CH 8

Zelle was still groaning. 

Zelle stuck her head inside the water bowl in the cage and drank water and proceeded to squeal again. 

“Gwechk! Gweckk!”

“You’re being loud.”

Valhayle looked at Zelle coldly.

“Chief Commander, I’ve brought the things you ordered.”

A soldier entered and placed rolls of maps on the desk. 

Just as the soldier was about to leave, Valhayle spoke.

“Wait.”

The soldier turned around.

Valhayle pointed his chin towards Zelle.

Zelle flinched. 

“The bird is being noisy so take it outside during the meeting.”

“!!!!”

Zelle’s beak dropped. 

He’s seriously going to do this to me? 

Huh? You think you can do this to me!!

The soldier hesitantly approached the cage. 

“Turrrrrr.”

Zelle made a threatening noise. 

Valhayle watched Zelle and ordered. 

“Bring it outside in front of my tent.”

“Yes, sir.”

The soldier lifted the cage and walked outside. 

Zelle and Valhayle glared at each other until they were both out of sight. 

Zelle got tired after yelling at Valhayle that she decided to take a rest. 

She jumped up on the perch.

Ah, comfy. 

It felt like jumping on a fluffy bed. 

Not many minutes later, Sir Luke and a few more knights came towards the tent.

“Huh? Why are you out here?”

He tilted his head looking at Zelle. 

“Ah.”

And tapped his forehead. 

“You got chased out because you were freaking out again, right?”

You bastard!!

Zelle angrily bit the cage wires and roared. 

“Kyaakk!!!”

Sir Luke backed away at her aggressive behavior. 

“O, Okay. Okay. At least you delivered the message well despite being so crazy.”

He then chuckled and went inside the tent. 

Aaaargh! They are all so annoying!!

*･ﾟ:༻✦༺･ﾟ:*

“…cross…here…”

“But…this…”

Zelle focused her senses on the voices inside the tent. 

“Sir Evon must have been surprised.”

The other people’s voices weren’t clear but Sir Luke’s voice was very clear. 

She wondered if his voice was naturally loud or if his voice became louder when talking about useless stuff. 

“Well obviously…”

Valhayle replied to Sir Luke but he lowered his voice so Zelle couldn’t hear him further. 

Zelle groaned internally and pressed her head against the cage in an attempt to hear them better. 

‘I should have known that there would be useful information shared in the meeting.’

She was too furious earlier that she couldn’t help but express it. 

So, she regretted it deeply when she realized she was not going to hear their meeting if she’s outside here.

Zelle aggressively picked her feathers. 

Sir Luke spoke in the tent. 

“If we push them to the Black Defense Wall, we will be in the upper hand geographically.”

Zelle nodded. 

The Black Defense Wall.

It was a long Wall dividing Roymonde’s Central region and the Eastern region.

It was built when Roymonde was just a small territory but it was burned during the Grumaide War when the Eastern region became a part of Roymonde.

Zelle read that the wall was glowing because it was built with white stone but currently it looks haunted and is blackened from fire.

Though it looks haunted, the durability of the Wall was still strong as always so the Wall was used conveniently during Wars.

The protector of the Central region and the Kingdom’s strongest military Roheneim guarded the Wall so the Black Defense Wall became Roymonde’s strongest and final defense.

Ever since Roheneim guarded the Black Defense Wall, it was never intruded on by any other country. 

Except for this War of course. 

‘But if they recover the Wall, it will raise the morale of the soldiers.’

Since every Roymonde citizen trusts the Black Defense Wall with yellow flags.

It’s worth recapturing the Wall just for that trust. 

Zelle wished Sir Luke would speak more and leak more information. 

Since she couldn’t hear the others as clearly as him.

Ah, besides that, Zelle finally remembered Sir Luke’s family name during the flight.

The Tenealph Family. 

It was one of the prominent families of Roheneim the Queen supporters.

That means Sir Luke’s family must have a tightly knit relationship with the Lumares Family Valhayle belongs to. 

Lumares or Tenealph, it was sure that they were one of the families Zelle tried to avoid for her life. 

‘I would have never met them if I didn’t become a bird…’

Then Sir Luke’s voice could be heard again.

“…redyl, Zelleine, Rite…”

“!!!!”

Zelle was shocked.

Wait. Say that again.

What did you just say?

Zelle got chills all over her body and shivered.

Zelleine.

‘I didn’t mishear it right?”

Her heart beat faster.

Zelle desperately pushed her head towards the tent.

Only muttered mumbles could be heard but Zelle was on the verge of tearing up. 

