Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 494: Death of a God (6)

His glance toward Ron looked exactly like a young son moments before being scolded by his father.

And Ron was not unaware of that.

Though Cale himself did not seem to realize it.

“Exactly the same.”

“Huh?”

Ron finished pouring wine into his own glass, then sat down beside Beacrox, across from Cale, and opened his mouth.

“You look exactly the way you did as a child, Young Master, whenever you looked at me before you were about to be scolded.”

Yes.

As a child, the young master had rarely made that expression in front of the count—no, Duke Henituse.

He had made that expression in front of Ron from time to time, and it had resembled Beacrox after he caused trouble. There was no way Ron could fail to know.

How the young master thought of him.

“And I pretended not to know.”

Even though the young master before him had not drunk first, nor urged him to drink, Ron took the first sip of wine.

“Because I am very good at pretending not to know.”

A benevolent smile settled at the corners of his mouth like habit.

Once he had decided to work as a servant in the Henituse count’s household with Beacrox, he had needed to become good at pretending not to know everything.

The past, his surroundings, and even his own heart.

“That is still the same now. I am very good at pretending not to know.”

“......”

Cale said nothing, wearing an odd expression.

Ron met the young master’s gaze and spoke.

“But at some point, moments I could not pretend not to know began to come.”

Where should he mark the beginning?

Was it from the time he learned that Choi Han had been attacked by Dark?

Or was it when he saw the young master’s fury after Ron himself, also attacked by Dark, eventually returned to the Henituse count’s household?

Or had the time that had piled up one layer after another simply made him this way?

“Like now. Moments I cannot pretend not to know keep coming, just like now.”

After saying that much, Ron took another sip of wine. Cale, who had been watching him and wondering what he should say and how, was finally able to open his mouth.

“Fine. Don’t pretend not to know.”

Among those currently at Cale’s side, only a few knew the previous Cale Henituse who was not Kim Rok Soo.

Ron and Beacrox, the Henituse Ducal House family, the employees, and a handful of others.

Cale had absolutely no intention of telling the truth to the Henituse family.

But to these two.

Cale remembered Ron carrying him on his back and running. He remembered all the moments he had crossed countless lines of death together with them.

That was why he had to face them properly.

“I’ve decided to live as Cale Henituse.”

Yes.

There was no phrase that expressed Cale’s feelings better than that.

He was Cale Henituse.

And he would live as Cale Henituse.

Clink.

Cale forced himself to ignore the wine trembling in the glass in his hand and took a sip.

His face felt hot.

“Ask whatever you’re curious about.”

In the silence, Cale set the glass of wine that kept trembling back down on the table. The wine in the glass no longer shook. Cale clasped both hands together beneath the table.

“Heh.”

Ron let out a low laugh.

Unlike his benevolent smile, the smile he gave Cale was cold in a way unique to assassins as he asked,

“Are you nervous?”

The moment Cale heard that—

“Ha!”

Cale burst out in a short laugh. Only then did he feel as though air was entering his body.

“Yeah. I’m nervous.”

He admitted it readily.

“Who were you before?”

Beacrox cut straight in.

“My name was Kim Rok Soo. I fought monsters on another Earth together with Choi Jung Soo and Team Leader Lee Soo Hyuk.”

“Mm.”

Beacrox nodded with a face that said he had expected as much.

Ron did not even look surprised.

This father and son, Ron and Beacrox, had not been surprised by a single thing Cale said from beginning to end.

“You really are sharp.”

Cale spoke honestly, and unlike Ron, Beacrox said in a crooked, indifferent tone,

“Did you ever hide it?”

“......”

“You simply never said it aloud. You went around showing everything plainly, didn’t you?”

“......”

Cale had nothing to say to Ron and Beacrox’s words.

“Is this all right?”

Instead, he said what was on his mind.

“Aren’t you letting this pass too easily?”

“Then shall I not let it pass easily?”

Ron suddenly smiled benevolently as he spoke.

“!”

Cale flinched at those words.

As expected of this murderous old man! He never just lets things pass!

I should have just stayed quiet!

