Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 229

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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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In an instant, silence descended upon the Bandit Stronghold. But that silence was soon shattered by one man’s hearty, booming laughter.

“Hahahaha! You think you can catch me and beat me? Ahahaha, ah, you’re really amusing fellows, aren’t you?”

Thud. The massive axe slung across his shoulder came crashing down to the ground. Chae Ju began to glare at Kale Heniatus.

“I hate nothing more than watching the weakest bastard just run his mouth.”

A place where slaves were locked away and made to shed blood.
The gladiatorial arena.

The place where he had to fight against the younger brother with whom he’d sworn a bond of brotherhood. That brother had made him laugh even the night before their fight, back when he was still a slave.

Chae Ju had to survive in that place starting from the age of twelve.

The ones who made him and his sworn brother fight in that arena were weaklings like this one—they carried no powerful aura whatsoever, yet gave their orders with a mere flick of their fingers.

“I can only find peace by killing such wretches!”

The massive frame began to move.

“Gasp!”

The bandit whom Kale Heniatus had been comforting drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Chae Ju approaching and the colossal axe in his grip. An axe nearly the size of an adult man’s entire body.
It was a testament to Chae Ju’s immense divine power and an embodiment of terror. Even the Merchant Guild members would instinctively flee in fear at the mere sight of this axe.

‘Am I… going to die? Should I run too?’

The bandit’s mind whirled with countless thoughts, yet his entire body had frozen solid. Then a voice reached his ears.

“That’s complete nonsense.”

The bandit turned his head.
He saw the aggrieved expression on the red-haired man’s face.

‘He’s… upset?’

The bandit was puzzled, but Kale felt genuinely wronged.

‘Just complaining with words?’

Kale desperately wished he could live that way. If he could have lived like that, why would he have come to the Eastern Continent? He would have sprawled at home without moving a muscle.

Overwhelmed by indignation and a sense of injustice, Kale extended his hand forward with more emotion than ever before.

Kwaaang!

A tremendous roar echoed across the quiet mountain.
The bandit’s mouth fell open as he glanced to his side. He saw Kale. And he saw the shield extending from him.

The axe was blocked by the shield.
The axe couldn’t leave even the slightest scratch on the shield and couldn’t advance any further.

Chae Ju unconsciously tensed his grip.
The red-haired man staring at me beyond the shield. Whether it was magic or something else, I couldn’t tell, but the moment I blocked this shield, my palm began to tingle.

Innate divine power. Thanks to it, I had never felt pain or a lack of strength. I could defeat most intermediate knights. But now I felt the insufficiency of my power.

His lips curled upward.

“Hehehehe.”

The cool gaze of the man staring at me beyond the shield.

This sensation.

A gladiator.
The driving force that allowed me, unable to even hold a sword as a child, to climb up from the very bottom.
It wasn’t divine power—it was this sensation.

The pleasure felt on a tightrope.

I ultimately killed my sworn brother. In that moment, alongside sorrow came pleasure. The sorrow of being the only one to survive. Simultaneously, the pleasure of defeating my sworn brother who had been stronger than me.

I am a madman.

“Hehehehe.”

A bright smile played across his lips.

“You’re no weakling. You were strong too.”

In that moment, he could see the red-haired man’s mouth opening beyond the shield.

“But you don’t even come close.”

What?
As confusion flickered across Chae Ju’s eyes, Kale spoke.

“I owe Tunka an apology.”

Who?
Chae Ju furrowed his brow at the enemy speaking of another while standing before him. He lifted his axe again.
That instant.

Behind him.

A chill crept down his back.
Chae Ju froze and twisted his body.
But it was already too late.

“Ugh!”

His massive frame tilted backward. White-gloved hands seized the nape of his neck. The gloves effortlessly dragged his enormous body, and though Chae Ju thrashed, his body was already falling.

Chae Ju’s gaze shifted sideways. He could see a man’s eyes fixed upon him as he tumbled backward.

Eyes mingling coldness and irritation.
A man in immaculate clothing without a speck of dust, white gloves on his hands, and a greatsword gripped firmly in his palm.
He asked Chae Ju matter-of-factly.

“Have you bathed recently?”
“What nonsense— Gah!”

