STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

19. UNSETTLED RETURN

Cale didn't know what happened to the stable boy, but everyone probably heard Hans freaking out when he came back at dinnertime, soaked to the bone, limping slightly, and nursing a sore shoulder and a split lip.

"What happened to you?! And why are you so drenched?"

"Nothing," it definitely did not look like nothing.

It was so noisy Cale looked out the window to see them. Coachman Leon was holding the jacket from last time, inspecting it. It seemed to be soaked too, so he passed it to the innkeeper and asked her to help wash it properly.

South explained himself like he was a child getting scolded. "I got mugged. And then, I washed up in a river before I came back. I thought it wouldn't be good to walk around with all that blood."

"You got mugge— why a river, you can clean yourself here in the inn! What if you catch a col— DID YOU SAY BLOOD??"

"Yeah I killed three people."

"Oh my Dongsaeng what did you DO—" Hans had to physically stop himself to stress, "are you hurt?"

South took a moment. A moment too long.

"My shoulder is bruised, I bit my lip here, and I think I twisted my ankle," South said, "all light injuries, nothing to worry about. None of the blood was mine."

Hans grimaced, "yeah no, I don't trust you. Come here."

And then Hans dragged him into the inn, South sighing dramatically.

-

"It really isn't a bad injury, they just got a hit on me because I fell asleep," South whined. He was being made to hold some ice to his lip while Hans inspected the bruise on his shoulder blade.

"It's not broken..." Hans frowned.

"See? I'm not lying," South said. "They got a few good kicks in while I was knocked out, but I woke up really quickly. And grumpy, so I just killed them."

"Can you stop saying that part so nonchalantly?!"

"What part— Ah right, I forgot you were so squeamish about murder," South said, dryly, "it's okay, one of them's still alive. I noticed he was the coachman from the Stan house— oh! I gave him this huuuge cut down his face! Next time we see him driving the carriage you can point and laugh, seonbae."

Coachman Leon cleared his throat, trying very hard not to burst out laughing. "As much as I'm proud of you, Sou, I need you to know what you did was stupid."

South pouted. "I'm irritated today, so I'm not censoring myself around Hans-Hyung. Let me go back to the stables already. I want to sleep."

"Sheesh! You have a room, so go sleep in it for once!" Hans groaned.

Leon inspected his ankle. "Okay, not broken either. Hans, I'll take him to the room, can you get us a towel to dry off? I'll make sure he goes to bed."

"I'm not a kid!"

"You're the youngest, so you get treated like one!" Hans and Leon yelled at him in unison, and South squeaked, not expecting them to team up like that.

-

Cale knew something was up, though. After South came back, all the servants were restless. Vicross was preparing food for South while making sure he didn't escape his room— and then the knights rushed out.

"We can't let this happen again," the coachman muttered. "Damn those guys. They weren't satisfied with just my apprentice, they have to go after us too?"

"At this rate, they might target junior knights too," Hillsman frowned. "I'm not so worried about the rest of our party, but we can't just never hire any newbies again..."

Ah, no wonder the turnover rate for Henituse new workers is so high. It's dangerous the second they step out of Henituse territory.

The Stans' servants are particularly malicious, but Cale didn't doubt they had stronger enemies around from other nobles in the area. Cale's reputation definitely didn't help any of this at all— the servants are always looked down on by others.

Now, that can't do.

This was getting very troublesome, and Cale hates troublesome things. And he also doesn't want to give up his trash reputation either, it's useful.

So the only solution is...

"We do have proof it happened, don't we?" Cale inserted himself into the conversation. He remembered South still had his dagger and it was still stained in a streak of blood, a little cracked in places where it broke while he cut through the Stans' Coachman's face. "Then don't let the story die. If you knights are so free, go outside and make a scene, spread the story around and make sure everyone in the city knows."

Cale knew best how hard the burden of a shitty reputation can be on someone in the position of inheritance.

Taylor Stan, who was crippled here and barely acknowledged as a son of his family, would not be affected. Instead, it will be the one currently having more power, Venion, who will be blamed for his servants' shameful actions.

-

"Are you really okay, Sou?"

Coachman Leon asked him again as he lay down on the bottom bunk, rolled over.

"I'm fine, just go and have dinner," South told him.

Leon sat down by the bedside, frowning. He combed out South's hair and dried him off as best as he could— but he hated what he saw. There were lighter bruises all over his body— clearly kicked repeatedly, suffering more hits than he wanted to tell anyone about.

Leon respected him— South didn't want to tell the others, fine. But how much must he be hurting now, all over? What else was he hiding?

There were bruises around his wrists, too,

"Just talk to me if you want, okay?" Leon said. "And rest. I'm sorry for leaving you alone out there today, I won't do it again."

South groaned, "I want my alone time too," he whined, "it wasn't your fault! Also I ruined the clothes and lost all the money you gave me—"

"Don't even start with all that," Leon chastised. "Don't care about any of that, okay? We're just— glad you're still alive, South."

South sighed and curled into himself, turning further away into the bed.

"...stop being cheesy, seonbae, good night."