Chapter 37
“…For a hundred times, I’m wrong. I’m sorry.”
A few days later.
Surprised by my calm confession, the servants’ eyes were focused on me.
I was overcome with emotion and closed my eyes.
Finally, when I thought of something to say, I opened my eyes and murmured.
“…Please come back… Bird… head…”
I jumped up from my seat after writing clumsy letters with conspicuous yellow crayons.
“The end! It’s done!”
Only then did the knights waiting for my signal move their bodies.
The 4th floor of Vallois’ main castle.
Above the bedroom window, the official apology of the Princess was written in earnest.
It must have been two months ago.
After opening the letter to find out the identity of the sender.
[Chirp, chiirp! It won’t kill you to calm down a biiitt!]
Bird’s head never showed up after seeing the sight of hand-delivered letters being torn mercilessly.
‘At first, I thought it wouldn’t come because it was in heartbreak.’
It was strange to think that the heartbreak lasted for two months.
‘Even if it wasn’t possible before then, it came to visit me once every two weeks.’
What’s going on?
I murmured, rubbing my cheeks with a serious expression.
“…Apart from being angry, it’s against its professional ethic to not deliver the letter.”
“Can we do it like this, Princess?”
It was then.
“Mm. Do it.”
After nodding at Lisa’s question, two knights climbed up the ladder and fixed a banner over the bedroom window.
“The Princess’ animal friend will have to come back.”
The knight holding the banner outside the window stared at the sky.
However.
“…Yes. Your animal friend will come.”
Contrary to the despondent tone, the corner of the knight’s lips, which emphasized the word ‘animal friend’, was raised.
It was the same for other servants.
“Your animal friend will definitely come back. Our princess is working so hard!”
“Oh my! How cute, I mean, sad.”
“The Princess who is waiting for the bird is lovely, no, pitiful.”
“…These brats.”
‘This isn’t animal play. I’m really serious.’
She rested her chin with triangular eyes, wanting to scold them.
The servants who were watching that day shook without any word.
“…What?”
Why do I want to look at a mirror that much?
Plump cheeks comically protruded from the palms under my chin.
Thanks to that, the naturally wrinkled lips only protruded on one side, like a puffer fish.
“…You brats! Your master is so serious that I’m going to die, when you’re done, get out!”
When my face turned red and I shouted, the servants who had been laughing shrilly dispersed in an instant.
Ahem.
“…They didn’t see me as an insignificant blowfish until now, right?”
Feeling embarrassed, I looked in the mirror.
I didn’t want to play the role of the villain’s daughter, but I didn’t want to look funny either.
Anyway, everything is ready.
A banner and a three-tiered cake.
These two were to remain at my window until the Guide returned.
“… The problem is that that bird head has to look after my sincerity.”
Dropㅡ
After getting ready as usual, I lay down on the bed with the blanket pulled up to my nose.
“Please come. I will listen to you better now.”
Now I could understand the feelings of the birdhead who lost the letter.
Yeah.
It flew all night to deliver a letter, yet it was torn to pieces.
How sad it would be.
“…Even I played the original story.”
I was going to apologize and give it a bunch of delicious desserts when the bird came.
The beginning of the course meal was a three-tiered cake.
An hour after that.
“…Wow. Why is it not coming?”
When the whipped cream on the cake started to melt a little, I felt nervous for some reason.
That cake, Higgs worked hard on it for an hour.
“…Ugh.”
I had a heartache.
I was about to give up halfway and twist my body with my back to the window.
Plopㅡ
“…?”
I heard a sound as if a body had been thrown onto the soft bedding.
I opened my bunny eyes and raised my upper body.
“…Bird head…?”
It must have been the noise from the window.
“…Bird head…?”
“C-Chirp…”
“Bird head!”
Startled by the familiar voice, I ran to the window and turned the cake.
The bird’s head was trembling while covered in whipped cream.
***
I was so shocked that I forgot to even breathe.
Bird’s head looked like a patient to anyone.
First of all, I’m going to carefully pick up the bird and run to the treatment room.
“I-I have to call Uncle Doctor, Uncle Doctor…”
“…N-Not to that extent. Chirp.”
The bird head, which was lying on the palms of my hands joined together, lifted its eyelids with difficulty.
“Bird head!!”
“B-Be quiet… Chirp. My head is ringing. Just put me on the cake.”
“Yes, yes! Got it.”
It finally spoke.
‘For now, calm down.’
With a happy heart, I put the bird’s head back on top of the cake sheet as requested.
It was my first time moving a fragile creature, so my hands were shaking.
“Have you come to your senses?”
The bird, which had been silent for a while, seemed to still be in pain and trembled.
Soon a faint voice was heard.
“…Cake, cake. I wanted to eat it, but… I can’t turn my head because my body hurts, chirp…”
“Wait.”
