<Chapter 741: When I am the angriest?>
“Eat it.” All sorts of fruits and a few cooked meals were placed in front of Cale. Cale watched this with a relaxed look on his face before turning his head.
Choi Han placed this something that wasn’t an animal or a monster that he had hunted, in front of Cale.
“It’s bearable if you roast it.”
Cale still had a relaxed look on his face as he started thinking while listening to Choi Han.
‘Raon is better.’
Raon preened with glee while TCF!Choi Han understood Cale's reasoning and clicked his tongue at the version of himself being shown on the Palantír. Even if that monster-meat was precious, it would take long to roast and they didn't even have the right ingredients or spices to dress it in.
TCF!Choi Han made sure to avoid looking in TCF!Beacrox' direction. He knew that TCF!Beacrox must be close to having an aneurysm right about now at the thought of their Cale having to resort to eating that. TCF!Choi Han felt bad for both the him on the Palantír and for Cale as well. He sighed quietly and hung his head, brushing his hand over his face.
How could Cale eat meat that wasn’t even prepped properly? Even if Venion’s lackey’s body was healthy, trying to prep this large thing and roasting it would probably take longer than half the day.
‘Mm… But I guess Choi Han had to eat these things.’
There were not many things Choi Han could eat in the Forest of Darkness except for fruits and some plants. It was hard for him to expect properly cooked food, and he was probably not in a situation to even think about farming. Choi Han could have struggled for a while to even find fruit when he was weaker.
TBOAH!Choi did not see what the problem was. It was a luxury in the Forest to get such a good serving of meat, however he wisely kept his mouth shut when out the corner of his eye he saw TBOAH!Beacrox and TCF!Beacrox both pull out their kitchen knife - a clear sign that they were close to snapping.
‘If I think about it that way, he might have gone out of his way to find something precious that even he doesn’t get to eat often.’ The problem was that it was something way too big for Cale to handle. However, he could tell something from it.
‘He’s a bit more difficult to talk to than current Choi Han, but he’s still a good guy. He worked so hard to feed a bastard he met for the first time.’ Cale had a satisfied smile on his face as he addressed Choi Han.
“You must have worked hard to get this.”
Something loud thumped from within the Palantír. Once more the Other-Raon on the records was expressing his dissatisfaction.
Cale turned his head toward the source of the noise after hearing the ground rumble. Raon was slamming the ground with his two front paws while glaring at Choi Han.
‘What is going on?’ Cale thought about it for a moment before figuring out the answer.
“Ah. Eat with me. I can’t eat all of this alone.”
Raon frowned and his eyes, which were a bit rounder than when he was four years old, scowled.
“You terrible human…! Stupid……!”
‘Stupid? Who? Me?’
“I’m actually on the smart side. I guess you don’t know me very well. But I am a terrible bastard. I am human trash, total trash. I am trash.”
Raon’s jaw dropped and he could not say anything.
“Pfft.”
Cale turned his head to the side after suddenly hearing someone laugh. Choi Han’s shoulders were moving up and down trying to hold back his laughter.
‘And what’s up with him?’ Cale found this to be odd, but felt pity for Choi Han, thinking that chatting about anything with someone else would seem enjoyable to someone like Choi Han who had spent such a long time alone.
‘Yes, it’s fine as long as he’s laughing.’
Once again several people sighed at their dense precious slacker-wannabe's illogical train of thought, but they relented and admitted that it was very much like Cale to think and reason things out like this - so they let it go for now.
Laughing and even living was hard in this harsh world. It was good to laugh. Cale decided laughing was a good thing and nodded his head as he nonchalantly commented.
“Whether you live alone or you live with people… No matter how you live in this world, you need to learn about the world.”
Cale picked up a fruit after he was untied. The Dragon’s eyes sparkled as he watched before he looked at Cale’s lips. He knew that this human was talking to him right now. Choi Han was leaning on a tree watching this.
Actually, Cale was speaking to both Raon and Choi Han.
“There will be times when you need to face the world. For example, when you meet new people. Or maybe you move to live in a new place.” Cale wanted Raon to meet Choi Han so that he had the chance to make a friend or a family. Furthermore, he was planning on making a home for him in the Forest of Darkness that he could always come back to.
Sherritt smiled brightly and wiped the last of the crumbs from the face of the baby TBOAH!Black Dragon that was in her lap. She adored the fact that even if it was an illusion Cale was making a place for her child in that world. She liked it very much, her affection toward Cale seemed to be growing even more since coming here and learning what he had done for Raon during the months prior to reuniting the mother and son pair at the Castle of Light.
Finally, he was planning on teaching Raon a lot of things.
‘Then he should slowly forget, overcome, or suppress his indignity.’
Even if this was an illusion, he couldn’t just leave the hurt Raon alone.
