Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 168

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“That’s madness.”

I accepted the large goblet the young man offered me.

I had sought out the closest village to the Lake of Despair.
The only small inn and restaurant in that village—its owner’s grandson waved his hand dismissively at Rosalind’s questions about the Lake of Despair.

“Going there in January, of all seasons, is just asking to die.”
“Is that so? Do people go there at other times?”

I took a sip of the drink, then paused.
The alcohol was warm. And remarkably strong.

‘I asked for weak liquor.’

This was supposedly the weakest drink available, yet my throat already burned and my stomach felt ablaze.

-Human, but does alcohol taste good? Why do you keep drinking while making that pained expression?

I glanced toward the empty chair. Though it appeared empty, Raon was naturally sitting there, invisible. I looked around cautiously before speaking in a low, firm voice.

“Absolutely not.”

Alcohol for a six-year-old? Not even a dragon could do that.
If Raon got drunk and somehow destroyed an entire mountain, what would happen then? That would be a catastrophe.

-…Understood.

I ignored Raon’s dejected voice and focused instead on the conversation between Rosalind and the young man.

Currently, everyone in my group had dyed their hair an ordinary brown using magic. Of course, the Whale Tribe members Paseton and Archie wore robes due to their shocking appearances.

“Well, around spring or summer, there are people who try to visit that lake.”

The innkeeper’s grandson shuddered slightly.

One of the Five Great Mysteries.
There were indeed brave souls among the people who sought it out.
But the results were not favorable. The man glanced at the innkeeper’s grandmother sitting beneath the hearth’s glow before opening his mouth.

“Those who saw the blizzard and fled lived, but only half of those who ventured into the blizzard itself survived.”
“Still, half of those who entered the blizzard did survive.”

Choi Han interjected into the conversation.
The man shook his head at his words.

“The half that returned alive were all poisoned. And they went blind.”

Blindness.
Those afflicted by that poison weakened overall, losing their sight along with their sense of direction.
Kale listened to facts he already knew and reflected.

‘This world is subtly cruel, isn’t it.’

Whether it was the Desert of Death exhaling dead mana or the Lake of Despair where poisonous blizzards raged.
This world harbored many terrors beyond the power struggles between humans. Beast tribes, dark-attribute races—truly formidable and merciless beings existed everywhere.

‘Because of that, monsters can’t exert their power.’

Because of that, monsters couldn’t exert their strength. The monsters’ domain was extremely limited. Of course, it wasn’t something Kale needed to concern himself with, as he had no reason to encounter monsters.

The innkeeper’s grandson, worried about guests who had come after so long, spoke carefully.

“In any case, if you’re thinking of going there, please consider it carefully. It’s truly a terrifying place.”
“Solly.”

The grandson hesitated at his grandmother’s call and fell silent. The innkeeper continued staring at the hearth’s flames before speaking.

“I’ve learned something from watching humans head to the Lake of Despair all this time.”

The old woman’s shadow stretched wide across the inn’s wall, which looked as weathered as her years.

The Elderly Man had lived here since his youth. Then he met an adventurer husband, married him, and he settled here too, and together they built this inn.
And he saw his daughter born, that daughter marry, and give birth to his grandson.
The Elderly Man turned his head.
Kale Heniatus and the Elderly Man’s eyes met.

“They don’t understand words.”

The humans who went to the lake didn’t understand words.

“My daughter and son-in-law were like that.”

The husband who left several years ago told him to go see his daughter and son-in-law who had left earlier, and to come slowly. He told her to live stubbornly until her grandson grew up and got married, and then to come after that.
The Elderly Man answered that he would do so.

The Elderly Man, who had been staring into Kale Heniatus’s eyes, turned his head.

“…I understand the words, but you’re not the type to refuse to go.”

The voice of the man whose eyes he had just met, Kale Heniatus, reached the Elderly Man’s ears.

“Come back alive, and let’s drink this again here.”

The Elderly Man opened his mouth while warming himself by the warm firelight.

“Solly.”
“Yes, Grandmother.”
“Don’t take payment for the drink.”

Kale Heniatus shook the wine glass at his grandson Solly, who was smiling awkwardly, then drank the liquor. A quiet voice echoed in his mind.

-…Human, let’s destroy that blizzard!

Kale Heniatus ignored that voice.
On and Hong meowed and tapped the table. Kale Heniatus ignored that too. He recalled what he had heard from the ancient dragon Erhafen.

‘To eliminate the blizzard, you must eliminate the World Tree.’
‘Of course, since the World Tree controls the blizzard, if you use my token, I’ll open the path right away.’

