Chapter 14: Heading Out (1)

Chapter 14: Heading Out (1) Translator: miraclerifle Editor: Borderline Masochist “It doesn’t look like you are nervous.” Cale smiled instead of responding to his father’s statement. Cale’s complexion had gotten much better in the last few days. It had no choice but to get better. ‘Since I didn’t get beaten to a pulp.’ It was raining in the Henituse territory until yesterday. If the story went as it did in the novel, Cale would have been beaten to a pulp on a rainy day. Of course, Cale was not beaten up yesterday. He could also sleep well now. This was because he could feel the Indestructible Shield always surrounding his heart. Knowing that he could manage to survive, even if he did something wrong to someone like Ron or Beacrox, made it easier for him to sleep at night. “Father.” Cale looked at the breakfast spread that was fancier than ever before, as he asked. “It looks like the number of people in the envoy has grown again. I asked you to reduce the number.” He had asked his father to decrease the number of servants accompanying him to help with his needs. He said that Hans and Ron were enough. Of course, Hans turned pale at first, however, he started to pack right away after hearing that the kittens will be traveling with them as well. “Ah, about that...” For some reason, Deruth stopped his sentence without finishing. At that moment, someone else’s voice interjected itself into their conversation. “That was my decision.” It was the Count’s wife, Violan. Her hair was perfectly formed in a bun, without a single stray hair, as she was looking down at her plate. She looked so similar to her son, Basen. Even the way they both did not make eye contact with Cale and had a stoic expression was the same. “We can’t have someone from our family looking poor and terrible just because you want to go with such a small envoy.” It was an extremely stoic voice. Violan then lifted up her gaze to look in Cale’s direction before continuing on. “... I am not saying you are terrible.” “Even I know that much.” Violan hesitated for a moment after hearing Cale’s response, before taking another bite of her food and continuing to speak. “People, especially nobles, care a lot about appearances.” The Countess Violan. Cale quietly watched her. She was born as the eldest daughter of a poor artist’s family, and had dreamt about being the head of a merchant guild when she grew up. She was influenced by the luxury items being sold to the nobles and came to the Henituse territory. Once she got here, she fell in love with the art of sculpting. Eventually, she met Count Deruth and fell in love, living as the director for the territory’s cultural business operations. In Cale, no, Kim Rok Soo’s opinion, she had a lot of pride for herself and her life, which was why she had a lot of pride for this family as well. Even though she knew that Cale was silently observing her, she continued on without a single change in her expression. “Art is not for those human tras- mm.” (PR: Cut off without the, ’h,’ on purpose) She was a bit of a coarse speaker because she worked in the merchant world for a while. “Anyways, there are a lot of people who think that appearances reveal everything about a person.” That was her way of telling Cale to take a lot of servants with him. Her goal was for Cale to not be judged negatively just because he only took a few servants with him. Naturally, Cale wanted to take a lot of people to do his biddings for him as well. ‘How nice and relaxing would it be?’ He was finding it difficult to get changed without a servant now. Kim Rok Soo had been in this world as Cale for only about a week, but he already could not let go of that easy life. However, a few days into Cale’s future was a crazy Black Dragon. If he cannot release this crazy dragon in advance, it might go wild and kill a lot of people. Although Cale didn’t care about what happened to other people, he still did not want to see people dying in front of his eyes. Furthermore, he also didn’t want to take responsibility for those people who will be injured because of the dragon. Responsibility was a heavy burden, and for someone like Kim Rok Soo, who had taken responsibility for his own life since he was a young boy, he knew that responsibility related to people and people’s lives was the scariest and heaviest burden. That was why he started to speak. “Art is the mirror of the soul.” Violan lifted her gaze off of her plate and looked toward Cale. This was the first time in a long while that the two of them had made eye contact with each other. “...You do know about that.” “Yes. I do know.” Cale had roamed around the entire territory the last four days to prepare the things he needed on this trip. He just recited one of the things he saw on one of those trips. “Sculpting is not just cutting into a chunk of marble. It is creating a reflection of what is in your heart.” This time, it was Cale who looked at his plate and continued to eat while Violan was watching him. “I read that on the plaque at the Gallery.” The Gallery in the Henituse territory displayed the works of new sculptors. That statement that was written on the plaque in the Gallery was something that Violan had personally written. “...Do as you wish. I will reduce the number of people going with you, but, in return, the carriage and everything in it shall be of the highest quality. That is how it should be for us Henituse people.” “That is fine with me. Please give me the most expensive stuff.” “Great. I will make sure you have a carriage that won’t even hurt your butt as you travel across bumpy roads.” “Only the best.” Cale could not see it because he was looking at his plate, but there was a slight smile on Violan’s face before it disappeared. Count Deruth, who had been watching this from the start, let out a fake cough to cover up his slowly rising smile and asked Cale. “Did you verify the information from Hans regarding the personalities of all the nobles who will be going to the capital?” Deruth had used his own network, as well as the information guild to purchase information on the other nobles, and had handed it to Hans to give to Cale. “Yes. It was pretty entertaining.” It was probably difficult to purchase that file. In fact, it probably cost a fortune. Although it only had about three or four lines about each person, it was precious and expensive to purchase information on nobles. “There are some petty ones, some stupid ones, some smart and scary ones, even some who are desperate for power. Looks like all sorts of people are coming this time.” Of course, there were also some stupidly nice people, villains, and trash as well. “You read the file I sent you. Ahem. Anyways, do as you please. But Cale.” “Yes, father.” “I heard a strange rumor.” Cale’s shoulders flinched just ever so slightly. “Apparently the man-eating tree, that black tree, has changed. It is now a white three with beautiful blue leaves. There are even grass growing in that spot where nothing used to grow.” The place that had changed the most in the last four days was none other than the top of the hill in the slums. It was a location where only the black tree had resided, however, that tree turned white with blue leaves after Cale had resolved its grudge, and it was now a beautiful tree that looked almost divine. “Isn’t it an interesting rumor?” “It is. What an interesting rumor.” Cale had no intentions of revealing his Ancient Power right now, so he simply pretended to have no knowledge of it. There was no way that Count Deruth did not know about the fact that he went to the slums. However, he would not have any knowledge of the Ancient Power. He would just suspect that something happened with Cale and the man-eating tree. “Yes, but it isn’t that big of a deal. However, you need to pay attention to rumors no matter what you do. There is nothing scarier than human eyes and mouths. However, anything that happens inside the territory is fine for members of our household.” “I will keep that in mind.” Cale felt like he really could live a peaceful life, as long as he remained in their territory. How great would it be to quickly come back from the capital and live the life of a couch potato? The luxurious breakfast that was made for Cale, who was leaving for the capital, finally came to an end. He received goodbyes from the Count and Countess, who couldn’t watch him leave because they had work to do, and then made eye contact with his siblings, who were awkwardly standing there. “What?” His younger brother, Basen, just shook his head at Cale’s question. His younger sister, Lily, slowly approached him. 7 years old. This youngest sibling of his was 11 years apart from him. “P, please have a safe trip.”