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A sigh escaped from Crown Prince Alberu’s lips as he closed yet another book, the sound of it seeming extra loud to his ears in the otherwise quiet library; five days, that was how long it had been since he’d starting looking looking through the royal library in search of anything pertaining to the original White Star, and thus far nothing had been found. It was an idea that had come about following Cale’s revelation that Alberu’s ancestor, the first leader of the Roan Kingdom, very likely had been the first White Star; if this had been his kingdom then it was possible he’d left something behind. Whether it be an artifact or simply information, anything they could find had a chance of helping in the fight against the current White Star.
‘Still,’ Alberu thought, rubbing his tired eyes, ‘That was easier said than done.’ The Royal Library held the largest collection of information in the Roan Kingdom, it wasn’t someplace you could simply read through in one day, especially when you didn’t know precisely what you were looking for. Even back during the days he’d spent studying as part of his royal education he’d never read so many books in so short a time, and he could feel the strain it was taking on him; they'd been able to eliminate any novels from what they needed to look through, but that still left thousands of books.
It would be easier with more manpower, but that wasn’t something that could happen; access to the library was limited to members of the royal family and those granted permission by them, but permission couldn’t be handed out just like candy. There were books in there that held delicate information, nothing quite so important as what was hidden beneath the library, but still important enough they couldn’t let just anyone see them. Despite basically being the king in all but name Alberu hadn’t been able to push for permission for others to gain entry, his father still had some power and the useless king was more concerned with protecting family secrets then doing anything to help with the current situation of the world.
It was fortunate that Alberu had previously been able to get permission for Cale to enter back when he’d shown him the secret chamber, it meant that at least he could help. It was only fitting really, given the whole search had been his idea. Two people were hardly enough to go through all the books though, at least in Alberu’s opinion, but Cale had seemed oddly optimistic about it; and despite the headaches it often caused him, Alberu had learned to trust in Cale.
Still Cale had a tendency to overextend himself, and while Alberu wasn’t sure what trouble he could get into in a library, he had faith in the man’s ability to find some way to negatively impact his own health. As his older brother it was his duty to keep an eye on him, so Alberu slid the book he’d been looking at back into its place on the shelf and let his feet carry him to a different part of the library to check on his wayward dongsaeng. It wasn’t hard to spot Cale even from far away, his red hair stood out against the stark white bookshelves; as Alberu approached Cale looked up from the book in his hand, a tired smile on his face.
“Your Highness.”
“Call me hyung.” Came Alberu’s automatic response, “Any luck?”
Cale shook his head. “There’s plenty of interesting information here, but nothing about the first White Star yet.”
That was about what Alberu had expected, but it was still disappointing. Noticing Cale staring at him, a concerned look on his face, he raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Hyung-nim, you seem quite tired, perhaps you should take a break.” Cale told him and Alberu found himself unable to do anything but stare at the younger man in disbelief, was he serious? Alberu knew it was very possible that he did look tired, he certainly felt it, but Cale definitely looked far worse than he felt; his normally pale skin was flushed red, though not a healthy shade, and a sheen of sweat covered his face.
"I don’t want to hear that from someone like you!” Alberu scolded, causing Cale to stare at him in confusion, head tilted slightly to the side; he almost reminded Alberu of a puppy doing that, but the comparison was quickly dismissed, puppies weren’t as dense as the idiot in front of him. Pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to ward off the headache he could already feel coming, Alberu let out a sigh. “I’m going back to work, don’t overdo it.”
He headed back towards the bookshelves he’d previously been looking through and pulled out a book he hadn’t looked at yet before settling down in a chair to read. Just like the other books Alberu had looked through it held no information about the first White Star, though there was an interesting tidbit about an affair a previous king had been caught having, he’d never learned about that in his history lessons.
The grumbling of his stomach told him it was around dinner time and so Alberu once again got up to go find Cale, who knew if he’d noticed how late it had gotten on his own. As he turned the corner though he found a strange sight, Cale was simply flipping through the pages of books, not even seeming to take enough time to read a single sentence. If it had been anyone else Alberu probably would have gotten angry and thought they weren’t taking this seriously, but this was Cale and he wasn’t the type to do things half heartedly; instead he was the type to go overboard with things and cause a headache for other people.
“Are you even reading those?” He questioned, causing Cale to almost drop his book in surprise, apparently he hadn’t heard Alberu come up next to him. It was a rather common occurrence with people, unless he was deliberately trying to make noise he tended to move very quietly, resulting in many startled people and much amusement for Alberu.