Thwack!
Chae Ju’s tumbling body ricocheted to the side. The flat of the greatsword struck his ribs squarely, and the impact transferred entirely through his frame.

Crash!

Chae Ju’s body slammed against the wooden palisade.

“Ugh! The ground! Grab it!”
“Hey, grab my body!”

The bandits leaning over the palisade railing gripped the trembling structure, their emotions laid bare across their faces.
Confusion, shock, fear.
As these sentiments manifested fully upon their visages, Vicross glanced toward Kale. Kale opened his mouth.

“Two more strikes.”

At those words, Vicross exhaled and pulled on fresh white gloves as he approached Chae Ju.

“Nngh…”

Chae Ju slowly pushed himself up from the palisade. The wooden structure bore the imprint of his body, deeply indented. His innate constitution—far beyond that of an ordinary human—left his frame unmarred by any wound.
Yet within, his body thrummed with the reverberations of impact.

“What in the world…”

Bewilderment settled across Chae Ju’s features.
His mind was shaken far more violently than the internal tremors coursing through his body.

He had sensed the enemy’s strength vaguely enough. But he never imagined they would be this formidable. He watched Vicross approach and gripped his axe once more. His hands trembled faintly.

Why would such powerful individuals ever come to Lib Mountain?

Even as doubt gnawed at him, he forced strength into his quivering hands and smiled. Still, they were strong—so he would simply fight and win. Then he could taste that exquisite pleasure.

Conversely, Kale exhaled a weary sigh.

“Tunka is definitely the stronger one.”

I thought he’d be similar since he came from a similar background, but he doesn’t even measure up to Tunka’s feet.
Well, that’s why he’s a bandit, I suppose.

“Young Master, isn’t Vicross strong as well?”
“Why ask the obvious?”

Kale answered Ron’s rhetorical question dismissively while observing Vicross.

Ron, whose assassination techniques centered on daggers were exceptional.
His son Vicross, who wielded a greatsword instead.

Yet the son had absorbed his father’s methods in his own way.

A warrior who fought silently despite wielding a greatsword.
Vicross was the master of swordplay as immaculate and flawless as his appearance—his technique more fluid than most knights.

Like delicate garnish adorning exquisite cuisine.
Like thorough knowledge of a person’s most vulnerable points.
Vicross’s greatsword contained all of these—a refined blade of meticulous precision.

Crash!

Another collision erupted. Kale watched as the axe flew skyward while Vicross’s palm drove toward Chae Ju’s back of the head.

Thwack!

“Two strikes.”
“Ugh!”

The force of the blow to Chae Ju’s skull sent his body tumbling forward. His eyes blazed with both searing pain and indignation.
Helpless. He was utterly helpless.
It was this very helplessness that made him recall something he’d desperately done as a young gladiator fighting for survival.
Before his body touched the ground, Chae Ju’s hand shot out, grasping dirt.

Cowardice be damned. It was the only way to survive.

His body shifted direction. His eyes met Vicross’s, and his hand moved. A voice with crimson hair reached his ears.

“Huh?”

A voice mixed with surprise.
Chae Ju twisted into a crooked smile.

‘That’s right, if I can’t land a proper blow, I need to do this much to be worthy of the Unyielding Ruler!’

He hurled the dirt in his hand toward Vicross’s eyes. It felt like this alone might ease his frustration.
The dirt flew through the air, and Chae Ju’s body tumbled straight to the ground.

Boom.

He fell with a heavy sound, but lying there, Chae Ju chuckled as he watched Vicross, now covered in dirt. The aristocratic cleanliness that had defined him was gone, and he looked just as shabby as Chae Ju himself.
Then a voice with red hair reached his ears once more.

“…That guy’s in for it now.”

What?
That was when Chae Ju sensed something was wrong.

“Do you want to die?”

Vicross’s eyes, now covered in dirt, turned toward Chae Ju with a murderous gleam.

“W-what!”

Chae Ju’s entire body suddenly went rigid at the sight of his eyes, which had turned cold and fierce unlike before. A massive sword was planted beside him.

The greatsword sank deep into the earth, and Vicross’s eyes, burning with rage and covered in dirt, fixed on Chae Ju.
Vicross removed his white gloves.
Vicross took off his white gloves.

