I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 12

What they Found

The bird’s small cry mixed into the sound of rustling leaves didn’t last for long.

“Isn’t that….. a roodle?”  

“I did hear it had gone missing.”

Marvin replied to the Prince’s question as he recalled what he’d heard about it before. As soon as he finished speaking, a look of worry came over their faces. Amy, with her heart beating loudly in her chest, asked what a roodle was to find out it was a messenger bird being raised in the Royal Palace. 

“Their wings are strong enough to easily carry them to the sea from here. There is one in the Royal Palace. I ran into the caretaker this morning and he told me that it hadn’t come back yet.” Marvin told her.

“We should go take a look.” The Prince suggested.

The other two nodded in agreement, getting off the horses and making their way to the woods. A knight who had been following behind them at some distance also got off to join them. His name was Darius and, although it was a complete coincidence, he was the same knight who had been stationed with Amy during the tea party.

Darius was a strong man with a discerning eye and an alert manner… he was a large man full of muscles. However, though his outward appearance was scary, he always spoke politely and amiably. He was completely different from the inside which was apparent soon after meeting him.

Amy used to think that all Royal Knights were useless men who placed more importance on their appearance and status rather than their skills. But she immediately reflected on her thoughts and changed her mind once she met Darius. 

Edward would usually be accompanied by two Knights, but this time they had Marvin, who was quite skilled in fighting as well, so there was no need for extra security. Darius had accompanied them by himself while the second guard stayed behind with Isabel at the stables. 

Once they entered the woods Marvin told them to wait behind while he went ahead to check, however Edward raised an objection to the proposal.

“I’ll come with you. You’ll need the extra hand if the bird is injured. Besides, I also helped raising it. Amy, you should stay behind and wait for us.”

Edward had accidentally found the bird one day when he’d gone on a long ride on his horse. The little chick had seemed to have fallen out of its nest. He had taken it back to the castle and had raised it together with the caretaker. The bird had been raised to become a messenger bird. Although it was no longer a chick Edward still went to visit it at every opportunity. It was only natural that he would be worried about it now.

Edward motioned to Darius to stay behind with Amy. But this time it was Amy who refused.

“I-I also want to go. I know a bit of healing magic so I can help.”

The three men looked surprised at her declaration.

It was common for children to start learning magic at a young age. However, it required a great amount of training and stable magic power to be able to use magic properly, and this was something people usually learned after entering school. 

While it was common knowledge that Amy came from a lineage of powerful magic users, it shouldn’t have that much of an influence on her skills. No one would have guessed that she could use magic at her age, and even healing magic which was much more advanced than normal magic.

Marvin met her eyes with a serious expression.

“To think that a young lady can use magic at such a young age…”

“I once fixed my brother’s finger when he broke it, and I also healed a cut this big.” Amy held her fingers open to about 5-6 centimeters to show him. “I can at least do that much! Ah but I don’t know if it will be as effective on animals.” 

The act of healing is based on trust. So, in order to gain their trust, AMy felt like she had to explain herself properly. And so she continued, “ Ah but I didn’t heal it immediately. It took two days for the cut to heal, and for the bones to stick back together.”

Her family had decided that her healing magic would be tested before she could keep an animal in order to see if she can use it properly or not. RIght at the time when they were thinking of testing her, her brother came home strolling in nonchalantly with a scar on the edge of his right eye similar to the one in the otome game’s illustration. He also had two broken fingers on his left hand as a free add-on. 

They decided it was the perfect time for Amy to test her skills… as for her brother, he told them he got the injury by purposely riling up a magical beast to fight with. Their mother’s eyebrows had risen impressively high when she heard that. She made him kneel down as she scolded him, even while he was receiving the healing. Amy agreed with her mother; he needed to be more responsible.

Anyways, at the time of healing she had been so scared that if the wound left a scar he would look just like the character from the game, that she had used all of her magical energy in order to heal it. In the end, she managed to heal it perfectly with no scar. 

