The large trees, the well-maintained flowers, and the warm sunlight were all nice. When Seoho smiled brightly, Puti said,
“The garden at night is also very beautiful. It would be nice to take an evening stroll with His Majesty.”
That didn’t sound bad either. Unlike the place where Seoho had lived, this place didn’t have much pollution or dust, so the stars would be visible too.
However, Seoho declined Puti’s suggestion.
“Rosetta is busy. He needs to rest in the evening.”
“Since you have divine power, you’re different from ordinary people. Seoho-nim, has anything changed physically for you?”
Seoho thought for a moment before answering.
“…I’m not sure.”
His days had been repetitive with nothing particularly tiring, so he hadn’t had a chance to notice if anything had changed in his body.
Except for that strange ability.
‘Though I can’t even use that ability properly.’
Worry stealthily invaded his peaceful mind. As Seoho stared at his hands with a dark expression, Puti said,
“You don’t need to worry about His Majesty getting tired. He didn’t sleep properly for months while watching over you, Seoho-nim, but he was perfectly fine.”
At those words, Seoho turned to look at Puti in surprise.
“Rosetta couldn’t sleep either?”
Seoho recalled Rosetta when they first met. His reddened eyes from crying so much and his hoarse voice.
But even so, he hadn’t looked tired.
‘Is that even possible?’
As Seoho looked at Puti with eyes full of doubt, he answered,
“More precisely, he didn’t sleep. He always just watched the mirror. Saying he didn’t know when Seoho-nim might appear.”
Seoho was blinking in surprise when suddenly something came flying toward him. Catching what flew at him reflexively, Seoho looked at what was nestled in his arms.
“Huh?”
A bird. It was a bird. A yellow bird, a canary?
Seoho, who had been staring at the bird blankly, raised his head to look at Puti. Puti seemed equally surprised, his eyes round.
Seoho muttered without hiding his bewilderment,
“A bird flew over.”
“What? Yes. It must be one of the birds released in the garden.”
Seoho gestured at the bird rubbing its face against his hand and asked,
“Do the birds here approach people and act cute like this?”
“Not at all. Of course, they don’t go outside the garden… But I’ve never seen them approach people like this.”
But as soon as Puti finished speaking, birds began flying toward Seoho one by one. Some lightly flew over and landed on his head or shoulders, while others settled in the nearby trees.
As Seoho couldn’t hide his amazement at this strange phenomenon, Puti said worriedly,
“Be careful, Seoho-nim. You might get scratched by their talons. And you never know when they might attack.”
There didn’t seem to be any need to be careful. The birds were well-behaved and were just tilting their heads and looking at Seoho with curious gestures.
‘How cute.’
Watching those small tilting gestures, Seoho asked Puti just in case,
“…Could this also be affected by it?”
Since they were outside, he didn’t mention divine power out loud just in case, but Puti understood exactly what Seoho was saying.
“Probably so, wouldn’t you say?”
Puti, who had been watching the birds gathering around Seoho along with him, led Seoho away with a fed-up expression as their numbers kept increasing.
“…Let’s go inside for now. Just in case.”
“Yes, alright.”
Since Seoho was equally flustered by the increasing number of birds, he obediently moved along. As Seoho moved, the birds sitting on his body flew up into the sky.
All except one.
Seoho carefully touched the head of the yellow bird sitting on his hand, then placed it on a nearby tree.
The bird sat obediently on the tree and just looked at Seoho without following.
Feeling concerned about the bird for some reason, Seoho kept glancing back at it on the way back. The bird tilted its head and continued to stare at Seoho.
***
A man with black hair narrowed his eyes thinly while looking down at a water glass. Though he couldn’t hear any sound, he could clearly see the image inside the water glass.
“He really is an outsider.”
He didn’t know why the birds were rushing to him, but it was an outsider with a somehow familiar appearance. The water’s surface reflected the back view of Seoho being led away by a servant.
Snap—when he flicked his finger, Seoho’s image in the water glass disappeared and was replaced by beautifully curved golden eyes. The man raised his hand to pull on his jet-black hair, then smacked his lips.
“I should go find him.”
***
When he returned to his room after experiencing that strange occurrence, Rosetta had already come back. Seoho, who had instantly blown away the lingering image of the birds from his mind, called out to Rosetta.
“Rosetta.”
Rosetta, who had his head deeply bowed, raised it at Seoho’s call.
