an unfortunate change in genre

Part 36

There's a unique quality to truly broken people.

Perhaps it has to do with how those that broke too thoroughly to stand up again were all still prone and paralyzed from their first break, making by default the rest of the broken appear to be unique when there was just as much variety among them as there is with other populations.

All of that would be pure speculation upon an observer though.

What could be known for sure was that those that had broken beyond repair had the rather unique quality of being able to stand through any trauma.

Alberu couldn't help but think there were a disproportionate amount of broken people around him.

Perhaps he was broken as well.

Cale's perfect posture and thuggish expression hid how shattered he was inside with such totality that Alberu almost wouldn't have noticed.

For this broken man, he was facing his worst fears. His stepmother barely hung onto life even with the best healers that the Henituse territory could afford.

His younger brother was kidnapped.

The memory of Cale's drunken sobs, his fears about being unable to protect the people he loved, the broken way he'd trembled.

There was no sign of that man right now.

A broken person, a truly shattered and ruined person, seemed to have the unique ability to look their worst fears in the face and grin with sarcastic cheer.

And then bash those fears over the head with true malice.

Cale Henituse was on the very edge of losing himself and yet still stood.

It scared Alberu. He was scared they'd be too late to save Roksu, scared that Cale was beyond repair, scared that when the strings that held Cale up finally snapped he really wouldn't get up again.

After all, how many times could a broken person really drag themselves to their feet again?

It wouldn't give Alberu much relief to know that Cale was one of those unique people who would never stay down no matter how he was broken.

In fact, that knowledge would have made it all the worse.

Alberu had the sense not to voice his concerns about Cale even coming along though. As much as he wanted Cale as far away from all of what was to come as possible, there was a brunt determination there that assured all those who saw it that if Cale was disallowed from going, he'd just go alone. It was better to at least keep him in line of sight.

Cale wasn't the only one worrying him though.

The tension that coiled around Choi Han and Raon was so ominous and Alberu was giving the pair a wide berth. He knew that Choi Han could look rather cold and merciless in the face of the enemy but the malice was unsettling.

Of course Alberu being the hypocrite he was wasn't aware of how he was also standing with wound up tension, like a gun cocked and ready to blow out the brains of the first fucker that got in his face.

Duke Fredo, the only person in this party who wasn't personally associated with the kidnapping victim, felt that perhaps the level of homicidal rage that just radiated from all individuals involved was a touch on the excessive side. He didn't even want to look at the assassin and the cook, those two made his skin crawl.

Duke Fredo wasn't really intimidated by them all, he was stronger than them all after all and he only needed their assistance due to his own oath of nonviolence against that damn White Star, but he also wasn't foolish.