Marvin and Darius couldn’t believe their ears when they heard this. The wound from a magical beast was not like a normal sword wound. And yet Amy had been able to heal it without leaving any scars.

As for the bone fracture, the usual procedure for one was to use magic to reduce pain and speed up the natural healing process… but Amy had healed it completely. It looked like Amy wasn’t aware of it, but Darius and Marvin who had both received various injuries in their line of work could grasp her skill very well. There were only a few doctors even in the Capital who could perform the level of healing that Amy could do. 

Healing magic was generally used to amplify and accelerate the patient’s own natural healing. Using too much force during healing could be too excessive for the patient, and could backfire. 

Furthermore, while it was possible to use healing magic to remove poison or other substances from the body, it had its limits; reattaching something that had been broken or removed was not possible.

The effect of healing was higher for healers who were more familiar with the biological structure of the human body. Amy had considerable knowledge about the body thanks to her memories from her past life which meant that, as long as her magical energy was stable enough, she could use healing magic extremely effectively.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t familiar with the body of a bird. Besides, if the bird didn’t have any physical energy remaining then it would be very difficult to use healing magic on it.

Still, she couldn’t just stay behind and do nothing.

But, the men hesitated; it would be very impolite to have their guest – a young lady from a Count’s house at that – to traipse through the rough terrain of the woods. Marvin leaned down to meet Amy’s gaze, a troubled expression on his face.

“That’s very noble of you, young lady. But the woods have a rough undergrowth so it’s difficult to walk. And there are low hanging thorny branches. You might get injured in there.”

“I’m wearing boots, and I’m used to walking in rough terrain so I’ll be fine. Besides, even if it’s a little bit, it would be better to give it medical assistance as soon as possible.”

She lifted up her feet to show them the matching boots her mother had had made with the riding habit. Moreover, ever since she was little she had been playing in the fields of her father’s territory, or the mountains and seashore at the frontier in her grandfather’s territory. She was quite skilled in swimming, fishing and climbing mountains.

She would cling to her brother, making him take her along with him to these places, but now that she thought of it it was quite unusual for an aristocratic young lady in this world to do so. This was probably another effect of her family being transmigrators. 

Just then another piercing cry came from the trees. It sounded weaker than the one before. It was Edward who finally relented nodding at Amy’s worried expression.

“We don’t have much time. Let’s go with everyone. I’ll look after Amy.”

Saying so, he clasped Amy’s hand in his. Flustered, she looked up at him to see him smiling reassuringly back at her. Marvin also agreed.

“I will leave the young lady in your hands, Your Highness. Then, I’ll take the lead, Darius, you follow from behind.”

The roodle was one of the most efficient at delivery among all the delivery birds in the Palace. To be honest, Edward was grateful they had someone who could do healing magic with them. Both Marvin and Darius were trained in first aid, but it wasn’t as effective as magic when it came to healing.

Meanwhile, Amy was staring wide eyed at Edward, unable to hide her surprise at her hands being held by him.

“E-Ed? I can walk by myse_”

“If you don’t want to hold my hand then should I carry you instead?”

“What!?”

“Because it’s dangerous,” He said with a smile sending Amy’s heart beating in a different direction.

What is he saying! She thought, flustered. Yes, he was tall, but no matter how you looked at it, Amy was definitely too heavy for him to carry! 

Even though she gained weight on purpose she still felt a bit subconscious about her body. She felt like she would lose her dignity as a woman if he collapsed while carrying her in his arms.

Quickly, she snaked her fingers through his and tightly squeezed his hand. 

“Ah what a pity… oh well, hold tight so you don’t fall.”

Why was it a pity!? She wondered inwardly but pretended she hadn’t heard it. Instead, she tightened her hands around his to make sure she wouldn’t let go. 

She could feel Edward’s hand against hers even through the material of her gloves. Although his hand was smaller than her parents’ it was bigger than hers and completely enveloped hers. She felt nervous holding his hand but she didn’t have a choice; she didn’t want to be carried. So she kept telling herself it was okay and to not feel too conscious about it. However, she could still feel her palms beginning to sweat from the nervousness. 