While Cale resented his own mouth and tried not to answer Ron, our assassin Ron asked calmly,

“I shall ask a difficult question.”

Gulp.

Cale swallowed without realizing it.

What is it? What difficult question?

“Is the young master doing well?”

......!

The moment he heard Ron’s question, Cale nearly let out a sigh without realizing it. Then he asked the sudden question that came to mind.

“You think I know?”

The young master Ron was referring to.

That must mean the real Cale Henituse. Ron had asked as though it were only natural that Cale knew about the real Cale Henituse. And in a positive sense, at that.

“Yes. I thought you knew.”

Ron spoke with a face full of benevolent smiles.

“Because I do not see guilt in your eyes when you mention the previous young master.”

Ha!

Cale let out an exclamation before he knew it.

“Ah. Seriously.”

This time, he felt it for certain.

“Ron. I don’t think there are many people who know me, Cale Henituse, better than you do.”

“Of course.”

Ron answered with perfect composure, as though wondering why Cale would say something so obvious.

“I am your servant, Young Master. I have been with you from the very beginning.”

That was true.

As Cale Henituse, the person who had spent the longest time with him was Ron.

Cale picked up his wineglass. Suddenly, he remembered the moment when he had fallen asleep while reading The Birth of a Hero and then woken up. How shocked he had been when he saw Ron back then. Cale took a sip of the now-steady wine and answered.

“He’s doing well.”

Cale Henituse, who had become Kim Rok Soo, was doing well.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. He said he met his mother.”

Of course, it was not the mother as the real Cale Henituse remembered her, but his mother in a different form in the world where Kim Rok Soo had lived.

“!”

“......!”

Beacrox and Ron. For the first time, the two of them stopped short. And Cale could see the smile drawn at the corners of Ron’s mouth. Even a small smile appeared at the corners of Beacrox’s mouth.

Oh.

Because that sight was unexpected, Cale stared at them.

When his eyes met Beacrox’s, Beacrox’s gaze instantly turned indifferent, and he threw out a question.

“Is there anything else you’re hiding?”

“Mm.”

Cale thought of things they might not know.

“You know I talk to gods, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you know my name.”

“Yes.”

“You know about our enemies too?”

“Of course.”

“Mm.”

...There’s not really anything else to say?

Of course, if he went into detail, he would have to say that Choi Han was a dimension traveler and that he himself had come here after reading a book called The Birth of a Hero.

But is that really necessary?

That involved Choi Han, so it was not something Cale should say.

And this world was not a book, but reality. As for The Birth of a Hero, it would be better for its author, Choi Jung Gun, and the God of Death to step forward and explain it.

“Mm.”

Cale thought.

“Mmm.”

After thinking some more, he said,

“Yeah. Something you might not know is...”

Mm.

“Choi Jung Soo and I are friends, but Choi Han is Choi Jung Soo’s cousin once removed. But I speak casually to Choi Han, and Choi Han serves me as his lord. But I’m still friends with Choi Jung Soo.”

Beacrox’s expression turned sour.

“...I see.”

At that look that seemed to ask why he was saying all that, Cale felt a little awkward. As he drank wine for no reason, Beacrox calmly asked,

“What is red pepper paste?”

Pfft!

Cale sprayed the wine in his mouth. Ron casually pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Cale, then took out another handkerchief and wiped the table and Cale’s clothes.

“The foods Raon talks about. Are they foods from your homeland?”

“...Yeah.”

“He was looking for something to eat together with apple pie.”

“...I see.”

As Cale answered blankly, Beacrox calmly made a demand.

“Next time, personally give me the proper recipe.”

“Uh, yeah—”

But I don’t know how to make red pepper paste?

“Then I will go.”

Come to think of it, Beacrox had not taken a single sip of wine.

He abruptly rose from his seat and headed toward the door.

Is it all right to let him leave like this?

Why did this end so anticlimactically?

Why had I worried about it so much and kept putting it off?

Just as Cale was about to feel an inexplicable sense of emptiness, he opened his mouth while looking at Beacrox’s back as he headed for the door. He still needed to say what had to be said.

“Don’t push yourself.”

