Chapter Text
Under the soft sheets and mountains of pillows, there was someone sleeping.
“Young master.”
Bleary eyes blinked open to a bright light. Immediately afterwards, his eyes went back closed. A hand was tapping his body to wake him up.
“Young master, it is morning.”
The eyes opened up again and it was a scene of an extravagant ceiling. His eyes wandered as he took in the amazing looking room he was in. All gilded and the sheets were comfortable to a fault. The eyes wandered and wandered before finally landing on an old man’s weary face.
A dream…?
“Young master, it is already breakfast time. The family is waiting to eat with you,” says the old man in front of him. The old man was wearing a butler’s outfit.
“...Huh?”
The old man raised his eyebrows in confusion. “The family is waiting for you to wake up. We have lots of preparation to do for the union.”
The man in the bed stood up and looked into the mirror near his bed.
Red hair greeted him. Vibrant red hair and a small face… He’s a child! Not only that, but his clothes were pristine and fitting for high class nobility. He touched his cheek in shock, pinching himself to find out if all of this was a dream or real.
“Young master Cale?” The old man calls forth again, worried at the child’s distressed expression and actions.
The child whips his head to look at the old man. His brown eyes shake as he hears the name. The extravagant room, the old man butler, the name, and the mention of a union…
“Cale Henituse?”
The unofficial husband of the crown prince in the webnovel he used to read? That one?!
“Yes, young master Cale.” The butler, Ron; his brain supplies, looks more concerned by the second. “Are you okay, young master? Should I tell the family that you are unwell?”
Why am I inside a side character in a webnovel’s body?!
The webnovel ‘Love of the Necromancer’ was quite a hit, so he read it in his past life. It was a simple story about a girl who got poisoned by dead mana at 10 years old as she ran away from her family. There, she gets taken in by hidden Dark Elves and studies to become a necromancer to survive the dead mana poisoning. When she was 24, she decided to travel the world. She meets multiple male leads and then battles to uncover a shadow conspiracy.
Cale Henituse was a small antagonist in the story. He was the first son of the Henituse County. At a young age, the Count promised his first son to the first prince, Alberu Crossman. They were to be ‘wed’ unofficially as Cale Henituse is forced to stay at the first prince’s palace. The bond needs to be officiated when both of them have already reached 18 years old. Unfortunately, Cale Henituse hated all of it. He bad-mouthed the prince and also tried to assassinate Mary because of her necromancer status.
In the end, Cale Henituse was killed as punishment for staining the crown prince’s name and assasination attempt.
The current Cale flinched as he remembered the fate of his character.
Right now, he is only 12 years old and about to turn 13 this year. His father, the Count, has already made a deal with the Royal Family and his union with the first prince has already been decided. The union was going to take place tomorrow on the last of February during high noon, when the sun is at its brightest.
“How are you, Cale?” Countess Violan, Cale’s step-mother asks during breakfast. “Your luggage has been packed?”
“Yes, mother.” Cale’s mind ran a mile a minute. Today was the day before his union with the prince, so have all the other events happened in the novel?
The novel had four male leads. One of them was prince Alberu Crossman and another is a boy named Choi Han. While the Cale in the story was on one of his visits to the county, he met Choi Han and Cale Henituse of the novel shit-talked Choi Han for coming from Harris Village, a village attacked by a mysterious group.
Cale Henituse was beaten up by Choi Han and it resulted in Choi Han being thrown out of the Henituse County’s territory.
‘If I remember correctly… Harris Village was attacked right around when Cale Henituse was sent to the palace,’ he thinks.
“Mother, is Harris Village well?”
Countess Violan tilts her head but shows no signs of changing her expression of neutrality. “Harris Village is well. Do you have plans to visit your mother’s grave in Harris Village before going to the union?”
“Yes, may I visit the grave today?”
Even though he had no interest in saving the whole village, Cale also didn’t want one of the male leads to beat him up later in life. It’ll be better if he is in Choi Han’s good side as early as possible, especially remembering that Choi Han ends up begrudging the whole Henituse County after the events of Harris Village and Cale Henituse.
