Meanwhile, Formo was somewhat flustered by the sight of the two large humans he discovered as soon as he opened his eyes. It seemed the tree he had seen when his mind was hazy had actually been a human. With such massive builds, it was no wonder he had mistaken them for trees. Formo slowly blinked his large, round eyes and tried to rise from his spot.
But Serdin approached and stopped him.
“Oh my, Pipi. You shouldn’t get up yet.”
Serdin spoke in an exceptionally gentle and warm voice as he laid Formo back down. Having crafted a voice like that of a parent, Serdin appeared to be a very kind person.
At Serdin’s absurdly caring demeanor, Kert turned pale with shock and stared at his clearly-out-of-his-mind superior and the tiny white-haired long-tailed tit. Then he quickly turned his head away, ignoring them.
If he kept watching their antics, all the meat he’d eaten for breakfast would surely come flying out of his mouth.
“Pipi, you need to lie still until your wing heals.”
“……Peep?”
When Formo tilted his head and sent a questioning look, Serdin burst out laughing.
“No matter how cutely you look at me, what’s not allowed isn’t allowed.”
Formo seemed to have no idea why the human was saying such things. After all, he was a long-tailed tit who had never once considered staying in human territory. So naturally, this situation was anything but welcome. His only thought was that he needed to return to the kingdom before it was too late.
However, before he could even rise, the man in front of him stopped his movements. He couldn’t return home without moving. Formo hung his head dejectedly.
“I don’t know when your wing will heal, Pipi. It could be a year, or it could be ten years.”
Formo’s eyes went wide at those words. Ten years? He might have to spend ten years in human territory? This was ridiculous. And what was with that shabby name “Pipi”? He had a perfectly elegant and strong name—”Formo”!
“……Pfft.”
Kert, who had been desperately holding back his laughter while putting on a voice feigning great sympathy, finally lost it. At the sound of his laughter, Formo was able to clear away the thoughts that had been billowing up and come to his senses.
The moment Kert realized that the laughter he’d been suppressing had finally escaped through his teeth, all the color drained from his face.
“Kert.”
“……Yes.”
Serdin intoned coldly.
“Get out.”
“Yes, y-yes!”
Kert answered loudly and, after gauging Serdin’s mood, slunk out of the room. Serdin closed the wide-open door and swept back his bangs with a sigh. As he did, he also muttered quietly, “Useless bastard.”
Formo was rolling his eyes trying to figure out what kind of relationship they had when he suddenly met the gaze of Serdin, who was staring intently at him. Formo quietly studied the man’s face. The man had very unusual hair color. The outer part of his hair was a pale gold, while the inside was jet black. As Formo was tilting his head at this strange combination, he flinched.
Golden eyes with an unusual gleam held Formo in their gaze. Under such an overwhelmingly intense stare, Formo’s tail feathers bristled upright.
A chill ran through his entire body in an instant. Though the man before him clearly had a human form, he possessed the eyes of a predator that didn’t match.
“Pipi, now it’s just the two of us.”
Formo tensed at the words whose meaning he couldn’t understand. Serdin approached Formo step by step with an expressionless face. The closer he got, the more Formo’s small body trembled.
Finally, when Serdin reached the cushion where Formo lay, Formo couldn’t hold back his fear any longer and a tear rolled down.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence passed between them for a moment. Serdin stared somewhat incredulously at Formo, who wore the most pitiful expression in the world as tears smaller than millet seeds dripped down. But only for a moment. Soon, composing his expression, Serdin gently stroked Formo’s tiny little head to comfort him.
“It’s okay, Pipi. You’re safe with me.”
Those words were not comforting at all. After all, humans and predators were the most dangerous. In other words, it wasn’t something the human stroking his head should be saying. Formo looked up at Serdin with a grave expression, then dropped his head again.
“Pipi, how’s your wing?”
It was a careful question, unlike the man who had approached with such large strides and an expressionless face. Formo remained silent at the sudden question and quickly worked his mind. If he let him know that his wing no longer hurt, wouldn’t he be able to return to the kingdom? Hopeful thoughts spun around and around in Formo’s head.
Having made his decision, Formo clenched his beak and gently waved his injured wing. Each time he moved it, throbbing pain crept up from the base of his wing. Enduring the pain, Formo waved it a couple more times, put on a nonchalant expression, and folded the wing he had spread like a fan back into place.
Then he looked at Serdin with expectant eyes.
*’I’m fine now. It doesn’t hurt at all. So say you’ll send me back. Hurry!’*
Trying to convey his true feelings somehow, Formo ended up sending an unexpectedly fervent gaze.
