You! Don’t Press that Button! - Chap 115
Asdion’s voice, heavily laid against the floor, seethed with rage yet remained eerily calm. What could have happened after I escaped from Asmil’s hideout that day to make Asdion suddenly act like this?
Could he not know that Asmil had been searching for him? Feeling like I should say something more, I opened my beak wide and called out.
“Peep! Pee—”
Though I shook my head vigorously side to side, Asdion’s gloomily sunken eyes only looked at me with contempt. He’d never liked me to begin with, but now that intensity had deepened.
A sense of crisis struck. I opened my beak wide and pecked at the bars, but whatever they were made of, the solid bars wouldn’t budge. My useless struggling seemed to bring Asdion joy, his slanted eyes gleaming golden.
How much time had passed since falling into Asdion’s clutches? The bars I’d bitten with all my might showed no damage, and my struck head grew increasingly dizzy. Finally, I slumped my round body supported by thin bird legs and flopped onto my back, exposing my belly.
“Peeee…”
It’ll be fine.Like when Asmil kidnapped me before, Karhan will surely find me before it’s too late.
As I tried to hide my anxiously wavering heart, someone roughly knocked on the door hard enough to shake it before quickly opening it.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!”
An unidentified man bowed deeply to Asdion in greeting. He extended his hand with a grinning smile and gruff voice, asking for a handshake, but Asdion didn’t even look at him. Used to such treatment, the man casually withdrew his hand and limped toward me.
“Peep?”
When I just raised my head to look, the scruffy-bearded stranger thrust his face right up to the cage.
Eek! You scared me!
I flapped my wings and rolled backward once. The man’s face spun round and round.
Perhaps because I was used to seeing only handsome people, such an unkempt face felt unfamiliar. I raised my wing to grip my dizzy head and groaned, then carefully looked back to see his thick lips parting to reveal yellowed teeth in a grin.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Bird-folk. Especially this kind… Are you really just giving it away?”
“Take it.”
“Peep?”
Giving away? What does he mean?I stood up on legs thin as twigs with wide eyes. Greedy desire filled the man’s eyes thickly. Ooh, my feathers stood stiff instead of goosebumps. The man stroked his chin with grimy fingers and said:
“Seeing how it understands speech, it’s definitely Bird-folk.”
A phlegmy giggle rang out. The sound like fingernails on a chalkboard tortured my ears, making me back away to the opposite side of the cage. Needing an explanation for what was happening, I looked to the somewhat familiar Asdion, only to see his predatory eyes flash.
His curved lips slowly parted to reveal red flesh inside.
“I hope this becomes an enjoyable experience for you too.”
For me ‘too’? The yellow eyes looking down at me were unsettling. It felt like something truly terrible was about to happen. As I gulped, Asdion handed the cage to the man.
“Never remove the shackle on its ankle.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo, don’t worry.”
The man lifted the cage to meet my eyes. He stuck his dirty fingers through the narrow bars to poke at my snow-white body.
“Pwak! Peep!”
Ugh! Don’t touch me!
When I opened my beak fiercely in warning, the man’s eyes went round in surprise before he burst into hearty laughter. As if ignoring my warning completely, his inconsiderate fingers pushed in deeper.
“Peep!”
I wanted to let him taste something spicy with my hard beak, but his fingers were covered in thick grime. It would be no exaggeration to say I might get food poisoning if my beak touched those unhygienic fingers. In the end, I could only squeeze my eyes shut and flee to the corner of the cage.
As soon as he left the luxurious room, the man muttered while wiping his nose with his finger:
“Wonder how much it’ll fetch.”
“Peep?”
Fetch? When I tilted my head to look up at him, he caught my confusion and hooked a sinister smile at the corner of his mouth. As wrinkles layered at his eyes from his grin, he whispered softly to me:
“Let me give you one warning out of pity… It’s better not to resist. Most don’t end up well.”
The man spoke as if bestowing great mercy upon me. Though I hadn’t fully grasped the situation yet, it seemed I was being sold somewhere.
Could this person run an animal shop? But his appearance was too dirty for someone dealing with customers.
