Bluebird Lady and The White Lion Family

 

‘It’s so tall and sharp.’

 

The red brick spires were stacked on top of each other, with Edelweiss painted on them like street murals.

 

Sophina deftly pried open a window at the top of the clock tower and climbed inside.

 

The inside of the clock tower was intricate. It was also dirty, as if it hadn’t been well maintained.

 

Clocks littered the wooden floor, books gathered dust, and cheap paintings adorned the walls.

 

‘In the original story, the heroine clearly wakes up and says she’s in the clock tower, so there must be a passageway somewhere.’

 

The bluebird’s wings grew busier.

 “Twit!” 

In mystery novels, there’s usually a secret room. And it’s typically behind a picture frame, a bookcase, or a closet.

 

Sophina searched everywhere as if she were reading a mystery novel.

 

And finally…

 

‘Oh, my butt.’

 

She felt one of the walls shift and her weight fell forward, crushing her buttocks.

 

The hardness of the marble floor was felt. The tiny blue bird grunted and rolled onto its stomach, eyes rolling back in its head.

 “Twee-twit?” 

Sure enough, it seemed to have found a secret compartment. 

 

Sophina scrambled to her feet on her slender legs and looked around properly again.

 

‘The wall must be some kind of revolving door.’

 

She thought, looking at the opening that looked like the wall she had just passed through.

 

Taking a few more steps forward, she spotted a large door with a tangle of rose vines.

 

‘There’s writing!’

 

On the gate was a sentence in beautiful cursive.

 —  What color exists in this world but does not exist? 

‘Is this the prophecy from earlier?’

 

It was strange.

 

‘Did the informant know about this?’

 

I realized that this secret room was the place I had asked her to find. And that it would have a password like that.

 

‘If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean the informant has been here before?’

 

It was a pretty plausible deduction.

 

Alerted to the situation, Sophina pushed the door with both hands. But it didn’t budge. After wrestling with the door for a while, she came to a conclusion.

 

‘Are you asking me to guess the answer to that enigmatic prophecy?’

 

Blue!

 “Twit, Twee-twit!” 

Open up, sesame!

 

With a stern look on her face, she pointed one wing straight up at the door, but nothing happened.

 

Are you discriminating against my bird language?

 “Tweet, Twi–twit!” 

She replied, stuttering out each letter, but once again, the door didn’t budge.

 

Exasperated, Sophina kicked the doorknob on the door.

 

Suddenly, something like a podium rose up from the floor below.

 

‘What the heck?’

 

Without thinking, Sophina stepped on it and climbed up.

 

As she did, the red roses that lined the rim of the giant door turned blue.

 “Twit…” 

The door swung open.

 

Wow, was I supposed to put something on this blue pedestal, like an offering?

 

‘Is it a good thing I’m a bluebird…?’

 

Sophina flapped her wings in light reasoning, then cautiously stepped forward.

 

‘Anybody there?’

 

Her face, which had been filled with wariness, was now filled with surprise.

 

The bluebird’s beak opened of its own accord.

 

The secret chamber where so many precious things slept was nothing out of the ordinary.

 

It was like being in a well-kept garden, with freshly cut grass and bright sunshine that I didn’t know where it came from.

 

There were colorful, rare flowers and trees that enhanced the peaceful and mysterious atmosphere.

 

‘I never thought a secret place would be like this…’

 

Sophina explored every nook and cranny as if she were an explorer who had discovered the New World.

 

The secret space seemed to be divided into sections.

 

There was a section with all sorts of gold and silver treasures, another with a collection of unusual minerals, and another with rare plants.

 

Finally, there was a room where the sacred items were organized.

 

The abundance of stuff in all the areas made it hard to believe that the informant hadn’t touched it.

 

‘Why didn’t that bastard informant sweep everything up?’

 

The question loomed over her mind, but first, she scoured the area where the gods had gathered.

 

Then she used her telekinesis to grab something.

 “Twit!” 

It was the same one she’d seen in the original.

 

A pouch that could hold an infinite amount of anything. It was the same cute handbag that the original heroine carried.

 

I thought, ‘It’s amazing how much stuff can fit in that little bag.’

 

My first thought was to use it. How else would I get what I needed back to the mansion undetected?

 

I could only return to the clock tower later and return it.

 

‘I’m borrowing it, so it’s okay, right?’

 

I asked, feeling a bit guilty that I’d just been swept off my feet since they were originally found by the original heroine.

 “Tweet.” 

Sophina picked up the bag and entered the room filled with gold and silver treasures. Then she dived.

