Prologue Part 11

At the sight of the smiling God of Death with an unconscious Cale in his arms, those in group 5 lost it.

Mana, aura, and an extremely heavy pressure surged from the various individuals as they rushed toward the god.

Then it all stopped. The pressure disappeared. The various colors of aura and mana ceased to exist and a barrier physically prevented them from getting to the bastard holding Cale.

"As expected of Cale's family," the God of Death calmly began. "Even my restrictions on you were momentarily overwhelmed."

"Mother fucking bastard!"

"Get your filthy hands off Cale-nim!"

"You are dead, you just don't know it!"

"Give back my human!!"

Everyone in groups 1-4 froze. Even though it had only lasted an instant, the pressure was so stifling they could barely breathe. The weaker individuals even passed out briefly.

The strength of the people in group 5 is terrifying. No one in the other groups is sure their group would stand a chance if they had to fight against them.

Just how terrifying does that make Cale. All of those ridiculously overpowered people and they follow him around like little ducklings chasing after their parent.

They are immensely glad that he is on their side. Having him as an enemy is basically just waiting for annihilation. His mere presence in that world reduced a 20 year war to less than 2 years and changed the results from a loss to victory, after all.

Their attention is brought back toward the confrontation in the front when they hear Deruth's angry voice.

"Give me back my son!"

"Is he your son?" The God of Death questioned.

"Of course he is," Deruth shouted back.

At those words, the God of Death smiled down at Cale before looking up at the members of group 5.

Once his eyes scanned over the crowd, he spoke again.

"One never can tell how others will respond when secrets are revealed. I thought I would have to take my gift back."

"NO!!!"

"I knew it!! Cale-nim is the chosen one!! The one sent by god himself!!"

The simultaneous shout from every person there (no one paid any attention to a certain white haired man, except for the nodding Joo Ho-Shik), caused a grin to spread across the God Of Death's face.

"I see. If that is the case, I suppose I should return him to you."

With those words, the God of Death snapped yet again.

SNAP

At that moment, neither figure was visible in the front any longer, so all eyes drifted back to the bed. To everyone's relief, the pale form had been returned to the bed.

"Human!"

Raon flew to his human's side to check on him. The others followed behind him.

Upon reaching his human, Raon carefully landed on the bed to curl up next to him. He misses his human. He misses his dad and just wants him to wake up.

On and Hong are the next to reach the bed and jump up to snuggle next to their father as well.

To everyone's surprise and relief a pale hand reached up to pat each of the children.

"Human! You're awake!"

"Yes Raon, I am awake."

Cale opened his eyes and sat up as he spoke.

"Cale-nim how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay."

Cale was confused by the somewhat doubtful looks on the faces of everyone around him.

'I really am fine though. It's not like I even used any of my ancient powers. It was all that bastard's fault.'

"Are you really alright son?"

Hearing Deruth call him son, Cale flinched.

'Why would he call me son? He must know I replaced his real son. Why aren't they yelling at me? They should be cursing at the imposter that's been lying to them for years. Is it because I stopped the White Star and the God of Despair?'

With a sigh, Cale spoke.

"Haaa. After what the bastard god said and seeing who all is in this room, I am assuming all of you know the truth now. You don't have to pretend not to know I've been lying to all of you or force yourselves to continue treating me like you were. I'm not the person any of you thought I was and you don't need to be nice to me out of some misguided sense of obligation for anything I have done. I'm not a good person. Everything I did was out of my own selfishness and greed. I'm a no good, selfish, greedy, lying trash."

Hearing what Cale said and how he thought of himself broke their hearts. Those not in group 5 decided to keep quiet at this time. It was not their place to interfere in the transmigrator's relationships with his family.

Deruth stepped up next to the bed and took Cale's hand.

"You are none of those things. You are my son and a Henituse."

"But, I took your real son's place."

"Nonsense! You took nothing. You gave me another son, so thank you."

"Father's right, orabuni! Now I have 3 brothers."

"I agree with father and Lily hyung."

"Of course you are our son. We have 4 children and it seems like we now have quite a few grandchildren as well," Violan added with a smile at the kids.

For a moment Cale was frozen in shock. His mind a complete blank, before it began to race.

'They aren't mad? They don't hate me? I'm not being left behind again? Why?'

While Cale struggled to understand what was going on, Ron came up beside him and offered him a tea cup.

"You look like you could use something to drink, young master."

