A carriage with the Henituse family's golden turtle crest passed through the Henituse Castle and headed for the estate behind it.

"It really feels like a festival is coming up."

Cale nodded at Choi Han's statement before looking out the carriage window. The entire castle was in the process of being decorated, and very lively.

Even the entrance of the castle that was usually quiet was booming with a long line of people.

"I have never seen so many people outside the castle like this."

"He's right! Me neither!"

Cale could see that Choi Han was just as excited as Raon, On, and Hong. This was probably Choi Han's first real festival as well.

"It's my first time too! I want to stand in line too!"

Cale smiled at Hong's comment as he looked out the window and patted Hong's small head.

'I used to stroll around with my mum during these festivals. I was so young back then. Actually I think it was more like she dragged me out. I think it was just after I have learned about my cursed physique and started to lock myself inside.' Cale nostalgically thought.

The Henituse territory's festival had many special competitions. Some of these were newly added included the cooking competition, the art competition, the sculpting competition, and with Countess Violan leading the charge, these competitions naturally had hefty rewards.

"Human! But why are those people standing in line like that?"

"They seem to be here to apply for a competition or take part in the preliminaries." Choi Han started to speak, as if he finally understood what was going on. "No wonder I saw a couple talented martial artists!"

'...Huh?'

"There must be a Martial Arts competition as well!"

'No? There should just be things like cooking, sculpting, and art?' Cale tilted his head slightly.

"Martial Arts?"

"Yes, Cale-nim."

Cale had a bad feeling about this. 'Spies? Hmm...'

Choi Han did not see Cale's stiff face as he stared out at the castle gates and continued to speak. "I don't know which competition they will participate in, but those two people seem very strong. I believe they will reach the finals."

Choi Han's gaze was very sharp. "Mm, I can't tell what their preferred weapon of choice are, but I guess you don't need to use a sword to fight? Based on one of their shoulders, it looks like their weapon of choice may be a bow."

Cale looked toward Ron, who started to smile.

"There's an assassin who is a servant, so who says they cannot do art or cooking?"

Cale was dumbfounded at Ron's words before he laughed.

This was a world where an average looking cook was a poison specialist, and your neighbor working at the repair shop could be someone who used metal shards to brutally murder people.

He had forgotten about how scary this world was because of all the strong people next to him.

"Choi Han."

"Yes, Cale-nim."

"The Henituse territory only has a cooking, art, and sculpting competition."

Cale was curious how Choi Han would respond to this information.

"Ah, I see! They must do martial arts as a hobby then."

Seeing Choi Han pass it off like it was nothing made Cale chuckled lightly. 'What do I expect? It's a very Choi Han's style answers.'

"Those humans are still not as strong as my front paw!"

"Noona, should we go win the competitions? I want to compete."

"You don't know how to do any of those things."

After seeing the individuals next to him, Cale had no choice but to admit again that this was how this world was set up to be. Anyone could be stronger than him.

The carriage soon passed by the castle and into the Estate.

Cale asked Ron about the details. "What is the competition schedule?"

It would be better if the territory was filled with strong experts. Ron handed him the schedule. Cale looked it over before asking Choi Han a question.

"You remember their faces?"

"Yes, Cale-nim."

Why did there have to be so many experts? This was a difficult world for a weakling like him to survive. He wanted to go get the fire Ancient Power soon.

Cale turned his gaze over to Rosalyn, who was sitting in a corner of the carriage. She had not said anything since he had told her about the Northern alliance. She seemed to be deep in thought ever since their discussion.

"Young master Cale, may I request for a meeting after I meet with my youngest brother, err, the fourth prince? Of course, I will not tell my brother about the alliance right away."

That was what Rosalyn had said to him yesterday. Cale just told her to do whatever was easiest for her.

"Woooooah boy-."

Cale could hear Hilsman's voice from the driver's seat as the carriage came to a stop. They had stopped outside the gates of the estate. Cale let out a sigh as he opened the carriage door and Raon turned invisible.