“Of course.” Cale replied, though he didn’t offer any explanation as to how. Alberu hadn’t really been expecting him to though, whether it was because he liked to keep things close to his chest or because it simply didn’t occur to him that other people didn’t know the same things he did, Cale very rarely gave explanations. That didn't mean Alberu didn’t want one however.
“Is it an ability?” That was the best guess he could come up with, Cale frequently seemed to pull new abilities out of nowhere so it wouldn't be that surprising if he had yet another that he hadn’t revealed before. It would be annoying though, one of these days he was going to sit Cale down and make him explain everything he could do. Now that he thought about it he remembered Cale had claimed to have read 9,889 books out of the Mercenary Guild’s directory in only seven days, an ability would certainly explain how that was possible.
“Yes.” That was the only response Cale gave in answer to his question, getting personal information out of him was harder than trying to pull out a dragon's tooth. Still now he knew for sure it was an ability, he couldn’t help but feel some concern; Cale suffered whenever he used his powers too much and wasn’t good at judging when he needed to stop. He already looked awful, like he was seriously sick and could collapse, it wouldn’t be good if he started coughing up blood as well.
“You should take a break.” He told Cale, snatching the book he’d been flipping through right out of his hands and earning a rather rude glare in return; really it was amazing how disrespectful his dongsaeng acted towards him.
“I’m fine.” Cale protested, making a valiant attempt to grab the book back but completely failing to do so. Although height wise Alberu only had two centimeters on Cale, his reach was longer than his, it didn’t take much effort to keep it barely out of the other man’s reach. In the back of his mind Alberu couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, here they were the Crown Prince and hero of the Roan Kingdom, playing keep away with a book; anyone who walked into the room would have no doubt assumed them to be teenagers, not a twenty-five and twenty years old.
“It’s around dinner time, take a break and go eat.” Alberu repeated, more firmly this time, but Cale gave a dismissive wave as he gave up retrieving his book and went to grab another one.
“I’ll eat in a bit.” He claimed, however as he took a step forward he stumbled and Alberu had to lunge forward to catch him, dropping the book he’d stolen in the process. It fell on the floor and he stepped on it in his haste, leaving marks, but he decided to worry about that later; if he hadn’t moved to grab Cale he likely would have ended up slamming his head against the bookcase.
“I’m fine, you said.” Alberu grumbled, “Yeah, I can see how fine you are.” He really wondered sometimes if Cale had any sense of self preservation at all, he certainly didn’t act like he did most of the time. It was a good thing he had several friends to look after him, or else he’d probably have already died several times.
“Hmm, I overdid it,” Cale muttered, seemingly talking to himself and Alberu felt a sudden urge to smack him across the back of the head, was he really just now realizing he might have pushed himself too far? He resisted the urge though, and instead tucked an arm under Cale’s knees and picked him up, ignoring the man’s displeased expression at the action. He’d told Cale multiple times to take a break but he hadn’t listened and it had affected his health, of course hopefully almost collapsing had knocked some sense into him, but Alberu wasn’t going to give him the chance to do anything else stupid.
“You’re done for the day.” He told Cale as he unceremoniously dropped him onto a nearby couch, he probably could have been gentler about it but he was feeling rather ticked off currently. “Don’t touch another book today, just rest. That’s an order from the Crown.”
Cale rolled his eyes at the order but wisely kept his mouth shut, apparently recognizing that Alberu was not in a good mood at the moment.
“For someone so smart you’re such an idiot.” Alberu muttered with a sigh, before turning on his heel and heading towards the entrance of the library. “I’m going to go get us some food, don’t move.”
It took longer than he’d have liked to gather the food, despite it simply being snacks rather than a full meal; at some point he did intend to make sure Cale ate an actual meal, but that couldn’t be brought to the library and at the moment he didn’t know if his dongsaeng had the strength to walk somewhere else. Of course, he could always carry him, but that would bring unwanted questions and attention from anyone who saw them; so for the time being Cale would have to make do with some fruits and cookies.
As it turned out however, he probably could have saved himself the trouble, as when he returned to the library he was greeted with the sight of Cale fast asleep on the couch where he’d been left. Shaking his head in disbelief at the situation, he moved to set the food on a nearby table before taking off his cape and draping it over Cale.
“Take better care of yourself, you punk.” He muttered, fond exasperation evident in his voice before making his way to the bookshelf Cale had last been looking through. He couldn’t leave Cale in here alone, so until he woke up he might as well get some more work done.