Chapter 258 – Eat Up (5)

Beeeeeeep- Beeeeeeep-

The noise of the alarm of the video communication device endlessly filled the room.
However, nobody could show any reactions to it.

Cale naturally could not do so even if he wanted to, so it was driving him crazy.

'Rosalyn will only call for one of two reasons.'

She would have either been contacted by crown prince Alberu or checking in on Cale, who went to see Eruhaben with Raon in his arms.
Cale was thinking that it was more likely to be the latter.

His short time away was for three days. It had only been two days so far.
There was still one day and 20 hours or so to go. The Alberu that Cale knew would not tell Rosalyn and the others who went to complete a mission about Cale's status this quickly.

Beeeeeep- Beeeeeeep-

The video communication device continued to ring.
She was not hanging up.

'I need to tell them to deal with her for now.'

Cale barely managed to open his eyes to tell his group to handle Rosalyn's call.
It took a bit of time for his eyes to focus.

He then became anxious.

'…Why is Beacrox supporting Ron?'

Beacrox was supporting his father.
But that was not it.

'What is that dagger for?'

It was the dagger that Ron used when he killed his enemies. The old man was holding that dagger while glaring at Cale.
Cale was truly afraid.

On the other hand, Ron could see Cale's bloodshot eyes as well as the tears in the corners of his eyes from the pain.

Ron could not help but feel intense anger as if the entire world was flipping over.

The Eastern continent. It was like the night he lost his wife, family, and household. It was difficult for Ron to calm himself while seeing this red-haired person coughing up blood and being in pain, just like that red night when everything burned away.

That was why he was clenching onto the item that he had on him since he was young in order to calm himself.
The coldness of the dagger helped calm his boiling body.

Click, click.
Ron calmed himself as he touched the dagger. He then gently moved his son Beacrox's hand away from him.

Honestly speaking, Beacrox was not actually supporting Ron and keeping him upright.
Ron knew that Beacrox was actually holding him to stop him from doing something crazy. On the day he had lost everything in the past, he was unable to hold back his anger and tried to go get revenge on his enemies.

If he had not seen the way his wife looked at their son as she closed her eyes for the last moment…
…If he had not seen how Beacrox looked back and forth between his wife and him…

He would have gone to get revenge.
However, Ron chose to run away rather than get revenge.
Beacrox was probably holding onto him, thinking that he would do something similar to that day.

However, Ron was still able to stand it.

All of this happened because of Arm.
His old body was still full of fire.

Click, click.

Ron regained his rationality as he continued to touch the dagger. He slowly approached his puppy young master as he caressed his dagger.

He was actually a tiger and not a puppy, but to Ron, he was still the trash young master-nim and the puppy young master-nim.
He had no choice.

Eruhaben told them that Cale would be like this until his plate finished fusing back together.
Ron approached the bed and kneeled on one knee in order to make eye contact with Cale.
Cale, whose expression still showed a significant amount of pain, opened his mouth.
What was he going to say?

"Uuuuuuuugh."

Unfortunately, the only thing coming out of Cale's mouth was a pain-filled moan.
Ron felt terrible.
It felt as if his heart was empty.

Cale became more anxious after seeing Ron start to frown.

'What's going on?
Why does he keep looking at me with a vicious expression while touching his dagger?
Did I do something wrong?
No, I don't think so.
So, what is going on?'

Those were the questions he wanted to ask, however, seeing that the only word capable of coming out of his mouth was, 'ugh,' he could only make one decision.

'Let's just do nothing.
I'm sure things will work out.
I can't worry about anything else when I'm in so much pain.'

Cale just resigned himself to his current situation.
Did Ron read the resignation in his eyes? Cale felt a bit better after hearing Ron's response.

"Please do not worry, young master-nim."

Ron remembered what Cale had told him before he left.

'It's so hard.'
'As usual, please.'

He put on his usual benign smile.

"I will take care of everything, just like my usual self, so please get some rest, young master-nim."

Cale felt better after hearing that.
He was worried for a moment about what that this old man might do, but as expected, he was on the right track.

Dealing with Rosalyn.
He could relax if Ron took care of that.

Ron would be his usual collected self and give a simple but accurate detail of what was going on.
Furthermore, as superficial as this may be, as the eldest human in the group, he will be capable of consoling them as needed.

Cale closed his barely open eyes in relief.
That was the problem.

"Eruhaben-nim, please connect the call."
"…Mm, alright. I'll do it since Cale seems to trust you and left things to you."

