Words of acknowledgment heard in Serdin’s voice, not just guessing by looking at Serdin’s face, made Formo elated. How fortunate that it wasn’t one-sided feelings. Formo secretly swept his chest in relief and smiled brightly.
Serdin’s eyes widened slightly when he discovered Formo smiling with his lips curled up refreshingly. With a bright smile added to his clear face that was readily admitting the emotion called love, the urge to kiss him again arose. This time on his cheeks and lips, not his forehead. However, there was no way the very shy Formo would permit a kiss outdoors rather than indoors.
Even though he knew that clearly, he felt like teasing Formo for no reason.
“Pipi, give me a kiss.”
“Wh-what?”
“I’m asking you to give me a kiss.”
“Here……?”
Sure enough. Formo silently gasped with wide eyes as if he had seen something bizarre. Serdin had a pleased expression at Formo’s big reaction that didn’t betray his expectations. However, unexpectedly, he didn’t immediately give words of refusal.
Could this cute long-tailed tit be thinking rather positively about his proposal? Such hopeful expectation raised its head within Serdin.
“If you suddenly ask me to do something like that outside……”
Formo moved his lips with a hesitating air. It seemed it was difficult for the timid and very shy long-tailed tit after all, and it was just when Serdin was about to say then he would do it.
“J-just this once.”
Formo stood on his tiptoes and then suddenly kissed his cheek. It really happened in an instant. Serdin looked down at Formo blankly, forgetting even what he was about to say. Eyes filled with a stunned light captured Formo.
“……You asked me to. Did I get it wrong? Is this not it?”
Serdin stared at Formo, who was asking with innocent eyes, for a long while, then pulled him into an embrace so fiercely as if his body would crumble.
“Ugh!”
“Ah, Pipi.”
“I-I can’t breathe!”
Formo, whose face was pressed against Serdin’s chest, struggled and made groaning sounds. Serdin’s chest was broad and so firm that it felt exactly like having his face pressed against hard rock.
“Why are you so cute, Pipi.”
“Let go!”
“What should I do if you keep being this cute.”
Serdin muttered in a low voice and put strength into the arm holding Formo.
“U-ah!”
“Sorry, Pipi.”
Though he apologized quietly, he didn’t release the strength from the arm tightly embracing Formo. Thanks to that, only Formo’s face kept turning redder and redder. After struggling for a while and trying hard to escape from Serdin, Formo’s body went limp. Since Serdin wouldn’t budge at all, he had finally given up.
Like that, Formo had to stand for quite a while held in Serdin’s embrace in the middle of the road within the castle grounds. Though it was embarrassing enough for his ears to turn red, the warmth of Serdin being transmitted without gaps wasn’t bad, so Formo fidgeted with the hand placed near his navel and just waited for Serdin to let go first.
“Pipi.”
When Serdin, who hadn’t said much since ending with the words of apology, called quietly, Formo raised his head and met his gaze.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Hm?”
“Right now……”
A low sigh flowed through Serdin’s teeth. He furrowed his brow, then muttered a small curse. At the curse that popped out suddenly, Formo’s eyes widened.
“Pipi.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Are you sending me signals right now?”
“……Signals? What signals?”
Formo, who didn’t know the reason why the word signals appeared, asked back innocently. To such a Formo, Serdin explained very kindly. While releasing the arms that had been tightly embracing his body and grasping Formo’s hand that was wriggling near his groin area.
“Wh-what!”
“Pipi kept playing with your hands from earlier, so I thought you were sending me signals.”
“So what signals am I supposed to have sent?”
“What signals, you ask.”
Serdin pulled up one corner of his lips and smiled suggestively. Then, at the moment he was about to open his mouth to tell him the answer, an unwelcome guest’s voice was heard.
“Oh, Pipi?”
It was the voice of the sparrow beastman Bléar, who had taught Formo precious emotions. Formo, who had been in Serdin’s embrace until then, was startled at that voice and escaped from his embrace.
“Bl-Bléar?”
“Pipi, we meet here again.”
Bléar waved his arms from just a few steps away, showing his gladness. Standing beside such a Bléar was a large beastman with blue eyes. Formo intuitively recognized that beastman’s identity. It must surely be the wolf named Kaien who had kissed Bléar.
“Ah, my introduction is late. This is Kaien. The wolf beastman I told you about before, Pipi. And Kaien, this is the long-tailed tit beastman Pipi who helped me yesterday.”
Bléar, who had pulled Kaien’s hand and approached with big strides, spoke with a bright face. Formo, who received Kaien’s gaze from that introduction, scratched his cheek and greeted him quietly.
