Chirp Chirp
How many years had it been since I'd last set foot on Earth?
Even the transmigration to another world was already several years behind me.
A lot had happened. So much, in fact, that piecing it all back together felt nearly impossible.
I'd opened my eyes and found myself possessed into another world, then scraped through more near-death crises than I cared to count.
Somewhere along the way, a person I'd taken for some oddball mage had become my master.
Well—thanks to that master turning out a little more impressive than expected, I'd even earned the title of Archmage.
But none of that mattered as much as the simple fact that, in the end, I had made it back to Earth.
I looked out at the forest of buildings spread before me.
Modern high-rises lined the skyline—structures you never saw in that other world, where the Middle Ages had been the backdrop of everything.
The sight of them pulled a long, relieved breath from my lungs.
"Chirp……."
Huh?
"Chirp chirp? (What was that sound just now……?)"
Something strange had come out of my mouth.
It wasn't a human voice. It sounded for all the world like a bird's twittering.
But why would a sound like that come out of me……?
Was I making bird noises instead of words?
A queer feeling settled over me, and I looked down at my body.
"Chirp?! (W-what is this?!)"
What I saw was a body blanketed in white feathers. My field of vision had dropped so low that the ground sat right beneath me.
I reached out, trying to feel over whatever I had become.
Or rather—I tried to.
"Chirp chirp chirp? (Wait, is this a wing?)"
There were no arms left on this changed body.
In their place sat a pair of bird's wings, thick with white feathers.
The sheer absurdity of it left me speechless for a moment.
I looked around and spotted a small puddle on the concrete road.
I went straight to it.
"Chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp. (No. No way. Is this for real.)"
What stared back from the water was not a person, but a bird.
A tiny white crow tit. The kind of creature people would find almost aggressively cute.
I sank to my knees in front of the puddle, despair washing over me.
There was no heavy thump the way there used to be when I was human—only the soft press of feathers against the ground and a plush, yielding sensation.
I stared blankly up at the sky.
And then, out of nowhere, the goddess's final words from the other world floated back to me.
"Even if you return to Earth, there's no guarantee you'll go back completely intact. Are you sure you're alright with that?"
"I don't care. Just send me already."
"You're truly certain?"
"I said I'm fine."
I had a feeling she'd said a lot more than that, too.
Hmm……. At the time, all I could think about was getting back to Earth. Nothing else had registered.
I was about to go home. Why would I have listened to any of that?
"Chiiirp……. (Ah…….)"
If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have paid a little more attention.
That thought itself was already a week old.
A full week had passed since I'd started this new life.
And if I had to sum up everything so far in one conclusion—
This isn't as bad as I thought?
Compared to what I'd felt the moment I first woke up in this body, things were considerably better.
I'd even discovered a few advantages.
First: this body didn't need food. There was no need to eat anything for nutrition.
Back in the other world, I'd climbed high enough to stand among the transcendent. I hadn't needed to eat then either—so that trait had probably carried over.
Second: this body made it absurdly easy to win people over.
A crane among chickens, as the saying went.
One crane standing in a flock of hens. That crane was me.
Well—here it was a crow tit rather than a crane, but still.
Either way, a white crow tit stood out sharply among the gray mass of pigeons.
Add a body no bigger than a fist and the harmless look of a small animal, and people approached me with easy affection.
And lastly…….
"Caw."
"Chirp, chirp chirp. (Ugh, that crow.)"
A crow that had decided I looked like a meal came diving straight at me.
It had happened a few times already.
In the animal world of eat-or-be-eaten, a small body apparently made me look like an easy target.
An ordinary crow tit would have been hunted down on the spot.
But.
"Chirp chirp. (Where do these things keep coming from.)"
Unfortunately for it, the crow tit this one had chosen was no ordinary crow tit.
I watched the incoming crow with open irritation.
Maybe wild animals really did have sharp instincts. Sensing that something was off, the crow immediately tried to veer away.
