Bluebird Lady and The White Lion Family Chapter 50

 

Unfortunately for the man, Ricardo was alive.

 

He had used his physical prowess to escape downstream in search of Sophina.

 

The only problem was…

 

‘Crap.’

 

Ricardo swore fiercely as he flipped his soaking-wet white hair back haphazardly. He was okay, but Sophina wasn’t.

 

Ricardo’s eyes caught sight of Sophina, badly injured, dehumanized, and passed out in the form of a bluebird.

 

The cave was cozy, at least temporarily.

 

A fire had been built to keep them warm, but the bluebird lay motionless, dead and pale as a fly.

 

Ricardo put his hand to the tip of her beak.

 

He could barely feel the bird’s breath, the liquid that had clung to her when he’d carried her to the cave.

 

‘What?’

 

Ricardo’s eyes narrowed. He put his hand to the feather near the bluebird’s heart.

 

He massaged it gently, but Sophina remained limp and unresponsive.

 

‘No way…’

 

It couldn’t be irreversibly bad. Ricardo’s blue eyes flickered with agitation.

 

They had once sparkled so brightly, but they had lost their brilliance.

 

‘I wonder if this will work…’

 

Ricardo swallowed dryly, as if determined. The slightly protruding hump of his throat twitched.

 

He covered the little bluebird’s body with his palm. Then he shifted his talithe.

 

A fresh energy, like the moon at dawn, began to fill the cave.

 

Along with it, the mark on Ricardo’s right hand glowed brilliantly.

 

The markings on Sophina’s wing feathers began to glow in response, slowly spreading a pure white light.

 

And so Ricardo’s talithe flowed into Sophina’s.

 

For ten minutes. The life force flowed in full force. The thumping of her heart echoed in his ears.

 

The bluebird’s feathers, which had been soaking wet, gradually dried to a fluffy plumage.

 

The talithe, which had dried up, was flowing again.

 

Ricardo’s face, on the other hand, grew gaunt. Like a man who has lost his vitality. His long, white eyelashes fluttered pitifully.

 

It was dangerous to deal with Talithe.

 

Not in small doses, as Sophina had spilled on the Clyde, but in full force.

 

He had reached his breaking point. Ricardo closed his eyes tightly and racked his brain.

 

‘I’ve built a fire, so they’ll see the smoke.’

 

Just then, in the distance, he saw the familiar sounds of his family.

 

Ricardo’s relieved expression barely reached Sophina’s lips before he whispered.

 

“With this, my lady, the price of my life is paid.”

 

The rest was darkness.

 

🐾

 

It was ten days before Sophina awoke.

 

She opened her eyes and saw a familiar ceiling. It was the interior of her room before she and Ricardo shared a room, now used as her office.

 

Somehow it seemed she’d been carried to Chadwick House.

 

‘What happened?’ 

 

All I remember is that the ground cracked, I fell into a ravine, and I saw Ricardo in the water. I don’t remember anything after that.

 

‘My body seems to be in good shape.’

 

Despite the water, I felt clear-headed. I felt different than usual.

 

‘Smells good.’

 

The smell was familiar as if she had smelled it before.

 

‘What happened to Ricardo?’

 

She kicked off the covers first.

 

‘Why isn’t he here?’

 

Sophina’s hazel eyes darted around in confusion.

 

“Twit?”

 

Only then did she realize that she was in the form of a bluebird.

 

For some reason, the quilt seemed too big. While she wrestled with the quilt for a moment, the door opened.

 

It was Jane who came through the door.

 

“How are you feeling, little lady?”

 

“Twee-tweet twit!”

 

Wait a minute. 

 

Sophina swooped away and headed for her dressing room.

 

Jane opened the door for her, and she pulled out her clothes and placed them on the dressing table.

 

The door to the closet slammed shut, and Sophina humanized.

 

She glanced at herself in the mirror and let out a short gasp of surprise.

 

“…Hmm?”

 

For some reason, the black spots on her forearms seemed to have changed color. More precisely, it seemed to have a faint glow.

 

‘It’s a weird feeling, but that’s not the point.’

 

Sophina brushed herself off and turned back to Jane.

 

“Jane, what about Ricardo?”

 

“…He, um, he hasn’t woken up yet.”

 

That answer convinced Sophina.

 

It was Ricardo, after all, who had held her hand when she was swept away.

 

“So did Ricardo fall in with me?

 

As she pondered, Sophina’s expression sank deeper into the depths of the ocean.

 

Jane clasped her hands into fists in comfort.

 

“He’ll wake up soon!”

 

“Where’s Ricardo?”

 

Sophina said, looking Jane straight in the eye.

 

Jane hesitated a bit, and then answered in an agitated tone.

 

“…He’s in his old room, not the new one. Do you want to go there?”

 

“Yes. You don’t have to come with me, Jane, I can go alone.”

 

Sophina walked away, her steps brisk and steady.

 

After a long hallway, she turned a corner and saw Ricardo’s bedroom.

 

Taking another deep breath, she took a step forward, then abruptly stopped and took a backward step.

 

Her mother and the white-coated doctor were talking at the far end.

 

She ducked behind a large pillar and stifled a gasp. It was an instinctive move.

