Ever since her injury, Odilia had been self-healing the wound using magic. However, since she was less experienced as compared to Erwin who could heal a wound with a flick of his wrist, Odilia assumed a nasty scar would remain across her right shoulder blade. Additionally, although the healing would be weeks shorter than the natural process, it was slow and gave Odilia aching pains throughout her body. She hadn’t been in her bird form for as long as she had been the past few days, so she was very unhappy with the current situation.

Two days and two nights have passed since Merlin had brought her inside the palace. Odilia had learned some things while there. Mostly bad things like the prince discovering her lake.

Merlin returned to the lounge that evening carrying a wooden bowl of boiled fish. It was set before Odilia on the couch before he took off his overcoat and settled on the couch across from her. He had a bound journal, not much bigger than his whole hand and he opened it as soon as he was settled with his back resting against the pillows.

Merlin was tapping the pen against an open page which was already half filled. Brow furrowed and eyes narrow, his gray irises scrolling from top to bottom with rapid speed. However, he stayed on the same page for a long time as if he were reading the same lines twice or three times over.

He was handsome, this man. The ends of his milk-tea colored hair curled at the edges of his sculpted jaw. Merlin bit his lower lip and it defined his singular dimple on his right cheek. Odilia had to agree, thinking back to Emiko, that he was the sort of man any woman would cry for. Not that it made it any easier to forgive Merlin for making Emiko cry. Or so Odilia thought to herself afterwards.

As if sensing her gaze, Merlin glanced up and made eye-contact with Odilia. Odilia reflexively turned away, but then realized the action might have revealed how embarrassed she was for being caught. So then Odilia turned to keep looking back at Merlin, finding herself lost in his storm-colored eyes.

Merlin broke his gaze first, shaking his head and mumbling something Odilia couldn’t understand, before resuming whatever task he was attempting with his journal. For some reason, this annoyed Odilia, and she made an audible protest in the form of a bird’s cry before she could stop herself.

Merlin looked up, smiling when his eyes landed on Odilia once more. Odilia, in her embarrassment, thought that she might be blushing.

Merlin tilted his head to the side, watching her. Odilia bristled beneath his stare, heart pounding and shivering from the surprising bit of ecstasy she felt from being close to this man. She felt stupid. Like a fool, Odilia recognized her longing for this man’s attention.

Merlin had spoken to Odilia many times before when they were alone together and she was a bird, so it was to no surprise when he opened his mouth and said, “Do you know something?”

Not being able to reply back in human tongue, Odilia blinked.

Merlin continued, “Your eyes, they’re just like Odilia’s.”

Odilia’s heart was like a race-horse.

Merlin ran a hand down his face and stroked his jaw as his eyes unfocused away from Odilia. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since Saihi’s banquet…” He looked tired, and his silence was louder than his words when he stood and began to pace.

After a couple paces, Merlin stopped in front of Odilia and looked at her with sincerity. “Would it be weird if I were to go check up on her? I think she’s at home now.”

Then he commenced pacing again and stopped in front of Odilia once more. “Unless… she’s not with her father but still with Emiko-” His pace quickened. “In which case it might be awkward if I were to come.” He chuckled to himself. “No, perhaps visiting her home is more awkward.”

After that he grew silent again before declaring, “I must be mad,” as he shoved on his overcoat and left the room without a glance back at the bird who witnessed it all.

Merlin’s actions might have been a positive concern for a normal person, but Odilia assumed no thoughts to what it might mean for a man such as he to be looking for her. Instead she thought about how she should escape the room in which she had spent two nights and two days, and looked back at the journal which Merlin had left on the table. Her curiosity swelled.

Odilia’s health was getting much better. And despite her grouchy perspective on the matter, it might be fully healed enough to move her wing after a day in which she should fly again. This meant that if Odilia were to transform into her human form she could move without bringing unwanted attention to herself.

The young witch thought to momentarily transform back so that she could see what was written in Merlin’s journal. She’d already begun to gather her magic to her core. It began to swell in the center of her belly, ready to burst-

The door to the lounge flew open. Alarmed, Odilia looked up, thinking that Merlin might have returned, or the prince was back to his mischievous ways. However, it was her surprise to see two women instead.

