Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 181

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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 was why Raon found himself flustered.
His short front paw landed upon Kale’s shoulder with a soft thud.

“Human, with this, you could have thousands—no, tens of thousands of apple pies! Behold this jewel!”

Another stubby paw pointed toward the crown’s gemstone, but Kale’s furrowed brow showed no sign of relaxing. Raon continued, tilting his head incessantly.

“This is a crown infused with your own aura! It will surely aid you! You, who are weak, need to become stronger!”

I’d rather freeze to death than grow stronger.
Kale squinted at Raon’s words and grumbled.

“I don’t need it. You’ll be by my side anyway, won’t you?”

Choi Han, On, Hong—I have plenty of subordinates to command. Why would I need to grow stronger and bleed in battle?
When the Black Dragon fell silent without responding, Kale turned to look at him.

He flinched.
The Black Dragon froze under Kale’s gaze, then cried out.

“Of course I will! If you leave me behind, I won’t let it slide!”

Truly, nothing had changed from when he was four to when he was six.
Kale pushed away Raon’s face as it drew closer, then shut the box and tucked it into his embrace. He didn’t even touch the crown.

‘This is just dead weight.’

When I finished handling everything in the Caro Kingdom and returned to the Mansion, I decided I would show this to the ancient dragon Erhafen.
At the same time, a question arose in my mind.

‘Why was the Dark holding this?’

Now that I thought about it, those who had carried away the dead mana from the Black Swamp were also members of the Secret Organization.
I felt irritated for no particular reason.

A single thought had crossed my mind.

Would Dark truly have handed over not just any animal, but a Dragon to the Marquis as a mere transaction?
Would a partnership with a minor noble of the small Roan Kingdom have mattered to those who united the Empire and the Northern 3 Nations?

“Human, why is your face so contorted? You look like a crushed apple pie!”

Kale’s frown deepened at Raon’s words as his thoughts continued.

Could it be that the Secret Organization had planned to seize the Dragon later, once the Marquis had raised it?

If it were Dark, that seemed entirely plausible.
When viewed that way, this crown and Raon—everything seemed to fit into place. Kale muttered, filled with irritation.

“…These bastards, aren’t they worse than me?”

Raon’s eyes widened at Kale’s low murmur.

“Human! You are cunning, but your nature is pure and kind! Do not speak ill of yourself!”

Sigh.
Kale swallowed his sigh as he watched Raon spout such carefree nonsense. He ignored the increasingly presumptuous Dragon and turned the doorknob.

Click.
At that sound, Raon immediately turned invisible, startled by what Kale said next.

“Blow this room apart.”

Blow it apart?
The Black Dragon’s wings fluttered.

“No. Don’t.”

Kale had been about to demolish the Seka Estate but changed his mind.
What crime had the employees of the Seka Duchy committed? Kale yanked the door open roughly.
Chaos erupted before him.

“Cough!”

Edrich, a member of the Lion-Human race, had his shoulder twisted by the flat of Choi Han’s blade.
Gronika immediately seized the opening and lashed her whip at Choi Han, but the tattered whip was cleanly severed.

Thwack.

A whip cracked through the air, followed by agonized screams.

“Gahhh!”
“I—I can’t see!”

A Knight collapsed, disoriented. He reached out desperately, trying to steady himself against the ground.

“Ughhhh!”
“Hah!”

The Knight jerked his hand away in horror from his companion’s paralyzed, trembling body. Through the chaos, a beast’s laugh echoed—playful and menacing.

Meowwww.

“U-ugh—”

The Knight quickly covered his mouth. He had no intention of ingesting poison.
The 5th Floor corridor was shrouded in mist so thick that visibility vanished entirely.

Yet for me, the fog parted of its own accord. Choi Han descended lightly to my side.

“You’ve arrived.”

Edrich’s voice followed—the Lion-Human’s unmistakable tone.

“Hand over what you’ve stolen at once! Crude wretches like you have no right to possess it!”