Beacrox, who had grabbed the doorknob, stopped short.

“Whether you cook, practice swordsmanship, learn an ability from Team Leader, or do whatever else you want, that’s up to you. But don’t drive yourself too hard.”

As Beacrox turned back to look at him, Cale pointed outside the window.

“You should sleep at night. Don’t you think?”

Just how was he receiving an ability from Team Leader Lee Soo Hyuk? Cale had noticed the new small scars on Beacrox’s hands, neck, wrists, and so on.

They were very faint sword wounds.

“Sleep well and eat well. You have to do that, right?”

At the words Cale offered with a grin, Beacrox snorted with an indifferent face and turned around without answering. However, before he left through the door, he opened his mouth.

“I will ask one more thing.”

Beacrox stared at the door rather than at Cale as he asked,

“What is your goal?”

The person named Kim Rok Soo who had decided to live as Cale Henituse.

No. Just Cale Henituse. He was curious about his goal.

A calm voice came from behind him.

“Me—and all of us—eating well and living well. For reference, for me, that means being a slacker.”

Yes.

That was enough.

Truly, Beacrox was not curious about anything else.

The essence of a person did not change, after all.

Click.

Without showing any reaction to Cale’s words, Beacrox simply left the room.

Cale looked sourly at Beacrox’s departing figure, despite having gone to the trouble of telling him his goal, and then froze at the voice he heard.

“That is right, Young Master. You must not push yourself.”

A gentle, benevolent voice.

“Sleeping well, eating well, and resting well. Those things are very important.”

Cale slowly turned his head.

He saw Ron smiling with utmost benevolence.

“You will also properly keep to what you said yourself, won’t you, Young Master?”

“......”

“Yes. Since you say you will keep to it, I will trust you.”

“......”

“I will watch from your side. As I did at the beginning, as I do now, always from your side. From now on as well.”

Cale had been silent because of the inexplicable chill he felt, but he answered Ron’s final words.

“Of course. Ron, you’re my only servant.”

Cale cherished the people of the Henituse Ducal House as well. He thought of them as family.

But Ron was a little different, though he was also part of that same ducal household.

He could not quite explain it. Strangely, Cale often found himself watching Ron’s mood. And when Ron came back injured, Cale was especially furious.

In any case, to borrow Raon or Choi Han’s way of putting it, Ron was also his family.

He could not express exactly what Ron was within that family, but Ron was certainly important in a way slightly different from the companions Cale had been with until now.

“You are my only young master as well.”

Ron said it gently.

Hearing those words, Cale drained the rest of his wine.

This is embarrassing.

Somehow, it was embarrassing.

However.

“So, Young Master, you must eat well, sleep well, and rest well. Understood?”

The moment he saw Ron speaking bleakly with a terrifying face, without even a benevolent smile—

“Y-yeah!”

Cale quickly nodded and answered in a hurry.

Why was this murderous old man so frightening no matter how strong Cale became?

He felt like that would not change even if Ron grew older than he was now.

Or if Cale became even stronger than he was now.

And Cale was the sort of person who treasured things that did not change quite a bit.

“Then sleep comfortably.”

Thus, the conversation between Cale, Ron, and Beacrox ended briefly and simply.

It passed truly as though it were nothing.

Click.

After leaving the room where Cale had fallen asleep, Ron slowly walked down the corridor.

“......”

When he had come from the Eastern continent to the Western continent.

He had intended to save his child, Beacrox, no matter what.

And now—

“...There are far too many people I must keep alive.”

Individuality, was it.

What could he do with this old body?

He moved forward, sunk deep in thought. But there was no hesitation in his posture or his steps.

He had no intention of sleeping.

His eyes were clearer than ever.

A father °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° who must protect his child could not rest.

*****

It was the time when the morning sunlight should have been shining on green leaves, announcing the beginning of the day.

Cale thought as he received that light.

How did it end up like this?

It was morning, yet the world was pitch-black.

And gray light was pouring down toward Cale.

“......”

“......”

The demons were watching this with faces gone blank.

Cale also muttered with a blank face,

“Demon god... you lunatic......”