Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 183

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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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“Push? What do you mean?”

Vice-Captain Hilsman asked in confusion, but Kale Heniatus brushed him off lightly and slipped out of the tavern.

From the third floor to the tavern entrance.
Multiple gazes followed Kale as he walked forward without looking back. Most of them were from the Gyre Territory, watching with curiosity as he walked steadily despite drinking all day long.

Vice-Captain Hilsman had marveled at that extraordinary capacity for alcohol, but when he noticed the empty bottle in Kale’s hand, he was startled as if in shock and hurried after him.

“P-Prince Antonio!”
“What?”
“First, p-please put down the bottle…!”
“Oh.”

I had forgotten.
I had forgotten I was holding a bottle in my hand.

Whoosh.

Kale lifted the bottle.

“Yikes!”

Vice-Captain Hilsman’s mind flashed back to two years ago. That reckless hooligan who used to throw bottles at every thug in the territory. Hilsman had been the one to clean up the mess afterward.

“…Are you drunk?”
“Pardon?”

Kale stared at Vice-Captain Hilsman, who had suddenly raised both hands defensively, then handed the bottle to Ron.

“Ron.”
“Yes.”

The bottle disappeared, and Kale left the tavern. Ron handed over the bottle and the payment, then followed at a leisurely pace. Of course, he also brought along the dazed Vice-Captain.

“Ron, what is the Prince trying to push away right now?”

After learning of Ron’s abilities, Hilsman treated him with far greater deference than before. A hidden master. That was the true nature of Ron that Hilsman had witnessed.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure.”

The Servant answered kindly.

“Perhaps he’ll demolish some houses?”
“…Pardon?”
“Come, let’s go.”

Hilsman hurriedly chased after Kale Heniatus alongside Ron, positioning himself right beside Kale, who stood at the center of the bridge with the alcohol suddenly drained from his expression.

‘…The Prince operates on a grand scale, after all!’

Hilsman was well aware of the full extent of destruction Kale Heniatus had casually wrought in his previous actions. Thus, he found himself caught in a quandary about what to do.
Then Kale Heniatus’s voice reached him.

“Vice-Captain.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”

Hilsman gazed at Kale Heniatus, who was looking down at the flowing river.
The river flushed crimson by the sunset and the red sky above—standing between them, Kale Heniatus with his red hair made quite a striking figure.

As the day waned, few people passed across the bridge.
In truth, those who crossed this bridge dividing the Slums and the Commercial District were exceedingly rare.

Hilsman could hear Kale Heniatus’s voice, so soft that only those nearby could discern it.

“I hear that a butler from a certain noble family occasionally visits the Slums across the bridge and distributes food.”

Though the remark came without warning, the Vice-Captain settled into the conversation and answered comfortably.

“A virtuous butler indeed.”
“Indeed. Yet that butler serves a family that captures people from the Southwest Region, enslaves them, and sells them off.”
“…What?”

Kale Heniatus gazed across the bridge toward the Slums.

“That butler just headed into the Slums. Toward ten houses where the kidnapped residents of my fiefdom are imprisoned in the basement.”

I’ll push them out of the way.
Vice-Captain Hilsman gradually understood what Kale meant by pushing them out.

“Hilsman.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think?”

Kale waited for Hilsman’s answer, and the knight soon replied.

“A knight cannot tolerate injustice.”

When Kale looked at him, Hilsman added one more thing.

“Of course, if it concerns my lord, I will tolerate injustice.”
“Is that added remark also the knight’s code?”
“No. That is my own conviction.”

A knight should not tolerate injustice, yet when it concerns his lord, he will tolerate it.
It might seem cowardly, but that was the conviction of Knight Hilsman.

Hilsman’s belief, having risen to Vice-Captain of the Heniatus Count Family where “us” came first, was received favorably by Kale.

Kale pushed off from the bridge railing he had been leaning against and spoke.

“Then let’s stop tolerating it now.”
“Yes!”

