The raccoon beastman Karticha was smoothly carrying out the mission entrusted to him by his master, Glensia. It was a trivial mission of daily observing the vicinity where the invisible kingdom called Arancha was presumed to exist, but he had no particular complaints. Karticha had worked by Glensia’s side for many years and had witnessed just how thorough and cautious a beastman he was when it came to work.
So he thought that Glensia wouldn’t have given him even this one mission carelessly and worked with his utmost effort. Karticha was a very capable raccoon who would somehow accomplish whatever his master commanded.
Karticha wandered near Arancha where there was nothing and pricked up his hearing as much as possible. Then, the sound of birds chirping noisily could be heard from the surroundings.
“Chirp, chi-chirp!”
“Chiiirp!”
“Chiiiirp, chirp!”
Before long, long-tailed tits revealed themselves. They must have gone to find food, as they were flying from quite far away. Karticha hid his form behind a thick tree before the long-tailed tits could discover him. Then he diligently compared their appearance with the materials Glensia had given him. The picture in the materials Glensia had given him and the appearance of the long-tailed tits flapping their wings diligently were very identical.
Since there couldn’t be any errors in the materials Glensia had given him, those birds must definitely be long-tailed tits. Karticha, whose mood had improved at the thought of being praised by Glensia, watched with persistent eyes to see where the long-tailed tits were returning to, then tilted his head.
The long-tailed tits had definitely passed by Karticha and headed behind a large tree, but no matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t confirm with his eyes where and how they had disappeared. Karticha looked around the surroundings thoroughly with a bewildered face, but the result was the same.
The long-tailed tits must have used some kind of trick. Otherwise, how could they disappear like this without leaving a trace? Still, it wasn’t like there were no results at all, so it seemed he wouldn’t get scolded by Glensia.
Karticha looked around himself, then stealthily left the forest. When Karticha had completely departed from the forest, the jaguars who had been guarding Arancha from the trees came down from the trees one by one.
They too had something to report to Serdin.
* * *
“This wretched jaguar!”
Formo, who had been bickering with Serdin all afternoon, cried out in an indignant voice and sprawled out on the sofa. Formo’s face was flushed all over. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand. No, he was irritated. Formo kept letting out wheezing breaths as he looked up at the ceiling.
That was because this wretched jaguar wasn’t planning to call him by his name until the very end. According to Serdin’s absurd remark that he had heard before, his name wasn’t permitted to others until he spoke it first. That meant that until Serdin called him by his name, he would have to be called by the name ‘Pipi’ by everyone.
“Do you think this makes sense?”
“What else doesn’t make sense?”
“At this rate, everyone will know me as Pipi. Even if I tell them my name is Formo, they’ll forget it right away…!”
The more he thought about it, the more absurd it was. Not only did Serdin arbitrarily give him the shabby name ‘Pipi’, but he was also holding onto his valiant name Formo. Because of that, he had suffered the humiliation of being called by the name Pipi instead of Formo by Bléar. He had even introduced himself with the name Pipi.
Formo’s pale cheeks became completely flushed as he ruminated over what had happened earlier.
“But Pipi doesn’t call me by my name either.”
“When did I…!”
Formo sat up with a start, and his words were suddenly blocked as he tried to demand when he hadn’t called him by his name. Come to think of it, he too had never once called Serdin by his name. Memories of calling Serdin by lumped-together terms like ‘you’ or ‘hey there’ came to mind one by one. This was something he hadn’t been aware of until now. Formo blinked rapidly as if bewildered.
“See?”
Far from demanding an answer, Formo, whose words had been blocked instead, scratched his cheek with an embarrassed expression. He had never dreamed that Serdin had been continuously concerned about such things. Just as he had forgotten the fact that he hadn’t called Serdin by his name, he thought Serdin would be the same way…
But when he actually tried to say Serdin’s name, he felt embarrassed. Perhaps because he had spent such a long time calling him however he pleased with ‘you’ or ‘hey there’, his lips wouldn’t open.
“Ser…”
Right. What’s so difficult about a three-syllable name? He tried to take it lightly and open his mouth, but when he saw Serdin making eye contact with him while waiting for him to call his name, the mouth that had opened with difficulty closed again.
“Pipi?”
Formo pressed his lips tightly together and read Serdin’s expression, then suddenly turned his body around. His ears grew hot for no reason. Even if Serdin was dumbfounded by his appearance of suddenly turning his back while in the middle of a conversation, there was nothing he could do about it. For some reason, right now he felt embarrassed and burdened to make eye contact with him.
“Pipi, so when are you going to call me by my name? Hm?”
