chapter_0540

540 – Where is the Criminal?

540 – Where is the Criminal?

The items bought from the mart, Levinas’s carrot bag, and Gaeul’s treasure bag were all gone.

“Meow…”

It was when Gaeul’s siren sound was gradually fading.

Haneul was stomping her feet, pointing to the flower bed behind the bench.

“The bag is here…!”

“Huh?”

Levinas’s bag and a pile of carrots were dumped in the flower bed.

It seemed someone had spilled the carrots there.

“Whoa! Levinas’s carrots…!”

Levinas picked up the bag.

It looked like the thief had stomped on Levinas’s bag, as there were footprints on the side of it.

“Ugh! They messed up Levinas’s carrot bag…!”

Levinas stomped the ground a couple of times and began putting the carrots back into the bag.

Bomi grabbed Levinas’s arm.

“Levinas, those fell on the ground.”

“Yeah! Carrots grow in the ground!”

“Oh? That’s true?”

Bomi tilted her head, and Levinas reached out to wipe off the footprints on the bag.

Bomi grabbed Levinas’s arm again.

“Don’t wipe off the footprints yet; they’re evidence of the thief!”

“Gasp…! Are we going to find the culprit using the footprints…?!”

“Yeah. Let’s investigate with this.”

Wow.

That’s our Bomi for you.

I also wanted to wipe the footprints quickly because they were dirty, but her thoughts were different.

‘We found Levinas’s bag, and now we just need to find Gaeul’s bag…’

That bag was something Gaeul cherished dearly.

She must be quite heartbroken about losing it.

As I turned to look at Gaeul with a bitter heart, contrary to my expectations, Gaeul was seriously scanning the surroundings.

Sniff sniff—

Gaeul, who was sniffing, picked up a small stone that had fallen in the playground.

Then Gaeul’s tail began to wag vigorously.

“Cha-tto! Cha-tto!”

“Did you find it?”

“Haah…!”

The stone Gaeul picked up looked familiar.

It was the stone that Gaeul always carried in her bag.

“Wow, you found a stone?”

“Neigh…!”

Gaeul giggled and hugged the stone tightly.

She was so happy with just that one thing, yet she lost everything else.

Here, I decided to fully utilize my abilities as a Beastman.

“Gaeul, just trust me. I’ll find it.”

“Chwiing?!”

“Yeah. I have a good nose.”

Since these were items Gaeul cherished, they must be heavily scented with her smell, right?

I raised my nose high and began to sniff.

‘The scent leads outside the playground.’

As I followed the scent, the children trailed behind me.

Thus, we were able to discover a few of Gaeul’s belongings near the back gate of the playground.

“Patte!”

Straws, an ice cream wrapper, and even fish bones.

Though they might seem trivial to someone, they were precious treasures to our Gaeul.

“Whoa!”

We all gathered Gaeul’s items and put them into Levinas’s bag.

Even though we hadn’t found all the treasures, Gaeul was happy and hugged each of the children tightly.

“Thank you.”

“Gaeul, you don’t need to thank us! This is only natural!”

Ahem.

Next to Levinas, who was puffing out her chest, Saebyeok was deep in thought.

Even though she looked just like me, there was something cool about Saebyeok being like that.

“Saebyeok, what’s wrong?”

“Why did the thief throw away all the items from the stolen bag?”

“Maybe they were searching for something valuable? If they checked and found nothing expensive, they just tossed it.”

We could buy some time while we gathered the dropped items.

It could be considered quite an intelligent crime.

“Juin! Are you okay?!”

“No?”

“Neigh! I found it!”

Gaeul showed the straw she had taken from Levinas’s bag.

If it was a 100-won straw, it meant it was quite an expensive straw.

“Well… it is an expensive straw, so they threw it away.”

“Stupid thief.”

“Yeah. The thief is an idiot.”

It was a harsh word, but they were a bad thief, after all.

We giggled as we moved on to find the next item.

“Over there!”

“There’s one there too!”

Crumpled paper and colored paper.

An empty bottle saved as emergency money, and so on.

As we picked up Gaeul’s belongings one by one, we discovered a pile of Gaeul’s items dumped by the roadside tree.

“Cha-tto! Cha-tto!”

Gaeul rushed over and picked up a red thread bundle from among the items.

“Whoa!”

Gaeul, with the thread bundle on her head, displayed the greatest joy she had shown so far.

It seemed to be the item she cherished the most among her treasures.

“Gaeul really loves this thread bundle, huh?”

“Neigh! Juin is pretty!”

“Ah…”

The red thread bundle was an accessory Gaeul used when she dressed up.

I had once complimented her on how pretty it looked on her head.

Thanks to that compliment, it seemed she had come to cherish the thread bundle the most.

“I’m glad we found this.”

“Haah…!”