Kale looked toward the Commercial District across the bridge.
Frigia had sent a hand signal.

It was a signal that some of those following Kale had gone to their master.
That master was naturally Antonio Geyler.

There was no way Antonio wouldn’t have someone tailing Kale. Knowing this, Kale decided to move openly.

Kale’s steps led toward a shabby house. The house visible immediately after crossing the bridge. Ten houses connected in a zigzag pattern starting from that one.
Kale stood in front of the first house.

“Who are you?”

An ordinary-looking middle-aged man stood in the house’s courtyard. He tensed at the appearance of what seemed to be a noble and a knight, speaking with careful caution.
Yet seeing Kale Heniatus’s face flushed red with alcohol, he felt a pang of misfortune at having encountered a drunk nobleman—an expression of dismay that flickered across his features before he concealed it.

Kale Heniatus turned to the middle-aged man with a question.

“Do you live alone?”
“No, sir. I live with my family.”
“Is that so?”

Kale Heniatus smiled crookedly and spoke.

“Bring your entire family out here.”
“Pardon?”
“You have ten seconds.”

Ten. Nine.
Kale Heniatus counted down. The middle-aged man stood bewildered until Kale Heniatus paused his counting and spoke, forcing him to move with urgency.

“Do you find a nobleman’s words amusing?”

At those words, the middle-aged man immediately rushed into his house.
Everyone across the bridge in the commercial district buildings witnessed this scene. The slum residents hurried inside, bolting their worn windows and doors shut.

A mad nobleman had emerged to oppress them.

That was what everyone felt.
The middle-aged man hastily gathering his family felt the same.

He emerged with his wife, two sons, and a daughter.

“Your Highness, this is my family.”

The trembling middle-aged man and his family looked pitiful. Simultaneously, the Black Dragon’s voice echoed in my mind.

-There are people in the basement. Many of them. Children too.

The Black Dragon’s voice was chilling.

-They’re all thin. Starving, it seems. Filthy. Haven’t bathed in ages.

Raon spoke in a gloomy tone.

-…Until just now, those young people were beating the underground dwellers. I want to destroy them all.

Kale Heniatus looked at the two sons and daughter the middle-aged man had introduced as his children. At his gaze, they lowered their heads as if frightened of the nobleman.
Kale Heniatus asked the middle-aged man.

“So these five are all of you?”

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, but then cried out in a posture as if about to prostrate himself.

“Yes! As Your Highness commanded, I have brought my entire family!”

-Not family. Just moments ago, inside the house they were calling each other captain and vice-captain. They’re even lying! That’s bad! Very bad!

Raon had become a lie detector all on his own.
Kale Heniatus looked down at the middle-aged man without any particular reaction. At that gaze, the middle-aged man, who had been bowing, cautiously lifted his head and then became flustered.

He was smiling.

A drunken, mad nobleman was grinning wickedly.

‘Did I make a mistake?’

The middle-aged man caught sight of the Krysh Marquis Family Butler in the distance. He shook his head as if telling him to handle it himself.
Then the nobleman’s voice came.

“Then if all your family members have come out, there should be no one left in the house.”

The middle-aged man pretended not to know about the slaves inside and wondered how to appease this drunken nobleman.
But the nobleman—Kale Heniatus—was beyond the middle-aged man’s imagination.

“Your house is old. Very dilapidated.”

Thunk. Kale Heniatus spoke as if tossing a stone into a lake.

“So I should tear it down.”
“…Pardon?”

The middle-aged man genuinely wondered if he’d heard nonsense. But the nobleman before him was deadly serious.

“Why not? I’ll give you a new house, so what’s wrong with destroying this one?”
“Well, that’s…”

The Knight who had been standing quietly stepped forward. He said nothing. He merely clicked his scabbard repeatedly, running his fingers along it while staring with unmistakable intent.

‘Insane. What kind of situation is this!’