[Zelleine].

That was the name of the 8th princess of Roymonde, Zelle’s full name.

*･ﾟ:༻✦༺･ﾟ:*

[Zelleine Bmaha Meredith. The Bmaha Royalty 14th direct heir.]

Zelleine remembered this line in the book about Royalty she read when she was 8 years old.

In Roymonde, only royalty could write their names in front of their surnames.

Every other people had to write their names after their surnames.

They only existed in the history of their family names and didn’t exist as an individual.

It was the mindset of nobility that family came first than any individual member.

Only the royal heirs had significance in their names since their names were passed on to the next generation.

If one of the sons of Lespelle the 1st was crowned, then his name would be changed to Lespelle the 2nd when he succeeded the throne. 

The royal descendants also had a ‘sect’ middle name. 

In the case of Zelleine, Zelleine was her unique name, Bmaha was her sect name, and Meredith was her surname.

In that prospect, Zelleine Bmaha Meredith was a perfect royal name.

But on the day Zelleine read her record, she decided she will not let there be any more descriptions of her.

It was meaningful to leave a trace on earth but to Zelleine, it wasn’t important.

It was all because of survival.

Having one more line of description meant she would be more revealed to the world. And if that ever happened, it was death for her.

At least, according to what the 1st princess told Zelleine at her 8th birthday it was true.

There was no territory that was allowed to Zelleine.

The day she decided she would live an unnoticed life, she never wished to be recorded in any important documents. 

Except now when she was eavesdropping on a military meeting inside a birdcage.

‘What, What is it! Why is my name mentioned in a confidential meeting!!’

Guessing by the words heard before and after her name, it was a list of royalty. 

The concern here was that she couldn’t be sure if it was a list of the royalties that were dead or the list of the royalties that are alive.

The meeting ended soon and Sir Luke and the other knights came out of the tent.

Sir Luke sent them off cheerfully and lifted Zelle’s cage.

“So, why did you make a fuss, huh?”

Sir Luke made fun of her and hung the cage inside Valhayle’s tent and bowed.

Valhayle was glaring at the map on his table and nodded at him.

Zelleine was quiet from exhaustion.

30 minutes later.

There was an awkward silence in the tent.

It was between a man and a bird.

Zelleine was still not fine with him and Valhayle was preoccupied with something.

“You were hurt.”

Zelle almost fell off the perch from surprise.

‘Did that human just friggin talk to me?’

Valhayle spoke without looking up once.

“I saw scratches on you earlier.”

Zelle unconsciously looked down at her body.

There were some rashes she got from trying to escape the arrows.

But… they were not that visible because they were covered in feathers and it didn’t hurt anymore.

As she was studying her body again, Valhayle asked again.

“How did you get hurt?”

Zelle then realized that he wanted answers from her.

“!!!”

Oh my oh my.

He isn’t talking to himself! He is talking to me like he is having a conversation with me!!

Zelle looked at Valhayle nervously. He was asking things that could not be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

‘Is he okay? He kept calling me crazy and now has he gone mad?’

She avoided Valhayle’s eyes. Then he spoke curtly.

“If you won’t freak out again, I’ll let you out for a while.”

And glanced back at Zelle.

When she met eyes with his gray eyes, she gulped.

The cage was cramped but he doesn’t look sane enough to trust.

But because she was too curious about her name she heard earlier, Zelle nodded. 

Valhayle seemed to have understood what she meant and opened the cage door.

Zelle flew over to Valhayle’s desk.

Valhayle tied her ankle with a long rope and tied the other end to the desk left and sat on the chair.

Zelle suspiciously studied Valhayle.

Valhayle moved some pages out of the desk.

“I’ll tell the soldier in charge of you to take a look at your injuries.”

She wanted to tell him that she met a group that seemed to be Granoir’s reconnaissance troop but…

“Brrrr.”

Only bird noises came out of her mouth.

She tried to roll her tongue like speaking but the sound that came out of her was nothing like words.

She thought of drawing what happened with her talons but there was a limit to that.

With these rough talons, she could only draw simple shapes like a circle or lines but she couldn’t draw anything more complex that could deliver a message.

When Zelle made a soft and sorrowful cry, Valhayle looked up at Zelle.

*˖:✧ ⑅•.⋅༻♔༺•⑅ ✧:˖*

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TL/N: Zelle is the 4th princess but she is often referred to as the 8th princess as well because she is the 8th child of the King. The 4th princess that is mentioned is referring that she is the 4th eldest female child.