4. If We Keep Touching, It’ll Be Trouble

“Miss. Don’t you want something sweet? Shall I bring out some dessert?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

After returning from the library, seeing me silently reading books, Lecia tactfully left the room.

After Lecia and the other attendants left the room.

“Phew……!!”

I roughly closed the book and let out a deep sigh. It was a romance novel that Lecia had recommended over and over again.

“There’s no way the novel’s content would catch my eye.”

Until now, I had been thinking of Felix simply as a male protagonist in a novel. I thought I had grasped his personality, past, and behavioral patterns to some extent based on the original work.

“But here, in this place I’ve transmigrated to, Felix isn’t a character in a novel but a truly living human being……”

Was that why? I even got angry at the newspaper articles that carelessly dealt with Felix’s story so blatantly.

Not receiving love from his family, past wounds received from the only person he relied on…… And his tendency to be wary of those approaching him or to not easily trust his retainers even now.

It was too painful a story to be digested as mere gossip.

‘Somehow I feel disturbed, disturbed.’

Unable to organize my confused feelings, I shifted my gaze outside the window and discovered a black bird that had been staring at me from the windowsill at some point.

— Tap tap

“Huh……?”

As soon as our eyes met, the bird began tapping the glass window with its beak.

“What’s with this bird.”

Normally I would never have done this…… Without realizing it, I walked to the window as if bewitched.

And I carelessly opened the window.

— Hop hop, hop

The black bird crossed the window frame and entered the room. Every time the bird bounced and moved on the window frame, the sound of its claws rang pleasantly.

It seemed quite wary, as I quietly watched it continue to wander only around the window area.

“The imperial palace is surprisingly nature-friendly, isn’t it? Is it okay for birds to just enter buildings like this?”

I was muttering to myself and watching the black bird. Without any warning or premonitory symptoms, the room suddenly became dark.

“Huh!? What, what is it. Why did the room suddenly……?”

While I was looking around in shock. I recalled that I had experienced something similar not long ago.

Before I came to the separate palace, that is, when I met with Kervic separately.

‘Could this be Kervic’s doing?’

An ominous premonition began to creep up. Just as I was about to break into a cold sweat thinking that Kervic had invaded even the separate palace……

The eyes of the black bird that had been sitting quietly on the window frame turned bright red. Startled by the strange phenomenon, I reflexively tried to step back from the window frame, but the black bird spread its wings threateningly. And……

“Marina Enchester……!”

“Hieek!!!”

“You remember well the proposal I made……?”

A rough voice as if rising from hell pierced into my ears. That voice was definitely flowing from the black bird! But what was even more terrible was what the bird was saying.

“Whether you accept that proposal or not doesn’t matter, Marina Enchester! You’re destined to follow my orders anyway.”

“Wh, what are you saying. Don’t tell me, you, you are……?!”

Though it was a low, thick bass voice with a scratched sound somewhere, I could recognize the identity of that voice at once.

‘As expected, it was Kervic!’

The black bird was conveying Kervic’s words. As if its purpose was to enter the room and threaten me, it stood on the window frame and kept flapping its wings.

As if it had used some magic, it had grown larger than when it had quietly entered the room, and an unknown aura flowed from it.

‘What does it mean that I’ll have no choice but to follow orders?’

In the situation of confronting the black bird, I felt bewildered.

‘Is he trying to bribe me…… that is, Marina, again? Just how far did the conversation between those two go?’

However, there was nothing I could know at this point. I could only resist Kervic’s threats!

‘Does he think I’m some kind of puppet! To follow him like this?’

Getting annoyed for no reason, I took a stance thinking to fight the black bird. Then the black bird slowly tilted its head.

— Crack

A spine-chilling sound came from the bird’s neck.

“Are you really a bird? How can such a sound come from your neck!”

“Kekekekek…… The bird’s form is just a shell. I’ve only put my will into a dead bird.”

I’ll be honest. I have one secret.

Police officer Lee Su-jeong, who fearlessly meddles in others’ affairs…… is a little afraid of ghosts and zombies.

— Flutter

“Hiaaak!!”

……No, actually very afraid!!!

The black bird kicked off from the window frame and flew toward me. It was fortunate that I crouched down in fear, otherwise my forehead would have been directly pecked by the pitch-black beak.

