Chapter 30: Vacationing Little Bird Refuses to Work Overtime

Relating her experiences from the past year outside to the giant serpent, the little bird was just like a schoolchild returning home to share campus stories with her parents.

Suddenly, Feini went quiet, her eyes darting toward a certain direction as if sensing something.

【What is it, little one?】

The little bird was somewhat of a chatterbox—perhaps because living in the human society of the Netherworld where no one could understand her made her feel a bit pent-up?

So going quiet like this all of a sudden meant this little thing must have felt something.

Out of concern and an elder’s self-awareness, the giant serpent naturally had to ask.

【Nothing, it’s just that I can feel that brat Di seems… really down and depressed.】

Even with a temporary contract, a crow and a Reaper could sense each other’s emotions when letting their guard down around one another.

And this perception disregarded distance; even if the two parties were in different places across the two realms, it wouldn’t be hindered.

【Hoh, little one, you care about him quite a bit, don’t you?】

【In love? In love?】

Two of the giant serpent’s improper heads that were eavesdropping popped out abruptly, only to each take a heavy jaw-slam from the main head.

As one of the few existences who knew Feini’s true gender, the giant serpent genuinely treated this little thing as the apple of its eye.

Jokes about its daughter being hit on or ruined were strictly off-limits.

【Haha, not to that extent… I’m still pretty much disliked by everyone, so I won’t have those kind of thoughts.】

Birds of the Netherworld possessed considerable intelligence—after all, they were all descendants of a certain ancient existence, with bone sparrows being the exception, of course…

Therefore, in choosing a partner, they weren’t limited to their own species.

Especially spiritual crows—there were indeed a few rare examples where, after becoming a Reaper’s crow, they accompanied their Reaper’s growth, learned to shapeshift, and went beyond a partner relationship to become soulmates.

As for me, I’m just a bone sparrow, so I shouldn’t indulge in such daydreams.

It’s already good enough not to be disliked for being stupid and ugly…

In essence, shapeshifting was an ability to reshape one’s body using spiritual power once its quantity, quality, and control reached standard levels.

It wasn’t free transformation either; it was somewhat like animals becoming spirits in the mortal realm.

So the looks after shapeshifting were tied directly to the looks before shapeshifting… It was merely considered a byproduct brought by spiritual cultivation and growth.

【Actually, I’ve thought about it too—what if I hadn’t lived this long, or if Mom and Dad had chased the sky a bit later…】

Maybe I would have laid back long ago, or had my head pressed down to build a nest, lay eggs, and hatch offspring with some male bone sparrow in all seriousness somewhere, right?

【Eww… Thinking about it is pretty horrifying.】

The giant serpent shook its head.

The little bird just liked to let her thoughts run wild at times, which was probably bottled up from having nobody to keep her company and talk to her in the Netherworld on ordinary days.

However, not being understood couldn’t be blamed on anyone either.

The language of Netherworld birds had a bit of a spirit beast flavor to it—it wasn’t actually a language in essence.

Rather, it used sound as a medium to transmit spiritual power carried with information.

So their calls themselves truly had no meaning, containing at most a few emotional shifts, perhaps?

This was also the reason why the humans of the Netherworld could never parse bird language despite studying it for so long—because they couldn’t receive this kind of spiritual power information.

【If that brat you recently brought along encountered something, do you need to…】

【No need, Mr. Hydra~ I asked someone to look after him.】

Besides, she had taken a whole week off—annual leave saved up through hard work!

How could she not take a good rest?

Feini was a bird that refused to work overtime, okay!

【Just flying over took two days of exhaustion, so I still have at least three or four days to rest. Returning now would be way too much of a waste.】

Even if you put it that way, a ghost of a place like Toxic Miasma Valley was definitely not a vacation resort, nor was there anything worth touring or playing around with, right?

The giant serpent had actually learned a lot after coming into contact with creatures of both realms.

The environment of Toxic Miasma Valley was indeed paradise for itself, but not for other creatures, including Feini.

Even the bone sparrow clan roosting here was forced to do so.

So the giant serpent, having learned to consider other creatures, was somewhat unwilling to see the rare vacation time mentioned by the little bird wasted on its side.

【Mr. Hydra, the valley floor isn’t, but the top is, you know! It’s just way too remote and far.】

The so-called Netherworld graveyard was limited only to the valley floor.

Everyone knew that above Toxic Miasma Valley was a Netherworld paradise of singing birds and fragrant flowers.

It was just that the creatures roosting at the valley floor would never contemplate this matter.

【But little one, if a bone sparrow runs up there, you know what will happen, right?】

Just like a mouse sneaking into a magnificent royal palace, those roosting creatures above Toxic Miasma Valley would certainly not allow an ugly creature of the valley floor like a bone sparrow to set foot in their dwelling place.

Driving them away at best, or executing them on the spot at worst—that was the attitude of other places toward bone sparrows.

Meanwhile, the creatures above Toxic Miasma Valley would only mercilessly toy with and abuse a bone sparrow to death before tossing it into the valley floor.

It was just that Toxic Miasma Valley was too high, and bone sparrows usually fell to their deaths before even flying halfway up.

So the creatures up top hadn’t really seen bone sparrows much.

If they saw one, they might even find it rare and abuse/toy with it for a bit longer, perhaps?

【Heh-heh, Mr. Hydra, going out requires contacts—that’s the biggest harvest I’ve learned in all these years at the Netherworld~】

Yeah, yeah, relying on contacts, relying on contacts…

Can your contacts in the Netherworld even be used in a remote place like this?

And do you think those things recognize the rules set by the people of the Netherworld?

The giant serpent was too lazy to argue about anything, knowing the little bird’s usual hobbies and interests.

As long as the little thing was happy, it was fine—just don’t end up losing her bird life…

Well, even if she did, it didn’t seem like much of a problem either.

Opening its mouth, the giant serpent wanted to instruct her on something, yet felt like no words would come out.

Even the four words “stay safe” felt extremely unnecessary and comical.

【If you die, I’ll collect your body…】

【Haha, Mr. Hydra, I’ll definitely invite you to my funeral feast.】

After an unusually weird exchange of caring dialogue, the little bird flapped her wings.

Under the incredulous gazes of a group of bone sparrows in the distance, she flew to a height they had never touched before.

【Keep it low-key, little one. If you pull this off, those in your clan are going to seek death even more proactively…】

The giant serpent was powerless to complain anymore.

Seeing Feini’s figure reflected against the backdrop of the Netherworld sky—who knew how many bone sparrow hatchlings down below would be enchanted, awakening their bloodline’s longing for the sky.

It could already imagine the scene of these bone sparrows once again setting off a wave of collectively attempting to fly, only to collectively crash into broken bone fragments.

The giant serpent sighed, quietly using its ability to expand the range of the swamp.

Of course, the range of the deadly toxin was not expanded—it didn’t want to poison these little things to death, after all…

Falling from a high place and landing on the swamp was always better than landing on the ground and shattering to pieces, right?

Holding this thought, toward these little things chasing after what was beyond their capabilities, the giant serpent could only say: save whichever one can be saved.

Even if doing so held little meaning—if they didn’t fall to their deaths this time, next time, the bone sparrows would still chase toward the goal named the sky, which was in truth death…

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Killed by a Spy, So I Chose to Infiltrate Them

Female ProtagonistGender BenderMarriage

Read Now →
Not interested