“Young master, it seems difficult to send a letter right away. It needs to be tamed, and this fellow is, squawk! Screech! My hand! Ahem! Acting so ferociously probably because it’s tired from crossing the sea.”

[Squawk! It’s not tasty! I want meat, meat!]

Philen, who had his finger pecked by the beak that came out of the cage, recoiled in shock.

It seemed to have mistaken Philen’s finger for meat.

“Look at this, isn’t it crying constantly because it’s tired?”

‘That’s not it.’

The bird wasn’t crying because it was tired. It was angry because it was only given grain feed that didn’t satisfy it.

‘No, I don’t know anything about this.’

“Ack! Why does it keep pecking my finger! Ah, ahem! Young master, I will inform you again after I tame this violent bird. At this rate, I’m not sure if it can properly serve as a messenger bird.”

I nodded and was about to leave the room.

[Give me meat!]

“Aaaah! My hand!”

If it weren’t for the cries of the two beings squawking behind me.

In the end, I turned around and approached Philen again.

“Ouch ouch…”

“Philen, are you alright?”

“Me? Ah, of course I’m fine! Young master, there’s nothing for you to worry about. Isn’t it natural for anything to be difficult at first!”

Philen gripped his reddened finger and lifted the corners of his mouth into a wide smile. His expression seemed to say he wanted to give up everything, which made me feel uneasy.

“Philen, you know.”

“Yes, young master. Please speak.”

“How about giving it raw meat instead of that?”

“Pardon? Instead of this feed?”

“Yes, prepared meat.”

Philen tilted his head. He looked at the feed in his palm as he continued speaking.

“Do you think a bird would eat that?”

[This is the timeline separator]

“Young master, you are truly amazing! How did you know right away?”

The bird picked up the prepared raw meat with its beak and gulped it down its throat. Watching this, Philen excitedly said.

“The messenger birds I’ve tamed before were small birds. Birds small enough to perch on my hand. This is my first time with such an ignorantly large and violent bird. Still, since it’s a bird, I naturally thought it would like grain feed…”

I wanted to focus on Philen’s words, but the messenger bird kept squawking beside us.

[Delicious food, delicious food!]

Philen must have found the bird’s cries quite noisy too, as he casually tossed a large piece of meat into the cage.

The bird caught the meat swiftly and gulped it down, its throat bobbing.

“It eats so well.”

Philen laughed dejectedly and asked.

“Young master, where did you hear that large birds eat meat?”

“Hmm, I think it was in a fairy tale book.”

“That’s quite a useful fairy tale book.”

I left the room as Philen gave the bird one last piece of meat, earnestly telling it ‘this is the last one’.

As I came out into the corridor, my ears felt much more comfortable. On the contrary, my mind became uneasy.

‘This is supposed to be the male lead’s ability.’

The ability to understand animal speech was a power that Elizer possessed in the original work.

It was an ability he had since he was alone in the imperial palace, unrelated to the divine beast.

Because of this ability, Elizer often had trouble getting along with other people.

In the original work, Elizer was a clever child, but he didn’t know that ordinary people couldn’t understand animal speech.

‘He thought others could understand animal speech just like him.’

Elizer, who showed himself conversing with animals in front of others, began to be discriminated against little by little for being different from others.

‘I have no intention of telling anyone about this fact though.’

The problem was why I could understand animal speech just like the male lead.

As I was walking slowly, I suddenly stopped in my tracks at a thought that occurred to me.

‘No, maybe it’s just my imagination.’

It could be that I only understood the speech of that large bird. I abruptly got up and went outside the mansion. I ran into Delma who was strolling in the corridor.

“Delma, I want to go to the stable!”

“The stable?”

Upon arriving at the stable, I was able to approach a horse under the guidance of the stable keeper.

“It’s dangerous to get too close, young master. I think it would be better to watch from here.”

“Okay, don’t worry.”

I stared intently into the horse’s eyes. It was quiet. The silence filling the surroundings was so welcome.

“Hmm, would you like to give it a carrot?”

The stable keeper seemed to think I wanted to befriend the horse.

While he was briefly away, I quietly whispered to the horse.

“Horse, speak to me!”

At that moment, the horse moved its mouth. For a second, I was startled, thinking the horse was really going to speak.

‘See, it’s not saying anything.’

“Young master, this is the treat that fellow likes. Would you like to give it a try?”

The stable keeper, who had just returned, handed me a carrot.

I casually held out the carrot to the horse.

The horse, blinking its large eyes, snatched the carrot from me like an ordinary horse would.

But it must not have been hungry, as it tossed the uneaten carrot aside.

“Th-this horse! How dare it throw away the carrot given by the young master!”

The stable keeper scolded the horse beside me, but regardless of that, I felt happy.

‘The horse isn’t speaking!’

It seems my understanding the bird’s speech earlier must have been my imagination after all.

As I was about to leave the stable with light steps, I heard an unfamiliar voice from behind.

[Small human, so tiny.]

I stopped in my tracks at that voice. I slowly turned around.

