Episode 27
‘Calm down. Even if you’re caught in a tiger’s den, you can survive if you keep your wits about you.’
Just then, a petal brushed against the blade pointed at my throat. I saw the cleanly sliced edge.
‘…I don’t think I can survive. A graze from that would be a serious injury, at least!’
I blurted out,
“…The Tower Master!”
At the mention of the Tower Master, the Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed. He spoke sarcastically,
“The Tower Master, you say?”
Seeing the Crown Prince react to the words “Tower Master,” I spoke with relief,
“Yes. He said he owed a favor to someone. He said he would entrust me to that person, and that’s why I’m here.”
The Crown Prince muttered to himself,
“Ha. That damn old geezer.”
I blinked, wondering if I had misheard.
‘That sounded like he was cursing the Tower Master. Is it just my imagination that they seem to have a bad relationship?’
“That old man has some nerve. After scamming me like that, he says I owe him a favor.”
‘Yep. It wasn’t my imagination.’
His red eyes, glaring at me, were filled with a deep-seated killing intent.
For a moment, I wondered if the Tower Master had scammed me. He said he would send me to a place where I could be happy, and yet he sent me to someone who looked like he was about to kill me.
The Crown Prince frowned and sighed.
“Ha.”
I instinctively cringed.
‘He doesn’t look happy right now. I should stay as quiet as possible.’
The Crown Prince, rubbing his temples as if he had a headache, looked at me with displeasure.
“Still, since it’s the Tower Master’s request, I suppose I should grant it.”
‘That’s a relief. So why are the knights’ swords still pointed at me?’
“But before that, I have a question. What are you to the Tower Master that he entrusted you to me?”
I tilted my head at his question.
‘Just a bird who recently became human…’
Wondering how to explain this, I quietly recalled my past actions.
I embarrassed him by having my bird status announced formally. I placed my little foot on his hand and then kicked him away, I flapped my wings to prevent him from approaching Sylvia, and I even feigned illness to chase him away.
I folded up my intention to reveal that I was Cesar’s bird and let it float away like a paper boat.
‘Yes. I definitely shouldn’t say I was Cesar’s bird. I might be executed.’
But I couldn’t think of a plausible lie. Lover or disciple would be the most natural choices, but if he questioned me further, he would discover that I knew nothing.
As I struggled to come up with an answer, a chillingly cold voice, colder than midwinter snow, pierced my ears.
“I hate wasting time. I’ll ask again. What are you to the Tower Master?”
The ticking clock made me anxious, but my mind was blank. I was merely someone who had received help from the Tower Master. So I couldn’t come up with a convincing lie.
But then, strangely, I thought of Cesar. Thinking about what kind of existence I was to Cesar, words flowed out as if a blocked passage had opened.
My voice, mixed with the gentle breeze, echoed softly.
“…Insignificant and worthless.”
When we first met, Cesar said he would throw me to the monsters. He spoke of killing me so casually. But as time passed, he started to care for me. He stayed by my side when I collapsed from illness.
So to him, I was probably…
“Someone who became precious to him, someone he cared about, someone he wanted to keep by his side…”
The more I spoke, the more I recalled Cesar’s touch, which I had tried to push away. I bit my lip and shook my head. I had already left his side. It was too late to think about it now.
I pushed away the lingering thoughts and finished my sentence.
“…Does that make sense?”
As I finished speaking, the Crown Prince ordered his knights to lower their swords. The sharp blades pointed at my throat disappeared, and the Crown Prince spoke with intrigue,
“It seems you were quite close to the Tower Master.”
I nodded, thinking of Cesar instead of the Tower Master.
‘I would have said we were close. But I’ve left his side, so that’s over now.’
Cesar, being possessive, might look for me for a while, but there was no way he could find me, now a human, after I had been a bird.
As time passed, he would have to focus on obtaining Sylvia, so he would surely forget about a small, insignificant bird. The fate of being killed by him no longer mattered.
I had to pull myself together. I slapped my cheeks, now with human hands, not wings. I pushed away the churning emotions in my heart and looked at the Crown Prince.
But his expression was strange.
‘What’s with that expression, as if he has something on the Tower Master? This is ominous.’
“That’s very good news.”
