Her body was warm, and the cushion beneath her felt so soft that it was like sitting on a cloud. Carol savored the soft touch for a moment, then suddenly opened her eyes as she recalled her last memory.
‘Where am I?’
Everything was unfamiliar. She remembered flying higher, intoxicated by the thrill, but she couldn’t remember where she had landed. It was too dark to see clearly when she looked around.
To escape from the unfamiliar space, she spread her wings.
Flap.
‘Huh?’
But one of her wings wouldn’t move as she wanted. It was as if it was tied up.
“You’re alive.”
“Chirp?”
She thought she was alone because there was no sign of anyone else, but then a giant finger emerged from the darkness and stroked Carol’s head. She accepted the warm and careful touch for a moment, but when the finger touched her belly, Carol fiercely pecked at it.
‘How dare he touch my belly on our first meeting…’
“You hit your wing against the window and it broke.”
The man moved his hand slightly and stroked her wingtip as he explained the situation. Only then did she understand why her wing felt strangely painful.
Despite his polite tone, his voice was rough, like scraping metal. When the man pulled back the bed curtain, the darkness lifted a little in the light of the fireplace.
The bed had been completely covered by the curtain, which is why it had been so dark.
Then she realized. She was in a bed. And the one who had been stroking her head was…
‘A monster…?’
It was Edward Winternox.
Perhaps due to the relief of being saved, Carol repeatedly lost and regained consciousness. After suffering for a long time, Carol slowly regained her senses.
‘I wish it was a dream…’
But it wasn’t a dream. The monster she saw was Edward Winternox and he had so carefully stroked her wing with such a huge body.
The thrill of meeting the protagonist and the belief that he would not harm her made Carol confused.
The world that had stopped seemed to be slowly flowing again. The sound of wood burning in the fireplace and the wind shaking the window were the only sounds filling the room.
There were no other lights on, so the room was generally dark.
‘How foolish.’
The place where Edward Winternox lived.
The place where Carol had flown to was the Duke’s Mansion.
She wanted to pretend she didn’t know and leave right away, but her wing was sore and she couldn’t fly. If she tried to walk out right away, she would be eaten by a wild beast.
Carol was on the softest pillow in the middle of the canopy bed, on the center of the round cloth made like a bird’s nest.
The reason it felt like being on a cloud was because the overlapping cloths were all so expensive that she couldn’t afford them even if she worked all year round.
‘By the way, I didn’t know a canopy bed could be so magnificent and big.’
Even considering her small size, the bed was huge. It seemed wide enough for five ordinary people to lie down comfortably.
Heavy velvet curtains were draped over each pillar of the bed, but one side of the curtain was drawn back so Carol could examine the structure of the room.
There was a small table next to the bed where one could drink tea, and there was a sofa and table at the foot of the bed. And a little further away on the side wall was a fireplace. The bed was big, but the bedroom was even bigger.
‘The Duke’s room.’
No matter how spacious the room was, it was a room. It must have felt like a prison to the duke who had once roamed the world.
Before meeting the duke, Carol felt sorry for the duke’s future, but that was it.
Now that the world of the novel has become my world, I didn’t want to get involved. Even if you call me selfish, I couldn’t help it. The love that my first family gave me was so sweet.
Duke Winternox may have been unhappy in the end, but didn’t he enjoy everything he could in the meantime?
The pain of my hangnail is more painful than the huge misfortune of others. So I had no intention of intervening in the original work at the risk of unnecessary danger. My world was enough with my family.
If I hadn’t met him.
If I didn’t know him.
The novel would have faithfully followed the flow of the original work.
“I heard you like bugs the most…”
“Chirp!”
Carol fiercely refused the bug placed in front of her by flapping her uninjured wing.
“Are you scared of me?”
The duke casually put the bug next to Carol and moved away from the bed.
He was right that she was scared, but he got the opponent wrong.
No matter how scary he looked, he was the one who saved her. His touch alone could easily take her life. The lifespan of a normal sparrow is less than three years. A small bird with a short lifespan. An ordinary person would have left it alone.
