— I thought I was getting the hang of this.
“What exactly is the problem?”
As I spent more time with this girl named Sylvia, she seemed to have let her guard down, to the point where she could casually say things like this.
As I sat on the soft and warm straw as usual, I looked down at Sylvia.
“If I’m hungry, you could give me food, and everything around here is managed to be soft and warm. Aren’t you here because you want to be? If you’re living comfortably, I should at least get one favor in return, right?”
I couldn’t help but let out a snort.
Ah, of course, it’s true that I’m living off their generosity. Everything I eat is provided by the palace, and the only reason I can enjoy myself is because of the people here who help me.
But I have ears, and naturally, I’ve eavesdropped on stories. The stories about Gryphons have been particularly common around me.
So, these kids taking care of me wasn’t just a thought of keeping a pet.
The Gryphon, a symbol of the Empire and its royal family, the ‘Fanggriffon.’ But this Gryphon is such a rare creature that you hardly see it anywhere else, and even fewer have raised one.
So just by living here, it makes the Empire sound like a country with a royal family that uniquely controls this Gryphon.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t so different from my previous world, where no one raised an eagle just because their family emblem featured one, right? Wouldn’t it have been cool if there was an emperor walking around with a trained eagle on their shoulder?
But the reason no one did that was most likely because it was incredibly bothersome and unnecessary. Even if I had the money to prepare food, getting that eagle to listen to me would be an entirely different story. If that were the case for an eagle, how much more for a lion?
That’s probably the reason the Empire hasn’t yet chased me away. Because I’m somewhat cooperative.
“No, didn’t you acknowledge my presence here in the first place…?”
Seeing me snort, Sylvia slumped her shoulders and said.
… Did I go too far?
When I think about it, Sylvia talks politely in front of others. I mean, even in front of someone as close as Alice, she uses honorifics. But for her to speak so casually in front of me, doesn’t it mean she feels that comfortable around me?
But if I react like this, it’s only natural for her to feel deflated.
“Alright, then.”
Sylvia looked up at me and said, “Tell me what you want. If I can grant it, I will. But in return, you have to do something I want. This seems quite fair, right?”
Hmm.
What I want…
What I wanted wasn’t that difficult.
My body is a Gryphon, but the being inside is a human. As I’ve said a few times, I don’t know how intelligent a Gryphon is. To be honest, I didn’t plan to find out directly. Because if I went to check and it turned out to be truly ‘beast-like,’ it would cause problems in many ways.
Things like mating… Hmm, anyway.
So yes, I want to live here, but I also don’t want to be treated without respect. Even if I’m respected, I wouldn’t want to be treated just like a pet. If possible, I’d like it if she would continue to use honorifics like before.
Because after all, I’m likely older than Sylvia. Not as a Gryphon, but as the person inside.
Isn’t the girl right in front of me not just a child?
The question is how to convey that.
Alright.
I have only one thing to show.
I stood up from my seat. Stretching out my stiff body after sitting too long, I proudly faced Sylvia.
Then, I bowed my head.
For a moment, Sylvia seemed perplexed about what I was doing, but she obediently bent her waist in return.
Okay, she seems to get it—
“Is this good enough?”
—Not really.
Well, just bowing again won’t make her understand.
So, if that’s the case, I’ll just keep doing the same thing until Sylvia realizes what went wrong.
I took a deep breath and slowly bowed my head again.
This time, I put a bit more heart into my greeting.
Sylvia, frowning as she looked up at me, slowly returned the bow with a little more courtesy than before and then spoke.
“Do you have something you want to say?”
Well, I do have something to say.
I just couldn’t convey it due to differences in mouth structure.
There’s only one way.
To consistently show politeness while being considerate and elevating the other person.
‘I’ll do this, so you do that too.’
That was my thought.
Truthfully, I was in the advantageous position. After all, I wasn’t in a situation where I could freely use informal and formal speech.
After exchanging greetings a few times, it seemed Sylvia had a fleeting thought.
“So, are you saying we should mutually respect each other?”
Finally!
I slightly nodded in satisfaction.
“Ha.”
Sylvia let out a huff of disbelief. But she seemed to have recognized that I wasn’t an ordinary animal in front of her.
After a brief hesitation, she opened her mouth.
“Well then, if I ask like this politely, do you think you would grant my request?”
Sounds good.
If she respects me, I would be more than willing to grant her request.
Well, I know well enough that the request she’ll make isn’t going to be too troublesome.
I sat back down and quietly stared at Sylvia, as if I was listening.
“Ha.”
Sylvia chuckled again and said, “Alright then—”
And then she told me her request.
*
Sylvia’s request was simple.
She wanted me to fly up in the sky during the cultural festival attended by Sylvia, Alice, and their friends at the academy.
Well, since it’s called ‘academy,’ it’s probably not just a regular high school. Places usually referred to like this are said to be ‘the greatest educational institutions in this country.’
If it’s an education institution centered on the Empire, it might be expected that the Empire’s symbol would come to celebrate. Surely the Headmaster is someone incredibly high-ranking.
I wasn’t sure why they were having a cultural festival in the middle of winter, though.
I didn’t know it well, but it seemed I had an unexpected liking for being the center of attention.
In fact, that stemmed from not being particularly good-looking back then. Since I wasn’t handsome, I could hardly receive much admiration from the stares I got. Thus, the only time I received attention in my past life was when I did something incredibly embarrassing.
But the stares I receive here are filled with admiration.
Well, I’m not a great beauty, but if it’s a gaze mixed with affection, it can’t help but feel good.
“Phew.”
As I let out a sound mixed with satisfaction, Sylvia looked up at me with a smile.
The sky was incredibly cold. I felt it was a bit refreshing, but for Sylvia, even with such thick clothing, she must have been freezing to the bone.
“If you want, I can go back and wait. It’s only going to get colder if I stay here.”
After she had climbed down from my back, Sylvia said that.
Well, that’s fine.
I was originally thinking of taking a look around anyway.
I nodded to Sylvia and took off into the sky.
I circled around in the sky until I confirmed that Sylvia was going back inside the building as she turned to gaze at me.
*
Be it a Japanese manga, animation, or game, if this world existed within such media, of course, there would be ‘contents’ like cultural festivals and school trips.
And naturally, if there was content like a cultural festival, a ‘maid café’ would also be essential.
It wouldn’t matter if it didn’t exist. After all, I was just planning to take a look, and it would be good if it was there, but I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t. Still, it was the first time I had come to another school’s festival like this, so I wanted to take a good look around.
Not just the academy, but it seemed like the surrounding area was also in a festive atmosphere, but for now, let’s focus on the school first.
I couldn’t enter the classroom, so I intended to get as close to the school as possible and peek inside—
Eventually, I found the maid café.
Through a window beside the flower bed, I saw students in maid outfits diligently working inside.
The boys were mostly busy moving supplies or cleaning, while all the girls were in maid outfits, doing service work.
And among them—
Oh.
If I could talk, I would have made a sound like that.
Among those in maid outfits was Sylvia.
It wasn’t the type of maid outfit that showed off a lot of skin like you’d expect from this kind of content, but the modest elegant maid outfit suited Sylvia’s image perfectly.
It wasn’t just Sylvia; Alice, Mia, Charlotte, and the other kids with them all looked great.
I guess they are children of noble families after all.
As I tried to get a closer look, moving slightly closer to the window, one of the boys working inside locked eyes with me and gasped, immediately pointing outside to Sylvia.
Sylvia turned her head and stared at me blankly.
Hmm.
Without hands, should I just flap my wings?
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