CH 96

Ansia, Cain, and Leona all went home after the wedding was mostly over. 

Leona insisted on sleeping in the mansion, but Fernando’s servants firmly dragged Leona away. 

“No! I don’t want to! Can I sleep here, ung? Linsy!” 

“No, Lady. You can’t make a fuss like this.” 

“The Lord said that if you make a fuss, you won’t be able to come to Yekhardt’s mansion forever.”

Leona entered the carriage only after the servants had spent a long time appeasing and comforting her. 

Compared to her, Cain and Ansia were easy to send.

Cain was so obedient and gentle that he entered the carriage immediately after the Hezeth servants asked him to go. 

“Ack!” 

As Ansia walked, a bush caught her dress and tore off part of it, but she was okay. 

“Oh my, Ansia!”

I looked at Ancia’s torn dress in surprise.

However, Ansia smiled brightly as she hugged the dress. 

“The dress is a bit torn, but it’s okay since I’ve seen such a great wedding!”

I don’t know if Ansia’s maids will be okay, but Ansia said she was really okay and left.

Then, after all the kids are gone.

I felt strangely a little lonely.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way when I part ways with a friend before—.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Leona, Cain, and Ancia, but it seems to be because we parted ways quickly. 

But,

‘The atmosphere of the clan is not good, so there’s nothing I can do about it.’

At this point, where the Giles flower sharpens each other’s nerves, 

The heir of the head family and the youngest daughter sleeping in another clan’s territory wouldn’t have such a good effect.

I understood it in my head, but I felt a little disappointed when the children went.

The garden where the wedding was held was being tidied up to some extent.

However, at Kendrick’s order to leave the flowers as they are because they are pretty, the spring flowers that adorned the mansion to the fullest remained the same. 

I looked at the flowers for a long time, then turned my steps back.

“Arsene, let’s go up.”

“Mhm, let’s go.”

I grabbed Arsene’s hand and went up to the bedroom.

Arsene and my room were now combined, so there was no need to go to another room.

We flopped down on the bed as soon as we got into the bedroom without asking anyone first.

The soft bed was wide enough for two small children to roll over and sleep.

I said, yawning profusely.

“Oh, I am so sleepy….” 

“Me too…” 

Even though sunlight was still pouring in through the window, drowsiness crept in. 

In the meantime, to hold Arsene’s hand tightly and sleep, I groped for the bed sheet and held Arsene’s hand tightly. 

“Don’t let go… You can’t let it go….”

I was sleepy, so my voice kept hushing up.

“I know, I won’t let go….” 

It was the same with Arsene.

We lay side by side and blinked our eyes at each other.

Then, Arsene blinked his eyes slowly a couple of times before opening his mouth.

“…So, are you my wife?”

“Ung? Your wife? That’s right… we got married.” 

To be precise, we didn’t do it today. We did it the other day.

‘Still, the wedding is today, so should it be today?’

I pondered for a while.

But I soon gave up on the idea. It seemed faster to go and ask Kendrick later.

“So, do you disappear early too?”

“What?”

I opened my eyes wide at Arsene’s words and hurriedly got up.

However, the person who actually surprised me seemed very sleepy.

The twinkling of his drowsy eyes seemed like she would fall asleep any moment.

“What do you mean by disappeared early, Arsene?”

“Like mother… Are you leaving early?”

Ah. 

Only then did I understand what Arsene meant.

I heard that Mrs Yeckhart died on the day Arsene was born.

Therefore, Arsene grew up without ever feeling his mother’s arms. 

Of course, that’s the same for me.

Although I was seven on the outside, I was twelve on the inside and had a second life.

So, I lay down next to Arsene again and patted Arsene awkwardly.

“What are you talking about, Arsene? I will not disappear.”

“…Really?” 

“Yeah, really. Where would I go?”

I really meant it.

When I become an adult and leave Yeckhart as promised, I’ll think about it again.

First of all, I didn’t have a place to go now.

There was no time to go anywhere with Arsen talking in such a sad voice. In addition.

“I have to cure you. I’m not going until I cure you.”

“If I get treated… are you going?”

“Uhm… Wouldn’t we have had our coming-of-age ceremony by the time you’re completely cured?”

I answered a little brightly to get Arsene up.

But Arsene’s mood seemed somehow more depressed.

I patted Arsene.

