Chapter 53

*Rainelle’s POV

“Kkak?! (Aargh?!)”

“Rainelle, what are you so worried about?”

Ka, Karmeut?!

I looked up at Karmeut with my eyes wide open in surprise while he was squinting with his usual smile. I stared at those gentle smiling eyes in fascination, then suddenly I came to my senses.

Nope! I never thought that he was cool or sexy.

…argh! I did! How can I deny that his masculine sexiness seems to have been upgraded for some reason since he became the emperor?! Oh my God!

I fluttered my wings without realizing it, but Karmeut didn’t seem to be embarrassed. Rather, he was looking at me calmly with a faint smile.

Embarrassed by such a sight, I quickly folded my wings and pretended to be calm.

…I’m still a bit embarrassed. No, it’s not a bit.

“Uh, when did you get here?”

After changing into a human form, I pretended not to know anything and asked that. Karmeut then answered with a smile,

“Just now. You change into your human form, do you want to say something?”

“Yes! Karmeut, I want to eat cake!”

“…cake?”

I said this unintentionally to get out of the embarrassing situation, but I really, really wanted to eat it.

The cake from my dream looked so delicious!

Furthermore, since becoming a crow, I have never touched a cake with my mouth, or my beak.

Ah, thinking about it again makes me want to eat more!

“Yeah! I only ate cookies, but I didn’t eat cake. You know, that thing. With strawberry on top of the white cream! I want to eat that!!”

“Cake… will it be okay? Humans are fine, but crows…”

“I can turn into a human and eat it. So, please? I want to eat it. I had a cake in my dream, but I woke up without eating a bite.”

Karmeut chuckled as I grumbled. …It was then that I realized how childish what I was doing now.

OMG! What is this?! Oh, did my intelligence deteriorates when I became a real bird?! Oh my god, my intelligence is degenerating! It degenerated!! Why am I a bird?!!

…Um, but crows are highly intelligent. —But even if that is so, their intelligence is still inferior to humans! Argh!!

“Okay, I’ll give you a cake.”

I blinked my eyes at the soft and smooth touch that lightly descended on my forehead. When I realized what it was, I stepped back in a hurry.

A kiss on my forehead?! Seriously! How can you do that so suddenly?!

“Ka, Karmeut!!”

“What is it, Rainelle?”

Karmeut, who actually kissed me, was so sly.

What is it? What’s wrong?

As he asked me that, I covered my forehead and groaned.

Is this him seducing me? Why is he coming at me like this all of a sudden?! I want to question him, but seeing that face makes me doesn’t want to argue! Oh, really! Is it because his face is such a cheat?!

“It sounds like that strawberry whipped cream cake came out in your dream. Would you like to try something else? There are many kinds of cakes.”

“…really?”

“Of course. But I don’t know if chocolate is good for you or not. I’ll ask Myrdin-nim later, so let’s just eat a whipped cream cake. Okay?”

It sounded like he was comforting a child, but it didn’t make me feel so bad.

Is it because the person speaking is Karmeut? Well, maybe.

Hm… caffeine was originally an ingredient made by plants to fight insects. So most animals can get sick if they eat it wrong. There is caffeine in chocolate. I should be careful.

“Yeah, okay… —but if it’s okay, can I eat chocolate?”

“Of course. I’ll give you a lot,”

He whispered the “if you want,” part while grabbing a handful of my hair and kissing it, which made my face heat up.

As I fanned my face with my hand, Karmeut smiled a little and ordered the servant to bring a cake. Then he hugged me from behind and whispered,

“Do you want to eat in human form or crow form?”

“Um, I wanted to try in crow form!”

I said that as if screaming as I felt the warm body temperature and firm body on my back. My face burned. Then I immediately returned to being a crow.

Hah, hah. This kind of contact is harmful to the heart! Hoo haa! Take a deep breath! Calm down, calm down!

I flew around Karmeut’s head once and then landed on his shoulder. I enjoyed his hand caressing my wings as I put my eyes elsewhere.