One was tall and built like a slab of board beneath her lilac colored kimono. Her dark hair was piled up into an elaborate coif and pinned with a golden comb. Her painted lips were puckered as if she’d tasted something sour and her thin, narrow brows were slanted into a scowl.

The other woman was a head shoulder, hair fanned out in the back of her head with a green ornament that matched her kimono. The two women walked into the room and scanned the area like watch-dogs. Then they made way to all the objects placed around the room and began rummaging through them.

Odilia was appalled at seeing these women enter the prince’s lounge so blatantly. Were there no guards outside the door? Odilia wondered this as she observed the intruders. They looked so familiar–

She soon recognized the women as they trotted across the floor in front of Odilia as if they owned the place. They were the two ladies who’d accompanied the empress at the prince’s birthday banquet! So that meant they must be the prince’s cousins, Lady Hanan and Lady Katsumi. Odilia couldn’t remember which name belonged to which woman.

“Hanan, there’s nothing here!” whined the shorter one, so Odilia assumed the taller must be Lady Hanan and the shorter, Lady Katsumi.

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“There has to be something!” Lady Katsumi was rummaging through a bookcase, discarding any ones that she’d pulled from the shelf to the floor behind her. They were making a mess for women who were snooping around in the prince’s private space.

Lady Hanan joined her sister at the bookshelf which took up more than half the entire wall. “This room is as bland as his personality,” grumbled the lady as she threw down book after book. Thunk, thunk, thunk.

Odilia cringed as some books landed with its pages open to the floor. Books were precious as living records of history and these women were damaging them!

Thunk. A book flew too far back and hit the corner of the coffee table. Lady Katsumi was still preoccupied, but Lady Hanan looked up and over to the table. She noticed the journal, which they’d overlooked when they’d first entered the room.

“Sister, I think I’ve found something,” said Lady Hanan, a wicked smile crawling upon her face as she picked up the tiny journal and forced the clasp to open.

“What?” Lady Katsumi dropped the current book she was holding and trailed over to where Lady Hanan stood. They both peered down at the pages of the journal. Lady Hanan flipped the page. Then another, and another, and she kept flipping through them in rapid speed, her face growing red with each page until she landed upon the last one.

She threw down the journal onto the table. “What atrocity is this!?” she huffed, making Odilia jump from where she was seated. She was mad at the women for violating Merlin’s privacy, but she remained still as her curiosity overwhelmed her concern. What exactly was written in that journal?

Lady Katsumi looked almost as displeased as her sister. “How dare our prince think he could rule,” she said. “He’s as bland as unseasoned tofu.”

Lady Hanan had folded her arms and was glaring down at the floor. She looked up, staring at nothing in particular across from her as she sniffed like she’d just faced the greatest offense. “If we can’t find anything, we make one,” she decided.

“Like what?” Lady Katsumi replied.

“Our cousin is a playboy, is he not?” said Lady Hanan. “I’m sure all who have been in his presence know his flirtatious personality and flamboyant nature.”

“So?” Lady Katsumi hand on hand on her hips.

“Sister, the answer couldn’t be more obvious!” laughed Lady Hanan. “A woman shall come to the queen claiming to bear the prince’s son! We shall have it take place during the ball in front of all the guests and courtiers!” Lady Hanan was smirking now, a glint in her dark eyes glimmered like that of a snake. “Imagine the humiliation! Even if they find it is not true, the rumors would be hard to be rid of. No princess that the empress invites would want Saihi as their husband afterwards.”

“Oho,” Lady Katsumi grinned with her sister. “And if Saihi can’t marry…”

“He cannot inherit the throne,” finished Lady Hanan. “And we will become candidates to the throne’s duties until the prince is deemed ‘fit’ to rule. However, once given the power, the two of us shall keep it for ourselves and we will rule as the empresses of Kuroba.”