“I am not going anywhere without you. So don’t worry and take a nap, fool.”

“You’re not going…anywhere.” 

“I told you, did you see me lying?”

At my words, Arsene dozed off and shook his head from side to side. 

“Yeah, haven’t you seen it? So sleep.” 

“You can’t leave me, okay?… Yeah, you’re my wife, so now….” 

I laughed while listening to Arsene’s muttering in a daze.

Because it was pretty cute when a 7-year-old kid who didn’t even know the word a wife said I shouldn’t leave because I was his wife.

I slowly blinked my dim eyelids as I stared at Arsene’s fine sleeping face for a long time.

The afternoon sun poured warm and stroked Arsene and my shin.

***

“Ung… father?” 

As I stood up and slowly blinked my eyes, I saw Kendrick standing in the doorway. 

“I woke up a child who was sleeping well.” 

“No… I’m awake now.” 

I shook my head and tried to wake up.

However.

Pong—! 

Perhaps it was because I was sleepy, but my body became weak, and I turned into my bird form. 

Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing transformation lately? 

I was often abruptly turned into my bird form, but I was neither agitated nor surprised. 

“Chirp…”

“Now you have quite a lot of red feathers. Let’s get out, Linsy.”

Kendrick carefully lifted me up with both hands and held me.

I felt a huge hand wrap around me warmly.

Then I felt like the drowsiness I had fought off for a while was starting to come back.

“Chirp…” 

I was melting almost like cake dough in Kendrick’s big hands.

Kendrick was troubled when he saw me trying to fall asleep again, and soon he spoke carefully to his ear.

“Linsy, wake up. I have something to show you.”

“Chirp…” 

I jumped up and blinked my eyes a couple of times to drive away sleep.

Then I looked up at Kendrick and made a small cry.

“Chirp…?” 

“Let’s go, Linsy.”

Kendrick walked away with me still in his hand. I said I would climb on Kendrick’s shoulder, but Kendrick wouldn’t send me on his shoulder for fear of falling.

The place where Kendrick took me was Yeckhart’s library.

The very place where I stopped by to find a book related to prohibition first, but failed and read a lot of fairy tales. 

‘Why did we come here?’

I looked at the situation by rubbing my eyes with my wings even though I was sleepy. 

Kendrick trudged to the end of the library, then put his hand on the wall. 

When Kendrick’s hand reached, the library wall cracked, and a huge passage came into my eyes.

I looked at the passage with my eyes wide open, forgetting I was dozing off.

“Chirp?”

“I found something.”

Kendrick laughed and went down the stairs of the passage. As he took one step at a time down the passage, the sound of his footsteps could be heard.

I slumped in his palm, staring clearly into the dark passageway without a glimmer of light.

Kendrick arrived at another library with a ton of books.

However. 

‘They all look like very old books?’

All of them are well-kept, but they show signs of being old, as if they can’t escape the years. 

“This is the old book kept by the wolf clan, and this is the book brought from the land of another clan.”

Kendrick said, pointing to the old books crammed into the bookshelves.

I nodded.

‘Looks like they were brought in during the Territorial War.’

As strong as the wolf clan was, there were frequent territorial wars, so many old books must have been brought from the process.

Kendrick picked up one of the open books.

And then.

The sound of papers thinner than a feather echoed every time the book was turned. 

I sat in Kendrick’s hand and stared at the book he opened.

Under the dim light of the library, he carefully turned the book’s pages.

And then.

“Okay, Linsy. Here it is.” 

“Chirp?” 

What on earth did he want to show me by waking me up and bringing me here?

I pulled my head out and looked at what Kendrick pointed at.

And I opened my eyes wide.

What Kendrick was pointing at looked like a huge bird.

And the body and wings of the bird were sparsely coated with red color. 

I opened my eyes and looked.

‘Isn’t it a red bird?’

“Chirp?” 

The red bird is a cursed species, so publishing such a book must be strictly forbidden, right?

I looked up at Kendrick as if wondering, and Kendrick replied with a smile.

“What you believe may not be true. It’s written that way in the book. And it’s old, so I can’t decipher all the letters, but….” 

“Chirp…?” 

“It is written that this bird was a very good bird, here.”

“Chirp…?” 

“By the way, this is a book published by the bird clan a long time ago. That’s all the evidence remains. By the way, nothing like the curse of the red bird is recorded.”

“Chirp…?”