"Where are you going, Lily?"

"Orabuni!"

His youngest sister, Lily, was standing outside the gate. The 7-year-old seemed to have spent a lot of her time outside, as she was very tanned.

"You seem to have been training very hard."

"Yes! I've been giving it my all!"

Lily, who was confidently answering that she was training hard, seemed to have improved quite a bit. Since she trained enough to get really tanned like this, her skills had no choice but to improve.

Cale looked at the wooden sword at Lily's waist, as well as the longer wooden sword on her back.

Lily flinched at his gaze, before quickly starting to speak. "The one on my back is something I made because I was curious about a long wooden sword!"

"Really?" Cale raised his eye brow. 'But the sword has many scratches on it, like you swung it down on firewood or something?'

"Yes! That is it!" Lily answered very respectfully as she avoided Cale's gaze. She then quickly added on. "And I have finished my knight training for the day! So I am going to play! I received mother's approval, so I am going out for one hour! I am only going to the alley with the restaurants nearby, so I will be safe!"

The 7-year-old explained the situation in details to Cale. She must have felt guilty, even though Cale just looked at her and never asked for an explanation.

"Okay. Have fun. See you at dinner."

"Yes, yes sir!"

Cale motioned for her to go, and Lily looked back a couple times as she quickly started to run toward the restaurant alley. The staff of the estate frequently ate at the alley, so it was both cheap and clean.

Cale got back on the carriage and started to think. 'Something is suspicious.'

Didn't she seem like the stereotypical youngest child of a wealthy family who found a hidden expert to serve as a master in the woods?

Cale made eye contact with Ron, whose left arm still needed about two more weeks to be completed.

"Look into it for me, Ron."

"Yes, young master."

He didn't need to explain to Ron for him to understand. The sly old man who had lived in this world longer than he had seemed to be having the same suspicions as Cale.

Well, only if it excluded his years as Kim Roksoo, otherwise, he was older than Ron.

Countess Violan had probably looked into Lily already, but it was better for him to do his own investigation.

Cale confirmed the details of the cooking competition before returning to the estate with the schedule in his hand.

An unexpected person greeted him at the door.

"Basen."

"Hyung-nim."

"Mm, were you waiting for me?"

Basen did not respond to Cale's question, instead, he just opened up the file in his hands and started to speak. Cale could not even walk through the door as he stood there watching what Basen was doing.

"Hyung-nim, I heard you will be staying home during the festival."

"That is correct."

"Would it be possible for you to present the awards for the competitions?"

Cale started to smile. The file in Basen's hands were administrative tasks for the territory. Basen was now at the level to take care of such tasks.

Cale had never even touched a proper administrative file for the territory yet. This was a good sign. However, he quickly had a question. "What about father?"

"Father will be giving the opening address, but said that he was too busy to deal with all of the small competitions. Father said that it would be great for myself, Hyung-nim, or Lily to do it."

"And .... Umm... mother?"

"She is the commissioner, so she will be giving the Commissioner's Award, but you will be presenting the awards to the winners."

"Why don't you do it?" Cale didn't feel like doing it. In addition, Basen needed to do it for people to remember Basen better.

"I am currently busy with work for the territory. I need to show up at the competition in order to present the awards, but I do not have time right now as I am currently learning about how to handle the administrative tasks for the territory."

Cale started to smile even more. If Basen was busy learning about how to run the territory, it would be fine for him to give out the awards like this. Basen needed to learn properly so that he could take care of everything in the future.

"Alright, I will do it since you are busy. You will need to study hard in order to be responsible for half of the territory's administration in the future."

'Since Lily is working hard to lead the military side.'

"You are very reliable." Cale patted Basen's head and cheered him on.

Basen responded back with a sincere expression, as if he had made up his mind about something. "Yes, Hyung-nim. Please trust me and leave it to me."

'Of course. I trust you, isn't that why I leave the heir position? This territory is for you and Lily.' Cale put on a happy smile for once and nodded his head. "Don't push yourself too hard. I will be heading in now."

