Chapter 314

Stelle: "As long as you let me borrow your reputation to have some fun in Penacony, that's all I need."

Stelle: "Of course, if you don't need a little sister, I can also be your big sister!"

Sunday: "......."

Robin: "........"

March 7th: "???"

Silver Wolf: "A tree without bark is surely doomed."

Silver Wolf: "A Stelle without shame is unrivaled under heaven!"

Firefly: "(covering-mouth-laugh. jpg)"

The video continues.

11 system hours until the Harmony Festival's opening ceremony,

on the other side of the Dreamscape Reef.

【.....】

【Brother, look!】

【There's a little bird here.】

Inside the garden,

a little girl as delicately carved as pink jade,

cradled a weak little bird carefully in her hands,

calling out to the brother beside her.

【Looks like a little Harmony Dove.】

【But the nearby area isn't the Harmony Doves' habitat—why is it all alone here?】

【Was it abandoned by its parents?】

The girl's brother recognized the little bird in his sister's hands,

and showed a puzzled expression.

【It looks like it doesn't have any strength at all.....】

【Let's go find a soft cushion and make a nest for it, okay?】

The girl looked at the weak little Harmony Dove,

saying with some sympathy.

【It's too dangerous here.】

【Let's just take it back first and put it on the wooden rack in front of your window.】

The brother looked around at the surroundings,

and decided it would be safer to take this little Harmony Dove back for now.

【Okay! Its singing voice must be lovely.】

【But where should it live?】

The girl nodded,

then looked toward her brother.

【I'll go ask the Family Head to have a birdcage built for it.】

The brother answered quickly.

【A cage..... but then it won't be able to fly freely anymore, will it?】

The girl hesitated a little at her brother's suggestion.

【Let me see... what could make the Family Head's two finest Interpreters so curious that they've even forgotten to taste the dessert after the meal?】

【Oh.... poor little thing, I'm afraid the situation doesn't look good.】

【Do you want to save it?】

While the siblings were talking,

a gentle voice suddenly rang out.

Then a stranger—a kindly old man—

appeared before them.

【I do.... but I don't think we can keep it locked up.】

The girl answered in a clear, crisp voice.

【Why?】

The old man asked in a gentle tone.

【Even though it's still small, its feathers haven't even grown in yet, and it can't sing either......】

【It didn't hatch just to live in a cage.】

【Birds... are born to belong to the sky.】

Although the girl was still young,

she already had her own thoughts.

【A very romantic idea.】

【And you, little scholar—do you agree with your sister's view?】

The old man asked the girl's brother again.

【I think my sister's right...】

【But if we leave it out in the wild, it won't survive more than a few days.】

The brother looked somewhat bewildered.

【Heh heh, it seems our little scholar is still a bit lost.】

【How about this, children, I'll tell you a story.】

【You should know that the Harmonia Doves are a kind of bird capable of soaring past the atmosphere.】

【When flying at high altitude, their feathers glow with magnificent light from the heat of friction, like streaks of shooting stars.】

【We see this beautiful sight so often that we assume it's a gift they were born with....】

【But sadly, that meteor-like brilliance is the result of their struggle against nature over hundreds of Amber Eras.】

【The ancestors of the Harmonia Doves were far too weak to win the battle for survival on the ground.】

【To escape the fate of being hunted, they began to gaze up at the sky and beat their wings to leap aloft....】

【And so, after tens of thousands of generations of attempts, one bird in the flock finally learned how to flap its wings correctly.】

【It succeeded in taking flight, bidding farewell to the earth from then on.】

Seeing the boy looking a bit lost,

the old man slowly told a story about the Harmonia Doves,

for the brother and sister to hear.

【So, actually, birds aren't born knowing how to fly, but they did it through their own will, right?】

The girl interpreted

her own opinion from this story.

【Heh heh, that is indeed an idealistic interpretation.】

【Then, Sunday, what do you think?】

The old man still turned to ask Sunday.

【I....】

【I think, the reason people believe flying is the nature of birds....】

【is because they've never seen a bird fall to its death.】

Sunday pondered for a moment,

and answered.

【That line of thinking is also very interesting.】

【Then you should have figured out how to treat this little bird now, right?】

The old man looked kindly at Sunday.

【I will.... um, first put it in a cage, at least until it can survive on its own.】

【Because.....】