 

Where?

 

Into a pile of gold coins. A little money goes a long way in the beginning of a business.

 

There was so much of it that she wouldn’t even notice if she picked up some of it.

 

The smell of gold was invigorating. Sophina swam on the gold with the vigor of a fish.

 

The blue bird’s wings flapped excitedly as if they were fins.

 

‘Ah, I am drunk.’

 

Heheheh

, enjoying the moment, she slapped her forehead with her wings.

 

‘Wake up, you idiot!’

 

She bounced up and down, frantically rummaging through her stash.

 “Twi—twitweet!” 

She quickly found Thenedore, the ore that would contain power.

 

After collecting her share of precious stones, Sophina found herself standing in the center of the secret room.

 “Tweet?” 

‘What else is out here?’

 

A luxurious velvet case resting on a mossy rock. On top of it, divine sunlight shone.

 

‘In the novels, these things are so important.’

 

Sophina fiddled with the clasp on the case and undid it.

 

‘A pocket watch?’

 

It was a pocket watch. An old-fashioned design, the kind of thing you’d expect to see on a well-mustached gentleman.

 

‘Why does this look familiar?’

 

Sophina used her telekinesis to turn the watch over and over, examining it closely.

 

Soon, she saw the other side.

  

“Twee-twi-tweet!” 

It’s crazy. Sophina’s eyes widened even more with shock, and she let out a cry of disbelief.

 [The one thing that never changes, is memories.] 

A pocket watch with the same inscription as the one the Informant had made for her.

 

‘What the hell is going on?’

 

I was puzzled. Amidst the confusion, one thing was clear…

 

‘The informant knew it all along.’

 

The bluebird’s wings clenched into fists.

 

The muscles in her neck popped and crackled as she turned her head to stretch, feeling a little stiff.

 

Sophina stretched like a brutal street thug.

 

‘I’m going for the choke slam!’

 

She was planning an assassination. It’s too suspicious to be true.

 

For some reason, I felt like I’d been played for a fool by the informant.

 

Punching the air with her wings, Sophina was able to calm down after a while.

 

What exactly was this watch, anyway?

 

‘I don’t recognize it from the original, and some things I don’t.’

 

The memory was fuzzy. As if someone had splashed murky paint on my head.

 

As the feeling of walking in a fog began to creep in, I realized something strange.

 

But the watch the informant gave me was made from the gold string I originally had.

 

Sophina quickly examined the gold cord hanging from the newly discovered watch.

 

At the center of the string was a pearl-like, round, golden grain.

 

It was engraved with a picture of snow crystals. Like the first crystal snow I saw in this city.

 

And…

 

‘The gold cord I’ve had since I was a child, the one I entrusted to the informant this time, had this pattern.’

 

The bluebird’s feathers stood up at an angle.

 

A strange feeling came over me.

 

‘Was it just me?’

 

Or had the informant brought a similar-looking pocket watch to help me pick me out?

 

Sophina ruffled the plumage of a feather on its wings.

 

I felt like I had a rat in my hair.

 

‘Huh?’

 

At that moment, a strange memory appeared in my head like a hologram.

 

A woman with wheat-colored hair the color of a brilliant field in autumn, and green eyes as bright as the deepest green.

 

‘Is this the original heroine?’

 

That was the original heroine’s appearance.

 

And right next to her…

 

…stood Sophina, with her familiar light blue short hair and chestnut-colored eyes.

 

She’d grown a lot taller now that she was an adult,

 

‘Why do you two look so good together.’

 

They smiled and chatted about something. This vague, fragmentary scene was the end of my memory.

 

‘…What is this.’

 

Sophina dropped to the ground, sagging like a doll with a broken thread.

 

The tips of her wings fluttered.

 

Sophina twitched for a moment, perhaps in the aftermath of a strange memory, but soon she was nervously pondering.

 

She wondered if the pocket watch had something to do with it. 

 

‘I don’t have enough information about the watch.’

 

Sophina stroked her chin with her right wing and pondered.

 

It was true that the Informant had been helpful to her, bringing her tantalizingly advanced information and giving her the code to the door to the secret room.

 

The problem was, she couldn’t even guess at the intent of the favor.

 

Even when she gives her information, it seems fickle.

 

When she got back to the mansion, she’d have to scrutinize the informant.

 

‘Firstly, if I take too much time, they might realize I’ve left the hotel.’

 

Sophina put the watch back in its case, her pupils quivering.

 

As she did so, she caught sight of something else.