gaeul seemed to understand she needed to be quiet, covering her mouth with both hands.

Her wagging tail was the only thing making noise now.

“Good job.”

After quieting Gaeul, I turned to face the man.

I took a moment to think about how to calm him down, fidgeting with my fingers.

“Excuse me…”

“Ahem! Is this your first time making noise in this neighborhood, kids?”

“Yes… This is the first time Gaeul has howled…”

“R-right? Uncle’s not mad at you kids, I’m mad at those dogs. They’re always barking.”

Ahem.

As the tattooed man cleared his throat,

Levinas, who was in the box car, answered with her horned rabbit eyes wide open.

“Puppies?!”

“Puppies?!”

At Levinas’s words, Gaeul, who had been wearing a blank expression, widened her eyes a few seconds later.

The man who had called himself uncle quickly waved his hands.

“Ah, no! Not this friend…”

“Gaeuwi not?”

“Definitely not. Uncle’s just talking about the dogs living in this neighborhood, okay?”

“Heh…”

Gaeul stuck out her tongue slightly and wagged her tail.

It was a gesture of agreement.

“Um, I’m sorry. It’s hard for dog beast-kin to hold this in. She just suddenly reacted while we were passing by.”

“Really? Is that how beast-kin are?”

“No, just young beast-kin.”

“Ah… Young…”

He looked me up and down.

Then he nodded as if he understood something.

“I’m really sorry. We’ll be on our way…”

Just as I was apologizing again and about to leave,

Gaeul looked at me with a confident face.

“Shh!”

She put her finger on her lips, making a gesture to be quiet.

Then she pointed at the surrounding buildings one by one.

These were the places where the dogs that had responded to Gaeul’s sound were.

“Gaeul, are you saying you can quiet the dogs?”

“Heh.”

Gaeul nodded, saying yes.

She nodded so big that her shoulders moved up and down.

“How?”

“Woof!”

“Woof…?”

“Woof woof!”

Gaeul ran around the neighborhood, barking.

It wasn’t like a dog barking, but more like a person running around making “woof woof” sounds.

We watched this scene blankly.

“Gaeul, if you do that…”

The dogs will bark more.

I was about to say that but closed my mouth and perked up my ears.

‘Huh?’

The dogs all fell silent at once.

It looked as if Gaeul had ordered them to stop barking.

“Gaeul?”

“Master.”

Huff huff.

Gaeul came running back, wagging her tail.

She howled “Awoooo” by herself, but no one responded.

“Wow.”

I didn’t know Gaeul had the ability to control dogs.

I wasn’t the only one surprised; the corners of the scary tattooed man’s mouth turned up.

“Wow! Did your friend make them all quiet?!”

“Gaeuwi!”

Gaeul shouted her name and puffed out her chest.

Whew, the man clapped and exclaimed in admiration.

“How long will those son of… dogs stay quiet?”

“Keepgo.”

“Keep going? Forever?!”

“Uh-huh… Thief woof woof!”

Gaeul bared her teeth.

Gaeul always spoke clumsily, but somehow I could understand everything.

“She says they’ll bark if there’s a thief.”

“Yeah, yeah, dogs should only bark at thieves!”

Hahaha.

The man laughed happily and took out his wallet.

Inside was a business card with a dragon on it.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a gift. Keep it and call if you need help. We should help each other out, right? Haha.”

“Um… okay…”

I have the Master and the guild people, so

I probably won’t need to ask for help, but there was no reason to refuse the card either.

I decided to keep it for now.

“You know, uncle’s quite well-known in the underworld.”

“Really?! Well, our King is known throughout the world!”

“What?! Is that so?!”

Hahaha!

The tattooed man laughed happily at Levinas’s statement.

Levinas giggled at this, and I awkwardly laughed along, “Hehe.”

He didn’t seem as scary as I initially thought.

“We should get going now. We’ve come quite far from home.”

“Alright. Be careful on the road.”

“Okay.”

And so, I returned home with the children in our carrot car.

Today, I was able to play meaningfully with the children again.

——

The next day’s Academy class.

The class was held in a nearby Level 1 dungeon.

A slime dungeon.

They said that while it was corrosive, it wouldn’t cause permanent physical damage unless it hit a important spot.

The Academy instructors explained that there was a risk of suffocation, so we should either wear masks or dodge well.

The instructor teaching us had even cleared a Level 4 dungeon before.

“Has everyone memorized the hunting method? Does anyone need more explanation?”

No one raised their hand at the instructor’s question.

This was because the slime dungeon was considered one of the easier Level 1 dungeons.

“Then we’ll move straight to practical training. The team that catches the most slimes will be today’s winner.”

Today’s winner.

It meant getting the highest score.

The team with the most points at the end of the Academy course would be the top team of that class.

“You know what the prize is for the top team this time, right? It’s the best ever.”

“Wasn’t it that thing?”

“Yeah…”

Gulp.

The sound of someone swallowing hard came from somewhere.

Looking around, I could see many adventurers with tense expressions.

The prize must be amazing.

What could it be to cause such a reaction?

I hadn’t really looked into the top prize because it seemed out of reach for me.

I didn’t have the confidence to come first among all these people, and I wasn’t supposed to stand out anyway.

Of course, I was confident about hunting slimes.

I could quickly find slimes with my beast-kin senses, and those slow-crawling creatures might as well be standing still for me.

I should just catch a few slimes.

As I was making this resolution,

Yoon Hyunseo put her hands on my and Han Taehwi’s shoulders.

“Harang, Taehwi. Let’s definitely get first place!”

“Um… okay.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi clenched their fists.

Seeing their determination to get first place, I lowered my eyes.

‘Everyone’s trying their best…’

I didn’t want to burden my teammates who had chosen me.

But if I wanted to avoid standing out, I shouldn’t aim for first place. What should I do?

As I was lost in these thoughts,

Yoon Hyunseo let out a deep sigh.

“Haa… I really want to get first place this time…”

“This time? Have you been to the Academy before?”

“Yeah. This is my fourth attempt. I missed first place by a hair every time.”

“Every time…?”

Missed first place by a hair.

And three times at that.

It smelled of corruption, but it was hard to be certain yet.

“The first place prize this time is something I really want… I really want to have it…”

Phew.

Yoon Hyunseo kept sighing.

Her words made me curious about the prize.

“What’s the first place prize this time?”

“Huh? Haven’t you seen the prize?”

“No… I thought it would be too hard to aim for first place with my skills… I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay. If we work together, we can get first place.”

Pat pat.

Yoon Hyunseo patted my shoulder.

She smiled kindly, then glanced towards where the instructor was.

“The prize this time is a badge.”

“A badge?”

“Yeah. You know those lectures held at Yeomyeong Guild? It’s a badge that lets you attend those classes…”

“Huh?”

Why is that considered the best prize ever?

I had given up on handing them out to just anyone because it was too tiring.

Yoon Hyunseo must have misunderstood something.

I had handed out over a hundred badges in a single day before.

“I have a lot of those badges. Should I give you one?”

“You do, Harang?”

“Yes.”

After hearing Yoon Hyunseo say she wanted a badge, I had grabbed a handful of them.

If these were really precious as Yoon Hyunseo said, the guild should have stopped me, but no one did.

It meant they were extremely common.

“I think you might be misunderstanding something. Badges are really common. I have a lot of them too. Take any you need.”

I opened my pouch in front of Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi.

Exactly thirty badges glittered in the sunlight.

“Huh…?”

“What’s this?”

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi blinked as they looked into the pouch.

They leaned in so close it looked like they might fall in, then alternated between looking at me and the badges in the pouch.

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

Then they made strange questioning noises again.

—

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