𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 °ᴿᵒᵏᶜᵃˡᵉ

3. The truth behind the rumour

Without changes

The whole Henituse mansion was a mess.

The young master Cale arrived with a injury In his face, the guards were also suffering from a few Injuries and were angry, shouting that a shameless guy hit their young master when he only tried to help him, Hans affirming everything they said.

And what does Cale think? Well...

"I told you there's no need to find him, father."

'If Choi Han is locked up then there will be a lot of problems...'

After all, the person who had almost as much power as the white star was Choi Han, and although he was not enough to defeat him and win the war, he was the only one who could at least make him suffer a little.

"What are you talking about son? That man beat you while you did nothing!"

His father said, but Cale knew well that everything he said was because there were people on his side, once they left Cale was going to be treated like the piece of shit he is.

And so he was, as soon as the doctors left to get him the herbal medicines he was told to take.

"What did you do to him?"

His father, the count, said blaming him.

"I told him we had better things to attend to before we found out who did that."

Cale replied coolly staring into the Count's eyes.

"More important things?"

"Yes, didn't you see the starving children and abused women In YOUR territory, Count?"

His father opened his eyes in surprise and looked at him, though his gaze did not linger for a single minute before he closed his eyes and looked away.

'Even years after her death, even when you're already married and have a daughter with another woman... you still refuse to look at me because I reminds you of her, don't you?'

Cale thought smiling, he wasn't going to tell him that but he had a feeling that Count Deruth already knew what he was thinking, as he left without another word to him.

'You haven't changed a bit, you're still just as much of a coward, wanting your son to take the fall for your messes'

Cale sighed and stood up, his head ached but he had work to do.

He put on a soft white silk dressing gown and went to the bathroom, the war he had suffered in his past life had forced him to learn to take care of his wounds on his own.

Half an hour later Hans entered the room to tend to his wounds, surprised when he saw Cale, who already had his wounds tended to.

"Young master...did someone take care of your wounds?"

"No, I did. It's probably bad but I don't want anyone to bother me so go, I'll take a nap."

Cale said as he climbed into bed to sleep, he was tired.

Unbeknownst to him, though he probably expected it, Count Henituse forced butler Hans to spread rumours that his son had quarrelled and provoked an innocent man.

A sense of deja vu, so different yet so similar.

The first rumour the Count spread about his eldest son was when he was 15 years old, saying that his son had started drinking, treating his employees horribly.

That was how Cale's nickname "Trash" was born.

But the truth was completely different, Cale started drinking at the age of 17 and it was because he was fed up with the rumours and the critical looks, so if they were already saying he was a trash, why not act like a trash?

And Cale never brought the servants in a bad way, he never threw anything at them, he respected them as long as they did their job well, and if they did it badly, Cale just told them that they had better do their job well next time, but it was not a threat but a warning to prevent the person who did his job badly from being fired.

The rumour that he threw a bottle of alcohol at a servant? Well that comes from Cale was about to throw away a bottle he found from a guard who drank on his shift, Cale knows that guard is one who does an excellent job and just had a bad week so he decided to get rid of the bottle, just as he was about to throw it away a servant appeared, scaring Cale and making him throw the bottle on the floor, it crashed near the servant so she thought the hit was meant to be for her, and not that it was just a simple accident.

Although it was quite unexpected how the next day when he went for a walk in the county with Hans by his side many people approached him to ask how he was doing, if the boy who hit him had been punished and if he needed anything please tell him.

"Hans...why are these people acting so weird?" Cale asked putting his head to the side showing his confusion, and frowning when Hans smiled.

"The count had forced me to spread rumors about you, negative rumors, I told him I was going to do it since you are my lord...but I couldn't, not when I know the truth and how kind our young master is, so I personally told all the workers one by one that all the rumors they heard about the young master were false."

'What?...'

Cale was speechless, he didn't understand why Hans would do that.

"Why would you do such a thing? Do you know how much the Count can punish you if he finds out you didn't listen to him?!"

Cale shouted worriedly, drawing the attention of many vendors, and unbeknownst to him the title of "Trash" that belonged to him was slowly disappearing.