The middle-aged man was utterly dumbfounded.
Even though it was a shabby dwelling, it was a decent place for the Slums since it sat directly across from the Commercial District.
And now this nobleman wanted to destroy it on a whim.

That was when it happened.

“I’m destroying it in five seconds.”

The human trafficker was at his wit’s end.
Yet he couldn’t very well tell him not to destroy it because people were inside. The enslaved in the basement would naturally perish if the building collapsed.

“Five.”

The nobleman began counting.

“Four.”

The Krysh Marquis Family Butler turned his head away in the distance.

“Three.”

He was saying to abandon those slaves.

“Two.”

But suddenly a question occurred to him.
How exactly was this young nobleman planning to destroy the house?
With just one Knight?

“One.”

The answer to that question came immediately.

“Done.”

I announced the end. The Black Dragon’s voice echoed in my mind.

-I’ve cast shields on the basement entrance and the basement itself.

“Ha, haha—”

I began to laugh.
It was then that the Human Trafficking Organization grew bewildered at my expression.

Uuuuung—

In that instant, a resonant sound echoed through the space.
Simultaneously, the noble extended his hand forward.

Fwooosh!

Wings appeared.
Along with an enormous shield.

“…What?”

The wings attached to the shield enveloped the house.
It wrapped around the building tightly, as if to conceal it from all other eyes.

A silver shield.
Though they were in the Southwest Region, far from the Capital, the middle-aged man—particularly the Krysh Marquis Family Butler who had been observing—recognized that shield.

“…Could it be?”

The butler recalled a single person.
A rising talent of the kingdom.
A noble heir called talented not for exceptional martial or intellectual prowess, but for his character—and that name came to mind all the more readily because of the Gyre Territory’s proximity to the Empire.

“…Kale Heniatus?”

The butler swallowed hard the moment he uttered that name.

A chill ran down his spine.
A cold blade pressed against his back.

“You mustn’t speak our young master’s name so carelessly.”

Ron’s dagger, concealed behind a mask, pressed lightly against the butler’s back.

Something was wrong.
Only then did the butler realize something had gone terribly wrong. That realization crystallized into certainty.

“Y-Your Highness, surely you don’t intend to truly destroy our house?”

The middle-aged man spoke to Kale Heniatus with a face drained of all color, but his words died in his throat. He could see Kale Heniatus’s eyes.

Those were not the eyes of a drunk man.
He had been too focused on the flushed face to truly observe the eyes.

The middle-aged man fell silent, confronted by those cold, piercing eyes—and the gazes of the slum dwellers peering through the cracks in the house, the murmuring eyes of the territory’s residents watching in fascination.
Only then did Kale Heniatus answer him.

“Five seconds have passed.”

Five seconds had elapsed.

The enormous shield began its descent.

-I’ll add my magic too!

The silver shield, now infused with Raon’s magic, fell upon the house wrapped in silver wings.

A sharp crack.

At first, it was merely the sound of the roof beginning to shatter.
But the sound grew louder and louder.

A deep, resonant boom—

The ground trembled.
And the house collapsed.

“Ah.”

The middle-aged man staggered from the earth’s violent shaking before collapsing to his knees. His expression turned vacant as dust swirled around him in the wake of a tremendous gust. Through the translucent wings and shield, he could see the house crumbling into ruin.

‘Those damned slaves!’

The merchandise he was supposed to sell lay buried beneath that collapsed structure.
Trapped in that crude basement, they were certainly crushed to death.

The deafening roar had drowned out even their screams.

‘What do I do?’

What kind of cursed situation was this?

The human traffickers’ faces twisted in anguish.

“Prince Kale!”

Antonio Geyler approached on horseback from across the bridge, accompanied by a contingent of knights.
Kale kept his shield raised without a crack, turning his gaze toward Antonio.

Antonio brought his horse to a halt and dismounted, rushing forward to face Kale. His expression was contorted with anger.

“What in the world are you doing?”

