Go On and Wonder

Author's Note (2)

More details of this AU [Major BSD Manga Spoilers]:

• A few original characters are the reincarnation of BSD characters.

• Verrill, a powerful mercenary Cale hired who became his closest friend, is the reincarnation of Oda Sakunosuke.

• In this AU, the Sealed God's Test takes place in Yokohama, Japan during the Cannibalism and Decay of Angels Arc.

• Verrill gradually regained his past life memories during the SGT, especially during his interactions with Dazai and Ango. As a result, he also regained his Ability, Flawless.

• Verrill is a 28-year-old (currently 30) mercenary of the Western Continent. He is proficient in many weapon arts and magic, and is well-known for it. While not on the level of a highest-grade mage, he is still nearly as strong as Glenn Poeff. Because of his versatility, Verrill is one of the few that is likely to defeat Choi Han with the right strategy.

• In this AU, Verrill is Cale's closest friend and confidant in the world of TBOAH, being one of the few who knew the full details of Cale's previous life as William Faulkner. He was on the run from his previous employers and recently hid in the Henituse County. Cale locates him in one of the bars and hires him to become his guard.

• As a mercenary, Verrill is driven by money so he easily accepts Cale's job. He is also given the backstory of being one of Thames family's former workers, allowing him to hide his identity. He immediately rejects the "Bob" alias Cale jokingly suggested. Although he himself wasn't actually good with naming, as his alias was simply "Ril".

• Like many people, Verrill always calls Cale with the title of "Young Master". Verrill initially only viewed his connection with Cale as a professional relationship, as he does with all of his clients. However, recognizing an upcoming war with the rest of the world at stake and witnessing how Cale tries to save everyone despite how he is treated by most of the Roan Kingdom due to his terrible reputation, Verrill decided to breach their professional relationship and become a friend Cale can truly trust and rely on so he wouldn't have to shoulder everything by himself. They finally drop down the formalities and Verrill is allowed to simply call Cale by his name.

• Noir is a Red Star member of Arm who is a highest-grade mage. However, he is rarely on the front lines since he was tasked with creating magic weapons such as mana bombs.

• Unlike most members, Noir did not join out of loyalty or any sort of crazed belief. But he simply joined out of self-preservation. This is because he knew the White Star had been able to kill multiple dragons in the past and believed that the world was doomed for destruction anyway with White Star on the loose. He stayed in Arm for his own survival because he believed that the organization will win and live in the end. He quickly took an interest in Cale as he foiled many of the White Star's plans, which contradicted his belief that the White Star may be undefeatable.

• Eventually, Noir secretly negotiated with Cale in person, becoming a double agent to bring down Arm. His betrayal was eventually found out by the other Red Stars and managed to escape before he was killed. He then officially joined Cale after that.

• Even though they didn't interact much, Noir is noted to be strangely close to the Dragon Half-Blood. Even DHB found him weird since Noir treated DHB a lot more decently compared to the other Red Stars.

• This may be because Noir is the reincarnation of Arthur Rimbaud and DHB's artificial nature subconsciously reminded him of Verlaine/Chuuya.

• Like with Verrill, it was during the SGT that he gradually remembered his past life memories from interacting with Chuuya and Verlaine. He acknowledged his own hypocrisy back then and decided to aid Chuuya. He was not happy when Chuuya was turned into a vampire and how Dazai nearly drowned him.

• Like with Verrill, Noir is someone Cale can trust. Verrill and Noir are only ones who knew the full details of Cale's past life as William Faulkner and that TBOAH Cale was BEAST William Faulkner.

• Noir becomes one of Cale's father figures.

• Cale is much better at reading people than KRS. Cale is aware that Fredo's fatherly affection towards him is genuine and does not push him away. This is because this is the same affection Cale had desperately craved for as a child and it was affection Deruth had never given him when he needed it. As a result, Cale has a much closer relationship with Fredo.

• And unlike KRS, Cale tries to not be a bad influence on the children and often refrains from cursing around them and always advises them not to follow his (Cale's) example when he's scamming people. Rather than actual greed, Cale often scams and manipulates people mostly for his own amusement, which is admittedly a worse reason than KRS's and Cale is well aware of it.

• Cale doesn't hold grudges much, as he had lots of past life experience of enemies becoming his allies/friends/family. Which is why, he doesn't mind spending his time with DHB.

• He considers DHB to be part of his family and even gave him a name.

• Cale did not take seeing the White Star's face well. Especially after learning that it was KRS's original body, which meant that KRS would have been his blood family from the start if it weren't for the White Star.

• KRS got his original body back in Part 2. He and Sui Khan join Cale's party in the battle against the Hunters. Unfortunately for KRS, his first appearance caused a lot of misunderstandings with Cale's group until Cale immediately cleared everything up.

• KRS is officially Cale's protective older brother and Cale grants him his slacker life during their breaks from their adventures. Unfortunately for KRS (again), Cale forces him to take regular exercise to keep his body fit (and Cale's innocent smile is a lot more terrifying than Ron's).

• Like in canon, Ron now sees Cale as his son. However, while Cale doesn't dislike him nor mind his company, he is conflicted about whether he still feels the same way towards Ron.

• Verrill would have pitied Cale for being surrounded by so many cunning demons such as Dazai Osamu, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Gogol in his past life if it weren't for the fact that Cale is also a bit of a manipulative asshole himself. So, Verrill just directed that pity towards Sigma instead.

• While Cale dislikes sour food and drinks, he feels hatred specifically towards lemons, not just because Ron kept giving him lemon tea. After regaining his past life memories, Cale realizes that this is no thanks to a certain Motojirou Kajii.

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I've always wanted a Hyung KRS to Cale. The AO3 fanfic [One Bad End is Enough] granted that dream, with the added bonus of beautiful art. That fanfic honestly feels like an official light novel lol.

Details of Cale's life as William Faulkner will be featured in the next Author's Note. Next chapter will be the arrivals of TCF and TBOAH.

It's also up to you guys whether to see Cale and Verrill's relationship as platonic or romantic.