PAGE 1

“Norfe…”

“Chouze. You come too.”

Norfe said to her as he looked back. Then they both left the room.

“It’s perfect. If I run away, then he’ll have an excuse for not being able to take me back to the capital.”

To Amia, Norfe was also a child.

He could leave right now if he wanted to. Amia thought as he looked out the window, where the guards stood. With a swing of his hand, they would fly into the air. However, if the beloved children were going to come for him, that would be more amusing. His tail slapped the sofa happily.

At the same time, Maki and Chiharu were on a road that was quite far from the lake town. Aaron was very angry with them. To be precise, he was very angry at Chiharu.

“Why is it always you!”

“Yes, I’m sorry. By the way…”

“By the way?”

“No, um, yes…”

“Are you really sorry!”

And on it went. However, the reason that it went on longer than it should, was because Chiharu was quite distracted. She kept looking at what was behind Aaron. As for why that was…

“I had heard the rumors, but the upwards wind current in Highland sure is nice.”

“It’s only one day from Midland.”

“Next time, we should quietly sneak into the royal capital.”

Very loud indeed.

“Chiharu?”

“Ahh! But, um, I…”

“I didn’t see anything.”

Aaron did not look behind him. As for Maki…

“Huh. So this is the current Saintess.”

“It’s just as Sauro said. She looks very easy to carry.”

“And very cute, just like Saikania told me.”

She was surrounded by brown birdfolk and seemed quite stunned.

“Edwy, Zynis. Isn’t this supposed to be a secret mission?”

Maki asked.

“I heard that it was. That’s why I invited eagle birdfolk, because they don’t draw attention when flying up high.”

Answered Edwy.

“Hmm? We didn’t come here for any mission.”

“We’re just sightseeing in Highland.”

“Because Sauro told us that once we cross the sea, all the human lands are connected.”

“And while we birdfolk don’t like flying long distances, if we do our best and cross the sea, we can then play as much as we want!”

The birdfolk said. That Sauro! He always brought the most troublesome types. She wasn’t sure how many of them there were, but with so many noisy brown birds around, Maki was reminded of sparrows. And they would still stick out, no matter how high they were.

“Since they came all the way here, I asked them to carry us to the villa. That will be faster.”

Edwy said with a shrug. It was like he didn’t care much anymore.

The carriage they had used was already being driven to the next town. Maki and Chiharu were supposed to rescue the merman and then fly with the birds to the border.

“You can fly during the night as well?”

“It’s harder to see, but normal flight shouldn’t be a problem.”

Kleo said.

“Now, let’s practice!”

“Practice?”

“We don’t have much experience carrying humans. So we want to practice to see how long we can carry you.”

“Practice for you!”

Chiharu was surprised. Even though they weren’t Sauro, they were just as odd. Then Kleo turned to Chiharu.

“Now, baggage.”

“I’m not baggage!”

“Line up! First, you must fly down towards their backs and grab onto them before rising into the air. After that, we’ll do it while they are running. Start!”

“Are you listening?”

However, Maki and Chiharu, and even Aaron and Edwy as well, were forced to train with the birdfolk until the sun came down.

“Ah. It’s perfect, thanks to you…”

Maki sat down and looked at the sky. Even though they were small, these birdfolk were strong. In fact, the birdfolk were still flying around energetically after training. Maki was sure that people would be able to see them from the road. Chiharu, who was sitting next to her, said,

“But, Maki-chan…”

“What?”

“Why did everyone need to train? It only needed to be one birdfolk for each human.”

Maki looked at Chiharu with surprise.

“Chiharu. It took you that long to notice…”

“So-sorry…”

Chiharu was tired as well. After all, so much had happened that day.

And then the night of the mission arrived.

Next Chapter