He walked past Basen and headed into his chamber. His stride was both relaxed and light. Basen observed his brother's back for a bit before receiving Cale's group's greeting and heading toward the castle.

Since he was not talented in martial arts like Lily was, Basen had made up his mind to learn the administrative tasks as best as possible to become an Administrative Expert.

Basen Henituse, the fifteen-year-old, now had a dream. His entire family was cheering him on as well. That thought made the stoic Basen start to smile.

It was a dream that would probably cause Cale to frown if he realized what was going through Basen's mind.

**************************************

Cale's face was full of boredom. It was even close to exhaustion.

> Why don't you stop with that face?

"You have the same expression, your highness."

Crown prince Alberu was looking at Cale with a similar expression. They were tired of each other after seeing each other via video every day. However, they still needed to talk to each other because there was work to be done.

> The fourth prince said he will take three of the Royal Knights and head to the Henituse territory. I am leaving the Empire tomorrow, so you can assume that he'll leave around the same time.

"Yes sir. I will let Miss Rosalyn know."

The fourth prince will arrive within the next month.

> Tell Count Deruth as well.

"Yes sir."

Did his father know that Rosalyn was a princess? Although Cale had never told him, he assumed his father would know because Hans knew about it. He started to think about a lot of things as Alberu continued to speak.

> Do you want to hear something funny?

"Not at all." He accidentally said the truth.

> I'll tell you anyways.

But Alberu ignored his feelings, as usual.

> Do you know how the Pope of the Church of the Sun God died?

"Your highness, can you talk about such a thing while in the Empire?"

> I've already used noise cancellation magic. Did you forget who I am?

'Who you are? You're the mighty crown prince of Roan Kingdom. You have a ton of mages under your command. I'm sure you have a lot of magic devices as well.'

Cale accepted this fact and nodded his head at Alberu, who continued to speak.

> Once the Emperor announced the start of the festival, the Pope gave an opening address since the festival was related to the Sun God. The location for it was in front of the Imperial capital's Sun God Temple.

Alberu put on a bitter smile thinking about the incident. The Pope was at a platform that was lower than the Emperor yet higher than the Imperial Prince, who was next to the Emperor.

It was made that way to give face to the Pope. That was not something to smile bitterly about. There was a different issue.

> That platform went flying.

"What?"

> The Temple and the platform all went flying.

Cale suddenly thought about his and Raon's masterpiece, the Hais Island 5. "An explosion?"

> You're so sharp. Yes, an explosion.

'Crazy.' Cale almost said that out loud.

At the same time, he was confused. He thought immediately that the Imperial Prince would have done it, although the Imperial Prince would not do something so obvious on the surface, there's Arm organization behind him. Since they were all under the same guy in the end.

Still, didn't Alberu already say that the Holy Twins were the culprits?

> It was similar to what happened to us.

The term, 'us', made Cale's expression change. The only thing Alberu could be referring to was the capital's Plaza Terror Incident.

> The Holy Twins and individuals wearing black outfits, as well as magic bombs that were similar in strength to the ones in our capital. Are you getting a sense of it now?

Cale quietly sat there with a stiff expression. 'I know it!'

Alberu continued on like he understood what Cale was thinking.

> I managed to live thanks to a mage's shield, but the believers in front were massacred. It was not only the Pope that was killed.

> I will definitely find and destroy the organization that did this. It meant that they planned to do the same thing in our Kingdom.

Alberu still had not forgotten about that mage.

> It was a different mage this time, but I will definitely find that mage and punish him.

"Mm, your highness."

> Yes?

"That mage is no longer in this world."

> What?

"He is dead." Cale avoided Alberu's gaze.

> ... Did you kill him?

"I didn't do it. Personally."

That was Choi Han who cut off both arms and made Redika go blind, he was not the one to kill him. That crazy swordsman was the one who killed Redika.

> Haaaaaa.

