ToCF

Chapter 471-475

The White Star, Bear King Sayeru, and Cale.
Mercenary King Bud Illis who was listening to the three of their conversation while hiding blinked his eyes a few times before starting to speak.

"Doesn't it look like they've made a weird mistake?"

His head quickly turned to look at Choi Han who was crouching next to him.

"Doesn't it?"
"...It does seem that way."

Bud looked toward Choi Han who was responding calmly but had an odd expression on his face.

"...Ho."

He then gasped.

"So, basically..."

He started to organize the thoughts on his mind.

"They think that Cale Henituse has been preparing to stop them in secret for many years?"
"It does seem that way! Mercenary King!"

Raon who was next to Bud fluttered his wings and agreed.

"...Ho."

Bud gasped once more before shaking his head. However, he could understand how they could make such a mistake.

'Even I would be suspicious about how long someone has been playing if someone suddenly appeared and got in my way every time I tried something.'

And was Cale just a small obstacle?
To be honest, Cale Henituse and his group were like a large disaster. If anybody wondered how Cale gathered such strong individuals together, it was understandable after hearing their stories.

'He gave me something to eat! He brought us home!'
'He said don't come because it was dangerous but gave me a lot of food!'
'The human saved my life! I saw the night sky for the first time thanks to the human!'

Starting from the children averaging nine-years-old...

'Well, Count Henituse and his family have been extremely gracious for our father-son duo.'
'I learned how to cook from the Henituse household. The young master-nim used to be trash in the past, but he was still a good boy from time to time.'

Ron and Beacrox.

'I had nowhere to go. No, forget nowhere to go, I had nothing at all.'
'He showed me the world.'

To Choi Han and Mary.
Bud had wondered how he had gathered people with such sob stories every time he heard one of their explanations. He found it amazing that Cale managed to put people with such sad pasts within his fence.

'He's someone who doesn't plan!'

The more he heard about Cale's progress, the fewer plans there seemed to be.
The few places he heard about where Cale found the ancient powers were huge coincidences.

Of course, Cale's group might have happened to grow by chance, but he was quite strategic about the ancient powers.

Unfortunately, Raon was the only one who knew about this.

"...Is it because he is a good person?"

Bud wondered if Cale was so lucky because he was a good person.
However, he quickly got rid of that thought. Cale had this unexplainable side to him that was cheeky and annoyed people too much to say he was a good person.

'He is cold-hearted as well.'

Bud who was organizing his thoughts recalled the cold-hearted Cale he had seen from time to time. He then had a, 'what if?' question and asked Choi Han a question.

"Cale hasn't been planning this for a long time, right?"

Bud could see Choi Han instantly start to smile. It was an innocent-looking but oddly cold smile. Bud put on an awkward smile and mumbled as if he was talking to himself the moment he saw that smile.