‘I survived.’
How can I forget the voice of relief?
It doesn’t make sense to be afraid of someone who takes care of such a bird and takes care of it with all their effort. Even beasts recognize the person who helped them, let alone Carol, who was a bird on the outside but a person on the inside.
‘Even though I knew you were a person, not a monster, I still wanted to leave you alone.’
If one feels guilty, they will feel guilty.
‘I shouldn’t be scared…’
The problem was the bug. No matter how sincere he was, she couldn’t eat the bug.
‘Eek!’
The bug was alive and wriggling. She reflexively backed away from the bug.
‘Uh oh?’
Wobble-.
The pillow seemed higher than she thought, and her body tilted. One wing wrapped in a bandage was heavy and she couldn’t balance. She closed her eyes tightly, thinking she would fall.
If she fell in this position, she might hurt her broken wing again.
‘…Huh?’
But soon Carol opened her eyes. It didn’t hurt. When she glanced down, she was perched on the end of a rough palm.
She heard a sound and reflexively reached out, but it seemed a little off because she couldn’t see.
In a precarious position, Carol quickly crawled to the center of his palm.
The duke soon lifted Carol with his other hand, and with a warm and careful touch, he placed Carol back on the pillow.
“I’m glad I caught you.”
She never thought she would meet him like this.
“Chirp-!”
“Oh dear. Where did you get hurt?”
She couldn’t blame anyone because she came first.
“Chirp, chirp-!”
As she flapped her wings, the duke was at a loss for words with the little bird who couldn’t understand his words.
“You’ll fall. I’ll let you go, so stay still.”
Carol had a bad feeling.
She shouldn’t have known his kindness, it was a bad feeling, that what’s happening now will stay with her for a long time to come.
****
The room was a dream for anyone, but it was full of emptiness.
He was living day and night in reverse.
It was harder to endure the day alone in this room.
That’s not to say the night was okay.
The duke drank whenever he felt the night was long.
“It’s strange. I always enjoyed drinking…”
Now it’s just painful.
The small sparrow was the only companion for the duke.
The things he thought he had, the people he believed were friends.
When he was left alone, they were just people who admired the duke’s position and his abilities.
There was no one by his side.
The only people who knew he was a monster and stayed by his side were the servants.
Even so, he couldn’t suddenly open up and talk to them.
And even they didn’t see the duke as an individual.
“With you here…it seems a bit more bearable. Ridiculous.”
The duke found great comfort in the small bird that had entered his room without doing anything.
The duke slowly groped the surface.
He carefully felt his way up to the nest made of cloth, being careful not to hurt with his grotesque hand.
It was a movement to not scare the little bird.
He stopped his hand as it was and quietly waited for the bird’s movement.
Tap.
Carol carefully climbed onto his rough palm.
“Chirp.”
When she chirped softly, the duke carefully lifted his hand.
“Ugh…”
“Chirp?”
Did the transformation into a monster also come with pain? He occasionally let out a pained groan.
Carol watched him suffer.
The duke, who had not long transformed, writhed in pain every time the deep darkness fell.
The past self who had laughed from a high place, thinking that the curse had only bypassed him, was repeatedly replayed in his head without rest.
But the growing pain every day surprisingly falters in front of the little bird.
Perhaps he was moved by the small creature on his hand, the duke paused for a moment, then lifted his hand to his face.
“…..”
“My eyes…are sore.”
“Chirp…”
“Do you think I’m hideous too?”
All Carol could do was bury her head in his cheek.
“Chirp, chirp.”
Carol shook her head, even though she knew the Duke couldn’t see.
Compared to saving a life, what Carol could do was ridiculously small, so her heart ached a little.
“That’s right. You…don’t know.”
The duke laughed softly. At the sound of laughter she heard for the first time, she chirped, shaking her tail feathers.
This was the only comfort Carol could give.
“Chirp…”
“How much comfort you give me just by being here.”
Thanks to a single small bird, the duke was a little less desperate than in the original work. Carol felt awkward.
‘I’ve only received, it seems like I haven’t given anything…’
That’s sad