I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 16

Flying Test

Amy gently touched the roodle’s stomach, at the base of its leg, where it had been injured.

The small feathers on its stomach were soft to the touch, their white colour making it look like cotton. There was a patch of skin that was visible through the feathers, where it had been injured. However small feathers were beginning to grow out of it now. 

Although the scar was now gone, Amy was still careful as she grazed over the area with the back of her hand. The bird gently nudged her hand with its beak as if to assure her that it didn’t hurt anymore.

“……I’m so glad that it’s alright now.”  

“It’s all thanks to you, Amy. It’s always good to heal injuries received from magical beasts as soon as possible. If you hadn’t healed it then, it might never have been able to fly again.”

“It’s because the roodle worked so hard to fly all the way back to the riding grounds. You did well, roodle.”

The roodle trilled happily at her praise. It looked like it really could understand what people said. 

“Ah, it also liked to be stroked here.”

“The forehead? Well then…… wah!”

She stroked it between its eyes as told. Her finger buried into the soft, light feathers. The roodle’s eyes closed in pleasure and it brought its face forward as if to ask her to pet it even more.

“Ah, so cute……!” 

“There are many birds who don’t like to be touched, but the roodle isn’t one of them.”

“I’m glad. Thanks to that, I can pet it like this as much as I want.”

She stroked the white owl with a blissful expression, the air around her warm from her content. The atmosphere around the two was sweeter than the smell of pancakes. It was Marvin who broke it by giving out a small cough before he began to speak.

“Your Highness, My Lady, I apologize for interrupting but we should get going soon…” 

“That’s right. They should be waiting for us there. Let’s go then.” The Prince replied.

Amy blushed bright red at Marvin’s apology – interrupting? Interrupting what!? – and followed behind them as they made arrangements for testing the roodle’s flight.

Today, a test flight was to be conducted to see if the roodle could return to being a messenger bird. 

Amy had visited the Palace a few times before today, to check up on the roodle, but she had always gone straight to the stables so she hadn’t seen Edward until today. The reason why they had finally seen each other today, after so long, was because the flight test had to be overseen by the Prince. 

Quite a lot of people had gathered today which included a number of court officials as well who had come to see the flight test. Amy was grateful that Marvin and the other people from the stable, who she’d gotten close to over the past few days, were there with her, otherwise she would have been flabbergasted at the number of people around her…… she felt like people were also paying close attention to her; it made her feel uncomfortable.   

“Are you ready?”

“Good luck, roodle. Derek is waiting on the other side so don’t worry, okay?”

She stroked the bird’s forehead once again while giving it some encouragement. She was sure she wouldn’t think any less of the roodle even if it couldn’t deliver letters anymore. However, although it could hunt for food by itself, it would be incredibly hard for it to return to nature since it had been bred by humans all its life. 

On top of that, it currently enjoyed official protection as a Royal messenger bird, and could fly long distances with sufficient consideration for its safety.  

It was possible that it could still live in the Palace as a pet, if its messenger status was stripped away. However, there would be no more chances of being able to fly freely over large distances. If it did fly away on its own and got lost, there was no guarantee that a search team would be deployed to look for it.

Edward climbed onto the prepared stage along with Marvin. There were two knights stationed on both sides of it.

One of them was Darius, the knight who had accompanied them when they’d rescued the roodle. He had a fierce looking face, but when he nodded at Amy in reassurance it managed to ease some of the worry in her heart. 

“We will now begin the flying test. The objective for the test is to reach the designated place and bring back a stamped letter within the given time. The time frame is 30 minutes, and the destination is the nearby Northland estate. Well then, we start — now!” 

As Marvin finished making the announcement, Edward shot his arm upward and the roodle perched on it opened up its wings into a wide span and took off. It flew up in the air and circled the air above them for a few seconds as if to show the small cylindrical letter holder attached to its leg. Then it took off into the sky, becoming smaller and smaller as it flew away into the distance. 

It’s movements didn’t show any sign of it ever being injured; people around them let out impressed mutters at this observation.

The destination, Northland estate, was…… Amy’s house. 

Edward had proposed it since it was the perfect distance for conducting the test, and also, once the bird memorised the route, they could send letters to each other. 

Letters!? Amy had thought in a panic but then she’d remembered that the Prince would start living in the dormitories from next year. She could think of it as writing letters to a friend she wouldn’t be able to see very often, and so she found there was no reason to refuse. 

In fact, thanks to this she was able to see the training procedure in person when they were teaching it the route. And when the roodle had come to their house yesterday, during rehearsal, it had stayed for a while and was able to play with Tiger. It was a very favourable result, she thought. 

Tiger had, at first, been surprised when the white owl suddenly appeared, but since he had already seen the bird at the Palace before he wasn’t scared. It turned out the two got along quite well.

Today, back at the Northland estate, their butler, Claude, an official from the palace, and the birds’ caretaker, Derek, were waiting for the roodle’s letter. Amy let out a sigh of relief as she saw it take off into the sky in confidence. 

Her eyes met Edward’s and she let out a smile. 

Today, the roodle will successfully complete the flying test and get it’s messenger status back. She was sure of it. 

The roodle would go on to deliver letters to Amy, not just at the Northland estate but even to the frontiers when Amy would go there to visit her grandfather.