Chapter 83

Perhaps he wasn’t completely blind—Rashid crossed his legs and propped up his chin. But I wasn’t going to feel a prick in my conscience from just that. We hadn’t even started.

“Is that right? Well, I suppose, since that time she sank into muddy water and her entire feathers were soaked. Isn’t that why you might have thought that way?”

“….Hmmm.”

“Look here. She has a ribbon.”

I flauntingly lowered the ends of the pink ribbon to show him, blinking at him.

Rashid, who had been motionlessly looking into my eyes, now made a tiresome face and waved his hand away.

I breathed a sigh of relief at his attitude, which seemed to say that caring about whatever bird this was would be bothersome.

‘I knew he’d be like that.’

***

What was I supposed to expect from a man who could barely remember his sister’s age?

At this point, it was pretty surprising he could even distinguish people’s faces. There had been many animals at the lake that day, and if he’d been someone with the delicacy enough to distinguish between them, his sister wouldn’t have been driven out like this in the first place.

“Look carefully, one more time. Isn’t she prettier on a second glance?”

“….Put it away.”

[Hup!]

I could feel through the palm of my hand that Selene had been hurt, but I didn’t lose my innocent smile. But if, in the future, this man ended up being pecked to death, I planned to hide the culprit until the very end.

‘Sorry, Selene.’

Though I gently petted her neck in an effort to comfort her in my arms, her anger did not disappear so easily.

Up until the moment I’d dragged her to the Emperor, she had only been worrying what would happen if we were caught, but now she had completely turned into his mortal enemy.

“…..But do you really have to go that far?”

“Excuse me?”

“Not just taking it and caring for it, do you really have to cherish, hm….”

Rashid furrowed his brows, looking like he was trying to find the right words. He swept back his hair.

I felt his vivid self-deprecation asking why he had to explain such a thing, but I couldn’t let this pass over.

“Cherish, you say. This is quite normal.”

“Tying up a bird’s head and massaging it like that?”

“……”

Oh, Father.

Please let me hit that man’s mouth at least once, even if that’s during my next life.

I swallowed the impossible dream down, the corners of my lips quivering slightly.

But then again, having a proper conversation with Rashid over a mere duck could be considered a miracle.

‘I’m sure this is just the start.’

After talking to him yesterday, I had concluded that ‘this guy’s not rotten to the core’. If only we could fix him up and reuse him, then what could be more reassuring than having a brother for an Emperor?

And she had no less than seven brothers—if I examined them carefully with my eyes wide open, then there might be at least one proper person among them.

‘It’s not a bad idea to prepare for when my baby returns to being a human.’

This man gets to be as self-serving as he usually is, and I on my side can discover a good guardian. This was what they called killing two birds with one stone.

No matter how good the male lead was, she needed a dependable family, too.

I decided to walk the path of enlightenment with the desperate hidden intention of finding at least one person.

“Your Majesty, when you are caring for something, it’s wrong to just let it into the house and leave it be.”

“And why is that?”

“Because it is a life.”

My response did seem like I was just parroting the same thing to him, but this much was the most truthful I could be. Be it animal or beast, or be it the Empire’s princess.

I needed to take this opportunity to astonish this man and tell him the true meaning of what caring for someone was.

“No matter how small or young, everyone has emotions.”

“…..That thing?”

“I already told you her name.”

At this point, I could pretty much assume that this man’s world was just filled with “this, that, and those things”.