STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

52. SEA TRAVELS

"Ahhh, this is what two year's worth of pay feels like!!!"

South hollered into the ocean with the brightest, loudest excitement full in his chest. And a lot of spite, clearly.

"DAMN YOU, WHY DO I HAVE TO WORK THE NEXT DECADE FOR FREE?!? YOU STINGY YOUNG MASTERRR!!!"

Beside him, the Black Dragon imitated him with a full-chested— attempt at a roar toward the ocean as well. He then scrunched up his face, displeased.

"Shouting into the ocean didn't feel very nice. You lied to me, Cold Human."

South chuckled giddily and slumped against the bow of the ship, "it feels awesome for me, though. I can finally yell out all my frustrations and no one can complain."

The Black Dragon frowned. "If you set up a sound barrier, you can do that anywhere."

"It's no fun if no one can hear you. The key is making sure everyone who's annoyed you hears you, so they can feel how frustrated you are with the growl in your voice. Bonus points if you startled them and shatter their eardrums."

Listening to this, Cale Henituse reconsidered his life choices.

"This was a mistake," he deemed. "Why is the stable boy acting like a child on sugar high? He completely lost his filter. Did we get him the right potion?"

"We got him a double dosage Young Master," Hans informed him, serving him some tea, "we were warned that the crash will be twice as worse, but he'll be fine all through this sea trip. Please excuse his words until then, he's basically very, very drunk right now."

"Oh, it must be magic high then," Rosalyn said. "It happens when you drink too many potions as well. It is a drug in the end."

Crap, they accidentally turned the stable boy into a druggie.

Well, it's better than seeing South struggling with so much pain he can't even sleep, like he was in the carriage ride to the portside. Cale doesn't think anyone working with him can handle seeing him like that too much.

Cale will need South to be working when they get to the Whipper Kingdom, so he bought a whole bunch of those potions. Cale's only teasing when he counts the price in South's paycheck, but at this point, South has more debt than the amount of years he's been working in the County, and likely won't be able to pay it off for the rest of his life.

...yeah, that's good, honestly. What other crazy people will hire this buffoon?

"PAY ME MORE DAMMITTTTT!!!"

"Weak Human," Raon has come over. "I think the Cold Human is broken. Do something to fix him."

Cale considers this.

"Hong-ah, On-ah," he calls, "can you go over there and baby him a bit."

-

And now they have a sobbing stable boy curled into the corner hugging two kittens that are crawling all over his face, patting him with their tails. Raon is sprawled over South's head, hitting him on the skull lightly every once in a while.

Does Raon think there's a reset button on top of South's head or something?

They're all very confused about this situation.

"He really is like a drunk man," Cale sighs deeply when Hans looks very eager to join the cuddle pile. Nursing a headache, "his mood swings are intense. I can't handle this, someone else go babysit him and make sure he doesn't throw himself into the ocean before we get to our destination."

Ah, they just started their journey toward the Whipper Kingdom, and it's already chaotic.

-

"This is so nostalgic..."

Hans would be sharing a room with South throughout the trip (because South will definitely need caretaking for when his potion wears off) so now he's curled around the kittens in his bed. Hong was curled around his arms and On's chin was firmly planted in the crook of his neck.

"What's nostalgic?" Hans asked, coming into the room with hot tea, "you sleep with the horses all the time, but it's not that long ago."

Hans tested South's temperature with the back of his palm.

"As expected, you always run a little feverish when you're sick, even though your body is always cold."

South hummed. "Yes, kittens are warm. Horses are also warm," he began, incomprehensibly. "But fish are cold. They're always cold and slightly solid, always so nice to hug. I miss them."

"You want to drown?" Hans asked, apprehensive. "Tell me, because I need to bolt the doors and windows."

South laughed.

He curled over and gets up, cradling both kittens. On whines, but nuzzles back to sleep around Hong as South settles them into his lap.

Accepting the mug of tea, South's slightly flushed, feverish head continued to speak.

"This body gets cold easily," he says. "But that body gets too warm easily. I hope he's doing fine. I hope he hugs the fishes, now that I can't anymore. I hope he's keeping cold. I hope he knows I'm doing my best to keep warm, too."

Hans doesn't say anything to that.

South blew on his tea, drank in silence, and went to sleep right after that.

Hans didn't let his mind linger on what he said for too long. After all, he would have never become such a competent butler if he didn't know when to keep quiet.

-

There's three whaletribe scary people on the bow right now. They're also insanely levels of drop-dead gorgeous, but maybe that's South's fever-addled migraine talking.

"What are you doing there, stable boy?"

"Hans-hyung bolted the door, but forgot the windows. So I'm here."

"I'm giving that idiot a pay cut."

Choi Han yelped, hurrying over from his intense stare-off with Archie to fuss over South. He was so focused on the threat before him that he actually hadn't noticed South before Cale talked to him.

"Oh! You're the boy that survived a bomb attack!" Whitira realized. "And got stuck upon a horse, seemed dead to the knight because they couldn't find your pulse, fell asleep while manning the carriage, and—"

"Ahhh," Cale panicked while trying to stop Whitira and his composure fumbled. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat. "This is my subordinate. He's simply a sickly stable boy, please don't mind him."

And then he shot a look at Choi Han that he hoped was conveyed as get that idiot out of here, we are talking to royalty here!

South understood. Choi Han did not.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Choi Han asked.

"I'm sweaty," South said. "I wanted to swim."

"NO!" Cale and Choi Han yelled at once, the former spinning so fast toward him he completely forgot his composure.

"It's okay, I used to do it all the time."

"I don't care if in your past life you were a fishfolk," Cale emphasizes, "Choi Han, put him back into his room, and bolt the windows this time."

"Yes, Cale-nim."

When Cale turned back around, Whitira was desperately holding back laughter, and Shickler wore the amused face of a grandfather watching his toddling grandchildren talk sagely about dangerous conquests. Archie looked about ready to fight, but that's his permanent state, so it's probably fine.

Damage control, damage control.

(Raon was also stifling laughter into Cale's shoulder, but Cale doesn't have the energy to think about that right now.)