Cale and Youna teleported to King Zed's office, of course they were invisible so they wouldn't surprise anyone if ever there were people inside.
When they arrived inside his office, the King was conversing with Marquis Stan, Taylor's father. Youna and Cale just stayed near the wall to avoid being noticed.
"Your Majesty, we need to pay attention to the Henituse Territory. They are gathering forces, knights and mages. I am afraid Count Deruth will use this to turnover the balance we have!" Marquis Stan said. The King knew that the knights and mages Deruth had recruited were for protection and for his firstborn.
"I am sure that is not the purpose why he gathered those knights and mages. You may have heard the news that his firstborn son always gets entangled with troubles. You're just overthinking," King Zed responded. And knowing Deruth, his intention is different from what people may speculate after all, his family's safety is his priority.
"Your Majesty—!"
"If that is all, you may leave. Count Henituse's intentions are different from what you think," King Zed said and dismissed the Marquis. The latter just gritted his teeth and exited the room.
The King sighed, when Cale made sure that no one would enter the office he told Youna to remove the invisibility. Only him was visible.
"Uncle Zed!" Cale called with a smile. The king got surprised with the sudden visit of the redhead but he remained composed and greeted him with a smile.
"Oh, Cale, it's been a while," Zed replied and walked closer to him, and gave the redhead a bear hug.
"Urk, you should do this to your sons, not me," Cale said as he was squeezed by the King.
"I know, I know. I just want to do this to my cute nephew," the King laughed.
"You grew taller compared to last time," Zed said as he patted Cale's head. The redhead just smiled smugly.
"What brings you here, Cale?" The King asked as he beckoned the redhead to sit on the sofa across from him.
"Hm, I want to ask your permission," Cale answered.
"Permission? From what?"
"Yes, permission. I would like to go out with the first prince," Cale answered with a stern voice. The King was taken aback from the redhead's request, he cleared his throat.
"Can you elaborate on this request?"
"Well, you see, the first prince might be feeling lonely in his palace and I want to recruit him in my adventure team."
"Adventure team?"
"Yes! We will go on an adventure and see different places. But I won't take him for too long, I know he's a prince and his safety is the number one priority here."
"Oh, I see. Well, you can take him with you for a while. He's been too immersed with his studies and work, I'm afraid he doesn't have any moment when he could rest," King Zed said with a worried gaze.
"Ayo, the first prince is working so hard since you are not paying him much attention. What's the price of spending some of your time with your son," Cale replied, sighing at his hopeless uncle. Zed pinched his cheeks.
"You cheeky, brazen brat," he said, while Cale struggled to get out of being pinched.
"You and father are the same. Ah, birds of the same feathers flock together, truly," the redhead said as the King let him go.
Before the King could respond to that, a knock interrupted him and the first prince entered. Alver was taken aback seeing that familiar red-haired with his father. Cale immediately glared at Youna who forgot to turn him invisible.
"Oh, Prince!" Cale beamed and raised his hand to greet Alver. He knew it was rude but he panicked.
"What are you doing here, Cale?" Alver asked as he regained his composure.
Cale approached the prince and grabbed him by the hand.
"We'll get going now, uncle! See you later!" Cale smiled and winked at the king. Alver was perplexed and looked back and forth to his father and Cale. The King just gave him an 'okay sign', then before Alver could protest, Youna took that sign to teleport back to where Ron and the others were.
Cale, Alver, and Youna stood before the dragons and the father-son duo. Ron was massaging his temples as soon as he saw Cale with the first Prince in tow.
"Young Master, I thought you'd just go to the Capital to get something. I didn't expect that you would kidnap the prince," Ron sighed. The old butler's headache was increasing due to the whims of his young master. Vicross and the dragons just shook their heads in resignation.
"I didn't kidnap him! I asked proper permission from his father," Cale said as he put his hands on his hips.