For beings of Edrich and Gronika’s caliber, the mist posed no obstacle. They tore through it and charged toward Choi Han and me. Edrich bore no injuries, but Gronika’s left shoulder streamed with blood. I glanced at Choi Han.
Edrich was unscathed, while blood was pouring from Gronika’s left shoulder. Kale Heniatus looked at Choi Han.

It was light.

Choi Han was smiling perfectly fine.

I sighed and turned my attention to the charging Edrich.
Kale Heniatus sighed and looked at Edrich running toward him.

Their eyes met, and Edrich reflexively opened his mouth and shouted.

“You crazy bastards! Do you not know who we are? Release us if you wish to live!”

These people who kept interfering with his organization.
Edrich believed that once they learned the identity of his organization, they would never dare to challenge him.

That was when it happened.
Edrich could see the opponent’s eyes narrowing into crescents.

“So you wish to die, then.”

The voice was calm and measured.
Yet it was a voice that halted Edrich’s charge in its tracks. Gronika also flinched and stopped.

Their bestial instincts screamed a warning.

Danger.
Death might come at this very moment.

She stood frozen, staring at the man before her—a man standing serenely amid the chaos of battle, not a drop of blood upon him.

Choi Han also turned his gaze toward that man.

Kale Heniatus.
A person from whom he occasionally sensed formidable charisma.

But never before had he felt such a powerful aura emanate from him as in this moment.

‘How is a weak person capable of this?’

How could such an aura radiate from someone who had never carved through battlefields, never walked the line between life and death in combat?
Choi Han swallowed his questions and gazed at Kale Heniatus.
And Kale’s mind was in turmoil.

-Human! Why… why do you look so strong! You’re only worth one of my front legs, or maybe a single wing!

Kale Heniatus ignored Raon’s voice and wielded his dominating aura without restraint. He opened his mouth as he looked at the two cat-humans staring at him.

“Do you have any idea who we are?”

The Lion-Human froze.
Edrich recalled what he had said.

‘You crazy bastards! Don’t you know who we are? If you value your lives, let him go!’

He swallowed hard. The masked man before him was far more difficult to approach than that person. Unlike the composed man, Edrich’s fingertips trembled inexplicably.
Even as they faced each other, the masked man’s gaze seemed to look down upon him, and his calm voice echoed in Edrich’s ears.

“Do you think your breath continues by whose grace?”

Kale Heniatus spoke to the Lion-Humans who could not answer, as if pronouncing judgment.

“You don’t know the terror of the unknown.”

The unknown.
That was it. Edrich did not know these people before him. Only now did the gravity of his situation truly sink in.

Beings stronger than himself. Cat-Humans as formidable as the Mist Cat-Humans, the strongest among those I knew.
And above all, this man before me whose identity remained a mystery, yet whose gaze looked down upon us.

Why does your breath continue?

Edrich slowly grasped the answer to the man’s question. The expression of the fearless second heir of the Lion-Humans changed.
When their eyes met again, the masked man spoke to him.

“Be afraid.”

The masked man was smiling.
He turned away with ease, yet Edrich could not bring himself to pounce upon that back.

That back seemed as immense as Mount Tai itself.

Choi Han quietly observed Kale Heniatus as he headed toward the window at the end of the 5th Floor corridor. As Kale passed by him, he whispered an instruction.

“That yellow broom, that straw-like hair of his—cut it all off. A short cut would suit him better.”
“…Pardon?”

Choi Han was about to respond to that dignified voice when his eyes met Kale’s—a gaze brimming with considerable irritation and displeasure.

“…Understood. I’ll follow after I finish here.”

Choi Han saluted the departing Kale with a flight spell, then rushed toward the lion-human warriors. Kale took off from the mansion after witnessing Edrich’s terrified expression at the sight of Choi Han’s grim, death-dealing demeanor.

“Ahhhhh! My—my noble hair! My golden locks!”

Edrich, whose hair had become shaggy due to Choi Han’s complete lack of aesthetic sense, let out an even more terrified and panicked scream. That sound reached Kale from behind his back.

