A head—larger than a long-tailed tit’s but smaller than other predatory beastmen’s—bumped against Serdin’s chest with a soft thud. Lowering his gaze, Serdin looked at the round, snow-white crown of the head and spoke.
“Pipi?”
As if responding to his call, the small head slowly lifted. Eyes tinged with dark blue looked up at Serdin. After meeting his gaze for a moment, Serdin spoke with a hint of laughter in his voice.
“Pipi, you look the same even when you transform into human form. Ah, or rather—do you keep bumping into me because you like me that much?”
“Th-this……!”
Formo, who had been about to let out his usual angry cry, touched his throat as it produced sounds contrary to his intentions, his ears flushing red. To show such a clumsy and foolish sight in front of that wretched jaguar…… Formo couldn’t bear the shame. Even though he wanted to say something back, he didn’t know how to pronounce the common language, so only strange sounds like “uh,” “ah,” and “mm” came out.
Just like a young child babbling. Watching Formo whose lips merely twitched without being able to form words, Serdin spoke teasingly.
“Pipi, you need to learn how to speak first.”
“……”
He had thought only good things would happen once he became a beastman, but in reality, he had become an idiot who couldn’t even speak properly. Formo glared at Serdin and puffed out his cheeks.
“Are you sulking, Pipi?”
Serdin’s eyes gleamed with mischief as he asked.
—
## Chapter 1
### 1. Pipi
*’Formo, you must never fly beyond Arancha’s barrier. You know that, right?’*
When Formo was very young, his mother had told him this. She added that beyond Arancha’s barrier lived terribly fearsome predators. Among them, beastmen occasionally appeared, and she explained that beastmen were even more frightening than the predators.
Young Formo trembled and nodded at his mother’s words.
He had vowed never to fly beyond Arancha’s barrier.
But despite that vow, Formo ended up flying beyond Arancha’s barrier. And not on just any day, but on the joyous day when he had finally removed the bandages that had been wrapped around his wings.
Flapping his wings frantically, Formo belatedly realized he had crossed the barrier and wandered in the sky. It was his first time flying this far, and he felt bewildered and afraid.
*’Wh-what do I do?’*
Formo stayed in the sky for a long while, fluttering his tiny wings. If Formo had been healthy like other birds, he would have simply flown back the way he came, but sadly, Formo was extremely exhausted. Having pushed himself too hard enjoying his first flight in a long time, he felt pain returning to his injured wing.
Formo’s round eyes scanned the dense forest here and there. While searching for a suitable place to rest, his vision suddenly blurred. To make matters worse, his wings lost their strength, causing him to wobble in mid-air. Formo shook his head side to side and barely regained his senses.
If he wasn’t careful, he would fall just like this. If he fell from this height, it would surely be a terrible sight. If he was lucky, he might just break one part of his body and that would be the end of it, but if luck wasn’t on his side…… he would die.
Formo’s small body trembled. He had no choice. Other than finding a tall tree to protect himself from predators and resting there. Formo widened his eyes and searched for a suitable spot. Before long, a tall tree came into view.
*’There it is!’*
Formo flew rapidly toward the particularly straight-growing tree. It would have been nice if things went smoothly given his desperation, but unfortunately, the beast god didn’t seem to be on Formo’s side.
*’Aaahh!’*
His injured wing, which had held out admirably despite the strain, began to tremble and spasm before slipping out of Formo’s control. Formo tried to manage somehow with his other wing, but it wasn’t enough.
“……Ppi, ppiiik!”
With a strange scream, Formo fell diagonally downward.
*Thud!*
Having hit his head on something, the world shook so much that he couldn’t regain his senses. Formo stared blankly at the world spinning round and round before his eyes, then ended up shedding tears. His head hurt as if it would split open. And that wasn’t all. His wing, from which the bandages had only recently been removed, was also throbbing.
*’Should a grown bird be showing tears? Stop crying, Formo.’*
These were words his mother always said. Recalling those words, Formo shook his head side to side trying to stop his tears. But the more he shook his head, the more his skull ached. It seemed he had hit his head on a very hard tree.
Formo flapped his wings to check the state of his throbbing head. But with only one wing, he couldn’t possibly check the state of his own head.
*’Why are my wings so short……!’*
Just as Formo was blinking, trying to focus properly while inwardly complaining—
“What’s this?”
The tree Formo had bumped into suddenly spoke. The tree lifted Formo, who had flown in from somewhere and bumped into its chest and couldn’t regain his senses, and spoke in an unpleasant voice.
“This thing…… where on earth did it fly in from?”
The tree turned Formo upside down to examine his body here and there. Blood rushed to his head.
*’Aaaah!’*
Formo’s world flipped upside down in an instant. Instinctively sensing danger, Formo’s wings fluttered and struggled busily. But no matter how much he flapped his wings, he couldn’t escape from the tree.
“Isn’t it a snack personally sent by His Majesty?”
When another tree said this, the tree holding Formo wore a faint smile.
“I see. So this is my snack?”