As I watched Gaeul rubbing the thread bundle against her cheek, I scanned the surroundings.

Gaeul’s scent had stopped at the bus stop.

‘Looks like she took the bus.’

That would make tracking difficult.

Getting in a vehicle significantly broadens the range of activity.

“Gaeul, it seems the thief got on the bus with the bag.”

“That’s okay!”

“Are you sure?”

“Neigh! Gaeul is happy!”

Gaeul showed the thread bundle.

Since she found her most precious item, was she okay?

The bag must be one of Gaeul’s treasures too…

Regrettably, we decided to head home for now.

We had managed to find most of the other treasures, after all.

**

We returned home and organized Gaeul’s treasures.

It was a sorting of what had been lost.

“Black?”

“…But there’s no black crayon?”

Bomi, who was helping to organize the treasures, said while glancing at Gaeul.

Though Bomi often played pranks, she acted seriously this time, knowing how much Gaeul cherished her treasures.

“That’s okay, that’s okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Haah!”

As I watched Gaeul smiling brightly, Haneul was writing a checklist beside her.

It was the moment she wrote down the black crayon on the list of lost items.

“Don’t worry! Levinas will give you a black crayon!”

Levinas placed a black crayon in front of Gaeul.

Seeing this, Haneul erased the black crayon she had written on the checklist.

“Black!”

Gaeul’s eyes sparkled as she received a new treasure.

She had bought plenty of black crayons since she often needed them, so it was a relief.

As I smiled watching Gaeul’s joy, the front door opened, and three people entered the living room.

Hanyeoreum, Jeong Yuna, and Choi Jin-hyuk.

“Hey, what’s all this?”

“Isn’t this Gaeul’s treasure?”

Hanyeoreum and Jeong Yuna’s eyes widened as they looked at Gaeul’s treasures laid out on the living room floor.

I explained to them what had happened since they came home and gave them the full story.

“You got your bag stolen…?”

“Yeah. But we found everything that was inside the bag.”

“What about the items you bought at the mart?”

“That’s not really important.”

What mattered were the items filled with memories, not the things bought today.

I waved my hand to indicate it was fine, but the expressions of the three were not good.

“Are there any traces of the culprit?”

“There are! Levinas collected the footprints!”

“That…”

Levinas proudly presented the bag.

The footprints stamped on the side of Levinas’s bag made the expressions of the three darken.

“That’s just too much.”

Huh.

Hanyeoreum sighed, and Jeong Yuna stroked her chin, deep in thought.

“Um… the footprint size seems like that of a male high school student, right? Is the culprit a student from a nearby high school?”

“A high school student?”

“Yeah. These are slipper footprints. Students often wear those as indoor shoes.”

“Uh… could it be an adult wearing them…?”

“No.”

At my question, Jeong Yuna shook her head firmly.

It seemed they had concluded the culprit was a student.

“Gyeoul said she played at the children’s playground over there, right?”

“Yeah. She played at the children’s playground.”

“If a grown man loiters near a children’s playground, the parents around would be concerned. It would actually make stealing harder.”

“Ah.”

That makes sense.

Children are the ones to be protected.

If an adult male without children loiters near a children’s playground, parents would naturally be on guard.

“Since he was in a school uniform, the adults around probably wouldn’t have been suspicious… If an adult were to steal, they wouldn’t target children’s bags, right?”

“Yeah. That makes sense.”

“And if the culprit were an adult, they wouldn’t have thrown away the carrots.”

“Oh…”

Indeed, students tended to dislike vegetables.

Of course, adults also disliked vegetables, but these small pieces were adding up to increase the likelihood that the culprit was a student.

“I think the students stole the bag for fun. It’s the age where they think being reckless is cool.”

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

We all clapped for Jeong Yuna’s deduction.

Hanyeoreum was almost gaping in awe.

“Yuna, you’re so smart…?”

“…I’m a magician, you know?”

“Oh, right.”

“Is that so?”

In the midst of Hanyeoreum and Jeong Yuna’s playful banter, Levinas suddenly interjected.

Levinas’s eyebrows were raised fiercely.

“Are we going to punish the culprit?! Are we going to give them a good smack?!”

“Yeah. If we check the nearby high school, we’ll find them soon.”

“Wow!”

I thought we wouldn’t be able to find the thief.

Thanks to Jeong Yuna, the children’s spirits were lifted.

“Yay!”

Gaeul also threw a punch into the air in anger.

“Hey, yah…!”

Haneul followed Gaeul and threw a punch as well.

Thinking of Haneul throwing a mechanical fist punch at the culprit was a bit scary.

A word from the author (Author’s note)

Thank you so much for reading today, PIA1747014585384!

Thank you for the comments and recommendations! They always give me strength…!

I’m really sorry for being late…! I overslept a bit today, so I woke up late ㅠ.T_T..