Chapter 3: Offering Everything He Has

Rudy tried to refuse Ale's offer of help time and again but-

"That's too much. We can't possibly bother you-"

"Heey! It's fine by me! I have a lot of time in my hand after all!"

It was useless. Ale cut off Rudy mid-sentence once again and replied, since he knew Rudy's personality of not seeking help unless it was absolutely necessary.

So, he came up with his own solution. Ale decided that he simply won't give him the chance to speak or refuse his offer of help, even if it might come off as rude to some people.

"So? Where do you wanna go?"

"We'd like to go to the small island that's behind the main island in the ocean. But it's fine if you just bring us to the port." This time it was Rudy who answered.

"No way, since I agreed to be your guide, I'll guide you till you reach your destination. I also have a lot of time in my hand so it's fine. But you can't go there today since it's already past noon. "

"Then can you guide us to a nearby inn?"

"Why don't you all stay at my place today? It's been a while since we received any guests."

"How could we bother you with something lik-"

"I'll be sad if you refuse." Ale said with a somewhat earnest expression.

Ale didn't let Rudy finish his words again. he just couldn't. With this guys personality, it'd take him forever to get close to them otherwise.

And the expression on his face wasn't fake either since he actually was feeling a little earnest right now.

"Alrighty! We'll take you up on that offer then!" The response came from Ron instead of Rudy.

Rudy glared at Ron for a moment but eventually gave in to them and agreed to go with Ale.

As they agreed to stay the night at his place, Ale started guiding them towards his house as he kept screaming on the inside.

'Oh my fucking GOD, what do I do?!?'

'THE Rudy and his friends are coming to my house right now!!'

They all looked beautiful, charming and handsome in their own way. But Rudy still stood out too much.

'His looks really are no joke. Just what you'd expect from a future hero.'

'Should I get his autograph? What about a picture? Will he think I'm weird? But I'm such a big fan of him!'

'What should I feed him? I already told the servants to cook all his favourite dishes. I hope they turn out well!'

'I should give him the best treatment I can. Is the house clean? Are my expressions okay?'

'Holy shit, I'm so nervous!'

While having all these thoughts going inside his mind, Ale led the group of five through a somewhat dense forest and finally reached the back gate of a mansion.

"...isn't that the lord's mansion?" Ron asked, slightly baffled.

"Do you work at the dukes place?" Ron asked while wrapping his hand around Ale's neck as if they were friends.

Rudy looked a little dissatisfied at Ron's behavior but still waited for his answer.

"I live here."

'Well, I am the duke's eldest son so it's only natural that I live here.'

Although he could sort of understand why they'd misunderstand with his appearance and behavior being similar to that of commoners.

"Whut?"

"Umm, you mean, as a servant or...?" The blonde girl asked with a bit of confusion while fluttering her long eyelash.

'Damn. Just what you'd expect from the main characters companion. So pretty!'

He admired her pretty Jade like eyes before answering her question.

"Let me introduce myself a bit formally. I'm the eldest son of Duke Edger De Rosario, Alejandro De Rosario." Ale greeted them formally while looking informal as hell and gave them the best smile he could muster.

"...."

They all looked at him with surprised or bewildered expression for who knows how long.

Rudy was the one to finally break the silence, "We apologize for our rude behavior towards the future duke of this region. We failed to recog-"

"That's enough. Really. You'll make me feel like the bad guy if you keep apologizing every time."

"And I'm not the future duke since my younger brother is the heir. "Ale said.

'Yes. I'm not gonna become the duke. I'll just laze around and waste my days sitting on the beach and eating tropical fruits.'

'I still remember how hard I had to work to persuade my family to remove me from the successor list.'

A smile automatically appeared on his face while thinking about that sweet future.

Contrary to his answer, they all seemed shock, but for some other reason. Ale wondered what was wrong with them for them to have such expressions but he didn't ask.

Ale was right. They all misunderstood his actions and though that he looked like a person who held no contempt for power or position and lived a simple life, which was correct to some extent.

