Chapter Text
"Hmm?"
Cale opened his eyes, only to find himself standing in a dark but somewhat familiar alley.
'Well, this is mildly concerning……' he scratched his chin in confusion. 'How did I even come here?'
As far as he knew, he had been sleeping in his room, covered in his warm and cozy blankets. So how the hell did he reach this alley, in his pyjamas?!
Of course, he knew how.
"God….. of…..Death." He smiled humorlessly, his eyes flashing in a calculating manner. He was already thinking of ways he could summon the real body of the God of Death and have Choi Han practice his martial arts on the annoying god who was the bane of his existence.
A gust of wind blew the leaves off the ground, making the redhead shiver and rub his arms to generate heat.
"What are you up to now?!" Cale wasn't speaking particularly loudly, but the silent night amplified his voice and made it echo, eliciting a flinch from the vexed redhead.
["Why do you always curse me whenever you need to talk with me?"] The God of Death had the galls to complain.
["Oh? You think you deserve anything less?"] Cale sneered back.
["Why? I am your one and only friend—"]
["Cut it out!"] Cale snapped, throwing his hands up in the air. ["Do you really want to have that discussion now? You are the biggest annoyance I have ever had the misfortune to meet!"]
["....Does—"]
["Yes, that includes Clopeh Sekka!"]
["......."]
Cale knew for a fact that this particular type of silence indicated that the immature god was sulking. Again.
'Hmph! Talk about not being able to stomach the truth!'
However, Cale wasn't one to coax or comfort somebody, not to mention the fact that the god had thrown him head first into another crazy situation.
Right. Cale was in the middle of an alley—the same alley where he had encountered the thugs last time—standing in nothing but his nightwear that consisted of a pair of thin pyjamas. To make matters worse, he neither had his phone nor any money. After all, people didn't normally go to sleep dressed like they would be abducted in the middle of the night and thrown into a dangerous place in nothing but their pyjamas.
Such a situation only happened in stories and dreams. It wasn't reality…….right?
"Haaaaah" Cale sighed at his misfortune.
["What do you want from me this time?"] He asked, rubbing his forehead.
["Your next assignment. It's urgent. If you don't save him now, he'll die."]
["How the hell am I supposed to help him out like this? "] The redhead pointed to his weak body. He didn't have anything on him except the clothes on his back. Fortunately, the God of Death wasn't that much of an assh*le; at least he wasn't standing here bare feet.
Cale couldn't believe that his standards had fallen so low that he was thanking his abductor for leaving him a pair of shoes.
["You'll find out a way……"] the god seemed pretty sure.
'Hah! That's much better than me….' He didn't have any confidence in the god. None at all.
The redhead grumbled while walking ahead. He was already lost and uncomfortable due to the impromptu teleportation, how worse could it be? It was better to keep himself warm by walking. Although it was late autumn, the night was still cold. He didn't want to catch a cold because someone didn't realise that humans were supposed to be weak.
["Where do I find him? What about his details?"] He asked briskly, watching the corners of the alley with sharp eyes.
This place had already been dangerous during the day. He had no doubt that many illegal things happened here under the shadow of the moon. He didn't even have a weapon for self defence. All he had was his ancient powers, but he didn't want to use them if he could avoid it. For one, he was lazy, and for another, he couldn't leave a lot of witnesses.
'What is this? A survival show?' he complained internally while keeping his pace brisk and his senses vigilant.
["Walk for a hundred more metres in the direction you are walking in. You should find him there—"]
["Should?"] The redhead raised an eyebrow. He didn't really expect proper support from the bumbling god; he'd never been a good wingman anyway. Commenting on it now was just a matter of principle.
["I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong! I am actually very reliable!"]
["Are you, now?"] Cale's sarcastic answer, which was dripping with disbelief, offended the god.
[" Sniff sniff you don't appreciate me at all!"]
The redhead decided to ignore the god who was definitely pouting by now, and focused on finding the next kid he had to babysit. He tried not to think about his villa that was already filled with a gaggle of children of varying ages. Most of them were pretty happy playing among themselves and never bothered him, however that didn't mean that he could just shrug off all the responsibilities that came with babysitting.
Searching for almost half an hour gave him no results and he wondered, not for the first time, whether the God of Death had made a mistake again.
["You said I would find him soon but I've seen neither hair nor hide of a kid. Can you at least tell me what he looks like?"]
["Ummm I've got no idea…. The world you are in has laws against gods looking up information about its inhabitants. All I get is a gut feeling..."]
