"What are you doing here?"
"GYAH! Young master?!?"
"Stop screaming every time you see me."
With a sigh of relief, South stood up with all the herbs gathered in his half-lifted shirt. He chuckled, a little bashful at his current appearance, trying to bow in greeting without spilling any of the stuff.
His shirt lifted up revealed a surprisingly toned figure underneath, laden with light disfigurement that must be from old bruises and scars. There were tattoos through his torso too, but Cale could only see the tips of water waves and the tail of a traditionally-drawn fish before he averted his eyes.
"It's nice to see you, Young Master. One of the horses is sick, so I'm gathering some herbs for their treatment."
"...all the way out here?"
"Yes," South said, looking around for his pouch and picking it up to deposit what he had. "This area is dense in dead mana. Most plants can't survive here, but there are some that can around the edge. Those are antioxidants, though only animals like horses and bears have strong enough stomachs to handle it."
Cale hummed at that. "So it's poisonous to a normal human."
"Yes, but I have gloves on, so it's fine. I've also eaten some before, so I'm a little immune to it," he said. "It still gives me a stomachache though... but touching it is fine."
Cale wondered if this guy understood what normality even was, but then again, he didn't have the right to criticize someone else about that.
"By the way, young master. Is that bag full of bread?" South asked, even though he already knew the answer.
South glanced up for a second, saw Ron in the branches, and tried not to have a heart attack as he disguised his panic with his next question,
"S- Should I carry it for you, Young Master?"
Cale raised a brow, but he wasn't skeptical enough to look up. "Not with those hands. Pretend you didn't see me and leave."
South nodded.
"Yes sir, I will pretend I didn't see anything." He looked back up and yep, Ron was still up there. "Nothing at all, absolutely nothing." "
"Don't need to repeat yourself."
South bowed at Cale, "I'll take my leave then, Young Master. Please return safely today as well."
"Yeah yeah, go away already. Don't fall into some ditch on the way back."
"Young master you always insinuate that, but I don't think the Kingdom has enough ditches for me to fall into even if I went looking for one."
-
Ron didn't follow Cale up to the dead mana tree. Instead, he followed South.
"We need to arrange for some food shipment to the servants quarters, so I will have you accompany me part of the way," Ron said.
"I thought you were spying on the young master."
"Only far enough to see where he went."
"So you don't know what he's doing up there?"
"That place is so exposed, even the puppy young master would notice me if I appeared."
South relented.
"That aside, are you really intending on walking all the way back to the estate in that state of dress?" Ron glanced judgementally to the side, where South still had his shirt lifted up to hold the wild herbs. He was also barefooted, his gloves covered in dirt, and his hair messy.
"Well..." South shrugged, "what's wrong?"
Ron sighed longsufferingly. "This is why I had to follow you instead of the young master. What do you think you're doing, a servant of the Henituse County blending in with the beggars on the street?"
"Well, are you going to help me hold all these?"
"No."
-
"....and now he's sleeping beside the horse..." the coachman sighed deeply. "At least the horse is healthy now, but how could you just lean on a horse and sleep with it when the horse is still recovering?"
Deruth Henituse had heard that his usual horse was sick, but when he'd asked the coachman to lead him here, he found the horse happily nesting with one of the stable boys. Still recovering, but no longer in danger.
It looked like he was in the middle of brushing the horse's fur when he just fell asleep, face buried in the horse's mane.
"How odd," Deruth found it amusing, "my horse is usually so unfriendly, but she's so comfortable with the boy."
She was one of the older horses in the estate, and he had raised her from when she was still a foal. She was the biggest horse, but with her age, they thought the next time she fell sick, that would be the end.
Not only did the stable boy know the cure, he also went out on his own to get the medicine, and cured her before the sun set.
He was recommended here for his skills, and they were right.
"Assign him to be the official caretaker of the horses from now on," Deruth said. "It was about time that he got a proper promotion, anyway. Reward him accordingly."
"Ah... yes, sir."
-
South would wake up and learn of this soon, and he wouldn't particularly care. Going from working all around the stables to properly being in charge of the horses was just a fancy name change, right?
...right?
"The Young Master is headed out to the Royal Capital soon. Of course, you'll have to go along to take care of the horses."
"Aaahhh I went and jinxed it again!!!"