Antonio had stepped outside on business when he heard the rumor that Kale, drunk, was attempting to demolish a house in the Slums. He had hurried over in panic. He had believed Kale to be a reasonably decent person, but it seemed the rumors of his recklessness were not unfounded after all.

Look—even now, after destroying a house, his expression remained utterly composed.

“You arrived faster than I expected.”

Faster than expected?
A sigh escaped Antonio’s lips.

“Ha! Your Highness, do you understand what you’ve just done?”
“What do you mean? I destroyed a house.”
“…That’s not an explanation—!”
“A human trafficking organization’s house.”

In that instant, Antonio fell silent.
The territory’s residents who had come to watch from the bridge, the Knights surrounding them, and even the human traffickers themselves—all fell silent.

But Kale Heniatus paid no attention to the stillness.

Whoosh—

His silver shield rose into the air, heading toward the next house.
The moment the shield departed, Kale Heniatus approached the collapsed structure.

—Here. Human, here!

Kale Heniatus stopped at one section of the ruins. He cleared away the debris methodically, and Vice-Captain Hilsman approached his side as he worked.

“Hilsman, clear this pillar.”
“Yes.”

The massive pillar was removed by Hilsman.
Kale Heniatus spotted a door flush against the floor.

A door—the only thing unmarred, pristine and intact.
Kale Heniatus bent down and grasped the door’s handle, lifting it open.

Creak—

With that aged sound, Kale Heniatus saw people huddled in the narrow underground chamber below, compressed without an inch of space between them.
Dozens of pairs of eyes—gaunt faces paired with eyes that could not yet comprehend their situation.

Kale Heniatus spoke to them.

“You are safe now.”

He straightened from his bow and looked toward Antonio.
Only then did Antonio realize that Kale Heniatus’s eyes burned with a crystalline light.

“Prince Antonio.”

A shield unfurled its wings above the next house.

“Ugh, aaaahhh!”

The human traffickers who had been observing the situation began fleeing from the houses where they were hiding. I pointed toward them and spoke to Antonio.

“Lend us the Knights you brought.”

Ah.
Antonio sent the Knights after the fleeing figures with an exclamation. One Knight moved urgently toward the Lord’s Castle.

At the same time, I sent a hand signal, and Frigia and her subordinates began moving toward the remaining houses.

Meow.

With a faint cat’s cry, On and Hong moved together. They would block most escape routes with their poisonous fog.
Finally, Ron, masked, gripped the Krysh Marquis Family Butler’s neck and waved his hand.

‘This savage old man.’

I shook my head and heard Raon’s voice echoing in my mind.

-What a shame. I thought we wouldn’t come until all ten were destroyed, but here we are.

Right. He should have come when all ten were down.
But I opened my mouth.

“One more.”
-Really? Got it! I’ve set up a shield in the basement! The kidnapped people are safe! It’s a magnificent shield!

Boom—
Another house collapsed.

Since Antonio had arrived early, there was no longer any need to destroy more houses, but I destroyed it anyway.

Because I was irritated.
I remembered those lifeless faces staring up from the basement, and I wanted to destroy something.

Whoosh—

The silver line extending from my hand faded away.
The silver shield also slowly dissipated.

Shhhhh—
Wind rushed forth from the pile of collapsed debris.

“Cough.”

I wiped away the thin trickle of blood that escaped with a shallow cough.

‘This much is nothing.’

With an unbreakable shield and Raon’s magic, my body hadn’t suffered any serious strain. I wasn’t staggering, wasn’t coughing up blood. Yet somehow, the shield’s power seemed to be growing stronger.

I was content with merely a shallow cough and a slight trickle of blood, feeling my body vibrant with the vitality of my heart.
Raon was fluttering his wings with a fierce expression, but since he was naturally invisible to others, I calmly turned my head in perfect health.

“…Prince Antonio.”

Our eyes met. He was frozen in place.
I spoke to him.

“Shall we talk?”

Of course, the topic of conversation, its beginning and end—everything would be determined by me.

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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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