"Yes, that's right. Cale didn't kidnap him, I witnessed everything," Youna seconded. Ron just sighed once again. He felt like he was the only rational person in their group right now.
"Oh, right. I haven't told you why we took you," Cale turned to the bewildered Prince. Ron just gave up and facepalmed.
Isn't this basically a kidnapping? Ron was contemplating all his life decisions lately. He always loses his cool when it comes to his unpredictable puppy young master.
I thought he matured but it seems his mischief only grew worse, Ron thought.
"I haven't agreed to this yet, Cale," the Prince replied. The redhead frowned.
"It's not good to keep staying on your desk to work, you know. You need to take a break sometimes," Cale argued.
"You just took me here without any proper explanation where we are going and how long," Alver said. That's when Cale realized his mistake and just made a shocked pikachu face.
"Ahem, I'm giving you the honor of becoming one of the members of Cale's Adventure Team," Cale said after regaining his composure.
"We will find some places from the legends and I have some clues where to find them," Cale grinned.
"I didn't sign up for this," Alver sighed. He had a lot of work to do and he couldn't afford to rest. But seeing how carefree the redhead was, he couldn't help but to think it should be fine.
"Well, going with your whims should be fine," Alver finally yielded. Cale cheered in happiness.
"So to start it off, I am Cale, this is Ron my butler, Vicross, our chef, Youna and Oli, our mage, and Haben, our knight. As you all know this person is the prince, Alver but for the sake of our safety, we will call him Ali," Cale introduced them one by one and they just nodded.
He also told Youna to make the prince's hair red too so they could pretend like the three of them were siblings.
"Alright! Let's go, Cale's Adventure Team!" Cale proudly said as he raised his fist in the air. Youna also raised his fist too since he was excited as well. The others just shook their heads or shrugged their shoulders.
Cale started his journey off to the Paerun Kingdom, he didn't want to waste any time from traveling so they traveled by air—making their carriage fly. Once they arrived at Bago City, they settled their carriage in some inconspicuous location. All of them, except for Cale and Youna, were in disguise. The redhead Young Master was being careful not letting his companions be revealed, most especially his butler, Ron and chef, Vicross. Cale took Alver by the hand so he won't get lost in their excursion.
"What are we doing here in Paerun?" Alver asked in curiosity.
"Well, I am wondering about the legend here in Paerun," Cale answered.
"That's why I am here to find the truth about it! That's the kind of adventure I will do for the next few days," Cale continued.
"Then why did you even take me with you?" Alver said in dissatisfaction. Cale looked at him eye to eye.
"I also want you to know some truth about this world," Cale sternly answered. If one wouldn't know Cale, people would believe he was a serious person. Cale unintentionally let out a little of his [Divine Aura].
With his answer, all of his companions swallowed a lump from their throats and they were unable to respond to him. Cale's eyes contained animosity towards the legend he had spoken of. Nobody knew what kind of world the first Young Master of Henituse had seen. Seeing his expression, they didn't pry anymore.
Cale Henituse really possesses this weird aura that even a dragon like me could be devoured. It seems what he said before was the truth. How interesting, Eruhaben thought in amusement.
The golden dragon didn't regret following the red-haired human child in front of him. After he learned that Cale was the one who brought the red and black dragon to Olienne, he got curious. It shook him to see that the Cale Henituse his friend was talking about was still a child. As the eldest dragon among the group, there was something in Cale's existence however Eruhaben couldn't pinpoint what it was. Youna had mentioned before that Cale had a divine aura, strong enough to make the red dragon tremble even though he was strong—he was stronger than the golden dragon. A human cannot possess divine aura unless they were gods pretending to be human, but a god who could even dominate a dragon? That was unthinkable.
Although gods were greater beings than dragons their strength wasn't that far off from one another. And the gods the dragons knew cannot interfere with the affairs in the Mortal Realm, they will only intervene if it involves the Demon Realm. If Cale Henituse was a divine being, the gods won't settle down and will do their utmost best to retrieve this child. Yet, none of the gods were coming at him. Instead, he IS under their protection.