I carefully supported the bird’s head with one hand, squeezed the cream with my fingers, and held it in front of the white beak.
Munch, munch.
The bird head, who had been swallowing the cake with a serious expression, let out a languid breath only then.
“You’re getting stronger now, chirp. Really, for the first time in my 500-year guide life… Chirp! Chirp!”
My face contorted from the pitiful cough.
What the hell has it been through, I wonder.
“Someone who didn’t like me going to you interrupted me.”
“Who is that person?”
“Another regressor.”
“?”
Bewildered, I narrowed my eyes.
“You mean there’s another regressor besides me?”
I had never heard or experienced it.
However, it was rare for an extra like me to return in the first place.
‘It wouldn’t be strange if one more regressor appeared.’
A regressor who beat the Guide up.
Even if there was one more regressor, if it was someone who had nothing to do with my life, we would have been able to become colleagues.
But this wasn’t it.
Isn’t it already stupid enough to touch a weak bird just because you’re special?
‘It even said they didn’t like it going to me.’
My clenched hand turned white.
First of all, I thought I should listen to the birdhead’s explanation more.
“Tackling a small bird is something that even a villain’s daughter like me wouldn’t do. Real villains don’t touch those lesser than themselves!”
“Still, I came this far. The Guide has an obligation to deliver the contents of any letter to the person concerned, chirp. Delivering letters is my whole life, so I had to do it.”
Stung by my conscience at the Guide’s conviction, I kept my mouth shut.
Only then did I really understand the birdhead’s feelings of anger and resentment when I tore up the letter.
“That’s why I’m a little late, chirp.”
The bird head said that and trembled for a while.
Dark eyes turned to the sky.
Rather than being in pain, it was something thoughtful.
“Ask me three things, chirp.”
It was then that the white beak moved.
“Three?”
“I can give you answers as far as I know.”
The bird head, who had been struggling to raise its head to look at me, put its head down on the cake.
“You screamed so much that my ears were tearing at the ‘Salary Lupin’. I have to pay for the cake, chirp.”
“Isn’t that against the rules?”
“Another regressor already broke the rules. I can tell you this much, chirp.”
It hurts, so ask me right now, chirp.
It urged with a gasping voice as if the pain was getting worse.
First of all, the identity of the regressor is important.
I clenched and opened my fists in urgency.
“How many regressors are there in total in this world?”
“You and them, two people.”
“What is the identity of the regressor?”
The bird head frowned as if my words were ambiguous.
“I never asked for their name, chirp? Since a guide doesn’t care about private life at all, I don’t know the name or background of the regressor at all, chirp. But.”
The bird head who was munching on the cream on my finger, was lost in thought.
“They seemed like a noble, chirp. I think they liked the fact that they received God’s mercy. But it wasn’t long. And it was a gaze as if they were content with the fact that their temper was dirty.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means they don’t seem normal, chirp.”
The guy I have to deal with is a crazy one.
I wanted to get out of my 5-year-old phase quickly.
“I don’t know how I figured that dirty temper out, but when I said I was busy, I doubted there were other regressors in this world.”
Even quick-witted.
“They grabbed me and shook me with one hand when I handed them the letter, chirp.”
Babble, babble.
The voice complaining to me was watery.
Did the humiliation it suffered until now remain as a trauma?
Suddenly, tears welled up in its dark eyes.
“…”
Seeing that, I felt anger and pain at the same time, chewing my lower lip.
“It was a man, chirp. Was it blonde?”
Peter.
The simple explanation reminded me of the name that was embedded in my bones.
I expected it.
If there is a regressor who received God’s mercy, it must be one of the main characters.
But when that imagination became a reality, it felt like my blood was gushing backward.
I stared into space with a pale face.
Why did he, who had a happy ending and was even righteous, harass the birds head?
Something isn’t right.
“Of course, that regressor doesn’t know your identity, chirp.”
“…That’s a relief.”
“I don’t care. No matter how this life ends, it will be a happy ending for some people and a sad ending for others.”
The cold words left me with nothing to say.
When I was an extra outside the main characters, I had the same thoughts as the Guide.
There was silence for a moment.
‘Can I really get involved in the battle of the main characters?’
My black hair fluttered in the morning wind.
“It will be cold. Cover with this.”
I put a handkerchief over the bird in case it was cold because of the wind.
“I’ll give you one piece of advice for the third question, chirp.”
“Right now?”
“Chirp.”
The bird head, who had been watching my actions carefully, opened its mouth as if it had made up its mind.
“Ask me how to reply to the letter, chirp.”
***
“H-How to reply to the letter?”
“…”
“…Bird head? Guide?”
“…”
Come to think of it, the bird’s eyes were closed.
I watched the bird’s breathing for a long time with my eyes wide open, then hurriedly ran to the treatment room.
The bird head’s breath had stopped.
