“Sae, Saedol…”

Haniel, who had turned as white as a sheet of paper, gasped for breath.

I’m going to be eaten.

Eaten by giant Saedol!

“No… Saedol… don’t. I’m your friend…”

“What has he done to you?”

‘…’

Suddenly, a human voice from above her head.

What in the world…

With a mind seemingly frozen in its cognitive tracks, Haniel blinked.

It was a human voice. No, wait. This is…

‘No way, no way…’

She slowly raised her head from between the feathers tightly wrapped around her body.

When she finally discovered the blue-haired handsome man looking down at her, Haniel’s jaw dropped involuntarily.

“…”

Hair as blue as the open sky.

And purple eyes staring intently at her.

Even looking up at him from below, his face drew noble lines without appearing intimidating or distorted, and though she had never seen him before, he was somehow looking at her as if he knew her.

As if he knew her… as if Haniel was someone very familiar to him.

She swallowed dryly, trying to grasp her fading consciousness.

“…Could it be, Saedol?”

In truth, when absurd things happen several times within a few days, one might expect to become somewhat desensitized.

Like a wolf you picked up, turning into a human, or suddenly going into heat because of her, or some gauge that hadn’t progressed for two years since falling into another world, suddenly rising after engaging in a pseudo-relationship.

But having a bird that she had practically raised for over a year… one she even considered a friend… suddenly transform into a human was a shock of an entirely different dimension.

It couldn’t be anyone else. This man’s hair and eyes.

There was no way Haniel could mistake the feather color and eye color of the creature she had seen for a year.

And sure enough.

“You used to call me that.”

The man answered.

A soft voice with a melodic rhythm, as if singing.

That too was just like Saedol, who used to sing more beautifully than a nightingale.

“What, what… so you really are Saedol?”

‘You could transform into a human all this time?’

“Hmm? Wait a moment. I’ll put you down first.”

Speechless, Haniel stared at “Saedol” with trembling eyes as he carefully lowered her to the ground.

Saedol, or rather, the mysterious man whom Haniel had unilaterally called Saedol, stood up tall after setting her down.

“There we go.”

Standing upright, his body appeared large. It was almost like facing a pterosaur, somewhat intimidating.

After arranging his wings and straightening his body, the man’s fully revealed form had the appearance of a strange mixture of bird and human.

A pair of massive wings at his shoulders, covered in beautiful feathers the same color as his hair.

Both of his arms, slightly smaller than his shoulder wings, were also covered in feathers, while his torso appeared to have human skin and was densely packed with muscles.

“Ah.”

Haniel felt the man’s wing feathers that had wrapped around her move and withdrew her hand in surprise.

Something magical was happening.

Swoosh… swish.

The man’s arm wings, slightly smaller than the pair sprouting from his shoulders, magically shrank and soon revealed bare skin.

Both wings soon became human arms as sturdy as his slender but solid torso, and his legs, which had a strange form, became two human legs wearing clothes.

No, is that really clothing?

‘Seamless garment.’

At first glance it looked like clothing, but the man’s attire appeared to have no traces of stitching or seams.

Clothes with a strange texture that felt as if the wings and feathers had transformed directly into garments.

Since the man had just flown down from the sky, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it heavenly clothing in a way.

While Haniel was focusing on his attire, the man had already become completely human except for the massive wings on his shoulders and raptor-like feet.

“Look. Now I can also take a form like yours.”

With an angelic appearance, the blue-lashed man smiled broadly.

Though his oddly human-mimicking appearance might have given her goosebumps, the eyes held clear goodwill.

Thus completely transformed, the man reached out human hands and cupped Haniel’s cheeks, whispering:

“I’ve wanted to tell you all along. My name is ‘Nasir.'”

Ding!

As if to prove his words true, the status window appeared.

Nasir. This man claiming to be Haniel’s baby bird was indeed Saedol.

Haniel’s eyes shook violently with the intensity of a magnitude 9 earthquake.

Even his name was sophisticated.

Not a hybrid name like “Saedol” given with questionable naming sense that made it unclear whether it was a Korean bird or an otherworld bird, but Nasir—a name befitting his splendid and beautiful appearance.

‘He even had a name.’

“Nasir…”

“Yes.”

“You could use magic… no, you could transform like this all along?”

Her voice, leaking between her teeth, was trembling with confusion.

‘My little baby bird…’

For the past year, could Saedol… “Nasir,” whom she had picked up as a baby bird, transform into a human like this all along?

Beside Haniel, who had been longing for human interaction and conversation, had this ungrateful bird baby… no, baby bird been deceiving her all along?

Perhaps sensing Haniel’s anger, Nasir narrowed his fine brows and shook his head.

“What? No.”

Nasir released Haniel.

As the cool breeze touched her face that had been held in warm hands, goosebumps rose on her skin.

He narrowed his eyes, then took a step back from Haniel and stood rather elegantly.

“I’ve only recently reached adulthood, thanks to your care. That’s why I can now use my innate powers. This transformation ability is just one of them.”

“What ability?”

“The ability to transform into my companion’s form.”

I… I see. Haniel nodded.

It was just as the status window had described.

‘So he hasn’t been able to transform into a human for long?’

If that was the case, then Nasir hadn’t deliberately deceived her all this time despite being able to transform into a human.

The disappointment that had been forming in her heart gradually dispersed and lost its shape.

D*mn it, I trusted you, Saedol!

So had this small bird, upon becoming an adult, rushed here as soon as possible to show her this form?

‘Wait a minute though.’

Haniel reflected on Nasir’s words that she had carelessly overlooked and discovered a strange term.

‘Companion’?

Hadn’t such a word also been written on the status window that she had been ignoring…

Something about ‘a being he has bonded with’…

A vein suddenly bulged at her temple.

“Hold on. Who’s your companion?”

“What?”

Nasir blinked.

“What do you mean?”

“So who exactly is your companion…”

Haniel, who was in the middle of speaking, slowly closed her mouth as she looked at Nasir’s face.

Nasir, who had flown here, transformed into a human, and had been acting somewhat arrogantly while conversing with Haniel.

Befitting a being that ruled the skies of this forest, his gestures dripped with dignity, and his sharp features were filled with confidence.

But… after hearing Haniel’s words, his face lost its composure and was gradually becoming rigid.