bluebird, redbird

2

      "Hey, Huey!"

      In the mess hall of the northern base, the captain of a unit was holding a meeting while grabbing lunch after the end of a shift when the voice of his colleague, another who had joined at the same time but was in another unit, called out to him. In his colleague's hands were sheaves of documents and miscellaneous parcels, and perched neatly on top of it all was a small vividly blue bird.

      "Huh?"

     The end of his night shift had fired Huey up. Meeting interrupted, he frowned questionably at the little bird which hopped over from his smirking colleague.

       "What is it?"

      Extremely popular in the capital for its claims of being able to find those whose whereabouts were not well-known to the sender, these letters were primarily used by nobles for private exchanges with their secret lovers.

      Why had something like this come to him? The serious mood of the meeting was blown. Under the inquisitive eyes of his unit the small bird returned to its original shape as an envelope.

      No idea which acquaintance would go to the effort of sending a letter to such a godforsaken place like this, he roughly grabbed the letter, broke the seal and discarded it. Many round multicolored things scattered about, and his eyes widened at the sender's name. He had had several business-like exchanges with the owner of the name's father, but it had been a long time since he'd actually seen the actual person's name.

      "Ooh, bonbon!"

   A sweet scent wafted in the air. Voices cried out in joy. There's more than enough for everyone, they said. Even better, the recipient was well-known for his dislike of sweets. However, when their hands reached for that rare treasure, all were mercilessly struck down and screams bounced off the walls.

      "Don't just eat others' things."

      Good grief, Huey muttered. He stuffed the letter and remainders of white wrapping paper into his breast pocket.

      "Captain, when did you start liking sweets?"

      "Right now."

      "Heartless. You show off."

      "The captain's fiancée is twelve years old, if I remember correctly..."

      "Sixteen, beginning of Spring. Enough, let's get back to the meeting."

      "Gahh, I'm so jealous..."

      "I hope you're whipped."

      "You lot are too rowdy."

      "Ahhh, I want a sweet sixteen year old fiancée too..."

      "I said, focus!"

      Huey somehow concluded the lunch cum meeting. He returned to his room and took a red bonbon from his pocket, tearing off the wrapper and throwing the round, translucent, jewel-like candy into his mouth as his eyes landed on the paper.

I have much I want to write, but for now I'll say I look forward to meeting you.

      That one short line summed up the letter's entire content.

      Huey had spent more than half of his childhood in an orphanage. Without any possession to his name, he crawled his way up, accepted a scholarship, and then he was introduced to the older brother of a military school friend where the topic of marriage came up.

      His fiancée had been a child, still a long ways away from adulthood when the engagement was initially confirmed. Due to the fact that she had been raised in seclusion and they had never met, he was sure their relationship would be strictly for form's sake.

      He had thought he wouldn't particularly mind. However, when he put himself in the shoes of the young girl, who had watched as her older sisters married the ones they love, even he had some misgivings. That must be why she never once tried to make contact, he interpreted.

      Receiving this unexpected correspondence, he smiled faintly.

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