As he spoke, the gaze of the tree—no, some man—deepened. Watching up to that point with spinning eyes, Formo finally fainted. In that moment when his vision flickered and his consciousness grew hazy, the pitiful long-tailed tit thought vaguely.
*Ah, I’ve become worse than sparrow droppings.*
—
* * *
“When is this thing going to wake up?”
An unfamiliar voice intruded into Formo’s dream. Formo, who had been having a sweet dream for once, smacked his lips and waved his one intact wing dismissively. It was a wing gesture telling them not to disturb his peaceful sleep.
“Did this tiny bird just…… wave its wing?”
“Yes. If my prediction is correct, I believe it’s an expression meaning ‘be quiet.'”
At someone’s affirmative response, the one looking down at Formo let out a hollow laugh.
“Be quiet?”
“Yes. ‘I’m sleeping soundly, so keep your mouth shut’—something like that.”
When the voice subsided after a sigh, Formo’s deeply furrowed face relaxed. At this utterly honest change of expression, the one watching him—Serdin’s—eyes curved narrowly.
“Why are you looking at the bird with such sinister eyes?”
“I was deliberating how to cook and eat this bird.”
“……This is a moment when I feel sorry for the tiny bird.”
“Indeed. This bird should consider it heaven’s luck that it hit my chest instead of my mouth and extended its life a little.”
Formo’s small body suddenly trembled. Seeing that movement, Serdin looked closer thinking the bird had awakened, but Formo’s eyes were still closed. Not only that, but transparent drool was also dripping from the gap in his tiny beak.
“……”
“……”
Serdin and his aide Kert exchanged glances with dumbfounded expressions and fell silent. It was none other than Formo who broke that silence.
“Ppiik, ppi…… ppiit!”
Though it was merely sleep-talking, anyway, Formo’s chirping broke the absurd silence that had been flowing between Serdin and Kert.
“Where on earth did this bird come from to be acting so stupidly?”
Serdin narrowed his eyes and examined Formo’s body here and there. His manner was thorough and meticulous, as if searching for clues. Then Serdin’s eyes caught Formo’s short leg. A thin, long white cloth was tied to Formo’s leg.
It looked as if it had been attached out of fear of losing something. Serdin examined the cloth. Someone’s footprint was stamped on it flamboyantly. Unable to interpret its meaning, he tilted his head and turned the cloth over, finding two characters that were pronounced as “Pi” written consecutively. The handwriting was crooked.
“……Pipi?”
“Pardon?”
“This bird’s name must be Pipi.”
“……I don’t think so?”
Kert shook his head and tried to add some explanation, but Serdin cut him off firmly.
“Shut up. This bird’s name is definitely Pipi.”
Kert, who had been about to argue that a bird sent as a snack couldn’t possibly have a name, was intimidated by his superior’s menacing aura and chose to keep his mouth firmly shut. Having easily silenced Kert, Serdin scrutinized Formo with eyes far more persistent and sharp than before.
A tiny, snow-white body, short legs, eyelashes trembling pleasantly as if having a sweet dream, a small beak opening and closing slightly…… There was nothing about it that wasn’t trivial.
Serdin stared at his snack that looked like it had nothing worth eating for a long while, then turned his eyes away sharply.
“Even if it’s called a snack, there’s no way I’d be satisfied eating something like this.”
“Then as expected, it’s not a snack but……”
“Not a snack?”
At Kert’s serious expression as he continued speaking, Serdin’s indifferent gaze landed on him.
“I think it’s an appetizer.”
“An appetizer.”
Serdin murmured as if measuring, then scrutinized Formo again. No matter that it was called an appetizer, the sleeping bird was so small it seemed like it might be a baby bird. Since it also looked like there wasn’t much meat on it, there was no way he could savor it deliciously.
Serdin was a jaguar who preferred thick meat with a springy texture over bird meat with such a scrawny body.
But if his father had personally sent it, he couldn’t firmly refuse. Just as Serdin was pitying his tongue that would be forced to taste such an unappetizing, meatless bird—
Formo’s eyes, which had been tightly shut until just moments ago, were somehow open. Large, jet-black eyes blinked slowly as they gazed at Serdin.
“……Ppi?”
A sound so small it could be mistaken for a faint breath came from Formo. The bird didn’t stop there and slightly twitched its small wings and long tail. It was quite a cute sight. The bird, which had been exchanging gazes with Serdin for a long while, fluttered one wing as if in greeting.
*Huh—* With an exclamation mixed with a sigh, saliva pooled in Serdin’s mouth in an instant. He felt a strange sensation. Serdin stared blankly at the bird that was far more delicate and tiny than even a newborn jaguar cub, with a voice just as small, then murmured softly as if entranced.
“……It might be more worth eating than I thought.”
Serdin, who had been sending a somewhat sinister gaze, immediately curved his eye corners and showed a gentle smile the moment he met Formo’s eyes.
If it had been Kert or other animals, he wouldn’t have given them even a glance, let alone a smile, but if the subject was the long-tailed tit that had drawn out emotions long erased from him, that was a different story. He felt that this bird might entertain him, even if only for a brief while.
So he would treat it differently from other things. Serdin made up his mind.
