AN: Happy new year everybody!

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“Alright, so this is it! It’s not that different from mine, huh?”

 

I opened the door to the room and led Kale inside. It was basically a carbon copy of the room I had with Chella, including the two separate beds. It was also a little on the dustier side, and by a little, I mean a LOT, but I made quick work of it with a simple yet pricey [Cleanse] that earned me a nice 10 exp, so it was no big deal. I wandered over to a bed to check if it had gotten properly cleaned by my magic, patting it a few times before I looked back towards Kale.

 

“The beds are a little bit hard, and the pillows are super thin, but at least you’ve got a place to rest on now. Just hang on tight for a little while, and I’ll try to get better bedding for us once the main church gets back to me.”

 

Kale’s eyes looked towards my face at an angle for a while, but then he slowly came over next to me and stoically mimicked the way I’d patted the bed. I don’t know why, but just the picture of him doing that really tickled me somehow, and I started giggling without a care in the world. It was a giggle like everything was right with the world, like all the problems that plagued me had finally gone away. Maybe I only felt like that because I was still riding the high of finally freeing Kale.

 

And Kale, in response to my giggling, just turned his head towards me and opened his big bird eyes to scan me over, once again.

I honestly never knew what to think when he did that.

Was it a good thing?

Was it a bad thing?

Whatever it was, it made me nervous every time, for sure.

 

…Wait, but I don’t like that! I don’t like feeling nervous around Kale. This is Kale for christ’s sake; I shouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable around him ever! If this were the Kale from my past life, I would never have treated him so cautiously like this! We were the only ones each other had, after all, and the only ones who we could really talk to! He's basically my comfort zone, so why should I have to be worried about how I interact with him?!

 

Let’s stop being silly and just let my stupid walls down already!

 

“Kale, why are you looking at me like that?”

 

His wide open eyes slowly drooped back to their original reserved Kale-like look upon hearing my question, and he bowed his head a little bit in a kind of down-trodden way.

 

“...Did I offend you, Saintess?”

 

Oh no. I guess in my eagerness to be candid with him, I asked the question a bit too aggressively, without caring how it might have sounded to him. So stupid of me… Gosh, I basically sound like his mom from his old life right now, berating him if his expression changed even slightly in a way she didn’t like. Well no, if I was really like his mom right now, then I would have hit him, so at least I’m not that bad... Ah, no, that’s not the point!

 

I want him to recover his memories from his past life, but I definitely don’t want it to happen because of me bringing up his traumatic relationship with his mom, of all things!

 

“No no, I wasn’t upset or anything! I was only asking because I was genuinely curious!”

 

Kale turned his face slightly away from me, and for a moment I was completely worried that I had said something wrong yet again. However, as I kept looking at him, I could kind or sort of tell… Maybe he looked a bit embarrassed?

 

“...I was just wondering… if this kindness that you’re showing me is the way that ‘Kale’ is supposed to be treated, or if you were just being considerate of me. I wasn’t sure how to respond in a way that would be pleasing to you. I’m not very… I’m not good at…”

 

…Oof…

This bird really knows how to stab me in the heart sometimes. It’s not his fault, he doesn’t know how much his words are harming me. If anything, he’s been very cooperative with me during all of this. I should be thankful that he’s willing to play along with my selfishness like this at all.

 

Really, putting myself in his shoes, what he asked was a perfectly fair and valid question.

 

I brought my hand up to his cheek to gently turn his head towards me, and looked him in the eyes. I can only hope that my face reflected in those eyes of his looked sincere, considering I was halfway trying to convince myself along with him.

 

“...You are Kale. Any way that I treat you is how Kale should be treated. Never doubt that. You don’t have to act any different than normal, or in a way that you think might ‘please’ me; I just want you to be you.”

 

It felt terribly hypocritical, asking him to just be himself, while also trying to force being ‘Kale’ onto him. Really, no matter how much I’m convinced that he must be the reincarnation of Kale, this was really very silly of me to say. But really, even if he is Kale, forcing him to put on an act just to make me happy… wouldn’t make me happy at all.

 

Kale’s eyes grew wide again for a moment, but after only a brief scan over my face, he closed them and gave me a nod, hesitantly moving his hand up to gently place it on top of the one I still had placed on his cheek.

 

“Thank you, Saintess. I will do my best.”

 

“Sure sure, if you want to. But even if you don’t, you’ll still be my Kale.”

