The prince was bright eyed, enthusiastic, and charming. He quite put the prince's from storybooks to shame with his brilliance. They might rescue princesses from dragons, but he had a knack for making people feel at ease.
So far as prince's, princesses, and dragons went there had been an interesting debate once amongst the siblings.
Roksu had held the stance that dragons really weren't the type to kidnap princesses to begin with and if one actually did deviate from the norm, relying on a prince for her rescue was far from the ideal plan. Unless the prince chose to negotiate but even then, dragons were prideful and smart. Roksu proposed that a far more effective rescue plan would be a heist. Even then it was risky, dragons were great and mighty.
Cale had brought up that the idea of a prince going in alone was preposterous. Royalty always had some form of an honor guard or lackeys who did all of the hard work for them. Therefore, it was far more likely that the prince wouldn't have actually been the one to rescue the princess. More than likely, the prince had stood back and looked pretty while his subjects did all the grunt work.
Penelope had made the droll observation that if the above statements were true, wouldn't the princess be better off staying with the dragon? If it was unusual for dragons to commit an act such as kidnapping and they were normally quite intelligent, wouldn't that mean that the dragon had removed the princess from a potentially bad situation? And if the prince was so worthless that he rescued her on the backs of all the servants who probably died along the way to achieve the garantine task of rescuing her, was he really a man worthy of her time and attention? Someone who she'd want to be rescued by?
The trio had made the conclusion that the prince was actually the villain of the story who had driven the princess to seek out a dragons help and the dragon had offered her a merciful rescue from her relationship with the despicable prince, only for the dragon to eventually die tragically and the princess to be trapped in the prince's grasp again.
That was the day that one of the maids of the Henituse household had decided that simple five sentence long picture books weren't well suited for the young masters. She also went home with a headache and a strange new perspective on all the storybooks she thoughtlessly read to her own child.
They had that effect on people.
It was a fairly old memory now for their young lives, but the three of them couldn't help but recall it as they met the eldest prince of the Roan Kingdom with his bright smile and his affable personality.
Penelope thought that he didn't seem so bad so far as prince's went but she didn't trust that smile one bit. This was a bit unfair to the prince but Penelope distrusted the smiles of most. And the frowns. She just didn't really trust people and she'd look for just about any excuse.
Cale thought that the battlefield didn't suit a clean prince such as this without a single blemish or fault, and yet the battlefield was where he would be. He wondered if he also died in the battlefield, a queer feeling of nostolgia filling him as he contemplated the reality of being one of those pawns who died in the face of an impossible goal.
Roksu thought oh shit, it's the crown prince and huh, I mean he does boss Choi Han around a lot so I guess he does fit the prince from the story as he compiled the little bit of information he knew about the crown prince from the novel. He was the protagonist's benefactor, a glib wordsmith, and ultimately a man whose goal was to protect his kingdom and people.
A man who could have been a villain if he were to direct his manipulative nature towards cruel or self serving goals. Roksu didn't hold it against him. He had learned the hard way in his lifetime that a certain amount of glib persuasion was necessary in order to herd the truly self serving bastards in the direction of actually solving problems instead of creating more problems.
All of that established, Roksu hadn't quite decided whether he wanted anything to do with the crown prince at all. Knowing the future meant that he could grasp the golden ticket known as the crown prince before anyone knew he was the successor to the throne and therefore the one to put your support behind.
The problem was that Roksu had become quite conflicted of late.
Since he knew that in just under two decades the continent would be entangled in a hopeless war, the feeble Roan Kingdom dragged beneath the tides and nearly crushed by the conflict, he knew that the most effective solution for his slacker aspirations was to stop the war before it even began.
Alternatively, he was filthy rich. The Henituse household was indeed one with coffers of gold and quite enough money to make any sort of lifestyle a possibility. He could focus all of his energy on earning more money and then use the combined amount to find a place to live safely away from the conflict. How was he supposed to stop a war? He wasn't some munchkin protagonist. He was just an average company man who merely did the job in front of him day by day and never really got ahead of the tide.
There was a rational side to Roksu that was reluctant to involve himself with the main story at all. It was a munchkin story after all, he'd just need to wait for Choi Han to solve the problem while living peacefully away from the conflict. Choi Han was the man who would battle with whales and do all sorts of other absolutely batshit insane stuff that Roksu thought was rather impressive in a novel but gained a whole new context in reality.
