Solo Swordmaster

Chapter 60: Why Do You Look Like That?

Splish—

Splash—

In the amusement park’s downpour, an escapee trudged along slowly.

It was a baby bird with soft blue feathers and a white streak sticking out of the top of its head. It was gravely regretting its choice to leave its cage.

It had been fine until it escaped the zoo—triumphant, even. Nothing could possibly get in its way after overcoming the obstacle that was its bird cage.

But that was a severe lapse in judgment. Rain suddenly started pouring down. Its feathers got soaked and made its body heavy. The resulting drop in stamina made it evident just how rash of a decision it was to escape.

Squeaaak.

The baby bird pondered. It really should have waited a few more months for all of its feathers to properly grow out first. It could have then easily flown away. Considering that, this current escape was a failure—it was no better than having not escaped at all.

Unfortunately, the baby bluebird had no choice. Waiting any longer in their cage was not an option for it.

Rather, it came to regret not reaching the decision sooner.

Squeak!

But there was no turning back now for the bird. With a short cry of vigor, it started running through the rain.

Flop!

…Until it slid on its behind not even 20 steps in.

Someone once said the mind overcomes the body. Sadly, that maxim was of no use to the baby bird. No matter how much grit it put in, or how much determination it had, its feeble body had already reached its limit just from wandering a little in the rain.

Squeak……

Perhaps its mind had reached its limits as well. Or it simply lost the energy to even stay on its feet. Dejected, the baby bird stayed on the ground as it wept. It looked up to the sky.

If only it didn’t rain.

It wouldn’t have been drenched and lost in the first place. If only the weather was in good condition. Even worse, since everyone had gone indoors to escape the rain, it had become even harder to find them. It put the baby bird in low spirits.

Shiver.

To worsen its despair, the cold energy spread through its body.

Actually, more than just cold energy. Cold needles pierced every inch of its body to the bone.

This might actually be dangerous, the baby bird thought.

Even a fully grown mother bird would have gone ill from walking around in this weather, let alone a baby bird with fuzz for feathers. The flu wouldn’t be the only thing it caught if it continued going around in the rain like this.

Squeeeak.

If it had known its death would be so pathetic, it never would have reincarnated.

While it lamented its own birth—

Ziiing.

…Squeak?

It rang through the air. A heavenly melody that could be heard crystal clear even in the rain. Ever so pure and brilliant, it was as if the rain was part of the performance. The sound so beautiful and alluring, the baby bird subconsciously got up from the ground.

Slowly, it followed the source of that wondrous melody. As if in a trance, it dragged its waning body across the pouring rain. The moment it arrived at a run-down building with “The Museum of Magic” on it, the baby bird widened its eyes.

Squeak?

It wasn’t just because it had found the children it was going after.

The source of this majestic tune, the performer under a faint light was a white-haired man, impossible to not recognize. Accompanied with the image of a translucent girl floating in the air above him, the bird’s mind went blank.

……???

Doubting its own mind, it rubbed its eyes with its wings. Question marks formed above the bird’s head when it saw nothing change.

What it was seeing could not be real. Just where were the speakers attached to the violin, for it to make such a… real sound?

But not too long after, the baby bird fell backwards. Its stamina had already gone way past its limits. It knew it couldn’t go to sleep like this, but it was unable to even open its eyes anymore. The relief flooding its heart and the overwhelmingly pure melody had cut off the nerves that allowed the bird to remain on its feet as it drifted off.

“Oh? It’s the bird…”

Just then, it heard the voice of a child.

“...Tired, bird? Do you… me to……”

Already going in and out of consciousness, the bird could not properly understand the child. It could only feel something wrap around it with the sound of something rustling. As it was wrapped in warmth, the baby bird listened to the sound of the heavenly tune of the violin as it, for the first time in its life, fell into a cozy slumber.

***

“Hah? What did you say was in this kid’s backpack?”

“That’s… probably…”

“Woah?”

“Is it…?”

“Uhm, let’s first…”

In a dreamlike state, it heard whispers every once in a while. The voice was too poignant of an echo to be reality and too longing for it to be a dream. The poignance was as profound as death. The longing was sweet as honey.

The baby bird fell into a deeper slumber.

Whilst wandering in an infinite dream, time continued to pass.

Time passed, passed, and passed…

And when it finally opened its eyes, the very first thing the baby bird saw was a naked body.

…Squeak?

Perhaps it was not yet fully awake, or in shock from the sight it was looking at. For a few seconds, the bird stayed frozen like a shot down pigeon.

And then, it let out a screech.

Squeeeeeeeak?!?!

“Hm?”

Without a single area of fat, a white-haired man showed off his lean torso as he wiped the sweat off with a towel.

Limon raised his head. Seeing the baby bird covering its eyes with its feathers, he asked nonchalantly.

“Oh, hey. Are you finally up?”

As if he was startled for nothing, Limon lightly clicked his tongue as he finished wiping himself down.

