Ha ha ha.

The young snake beast-kin burst out laughing confidently.

Not liking her attitude, Levinas, who was hiding behind me, showed rare anger.

“What’s so funny?!”

“Playing mean tricks is fun!”

Playing mean tricks is fun?

For Levinas, who never did bad things, this must have been quite shocking.

“If you play mean tricks, you become a bad child…”

Levinas hid her face behind my back again.

I started to understand why Levinas was scared of snake beast-kin.

‘Are all snake beast-kin bad?’

The one we saw before, and this one too.

They both gave off quite an evil vibe.

‘Is it their nature? Or…’

While I was examining the young snake beast-kin, the client approached me.

He tapped my shoulder with an apologetic expression.

“I’m sorry for not believing you. I never thought it would really be a fake cat… I had prejudice because such young children came…”

“It’s okay. Magic can be hard to believe.”

If it weren’t for the scent and meowing, even I wouldn’t have known.

It must have been even harder for the client, who wasn’t an adventurer or beast-kin.

“Anyway, my helmet…”

“Ah! The helmet!”

I quickly removed the helmet the snake beast-kin child was wearing.

Since it was a precious artifact, I used a handkerchief to avoid leaving fingerprints.

Even then, the child kept laughing.

“Oh my, what should we do with this naughty little one…”

“If you leave it to me, I’ll make sure she’s properly educated.”

Jung Yu-na seemed flustered by her first troublemaker, while Encia raised her eyebrows fiercely.

Jung Yu-na touched her lips thoughtfully before approaching the client.

“What would you like to do about this?”

“Well… I heard laws are applied differently to beast-kin, especially children…”

“That’s true, but considering it’s a precious artifact that was stolen…”

Ah.

Right, the artifact.

I took the helmet and approached the client.

But the client’s expression was strange when he received it.

“Why is the helmet restored…?”

“What?”

“These items attached to the helmet…”

The client showed the helmet to Jung Yu-na.

Jung Yu-na opened her mouth in surprise.

“You’re right? It’s almost perfectly repaired…”

“Yes. It was so old we didn’t dare restore it, worried it might break…”

“…It’s definitely authentic though.”

Jung Yu-na and the client’s gazes turned to the snake beast-kin child.

The child kept giggling, clearly entertained by something.

“I fixed your treasure!”

The child spoke kindly but with an evil tone.

The client couldn’t help feeling pleased since it was perfectly restored.

“I’m not changing it back! Doesn’t it hurt that your expensive treasure is changed?!”

“Uh… ugh… my helmet.”

The client acted awkwardly at the child’s question.

Though he pretended to be devastated, he couldn’t hide his twitching smile.

Jung Yu-na asked him:

“What should we do with the child?”

“Ugh… I’ll leave the punishment to the guild. Just thinking about the helmet…”

The client couldn’t take his eyes off the helmet.

Was the restoration really such a good thing?

‘He was said to be a famous collector.’

Nothing could be better than a perfectly restored artifact.

Leaving the snake beast-kin child to us seemed like a way to reduce her punishment.

“Alright. Then we’ll handle things on our end.”

“Yes. I’ll calculate and transfer the quest reward to your account.”

After completing the request, we returned to the guild with the child.

Though we wondered what to do with her on the way back, we couldn’t think of any good solutions.

**

“Kids, Encia and I need to have a meeting about this situation, so…”

“Yes. We’ll take good care of her.”

After Jung Yu-na and Encia left, we stayed in the park for a while.

Thanks to the snake beast-kin child, there was a strange tension in Yeomyeong Guild’s park.

“You have to wear this.”

Levinas put a necklace around the snake beast-kin child’s neck.

It was the bomb necklace she had worn when we first met Levinas.

Of course, Levinas knew it was fake.

“What’s this?”

“A bomb necklace! If you don’t listen, the necklace goes boom! It also goes boom if you try to take it off!”

Thinking she had the upper hand, Levinas giggled.

But far from being scared, the snake beast-kin child just made an evil expression.

“Then I’ll have to hug you tight. So we’ll explode together.”

“W-what?! Let go!”

The snake beast-kin child hugged Levinas tightly.

