Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 19

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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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After leaving the Prison, I set the dragon I’d been cradling down in front of the cats.

“That must hurt.”
“Poor thing.”

On and Hong, who hadn’t spoken a word until now, circled around the dragon, but it bared its teeth in wariness. In its four years of life, this was likely the first time it had encountered beings other than humans.

I checked my watch. The timing would be perfect if we escaped now.

“That must hurt.”

On approached and tapped my leg with her front paw. She seemed to be recalling the potion I’d brought from the magic box. Unable to voice her request, she expressed it through action instead.

“Stay still.”

I had brought that potion with the intention of using it. But I needed to release the mana control device first. The potion would only take full effect once the dragon’s heart—its mana—was freed.

I headed toward the opposite side of where the Prison was located, to where the Torturer typically stood guard. My hearing wasn’t particularly sharp, but I could hear Choi Han fighting in the distance. That battle would likely end soon as well.

“Let me see.”

I ran my hand along the Cave wall where the Torturer had been. I kicked the Torturer, who was in the way, far off to the side, then examined the wall carefully. The dragon bared its teeth watching the Torturer get kicked, but soon refocused on me.

‘Benion’s final arrangement should be somewhere around here.’

Like the people of the Sten Marquis House, Benion was extremely concerned about external intrusions when he was present. To prepare for such situations, he had created a secret escape route. The Torturer didn’t know about it, which is why he couldn’t escape.

‘I heard there’s an unusually flat spot somewhere—here it is.’

Among the rough, uneven Cave walls, there was a spot about the size of a palm that was perfectly smooth. Unlike Benion, who appeared obsessively meticulous, the people of the Marquis Household had learned combat techniques passed down through generations of their family.

‘If I apply sufficient force to that spot, the wall will open.’

It wasn’t a magical device. Rather, it was a mechanism where physical force would activate the mechanical device inside. I turned my head back and asked the person who had entered.

“Is it finished?”
“Yes.”

Choi Han lightly swung his sword through the air, flinging the blood from its blade, and approached me. His gaze shifted toward the dragon, then twisted with disgust—the universal reaction to witnessing a small creature drenched in blood. The look in Choi Han’s eyes as he glared at the Torturer was lethal.

“Choi Han.”

So I called out to him, and Choi Han reported while still glaring at the Torturer.

“As you instructed, I left the fleeing laborers alone. I also rendered those with combat ability incapacitated.”
“Well done.”

I praised him and pointed to a flat section of wall about the width of my palm.

“Punch right here.”
“With all my strength, sir?”

Would the cave collapse?

“No. Moderately. Just punch through this wall about ten centimeters or so.”
“Ah, you make it sound so simple, sir.”
“That’s right.”

Simple. I stepped back from Choi Han, who described something I couldn’t accomplish as merely “simple.” Interpreting my retreat as a signal to hurry, Choi Han immediately clenched his fist and struck the wall.

Boom!

“Wow.”
“Oh.”

While the cat siblings marveled, I hastily cradled the dragon in my arms.

Screeeech—
A bone-chilling sound echoed from the wall, and in an instant, with a deep rumble, an opening large enough for an adult man to pass through appeared on one side of the cave. Choi Han immediately grabbed a torch.

“Let’s go.”

At my command, the cats climbed onto Choi Han’s back, and he charged into the passage ahead. I followed behind him. The dragon said nothing, only breathing heavily. Yet the intensity in its gaze as it stared at me was murderous.

Its eyes held no gratitude for being rescued—only wariness of further violence, distrust of humans, and pure hatred.

“Stop glaring at me like that.”

I tossed a casual remark to the dragon nestled in my arms.

‘Ah, I’m running out of breath.’

I pushed myself harder to keep pace with Choi Han’s effortless stride, my breathing growing ragged and labored.
Should I have left the dragon with Choi Han instead?
The one-meter dragon was surprisingly heavy. If I only possessed the ancient power ‘Vitality of the Heart’, this wouldn’t be so exhausting.
Fearing I might lose my temper and abandon it, I clutched the dragon tighter to my chest. After all the effort to obtain it, I couldn’t possibly leave it behind here.
The dragon watched me struggle. My black clothes were becoming drenched in its blood.

After running through the narrow, dark passage for several minutes, Choi Han spoke to me.

“There’s a wall ahead.”
“Punch the center of it. Then keep running as I told you.”
“Understood!”

The cats leaped from Choi Han’s shoulders and began bounding along the floor. He tensed his fist and struck the center of the wall with the same force as before.

Boom!
The wall crumbled instantly. The night sky came into view. We were outside the cave. This time, I took the lead and surveyed our surroundings.

The reason the mana trajectory disruption device was needed across the entire mountain. Benion had installed an image recording device at this secret passage entrance as well. He was thorough.

I only knew the general location of this passage entrance, not its exact position. That’s why disrupting the mana trajectory across the entire mountain was necessary.
Time was running short. I had to escape the recording device’s range within one or two minutes.

But it was enough time.
Choi Han followed behind me, leaving traces in some places and erasing them in others. Having survived for so long in the Dark Forest, he was an expert when it came to tracks. After running in the opposite direction from the secret passage exit for two minutes, I checked my watch and spoke.