Too late. Picking me as prey had been the mistake from the start.
Magic Missile
A white magic circle bloomed above the crow tit's head.
"Chirp chirp chirp chirp. (I'd really prefer no more of these today.)"
The circle finished in an instant and fired. A basic offensive spell known as Magic Missile.
It was a bizarre sight.
A fist-sized crow tit casting magic to take down a crow.
If a video of this had shown up on YouTube, people would have sworn it was AI-generated.
Anyway. The crow had derailed things a little, but—
Thankfully, even with the body changed, my magical attainment was intact.
Which was exactly why I could swat a crow out of the air with magic like that.
"Chirp. (Hup.)"
On top of that, a minor bonus: I could fly with magic, too.
I didn't need to flap my wings the way ordinary birds did. I could simply take to the sky.
A bird that flew without the sound of wingbeats—was that a stealth crow tit?
Wings neatly folded, still gliding through the air. The complete package.
And so, flying in that odd fashion, I made my way up into a tree.
A roadside tree on a university campus. Leaves filtered the light just right, and a soft breeze drifted through.
Watching the students pass along the path below was surprisingly entertaining.
Their faces, especially.
Every expression under the sun.
Some smiled, some looked ready to cry, some looked ready to drop from exhaustion—all of them walking the same stretch of road.
It made for excellent people-watching.
"Huh? Whoa. Gaeun, look, look."
"What is it, Mina. If this is nothing again, I swear—"
"No, that crow tit people have been talking about lately."
I supposed small animals really did attract attention and affection this easily.
A few people had already reacted like that upon spotting me in the tree.
Right now, two female students were squealing over me.
The one with short brown hair and bright black eyes seemed to be named Kang Mina.
Mina gave off a distinctly puppy-like vibe. The dog-like face, plus that energetic personality, only reinforced it.
The other one's name seemed to be Gaeun.
Long silver hair worn straight, and striking blue eyes.
She gave the opposite impression entirely.
A cat-like face—the feeling of a white-furred cat, almost.
"I saw it on Instagram. It's seriously adorable."
"Right? I get why people want it as the school mascot."
"Aww, I can't just take it home and raise it, can I?"
"It says it doesn't like you."
"Excuse me? What did I even do for a crow tit to hate me?"
Listening to the two of them, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I do kind of need a place to live.
Building a nest out of twigs like a real bird, though? Absolutely not.
I still had a human mind. A nest was a bit much. I'd rather keep living without a home, the way I was now.
Ideally, I wanted to live in a person's house.
Especially if there was a bed involved. A modern bed with a soft mattress.
Back in the other world, I'd thought about modern beds more times than I could count.
Hmm. Put that way, getting picked up by someone didn't sound so bad after all.
"Ah—the time! We're going to be late!"
"When have we ever not been late?"
"Still, I think we're actually going to miss it. Should we run?"
"Late is late whether it's five minutes or thirty. Why bother."
Mina looked at me with open regret.
"Hiiing. Okay, crow tit, take care. I'll come again."
"Birds fly all over the place, you know."
"Ugh, it's just a figure of speech."
Kang Mina waved big as she walked off.
Gaeun, looking resigned, gave me a small wave of her own.
I waved back—or rather, I waved a wing instead of a hand.
Whether they understood it or not was another matter.
I watched the two of them walk away.
"Chirp. (Fun kids.)"
I was still watching them grow smaller in the distance when—
"Chirp? Chirp chirp. (Huh? Something feels off.)"
A strange sensation prickled through me, and then—
"Kyaaaaah!!"
"Kyaak!"
Mana erupted from nowhere and swallowed the entire area.
The roadside tree I was sitting in, Gaeun, Mina—everything got caught in it.
Only moments ago we'd been standing on a university campus.
Now the scenery around us had transformed, in an instant, into something that looked like a cave.
"A Gate……?"
Gaeun glanced around, then murmured the word under her breath.