-Third Person POV-
-Location: Palace of Joy-
'Sigh, so childish. Is it like this because it is a world inside a book? Or is it because it is a fantasy world? Is it possible that punks like this exist in the real world too? They must exist since he's provoking me like this.'
The son of a viscount dares to speak like this to the son of a count? Cale thought it was only happening because it was a novel, but dealing with this made Cale extremely frustrated.
'I'm not even the MC. Can I not deal with cliches like this?'
Cale wanted to just tell Ron to kill these stupid villains who didn't know their place.
Cale just continued to look down at Neo. Neo's expression brightened even more. To Neo, Cale was trash who just looked fine on the outside. For someone like Neo, who had to suck up to Venion the entire time he was at the capital, Cale was a good prey to bother.
"What? Do you want to throw a bottle at me? Or do you want to hit me? Go ahead and try."
'He's just provoking me. He's doing it on purpose. He can't take any magic items into the palace, so he won't be able to take a magic recording device inside. That is why he's trying to rile me up out here.'
If Cale caused a ruckus here, it would be seen as a fight between trash and a dignified noble. It would only be to Neo's advantage, that was why he was trying to provoke Cale to bring down the Henituse family name.
Cale just sat there. He then heard a voice inside his head.
It was the dragon speaking through magic.
- What a bastard. It reminds me of that bastard Venion. I bet Eve also want to kill him. After all, he was one of the people that beat her up and laugh at her.
'He is Venion's minion. He's also one of the people that Eve might kill in the future.'
Although Cale could not say that out loud, the dragon continued to speak in Cale's mind.
- Should I kill him? No, never mind. Eve will do it. I saw her looking through the window, holding back her anger even though it doesn't show.
Cale shook his head to the dragon who was following him while remaining invisible.
Seeing Cale shake his head made Neo provoke Cale once again, as it did not look like Cale was going to bite.
-Meanwhile...-
Eve was looking down on her lap as she sat down in front of someone. She doesn't have the gut to look up to the person in front of her.
"Who are you?"
She tried not to flinch as she look up slowly and mutter her name in a whisper-like voice.
"My name is Eve..."
"What are you doing here, Eve?"
The person in front of her smiled as he tried to ask her some questions. Yes, the smile of the sun as Cale said to her. He is Alberu Crossman. Cale had told her if she ever gets caught, just tries to compliment her way out of there.
Before she could open her mouth, she had dodged an incoming dagger that was coming at her. She looks at the dagger before looking at Alberu again.
"You're not human, are you? You don't seem to have the presence of any other human."
Eve hides her shock and hesitantly nodded her head. She looks at Alberu straight in the eyes and stares at him before sighing and introducing herself.
"Eve is a...zombie. She doesn't know how old she is but she only remembers she died when she was 7 years old."
Alberu looks at her for a moment before covering his face. He was wondering who sent a child, nonetheless a zombie into the palace. Even if he asked the child, she will never answer. He doesn't want to resort to violence.
-Back to Cale...-
At that moment, Cale's gaze turned to a new carriage that just arrived.
Bang! The carriage door burst open as soon as the carriage stopped, and Eric Wheelsman got out of the carriage. Gilbert and Amiru were inside the carriage as well.
Cale signalled Eric, who was rushing over with his eyes wide open, his eyes while pointing to Neo with his index finger.
"Hyung-nim."
Cale's sincere voice that called out to him, as well as the cold gaze in Cale's eyes, told Eric everything he needed to know.
'Get rid of him.'
The eyes of the calmly standing Cale were giving that message to Eric.
"Ahem. Mm! Young master Neo, it has been a while."
Eric immediately moved in between Cale and Neo. Neo's eyes seemed to be defeated.
He thought he had found a good prey, but it was now difficult to hunt this prey with Eric Wheelsman present.
"Yes, young master Eric. I hope you have been well."
Neo greeted Eric that way before also greeting young lady Amiru and young master Gilbert. He then saw them all standing in front of Cale, and clicked his tongue.
'I guess they are protecting him. Even if he is trash, he is still on their side after all.'
Neo decided not to do anything after seeing the three of them protecting Cale. Eric noticed Neo's intent and slowly turned around to look at Cale.
Neo's gaze turned to Cale as well.
"Mm."
Neo then subconsciously let out a groan.
Cale was quietly looking down at Neo with his arms crossed. Cale's eyes were extremely scornful. He had not said anything to Neo since earlier on, but his gaze and his body language said everything that needed to be said.
'Classless fool.'
It made Neo think about the gaze Venion used to look at him. Even though Neo was angry when Venion looked at him with such a gaze, he consoled himself by saying it was the look of a higher ranking noble and let it go.
Cale turned away after watching Neo's shaking pupils for a while, and looked behind him. He heard the Black Dragon's report in his ear.
There was a reason he brought the Black Dragon with him today.
- The voice recording magic is ready. Eve...was caught after she was distracted by him. I can't sense her anymore.
Cale had asked the Black Dragon to record everything that happened today. Video recording required a lot of mana usage and was difficult to maintain for a long period, so Cale had to be satisfied with just voice recording. He was shocked to hear that Eve was caught because she was in rage by the man that talk to him a moment ago.
'Did she run into anyone? I hope not.'
Cale was originally not going to do this because the palace would have a lot of mages who were sensitive to mana, but the Black Dragon assured him that it would be undetected as long as the range of the voice recording and the invisibility was small.
Cale made up his mind to use this in the future to make Neo cry tears of blood, before heading toward the palace entrance. Cale was the type of person to always pay back his debts.
Eric Wheelsman watched Cale walk away like a proud brother. He was thinking that the letters he sent every day must have worked.
On the other hand, Gilbert and Amiru watched Cale with curious expressions. Cale Henituse, the man who used to only wear flashy clothes, chose to wear a simple black outfit without any accessories. Even his red hair was clean and shining from the sun.
They wondered if it was because Cale was not drunk.
Each of Cale's steps looked relaxed and calm.
Amiru and Gilbert watched Cale turn around once he got to the palace entrance.
Cale's gaze, which seemed to be beckoning them over, was the most curious thing for them.
"Young master Neo, I will see you inside. Young lady Amiru and young master Gilbert, let us go."
Eric was watching Cale proudly, but Amiru and Gilbert had an even stranger sensation when the three of them stood in front of Cale.
Cale looked at the two confused people, as well as the proud Eric, and started to speak.
"Let's go."
The three of them followed Cale into the palace. Gilbert and Amiru's odd sensation continued to grow the farther they followed Cale. Cale did not care however and decided he would use these three people as much as he could today.
"Young master Cale-nim of Count Henituse's household is entering the hall!"
Cale could hear the servant shout out Eric, Gilbert, and Amiru's names as well as he walked into the hall.
"Not bad."
He looked around the large hall before walking behind Eric. Young lady Amiru peeked toward Cale, before walking next to him and starting to speak.
"Young master Cale. At the front of the banquet hall is the crown prince's seat, and the tables are split based on region. The reason for that-."
Amiru, who was about to explain the reason why the tables are split based on region, looked at Cale's expression, before changing what she was going to say.
"I probably don't need to explain the reason, right?"
"Thank you very much, young lady Amiru, but I know the reason."
Cale watched Amiru nod her head with a curious expression on her face and then head toward the tables to the Northeast section of the room.
There were five tables inside the hall. Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, and the centre. They were all divided based on each of the noble factions.
'The crown prince is good at things like this.'
He controlled things in the background to make the factions compete with each other while also forcing them to come together every so often. It was the crown prince's specialty. But the crown prince was very thorough about his treatment as well.
The crown prince's table was located to the front of all five of these tables, at a location that was about two steps higher than the rest.
'The second and third prince's seats are one step lower than his.'
One step lower than the crown prince's table was the table for the second and third princes. Even if this event was being hosted by the crown prince, it would be weird for the second and third princes to not attend a gathering of nobles. Since the crown prince was the one to host it, he made sure to show a gap between their status.
