CH 43

Somehow, I arrived at the Weil family estate without being discovered by Bella, even reaching the assigned room.

Needless to say, by riding on Suradel’s back.

I patted his leg with my wing to thank him.

“Yueeng. (You worked hard.)”

Then I let out a deep sigh.

I barely managed to get to the Weil family’s estate without being caught. But it was only a temporary measure. I must humanize before Bella starts to have doubts.

Perhaps Iprus and Suradel had the same worries, for they said one after the other,

“I guess you should keep trying to humanize.”

“I think Mother will take you on a tour of Weil Castle.”

“Ween. Weeeng… (Should I really try a kiss?)”

Then the eyes of Iprus sparkled. She managed to understand what I was muttering.

“…Lady Lia, is what I heard true?”

Iprus’ wasn’t interpreting from the penguin language, her method of interpreting was by analyzing the situation and my feelings.

With that said, naturally, it was difficult to connect with the context before and after, so I thought she couldn’t interpret it… 

I must have been underestimating her romance radar.

With much excitement, Iprus announced this straight away.

“Sir Suradel, the lady just said she wants to kiss you!!!”

“…Weheeng?! (When did I?!)”

How could lamenting that I should try kissing mean that I want to kiss Suradel!

Hearing that, Suradel blushed shyly and lowered his eyelashes.

“Lia, I didn’t know you wanted me so much.”

“Wheeng! (No!)”

Iprus smiled with slightly soured eyes and, step by step, came in front of me.

“It’s late, Lady Lia. Please hold a holy kissing ceremony right away.”

“We, weeng. (I, I hate it.)”

I shook my head and took a step back.

But ultimately, while retreating from Iprus, I ran into a dead end road called the wall.

It was then.

Suradel strode in front of me and stopped Iprus.

“Iprus. Lia hates the idea. I thought it was a joke, but you really don’t intend to force me to touch her, do you?”

Only then did Iprus wiped the drool running down with her sleeve, as if she had come back to her senses,

“Sorry. Unknowingly, the anticipation of being able to watch the first kiss between the young lady and Sir Suradel-sama…”

I groaned, my chin stiff in disgust.

‘Even if I do it, I’ll never do it in front of others.’

To calm me down, Suradel brushed the scruff of my neck… Well, he tried to. When he looked at my barely existent neck, he awkwardly lowered his hand.

“Lia, I don’t want to use this situation to force anything out of you. But tell me whenever you need me.”

Suradel smiled kindly.

I felt embarrassed when Suradel, who was looking forward to making contact with my beak more than anyone else, came out like that.

Did I make it too obvious that I didn’t like someone who liked me…?

It creeped into my mind that it wouldn’t be bad to close my eyes and kiss Suradel once.

In fact, if the beak collided with the lips, wouldn’t the lips side receive all the damage?

Besides, it was true that it was the best thing I could do for now.

I practiced humanizing all night, but it was like this.

However… I hesitated because I had never kissed a person of the opposite sex, both in my previous life and this life.

‘It’s just a kiss, but is it okay if my first kiss is with Suradel?’

It was when I contemplated the purity of my beak for the rest of my life.

As if realizing that I was thinking deeply, Suradel suggested,

“If you’re really worried, would you like to make a clean decision with rock-paper-scissors?”

I thought about it and nodded slowly. Although the odds of rock-paper-scissors were fair… 

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

What? So suddenly?!

Surprised by Suradel’s sudden attack, I reflexively extended a wing.

And…

I looked at my flat wing, then quietly shifted my gaze to the scissors that Suradel held out.

The feeling of betrayal made me tremble.

Aside from the sudden start, on second thought, it was not a fair game at all.

“Heh, heheheh.”

Suradel took in my expression, and eventually, with one hand covering his face, his shoulder began to tremble.

Didn’t he say ‘I don’t want to use this situation to force you to do something’?

Anger slowly rose from the edge of the abdomen.

‘You dare to tease me?’

“Since you lost at rock-paper-scissors, you’re giving in cleanly, right Lia?”

“…Weyeng.”

I couldn’t believe this happened. And so, I decided to give him a bloody kiss.

My eyes burned at the thought of biting off his lips.

I glared at Suradel and nodded at Iprus.