Erhafen warned Kale Heniatus, which was rare for him.

‘Seeing the blizzard, one might think the World Tree is cruel. But the World Tree is a being that has repeated death and rebirth for tens of thousands of years.’
‘The World Tree most resembles nature itself. In nature, living and dying are natural principles. Remember that well.’

The World Tree had summoned the blizzard to protect itself from other dangers.
Humans perished in that blizzard, but because of it, the World Tree could remain safe from the desires of other creatures.

Kale set down his glass and rose to head to his room.
On and Hong followed him.

He gave a quiet instruction to Choi Han, who was rising to follow him.

“Gather any personal effects by the lake. Tell everyone.”

Choi Han stopped following and nodded. Kale ascended to his room without hesitation, and Choi Han returned to the table with the others, a smile on his face.

The moment Kale Heniatus lay sprawled on the bed after entering the room, he had to face Hong’s question.

“If I consume poison this time, I think I could blind things too, right?”
“Probably so.”

Oh.
Hong exclaimed in wonder and quickly moved beside his sister to prepare for sleep. As he drifted off, Hong pondered how he might consume more of the blizzard.

* * *

The next day, Hong stood a short distance from the raging blizzard, his mouth wide open.

“Aaahhh.”

Snowflakes swirled into his gaping mouth. The sharp, tingling sensation was a unique poison taste.

“More, more!”

At Hong’s excited voice, Kale pushed the kitten in his arms slightly closer toward the blizzard. Orca Arch watched the sight with a rare expression of shock.

Pushing a baby kitten into a blizzard!
Orca Arch, who lacked manners but possessed moral principles, opened and closed his mouth before grabbing Paseton’s shoulder.

“That, that over there—”

Shouldn’t I stop them?
But before he could say so, Hong’s voice reached him.

“It’s delicious!”

And then Kale’s voice followed.

“Eating too much will upset your stomach.”

On, standing beside him, spoke up.

“Eyes are so small that no matter how much you eat, you never feel full.”

Kale shook his head.

“Cold food upsets the stomach.”

At his blunt words, On nodded with an “ah” and turned her head to the side. Raon, wrapped in both a heat preservation spell and a fur coat, was sniffling.

“Right. One must be careful with colds. Even the great can have a blocked nose.”

At Raon’s confident declaration, On nodded in agreement. Then she conjured a mist.

Whoooosh—

Kale lowered his gaze at the sound of wind from the massive blizzard before him, distinct from other subtle noises. On beside him was rotating the mist.

“What are you doing?”
“I want to make it like a blizzard too.”

On said so and looked at Kale, who offered his honest assessment.

“Excellent.”

On smiled demurely and continued rotating the mist. The Black Dragon stood beside her, offering advice here and there, trying to help create an even more powerful mist vortex.

Paseton watched this scene with an ambiguous expression.

“What, what is this!”

Paseton, the half-breed whale, pretended not to notice Orca Arch’s stammering.

Before him stretched a lake far more colossal than the Black Swamp he’d encountered when visiting the Dark Forest with Kale.
In truth, Paseton couldn’t properly see the frozen lake beyond the icy trees. He could only gauge its magnitude by the enormous blizzard that raged perpetually atop the lake, frozen year-round.

Paseton quickly surveyed his surroundings.

The Black Dragon had said there were no other life forms around the lake. Upon hearing this, the group had relaxed their vigilance.
That itself was remarkable.

‘They’re simply letting this wind pass through them.’

The colossal wind stirred by the blizzard.
Now I understood why so many turned back upon seeing a blizzard, unable to advance. It was a wind powerful enough to push a person backward involuntarily.

The snow particles escaping the blizzard’s edge stung upon contact with skin, and drawing closer threatened a terror of poisoning.

The trees, grass, and earth around—all frozen white. That made it all the more terrifying.

Yet those around Paseton remained composed.
Orca Arch, Choi Han, Rosalind, Raon, On, and Hong all appeared unchanged from their usual selves.

Even Kale.

‘Surely Young Master Kale possesses hidden strength as well.’

There were moments when Kale’s occasional aura startled me. I gazed at Kale, standing rigidly even now.

Of course, Kale was merely using Wind’s Sound to push back the wind as he stood. And each time the poison touched him, his heart’s vitality immediately healed the damage.

Yet that stinging sensation felt painful, so Kale set Hong down on the ground.

“Let’s go.”

I wanted to carve a path through the blizzard quickly and escape this stinging sensation.
Rosalind approached Kale while cradling Hong in her arms. After confirming no one was present, they dispelled the dye magic, and thanks to that, Hong, Rosalind, and Kale stood out distinctly with their vivid red coloring.

