CHAPTER 242: CHAPTER-242

"Do you even know what happened after you left? How could you? At least warn me before running off! Do you realize your pets nearly killed me?!"

Kaya pinched the bridge of her nose. "Cut the damn acting and just tell me what happened after I left."

The sparrow froze, then slowly plopped back down on the bed like a sulky child. Just as he opened his mouth—

Growl!

The sound made Kaya blink. Her gaze slid to him. His face flushed crimson. He covered his stomach with one hand and his eyes with the other.

"...What? It’s not like it’s my fault! I haven’t eaten in three whole days. I was too busy trying to find some idiot."

Kaya gave him a long, unimpressed look. "Well... I was gone for more than three days, wasn’t I? If I’m not wrong."

That shut him up instantly. His mouth opened, then snapped shut. Finally, he muttered under his breath,

"Well, I’m just a small baby bird, how can I fly that long? I was still trying to find you."

Kaya sighed. She already knew—he’d probably been stumbling around half-dead while she was missing. Still, she went out, gathered some wild berries, and brought back a bit of roasted beef that veer had saved for himself.

But anyway , that stupid vulture didn’t even remember what he’d hidden where. So fine. She just take some.

Because apparently, now she had a starving, melodramatic bird for a guest.

Kaya watched him demolish the platter in front of him. The sparrow was gobbling down food like a starving pig, not a delicate little bird. Honestly, looking at him now, Kaya couldn’t understand it. Sparrows were supposed to be tiny, cute, fragile creatures. But this bastard? He ate like an entire pig disguised in feathers.

By the time he was stuffing the very last piece of meat into his mouth, Kaya leaned back and asked casually,

"Don’t you even want to ask me if I poisoned your food?"

The sparrow froze mid-chew, eyes widening. The meat was still crammed in his mouth as he stared at her.

"...Are you?" he mumbled around the food.

Kaya’s jaw dropped. "Shouldn’t you have asked before eating?"

The sparrow touched his puffed-up cheek, and Kaya could practically read his entire dilemma written on his face: Should I swallow it? Should I spit it out? Am I about to die?

After what looked like a long war between his brain and his stomach, his foodiness won. He gulped the meat down in one go.

Kaya couldn’t help it—her lips curled into a soft snicker. Just a small smile, but the sparrow noticed instantly. His eyes lit up like fireworks, wings practically popping open as he leaned toward her.

"You were joking with me, right?"

Kaya’s face immediately flattened back into her usual deadpan.

"Well, do I need to tease you when you’re already a fool?"

The sparrow actually pouted, looking like a sulking child. Kaya shook her head with a sigh.

"So, if you’re finally done stuffing your face, can we talk now?"

His playful pout vanished. The sparrow straightened his back, his face turning serious.

"We found out you’d left after everyone came out of hibernation," he began. "We wanted to check on you... but when we opened your door, the house was empty. You were gone. The others panicked, worried, running around trying to figure out what happened. But the strange thing is..."

He paused, letting the words hang. Kaya narrowed her eyes, her voice firm.

"Strange how?"

"You know Cutie, right?" His tone dipped lower. "The cheerful one—always smiling, bouncing around, helping others? Well... the moment he realized you weren’t in your house, his whole expression changed. It was like... ice. Colder than the winter outside. His eyes weren’t the same. And when some of the Nikala beastmen talked about forming a search party to look for you, he just smiled at them and said it wasn’t necessary."

Kaya frowned. "That doesn’t sound like him."

The sparrow nodded sharply. "Exactly. Because that smile of his—" he leaned closer, "—it didn’t reach his eyes. Not even a little. And it didn’t stop there. Two nights later, I saw him sneaking into your house. At first, I thought I was imagining things. But I followed him. He was rummaging through your rooms. Looking for something. I don’t know what."

Kaya’s chest tightened. "And then?"

The sparrow’s brows furrowed. His voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"And then... it was like he noticed me. I swear, I was hidden deep in the tree outside, far from sight, watching. But the moment I blinked—just one blink—he vanished. Gone. Like he melted into the air itself."

Kaya stiffened, her heartbeat quickening.

"When I finally went inside to check, he wasn’t there. No footprints. No trace. Nothing." The sparrow shook his head. "It was as if he had never been there at all. And the next morning... he was gone. Vanished completely. Not just from the house, but from everywhere. I asked my boss friends if they’d seen anyone like him nearby. They swore they hadn’t. Not even in the farthest distances."

Kaya’s face stayed calm, unreadable, but inside she was reeling. Shock twisted deep in her chest. She had doubted Cutie from the moment she’d discovered the poison, but now... now she was certain.

No matter how well-built he appeared, Cutie was still a rabbit. A rabbit shouldn’t have been able to slip past so many sharp eyes—let alone vanish into thin air. That wasn’t natural. Even she couldn’t escape notice so cleanly.

Her suspicions had been seeds before, but this? This was proof. Cutie was not an ordinary beastman.

Yet the pieces refused to fit. She had only just come to this world, knew almost nothing about its hidden rules or dangers. So why? Why would someone want her dead so desperately?

The thought gnawed at her, dark and heavy. If she was a threat... to whom? And if not that, then what exactly did he want from her?