'Hah?! So he teleported me to the middle of a dangerous place based on his gut feeling?! '
["YOU—"]
["EEK I HAVE SOMETHING URGENT TO DO TTYL BYE~~"]
Cale wanted to rain down curses on the unreliable god but said god had already disconnected their mental connection, fearing the scolding that was about to come.
Never mind.
Feeling a bit tired and queasy, the redhead decided to take a break. Since the God of Death had disconnected, it couldn't be that urgent…….
…..and in that case…..
'Didn't he just throw me here on a whim?'
This is exactly why he hated gods. 'I guess I should have a talk with the sun god,' he decided. If the God of Death was given a lot of work, then he probably wouldn't have the time to mess with others, right?
However, talking with the Sun God was another can of worms that he didn't want to open.
Cale was shaken off from his line of thought by a loud thump followed by an almost silent whimper. His gaze zeroed onto the trash can standing at an inconspicuous corner of the alley. The noise came from inside it.
He lightly walked towards the source of the noise and tried to listen in for more sounds. Now that he had a direction to search into, he could make out the sounds of faint breathing coming from the trash can. The sound was almost inaudible, but he had been hyper focused and the night was silent.
'Isn't it stuffy inside?' he wondered. The trash can wasn't big enough to hide an adult, and the sounds coming from it definitely belonged to a human.
'It's a child.'
It was a conclusion that didn't need a lot of thought to reach.
This was most probably his assignment.
'Found you!' He lifted the cover of the trash can.
Glowing blue eyes glared back from inside.
"That's gotta be uncomfortable, kid." He observed his new charge. The child was young; the youngest one he'd met till now. Looking at his bony wrists and short arms that were almost skin and bones, Cale concluded that it was a maltreated child who ran away from a dangerous place.
"Do I look like I can hurt you? Look at my clothes, I was kidnapped too." He tried to look as harmless as possible, which wasn't really that difficult, to be honest.
'I guess walking around in my night dress does have its perks….' Of course, this didn't mean that he would let the God of Death escape the blame.
The child inside the trash stared at Cale, his glare fading away, only to be replaced by a wary expression, like a small cornered animal who expected everybody to hurt him. Cale would never claim to be kind, but the expression in the child's eyes did make him a bit angry. He took a deep breath and slowly extended both his arms, showing that they were empty.
"Since both of us are running away from danger, why don't we take care of each other?" The redhead offered, still keeping a harmless, relaxed posture. He pointed towards his palms with his eyes, knowing that the child was carefully scrutinizing every action that he made.
The child flinched when Cale extended his arms, baring his teeth at him right after it. His actions sent another wave of anger through the redhead, aimed at the people who had turned a child who should've been carefree and playful into this.
The child kept on staring at the man and just when it had started becoming uncomfortable, he nodded, as if making sure that the man in front of him was weak, and slowly climbed out of the trash can.
Finally seeing him under the flickering lights of the abandoned alley, Cale realised that the situation was a lot worse than he had expected. This child, who looked to be about four years old, was dressed in dirty rags, but there was an expensive looking collar on his thin neck. His arms had multiple scars, many of them shaped like needle marks that were left due to rough handling and a disregard towards the patient's well being. The child was barefoot and there were thick chains on both his ankles, with a blinking device attached to each side. Blood bloomed on the dirty rag that hung off the child's skinny frame.
He was wounded. He was badly wounded.
Cale slowly took a step forward, wanting to get closer to find out the extent of his injuries, but he had to stop abruptly when the child took two steps backwards. The redhead noticed how the child was limping and realised that his legs were also injured.
One adult and one child looked at each other. With one advancing and the other retreating, they had come to a standstill.
'Wary stance, injuries, needle marks, expensive devices attached to ankles and neck as if he were a captive……' Cale's thoughts moved at a fast speed, but his face didn't betray anything that went on in his mind.
'An…. experiment subject?'
Such an attire didn't belong to an orphanage, after all.
The silence felt a bit suffocating.
"Do you….have any place you want to go to?" the redhead finally asked. It wasn't as if he could directly take this child back to his house. This kid was already so traumatised, there was no way he was going to follow him back. Cale didn't know his exact circumstances either. He didn't know if the kid would end up in the hell that he had escaped from if he made a wrong decision, like sending him to an orphanage that had tie ups to the people who experimented on him.
There was also the fact that this small child didn't seem like he would trust anybody. The best course of action would be to take him to the villa, look for a doctor who could keep his mouth shut and nurse him back to health.
The blue eyed child glared at him again, and Cale realised that he had been staring for too long.
"Well?" He hadn't gotten an answer to his question, after all.
All he got was a frown from the skinny kid.