Later that day, with the permission of Countess Violan, Cale takes a carriage ride to his late mother’s grave. He went with Ron and a few guards.
‘Cale’s unnamed mother was killed during a carriage accident as she was coming back from Harris Village,’ was all the novel had to say about Cale Henituse’s mother.
“Well, I guess I can learn more about her when I get to the grave,” Cale mumbles while looking out the window.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped and shouts were sounding from outside.
“Young master, there seemed to have been an accident in Harris Village,” Ron says from outside the carriage.
The slaughter has already happened…?
Cale steps outside of the carriage and sees a bloodied dirt path and houses burnt down while charred remains were all that was left behind. He slowly steps forward to observe the wreckage and all of the dead bodies left on the ground.
‘Then where is…’
Just as he was wondering where the male lead went, his eyes stopped on the crouching figure of a black haired boy. The boy was hugging a bloodied sword while staring lifelessly at the pile of bodies of villagers in front of him. There was blood all over his body and all around him.
There was also black goo splattered in bits and pieces all around the wreckage.
Dead mana.
The guards gasp as they take in the sight while Cale slowly steps forward to approach the boy.
“Hey,” he calls out.
Choi Han whips his head around with his sword at the ready. He glares at Cale while pointing his sword at him.
“I’m Cale Henituse, the son from the Henituse family.” Choi Han doesn’t lower his sword. “I was visiting my mother’s grave when we found this scene. What’s your name?”
“...Choi Han,” he mumbles.
In the novel, Choi Han was a boy who was transported from the modern world into the world at the age of 15. He wandered the forest of darkness before finally stumbling upon Harris Village. Sadly, while Choi Han was out doing errands for the village, the village was attacked by a shadow organization. Choi Han killed all the attackers as soon as he came back.
‘He was transmigrated because he’s actually a character from the author’s past story about a martial arts family.’
“Ron, contact the county. We need to make a report and also ask to send more guards to help with the burial,” Cale tells Ron. The old man nods before walking away to do all the things he asked for. Cale then turns to Choi Han. “We will start the burial and cleaning as soon as possible. For the time being, please come with us to the county. We can provide you lodging and food.”
A guard helps Choi Han to his feet and guides him back to the carriage. Cale instructs him to help Choi Han clean up a little before they get back to the county.
Back in the county, Deruth Henituse is enraged and saddened by the happenings in his territory. He orders the burial of the villagers. Cale also suggested their family to start sponsoring Choi Han, especially because of his skills as a swordsman. In the future, Choi Han will be renowned as the youngest ever swordmaster, but currently the 15 year old Choi Han is not yet at that level.
Cale smiles as he feels satisfied that he made sure Choi Han survives the attack and that he won't hate the county as he grows up.
Today is the day of his union.
“Cale, keep your head high,” Count Deruth tells his son as he walks Cale through the halls of the Royal Palace. “Visit home whenever you want to, Basen and Lily will miss you.”
Cale nods his head dutifully at his fathers words. He walks slowly through the halls in the formal clothes that Ron has picked out. It wasn’t wedding clothes, just normal formal clothes befitting a count’s eldest son. Though Cale hated the clothes, they were too restrictive and he felt hot in them as the bright sun shined down from its highest position.
“Your luggage has already arrived at the first prince’s palace. They have also readied a room of your own,” his father continues. He stops in front of a large two set doors. Deruth Henituse looks down at his son.
His small twelve year old son.
Deruth kneels down so he is at eye level with Cale. “Cale, I am telling you this as your father. Contact us if you ever need anything, you are still my son no matter what.”
“I will, father,” Cale answers, nodding his head. He watches as Deruth has a complicated expression before standing back up and brushes his pants off. Deruth Henituse pushes open the door and the procession begins.
Well, calling it a procession is a stretch. It was pitiful. Other than knights that stood at the sides of the room, from the Henituse side there was only himself and his father. The first prince was present by himself. Lastly, there was a priest of the Sun God who was present to officiate the binding.