Being hugged by a species she disliked must have been horrible – Levinas’s ears shot straight up.

‘This is definitely a new type.’

Could this child become good like our children?

That would be nice.

Though I was worried, she was still just a child.

If we treated her sincerely, she might open her heart.

“This place is really wide. And the water’s so clear.”

The child let go of the hug and ran toward the pond.

I thought she was looking at the fish in the pond, but she started giggling while looking at the nearby pool.

“Why are you laughing again?”

“I just thought of a really evil prank.”

“…What kind of prank?”

“Moving all the fish from here into there. The little ones would scream in surprise.”

Moving the fish?

That’s…

“Gaeul already did that a while ago?”

“What?!”

The snake beast-kin child turned to look at Gaeul.

For the first time, we saw the snake child looking flustered.

“You’re quite evil despite your looks?”

“…!”

Gaeul’s eyes grew huge at being called evil.

She frantically waved her hands at the child.

“No! No!”

“What do you mean no? Only a really evil child could do this.”

“No…! Shuin…!”

Gaeul ran over and threw herself into my arms.

I patted her back comfortingly.

“Gaeul, should we go eat some chocolate?”

“Nyeng…”

I needed to comfort the dispirited Gaeul.

I took the children to the tent.

The snake beast-kin child followed behind us.

“Why are you following! Don’t follow us!”

Levinas grumbled at the child.

Having suffered much from snake beast-kin, she showed clear hostility.

The snake beast-kin child shrugged at Levinas’s reaction.

“Why not? We’re friends.”

“What?!”

Levinas jumped in surprise.

She hesitated, then reached for the necklace around the snake beast-kin’s neck.

“T-then Levinas will take this off…”

“No. This is a gift I received.”

“B-but, Levinas can give you a better gift…”

“Don’t want to. I like this one.”

“……”

Levinas watched the snake beast-kin child carefully.

Though it was fake, she seemed to feel bad about giving a bomb necklace to someone who called her a friend.

“Then will you at least eat chocolate with us…?”

“Sure!”

We all entered the tent together.

The snake beast-kin child looked around the tent interior, rolling her eyes.

“Why is everything so old?”

“I-it’s not old… Everything’s still usable…”

Old?

These things could still be used for years.

I unconsciously dusted off the tent.

“Do you collect antiques too?”

“Y-yes. Right, antiques. Not old things but antiques.”

“I see.”

Hehehe.

The snake beast-kin child laughed evilly.

Black light began emanating from her hands.

“…!”

Saebyeok quickly grabbed her wrist, but the mana had already started covering the tent.

Whoosh-

As black mana seeped into the tent, torn parts started mending themselves.

Dented pots returned to their original shape, and broken wooden boxes began restoring themselves.

“Wow…”

It was like turning back time.

We all watched the magical sight in amazement.

Even Saebyeok released the wrist she was holding.

“How’s that? Quite horrible, right?”

“Horrible?”

“Yes. All the antiques turned into new items.”

“Ah…”

Antiques were valuable because they were old.

Did she think making them new reduced their value?

First with the helmet, and now this.

She said she was playing mean tricks, but something felt very odd.

‘Does she not understand what mean tricks are?’

As I rolled my eyes thinking, I dropped to my knees.

“No, my antiques.”

Thump thump.

I hit the ground with my fist.

Not hard enough to hurt.

The snake beast-kin child burst out laughing.

“Even I think that was really evil.”

“Yeah… too evil…”

“…But since you’re my friend, I could change them back.”

“N-no. I like the tent with my friend’s evil mark on it.”

“Hmm… you understand something.”

Shrug.

The snake beast-kin child raised her shoulders.

I started thinking maybe she wasn’t such a bad child after all.

After tapping the ground a couple more times, I stood up and asked her:

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“Want to know?!”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s a secret!”

Ha ha ha.

She laughed playfully again.

After thinking it over, I decided to give her a nickname.

“If you won’t tell me your name, I’ll just call you Bom?”

“How dare you change someone’s name!”

“If you don’t like it…”

“That’s so evil! I love it!”

Liking it because it was evil?

Something felt off, but if she was happy with it, that was fine.

And so our new friend’s name became Bom.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep