Read this sentence from chapter 1 of lout of the count's family for me
"He meets the main character a few times after he gets the scar, and, in a refreshing cider-like scene, gets beaten to a pulp."
"—meets the main character a few times"
I don't think og!Cale immediately got beaten up by Choi Han upon meeting him???
Now look at this from chapter 5.
"Cale threw five jabs before he was hit. Which means, one jab should be okay."
This sounds like og!Cale met Choi Han five times before he got beaten up. Of course, it could have been less and og!Cale just threw in more "jabs" per meeting but I find it interesting that, despite what is generally considered canon in the fandom, og!Cale was not immediately beaten up, and even met og!Choi Han multiple times before it.
To me... doesn't that sound like og!Cale was searching for a sore spot? Something that would throw Choi Han into a fit of anger enough to beat up the son of a count? Seems like his comment about Harris Village might not have been his true thoughts, but his last resort attempt– mocking the dead. To force Choi Han to react.
If my knowledge of canon isn't wrong either, og!Cale was alone with Choi Han when this happened. As if he had predicted that this would send Choi Han into a frenzy and didn't want his guards to try and protect him, or punish Choi Han for it. Since og!Cale also didn't tell anyone about who beat him up or why.
So as far as I can tell... og!Cale didn't mock Harris Village out of nowhere? But was instead a carefully selected choice that he made out of necessity– because Choi Han hadn't risen to any of his other "jabs" and he needed someone to beat him up. Perhaps to get out of going to the meeting with the nobles?
There's still some parts that don't make sense, but I'm going through the novel to double check my knowledge and verify it. For example, Ron says this in chapter 10.
"This is going to be your first time outside the Henituse territory, right?"
This implies that og!Cale has never taken up the responsibility of going to the noble's meeting, and this is confirmed when lcf!Cale goes to the residential manor at the capital and it's described how the servants have never met Cale before. BUT in the novel, it isn't a question on if lcf!Cale will be attending. He just does.
So og!Cale would have needed an excuse every time the nobles meeting came around for why he couldn't go. Now think about this: why did og!Cale get that scar on his side? Og!Cale isn't covered in scars, so why is it that suddenly he does something reckless like that a few days before having to leave for the nobles meeting?
Presumably, it's because he needed an excuse. But it's a scar by the time he meets Choi Han only a few days later, so clearly his father hired a priest so heal og!Cale, or already had one on hand. No injury, no excuse. So og!Cale decided to get Choi Han to beat him up. No one else in the territory would have been able to do it! og!Cale already scared off all the gangsters, who are also too afraid of the count's retaliation when they are found out. Choi Han has no fear of that retaliation, at least when it comes to mocking his dead family.
Note: og!Cale got that scar before meeting Choi Han. Then he meets Choi Han and starts throwing out jabs? This means either og!Cale didn't know that Choi Han was strong but goaded him anyway, knowing no one else would beat him up... or og!Cale already had enough strength to tell that Choi Han was extremely strong, enough that beating up a normal person and beating up a slightly strong person would feel exactly the same to him, and that's why he goes after him. Not because Choi Han would be the only one willing to beat him up in their territory– after all, surely there's at least one or two that would do it? So why Choi Han?
Please add onto this if you remember something relevent because I haven't reread the first 50 or so chapters, and so I don't remember if Cale had to go and tell Deruth he would be the one going to the capital, if I missed it as I was skimming through or if it was said in a later chapter. I must analyze og!Cale through a microscope!!!!
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