Just what are you, Cale Henituse? Eruhaben questioned as he lifted Cale. The redhead just looked at him in confusion.
"Uhm? Haben? What's the matter?" Cale asked, tilting his head. The golden dragon was just looking straight at him. Alver was baffled as this kind of action was inconceivable for a knight to act towards his master. Ron cleared his throat as a reminder in case the three dragons were forgetting their roles.
Eruhaben just smirked and let Cale down gently. The golden dragon wanted to take Cale Henituse to his lair and keep him there to thoroughly study him, but he knew he couldn't do that.
You disrespectful bastards, Eruhaben spoke on their minds, except Alver's. Cale just laughed.
The group started walking around Bago City. It wasn't that much different from the cities in Rowoon. They visited different shops and bought food Cale took fancy of. This time, Cale paid for everything he ate and treated others too, since he had a lot of money. They also encountered a traveling circus in the city, they paid for a seat and watched the shows. Only Cale and Youna enjoyed the show, Alver didn't want to admit it but he was also amused. At lunch, they entered a restaurant.
"Ha, I got tired walking around the city," Cale said as he slumped down on his seat. Ron and Vicross just shook their heads and the butler helped easing Cale by swiping his sweat off.
"You wanted to become an adventurer and here you are complaining just because you walked around the city," Alver said as he rested his chin on the back of his hand. Cale just glared at the Prince from rubbing the truth on his face.
"All of us should eat here, then let's go to the Northern Lake after," Cale, ignoring what Alver had said which earned a huff from the Prince, gestured to the others to take one seat on his table.
They ordered food and waited for them to serve it. A minute later, another person came inside the restaurant. Cale stared at the new customer who came in. He had a pretty face and his hair was white and had green eyes. He seemed older than him, maybe around Alver's age. Alver, who noticed the stare Cale was given to another person, also looked at the person.
That's the heir of Sekka Household! Alver thought. He knew the White Snake won't recognize him since he was in disguise, he was just worried about Cale who didn't have any disguise. The adults also looked at the person Cale was staring at.
"Do you perhaps know him, Young Master?" Ron asked in a soft manner. Cale shook his head.
It seems the Young Master is lying again, Ron just shook his head. The perceptive butler knew that Cale was familiar with the person he was looking at, yet he couldn't fathom where his Young Master had seen the person since this was the first time Cale had set foot on this place.
Of course, Cale knew that person well. That was the one and only person who caused his father's death as well as the destruction of his territory. Cale wasn't a reckless one so he will not touch the only heir of Sekka Household.
If that person is obsessed with legends, why not manipulate him into working for me? Cale smirked at his thought and their food was served.
The white-haired individual was about to pass the group but stopped as he had caught something unusual. A bloody-red color caught his attention. He looked at the group, who were eating peacefully.
"Hmn? How unusual to see a group of individuals possessing those colors," he said while observing the people. The dragons glared at the white-haired for his audacity. Alver started to get worried seeing the vicious expression of his companions, he didn't want to start an unnecessary war by attacking the heir of Sekka Household.
Alver signaled Cale, who was eating peacefully, to stop his people. Cale just ignored the prince and Alver swore he will make the redhead pay for his rudeness someday. The white-haired teen's smile twitched when he saw the younger red-haired ignoring him. The white-haired slammed his hand on the table which startled Cale and dropped his food. The redhead glared at the teen.
"Ha! You have a funny look there. Don't you know who I am?" he asked. Cale sighed and stood.
"Unfortunately, I don't. Who are you? How dare you interrupt me when I eat," Cale answered with irritation. The white-haired teen was taken aback at Cale's brazenness as nobody had treated him like this before.
Cale Henituse had three things he hated: first was being interrupted when he was asleep, second was being disturbed when he was eating and third was being pestered when he was playing. People who learned manners and etiquettes knew that when someone was eating, they shouldn't be disturbed. Yet this white snake in front of him dared to interrupt his precious meal time. The redhead glared at the teen which made the latter laugh.
