Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 111
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“Who exactly are they?”
Choi Han answered the Spear Master’s question.
“A Secret Organization.”
His tone was utterly composed now. Through the gap in Choi Han’s mask, I could see the corners of his mouth curling upward. Good heavens—was Choi Han actually smirking? It was perfectly executed.
“Lunatics.”
The Spear Master’s genuine sentiment was palpable. His expression mingled exasperation, irritation, and annoyance. My own mouth curved upward uncontrollably.
Why did they insist on creating such troublesome situations and harming innocent people?
“Kid, who are those guys?”
“What kind of bastards are they?”
There appeared to be two companions of the Spear Master.
A boy who looked to be around twelve years old. And a middle-aged man.
-Both were weaker than the Spear Master. But the boy was special.
Raon, my detection specialist, had already explained everything. These were also the ones Fendrick, my healer, had mentioned.
‘The boy is a Tamer, sir. And judging by his vocabulary, his appearance is the only childlike thing about him. He’s made animals who’ve lost their will to live spread dead mana to the elves. The middle-aged swordsman protects the Tamer.’
Beyond that, I could see hundreds of Secret Organization members. The Elf Village had at most around two hundred adult elves. Even with spirits present, the disparity in forces was overwhelming, especially with dead mana in play.
“Why are you guys copying us?”
My eyes met those of the Tamer Boy staring at me.
A Tamer.
Tamers possessed a special ability. They could befriend living animals or monsters and fight alongside them, or they could strip away their will and turn them into living corpses.
In the latter case, once an animal or monster lost its will, it could never return to its original state. Even if released from the taming, it would go berserk and eventually die.
Grrrrr. Around the boy, I could see animals carrying buckets filled with dead mana liquid. There appeared to be two or three hundred of them. All the animals had black veins bulging across their bodies, as if they were addicted to the dead mana.
‘The moment that boy’s eyes showed white, all the wolves living in our gorge lost their minds. The real problem is that the Tamer keeps scattering dead mana everywhere.’
‘When that happens, he pulls his subordinates back to avoid dead mana addiction, and the elves have no choice but to retreat to avoid the animals tainted with dead mana. Since they create that timing, we cannot mount a proper attack.’
He said that two strong ones were protecting the boy.
That was when it happened.
Boom!
One of the animals burst. Unable to withstand the dead mana, the wolf’s body erupted in black energy, and the animal’s corpse dissolved without a trace.
“I… cannot forgive this.”
Kale Heniatus turned his gaze backward. Rak’s eyes were turning bloodshot. The animals were all mammals—wolves, foxes, and the like.
The boy’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Huh? Isn’t that guy’s nails from the Wolf Tribe? Wow, I want one!”
Grrr. Rak’s fangs sharpened, his fury laid bare. Choi Han stepped in front of Rak and ignited his sword with aura. The aura revealing him as a Sword Master made the Tamer Boy and the middle-aged man pause. The middle-aged man spoke to the Spear Master.
“Are these the ones who ruined the Mermaid Tribe’s plans?”
“Yeah, those crazy bastards.”
A cold voice fell between the middle-aged man and the Spear Master as they stared at each other.
“Weak things talk too much.”
Both men’s gazes turned toward one point. Kale Heniatus let out a small laugh and commanded the owner of that cold voice who was looking at him.
“You may fight.”
Avenging his father. Vicross had donned four layers of white gloves today. A longsword rested in his hands. But the first scream did not come from Vicross.
“Ahhhhh! My arm!”
His left arm fell. One member of the Secret Organization screamed, clutching at his severed shoulder. But the one who had cut off the arm was nowhere to be seen. A moment later, a very small voice came from behind Kale Heniatus.
“Young master, it is a cruel scene—are you feeling alright?”
The culprit was Ron. Such a cunning old fox.
This was precisely why Kale felt so assured today. He gazed toward the Elf Village boundary line beyond the Secret Organization. A small fortification had been erected there.
Fendrick and the elves stared at him. Observing their dazed expressions, Kale issued his command.
