Red Means I love you

His Royal Highness (1)

The young master's voice was cold, but Alberu could also hear how he was out of breath; Huffing and puffing after every word.

"Wha..."

"Let us take care of  this"

 Alberu couldn't believe what he was hearing right now.

Was this really the same sweet and naïve looking kid that greeted him into the estate three days ago? 

Actually.. Who are you?

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<Three days before the assassination attempt>

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Morning, first day of the ball

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Cale had let the little blob and the half blood go out of the room when he was about to change; Something he had made sure to do every time he had to change his bandages.

  The little blob was oddly adamant on sticking at him like a honey at first, but slowly agreed to compromise to just leave him be when he need to take a bath. Which Cale was thankful for, since he didn't want to coax the child every time he needs to go to the bathroom.

Speaking of changing...

Cale unwrapped the bandages that were wrapped all over his left shoulder.

Ah..

He should have known...

The veins that were shrinking were starting bulge again. It wasn't as bad as when he first got it, but it's definitely back to it's disgusting state.

Throb

It was faint, but he certainly could feel the blackened veins in his system pulsing irregularly-- almost like they were slowly squeezing his heart to the corner... 

Was it because he used the ancient power?

 It could be... 

  The vitality must have been dealing with the black veins so far, and the drawback of using the other ancient power must have split the work of vitality to fixing the drawback of using the other ancient power and countering the poison.

Cale frowned; He already tried extracting the poison numerous times before. 

  From inserting a tube to his blood vessels to poor out the poisoned blood out, to burning the part of the infected flesh itself... Well, safe to say none of those methods had worked. Plus, he couldn't do much since he still had to attend the meeting with the other Noble kids-- 

And by the third day he got this ugly scar, Cale given up using the usual methods to getting rid of poison from a persons body. 

  The poison had definitely already infected his whole heart, maybe even his whole left shoulder, by then either way. It was quite obvious with how the veins in his system had started to pop out and throbbed like crazy... 

Cale couldn't help but laugh bitterly every time he remembered how painful they were.

Knock 

knock

"Young master, are you finished changing?" Hans asked from the other side of the door,

"In just a minute,"

Cale took another set of bandages and covered his left shoulder, forearm, and up to his neck with it. "You can come in now, Hans"

  He honestly doesn't care if Hans were to see it by now, especially since the young butler had already known about it in the first place. But Cale would prefer to avoid getting that weird look from the butler if he could.

"The Mistress had already prepared your clothes as you know, Young master"

"Yes, I am aware of that"

  Cale doesn't know what that uneasy look Hans had meant, but whatever it was. It couldn't be good...

"You see..." Hans nervously pulled a clothing rack into the bathroom. And the more part of the clothing Cale saw enter the room, the more he understood why Hans looked uneasy.

To put it simply...

It was definitely not what he was used to wearing,

"Young master?" Hans looked at Cale with his jittery smile, 

"What are you waiting, help me put it on"

"Ah, yes!"

    There were more accessories and intricate looking golden linings than what Cale was use to wear. But it wasn't too much to the point they end up looking obnoxious; 

And even with the majority of the clothes being dark blue, the countess still managed to add some red touches in his attire. 

Was the theme this year dark blue?

Cale wondered as he slid in his arms to the sleeves while Hans held the jacket up for him.

The fabric felt, almost contrary with it's sharp appearance, as soft as a feather. Cale was also glad the collar was rather high and almost covered his entire neck, if not, he would have to use another layer...

"Wow..." Hans claps his hands together, eyes sparkling "You look really handsome young master!"

"Of course I am,"

Cale fixed his glove, 

  There is only five more hours before the Henituse County starts to accept it's first guests to their the open doors.

And it also meant He only have five more hours roughly before he could meet the prince.