As Serdin had forewarned Kert, he didn’t come out of Formo’s room. It was already the second day. He seemed truly intent on spending a whole week there. It was truly absurd. It was tantamount to committing a rudeness that deserved a beating from the beastmen.
Of course, Formo, who wasn’t familiar with the culture that existed among beastmen, wouldn’t care at all.
“……Your Highness, there’s work piling up that needs your attention. When do you plan to come out?”
Even at Kert’s question, no answer came. In the end, Kert had to trudge away from the door again today.
Meanwhile, inside the room, something was happening that would shock Kert.
“Pipi, try pronouncing ‘idiot.'”
“……Idiot?”
“Good job, Pipi. From now on, when you see Kert, call him idiot. Got it?”
Serdin was teaching Formo the pronunciation of the common language one by one with a serious attitude. He even adjusted his explanations to match Formo’s level. Thanks to that, Formo had become able to speak basic words over the two days.
Emotion washed over him at the thought that he no longer had to act like a fool as before.
“Our Pipi is brave and cute, and even smart.”
Even knowing it was said to make him feel good, his shoulders rose at those words. He couldn’t quite agree with the word “cute” inserted in the middle, but Formo scratched his cheek with a slightly flushed face.
Formo was still unfamiliar with his appearance, and his movements were awkward and clumsy. But fortunately, with Serdin’s help, he had adapted to some degree to moving his humanized body. If it weren’t for him, Formo would have spent the whole week just creaking his finger joints before giving up.
Yesterday, Serdin had spent time with Formo, going over pronunciations that might confuse him one by one. Today, he planned to spend the day the same way as yesterday. However, Serdin’s plan was broken when Formo, whose temperament didn’t suit sitting still in one place killing time, kicked back his seat and stood up.
“Walk!”
Formo expressed his intention with clear pronunciation. Serdin smiled with satisfaction seeing Formo recall and use the word he wanted. Somewhere in there was also contentment. Formo was a fast learner. So from the position of teaching him, he couldn’t help but be satisfied.
“Pipi, do you want to go for a walk?”
“Yeah.”
When Formo nodded, his neat white hair swayed gracefully. A subtle light swirled around his hair where the sunlight coming through the window shone. Formo looked at Serdin with his large eyes sparkling.
“But Pipi. You still can’t take animal form.”
“……”
“You’ll have to walk on two legs like me, will that be okay?”
That was one of Formo’s biggest worries since becoming a beastman. Not being able to freely switch between human and animal form. For two days, he had tried diligently to return to his long-tailed tit form, but the results were dismal. Not even things like wings sprouting from his back or his legs changing to those of a long-tailed tit happened. He worried whether he would have to live his entire life as a human like this.
If he adapted to beastmen culture, living in this form wouldn’t be bad, but the problem was Serdin. No matter how wide the bed was, why on earth did he have to sleep beside him? Didn’t he have a much larger bedroom where they had stayed together? Formo couldn’t understand Serdin.
Because of Serdin, he had to master animal transformation as soon as possible. According to him, it would happen naturally…… He must have become a beastman too late in life, so he seemed slow to develop in this aspect. Or Serdin was a genius beastman. If it was the latter, it would be quite unpleasant. Formo pursed his lips then said.
“……Walk.”
Even if he couldn’t fly, he definitely wanted to go for a walk. Feeling the cool breeze with his whole body was such a pleasant thing for Formo, who was a bird. Formo naturally extended his hand to Serdin, who was slowly getting up.
It was a habit formed over two days of receiving Serdin’s help when stepping down. Of course, Serdin very much liked Formo’s habit full of acting spoiled. He held Formo’s hand, which was smaller than his own.
“Pipi, do you think Pipi can go down the stairs?”
To Serdin asking while opening the door, Formo couldn’t give any answer. When even walking alone was difficult, going up and down stairs would be even harder. Even with Serdin’s help. When Formo couldn’t hide his bewilderment and hesitated, Serdin smiled.
“Can’t go down?”
When Serdin asked brazenly while giving him a glance, Formo nodded slightly with an embarrassed expression.
“I have a way.”
“Way……?”
“Want to try it, Pipi?”
Formo nodded with innocent eyes. At that nod, Serdin, who was inwardly cheering, lifted Formo up without giving him any chance to react.
“Wha……!”
By the time Formo cried out belatedly, he was already in Serdin’s arms. Formo realized that Serdin’s arms were wrapping around his shoulder blades and the back of his knees and froze completely. Soon his face heated up to a redder color than a beet.
