“Then I’ll ask once Rosetta’s work is finished.”
“Yes, Seoho-nim.”
For the past few days, Rosetta had been spending very busy days in many ways, but according to Puti, that busy work was now almost finished. If Rosetta was okay with it, going outside the palace together with him seemed like it would be good.
‘He said it was a state council meeting, right?’
Seoho was petting the bird rubbing its face against his hand when he stopped in place at an unfamiliar voice as he was about to move on.
“Puti!”
A servant who hadn’t noticed Seoho behind the tree spoke directly to Puti.
“Well, something came up….”
Puti glanced at Seoho and answered.
“What is it?”
“Well….”
Seeing the servant unable to answer easily, Seoho said to Puti.
“Go ahead. Puti.”
The servant who had come to find him seemed startled by Seoho’s voice. Puti frowned.
“But, Seoho-nim.”
“My skills have improved, and I’ll only be here.”
“Still….”
Seoho said, scanning the surroundings.
“It’s inside Rosetta’s palace.”
Hadn’t Puti said it? That inside the Imperial Palace was safe. Just then, the servant carefully interjected into their conversation.
“Puti, it’s really urgent.”
Puti glared at the servant with sharp eyes, then sighed as if he had no choice and said.
“I’ll be right back, really right back. You really must stay here?”
“Yes.”
The servant who had come to get Puti bowed deeply to Seoho and hurriedly took Puti away.
Left alone, Seoho glanced around before leaning his back against a tree and fiddling with the bird in his arms. The bird tilted its head as if acting cute and rubbed its face against Seoho’s finger.
“You’re very affectionate.”
The sensation of the small head and smooth feathers made Seoho feel warm and fuzzy.
“Do you like people?”
Naturally, it wasn’t a question expecting an answer.
[What is he saying?]
But an answer came back. Seoho jerked in surprise and shook his hand. Because of that, the bird fell from his hand.
Seoho, startled, stretched his hand forward, but the bird flew up before Seoho could catch it.
[Don’t catch me.]
A thick voice. Seoho was at a loss for words. Was it auditory hallucination? Or was this bird really speaking?
Since it was a magical world, it might not be strange for a bird to speak. But still, still, this was strange.
Seoho looked around with a perplexed face. There was still no one around Seoho. Seoho forced his curling hand open and mustered courage to ask.
“Um, are you the one speaking?”
After asking the question, Seoho even held his breath as he listened carefully.
He could hear the sound of leaves colliding in the gently blowing wind and insects chirping, but there was no voice echoing in his head like before.
As time passed, Seoho’s face, waiting for an answer, turned red. Seoho crouched down on the ground and covered his face.
A wave of embarrassment rushed over him, as much as when he had greeted the wall with eyes drawn on it in the not-so-distant past.
‘Oh my goodness.’
Reproaching himself for having such absurd imagination, Seoho pressed down on his heating ears and let out a deep sigh. Just then, something landed on his head.
Seoho’s eyes widened when the voice was heard again.
[Your name?]
Seoho stiffened. He heard it again.
So it wasn’t a mistake or auditory hallucination. This bird was really speaking.
Could birds speak in this world too? Or was this also thanks to Rosetta’s divine power?
‘No, even so, a bird speaking? What is this….’
As Seoho was falling into panic, the thick voice was heard once more.
[I asked what your name is.]
Seoho lowered the hand that had been touching his ear, hesitated, then carefully said.
“You’re asking for my name, right?”
At Seoho’s question, the bird flew with a flutter and landed on the back of Seoho’s hand, which was placed on his knee, and said.
[How many times are you going to make me ask?]
Seoho looked around here and there once more, and after confirming there was no one, answered.
“I’m Seoho. Lee Seoho.”
[Seoho?]
“Right. Um, do you have a name?”
He didn’t know if birds had names, but still, since it was a bird that spoke, it might be different somehow. At Seoho’s question, the bird was silent for a moment. After waiting for an answer briefly, Seoho opened his mouth again.
“Um?”
[I’ll tell you directly when we meet next time.]
Directly? Then does that mean this bird isn’t the one speaking right now?
Seoho became puzzled.
“You’re not a bird?”
[I’m not.]
At the answer that came back decisively, Seoho asked back inadvertently.
“Then who are you?”
[I said I’ll tell you when we meet next time, didn’t I? If you recognize me at first sight, I might give you a prize.]
