You! Don’t Press that Button! - Chap 119

For a moment, the world seemed to stop at the familiar sound. The bird that had been in the blanket had somehow emerged, stretching out its round body and spreading its wings wide on both sides, crying out loudly peep-peep in anger.

It waddled over on short legs and blocked my front. The sight looked like it was trying to protect me, which felt both amusing and stirring inside.

Peep.

It was quite impressive how something smaller than an adult man’s fist was standing to block him. Though my vision was blurring, inappropriate laughter escaped. As I let out a despairing laugh, my uncle-in-law spoke in a displeased voice:

“So you’ve been keeping animals in the house too?”

“N-no, no. That’s not it, it’s just a bird that came in for a moment. When I left the window open…”

Realizing my mistake, I hurriedly reached out. Though I appreciated its desire to protect me, now wasn’t the time to provoke my angry uncle-in-law. As I wrapped both hands tightly around the bird that was struggling hard, not wanting to be confined, my uncle-in-law’s eyebrows furrowed deeply.

“You worthless things are both acting up together. Just look at you.”

His voice trembled with rage. As I automatically stepped backward, his rough hand gripped my wrist. Then he tried to twist out the bird with his other hand, twisting my curled fingers.

“Uncle!”

“Don’t act like you own the place while living off me!”

“W-wait!”

I worried the bird might get crushed. Though something bad would surely happen if he took it, I couldn’t play tug-of-war with the bird either. Should I keep holding on? Should I let go? After the two opinions fought thousands of times in my mind, a small peep decided the outcome. Worried about the bird, I had to spread my fingers.

Peep!

“Get rid of this thing!”

Seeing his chance, my uncle-in-law grabbed the bird with rough hands and raised his arm.

“No! Uncle, no! I’ll let it outside!”

Startled as he looked ready to throw it out the window right away, I jumped up as if my bottom was on fire and reached out. However, I was too small even for my age and couldn’t overcome an adult’s height and strength. The window opened with a loud sound. Though the flower bed below the apartment was full of trees and grass, a bird falling from this height was unlikely to survive. Moreover, there was a road right beyond the flower bed.

“Don’t! Please don’t!”

Though I tried to at least push my uncle-in-law away from the window, it was useless. Looking down at my urgent face, he pulled his arm back and threw the bird hard toward the road. The sound of fluttering wings instantly faded away.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Forgetting to breathe, I blankly stared at the road outside while still holding my uncle-in-law’s arm. Finally satisfied, he shoved my body hard backward and left the room.

My world became quiet again. Almost emptily so.

My heart pounded as hollow breaths swirled in my ears. Cars rushing roughly past without knowing my feelings made me dizzy.

This couldn’t be happening. I blinked and looked around the room. As I carefully bent my knees and felt the blanket where I’d hidden the bird, my hands strangely trembled.

Gone. Gone. He really threw it. He threw it out the window.

I rushed outside without time to put on shoes properly. I hurriedly ran to the flower bed and sat down without thinking about dirtying my clothes, feeling around the ground. Where had it fallen? Had it hit a tree? I thought he threw it in this direction.

Though I searched everywhere while biting my lip hard, there was no trace of the bird. If it had hit something hard, it would likely be lying unconscious somewhere, but if it wasn’t here…

With an anxiously churning heart, I turned to look at the road. Surely it hadn’t fallen there? It hadn’t been hit by a speeding car, right? I slowly stood up and walked across the flower bed to the road. Though it was in front of an old apartment, cars still drove fiercely.

I don’t know how many hours I stood there. The sun that had been shining warm light from above was now spilling red light while hanging at the edge of the world.

Why wasn’t it coming when it always found me well wherever I was? If it hit something and lost consciousness, that would be terrible. It hadn’t forgotten my room, had it? Since it was clever…

Ah, right. It must be hungry. It probably got distracted looking for something tasty. It couldn’t not come back. I raised my right hand and lightly wiped my face as if washing it. My sweat-soaked hair had dried stiff and pricked my eyes like thorns.

Was that why? Strangely, my eyes kept reddening and my vision grew blurry. Though I needed to wait for the bird, I rubbed my eyes with both hands, disliking how they kept interfering.

I rubbed and kept rubbing.

Until pitch darkness covered the sky.

It would come soon. It would come soon. It always did. Maybe it had already flown back to the room first. It always did.

I bit my lip hard while comforting my heart like this. My nose kept getting stuffy and felt strange. At this rate, it was like the bird was dead. But that couldn’t be.

I should go back home. It might be sitting on the windowsill, dozing while waiting for me.

It was quite funny watching that small bird nodding off while sitting. I don’t know why it tried so hard not to fall asleep, blinking its tiny millet-sized eyes as if it had something to do. No, today it would be angry at having to wait so long.

