“QUEEN Laetitia! Who is that man?!” Edgar, the young wolfkeeper, let out a cry that echoed throughout my garden.
A few days had passed since King Glenreed’s birthday. The weather outside was sunny and beautiful. I’d been playing with the wolves out in front of my villa, and I smiled awkwardly at Edgar’s panic.
“I see Lord Featherio has returned…” I murmured.
Ever since we first met, Lord Featherio had come to visit my villa once every few days, for some reason. The Heaven-Wing clan rarely made appearances around others and were treated almost like legends. Many people had been extremely startled to see Lord Featherio at my villa.
“Woof!!”
I tried to stand up to go calm Edgar down, but the wolves on my lap began to cry out.
“You haven’t pet me enough yet!”
“Pet me more!”
They looked up at me and wiggled their noses, pleading with me to stay.
“Y-You’re so cute…!”
I was completely powerless against those puppy-dog eyes.
But I still had a mission. I had to get over to Edgar. I steeled my heart, gently set the wolves on the ground, and headed over to the source of the screams.
“Q-Queen Laetitia! Th-th-th-th-th-that man! Is he really from the Heaven-Wing clan?!”
“That’s right. He really stands out, but he won’t cause any trouble, so try to calm yourself, okay?” I patted Edgar’s trembling shoulders.
Edgar was still a novice wolfkeeper, but he handled them well and had a bright future on the horizon. Despite this, he was a rather cowardly young man. He used to jump whenever a stranger approached him, and although he’d grown braver these days, it seemed a member of the Heaven-Wing clan was a bit much for him to handle.
I comforted Edgar and looked at Lord Featherio, who was now surrounded by wolves. He remained completely unaffected by the curious creatures sniffing him from every angle.
Perhaps he didn’t mind them licking the tips of his feathers because he was a tolerant individual. Or maybe he was too airheaded to notice. I didn’t know how to interpret such behavior.
“I hunted this.” Lord Featherio held out a wild bird in his right hand. This bird was famous for its unique white feathering on its stomach and the delicious flavor of its meat. Even the wolves started to shuffle closer to it when they caught the bird’s scent. “A trade. I brought meat, so you’ll cook it for me. I look forward to Your Majesty’s meals.”
As always, his face lacked any readable emotions on it, but he didn’t appear to be lying, at least. He really did seem to enjoy my cooking. He requested food every time he came to the villa now.
I had no reason to refuse. I once told him that I didn’t need him to bring me wild birds and other things he’d hunted, but…
“It’s better to have a fair exchange.”
That was the answer I received. He basically forced his catches into my hands in exchange for my cooking ever since.
I was a bit nervous around him at first too, but the more we interacted, the more I saw Lord Featherio as someone unattached to this world—both for better and for worse.
Perhaps he was more like a baby bird than an angel.
He appeared to be in his early twenties, though he told me he only began to interact with human society a few years prior, so his behavior wasn’t really so strange after all.
Lord Featherio’s birthplace was cut off from the outside world, meaning he grew up with food that lacked variety and flavor. He didn’t think anything of it back then, as it was all he knew, but seeing my cooking on the outside had sparked his interest in food, or so he told me.
That was why I wasted no time preparing and cooking the wild bird for him. I couldn’t clean it myself, so I had another knowledgeable chef work on that while I prepared the seasonings.
I stuck to the basics and went with a simple blend of flavors, since Lord Featherio still wasn’t accustomed to recipes from the outside world yet. I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, and some basic herbs like rosemary before roasting it.
Though it wasn’t complicated, its simplicity actually made the meat taste even more delicious.
Lord Featherio seemed pleased as well. He finished his meal in the blink of an eye.
“Cooking is a great thing.”
After that briefest of remarks, he flapped his wings and flew off into the sky again, just like how he arrived.