Teaser
“Martial Arts?”
“Yes, Cale-nim.”
Cale had a bad feeling about this.
Choi Han did not see Cale’s stiff face as he stared out at the castle gates and continued to speak.
“I don’t know which competition they will participate in, but those two people seem very strong. I believe they will reach the finals.”
Choi Han’s gaze was very sharp.
“Mm, I can’t tell what their preferred weapon of choice is, but I guess you don’t need to use a sword to fight? Based on one of their shoulders, it looks like their weapon of choice may be a bow.”
Cale looked toward Ron, who started to smile.
“There’s an assassin who is a servant, so who says they cannot do art or cooking?”
Cale had forgotten for a moment that this was a fantasy world.
This was a world where an average looking cook was a poison specialist, and your neighbor working at the repair shop could be someone who used metal shards to brutally murder people.
He had forgotten about how scary this world was.
“Choi Han.”
“Yes, Cale-nim.”
“The Henituse territory only has a cooking, art, and sculpting competition.”
Cale was curious how Choi Han would respond to this information.
“Ah, I see! They must do martial arts as a hobby then.”
Seeing Choi Han pass it off like it was nothing made Cale think it was a very MC-like response.
“Those humans are still not as strong as my front paw!”
“Noona, should we go win the competitions? I want to compete.”
“You don’t know how to do any of those things.”
After seeing the individuals next to him, Cale had no choice but to admit that this was how this world was set up to be. The carriage soon passed by the castle and into the Estate. Cale asked Ron about the details.
“What is the competition schedule?”
It would be better if the territory was filled with strong experts. Ron handed him the schedule. Cale looked it over before asking Choi Han a question.
“You remember their faces?”
“Yes, Cale-nim.”
A munchkin world really was amazing. Why did there have to be so many experts? This was a difficult world for a weakling like him to survive.
Cale turned his gaze over to Rosalyn, who was sitting in a corner of the carriage. She had not said anything since he had told her about the Northern alliance. She seemed to be deep in thought ever since their discussion.
‘Young master Cale, may I request for a meeting after I meet with my youngest brother, err, the fourth prince? Of course, I will not tell my brother about the alliance right away.’
That was what Rosalyn had said to him yesterday. Cale just told her to do whatever was easiest.
“Woooooah boy-.”
Cale could hear Hilsman’s voice from the driver’s seat as the carriage came to a stop. They had stopped outside the gates of the estate. Cale let out a sigh as he opened the carriage door and Raon turned invisible.
“Where are you going?”
“Orabuni!” [1]
His youngest sister, Lily, was standing outside the gate. The 7-year-old seemed to have spent a lot of her time outside, as she was very tanned.
“You seem to have been training very hard.”
“Yes! I’ve been giving it my all!”
Lily, who was confidently answering that she was training hard, seemed to have improved quite a bit. Since she trained enough to get really tanned like this, her skills had no choice but to improve. Cale looked at the wooden sword at Lily’s waist, as well as the longer wooden sword on her back.
Lily flinched at his gaze, before quickly starting to speak.
“The one on my back is something I made because I was curious about a long wooden sword!”
“Really?”
‘But the sword has many scratches on it, like you swung it down on firewood or something?’
“Yes! That is it!”
Lily answered very respectfully as she avoided Cale’s gaze. She then quickly added on.
“And I have finished my knight training for the day! So I am going to play! I received mother’s approval, so I am going out for one hour! I am only going to the alley with the restaurants nearby, so I will be safe!”
The 7-year-old explained the situation in detail to Cale. She must have felt guilty, even though Cale just looked at her and never asked for an explanation.
“Okay. Have fun. See you at dinner.”
“Yes, yes sir!” [2]
Cale motioned for her to go, and Lily looked back a couple times as she quickly started to run toward the restaurant alley. The staff of the estate frequently ate at the alley, so it was both cheap and clean.
Cale got back on the carriage and started to think.
‘Something is suspicious.’
Didn’t she seem like the stereotypical youngest child of a wealthy family who found a hidden expert to serve as a master in the woods? Cale made eye contact with Ron, whose left arm still needed about two weeks to be completed.
“Look into it.”
“Yes, young master-nim.”
He didn’t need to explain to Ron for him to understand. The sly old man who had lived in this world longer than he had seemed to be having the same suspicions as Cale.
Countess Violan had probably looked into Lily already, but it was better for him to do his own investigation. Cale confirmed the details of the cooking competition before returning to the estate with the schedule in his hand.
An unexpected person greeted him at the door.
“Basen.”
“Hyung-nim.”
“Mm, were you waiting for me?”
Basen did not respond to Cale’s question, instead, he just opened up the file in his hands and started to speak. Cale could not even walk through the door as he stood there watching what Basen was doing.
“Hyung-nim, I heard you will be staying home during the festival.”
“That is correct.”
“Would it be possible for you to present the awards for the competitions?”
Cale started to smirk. The file in Basen’s hands were administrative tasks for the territory. Basen was now at the level to take care of such tasks. Cale had never even touched a proper administrative file for the territory yet.
This was a good sign. However, he quickly had a question.
