Surprising everyone again and again, Ale kept gathering the interest of the people around him.
His little tactics, the way he speaks, his smile, the weird tools he uses, everything attracted others attention. One couldn't help but feel drawn to him.
It was the same for Rudy and his teammates. And it was also the same for the rescued people. They simply couldn't take their eyes off of this young noble in front of them.
As they walked toward the nearby town with all the rescued people, Ale could feel their glances every so often. It was so obvious that he couldn't ignore it even if he wanted to.
"Is there anything on my back?"
He asked Rudy, who was walking alongside him. Rudy tilted him head and took a look at Ale's back before shaking his head.
"No.. Nothing. Why?"
"Just.. They keep staring."
Ale lowered his voice and whispered. Rudy pondered for a while before he gave his suggestion-
"Why don't you just ask them?"
It was a very Rudy-like suggestion. This guy really didn't like beating around the bush. That didn't mean he was insensitive. He knew how to read the room, and he also knew how to be considerate. Just that he preferred being straight forward most of the time.
"Is there anything any of you would like to say to me?"
And Ale being Ale, took his suggestion gladly. He also wasn't a fan of beating around the bush, nor did he like people staring at him. So he turned around, started walking backwards, looked at the rescued people, and asked them directly what was wrong.
"!"
Some of them looked shocked, some surprised, but they didn't look like they had anything particular to say. Ale raised a brow, wondering why they were acting that way when suddenly a kid started running towards him.
His parents tried to stop him but as everyone knows, no one can stop a kid when they start running. The kid probably wanted to approach Ale, but before he could stop right before where Ale was, he stumbled on a rock and fell headfast.
"Mmpf!"
"Careful now.."
He crashed into Ale, or rather, Ale moved and positioned himself in the way of the kids fall so he wouldn't fall down or get hurt.
The kids' parents looked horrified at the sudden turn of events and hurriedly approached Ale and sat on their knee in front of him.
Ale helped the kid stand straight and looked back, only to find his parents on their knees, eyes teary and full of fear, trying to apologize on their kids' behalf.
"What are you doing..?"
"We apologize young master!"
"Please forgive our son. He's still young and doesn't understand many things."
"It's okay.. Please get up."
Ale looked like he was used to this type of reaction and replied calmly. The parents looked confused and flustered and was unable to stand up immediately.
Ale looked at his knights and they quickly helped the two stand up, the two of them also having a reaction similar to Ale's, as if they were used to this.
"It's okay, you guys needn't worry."
"Yeah.. Our young master isn't like that."
The two helped them stand up and even dusted off their clothes, their actions so natural that it baffled the others.
"What's your name, little guy?"
The kid in front of Ale looked barely six, he was also a little skinny. But the innocence of a child hadn't left his body yet.
"Tian.."
"Tian? That's a very pretty name... Did you have something to say to me, Tian?"
He was the only kid among the rescued people, so Ale wondered if he felt lonely, among all these elders.
"Play.. Play!"
The first word was spoken with slight hesitation and then the second one with excitement. Ale could see the expression of the kids' parents worsen with each word their child spoke.
"Aww.. You wanted to play?"
But Ale found the kid adorably cute.
"Please forgive our son, young master. He's a little slow compared to the other kids his age."
"That boy doesn't know how society works, please forgive him."
"And how is society supposed to work?"
Ale asked back, wondering how long it'd take for this world to change. He was clearly not a fan of the societal norms of his time.
"By punishing a little kid for accidentally bumping into a noble? Is that how the society is supposed to work?"
Ale mumbled to himself before picking up the kid on his arms. He turned around and started walking once again, trying to cool off his head in the process.
The parents that were left behind by themselves, his teammates that were left speechless, and the kid who had no clue about what had just happened, Ale wanted nothing to do with anything anymore.
"Please don't be afraid."
"Our young master... is a little different. And please don't worry about your son either."
"Sorry?""
"What just.. happened?"
A noble picked up a commoner's son and started carrying him on his arms. That's what happened. To Ale it wasn't a big deal, but to the people witnessing this scene, it spoke a lot.
"He's really good with kids."
Rudy spoke those words and started walking again, trying to catch up to Ale.
"It's true. He's like a kid's magnet."
"We were also shocked when we first saw that, right?"
"Yeah.. But now it just looks normal."
"Natural."
His teammates agreed with Rudy and started walking once again. While they were doing that, Ale managed to cool himself off pretty quickly and started getting chummy with the kid again.
"So you wanted to play?"
"Play!"
"What do you wanna play?"
"Umm.. "
The kid looked at a loss for words. He clearly didn't have a circle that he could belong to before. Although he approached Ale because he looked the friendliest and the youngest of the bunch, the kid actually hadn't even played anything before, so he had no clue what to do.
"Hmm.. Eat this while you think of something."
Ale took out a chocolate from his pocket and handed it to the kid. Rudy caught up to him by then and started walking beside the two.
"Do you have anything in mind?"
Ale asked, wondering if Rudy could help them out a little. Rudy stayed quiet for a while as he thought about Ale's question seriously. Then it came into his view. Ale's arm. The arm that was carrying the kid.
'Must be heavy.'
"How about this?"
Rudy moved his hand a little and the kid started floating in the air. He looked surprised at first but as soon as Rudy started flying him around, the kid started to giggle.
"Ahahaha.."
His childish and innocent laughter filled the whole area, lifting everyone's spirit at once. The kid flew around Ale, and then Rudy, and then the people behind and Rudy even flew him up high.
"Whoa.. You're really good with kids."
Ale looked amazed as he saw the kid flying around and laughing, having no idea why Rudy actually took him from his arm.
Like that, they spent the next thirty minutes playing and chatting with each other while searching for the town that Ale and his knights had been to previously.
Soon, the town came into view and Rudy put the kid into Ale's arms once again.
"Hehe.."
"Did you have fun?"
Ale asked, amused.
"Fun!"
"Alright. Good for you. I wish I also had someone to fly me around like that."
Ale chatted merrily with the kid, he himself starting to look like one in the eyes of the others.
"Brother! Fly! Fun!"
"You want me to fly too? Shall I? Haha.."
Although he could only express himself with broken sentences like that, Ale didn't look like he was having a hard time understanding the kid. The two of them looked like real brothers as they carried on with their nonsensical conversation.
"Ah right. You had a young brother, didn't ya?"
Ron dropped the bomb at that moment. Everyone in Rudy's team went dead silent as they all looked at Ron with disbelief.
According to the information they got so far, Ale wasn't the successor of his family, rather, his younger brother was. No matter how friendly he was with the commoners, he was still a noble by birth.
They could only imagine how bad the blood was between the brother or what despicable things his younger brother must've done to remove his elder brother from his rightful position. There was no way that the relationship between the two of them was normal.
"Ah.. the town! We're almost there!"
Alice tried to change the topic.
"Finally! I want to just go and lie down!"
"Right?"
The others also tried to help Alice in her attempt to change the topic. But -
"My brother?"
Ale stuck to the topic and looked at Ron. By then, even Ron had a hint of how he had messed up, just looking at Rudy's expression was enough.
"That brat.."
"Brat...?"
Ale placed his fingers on his forehead as if he was having a headache just remembering his brother. Rudy wondered how bad their relationship was for Ale to react like that, but Ale's next words left not only him, but even Ron, speechless.
"is a real handful-!"