Sigh
Cale wasn't a goody two shoes. He reckoned that he wasn't even at the level of a decent human being, however he wasn't heartless enough to leave an injured and helpless child to die alone in the corner of an alley.
"I know you don't trust me—" Cale stopped abruptly, frowning at the child who had suddenly frozen up with a fearful and angry expression on his face.
'What—' the redhead didn't get the time to think as he was pulled by the kid who was surprisingly powerful in spite of his age and deteriorated physical condition.
He was unceremoniously shoved behind a half broken wall. He almost exclaimed a curse, but the child shushed him with trembling fingers. It was only now that Cale could hear faint sounds of footsteps echoing in the silent night.
Cale had above average senses, thanks to his partial immortality and ancient powers. His situational awareness was second to none, and yet he had been unable to hear anything until now. It seemed like his previous conclusion had been correct; this kid was a victim of an illegal experiment, and from what Cale could see, some of those experiments might even have been successful.
In that case, this kid had a large red target painted on his back.
Of course, that would do nothing to dissuade the redhead from helping this child escape. He was an assignment but even if he wasn't, Cale would never let people get away with something like human experimentation.
"......did you get him?"
"....bastard…...ran away……. Left a hole inside his….. stomach…."
Cale strained his ears to catch what the people were saying, but they were too far away to eavesdrop on. However, judging from the somewhat relaxed stance of the child who had been shivering next to him just a few seconds prior, the redhead knew that it wasn't bad news.
"Are they gone?" He whispered after some time. His legs had cramped due to his crouching posture and it hurt .
The child nodded, and Cale finally sighed in relief. He stood up to stretch his legs and winced when he found that he'd developed pins and needles.
The child studied him with the same kind of interest that a toddler had while looking at ants gathering food. The redhead decided to ignore him with an ease that came from years of practice and experience.
"Do you want to follow me? I'll provide you with food and necessities and nobody will bother you." Cale didn't know how old this child was, he seemed to be around three to four years old but he could just be small for his age. Four years old was the age where children went to kindergarten and learnt to identify colours and shapes. Most didn't even know how to recognise letters. However, this child's mannerisms indicated that he was smarter than people his age.
Was enhanced senses the only successful outcome of the experimentations?
Although Cale liked the fact that he wouldn't have any problem babysitting a sensible and quiet child, he didn't want it to be like this.
Nobody, neither a child nor a grown up, deserved to experience this kind of trauma.
The kid kept silent for a while, as if assessing the threat level of the man in front of him. Then he turned his head, ignoring his question.
'Does that mean a yes or a no?' The redhead wondered. 'Wait, can he talk?' He surreptitiously gazed at the metallic collar wrapped on the child's thin neck. It blinked a sinister red, and Cale had an urge to snap the device into bits with his ancient powers and throw it far, far away.
"Ahem. Either way, we should get going. Hopefully, we can find a way out of this alley."
Cale had never believed that he was talkative; quite the contrary, in fact, but being the only one to talk without getting an answer, he felt like it was a bit useless.
'Haaah….. I can't leave this kid here, after all. Who knows if he'll go back to sleep in a trash can again if I leave him be…. I can't let my charge sleep in a trash can. That's unsanitary.'
It was hard being a responsible and good person. He didn't know how Choi Han did that.
He took a few steps, turning into a corner and then looked behind to find the child dragging his feet as if he was being inconvenienced by Cale's request. The redhead shook his head, focussing on finding the correct way out of the alleys.
The walls were marked with fresh blood and the broken, flickering street lights cast an ominous shadow over the path ahead. Bloody handprints and grooves made of a sharp object —most probably a knife— didn't leave much to the imagination.
'What the hell happened here?'
Cale didn't want to know.
The last time he had come to this alley, it had been free of these gruesome marks. Although it was a place where many illegal deals happened, Cale doubted that somebody would be brave enough to really try and commit murder. That only left one option—
A chase.
He wasn't really worried about his well being, he could defend himself no matter what happened. However, he felt a little sick due to the impromptu teleportation that brought him here. Somehow it was even more damaging than his arrival in this world. He didn't want to stress his body and endure pain if he could help it. He wanted to increase his pace, but the child following him had multiple wounds on his legs.
"Should I carry you? Walking like this has to be painful."
He didn't seem that heavy, Cale could probably carry him for a while.
Of course, his well meaning question was ignored, just like everything else he said.
'Sure enough.' He wanted to roll his eyes but he decided not to. 'Well I guess there's no need to waste my energy.'
Walking in silence for a few more minutes, they reached a fork in the road.
["I suppose you won't try to be useful and tell me which one is the correct way, right?"] Cale found that their communication channel had closed but he still tried to reach out to the God of Death.
