A Changed Start

First Plan

Cale removed the hand on his mouth and glared half-heartedly towards Raoul.

"Where have you two been?"

The mischievous older man just snickered and let go of the redhead's waist, grinning brightly, "Oh, we were just walking along the streets~! I was so fascinated by everything, you know! This is my first time in a fantasy world!"

Raoul and Raaz were not in their signature clothes at the moment, instead they are dressed in brown suits of decent quality in a similar manner as half of the male citizens of the county.

"We already saw you earlier, but it was amusing just watching you look for us." Raaz just shamelessly admitted with a mischievous smile.

Cale just sighed in annoyance, tempted to punch their smug looks off their faces.

"Anyway~" While Raoul still had his playful tone, their was underlying seriousness in his voice, "How long do we have?"

"A week." Cale answered, "We still have a bit of time."

Raoul and Raaz had also read The Birth Of A Hero novel during their free time at the killing game. Thankfully, the novel was detailed enough (although, it was a bit too detailed sometimes) for them to be able to learn more about the cultures in this world. It was also a good thing that the Dimensional Archipelago's cognitive nature allowed the participants to understand each other's languages despite coming from completely different worlds. That was why Raoul and Raaz are able to speak TBOAH's language just from hearing Cale talk (and vice versa), but they still needed to learn the written language.

Today is the day that punk went back to Harris Village to give the massacred villagers a proper funeral with Deruth's assistance with Ron and Beacrox following the swordsmaster out of both interest and suspicion due to his dark aura that came from years of surviving in the Forest of Darkness.

Basen, who had been the one attending the social gatherings since two years ago instead of Cale, had gone to the capital. The tragic bombing incident that occurred there had left the second son injured and traumatized. If possible, Cale would prefer that he replace Basen as the representative this time. However, he wasn't sure how to convince Deruth to switch them and considering how much of a bunch of gossipers the servants are, it would cause too much suspicion.

So, he decided to just tell Deruth that he would be going on a trip instead. While that might be suspicious as well, but given how much the count had enabled the firstborn with his alcohol abuse, Cale doubted he would care.

But first...

"You have to get the ancient powers first, right?" Raoul asked.

Cale nodded. In the novel, or well... the original timeline, the ancient powers that had been acquired or used by the characters ended up being mostly useless to them in the end, such as the case with Taylor Stan and Toonka, who barely knew how to properly use his wind ancient power. The ancient power that hasn't been acquired yet in the novel was located in the county. Specifically, the place where the rumored Man-Eating Tree is located.

Even though Cale had been given the novel by that damned god to put himself in despair over the tragic future of his world, it was strangely informative over minor yet important details, such as the Unbreakable Shield ancient power that had never been used in the story, yet it mentioned how one was able to acquire it.

Cale would get that shield simply because he might as well put it in good use if no one was going to be able to obtain it. And considering how weak he is compared to his fellow killing game survivors, he sort of needed it.

"For now, I'll just buy a bunch of bread first and we dump it all in the tree day after day and..." Cale said, "You two should stay in the estate with me."

No matter how temporary it is, Cale isn't letting Raoul and Raaz stay at some inn as their place of living while they're in Cale's county. It's the least he could do for them.

"But wouldn't bringing two strangers make everyone more suspicious?" Raaz questioned.

Cale just shrugged, "It's not like anyone truly knows me in the first place. I'll just say that you were former employees of my mother's family looking for work. Even if Deruth will become suspicious, at the very least, he won't question me if I say we've known each other for quite a while."

"Hm, I see~. Then, off to the bakery~!"