Whether it was because of that strange incident he’d just experienced, or because he’d realized that Rosetta had simply been worried about him, his hurt feelings had long since disappeared. As Seoho smiled gently and tried to speak to him, Rosetta opened his mouth first.
“…Seoho.”
At that call, Seoho’s eyes furrowed involuntarily. Rosetta’s voice was strange.
As if Puti had felt the same strangeness that Seoho had noticed, he heard Puti’s startled voice from the side.
“Don’t tell me, again?”
“Rosetta, what’s wrong?”
The difference was that while Seoho felt Rosetta’s change and approached him closer, Puti hurriedly left the room.
Seoho didn’t stop Puti from leaving the room. It was sufficiently predictable that Rosetta wouldn’t welcome showing Puti this side of himself.
Seoho slowly approached Rosetta so as not to startle him. And he asked once more to Rosetta, who didn’t answer.
“Rosetta, why are you crying?”
Was recalling the memory of Rosetta crying earlier some sort of hint about the current situation?
“…I’m sorry for making you angry.”
Rosetta, whose eyes were brimming with tears, carefully grasped the hand of Seoho who had approached him while reading the mood.
“I should have apologized sooner, but I was scared…”
As expected, it seemed he’d noticed that Seoho had been somewhat emotionally agitated earlier. Seoho asked Rosetta to confirm if his guess was correct.
“Rosetta, so why are you crying?”
At Seoho’s question, Rosetta answered with a tearful, contorted face.
“Didn’t you glare at me with an annoyed expression?”
His eyes were full of moisture and his eyebrows were lowered. His lips were also trembling as if they would droop down at any moment.
Looking at that inhumanly beautiful face filled with hurt made him feel like he’d committed an enormously grave sin.
As Seoho stared at him blankly and Rosetta’s tears seemed about to overflow, he hurriedly opened his mouth.
“So… it’s not that I wasn’t angry.”
“You were angry after all…”
Rosetta swallowed his words and shed tears silently, drip-drop. His heart felt heavy at the sight of him looking like he didn’t know what to do because he was so upset.
“I was angry, but I’ve already gotten over it. So more precisely, rather than being angry, I should say I was sulky.”
It was a bit embarrassing to say himself, but right now the urgent matter was to stop Rosetta’s crying. At Seoho’s words, Rosetta, who had been stubbornly looking down, slightly raised his head and glanced at Seoho.
At that gaze, laughter almost burst out, but Seoho tried hard to hide that laughter.
“I just felt uncomfortable because my divine power doesn’t work as well as I thought, and I wondered if I was disappointing Rosetta.”
“…Disappointing me?”
Confusion settled in his voice that had sunk low from crying. Seoho shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“You were flustered because I was slower than you expected, right?”
“Th-that’s…”
Rosetta made a troubled face. Seoho looked at that face and let out a small laugh.
“You had a face that said you didn’t know how to teach me at all.”
At Seoho’s continued words, Rosetta fidgeted and muttered,
“You were angry after all.”
Seoho shook his head.
“It would be more accurate to say I felt helpless. I’d never received such a look before.”
It really was the first time for such a look. He’d always been on the side receiving praise, and had never felt like he was struggling to keep up with education.
A look worried that you might be hurt if told you were an inferior student.
‘As expected, that was also for my sake.’
Of course, that didn’t mean his hurt feelings at the time became something that never happened.
“Until now, if I just made an effort, I’d generally do at least above average.”
Rosetta hastily made excuses.
“I didn’t mean to…”
Seoho knew that too.
“Yes, I know. That’s why I’m fine now.”
But to continue being fine, he needed to tell Rosetta in advance. Seoho looked at Rosetta with a serious expression and said,
“But still, Rosetta.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll do my best to work hard. So could you lower your expectations just a little?”
At Seoho’s honest words, Rosetta’s eyes widened as if surprised.
“It’s not originally my power, so I won’t be able to use it as skillfully as you, Rosetta. I might not have talent for it… It might take a lot of time to reach the level you want.”
At Seoho’s look asking if he understood, Rosetta hurriedly nodded. Seoho wiped Rosetta’s eyes and asked,
“Good. Then you won’t cry anymore, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll also tell you right away if I feel hurt. But Rosetta, if you’re worried about something too, tell me right away instead of crying.”
“Okay.”
