"Are you ignoring the festival too, human?"
Raon looked toward Cale. On and Hong looked up at him with similar expressions as well. Cale did not even look at the smiling trio as he continued to speak to Ron.
"I'll go back home two days from now."
"Yes, young master-nim. You'll need to hurry if you want to show the children the festival."
"Stop saying useless things and go bring Miss Rosalyn."
"Yes sir."
Ron had a benign and mischievous smile on his face as he left the room. Cale ignored the smiling children as he got up from the bed.
"Human, are you getting ready to leave?"
"We are not leaving right now."
"Alright! I will return after letting people know that we are leaving."
Raon flew out the open window, and On and Hong jumped out behind him. The three children were headed toward the Forest of Darkness. Cale did not care what they were doing.
Rosalyn soon arrived and Cale delivered the message to Rosalyn.
He started with how one of the Breck Kingdom's princes had asked Alberu about her and then about how they asked about him. He then told Rosalyn that Alberu was returning with that prince.
"Miss Rosalyn, I asked you to come so that I could share that news with you."
Once he was finished, he could see Rosalyn smiling gently.
"It must be the fourth prince."
"Is that so?"
"He's a total bitch that probably left his courage behind in a Dragon's Lair."
'…Leave what where?'
Cale had never heard Rosalyn talk like this before.
"He whined about everything ever since he was a little boy."
"Really?"
He played along for now.
"Yes. That was why I always nagged at him. He might not have known because he was a prince, but we don't live in a world where you can get what you want simply by whining."
Rosalyn had a refreshing smile on her face.
"That is why I taught him about the world."
Cale wondered what she might have taught him. He felt like it would have been very scary.
"Anyways, whether it is the fourth prince or someone else, I will take care of it."
Cale found the words, 'take care of it,' to be scary, but decided not to ask for details. He knew that she would take care of it properly. It was at that moment.
Knock knock knock.
He could hear a knock on the door as a black blob quickly flew in through the window.
"Human, open the door!"
Cale looked at Raon, who was now covered in leaves and dirt, before sighing as he shouted toward the door. It was obvious who Raon would have brought.
"Enter."
Click.
The door opened and an existence that was even darker than Raon walked in.
"Hello, young master-nim. What a wonderful morning we have today."
It was Mary, who greeted him in her robotic voice as usual.
The necromancer Mary adjusted well to Harris Village. He paid a lot of attention to her at first because she just stared up at the sky both night and day, but she was doing well now.
To be specific, she was playing well with the Black Dragon, Raon.
"Human, listen. The good child and I found something!"
Rosalyn smiled brightly and took a sip of the tea in front of her. Cale asked with a blank expression on his face.
"What? Did you find another interesting rock or a leaf with many holes?"
Raon had shown Mary around the Forest of Darkness. Cale felt iffy about Mary learning about the surface world from Raon, but let it be because it was annoying to deal with it personally. Raon reported to Cale every time they saw an interesting rock or leaf. Cale recalled how excited he had been at first, thinking that Raon had found some treasure.
"No! But it was just something pretty similar!"
If it was something similar to a rock or leaf, Cale thought it was probably something like dirt. He just nodded his head and pointed to a seat for Mary to sit. Mary dragged her black robe over and sat down as Rosalyn offered her some snacks.
Raon continued to shout as that happened.
"Yes! We found some bones!"
'Bones?'
"There seemed to be hundreds of them!"
Cale turned his gaze over to Mary.
"There seem to be at least two hundred corpses in there. The majority of them seem to have been buried intact, as the bones are in very good condition. It seems to have happened within the last two years."
"Choi Han thinks that they were fighting and killed each other in the Forest of Darkness!"
Mary used the dead monsters or animals she found every so often in the Forest of Darkness to practice her necromancer abilities. Mary, however, did not use any human or Elven corpses.
"I will need to put the bones together in order to know for sure, but it seems like it was a battle between land monsters and flying monsters."
Rosalyn could see that Cale's expression quickly changed and that the corner of his lips was twitching.
"Human, can the good child use those bones?"
Rosalyn's expression became odd. Raon and Mary reported everything that they found in the Forest of Darkness to Cale before asking if they could use it.
"She will use it cleanly!"
"I promise I will not break it."
Cale lifted up his teacup instead of responding to the combination of the Black Dragon and the Black Robe. He was about to take a sip of tea when he suddenly thought of something.
'Why didn't I think about that?'
He couldn't drink because the corners of his lips continued to twitch as he held back his laughter. He finally gave up drinking his tea and asked Mary.
"Were the flying monster bones in good condition?"
"Yes sir. I will need to put it together and restore some broken parts, but they seemed to be in a pretty good condition."
"How many?"
"There are fewer than the land monsters. I guess there are around 70 of them."
"Size?"
"They seem to be mutant monsters-."
"Are they the size of wyverns?"
"They are a bit smaller."
Mary didn't know why Cale was suddenly talking about wyverns, but she still answered properly. Cale could feel his heart beating quickly at her response.
The North's Wyvern Knights Brigade.
Cale had worried about how to deal with the Wyverns in the future. It would cause a lot of damage to the territory if he used the attacking ancient power or magic.
"Mary."
"Yes sir."
"Are you thankful to me?"
"I am very thankful."
Mary didn't think Cale's question was odd as she answered. Her voice was emotionless, but she meant it.
Even though she was not living in a human village nor at the Caro Kingdom, Cale let her go to the Henituse Estate every so often and allowed her to enjoy the beauty of the surface in a peaceful environment.
She felt like she would miss the beautiful night sky, the blue sky, the vibrant natural environment, and even this house in the future.
"Good. Then I'm sure you'll want to return the favor if I am in a difficult situation?"
Cale was smiling gently. Rosalyn, who was watching this unfold, felt iffy about what Cale was saying, but the problem was that she was the only one who felt this way.