“Be quiet!”
Formo shouted loudly and tried to move to the desk. However, his gait was strange due to the bandages wrapped around his entire calf. If nothing had happened with Serdin, he would have asked him to help, but now that was difficult. Formo bit his lower lip as he worried, then stuck out the leg wrapped in bandages forward and hopped toward the desk on one leg.
Serdin followed quietly behind, watching Formo’s appearance with laughter in his eyes.
“What are you trying to do, Pipi?”
When Formo, who had reached the desk with difficulty, sat in front of it and opened the drawer, Serdin asked.
“…I’m going to write a letter.”
“A letter?”
“You took the letter I wrote last time.”
“Pipi, you don’t say I took it, you say I kept it.”
“Same difference. The important thing is that it’s true you took it and did whatever you wanted with it.”
Formo retorted cheekily and took out a pen and paper from the drawer. Ink was also placed next to the pen. Formo, having finished preparing to write a letter, dipped the quill pen into the inkwell and took it out, placing it on the paper. Then he moved the pen smoothly.
Perhaps he had practiced over the past few days, as Formo’s handwriting had quite a proper form. Serdin looked at the paper with interested eyes. And as he was calculating in his head how he could make even that paper his possession, he recalled the story of the raccoon beastman who had been wandering around near Arancha.
It seemed it would be good to allow this letter to be sent to Arancha.
“Pipi.”
“…Mm.”
Formo, who was focused on writing the letter with no time for anything else, replied as if murmuring.
“You’re going to send the letter to Arancha, right?”
“Mm.”
Formo, who answered briefly again this time, moved the quill pen carefully. It was an important moment when a sentence was being written saying that he had met a sparrow beastman named Bléar, and through him had learned that not all sparrows were noisy. Formo, who had written the sentence in handwriting that was crooked but clearly improved from before, twitched his eyebrows, then wrote in small letters a question asking how Arancha was doing these days.
As long as the barrier he had created was fulfilling its role, it would be safe, but there was the possibility of a one-in-ten-thousand chance. Formo, who had habitually written ‘Pipi’ at the end of the letter, realized this belatedly and flinched.
Habits are this scary. Before he became even more accustomed to the name ‘Pipi’, he had to be called Formo as soon as possible, even if it was just one day sooner. Formo glared at the letters ‘Pipi’ with fierce eyes, then drew two lines across the letters and newly wrote his name ‘Formo’ next to it.
“Give it to me, Pipi. I’ll send it to Arancha.”
“Really?”
“I told you I don’t lie to Pipi.”
“That itself is a lie!”
Formo looked at Serdin with a face that said he was completely suspicious, then obediently handed over the letter. Carrying the letter and going there himself would be a risky matter in many ways, so he had no choice but to entrust it to Serdin. Still, he was fortunate to be able to deliver news to Arancha even like this.
After giving orders to send the letter he had received from Formo and returning to the room, Serdin looked around for Formo, who had disappeared from his spot in that brief moment. Wondering where he had gone again dragging his injured leg, he furrowed his brow when he saw something wriggling on the sofa.
It was Formo. Formo was crumpled up on one side of the sofa and was already taking a nap. Serdin, who had slowly approached Formo, quietly looked down at Formo, who was breathing softly and sound asleep. He stared at Formo for a while, then reached out and tidied his disheveled hair. At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Your Highness, you must prepare to attend the banquet.”
It was a voice interrupting the peaceful and pleasant time he was enjoying after a long while. Serdin let out an irritated sigh while gently stroking only Formo’s hair. Then he soon withdrew his hand and left the room. The time had come again when he would have to endure boredom at the banquet while drawing only Formo’s face over and over in his mind.
When Formo opened his eyes, it was after the world had grown dim. Formo, who was hungry perhaps because he had eaten lunch roughly, ran to the dining room as soon as he heard that a meal had been prepared and finished eating heartily. He patted his full belly and walked around the second floor corridor dragging his uncomfortable leg. Time without Serdin was so leisurely yet boring that it was extremely confusing.
It was just when Formo was passing several rooms with difficulty and about to enter the bedroom. One room that he would have normally just passed by caught his eye today. Formo, who was standing blankly in front of the unfamiliar door and worrying, slowly turned the doorknob. He was concerned about whether it was okay to enter, but Serdin had never particularly warned him, so it should be fine. Even if it was a room he shouldn’t enter, it would be fine as long as he didn’t leave traces of having entered.
The door opened smoothly as if welcoming Formo’s visit. Formo, who stepped inside through the open door, discovered the things decorating the room and froze right there on the spot.
