Chapter 61 - Go Ahead, Kill Me!

Limon knew that all sorts of things could happen in life. A baby bird might turn up in one of the children's bags after a trip to an amusement park. It might even turn out to be a rare bird that had escaped from the zoo and was now at death's door with a cold.

"Huh? What was in the kid's bag?"

"A baby bird, sir. From what the children say, it seems to be the one they saw at the zoo."

"Seriously?"

"It seems to be in poor condition after getting caught in the rain, so I've left it with the veterinary clinic at Leviathan for treatment. What should we do?"

"Ugh. Get it treated for now. I'll handle the rest."

"Yes, Sword Lord."

So when Limon first heard, he was put out but not surprised. He merely clicked his tongue at the troublesome antics of a peculiar bird.

"Honestly, what kind of zoo can't keep track of one bird?"

Even as he grumbled, Limon went straight back to the amusement park the next day. A stray animal would have been one thing, but the children had unwittingly brought home a zoo bird, and a rare one at that. He couldn't simply brush it off as a mistake.

Perhaps the zoo staff member was naturally good-natured. Perhaps he recognized Limon, or perhaps it helped that Limon had contacted him through Li Qingyu. Whatever the reason, the man didn't blame them for secretly taking the baby bird. If anything, he seemed relieved and launched into an explanation.

"Thank you for contacting us. I nearly had a heart attack when I discovered we'd lost a Bluebird of the Florine because of some player's prank."

"A player's prank?"

"I checked the security footage. There were signs a spatial-type player was involved."

"That's odd. Players rarely bother with pranks that petty..."

"Yes. Maybe that's why the police barely took my report seriously."

"Too much hassle for the police, and too minor for the PAB to get involved."

Whether the staff member was worried about the bird or about being held responsible for losing a rare species, he'd apparently worked hard investigating, even combing through the security footage. Limon listened only out of habit from his days as a PAB agent. He didn't care who had done it or why.

A tiger or wolf might have been different. But a prank that let one bird escape, however rare, was too trivial for him to bother with.

"Still, someone ought to do something. The evidence is right here on video."

Limon changed his mind when the staff member showed him the security footage. More precisely, it was the moment he saw the baby bird vanish and reappear on the other side of the cage bars.

"...!"

Limon was a former PAB agent. He was also a Sword Master with senses more superhuman than those of most Tracers. He knew that even spatial-type players used slightly different skills, and that the ripples they left behind when they teleported bore individual characteristics, like fingerprints.

'What is this?'

That was why his eyes widened at the ripple left behind when the baby bird crossed through space.

The entire facility was old, and the security footage was so blurry that he couldn't see the ripple clearly. But he recognized it. It was the ripple most familiar to him, one he'd once seen several times a day and thought he'd never see again.

"Hey, what would I have to do to keep that bird?"

"Pardon?"

"I've suddenly decided I really fucking want it. Tell me how I can buy it."

That was why Limon made the staff member such an out-of-the-blue proposal.

"Uh, this is a protected rare species. It can't be traded."

"Then tell me what paperwork I need from which government office to take custody of the fucking rare bird. You work at a zoo. You must know the loopholes."

"..."

A moment ago, the staff member had taken Limon for a decent man returning a lost animal. Now, faced with threats from a man who'd suddenly turned into a wildlife smuggler, he could only gape.

But what could he do? This was Limon Aspelder: the man who, whether it had been real or not, had stormed the Blue House, taken the president hostage, and made it onto a nationwide broadcast. The staff member had no desire to upset a lunatic like that.

After that, everything moved at lightning speed. Rare species, reviews, whatever. The documents bearing Limon's name came back approved almost as soon as they reached the relevant departments. Not a single government official wanted to get tangled up with him over one bird.

"Wow! Does this mean we get to keep the bird?"

"Grandpa, you're the best!"

The children were delighted to learn they could keep the baby bird, unaware of what had gone into it. Limon, meanwhile, was troubled. Why could it teleport? Why was the ripple it left in space so familiar? Even after everything he'd experienced in his long life, there were too many questions he couldn't answer.