That wasn’t the end of it.

— Flutter flutter, flutter flutter

“Aak, stop! Stop it!”

The black bird circled above my head, threatening with its beak and claws.

‘It’s only because I briefly learned boxing at the gym thanks to the director’s nagging…… If it had been the real Marina, she would have been knocked down in one body blow!’

I covered my head with both hands and swayed my upper body back and forth to avoid the black bird’s attacks. And while looking for a chance to counterattack, I found a very suitable object.

“Take this—!”

— Caw!?

It was the book I had been reading just now, borrowed from the library. Since it was a thick book, it was definitely threatening enough for the black bird.

Though it wasn’t enough to hit a flying bird, it was fine.

“Don’t come close. Lecia borrowed quite a few books, you know? There are 14 more here!”

I shouted at the bird and picked up one of the books Lecia had stacked. I placed it lightly on my shoulder ready to throw at any moment and threatened Kervic.

“That bird seems to be a puppet…… What if I capture this bird alive and bring it to Felix?”

“Don’t worry about that. If it touches another person’s hand or the power of the sun reaches it, the puppet will die immediately. And……”

The black bird sat on top of the wardrobe, glaring at me with flashing eyes.

“Only my thoughts and messages are contained in this puppet. The real ‘me’ isn’t here.”

At Kervic’s words flowing from the black bird, I broke into a cold sweat. I thought he was having a real-time conversation with me through the bird, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

With those words, the black bird flew out the window like an arrow.

“Ah, no……!”

Even so, I had tried to find a way to capture it alive, but in anger and futility, my legs gave out and I helplessly sat down on the floor.

‘But how could I capture it alive? I can’t even use the power of water properly. Still, isn’t there some way? Damn it, damn it!!’

I reached out toward the bird like in movies, but it was futile as expected. Lee Su-jeong couldn’t freely use the power of water like Marina.

Even being able to recharge with Felix was amazing. Just by close contact, the power of water would naturally emerge from my body and calm the power of the sun that Felix possessed.

But thanks to that, I knew well. Not only the power of water, but also that mysterious aura that the power of the sun possessed.

‘Felix……!?’

Not long after the black bird escaped from my room, I felt the power of the sun cutting through the air. I, who had been frozen in futility from missing the black bird, quickly looked down outside the window.

“Huh!”

Felix was extending one hand toward the air. While surprised by his elegant yet dignified appearance, I could feel the heat burning his body intensely. And a dark red aura rose from his fingertips……

Felix aimed at the black bird with only his index and middle fingers extended. And the moment he lightly flicked his shoulder—!

“!!”

Like being aimed and shot with a hunting rifle, the black bird fell helplessly to the ground.

“Did he catch the bird…… with the power of the sun?”

It was amazing to see with my own eyes the power I had only read about in books. When I thought of the power of the sun, I only thought of heat that seemed like it would burn my body. Seeing it like this, the power was strong.

Most of all, could he use his power so precisely, strongly, and quickly……?

‘I only thought of it as a bomb that could destroy anything else…… Amazing!’

Like a rookie police officer deployed to a dangerous scene, I felt my hands trembling.

A little later…

Felix and Kale approached to examine the black bird. His expression as he stared at the black bird for a long time was quite grim. His gaze soon turned toward my room.

“!!”

At his sharp glare, I froze in place. Somehow I had a bad feeling.

‘What on earth are you up to? Marina Enchester. Are you exchanging contact with Kervic?’ His eyes were saying this.

Just then, I recalled the only lie I had told.

‘Felix had asked before. Whether I had ever met Kervic……’

For Felix, he would have been curious about why Kervic had bothered to drug me. That’s why he asked if I had met him……

Though it seemed like Marina and Kervic had made some deal from the circumstances, not knowing how far the conversation had gone, I had only one choice.

‘Back then I pretended not to know and brushed it off. Because it was better to conceal my connection with Kervic.’

But if Kervic keeps trying to create and show off connections with me from his side like now?

‘Then, won’t Felix eventually misunderstand me as a spy!?’

— Bang!

The door opened roughly without warning. It seemed he had pushed away Kale and other attendants, as Felix was alone. Should I call this fortunate or unfortunate?

‘I have to say I’m not Kervic’s spy, that I’m innocent……!’