MIRACULOUSLY ESCAPING SLACKERLIFE

IX

"How is it? What did your mother write for you?" Deruth asks his son, who is loitering inside his office as if he is the owner.

"I don't think this is a letter... it's more like an order?" Cale shrugs his shoulders as he walks over to Deruth and hands over the letter in his hand. The letter only had one word written on it," BEHAVE". That was the only thing written on it.

"You know, I'm a very good child," Cale snorted, as he looked at his father. Deruth huffed in defiance and smiled, ignoring his own son's remark as he went about his work. Cale resisted the urge to sigh.

Cale munched on a cookie during the long silence.

He can't act normally knowing he'll meet the prince..

It was the day for the princes and other noble children to meet. Cale was still in bed, hugging his blanket tightly, and refusing to respond to the sly old man's methods of waking him up. The benign old man sighs in frustration as he considers blackmailing or forcing the young master to wake up. Either of these two options sounds appealing to the vicious old. (Even his nickname keeps changing; just make it up, dude.)

But how come he can't do the second one? That's the most saddening point of his life.

"Young Master, Vicross will make a giant poach egg out of the black dragon egg if you don't wake up," the sly vicious goodness old man smirks as his young master rises from his bed.

Right. Even if a dragon is still an egg, older dragons, especially ancient dragons, will not harm it. A child is still a child, even if they are vicious and powerful egoistic creatures who mind their own business. Ron researched several books and accounts on dragon rearing and discovered that most dragons keep their eggs in their lair for protection. Some dragons keep their eggs in a very secluded location. Some dragons, even though unrelated, protect a child dragon when in their sight.

Wouldn't his young master wake up, fully aware of their proclivity to wreak havoc? Ron and Vicross can run whenever they want, but Cale Henituse cannot.

"ugh. What a vicious old man!" snorts Cale, completely forgetting to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Thank you for the compliment, young master, Lemon tea for the morning, you will be attending the princes' party in the afternoon while Lord Deruth attends the annual noble meeting," the sly vicious man he had just cursed smiled.

Cale stared at the lemon tea in his hand, but drank it anyway.

Vicross has already prepared a light meal for him before breakfast because he must have breakfast with his father.

Ron smiled once more and assisted him with his daily ablutions. The vicious old man enjoys playing with his hair before putting it in place.

"Ron."

"That's right, Young Master-nim."

"Be my guardian later at the princes' banquet."

"I'm afraid so... I cannot, young master-nim," Ron replied, "because my status as a commoner prevents me from attending as your guardian."

Cale frowns at the old man's response. He didn't want to be alone with the noble children and noblewomen who would be present.

"However, Young Master-nim, you will not be alone; this Ron will follow you stealthily."

"Haha, I didn't think of that." Cale slouches back and allows the elderly man to trim his long hair. He noticed Ron carefully tucking his hair into a pouch. He let the old man do his hair as he had done every day. Ron may still be vicious and frightening, but the old man has never done him any harm. Cale instinctively lowered his guard to the Molran's because he was faithfully serving him and treating him like his grandson.