Chapter 60 - Why Do You Look Like That?

WHOOSH.

SPLASH. SPLASH.

Rain poured over the amusement park. A fugitive struggled through the streams of water coursing across it. The baby bird, blue down covering its body and a single white feather sticking up from its crown, bitterly regretted its decision.

It had been fine when it first escaped the zoo. It had even felt triumphant. Now that it had overcome the obstacle of its cage, nothing could stop it. Or so it had thought.

Then the rain had started. Its soaked body had grown heavy, and its strength had drained away alarmingly fast. The escape had been a rash decision.

CHEEP.

The baby bird thought it should have waited a few more months. Birds grew quickly; by then its feathers would have come in, and it could have flown away.

In that sense, escaping had been a mistake. It would have been better off not trying at all. But it hadn't had a choice. In that situation, waiting any longer had hardly been an option. If anything, it regretted not deciding sooner.

CHIRP!

It couldn't turn back now, either. With a short cry to steel itself, the baby bird scampered through the pouring rain.

SPLASH!

... Until, fewer than twenty steps later, it tripped and went sliding across a puddle.

Who was it that said the mind could overcome the body? Unfortunately, that maxim was no use to the baby bird. No amount of determination or enthusiasm could change the fact that it had already pushed its body to the limit by struggling through the rain.

CHEEP...

Perhaps its spirit had finally broken. Or perhaps it simply lacked the strength to stand. Sprawled in the puddle, the baby bird let out a feeble cry.

Even then, it looked up at the sky resentfully, as if thinking, 'If only it hadn't rained.' In better weather, it wouldn't have fallen into a puddle or had to wander around soaked. Worse still, everyone had gone inside to escape the downpour, making it harder to find them. The thought left the baby bird dejected.

It shivered. As if to deepen its despair, a chill seeped through its whole body. This was more than ordinary cold. Feeling as though icy needles were digging into its bones, the baby bird thought it might be in danger.

Even a fully grown bird could easily fall ill running around in a downpour like this. For a baby bird still covered in soft down, staying out in the rain might mean far worse than a cold.

CHIRP.

'If I'd known I was going to die so pathetically, I wouldn't have been born again.' The baby bird was lamenting its own birth when it heard something.

HUMMM.

'... Chirp?'

Even through the rain, the sound came through with startling clarity: a pure, dazzlingly intricate melody that seemed to make the rushing rain its accompaniment.

It was so beautiful, so enchanting, that the baby bird found itself struggling to its feet. As if entranced, it slowly followed the melody through the pouring rain, half dragging its chilled body along, until it reached a shabby building that looked like a warehouse. A sign on it read [Magic Hall].

'Chirp?'

The baby bird's eyes widened. Not merely because it had finally found the children it had searched for. At the center of the dim Magic Hall, beneath the soft lighting, stood the source of that wondrous melody: a white-haired man playing a violin. He was impossible not to recognize, yet somehow looked almost unrecognizable. And floating in the air above him was a translucent girl. The sight left the baby bird dumbstruck.

...???

As if doubting its own eyes, it rubbed them with its wings. Once. The scene remained unchanged, leaving the baby bird practically seeing question marks. It was as if it couldn't believe what it saw was real—as if it were wondering where the violin's speakers were hidden to produce a sound so much like a live performance.

But that lasted only a moment. The baby bird toppled over with a splash. It knew it mustn't fall asleep, but it could no longer keep its eyes open. Its strength was already spent. Relief filled its heart, and the melody rang out with impossible clarity. Together, they snapped the thread of tension that had kept it going, and its consciousness began to fade.

"Oh? A bird..."

That was when it heard a young voice.

"Little bird, are you slee■? Want to come ■■■ my ba■?"

Perhaps it was already too dazed to hear properly. All the baby bird could make out was a rustling sound, followed by the sensation of something wrapping around it. Enveloped in warmth, it let the violin's melody become its lullaby and, for the first time since it was born, drifted off feeling safe and snug.

Time passed.

"Huh? What did you say was in the kid's bag?"

"Well... maybe..."

"What?"

"...do you think?"

"Hmm. First..."

Whispers reached it now and then through its half-sleep. Voices too distant and echoing to be real, yet too achingly familiar to be a dream. Their distance was as deep as death, their familiarity as sweet as honey, drawing the baby bird deeper into its dreams.

Yet even as it wandered through that quiet dream, which seemed as though it might last forever, time went on. Time passed, and passed, and passed...

At last, it opened its eyes.

The first thing the baby bird saw was a naked body.

'... Chirp?'

Perhaps it wasn't fully awake. Or perhaps the sight was simply too shocking. For several seconds it froze, looking like a pigeon struck by a slingshot. Then it finally let out a scream of a chirp.

'CHIIIIIRP?!?!'

"Hm?"