Cale kept his gaze on the two red kittens (TCF!Hong and TBOAH!Hong), whose faces he was now gently wiping the pasta sauce off rather than the penetrating stare he was receiving from Raon's counterpart - TBOAH!Black Dragon.
Cale spoke to Raon with a serious look on his face.
“There is a very important thing for living in the world.”
It was silent for a moment as Cale stopped talking. The sky over the Forest of Darkness was slowly turning red with the sunset. Both the black Dragon and Choi Han were looking at Cale.
‘Something is weird.’
The black Dragon felt something was inconsistent while looking at Cale. This terrible bastard had been in total panic when he was dragging him to the Forest of Darkness not too long ago. Furthermore, he seemed extremely scared that the Dragon may kill him. He also did not remember what he had done for the Dragon and what kind of incident he had caused. However, this person he was looking at right now…
First of all, his eyes were different from that bastard’s. The color, size, and shape of the eyes were all the same, but they were definitely different. This person in front of him right now… his eyes were sparkling. They were full of something that this black Dragon had never felt before as this guy looked at him. Unlike his nonchalant tone and crude actions, his eyes had something that tickled the black Dragon’s heart.
TBOAH!Hong and his older sister TBOAH!Ohn fully agreed with the Black Dragon on the Palantír. The Human coddling them and feeding them all this food they didn't even know they would enjoy was so unlike anyone they had ever met before that it made their eyes prickle.
TCF!Ohn and TCF!Hong seemed to know instinctively what their counterpart’s were feeling as Cale continued to faff over them. They smiled supportively and sat close to their younger counterparts, purring encouragingly before returning their gazes to the Palantír.
It felt as if an unknown source of heat was rising up from somewhere within the Dragon’s body.
‘…This is a different person.’
The Dragon’s instincts helped him reach the truth. There were two people in one body?
“What a smart kid!” TBOAH!Eruhaben muttered quietly to himself and then pressed his lips into a thin line and looked over at where his counterpart now sat near the red-head human and the two youngest dragons.
TBOAH!Eruhaben felt like his soul was being comforted with the knowledge that unlike the him who had surrendered to the inevitability of Time, the other him had gone out and eventually made the choice to remain by their side for a while longer. He was also grateful that they’d somehow found a way to save him from his predestined end – he is quite sure this is also the work of the reckless human child that his counterpart repeatedly calls ‘Unlucky Bastard’.
This Dragon that had yet to see the world didn’t know whether that was possible. However, the Dragon wanted to know the truth behind what his intuitions were telling him. His dark blue eyes became deeper as he opened his mouth to speak.
“What is that very important thing for living in the world?”
The corners of the silent Cale’s lips curled up. However, his eyes were serious. He looked at the young Dragon who was focused on him as well as the old person who had lived a long time on his own as he opened his mouth.
“Money.”
“…What?”
Laughter, subtle and quiet – more like a chuckle of reluctant acceptance – came from all around the room.
“There’s the Young Master Cale we know!” TCF!Rosalyn tease and TCF!Choi Han nods in agreement. Whatever tension had lingered in the room broke and fell away completely - everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The Dragon hesitated before asking, but Cale just nodded his head and continued speaking with certainty.
“Yes, it is definitely important.” He didn’t care how Choi Han and Raon were looking at him and had an extremely satisfied smile on his face.
“Just trust me.” He then asked Raon a question. “Can you roast that meat using magic?” He then pompously asked Choi Han. “Can you prep it? I don’t know how.”
Both the black Dragon and Choi Han shook their heads a bit but did as Cale asked them to do without any comments.
The scene on the Palantír played like a video revealing how the pair in the test went about setting up their makeshift campsite for dinner time in the Forest of Darkness. It was a rather peaceful and domestic scene to watch and brought an odd sense of affectionate serenity to the people of both worlds. Seeing such peaceful times even in a place where such peace should be impossible made the guests of the TBOAH!World all wonder if this was actually real or even possible in real life.
However, the people of TCf!World felt this was normal, it was always peaceful around Cale and even if they were smack-bang, right in the middle of enemy territory, Cale would always calm the chaos. There was always this serene ambience of peace around him even during the wars - that was why he drew so many people to him and why even when he didn't want to, people flocked to him.
The branches crackled as they lit on fire. It was now the middle of the night in the Forest of Darkness. Choi Han’s gaze moved to the side. This person was sleeping defenselessly on the ground as if he had no anxiety at all. He didn’t know this guy’s name. He just knew this weird guy as, ‘terrible bastard’, because that was what the black Dragon had called him. This person did not seem scared of the night in the Forest of Darkness at all.
‘I only learned that this was called the Forest of Darkness because of this person.’ Choi Han had just thought that this was a crazy forest.
‘No.’ It wasn’t that this person was not scared of the forest. He was sleeping so defenselessly in an extremely lethargic position because he knew that Choi Han and the black Dragon were strong.
“…Ha.” Choi Han quietly scoffed in disbelief. Tens of years… Or maybe he lived here for over a hundred years. No, he had spent so much time flailing around to survive in this forest all that time but he had never seen anyone or anything like this guy.
"Hyung, how long exactly did you really stay in the Forest of Darkness?" TCF!Lock asked and TCF!Choi Han hummed as he considered it for a bit.
"It's quite difficult to say... it was impossible to tell how time moved back then. But I'd say I lived in there for around 150 years give or take..." He replied and corked his head when Grigori nodded in agreement to his answer.
"So that really is why the Forest of Darkness went quiet these last 150 years." TCF!Basen exclaimed with a pensive nod. His father beside him nodded. TCF!Deruth then quietly expressed his gratitude to both Choi Han for protecting their territory even though he'd never intentionally made the choice to do so.
Even Choi Han had just recently reached the peak, in order to be able to catch a breath in this forest. This was truly an interesting person. Choi Han could see something silently crawl between the deeply asleep man and himself and curl up.
The black Dragon glared at Choi Han and positioned himself in front of the sleeping man despite being unable to cover the man with his small body.
“Pffft.” Choi Han sneered and turned away.
“…Don’t laugh.” The Dragon could not say it loudly and simply said it seriously in a quiet voice. It was not scary at all.
“I can laugh if I want.” Choi Han responded to the black Dragon’s comment and turned toward the fire.
The sound of the fire crackling soothed whatever tension TCF!Raon and TCF!Choi Han were feeling toward these counterparts attitudes on the Palantír. Meanwhile Cale felt himself becoming slightly drowsy now that he had been fed to the brim.
"They really aren't us! Strong Choi Han is not rude like this guy!"
"That's right, and Raon is our family, I would never treat Raon like that!"
"Yes, yes... they were different from you guys. But that's okay. The circumstances and how they met each other is different too, so... don't mind them too much!" Cale reassured both Raon in his lap and TCF!Choi Han gently.
When had they had a moment like this? When was the last time they were not alone to spend the night?
No. There were many nights they spent with enemies. However, they couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had a peaceful night like this without enemies around them.
It was the second time in his life for the black Dragon. It was the first time since deep in his memories to a distant time for Choi Han.
‘…This isn’t bad.’
Choi Han didn’t know this, but his voice subconsciously sounded a bit excited even when he was almost arguing with the black Dragon.
The black Dragon was looking at Choi Han as if he was suspicious as he checked the sleeping terrible bastard’s temperature before raising his head. Unlike the black and rough darkness of the cave ceiling, the night on the outside was filled with colorful and beautiful darkness. The black Dragon closed his eyes while looking at the lights sparkling in the darkness. However, he was not sleeping. He was simply enjoying this moment.
Unfortunately, it was only for a moment. The black Dragon opened his eyes again and warned Choi Han.
“Don’t eavesdrop on us while hiding.”
Choi Han started to smile.
“And we can’t take you.”
The black Dragon and Choi Han… The two of them were keeping an eye on each other but spent a not so bad night together.
TBOAH!Choi Han took a moment to consider how he would have felt in this situation - if an unexpected stranger and a small black dragon had suddenly appeared in the Forest of Darkess and crashed into his life like a wrecking ball of much needed reprieve and fresh air. His heart started to ache with envy and grief. However the Palantír continued not allowing him or anyone else to wallow in their thoughts for much longer.
The next day.
“…Such a place……!” It was rare for Choi Han’s emotions to be visible on his face like this. The emotion currently on his face was astonishment. The so-called terrible bastard put Choi Han in the front and the black Dragon in the rear and started moving the group somewhere as soon as he woke up.
He was headed toward the north of the Forest of Darkness and he led them to a cave to some underground area. Choi Han saw something shocking as soon as they made it out of that dark cave.
“…My goodness……”
People from both worlds reacted visibly in shock and surprise at the sight being revealed to them.
There was a large area. This area was bright, unlike the path they just walked through. The first thing he saw was a large five-story villa made of marble. This building made him think of a western palace that he had only imagined in the past.
Furthermore, there were marble sculptures in what looked like a garden despite not having any trees, a smooth and flat floor, and even a small fountain. This place looked as if it was out of a fairytale. The black Dragon’s eyes were opened wide as he looked around.
Cale watched the two of them with a satisfied look on his face before energetically walking forward. However, he found something to be odd.
‘I don’t hear the voice of the ancient power?’
Originally, he should have heard the Scary Giant Cobblestone’s voice from when they were in the dark path but it was very quiet. The Scary Giant Cobblestone and his hidden Super Rock Villa seemed to have been made properly based on this place being here, but…
‘Is it because it is an illusion test?’
