Though Serdin hadn’t yet perceived it, near where he had stopped was Arancha’s barrier. The transparent barrier showed the surroundings in a distorted way to everyone except Arancha’s long-tailed tits, and even the perceptive jaguar couldn’t avoid it.
He wandered around the barrier as if searching, feeling an inexplicable sense of dissonance.
“Your Highness, have you found something? No matter how I look, I can’t tell. Is there really even a barrier……?”
Kert, who had somehow approached his side, said that while looking around. No matter how much he looked, he couldn’t see the transparent curtain the leopard beastman had mentioned. He couldn’t even discover anything resembling a curtain. Could it be hidden somewhere even deeper?
“Should we go in further?”
At Kert’s question, Serdin shook his head slightly. If Kert stepped forward, he would only be a hindrance instead. He brightened his eyes and stepped forward carefully. Serdin, who had been moving so carefully that not even the sound of stepping on grass was made, stopped behind a large tree and raised his head.
“Your Highness?”
Kert tilted his head at Serdin’s incomprehensible action and approached stealthily.
“This is strange.”
Serdin muttered that while staring at the empty air where nothing could be seen but fluttering leaves. He was thinking that empty air was suspicious. Though it was clearly nothing, it was strange how it kept drawing his gaze. But when he tried to ignore it and turn his head away, he felt somehow uncomfortable.
After pondering for a moment, Serdin reached out his hand and groped at the empty sky. As expected, there was nothing to touch nor any foreign sensation.
“……Was it an illusion?”
Had he ended up seeing even illusions because he was desperate with the thought of getting Formo back? It had been so long since his judgment had been clouded by such things that the sentiment felt fresh. Serdin pressed firmly on his eyelids with the back of his hand and snickered. Then he hesitated, feeling a faint presence of something. The hand that had been on his eyelids slipped down smoothly. Serdin opened his closed eyes and looked at the empty air again.
In the empty air where nothing had existed until just moments ago, something like a transparent curtain was rippling unstably. As if announcing its existence.
“Y-Your Highness!”
Kert, who had belatedly discovered the same thing as Serdin, came running with Sara.
“That seems to be the strange magic the leopard mentioned……! But the more I think about it, the stranger it is. Did long-tailed tits even know how to use such magic? Your Highness, we can’t rule out the possibility that canine beasts used dirty tricks.”
“What do I care?”
Serdin, who had replied indifferently, stepped into the transparent curtain without hesitation. At that sight, Kert was startled and tried to dissuade him.
“N-no! Your Highness, what if there aren’t long-tailed tits inside but canine beasts as I said!”
Kert hurriedly ran over and tried to grab and cling to Serdin’s trouser leg, but Serdin’s steps were far too fast for that. Before Kert could even catch up, he had already moved his steps beyond the transparent curtain.
“Y-Your Highness!”
Kert, who had been stamping his feet with a troubled face, had no choice but to resign himself when he saw even Sara, who had been behind him, follow Serdin.
“……What should I say to His Majesty……”
He muttered in a gloomy voice and trudged along powerlessly.
At that moment, Arancha’s guards who had discovered the intruders were making a huge fuss.
[Wh-what do we do!]
[Th-those humans are entering Arancha……!]
[We need to inform Moti-nim quickly!]
It was when one of the guard long-tailed tits who had been sitting on a branch having a noisy conversation was about to head toward Arancha’s castle while surveying the surroundings.
“Your Highness, there are long-tailed tits over there! Fortunately, it seems to be a barrier made by long-tailed tits. Huff, gasp. There are as many as three……!”
Kert pointed at them with his finger and made a loud fuss. Because of that, the body of the long-tailed tit who had been about to kick off from the branch and fly away swayed. Though they couldn’t understand their words, judging by where that finger was pointing, they had clearly been spotted.
The long-tailed tit swallowed and exchanged glances with his companions. They had trained for times like this. The long-tailed tits smacked their beaks to send signals, then sat in a row on the branch. Then they flew up all at once toward different directions.
With a fluttering sound, vigorous wingbeats followed. The long-tailed tits, who had flown up so intensely that several feathers fluttered away, tried to confuse the opponent so they wouldn’t know the castle’s location.
However, regrettably, the opponent was Serdin.
“Oh dear.”
Serdin, who had somehow climbed onto a thick branch and lightly leaped toward the air, snatched up the three long-tailed tits flying near the tree.
The long-tailed tits, surprised by the inhuman athletic ability, struggled desperately to escape from Serdin’s grasp. But the more they squirmed, the stronger the grip only became. When it tightened to the point where it became difficult to breathe, the long-tailed tits trembled in utter panic.
Eventually, they became frightened prematurely, rolled back their eyes, and passed out.