Cale received the cup on autopilot while his mind was still a mess and took a drink. The sour taste of lemon instantly snapped him out of his daze. His gaze jerked toward Ron's at that moment.

"This Ron was concerned for his young master and thought he would enjoy his favorite drink to settle his nerves," Ron said softly with his usual benign smile on his face.

Seeing Ron behave as normal, relief hit Cale hard.

'They know and have accepted it. Have accepted me.'

"Thank you Ron. It's delicious as always."

Cale smiled and took another drink. It was as horrible as always, but for some reason, he really liked the taste at that moment.

While his family has accepted him, Cale is still nervous. They weren't the only ones he had lied to, but he knew he wouldn't be able to hide from them here.

Once back home, he can hide in the Super Rock Villa if they don't take it well, but here there is nowhere to hide.

Cale takes a deep breath to calm himself and prepares to look around at everyone else there when he feels 3 sets of paws on him. His eyes follow the paws up to see 3 sets of eyes looking back at him.

"Our human will always be our human.

"He's right, nya."

"You are the Cale that saved us. That's all that matters."

Hearing those words lessened the anxiety he felt and Cale smiled at the children averaging 9 years of age, before reaching up to pat each of them on the head.

He then raised his head to look at those gathered around him. As his eyes swept through the friends and allies he had made during his time as Cale, he opened his mouth to speak.

Before he could utter a single syllable, booming laughter cut him off.

"HAHAHAHA!! My friend is my friend. It's good you are awake," Toonka bellowed.

Litana stepped forward at that moment to speak as well, "Young Master Cale is the same Young Master Cale we have always known. You have not changed since we met you. Knowing about a time before you met us won't change who you are and what you have done for us."

As Cale's gaze passed over the group, he felt his nervousness disappear. The faces looking back at him showed no hostility. They were all smiling and nodding along with what Litana had said.

Cale felt truly happy as he looked at each of them.

Then he locked eyes with Clopeh and all warm fuzzy feelings fled in terror.

Hands clasped in front of him and eyes sparkling, Clopeh praised his god, "Cale-nim, The Legend, God's Gift!!! How could anyone hate you?! You are to be worshipped!! This lowly being could never be angry at you, his god!!!!"

Cale shuddered in disgust.

'Nope. Not saying anything. He doesn't exist. I heard nothing.'

With that, Cale quickly looked away and ended up making eye contact with a smirking Kim Rok Soo.

That smirk annoyed Cale, so he turned to Kim Min Ah sitting right behind Kim Rok Soo and asked, "Is he even doing his job properly?"

"Hey!" Kim Rok Soo protested.

"Pfft." Kim Min Ah laughed.

"Don't worry team leader, he takes good care of us. Although, he is quite a bit ruder to the higher ups than you ever were."

"Hey! I'm only treating them exactly as they deserve," Kim Rok Soo defended.

Scritch. Scritch.

That obnoxious sound was back.

Looking toward the screen, they read the new words appearing.

"Now that everyone is present and awake, are we ready to begin or are there any further discussions that need to be made?"

Violan stepped forward at that moment.

"I do have one last thing to say."

With that, she turned to where she could see Kim Rok Soo, gave him a look and then turned to where Cale* was sitting to give him the same look before speaking again.

"I wish to clear up any misunderstandings Kim Rok Soo and group 3's Cale* may have developed while watching our interactions with Cale. It is true that we see Cale as our son and love him, but that doesn't mean we didn't love the original Cale. Our relationship with Cale changed because his behavior toward us changed, not because he became another person.

I just wanted the both of you to know that your family does care about you and I thought it would be nice for group 3's Cale* to have a chance to know for certain that we love him since I know we have never actually said it out loud."

Kim Rok Soo was old and wise enough to have already figured that out, even if he couldn't quite make himself believe it 100%, but hearing it out loud and seeing the rest of his family nodding along with it, felt so much better than he ever thought it would.

"Thank you," he mumbled with a small smile and red ears.

Cale* felt his breath catch at Violan's words.

'They care? They actually want me to be their family? They aren't just putting up with me?'

Cale* figured that his father still cared for him, but he thought the others only put up with him for his father.

He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around that concept as he stared blankly at Violan, Deruth, Basen, and Lily. They all looked back at him with such caring looks that he couldn't really deny the words any longer.

"Countess Violan is correct Cale*. We do care about you and would be very happy to fix our relationship. We know you aren't trash, so you don't have to force yourself to act like it anymore," Violan* said.

