“Nyaaaa!”

I looked back after running up the stairs to the middle floor.

Levinas and Saebyeok followed a step behind me, while Gaeul stood frozen in place with wide eyes.

Tap tap tap-

I heard running footsteps from outside the emergency exit, then Kwon Arin’s hand suddenly stretched out.

“Uik?”

Kwon Arin picked up Gaeul with one hand and tucked her under her arm.

Bom was already caught under Kwon Arin’s other arm, mirroring Gaeul’s dazed expression.

“Got two.”

Kwon Arin grinned and looked up the staircase.

For some reason, I instinctively felt the need to run away.

“Everyone run!”

At Levinas’s shout, we all ran toward our apartment upstairs as if we’d planned it.

Thanks to the beast-kins’ exceptional senses, I could look back while running.

“Huk.”

Kwon Arin was chasing Saebyeok, who was relatively slower.

But Saebyeok was still slightly faster than Kwon Arin.

Tap tap tap-!

Just as Saebyeok was using all her strength to escape Kwon Arin, Gaeul, who had been tucked under Kwon Arin’s arm with a blank expression, suddenly smiled and reached out toward Saebyeok.

“Kkamang join.”

Gaeul stretched out her hand and grabbed Saebyeok’s tail.

She wasn’t trying to be a spoiler; she just seemed happy that Saebyeok was getting closer.

“Gaeul, you’re not supposed to catch me—”

Unfortunately, Saebyeok couldn’t finish her sentence.

Kwon Arin had grabbed Saebyeok’s tail that Gaeul was holding.

“Got three.”

Kwon Arin chuckled and tucked Saebyeok under her arm.

Gaeul was on top and Saebyeok on the bottom.

Slurp slurp-

Gaeul licked Saebyeok’s ear, which was now below her.

Kwon Arin, carrying all three children, steadily chased after us.

“Huok! Gaeul the dog betrayed us!”

Pitter-patter-

Levinas ran up the stairs with her arms stretched out to both sides.

We managed to reach the emergency exit on the upper floor.

“King! Hurry!”

“Y-yeah…”

It happened in that split second as we opened the emergency exit and ran out.

Levinas, who had been impatiently shuffling her feet right behind me, was caught by Kwon Arin.

“Huuuuok!”

Levinas let out a death cry as her body lifted into the air.

Kwon Arin had snatched her up.

“Nyaaa!”

Startled, I ran all the way to our apartment without looking back.

Only when I reached our front door did I realize I’d made a fatal mistake.

‘The passcode!’

I quickly tried to enter the passcode for our apartment, but Kwon Arin was approaching faster than I could type.

When I felt a shadow over my head and turned around, I saw Kwon Arin grinning down at me.

“…!”

My tail shot straight up.

At the same time, Gaeul, who was caught under Kwon Arin’s arm, smiled brightly and grabbed my hand.

“!”

**

“Ehihi.”

Nothing particularly bad happened after being caught by Kwon Arin.

She just poked our sides and tickled us a bit.

So I ended up like the other children, caught by Kwon Arin and brought downstairs.

“Time for everyone to go to prison.”

We went into Kwon Arin’s apartment and rested on the sofa.

Gaeul sat next to me to rest, but she had her tongue slightly out while staring intently at something.

“Gaeul, what are you looking at?”

“Ago!”

“Ago?”

“Ago! Ago!”

What could “ago” mean?

I looked in the direction Gaeul was pointing.

On the table at the end of Gaeul’s finger was a toy alligator.

“An alligator?”

“Nyeam…!”

Gaeul got up from the sofa and approached the toy alligator.

She picked up the alligator with its mouth wide open and plopped down on the floor.

“Aaak.”

Gaeul opened her mouth as wide as the alligator toy’s and even stuck her finger between the alligator’s jaws.

Watching this, Bom smiled mischievously.

“Gaeul, you might get bitten by the alligator if you do that.”

“Heuk…”

Did she think the toy couldn’t possibly do that?

Gaeul giggled and stuck her entire hand into the alligator’s mouth.

And then.

Snap-

The alligator closed its wide-open mouth and bit Gaeul’s hand.

“Oh.”

So it really does bite.

Everyone’s ears perked up in surprise when the alligator’s mouth suddenly closed—everyone except Gaeul.

“Aeaeaeaeaeng.”

Did she think her hand was in danger from the alligator?

Gaeul started wailing like an emergency siren.

She made “aeng” sounds while shaking her hand, but the alligator toy that had bitten Gaeul’s hand wouldn’t let go.

This seems like it bit pretty hard.

I quickly approached Gaeul and pulled open the alligator toy’s mouth.

The alligator toy opened more easily than I expected.

“Eng?”

I examined Gaeul’s hand, but there didn’t seem to be any injuries.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have bitten that hard.

“Agobad!”

“Yes. The alligator is very bad.”

Gaeul’s eyebrows rose angrily.

