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aurorapillar · 4 years

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Title: I'm a Fox, not a Cat

Fandom: Trash of the Count's Family

Characters: Cale Henituse, On, Hong, Raon Miru, Alberu Crossman

Summary: Waking up in the body of a minor villian from a novel he'd read was something Kim Rok Soo could deal with, inheriting the memories of the body's original owner was fine too.

He had to admit though, finding out the original Cale had secretly been beast tribe, had come as a surprise.

For TCF Week day 6

Free choice instead of the prompt

For most people suddenly waking up in the body of another person would no doubt be quite a shock, even more so when it was the body of a minor villain from a novel they had read; they'd likely panic, causing a fuss and drawing unnecessary attention to themselves, that would end up causing trouble in the long run. Kim Rok Soo however, was not most people, life had long ago forced him to become an adaptable person. He'd had to learn to roll with whatever came his way if he wanted to survive.

And so upon waking up in the body of one Cale Henituse, the starter villain from a novel he had read the night before and finding his head filled with memories that did not belong to him, his first reaction was to simply go through the motions. There were plenty of questions turning around in his head, and what seemed to be eighteen years worth of the original Cale’s memories to go through, but he'd known that the current moment was not the time to be worrying about those things. Though he knew from the novel that Cale was by no means close to his family, let alone their employees, he was also aware that most people wouldn't take kindly to a stranger suddenly replacing someone they'd known. It was best to save worrying about what had happened until he had the chance to be alone.

And so Kim Rok Soo, who had become Cale Henituse, had headed off to have breakfast with what was now his family. It was quite frankly the best meal he'd had in a long time, perhaps even in his entire life, and he hadn't been able to keep from smiling as he ate. He’d of course noticed his new family staring at him, and with the help of the memories that slowly seem to come to the forefront as he needed them, had realized that smiling while eating wasn’t something the real Cale would have done; however he didn't particularly care. It wasn't something that would really cause suspicion, and quite frankly he wasn't planning on sticking to the way Cale had used to act. He was Cale now, and while he by no means planned to be a saint, he wasn't going to stay as the trash that ended up beaten up by the hero either.

From what he could tell there were enough similarities between his personality and that of the original Cale’s, that as long as he was careful and didn't make too many changes at once, he could easily avoid suspicion. Of course, even if someone did get suspicious of the changes he made, they certainly weren't going to jump to the conclusion that he was a transmigrator. He'd avoid getting beaten to a pulp by Choi Han, fix up his relationship with his family some, make sure his younger brother Basen was set up to be the heir, and then he could finally live the slacker lifestyle he'd used to tell his teammates he dreamed of.

Of course to be successful in that endeavor, he first needed to not only try and recall everything he could about what happened in Birth of a Hero, but also finish merging all of the original Cale’s memories with his, which was why after breakfast was finished he'd excuse himself to the study and locked the door. Even when he hadn't used his ability, his memory was very good, so it didn't take much effort for him to be called the key points of the novel and make a list of what he needed to do. After finishing that and burning the list so that no one else could find it, he'd then turned his attention going through the memories that were swirling around in his head.

Cale Henituse had only been a minor villain in Birth of a Hero, his whole purpose had been to make the main character mad and get beaten up, before never really being mentioned again. As such there naturally hadn't been much information given about him; his mother had died when he was still very young and his father had sooner remarried and had another son, followed by a daughter some years later. Cale had begun acting trashy at eight and started drinking at fifteen, soon earning a reputation for causing trouble and being spoiled. Despite that though he'd always been careful not to directly cause trouble for his family, and had never been known to attack or try to force himself on women.

That was the limit to information given about him in the novel, and there was nothing in Cale's memories that contradicted that, there was however a lot more details and the reasoning behind his actions. Cale had been purposefully trying to create a persona that would get him easily dismissed by others, he'd wanted people to think he was spoiled and bratty and just generally not worth their time; it was actually a pretty clever plan, once people had decided you were scum they usually didn't try to dig any deeper or figure you out.

Of course, the reason that the real Cale Henituse had gone to all that effort had thrown the new one off guard. It was because he was part of a beast tribe.

Cale Henituse's mother had been from the Eastern continent, as a young girl she had been the sole survivor of a massacre that wiped out all the rest of the Fox Tribe, forcing her to flee to another continent to find safety. There she'd met and fallen in love with Deruth Henituse, resulting in the birth of Cale; their happiness have been short-lived however, as she had grown sick and died while her son was still young. Before she passed on through, she had imparted all the knowledge she could have of their people and their fate to her small son, no doubt hoping to ensure that it was not forgotten and that he would know his heritage.