“Human, now you laugh!”

Kale ignored Raon’s words and clapped his hands.

Clap, clap, clap.

The sound was swallowed by something far more tremendous.

Boom!

The towering, massive wall crumbled under the combined assault of Orca Arch’s fists, Paseton’s blade strikes, and Rosalind’s magic.

“Truly excellent companions.”

Kale applauded as he savored the sight of the Sekka Duchy’s lofty walls—walls that had stood for nearly a thousand years—collapsing before him.
Then, with his hand to his mouth, he issued orders through Raon’s amplification magic.

“Retreat.”

The single word, resonating across the entire noble district and the duchy itself, made everyone flinch.
At that moment, Arch caught sight of Rock Seka, the duke who had just returned, stumbling backward, and let out one final mocking laugh.

“Is this wall really a thousand years old? Perhaps it’s just old and crumbly—it breaks apart so easily! Kahahaha!”

Then he fled.
The others did the same.
The party vanished from the Sekka Duchy at high speed, each member taking their predetermined escape route.

Moments later, the face of Clophe, the guardian knight who had returned somewhat leisurely after trusting in ‘Dark’ and the duchy, contorted in shock.

* * *

“What in the world happened in just one day?”
“Tell me about it. A thief breaking into the Duchy?”

The citizens of Paern Kingdom merely glanced at the towering pillar of flame rising in the distance, their attention fixed entirely on gossip about the Duchy. Those engaged in conversation quickly joined in on the topic.

“They say it wasn’t just any thief?”
“Really?”
“My cousin works for a noble family in that district. He said they destroyed the entire Duchy wall and mansion. Would a mere thief do that?”
“My goodness, what a disaster.”
“Exactly! And they even destroyed the Seka Duchy’s Wyvern too!”
“How is that even possible? Heavens, the Guardian Knight family has suffered a terrible blow.”

Another citizen, who had been quietly listening to the two converse, spoke to them bluntly.

“Is that really the problem?”

The two fell silent at those words.
All three turned their gazes toward where Lake of God’s Tears lay.

The pillar of flame was visible.

The fire that was supposed to be extinguished burned fiercely even in daylight, as if night had fallen. Its enormous size meant that even from a distance, one could feel no cold—instead, the heat radiated so intensely that sweat beaded on their palms.
The warmth was palpable, unmistakable.

One person spoke, as if casting the words away.

“…Is it safe?”

Could this Capital truly be safe?
The fire did not spread further.
Yet unease settled over them.

In this frozen land, the fire would not die.
An unknown flame of unprecedented scale. The mystery of it all bred anxiety in their hearts.

Guardian Knight Clophe felt the same way.

“Captain!”

A subordinate rushed toward Clophe, who had been unable to attend to the Duchy and instead kept watch over the pillar of fire by the lake. This was the subordinate he had ordered to search the Eastern Forest by the lakeside.

“What— what is that in your hand?”

Clophe, about to ask what had happened, stiffened as he stared at what his subordinate held. The subordinate spoke with a somewhat ambiguous expression.

“We found it in the center of the Eastern Forest. It appears to be traces of the person you were searching for, Captain.”

Clophe accepted the garment his subordinate offered.

A white priest’s robe.
Though it bore no divine insignia, it was a refined yet austere priestly vestment—the kind one could procure anywhere.

Yet to Clophe, it felt different.

This was a garment both he and his subordinate had seen just days ago.

The White-haired Priest.
It was unmistakably the robe worn by that priest Clophe had encountered by the lake. The guardian knight studied his subordinate’s face.

“Several days ago, we found nothing when we searched the Eastern Forest?”
“Yes. It appeared suddenly today.”

Just days prior, when the White-haired Priest had vanished, they had found no trace of this robe in the Eastern Forest.
Clophe glanced at the pillar of fire, then unfolded the priestly robe.

Thump.

A small piece of paper fell away.
Clophe looked down at the fallen note.