"Excuse me, owner! My precious meal was interrupted so we'll be leaving now," Cale said as he put down a small bag filled with gold coins to pay for their unfinished meal.
Ron knew his Young Master enjoyed eating so getting disturbed while doing so irritated the puppy he served. Cale walked out of the restaurant leaving Ron and the others inside. The white haired teen was about to follow Cale but Olienne interrupted him and focused his dragon fear towards the teen.
Don't you dare follow him, Olienne spoke into his mind. The teen trembled and sweat profusely.
Ron talked to the owner to settle the payment as their Young Master had given so much payment for their meal. The owner didn't want to accept the excess pay. Youna and Vicross immediately followed Cale since it was dangerous to let him wander by himself. Who knows what kind of trouble he would cause.
Cale walked fast as if he was skipping distance, before he realized he was already near the Northern Lake. He face palmed as it only struck him that he lost control of his anger once again which made him use his gift unconsciously. He ran back to where he left the others as he didn't want to worry them. Unfortunately, he tripped and rolled on the ground (mud). Though his body hurts, he continued to run until he bumped into someone which made him fall to his butt.
"Ugh, it hurts," he mumbled as he rubbed his back.
"I'm sorry. Are you alright?" the person he bumped into asked as the man offered his hand towards Cale.
Ugh! Why do I trip all the time?! It hurts! Cale cried in his mind. He looked incredibly dirty right now since he tripped and rolled earlier. Now he bumped into someone. How unlucky!
"Yes, thank you," Cale responded as he grabbed the helping hand and looked up to the person helping him.
As soon as Cale saw the face of the person he bumped into, he froze. His skin ran cold and his heart started to race. He tried to prevent himself from shaking after seeing the face of this person. Cale had his equal amounts of luckiness and unluckiness, and today must be his unlucky one. He knew this person very well. He was one of the people he had seen last in his previous life.
White Star?! What's he doing here? Cale's mind was in a mess.
Oh no! Ron and Vicross-hyung are here. Grandpa Olienne and Youna are here too! I also have the prince with me, this is bad if he recognizes everyone! His mind continued to swirl as he looked around. He wanted to run away.
.oOo.
Seeing the expression of the redhead child, Cale Barrow, or most known as the White Star, crouched down to meet the child's eye level. The child's eyes were shaking as if he was afraid.
Is he afraid I might hurt him after he bumped into me? Typical children of the slums, Cale Barrow thought as he gently patted the dirt from the child's clothes.
"Don't worry, I will not hurt you," he said, trying to ease the child's worries. The child looked at him.
Hmn, this kid is prettier upon closer look. His hair color is rare as well, the White Star quietly observed the child. His hand reached to the child's head and the latter looked at him.
The child had an almond shaped, reddish brown eyes. His hair was as red as his, he was small and looked like he's around the age of ten. His hair is long, one could mistook him for a little girl. He's wearing nice garb, maybe some people gave him clothes since this child's looks are great, the White Star thought.
"Do you have a home? Do you want to come with me? I can feed and dress you well, you won't have to stay in this filthy place," he said in a gentle tone.
"Um...," the red-haired mumbled, White Star couldn't hear what he was saying.
I wonder why I am so attached to this child, I know I shouldn't especially to someone I just met. I am not usually like this, the White Star thought as he lifted the red-haired child in his arms. The child was surprised and Cale Barrow saw how the child's eyes sparkled in the light.
AH, I want this child more. I need to take him back, he thought as he looked at the child. The redhead clutched onto his shoulder, he smiled gently at this. The White Star hummed.
"What do you say? Do you want to come with me?" he asked once again.
TBC ...
A/N: Thank you for reading and for your patience! Good day/night! ଘ(✿˵•́ ᴗ •̀˵)