Hide and Seek
Hide and seek, gotcha—! With a sharp crack, the Noll Warrior’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle. No need to check; it was clearly an instant kill.
“One shot…”
“Yeah. I’m pretty strong.” Saebyeok proudly flexed her slender arm. It looked so soft that if you pulled it, it might stretch like rice cake.
“…How strong was the boss?”
“Really weak.”
“U-uh…” Weak? Its fangs were as long as my head. I opened my mouth for no reason and pressed down on my own fangs. Compared to the Noll Warrior’s, mine were tiny. Sharper, maybe, but not particularly useful.
“Would you like it if Winter’s fangs were longer too?” Han Yeoreum slipped her fingers into my mouth. She pressed on my fangs as if testing their sharpness, and I just kept my mouth open, worried I might accidentally bite her.
“Oh my, at this length they’re basically knives.”
“Yesh.” My pronunciation came out slurred because my mouth was open. Han Yeoreum noticed and withdrew her hand with a soft laugh.
“I’ll have to be careful no one gets bitten.”
“Yes. I’ll be careful.” I wouldn’t bite anyone anyway, but there was no harm in promising. I nodded, and Levinas suddenly dashed behind me and hid.
“King! The King of Darkness has awakened…! He’s been tainted by the shadows…!” Levinas tugged at my clothes. Her trembling hands looked genuinely frightened.
“No, he was just protecting us.”
“R-really…?”
“Yeah. He’s a good King of Darkness.”
“……!” Levinas’s ears perked up. She trotted over to Saebyeok. Saebyeok’s normally expressionless tail began to wag rapidly from side to side.
“King of Darkness! Thank you for protecting Levinas!”
“Mm.” Levinas buried herself in Saebyeok’s arms. Saebyeok’s tail swayed contentedly. It was a happy moment I wished could last forever.
After leaving the dungeon, I showered and headed down to the park. I left the loot with Han Yeoreum and Kwon A-rin while I played with the kids. Playing well with children was part of an adult’s job, after all.
“King!” Levinas came running from afar, waving. Perched on her head was the Noll Warrior’s pelt like a hat.
“You’re wearing a hat?”
“Yeah! It’s not scary!”
“Grr.” Levinas struck a threatening pose just like I had during wild training. She held out her not-very-sharp claws, but honestly, it wasn’t scary at all.
“Um… it was a little scary.”
“Kiki! Now Levinas is just like the King?!”
“Like me?”
“Yeah! We’re both beasts!”
“Ah…” So that’s why Levinas had come wearing the Noll Warrior’s pelt. She wanted to be a beast. It was such an adorable idea, the kind only a child could have.
“Yeah. We’re the same kind of beast.”
“Hehe! Today I’m going to be fierce like a real beast!”
“Fierce?”
“Yeah!” Maybe because she was wearing the beast’s pelt, Levinas’s movements grew rougher. I held out my claws toward her.
“Like… grr…?”
“Th-that’s too scary… A little less fierce…”
“Okay. Less fierce.” Wearing a beast’s skin didn’t actually make you brave. I decided to tone it down like she asked.
“Rawr.”
“Kyao.” Levinas and I played at being beasts, but a little less fiercely. I knew it was childish, but I would do anything to play with her. We had been at it for a while when Saebyeok, fresh from her shower, walked over.
“Boss.” Saebyeok reached for the Noll Warrior hat on Levinas’s head. Levinas squeezed her eyes shut in alarm.
“King of Darkness…! Don’t break Levinas’s neck…!”
“Mm. I won’t.” Saebyeok placed her hand on Levinas’s head—specifically, on the Noll Warrior pelt.
“Levinas is a doggy.”
“A doggy? Isn’t this a cat?”
“Mm. Not a cat, a doggy.”
“Hic…!” Levinas’s eyes went wide like a horned rabbit’s as she shook her head. The Noll Warrior hat tumbled to the ground.
“You don’t want to wear the hat anymore?”
“Yeah! Levinas thought it was a cat!”
“Ah…” So she had wanted to be the same kind of cat. Out of the three of us, Levinas was the only horned rabbit beastkin. Maybe her desire to become a beast came from the loneliness of being the only herbivore among us. Everyone else in the guild was a carnivore at heart.
‘I should try pretending to be a horned rabbit later.’ Levinas would definitely like that. I made a mental note to look for a horned-rabbit-shaped hat.
“Then shall we play something else?”
“Yeah! Let’s play something else!”
“Hmm…” What would be fun? While I was thinking, Saebyeok suddenly raised her hand. The Noll Warrior hat now sat on her head.