There was no reply.
'What a responsible god….' he dissed the god in his mind.
'Hm? Why is the kid so scared?' he noticed that the child had frozen up again. This time it didn't take long for him to hear sounds of multiple footsteps that seemed to come from ahead.
" Subject 001 is within range, we have to proceed with caution."
They were found!
'It's definitely these devices.' The redhead cursed internally.
Cale didn't waste a single second; he picked up the child and carefully held him in his arms, making sure that he didn't put pressure on his wounds. Then he blindly chose the opposite path and ran.
He didn't have time to notice the way the child stiffened and then slowly relaxed in his embrace.
Multiple footsteps followed them. They were at a disadvantage.
Cale ran with everything he had, but try as he might, shaking off these annoying tails was very difficult.
" Huff huff"
His stomach churned, making him feel very uncomfortable. The added weight of the child was slowing him down, but he didn't complain at all.
The child watched the young man's sweaty face that had become red with exertion and for the first time since they had met, he opened his mouth to say something.
"If you weave me, wunning will be ewasier," he pointed out, as if he couldn't see why the redhead would do so much for somebody he had just met.
"If I leave you then I don't even need to run." Cale gasped while running, unable to stop the sarcasm from colouring his voice.
"Exactwy," the kid replied perturbed , "So why dwon't you?" He had a serious expression on his face but the effect was ruined because of his baby-face and lisp.
"Kid, these people don't sound like good news. As a responsible adult," and here, Cale's tone turned a bit ironic, "I can't leave a child who obviously needs help." If his size hadn't yet signified that he was a child, his lisp would've certainly given him away.
He was but a small kid who had been dealt a bad hand by his unfair life.
The child turned silent. The next few minutes were filled with painful huffs and hurried footsteps. The duo weren't too far from the group searching for them when more footsteps came from ahead.
'Don't tell me they had split up!' That would be way too unfair. The redhead didn't feel like he could run for long.
"Boss will kill us if we fail to catch that bastard!"
"Damn it! Why couldn't he just die?!"
The way they were talking was a bit confusing.
'They want to kill this child? Why? Won't it be more useful to keep him alive?' Cale felt a bit confused but he didn't have a lot of time to ponder over this piece of information. Their first priority was to escape.
" I can hear some sounds! It's definitely that bastard!"
Their footsteps were amplified in this silent night and suddenly they had not one, but two groups of people after them.
'Why am I so unlucky? I didn't even do anything!' the tired slacker wondered while darting through the narrow, twisting lanes. In his rush, he uncharacteristically failed to notice the small hole between two half-broken walls that could've hidden them from the people following them.
"Huff huff"
See, this is why Cale hated exercise! How painful! He wanted to vomit!
The way the child in his arms snuggled close to him, burying his little face in his chest, didn't catch his attention at all.
"If you can find a way to bweak these things on my neck and ankwes, then I won't be a buwden anymowe," the boy whispered softly.
Cale came to a sudden stop. He had wanted to do this since a while ago, but he had been hesitant because of the wariness he had been shown. Now that the kid was requesting this of his own volition, he would definitely try it.
However…..he wasn't strong enough to break it with his own two hands and it might not be a good idea to use his powers now. Considering his present condition, it will be more than painful to do something that requires high control and precision over his powers—
"It's not pwossibwe. Fowget it." The boy mumbled again, sticking his face deeper into the embrace.
The redhead carefully put the child on the ground, and amidst the wide eyed stares from the boy, he brought his hands towards the chain-like device on one of his ankles.
'It won't hurt that much….. probably….' Cale convinced himself.
….and that …….was a lie .
It hurt and it hurt a lot. Controlling the powers of nature that just wanted to wreak havoc everywhere, to make a small cut on a rather fragile device was like trying to poke a small hole in paper using a double edged sword. One of them was bound to get hurt.
He broke the two 'chains' on his ankles and then proceeded to turn his attention towards the collar-like device on his neck. The child shrunk back at first, but then obediently bent his neck, trusting this weird man he had met less than two hours ago who had offered him his unconditional help.
Amidst his churning stomach and internal organs that felt like they had been put through a blender, Cale managed to break open the shackles that had bound the child, triggering a miracle.
There was no great show, of course, but the sight of rapidly closing wounds on the child's body was shocking even without embellishments. However, it took more than a strong healing factor or super senses to surprise Cale Henituse. Between multiple Gods and his own ancient powers, there were few things the redhead hadn't yet seen.
Cale didn't comment on the boy's various oddities and in return, the boy didn't mention Cale's weird abilities. They had an unspoken agreement to not pry into each other's secrets.