“We advance to the boundary line first.”
My body surged forward, riding the Wind’s Sound.
“Stop them at all costs!”
The Spear Master’s cry rang out. Hundreds of Secret Organization members and hundreds of beasts surged toward us simultaneously. I offered them a brilliant smile.
The Spear Master’s eyes met mine, and he hesitated. I spoke to him.
“You’re overlooking the mist, aren’t you?”
The mist enveloping my body dispersed in an instant. On and Hong grew exponentially stronger.
Meowwww.
Meow.
A bone-chilling feline cry pierced the air. The white mist instantly turned crimson. Simultaneously, I drove the mist forward and charged toward the countless enemies approaching. Yet I harbored no fear whatsoever.
The enemies at the vanguard clutched their throats.
“Ugh!”
“Gack!”
Lethal poison was difficult against multiple targets, but paralytic toxin was manageable. Those who overcame the paralysis had their left arms severed as they advanced.
“Young master, don’t overexert yourself.”
“Understood.”
Ron mercilessly severed the left arms of those approaching with his twin daggers. At least he wasn’t killing them. Ron wore an artificial left arm that Merry had crafted for him. The gray limb performed identically to his right hand.
A whirlpool coalesced in my palm.
“Remove the mist.”
The mist vanished.
“Poison in the Whirlpools.”
The Whirlpools turned crimson. A small black kitten leaped down from the tree and landed on my shoulder. It was Hong.
I sprayed poisoned Whirlpools across the sky on both sides as I pressed forward. Ron covered my advance.
Rak followed close behind. He bared his teeth and growled.
“Grrrrr—”
The animals hesitated, their resolve shaken by Rak’s snarl—a sound he produced without yet entering his berserk state. It was the cry of the Wolf King’s successor, and they felt the primal terror it invoked.
Rak seized the moment to fall in behind me as he spoke.
“Young Master, there’s no way to heal them, is there?”
“In their current state, it’s impossible.”
“And they won’t return to normal either?”
“That’s right.”
“…I understand.”
The only mercy for these creatures was to free them from control as quickly as possible and let them meet their end. Even as they broke free and lost themselves to rampage, the corrupted mana would torment them.
I caught a glimpse of Rak falling back from my side before pressing onward. Behind me, I heard what sounded like a scream from the Spear Master in the distance.
“Where in the hell are these things coming from?!”
The Spear Master clenched his teeth and shouted. Vicross’s blade came crashing down upon him.
“Shut your mouth. I’m planning to go through all my white gloves today.”
Clang!
Vicross’s greatsword clashed against the Spear Master’s spear. The Spear Master cast with his other hand as he cried out.
“Fireball!”
Boom!
An explosion erupted.
“Damn it! This is exactly why I didn’t want to come on this mission!”
The Spear Master cried out in exasperation. Rak, who had drawn near in an instant, casually shattered his fireball with a punch. His hand burned for a moment, but he ignored it. A fight without defense. An attack from the wolf.
But Rak’s target was not the Spear Master.
The being the Spear Master was protecting.
The Spear Master shouted urgently.
“Damn it! Old man! Protect Bellard!”
Rak’s sharp claws lunged toward the Tamer Boy. But there was no one to stop him. The Middle-aged Swordsman was locked in a grueling battle.
“Insane, where did these monsters come from!”
“You have time to talk? Shall I make it harder?”
Choi Han pressed the swordsman forward with ease. Wounds multiplied slowly across the swordsman’s body. But Choi Han did not kill him—instead, he surveyed his surroundings and drove the swordsman to his limit.
“Haha!”
Yet the Tamer Boy laughed with ease, his grin spreading wide. Rak’s sharp claws rushed forward in an instant.
“Gotta catch the wolf!”
The boy’s black pupils turned white in a flash. And the moment only the whites of his eyes remained, something obscured that gaze.
‘The moment the boy’s eyes showed only white, all our wolves lost their will to fight.’
Fendrick had explained it well.
Meow.
A black-painted cat appeared. The feline, its silver coat concealed, descended swiftly near the Tamer Boy. On shrouded the boy’s eyes in mist.