'Connect the call? Here? When I'm bleeding and in pain? Here? Really?'

Cale's mind was chaotic.
However, the moment he tried to open his eyes again…

"Cough!"

He coughed up another chunk of black blood.
Furthermore.

– Hmm? Mr. Ron! Long time-

Rosalyn's energetic voice suddenly stopped.
It wasn't that the video communication device was turned off.

Ron could see Rosalyn, the confused Choi Han, and Lock all freeze up as if the world had stopped. Of course, he could see that a palace had lost its roof behind them, but that wasn't important.

"Young master-nim, I will head out for a bit."

'No, don't go out.'

Cale couldn't open his eyes, so he could not see why Rosalyn suddenly stopped talking. That was why he would rather have Ron stay here and continue to talk.
However, Cale could not say anything because of the pain.

Click.
He heard the door opening.
Once Ron opened the door and went outside, he could see two kittens curled up in the distance.

"It feels like we shouldn't go in either, but noona, I still want to go in!"
"…Looks like we should just stay here. It seems like one of those moments."

Hong was trying to convince On to go inside the room, however, On made Hong stay next to her without moving after seeing the expression on Ron's face as well as the smell of blood that brushed past her nose.
Ron patted On's head and closed the door.

He then quietly stared at the closed door for a moment.

– Mr. Ron, just now, umm, what did I just see? Excuse me? That was definitely young master Cale. Hello, Mr. Ron?

He could hear Rosalyn's shaking voice.
Ron held the video communication device in his hand as he headed to the farthest corner room on the second floor.

-G, grandpa!

He could hear Lock's scared voice as well.
Ron did not respond to him as he entered that corner room.

Click, click.
Once the door closed and he was left alone…The person who had not said anything until now started to speak.

– …What happened?

It was Choi Han.
Ron observed Choi Han through the video communication device.

He recalled when this punk first followed the young master-nim and came to the Henituse household. His son and Choi Han had pointed their weapons at each other in the kitchen at that time.
This punk was being respectful in front of Cale, however, once Cale disappeared after telling them to show him the way around the estate, he acted like a total jackass.

'Lead the way.'

This punk who had been so informal to someone much older than him had gone with them in order to fight against Arm and the mermaids after Ron had lost his arm and was respectful to him these days.
Choi Han and Ron made eye contact.

– Please tell me everything without leaving anything out.
"Shut up."

Rosalyn and Lock flinched. They had never seen this side of Ron before. Even if he was an assassin, he was always nice and gentle to them.
However, Choi Han, Ron, and Beacrox were more used to this type of Ron.

– I don't want to. Please tell me.

Rosalyn and Lock looked back and forth between Ron's vicious expression and Choi Han, who had no issues talking back, before choosing to be quiet after seeing Ron starting to laugh.
Ron started to speak at that moment.

"You're always so impatient."

Choi Han had taken his sword out extremely quickly the day they met as well.

– Please tell me-
"Shut up. I will tell you what I feel like telling you."

Choi Han stopped talking after seeing Ron's angry expression.
He could tell that Ron was not angry at him. This sly and cold assassin who was also an old man who cherished his relationships did not get angry easily.

"Shut your trap and listen up."

Choi Han chose to stay quiet and listen.

Cale was right to leave this to Ron. Ron was the only one who dealt with Choi Han, a sword master and a strong individual, as relaxed as Cale did. No, Ron was the only one who could treat Choi Han however he wanted to do so.

"It is regarding the young master-nim's ancient power."

Ron returned to servant mode and calmly started to speak.

– Ah.

Rosalyn let out a gasp as if she already understood what was going on. She started to frown.

– What is going on? Why are you all standing around after destroying the palace? Did someone die? Why do you all look like that?

The Killer Whale Archie who suddenly appeared and brushed off the dust from the walls off his hands shut up and walked to a corner after seeing three pairs of eyes glaring at him.

– Uh…Mm, okay. I'll be quiet.

Ron started to speak again once it became quiet.
The group's expression became worse as Ron's story continued. Even the Killer Whale, Archie, was looking at the sky in order to prevent himself from tearing up as Ron calmly explained the situation.

Cale did not know what Ron was saying as he started to relax.
He was starting to get used to the pain.

"Cough."

'Fuck this shit!'

He was not getting used to it at all.
Cale just gave up and tried to relax his body.

"Get some rest. Beacrox, let's go."
"Do we not need to be by his side?"
"Raon is here. He is even better than me and can figure out Cale's condition."
"…I understand."