Sounds of exclamations came from behind them. It seemed that breaking the device had made their enemies unable to find them.
"The signal was lost again!" A frustrated voice growled out.
"Did he teleport? He can do that? I'll have to add that to the report!" Another person muttered hurriedly.
Cale looked at the boy who looked a bit out of it. The shackles had probably worked as a blocker of some kind and now that they had been removed, the child was slowly getting back his powers. It would probably take a bit more time for the child to get back his bearings. The youth's keen senses could acutely feel a shift in power, as if something invisible was pouring into the dazed child.
'Mana?' He had never been able to use it, however, his experiences of working with the God of Death had made him aware of this specific magical element. This was also the reason he knew that if he disturbed the flow of power then it may end up backfiring on them.
The voices came closer and closer, and Cale braced himself for the pain that would come with using his powers again. Just two hundred metres and so, and their enemies would reach the intersection where they had hidden themselves.
Thankfully, the redhead's luck held up this time. The two groups chasing after them had found each other.
"Who are you?"
"We should be the ones asking you that question! Don't tell me we had been following your footsteps all along!"
'Hm? Don't they belong to the same group?' Cale wondered.
"You bastards! You made us lose our target!" The newly arrived group cursed.
"Ha? Does this place belong to your father? We don't have time for your bullshit. We have to find our subject before he gets away."
"Subject? What subject? You're following somebody too? Ha! There's no way we're gonna let you catch him before us!"
'So….. the other group wasn't after this child, after all?' Cale suddenly had an epiphany.
Sigh. This place was rotten to the core.
Suddenly something was tugging at the corners of his t-shirt. The redhead turned his attention towards the child who had regained his bearings and was now blinking up at him with moist blue eyes half-hidden under overgrown bangs of dark hair.
'I should have him get a haircut once we reach home,' the redhead decided absentmindedly.
"You….. I dwon't have much powew but I can tuwn one of us inwisibwe for ten mwinutes. My wounds are heawed now. You can wun away without mwe." He tried to act brave but he wasn't yet able learn to hide his expressions properly.
[Tl: "You.....I don't have much power but I can turn one of us invisible for ten minutes. My wounds are healed now. You can run away without me."]
'This kid….' Cale frowned. 'What's he talking about?'
His gaze landed on the destroyed devices on the floor and an idea started forming in his mind.
'If we can create a distraction and make them fight each other…… they won't notice us running away…..'
And the thing that could help them was right in front of them.
"Hmmm, turn me invisible for a moment. Just for a few minutes. Don't overexert yourself." He told the kid.
"....okway….." Cale couldn't fathom why, but the child visibly wilted with his answer.
'What the hell goes on in this kid's mind?'
The redhead didn't know that the little boy had already imagined a lonely future for his great and mighty self, a life devoid of this weird weak human who gave nice and warm hugs.
'If I hadn't made that offer, would he have kept tagging along with me?' The child lamented. However, he was somebody who did what he said.
Cale found himself turning invisible. Without wasting a second, he picked up the broken devices and stealthily made his way towards the two groups still bickering in the middle of the lane. It was tough to squeeze through without alerting them, but the redhead was far too experienced to make a mistake. He smoothly put the devices into the pockets of the thugs belonging to the second group and then pushed one of them, fleeing soon after with practiced ease.
The thug was caught off-guard and stumbled a little, but the device that had been loosely hanging off his pockets clattered to the floor, bringing everybody's attention to it.
Cale didn't stop to look back at his handiwork, but he could imagine the shock that was certainly displayed on the faces of the people from both the groups.
The moment he reached the place where he had hidden before, he lightly tapped the kid's shoulder.
"!!!!"
The little boy resembled a fish, opening and closing his mouth. His wide eyes had turned misty sometime between seeing the two groups of thugs fighting among themselves and being poked by the human who had come back after spreading chaos.
Apparently, he wasn't being abandoned again.
He quickly retracted the invisibility spell and came face to face with the crouching red haired youth who suddenly felt very similar to the picture of a valiant hero the child had in his mind.
…..except for the smile that hung at the corner of his lips….. That ….looked decidedly villainous .
"Why awe you smiwing so weiwdly……?" the child muttered in surprise.
The redhead looked at him in confusion, as if he didn't know what he was talking about.
"We don't have much time. Even if they are busy beating each other up for now, at the end of the day, we are their real targets."
Cale didn't give the child any time to reply. He picked him up and started walking away from the chaos.
The child's wounds were mostly healed and he wanted to say that he could walk on his own, but being held and protected was a novel feeling for him. It felt more than a bit nice, so he snuggled back into the embrace, feeling warm inside. He could feel the weak human's arms trembling with exertion, but the fact that he wasn't told to get down and walk on his own two feet made him feel sheltered for the first time in his life.