“H-hello……”
Facing a predator beastman other than Serdin was a much more frightening thing than he thought. Moreover, wasn’t Kaien a canine predator? Since it was his first time actually facing a canine predator, Formo unconsciously lowered his gaze.
“I see.”
Kaien was a beastman with a very low and heavy voice. And that voice also felt a bit indifferent.
“‘I see’? Kaien, is that all you have to say? You can at least say you’re glad to meet him. Really……”
Bléar shook his head and scratched the back of his head.
“I-I’m fine.”
“Sorry, Pipi. Kaien is really taciturn and reticent. He doesn’t say much even to me.”
Bléar, who had been grumbling, belatedly discovered Serdin standing behind Formo and raised his eyebrows slightly. Bléar’s eyes sparkled as he looked back and forth between Serdin and Formo.
“You had company, Pipi. I shouldn’t disturb you. Let’s go now, Kaien.”
“Already?”
“Yeah. Have a good time. Let’s meet again next time!”
Bléar waved his hand in greeting, then returned the way he came with his fingers interlaced with Kaien’s. He kept looking up at Kaien while walking with a bright face, moving his lips. Kaien, who Bléar said was very taciturn and reticent so he didn’t say much even to Bléar, was faithfully answering Bléar’s words.
“Kaien, you’re going to the banquet this evening too, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll take a walk while you’re gone.”
“Yeah.”
Very short and concise, but in a voice filled with affection.
Formo watched the retreating figures of Bléar and Kaien and thought. So that’s the kind of love they have.
“Pipi, what are you looking at so intently?”
Serdin’s arm wrapped around Formo’s shoulder as he was blankly staring at them. Though Formo staggered under the weight of Serdin on his body, he didn’t complain. It was because he felt that this was Serdin’s unique way of expression, as he had realized while watching Kaien and Bléar’s retreating figures.
* * *
On the morning of the third day, the raccoon beastman Karticha, who had been repeatedly coming to the forest presumed to be Arancha and snooping around every day, felt a very strange gaze. Though he wasn’t even certain who was sending the gaze or where they were, Karticha could feel it instinctively. That whoever it was wasn’t sending him a gaze with welcome feelings.
Karticha looked around, then slyly transformed into animal form. Soon Karticha, who had changed into a raccoon with fur mixed with black and tan colors, sniffed with his nose. Just then, wind blew from behind Karticha. Karticha smelled the scent of predators mixed in that wind and his eyes flashed.
Judging by how thick and varied the smells were, there must surely be more than one or two.
It was right to avoid fights he couldn’t win by charging in. Karticha thought about what the reason might be for those predators watching him, bit the clothes that had fallen to the ground in his mouth, and left the spot. It was a very stealthy movement.
It was about five hours later when Karticha, who had disappeared like that, returned to the forest. Karticha, who had briefly left the forest, reached one conclusion after much deliberation. The conclusion that the predators’ purpose was the same as his.
If their purpose had been him, they would have chased him when he ran away, but the predators held their positions. Even when he waited outside the forest just in case, he didn’t even feel a hint that they were looking for him. So, Karticha came to the conclusion that perhaps their purpose might be the same as his. Otherwise, there would be no reason for them to be hiding at the path the long-tailed tits used.
Since Karticha was one who obeyed Glensia’s orders absolutely no matter what, he had returned to the forest but……
‘They’re still here? They must be predators as patient as I am.’
As if it was correct that they had marked the long-tailed tits as prey, the predators were really persistently holding their positions. At this rate, there would be disruption to the plan. If that happened, he would get scolded by Glensia, and getting scolded by the cold-hearted Glensia was several times worse than dying.
His master Glensia treated him tenderly as if looking at the prettiest raccoon in the world when he did his work well, but showed a merciless side when he failed an order. Not only did he blame him while striking the floor with a terrifying whip, but sometimes he even wielded the whip directly at severe times.
Getting hit was rather bearable, but he couldn’t bear at all to see Glensia’s warm face turn cold. So Karticha had tried hard to somehow keep whatever Glensia ordered. Thanks to that, he had lived as a happy raccoon for the past three years.
When he thought that the peace he had achieved with such difficulty might be broken because of those persistent predators, he became angry. Karticha, who had been worrying with an anxious face, closed his eyes tightly with a resolute face. He had come to the conclusion that he should report this matter to Glensia even if he got scolded, before disruption really occurred to the plan.
Karticha looked around at the trees standing tall, then quickly left the spot. His destination was the lodgings in the capital where he was staying. There was no better place to secretly meet with Glensia, who was staying in the castle as a member of the delegation.
The raccoon with a sturdy build ran, cutting through the sunlight that the midday sun was pouring down.
