YDPTB Chapter 85

Clicking his tongue softly, Karhan shifted his foot sideways to adjust his center of gravity and turned his body. He lightly deflected the brute force coming at him.

As the sword that was receiving the force disappeared, Asmil’s body momentarily staggered. He opened his eyes wide and smiled innocently. In an instant, the distance between them widened.

Karhan slowly lowered the tip of his sword towards the floor. He turned his head to look at the little bird perched on his shoulder. The feathers that were always full of luster had become a bit dry. Furrowing his brow, he asked in a low voice, “Are you alright?”

For him, the top priority was not the fight, but Seol’s health condition.

🐤

At Karhan’s question of whether I was alright, I hesitated and lowered my head. I wasn’t alright. For the first few days, Asmil had been threatening me with food and dance, but suddenly he brought deep-fried insects and tried to put them in my beak.

I had approached with anticipation as a savory smell wafted from the open bag, but… My teeth chattered with betrayal.

“Peeep…”

It was hell… I answered with a voice mixed with despair yet calm, and I felt the familiar touch of a hand stroking my head. The touch I had missed so much almost made tears fall. Not wanting to show my weakness, I pressed my beak shut and did my best to hold back the tears.

To hide my trembling body, I pretended to adjust my position by wiggling my bottom, and Karhan reached out and grabbed me from his shoulder. As his familiar body heat enveloped me, a sense of security came over me. I took a deep breath and slowly expanded my shrunken heart.

“Peep peep.”

I wanted to get out of here quickly. Seeing those long, flat insects that looked like centipedes roasted black was truly an ordeal. Asmil seemed to enjoy my disgust, meticulously peeling off the legs one by one as he ate. The sight of numerous legs on his tongue seemed like it would remain a trauma.

I gently bit his plump finger, meaning to say let’s go quickly, but Karhan seemed to misunderstand and instead stroked my head as I squirmed. He slowly shifted his gaze and finally fixed his eyes on Asmil.

A fierce silence passed as their eyes met. Asmil, with his eyes gently curved in a smile, broke the silence first.

“Will you give me back what’s mine?”

“Peep!”

Since when was I yours? I didn’t hide my displeasure as I opened my eyes wide. Now that I had Karhan behind me, there was no need to hold back. I flapped my wings threateningly, and Asmil’s amused voice was heard.

“It would be better for you to stay with me.”

He probably meant he would give me blood if I stayed in his hands. It was the safest way until I got home, but it wasn’t an appealing enough offer to leave Karhan’s side.

I had realized it desperately during the long, lonely time in that dark space. I needed Karhan. I missed his gentle touch and needed his warm body temperature that calmed me.

In that empty space, lying on the hard floor of the birdcage, Karhan’s face would float before me. Perhaps because he had treated me the kindest and taken care of me since I came to this world, I thought of him often and missed him a lot.

As I had more time alone and my thoughts lengthened, I realized that I had been relying on him a lot and acting spoiled. Just look at the current situation. I was depending heavily on Karhan.

As I lifted my head, I saw his firmly closed lips. They looked so stubborn.

In the uncomfortable silence demanding an answer, Karhan’s hand twitched slightly, brushing against my feathers. I noticed his jaw muscles moving slightly, barely noticeable unless you looked closely. His tightly closed lips slowly parted, breaking the silence.

“He’s mine.”

A deep smile bloomed on Asmil’s lips. He tilted his head and scanned Karhan with his red eyes. Then, the hand holding me carefully tightened, as if determined never to let go again.

Karhan warned Asmil in a voice even lower than usual.

“Seol is not yours, but mine.”

He spoke each syllable distinctly, as if talking to himself.

Somehow both Asmil and Karhan are going on about me being “theirs”. But unlike Asmil, Karhan’s “mine” didn’t feel so bad. Strangely, it filled a corner of my heart with an odd sense of satisfaction.

Maybe it was because Karhan had indeed bought me, so it was natural. Without saying anything, I sat on Karhan’s hand with my round bottom. My body fit perfectly in his cupped hands.

As the tense atmosphere continued, Asmil let out a small sigh. He shrugged his shoulders, then righted the chair that had fallen during the fight and sat down, saying, “How are you going to take him? Without my permission.”

Asmil spoke with narrowed eyes. One corner of his mouth rose slightly, creating a mocking expression. His red eyes, visible through his narrowed gaze, slowly scanned me and Karhan. It was like watching an insect struggling meaninglessly on the floor.

