Trash of the Count's Family (Web Novel)

TCF2 - 6

< The reason for remembering (1)>

“...Huh?”

A confused noise came out of Choi Han's mouth.

“Hmm?”

Raon, who stopped being invisible for a moment, tilted his head in confusion. The white-haired red-eyed young boy didn’t care and walked toward Cale.

The young boy was around 160cm tall, just around Rosalyn's height, and seemed to be just a bit older than On.

His white hair was extremely silky and might even glow like silver under the sun if seen incorrectly. His red eyes were brighter than Rosalyn’s red eyes and, this too, if seen incorrectly, might be mistaken as orange.

“Cale.”

The young boy spoke to Cale, who was silently standing there with a scowl on his face.

“It’s been so long but you didn't come. So I just decided to come myself. Is that not okay?”

“...Mm.”

Cale groaned before looking down at the young boy who stopped one step in front of him and responding.

“Team leader?”

“Yes. It's me.”

“Haaa.”

Cale let out a deep sigh before brushing his face with both hands. The young boy smiled after seeing that Cale’s eyes were fluctuating deeply.

Cale nonchalantly commented at that moment.

“Are you making sure to eat?”

“...Huh?”

Cale was looking over the young boy with a significantly grumbling gaze.

The young boy had a blank expression on his face as he blinked. Cale didn't care but he was struggling to say what was on his mind because there was something he didn’t like but he didn’t know whether he should say something like this at their reunion after such a long time.

“A bit, a bit-”

Raon came over to the young boy's side and commented.

“He looks feeble! Are you not eating properly?”

“...Huh?”

The young boy asked back in confusion when Choi Han came over to his side as well, inspected him from head to toe, and spoke in a concerned tone.

“Does the God of Death make you work without feeding you? Or were there a lot of difficulties in your life after your reincarnation? Why did you live such a hard life instead of coming to find us sooner?”

Choi Han, who seemed to have already come up with his own story, rambled on.

“...Ha!”

The young boy scoffed in disbelief.

“I’m not sure whether this is exactly as I expected or completely unexpected, but... I can feel it now that I'm seeing you guys like this.”

The young boy extended his hand toward Cale while speaking in his unique tired voice.

“You’re good people.”

Cale looked at the extended hand for a bit.

The hand was already full of scars and calluses.

“It’s been a while, team leader.”

Cale shook his hand and greeted him for the first time in a very long time.

The reincarnated team leader’s age and appearance were quite different, but there were a lot of similarities as well. He looked as how Lee Soo Hyuk might have looked when he was younger.

He was a young boy but already gave off that unique noir vibe.

The two of them quietly observed each other for a moment.

Raon’s eyes were wide open as he looked back and forth at the two of them and then turned his head.

‘Hmm?’

Raon then saw Choi Han standing there pushing at the corners of his eyes with his mouth closed. Based on what Raon knew about Choi Han's personality, this meant that he was quite emotional right now. He didn’t know why, but Choi Han was extremely emotional.

“Hmm?”

Raon’s wings fluttered.

“Cale-nim.”

Choi Han's expression changed as well.

“Human! It looks like people are heading toward this building! It’s kind of noisy down below!”

Cale walked toward the destroyed window and looked down. The people who were originally down below and someone who looked to be a bishop were heading toward the building. The knight in charge had quite the awkward look on his face.

Cale quickly turned away from the window before he made eye contact with them.

"Cale-nim, will you meet the bishop?”

“Who knows?”

The divine item from the God of Death. Cale Henituse was designated as the person to receive the divine item.

Thinking about these two things gave Cale a headache. He made eye contact with the young boy at that moment.

"The divine item from the God of Death has a slightly special purpose.”

Cale's eyes clouded over.

“Choi Han, can you go down and buy me some time?”

“Yes, Cale-nim. I understand.”

“Raon, you go be in the middle to deliver me information.”

“I got it, human!”

Choi Han quickly jumped out the window. He did open and close his mouth a few times without saying anything while looking at the white-haired boy, but smiled and jumped down after the young boy waved at him.

Raon did not go out the window but toward the lower floors of the building. His chubby black body slowly started to turn invisible.

