STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

47. OTHER HALF

"What are you eating, South?"

"Oh these? These leaves are a bit wilted from dead mana."

"HUH? SPIT THOSE OUT! NOW!"

The wolf beastmen children are treated to the sight of Coachman Leon wrenching open South's jaws and getting the weed out of his mouth. South had the gall to go into the corner and sulk.

"You keep calling out Ponychael for doing this but you're just the same!" Leon chastised him. "It's like you want to get sick."

"Ponychael eats clothes, I eat weeds, it's different," South insisted, "weeds won't cost my year's salary."

"You need to stop using money as the only reason you make reasonable decisions in your life," Leon grumbled. "Enough, don't go teaching the kids to eat stuff off the ground."

"I'm teaching them how to forage, it's a life skill they need to live in the wild!" South insisted.

And he wasn't wrong, they needed to be able to identify plants and stuff since they're wolves. They just got curious if these plants, which were toxic to humans but not to horses, would be fine for a wolf beastman, so they chewed on it.

Totally reasonable course of action.

It made perfect sense.

Plus these wouldn't be worse than a tummyache for South anyways so—

"Sou! I said no eating weird stuff on the ground!" Leon yelled.

"But how am I going to know if it's poisonous or not without tasting it?" South complained, "we've never seen any of these plants around Harris Village before, if the kids are going to live here after it's rebuilt we'll need to know what naturally grows here—"

"You go look it up in some books or ask someone like a normal person!"

"Oh I can't do that. I'm illiterate. Maybe if there was an encyclopedia that just gave us pictures and a big poison sign on it then I'll know, but anything further I'll be guessing."

"Then learn to read for the sake of all that is holy in this world..."

"Don't wanna," South huffed, picking up some mushrooms and putting it in the foraging baskets the kids were holding, "you kids can read, right? Then good."

"South, they're all at least ten years younger than you!" Leon snaps, "just learn to read a little bit, that can't hurt, right?"

"Ehhhh I don't wannaaaa—"

-

Of course, South escaped reading lessons again. Instead, he found himself stuck with Raon as the Young Master's group returned and the kids talked ver and over about everything that happened.

"I got to eat lots of poison!" Hong was hyperactive like he had zoomies and South wondered if he would scale that ceiling at some point. On was just as excitable.

Also, South wished he could tell Leonabout this. See? Eating things is the most efficient way, even the kids agreed.

As long as you're not eating gold, what's the harm? People gotta eat to survive.

"There was this dragon corpse!"

"And and and, the weak human did something. Thought he'd topple over at some point, sheesh, don't you think it's weird he's always doing something? He should just sit somewhere and let the youngest do things."

"Yeah!" the black dragon's firmly planted in the middle of South's chest, "I am the great dragon! The weak human wouldn't have to do anything if he wanted to."

South filed away the horrifying thought that Cale was gathering Ancient Powers like that wasn't the road to heroism or anything, and decided to just let the kids continue rambling on as he relaxed. Tomorrow they would set out back to the Henituse County, and from there, it'll be a few weeks of complete rest.

Normality will return to him for a while, and then, it'll all go crazy again.

Probably.

That's around where his knowledge of this story ended too. So, from thereon, he'll be on his own. No more past memories to cling to for assurance, nothing.

It made him a little bitter.

"Hey South-oppa, why don't you wanna learn how to read? I heard the wolves talk about it just now," On spoke to him, more curious than looking down on him.

It's not as if the wolves were looking down on him either. They probably thought it was funny how he kept running away from the class. Hillsman anc Vicross were getting annoyed but they still didn't try to force South into it.

"I can listen to you guys read to me, that's good enough," South said.

"But what if we're not here?" Hong asks.

"Silly, of course we'll always be here!" the black dragon insisted, strongly. "And if we are not, he can ask when we return from wherever we go."

South smiled at that.

"Yes. That's exactly it," he said. "You see, it is always good to be skilled at many things. Black dragon, you're strong and you're smart, you can do anything on your own. That's good. But I can't do everything on my own."

South cannot achieve much on his own. His soul was born incomplete, and that's why, all these marks on his body, these bonds are here to fill in the gaps of his physical being.

"You see, the part of me that knew how to live strong, wise, and smart? That part of me was torn away from me when I was very, very young," he told them. "All that was left was this part of me that had strength, and nothing else."

The children looked at him surprised and confused, and baffled.

"How can you live without half your soul? That's not possible," the Black dragon frowned as he tried to make sense of it. "And what strong being could steal half a soul and leave the rest? What would he need it for?"

South hummed. "Well, he took half of it and put it in another world," he said. "For his amusement, I think?"

Hong's head tilted. "What's so amusing about that?"

On frowned, "is that why you're always so cold?"

South chuckled. "Yes, he was always warm. We may have been separated, but because of this power we have, we were always, just a little somehow, connected."

His hand wavered over his chest.

"So, he would read to me. He was patient, and he was diligent, and he was smart. He was everything I wasn't."

The children looked at him as he told this story, his eyes drifting toward the moon overhead.

"Then is he connected to you now, too?"

Is he?

No. Of course not.

"Probably," South said. "I haven't heard from him in a while though. I hope wherever he is, he's not spending all his time worrying about me again."