“……Your Highness! What will you do if you knock out the long-tailed tits who might know Pipi-nim’s location? Not just knocking them out, but strangling them unconscious…… If Pipi-nim finds out, he’ll be furious!”
“I never tried to knock them out.”
Serdin claimed his innocence and added.
“It seems there are no long-tailed tits as gutsy as Pipi.”
“……”
At his added words, Kert, who had fallen silent, shook his head. There couldn’t be a bird as gutsy as Formo. Maybe if it were a bird of prey. Moreover, since even birds of prey were no different from prey in front of Serdin, who was a jaguar, if caught in his grasp, they would certainly roll back their eyes and pass out like the long-tailed tits.
Kert just looked at Serdin, who only knew Formo, with slightly pathetic eyes, then turned his head sharply when their eyes met. He had almost been caught looking at him pathetically.
“A-ahem! What will you do now?”
At Kert’s question after a small cough, Serdin replied matter-of-factly.
“I should go where Pipi’s scent is.”
“Pardon? Since it’s a place where long-tailed tits live together, the scent of long-tailed tits will resound from all directions.”
“Pipi’s scent is different.”
“Just because it’s Pipi-nim, would the scent be…… different?”
Serdin shook his head as if it was too troublesome to explain and placed the long-tailed tits he was holding into Kert’s hands. Then he moved his steps leisurely. Kert, who had been standing waiting for his answer, looked down at the long-tailed tits in his hands, then spotted Serdin far ahead and moved his steps urgently.
“Your Highness! Wouldn’t it be better if we went together? If angry long-tailed tits rush at you all at once, even Your Highness surely won’t be able to withstand it! Right? Your Highness!”
At those ridiculous words, strength entered Sara’s hand gripping the bag strap. She barely held back the laughter about to burst out and followed Kert with his frivolous steps.
How much further had they walked like that? Seven large trees entered Serdin’s field of vision. The trees had quite a large circumference—enough that three adult men could spread their arms and embrace them with room to spare.
Kert, who had followed Serdin, panted heavily while catching his breath, then discovered Arancha and let out an exclamation.
“Wow……”
Honestly, Kert had thought that even though Arancha was called a kingdom where long-tailed tits gathered to live, it would be nothing more than a small habitat rather than a kingdom. But seeing the scene before his eyes now, such thoughts had completely disappeared.
Arancha was a kingdom formed far more systematically than Kert had thought. The trees gathered together were surrounded by what appeared to be bridges made of wooden pieces and strings. The small wings of long-tailed tits hiding their bodies among the dense leaves could be glimpsed here and there. Wasn’t it just like a fortress? Kert burned with scholarly passion to investigate this place called Arancha after such a long time.
“……Your Highness.”
Kert, who had been about to carefully convey his thoughts, suddenly closed his mouth. Unlike the other long-tailed tits, one individual from whom spirit could be felt was glaring at Serdin from atop a branch with fierce eyes.
He hadn’t known there would be another gutsy bird who could oppose Serdin.
At the behavior of the long-tailed tit who looked as if he would rush over and peck wildly with his beak at any moment, Kert’s tightly shut mouth gaped open. Before he knew it, Kert had been overwhelmed by the small long-tailed tit’s spirit. He coughed and set down the unconscious long-tailed tits from his hands onto the ground.
Then the eyes of the long-tailed tits hiding among the leaves widened. The long-tailed tits who had been hiding their appearance as if frightened looked at their unconscious kin and seemed angry, glaring at Kert with narrowed eyes. At those terrifying glances, Kert, who felt wronged, wanted to explain, but the situation wasn’t favorable.
If he opened his mouth and chattered for no reason, he would surely receive all sorts of abuse from Serdin.
“It’s you.”
Kert, who had been lost in his own thoughts, snapped to attention at Serdin’s voice heard from ahead.
“You were the one who took Pipi away from me.”
Serdin’s lips, jabbering like that, were curved up crookedly.
“Bring Pipi here.”
His golden eyes shone brilliantly. The long-tailed tit who met that gaze flinched, then widened his eyes.
“Why aren’t you listening?”
The voice that had been slightly soft with anticipation of meeting Formo soon immediately took on a chilling air. Serdin slowly moved his steps toward the tree. Serdin, who stood right below the tree and looked up at the long-tailed tit, pulled up the corners of his mouth to the fullest.
“I said bring Pipi here.”
At the words that were no different from a command, the long-tailed tit’s eyes narrowed sharply. The long-tailed tit who revealed an extraordinary spirit, Arancha’s heir Armo, shrieked loudly.
“Cheeeeep, cheeeeeep!”
[Serdin Belius, get out of Arancha!]
At the cry where hostility could be clearly felt, Serdin’s smile deepened even more. Kert’s face turned deathly pale as he instinctively sensed that Serdin’s mood had become very displeased.
is this how you greet your in laws? Serdin Belius, for SHAME!