'Is this another plot?'

His suspicion was only natural. Too much about this was strange to dismiss as coincidence. Then, while he watched the baby bird sleeping soundly in its cage, his vision turned black—and his suspicions came to an end.

"... Is this for real?"

It had come out of nowhere. Limon was dumbfounded when his eyes—the ones that ordinarily showed him constellations—activated. It wasn't merely that the power had activated on its own for a mere bird.

In his darkened vision, the cage that had held a single bluebird a moment ago now contained a woman shrunk to the size of his palm.

The ripple he'd seen on the security footage. The baby bird's strange reactions. And now what his constellation-seeing eyes had shown him. Put together, they pointed to a conclusion too absurd to believe.

So even after bringing the baby bird into his room and caring for it himself, Limon kept his doubts. But when it woke, he finally accepted the truth. He had no choice. A baby bird pretending to cover its eyes with a wing while eagerly sneaking peeks at his abs could only be Yu Na-gyeong reincarnated.

That was what had happened while the baby bird slept... and why Limon now held a sword as he questioned it.

* * *

"So, after you died, you saw some white feather, followed it, and were reborn as a bird?"

CHIRP.

"And you found yourself in the middle of a zoo, with no way out, so you've been trapped there ever since?"

CHIRP.

"Then you happened to see me visiting with the kids, made a desperate escape, and followed us here?"

CHIRP!

"... You weren't revived with black magic, or turned into a cursed evil spirit that stole the bird's body?"

CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP!

As if to ask where that nonsense had come from after he'd been doing so well, the baby bird glared and kicked the smartphone hard. It looked like indignation made flesh—or feathers—but Limon still wouldn't nod. He merely tapped a finger against his sword's hilt, his expression skeptical.

"Hmm. Can I really believe this?"

CHIRP! CHIRP!

The baby bird thumped its chest with a wing. Anyone could see it was beside itself with frustration, but Limon remained cool. In truth, he didn't doubt that this baby bird was Yu Na-gyeong reincarnated. After trying every means he could to communicate with it, he was certain it had her memories. That was precisely the problem.

"Even if you really are Na-gyeong, there's no guarantee the black mages haven't pulled something on you. Using dead people for their rotten schemes is their favorite trick."

The dead could not return to life. In the past, that had been an almost absolute law—a truth not even the seven dragons, the Great Witch, the Wordsmith, or any other absolute being could deny. There was only one exception: black magic, which defied the very order of nature.

From human bombs who hadn't even known they were zombies to ghostly assassins who had once been comrades, Limon had faced every variety of returned dead in his fights against black mages. He couldn't help regarding his former subordinate, back from the dead, with suspicion.

"Well, these days, nothing that happens would surprise me..."

Times changed, of course. In an era without skills, it might have been different, but with players in this Iron Age, it was unwise to declare anything impossible. One of the ten Monarchs was even an extraordinary player called the Reincarnation Monarch (轉生君主), for whom dying was itself a cheat skill.

'And it's not as if I don't have a clue.'

Limon remembered the white feather of light that had risen from Yu Na-gyeong and vanished before he left her body behind. If it was the feather she'd seen after dying, her story about somehow being reincarnated wasn't entirely unbelievable.

"... How about not clinging to the memories of your old life? You could die again and make a clean start with another reincarnation. I can make it painless."

CHIRP?!

Unfortunately, the person she had to convince was Limon Aspelder. Perhaps it was the old veteran's habit of suspicion, or perhaps experience had taught him that dead people were best left dead. The baby bird stared at him, beak hanging open, while he spouted nonsense with a face utterly devoid of humor. Then it recovered and burst into an indignant flurry.

CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP!

Did he want to kill his subordinate twice? What color was Team Leader's blood? Was she an idiot for dying without a fuss? For a good while, it shrieked what were probably the sorts of things Yu Na-gyeong would say, then shot Limon a resentful glare.