Trying to ignore the sadness in his golden eyes, I playfully touched Karmeut’s hand with my beak. Then I let out a pleased cry when his index finger gently stroked the tip of my beak.

Ah, again–

*knock, knock*

Oh, knocking! Is the cake here?

Suppressing my pounding heart with anticipation, I flew over to the perch. I stared with excitement as the servant served plate after plate containing various pieces of cake from the tray.

“Come on, Rainelle. Come here. Don’t you want to eat?”

Of course I do!

Then I flew to the table while cawing.

Whoa, whoa, whoa… Beautiful! No, I’m not lying, these are really pretty!! It’s such a waste to be eaten!

Was it because it was a dessert made for the emperor? Even though it was a piece of whipped cream cake, the decoration was really beautiful. It was almost too good to eat, so I hesitated and couldn’t reach out my beak, but Karmeut’s hand moved.

“Caaw?! (Ahh?!)”

“Kh…(laugh) Rainelle, you can eat it without regret. You wanted to eat it, right?”

“Caaw!! (But you can’t do this!!)”

You can’t just put cream on my beak! A dog or cat will lick it, but not a bird! Woo! Furthermore, it’s sticky! Aah!!

I whined and began to look around to clean my beak. I can’t rub my beak anywhere. And I don’t want to clean it with my feathers.

Oh! There’s a napkin there! Alright, I’ll wipe it off with it.

I bit the napkin with my beak and pulled it to me. Then I rubbed my beak over it, wiping the cream off.

Ok, it’s hard If you don’t do it by hand, but it is cleaner.

…oh! By the way, my cake!

I turned my head to look at my share of the cake and saw that a clump of cream had fallen off.

uh uh uh…

My cake!

Feeling a sense of injustice in the world, I opened my beak and closed it.

Ugh, ahhh… The rose decorations made from fresh cream…!!

I turned to Karmeut, but he was just smiling. Haa… Well, looking at Karmeut doesn’t mean that the cake will return to its original state. Huu… my cake…

With a half-falling heart, I clamped the strawberry on the cake with my beak and swallowed it. It was quite large and it was difficult to swallow it at once, but I thought of it as Karmeut and chewed it with my beak, so it went well!

The enemy of my cake! You ruined the decoration!!

…but the strawberries are delicious! It’s sweet! Oh! Refreshingly delicious!! It’s the best strawberry I’ve ever eaten!

Was it because it was the strawberry the emperor would eat? The strawberries were very tasty.

Oh wow…

Well, how about the cake?!

I grabbed the tip of the cake with my beak, bit it, lifted my head, and finally swallowed it.

Uu, it’s fluffy! Sweet! But not too sweet! Wow! Tasty! Really delicious!!

Seriously, it was the best cake I’ve ever eaten. So without realizing it, I started to eat the rest of the cake in a rush.

Delicious! Really delicious!

It wasn’t easy to eat the cake with a crow’s beak, but I did my best to shove it into my beak.

Oh, how could I have thought of not eating this delicious thing because of decorations?! Not eating it is the real waste!!

I was trying to eat as much as possible, even the cream on the plate, when suddenly my body was lifted.

“Caaw? (Karmeut?)”

“Eat slowly. Your feathers are all covered in cream.”

Hearing that, I looked at my body while Karmeut wiped my feathers with a wet towel.

Huh? It’s true! Did I eat like that? Whoops!

I rubbed my beak at the towel. Karmeut pulled the towel away just after my face and wings had been wiped cleanly.

I came to my senses and shook my head. It was good to be wiped clean, but now the feathers got damp. Haa.

I tidied the damp feathers with my beak. It was almost a reflex action. When I pulled a feather slightly, I felt a tap on my beak.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to eat cake as a crow?”

…well, I hate to admit it, but yes. I can’t eat a lot, and I can’t eat it neatly either…

When I nodded, Karmeut said with a somewhat satisfied smile,

“So, just change into human and eat, okay?”

…Is it just an illusion that his smile seemed to be filled with self-interest? But because I want to eat cake…

After moving to the seat next to Karmeut, I changed into my human form. I sat down on the soft and comfortable sofa and looked at the plates with cakes.