As I held my breath in tension, he crossed his legs as if bored and rested his arm on the backrest. He leaned back, looked up at the ceiling, and then slowly blinked, drawing an ominous smile.

“Hmm… shall we change the method?”

With an enigmatic face, he raised one hand. As he snapped his thumb and index finger, there was a “click” sound, and the tightly closed door slowly opened, letting in a desolate wind. The soft fur all over my body trembled slightly.

“If you want to suffer so much, what can I do? Take him if you want.”

Asmil shrugged, his eyes curved like crescent moons. Between his brightly smiling lips, his neatly arranged white teeth were visible. The gesture of tilting his head and pointing to the door with his chin suggested that we could leave this space at any time.

Karhan couldn’t react easily to Asmil’s sudden change of attitude, pushing us to leave. He stood still, examining Asmil’s face, then slowly lowered his gaze to look at me. His gray eyes wavered uneasily, having lost their confidence.

I could guess what Karhan was thinking as he looked at me, so I spread my wings and gently tapped his palm. I trusted Karhan who had come to find me today like this. As I looked at Karhan without wavering, he slowly closed and opened his eyes as if taking a deep breath. Then, without any hesitation, he turned his back on Asmil.

Karhan took me out of this bleak room where I had been confined for a long time.

The home I returned to after a long time was incredibly cozy. As soon as the door opened, I returned to human form and jumped onto the bed. It was soft and warm, a world apart from the hard, unstable birdcage floor. Although it wasn’t my bed but Karhan’s, I took a deep breath and exhaled, savoring the familiar smell of home.

“Whew, ahh.”

As I buried my face in the pillow, the bed tilted to one side. When I lifted my head, Karhan was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at me.

As the situation settled, I realized that Karhan wasn’t in a very good state. I blinked blankly, then slowly reached out my hand towards Karhan’s eyes.

I stroked as carefully as possible to avoid any stimulation. His dark blue eyelashes fluttered as my thumb brushed his eye area.

Was he very tired from looking for me? As I thought this, I felt a ticklish sensation in a corner of my heart, as if feathers were brushing against it. It was a feeling I had never experienced before, so I couldn’t say exactly what it was, but it wasn’t unpleasant at all. It was a burdensome yet happy feeling.

A smile formed on my lips without me realizing it, and Karhan’s Adam’s apple moved greatly once and then stopped. His lips, paler than usual, slowly opened.

“I’m sorry for acting on my own.”

I opened my eyes wide at the sudden, incomprehensible apology. I raised my upper body somewhat hastily and asked, “What for?”

“Didn’t I bring you back on my own? There might have been a chance to cure you…”

His gray eyes, which were always full of confidence, now looked more vulnerable than anyone else’s. As I took in his slightly trembling eyes, Karhan’s eyelids quivered, creating deep shadows. A dark curtain fell, as if trying to hide his shameful appearance.

It hurt my heart to see him shrinking and thinking of himself as weak, just like when we returned from the elven village. I didn’t want Karhan to show this kind of appearance because of me.

I lowered my hand from Karhan’s eyes and placed it on top of his hand that was gripping the bedspread. I felt his large joints as his firm hand trembled. I smiled, lifting the corners of my mouth, and said, “I’m fine! About the blood issue… well, it might get better with time, and honestly, I didn’t really want to drink it anyway!”

I couldn’t give Karhan a long explanation, so I spoke as indirectly as I could. But my words didn’t seem to ring true to him, as his brow remained furrowed. After quietly observing for a moment, I spoke carefully.

“…I was happy that you came to get me. Really.”

When I was being kidnapped, I had worried whether I would be able to return to the mansion as I saw the vast landscape spread out below me. The huge mansion became smaller than an eye booger and soon we entered deep into the mountains where not a single person could be found. But Karhan, by whatever method, came to find me in such a place and safely brought me home like this.

Looking at his slightly roughened skin and pale lips, I could tell how much he had struggled. He had put in this much effort for me. It saddened me to see Karhan, who had come searching for me while ruining his body, only apologizing. With a slightly trembling lower lip, I said firmly,

“You know I hate birdcages so much. But they put me in a birdcage and tried to raise me like a real bird. They even tried to feed me insects!”

Roasted insects, but still.