It tapped out a few words on the smartphone, flopped onto its back on the desk, thrust out its plump belly, and shrieked.

CHIRP! CHIRP!

[Go ahead and kill me!]

As if daring him to try. For such a tiny bird, it looked not merely defiant but downright brazen. Limon smacked his lips at the display.

'She really does seem to be Na-gyeong reincarnated.'

Not just anyone could act that boldly toward him while he was radiating killing intent. It took a liver so swollen you could make foie gras out of it. Only Yu Na-gyeong, for whom mouthing off to him had become instinct, would do that. Which left Limon even more conflicted.

'What am I supposed to do with her?'

Sword Master or not, Limon was human. He wasn't unhappy to see Yu Na-gyeong again, especially since circumstances had forced him to take her life with his own hands. Yet his uncertainty over whether to send her on to the afterlife again wasn't solely because he suspected someone else's machinations.

"Na-gyeong, let me ask you something seriously."

CHIRP?

As if wondering why he was acting so serious all of a sudden, the baby bird remained on its back with its round belly sticking up and tilted only its head. Limon didn't smile at the deflating sight. If anything, his expression hardened.

"Do you really want to live like this? Living in that body with the memories of your past life can't be all that happy."

Limon had seen many black mages. Some had been good people driven to black magic by a single wish: to bring back a lost family member or lover. But the results were miserable. The returned person usually became a zombie or an evil spirit, and even those brought back in something resembling a resurrection eventually suffered until they went mad.

The aftereffects were especially severe for those revived in someone else's body, particularly one very different from the body they'd had in life. Mind and body no longer matched. Reborn in the body of a bird, she would struggle to live happily even as a bird, let alone as a human—that was Limon's point. The baby bird's answer was clear.

CHIRP!

As if he were worrying over nothing, the baby bird gave a vigorous reply, its potbelly still sticking up. There was no mistaking its answer. After a moment of silence, Limon let out a soft laugh.

"All right. That's enough for me."

He might regret this choice. Perhaps it would be better to turn away. But in the end, Limon accepted Yu Na-gyeong's choice to live a new life. Even if she'd been forced into retirement, he still had a responsibility to his troublesome subordinate as her boss.

"Now, leaving aside your decision to keep living... what are you going to do from here?"

CHIRP?

"I'm asking whether you're going to tell anyone else you've been reincarnated."

CHIRP!

"... Isn't that a little quick? You could think it over before deciding."

CHIRP. CHIRP.

The baby bird shook its head firmly, as though it had already made up its mind. Limon nodded at the unexpectedly prompt answer.

"Fair enough. It's not as if telling anyone would do much good..."

The main advantage of revealing that she'd been reincarnated was that people might treat her better. The disadvantages, though, were numerous: she could become a rare spectacle or be treated like a lab animal. It might be different if she had no one to help her, but now that the baby bird had Limon as a dependable ally, she had little reason to advertise her reincarnation. With one exception.

"Are you going to keep it from the kids at the orphanage, too? At least a few of them would be overjoyed to see you."

CHIRP, CHIRP...

That seemed to trouble her, too. After hesitating without an answer, the baby bird finally averted its eyes to avoid replying. Limon chuckled. It amused him that even shameless Yu Na-gyeong was embarrassed to tell the children she'd thought of as younger siblings that she'd been reincarnated like this.

"Fine. For now, I'll be the only one who knows."

His words left room for her to tell him if she ever changed her mind, but the baby bird didn't answer. It only let out a small sigh of relief.

"Hmm. Then we'll need something to call you from now on..."

CHIRP?

Limon spoke as though the thought had just struck him. Facing the baby bird's mixture of anticipation and anxiety, he smiled meaningfully and offered a suggestion.

"You keep chirping, so how about Chirpy?"

CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP?!

[Team Leader, do you want to die? Do you? Just kill me instead, you handsome-faced old fart, you buff old geezer, you animal abuser!]