Cale had been a mere toddler though, too young to truly understand what he’d been told and as he'd gotten older and finally began to comprehend it, he was then too scared to appreciate it. Perhaps it was simply the instinct of a fox to run and hide, because that was exactly what Cale had done, he built a mask to disguise himself so that no one could find the real him.

Kim Rok Soo didn't know what had happened to the real Cale now that he had taken over, but he hoped that Cale had found peace at last, far away from the fear that had gripped him for so long.

As for Kim, no Cale, for he'd already accepted his new identity; he wasn't particularly worried. It had been almost 30 years since the Fox Tribe was massacred, and his mother had changed her name and identity when she'd fled, leaving little to track her with. And those who knew of her past and Cale's heritage could almost be counted on one hand, so he wasn't particularly worried about it getting out.

His plan was to lead a calm slacker life, he wouldn't be doing anything that would draw attention to himself, so there was no real need to worry about danger. He'd live a nice normal life and no one would ever be any the wiser to the fact that he wasn't human.

"You're like us!" It was an excited but innocently meant proclamation from the small red kitten, but it still managed to freeze Cale in place for a moment upon hearing it. Quickly he'd glanced at the door to his room, knowing already that it was shut and he and the kittens were the only ones there, but still feeling the need to check.

Such an action did not go unnoticed by the two children of course, who tilted their heads to the side and stared at him with undisguised curiosity.

"I'm not a cat," Cale told them, starting to regret having brought them home a little bit. They'd looked so tired and hungry that as someone who'd experienced what that was like in his previous life, Cale just hadn't been able to leave them there when he knew he was capable of helping. He really hadn't counted on them being so perceptive though.

The silver kitten’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at Cale's words, all beast tribes had sharp senses, so it was highly possible she could tell he wasn't human, just like he'd known she and her brother were Cat Tribe despite the form they'd been taking.

"I'm really not," Cale assured her. He was careful not to say he was human despite how much he wanted to claim so; if he was right about the two of them being able to smell what he was, then it would only get him caught in a lie.

"But you are beast tribe," the kitten, who had previously claimed her name to be On, firmly stated.

Cale couldn't help but flinch at how sure sounding a pronouncement that was, the kid couldn't be more than ten but she'd already mastered the 'I know I'm right and don't you dare try and argue with me' tone. Though perhaps as an older sister that was a necessary tone to master.

"Is it a secret?" Hong, the red kitten asked, looking slightly nervous at the way Cale had flinched. It seemed like he was perhaps worried about getting in trouble for asking questions, and that was a fear which Cale remembered all too well, so he let out a soft sigh and smiled gently at the kitten.

"Kind of," he admitted. It wasn't as big a secret for him as it had been for the original Cale, but he still didn't want it being spread around. He supposed the kittens probably wouldn't want it spread around that they were Cat Tribe either though, so he could most likely trust them to keep quiet. "I'm Fox Tribe," he continued, deciding to get answering the question over with before they even ask it.

"Fox tribe?" Hong repeated, before glancing at his sister to see if she'd ever heard of them. On shook her head no however, it wasn't a tribe she was familiar with, though she'd readily admit that didn't mean much. Because of their status as mutants, she and her brother had been isolated from the rest of the tribe and missed out on the normal education most cat tribe children received.

“They don’t exist anymore.” Cale told in response to their unasked question, “As far as I know there aren’t any left besides me.”

Both On and Hong were silent after hearing that, identical looks of sadness on their faces. Neither of them were ignorant to the fact that the world wasn’t always fair or kind, but it didn’t make hearing about sad things any easier. After a moment On reached out a paw to gently pat Cale on the leg. “We’ll just make our own tribe then.”

“Hey human?” The small black dragon called out to Cale from around a mouthful of steak. Because up to that point he’d been following them invisibly, he’d never gotten the chance to try Beacrox’s cooking before, but now that they were at the manor in the capital he was going at it with a gusto that made Cale worried he would choke. Especially now that he had started talking at the same time as well.

“What is it?” Cale asked, watching Hong out of the corner of his eye as the kitten attempted to subtly push all the vegetables closer to his sister.

“Why don’t you smell like other humans?” Cale froze slightly at the question, before letting out a sigh. First it had been the kittens, and now the dragon, was it really that easy to figure out what he was? Maybe the original Cale had been right to act like trash, so that no one would want to get close to him.

"That's because he's like us!" Hong exclaimed excitedly, before being lightly smacked on the back by his sister.

"You're not supposed to tell people that," She scolded and a guilty expression appeared on Hong's face.

"....Oops. He's family now though so he would have found out anyway," he pointed out a bit defensively, and Cale found himself sighing once again.

"It's fine, just be more careful," he told the kitten. Hong did have a point after all, it was inevitable that the dragon would find out, especially after he had asked directly.