Cale didn’t put much thought into it and walked without any hesitation. He peeked at the stone pillar at the side of the area that blocked the path to the Eastern continent but he hurried to inform the two others about the important things first. Once he was on the third floor of the villa… He pushed the door open.
The almost deafening sound of something large creaking as it opened filled the room.
“Here, money.”
Choi Han’s eyes hurt from brightness for a moment. There were all sorts of accessories and jewels sparkling there. They were not shining. They were sparkling. It was so bright that shining was not strong enough of a word for it.
“Hey, Dragon, look at this.” The black Dragon looked at Cale. “This is called a jewel. You can exchange this for money. Money is what you need to buy most things. By the way, there are a lot of things you cannot buy with money as well. There are many important things among those things you cannot buy as well. You’ll realize those things one by one as you live.”
“…Is this money thing important?”
“Mm. It’s quite important if you want to live a relaxing life?”
Cale resumed walking and headed to another room. The Dragon observed Cale’s back with an odd gaze.
It was because the black Dragon had flipped over Venion Stan’s villa before he destroyed the mountain. The mages had tried their best to protect some things, so he had transported all of them with him. He destroyed the pretty sturdy container and found sparkling things like what was in front of him right now. He had kept them with him for now since they looked pretty.
Cale gasped, his head snapping down to look at Raon and Raon pouted.
"Human... looks like this Other-Other-Me is smarter than I was. Such a shame..."
"I know... well, it was too long ago for it to matter much now anyways..." Cale conceded with a heavy sigh of disappointment. This information came too late it seemed. TCF!Alberu, TCF!Cale, and TCF!Rosalyn could tell clearly that Cale was lamently the lost opportunity to loot Venion Stan and the Tolz Viscounty back then - TCF!Alberu almost felt bad after seeing the look of disappointment upon Raon’s face.
Kim Rok Soo looked over at TCF!Bud who suddenly began drinking heavily from his flask. He raised an eyebrow at TCF!Glenn, but did not expect and answer seeing as TCF!Glenn looked like his soul was about to leave his body. Given that TCF!Bud was generally quite talkative, Kim Rok Soo imagined the reason for TCF!Glenn's current disheveled state was from restraining the boisterous Mercenary King all this time.
The black Dragon nonchalantly asked.
“Are you giving these things to me?”
“Yes. You two split it amongst yourselves. You’ll need it.”
Cale watched the cute Raon making sure to take care of himself with satisfaction. Raon was much cuter than Choi Han, who was just standing there with a blank look on his face. Raon had quite a lot of jewels hidden in his spatial dimension but he did not bring it up.
Raon tutted in disapproval at learning that his counterpart on the record did not even consider sharing the loot with Cale. However, Cale then began to pet Raon's head and soothe away the child's unhappy, disgruntled expression.
“Hey terrible bastard, I’m going to choose what I want! We need to look at everything together!”
“Okay. I’ll teach you.” Cale chuckled, nonchalantly responded, and opened the door to another room.
“There are weapons here. You can sell these or use these. Up to you.”
“Ho.” Choi Han looked at Cale with disbelief.
Then the record continued with Cale explaining the current currency and how the gold and silver coins here were of an older design but could still be useful. In the next room the Palantír revealed a sort of library, full of diaries which belonged to the Thief.
These scenes were played like a video but didn't much interest the residents of the TCF!World because they knew that that place was Cale's home and most of them had visited there in the past anyways. They paid only enough attention to understand what Cale was doing before turning their attention to the snacks spread acorss the tables nearest to them.
Choi Han was silently watching before he peeked toward the black Dragon. The Dragon looked as if none of this fazed him as he observed the things the terrible bastard showed him. Cale watched the two of them before turning toward the window.
The large training ground was visible through it.
“These things should be very helpful for the two of you to survive in this world.” He looked away from the training ground and observed the two individuals from the illusion.
Raon and Choi Han…
In some ways, they were the two who had been through the most incidents with him. On and Hong probably had a similar amount as well.
At their main table, TBOAH!Ohn and TBOAH!Hong had finally come over to sit closer to Cale. They curled up beside him and through eyes glazed with sleep they continued to watch the record. They were plastered between Cale and their TCF!World counterparts so they felt safe. For the first time in a very long time, they felt completely at peace.
Cale was being very serious as he nonchalantly delivered this message.
“Live an easy and relaxing life. Don’t push yourselves too hard.”
Even if this was an illusion… That was Cale’s true thoughts. That was why he was planning on teaching the two of them.
“Anyway, just follow me.”
The black Dragon asked. “Where are we going?”
Cale responded normally after receiving the sparkling gazes from both of them. He didn’t know whether they themselves knew they had such gazes on their faces right now.
“The world.”
An extremely wealthy whale appeared at the Henituse territory that day.
“Hahahaha!”
It was the most excited Cale had ever been.