Cale had slowed down his pace, no longer rushing through the lanes without knowing where he was going. However, he still didn't know the correct way out.
His only comfort was the fact that they couldn't possibly encounter something worse than what they had already experienced just a few minutes ago.
'Mad scientists and kidnappers turned murderers….. I can't think of anything worse….' The redhead with a crow's mouth had barely had this thought when he came across a rather…… cheerful scene.
"Damn this bastard definitely cheated!"
"Hohoho look at this son of a bitch! Just because you lost this game to me doesn't mean I cheated!"
"Hya punk, bring out the money."
"Y'all cheated! I ain't giving you my money!"
"Ha ha ha this punk— this punk really wants to die!"
"Bring it on, If I don't hand you your own broken limbs then I'll change my surname."
"Good thing I needed a grandson. I'm gonna make you call me grandpa!"
"IN YOUR DREAMS, YOU SONUVABITCH!"
'..........'
Cale couldn't believe his luck. The young men with multicolored plumes of hair who were currently fighting over a game of cards while sitting on the hood of a vandalised car, were very familiar. These were the punks who had chased after him and Choi Han barely half a month ago.
'Don't tell me they will chase me again…'
The redhead had already decided to turn back and choose a different path without disturbing their 'card game' which had already turned into a scuffle, but the half asleep child in his arms sneezed suddenly. Multiple colourful heads turned towards them, as if they had rehearsed this before.
".........is it just me or does that redhead look familiar?" One of the thugs with a tall golden mohawk whispered to his friends.
"Who knows? His face screams 'rich and sheltered'." They snickered among themselves, completely unaware that the 'rich and sheltered' redhead could hear everything they said, very clearly . Cale checked his 'outfit', wondering if the God of Death had magically dressed him up in expensive designer clothes or something…. However, he found that he was still dressed in the same set of pajamas that he had worn before going to sleep. Moreover, it was a nightwear soaked in sweat and grime due to the chase.
'These people, really. How exactly did they determine that I was loaded?'
"Hey rich boy, why don't you treat your new friends to some food?" They called out to him.
'Haaaah these punks…… I told them to live an honest life back when I saw them off on their trip to the jail.' The redhead lamented the fact that the world was filled with idiots who liked to make the same mistakes again and again.
Cale really wanted to teach these punks a lesson. However, he had a child to protect right now. Of course, his own health wasn't very stellar, considering that he still wanted to, quite literally, puke out his guts.
"I have friends now?" He raised an eyebrow at the thugs who had now encircled them by now, cutting off any chance of an escape. So they did learn something from their past failures, it seemed.
"Aww poor fella didn't have friends before? How sad!" One of them cried out in mock pity.
"We are your friends now! And we're about to become best friends because you will take out your wallet and all your valuables and lend them to us!" They smiled widely.
Cale was wholly unimpressed with this kind of impromptu mugging. The small time thugs these days didn't even know the proper way to threaten somebody. The whole industry was going to go down if the only successors it had were as stupid as these people.
"Look at me and tell me why exactly you think that I would have money or any kind of valuable on me right now." Cale responded with disbelief.
"Uh…… you look rich?"
" Why?"
"Uhhhhh…."
The thugs looked at each other, wondering why they had thought that this person would be rich.
"I mean…. He's got that vibe …." One of them gestured wildly with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yeah I get what you mean. He's got that chaebol aura…."
"Chaebol? Aura?" Cale mouthed to himself. The child he was carrying also had a similar look of confusion on his face.
"A-anyways! Give us the money and we'll let you go. Otherwise……" one of the punks stepped closer threateningly.
"I would once again like to say that I. Do. Not. Have. Money." The redhead youth grit out. This probably wasn't the correct way to deal with muggers but he was so tired that he couldn't deal with this bullshit anymore. He just wanted to go home and sleep for a month.
The thugs looked at him doubtfully. However, one look at his condition left them unable to counter him.
"We'll check it for ourselves…" They finally decided after a few moments of whispered discussions.
Cale didn't appreciate being treated as a commodity. However, he didn't exactly have a choice. A thug with weird crocodile tattoos came forward to check his clothes. He obviously wasn't very talented in this business. The customer care was less than satisfactory. All this jostling and rough handling made Cale dizzy and more nauseous than he already was.
He wasn't that different from a human. All he had was his keen mind and ancient powers. The teleportation spell for inter-world travel used by the God of Death would have torn a normal human to bits, but his vitality of the heart pieced him back together. Nowadays it wasn't even noticeable to him anymore.