She was upset at the alligator toy that had bitten her hand.

“What’s going on?”

Kwon Arin, who had been preparing snacks in the kitchen, ran to the living room.

She smiled as if she understood the situation when she saw the alligator in Gaeul’s hand.

“Did the alligator bite you?”

“Yes. Gaeul was playing with the alligator toy and got bitten.”

“Hehe, you have to be careful with that one—if you press the wrong tooth, the alligator snaps shut.”

“Tooth?”

Curious, I pressed each of the protruding teeth one by one.

Gaeul followed me and poked the alligator’s teeth.

Poke poke poke-

When I pressed the sixth tooth from the left, the alligator snapped shut.

“…!”

I used the beast-kin’s quick reflexes to pull my finger out before the mouth closed.

Unfortunately, Gaeul wasn’t able to pull her finger out in time.

With her finger caught, Gaeul flopped down on the living room floor.

She closed her eyes and played dead.

“Huok! Gaeul doggy!”

Levinas got down from the sofa and ran toward Gaeul.

After running over with a worried expression, she proceeded to poke Gaeul’s side.

“…!”

Gaeul’s body twitched from the tickling.

Watching this, Saebyeok poked the other side.

Eventually, Gaeul couldn’t stand the tickling and burst into laughter.

“Uhihi.”

I looked up at Kwon Arin while listening to the children’s laughter.

I wanted to resolve my curiosity.

“Do you like toys?”

“Not particularly, they’re just props I use for my broadcasts. I have other toys too—want to see them?”

Kwon Arin went into her room and came back with a new toy.

It was a treasure chest with a goblin poking its head out from among the treasures.

“What’s this?!”

“It’s a game where you drive away the goblin hogging all the treasure.”

“What?!”

Kwon Arin opened her other clenched hand.

In her palm were several tiny toy knives.

“…”

After thinking for a moment, Levinas took one of the knives and stabbed it into a hole in the box.

Despite the knife entering the box through the hole, the goblin just laughed wickedly.

“It’s fine!”

“Want to try stabbing it more?”

“Hmm…”

Levinas continued to stab knives into the holes in the treasure chest.

Around the sixth knife, the goblin suddenly popped out of the treasure chest.

-Kyaok!

The screaming goblin flew up to the ceiling.

Flinch-

The startled children jumped and looked up at the goblin flying through the air.

The goblin, after hitting the ceiling, landed precisely on Saebyeok’s forehead.

Kwon Arin chuckled at the sound of the goblin toy colliding with Saebyeok.

“Saebyeok got hit.”

“Is that supposed to happen?”

“Yeah. The toy is called ‘The Goblin’s Revenge.'”

“Aha.”

So the goblin that was stabbed with knives was getting revenge on Saebyeok.

It truly was an interesting toy.

We all gathered to play with the fascinating goblin toy.

Tok-

After everyone had been hit by the goblin once, Kwon Arin asked:

“Did you just come to play today?”

“Ah…! We actually had something to ask you…!”

Kwon Arin’s question reminded me of the purpose of our visit that I’d forgotten.

We had come to ask her to do a broadcast about the safety of the divine beasts, but I’d completely forgotten while having fun.

“Ask me?”

“Yes.”

I told Kwon Arin about the divine beasts.

Understanding the situation, Kwon Arin nodded.

“For that, we just need to film you playing well with the divine beasts.”

“Is that enough?”

“Yeah. People won’t fear those who get along well with others.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Come to think of it, I was scared of Leo at first too.

I was intimidated by the Saint Bernard’s huge size.

But Leo was well-behaved, gentle, and kind.

Once I realized that, I was able to overcome my fear of Leo.

“Let’s go downstairs and film the broadcast quickly.”

“Hmm… how about we do the broadcast tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

Instead of looking at me, Kwon Arin nodded toward where the children were.

The children were laughing brightly while playing with the goblin and alligator toys.

“Good Bom, try to catch the falling goblin with the alligator!”

“Okay. I’ll try to catch it.”

The children had created a new game with the two toys.

I definitely didn’t want to interrupt this precious time.

“Let’s do the broadcast tomorrow.”

“Shall we?”

I sat back down among the children.

Just then, Bom held out the alligator’s snout toward the goblin that had popped up.

Like a baseball player catching a ball with a glove.

“Oh.”

Unfortunately, Bom failed to catch the goblin.

The goblin, passing through the wide-open jaws, landed on my head.

Thump-

With a light sound, the goblin settled on top of my head.

Instead of bouncing off as I expected, it stood on my head.

“!”

Gaeul threw a punch at the goblin, which looked like it had conquered my head.

Bonk-

Gaeul’s punch hit the goblin squarely.

“Ahem.”

Gaeul proudly puffed out her chest as she watched the goblin fly away.

Then she came over to me and licked my ear.

The ear she had reclaimed from the goblin.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep