Yes. Father, please make sure you eat properly.
Basen let out another "Ho" sound, and Cale, who heard it this time, looked at the boy. Basen, fifteen. The younger brother with whom Cale was three years apart, and who couldn't stand his older brother.
Unlike a lowlife like Cale, Basen was smart, honest, and very responsible. The family insisted that Basen should become the next head of the family. Kim Rok Soo agreed with this proposal, even after he himself incarnated as Cale.
"He doesn't seem to be striving for power," the crown prince said thoughtfully, tapping his finger on the armrest of his chair.
He was used to the fact that people around him always strived for power, in every possible way, and this man seemed to not care. "Interesting..."
"Rather than complicate my life by taking on the responsibility of this territory, I would prefer to use my position as the Count's older brother to live in peace and quiet in a part of this territory without looking back."
Cale didn't argue with Basen. He heard his brother sigh and knew he was looking down on him, but what could Cale do about it?
Cale pretended not to hear Basen's sigh and continued eating. As soon as the meal was over, his father Derut stood up first. He seemed pleased with his breakfast, as his face was beaming with a radiant smile.
- It was delicious.
If breakfast was like this every day, Cale would probably forgo sleep just to eat all the time. Derut looked around at the family members who had gotten up after he did, before focusing his gaze on his firstborn, Cale.
- Son, do you need anything?
Cale was confused by Derut's sudden question, but decided to answer honestly.
- Please give me some money.
"Is he serious?" The thought was collective. Except perhaps the black dragon and Mary.
"Of course, I'll give you as much as you want," Derut answered without hesitation.
It was a truly wealthy family.
They owned land where marble was mined and grapes were grown for wine. So now the Hanites family had no shortage of funds.
- As much as possible. Please give me as much as you can.
Cale felt his younger siblings looking at him, but he didn't feel the need to feel embarrassed. Wasn't it better to ask for money instead of drinking and making a fuss?
Besides, he needed money to start implementing his plans. This fatal encounter that would allow him to gain enough strength to be able to protect himself… He needed money to create the necessary opportunity.
Everyone focused again. This man seemed smart enough so far. If they learned his plan, they might also learn something about the events that were about to happen.
Based on everything he knew, after some thought, Alberu came to the conclusion that the moment happening in front of them and the moment when they found themselves in this room were quite close to each other on the timeline. He must not miss a single detail.
- Of course, I will give you as much as I can.
Cale began to smile, satisfied with his father's answer. However, after returning to the room, he was speechless when he received a check from the deputy butler, Hans.
"So much money?!"
It seems this family didn't just have a lot of money. In fact, they seemed to have a LOT of money.
The novel mentioned that Cale was receiving a large allowance, but the exact amount was not mentioned. However, he could tell how large the allowance was just by looking at the amount on the check.
"Ten million gallons."
- HOW MANY????
Jumping up from their seats, Alberu and Rosalyn screamed in unison, forgetting all about decency. The black dragon almost fell off his chair from the unexpected sound. How rich was this family? Even for them, the offspring of royal blood, the amount was enormous, and here it was given to the chief troublemaker of the kingdom without question.
Ron raised an eyebrow, but wasn't too surprised by the sudden increase in the usual amount. The Earl hadn't added that much on top in his joy.
Choi Han didn't have much insight into local economics, but if the Crown Prince was reacting like that, it meant the amount was not small.
That's roughly equivalent to ten million Korean won. If that's the case, Cale might change his plans. Cale quickly began to calculate his options.
Well, this was the best financial example so far that Choi Han had lived here. In the small village, money was not particularly needed, but now it had to be abandoned. The local prices suddenly became much clearer to the young sword master. "Oh, thank God!" he thought, bashfully closing his eyes.
- I'll leave now, Young Master.
The assistant butler, having delivered the check, said goodbye, but Cale did not respond.
Deputy butler Hans didn't react to this, thinking it was normal, and headed for the door. However, he was soon forced to stop. This happened because Cale rose from his seat and addressed Ron...