“What does that….”
But the bird flew up before Seoho could ask another question. Seoho urgently got up from his spot to follow, but the bird had already flown far away.
“What on earth is this about?”
Seoho was muttering helplessly when Puti’s voice was heard from behind.
“Seoho-nim?”
“Ah, Puti.”
“I’m really sorry…, Seoho-nim, did something happen?”
Puti looked around sharply, glaring around with eyes that didn’t suit him. At that appearance of vigilance, Seoho hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, I didn’t meet anyone.”
Did he meet someone? It was someone—or something—in the form of a bird that he didn’t know what it was. As Seoho was hesitating, Puti asked again.
“Then are you perhaps tired?”
It wasn’t wrong.
“I am tired…, um, should we go back to the room first?”
“Yes?”
In a situation where he didn’t know what that was, it didn’t seem like a good idea to be in such an open place.
“Let’s talk after going inside.”
Puti, who had been tilting his head, obediently turned around.
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
Seoho asked as he moved his steps.
“Will Rosetta come in early today?”
“Yes, he will.”
At that definite answer, his unsettled heart began to calm down. Even if he pretended otherwise, what had just happened didn’t seem like an ordinary matter, so he had been a bit worried.
“Nothing really happened, right?”
At Puti’s worried question, Seoho nodded.
‘I should tell him after Rosetta returns.’
He didn’t want to bother him when he was already busy with the meeting.
‘It’s amazing, but it doesn’t seem dangerous. Probably.’
***
After taking Seoho back to his room, Puti heard news that Aris was coming for a lesson and immediately turned his steps.
‘As expected, he’s hiding something from me.’
Seoho seemed to think he was hiding it, but Puti was someone with a talent for grasping people’s moods. Especially, that talent had been honed even more while serving Rosetta up close.
Having realized that Seoho was hiding something, Puti headed straight to the conference hall where Rosetta was.
‘I have more things to report anyway.’
Not long after asking a servant to call Rosetta, he appeared.
“What is it?”
Puti didn’t want to call Rosetta during a meeting if possible, but there was Rosetta’s order to come find him immediately if anything happened related to Seoho, so he had no choice.
The state council meeting that happened once a year was a schedule that took a week at the longest or about three days at the shortest. One might think why they held meetings for so long, but since it was a meeting attended by most of the titled nobles in the vast empire, it was natural for the schedule to be long.
‘Actually, this has already been reduced a lot since His Majesty became Emperor.’
The story that meetings sometimes lasted almost a month when they went long was quite famous.
‘A whole month of power struggles with nobles.’
It was absolutely unimaginable now, and the fact that the meeting schedule had become this short was proof that Rosetta was that strong an Emperor.
Before the meeting started, Rosetta had ordered Puti to finish the meeting and return as quickly as possible, so he should take good care of Seoho.
‘He also told me to absolutely not let Seoho-nim outside the Imperial Palace.’
Not only the nobles who had come up from the provinces to attend the state council meeting, but also the nobles living in the capital—all nobles with titles—were staying in the imperial palace for smooth and quick meeting progress, so recently there were very many guests in the imperial palace.
Of course, following Rosetta’s orders, the surroundings of the Imperial Palace had been prepared in advance so that guests absolutely couldn’t come near, which was why he had recommended a walk to Seoho.
‘What on earth happened?’
Recalling Seoho, who seemed no different than usual but somehow seemed shocked, Puti bowed deeply to Rosetta, who was looking at him as if urging an answer.
Puti was not unaware of what Rosetta considered most important, and therefore also knew what he should report to Rosetta first.
“Your Majesty. There’s been contact from the temple.”
“The temple, you mean the Saintess?”
“Yes, it’s contact from the one monitoring the Saintess.”
What the attendant who had suddenly come to find him while he was walking in the garden with Seoho had conveyed was precisely the contact from the temple.
It was the first contact to return since planting someone to monitor Saintess Angel under Rosetta’s orders, making it all the more important.
“Report.”
Puti briefly summarized the contact from the temple as the aide had organized it.
“The Saintess searches through the temple’s library alone late at night. There’s no sign that she has found anything in particular.”
The sound of Rosetta snorting could be heard. Puti flinched, and Rosetta said irritably.
“So in the end, that woman doesn’t know anything properly either.”