They finally began walking towards the woods, sandwiched between Marvin and Darius. Marvin led them with assured steps as he paved their way towards the bird. He pushed behind branches and brambles to make way for them, following the cries of the roodel that could occasionally be heard. Amy was starting to feel a bit out of breath but she steadily walked on, her hand tightly clasped in Edward’s.  

They walked for a bit before MArvin came to a halt in a small clearing. The tree in front of them had black streaks of dried blood on it while the surroundings were littered with feathers. 

“It must be somewhere here.”

Edward released his hand for a moment and, taking off his gloves, brought his fingers to his mouth to release a sharp whistle. A small chirping sound came in reply from a thicket of bushes a few metres in front of them. 

Marvin cleared away the branches. In the bushes they found a large bird with white feathers lying in the thicket. One of its wings was dyed red with blood while the other was spread wide as it awkwardly tried to move. It looked like a white owl.

“Uwa, Hedwi_!?”

“Roodle!”

Amy quickly brought her hand to her mouth in a panic. She had seen a similar looking bird in a movie she was a big fan of in her previous life. It was based on a fantasy book series written by a certain person. Just now, she had accidentally almost called it by the bird’s name. But thankfully, the Prince had interrupted her and it seemed like no one had heard her.

She felt a horrified gasp escape her as she took in the pitiful state of the bird in front of them. It seemed to be weak, with one wing injured, but it was still trying to move. It was extremely dangerous for it to try to fly with its injuries. Marvin quickly shrugged out of his coat and draped it over the bird. It immediately stopped moving at that; it seemed like the bird became calmer once it couldn’t see anything.

“The blood is on the bottom of its torso, I think it’s bleeding from the legs.”

Marvin had wrapped the roodle in his jacket and picked it up. The other three came closer to inspect it.

Marvin deduced that it must have used up all of its power to fly from the place it received the injury all the way back to here. 

“It probably hurt its wing when it fell. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be broken.”

“I see, that’s fortunate… maybe I shouldn’t say that. Do you know what caused the injury?”

“It doesn’t look like a wound from a weapon. I can’t say for certain but it may be from a magical beast.”

They didn’t have any medical experience so they couldn’t be sure, but both Marvin and Darius had fought against magical beasts before so they were familiar with such wounds. 

“The flying route was not supposed to have any magical beasts on it. Darius, have you heard anything about it from the knights?” Edward asked with concern.

“We received a report last night that there was a huge gust of wind in the west. It’s possible that the bird was caught up in it.”

Marvin and Edward nodded at Darius’s words.

Amy found it impressive that the roodle had flown back all the way till here even with its injury. She didn’t really know what the cause was, and she didn’t care to find out, but she knew that there was one thing that had to be done.

“U-um, should I try healing it?”

“Oh right, please, go ahead. Be careful of its beak and claws. It usually doesn’t attack people but it seems to be very agitated right now.”

One had to touch the injured party directly when applying healing magic which was why she was told to be careful. Amy sat down on the ground and had the roodle, still wrapped in the jacket, placed on her knees. She was a bit surprised at how heavy it was.

“What a good boy you are. It must have hurt, huh… don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

She muttered gently to it while her hand slipped into a crack in the jacket, careful not to let it fall so as not to frighten the bird. Edward had also gone down to his knees next to her and watched her with worried eyes.

The roodle startled once Amy’s hand touched its body, but Edward placed his hand over the cloth covering it, and also muttered words of encouragement which seemed to calm it down once again. It must have recognised his voice.

The fluffy plume of the bird was different in texture, but the warmth she felt was very similar to Tiger’s. It’s feathers were matted in a few places, probably due to dried blood or mud from when it fell down. Amy’s heart tightened in pain every time her fingers brushed over these matted feathers.

It’s sharp nails had pierced through the cloth and were digging into Amy’s legs. It was painful, but not as painful as what the roodle must be feeling right now.

Amy took a deep breath and then sent a wave of magic through her hand.