Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 240

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

The canyon that should have crumbled under the magical bombs fired from the cannons.

Rumble—

The rocks of the sheer cliff face collapsed inward.
The shattered boulders began to fill the deep, cavernous canyon below.

“This… this can’t be—”

The Indomitable Alliance knights hastily dismounted from their horses at the unimaginable tremors beneath their feet. Their grip tightened on the reins, yet they remained oblivious, their words dying as they witnessed the spectacle before their eyes.

The soldiers of the Breck Kingdom Camp experienced the same shock. Those who had fled to the camp to escape the magical bombs lifted their flattened bodies from the ground.

“This is our power—”

The soldiers trembled at the sight of their allies’ display. Their gaze, as they rose to their feet, converged on a single point.
Where Kale and his companions stood. They alone faced this spectacle with unwavering composure.

A portion of the hundreds of kilometers spanning the canyon. Just a few kilometers of it had been filled with rock and earth.

“The Indomitable Alliance’s operation was successful.”

Rosalind laughed as she witnessed the enemy’s plan succeed.

Why?

Because a barrier of deep blue flames rose, consuming the collapsed cliff face and the surrounding area.
The deep blue fire reflected in Rosalind’s crimson eyes.

‘Dragons truly are remarkable.’

Though her insides churned from the excessive mana expenditure, she could not suppress her laughter. Then, a small voice reached her ears.

“…Rosalind, I’ll put you down now.”

Rosalind flinched. She was still being carried on Kale’s shoulders.
She glanced back slightly. Kale’s arms trembled visibly.

‘…Ah, this weak person—’

The moment I realized this weak person had hoisted me onto his shoulders and run, pity and remorse flooded through me. I quickly dismounted from Kale’s shoulder.
I had expected to see him grimacing in pain, but when I looked at his face, I froze.

His utterly serene expression was directed toward the barrier of dark blue flames.

‘The bridge is blocked.’

The Canyon of Death, stretching hundreds of kilometers. The enemy’s bridge that should have been erected in its center had been rendered useless by the barrier of dark blue flames.

Of course, the enemy might attempt to construct another bridge on the remaining cliffs elsewhere.
But each time, the pillars of flame planted throughout the cliff face would stand in their way.

“Rosalind.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Now it seems we need only have the Mage Battalion systematically shoot down the airborne enemies.”

Already, I was directing the Mage Battalion with hand signals, preparing long-range aerial attack magic. I continued speaking with a noticeably lighter heart.

“And we’ll assemble the Knights and Soldiers to establish positions along the cliff, monitoring and preventing the enemy’s attempts to collapse the canyon again.”

Now it would be a prolonged war.
Though we had blocked the enemy’s passage, conversely, the Breck Kingdom’s forces now had no viable means to attack the enemy beyond the cliff except through magic. We had strong individuals, but their numbers were too few to overcome hundreds of thousands of troops.
Moreover, I wanted to win with minimal losses to our forces.

“In a prolonged war, the enemy will eventually retreat due to supply problems. Especially the Northern Region—spring brings the most severe food shortages, doesn’t it? The Breck Kingdom has no issues with food supplies.”
“That won’t work.”
“Pardon?”

A rare note of firmness entered his voice.

“A prolonged war won’t work.”
“Your Highness?”

My relief evaporated as my heart began racing again. Kale’s face remained serene, yet I could sense the tension crystallizing in his eyes.

Tension.
A word that seemed utterly foreign to Kale. That’s why unease washed over me. In that moment, Kale’s gaze finally left the dark blue flame pillar.

“We need to handle this quickly.”

Kale’s true war was only beginning now.
From this moment forward, it was a race against time.

Kale could not stop fighting because of a certain existence. Rosalind had only heard of it—she had never experienced it herself.
But Kale had experienced it.
Kale called upon someone he had been preparing all this time.

“Merry.”

A black robe billowed as it turned toward Kale. By now, the sky was already tinged with a bluish hue as night began to fade away.
Then crimson hair came into sharp focus.

“There. Those things.”

Merry’s gaze shifted to where Kale’s finger pointed—wings fluttering above the pillars of flame, appearing almost panicked.
The moment she took them in, Kale’s command descended.

“Erase them entirely.”

Destroy every last trace of them.

“Merry, those wings are also adorned with the bones of the dead.”

Ah.
An exclamation escaped Merry’s lips.
Rosalind also flinched in surprise, her eyes fixed on Kale. The bones of a dead wyvern. A Necromancer who raises the corpses of the fallen. In that instant, a single image crystallized in Rosalind’s mind.
A smile played at the corners of the Necromancer’s mouth, hidden beneath the black robe.

“Understood.”

A mechanical voice rang out. Simultaneously, black threads began to extend from Merry’s hands.
Flutter, flutter. The skeletal wyvern, now nothing but blackened bone, beat its wings. At the same time, its talons scraped against the ground and launched it skyward.

Kale lifted his gaze.
The black wyvern soared upward, and from impossibly high in the sky above, a single figure plummeted downward toward it.

Tap!

The wyvern’s body swayed slightly.
But the figure standing atop it remained perfectly steady. Choi Han, the black-haired Sword Master, gripped the wyvern’s neck and climbed higher along the teal-blue barrier of flames.

A flock of ravens swept past him. Hundreds of black birds carving a dark path across the sky. Tangled feathers wove a new landscape in the heavens.

One of them alighted on Choi Han’s shoulder.
As its beak opened, a familiar voice emerged instead of a bird’s cry.

