26

In order to achieve the results he wanted, Cale had to choose to camp outside. There were no villages along the way until the village near the hidden cave of the Black Dragon.

Meeeeeow.

The red Cat Tribe kitten Hong meowed and wagged his tail, as if he was excited. It was because of the delicious smell filling the area.

'The joy of the day comes from eating a delicious dinner.'

That was what Cale was thinking. A warm dinner was the signal to end the long and tiring day, and start a relaxing night.

Tonight's main course was a soup with rabbit meat.

"Damn it."

It was not Ron's doing. Cale turned his gaze to the side. Choi Han, the person who had caught the rabbits, was happily eating his soup.

Meeeeow.

Tap. Tap. On and Hong were tapping on his leg, asking him to give it to them if he didn't want it. Hans had a wide smile on his face as he cautiously approached the two children.

"Would our precious kitten-nims like to eat the jerky that I prepared for you? It is very healthy, without any salt or preservatives."

Naturally, On and Hong ignored Hans. Hans, who did not know they were part of the Cat Tribe, found that sass to be cute as well and continued to linger around them.

Contrary to the fact that they had their first battle, it was a very relaxed and peaceful environment. However, the atmosphere around the knights seemed to be a bit odd. They kept peeking toward Choi Han, who was eating his soup next to Cale. The Vice Captain seemed to be full of agony.

"Tsk."

Cale clicked his tongue.

Cale's party had to fight off tens of bandits today. The one to handle most of those bandits was naturally Choi Han. He did not kill the bandits. However, he had no issues cutting off a limb or leaving them a deep scar. Not only that, he did it in an unbelievable speed too.

'Young master, the battle is over.'

The Vice Captain had reported this to Cale with a shocked expression on his face. He had not expected it to end so quickly.

The bandits were ones who were pushed out of power in a different area nearby. The bandits they had thought were stupid were at their limits and felt that they could handle five knights because of their numbers.

Unfortunately, their first target ended up being Cale's carriage with Choi Han.

The reason the Vice Captain's face was completely pale was not because of the strength of the bandits. Choi Han approached next to the Vice Captain and added on.

'It was a light battle. Not even enough for a warm-up.'

Cale could see the Vice Captain slightly flinch after hearing Choi Han's words. He could also see Choi Han smirking while looking at the Vice Captain flinch.

'He really isn't the type to let people do as they please with him.'

There was no way that someone like Choi Han, who had no issues beating up the Count's son, would be nice and let people just continue to mess with him.

"Do you have no appetite?"

Ron asked him gently as he approached him.

Choi Han responded to that statement.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, nothing like that."

Ron obviously knew that was a lie as Cale had told him about the ancient powers he had and that he was only alive because of his divine body.

Cale was smiling but under the mask he was suffering in silence, after all he was used to it

Cale looked toward Choi Han, and waved his hand to tell Choi Han to not mind him.

However, Choi Han continued to look toward Cale with a serious gaze.

"What are you looking at?"

"…Was that you first time experiencing a battle?"

Cale just casually responded back to Choi Han who asked with a serious expression.

"What battle? You mean with the bandits earlier?"

"Yes."

"Of course. I've never seen so many bandits before."

"I see."

Choi Han nodded his head and quietly mumbled to himself.

"…Must have been your first time facing potential death."

As if

When he was even smaller and weaker he was a simple prey for everyone so it was normal that he was beaten almost to death by his father or one of the maids who then gave him a high quality potion to cover up everything.

And unfortunately it worked and cale hated it.

He hated being beaten,

he hated being weak,

he hated his father but most of all . . . he hated himself.

Corrosive thoughts keep buzzing in his head and the pain in his chest was getting worse and it was getting hard to breathe.

Ron obviously noticing announced it "Since the young master is tired and it's getting late, I will take the young master to the carriage to rest.

Saying I will  very accentuated so as to imply that he was the only one who could be with him right now.

Choi Han obviously frowned at the thought of the young man being alone with the assassin.

But Ron cared about Cale and would never hurt him.

As we entered the carriage Cale began clutching his chest and crying in pain.

The butler was surprised he had never seen his master cry, not even when his mother died.

Yet there he was, weak and powerless, curling up in pain.

Ron leaned on his level and started consoling him and telling him that everything would be okay and that he needed to be strong.

Cale put a handkerchief in his mouth to drown out the cries from coming out of the carriage doors.

Ron promised himself that he would protect Cale even if it cost his life.