I tried to force a smile, raising the corners of my lips that kept turning down. I pressed my swollen eyelids with my hands to wipe away tears. Small droplets formed at the corners of my tightly closed eyes, stinging.

That’s enough now. Let’s go quickly. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. But instead of the road, flower bed, and home to return to, only a pitch-dark space with nothing visible greeted me.

‘Ah.’

Though I tried speaking quietly with parted lips, I couldn’t tell if my voice came out properly since no sound entered my ears. When I raised my hand to feel my throat, I could feel my Adam’s apple moving. Had I gone deaf?

Though I couldn’t see or hear anything, strangely I wasn’t afraid. Perhaps… I seemed to have experienced this situation several times before. Because of that, a deep-seated feeling told me this situation wasn’t threatening.

I turned my head to look around and slowly moved my legs. Though I thought I’d walked for quite a while without seeing anything, my legs didn’t hurt. I wasn’t even sure if I was stepping on anything. It felt like I was just floating in empty space.

Moving only my legs without any goal, thoughts gradually disappeared too. I was just advancing like a machine. Then suddenly, a question arose.

When would the door appear?

At that moment, memories slowly unraveled. The three days of Atlena, this was the dream I had when losing consciousness. When wandering through the dream, a door always appeared before me at the end.

I needed to get back to Karhan quickly. He would surely be worried if I stayed here too long. Though he looked rigid outside, he was actually quite tender-hearted inside, so he might be pacing back and forth by now.

I walked hard thinking I needed to find the door quickly, and as if recognizing my heart’s desire, soon a closed door appeared with bright light leaking through a small gap.

‘There it is.’

I ran hard with joy. As I got closer, the door’s form began to show properly, but it wasn’t the usual appearance. The ornate patterns were gone, and the material looked much shabbier.

Was this the right door? Worried about entering the wrong one by mistake, I looked around, but this was the only door there was.

Though doubtful, I had no choice but to grab the doorknob. The cold metal sensation was strangely chilling, making my body hair stand on end. Ignoring the anxiety stirring at my feet, I turned the handle. When I carefully pushed the door, dazzling light poured down, making me squeeze my eyes shut.

Murmuring sounds came from all directions. When I gently raised my eyelids against the heat stabbing them, I saw masked people sitting far away, talking to each other while looking at me.

“Peep…?”

As I tilted my head in confusion, the murmuring grew louder.

What was this situation? I stood up on legs thin as wooden sticks with round eyes. Looking around, I found myself displayed at what seemed to be an auction house, trapped in a birdcage.

Me on stage, people watching me.

A man in a neat suit approached beside me and reached out to point at me.

“Some of you may be seeing this after quite a while, or perhaps for the first time ever. Though it looks like just an ordinary bird, if you look at its ankle, you’ll see it has a magic stone shackle.”

He inserted the thin, long stick he was holding into the cage and tapped my leg.

“Though we’d like to show you its human form, that would require the buyer’s permission. Now, let the auction begin!”

The auction began under the hot lights. Perhaps due to the effects of the three days of Atlena, I still had no strength in my half-asleep state. I lowered my eyes and bowed my head to avoid the dazzling light.

“Peep… cheep…”

Though I only cried with weak sounds, the people’s auction fever grew even hotter. The loud cheers rang in my head, and the lights felt like they were melting my body. This was by far the worst I’d felt during all the three days of Atlena I’d experienced.

All sorts of information mixed in my head, making it hard even to stand. My legs trembled so much I finally sat back down. The birdcage creaked as it swayed back and forth. Though I clearly didn’t look healthy enough, people didn’t seem to care much. The title of being a rare species must be what mattered.

The masked people raised palm-sized boards with numbers written on them, raising the auction price. The people’s seemingly angry voices felt like they were drilling through my head into my brain.

Having no energy left to do anything, I sat quietly waiting. The noise gradually quieted as the number of participants seemed to decrease.

I raised my head while exhaling rough breaths through my beak. Far away, I saw a man holding up a number board and shouting a large amount. The amount he proposed must have been tremendous, as people murmured and looked at him. As everyone’s attention focused on him, the man shrugged as if this amount was nothing.

Other competitors looked around one by one before hiding their number boards. They all shook their heads, indicating they would no longer participate in this auction.

“Well then, is there anyone with a higher amount than this gentleman?”

The auctioneer asked slowly while looking around. Silence fell over the auction house. After waiting briefly, the auctioneer continued:

“Adding 100 gold. No one?”

Then he raised the hammer high. As the audience remained quiet, he slowly brought it down once, twice, three times. The long-ringing thud announced to everyone that I had been sold.

The audience all stood up and applauded. They bowed to the man who bought me with looks of respect and envy, and the man raised both corners of his mouth like a victor. Watching this scene from the stage, I truly realized that these people didn’t see me as a fellow living being.

Only after being sold to an unknown man like this was I allowed to leave the stage.