Limon turned his head. He had been wiping sweat from his lean, bare upper body with a towel. Seeing the baby bird cover its eyes with both wings inside its cage, he spoke without much interest.

"What, you're finally awake?"

He clicked his tongue lightly, as though he'd been startled for nothing, and finished wiping off his sweat. "You were out so long I thought you might just croak. You're pretty tenacious for something so tiny."

'Ch-chirp.'

Even at his teasing, the baby bird didn't get angry. It couldn't get its bearings at all. Where was it? Why was Limon here? What was going on? Having just awakened from a long sleep, it couldn't make sense of any of it.

Limon didn't so much as raise an eyebrow at its confusion. He pulled over a nearby chair, sat on it backward, and rested his chin on the backrest until he was eye to eye with the bird.

"Now, let's hear your story."

'Chirp?'

The baby bird blinked. Limon was acting as though he meant to interrogate it, despite the fact that it wasn't even human.

"I've got plenty I want to ask you... but let's start with this."

Unlike the baffled baby bird, Limon seemed perfectly calm. Or at least, he did on the surface. The moment their eyes met, the bird realized he was just as unsettled by the situation. It showed in the troubled gleam of his golden eyes, in the sword he had somehow taken in one hand, and most of all in the question he asked next.

"You were dead. Why'd you come back looking like that?"

'... Chirp?'

Whether to call it its former life or its previous one, not a trace of its old appearance remained. Yet the startled, wide-eyed expression on its face was uncannily like the one it had worn as a human. Limon said the baby bird's name with an uneasy look.

"Yu Na-gyeong."

* * *

"Oh, I see."

At the amusement park Limon had visited, a braided-haired man stood at its highest point, looking down over the grounds. He nodded.

"In short, we're the fools here."

"What mean?"

"We arrived too late and made the trip for nothing."

"Drums? Playing while walking? Traditional music of this country?"

"... I mean the target is already gone. Do you understand 'mission failed,' Crazy Comrade?"

"Aha. Okay, I get it."

The blonde woman nodded brightly as if she finally understood, then tilted her head again in confusion. "Target, why gone? Bad information?"

"How would I know, my dear Crazy Comrade? Ask the bastard who got us the information."

Still smiling, the braided-haired man delivered the insult in a gentle voice. The blonde woman turned to look at the young man beside her.

"Comrade, you made mistake again?"

"Why do you comrades always blame me? This time the information really was solid!"

"Then why target gone?"

"I'd like to know that myself. It was definitely there when I last checked. It couldn't have vanished all of a sudden unless someone was up to something."

At the indignant outburst from the narrow-eyed young man, the blonde woman's eyes lit up.

"Maybe information leaked?"

"You think someone knew we were coming and hid the target or moved it away beforehand?"

"Timing too perfect."

"That would mean someone knew about a plan we haven't even reported to our superiors yet and acted just before we arrived."

"Possible if spy inside?"

"Then who would that spy be? I doubt it's me, the commander of this operation."

The blonde woman's gaze shifted back to the narrow-eyed young man.

"Don't look at me. If I was going to interfere, I'd have done it in secret. Why would I, the one who brought in the information, sabotage my own work?"

"Because you're stupid, Comrade?"

"Stop treating my brain like a lump of mush! Keep this up and next time I'll run the operation alone!"

"... Sorry. Come to think of it, coincidence."

Perhaps because he'd reacted so fiercely, the blonde woman bowed her head and apologized sincerely.

Somewhat mollified, the young man stopped huffing and turned to the braided-haired man. "What do we do now?"

"I'm thinking."

"How about we pull back and investigate again? Whether it's coincidence or deliberate, we need to check."

"Hmm. For a stupid comrade, you make a reasonable point."

"... Leave out the insulting part."

"Very well. For a stupid person, you make a reasonable point."

"That's not what I meant for you to leave out!"

"Cheer up. Even with a screw loose, Comrade still Comrade."

"You're the last person I want to hear that from!"

The narrow-eyed young man grumbled as his hands worked busily, while the blonde woman patted his back to console him. The braided-haired man watched his two comrades for a moment, then spoke seriously.

"Very well. For now, let's identify everyone who visited this place yesterday and today."

"So we're going ahead with it after all?"

"It's not often we get a mission. We can't give up so easily just because things haven't gone smoothly."

Ordering the blonde woman and the young man to continue, the braided-haired man smiled gently. "If only for Comrade Gang Seok, who so willingly died a pointless death to let us operate freely in this country."

"Huh? That was sacrifice?"

"Didn't that comrade know nothing about it?"

"Of course Comrade Gang Seok didn't know he was going to die. But he carried out his mission willingly without knowing. A shining example of the spirit of sacrifice."

"... Isn't that called using him as a disposable pawn, not a spirit of sacrifice?"

The Ferris wheel turned, stopped, and turned again. A little while later, the three who had been murmuring together atop the roof of its highest car vanished.