The Falcon Princess

Chapter 10

Zelly watched as Valhyle rubbed his forehead as he was thinking about something.

The pressure has to be intense… There was no sign of that from him, yet Zelly thought he had to be feeling it. The fact that he talked to me is proof of that.

She nodded, satisfied with her hypothesis. He had choked her, suspected her, and given her a hard time. That was enough to say he was under a lot of pressure. But that man…

Zelly studied his face, which appeared haggard from how tired he was. Even so, he looked quite young. The man Linbethy had married was around ten years older than her, so she’d automatically assumed Valhyle Rumares would be around that age as well. But he looked much younger than her brother-in-law.

I wonder how old he is. Even if she’d done her research to avoid him, she had no interest whatsoever in the man himself, so she was clueless about any of his personal details.

Valhyle must have felt her looking at him because he was not too fondly looking back at her.

“You’ve been staring.”

Zelly quickly pretended to be doing something else. She thought it would be best to make it obvious that she was a bird, not a human. The reason was simple—she had tried her best to communicate and had gotten choked for it, called crazy multiple times, and nearly died because she was suspected of being a spy.

She was planning to leave Rohaneim on her next mission. There was no reason for her to stay here as long as her name was Zeline, and her number one principle in life was to survive. She’d already felt a threat against her life from this man, so, yes, the next mission. Until then, she would play nice and regain his trust. But…

Over the next few days, she changed her mind, and oddly enough it was because of Valhyle. Zelly observed him closely for a few days. At first, she watched him just in case he tried to threaten her again, but one thing became clear as she did: He was working extremely hard not to let the Roymund Kingdom crumble into nothingness and disappear from the face of the earth.

Zelly thought back to what he’d said when he had her by the neck.

“Hundreds, thousands of lives are at stake with every secret. Did you think I’d be able to trust you so easily?”

Zelly repeated that to herself. He said he did it to save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. My safety is important, which is why I’m angry at the person who’s endangering it, but…

Sadly, she was more useful for her country as a bird than a princess.

So I won’t run away.

Unbelievably enough, Zeline made that decision for a country that didn’t deserve her sacrifice when she had been a princess.

* * *

The next mission came soon.

It was the first day after they’d reclaimed one of the major castles in the east. Granor had only claimed it by raising their green flags on the empty flagpoles. Valhyle took Zelly out of the birdcage, gripped her tightly by the base of her wings, and carefully looked her over.

“You’re heavier than you were last time,” he said.

She sucked in a breath, sucking her belly in with it. If she were being honest, it did seem like her bottom was becoming a little more plump. But it had to be muscle—it couldn’t be fat, right? Since she was training every day?

Think about it—I had to have been training very hard for me to feel hungry at every waking hour of the day, no?

Zelly remembered that she’d successfully begged the soldier for more, even after eating her allotted amount of food.

Valhyle frowned. “You’re not going to be slower, are you?”

No way! She angrily clawed her talons in midair. Her legs were short, so they didn’t get anywhere near his hands, which made her even more angry. What do you know?! I read somewhere that the more plump wild animals get, the more attractive they look to potential mates!

She was huffing and puffing up a storm in his hand, but he looked out and said, “The weather is going to get bad soon.”

Zelly looked out the window as well. That’s right. It was around that time of year. This was the first time she could feel a sense of time after she became a bird and lost any sense of what day it was. A typhoon. If it was a fruitful year for the autumn harvests, then a typhoon always blew through Roymund’s central territory.

Valhyle opened the map and explained where she had to go. He still looked unsure of whether she would be able to do as he ordered.

After he finished explaining things, he walked toward his desk and muttered, “It would be better if I could go myself.”

Hearing him say that, Zelly flicked her eyes up at him. Where do you think you’re going, Commander-in-Chief? What, do you want to become a bird or something?

Valhyle brought over a small leather pouch with the secret message inside and tied it to her leg.

“Come back safe.”

Zelly stretched out her now-strong wings. Eating well and training hard these past few weeks had clearly paid off. She flapped her wings and took off from the windowsill. Just as she was out of Valhyle’s sight, she shot up into the sky and let the feeling of freedom envelop her body.

Maybe I should just escape. That desire flared up for a second, but she shook her head. Even if she did get out of this territory, there was no way for her to find her body. It was much more beneficial for her to stay in Rohaneim and pick things up here and there. From that perspective, living in the commander-in-chief’s barracks was pretty nice.

I should get this to them as soon as I can, and this time, I’m definitely going to stay and listen in on a meeting.