[Won’t eat carrot from small human.]

It wasn’t my imagination. I ended up understanding what the horse was saying after all.

‘I really didn’t expect this.’

I trudged out of the stable.

‘Is this a good thing?’

Come to think of it, being able to understand animal speech wasn’t necessarily bad for me.

What worried me was why all the abilities that the male lead should have were coming to me.

‘The divine beast came to me, and now I can understand animal speech too.’

I hope this isn’t related to the male lead’s fate.

As I was deep in thought, I heard cheerful voices from somewhere.

“Young masteeer!”

A little distance away, Chrissy and Gezwil were each leading out a horse.

What was slightly different from usual was that they were wearing casual clothes instead of the knight uniforms they always wore.

“It’s Chrissy and Gezwil.”

When I called their names, they waved at me with broad grins.

‘They really do like having their names called.’

I was just going to greet them lightly and pass by, but they approached me first with big strides.

“Where are you two going?”

“Yes, we won’t be able to see you for a few days when we leave this time.”

“It will feel so empty not seeing you every day after seeing you daily. But I’m glad we got to see you before leaving.”

I frowned at Gezwil’s words.

“We weren’t seeing each other every day to begin with.”

“But we came to see you every time you came out for a walk, young master.”

Chrissy frowned deeply and tapped Gezwil’s shoulder. It seemed like he was asking why he would tell the young master such a thing.

At those words, my eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yes, you come out for a walk every day, don’t you? We also came in and out of the garden every day. By the way, Bart was the first one to start doing it.”

Gezwil, who had been rubbing his shoulder, answered honestly. I was a bit shocked. I had no idea someone was watching me when I went out for walks.

‘That’s totally stalker behavior…’

I narrowed my eyes. Next time I go for a walk, I should ask Yan to check if anyone is watching.

“We’ll be going now. It’s time. Please take care of yourself, young master, and don’t grow any taller until we return.”

‘That’s totally a curse.’

I glared at them briefly, but separately, I wondered how far they were going to have such a long farewell.

“Are you going far away for work?”

“Not too far. We’re going to find the young masters.”

“By young masters, you mean…”

“Yes, you probably haven’t seen them yet. We’re talking about the twin young masters. There are younger brothers than the eldest young master. When we bring them back this time, you’ll get to see the young masters too.”

I realized belatedly. Me understanding animal speech wasn’t the problem.

‘The twins are coming soon…’

[This is the timeline separator]

In a street crowded with people, there were two small figures walking leisurely through the throng.

Their postures were identical, holding a lollipop in one hand and the other hand in their pocket.

If they hadn’t pulled their hoods down so deeply, their identical faces might have caught others’ attention.

“A letter came to the dormitory.”

The boy on the left spoke in an indifferent tone. The boy on the right stopped in his tracks.

“From father?”

“Who else would send it?”

“Oh, damn.”

The boy on the right let out an annoyed sigh.

“That’s why I said we shouldn’t stay long, didn’t I? I said we’d be found out soon.”

“Who was it that happily followed along?”

“I didn’t know we’d stay this long!”

The boy on the left faced the complaining boy.

Their faces were identical as if a mirror had been placed between them. The sight of siblings so alike they could be mistaken for reflections was now familiar to each other.

“If you’re going to keep complaining, just go by yourself.”

“When did I complain? I’m just saying let’s not get caught, that’s all.”

The complaining boy focused on rolling the candy in his mouth again.

Soon, he crunched the candy, swallowed it, and pulled out another candy from his pocket to put in his mouth.

“I wonder if elder brother came too?”

“He probably did. Elder brother always goes straight home.”

The surroundings were so noisy that sounds echoed.

It was natural for people to gather and merchants to enthusiastically promote their goods at the market that had opened after a long time.

Among them, the voices of people exchanging interesting news with their companions were also quite loud.

“They must be somewhere around here…”

Noticing the unusual sound with their sharp senses, they suddenly stopped walking and looked at each other.

As if by agreement, they immediately rushed into different alleys.

Not long after, a large man emerged from among the crowd.

“See, I told you they’re not here. That bastard Gezwil, why does he have to be so stubborn about useless things.”

Hearing Chrissy’s muttering voice, the boy circled around the alley to return to his brother.

The brother who had arrived at the meeting place first was hiding close to the wall.

‘Shh.’

He seemed to have found something interesting. At Michael’s gesture, Daiban also carefully moved his steps.

“I’m telling you, I definitely saw it! The legendary medicine that they say grants eternal life if you eat it boiled!”

“Oh, come on! How can such a thing exist in this world? If something like that really existed, do you think people like us would have a chance?”

“Can’t we enter that auction house anyway?”

“Of course we can’t enter! But there’s a place near the auction house where they gather the items, and although knights guard the area, we might be able to take a look if we’re careful.”

“So what is this medicine you’re talking about that can grant eternal life?”

“It’s the white snake that’s only been passed down in legends!”

Their gazes met. Without needing to say who was first, the eyes of the two brothers sparkled.