There was one rather large problem with Roksu's plan to stay uninvolved though and that was Cale.
Roksu had pieced together rough aspects of his siblings' lives prior to rebirth through listening carefully to all the things they said without fully understanding the context behind. For example, Penelope could talk for quite a while about archeology with alacrity, it was apparent that she had at very least studied the field before she'd met her end and she'd been quite passionate about those studies.
Cale sometimes talked about who would die.
It was casual and numb. Not grief stricken, just a matter of fact statement. Roksu was familiar with the response. Survivors from the shelters sometimes spoke in a similar way, unable to attach themselves to the lives lost due to the sheer amount of death they'd seen.
Roksu had been similar, reporting the deaths from his shelter when the time came without a single apparent emotion filling him other than a miserable acceptance.
If Cale, unlike Roksu and Penelope who had transmigrated, was that Cale Henituse which Roksu was quite confident that he was then there might be an unacceptable amount of death and destruction prior to that munchkin of a protagonist managing to save the day.
Especially when Cale had rather calmly told his siblings that he was going to die fighting. Penelope seemed to take it as bravado, a child proclaiming that once death claimed them they'd go down swinging. Grim but not all that uncommon. Roksu had taken it differently. Especially when the prompt had been what do you want to do when you grow up by a rather perturbed maid.
Cale hadn't said I want to be a warrior he said I will die fighting.
These were among the thoughts that pinned Roksu to the spot while his siblings engaged themselves with the friendly prince. After the introductions had been completed, the bright child had invited the three to tea. He'd gone so far as to pull out a chair for Penelope which earned him a look.
"So you're a prince, right?" Cale asked and there was a mischievous glint to the words that made Roksu a bit concerned. "How would you rescue a princess from a dragon?"
Alberu looked quite taken aback by the question before frowning thoughtfully. He looked a bit too cute to be the future leader of a kingdom. Roksu reflected that he was probably an actual child, unlike his cohort. It caused his vague machinations to use the prince feel a bit slimy.
Roksu had absolutely no issue with using adults for his own means but children ought to be allowed to be children.
"What were the dragons' motivations? What was the princess's situation prior to leaving with the dragon?" Alberu asked finally. "A dragon wouldn't take a princess without a good reason, perhaps she was receiving assistance of some kind? There's not enough information to decide an appropriate course of action."
Roksu huffed out a muted laugh, finally taking his seat to join the tea party. He rather liked Alberu's sensible response. He was quite bright for a nine year old child. His mother seemed to think so as well, smiling proudly at her son as she allowed the children to talk without disruption.
Cale sent Alberu an odd look as he contemplated the scenario. Then he quite efficiently decided to foist the task onto someone else. "How would you go about determining his motivations then?" He challenged.
"Talking is usually an effective starter." Alberu's sunny smile was much too self satisfied but it wasn't a bad answer for a nine year old.
"How would you begin communication then?" Penelope joined in, apparently either curious about Alberu's response or wanting to assist her older brother.
"In this hypothetical situation, do I know where the dragon lives?" Alberu asked and the debate went on for longer than it ought to.
Roksu watched on in some amusement as the three of them slowly built an entire hypothetical story behind the ridiculous notion of rescuing a princess from a dragon. After much deliberation, they'd concluded that the only sensible place for a dragon to live was at the top of a mountain. And they would need the assistance of elves to meet with him of course. Roksu didn't miss the queer expression that crossed Alberu's face when elves were mentioned but he dismissed it as not my business, I don't wanna know as the story evolved.
They'd assigned Penelope the role of the princess to be rescued initially which had not gone well for them, resulting in the final princess being Alberu's mother who sat with a bemused smile as the children contemplated the best way to rescue her.
Roksu caught her eye and he thought to himself that she really did look like a mother. He didn't have very much personal experience with the concept but if you were to distill mother into a person, this sweet brunette woman looked quite motherly. He nibbled on his cookies, joining the conversation here and there just to add wrenches into their story, and listened peacefully as the story reached its conclusion.
The princess had asked the dragon for advice about her hopeless husband, a comment that Roksu hoped no one present would take as an insult to the king, and the dragon had helped her but also informed her that she had quite the talent for magic. After pleading with him, she was able to persuade the dragon into training her in the magical arts. Unfortunately, the message she'd left behind about her whereabouts had gotten lost and the kingdom was in complete chaos over what to do about it.