‘The king didn’t even bother to attend,’ Cale thinks as he blanks out at the ceremony. He was standing side by side with the first prince while the priest said a prayer to make their union official. His eyes peeks to his side as he thinks, ‘he hates this too.’
In the story of the webnovel, the first prince also hated the union. He never trusted Cale nor did he treat him like a ‘husband’. Alberu Crossman was a shrewd bastard who never trusted anybody, not even any of the other characters in the novel.
“...And with this, I pronounce the ceremony over,” the priest exclaims.
As soon as the ceremony is over, Cale and the first prince are whisked away to the prince’s study room. They were both to stay there and ‘bond’ until lunch time. His father bid him goodbye one last time and the door closed.
As soon as the door closed, the prince walked over to his desk, promptly ignoring Cale. Alberu sat down and Cale just stared at his figure.
‘I don’t want to antagonise him or else I’ll die later in life, so should I just ignore him?’ Cale thinks while he takes off the stuffy formal jacket Ron made him wear. He set it on the coffee table that was in the middle of the room.
The layout was simple, a small coffee table with sofas and elegant chairs all around it while the prince’s desk was at the edge near the window. A balcony was behind him and there were bookshelves by the sides of the room.
‘It’s not a bad room, but…’ Cale walks a few steps and admires the room.
The room was shabby.
Sure, all of the furniture was elegant and fitting for the royal palace, but everything was slightly too worn and too old. It doesn’t seem like the room was cleaned as often as it should have, making the air a bit musty.
Cale sneaks another glance at the first prince. Alberu was reading a book and noting things down.
‘He’s observing me.’ The prince’s shoulder was a bit too stiff and his posture was angled so that he could stare at Cale from the edge of his eyes. ‘He’s quite different from his novel counterpart, but… that's to be expected with his current age.’
Cale shrugs his shoulders and takes the buttons of his sleeves off while turning around, showing his back to the prince. He still felt the prince’s observing eyes, but…
So what? Who cares if the fifteen year old prince wanted to observe Cale. Let him observe all he likes, Cale already made up his mind to not antagonise him, so there was never anything to really observe about him anyways.
Cale walks over to the tall bookshelves that adorned the room. He marvels at the scale of them, sure they were old, but Cale was still someone who never even came close to such luxuries in his past life.
He already made up his mind before the union. He’ll just do whatever the fuck he wants until he turns 18 and annuls this union. He can also hoard a bit of money so that he has a ‘pension fund’.
‘Yes, that sounds great,’ Cale thinks while he raises his hand to touch the spines of the books on the shelf. They were all books about history, mathematics, and even magic theory. Books the prince was learning. All of the book was a bit worn, as if they have been read through from title page to title page again.
Cale’s eyes travel a bit upwards, his eyes catch a book about the western continent's earliest history. It was a very pretty book with a very elegant spine. It did not seem to be as worn as the others. ‘I should probably read that.’
It was best to immediately check if all of the things he knows from the novel were true or not.
His hand reached upwards to grab the book, but unfortunately his feet were not tall enough to reach it.
Cale Henituse was quite a small 12 year old, he didn’t have the body fitting for a warrior nor a mage. He has lived quite comfortably without his father hounding him to learn to become a territory lord, nor being forced to practice the sword. Cale didn't really care that he had no talents in magic or swordsmanship, but right now it was slightly irritating.
“Just a little bit more,” he whispers as he tiptoes to reach even higher. His other hand was holding onto the bookshelf for balance. Cale smiles as his hand grabs ahold of the book, saying, “yes-”
As soon as he tries to take the book out, the bookshelf shook and it tipped slightly bit towards Cale-
A hand stopped it.
Cale turned around and gasped as he saw Alberu standing right behind him with his hand outstretched to stop the shelf from tipping.
‘The shelf was heavy, no 15 year old would ever be able to stop it, but…’ he’s not a normal 15 year old.
The book had a very interesting secret about the first prince. Alberu Crossman is a quarter dark elf. This appearance was not his real one.
