Waking up at five in the morning was a terrible way to start the day, especially when the entire past week had been equally torturous.
Even when he actually found a way to fall asleep, Cale would wake up early and stay awake early. This resulted in less than five hours of sleep as a daily average.
Recently, his anxiety and paranoia had joined forces to riddle his sleep schedule with insomnia, and plague his thoughts with images worthy of disrupting his mood.
He also tended to avoid going anywhere by carriage anymore unless it was completely unavoidable, something he had picked up after numerous kidnappings.
Everything he consumed had to be cooked himself, and he never left his spatial bag at home.
Even though he felt bad for making Beacrox think he hated his food to the point of refusing to eat it, Cale felt like he would show his family something they shouldn't see under any circumstances, if he did.
Seeing the normally arrogant and neutral Cale become physically anxious after a few bites of steak would raise annoying questions, and he despised pity more than hatred. Plus, what kind of trash would openly show such feelings to others? His reputation might wither again.
The only public places he went to were inns and bars, though he never actually drank the alcohol there. The only reason he did go outside anymore was to reinforce his reputation as the trash of the Henituse family.
Most days he would stay at home to cook, or read his mother's old books. He was also growing his own secret garden behind his mother's, even though he didn't have a talent for it like she did.
As much as he tried to hide his activities however, Beacrox had caught him cooking at midnight a few times, and Violan had seen him gardening a couple days ago before anyone should've been awake. Now that he thought about it, his siblings seemed to enjoy following him from a distance in their free time, so they had probably seen something too.
"Haaaa, damnit."
That wasn't the only thing bringing his mood down.
The atmosphere at the Henituse mansion had subtly gotten dimmer these past few weeks as well.
The Count had felt a storm brewing in the political world, surely a war was headed their way.
Basen and Lily had made subtle attempts at engaging with Cale, but he had distanced himself greatly over the past couple years. He no longer snuck them presents on their birthdays, and actively avoided spending any quality time alone with them.
In their minds, they had done something wrong in order to contribute to his sudden change in behavior. Maybe it was when Basen nearly....
What they didn't realize was that the incident three years ago had influenced everyone in the family, including Cale.
He wanted to keep his siblings safe, and the only surefire way to do that was to distance himself. After all, they might get caught up in another kidnapping if they stick close to him.
_______
Currently, Cale was on his way to Harris Village.
Deruth had asked him to visit it because of a book he had found among Jour's old things.
In it was a small note about her leaving something special in Harris Village. That 'something' wasn't described much further, only stating that it was very important, and that it should not fall into just anyone's hands.
Deruth was busy with meetings and paperwork for the next few days, and since it would be bad for other people to retrieve it for him, he had sent Cale instead.
YOU ARE READING
Kidnapped Lout
Fanfic[Completed]Og!Cale Henituse attracts all kinds of people with his maxed out charisma stat...Unfortunately that includes kidnappers. Or a string of barely connecting oneshots to describe Cale Henituse's wild kidnapping adventures ----- [COMPLETED SEP...