“I figured you had died from how long you didn’t get up. You’re pretty tenacious for being so small, aren’t you?”

Sq-squeak.

Even after hearing him tease it, the baby bird was still out of it. It didn’t have the headspace to be angered by the comment.

Where was it?

Why was Limon in front of it?

What was going on?

The baby bird couldn’t understand anything when it had just woken up from its long slumber.

But Limon didn’t bat an eye seeing the swamped baby bird. He simply dragged a nearby chair close and sat on it backwards, resting his chin on the top rail as he locked eyes with the bird at eye-level.

“Alright, then. Let’s hear it.”

Squeak?

Not understanding what he was saying, the baby bird blinked. It was too out of the ordinary for Limon to interrogate a bird.

“There is a lot I want to hear from you… But let me ask you this first.”

Unlike the perplexed baby bird, Limon was ever so calm. Or that’s how he appeared to be, at least. But as soon as it looked into his eyes, the baby bird realized—the only thing truly calm about him was his outward expression.

He, too, was disturbed by this situation as well. His golden eyes looked unnaturally troubled, and a sword was in his hand before the bird could even notice him take it out.

The most unsettling of all, was the unexpected question that followed. It knew this situation was impossible for Limon to understand as well.

“Why’s a dead brat back looking like that?”

…Squeak?

One could call it its past life. The bird looked nothing like what it had previously. And yet, its shocked, widened eyes looked uncannily similar to back when it was still a human.

Limon reluctantly called her name.

“Yoo Na-kyung.”

***

***

“Ah, indeed.”

In the amusement park Limon’s group had visited, a group of people slowly nodded as they looked over the area from the highest view.

“To sum it up, we are fools.”

“What?”

“We missed the beat completely and stepped in the wrong direction.”

“You play drums, walking? The traditional music of this nation?”

“…It means our target is already gone. Will you understand if I said this is a failed mission, crazy comrade?”

“Aha, okay. I got it.”

The blonde woman nodded with a bright smile, but once again tilted her head in confusion.

“Why target gone? Information error?”

“Oh dear crazy comrade, how would I know? Ask the bastard who got the information.” A man with braided hair relentlessly spat with a gentle voice and a smile.

The blonde woman turned her head to the other side as she looked at the other young man next to her.

“Comrad, did you make another mistake?”

“What?! Why are you comrades doing this to me! The information was absolutely certain this time!

“But why no target?”

“That’s what I would like to know as well. It was there the last time I checked. Unless someone pulled something over our eyes, there is no way it would disappear, you see.” The young man with slit eyes cried out.

The blonde woman’s eyes twinkled.

“Could it be… Information leak?”

“Are you saying that someone, knowing we were here, hid or took away the target?”

“The timing is too good.”

“If what our crazy comrade says is right, that means that someone knew of our plans. A plan we hadn’t even reported to our superiors and one we took measures right before carrying it out.”

“Internal spy, then… Possible?”

“And who would that spy be? It is certainly not me. I was the commander of this operation.”

The blonde woman's eyes turned to the man with slanted eyes again.

“Do not Look at me like that. I would have done it secretly if I was taking any measures. Why would I be up to any funny business if I was the one who got the information?”

“Because comrad stupid?”

“Do not treat me like I have noodles for brains! I am going to carry out these operations by myself if you keep doing that!”

Getting such a vehement reaction out of the young man with slit eyes, the blonde woman sincerely bowed to apologize.

“…Sorry. Coincidence… Now that I think of it.”

Feeling somewhat better from the apology, the young man stopped steaming to look at the man with braided hair.

“So what now?”

“I’m thinking.”

“How about we withdraw for now and investigate further? I need to figure out if this was merely a coincidence or if it was premeditated.”

“Hmm… For a stupid comrade, you do have a point there.”

“…Leave out that offensive part, please.”

“All right. A certain stupid someone made a good point.”

“That was not the offensive part!”

“You got this. Comrade is a comrade, even if have screw loose.”

“And you are the last person I want to hear that from, comrade!!”

The young man with slit eyes busily moved his hand amidst grumbling as the blonde woman patted his back.

Deep in thought seeing his two comrades, the man with braided hair spoke in a serious tone.

“Fine. We’ll inspect everyone who came here in the last 48 hours.”

“Are you really going to do it?”

“It’s my duty. We can’t give up so easily just because something’s not going our way.”

He gave the young man with slit eyes and the blonde woman orders as he put on a gentle smile.

“For Comrade Kang Seok, who died in vain for us to act freely in this country.”

“Oh? That sacrifice?”

“Did that comrade know nothing, though?”

“Obviously, Comrade Kang Seok didn’t see his death coming. But he was still happy to carry out his mission. He’s a true role model for sacrificing oneself.”

“…Is that not just not being disposable?”

Atop the ferris wheel that occasionally stopped in between rotations, the three people whispering to each other suddenly disappeared.

——

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