STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

35. NO CASUALTIES

"Don't fall asleep now, South-ssi."

South honestly wished he could, but he couldn't. He actually ate his goddamn medicine this morning. He wished he could pass out, though, because the frightening pain in his arm is so mindblowing he wished he could scream

"Thanks," Choi Han told Rosalyn as she helped them up. Ah, she must have shielded them both from the aftershocks. Choi Han didn't look too bad aside from some burns.

It might also be because he's inhumanly sturdy.

South observed his arm— the glove was completely burned off, his arm was shredded to pieces, charred in some spots— and he couldn't move his fingers. The pinky was gone, too. It looked gross, and he cradled it, only faintly glad there were no tattoos on that pinky.

But now his arm was covered, dripping with blood, and it was hard to focus. His head was sharply ringing and numb.

"South-ssi, just hold on," Choi Han urged, "we'll need to heal this immediately—"

"No, his body reacts weirdly to magic, it rejects everything. That's why that bomb went undetected until he moved it," Rosalyn said. "So... So I don't think magic would even work on him."

"What? Then healing magic won't either? But he'll die from blood loss!"

No one else was hurt.

Just one stable boy.

South noticed Cale staring over, his brows knitted together to form a frown of disappointment. His fists were clenched until the knuckles were white, as if he were annoyed— but he didn't take a step closer.

"Ah, what a shame. So even that one failed," Redika chuckles, amused. "I thought he was so interesting, too. Perfectly convenient to remain undetected even to great mages... I wonder how such an unusual stable boy tastes?"

South looked toward him, and he seemed to salivate.

So bloodthirsty was literal?

"[Cold Human! You're getting colder!]" the Black Dragon yelled at him from overhead, "[stop that! That coldness is not nice when it's not in the stables! Stop, I say!]"

"Guess it can't be helped."

Redika called for his expendable minions, and South knew what was going to happen. But this time, he wasn't worried anymore.

Rosalyn rushed to shield Cale, along with the Black Dragon. Choi Han hurried over, too—

And the two bombs strapped to the people detonated, Cale's Silver Shield gleaming over the plaza to protect everyone.

-

Just as the dust began to settle, South felt someone take his hand.

He turned around, and his breath held, realizing it was Redika behind him.

"I knew it."

Redika was two inches from his face, looking over him as if he were some fascinating specimen. His hands were wrapped around South's bloody arm, and he seemed to be grinning under his mask.

"You are such a fascinating creature. What on earth are you? And how do you taste?"

Whatever fear South had, it vanished as he heard a cough— and at the center of the plaza, Cale was coughing blood, and yet, looked over with panic as he noticed Redika by South's side.

Yeah.

Now South was irritated.

South slammed his bloody hand up Redika's face, "you fucking psycho. If you want a taste, get as much as you want."

Redika ripped away, startled by that sudden action. But he laughed, peeling away his mask and licking away the remnants South did leave there.

"You do that and say I'm the psycho?"

Redika tore away from South—

—and then, the soldiers aimed their arrows at him, and the chase began. Choi Han faltered, but after South assured him with a nod, he left to give chase as Redika teleported away.

South watched him go, and he felt the pain in his arm ebb away. When he lifted his hand again, his pinky was back, and there wasn't a single injury on his arm.

The blood was still damp on his sleeve, and the numbness still rang vividly in his head— but there wasn't a single scar left behind.

"Mama's son, we need to bandage that wound— huh?" Rosalyn paused in surprise as she came over to see South standing up with little difficulty at all. "But I swear... how?"

No longer was South's face scrunched up in pain.

"I'm okay," South said. He squeezed his hands, all of his fingers, and showed it to Rosalyn. "I'm not hurt at all."

Even Cale was slack-jawed at the sight.

"But... but it was bleeding so badly—!!"

"Maybe you saw wrong, because there isn't even a single cut or singe on me," South shamelessly gaslighted her. "Anyways, go check on the Young Master, he might need a healer. Didn't he spit out blood?" 

The scar on his cheek is gone.