ITDSF 05

Chapter 5

Wouldn’t a bubble bath be nice? It would probably smell wonderful, too. And my feathers would become all soft.

I hummed happily as I enjoyed the cool breeze.

“Are you enjoying yourself that much?”

“Ppi!”

“Then shall we hurry?”

“Ppi!”

When I urged her on, Rosaria let out a small laugh and quickened her pace.

Looking into the distance, I could see an expansive forest stretching out before me, something I hadn’t been able to see from the ground.

Just a little while ago, there had been a pebble right in front of my nose.

As I turned my head this way and that, taking in the scenery, I realized something.

Just as Baon had said, I couldn’t sense a single living creature anywhere.

How was that possible in a forest this vast and deep?

“This is your first time in a forest, isn’t it, Baby?”

“Ppii.”

“This place is private property belonging to the Astrophel family. As you can see, there are no living creatures here. Since there’s always a possibility of beastmen disguising themselves and infiltrating the territory, their presence is prohibited altogether.”

So that’s why.

Now that I saw it properly, this was an enormous forest.

“This place is safe, so the young masters sometimes come here to train as well. I believe they have training scheduled today, too, but…”

Rosaria tilted her head to the side.

“They aren’t here today. Perhaps they’ve gone hunting.”

“Ppi?”

For a moment, I thought I’d heard her wrong.

Hadn’t she said that they weren’t born much earlier than I was?

They were already going hunting?

When I stared at her in astonishment, Rosaria smiled brightly.

“The young masters have already completed their human transformations. You don’t know what that is yet, do you, Baby? It means being able to take on a human form, like I can.”

“…Ppi.”

“You’ll be able to do it soon enough, too.”

“Ppi.”

Not only were they already going hunting, they’d even mastered human transformation.

Those young masters had to possess some downright cheat-like abilities.

But if I worked hard, I could do it, too!

I steeled my resolve and tightly curled my wings.

But then…

“Ppi?”

What was that?

“What’s wrong, Baby?”

“Ppii.”

A gigantic tree had been brutally knocked to the ground.

Then another.

And another after that.

Dozens of enormous trees, each of which looked as though it had stood for decades, had been toppled in a group.

Why had perfectly healthy trees been uprooted like that?

Rosaria glanced toward the place I was pointing at and calmly spoke as though it were nothing special.

“Ah. It seems one of the young masters finished training and headed back.”

Huh?

“It was probably the eldest young master.”

How could a beastman who had been born only recently possibly smash trees to pieces like that?

I opened my beak in shock.

“Once you grow up, Baby, you’ll be able to do it, too. Though, honestly, that young master…”

Rosaria clicked her tongue as she walked toward the center of the devastation. Up close, the scene was even more horrifying.

He must have had an absolutely vicious personality.

Otherwise, there was no way he would have left the place looking like this!

But why had she come all the way to where the fallen trees were?

“If you’re going to make such a mess, you should at least know how to clean up after yourself. Perhaps he hasn’t gotten around to thinking about that yet.”

Rosaria placed one foot on top of a fallen tree.

Thump.

Her movement was so light it was almost as though she had merely kicked a branch.

The result, however, was astonishing.

A tree so thick that two or three grown men would have struggled to wrap their arms around it began to roll.

I watched in awe as the trees were neatly piled up in one corner, then rubbed my eyes with my wings.

“Ppi, ppii?”

What in the world was going on?

“It looks much tidier now. I’m sorry, Baby. Did you have to wait long?”

“…Ppi-pi. Ppi-pi-pi.”

Not at all. I wasn’t waiting.

I obediently straightened my posture.

Mommy, this lady was scary.

Kaide was holding a doll that looked decidedly out of place in his hands.

It was the snake plushie Rosaria had prepared at the baby bird’s eye level.

“Interesting.”

The corners of Kaide’s lips curled upward as he recalled what had just happened.

The Astrophel family was not the sort to willingly give away their possessions. A gift like this was something that would normally have been unthinkable.

Yet Kaide had unexpectedly received the baby bird’s first hunting trophy.

He fell into thought.

“So this is why everyone keeps going on about wanting a daughter.”

It was only a quiet mutter, but there was no way Baon, whose hearing was exceptionally keen, could have missed it.

The sudden change of subject in the middle of their important conversation made Baon stare at Kaide in surprise.

It wasn’t long before he noticed the doll in Kaide’s hand, and his shoulders began to tremble.

The combination was simply too absurd.

“Pfft.”

At the sound of the laughter escaping him, Kaide’s gaze shifted toward Baon.