 

Her mother and the doctor looked like they were having a serious conversation.

 

Fortunately or not, Khan’s attention had been elsewhere, and she didn’t seem to have noticed Sophina’s movements yet.

 

Sophina pricked up her ears. Her acute bluebird hearing allowed her to pick up the faintest of sounds.

 

First, her mother’s husky voice reached her ears.

 

“Why is she so out of it?”

 

“It seems that the Talithe within Thanato has been released.”

 

Talithe?

 

Sophina scratched her head. She wondered if her mother had thought the same thing.

 

“Talithe?”

 

The doctor then calmly explained, “The little lady also suffered from a high fever for about ten days. It’s a process she goes through when someone else’s talithe seeps in and fuses with hers.”

 

“That means—”

 

“It seems that the young Lord infused the Little Lady with his own Talithe.

 

Khan furrowed his brow and asked, “Is that possible?”

 

She had never heard of someone healing another by infusing them with Talithe.

 

Talithe was an individual’s life force.

 

It was impossible to fuse. If it could happen in the first place, no one would ever die.

 

“Perhaps it was the match between the talithes. Normally, other people’s Talithes are not absorbable.”

 

“That’s mysterious. Even the talithe shared in the Thanato pact is usually quickly lost.”

 

What? Does that mean Ricardo saved my life?

 

But that wasn’t the end of the surprise.

 

The doctor pressed his hand to his forehead as if he were suffering from a headache and added grimly, “Furthermore, the young Lord has decided that the little lady might not be able to survive.”

 

“Moreover, the younf lord himself jumped into the ravine to save the little lady.”

 

“Wait a minute. So when do you think she’ll be able to wake up?”

 

Mother, who had been listening, interrupted the sudden change.

 

Then, as if sensing something, she glanced in the direction of where Sophina was standing.

 

But the doctor’s next words stopped her in her tracks, “It’s the life force, and it builds up slowly, so with proper care, you’ll be back to full strength in no time.”

 

“That’s right. Better soon.”

 

Khan repeated with conviction as if reassuring someone.

 

Sophina’s face contorted indescribably as she listened.

 

After a brief conversation, she went into Ricardo’s room. Behind the pillar, Sophina heard the whole story, and she muttered under her breath.

 

“I must have hurt him…”

 

She leaned her weight against the pillar, her legs barely supporting her, and her eyes fluttered agitatedly between shutters.

 

Her fingertips felt so numb against the cold wall.

 

‘I was just, really sorry.’

 

For Ricardo, for my mother, for everyone. I felt like a burden.

 

‘An omen. My sister used to say I was an omen, bringing bad luck.’

 

Maybe she’s right, I thought, and my mind raced.

 

Perhaps this place would hate me too. Humans are selfish, and I am worried about that even in this situation.

 

‘Perhaps it would be better if I were to be cast out now.’

 

Sophina bit her lip nervously.

 

My mother and the doctor came out to check on Ricardo.

 

He didn’t say goodbye, just stared at Mother’s disappearing figure as it turned into a dot.

 

Sophina took one cautious step after another, grabbed the doorknob, and turned it.

 

Ricardo, sleeping as if dead, hung at the edge of her vision. He had no strength left to humanize himself and had transformed into the form of a lion.

 

A large, pure white lion.

 

It was the first time Ricardo had ever taken an animalized form.

 

No more words came out of his lips.

 

The air in the room seemed to weigh differently.

 

Under its heavy pressure, Sophina blinked wistfully, as if she were about to burst into tears.

 

She plopped down on the small chair next to the bed and apologized softly.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Ricardo didn’t even react to the words. Sophina’s gaze swept over his pale face.

 

His white fur had lost its luster, his pink nose slightly swollen, his eyebrows still dense and long.

 

Then she noticed something strange.

 

‘What is it?’

 

A small note on Ricardo’s bedside table.

 

Sophina timidly opened the note and read it carefully.

 

【Ricardo will get better soon.

It’s not your fault, and you shouldn’t feel sorry for him. If anything, I’m more sorry that I couldn’t protect you like a grown-up, sweetheart.】

 

Khan’s warm words were comforting and heartwarming.

 

Sophina’s chestnut-colored eyes grew moist as she busily traced the lettering.

 

She reflexively lifted her head and batted her eyelashes.

 

Tears threatened to fall at any moment.

 

‘I’m so, so sorry.’

 

Sophina whispered, folding the note and stuffing it into her pocket.

 

For now, she would do what she could until Ricardo woke up.

 

After that, she nursed Ricardo in silence, knowing she had to be helpful. Hard enough to convince others to rest when they should have been tired.

 

One afternoon, she went in and out of Ricardo’s room as usual.

 

‘Huh? Is there such a thing?’

 

Something caught my eye that I hadn’t noticed before because I hadn’t been paying attention.

 

A picture frame on the bedside table.

 

Was this a childhood portrait?

 

In the portrait was a white lion with a pink nose.

 

‘It looks like a cat.’

 

A cat?

 

I suddenly remembered Ricardo’s words.

 

— “Four years ago, didn’t you rescue a lion from a forest of fallen leaves?”