“Young Master, will you use Erhaben’s token right away?”
“That’s the plan.”

Kale could discern the thirst for knowledge gleaming in Rosalind’s eyes.
A token bestowed by the Ancient Dragon—naturally, the mage Rosalind would be curious enough about it. He’d heard she’d been confined to her laboratory throughout his time in the Empire.

Erhafen had rendered his judgment on her achievements in a single phrase.

‘If you’re curious, ask.’

Rosalind was the sort who would quietly slip away to eavesdrop and learn whenever Erhafen taught Raon, and while Erhafen had pretended not to notice, he’d never once directly told her to ask questions.
That he was now explicitly encouraging her to ask indicated Rosalind’s growth.

Kale brought up this very point.

“Later, when you ask Erhafen about the token, he’ll teach you.”
“Yes, I should ask him.”

Rosalind nodded enthusiastically. Kale recalled how she’d been delighted at the prospect of sneaking into lessons thanks to Erhafen’s willful blindness while teaching Raon.
Whether princess or not, her essence itself was remarkable.

Rosalind gazed at the azure token Kale had produced, studying it intently, when his voice reached her.

“Rosalind, what if you established a Magic Tower?”
“Yes. What?”

Kale posed the question to the bewildered Rosalind in a casual manner.

“With your abilities, wouldn’t that be more than sufficient?”

And Rosalind answered in kind, her expression serene.

“That’s right. It would be.”

Kale regarded her. True to form, Rosalind’s gaze burned with both rationality and unwavering confidence. She clearly understood her own position and capabilities.
Her dreams and ambitions were equally certain.

Kale spoke to her then.

“If you need funds or mana stones, just say the word.”
“Thank you.”

Rosalind didn’t bother refusing the gesture. Kale responded to her greeting with a subtle smile, then approached the blizzard alongside the token.

‘This is rather difficult.’

The blizzard was so fierce that even channeling the wind through Wind’s Sound couldn’t dispel the oppressive pressure it exerted.
Kale emerged from the forest and walked toward the lakeside.

‘Lake of Despair has been a mysterious region since the beginning of time.’

Erhafen’s words surfaced in my mind.

‘The World Tree doesn’t meet just anyone. Controlling the blizzard is the World Tree’s will.’
‘The World Tree grants paradise to those who pierce through that blizzard.’

Paradise.
Kale rolled the word around in his mouth and stopped walking.
The lake where the blizzard raged was right before his eyes.

One more step and he would be standing on the frozen lake.
Kale manipulated the token and took a step forward.

Click.
Light poured from the blue token.
Kale’s foot touched the surface of the lake.

That was when it happened.

“Hm?”

Kale stopped in his tracks.

Crackle.

He looked down at his left hand, the one without the token.
Red electricity danced across his palm.

Destruction’s fire.

Erhafen’s words flashed through Kale’s mind.

‘Well, there was once a time when the World Tree went berserk, and a blizzard swept across the Northern Region, freezing the land. I’ve only heard it as legend, but they say it was absolutely terrifying.’
‘Ah! In that legend, they say there was a human hero who eliminated it.’

In that moment, Kale recalled the Elf Chieftain he had met at Ten Finger Mountain. The words the Chieftain had spoken while handing him a book containing Jjangdol’s legend surfaced from the hazy recesses of his memory.

‘It’s quite a funny legend, actually. They say the hero was obsessed with money. After the hero died, it became the biography of another hero who recovered and safeguarded his fortune.’

‘Would a hero be obsessed with money? And especially such a great hero who saved a frozen world, someone who never coveted any power, title, or honor—you really think his hobby was picking up coins? Does that make sense to you?’

Kale recalled Erhafen again and remembered the quiet laugh that had escaped him as he recounted the legend.

‘The legend even has this nonsense about how the hero tried to burn the World Tree itself. Do you think that’s true? Even when I brought up that story to the World Tree before, I got no response. Doesn’t that reaction prove the legend is just nonsense?’

…Could it be this?
Kale felt the surge of lightning dancing across his palm and lifted his gaze ahead.

Whoooosh—
Following the direction where the blue light of the Seal poured forth, the blizzard carved out a passage like a transparent tunnel.

“Young Master, did you use the Seal?”
“Human! Why are you unleashing the lightning?”

Rosalind’s voice and Raon’s urgent cry.
Between them, Kale heard yet another voice.
Jjangdol spoke in a way different from usual.

-Are you trying to destroy it?

This is a different pattern entirely?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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