an unfortunate change in genre

Part 9

Cale had a... complicated relationship with the imperial family.

It was an obnoxious enough topic that he had vowed to himself to stay as far away from the entire dramatic royal jokes as possible.

He knew that interacting with them would become somewhat inevitable if he were to become a serious thorn in the White Star's side. If for no other reason than meeting each other while pursuing a mutual enemy.

Still, Cale wanted to put it off as long as humanly possible. Which theoretically shouldn't be at all difficult. Cale hadn't had anything to do with the lot of Crossman's for a large portion of his previous life.

The wrench in this calculation, as per usual, was Roksu 'I hate complicated things' Henituse. A man who would insist to the moon and back that he had no intention of getting involved with any obnoxious royals but always seemed to edge closer to them with each victory.

Roksu's various pseudonyms weren't going to hold up to obsessive scrutiny. The moment that someone really decided to hunt down the source of all the reformations within the Roan Kingdom would be the moment that the Henituse territory would be found as a source.

For all Roksu's skill as a tactician, he wasn't nearly as good at covering his tracks. It wasn't that he was awful at it, far from it, it was just that compared to diabolical schemes that could overthrow kingdoms, his work in covering his tracks was weak.

And Cale knew of one particular member of the royal family who would be a ticking time bomb for this particular issue.

The Alberu Crossman that Cale knew would certainly ferret out the truth. That man was obnoxiously good at doing shit like that.

Luckily Ron was significantly more skilled in the art of hiding than Roksu and his assistance would definitely delay Alberu, once that man became interested.

Now all of those calculations were irrelevant.

All the time, thought, and effort Cale had put into avoiding meeting with the royal family, especially Alberu Crossman, didn't matter in the least.

Roksu's blood stained Cale's shirt while the tiny child convulsed in his arms. His usual composure simply not present as a pain so deep that it pierced Roksu to his very core left him coughing up blood and limply hanging from Cale's arms.

Cale hadn't felt this horrible fear in so long.

Hadn't watched someone he loved draining away in front of him in so long that he'd almost forgotten the paralyzing terror that tore up his insides.

Regret was not urgent enough of an emotion to even cross his mind. 'I shouldn't have let him' or 'I should have protected him' just weren't thoughts that had the time to fill his thoughts as another shuddery breath caused Roksu's powerless body to tremble in pain.

And the bastard was still trying to reassure him.

"I'm fine..."

Cale could just strangle the crazy punk.

But even those thoughts of frustrated concern just weren't urgent enough.

Cale had one thought alone that consumed all of his thoughts.

Alberu Crossman.

The bastard with the Star of Healing.

Cale didn't look down at the shredded meat where Roksu's leg had been or the cloudy look on his baby brother's face.

Roksu had, at the age of three, followed Cale just about everywhere for about a week. It was a memory from before his regression, before Roksu regained all of his memories.