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The bird tapped the fruit with the tip of its beak, but did not bite.
“Pretty . . .”
Rieta stared blankly at the bird concentrating on the fruit.
The bird was beautiful.
Blue feathers resembling the sea, as well as a slightly curved yellow beak.
It seemed like a friend of an elegant lady.
Then BB lightly covered Rieta’s eyes with the palm of his hand.
“Don’t look at it too blindly. Princess.”
“Why?”
It’s not even a portrait with moving eyes, so was there any reason not to look at it?
“Because it’ll fall for you.”
“. . . ?”
“That stupid bird.”
“Stupid bird?”
“Yes, it still likes people.”
BB sat on the statue of the angel.
He was a little disrespectful, but Rieta was curious about the rest of the story, so she decided not to point out his eccentric behavior.
“It came all this way because it was captured by others. Even so, it still likes people and wants to give them affection.”
“That bird can’t . . . give people affection?”
“Princess.”
BB pointed his finger at the ceiling. A very tight ceiling.
“That bird has been here for seven years.”
Rieta made an ‘ah’ sound. It was almost a sigh.
That was why.
It was a very sad thing for a bird that couldn’t go anywhere to give anyone affection.
It couldn’t do anything except cry in longing.
“Then for seven years . . . it’s stayed here?”
“Yeah.”
“At first, they opened the cage like this and allowed it to fly freely inside. Wizards are also human, so they must have pitied this thing.”
“Now?”
“Do you want to see?”
BB pulled the cage door open.
There was not even the slightest lock, so if the bird wished it could have opened it with a flick of its beak.
Clack.
The bird looked there for a moment at the sound of the cage opening, but soon focused again on pecking the fruit.
It doesn’t seem to care much about getting out of the cage.
“. . . It’s not coming out.”
“Because it knows that all it can see is a big cage. It can open the cage door easily, but it won’t.”
She listened to him and looked up again. The ceiling really did look like a cage.
Even more so because of its round shape.
BB did not even close the cage and slipped through the statues.
Rieta and Noel also followed him.
Behind them, the little bird began to peck at the fruit. It looked like it was ready to eat now.
They continued talking without the bird in sight.
“It would be nice if someone raised it.”
Hearing Rieta muttering regretfully, BB asked “Who?”
“Ah, someone who likes birds . . .”
Rieta muttered this at first, but she soon realized that it was nonsense.
It was a courtesy gift from another country.
So the Emperor must have decided that it would be good for this bird to survive for as long as possible.
Safely without getting sick or injured.
In this space full of preservation magic, it was possible to ‘keep’ a bird like that.
Besides, it was placed with the things the Emperor cherished, so it wasn’t that it was treated inappropriately.
Rieta recalled the Emperor’s thoughts about her residence one day.
Anyway, Rieta was also a gift from Liz.
Thinking about it that way . . . it was strange.
“Anyway, I’ve finished my business, so I’m heading out.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I just came to give it some fruit on my way home from work.”
“You’re kind, BB.”
“Oh, how sweet. Why are the Princess’ words so delicious?”
He made a hissing sound and checked the time for a moment.
“Oh, really dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
Rieta asked in response to BB’s incomprehensible words.
Then, BB smiled.
“The time has come for the surveillance magic to activate. It triggers once every twenty minutes.”
Ah. With those words, Rieta and Noel opened their mouths.
The surveillance magic perfectly memorized the shapes of all the exhibits that existed here.
So, if there is anything that has changed even a little bit, the magicians will be notified of the abnormality.
Rieta and Noel’s existence was known to the wizards, but since they went in with permission in advance, there was no particular problem.
“Princess, I’m sorry, but could you close the cage door?”
“Do I have to close it? I mean, it’s not going to come out anyway.”
“Well, the surveillance magic remembers the cage door being closed.”
He said about how he had been nearly captured by wizards while leaving the cage open.
“Because it is forbidden to feed the Emperor’s bird at will.”
He checked the time again.
He really couldn’t afford to say goodbye and started running.
Rieta could see the direction he was going.
BB climbed up along the emergency spiral staircase built on one side of the wall.