“I’ll be back, human! Oh, black hawk!”

Black hawk. Cale remembered that the white-haired young boy was the black hawk.

‘Is he a bird beast person?’

It was a bit unfamiliar for Cale, who had mainly met mammalian beast people.

The white haired boy waved at Raon while Cale was thinking things through.

“Nice to meet you, Raon.”

“Hey black hawk, do you know a lot about me?”

Raon stopped being invisible again and asked. The boy smiled gently and responded.

"A bit?”

“Who are you?”

“I am, mm, can I tell him?”

Cale looked at the young boy and black Dragon who were looking at him and answered.

“The team leader of the company I used to work in before I transmigrated here.”

Raon knew that Cale had transmigrated here.

The boy added on to Cale’s explanation.

“I died and reincarnated. I worked under the God of Death before I reincarnated and even after I reincarnated, until just a few days ago.”

Raon’s round eyes opened even wider.

Raon looked back and forth at Cale and the boy before clenching his front paws and speaking in a solemn voice.

“I know what you mean, two humans!”

He then flew over to the white-haired boy and placed his chubby paw on his shoulder.

“Very nice to meet you! But what is your name?”

“Me?”

Wind fluttered with the white-haired boy at the center.

“Lee Soo Hyuk in my previous life, Sui Khan in my current life.”

Chhhhhhhhhh-

Black wings grew out of the boy's back.

“I was born in the Black Hawk tribe.”

“I have black wings too! Nice to meet you! We can talk later! I'm going to go help Choi Han!”

Raon's face looked brighter as he looked at a different pair of black wings than his, waved his front paw, and headed down. Of course, he turned invisible again so it was hard to see him.

- Human, the two of you have a nice chat!

“Pffft.”

Cale chuckled at Raon’s bright voice that only he could hear in his mind. He then asked with the smile still on his face.

“Why didn't you come to look for me for the past two years?”

However, his voice was slightly shaking to the point that Raon or Choi Han would have noticed.

Sui Khan folded his black wings. He then answered calmly.

“My mind was going in and out.”

‘Hmm?

What was going in and out?’

Cale looked at Sui Khan with a baffled look as if his voice had not been shaking.

Sui Khan slowly avoided his gaze and answered in an awkward tone.

“I was fated to be born in this world. That was why I was born here. However, my soul could not properly take its place here until my merits were properly accepted.”

Cale recalled something the God of Death had said.

‘He was fated to be born there this time.’

‘Lee Soo Hyuk was the one who gave you Embrace. He gave his power to you. You were able to use that power to seal the sealed god. That is Lee Soo Hyuk's greatest merit.’

Basically, it meant that it was highly likely that the merits were not approved for Lee Soo Hyuk properly until Cale sealed the sealed god and took care of the incident.

‘As a reward for his merit, he is able to be reborn with his memories.’

Team leader Lee Soo Hyuk wanted to be reborn with his memories as his reward.

Sui Khan looked at Cale's expression as he continued.

“Until now, I worked in my soul state for the God of Death and had to come to this world every so often so that the connection between my body and my soul is not severed. To keep it simple, my soul went back and forth between the Divine World and the human world.”

“...Is that okay?”

Sui Khan’s red eyes observed the man who was looking at him with concern.

“I had no choice. Being reincarnated with past memories is something extremely heavy. You need to have your merits approved by the gods who have been in their positions for a long time to do that.”

Sui Khan shrugged his shoulders and added on.

“Of course, there were a lot of things I needed to do because I was in an unstable state whenever I was in this world.”

Cale naturally opened his mouth after seeing Sui Khan speaking so lightly of this.

He had a lot of things he wanted to say and a lot of things he wanted to ask.

It was because all sorts of memories flooded Cale’s mind after seeing this welcomed familiarity through this unfamiliar appearance.

- Human! Choi Han can’t stop him any longer! The bishop is coming up!

However, the two of them did not have much time left.

“It looks like people are coming up.”

A gust of wind came out of Sui Khan's body.

"We will talk specifics later but let me tell you the urgent things for now.”

The gust of wind disappeared and a small black Hawk flew over and landed on Cale’s shoulder.

“Am I heavy?”