Too bad that not being noticable didn't mean that the consequences weren't there….
A final tug and Cale's stomach had finally had enough. He coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, immediately feeling better right after it. The thug who was checking him was sprayed with the rusty red liquid and froze, dumbfounded.
He wasn't the only person frozen in place either.
"I-I remember where I saw him before! It's that man who vomited blood after being punched a single time!" Golden mohawk exclaimed in remembrance. How could he forget the person who sent them to live in jail for half a week?!
"BUT I DIDN'T EVEN HIT HIM?" The thug with the tattoo screeched in confusion.
"D-dad?" The child who had been obediently standing behind Cale till this moment blurted out with tear filled eyes.
"Dad? Did he call him dad?" The thugs started whispering again.
Cale was getting a headache now. He was tired and for some reason, the kid was about to cry. He was probably feeling hungry. The parenting books he had studied all said that kids tended to cry when they were hurt or hungry, and the child was suffering from both. The clueless redhead who thought that he had everything under control wiped the blood off his lips and bit out in a low voice—
"Can you let us go? My kid is in desperate need of medical attention right now."
"Poor father and son…..both are injured so badly! Maybe they were running away from bad guys?" One of the thugs whimpered in pity, completely ignoring the fact that they were supposed to be one ofthe bad guys. Who knows what kind of dramatic movie script they had created in their minds.
"Of course we'll let you go! We may be thugs but we ain't monsters!" One of them declared, with the rest of them nodding their colourful heads.
'Something is wrong……' the redhead thought, as he looked at the sniffling child who refused to be carried anymore, and instead insisted on holding his hand tightly.
'Why is everybody so weird?' he questioned, as he was personally escorted to the nearest hospital by the same people who had tried to loot him just a few minutes ago.
Well, everything worked out in the end, so who cares?
Back in the alley, inside a hole between the intersection of two broken walls, lay a wounded young man. His features, which were hidden under shadows, were twisted in pain. However, there was amusement and curiosity hidden within the depths of his eyes.
"How interesting…." He smirked despite the agony brought by the stab wound that had punctured his abdomen. Thankfully, it wasn't that deep. The blood had already stopped seeping out. Though he still needed medical attention as soon as possible. However, it wasn't as difficult of a situation now as it was a mere half an hour ago, all thanks to a certain redhead.
The wounded young man had already contacted his allies. Help would come soon. His assailants were currently busy fighting a different group due to a misunderstanding that the man had witnessed from his hideout and he couldn't say that he wasn't impressed.
"Damn, I really want to meet that person formally….. I wonder if he'll work for me…"
Though to be honest, the redhead wouldn't be left with a choice; once the man set his sights on something, he fought tooth and nail to get it.
Rescue came and he was helped out of his hideout. Blond hair glowed in the streetlight for a few seconds before he was covered head to toe in a black robe.
"What are your next orders?"
The man described the features of the redhead and smiled dangerously.
"Find out everything about this person."
"Woah you really have a saving people thing going on!" A certain god who had successfully made it to the top of Cale's hitlist materialised out of thin air once the redhead found himself alone in his room, getting his well deserved rest.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Cale growled. He still hasn't forgiven the bumbling God for abandoning him after yeeting him into a dangerous situation.
"I am talking about how you managed to save a kid who was supposed to be dead by now."
"What? Explain. Right. Now." The redhead threatened.
"Yeah yeah sure." The God of Death waved his hands in the air, completely unaffected by Cale's glares. Threats? Warnings? Yeah, he got about a hundred of them everyday, and around seventy percent of them came from his favourite semi-mortal.
"What I mean to say is that the kid you saved was supposed to die, destroying half the alley in the process. Those small time thugs who had… uh… welcomed you into this world would've been one of the casualties. Imagine my surprise when I sense the presence of a hybrid dragon who wasn't even supposed to exist in this world!"
"....so…..what you're saying is….. that I saved the wrong person?" Cale spoke slowly, trying to keep his temper under control. He really wanted to take a knife and stab the God of Death a few (thousand) times with it. He didn't regret saving the kid at all. In fact, he even felt a bit smug about the fact that he managed to help somebody escape a shitty fate. Spiting and tempting fate was easily one of his favourite things to do, right after slacking off and successfully beating up the God of Death. However, if he failed saving his charge just because of the incompetence of a certain god, then he would certainly want to destroy a few things; the Death god's head being one of them.
"Ah...yes…" the god scratched his head, feeling a bit guilty. "But don't worry! Somehow you managed to save the person you had to save too! I can feel it. He's escaped his fate….for now……. So it will be better if you find him as soon as possible."