Everybody left the room and silence filled the void.
Cale was sweating and breathing heavily because of the pain that felt as if his entire body was breaking apart before being put back together.

It was at that moment.

"Human."

Cale could hear Raon's voice.
He seemed to have woken up after everybody had left. Cale could feel Raon's round front paw wiping blood off of Cale's mouth.

"Human are you still in pain?"

The round head that was still the same after his first growth phase rubbed on Cale's side.

"I will tell you first, weak human."

The young Dragon scooched up to Cale's ear and quietly whispered.

"Do you know what my attribute is?"

Raon wanted to tell Cale first before he told anybody else.
He wanted to tell Cale what he had achieved.
Raon whispered to Cale.

"The present."

That was what Raon realized.

"My attribute is the present."

In addition to natural attributes, Dragons could also have unique or abstract attributes.
Raon's attribute was abstract, but something that could be felt very easily.

Raon curled up next to Cale. As Eruhaben had said, there was nothing he could do right now. That was painful and frustrating, but Raon just laid down next to Cale in his spot and continued to speak.

"Right here and now is my attribute."

He was able to return to the real world and be present right here.
That was the most important thing to Raon, so that became Raon's attribute.

Tap.

Raon rubbed his head at the shaking hand that was trying to caress his head.

It really was best to be alive right now.
He was happy that he, as well as everyone else, were alive.

Raon stuck right next to Cale so that Cale felt the child's body heat as he continued his time in pain.

* * *

The next day.

Click.
The door opened.

Beacrox entered the bedroom with a wet washcloth in his father's place. He then became anxious.

Tap.
The washcloth in his hand fell to the ground.

"B, Beacrox-"
"…Young master-nim?"

Cale was up.
However, something was weird.

Beacrox became shocked while watching Cale barely getting up toward him before he rushed over to support Cale.
Cale's shaking fingers grabbed onto Beacrox's sleeves.

"Young master-nim, what happened?! Should I call Eruhaben-nim?"
"B, Beacrox-"

Cale's voice was weak and shaky.
Beacrox's face slowly turned pale while listening to Cale's weak voice and looking at the chilly expression on his face.
It was at that moment.

"Hehe."

It was someone laughing.

Beacrox turned his head after hearing the laughter. Raon was snickering and rubbing his head on Cale's side.
He heard Cale's voice at that moment.
It was as weak as a transparent glass marble.
"…Meat."
"Excuse me?"
"…Beef, pork, chicken…"

Beacrox's expression slowly changed.
Cale tightly grabbed onto Beacrox's sleeves and asked with a desperate gaze.

'I'm hungry.'

Beacrox calmly asked.

"Are you not hurting?"
"Yes. I'm hungry."
"…You really seem to be okay."

Cale was not hurting at all. He could feel that his body was better than before.
However, he was still hungry.

– Your plate is fused together again now. You did well. Let's not put yourself through pain like this again.

It was the voice of the Super Rock.

– It's me, the fiery thunderbolt! Time to go throw some money away now!

The fiery thunderbolt was cheering.
Cale completely ignored the two of them.

Instead, he grabbed his stomach that was extremely hungry. Raon seemed concerned as he took an apple pie out of his spatial dimension before looking at its condition and pushing it to a corner before speaking to Beacrox.

"I am hungry as well! Thanks for carrying me, Beacrox!"
"It's our youngest's voice!"
"They're both better! I'm hungry too!"

On and Hong, who were roaming outside the bedroom door, rushed in after hearing Raon and Cale's voice. The room started to become filled with energy as the children averaging nine-years-old started to talk.
Even the cold Beacrox had a small smile on his face.
It was at that moment.

"Ah, young master-nim."

Beacrox remembered what he needed to say now that Cale was not in pain.
It was the information that Ron had heard from Rosalyn yesterday. It was urgent, however, he did not say anything until now because of Cale's condition.

"We received information that the Empire is preparing to take back Maple Castle that they lost to the Whipper Kingdom."

'Hmm?'

Cale blinked his eyes.

'Who did what?'

"…The Empire is going to strike the Whipper Kingdom?"
"Publicly, they are claiming that they will only take back Maple Castle."

'Isn't that the same thing?'

Cale's expression turned odd.

'The Mogoru Empire is going to take on Toonka's Whipper Kingdom right now?
Imperial Prince Adin and Toonka are going to fight?
Is it finally time to strike the Empire from the back?'

Cale stopped the corners of his lips from twitching before blinking once more.

"…Beef steak."

He needed to fill his belly first.
He couldn't do anything with an empty stomach.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]