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“Raon Miru…” a young voice called out. Standing in an oversized nightshirt, pants pooled around the boy's ankles. Blood coloured hair draped across shoulders, held only by a loose black ribbon.
“Human? Why are you so little!” Raon flew over, his eyes roaming the boys; Cale’s new form. His magic searched for any sign of magic used, yet none was there. “Let’s go to the crown prince!”
“Raon wait-!” Cale tried to stop Raon from teleporting them over to the palace, but by the time he finished Raon had already finished the teleportation circle. He closed his eyes while he sighed. When he felt the surroundings stop moving he crossed his arms and pursed his lips. His cheeks flushed with the weight of artificial blue eyes.
“Crown prince! The human has turned little!” Raon Miru called out, sounding a little frantic. Alberu stood there wide eyed, he parted his lips then closed them. Hands going to his face to rub his eyes.
“Unlucky…” Alberu muttered. Here standing in front of him stood a young Cale, maybe five or six in age. Cale had his face contorted into a frown, obviously not wanting to be here. He turned to a bell and rang it, a maid poked her head into the office. “Please bring a set of clothes, nobles clothes, to fit him.”
“Yes, your highness.” The maid took a glance at Cale, then quickly left.
“What did you do this time?” Alberu asked, stepping around his desk. Cale looked at him, his eyes big and round, holding baby fat that was never seen on an older Cale. In Cale’s silence Alberu found his answer, they didn’t know how.
The maid knocked on the door, entering with a neatly folded set of clothes. A white dress shirt with black embroidery, black shorts, black socks with garters, and a red neck ribbon. She held them, not knowing where to place them. Cale looked up, walking over he held his hands out for the clothes. The maid looked at him, then to Alberu who nodded. She handed them to Cale before taking her leave. Cale walked over to the couch and placed the pile of clothes with shoes down. He put his socks on, clipping them in place with the garters, before he pulled his shorts under the oversized night shirt he wore. He took one look at his nightshirt then the shirt he was given and sighed.
“I can’t button them.” He mumbled, face flushed in embarrassment. Alberu only smiled gently, he walked over and reached for the night shirt and started unbuttoning it. When he finished Cale slipped out of the shirt, grabbing the one he was given and pulling it on. Alberu only stared, Cale had a shield tattooed on his chest, with a heart in it. He never knew about it. He smiled and buttoned Cale’s shirt, then lifted the collar to wrap the ribbon around his neck and tie a bow, he flipped the collar down. “…Thankyou.”
Alberu smiled, his eyes going to Cale’s hair which had managed to get messier. He turned Cale around, and untied the ribbon which let his hair out of the knot it was in. He was surprised, Cale’s hair seemed to get longer when he turned into a child. His hair now reached his shoulder blades. Alberu ran his fingers through it to get it untangled as much as he could, it was an easy task considering Cale’s hair was like silk strands. He kept Cale’s bangs out of the bundle of hair he had gathered, half up half down. He tied the ribbon into Cale’s hair. Cale reached up and patted around his head to feel it, a pleased smile on his face. A knock interrupted them.
“Your highness, the meetings are about to start” a male attendant came into the room. Alberu smiled.
“Yes, let’s go.” Alberu was looking at Cale as he said this. He was asking Cale to come along with him. Cale pouted before he frowned. Well that was certainly new.
‘Raon Miru shall follow behind the human and crown prince!’
“…Up” Cale closed his eyes, holding his arms out. Alberu was confused. Up? Oh! He wanted to be carried. Well he certainly would oblige his dongsaeng.
“Yes, let’s get going.” Alberu bent over to pick Cale up, he wrapped an arm under Cale’s bottom, and placed him on his hip. Cale placed an arm on his shoulder over his back, the other gripping at the front of his shirt. His cheeks flushed shyly. The attendant nodded and held the door open, Alberu waited a few seconds, knowing Raon Miru would use that time to slip out.
“I won’t be bothering you?” Cale asked quietly, eyes roaming around the palace as they walked to the meeting room. Alberu chuckled.
“I think our hero of the western continent would never be a bother. You are our commander.” Alberu smiled, his glib tongue ready to act. Cale huffed.
“I’m not a commander anymore.” He said, but somehow the title had stuck and people still addressed him as commander. Alberu only smiled, although it faded when they reached the meeting room.
“Have a chair be prepared for Cale Henituse. And snacks,” he paused. “Make sure some cookies are mixed in.”
A maid smiled. Her eyes looked to Cale before she bowed and left to do what she was assigned. Cale closed his eyes, Alberu took this as a sign to walk into the meeting room. The people inside all stood and bowed in a greeting. He waved them off. Alberu sat in his chair with Cale in his lap, Cale didn’t seem to mind this. It secretly made Alberu happy.
Cale wasn’t interested in the topic of Alberu’s meeting. Instead he thought over why he had been turned into a child. The only one who would do that, would of course be the God of Death, but did he even have the power to do so?