"Yes sir. I definitely want to return the favor."
A bright smile was on Cale's face.
"Then come to the Henituse territory once in the future when I call for you."
"Of course. I want to come back here all the time."
An image was being created in Cale's mind right now. He maintained that image as he responded to Mary.
"Practice with the monster bones as much as you want. However, you know you need to return them to me before you leave, right?"
"Of course. I will make sure they are cleaned and return them to you before I leave."
"Human! I knew you would let her use it!"
Rosalyn was looking at him with a, 'what kind of deal is this?' kind of expression, but Cale was still looking at Mary, who was about to leave with Raon.
"Can a flying monster corpse fly?"
"Yes sir. However, this is my first time using flying monster bones, so I will need a lot of practice."
If the North had the Wyvern Knights Brigade…Cale was imagining how he would respond in the future.
A Flying Skeletons Brigade.
Isn't the name cool?
Cale could feel his heart beating quickly. There was one other thing that was making him so excited about it. He suppressed his excitement as he gently added on for Mary.
"Mary, let me know when you get used to working with flying monsters."
"Yes sir. I will be on my way now."
"We will be back quickly, human!"
Mary and Raon left the room. Cale looked at Raon who was flying toward the Forest of Darkness through the window and started to think.
'A Dragon should destroy wyverns, right?'
Cale had that adult Dragon corpse on him. He had a full set of Dragon Bones that he had found in the Forest of darkness.
Cale became excited thinking about the Dragon Bones and flying monster bones making their grand appearance in the future. Just thinking about him made him feel happy.
"Miss Rosalyn."
"…Yes?"
Rosalyn responded back to Cale's mischievous expression with a stoic face. She was thinking that the person in front of her was a really good person, but had a tendency to have these odd thoughts every so often.
"How is the strength of the Breck Kingdom's military?"
"Excuse me?"
"What I am about to tell you is extremely confidential."
Rosalyn could see the mischievous expression slowly disappearing from Cale's face.
Alberu was not the type to travel with a foreign kingdom's prince without reason. Especially as someone who had to hide his identity as being a quarter Dark Elf, traveling with important people from foreign kingdoms would make him need to keep his guard up.
What Alberu was doing right now was probably testing out to see if the Breck Kingdom and the prince were decent.
You needed to be careful about sharing important information. He was observing the Breck Kingdom's prince right now to see if he was decent enough for Alberu to initiate his plan. Although Alberu was the type to chase his own benefit, he still put the kingdom first.
"The three Northern nations have formed an alliance."
"…What?"
On the other hand, Cale was the type to put himself and his people first. He would do anything to keep them safe and sound.
"And this is a secret. Only a few people know about it."
"Young master Cale, just what-."
Click.
Cale put the still full teacup back on the table.
"But Miss Rosalyn, you see."
Rosalyn could see that Cale was smiling.
Cale was considering Rosalyn to be part of his people like Lock, but she had still not forgotten about her former position.
Cale was saying this for her, who escaped from the royal family, but still smiled while talking about her younger brother.
Cale was speaking to Rosalyn, who may have thrown away her position as a princess, but still had family in the Breck Kingdom.
"Who says that they are the only ones that can form an alliance?"
Rosalyn's gaze quickly changed.
Their tea time soon ended without any other conversation.
Later that evening.
"Your highness, the fourth prince is coming here?"
"You freaking ghost, there is nothing you don't know. Yes, it is the fourth prince."
"Your highness."
Alberu, whose face appeared on the video communication device, did not look good. He was looking at Cale like he was trying to figure him out.
Cale did not tell Alberu that he knew about the Northern alliance. It had not been the right time to say it. However, it was now the right time.
"The three Northern kingdoms have formed an alliance, right?"
Alberu did not respond to Cale's question and just quietly observed him. He then finally put on a gentle smile after a while.
– I knew you were just pretending not to know. That's why you helped me shelter those mages from the Whipper Kingdom and with the Naval base.
Cale did not react to Alberu's accusations. Alberu, who seemed like he didn't expect a reaction, immediately asked back.
– Then what do you think we need to do about this?
"Miss Rosalyn will meet with her younger brother."
– I guess she knows this information as well.
"She is my friend."
Alberu scoffed at Cale's answer before continuing to speak.
– You know that maintaining this secret is the most important thing, right?
"That is why I didn't even tell you until now, your highness."
Seeing Cale's sly smile made Alberu feel like there was no worse expression in the world than Cale's smile as he quickly ended the call.
– Then see you next time.
"Any time, your highness."
The video communication came to an end.
***
A carriage with the Henituse family's golden turtle crest passed through the Henituse Castle and headed for the estate behind it.
"It really feels like a festival is coming up."
Cale nodded at Choi Han's statement before looking out the carriage window. The entire castle was in the process of being decorated, and very lively.
Even the entrance of the castle that was usually quiet was booming with a long line of people.
"I have never seen so many people outside the castle like this."
"He's right! Me neither!"
Cale could see that Choi Han was just as excited as Raon, On, and Hong. This was probably Choi Han's first real festival as well.
"It's my first time too! I want to stand in line too!"
Cale smiled at Hong's comment as he looked out the window and patted Hong's small head.
The Henituse territory's festival had many special competitions.
Some of these included the cooking competition, the art competition, the sculpting competition, and with Countess Violan leading the charge, these competitions naturally had hefty rewards.
"Weak human! But why are those people standing in line like that?"
"They seem to be here to apply for a competition or take part in the preliminaries."
Choi Han started to speak, as if he finally understood what was going on.
"No wonder I saw a couple talented martial artists!"
'…Huh?'
"There must be a Martial Arts competition as well!"
'No? There should just be things like cooking, sculpting, and art?'