"And how am I supposed to do that? You didn't even give me his details?!"
"I told you! I'll tell you once you reach the vicinity of that person! Now I have to go, I've got a lot of paperwork to do!"
"I HOPE YOUR PAPERWORK DROWNS YOU, MAKING YOU WISH FOR DEATH!"
Cale cursed the fleeing god as he bunched up the blanket in his hands, squeezing them while imagining that it was the troublesome god's neck instead.
Knock knock
"Yes?" The youth smoothed out his expression, answering in a lazy drawl.
"Hwuman, it's me. How awe you fweewing now?" The lisping child asked for the fifth time that night.
[Uwu translator: "Human, it's me. How are you feeling now?"]
The redhead sighed. "You can come in. Let's talk." If he didn't reassure the kid now, he wasn't going to get a peaceful sleep for the whole night.
'Come to think of it, we never introduced ourselves….'
Too many things had happened for him to remember to introduce himself. At first, it hadn't seemed necessary, considering that they had been running for their lives. Then they were escorted by those punks to the entrance of the nearest hospital, since those delinquents were scared of being falsely blamed for hurting him. Of course, none of them actually went to the hospital, choosing to go back to the villa instead.
After dealing with the accident prone kids, Cale had ended up hiring two doctors who had become the semi-permanent residents of the villa. Mary, who had once been a doctor working for one of the underworld organisations, was very knowledgeable in illegal drugs. Most importantly, she didn't ask any questions and kept her mouth shut about things that shouldn't be spoken about. Rosalyn, on the other hand, was still a student pursuing a post graduation in forensics and chemistry. Apparently, she needed the 'practical experience'.
Cale really didn't know what kind of practical experience the fiery girl could get by treating a few kids. However, since she had managed to somehow befriend Choi Han, he had decided to let her do whatever she wanted.
After being fed and patched up, they had gone to their designated rooms, and Cale had finally gotten to enjoy the rest he rightfully deserved……
...except he didn't.
Between the God of Death's tactless intrusion and the child's repeated questions of concern, the redhead was bound to not get any sleep. The boy came to check on him every few minutes as if he feared that Cale would drop dead while sleeping.
'It's better to have a proper talk so that everybody can rest properly.'
The door opened softly and three pairs of feet pattered on the carpeted floor.
On and Hong had followed the kid into the room.
When Cale had reached the villa after his 'adventure', the kids hadn't been sleeping. He had frowned at this, but ultimately he had been focused on more important things like getting the kid treated for his injuries. The pair of siblings had taken the kid under their wing as soon as they saw him. It stood to reason that they would accompany the kid who found himself in a new and unfamiliar environment.
"I never introduced myself. I'm Cale Henituse and I'll be your guardian, but only if you want me to be." He introduced himself to the child who was currently sitting gingerly between the pair of siblings.
"I….I am the gweat and mighty…..dwagon…." The child pouted, as if confused about his own name.
"Our youngest doesn't have a proper name yet nya"
"Human, why don't you help him choose one, nya?" One and Hong helped the child speak up for himself. Cale wanted to tell them that he wasn't in any position to name the kid, but stopped before he could say something, feeling complicated due to the way the small child's eyes lit up hopefully at the thought of being named.
' Sigh. Whatever, it's just a name.'
"Give me some time, then."
"Yes yes, you can twake awl the twime ywo nweed but you have to wowk hard to sewect a name for a gweat and mighty dwagon like me!" The child declared haughtily. "Awso, you…." He suddenly hesitated, unable to ask the question that was plaguing him.
[uwu tl: "Yes, yes, you can all the time you need, but you mave to work hard to select a name for a great and mighty dragon like me."]
"..... I'm not sick or dying, if that's what you want to ask." Cale couldn't understand why they would be so concerned about this, however he decided to put their worries to rest.
It was the right thing to do, judging from the way the three kids, who had been so tensed since entering the room, had now relaxed completely.
"Gweat! Now we wiwl weave you to your west! Have a good night, hwoman!" The child replied cheerfully.
"I told you my name, so why do you still call me human?" The redhead asked, a bit curious. He didn't mind being called this way, but he wanted to know why.
"While wunning away fwom all the monsters, you wewe the fwirst hwuman I met in my life." The child replied matter of factly.
[Tl: "While running away from all the monsters,you were the first human I met in my life"]
"You are the first person to treat us as humans nya. Being seen as a human is nice, so of course we are going to call you that nya!"
The children left the room to turn in for the night, finally leaving the redhead to his rest.
If there was a sweet feeling that followed Cale to his dreamland, then it wasn't something worth mentioning.