- Ron, let's go to the office.
Hans was worried about Cale's words. Ron seemed to be too.
-…You said you wanted to go to the office?
Cale found it strange. The cunning old man's voice was shaking. Was there a reason he couldn't go to the office?
It was really weird. What was so scary about going to the office?
"He doesn't have his own office?" Rosalyn asked curiously.
"He does have a study room. It's just that the last time young Master Cale was there was about ten years ago, when he threw a book at the wall and said he refused to study useless things," Ron said. By useless things, he meant literally every subject that was on the curriculum.
- Aaaaaaah.
The strange reaction was now crystal clear.
- Yes.
He needed to go to his office to formulate a plan for the future. There was no trace of a desk or even a piece of paper in his room. However, there were many bottles of expensive alcohol.
- Sorry, Young Master.
- For what?
Cale looked at the worried deputy butler.
- This... We haven't had time to do the morning cleaning in the office yet.
- Really? Well, it's all right, nothing will happen to the office if it's not cleaned for one day.
- No, sir. We cannot allow this.
For some reason, the deputy butler continued to insist. Then he smiled brightly and raised a finger.
- Please wait one hour! I will personally make sure that the office is completely cleaned, so that it does not look like it has not been used for ten years, but greets you as if you left it only last night!
- Of course, as you wish.
He didn't mind waiting for an hour.
- Excellent! Then I will inform the Master about this.
- There is no need for this, but if you think it is necessary, you can do so.
- Yes, Young Master. I will leave immediately.
- Okay, go.
Like a well-trained under-butler, Hans closed the door without making any noise and disappeared. He seemed to be in a hurry. Cale knew that there were three under-butlers who wanted to become an official butler. Maybe that was why Hans was so excited.
- Ron.
- Young Master?
- Why are you frozen?
- My apologies, Young Master.
- No need for apologies.
Rosalyn couldn't help but chuckle.
"This guy is smart, but he seems rather absent-minded," she said with a smile.
"We don't know how much he knows about the life of the former Young Master. If the book was about Choi Han, they might not have gone into detail about every person he met," Eruhaben shared his thought. "In this context, he actually holds up well."
After thinking about this for a while, Rosalyn, like the others, couldn't help but agree. Being with the former Young Master, two different people, he couldn't act exactly the same way even if he wanted to.
Ron had an even stranger expression than before, but Cale put the precious check in his inside pocket and then asked a question. There was so much to do that he didn't even have time to clarify one important question:
— What date is it today?
The question would have seemed strange if it had been asked by anyone else, but Ron's servant answered in his ever-gentle voice:
- Today is the twenty-ninth day of the third month of the seven hundred and eighty-first year of the Felix calendar.
Choi Han froze. It was too late. Kim Rok Soo had come to that world too late. His family there had died just like they had here. Rage and grief began to take over his mind again. Why? he thought. What had they done to deserve this? Why could the whole world be saved, but a small village could not be saved? He began to shake.
Alberu noted to himself that, judging by the date, only a few days had passed between the tragedy in the village and their arrival here, and he was right in his assumption.
- Mmm... That's a problem.
- Sorry?
- No, nothing.
Cale put his hand back on the ten million gallons in his pocket. The only thing he could trust was money.
- An interesting life position.
Yesterday was the twenty-eighth day of the third month of the seven hundred and eighty-first year of the Felix calendar. It was the day when the people of Harris Village, the same village that the hero Choi Han went to after escaping from the Forest of Darkness, the place where Choi Han first felt human affection in this world, where he found friends and a new family, were slaughtered by an unknown group of assassins.
The sword master lowered his head and refused to look at anyone. The wound was too fresh. He clearly remembered everything that had happened when he returned to the village, only to find only death there.
Eruhaben was not really interested in the affairs of people, but even for him this sounded rather cruel.
Rosalyn and Lock lowered their gazes in respect for the dead. The young wolf prayed that something like this would never happen to his village. Although they were much stronger than humans, they would probably be able to defend themselves if threatened.
Ron and Bikros listened attentively. Ron had felt a familiar aura on Choi Han when he had come to the manor. The aura of the bastards who had killed their family and sent them fleeing. He thought that the aura belonged to Choi Han himself. Bikros was still quite young and might not remember when he had decided to go with the swordsman, but Ron remembered it all crystal clear, as if it were yesterday. He had decided to go with them, keep an eye on the suspicious guy and kill him if he was really connected to those people. After finding out everything he knew from him. Knowing that the guy had nothing to do with them was comforting.
Alberu remained calm on the outside, but inside he was devastated. This was a tragedy. These were his subjects, the people of his kingdom. As a potential future monarch, he had to think of ways to prevent this from happening in the future. There were a great many villages on the outskirts of the kingdom. Who knew which one would be next. Usually, the nobles in charge of the area were responsible for protecting their lands, but that was clearly not enough. Decades of peace had made everyone let their guard down. He needed to think of options that would increase the security of the kingdom, but would not make the nobles worry about the crown meddling in their affairs. That would cause a lot of trouble.
Even Cale, who had read up to volume five, still didn't know the true identity behind this mysterious organization that killed the villagers.
Alberu, for the first time in this time, took a piece of paper from the table and wrote in large letters "SECRET ORGANIZATION", underlining it a couple of times for good measure. And as the first points he added:
*Killers;
*High secrecy;
After all, if nothing was known about them after five volumes, that means they knew how to hide, right? Right.
Some readers might say something like this after reading about the current situation.
"I thought he was really strong. But what was Choi Han doing when they were all being killed?"Such thoughts were natural.
However, there is a reason why this novel is called "Birth of a Hero" and not "The Power of a Hero" or "War of Heroes".
Birth.
It was the story of a man who overcame all sorts of obstacles and suffered in his past to become a hero. Love and friendship accompany him on his journey, where he meets both enemies and friends.
Something that cannot be missing from the story is "awakening". He may have all sorts of extraordinary talents, and he may have lived for decades in the Forest of Darkness, but still, Choi Han was still an innocent and gentle person who could not kill another person. He had no problem killing monsters, but Choi Han had never hurt another person before.
Ron had a hard time imagining this guy as "innocent and gentle", he was more like a wild animal that would bite if given a reason. But he knew what the first life taken could do to a person.
In order to turn someone like him into a hero, the author of the novel created special situations for Choi Han. In order to heal the lady who treated him like her own son, Choi Han went to the Forest of Darkness to find precious medicinal herbs.
He had to go deep into the forest to find them, and when he finally managed to find what he was looking for and headed back to the village, he found only the corpses of all the murdered villagers, burning houses and the murderers who were about to leave the scene of the crime.
Choi Han was furious when he saw this, and killed someone for the first time. Of course, the people the protagonist killed were members of this secret organization, and this secret organization often encountered Choi Han in the pages of the novel.
Choi Han didn't look ahead where the images of what had happened were displayed, he didn't need any more reminders. He already saw it every time he closed his eyes. He could still smell the smoke.
Locke covered his eyes with his hands and slumped in his chair. The village was too much like his own for him to watch calmly.
The father and son duo, seeing the uniforms of the attackers, were completely convinced that these were the same people.
Rosalyn tried to remain calm for the sake of the person sitting next to her, who was currently feeling the worst.
Eruhaben didn't miss the suddenly tense black cub, but didn't ask.
Mary and Vitira thought to themselves that people could be quite cruel.
The Crown Prince meanwhile added:
* Black uniform of atypical cut;
* Frequent meetings throughout the story. Greater involvement in continental affairs????
Choi Han awakens after killing all the assassins from the secret organization, but almost immediately falls into despair as he cannot get any information from the dead bodies. He then buries the bodies of the villagers before making a promise to himself:
"I'll kill them all. I'll kill all the people who did this."