“What? What is this!”
The Tamer Boy panicked.
Primary objective. To eliminate any further tamed animals.
Rak’s claws drove toward the boy’s pupils, hidden behind the mist.
Clang!
But a small dagger blocked Rak’s claws. Suddenly, from the shadows of the brush emerged a mummy-like figure wrapped in white cloth. An assassin. The short blade in the assassin’s hand twisted at an odd angle, as if to pierce the back of Rak’s hand.
“I’ll have to cut off your fingers.”
The assassin in white robes spoke. As he did, the assassin caught sight of Rak’s eyes. He was smiling.
Fendrick had told Kale something.
That it seemed two people were guarding the Tamer Boy.
But just before meeting Fendrick, at the moment he was climbing this mountain, Raon had told Kale something. That the Spear Master had just arrived.
Who were the two that Fendrick had seen?
“Number One! Dodge!”
A voice calling out to the assassin rang through the air. At the same time, alongside another voice came a chilling aura, and Assassin Number One twisted his body away.
“Whose what did you say you’d cut off?”
Choi Han. His blade slashed across the assassin’s flank.
“Ugh!”
But the assassin wrapped his arm around the Tamer Boy’s neck and retreated. Rak’s claws grazed past the child’s cheek.
“It hurts! Number One, it hurts! I’m going to kill that wolf!”
Through the mist, the child’s tears fell in droplets.
“Tch.”
Rak clicked his tongue and, cradling On in his arms, ran toward the Elf Village boundary without looking back. The Tamer Boy shrieked.
“Kill those little brats!”
A raspy old man’s voice rang out. In that instant, the eyes of the animals turned crimson.
Choi Han immediately approached Vicross. It was time to go to Kale, but he was worried that Vicross might lose his reason and fight.
“Why aren’t you going?”
But Vicross came running with a sullen expression, asking why Choi Han wasn’t going. Vicross was weaker than the Spear Master. So Choi Han, who had been worried, turned to look back and let out a quiet laugh.
“What are those gloves?”
“Just annoyed me.”
Vicross, who had hurled four pairs of gloves—eight in total—at the Spear Master before departing, wore a stoic expression with only the faintest upturn of his lips. They soon abandoned their conversation and pursued Kale Heniatus, who had already arrived atop the barrier at the boundary of the Elf Village.
With Ron’s protection and Hong’s poison, Kale Heniatus had sprinted in a straight line like he was running a hundred-meter dash, arriving atop the barrier.
“Fendrick, good to see you.”
Fendrick nodded with a vacant expression.
“Yes, yes.”
Kale Heniatus passed by him, his response befuddled, and turned his gaze to another familiar face.
“It’s been a while for you as well.”
The middle-aged elf he had seen at the inn. Guardian Warrior Zit.
He could not believe the spectacle unfolding before his eyes. Adult elves were inherently strong because they could manipulate spirits.
But this was beyond that.
A Sword Master, a wolf-human hybrid, poison mist, and the escort of an assassin whose true strength was immeasurable. Moreover, another swordsman was equally formidable as Zit.
Where could such individuals possibly emerge all at once?
They possessed the caliber of a Royal Court Knight Commander. Zit finally opened his mouth as he beheld Kale Heniatus, the one leading these formidable warriors.
“It has been a long time.”
His demeanor remained courteous. The moment Zit saw Kale Heniatus, he questioned his spirit.
‘Do you sense the aura of a dragon?’
‘No, he is human. However, the power of nature is strong.’
He was not a dragon. Yet Fendrick had told him that this man was a nobleman and what manner of deeds he had undertaken. He said he was a human who had stepped forward for them without any compensation.
No matter how troublesome humans could be, the elves were a people who respected pure and deeply devoted beings.
Beyond Zit, Kale Heniatus could see an elf with white hair approaching from the distance. The Elf Chieftain. But unfortunately, there was no time for greetings.
“Kale Heniatus, everyone has arrived.”
