Chapter 78: A Good Person (4)
Translator: miraclerifle
Editor: Borderline Masochist
Silence filled the cave once again. Litana turned away from Cale in order to look toward her subordinates.
She was trying to see if she had heard correctly.
Her subordinates had the same expression that she had.
“Mr. Cale, may I ask you to explain?”
Litana, who had been leaning on the cave wall, sat up straight. The leather armor had dried with the fire, showing off her toned warrior body.
“I am a citizen of the Roan Kingdom.”
“You are from the Northeast. We are people who work in the jungle as warriors.”
“I see. I am from a small territory in the corner of the Roan Kingdom. Mm.”
Cale scratched his cheek as if he felt awkward listening to Litana call herself just a, ‘warrior,’ and cautiously continued.
“I am from a small noble family. Thanks to that, I do not lack the funds to travel. I also have a crew that travels with me.”
“A crew?”
“Yes. I came into the forest alone with On, but there are people who trust and follow me.”
Litana and her subordinates who valued the, ‘leader and followers,’ philosophy looked toward Cale a bit more gentler now.
“Anyways, as I traveled around, I was able to come across a fateful encounter.”
“A fateful encounter?”
Cale had a bitter smile on his face and started to scrunch his eyes like he was recalling a difficult memory.
“Yes. I was caught up in an ocean whirlpool and barely managed to get out. Once I got out, I found this fateful encounter inside a cave. At that moment, I was able to find an injured person and have them. I was relieved to know maybe that was the reason I ended up getting caught up in the whirlpool, ah.”
He suddenly put on an embarrassed smile.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t the story I was trying to say.”
“It looks like Mr. Cale has saved a lot of people.”
Litana looked toward the calm Cat tribe child On before looking back at Cale. This respectful and courteous noble did not even act arrogant because he was a noble.
“No, I just couldn't walk by without doing anything.”
He seemed very modest and good.
“Anyways, there was a power I managed to gain at that time.”
“What power?”
Litana realized Cale had gotten to the point and asked.
“Fire Suppressing Water. It is able to suppress any and all fires.”
Litana and her subordinates’ eyes all became cloudy. It definitely sounded different than your average water.
And that would be accurate. This water was different than your regular water.
No matter what kind of fire it was, if it had the word, ‘fire,’ in it, it could suppress it.
Originally, Toonka would have found this fateful encounter and used it as a base to develop a body that cannot be burnt. However, Cale was not afraid of getting burnt because of his, ‘Vitality of the Heart.’ It would hurt a bit, but the Vitality of the Heart would let him recover right away. Why would he use something like this in addition to that?
Instead, Cale had put that water into the, ‘Absorbing Necklace,’ that Lock had brought back.
Cale cautiously added on.
“However, there is a limit to how much I can use, so I am not sure if it will be enough.”
“Ah.”
Litana let out a gasp. She opened and closed her mouth a couple times before finally asking.
“It sounds like a precious power. Is it okay to use it for us?”
Cale worked hard to prevent the corners of his lips from moving upward.
There definitely was a limit to how much he could use.
‘It is limited to putting out a fire about the size of the entire Western continent?’
As long as Cale was not putting out a fire that burned across the entire Western Continent, he had enough to last him a lifetime. However, it wasn’t like he had lied to her.
“That, how should I address you?”
“...You can call me Lina.”
One of her subordinates flinched. Cale pretended not to see and called out Litana’s fake name.
“Miss Lina.”
“Yes?”
“There is no precious or not precious when it comes to powers. I believe the important thing is how you use that power.”
Litana and her subordinates could see that Cale’s eyes were clearer than ever.
“If I can use this power of mine to save the nature, the animals, the plants, as well as people and their livelihood, I believe I definitely need to use it.”
Litana subconsciously started to clench her fists. Her heart was also beating quickly.
“Of course, now that it has recognized me as its master, I need to personally go there to use it. It might take some time and be burdensome.”
“...Do you need to go into the fire to use it?”
“I think inside the fire might be difficult, but I probably have to at least get near it.”
“Excuse me?”
Cale had heard the whole thing, but pretended like he did not hear a word.
“No, nothing. This is delicious, Mr. Cale.”
“I’m glad.”