Choi Han knew that he had given in to the sadness of the death of his loved ones at that moment, but the first murder began to gradually change his consciousness. Of course, he came back to life and became more and more human after meeting with the party members, and in the subsequent pages of the novel he became a real hero.
Now even the ancient dragon sympathized with him.
-…Ron.
- Yes, Young Master.
— A cup of cold water, please.
-… I understand…
After Ron left and he was left alone in the room, Cale covered his face with both palms.
The problem was that the town this twisted Choi Han arrived in after leaving Harris Village was called Western and it was located in the center of Hanites territory.
Cale, who accidentally bumped into Choi Han, enraged the protagonist and got himself beaten up. That is, when Choi Han was supposed to get the first party member, the reliable chef Bikros.
Choi Han and Bikros nodded their heads, confirming that this was how things had been so far. Although Choi Han couldn't say anything about the chef's reliability, they hadn't known each other for very long.
"... I was going to go there early and help him. But now, the best option to avoid a beating was no longer available. If I could have kept the villagers safe, things would have been different, but at this point of no return, there was nothing I could do. Now all I had left was to make sure I acted in a way that would avoid a beating from the angry Choi Han, who was advancing at a crazy speed and would arrive at the walls of Western City by tomorrow."
The sword master felt a vague sense of relief. If the transmigrator had arrived earlier, he would have helped. If it had been in his power, everything could have ended differently, and this horror could have been avoided. He was unbearably hurt that it had not happened, but it would be wrong to blame another person for that. He could have done nothing at all and let everything slide, but he was going to help. He wanted to. That alone was enough to make his soul feel calmer.
"Even if you can't do anything about it, thank you anyway, Kim Rok Soo," he thought.
- Avoiding the main character doesn't seem like a very good idea.
"Why?" asked the curious child.
He needed to make Ron and Bikros run into Choi Han. It was the only way for the trio to leave the area together, thus beginning the official journey. That left him with only one course of action.
"I just need to push them into each other and then get out of their way."
When creating the best first impression, this was entirely possible.
- Aaaa... - the dragon seemed to understand.
- Young Master.
- Oh, thanks, Ron.
Cale took a sip from the cup Ron had brought, then frowned.
- Isn't this cold water?
- This is lemonade.
He really is a sly man. He knows it just like Kim Rok Soo, the real Cale hated sour things. But he still chose to bring lemonade, which required more effort to make than simply filling a mug with cold water. Cale wanted to get angry at the sour taste, but he couldn't because he was afraid of this old murderer. The only thing the young man could do was drink the lemonade he brought.
"If you knew about it, why did you keep bringing lemonade?" the Sword Master asked the former assassin.
"Who knows…" he replied with a creepy smile. "Vitamin C is very beneficial for the health of young gentlemen."
Looking at this, Alberu couldn't help but think that he completely understood the "new" Cale's desire to get rid of such a servant as quickly as possible. He would have done exactly the same in his place.
- Thank you, that's wonderful.
- You're welcome, Young Master. We can head to the office soon.
- Great.
Ron's soft, gentle smile sent a shiver down Cale's spine. He fingered the ten million gallon check again for comfort.
The only thing in this world that could be trusted was money.
A chill ran down not only Kayla's spine, although this smile was not directed at them, they could not help but feel sorry for the guy.
Meanwhile, the wall returned to its original state of a normal wall and nothing else happened.
After a little while and making sure that nothing had changed, Alberu took the floor:
- Apparently this is the very "break for discussion" that the God of Death spoke about.
He was probably right in his assumption, since the wall continued to remain a wall and the fog showed no signs of movement.
- Let's summarize what we've learned.
Everyone looked in his direction.
- Firstly, we are on the brink of a world war, as Cale said it would happen on both continents.
Everyone nodded.
— There are also places and areas that may be able to avoid this.
Everyone nodded again, although Eruhaben made some adjustments:
— We can't know for sure. The book hasn't been finished. We know more than this guy in that regard. We already know that the world will be destroyed, and quite soon. So there are no safe places, no matter what happens, it will affect everyone, everywhere.
That was a fair point.
- Okay, let's keep that in mind. What's next? There is some secret organization that may or may not be connected to all of these events.
Alberu couldn't help but doubt. Greed was the basis of human nature, and to start a major war, the intervention of a secret society was completely unnecessary. It seemed more like some kind of conspiracy theory. Someone had offended someone, someone wanted more land for themselves, hell, there were times in history when wars broke out because of wine spilled on the wrong person's suit at a ball. But God said that he intervened before it was too late, and the story began precisely from the moment of this organization's first appearance in the territory of the Roan Kingdom. At least the first recorded appearance. What could have happened that they didn't know made one tense.
- The story began when they showed up here, I think it's not by chance. If that's the case, then they're much more than just a group of killers who are out to exterminate villages.
"This organization is called the Hand," the former butler said, attracting everyone's attention.
"How do you know this?" Choi Han asked in a tense voice. The information about the killers had been right under his nose for the past few days, and he had no idea about it.
"Many years ago, on the Eastern Continent, these were the people who destroyed my home, killed my wife, and forced me to flee with my son to the Western Continent, where we have been hiding ever since, living as servants in the house of Count Hanitheus. That was over 15 years ago," Ron said, closing his eyes from the image of his crying son, whom he was trying to lead away from danger.
Choi Han thought that their situations were somewhat similar, but he couldn't help but ask:
- Why didn't you tell me right away?
- You didn't ask, that's the first thing. And secondly, why did I have to do it? You reeked of those bastards when you came and you still reek of them. I had every reason to believe that you were one of them. Thank the God of Death for resolving this unfortunate misunderstanding.
The sword master, although he understood his point, couldn't help but look at him with a gaze that clearly asked, "I'd like to see what you would do to me in that case?"
Rosalyn wondered why such different people, under such circumstances, were going anywhere together?
Alberu turned his attention back to himself, thinking that if things continued like this, it wouldn't end well. Even if they couldn't directly harm each other, vicious guys like these would come up with something.
- So. This organization, this "Hand", comes from the Eastern Continent? And it wasn't formed recently?
- That's right, Your Highness. Even then, they seemed like a very organized group. So they may be much older than we know.
Alberu carefully wrote down the information he had received on the sheet, changing the sphere of influence from one continent to both.
"I've never heard of such an organization," he couldn't help but admit regretfully. "They've been around for quite some time, they should have shown up somewhere."
- Why did they attack the village in the first place?
Everyone turned to Vitira, who had remained silent until then.
- What do you mean?
She looked back at everyone and said:
- The organization has been around for quite some time. And no one has ever heard of them. So why would they attack the village so openly? It would draw attention to them, which they have been trying to avoid.
It made me think.
Even though the nobles were responsible for the safety of their lands, information about such incidents was always reported to the Royal Family. And Count Hanitus would be obliged to report it. Albertu couldn't recall any other such cases. Either this was the first, which was unsettling. Or the other cases were better hidden, which was even more unsettling.
- Choi Han?
- What happened, Your Highness?
— Can you recall anything in Harris Village that could have led to the attack?
The sword master thought about it, recalling all the time he had lived in the village. It was an ordinary village, where ordinary people lived ordinary lives. He couldn't remember anything strange. In the end, he simply shook his head.
- Forgive me, Your Highness. Nothing comes to mind. It was always quite quiet there. It was a very ordinary village. Even travelers came to us quite rarely. Usually, traders, passing by, stopped to rest on the way. But the last guest was before winter.
"So, for now, the only thing that distinguishes the village from any other is the proximity of the forbidden territory, the Forest of Darkness, right?" The ancient dragon did notice one difference.
— It turns out that way.
"That doesn't explain such a treacherous attack," Rosalyn noted.