"You're a cat?" The dragon asked, feeling somewhat confused. Now that he was actively comparing them, he realized that the human (or rather not human, he supposed) did smell somewhat similar to On and Hong. There was still some difference between them though.

Cale shook his head. "Fox."

"Oh." The dragon frowned slightly, as he thought something over. " I won’t tell," he finally said.

Cale was no stranger to nightmares, he'd had them since he was a child and they'd only gotten worse after the monsters had appeared in Korea, he had it been the only one of course and thanks to that he was very good at noting the signs of them in someone else. Therefore when he was woken in the middle of the night by soft whimpering sounds coming from the black dragon, it had only taken him a second to figure out what was happening.

The two kittens had also been woken by the sounds, and were looking at Cale with concern, unsure what they should do. For a moment Cale hesitated, trying to decide what the best option would be; he could wake the dragon up but that might only offer a temporary reprieve. After debating over other choices for a few seconds, Cale made a decision and quickly changed into his fox form, before curling up around the dragon.

He wasn't really worried about anyone finding them in the morning, the only person who might be rude enough to enter without knocking who'd be Hans, and as Cale’s personal butler he already knew he was a fox. Plus Cale needed to get around to telling him about the dragon anyway.

The kittens sooner joined him, purring softly as they snuggled up against their little brother.

Surrounded by warm fur, the dragon's cries soon faded and he fell into a peaceful sleep.

Alberu stared suspiciously at the red headed man in front of him, trying to figure out just how Cale could have known about his dark elf heritage. The Crown Prince and his relatives from his mother's side had been very careful to make sure there was no evidence that would allow people to find out, and yet somehow Cale had managed to do just that.

Even if there had been evidence that had been somehow left unhidden, as a mere Court's son who'd never been to the capital even until recently, Cale Henituse shouldn't have even been in any position to find it. The most logical conclusion for it was that Cale himself was dark elf, and had been able to sense the dead mana on Alberu because of it.

Of course even if that was the most logical answer it still didn't make much sense because Alberu couldn't feel any dead mana on Cale.

"Are you really not one of us?" He finally just asked, unable to figure out any other way to get the answers he wanted.

For a moment Cale just stared at him, his head tilted to the side as he seemed to examine Alberu, though what he was trying to determine would remain a mystery to all but the redhead himself. Finally, he let out what seemed to be a very tired sigh and pointed towards the bottle of dead mana he had brought, before speaking. "Drinking that would kill someone from a beast tribe just as easily as it would a human."

To most people such a sentence would have seemed completely disconnected from the question Cale had been asked, but Alberu hadn't managed to make it to adulthood without learning to read between the lines.

Cale was responding in the negative to Alberu's question about whether he had any dark elf heritage, by going a step further than what he'd been asked and indirectly revealing what he actually was.

A beast tribe member; that hadn't been something Alberu was expecting, and it did nothing to answer the prince's question about how Cale had known he was a dark elf, but it hadn't been meant to. It was a show of trust, a secret for a secret.

Briefly Alberu found himself mentally going over everything he knew about the Henituse family. He'd looked into them following the terrorist incident at the capitol, it was always smart to gather as much information about anyone you planned to use after all, and it seems likely to him that Cale was probably the only beast tribe member among them. If the whole Henituse family was beast tribe, then it would have been hard to completely hide, but if it was only the oldest son…

Adding to his theory was the fact that from what he recalled, Cale's mother had not been a noble, and little was known about her life prior to marrying Deruth Henituse; it was just the kind of history one would expect if a person was trying to hide what they were and where they were from. Alberu’s own mother had done the exact same thing.

What tribe was Cale from though? Alberu honestly didn’t know too much about the different beast tribes, though he certainly knew more than most people, but he could eliminate at least a few tribes from his mental list. It couldn’t be the wolf tribe, Cale would be taller and more muscular if that was the case, the same went for the Bear and Tiger tribes.

“Cat Tribe?” Alberu asked after a few more moments of thought, it seemed like the most likely choice.

Cale shook his head in response to Alberu’s guess, feeling a little annoyed; why did everyone assume he was a cat? He didn’t offer the Crown Prince the correct answer though, Cale had already given away part of his secret in a show of faith that he’d keep Alberu’s secret, if he wanted to know more details he’d have to ask directly and offer something up in exchange. Perhaps someday farther down the line when there was more trust between them, he’d be willing to tell him for free, but for now it was a business partnership and not a friendship.

Alberu seemed to understand Cale’s intent without him having to spell it out, and didn’t ask anymore questions. Instead he simply smiled, “Thank you for the present.”

#tcfweek #trash of the count's family #cale henituse #on #hong #raon miru #alberu crossman #my writing

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