Cale took on the role of a knight, rather enthusiastically acting out his role with eyes blazing full of passion. Penelope was a royal advisor who had attempted to quell the panic overtaking the kingdom with facts and logic. Alberu had, of course, taken on the role of the prince searching for his mother, the princess.
Roksu had reluctantly accepted the role of court magician and drolled out spells for them when necessary.
By the time the princess had been safely rescued and all the misunderstandings solved, Roksu felt quite silly but his lip twitched with a barely suppressed smile.
It was fun. Roksu liked fiction. He was definitely more of a consumer than a creator but indulging in the tiniest bit of creativity wasn't so bad every once in a while. And it affirmed what he knew about the prince, he had a good heart and a good head. He would make a good ally.
He also liked how the fanciful conversation had quite thoroughly eradicated Cale's glum mood. He seemed like himself from before they began their travels. Rambunctious, silly, enthusiastic, and rude in his own elegant way.
Roksu had quite missed this version of his older twin.
That was why it was quite unfortunate that the playful meeting ended so poorly.
Just as Cale was showing off the very specific strike with a phantom sword that he would utilize to defeat a foe on their new quest, the goal this time to find the lost treasure of a lost civilization that Penelope was clearly itching to investigate, trouble struck.
Cale's eyes, playful with imagination, darkened as a full body shudder ran through the small child and caused him to collapse to the ground, nearly hitting his head when the prince swiftly caught it in time.
Sparing Cale from a concussion didn't seem to do very much for him at all as he curled in on himself shivering. "Oraboni!" Penelope's voice was full of uncharacteristic panic and concern, rushing to his side as well. Roksu was no less quick, crouching by Cale as his heart pounded fearfully in his chest.
Cale was supposed to live long enough to become a lout so this couldn't be anything life threatening, could it? Roksu's eyes darted about, searching for the source of distress. Alberu's mother joined them, shooing the children away so that she could examine him.
Cale stilled and Roksu's heart sank in his chest before he saw that the boy was still breathing, shallow shuddering breaths. It hadn't looked like a seizure to Roksu but he wasn't a doctor and wasn't that how seizures worked? Shaking and then stopping?
He didn't know and that gap in his knowledge filled him with fear.
"He should be okay." Alberu's mother said with confidence that Roksu wished would ease his worries. She scooped Cale up gently, holding the trembling four year old in her arms. "I think it would be best if we got the count."
Penelope and Roksu shared a look of what would that possibly do to help while they obediently followed after her, Alberu walking alongside them with worry wrecking his normal affable expressions.
No one could say exactly what was wrong with Cale. Whether or not he would actually be okay or what the source of his sudden catatonic state was.
The face of the panicked count was entirely unfamiliar to Penelope and Roksu. "Cale...!" He said, quickly lifting the boy from her arms and examining him with a fatherly concern that he was apparently capable of. It struck Penelope as hypocritical.
Whatever was causing Cale so much distress apparently dissipated in Deruth's arms though, regaining his senses quickly as he blinked at his father. "I'm fine, you can let me down."
It might have been her imagination but Penelope felt that his voice sounded a bit different than normal. A bit more refined.
"You were shakin–"
"Father." Cale cut his father off curtly. "I'm really alright. Let me down."
Deruth did so, apparently startled into submission by his own son's composure. Cale straightened himself out once he was placed back on the ground, seeming to be legitimately okay now.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Alberu asked, approaching Cale worriedly.
The venomous glare he shot towards the prince was completely missed by the adults, who were fretting and discussing the matter in their own adult ways, but all the children noticed. Alberu took a surprised step backwards in response. "I'm fine." Cale hissed, looking away from him and fixing his siblings with a queer look that was full of confliction.
Ah.
Roksu averted his gaze awkwardly.
He had an idea what was going on in Cale's head at the moment. Perhaps it was a sibling thing or just a basic understanding of human nature, but the deeply suspicious and confused expression that overtook Cale's face could only mean one thing.
Roksu could swear he saw betrayal in Cale's reddish brown eyes as well and he wondered just how he could explain matters. Especially when he didn't have the best understanding of it all either.
The Henituse family left the palace quickly thereafter, wanting to bring Cale back to the estate in order to speak with the family doctor.