“...I can handle this much.”

“I'm relieved. Cale, you are the one who should eat something. You really don’t do any kind of exercise. The body you built up as team leader is all gone.”

“...But it looks like you have started to become a nagger, team leader.”

"Well, that is true.”

The black hawk nodded his head before quietly whispering.

"Cale, do you know what the fact that I reincarnated with my memories symbolizes?”

Cale chuckled at Sui Khan’s tone that sounded exactly the same as the tone Lee Soo Hyuk used when teaching new employee Kim Rok Soo something.

‘It looks like I'm going to be carrying my former boss on my shoulder.’

He quietly mumbled.

Looking past meeting people the reincarnated person would have relations with from the past life... There was one other thing that being reincarnated with past memories symbolized.

“There must be quite a lot of information in your mind, team leader.”

“Yes. You are still just as smart, Cale.”

Cale calmly looked at the eyes of the black Hawk that were looking at him with satisfaction. Sui Khan thought that Cale had not changed at all as he continued to speak.

“The God of Death does not know everything about the Hunters.”

Cale could hear chatter from a distance. The bishop of the God of Death and his crew seemed quite closer.

However, Cale focused on Sui Khan's voice.

“However, the things that the God of Death knows and was allowed to talk about... I remember all of them.”

The black Hawk smiled lightly and added on.

“You can say that I am an arrangement made by the God of Death to inform you about the Hunters.”

Cale scowled as if he didn’t like that, but the black Hawk pushed down on Cale’s arm with his wing and added on.

“You decide whether you want to accept the holy item from the God of Death.”

“...What kind of divine item is it? I thought it was something to take the place of the cintamani.”

Cale held back his disapproval and asked before the black Hawk immediately answered.

“I don’t know about the cintamani, but... The holy item-”

He stopped for a moment before calmly adding on.

“Is something that will allow you to travel through dimensions.”

The Hunters were able to travel through numerous worlds and dimensions.

“Ha!”

Cale let out a short laugh.

“I have this odd feeling that I am moving as the God of Death wants.”

“That god is probably being beaten to a pulp because of this divine item too.”

"Excuse me?”

‘A god getting beaten to a pulp?’

"Why?”

"Did you say beaten to a pulp?”

“Yes. I'm sure he's being pummeled quite a bit. There is a scary god who is focused on balance. I’ll tell you about him later.”

The man and the hawk both turned to look at the hallway.

They heard a voice.

"Choi Han-nim, is the Commander in here?”

“...That's right, sir.”

They heard Choi Han and an old man's voices. This must be the bishop.

Cale focused on the hallway as he mumbled in a low voice.

“Team leader, either way, it looks like we will need to work together for the first time in a long while.”

“Indeed.”

The black Hawk's eyes curled up as if he was truly happy.

- Human! The bishop is here!

The Church of the God of Death.

Cale did not have any connections with that church aside from Cage. However, he heard that because it was an old church, the people became more closed off and extremely strict the higher up they went in the hierarchy.

‘The bishop of such a church...’

A decently humble smile fitting the position of a Commander appeared on Cale’s face.

He could imagine the situation.

Even though Cale was hailed as the hero of the Roan Kingdom, he was still an outsider from the Church of the God of Death. Such an outsider became the person the god personally bestowed a divine item.

The bishop probably didn't like that fact but would definitely try to use this in a way that was beneficial for the church.

How would the bishop of the God of Death approach him?

Cale could see the bishop who came down the hallway.

He looked like a regular old man.

The knight in charge gestured toward the old man with both hands and quickly tried to explain.

“Commander-nim, this sir is from the Church of the God of Death-”

However, the old man moved first.

He bowed extremely respectfully toward Cale.

He then greeted him in a voice that was neither too loud nor too quiet.

"I greet the sir who has received the will of the god.”

The bishop was almost too polite.

The bishop continued to speak as Cale was thrown off by his demeanor.

“It is an honor to meet the future Saint-nim.”

The bishop's eyes were clearly firm unlike his average appearance.

They were also burning up with desire.

It was as if the greatest chance of his life was in front of his eyes.

‘Aigoo.’

Cale pushed against the side of his eye with one hand.