Cale could hear Alberu's deep sigh, but chose not to care about it. He had enough to worry about even without it.

'Something is fishy about the Sun God Twins and the magic bombs. Are the twins part of the organization?'

However, he had no way to find out. It was a new incident, so he had no way to know anything about it. He also couldn't send Ron or anyone else to go find out about it.

> ... Let me know about such things in the future.

"Will do." Cale had no problem answering casually like this.

Alberu started to get a headache. He sighed as he continued to speak.

> Contact me when the fourth prince arrives. The fourth prince seemed to be calm and respectful. I'm sure you'll like each other.

'But she said he was a total bitch and a whiner?' Cale thought about Rosalyn's words as he nodded his head.

The two soon ended their conversation. Cale put his video communication device in his magic bag, as they would not need to chat for a while.

**********************************

The next day, Cale was sitting on a platform looking down. Down below was a large area with spectators sitting in a circle.

Cale, who was sitting at the highest platform, opened up the paper in his hand.

– Is the competition starting now?

Cale nodded his head at Raon's question. A different competition would take place every day starting today.

– Human, will we go to the night market later too?

Cale had taught Raon about money this morning.

– Will you buy me everything I want to buy?

Cale nodded his head. It would not be expensive to buy Raon things from the night market. Cale could hear Raon snickering in his head and looked down.

The kittens, On and Hong, each had a necklace with a pouch on it. It was a pouch with their allowance.

Mary, who was wearing her black robe, had a black pouch as well. Her allowance was in this pouch.

"I'm a really generous person sometimes."

– You are right! You are a very good person, Human!

Cale, who said something which would make Rosalyn be shocked again, reached his hand out toward Choi Han and Ron. There was a piece of paper in his hand.

"So, it is these three people?"

A cook, an artist, and a sculptor.

Choi Han started to explain in order.

"A former knight, an archer, and an assassin."

'My goodness.' Cale could not believe it.

'A former knight, an archer, and an assassin? Maybe I can just create my own camouflaged fighting brigade.'

How shocked would the enemy be if a Flying Skeletons Brigade and a group of cooks, artists, and sculptors, who are actually experts, showed up to fight them?

Cale slowly started to smile mischievously. "They are all above average in ability?"

"Yes. All three of them are at about Vice Captain Hilsman-nim's level."

– Human, why are you smiling like that? Is there something fun? Tell me, tell me!

Raon asked, but Cale did not answer. Instead, he looked toward Ron. Choi Han was dull when it came to things like this, but Ron was not.

Ron started to smile as soon as they made eye contact. "Young master, isn't this territory a better place to live than you expected?"

"My territory is of course the best."

Count Deruth was currently in the process of fortifying the castle wall ever since Cale told him about the Northern Alliance. It was a large-scale construction using Mueller's blueprints.

Furthermore, his father was busy increasing the number of soldiers, as well as their skill level. Of course, he was not taxing the citizens of the territory to do that. If he was, would they all come here to celebrate like this?

Count Deruth was putting his own money to work. However, it did not seem like it was enough yet.

"Very good." Cale leaned his body into the very soft couch. He was in a position that would make it look like he was a boss, however, such a position was fitting for Cale.

"Yes. That man over there is the archer."

The art competition was currently underway. It was more like an event than a competition though.

The artwork went through a first round of judging before the second round was conducted in public to determine the winner. The qualifiers from the first round were showing off their artwork of the Stone Mountain and quarry behind the Henituse Castle. There would be a winner from this event.

Cale turned his gaze to the archer artist that Choi Han had pointed out. The short-haired man with a long beard jumped up and started to swing his brush in the form of an X on the easel.

"Not this! Why am I so terrible? How could I call such trash art?! My hands are crazy!" The paint flew everywhere as the man clenched his hair. "I am trash! Art is not something like this!"

Cale started to think while looking at the painting. 'But it is really good.'

Cale looked toward Choi Han, who avoided his gaze. Choi Han could not make eye contact, but still started to speak.