Cale was silent aside from consistent assertions that he was doing just fine and his siblings didn't speak on the way back. Partially because Deruth shared the carriage with them and partially because Cale had the aura of one who was quite ready and willing to break the neck of the next person who talked to him.
It wasn't fear that caused them to restrain themselves, just a willingness to respect the boundary that Cale had set. If he wasn't ready or willing to talk about whatever was clearly distressing him, they weren't going to push matters.
Cale walked into the Henituse home with more grace and poise than any four year old should rightly have. Spoke with calm eloquence to the doctors and once he'd been free to do as he liked, he retired to his room.
Roksu and Penelope followed after him, sharing their own thoughts as to what could be wrong. "...what do you think is wrong?" Penelope asked in Korean as they approached the daunting door.
Roksu contemplated whether or not to lie. So far as he could tell, Penelope hadn't realized yet and that would certainly complicate matters. He didn't think he'd be able to persuade her to let him speak with Cale alone though, Penelope had a determination to her step that she was definitely going to find out what was wrong with Cale. "...I can't say for sure." Roksu settled for partial honesty.
Penelope gave him a scathing look that showcased just how dimly she viewed his clear evasion but they'd reached their destination and thus, she saved her interrogation for later.
Cale was seated by the window, looking out into the world beyond with an expression far too grim to be worn by a child his age.
"Cale...?"
"Who are you." Cale's sharp voice cut in and he glared at his siblings with a dark suspicion behind his eyes.
Roksu sighed inwardly.
It was reasonable. An only child suddenly had siblings that ought not have existed. Roksu had pondered if Cale actually had been one of triplets in the original and that fact had merely been omitted from the plot for brevity but the expression on Cale's face confirmed the truth for him.
Penelope's expression shut down. "...what's that supposed to mean?" She asked and Roksu knew that he needed to pacify the situation before it evolved further.
The trouble was that Roksu knew Cale the toddler with vague memories of the future, not the however-old-man in a toddlers body who stood before him with every bit of grace of nobility. A wrong word and he could make it much worse.
Roksu opted for honesty. "Roksu Henituse."
Cale practically spat his derision, glaring at Roksu with the full force of his confused rage. "Bullshit."
Penelope's eyes darted between the pair of them and to make matters far more dramatic, thunder clapped in the distance, warning the room of oncoming rain that began to patter against the window.
It was absolutely terrible timing for a storm.
Cale and Roksu's gaze instinctively moved towards Penelope in concern for her reaction to the rain and the height of the tension between the three of them only mounted higher.
Penelope wanted to cry.
She'd never heard her eldest brother use such a tone before. Never heard him speak to her like she didn't belong. It was familiar and miserable and stirred up old agony inside of her and the clear knowledge she knew that brothers were a bad thing and she ought not to trust them.
The rain outside felt like the sky taunting her desire to cry and it nearly broke the dam that held the miserable stinging tears from escaping their prison of her cloudy teal eyes.
But her brothers looked at her, mirrored expressions of concern on nearly identical faces.
It gave her the confidence she needed.
How many times, again and again and again, had they proven to her that brothers weren't actually terrible. That she could trust them. Could love them. And she wouldn't be tortured or rebuffed for doing so.
She marched up to Cale and slapped him cleanly across the face, a treasonous tear staining one of her cheeks as she spoke. Her bottom lip warbled and there really was a risk that she'd let out a terrible sob but she held firm against those embarrassing impulses. "You tell me." She demanded, glaring ferociously into Cale's surprised brown eyes. "Who am I?!"
The silence was thicker and heavier than the thunderclaps that shook the skies. The rain beating relentlessly against the ground and softening the dirt. Sky, rain, and mud all creating a cacophony of chaos that had citizens running for shelter from the onslaught.
Cale looked at his sister and to Roksu's calm face and shaking eyes, his thoughts leveling out as Penelope's question weighed down on him and with every droplet, softened his fears.
"...Penelope Henituse." He said, looking away from her guiltily for having made her nearly cry.
She nodded firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and sniffling miserably but refusing to acknowledge the sound. "And you're my stupid oraboni."
Roksu marveled at the simplicity of it.
It was the sort of rebuttal that only a child could pull off and it broke the spell of piteous doubt that had overtaken Cale.
For everything that Cale was, he wasn't a fool. He must have grasped that the situation was more complicated than it might appear.
Roksu still couldn't blame him for his reaction though. It would have been more insane if he'd accepted it with open arms.