Cale’s eyes trailed as he paid close attention to the prince’s figure. His clothes were elegant but not ironed properly. It was also a bit too old.
‘He’s skinnier than a normal 15 year old,’ Cale thinks while frowning. Children should eat because they are growing.
“What are you looking at?” Alberu asked. His voice was cold and annoyed.
“Hyung, you’re strong.” Alberu, who was in the process of moving away from Cale stopped in his tracks and flinched ever so slightly. “Your highness, you’re very strong,” Cale repeats himself casually while moving away from his spot.
He noticed how the prince stared at him warily with confusion written on his face. Cale, of course, pays him no mind.
“Help me get that book please,” Cale says, pointing at the book he was trying to get.
“What?”
Cale scrunches his face in confusion back at the question. “I want to read that book but I’m not tall enough. Can you please help me take it, your highness?”
Alberu with a look seemingly asking ‘what the fuck?’ takes the book and Cale immediately takes it out of his hands. Right as that was happening, a knock on the door rings and a voice tells the two occupants of the room that lunch is ready.
“Thanks, your highness. I’ll borrow this and I’ll give it back when I’m finished,” Cale says while walking away.
He pointedly ignores the mutter of ‘what the’ behind him as he walks out to greet the guard.
During lunch, Cale notices even more parts of how rundown the first prince’s palace really is. There were no attendants that catered to the prince and the minimal number of guards and servants required for the place to run. There were zero attendants in the whole of the palace. All of them were chased out by Alberu Crossman, who hated the idea of having an attendant.
The food itself was also quite sad. The portions were quite small for a royal lunch and the ingredients looked to be quite low quality.
‘Is the first prince getting the leftovers from the other princes?’
First prince Alberu Crossman has fallen out of favor with the king ever since his mother’s death. He has no allies in the Royal Palace and there is no one in his support in the race to become crown prince.
Well, no one other than the now supporting Henituse County.
‘The Henituse County, while publicly supporting the first prince, does not show any friendliness or support towards the first prince. They are supporting only on paper,’ was what the novel wrote regarding the Henituse County’s relationship with the first prince.
After lunch, he is shown to his room by a guard knight while the prince goes alone to somewhere that Cale doesn’t know. He stares at the quite sad state of the room, evident that no one has stayed in this room for a long time.
But, other than the dust in the air. The room is actually quite great.
Kim Rok Soo, Cale’s previous life, has never tasted luxuries. So he’s different from the novel’s Cale Henituse that became mad and bratty because of the less stellar condition of the palace.
“It’s so soft,” the current Cale marvels as he touches his bed sheets.
Cale burrows into the sheets with the book he took from the prince’s study on his lap. He leans back and flips to the first page.
He only wanted to borrow this for one thing and one thing only. Cale’s fingers flips through the pages until he finally lands on a page with the western continents’ map.
‘It’s the exact same,’ he thinks while staring at the exact same map as the one in the story.
It really is the same world.
The next day, Cale woke up from the sunlight shining through his windows. He sits up and slowly stretches his arms.
Cale Henituse started to get ready for his day. Opening his luggage that was still in boxes and trunks, rummaging around trying to find suitable day clothes. He wore the first decent looking shirt and pants that he found, choosing to wear a simple getup.
He walks outside of the room.
“Good morning, young master-nim,” the guard outside of his door says and Cale greets him back.
He didn’t eat dinner with Alberu last night, the prince choosing to disappear and eat in his study. Cale also doesn’t expect to eat breakfast with him.
Just like he thought, Cale ate breakfast alone.
‘Hmm, I remember a detail in the novel about someone once attempting to poison the prince when he was 15,’ Cale thinks as he eats his food. ‘Has it happened yet or not?’
It probably already happened.
All the cooks look too young and too new to the job. They still have the look of anger that they got assigned as the thrown away first prince’s palace and not the coveted third prince’s palace.
Cale stands up after he finishes his food. He has a long day ahead of him.
Time to flip the palace over.