“Baon.”

“Ahem. Yes.”

“If you value your life, I suggest you stop there.”

“Should I?”

Everyone valued their lives, after all. Baon immediately wiped the expression from his face and composed himself.

“Why are you suddenly talking about wanting a daughter? You already have two sons.”

“They never gave me things like this.”

Kaide held up the doll.

It was brightly colored and ridiculously adorable.

Baon hurriedly closed his eyes.

Don’t laugh. I mustn’t laugh.

Think of something sad. Something sad.

“W-Well, ahem. Isn’t she remarkably brave? Even if it was only a doll, she was actually willing to hunt a snake.”

“She was rather impressive.”

Kaide recalled the baby bird savagely flinging around the snake doll he had never seen anywhere else.

“She’s exactly like you, my lord.”

“Hmm?”

“Quite ferocious, wouldn’t you say? Especially the way she hunts.”

Though it was a different sort of ferocity.

Kaide’s eyes narrowed at Baon’s words.

The baby bird he had seen hunting…

“Her eyes were definitely red.”

Red eyes were a distinctive trait found only among the bloodline of the Astrophel family.

Influenced by the powerful pheromones of the first head of the family, most members of the Astrophel family shared similar physical characteristics.

Black hair and red eyes.

And although it had only been temporary, the baby bird’s eyes had undoubtedly been the same color.

“It seems she was affected by the head’s pheromones.”

“Yes. And that’s precisely the problem.”

As the conversation returned to the matter they had been discussing earlier, Kaide narrowed his eyes.

There was no way of knowing who had infiltrated the Astrophel estate and left the egg behind.

How had such a thing even been possible?

And if it was somehow connected to Estella, who had died after giving birth to an heir, the situation could spiral completely out of control.

Kaide’s expression turned cold.

“Investigate it. Find out who was involved when Estella gave birth to the heir. And find out every single person who was on guard duty at the estate that day. Don’t leave anyone out.”

“Do you think a spy has infiltrated the family?”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Then that’s going to be quite an extensive investigation. It may take some time.”

Baon’s expression also grew solemn.

If there truly was a spy within the family, they would need to investigate discreetly to determine who it was.

“Take as long as you need. Just catch every rat hiding in this family.”

“Understood.”

Watching Kaide give an unusually lenient order regarding the time it would take, Baon glanced around the study with a bitter expression.

When Estella had died, Kaide hadn’t even batted an eye.

That had led to plenty of gossip about how poorly the two had gotten along, yet traces of Estella remained unmistakably throughout the study.

Kaide had cared for her deeply—enough to show a vulnerable side of himself only in front of Estella.

Baon knew that better than anyone, which left his heart heavy.

If the baby bird’s birth really was connected to Estella’s death…

There would be bloodshed throughout the family for quite some time.

Baon cleared his throat, attempting to lighten the somber atmosphere.

“By the way, what are we going to do now that Baby has absorbed your pheromones? It’s already too late to throw her outside the territory.”

“For now, we’ll watch her.”

“Rosaria seems completely smitten with Baby, too.”

“…Can you stop calling her ‘Baby’ already?”

“Rosaria calls her that, so I thought I’d try it too. Isn’t it a cute name?”

“It’s creepy. Why does she call her that?”

“Because the head hasn’t given her a name.”

Kaide had done nothing but order them to abandon the baby outside the territory the moment she was born. Naturally, there was no reason for her to have a name.

And no one had dared to name her on his behalf, either.

The pheromones of the head of the family were unmistakably present in her. Anyone reckless enough to name her without permission would have to be out of their mind.

‘If it were Rosaria, she just might do it.’

If there was anyone who would dare, it was Rosaria.

Besides, she seemed to genuinely enjoy taking care of the baby bird.

She appeared to still be waiting to see how things developed, but once she made up her mind, she might very well act independently.

Baon’s eyes gleamed.

“If you don’t give her a name yourself, someone else might snatch the opportunity away.”

“What does that matter?”

“What if Baby starts following someone else around and gives them presents instead?”

Something about those words rubbed Kaide the wrong way.

He let out a quiet grunt.

It wasn’t as though he particularly wanted a daughter.

The truth was, he simply hadn’t cared.

For a family where heirs were scarce, as long as a proper successor was born, that was all that mattered.

And yet, the thought of the baby bird following someone else around and giving them dolls made something twist unpleasantly inside him.

“A name…”

“Do you have one in mind?”

“No.”

The answer came instantly.

For a moment, Baon was left speechless.