Chapter 4

Translator: Kimmy

Proofreader: SunnyMay

*˖:✧ ⑅•.⋅༻♔༺•⑅ ✧:˖*

Zelle woke up because someone kicked her. 

She glared up at the person. 

“…….”

But Zelle soon fell silent.

It was the knight that couldn’t understand her. 

Was his name Sir Luke?

She definitely heard the name before but she couldn’t exactly remember it.

But Zelle didn’t go silent because of Sir Luke. 

It was because of the food bowl Sir Luke placed in front of her.

“You are hungry, right? Here you go.”

Zelle rushed towards the bowl.

Eh? This……

“Gwechkk!!!!”

Zelle squealed as she backed away from the bowl.

There were two freshly dead mice in the bowl. 

Sir Luke watched as Zelle backed away and mumbled. 

“Does it not like it? But he said mice are its favorite……”

Zelle sighed. 

Cavier falcons must eat these kinds of stuff for food. But she was still human. She couldn’t just bite off from the dead mice because she’s in a bird’s body.

But the problem was,

she was really hungry.

“Then do you want this instead?”

Sir Luke dug into his pocket and brought out something.

Zelle drooled as she waited. 

He held it up close to her face.

“Gweeeeckhskk!!!!!!!”

Zelle jumped and fluttered.

Aaarghh!! Get it off!! Get it offffff!!!

Sir Luke startlingly withdrew his hands watching Zelle freak out.

“But he said it also likes frogs…..”

Sir Luke observed curiously then walked into the tent. She could hear what they were talking about very clearly.

“Sir Valhayle.”

“Don’t make a ruckus outside.”

“What? I just fed it.”

“……..”

Zelle immediately knew that silent meant disbelief. 

“Really. I was going to order the soldier in charge of messenger birds to feed it but I was on the way here anyway so I went to get some food for it but it’s not eating anything. It must be starving since it didn’t eat anything yet.”

“If it doesn’t eat anything, force it to eat. We can’t let the bird die when we still don’t know anything.”

“How am I supposed to forcefully feed an animal that doesn’t want to eat? And I just told you. It’s crazy. Not eating food is proof that it’s gone mad.”

Zelle glared at the tent, hearing that.

She didn’t have a mirror nearby so she didn’t know how scowling her face was but this face was probably threatening enough.

Zelle decided to glare at him again like this when Sir Luke comes out later. 

“How’s the search going.”

“We are in the process. Only 2 search teams haven’t returned yet. They will be back soon.”

“Commander in chief!!”

The captain of the cavalries rushed into the tent.

Zelle jumped out of the way. Her tail was always stomped on.

Zelle turned to see the soldier that just ran into the tent.

“We found the messenger of the 4th order!!”

There was a sound of someone abruptly standing up.

“Where did you find him.”

“He was closer than we thought. He is severely injured so he’s been moved into the ward to be treated.”

“Is it bad?”

“His wounds are not life-threatening. We wouldn’t have found him if you didn’t order a search.”

Sir Luke spoke in an excited voice.

“Well, of course. There was no rescue request on the message so we would have considered him dead. Sir Valhayle, you saved one more life of Roymonde.”

“Good job on the search. The search troop may return and rest.”

The soldier walked out in light steps. The man then spoke to Sir Luke.

“Sir Luke, bring in the bird outside.”

“…..Yes, sir.”

Zelle was grabbed by Sir Luke once again.

This time, she tried her best to look like a bird.

If not, the only thing she would get from Sir Valhayle or whatever was either suspicion or animal abuse.

Zelle emphasized her bird-ness and looked at Valhayle sitting in the tent.

Valhayle frowned and looked down at Zelle while crossing his arms.

“Sir Luke. You may return and rest too. Leave the bird food here.”

“Ah, yes, sir. Tie it up well so it won’t attack you again.”

Sir Luke spoke in a joking manner and disappeared out of the tent.

Zelle wondered what position Sir Luke held to be able to treat Valhayle with both strict manners and friendly comfort. 

After tying Zelle up tightly to the stake, Valhayle sat on the table and started doing a bunch of things.

He read the messenger solder’s information and wrote something down.

Meanwhile, Zelle decided to think about the things she postponed to think about.

Actually, she didn’t even have to think about it as they crowded in her mind.

‘Why did I become a bird?’

What happened to my real body?

How did I become a bird, and why specifically a bird, and why specifically me?

What connection did I have to this bird?

She didn’t know anything.

‘Am I… really dead? Is that why I became a bird?’

Negative thoughts filled her mind but Zelle shook her head.

‘No, I’m still not sure about that.’

I don’t have a memory of dying.

Zelle thought she should at least figure out some things.

This was the Allied Camp so there must be something she can find out about herself here.

And the current situation of Roymonde and about her siblings.

Then first… the confidential message.

Zelle opened her eyes widely in search of the confidential message.

‘I am the one who delivered it, I have the right to know what’s written on it.’

Plus, she was a princess so that gave her even more rights. 

‘It doesn’t make sense that I can’t read it when I am the one who brought it!”

But time passed, as her search for the confidential message failed while Valhayle continued to write.

“……..”

