chapter_0539

539 – Stolen

539 – Stolen

We played by throwing the ball to each other once.

Lost in the fun, we didn’t even notice the time passing, and the children who had disappeared returned.

“Hey, where have you been?”

“We went to get the picnic prizes!”

“Prizes?”

“Yeah! Levinas is going to use this crayon set as a prize!”

Levinas proudly showed off a crayon set that was like treasure.

It had been used quite a bit, but it was a precious item for Levinas.

“Are you sure it’s okay to give away something so precious?”

“Yeah! Levinas will show people the joy of drawing!”

“Wow.”

To give away something so precious just to share joy.

I felt so proud of Levinas’s pure heart.

“Whoever receives the crayons will be really happy.”

“Yeah! But the King of Darkness’s prize is amazing too!”

“Really?”

We naturally turned to Saebyeok.

Saebyeok took on a serious tone.

“I wasn’t going to bring this out, but…”

What Saebyeok pulled out from her arms was a white fur ball.

It looked soft like cotton candy, and I couldn’t help but reach out for it.

Just holding the fur ball made me feel good.

“Saebyeok, what is this?”

“Winter’s Fur Ball.”

“Uh, yeah…”

I had a feeling it would be like that.

I wondered if my fur ball had any value as a prize.

I wasn’t sure, but since it was Saebyeok’s precious item, it mattered more than price.

The value of the children’s prizes lay in their hearts rather than their cost.

“You all found great prizes. Haneul, have you decided on yours?”

“No… I haven’t decided yet…”

“I see? We have plenty of time, so shall we take our time deciding?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that…”

Haneul, Gaeul, and Bom.

I started to look forward to the prizes the children would prepare.

I also needed to prepare a prize that people would like.

But first, I decided to buy items for the picnic.

“Hey, shall we go to the mart?”

“Mart?!”

“Yeah. We’re going to buy things for the picnic.”

“Whoa! Isn’t it going to cost a lot if we buy everything?!”

“It’s okay. We won’t buy everything. Other people are going to help out one by one.”

We were going to buy decorations to make the picnic beautiful.

Things like paper posters and balloons that the children had drawn themselves.

If there were useful items after buying, we decided to look for more.

**

I bought the necessary items for the picnic at a large mart with the children.

Large poster paper and various colored papers.

And I bought additional drawing tools.

‘We bought everything we need…’

There might be more things we need later, but we can get those when the time comes.

After buying the picnic items, I came out of the mart with the children.

“Wanga, Wanga.”

“Yeah?”

“If we have nothing to do now, can we play at the early playground?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

The playground near the large mart had a different charm than our park playground.

The trademark equipment of this playground was a spinning ride called “Beng-Beng.”

“I’ll spin it for you.”

As Saebyeok grabbed the Beng-Beng, we felt a bit tense.

It was because Saebyeok had spun a similar ride in the past.

“Why don’t you try riding this time, Saebyeok…?”

“Me too?”

“Yeah.”

As I cautiously suggested, Saebyeok, who had been pondering for a moment, stepped into the ride.

Thanks to that, spinning the ride became someone else’s job.

“Master, can I try spinning it…?”

“Haneul?”

“Yeah…! I want to try spinning it too…!”

Since Haneul was naturally weak, it wouldn’t be scary if she spun it.

We all climbed onto the spinning ride.

“Blue Haneul, spin it hard!”

“Hard…?”

“Yeah! It has to be as fast as the Horned Rabbit!”

“Okay…! Then I’ll spin it quickly…”

“Good!”

Levinas, giggling, hugged the central pole of the ride tightly.

Seeing that, Haneul started fiddling with her mechanical arm.

“Uh…?”

Come to think of it, Haneul’s mechanical arm…!

Boom—!

Using her mechanical arm, Haneul spun the ride.

Even without containing Mana, the spinning speed was incredible.

“Nyahhh!”

“Whoa!”

“Chuin! Chuiiiin!”

“Ugh…!”

Everyone screamed at the tremendous spinning force.

As I looked around through the flying hair, the only one not screaming was Saebyeok.

She seemed to be enjoying the incredible spinning force instead.

“Nyahhh…!”

Saebyeok was indeed amazing.

But when would the spinning end?

Just as I was tightly holding onto the pole, the speed didn’t seem to decrease.

“Chuiiiin!”

Gaeul called me urgently.

When I looked back at Gaeul, she was almost about to fly off.

Gaeul was gripping the outer pole with both hands, but her entire body, except for her hands, was already outside the ride.

Due to the centrifugal force, her legs were floating in the air as she spun around, and Saebyeok caught Gaeul’s hand.

“Whew…”

Perhaps feeling relieved that Saebyeok was holding her hand, Gaeul spun around with a calm expression.

Then, the spinning force of the Beng-Beng, which seemed like it would go on forever, began to decrease.