“Weyeng weeng. (Iprus, go out.)”

Iprus, who had been laughing with Suradel, immediately looked at me with shocked eyes.

“L-Lady Lia, you didn’t just tell me to leave, did you?”

“Wheeng. (That’s right.)”

“Oh, that can’t be! If I miss such a precious scene, I will regret it for the rest of my life!”

At the strong proclaiment, I stared at Iprus in bewilderment.

Then, realizing that it was too difficult to get her to go away with a penguin’s body, I walked towards the door.

After knocking on the door several times with my beak, Hanu, who was standing guard outside the door, answered quietly.

“…Is it Lady Lia? Is there something wrong?”

I knocked once more to mean ‘yes’, and he asked for my understanding and opened the door.

“Excuse me.”

I gestured to Iprus with my chin to Hanu as he tried to make sense of the situation.

“Yueeng. (Take care of it.)”

“Perfectly understood.”

Uncharacteristically, Hanu immediately understood what I was saying. He grabbed Iprus by the back and began to drag her out.

“I don’t know what you did, but Lady Lia says she doesn’t need you now.”

“Ahhh! Let go of me! I must be here, I muuuuuust!”

After quickly clearing Iprus, I closed the door and stared at Suradel.

He was looking at me with his usual relaxed smile.

“It’s just the two of us left. What are you going to do now, Lia?”

I didn’t like that cool and expectant gaze.

‘Let’s see if you can look like that when your delicate lips are pecked.’

First of all, I patted the bed, indicating for him to sit here. With light steps, Suradel headed over and sat down.

I jumped onto the bed and climbed onto his lap.

Then I began to stare at Suradel’s lips.

Where and how should I do it so that I could cause as much hurt as possible and pretend it was a mistake?

“It’s a bit embarrassing to be looked at so passionately, Lia.”

Contrary to the words spoken in Suradel’s characteristic tone which I had become accustomed to, the tension was palpable.

“Wait a moment.”

As if he had remembered something, Suradel suddenly took off the wizard robe he was wearing.

Then he started wrapping it around my body.

“As I said yesterday, the probability of becoming human by kissing me is low. But just in case.”

Basically, he was saying that I should cover it in advance in case the kiss really turn me back into a human.

Laughter came out.

To become human, I had to try to kiss him on the lips, sacrificing my beak.

But, based on those words, didn’t Suradel assume that it would not work out already and play a rock-paper-scissors fraud to fulfill his personal desires?

What an extremely cheeky killer whale.

I pecked him around the neck.

However, he just smiled happily as though I was acting cute.

“Haha, you’re tickling me.”

I pecked the surrounding skin a few times, then took advantage of his carelessness and attacked his lips unexpectedly.

Chomp.

But was it because it was rushed?

Unfortunately, my beak got stuck right between his upper and lower lips.

Ah, it didn’t do him any damage.

But the good thing was…

…The purpose of doing this was achieved; I had successfully humanized.

I had a feeling it would work.

However, it seemed Suradel really didn’t think that I would change into a human.

“I… I didn’t expect this.”

He muttered blankly, looking up at me, who had grown bigger on his lap.

I looked down at the uncharacteristically flustered Suradel and curved my eyes coquettishly.

“You really are a penguin fanatic, Su.”

Suradel made eye contact with me, then hurriedly averted his gaze.

It was now that I noticed his ears were burning red. I should be the one ashamed, why was he being like that?

“So you don’t have any more excuses?”

“…Lia, you can actually humanize freely, right? But you pretended you couldn’t because you wanted to kiss me?”

“Whatever you say.”

I slowly tilted my head, refusing to carry on a meaningless conversation.

“Su.”

“Huh.”

“What did you put in your pocket?”

“…Nothing.”

Suradel’s voice was somehow locked. That made me even more suspicious. I narrowed my eyes.

“But why…”

Right then. The door opened before I had time to clear my doubts.

Jump.

“Lia, are you awake? It’s nothing much, if you don’t mind, I’d like to introduce the Weil Castle and estate in person…”

On the bed.

What was Bella thinking when she saw me sitting on Suradel’s lap with only a robe on?

I bet she wouldn’t think we bumped our lips and beak together to soundly humanize.

Ame: ahahahahahahaAHAHAHAHAHahahaha!