Zelle then decided to postpone the search.

Right now, she was too hungry to even open her eyes widely.

She held on to her empty stomach and sat with her stomach touching the ground and pushed her neck into her shoulders.

She decided to sleep to forget the frustration and anger.

Just as Zelle was about to doze off, Valhayle’s tent opened.

“Sir, your dinner.”

A soldier came in and set up his meal on the table and left.

Water, bread, a bit of quail meat, boiled vegetables with a pinch of salt, and cheese.

Zelle blinked slowly. Then opened them as wide as she could.

It wasn’t like the food she used to eat in the castle but it was human food.

Zelle sparkled her eyes and looked at the food with desire.

Valhayle, on the other hand, didn’t even glance at the food and continued to write.

Zelle couldn’t stand it anymore and grumbled loudly.

Though it was just a sound of a bird.

Valhayle’s pen stopped moving.

Zelle didn’t miss this opportunity and grumbled again. But Valhayle went back to writing.

Zelle huffed at his indifferent hand. 

Valhayle scrolled and tied up a paper fully filled with writings and approached Zelle.

“I guess you weren’t hungry earlier. Eat up.”

Then he kindly placed the dead mice and frog in front of Zelle.

She didn’t want to disrespect or waste the food but it was still horrifying to look at those dead animals especially with her new heightened eyesight.

Zelle used her foot to flip the bowl over.

“……”

Valhayle looked at Zelle with close attention.

Zelle shut her eyes and waited for his punishment.

Who would believe she was the 8th princess of Roymonde when they saw her now?

No, before that, who would even believe she was a human?

Zelle was about to go insane from the frustration.

Even so, her fear of violence and animalistic hunger didn’t seem to diminish.

When the smack didn’t come, Zelle opened her eyes and looked up at Valhayle.

He mumbled with a cold face.

“If it doesn’t eat this… What does this bird eat?”

Zelle hurriedly flapped towards the aromatic quail meat on his table.

‘I eat that! I want to eat that!! Give me that!!!’

Valhayle stood up and looked to where Zelle was flapping towards.

Zelle was joyful that he finally understood what she meant.

Valhayle frowned again.

“It’s not like it understood me.”

“Gweckk!!”

Zelle yelled at Valhayle out of annoyance that he is thinking about whether she understands him or not rather than thinking to feed her.

But Valhayle’s face did not flinch at Zelle’s tantrum.

He called the soldier outside.

“Bring the soldier that was in charge of this bird. I have something to ask him.”

“Yes, Sir Valhayle.”

When the soldier left, Zelle gave up on the food and started looking for the confidential message again.

‘Since he is calling for the soldier in charge of me, he must be thinking of putting me back into the birdcage.’

She had to at least read one of the confidential messages to find out what state Roymonde was currently in.

Valhayle mumbled as he observed Zelle turning her head here and there like she was searching for something.

“What are you looking for? Food?”

Zelle glared at him threateningly and looked over to the organized paper pile on Valhayle’s table.

Valhayle walked towards her.

When she stopped moving and behaved well at the suddenly approached big build the rope around her ankle loosened.

Valhayle pulled the loosened rope and looked at Zelle.

Zelle walked around a bit and excitedly went to the table.

Valhayle thought Zelle was indeed looking for food so he tore a piece of the bread and tossed it to her.

Ah.

Her motion vision was really great.

She was just waiting for the bread to fall but when she could see the bread piece mid-air so clearly, her body moved like a magnet.

She caught it and swallowed it.

It didn’t taste much like anything but Zelle was thrilled at the feeling that she ate something.

Valhayle thought a bird eating bread was weird.

After having the bread piece, Zelle started looking for the confidential message again.

She hopped up to his table and started searching through the pile using her beak.

She was a little anxious as to why that man was not stopping her but nothing concerned her more than finding out her real body.

Just as she was digging through the pile, Valhayle spoke.

“Looking for this?”

･･ *･ﾟ:༻✦༺･ﾟ:*･･

“Looking for this?”

His voice had a hint of amusement. 

Zelle turned her head. And without hesitating, jumped towards Valhayle’s hand.

‘Found it!!’

Valhayle held his arm up higher so Zelle couldn’t reach it.

“……..I was wondering what you were looking for.”

Valhayle looked directly into Zelle’s eyes as she continued to jump and scream and put the confidential message in his pocket. 

Zelle fell silent for a moment.

Just because she was silent, it didn’t mean she was calm. She was huffing.

‘I did a favor to give it to you and you return the favor with this? Give it to me!!!’

Valhayle tossed the quail meat over to Zelle, who was glaring up at him with spite.

Zelle was so infuriated that she was not going to eat the meat that smelled heavenly.

She could swear, really.

A few minutes later.

Zelle was ravenously chewing on the quail meat.

She was about to cry from sorrow but she held it in.

Her stomach had to be filled first if she wanted to do anything in the future. 

Zelle’s future plan was to peck on that man’s eyes before anything else.

He looked bloodless but it would definitely hurt if she pecked his eyes.

Zelle smiled ferociously. 

He spoke as he looked down at her eating with crossed arms.

“Don’t get obsessed.”

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