Thanks to Saebyeok stretching her feet outside the ride to slow it down.

“Are you okay…?”

Haneul wiggled her fingers, checking on our condition.

Then Levinas, who had slid down the pole, lay on the ride with her eyes closed.

“Levinas has turned into a dizzy Horned Rabbit.”

“······!”

It sounded somewhat like Sophia.

Was it such a shocking experience that her tone changed?

Poke-poke—

When I poked Levinas’s belly while she lay on the ground, this time Gaeul started spinning in place.

“Beng-Beng…”

Gaeul, who was wobbling around, began to move outside the playground.

It seemed she couldn’t keep her balance due to dizziness.

‘It would be dangerous if she ends up on the road.’

I watched Gaeul just in case.

After spinning for a while, Gaeul collided with the glass wall of a building.

“Whew…?”

Gaeul, who stopped spinning, looked inside the glass wall.

Still dizzy, she swayed her body but examined it carefully.

“······!”

Did she discover something inside the wall?

Gaeul’s ears and tail perked up.

“Juin! Juin!”

Gaeul waved at me while looking at the glass wall.

What on earth did she see?

I followed Gaeul and pressed against the wall.

‘This is… an animal hospital…?’

Inside a large cage, animals that had received treatment were resting.

Gaeul pointed at one of them.

“Juin! Ee-keh!”

“That’s a chameleon.”

“Camac-leh?”

“Yeah. Chameleon.”

The chameleon resting in the cage.

It had a bandage on one of its legs, as if it had hurt it.

“Camac-leh Ee-keh Ee-keh.”

“Ee-keh?”

“Ee-keh…”

Gaeul took out colored paper she had bought at the mart from her pocket.

Covering her wrist with the red paper seemed to explain the chameleon’s camouflage ability.

“Yeah. Chameleons can change the color of their bodies freely.”

Just then, the chameleon that had climbed onto a sculptural tree changed its body to brown.

Seeing this, Gaeul started clapping her hands.

“Gaeul…?”

“Hmm… I don’t think Gaeul can do that. Gaeul doesn’t have camouflage ability.”

“Ugh…”

Gaeul looked quite disappointed.

Was it really true that she didn’t have that ability? She even tapped her wrist.

“Do you want to be a chameleon, Gaeul?”

Just then, Bom and the other children approached us.

They were expressing curiosity at Gaeul, who was tapping her wrist.

“It seems Gaeul wants to be a chameleon.”

“A chameleon?”

“Yeah. She’s envious of the chameleon’s ability.”

“Then should I turn her into a chameleon?”

Black Mana began to rise from Bom’s hand.

Seeing this, Gaeul quickly shook her head.

“Camac-leh!”

“Okay!”

Bom’s black Mana enveloped Gaeul.

After the Mana disappeared, Gaeul appeared surprisingly unchanged.

“Ugh?”

Gaeul looked down at her body, confused by the lack of any change.

Bom placed colored paper on Gaeul’s body.

“The chameleon’s camouflage is automatic. Want to try putting colored paper on your body?”

“Ee-keh…?”

Gaeul placed the red colored paper on her forearm again.

Then, surprisingly, Gaeul’s body began to change to red.

“Ee-keh-muyak!”

“Wow.”

So this is how Bom’s transformation magic can be used.

This could be quite useful in practice!

Gaeul seemed to like her camouflage ability, starting to giggle.

“Gaeul is amazing. Her body turned red.”

“Whew…!”

Gaeul wagged her tail and stuck out her tongue.

But then her extended tongue stretched long and poked my forehead.

The light touch of her tongue made my head tilt back slightly.

“Ugh?!”

Gaeul and I widened our eyes in surprise.

Seeing us, Bom chuckled.

“Chameleons can stretch their tongues like frogs.”

“Oh, I see…?”

Nellum-nellum—

Gaeul stretched her tongue and touched each child’s face.

Was it fun to stretch her tongue?

From the observer’s perspective, the stretching tongue was a bit, no, quite scary.

“B-Bom, let’s leave the tongue as it was…”

“Aw…”

Though Bom seemed disappointed, she used magic to return the tongue to its original state.

Thus, we played with the chameleon’s color-changing ability and returned to the playground.

We rode the seesaw and slid down the slides.

After playing, we returned to the bench to head home.

It was to retrieve the bag and items we had left on the bench.

But.

“Wanga! The bag is gone!”

“Uh…?”

There were no items on the bench.

We had placed all the children’s bags and the items we bought from the mart here, but could someone have stolen them?

‘When did it get taken?’

Was it when we were exploring the animal hospital?

I hadn’t thought that the bag would be stolen, so we stood blankly by the empty bench.

“Eeeeeee!”

Gaeul’s siren-like voice echoed late.

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!

In fact, I once had my bag stolen while playing at a playground in elementary school..!

───

Thank you for the 10 coins, AABABBA!