“Good news?”
‘Is it good news that I’m close to the Tower Master?’
“Yes. Whatever you are, since you’re special to the Tower Master, he must have sent you to me for a reason.”
‘Well… I was actually thinking of Cesar, not the Tower Master, when I said that.’
I pushed my nagging conscience aside and nodded.
And I regretted that decision. I shouldn’t have nodded then. I should have said we weren’t close at all, that I had just received help from him by chance.
But unaware of the impending future, I just looked at the approaching Crown Prince.
He grabbed the ends of my wavy hair and smiled. A seductive, deep voice, like the one he used with Sylvia, whispered as if proposing a secret deal,
“I’ll gladly play along with that proposition.”
‘His tone is strange. And those eyes… they’re the same eyes described when the male lead punishes the villain in the novel…?’
A sense of foreboding washed over me. And I froze at the Crown Prince’s next words, which sealed my ominous premonition.
“Of course, what I do with you is up to me.”
‘…Is it just my imagination that that sounds like a threat?’
I felt like I was in a more dangerous situation than when I first met Cesar.
Seeing me frozen, my eyes darting around, the Crown Prince spoke,
“Then get off my lap.”
I wondered what he meant by “lap.” Come to think of it, it had felt very soft when I landed.
‘Did I just have that conversation while sitting on the Crown Prince’s lap?’
Startled, I hurriedly tried to stand up, but my legs tangled. I tried to put weight on my feet and stand, but I collapsed onto the grass.
My legs weren’t strong enough to support me yet. My movements felt even more unnatural than when I was a bird, and it made me feel dejected.
I looked down at my legs and hung my head. Seeing that, perhaps thinking I was scared, the Crown Prince chuckled and said,
“Oh dear. If you’re already like this, we won’t be able to have a good time.”
‘That “good time” isn’t going to be filled with blood and violence, is it?’
As I had that ominous thought, I saw a hand extended towards me, sitting on the grass.
“Can you stand up, Lady?”
A kind voice, different from when he had a sword pointed at my throat, was directed at me. But seeing his fiery red hair and warm golden eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to smile.
Arenz Karlas, the Captain of the First Imperial Knights, whom I had met once before. And beside him, Aaron, the Crown Prince, or rather, Aronio Or Ruperam.
This was the heart of the Imperial Palace, the setting for the central conflict of the original novel, the war of succession.
I finally had to admit it. My new beginning as a human had gone horribly wrong from the start.
I cursed the Tower Master who sent me to this lion’s den.
‘…Just you wait, Tower Master. Next time I see you…’
A new life in the Imperial Palace, as precarious as a candle in a storm, was unfolding before me.
After sending Lily away, the Tower Master quietly waited for someone.
“He takes after his impatient master.”
As soon as he realized the bird was gone, he had cast a spell and was rushing here at a frightening speed.
Soon, he heard the deafening sound of a door shattering. The Tower Master calmly smiled and greeted the person who entered.
“You haven’t visited the Magic Tower since becoming Duke. What brings you here so suddenly?”
His usually neat appearance was gone, replaced by disheveled silver hair and unbuttoned shirt. He walked in and spoke as if he knew everything, warning his master,
“I’ve come to retrieve my bird, which you’re keeping.”
His deep purple eyes gleamed ominously, as if threatening to not leave him alone if he didn’t hand over the bird. Despite the furious glare, the Tower Master replied calmly,
“Oh, by bird, you must mean the one you asked about motion sickness. But I don’t know anything. Why are you looking for it here?”
Cesar slowly ran a hand through his messy hair as he looked at the Tower Master. And he realized he was too late. The flow of mana had already been severed.
He had made his move before Cesar arrived.
“…I’m too late.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The jewel’s location had clearly been pointed towards the Magic Tower. The Magic Tower was an important place, not somewhere one could easily enter, even with teleportation magic. Entry was strictly restricted.
And yet, the flow of mana, which had been connected until a moment ago, had been severed here, at his master’s place. He asked about Lily’s whereabouts, but his master, as always, just put on a sly expression and avoided the question.
He didn’t know why his master had done this. He was an unreadable person.
But he was anxious. His heart ached at the disappearance of his precious bird.