The entire time carrying my cage, the man showed no consideration for me whatsoever. Perhaps due to his limping leg, the cage swayed heavily with each step, and my round body rolled this way and that in chaos. My plump body kept hitting different parts of the iron bars.
I’m dizzy! Teardrops began welling up behind my tightly closed eyelids. Even after leaving the building, this torment continued for quite a while until suddenly, a massive booming sound loud enough to make my ears fall off rang out.
“Peep!”
I had been just rolling around with my eyes squeezed shut, but jumped and shook my body in shock. Though dull pain came from my injured wing and head, the noise was loud enough to blow even that pain away. The reverberating waves through my whole body were terrifying. When I stretched my neck up high and opened my round eyes to assess the situation, something enormous dominated my view.
“P-peep…”
Good heavens. Surely we’re not getting on that…?
I stared with horrified eyes at the massive ship that looked ready to depart any moment. Gulping and barely calming my trembling legs, I wobbled to my feet. As I pressed close to the bars staring at the ship, the gruff man’s voice came from above.
“It’s an auction ship. No one can interfere when the auction starts in the middle of the sea.”
At that moment, Asdion’s muttered words flashed through my mind.
‘I was an auction slave.’
‘I hope this becomes an enjoyable experience for you too.’
Asdion intended to make me go through exactly what he had experienced.
In my weak bird body, I was handed over to the auction house without managing even one proper resistance. As expected, I couldn’t gather my wits while being rolled around by inconsiderate handling. The auction house employee who received the cage set me down on the dark warehouse floor and left.
I stretched my neck out long with my feathers standing on end from tension. Wobbling like a roly-poly doll, I quickly scanned my surroundings.
What’s this smell?A musty, fishy odor stabbed at my nose. As I narrowed my eyes and stared fixedly at one spot, the surrounding objects gradually became visible, if blurry.
“Peep.”
Though I’d thought I was alone since hearing no sounds when first brought in, numerous types of animals were trapped in cages large and small. There were birds similar to me and large toothless animals. They all had terrified eyes and looked thoroughly cowed.
“Peep peep.”
What happened?
While examining my surroundings more closely through the bars, I discovered a bird lying on water right beside me, its body tightly curled up. With visibility just enough to barely distinguish objects, it took a long stare to realize that the liquid pooled beneath the bird was blood.
Good Lord.The bird was even having occasional convulsions. It looked like it could die any moment.
“Pee-yap! Peep!”
911! 911!I created a commotion by flapping my uninjured wing. The surrounding animals startled and retreated to the corners of their cages. Ignoring their sensitive reactions, I made even more noise until I sensed people’s presence outside.
“Peeee!”
Thank goodness. People are coming! What were they doing while an animal was left nearly dead like this!
Wiggling my bottom, I watched the door with hopeful eyes as bright light soon leaked in. The auction house employee who poked his head in frowned at me.
“What is it.”
“Peep! Peeep!”
I pointed with all my might at the lying bird. The person who approached seemed to understand my desperate head gestures and looked down at the bird collapsed and bleeding. Then he shifted his gaze back to me.
“How interesting. So this is a Bird-folk.”
“Peep!”
This isn’t the time to worry about me! When I shook my head with an urgent expression, the employee burst into hearty laughter.
“Since it’s my first time seeing one in person, it’s fascinating. Can you understand what I’m saying?”
He reached out to push at my head with his fingers. That’s not what’s important right now! I glared fiercely and used my beak to gently bite and remove his finger. Then I raised one wing high and pointed at the collapsed bird.
Finally seeming to understand my gestures, the auction house employee raised his eyebrows.
“Ah, that? It was making too much noise so we made it behave. Don’t worry, we’ll treat it later.”
The human just giggled even at the sight of the bird that looked near death. I had asked the perpetrator who injured the bird for help. As I gaped my beak in shock, the man added with a bright smile as if everything was fine:
“Animals that can’t speak only learn their lesson when beaten.”
The auction house employee chuckled with laughter. His laughter looked so genuinely joyful that it felt like being cut off from the world.
How could someone laugh like that when an animal much smaller than themselves was gasping and bleeding right in front of them? I had the illusion that a terrible stench like smoke was coming from his widely grinning mouth.