“Pipi.”
The man’s mouth opened. Formo swallowed hard and waited for what would come next. Specifically, words along the lines of “Now you can go home.”
“You don’t need to pretend you’re healed.”
But the words that came from his mouth were not what Formo had expected.
“My, my. An appetizer trying to reassure me.”
Serdin shook his head repeatedly as if genuinely moved and let out sigh after sigh. Then he sent an indecipherable look toward Formo. Unable to interpret the meaning of that gaze, Formo could only blink his round eyes.
* * *
Sleeping with the enemy. Formo summed up his situation by calling it “sleeping with the enemy.” Every time he realized he was living with humans—one of his natural predators—he was startled. But then he would nod to himself, thinking at least they weren’t mortal enemies.
It had already been two days since Formo had been confined to this unknown room and living a luxurious life. During those two days, Formo enjoyed luxuries he had never experienced before. The highest-grade food that came out punctually at mealtimes, a sleeping cushion far softer and fluffier than the one he used in the kingdom, and a room dozens—no, hundreds of times larger and more magnificent than the audience chamber in the kingdom.
Everything was perfect. Formo was gradually getting used to this life, forgetting the fact that he was essentially being held captive.
“Pipi.”
If not for the human who appeared without warning whenever he pleased, it would have been a more or less satisfactory life.
No, actually there was one more thing that wasn’t satisfactory. The cloth that should have been tied to his leg had disappeared. It had definitely been firmly tied to his leg until three days ago, so where on earth had it gone? The white cloth was a symbol of the guardian. The white cloth that proved Formo was Arancha’s proud and valiant guardian had vanished without a trace, and Formo had been suffering alone for two days, unable to tell anyone.
But seeing how that human was acting, he became certain of one thing. Perhaps that strange human had taken his cloth.
Formo glared at Serdin with blazing eyes.
“The physician says that for Pipi’s wing to fully heal, you’ll need to wait at least fifty years.”
“…….”
Not a year or ten years, but fifty years? Formo, who had been thinking only about the whereabouts of the white cloth, was truly shocked. It was such an unbelievable story that all thoughts of the white cloth completely vanished. When Formo’s pupils trembled from side to side upon hearing the shocking news, Serdin let out a pleased laugh and stood before him. Serdin gently stroked Formo’s small, soft head and said,
“Pipi understands the common language. You don’t look like a beastman, though…. Are you actually a prince from some long-tailed tit kingdom that exists somewhere?”
“……Peep.”
Formo’s eyes widened involuntarily at the muttered words. Could it be that he knew Formo was a guardian and had kidnapped him on purpose? Fortunately, it seemed Serdin had said it without much thought, as he shrugged with an indifferent expression. However, the words were too sharp to be mere coincidence, so Formo couldn’t easily let down his guard.
“Pipi, are you actually not an appetizer but a birthday present for me? Hm? Such a clever and entertaining Pipi being an appetizer?”
Of course. Formo’s tense face quickly became indifferent. Relieved, Formo gazed at the distant mountains like someone who had long since attained enlightenment about the ways of the world and was detached from everything. And Serdin enjoyed Formo’s reaction of losing himself in thought every time he said something more than anyone else.
In other words, Formo’s decision to ignore everything he said was a mistake.
“That doesn’t mean I dislike Pipi who came as an appetizer. I’m not particularly keen on it, but since Pipi is small like a finger food, you’d be easy to eat, and your bottom is quite plump, so there’d be a nice chew to it. Now what’s left is how to cook and eat you…….”
Serdin’s lips suddenly closed as he was speaking. It was because Formo was glaring at him resentfully with tears welling up in his eyes. Unlike the other words, Formo couldn’t bring himself to ignore the stream of cruel words.
Serdin’s lips curled up high. The reason he kept saying such teasing things was precisely to see Formo’s tears. While it was true he was curious about Formo’s taste, he wasn’t so hungry that he would immediately shove a bird the size of a bean into his mouth.
And watching him over time seemed like it would be much more entertaining than eating him.
“Ah, Pipi. I’m sorry. I was too mean, wasn’t I? I didn’t mean to make you cry, but I accidentally spoke my true feelings…….”
Even the comforting words were full of ill intent. There was no way the sharp and clever Formo would miss that. The tears that had been hanging heavily from the corners of his eyes poured down all at once as if they had been waiting for the signal.
Every time he saw the teardrops falling from those small eyes, Serdin’s lips and heart twitched.
He really was a bird that aroused one’s sadistic tendencies.