"That's right son. Whatever reasons you had to have chosen to act as trash, don't matter. It was my fault for not being strong enough to deal with those issues, but I will do better now. You don't have to carry that burden any longer. We are stronger together," Deruth added.

"Mother and father are right, orabuni. Please don't push us away."

"I'm not a little kid anymore hyung. I can stand up for myself. We can do it together."

Cale* felt a lump in his throat preventing him from saying anything, so he just looked at them and nodded.

Scritch. Scritch.

"If you have finished, please take your seats and we shall continue. Unless anyone else has something to say."

Beacrox stood at that and proudly said, "It's Duchess Violan now."

Surprised murmurs began in group 3.

'Wow. For them to have gone from a Count household to a Duke, they must have done something impressive.' Were the thoughts on many of the present nobles' minds.

Scritch. Scritch.

"Anything else?"

Roan flew up at that moment.

"Let Dodam come over here. My dongsaeng needs to come over here with our human and his siblings."

Coos at the adorable dragon demanding something from a god were heard throughout the room.

Scritch. Scritch.

"Very well. The barrier has been adjusted to allow Cale and his children to move between the sections."

"Yay!!" The children averaging 9 years of age cheered.

Dodam looked at Choi Han to see him smiling and nodding his head at him.

Dodam gave Choi Han a quick pay on the head before zipping over to join his siblings and the "terrible bastard".

Upon reaching the group, Raon, On, and Hong practically pounced on Dodam in welcome.

"It's nice to see you again Dodam. Have you grown?" Cale asked.

Feeling both happy and embarrassed by all the attention, Dodam huffed a reply out.

"You've just gotten smaller, Terrible Bastard."

Stunned silence followed Dodam's statement before it was broken by several voices laughing.

"Hahaha. What exactly is it that you did to end up with a name like that, my dear dongsaeng?"

"Hahahaha. Young master Cale is so loved," Rosalyn gasped out around her laughter.

"Hahahahahaha. Seems like someone's finally calling you out on all your shit, my friend," Bud managed to say while practically rolling around on the floor.

Cale's face remained stoic as always, but to those looking, they could see his bright red ears.

"I didn't get smaller. This is how I really look," Cale replied while patting Dodam's head.

Kim Rok Soo found the entire situation to be hilarious and there was no way he was going to let Cale off easy, so naturally he chimed in as well.

"But you really did get smaller. What the hell did you do to make that body so wimpy? I know I had more muscles than that when you took over and your previous body obviously has muscle."

At that, everyone glanced at Kim Rok Soo.

He really did have muscles. Why was young master Cale so frail looking then?

Cale could feel the questioning gazes on him and felt the need to defend himself.

"Slackers don't need muscles."

Laughter burst out from almost everyone present.

Scritch. Scritch. (Damn god needs to learn to read the room.)

"As amusing as this is, are we ready to begin?"

"Sorry," Fredo said, "but I have a question. It's been bothering me for a while now, but why the FUCK do the two Kim Rok Soos have the same face as the White Star?"

"What?!!!"

Many exclamations rang out at the same time.

Kim Rok Soo and Kim Rok Soo* just sat there as dumbfounded as the rest of the crowd.

"I have no fucking clue," Kim Rok Soo shouted.

"I also have no idea how that happened," Kim Rok Soo* said.

"I can explain that, but I'm sure it will eventually come up in whatever the God of Death bastard has planned, so I suggest we wait," Cale replied.

No one wanted to wait for that explanation, but luckily for Cale, the God of Death decided to intervene.

Scritch. Scritch.

"It will be explained later. I suggest patience or you will never be getting out of here."

Glances were exchanged and everyone decided it was best to retake their seats and settle down.

Kim Rok Soo settled back on his couch with his niece, Cale* settled on a couch with the rest of his family, and Cale, being as lazy as he is, decided to remain where he was on the bed. He was already there and comfortable after all, so why bother moving. Plus his kids could all fit on there with him.

'Seems like that bastard can do something right. This bed is really nice. He even included enough pillows for me to lean against the headboard comfortably. I'll start my slacker life now. Whatever happens next, doesn't concern me. I'm just going to roll around in this bed. Maybe eat something too.'

"Young master, it seems your cup is empty. This Ron has brought you a fresh cup of lemon tea."

'Fuck! This vicious old man is still here.'