【God has not forgotten.】

His subordinate’s voice reached him.

“Ah, and regarding the contents of the note—only I have seen it. It was quite strange. So I brought it straight to you.”

Clophe slowly picked up the piece of paper.
The note’s contents were not yet finished.

【A lake eventually overflows and becomes a river.】

Clophe’s mouth fell open.

“Strange words indeed. Did only you see this?”
“Yes. Only I saw it. I remembered that the Captain had instructed me to search for it discreetly. It’s quite peculiar, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. Well done regardless. Continue the search and come report if anything else unusual appears.”
“Yes, sir!”

The subordinate bowed his head at Clophe’s encouragement and moved back to the search location. Clophe watched him go, then hurled the paper into one spot.

Whoosh—

The note vanished into the pillar of flame.
Clophe spoke quietly, ensuring only his trusted aide beside him could hear.

“Kill him.”
“…Yes.”

The aide realized that the subordinate running off in the distance would breathe his last today, and he bowed his head to Clophe.
The aide did not know why Clophe had ordered the man’s death. He simply obeyed.

Clophe ignored his aide’s expression and stared at the pillar of flame.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart raced.

‘A lake eventually overflows and becomes a river.’

…How did he come to know that family secret?

Was he truly a messenger of God?
Clophe believed himself to be the one who inherited God’s will. For only the heir of the Seka Family knew the truth of Paern Land.

He recalled a note he had discovered while pursuing traces of the White-haired Priest long ago.

【Only new legends emerge to carry on the glory.】

Clophe believed that he would surely be that protagonist.
He gazed up at the pillar of flame—a towering inferno that seemed to touch the heavens. While the kingdom’s citizens whispered of divine wrath, the kingdom’s leadership suspected and investigated the Empire’s alchemy.

‘God has not forgotten.’

Guardian Knight Clophe tried to calm his mind, recalling the words written on the note.
For some reason, that phrase seemed to read differently.

God has not forgotten His wrath.

Clophe watched the pillar of flame and closed his eyes.
His mind would not settle.

* * *

Kale Heniatus opened his eyes.
He had returned to the Roan Kingdom. After traveling through several teleportation spells, he had arrived at the designated meeting place by carriage.

Click.

The carriage door opened from outside.

“Young master, you’ve grown thin.”

Servant Ron greeted Kale Heniatus.

“It’s been so long!”

Frigia, the assassin who had carved the Guardian of Hell, also welcomed Kale Heniatus.
Kale Heniatus asked Ron.

“Everything is ready?”

Rosalind and Choi Han had already returned to the Mansion.
Raon was still with him.

Meow.
Meow.

On and Hong were with me as well.
Along with the three of us, Ron, and the Information Guild under Frigia’s leadership, Vice-Captain Hilsman would arrive at Antonio Geyler’s territory by now.
This was how I planned to proceed with this operation.

I had come to strangle Antonio, the heir of the Geyler Duchy—the ruling power of the Southwest Region.

Ron answered my question about whether he was ready with a gentle smile.

“Well, a slight problem has arisen.”
“A problem?”

The vassal of the Geyler family who had commissioned the kidnapping of a child. Based on what that nobleman had done, I intended to move against Antonio.

But now there was a problem.
As my expression hardened, Ron spoke gently.

“That vassal has been secretly engaging in human trafficking lately. I happened to see it while taking a stroll.”

Ah.
I understood what the problem was.

I had come to punish what had previously been attempted but failed, yet now he was committing such atrocities.

With a considerably grimaced expression, I asked Frigia, who had sculpted the Guardian of Hell.

“You’ve completed all the preparations regardless, haven’t you?”

Ron answered gently in Frigia’s stead.

“Yes. We are fully prepared to annihilate them.”

I did not describe the elderly assassin’s bloodthirsty response as bloodthirsty this time.

“You’ve prepared appropriately.”

Indeed, experience never goes to waste—Ron had made thorough and appropriate preparations.

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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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