“Stop.”

The whirring sound that had been ringing out abruptly ceased. The mana trajectory disruption device had finished operating.

“Phew.”

I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart. The stronger my heart pounded, the more the unbreakable shield enveloping it gathered power, as if preparing for an emergency.

‘I have no intention of using it anyway.’

However, Kale had no intention of using this shield just yet. His plan was to release the dragon, part ways with Choi Han in the next city, and then obtain the ‘Vitality of the Heart’ to strengthen this shield. Only after that would he use it.

As Kale found a moment to look around, he lowered his gaze to the dragon he had brought with him.
A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

The defiant gleam had vanished from the dragon’s eyes, replaced by a gaze brimming with awe as it looked up at the night sky. For the first time in four years, it beheld the outside world. Kale understood that emotion to some degree and wished to grant it time, but he could not afford to.

He placed the dragon atop the brush and observed it. The dragon observed him in return. Its eyes, now sharp with defiance and wariness once more, narrowed as it crouched low, every muscle tensed for combat.

‘Without that submissive posture, it must have endured beatings for all four years.’

And so Kale found himself drawn to this dragon in its current state. It was unlike him, after all.
Beaten as an orphan and raised in servitude, I—Kim Rok-soo—had surrendered. Afterward, I refused to become a protagonist like Choi Han. I had capitulated from the very place I might have called home, and I lacked the strength to fight the world.

“Hey.”

After confirming the dragon’s attention, Kale withdrew a pair of gloves and a large pair of shears from his magic pouch. Countless magical runes were inscribed along both blades of the shears. He donned the gloves, which would not conduct electricity.

These shears were one of the two items Kale had been forced to borrow under Bilos’s name. This was not something one could simply rent with money.

‘I don’t understand why this is necessary, but Young Master, I sincerely hope to see you alive in the Capital.’
‘Who said anything about dying?’
‘Still, I can tell you’re planning to cause an accident.’
‘…Shut up.’

As Kale recalled his conversation with Bilos, he suddenly noticed the atmosphere had grown eerily quiet. Choi Han stared at the menacing shears with bewildered eyes, while On and Hong had retreated behind Choi Han, distancing themselves from Kale.
The dragon’s eyes held an expression of serene acceptance.

“Tsk.”

Kale clicked his tongue at their reaction and approached the dragon. The collar fitted with the mana control device was made of a rubber-like material. Had it been iron, it would not have fit a growing dragon, so it was crafted from elastic material instead.

He grasped the dragon’s neck.

“Gasp.”

The cats drew in sharp breaths. The sooner this was done, the better, so Kale ignored their reaction and moved forward. The shears advanced toward the collar. The sharp blades gleamed in the moonlight, and the dragon fixed its gaze solely upon Kale’s eyes. Kale’s eyes were devoid of emotion, mechanical and cold. The dragon closed its eyes.

Then, with a sharp snip, the sound of something being severed filled the space around them.
Crackle. Crackle. The mana control leash, severed without resistance, sparked faintly in my hand.

“What are you staring at?”

I opened my eyes again and asked the dragon watching me curtly, then removed one glove and handed it to Choi Han. Choi Han accepted the glove, slipped it on, took the leash from me, and pulled a potion from my pocket.

It was a supreme-grade potion. This one had cost a fortune too. Later, asking for pocket money had become so awkward. I clicked my tongue and glared sharply at the dragon.

“Do you have any idea how much money I’ve spent on you?”

The dragon had heard this phrase countless times before. It was something I’d always said since its birth. I’d spent so much money—why wouldn’t it obey? It deserved to be beaten. So it was beaten. They would strike while telling it not to think, only to listen obediently.
But.

“So shape up and earn your keep. You foolish creature.”

The dragon felt no pain.

I poured about half the potion evenly over the dragon’s body and forced the rest down its throat. Fortunately, the dragon didn’t resist and swallowed it.

A few minutes later, I couldn’t help but think that a dragon was indeed a dragon. The mana that was the dragon’s heart and the source of all its power seemed to be stirring.

All of the dragon’s wounds vanished in an instant, and a ripple of mana’s power enveloped its body, swirling around like wind.
Witnessing this transformation unfold in the blink of an eye, I realized once again that the dragon was an overwhelming and formidable existence.

“Hey.”

Now the dragon would suffer no further harm. The clever creature seemed to have realized what had happened to its body—its eyes blazed with renewed vitality.
I stepped closer to the dragon. The young dragon crouched and examined me carefully. I ignored this and asked.

“What do you want to do?”

Watching the dragon keep its mouth firmly shut without answering, I let out a soft laugh.

“I know you can speak human language. You’re a dragon, after all. The most intelligent and arrogant of all beings.”

I asked once more.

“What would you do if you were free?”
“…I would.”

The dragon’s mouth opened. So it could speak human language after all. It was far more intelligent than any human. The notion that it hadn’t learned to speak in four years made no sense.

“I would.”

