Chapter 70 – Harrol the Bird

“Good morning…Your Royal Highness.”

Levisia couldn’t help but greet him. She raised her head to see Cassian looking at her with a blank expression. The eyes set beneath his black hair were sharp. She had been having such a good time relaxing here in her secret spot. But now she was quite bothered. She had come here to hide from one Kraiden; but to her dismay, another Kraiden had discovered her.

‘How could I be so unlucky like this?’

At this point, if someone came up to her and told her this was actually a novel with her being the main character, she would believe them without batting an eye. There was no other way to explain why these strange encounters with Kraidens continued.

‘No doubt, this is one of their tricks,’ she quietly concluded.

Cassian brushed off his clothes which were wrinkled and dusty from walking through the forest.

“What are you doing with Harrol?” He inquired.

The crow that was pestering her was Harrol? It was Cassian’s pet bird that he had brought along with him.

‘Why didn’t I think about that before?’

Had she known, she would have taken off running from the moment Harrol appeared in front of her eyes. She knew the only person in the entire royal palace who walked around with a crow was Cassian. But the time for action had passed. For now, she put aside the self-blaming and answered him.

“I didn’t bring him here.”

“You’re saying that Harrol came to your side first?”

Wow, it was as if he had seen the whole situation in person. Now that Cassian’s suspicion of her kidnapping his crow had been cleared, she could make a clean escape.

Right when she was about to say “Yes” with hopeful thoughts, Cassian spoke.

“Harrol is always on alert and usually doesn’t follow other people except me. You didn’t answer my question, did Harrol come to you on his own?”

Levisia looked down, feeling like she had done something terribly wrong. Harrol was in the middle of picking his feathers in the chair that she had been sitting in. She was the only one who felt an embarrassment in this leisurely conduct.

‘How exactly is he so alert?’

When their eyes met, Harrol stretched his neck and flapped a couple of times in place. The gesture seemed to be asking “What?” and Levisia questioned if she was going crazy.

“Harrol. Come over here,” Cassian called out.

However, Harrol cawed loudly, then flew over not to Cassian’s extended arm but to Levisia’s shoulder. They both looked at each other with eyes wide open in shock. Cassian’s ears turned red before anger overruled his features.

“Harrol, don’t make me say it again.” He strode towards her, or Harrol.

Cassian made a firm stance against the unruly bird. Did it affect him? Harrol eventually flew over to his arm from Levisia’s shoulder.

‘Free at last.’

It seemed like she finally escaped the stigma of ‘birdnapper,’ so she was ready to leave.

“Well, I’ll just―” she gestured towards the exit.

Even before she could finish her sentence, Cassian suddenly bowed his head in her direction. That very moment, she felt his breath on her neck.

‘What is he doing?’

In an instant, Cassian’s face moved away from her with his finger under his nose and he frowned.

“No, I’m leaving.” He uttered and left before she could even breathe a word.

Finally left alone, she plopped down on the chair.

‘What in the world was that all about?’

Even though her wish to be alone had come true, the feeling wasn’t refreshing anymore and was downright uncomfortable.

*

After escaping from the maze, Cassian unplugged his nose and exhaled. Harrol, who was situated on his shoulder, felt his owner’s distress and frantically fluttered his wings.

‘That just now…’

Unbelievably, what he did a while ago was solely based on instinct. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he had felt dominated by the presence in front of him and escaped her control.

‘How could I be controlled?’

Cassian was surprised that he, not someone else, thought such a thing. From the moment he was born, he was always a ruler. How could he, a ruler, feel such dominance from someone else?

‘It’s ridiculous.’

However, he couldn’t deny what just happened a minute ago. He couldn’t control his instincts and tried to check something from ‘her’ as if he had been possessed. It was ‘her,’ who was busy chasing after Maril, Elizabeth, Lidan, and Siaphyl.

‘I thought I was going crazy.’

When he had heard the rumour around the Heesah kingdom, he had thought that his brothers, lost in boredom, had just been enjoying a moment’s entertainment. However, their eccentric behavior hadn’t stopped there. Even now they were still in the process, right up until this morning.

Even this morning, Cassian had received a report about ‘someone busy looking’ for those four people. What was he thinking at the time he heard the report?

‘There’s no medicine for something this crazy…’