“Let’s play hide and seek.”
“Hide and seek?”
“Yeah. I’m really good at hiding.”
Hide and seek. If the kids wanted to play it, I didn’t mind. My role wasn’t to play, but to play with them.
“What about Levinas?”
“Hide and seek is great! Levinas is good at hiding too!”
“Okay. Then let’s play hide and seek.” The game was decided. I figured I should be the seeker. Just as we were about to start, I spotted Yu Sang-ah walking toward us from a distance.
“Cat-nim, Rabbit-nim.” At Yu Sang-ah’s voice, everyone’s ears perked up. We each greeted her in our own way.
“Hornhorn came!”
“Hornhorn?”
“Yeah! Because you’re Sang-ah, so you’re horns!”
“Ah…” Yu Sang-ah chuckled, understanding the nickname the children had given her. She didn’t seem bothered by it.
“Are you off work?”
“Yes, I came out for a walk before heading home.”
“I see.” Our park was a nice place for a stroll. I felt a little proud.
“What were you doing, Winter-nim?”
“We’re about to play hide and seek.”
“Oh my, may I join too?” Yu Sang-ah clasped her hands together as if praying. The desire to play with us was obvious.
“Then will you hide?”
“No, I’ll be the seeker.”
“Okay, sounds good.” Levinas bounced in place, clearly delighted by Yu Sang-ah’s participation. After jumping for a while, she suddenly gasped.
“Hornhorn! But since it’s just us playing, you can’t pull hair when you find us, okay?!”
“Hair?”
“Yeah! Like this!” Levinas grabbed her own hair and yanked it upward hard. The pull was strong enough to startle anyone watching.
“W-why would you pull hair…?” Yu Sang-ah quickly grabbed Levinas’s wrist and tapped it lightly, as if telling her to stop.
“Doesn’t Hornhorn know?! When you’re hiding and get found, you’re supposed to get your hair pulled!”
“I… see?” Yu Sang-ah’s face grew paler and paler as she blinked. I poked her waist, but she remained frozen, unresponsive.
‘So Levinas had similar experiences too.’ Of course. She had lived through just as much hardship as I had. She must have hidden from scary people plenty of times. If you got caught, you got hit even harder—so you had no choice but to hide. A sigh slipped out as old memories surfaced.
“H-hide and seek isn’t a game where you pull hair when you find someone…”
At Yu Sang-ah’s explanation, Levinas and Saebyeok tilted their heads in confusion.
“Then you don’t slap cheeks either?”
“C-cheeks?”
“Yeah. When you get found, they slap your cheek and tell you not to do unnecessary things.” Saebyeok lightly tapped her own cheek. Yu Sang-ah couldn’t bear to watch and squeezed her eyes shut.
‘What…’ They took it for granted that getting caught meant getting hit. Yu Sang-ah couldn’t easily open her mouth, because she understood why the children spoke this way.
‘They must have hidden from adults.’ And when they were found, they got slapped. Without meaning to, Yu Sang-ah imagined the children being hit. She had known they lived difficult lives, but not to this extent. As an adult, all she felt was guilt.
“It’s okay… Hide and seek isn’t a game where you hit people when you find them.”
“R-really…?” Levinas’s eyes grew round. She looked like she couldn’t quite believe it. Winter spoke to her.
“When it’s just us playing, you don’t have to worry about getting hit. It’s like practice.”
Practice at hiding from adults so you wouldn’t get hit. That was all Yu Sang-ah could hear in Winter’s words.
“So we’re just pretending?”
“Hmm… We don’t really have to pretend, but pretending might make it feel more real.”
“Really?! Then let’s just pretend!”
“Shall we?” Winter’s gaze turned to Yu Sang-ah. Through the children’s conversation, Yu Sang-ah realized the seeker was supposed to act like a “bad person.” She needed to teach them that hide and seek wasn’t that kind of game. But even if she explained it, would children who had spent their whole lives hiding from adults truly understand?
Yu Sang-ah glanced around helplessly, hoping someone would help. As the guild’s receptionist, she knew many people in the park, but the moment they met her eyes, they all turned away.
‘They were listening the whole time!’ What terrible adults. Holding back tears, Yu Sang-ah forced an awkward smile at the children.
“U-um, can I just be the one who hides…?”
“Okay. Then I’ll be the seeker.”
“Thank you…” I’m sorry I couldn’t teach you properly. Instead, I’ll show you by playing with all my heart. What hide and seek is really supposed to be. Yu Sang-ah thought this to herself. She couldn’t convince children who had spent their lives hiding from adults with words alone.