Formo, flustered enough to make his eardrums stuffy, just rolled his eyes, then was startled when his gaze met Serdin’s and squeezed his eyes shut. And at the same time, his head swirled.
“……Pipi.”
At Serdin’s call, Formo slightly opened his eyes. Wondering at his body that seemed smaller than before, he checked his body and opened his eyes wide. He had finally succeeded in animal transformation, which hadn’t worked no matter how hard he tried. ……Though he wasn’t sure why it succeeded.
“Beep!”
[I did it!]
Formo let out a cry full of joy and flapped his wings. On the other hand, Serdin’s face, which had been planning to go to the rear garden while holding Formo, was full of disappointment.
“Beep, bee-eep!”
[Now I can fly when we go for a walk!]
Serdin looked at Formo chattering happily, then moved his feet. His plan had collapsed again.
Arriving at the rear garden after passing through the corridor and stairs, Formo jumped into the sky without giving Serdin a chance to stop him. When his wide-spread wings moved smoothly, his small body stayed in the sky as if swimming.
“Pipi, are you that happy?”
“Beep!”
At the cry several times louder than before, Serdin swallowed his laughter. Formo spent his free time circling above Serdin’s head and also sitting on nearby branches preening his feathers. Serdin also just quietly watched without disturbing his freedom.
In fact, Serdin was worrying because he had no idea what Formo had lost as the price for becoming a beastman. Even though they say you naturally realize what the price is as time passes, he couldn’t just spend time waiting for Formo’s price alone.
If it was a price that posed a threat to a small long-tailed tit like Formo, he needed to quickly find countermeasures.
While Serdin was worrying, Formo hummed with high-pitched cries and circled the rear garden once. Going out freely after a long time made him feel like he could fly away. How would it be to fly all the way to the soft clouds like this? It was so good that just imagining it made his tail feathers tremble.
“Pipi, you can’t.”
Formo, who had been looking at the sky with clouds and preparing to fly there, remembered that Serdin was watching from below and let out an awkward laugh. Anyway, he was a jaguar with quicker wits than Armo.
After finishing the walk and returning to the bedroom with Serdin, Formo sprawled out carelessly on the wide bed. Perhaps because he had flown to his heart’s content after a long time, a deep fatigue washed over him as if he’d done intense activity. The drowsiness made it feel perfect to just fall asleep like this.
“……Pipi.”
Formo used Serdin’s voice calling him as a lullaby and took a trip off to dreamland.
Serdin watched with his own eyes as Formo, who had been wiggling his feet until just before, slipped into sleep, and shook his head. Just watching what he did, he seemed like a young individual.
Though he pretended to be composed, Formo was a long-tailed tit who acted spoiled a lot. Most of his acting spoiled was unconscious. Therefore, Serdin couldn’t erase the worry about what if Formo acted spoiled to someone other than him.
“Pipi.”
When Serdin called quietly, Formo’s small wing trembled as if answering. Serdin, who had been about to tell him not to act spoiled to others, clamped his mouth shut, thinking the proud Formo might react to the word “acting spoiled” and wake from sleep.
“Sleep well.”
Instead of saying that, he bid Formo good night.
* * *
The next day, Formo’s eyes snapped open. What was supposed to be a short nap had ended up with him sleeping through dinner too. Lately, Formo had developed a taste for the food that beastmen ate after humanizing. Serdin had said they would eat cream soup this morning……
Formo rubbed his eyes still clinging to sleep and sat up. Then, as he waved his feet to put on the indoor slippers that should be under the bed, something was strange. It felt too short to have moved with human legs.
“……Beep.”
[……Oh, right.]
He had momentarily forgotten that he had returned to his long-tailed tit form yesterday. But he just needed to humanize again. Formo squeezed his eyes shut and tensed his whole body. However, no matter how much he tensed, his body didn’t seem to change. Growing impatient, Formo clenched his beak and tensed so hard his body trembled.
It seemed his form changed when he felt his head swirl, but he didn’t feel any sign of it. This time would be a failure too. Formo opened his eyes with a sulky expression.
“……Beee-eep.”
[……Haaah.]
As Formo turned his head while inwardly gauging the reason his form wouldn’t change as he wished, he belatedly discovered Serdin quietly watching him and jumped up from his spot.
“Beep!”
[What a shock!]
At that question, flustered Formo tried to pretend not to know, but when he thought that Serdin had seen everything he did and asked about it, his beak gaped open. He was about to get angry asking why he was awake without saying anything when suddenly his head swirled. His body, which hadn’t even reached the slippers with his feet, grew large in an instant.
“Wha, what the heck?”
Why on earth did his form change every time he got flustered while looking at Serdin?