The dragon understood instinctively. With this power, I could kill the man before me. Of course, the one behind him frightened me, but I could escape alive. I had finally obtained the strength I’d waited for through countless hours.
So the dragon spoke what it had rehearsed thousands of times over—words it had never dared voice aloud.

“I will live.”

Live. No matter what, I will live.

“I will escape.”

Escape from this place.
It spoke its true heart.

“I refuse to be tamed.”
“Yes. That’s right.”

Kale affirmed the dragon’s words.

“You are a dragon. A dragon deserves to live freely.”

A dragon of four years possessed strength surpassing most living creatures. It had more than enough power to survive on its own. Self-reliant dragons typically yearned to establish their own lairs by age two—a growth incomprehensible compared to human development.

Watching the dragon’s wary eyes, still unable to trust humans, Kale spoke with absolute conviction.

“I will not raise you.”

There was no reason for Kale to care for something stronger than himself. And keeping this creature around was far too dangerous to justify its keep. It was different from On and Hong. Dragons existed beyond Kale’s scope.

The dragon did not believe Kale’s words.

“A lie. Humans only speak lies.”

Anger seeped into the dragon’s eyes. Yet this fury was not directed at Kale. It was the innate arrogance of a dragon’s pride—a rage born from countless hours of having that pride systematically crushed.

“I’m not exactly truthful myself.”

I readily agreed with the dragon’s words and continued speaking.

“Live however you wish. What do you want to do?”
“I—”

The young dragon lifted its head and gazed at the night sky. It was different from the darkness I had seen in the cave. Dark, yet luminous.

“I hate humans. I want to be free.”
“Very well.”

I rose from my seat. Then, as a final gesture, I withdrew several intermediate potions from my magical pouch and placed them in a small bag beside the dragon.

“Live freely.”

The dragon’s black pupils dilated and trembled. Within them lingered distrust and deep wariness still. But that was none of my concern.

‘This should suffice.’

I had freed the dragon, given Benion water to drink, saved the village, and allowed Choi Han to understand freedom through the dragon.
Most importantly, I didn’t have to take responsibility for the dragon. It was plainly obvious that it didn’t want to follow us. A most satisfactory outcome.
Satisfied, I spoke to my companions in a light tone.

“Let’s go.”

Without hesitation, I turned my back on the dragon and took my first step forward. Choi Han followed without complaint, obscuring our tracks. The cat-kin siblings, who had paused briefly, began following me after seeing the dragon turn its head away from me.
Once even the cat-kin siblings showed me their backs as they followed, the dragon lifted its head and watched their retreating figures.

“…I hate humans. They are wicked….”

The dragon’s gaze was fixed not on the sight of a world it was seeing for the first time, but on the retreating figure of humans—beings it had grown weary of and despised with familiarity.

Hong approached his sister On as he followed behind me.

“Sister, I think it’s going to follow us.”
“Yeah. I think so too.”
“Am I getting a younger sibling?”
“It seems that way.”

The cats tilted their heads as they conversed. Kale let out a hollow laugh at their words and responded as if it were absurd.

“That’s ridiculous. Dragons are fiercely independent by nature and cannot abide being beneath humans. And that creature despises all humans.”

On’s expression grew dissatisfied. If a cat could wear such a look, it would be identical to On’s now. She shook her head and murmured softly.

“…I don’t think that’s true.”
“…Mm.”

Hong turned to look back and affirmed her words. The Black Dragon was still watching them. Hong was certain of it—that dragon, who had savored freedom, would soon be sharing beef with him.
To the grumbling siblings, Kale spoke.

“Bring the orbs.”

The siblings departed to fetch the orbs for beef. Kale patted Choi Han’s shoulder without even glancing at the siblings.

“You did well.”

Today, Choi Han had attempted to save something for the first time. There had been battles with bandits before, but those were more about protecting than saving.
Of course, in the book, saving these villagers had been rewritten as saving the dragon I had killed. But the act of ‘saving’ itself was what mattered to Choi Han.

“Kale.”
“Yes?”

Choi Han, who had called out but remained silent for a long while, finally opened his mouth.

“What if the dragon’s freedom meant following you? What would you have done then?”
“That won’t happen.”
“But what if? Hypothetically.”

Hypothetically. I pondered this for a moment before answering lightly.

“I don’t dwell on things that haven’t happened and are now past.”

Yet in that instant, for some inexplicable reason, the back of my neck prickled with unease, and I turned to glance behind me for the first time. Fortunately, the Black Dragon was nowhere to be seen.

I relaxed and, after finishing all remaining tasks, fell asleep at the lodging. Thus I remained unaware that the dragon, concealed by magic wielded with intent for the first time that night, gazed at my window for a long while. The dragon clutched the potion pouch tightly to its chest.

And the next morning, Kale received a question from Choi Han early at dawn.

“Kale, if we travel a few more days, we’ll reach a city. Is that the midpoint?”

Soon, Choi Han would have to earn his keep as Kale had promised.
This also meant that the time was approaching for Kale to obtain another ancient power—a power that, one month from now, the Marquis Household’s eldest son, who had been driven out by Benion, would desperately seek as his final hope.
Yet it was a power he could never wield.

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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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