Whatever it takes... (TCF/LCF fanfic)

Chapter 10: The beginning of the journey

"It doesn't look like you are nervous."

"Father."

Cale looked at the breakfast spread that was fancier than ever before, as he asked.

"It looks like the number of people in the envoy has grown again. I asked you to reduce the number."

He had asked his father to decrease the number of servants accompanying him to help with his needs. He said that Hans and Ron were enough. Of course, Hans turned pale at first, however, he started to pack right away after hearing that the kittens will be traveling with them as well.

"Ah, about that..."

For some reason, Deruth stopped his sentence without finishing. At that moment, someone else's voice interjected itself into their conversation.

"That was my decision."

It was the Count's wife, Violan.

Her hair was perfectly formed in a bun, without a single stray hair, as she was looking down at her plate. She looked so similar to her son, Basen. Even the way they both did not make eye contact with Cale and had a stoic expression was the same.

"We can't have someone from our family looking poor and terrible just because you want to go with such a small envoy."

It was an extremely stoic voice. Violan then lifted up her gaze to look in Cale's direction before continuing on.

"... I am not saying you are terrible."

"Even I know that much."

Violan hesitated for a moment after hearing Cale's response, before taking another bite of her food and continuing to speak.

"People, especially nobles, care a lot about appearances."

The Countess Violan. Cale quietly watched her.

She was born as the eldest daughter of a poor artist's family, and had dreamt about being the head of a merchant guild when she grew up. She was influenced by the luxury items being sold to the nobles and came to the Henituse territory. Once she got here, she fell in love with the art of sculpting. 

Even though she knew that Cale was silently observing her, she continued on without a single change in her expression.

"Anyways, there are a lot of people who think that appearances reveal everything about a person."

That was her way of telling Cale to take a lot of servants with him. Her goal was for Cale to not be judged negatively just because he only took a few servants with him.

Naturally, Cale wanted to take a lot of people to do his biddings for him as well.

'How nice and relaxing would it be?'

However, a few days from now he needed to go save a crazy Black Dragon. Having to many people with him will make it hard for him to move in secret.

That was why he started to speak.

"Art is the mirror of the soul."

Violan lifted her gaze off of her plate and looked toward Cale. This was the first time in a long while that the two of them had made eye contact with each other.

"...You do know about that."

"Yes. I do know."

Cale had roamed around the entire territory the last four days to prepare the things he needed on this trip. He just recited one of the things he saw on one of those trips.