Litana and her subordinates were able to have a relaxing and full night for the first time in two weeks. On peeked at Cale, who watched them with satisfaction before letting out a sigh.
***
“Mr. Cale, this is amazing.”
“Right? On is amazing.”
Cale peeked at Litana and her subordinates, who were following behind him. Looking at the six of them under the sun made it very easy to see that they were strong warriors.
There were two different types of warriors in the Southern continent.
Someone like Toonka was the, ‘fighter,’ type while the Northern Knights were more the, ‘warriors.’ The people of the Jungle were a mix of the two. They were both good at fighting and at training their martial arts or weapon arts.
“Miss Lina, we are almost at Hoik Village.”
Cale could see Litana and her subordinates tighten the raincoats around them after hearing his words. They had suddenly ended up crossing the border, so they were covering themselves up as much as possible with their dark blue raincoats.
Litana was especially making sure to cover her black hair. The royal family had pitch black hair. Since she was on a smaller side for a Southerner and was working hard in order to hide her identity, it was difficult for anyone to tell that Litana was a strong warrior.
However, Cale knew the truth.
‘One level under Choi Han.’
She was much stronger than Toonka. One level under Choi Han meant that she was very strong. Once she got on her Black Panther and used her spears, nobody was able to catch her. She was like the reaper of death to her enemies, even in broad daylight, as she moved around in the jungle that was dark from the shadows of the forest. That was how she had become the Queen who unified the Jungle.
The head of the Jungle needed to both be empathetic and strong. They needed to protect their tribe.
“We are almost there.”
Cale could feel Litana’s group behind him as he started to walk forward once again. On was controlling the fog to open up a path for them.
The fog started to move away.
“Ah.”
Litana’s subordinates let out a gasp. They could feel that they were finally getting out of this, ‘Path of No Return.’ Cale just continued to walk in silence.
Litana and her subordinates trusted Cale even more as they watched him leisurely walk down the path.
Drip. Drip.
The rain fell on the new raincoat that Cale had received from Litana.
- We are here.
Finally, the fog lifted and they could see the entrance of Hoik Village. He had returned.
“Ha.”
A gasp-like laughter escaped from Cale’s mouth.
Meeeow!
On jumped out of Cale’s arms and started to run.
Meeow!
Hong ran toward her as well. The siblings ran into each other and started to rub their cheeks against each other. Cale had his arms crossed as he watched the two kittens before starting to frown after seeing the people standing next to the slab.
“Why are you all out here in the rain?”
Hans, Choi Han and Rosalyn were all waiting for him. None of them responded, instead, they all just pretended as if they didn’t hear him.
“Young master-nim, as the deputy butler, I could not go to sleep.”
“Cale-nim, it is cold. Who are the people behind you?”
“Young master Cale, did you have a good trip?”
Cale uncrossed his arms and headed to them. He stood in front of them and started to speak.
“I’m back.”
Cale didn’t want to see the smiles on their faces, so he turned around. His gaze then fell on the people who were staring at him. It was the families of the people who had gone in and never came back.
Cale headed toward the old man who was sitting next to the slab. It was the same one who had warned him about going into the forest. He then crouched down next to the old man. The old man’s eyes were shaking in disbelief.
Cale confidently spoke to the old man.
“Old man.”
Cale, no, Kim Rok Soo, knew what it was like to wait for something that was never going to come back. He knew that his parents were dead, but, at one point, he had hoped that they would come back if he waited long enough. Cale looked directly into the old man’s eyes.
“There is no dragon.”
The legend was no more.
The old man’s eyes slowly started to tear up. The old man quietly looked down at the ground before nodding his head over and over. Cale walked past the old man and the others before casually adding on.
“I saw some clothes and skeletons in the forest. I can bring them for you if you’d like.”
That was the only thing Cale could do for them.
He returned to his crew and started to speak to Choi Han and the rest, who were looking back and forth between him and Litana’s group, who were wearing a different style of clothing.
“Pack our stuff.”
He pointed to the forest.
“We are heading to the Jungle.”
The fire that enveloped the entire Section 1 of the Jungle. It was time for Cale to suppress that fire on his own.
1. In Korean, there are two different words that are used for warrior, Moosa and Junsa, but they both translate to warrior, making me use two different types of warriors instead.