Kale watched as his entire group arrived, then walked to the very front of the barrier. Choi Han and Vicross followed at his sides.
Like walking the City Wall of Heniatus Territory, like treading upon his own land, Kale moved with composure and confidence.
A barrier hastily stacked rather than a proper City Wall. Beneath it, animals rushed forward in a frenzy.
“Kill them! Kill those things first, no matter what! My precious baby’s skin!”
The Tamer Boy was no child after all. At the gravelly voice of an elderly man, Kale turned around.
Three hundred animals carrying dead mana vessels charged forward with frenzied desperation. The elves and materialized spirits faltered. The intensity of the attack was on an entirely different scale from before.
“…Is this acceptable, Kale?”
Fendrick’s face had gone pale as he watched the black mana liquid seeping through the charging animals. Where the liquid touched, the ground turned black.
Then Kale’s voice reached them.
“I did this on purpose.”
Fendrick flinched and turned his head.
“Pardon?”
Like a lord, standing atop the crudely constructed barrier with the Elf Village at his back, Kale appeared serene.
Kale observed carefully how only the animals had advanced forward.
“Still composed.”
The Tamer Boy had raged, yet he had not allowed his members to become intoxicated by the dead mana. Behind the animals, the Secret Organization members were positioned. And at the very rear stood the Tamer Boy and the Spear Masters.
Fendrick, seeing this formation, felt a strange light flicker in his eyes even as his expression grew sorrowful.
“You intend to eliminate the animals and the dead mana first?”
Fire like molten lava. If those flames burned the animals and the dead mana in the vessels around their necks, the coming battle would be advantageous. Reason told Fendrick this was the right choice. The Guardian Warrior and the other elves kept their mouths firmly shut, their eyes fixed on Kale. This was why they had summoned him after all.
These were animals they had lived alongside in this place, but there was no helping it. It was better to release them quickly.
They were animals that had lived together in this place, but there was nothing we could do. It was better to let them go quickly.
“What?”
A calm voice rang out.
Before using the final Ancient Power, ‘Destruction’s Flame,’ in my territory, I wanted to gauge its strength. Not the unremarkable power the elf in the book had obtained, but the full ‘Destruction’s Flame’—I was curious how effective it would be as an offensive ability.
That’s why I decided to give it everything I had, just this once.
I smiled as I answered the elves.
“On those bastards.”
I opened my palm.
Thump. Thump. My heart pounded. A crimson-gold light appeared in my hand.
The Spear Master flinched and shouted. His instincts screamed danger.
“Everyone attack! You two, go as well!”
“Push through the dead mana of the beasts?”
At the middle-aged man’s words, the Spear Master’s face twisted into something demonic. He commanded coldly.
“That’s an order.”
The middle-aged man, the assassin, and the hesitant agents bit their lips and charged toward me alongside the beasts.
“Yes, kill them! Scratch their faces to shreds!”
The Tamer Boy screamed. That was when it happened.
A deep rumble echoed.
The elves looked up at the sky. Raon’s voice came from above.
-Human! What is this? Am I allowed to be here?
That very moment.
-Wow….
Raon gasped in awe.
“Damn it! Bling—”
The Spear Master cried out, but his voice was swallowed by the roar.
Kwaaaaaang!
A crimson bolt of lightning descended. In that instant, everyone’s vision flooded with scarlet light, rendering them momentarily blind. Their ears rang deafeningly, drowning out all sound.
After that fleeting flash of lightning vanished, a single sound reached their ears.
My waist buckled.
“Cough!”
Blood spilled from my lips.
‘Damn it! Nobody mentioned there would be recoil!’
‘The Birth of a Hero’ had said nothing about recoil from the power. In that moment, I recalled the words the Ancient Power Owner had spoken to me.
-If you’re the kind of person who would squander money like this, you’ll endure anything!
-Everything that stands before you will melt away. And you will persevere.
Damn it. He could’ve just said it hurts, couldn’t he?
I let it go in one ear and out the other.
I covered my mouth with one hand.
Drip. Drip. Blood trickled down.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————