“Ah, sister, I understand,” said Lady Katsumi as she stroked the swirling patterns of her kimono sleeve. “But where shall we find a pregnant lady that would be willing to tarnish the reputation of the prince?”

“Katsumi, I’m sure you are aware of the brothel in the capital. With enough money, a prostitute may be willing to sell herself out for the cause. What do you think?”

“I am thinking how intelligent we must be, sister,” said Lady Katusmi. “Our reign will be great!”

Odilia shuddered in horror. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard! Merlin and the prince must know, though Odilia couldn’t think how she’d come to tell them. Even if she approached them as a human, she wouldn’t be able to tell them what she’d heard without revealing how she’d come to hear it, ultimately exposing that she was the black Steller’s sea eagle they’d brought into their lounge. And of course that too would reveal Odilia’s biggest secret, that she was a witch.

Odilia thought to herself that if she could fly, she would sour over the two wicked women’s heads and peck out their eyes. But she knew even then, that for harming the royal family, she’d be executed, put down like the wild animal she currently looked like.

The two women began to walk towards the door. There was a bell by the door that was connected to a string which the prince and Merlin used multiple times to call for a maid. Lady Katsumi took it and rang it loud and clear. Within moments, a knock came on the door.

“Enter now!” called Lady Hanan’s shrewd voice.

A young maid; she couldn’t be more than sixteen years old, opened the door, and stood before the evil women. The maid looked about hesitatingly, noticing the lack of guards and the two women occupying the room. However, because the women were royalty and the prince’s cousins, she had to obey and so stepped through the archway into the room.

“I,I’m at your service, your highnesses,” the maid bowed. Her trembling hands, one folded on top of the other, clutched the apron of her dress.

“This room is filthy,” said Lady Hanan. “This is unacceptable for when his highness returns. Clean it.”

“Yes…” the maid bowed once more before she made her way to the other side of the room where the bookshelf had been left in a disorderly state.

The prince’s cousins left the room without another word. Odilia thought to herself that although the two sisters had evil intentions to usurp the throne, they were intelligent. They’d even had enough sense to have the room they’d destroyed be cleaned, although Odilia couldn’t give them much credit, considering the maid was now a witness to their intrusion.

Suddenly, the door to the prince’s lounge flew open, hitting against the bell by its side and making it rattle. A squad of guards filled the room, pointing rifles at the person they’d detected in the room. It startled the poor maid who was still organizing the books that she dropped the particularly heavy looking one on her foot. Although she wore shoes, the impact of the book on her foot must have hurt since she audibly winced.

“Ahhh! Thief!” Odilia’s eyes widened as Lady Hanan and Lady Katsumi re-entered the room behind the guards. Lady Katsumi had one hand to her mouth and was pointing a trembling finger at the frightened maid.

“Oh, dear,” said Lady Katsumi. “When I heard such great noise, I didn’t think-” She made a show of choking on her words and swooned. “I didn’t think there’d be a thief in the prince’s lounge of all places!”

“Take her away!” cried Lady Hanan. “I can no longer watch as those filthy hands touch his highnesses belongings!”

The guards rushed forwards and grabbed the poor girl by the arms.

“Wait!” cried the maid. “This wasn’t- I was just-” The maid craned her neck towards the prince’s cousins pleadingly. However, when the maid saw the smirks that the women wore behind their pale hands and cold, uncaring eyes, the girl understood. She’d been played. The maid went limp in the arms of the guards. “I really didn’t do it…” she wept as they dragged her away.

Odilia watched this in horror as the procession of guards left with the innocent maid. And those cousins of the prince also left, clutching each other like they might still fall over from shock.

Odilia felt sick. She felt she’d seen a side of the royal family she shouldn’t have ever witnessed. And yet, she was the only witness to it all. The only one that could ultimately save the prince and his throne. However, as Odilia pondered all that had surpassed, she grew less resigned to tell anyone anything at all, even after she became human. Because it endangered her newfound lifestyle as Odilia Kennedy, and that’s what mattered to Odilia most.

Odilia wondered if such thoughts made her as bad as the prince’s cousins.