Zeline set her jaw with determination and zipped through the air.

* * *

Valhyle watched as the bird flew off. For some reason, her tail seemed to be wagging with excitement. It made him frown.

It can’t have been a coincidence that it delivered the message properly last time. It was impossible for a bird to understand humans, but that didn’t matter as long as this secret could get delivered to Ropeche.

It was a request for military supplies. They needed provisions in order to gather the troops that were scattered around the eastern territory. He also ordered Ropeche to advance in a certain direction. It was too dangerous to send a dispatch rider, and right now, messenger birds were dying left and right. If this message couldn’t be delivered, there would be a significant difference in military strength between them and Granor. If that happened, a direct assault would be impossible.

Valhyle pressed his knuckles into his temples. It felt ironic to have all of this on the shoulders of a tiny little bird. A sigh slipped out of him. If he were delusional thinking the bird could understand him, it would surely die this time. It had to fly across an even more open area of land than last time, and it was definitely going to be more eye-catching. But as long as it did as Valhyle had told it to, it would come back alive. In that case, it would basically prove that the bird could indeed understand what Valhyle was saying.

But what is that bird…

No, that wasn’t important right now. Valhyle scowled. The important thing right now was to find at least one of the royal children and to push Granor out to save the people from their pillaging. Right now, Valhyle didn’t have the luxury of thinking about anything else. But that bird... The spotted brown bird he could squeeze in one hand…

Its overly intelligent-looking eyes bothered him. Whenever he met its gaze, he felt like he was being rebuked, and he felt the anxiety about the survival of the royal children bubble up inside of him. Why did he feel that way?

Valhyle stared at the empty birdcage. It had to come back before the winds started picking up. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the clear sky outside his window without a speck of cloud marring it made him feel even more nervous.

* * *

It was already her second visit to Ropeche territory. Zeline did a wonderful job of avoiding the Granorian base and arrived safely in Ropeche.

Haha! Take that, Valhyle! What do you think of my flying now, huh? And I can understand humans too!

Being a human herself, it was a bit pitiful for her to be proud of the fact that she could understand humans, so she calmed her excited tail and flew toward the large barracks in the middle of the base. As if they understood Zelly’s signal, someone came out to meet her. Last time, it was someone named Sir Evan, but this time…

Zelly saw who came out to meet her and stopped breathing. Oh, gods. General Kaiven?

She almost instinctively ran away, but she barely managed to remember that she was a bird and hovered in the air instead.

“Come here,” General Kaiven said smoothly.

Zelly panted as she landed on his hand. While he was untying the message from her leg, she peeked at his face, which was noticeably gaunt.

“You must be thirsty.”

He placed a bowl of water in front of her, and she quickly took a few gulps as she inched away from him. At this moment, finding out what was in that message was suddenly not so important. All she could think about was how close General Kaiven was.

He was the leader of the Ropeche army and husband to First Princess Linbethy as well as Zelly’s brother-in-law, the man who, alongside her sister, consistently pondered whether to kill Zeline. She tried hard to look for the cruelty in his benign expression and gaunt cheeks.

No, maybe this is useless now. She didn’t know if Linbethy was dead or alive, so there was no reason for General Kaiven to be antagonistic toward her. That thought barely calmed her racing heart.

“There’s no news from that side either,” General Kaiven muttered.

He sounded devastated. Zelly had no ears to perk up, but she did lean in to listen.

“Where are you…”

There was no name or indication of who he was talking about, but Zelly understood. General Kaiven was looking for Linbethy— No, all of Ropeche must be looking for her.

Zelly watched General Kaiven, who was looking for the royal princess so desperately, and let go of the blame she’d been placing on Ropeche. They couldn’t be feeling very good about losing all the royal children while they were helping them escape. It was just that all the people responsible for it were dead, so no one could be held accountable. The proof of that was in the gauntness of their general’s face.

This is one good part about becoming a bird.

Zeline laughed bitterly at herself. No one in this world would hide their expressions from a mere bird or shut their mouths in case a bird was listening. Since becoming a bird, Zelly was able to see people in their rawest form, their true selves they didn’t show to other people. If she were being honest, she was guilty of that herself.

She wolfed down a simple meal in General Kaiven’s barracks and got ready to leave again. They say a typhoon is coming. She had a strong feeling she should get back before it hit, so she flapped her wings and flew upward.

On her way back, Eighth Princess Zeline met the full force of a Roymundian typhoon, something she’d never experienced before. And she was totally defenseless.