Chapter 15
His eyes, which should have been closed, were shining in the reflection of the orange light. At that moment, my body took one step back without my realizing it.
“Oh my.”
Raven, who had only been sleeping for hours, had finally awakened.
Only belatedly realizing that I had met his eyes without warning, I was startled and covered my mouth with both hands.
My heart pounded so violently that the quiet night felt noisy.
‘I approached him without thinking, so why did our eyes have to meet when my face was so unguarded!’
There was no greater blunder than this.
I needed to make Raven fall in love with me, and yet I was frustrated that he had seen my bare face before I could show him my most beautiful appearance.
‘No, it’s fine. Something trivial like that can be fixed anytime. What’s important right now is that Raven Barietsch has awakened.’
But that was all. Thinking it was fortunate he wasn’t dead, I awkwardly spoke to him.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you because of me?”
“……”
Raven said nothing. He only quietly took in the sight of me.
As an uncomfortable silence settled, I was wondering what I should say when I suddenly remembered what Anna had prepared a little while ago.
“Ah, right! I forgot about this!”
For now, I turned around and gathered the medicine and food Anna had brought. I had planned to feed him as soon as he woke, but since he showed no sign of waking, I had put a cover over them in case dust got in.
I opened the cover and checked the condition of the finely chopped fruit.
Even though it had been left at room temperature for quite some time, it seemed to be in decent condition. After confirming that, this time I began preparing the medicine.
‘The veterinarian said to mix it with water and feed it to him.’
I was unsure how thick I should make it, but for now, I thought it would be better to make it somewhat viscous. I was worried that if I made it too thin and spilled the medicine, his recovery might not go well.
I was sitting on the sofa, pouring water into a small dish like a soy sauce dish, adding the medicine, and diligently mixing it with a spoon even smaller than a teaspoon, when a bird’s cry suddenly came from behind me.
“Caw.”
I stopped my hand and raised my head to look at Raven. He was staring straight at me with a somewhat prim expression.
“……?”
That cry just now was definitely Raven’s. But he showed no reaction or movement, as if he had never done such a thing.
‘I’ve never raised a bird before, so I don’t know what he wants.’
It did seem like he had cried because he needed something, but I couldn’t understand what it meant.
In the end, I rose and approached him.
“What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
I asked worriedly and examined Raven’s condition.
The bandage the doctor had wrapped around him, and the ointment applied to the place where the bullet had been lodged, were all still as they had been. There didn’t seem to be anywhere else that looked uncomfortable.
More than anything, he had been extremely well-behaved ever since waking. He could have complained of pain or seemed distressed, but at least to my eyes, he had shown no sign of that until now.
“Why did you call me? Hm?”
I asked once more, but Raven in the form of a crow said nothing again this time.
In the end, unable to understand the meaning of his cry, I gave up on interpreting it and turned around to finish making the medicine.
“…Caw.”
At that moment, he cried once more.
When I turned my head, his bright, round eyes were looking at me again. Looking closely, that gaze was earnestly pleading with me for something.
‘What on earth does he want from me?’
But no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t understand what he meant, which was frustrating. Even so, simply ignoring him and moving on weighed on my mind.
In the end, my steps headed back toward Raven.
“What is it? Hm? You have to tell me what you need.”
“……”
Just when I thought he would remain silent again this time, he finally opened his mouth.
“Caw, caaaw.”
After crying once briefly and once more at length, he stared intently at me.
I stood still and sank into thought over what it meant. After a long while, realization suddenly came to me.
“…Do you perhaps want me to stay beside you?”
“Caw.”
Only then did he cry in satisfaction.
At Raven’s answer, which I had never even dreamed of, I ended up letting out a small laugh.
The first thing he did after waking from a deep, death-like slumber was to call me over and keep me by his side. He had a cute side too.
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