Chapter 19
They all avoided him, saying he somehow felt unpleasant and somehow ominous, making them reluctant to go near him. It was exactly the same as the reputation Raven Barietsch usually received from the world.
Thanks to that, every time they saw me, everyone in the mansion, including my parents, bombarded me with questions about how long I planned to look after that bird.
Each time, I asked them to be patient, saying that he wouldn’t stay in the mansion for long, and that I would send him back to the forest as soon as his leg and wounds were fully healed.
So regardless of my likes, dislikes, or feelings toward crows, he was in a position where he couldn’t stay in this mansion for very long anyway.
After hearing my explanation, James let out a regretful sigh.
“Ah, is that so. Then it cannot be helped. You can’t force yourself to raise him somewhere he isn’t welcome.”
Only then did he put on the coat he had taken off, organize his bag, and prepare to leave.
Meanwhile, I straightened my posture and expression again in order to see him off as he left the mansion.
“Then, if anything happens to this child, please call me anytime. I apologize for troubling you today as well.”
“Rather, I should thank you for coming today. If I need help, I’ll call you, Doctor.”
After exchanging farewells with smiles painted on our faces, I called a servant and had him guide James out of the mansion.
After he left, only Raven and I remained in the room.
Without a word, I approached Raven and slowly stroked his head. Although he must have heard the entire conversation between James and me, Raven quietly accepted my touch.
‘I wonder what he thought after hearing the conversation just now.’
I couldn’t look inside his head, but in any case, the time I had left with him was now only about two weeks.
‘Once Raven leaves, I’ll end up waiting for three long years.’
Endlessly, until Raven’s proposal letter reached me.
Even waiting for winter to turn into spring had been difficult, so the fact that I would have to wait for spring to return three whole times already felt bleak.
‘I’ll probably be terribly lonely. We finally met like this, but we’ll have to part again.’
Even so, it wasn’t as though I could complain in front of him. The only thing I could say was something like this.
“They say you don’t have to take medicine anymore. You must be happy that you don’t have to eat anything bad-tasting now.”
“……”
I thought he would be pleased, but strangely, Raven said nothing. He merely quietly offered me his head.
* * *
After James’s final visit, Raven’s clinginess increased noticeably.
If I left even for a moment, he would caw and caw, crying for me so loudly that the mansion seemed about to shake, and although before, he had eaten well enough when the maid prepared his food, now he firmly closed his beak unless I fed him myself.
At night, he kept trying to leave the cushion he had used perfectly well for the past week, and his destination was none other than my bed.
Because the bone in his leg hadn’t fully knit together yet, he flew awkwardly with a subtly crooked movement and kept coming to sit beside me.
Whenever that happened, I would stop trying to sleep and stare at Raven with my eyes rounded in surprise. Each time, he tilted his head primly with a face that seemed to say he didn’t understand why I was so surprised.
“…Are you sleeping beside me today too?”
“Caw.”
When I raised myself and asked him as he flew onto the bed again today, he answered proudly, as if it were only natural. For some reason, he also seemed to have puffed out his chest.
Seeing that, a small, hollow laugh escaped me without my realizing it.
“Your bed is over there, so why do you want to sleep beside me?”
I had specially made him a cushion stuffed with plenty of cotton so his body wouldn’t ache, yet I couldn’t understand why he insisted on my bed.
Raven didn’t answer. He merely aimed for an opening with a brazen face and settled into place.
He was clearly doing this because he knew I couldn’t drive him out of the bed.
“Goodness.”
Just as he thought, although I was troubled by his behavior, since the time I had left to spend with him wasn’t long, I gave him a place each time.
“Fine, just for today. Starting tomorrow, you have to sleep over there, on that cushion. Understood?”
“Caw.”
He never answered questions that put him at a disadvantage, yet he answered words like this perfectly well. I didn’t know whether to call him clever or sly. I merely laughed it off.
And so, in the end, we lay down in the same bed and tried to sleep.
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