Let’s see, let’s see… since I ate strawberry cake earlier, this time… The one with a lot of bananas on it!

I picked up the plate and grabbed a fork that was placed nearby. Then, with the fork, I cut a small piece and put it in my mouth.

Sweet! It’s the sweetness of banana! The soft cake, the smooth banana-flavored cream, and the soft banana fruit are hitting my mouth all at once, this is heaven!

Because crows have small beaks, we couldn’t put all the cake in at once.

This way of eating makes them even tastier! Ah, from now on, I will only eat cakes in human form!

A smile burst out of my happy heart.

Oh, it’s delicious! Let’s try some more! Oh, and I will visit Myrdin to ask if I can eat chocolate. It’s a loss to not eat chocolate cake, right?!

“…is it that good?”

“Yeah! It’s delicious!! I’d like to ask Myrdin-nim if I can eat chocolate. I think the chocolate cake would be delicious too!”

When I answered with a smile, Karmeut’s smile deepened.

No, this is not what was important now! Cake! Hah, it’s already half gone… There are many other cakes, but there’s only half left of this cake. Let’s save a little…

I turned my head at the sudden soft touch on my lips. —There, Karmeut was smiling while licking his lips,

“Hm, it’s delicious.”

“What, what, what—! Ka, Karmeut! There are a lot of cakes here!”

“That’s true, but… there’s something else that looks the most delicious.”

The way he looked at me while saying that was literally overflowing with color.

Wh, when a real handsome guy like Karmeut looks at me like that…!!!

“Oh no! There’s only half of this cake left!”

I slipped to the side while making excuses by using the cake. Then, with an exaggeratedly sad expression on his face, Karmeut approached me as much as I had withdrawn.

“If you want to eat cake, I’ll bring you as many as you want. I didn’t know what you might like, so I asked them to bring one of everything. So, you know…?”

As he smiled with a colorful smile, he clenched his fists and his face was filled with enthusiasm. I had to make a decision quickly as Karmeut slowly approached to repeat what he had done before.

No! I think my heart is going to explode like this! Ah, that’s right! You said it looked delicious, so I’ll give it to you!

“Oh, okay, here! Here!!”

With the large fork, I scooped up the cake and thrust it to Karmeut’s mouth. The golden eyes widened a little, and then they curved,

“-Hmm. It’s delicious. It’s even more delicious because Rainelle fed it to me.”

It was only when Karmeut smiled that I realized what I had done.

Hah, did I just feed him?!

I was flustered and at a loss, but Karmeut muttered as if he was regretful,

“But— I think it’s less delicious than before.”

“Uh, really? But what you eat is the same as before, right?”

“Hmm… really?”

As he tilted his head, his eyes moved to the cake. I was relieved at that sight.

I gave Karmeut a bite… but there’s still a lot left, so I’m going to eat it!

While unconsciously smiling, I picked up the cake with the fork and shoved it into my mouth.

Huh-huh-huh, it’s delicious!

The next moment, my body leaned to one side.

Uh oh,

A soft touch touched my lips before I could even say anything.

“…!!”

I froze at the warm, slippery thing that licked my lips. I could not lift a finger at the act of gently licking the cream on my lips. It was as if a puppy was licking me affectionately.

The body scent that I felt at the tip of my nose and the golden eyes that were visible to be so close felt like a trap. His tongue, which licked my lips while he was staring at me as if he was about to swallow me, gradually gave a push.

The inside of my head turned white as my waist was hugged and his tongue crept between my lips. As if not to make me alarmed, he slowly interlocked his fingers with mine.

“Ha…”

Astonished, I closed my mouth shut, and Karmeut pulled his lips off mine as if he had no intention of forcing me. I exhaled a breath that I had been holding back while looking at his face.

The Emperor, with a seductive smile, kissed my cheek briefly and whispered,

“As expected, this one tastes better.”

As he whispered the “So can I have a little more?” part while holding my waist, I can feel the heat rushing to my face as if I was about to explode, so I had no choice but to close my eyes.