Chapter 14
Anna looked relieved by the fact that she no longer had to worry about the unlikely possibility of looking after both the crow and her young lady for the rest of her life. Seeing her needlessly fiddle with the tray, she seemed a little embarrassed by herself.
“But are you alright not changing your clothes? They’re covered in blood.”
Anna, who soon returned to her usual lively self as if changing the atmosphere entirely, asked.
When I followed her gaze with my own eyes, I saw the front of my dress soaked with the blood Raven had shed.
Because quite some time had passed, the once-bright red blood had turned dark brown and hardened stiffly.
“…I suppose I should change my clothes and take a bath too.”
“Then I’ll prepare warm bathwater and clothes for you to change into.”
“Thank you.”
“Is there anything else you need?”
Anna asked.
She probably expected me to ask for tea to drink after my bath or some sweet dessert, but the request I made was something entirely different.
“Look through the study and see if there are any books about crows. If there aren’t, you may obtain some from outside. This time too, it doesn’t matter how much money it costs.”
“Ah… yes. Understood, Miss.”
Anna’s face turned rather reluctant after hearing an answer that went against her expectations. She also seemed at a loss as to where she was supposed to find books about crows.
Pretending not to notice her dilemma, I headed to the bathroom as soon as the bathwater was ready.
*
After finishing my bath, I sat before the table in a nightgown and began leafing through the bird encyclopedia Anna had brought me.
On the table, beside the bird encyclopedia, warm tea and sweet chocolate cake had been placed side by side. Since I had walked and run around all day and was so tired that I had barely eaten dinner, the maids had prepared them out of concern for me.
I still had no appetite and didn’t feel like eating anything, but it wouldn’t be right to refuse what they had gone to the trouble of preparing. I sent them away with words of thanks, saying I would enjoy it.
And so, on a night where quiet darkness had settled, I turned the pages with soft rustles amid the deep silence, drank tea, and cut a piece of cake with my fork to put into my mouth.
“Mmm…”
Perhaps because something sweet and warm had entered my body, the fatigue that remained in me seemed to ease. However, now was the time to focus on gathering information about crows rather than recovering from fatigue.
The bird encyclopedia Anna had barely found after searching the entire study had almost no explanation about crows.
When the encyclopedia was opened, the name was written in large letters at the upper left, and beneath it was a short, dry explanation that might appear in an encyclopedia. On the right page, there was a very detailed sketch drawn by a skilled artist.
Rather than a book obtained out of interest in birds, it seemed more like an encyclopedia meant to identify what kind of bird had been found in the hunting grounds.
‘I heard that my grandfather enjoyed hunting, after all.’
There was no particularly useful information, but wondering if there might be even a little something to gain, I carefully examined the few pages about the crow family.
As expected, the information in the encyclopedia amounted only to how many centimeters an adult crow grew to, when its breeding season was, and where it mainly lived.
There was no information at all about what it ate, what it liked, or what precautions were needed when raising a crow.
It seemed best to wait until Anna obtained new books.
‘His appearance is that of a crow, but he’s still a person inside. Until then, I should be able to solve things somehow through conversation.’
As I thought that, I suddenly raised my head and looked at Raven, sleeping on the cushion.
He still didn’t move at all. He was simply asleep, completely unaware that night had come, or that the orange candlelight softly illuminating the room was shining on him.
I had been watching him constantly since the veterinarian left, but he showed no sign of opening his eyes. There wasn’t even a trace of him briefly regaining consciousness while I was unaware, let alone the slightest movement of tossing and turning.
Like a plaster statue, he only slept in the exact same posture as before, without the slightest disturbance.
‘He isn’t dead, is he?’
That worry suddenly occurred to me, so I left the book open behind me and quietly approached Raven. I was careful even when fixing the shawl that had slipped down along my shoulders, in case he might wake up.
Then, just as I slowly lowered my head to examine him as he slept.
For an instant, my eyes met someone’s in the darkness.
“……”
“……”
Blinking slowly, I carefully looked into the pitch-black crow swallowed by darkness.
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