Penelope didn't demand to know what he'd been on about but Cale wouldn't have explained even if she had. The three of them accepted the unacceptable, if for a few hours. Cale did apologize for his question though. And Penelope apologized for slapping him. The misbegotten storm outside offered no respite.
It was quite a few hours later and when Penelope was sound asleep that Roksu finally had the opportunity to speak with Cale.
Cale had gone to bed with the rest of them but he thought they wouldn't notice, he slid from the room and out into the hall beyond. Roksu followed after him silently.
He found Cale seated in the wine cellar, his eyes carefully counting the barrels and bottles that lined the walls as the toddler sat on the cold stone.
"...this is complete shit." Cale said, hearing Roksu's arrival. "Complete shit." He emphasized in Korean.
Roksu sat down across from him and contemplated his response for only a moment before he made his decision. With a calm expression that didn't portray any of his internal panic, Roksu held out a hand to his brother. "My name is Kim Rok Soo." He said. "I was thirty-four years old when I died. I regained my senses last year."
Cale looked at the hand, his pupils shaking with all sorts of thoughts and emotions before he smiled and it was that craftily elegant smile that was much too mature. "Cale Henituse. I died when I was forty." He said the words bitterly, accepting Roksu's hand with a firm handshake.
The pair sat in silence for a long time before Cale spoke, his voice penetrated with unease. "I wasn't a triplet in my first life."
Roksu nodded. "I surmised that. I don't know how or why I was reborn here."
"...Penelope doesn't know yet?" Cale asked, guilt gnawing at his heart for his reaction. He'd just been so angry when he realized they weren't supposed to be there. He felt tricked. He felt like they murdered his mother.
It was a cruel and irrational fear that had no place inside of him and he hated himself for giving into it.
Roksu shook his head. "I don't think so."
Cale groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm an asshole. How the hell were you able to cope?"
Roksu shrugged. "My situation is different than yours."
That was true enough. Cale sighed again and it came out shakier than he wanted it to. "I keep thinking that all I want is a fucking drink but I know that's not a damn option."
Roksu nodded in understanding. It wasn't like there weren't days where he didn't think fondly of the vices reserved for adults. The freedom of childhood came with just as many restrictions. To the point where sometimes it felt as though being a child was quite similar to being a prisoner. It was a lot easier to ignore those thoughts when you had no clear memory or understanding of them.
Roksu had a feeling he might need to watch his older brother rather carefully though if he didn't want to see what exactly a drunk toddler looked like.
"So we're family now, huh..." Cale said and his voice sounded a bit strange so Roksu decided to correct him.
"We've been family all this time." He said firmly. "Don't say something so obvious."
Cale looked at him and not for the first time, Roksu really wondered about the life of Cale Henituse that wasn't depicted in the first five novels of The Birth of a Hero.
He ought not wear such an expression at the very simple assertion that they were indeed family.
"...I need to apologize to Penelope." Cale grumbled, changing the topic with an embarrassed expression.
"You already did." Roksu pointed out.
"Again." Cale said. "I didn't know what it was I was apologizing for the first time."
That wasn't entirely true. He'd properly understood that he'd crossed a line and where that line was but he hadn't fully grasped that Penelope really wouldn't understand what he was asking. He'd merely accepted that regardless of how suspicious and potentially malevolent Roksu and Penelope were, he didn't want to hurt them.
He hated the knowledge that he'd make Penelope cry.
"She probably had it pretty rough." Cale observed, thinking of her strange eccentricities with a frown.
Roksu gave him a look that could only be translated probably as coming from you, corpse boy? And Cale rolled his eyes.
Cale was embarrassingly aware of the cryptic statements he'd made as his memories had become fresher and more vivid inside of him. "I was a soldier before I died." He explained. "I saw a lot of death."
Roksu nodded in understanding and the pair lapsed into silence.
Roksu didn't share his own experience but Cale didn't ask. In some ways the far off memories were still too raw. For both of them.
"We should return before Penelope realizes we're gone." Roksu said finally, standing and dusting himself off before holding out a hand for his older brother. "Are you coming, hyung?"
Cale wore a crooked smile as he accepted his hand.
His family had changed in his second life and he had lost time and loved ones who were irreplaceable in that transition. But he'd also gained two equally irreplaceable younger siblings.
"Yeah. Let's go, dongsaeng."