“What about father?”
“Father will be giving the opening address, but said that he was too busy to deal with all of the small competitions. Father said that it would be great for myself, hyung-nim, or Lily to do it.”
“And mother?”
“She is the commissioner, so she will be giving the Commissioner’s Award, but you will be presenting the awards to the winners.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
Cale didn’t feel like doing it. In addition, Basen needed to do it for people to remember Basen better.
“I am currently busy with work for the territory. I need to show up at the competition in order to present the awards, but I do not have time right now as I am currently learning about how to handle the administrative tasks for the territory.”
Cale started to smile. If Basen was busy learning about how to run the territory, it would be fine for him to give out the awards like this. Would people really remember him for such a deed? Basen needed to learn properly so that he could take care of everything in the future.
“Alright, I will do it since you are busy. You will need to study hard in order to be responsible for half of the territory’s administration in the future.”
‘Since Lily is working hard to lead the military side.’
“You are very reliable.”
Cale patted Basen’s shoulder and cheered him on. Basen responded back with a sincere expression, as if he had made up his mind about something.
“Yes, hyung-nim. Please trust me and leave it to me.”
‘Of course. This territory is for you and Lily.’
Cale put on a happy smile for once and nodded his head.
“Don’t push yourself too hard. I will be heading in now.”
He walked past Basen and headed into his chamber. His stride was both relaxed and light. Basen observed his brother’s back for a bit before receiving Cale’s group’s greeting and heading toward the castle.
Since he was not talented in martial arts like Lily was, Basen had made up his mind to learn the administrative tasks as best as possible to become an Administrative Expert. Basen Henituse, the fifteen-year-old, now had a dream.
His entire family was cheering him on as well. That thought made the stoic Basen start to smile.
It was a dream that would probably cause Cale to faint if he realized what was going through Basen’s mind.
Cale’s face was full of boredom. It was even close to exhaustion.
Crown prince Alberu was looking at Cale with a similar expression. They were tired of each other after seeing each other via video every day. However, they still needed to talk to each other because there was work to be done.
The fourth prince will arrive within the next month.
Did his father know that Rosalyn was a princess? Although Cale had never told him, he assumed Count Deruth would know because Hans knew about it. He started to think about a lot of things as Alberu continued to speak.
He accidentally said the truth.
But Alberu ignored his feelings, as usual.
‘Who you are? You have a ton of mages under your command. I’m sure you have a lot of magic devices as well.’
Cale accepted this fact and nodded his head at Alberu, who continued to speak.
Alberu put on a bitter smile thinking about the incident. The Pope was at a platform that was lower than the Emperor yet higher than the Imperial Prince, who was next to the Emperor. It was made that way to give face to the Pope. That was not something to smile bitterly about. There was a different issue.
Cale suddenly thought about Hais Island 5.
“An explosion?”
‘Crazy.’
Cale almost said that out loud. At the same time, he was confused. He thought that the Imperial Prince would have done it, but the Imperial Prince would not do something so obvious.
Also, didn’t Alberu already say that the Holy Twins were the culprits?
The term, ‘us,’ made Cale’s expression change. The only thing Alberu could be referring to was the capital’s Plaza Terror Incident.
Cale quietly sat there with a stiff expression. Alberu continued on like he understood what Cale was thinking.
Alberu still had not forgotten about that mage.
Cale avoided Alberu’s gaze.
That was the truth. Although Choi Han cut off both arms and made Redika go blind, he was not the one to kill him. That crazy swordsman was the one who killed Redika.
Cale could hear Alberu’s deep sigh, but chose not to care about it. He had enough to worry about even without it.
‘Something is fishy about the Sun God Twins and the magic bombs.’
However, he had no way to find out. It was a new incident, so he had no way to know anything about it. He also couldn’t send Ron or anyone else to go find out about it.
Most importantly, Cale just hoped that he would not get dragged into it.
Cale had no problem answering casually like this. Alberu started to get a headache. He sighed as he continued to speak.
‘But she said he was a total bitch and a whiner?’
Cale thought about Rosalyn’s words as he nodded his head. The two soon ended their conversation. Cale put his video communication device in his magic bag, as they would not need to chat for a while.
The next day, Cale was sitting on a platform looking down. Down below was a large area with spectators sitting in a circle.
Cale, who was sitting at the highest platform, opened up the paper in his hand.
Cale nodded his head at Raon’s question. A different competition would take place every day starting today.
Cale had taught Raon about money this morning.
Cale nodded his head. It would not be expensive to buy Raon things from the night market. Cale could hear Raon snickering in his head and looked down.
The kittens, On and Hong, each had a necklace with a pouch on it. It was a pouch with their allowance. Mary, who was wearing her black robe, had a black pouch as well. Her allowance was in this pouch.
“I’m a really generous person sometimes.”
Cale, who said something which would make Rosalyn be shocked again, reached his hand out toward Choi Han and Ron. There was a piece of paper in his hand.
“So, it is these three people?”
A cook, an artist, and a sculptor.
Choi Han started to explain in order.
“A former knight, an archer, and an assassin.”
‘My goodness.’
Cale could not believe it.