"I see... Pleased to make your acquaintance. Can I keep calling you Ale though?" Rudy asked with a more relaxed complexion this time.

"Of course! I'd be very happy if you didn't change your demeanor because of this." Ale was really happy as he answered.

While they were chatting about, the servants who saw them informed the butler and the butler rushed toward the gate in the meantime.

At current time.

"Young master! You're finally home! Do you *huff huff* do you know how worried I was when *huff* you left without telling anyone again?! "

A handsome man in a butler uniform approached Ale. His long blue hair was tied behind with a ribbon and he had round glasses above his nose.

Currently he was out of breath as it seemed he ran here as fast as he could when he heard the news of Ale's return.

"I'm sorry. I was feeling stuffy inside and wanted to take a walk. "

Ale felt sorry for the butler as he apologized for his behavior.

"These are some friends I met while I was taking a walk. They'll be staying here tonight. Take good care of them for me."

"Yes, young master. I'll serve them well but you need to be served first. Look at you all dirty and wet."

'By the way, this butler of mine is a genius strategic who has been helping me out ever since I returned to the past. He has knowledge incomparable to others and is very good at keeping up with my whims!'

Although Ale felt sorry for him sometimes and tried not to cause too much trouble, it was hard to keep up with this past that was so different compared to the future.

So he changed a few things in his territory to make things more comfortable for him. While he was busy changing his environment instead of his own habits, his butler had to deal with all the trouble that Ale caused.

He shrugged while thinking about the past.

Kevin, Ale's personal butler, he approached Rudy's party and led them towards the guestroom while another servant accompanied Ale to his room after he bade them goodbye temporarily.

The next day, they started their journey early in the morning. While passing through town, Ale saw many familiar faces and received their greetings.

The people of their duchy were really friendly. He liked the people of his territory a lot. They also treated him like a member of their own family, with honest feelings of love and care.

Rudy and his party, who initially thought Ale was weird for a noble, looked at him in a stranger way this time.

From Rudy's perspective, it was rare to see a noble who could interact so freely with commoners specially the citizens under his own rule. Because noble's had to rule, they preferred to do it with fear instead of love.

Because ruling over others by injecting fear in them was far easier and less time and effort consuming compared to ruling with love and respect.

Ale's town also seemed livelier and more developed compared to other towns and people's lifestyle was way better as well.

The people here also used many strange gadgets that Rudy never saw before. Those gadgets made life easier for the people.

What's more, there were many beast people here and none of them looked malnourished or maltreated. In fact, they all looked rather lively and weren't being discriminated against by the townspeople.

Rudy only grew more and more curious as he watched Ale.

On the other hand, Ale was busy greeting people here and there.

Ale spent most of his time in the town rather than at home so the townspeople were like a second family to him at this point.

A bunch of kids came to him demanding him to play with them.

Ale crouched down and patted their heads and handed them some candies from his pocket.

"I'm sorry kids; I have to go somewhere today so I can't play with you guys. But I promise I'll play with you a lot next time."

Although the kids looked sad, they didn't force him to play with them.

They took the candies and gave him a kiss in the cheek as their thanks and left.

"He's weird." Ron whispered to Rudy and the others as they witnessed Ale's interaction with the commoners.

"Yeah but a nice type of weird, don't you think?" Alice added.

'A nice weirdo.'

That's the conclusion they came to as they watched Ale.

After saying goodbye to the kids, Ale started to walk towards their destination again.

As he was walking, he recalled the events of that day's morning.

The moment he told his father that he was going to leave home for a few days and show his friends the way to the second island, his father reacted rather strangely.

His father looked nervous, tensed and more worried than he had expected him to be. Maybe because Ale himself was aware to some extent how many trouble he had caused in the last three years, he kept his mouth shut and waited for an answer patiently.

"It's not safe. And you're aware of the dangers as well, aren't you?"

'Haha... Did I cause too much trouble back then? Then there's only one way left.'

Ale also had a secret weapon, a weapon that if shown to others, he'd be allowed to do anything and everything. And it was-!

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