'He pays attention to these tiny, useless details.'
The crown prince, actually, all of the people in those positions of power, were not Cale's type of people.
"Our table is closest to the entrance, as expected."
Cale did not respond to Eric's bitter voice. The Palace of Joy had opened the eastern entrance as the designated entrance, and the Northeastern region nobles' table was the closest to the door.
Although the Northeastern region had a voice, they did not have a household that was strong enough to have a loud voice. Cale raised his hand to pat Eric's shoulder.
"It's great that our seat is close to the door. In addition, it is great that we don't have anyone we have to lower our head to at our seat."
Other regions had strong people in charge, like Marquis Stan, whom the rest had to be respectful to and subservient.
The other three people walking with Cale stopped walking. Cale also stopped walking after seeing them halt. Eric turned around to look at Cale for a while, before finally starting to speak.
"Young master Cale."
Since they were in the company of others, Eric did not call Cale casually by name.
"I'm glad that my efforts seem to have paid off."
'Efforts? What efforts?'
Cale looked toward Eric with shock and confusion, but Eric turned back around and proudly walked to the table that was closest to the entrance.
Eric did not know that Cale never read his letters and just shoved them to a corner of the room.
"Why is he like this?"
Young lady Amiru shook her head at Cale's question. Gilbert showed a similar reaction. Cale then shrugged his shoulders and headed toward the table.
But an announcement made him stop moving.
"Young master Venion Stan of Marquis Stan's household has arrived!"
Cale understood why Neo Tolz did not follow them inside the Palace of Joy. Venion. Neo Tolz was standing right behind Marquis Stan's successor, Venion.
But Cale did not care for chumps like Neo or Venion.
"Cale!"
Eric called out to Cale, who suddenly started quickly walking to his seat, but Cale just waved him off and sat down.
"Mm."
"Ah, welcome young master Cale."
"Hello, young master Cale."
Cale gave a short response to all of those respectful greetings.
"Hello. Good to see all of you."
Silence suddenly filled the table, and Cale put his hand underneath the tablecloth without others noticing.
'I knew it.'
He could feel the invisible Black Dragon's body shaking.
- "I'm okay. I told you that I am okay."
Cale listened to the Black Dragon's voice in his head and patted its shaking body. Anger and fear. The Black Dragon's mind was full of both right now. That was why trauma when you are young, is so scary. He wonders what would Eve do once she is face to face with Neo. The Balck Dragon did mention he beat her up and laugh at her when she was in the cave.
The Black Dragon did not know how to respond because the physical trauma that its body remembered was not aligned with the rationality in its head.
- "I am okay. I am a great and mighty dragon."
Cale had told the Black Dragon when it said it wanted to follow him that Venion Stan would be here as well. He also got the Black Dragon to promise that it would not kill Venion Stan today. He also promised something else to the dragon.
- "Later. I will kill that bastard and the rest later."
The Black Dragon was planning on ripping them into shreds so that they turned into fine particles of dust. Cale calmed the Black Dragon down while listening to its extremely angry voice. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be causing its mana to go wild because of this anger.
Cale thought that dragons were very rational creatures. Cale thought about the hell that awaited Venion and the idiots who were aligned with Marquis Stan in the future and stopped patting the dragon.
Thankfully, it did not seem like the dragon was going to run wild. If it did, this palace would easily be destroyed, and Cale would probably be dead as well. Cale let out a sigh of relief, before looking around.
He could see Eric's group and Venion's group both heading this way. It made sense since Venion's table was the Northwest table next to them.
Tap. Tap.
The Black Dragon rubbed his head on Cale's leg.
"Mm."
The Black Dragon's action made Cale worry for a moment. He made eye contact with Eric at that time, who was fervently signalling Cale with his eyes.
'Stay quiet! Be still!'
Cale just ignored the signals. He then debated how he could pretend not to know Venion. However, all of his contemplations were for naught, as Venion greeted him first.
"Long time no see, young master Cale."
-To be continued...-
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