The comment came from an unexpected place.
The black dragon, who had been silent and listening attentively until now, asked:
— Strong Choi Han wasn't home, right?
Everyone looked at the little dragon, trying to understand what he meant.
- Yes, I went to get some herbs, I was gone for about 4 days.
"So the killers might not have known that there was someone else living in the village, huh?" The little dragon couldn't understand why they hadn't thought of something so obvious. But dragons were generally smarter than humans, so he would forgive them for that, so be it.
Everyone looked at the baby with surprised eyes, but the idea was sound.
Eruhaben patted the child on the head, smart boy, he deserved it.
- If the attackers didn't know there was another person, and a strong person at that, they could have attacked and made it look like an accident. We saw the fire in the memories, right? One careless spark and the village supposedly just "burned down overnight", no one would have looked for a catch.
"I stopped them by coming out of the forest and attacking them. They really were trying to do something with the bodies. I was in no condition to figure it out," the sword master said, lowering his head. Once again, he regretted killing everyone and not being able to learn anything from them.
— I don't think such people would attack an ordinary village just like that. There must have been something there that they needed. And it was so important that they couldn't leave witnesses. The question is, did the villagers know what it could be?
The Crown Prince went over it in his head once more and wrote the name of the village on a new, clean sheet of paper, circling it and putting a big question mark. After thinking some more, he also marked the Dark Forest there. Under the circumstances, the forbidden territory could not be written off.
"We can only guess, I hope in the process we will be able to find out exactly what happened there, as well as find and punish the guilty," was all that Albert could say.
Most nodded at this. Choi Han was sure that he would dig up the whole earth, but he would find it and take revenge. Ron and Bikros were not much different from him.
Locke had been very depressed since he had even heard about the tragedy.
Rosalyn, both as a palace-bred and as a mage, could not tolerate such injustice. Deciding to herself that if she could help in any way, she would definitely do it.
Vitira and Meri felt sorry for the dead villagers and thought that life on the surface was quite difficult. Each thought about it in her own way, naturally.
Only the dragons remained calm. The problems of the people had nothing to do with the dragons.
- How are you doing?
The voice of the God of Death made everyone shudder. They had forgotten about it.
Quickly pulling himself together and putting on his usual smile, Alberu said, looking up:
— I think we are doing well so far. We have learned some important things and come to some conclusions. Am I right in thinking that we will see answers to our questions later?
- You have always been a very smart man, young prince. You will make a wonderful king.
Alberu froze at what he heard. This was his dream. He had been striving for this all his life and was ready for anything. Almost. He would not, of course, endanger his subjects. Hearing these words from the mouth of a God was very pleasant and encouraging. But there were other gods who might not think so…
— You also made a lot of very accurate comments, if you're interested.
This made everyone feel better. They were thinking in the right direction.
Ron, after thinking for a moment, turned to the God of Death:
"When you said that our secrets would be revealed, I didn't expect that the secrets of half of us would be revealed at the very beginning. This humble servant is a little stunned.
They had been in this place for about an hour, and already the secrets of himself, which had drawn Bikros along with him, the incredible story of Choi Han and even their former Young Master had surfaced.
- You'll be surprised when you realize how much is hiding right under your nose.
As someone who had been in hiding for nearly two decades, he understood the concept. But he was looking forward to learning such juicy things.
He was silently supported by Albert. Any secret that came to light could be the trump card that could help him strengthen his influence. At the same time, he began to think about how to minimize the damage that could occur when his own secret was revealed. And there would be damage, he had no doubt about it.
- If you are ready, we can continue.
Pulling themselves together, everyone turned their attention back to the wall, which was beginning to melt. More important things would soon be revealed to them. The Crown Prince decided to pay more attention to seemingly insignificant details, as they could be quite important. And what a sin to hide, there was a rather curious and very strange character there, who was interesting to watch. Everyone agreed with this.
The wall finally disappeared and a new memory began.