This was bad. 

What would happen if the Master got angry? Nervously, I clutched my tail with both hands and looked up at him, pleading, “Please… don’t get mad.”

I knew there was little chance he would actually listen. After all, I was just a freeloader at the guild, and he was basically a king here.

It was entirely up to him whether he wanted to scold Kwon Arin or dismiss her altogether. With a worried look, I glanced up at him, but he simply placed a reassuring hand on my head.

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

“W-well, this girl made the strange claim that she’s an adventurer with the Yeomyeong Guild…” The woman who had been arguing with Arin pointed at her, as though trying to shift all the blame onto her. Arin shrank back, but the Master remained expressionless.

“If she’s claiming that, it’s because she is a guild adventurer,” he replied.

“W-what?” The woman’s face drained of color as she grasped the implications. She stood frozen, not even daring to breathe.

“It seems you two had some sort of disagreement,” he observed.

“Th-that’s…”

“It’s fine to have spirit, but don’t overdo it.”

The Master then turned his gaze to Arin. He seemed to be listening to my request not to get mad, as he showed no sign of anger.

‘Maybe the Master isn’t as scary as he seems.’

Even though I was just a stray, he’d let me live at the guild, and he even considered my requests. Maybe he wasn’t as harsh as people said.

“And as for you.”

“Y-yes…!” Arin snapped to attention, closing her eyes tightly as though bracing for her end.

“Remember, once you say something, you can’t take it back.”

“Yes…”

The Master approached her, and though he whispered quietly so only she could hear, I was close enough to catch it. He told her to work hard so that her words wouldn’t just be empty boasts.

Pat, pat. He gently patted her on the shoulder. The Master was a kinder person than I’d ever imagined.

“Th-thank you!” Arin stammered.

“Alright,” he replied, and with that, the incident was resolved. We moved toward the dug-out area, where he and the others observed the pit I’d made with Levinas. I felt a bit embarrassed.

“This… is the burrow that Levinas and I dug together…” I explained, a little self-conscious. Levinas puffed up with pride, putting her hands on her hips.

“Why did you dig this hole?” asked a gentle-looking woman who crouched down beside me, her kind smile instantly putting me at ease.

“I-it’s for wild instinct training…” I replied.

“Wild instinct training?”

“Yes, if I live in the wild, it helps me develop my instincts.”

“Oh, really? So beast-kin do that kind of training? By the way, I’m Chae Ju-yeon, the Guild Master of Sacred Guild,” she introduced herself, extending a hand.

She wanted to shake hands, so I held her hand in return.

“Are you really a Guild Master?”

“Yes. In fact, excluding their aides, everyone here is a Guild Master.”

“Wait… what?” 

All these people were Guild Masters? I glanced around in shock, and Chae Ju-yeon, noticing the pit I’d dug, gently climbed down into it.

“Master…!” one of her aides protested, but she waved him off, reassuring him she was fine. Unconcerned by the dirt, she crouched in the pit I’d made.

“Wow… I really do feel more connected to nature here.”

“Really…?”

“Yes, maybe it’s the smell of the soil, but I definitely feel it.”

“Hehe.”

I was worried she’d think I was strange, but since she was a Guild Master, she seemed to understand my training methods. Just as I was about to climb down, a middle-aged man spoke up from behind us.

“Ahem, it’s getting late. Shouldn’t we get the kids some dinner?”

“Oh… I hadn’t thought of that.”

Chae Ju-yeon easily hopped out of the pit, which made Levinas’s eyes sparkle.

“Shall we have dinner at the guild?”

“That was the plan, but the menu isn’t exactly kid-friendly. Maybe we should ask them what they’d like to eat.”

“Hmm… that sounds good.”

Everyone turned to Levinas and me.

Did they want to eat dinner with us? The thought was a bit overwhelming, but I didn’t feel like I could say no. I glanced at Levinas, who was hopping up and down like Chae Ju-yeon.

“Levinas, is there anything you’d like to eat?”

“Anything the King likes, Levinas likes too!”

“Um… right…”

Choosing dinner for all these important people felt like a test. But I didn’t know what kind of food high-ranking people ate, so I was left with only one option.

“I… I like pork cutlets…”

I said this while gauging their reactions. Pork cutlets cost around ten thousand won a plate, but it felt oddly humble for such esteemed company.

“Oh, pork cutlets sound delicious,” one of them said.

“Yes, I could go for that.”

“My kids love pork cutlets, so I’ve come to enjoy them too.”

The Guild Masters chatted amicably, and it seemed like I hadn’t made a bad choice after all.

—

“Excuse me,” I said as I entered the pork cutlet restaurant first. The kind, middle-aged woman who owned the place greeted me warmly.

“Hello, Gyeoul. Good to see you!”

“Yes, I brought a lot of guests today.”

“Oh, did you now?”

“Yes, I’m going to help you sell a lot of pork cutlets!”

I’d worried about how the restaurant was doing since the portions here were always so generous. I was glad I could bring in customers to help her business.

I waited by the door, wagging my tail as people started filing in. Soon, the Guild Masters stepped inside, and the bustling atmosphere of the restaurant fell silent.

“…What’s going on?”

“Are all the Guild Masters having a gathering at a pork cutlet place?”

“Is that Yeomyeong, Utopia, Sacred… and Hwarang Guild?”

Everyone in the restaurant was staring in disbelief. Maybe bringing all these Guild Masters here wasn’t a good idea after all. I looked up at the owner nervously, and she also seemed shocked.

“Gyeoul, are these… your guests?”

“Yes. I suggested pork cutlets.”

Had I made a mistake? As I looked around anxiously, Chae Ju-yeon approached me.

“Winter, do you like fish cutlets?”

“Yes, I like pork cutlets with fish the most.”

“I thought so,” she said, placing a hand on my head. For some reason, it made me close my eyes instinctively.

“How did you know I like fish?” I asked, curious.

“Oh, I just had a feeling,” she replied, smiling playfully down at me. I couldn’t tell how she’d guessed my favorite.

“Well, the King is a cat, so of course you like fish!” Levinas chimed in.

“…Do cats like fish?”

Was that why I, as a feline beast-kin, enjoyed fish so much? This was surprising. In my world, cats didn’t have a particular liking for fish.

“Shall we sit down, then?”

“Yes.”

I took a seat with everyone, and to my surprise, eating with the Guild Masters wasn’t bad at all. Despite their high status, everyone was kind.

—

Meanwhile, Park Min-gyu prowled around the beginner hunting grounds with bloodshot eyes, searching for the one who had ruined his life.

‘That brat…’

His older brother, once an executive in the Legion Guild, had been dismissed, and Min-gyu had barely escaped his brother’s violent rage.

‘I’ll get you, you damned cat.’

Min-gyu knew that Winter often showed up near the beginner hunting grounds. Blinded by anger and devoid of any self-awareness, he began harboring deep-seated resentment toward Winter.

‘I’ll rip you to pieces.’

He’d made up his mind. He was going to make her life as miserable as his, to make her beg for mercy in a life as ruined as his own.

After several days of lurking around the beginner hunting grounds, he finally spotted them—two children playing outside a pork cutlet shop.

“Your Highness, let’s do the hopping game!”

“Sure, let’s do it!”

He found them.

A sinister grin spread across Min-gyu’s face. Did they have any idea what awaited them? He cracked his neck and began approaching the two children, unaware of the people inside the building watching over them with keen eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep