Serdin glanced at the chattering long-tailed tits murmuring amongst themselves as he tried to figure out how the situation was unfolding, then turned his gaze away. His eyes, which had been directed toward Formo, reached the tree where Formo had been staying. Serdin suddenly became curious about the inside of the tree he had torn open with his own hands.
To be precise, he was curious about the excessively adorable room presumed to be Formo’s. Had Formo been living in that small room all this time? Imagining the pure white long-tailed tit sleeping and grooming himself in that tiny room brought a pleased smile to his face.
With his smile fully blooming, Serdin moved his steps. As he approached the miserably torn tree with Formo on his palm, the long-tailed tits’ gazes concentrated on him.
“Piiiiik?”
“Piiiit……”
[Why is the jaguar going over there?]
[He’s not going to destroy everything, is he……]
The long-tailed tits watched Serdin while conversing in anxious voices. He stuck his face slightly into the gap of the tree hole and looked inside. The first thing that caught Serdin’s eye was a clump of leaves presumed to be a bed. The clump, piled up softly by gathering twigs and dry leaves, seemed quite comfortable for a small long-tailed tit like Formo.
Even so, that crude thing wouldn’t be satisfactory, so he planned to have Sara prepare cushions to put inside. Serdin tried to push the cushion he’d brought from the detached palace into the hole in the tree but stopped short. The cushion he’d prepared was too large compared to the tree’s interior.
He wanted to stuff it in even if he had to squash the cushion completely, but if he did that, all the small household items inside would be crushed. In the end, Serdin, who had raised the white flag, smiled slightly as he looked at the bed smaller than his palm, the table, and the tiny objects placed on it.
“Heo, heuk…… Your Highness, look at this! It seems the long-tailed tits make bridges like this!”
Kert was looking around Arancha nearby, letting out exclamations close to screams.
“Hm? What’s this? A bed……? These birds use beds?”
Kert, who had approached Serdin’s side, discovered the bed placed inside the tree and widened his eyes in circles.
“It looks just like a nest.”
Kert, who had expressed his admiration softly, peered around trying to examine Formo’s room more closely, then gradually moved away under Serdin’s cold glare. Then, as if he’d discovered something else, he ran somewhere in a hurry and covered his mouth.
“Good heavens, good heavens…… It seems the long-tailed tits draw and drink water from the Spring of Eternity……! I wonder if they know the value of the spring water? If we took the amount gathered here and sold it, we’d become one of Tersium’s wealthiest and then some!”
What Kert had discovered was a small pond where the long-tailed tits had collected water from the Spring of Eternity. At the bottom of the pond, obtained from somewhere, waterproof cloth was even laid. Kert repeatedly expressed his admiration for the long-tailed tits’ intelligence.
Arancha was a place that was systematic not only in its exterior but also in its minute internal details. The deeper he delved into this place called Arancha, the more his heart trembled. At the scholarly passion he was feeling after a long while, Kert’s mind became dizzy.
Kert, who had staggered for a moment, pressed his temple firmly then shook his head vigorously. Then, as he looked around, he moved his steps as if entranced.
“……Sara, look at this. Look at these medicinal herbs! It seems the long-tailed tits can distinguish medicinal herbs too. Do they also have the concept of medicine?”
Kert stood in front of a pile of medicinal herbs gathered in a sunny spot, his eyes sparkling. The long-tailed tits were fascinating beings the more he learned about them. No other creature could captivate him as interestingly as they did.
Whether Kert did that or not, Serdin was only interested in Formo’s room. He gently placed the obediently sleeping Formo from his palm onto the bed. His golden eyes began to explore the room in earnest.
Most of the items were nature-friendly, such as a small piece of glass mirror and hollowed-out chestnut shells that served as both baskets and bowls. What stood out prominently among them was paper stamped with Formo’s footprints. A gleam appeared in Serdin’s eyes.
Small pieces of paper with three or four footprints stamped on them, as if he’d been practicing, were scattered all around. Serdin looked at the paper once, then at Formo once, before reaching out his hand to carefully gather them. Serdin carefully put four or five pieces of paper much smaller than his palm into his inner pocket.
He planned to put the papers he’d obtained in frames and hang them on the wall of his office. Serdin, who wore a satisfied smile, checked on Formo’s condition then turned his head to call Sara.
“Sara.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Sara, who had been reluctantly examining medicinal herbs beside the fussing Kert, came running in one breath.
“I need to give Pipi nutritional supplements and food.”
“Ah, yes. They’re in my bag.”
Sara took out several nutritional supplements, high-quality feed, and a water bottle from his bag and handed them to Serdin.
“I ground the nutritional supplement into powder, so you can mix it with water and feed it to him.”
“Good. You’ve worked hard.”
Serdin, who briefly praised the capable attending physician’s efforts, poured a little water into the water bottle cap. Then he put the nutritional supplement powder in it and waited for it to dissolve. When the powder had dissolved to some extent and mixed with the water, Serdin gently tapped Formo’s chest area to wake him.
“Pipi, wake up.”
“……”
“Pipi.”
He looked at Formo, who showed no signs of waking, with warm eyes, then poked his small cheek with his index finger.
“Pipi, you need to eat.”
When he poked the soft cheek a couple of times, Formo frowned and rustled about before slowly lifting his eyelids. Formo, who blinked his round eyes a few times, turned his head to check who had woken him from his sweet sleep.
“Did you sleep well, Pipi?”
It was that wicked human—no, that wicked jaguar.
“……Pi.”
Formo responded roughly with a listless voice and let out a deep sigh. With his mind hazy and completely lacking energy, it seemed his body hadn’t fully recovered yet. He needed to get up quickly so he could repair the barrier…….
Unlike his impatient heart, his exhausted body wouldn’t follow, which was frustrating.
“Pipi, let’s eat.”
He was about to wave his wing to refuse, feeling like he wouldn’t taste anything he ate, when Serdin narrowed his eyes and spoke again.
“Pipi, food.”
Knowing well that he sometimes became unnecessarily persistent, Formo ultimately had no choice but to raise the white flag. The white-headed long-tailed tit rustled and got up.
“Ah—.”
As soon as Formo sat up, Serdin held out a bright yellow grain as if he’d been waiting.
“Pit!”
At that absurd and shameless act, Formo glared angrily. No matter how lacking in energy he was, it wasn’t to the point where he needed to be fed one grain at a time. Moreover, being fed one grain at a time by someone else wasn’t something a fully grown long-tailed tit should do.
His mind was already hazy, and with Serdin acting like this too, he felt what little energy he had draining away completely.
“I understand, Pipi. You’ll eat by yourself, right?”
When Formo just twitched his beak with a displeased expression, Serdin spoke gently and put some fruits and grains into the chestnut shell. Because the chestnut shell was so small, the amount of food that could go in was ridiculously little. Serdin looked at it with regretful eyes and pushed it smoothly in front of Formo.
“Eat slowly, Pipi.”
Serdin, who had spoken softly, just waited for Formo to start eating. Soon, the small long-tailed tit began eating slowly. His eating speed was so slow it rivaled a snail’s, with no sign of his usual combative attitude.
Formo was busy controlling the corners of his mouth that kept trying to rise as he chewed the well-ripened sweet fruits and savory grain seeds slowly but quite deliciously. The grains and fruits went down smoothly, making it hard to believe he’d had no appetite—though the pace was a bit slow, it was a satisfying meal after a long while, so smiles kept flowing out.
He didn’t know why that wicked jaguar was doing such a commendable thing for once.
Formo couldn’t hide his smile the entire time he bit into small fruits with force in his beak to burst them open. After eating frantically like that for quite a while, Formo belatedly flinched and checked Serdin’s expression. The wicked jaguar’s face was covered with a peculiar smile.
“Pipi, is it that delicious?”
From the mischievous way he asked, it seemed he’d been caught with his mouth twitching. Formo wrinkled his brow and turned his head sharply. His beak was still chewing. Though he deliberately acted sharp at Serdin’s annoying behavior, it was true that he felt grateful to Serdin.
It would be strange not to be grateful to Serdin, who had stayed by his side when he fainted and even provided delicious food. That was separate from the fact that he was a fearsome beast, a jaguar. And because he’d been viewing him in a twisted way unconsciously, his help felt even more embarrassing.
Confirming that Formo had completely emptied the chestnut shell, Serdin tried to sneakily put down more food. But Formo waved his wing and firmly refused.
“Pi. Pii.”
[That’s enough. I’m done eating now.]
Serdin, not yielding to the long-tailed tit who looked even thinner than when he stayed at the detached palace, tried to give more food but had no choice but to withdraw his hand at Sara’s whisper from behind.
“It’s better to feed him slightly less than to force-feed him. It’ll be less burdensome on his stomach too.”
Though he still felt regretful, Serdin nodded his head. Instead of giving Formo more food, he decided to feed him the nutritional supplement.
“Pipi, you need to drink water too.”
Serdin spoke nonchalantly as he held out the water mixed with nutritional supplement. Sara shook his head at the doting fool-like appearance of caring for Formo with utmost devotion as if looking after a baby bird. It was a head shake that substituted for Kert’s share, whose mind was absorbed in everything that made up Arancha.
Without much suspicion, Formo quenched his thirst with the water Serdin handed him and roughly wiped the moisture remaining on his beak with his wing. Then he began to groom his disheveled feathers.
Serdin quietly watched Formo preening his feathers with his beak, seemingly having regained some energy, then parted his lips.
“By the way, Pipi.”
When Formo sent him a puzzled look, Serdin took out a piece of paper he’d kept in his breast. Formo stared quietly at the paper fluttering in Serdin’s hand, then squinted his round eyes.
“……Pi?”
[……What’s that?]
On the paper Serdin held was Formo’s footprint stamp along with strange writing. It was an outrageous claim that the wicked jaguar and Formo had promised to live together for the rest of their lives until death.
“I was so happy that Pipi woke up that I almost forgot to tell you I showed this paper to Pipi’s family.”
At Serdin’s gentle continuation, Formo’s face crumpled all at once.
“Pi, piiiit!”
[You, you jaguar worse than sparrow droppings!]
It was the moment when the grateful feelings toward Serdin transformed into rage. This wicked jaguar really couldn’t be viewed favorably no matter how hard one tried.