The white gloves scattered carelessly across the ground. Watching this, Chae Ju heard Vicross’s voice.
White gloves lay scattered carelessly on the ground. Vicross’s voice reached Chae Ju as he watched them.

“I won’t kill you or draw blood. I won’t torture you either.”

When Chae Ju looked back at Vicross in alarm, Vicross spread his fingers.
When Chae Ju looked back at Vicross in surprise, Vicross spread his fingers.

One.
It could have meant just one more strike, but Vicross’s language carried a different meaning.

“A hundred. Let’s exchange exactly a hundred more blows.”

Kale Heniatus turned his gaze toward that distant mountain as he heard Vicross’s voice.
Thwack, crack, crack!
The sound of impacts echoed like background music, blending beautifully with the scenic mountain landscape.

“Aaaagh! Please! Stop! I was wrong, cough!”

Kale could hear Chae Ju’s anguished screams alongside the voice of the bandit beside him.

“That’s what you get for charging in recklessly. Knowing nothing about anything.”

Kale patted the bandit’s shoulder. The bandit’s face had turned from pale to a sickly blue, but Kale paid no mind and gazed toward the wooden palisade.
At his glance, the bandits flinched and gripped the palisade railing and their weapons. Fear and desperation were written all over them.

However, after witnessing Chae Ju take more than fifty blows, the bandits quietly opened the gate.

* * *

Soon, the finest house in the Indomitable Bandit Clan Base—the expensive leather chair that belonged to its leader—became Kale Heniatus’s.

“Hey.”
“Yes, sir!”

Chae Ju, whose eyes had swollen shut, bowed his flattened frame in response. His face was covered in bruises that had turned a dark purple.
Yet not a single scratch, drop of blood, or broken bone marked his body.

Kale popped a piece of fruit into his mouth—brought by one of the bandits who had been sculpting—and opened his lips to speak.

“You claim to rule the Lib Mountain region?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Mind your tone.”
“Yes, sir! Brother!”
“Why would I be your brother?”
“My apologies! Leader!”

Good grief, why am I Chae Ju?
Kale was exasperated but too lazy to press the matter, so he opened his mouth instead.

“Starting today, you all have work to do.”

Chae Ju swallowed hard and looked at Kale. But Kale was looking at someone else. The former Chae Ju turned his head to look at that person as well.

An elderly man with a benevolent smile.
For an old man, he had a sturdy build, but he gave off the impression of a scholar who always kept a sword at his side.
When looking at Vicross or Hana, one could sense the aura of a powerful warrior from their very presence.
But this elderly man didn’t look strong at all.

‘Is he some kind of strategist? What’s with this frail old man?’

The former Chae Ju’s expression grew uneasy, and at that moment, Kale’s voice reached his ears.

“He’s Vicross’s father.”
“Father! It’s an honor to meet you!”

Chae Ju suddenly grinned widely and bowed respectfully to Ron. To him, Kale’s calm voice drifted past.

“I heard there’s an organization that controls the Underworld of the Eastern Continent.”
“Y-yes, that’s right?”

Though they were mountain dwellers, the Underworld was something one had to know about if they wanted to fence stolen goods. For the past decade or so, the Underworld of the Eastern Continent had been shaken back and forth by an invisible force.

Of course, all those who had felt the power of that invisible organization were busy keeping quiet and preserving themselves. However, the Underworld, true to its name, existed in the shadows, and it was a place where transactions flowed quite freely and many sought their own gain.

Though one organization was said to control it, it wasn’t easy to say it had unified everything.
That was the Underworld.

“You’re called the Unyielding Ruler, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but…?”

The instincts of the former Chae Ju, honed through years as a slave gladiator, spoke to him.
Something about this felt ominous.
As Chae Ju felt this way, he could see Kale smiling brightly.

“Why are you asking that, sir?”

Chae Ju witnessed the bright smile on Kale’s lips as he answered my question.

“You will become another ruler of the Underworld starting today.”
“…What?”
“And the one who will be your ruler is this person.”

The former Chae Ju could see the cold glint in Ron’s eyes as he smiled benevolently.

Ron Mollan.
The last master of the Molan Family—one of the five great assassination and intelligence families of the Eastern Continent that had been annihilated by the Dark.

Kale had brought him back to the Eastern Continent.

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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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