 

The flippant way I responded elicited a satisfying little rumble-like laugh from Kale’s throat, and for the first time, I saw his stoic face form a small, almost imperceptible smile for me.

 

I felt like my heart that had previously been clenched in pain might just beat right out of my chest instead.

 

~~~

 

Eventually, to hide the way my face was starting to flush, I quickly sat down on the bed and patted it a bunch of times until I finally somehow convinced Kale to sit next to me. I asked if he had any questions about anything while secretly crossing my fingers that he wouldn’t ask me any of the harder questions, like the ones about Kale or my past, and luckily all he wanted to know about was what I wanted him to do from now on. I found it to be a silly question, really, because I already told him twice that I wanted to bring him along with me. I guess he didn’t understand that I meant that literally.

 

I literally planned to have him follow me around everywhere.

I already lost my previous Kale suddenly one day, while he was driving around somewhere without me.

You think I’d take my eyes off of him when I was finally given a second chance?

If anything happens to Kale, then it’s going to happen to me too, dammit!

 

So after finding out that I literally planned to bring him around with me everywhere, my smart cookie of a bird asked what my schedule was like. Honestly, I lived a pretty regimented life in this church, so telling him what I usually got up to wasn’t all that hard at all, but he kept asking me small clarifying questions about almost everything, and I was completely happy to answer each of them, so it took quite a while to get through. If it was Kale asking, then I could be as patient as possible.

 

As the talk went on, I could feel myself drifting closer and closer to Kale, as if I was slowly magnetizing to him. I don’t even remember doing it, but eventually I scooted my body across the bed until I was close enough to press the side of my upper arm against his. It wasn't conscious, or planned or anything; Hell, even I was surprised when I felt his skin touching mine. Luckily he didn’t jump away or make a face or anything, his eyes just did their typical move of getting really big and bird-like, and the rest of his body just froze. And as I kept babbling on and answering his latest question as if nothing had happened, he thankfully played along, and dutifully kept asking his next questions, although they came out in a slightly mechanical sounding voice.

 

Like all things, though, our cute time together had to eventually come to an end. There was a knock at the door that suddenly broke us out of the sweet little question and answer session we’d been having, and Chella’s voice called out to us.

 

“Are you guys coming to dinner or what? I don’t care what you’re up to, but you should at least show up and eat!”

 

Honestly, I’d been so caught up in my own little world with Kale that I’d completely stopped paying attention to the passage of time. No wonder Kale’s face was starting to get a bit hard to see; It was clearly darker now that it had been earlier.

 

I quickly grabbed Kale’s hand and came to the door, making sure to look as unsuspicious as possible to Chella and her crossed arms.

 

As we walked through the halls I suddenly had a thought, and turned to ask it to Kale.

 

“Hey, is there anything that you can’t eat?”

 

He cocked his head in the cute little way that it seemed the bird-people do, which I’ve come to learn had the meaning of ‘I don’t know what you’re asking and don’t have a response’, so I guess that means that he didn’t have any allergies or dislikes or anything. Well… Just because he didn’t know about any of them yet, it didn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t anything, you know? I mean, I’m sure whatever food that the birds are used to eating on the mountain isn’t going to be exactly the same as what they eat in this country, right? So it’s better to be on the safe side.

 

“Just in case, if you can’t eat any of the food for whatever reason, let me know, okay?”

 

He nodded his head, but he still looked confused. Ah, whatever, Kale seemed smarter than your average bird-person from what I’d seen, so I’m sure he’ll figure it out if anything happens.

 

We arrived at dinner a few minutes later, and… Yup, I was too blinded by my nice time with Kale; I didn’t expect the obvious scene in front of me to unfold once they saw that I’d brought Kale along. The Bishop looked fine, and was eating with perfect dignity, but everyone else…

 

Well for starters, Meria wasn’t even there.

The quiet priest’s jaw was clenched shut so hard that I could see the veins bulging out, and he refused to bring his eyes up to even look in our direction.

And the balding priest was… Well, he was smiling, but it looked so strained that it was obvious that he was uncomfortable with the situation.

 

Kale, the one who had actually been abused and enslaved, wasn’t even really batting an eye at the whole tense situation, even though he was the real victim in it all, so can you blame me if I couldn’t bring myself to have any good feelings for the 3 priests who still seemed hung up on everything? Can you blame me if I felt a bit irritated by their reactions? Maybe I should have been more understanding about how awkward their situation was, but I mean… Really. Just… Really.

 

...I'm going to have to say something, aren't I?