Cale was brought out of his thoughts when he felt himself being lifted. He looked around as he was being placed in his own chair next to Alberu’s. He also watched as a few maids placed some snacks on the table. He nodded to them as they left.
‘Human the cookies look good!’ Raon Miru called in his mind. Cale smiled, reached for a cookie. He made sure no one was looking before he shoved it under the table for Raon to grab.
Alberu nearly laughed out loud during one of the vassals' speeches. The way Cale’s little hands had grabbed a cookie and shoved it under the table was cute, it didn’t help that Cale looked extremely pleased with himself, as he reached for a biscuit for himself.
Cale ignored the pairs of eyes that would look at him every so often. They could think what they wanted, he didn’t care. He was more worried about how he would go back to normal, how long this form would last.
Drinking the tea placed in front of him, he looked around. Not finding anyone who he knew or cared to remember, they were all people who sat in the castle all day, and weren’t out helping the fight for the kingdom. He wondered how Alberu put up with such people, but maybe that came with being the crown prince and having to deal with people who thought their job was more important than what a crown prince should be doing. Honestly Alberu could probably have someone sit in here for him and summarize the meeting within 10 minutes.
Cale felt this was boring. A maid must have noticed as she pulled pieces of paper from somewhere and a box of coloured wax….. weren’t those just crayons. This maid was giving him crayons. HIM. oh how he sighed.
Cale gladly ignored the snort that came out of Alberu that was covered by him clearing his throat and talking. Well whatever, why not act like a child and draw some shit. Yeah he had the perfect idea.
Later on Alberu would tell him that he looked like he was scamming someone, as he framed the nicest picture Cale drew.
Alberu thought it was the self portrait of Cale.
Who knew that child Cale was an artist.
Sitting at the table he grabbed the paper and started drawing the white thing(white star) floating as a ghost with Cale laying in bed living the slacker life. He also did a self portrait and one of Alberu which surprisingly enough was the best out of the three. Drawing random things, such as the cat siblings, Raon, the whales. And many more.
“— end it here.” Alberu’s voice cut through his focus on the paper and drawing. He really got into that…. Embarrassing. Quickly grabbing the rest of the cookies he shoved them under the table for Raon Miru, all while Alberu watched and chuckled. “Okay, time to go Cale.”
“Mh.” Cale slid off his chair and straightened his clothes and for the sake of it grabbed the papers he had drawn. “Here”
“What’s this?” Alberu asked, taking the papers Cale handed him. Cale looked away, his cheeks flushed pink.
“I was drawing. You might appreciate your drawing.” Cale walked over to the door while everyone stared.
Yes the usually emotionless Cale Henituse was being a shy boy, showing off his colouring skills. The maids internally cooed at him. Before they opened the door. Allowing Alberu and the invisible Raon to fly through.
——
Halfway through the walk Cales feet started hurting. Why was it taking them so long to get back to the room?
“Hyung-nim, are my strides really that small?” He asked, irritated. Alberu chuckled.
“I’ll carry you. Your feet must hurt, right?” He ignored the question, but Cale knew the answer. That is, his strides were so small that it took them twice as long to get to Alberu’s office.
“ How long will I be in this stupid form. ” Cale grumbled.
Finally getting back to the office Alberu called for some tea and snacks. He would do some paperwork while Cale lazed around.
It wasn’t long until Eruhaben flashed into the room with Choi han and the cat siblings. Who looked at Cale with slightly pink cheeks.
“Cale-nim”
“ Unlucky bastard— ”
Choi Han came over and lifted him up and turned him every which way. Cale just sighed and limply let him do his thing. He watched as On, Hong and Raon sat around the table taking snacks. They seemed to be chatting about how cute he was.
Cale was starting to get annoyed at how they were treating him. So he looked to Choi Han and gave him a task.
“Hey Choi Han. Go with Eruhaben and the siblings to the inn. Check on how Bud is coming along with that information.”
“Yes Cale-nim!”
Cale could tell Eruhaben knew what he wanted. He just smiled.
— I’ll keep them busy till tomorrow. Rest—
And then they were gone, Raon Miru still within the room but keeping to himself. Cale sighed and flopped back against the couch. He was tired now. Did children need afternoon naps?
“Children need naps in the afternoon, do they not?” Alberu off-handedly commented.
“I guess they do…” Cale agreed, he hid a yawn behind his hand. Gaining a chuckle from Alberu.
“You can sleep in the room next door. There should be clothes set out on the bed already.” Alberu told him, motioning to the door on his left.
“You planned this?” Cale asked, his eyes narrowed at Alberu.
“Whatever do you mean?” He asked, with a smile. Cale huffed and walked into the room. After changing he climbed into the bed and went to bed.
Yes, as soon as he was back to normal he would go beat up the white thing. He didn’t know how, but the white thing was definitely the reason behind his predicament.