“A message from Kale.

It was the voice of Gashan, the Tiger Shaman.
The messenger raven conveyed its master’s words.

And there was more than one messenger.
The Tiger Tribe members in white robes, perched high in the sky overlooking the teal-blue flame barrier. The ravens delivered orders to them as well, even as they hastily staunched the bleeding from their minor wounds.

“The enemy’s wings are also traces of the dead. Break all their wings.”

Traces of the dead.
The Tiger Tribe understood the meaning clearly. Their gaze turned toward the being climbing the pillar of fire—Choi Han’s black wyvern.

Caw, caw.
The black messengers that had delivered the command took flight once more on the wind. Choi Han followed their movement, ascending skyward as he drew his blade.

A sharp ring of steel.

Black aura bloomed forth. Choi Han watched those passing by him descend toward the ground.
Three members of the Whale Tribe, smiling at Choi Han as they headed earthward. Orca Arch’s voice rang out.

“The dragon’s flames are a bit much for us. We’ll handle the ground.”

Choi Han simply nodded in response, ascending faster into the sky. Orca Arch shook his head at that fierce expression.

‘That one’s not normal either.’

The moment Orca Arch thought that, a thunderous sound erupted from behind.

Boom!

A black aura sliced through the air.

“Ugh!”

The Dwarves’ bodies were thrust backward involuntarily.
They stared down at their respective weapons in hand. The aura-scarred blades shattered and clattered to the ground.

A crackling sound.
And those fragments were consumed by a barrier of teal flame.
The black aura was unsettling, but the Dwarves found that barrier of fire far more terrifying.

“…Good heavens, such flames…”

The Dwarf holding an axe now blunted of its edge swallowed involuntarily.

The plan had crumbled.
Where a bridge should have materialized, fire erupted skyward.
It was a wild inferno felt all the more vividly by the Flame Dwarf Tribe.

Could such a pure, potent liquid exist among humans?

The Dwarves were seized by an incomprehensible dread—or rather, a comprehensible one.
A pure flame power that neither humans, nor Dwarves, nor beastmen, nor Elves could create.
Only one entity—a terror that reigned above the Dwarves—could manifest such power.

Yet they could not retreat.

“…We can’t. We have to do this ourselves. We can’t live bound like this.”

The Flame Dwarf Tribe, who had committed unspeakable acts to overcome their fear and break free from domination, activated their wing devices. But the trembling in their hands born of primal terror could not be hidden.

The Tiger Tribe and the Sword Master combined numbered fewer than thirty.
Meanwhile, the flying members of the Indomitable Alliance still numbered in the hundreds.
Especially since there were still those shielding the Dwarves’ advance.

A thunderous boom!

The Bear Tribe and Choi Han collided.

“Insane bastards! Pillars of flame?! Are you trying to set the entire canyon ablaze?!”

A Bear Tribe member shouted at Choi Han, his eyes darting frantically about. The Dwarf seemed shaken by the nullification of the flame pillars and magical bombs, his movements growing sluggish and hesitant.

‘This is exactly why those slave wretches never change their nature!’

The Bear Tribe member, who had boasted so confidently before but now cowered in fear, unable to properly handle the magical devices of the Flame Dwarf Tribe, regarded them with the contempt one reserves for garbage. He surveyed his surroundings once more.

The Tiger Tribe warriors bled profusely yet continued to hunt down the Bear Tribe members one by one.

‘Insane bastards…!’

The Bear Tribe member bit his lip.
The Eastern Continent for the Lion Tribe, the Western Continent for the Bear Tribe.
They had made such promises and systematically eliminated the Wolf Tribe of the Western Continent and the Tiger Tribe of the Eastern Continent one by one, yet everything had fallen apart like this!

‘And now the Whale Tribe is in on it too.’

The Whale Tribe—whom they had intended to subjugate by granting them dominion over the sea to connect the East-West Continent, only to have their plans thwarted.
He should have recognized that everything would unravel the moment they appeared.

Yet even now, having grasped the broader situation, the Bear Tribe member could not stop.
The communication orb hanging at his waist gleamed, transmitting the words of the Bear Tribe’s ruler.

-Fight. Endure.

Cunning though he was, the Bear Tribe member could not refuse the ruler’s command.
As a mid-level administrator, he immediately raised his voice to issue orders to his kin.

“Kill the ravens first! Bind the Tiger Tribe’s feet!”

Simultaneously, a tremendous roar thundered against his eardrums.

Kwaaang!

The Bear Tribe member looked ahead.
His subordinates clashed against the black aura.

“…Madman.”

Black aura surged skyward like a barrier of dark blue flame. Despite his gentle appearance, that black aura was wild and utterly unrestrained. The Knight seemed to deliberately unleash his aura in chaotic bursts.

‘…His face looks gentle, but his presence is anything but.’

The Bear Tribe member lightly tapped his two fists together.
Clang. Metal rang out from his armored knuckles. Simultaneously, his wings moved.
He dove into the center of the battlefield.

Crash!

His armored fist struck at part of the Wyvern’s wing bone.
The Bear Tribe member turned his head to look at Choi Han. Their eyes met. He flashed a grin at Choi Han and issued orders to the surrounding Bear Tribe members.

“Destroy the Wyvern!”

Aerial combat.
Whether Tiger Tribe or Sword Master. Eliminate their mounts, and that settles it.
The Bear Tribe member could see Choi Han’s lips pressed tightly together. This approach was working. A glimmer crossed his eyes as he evaded the black aura rushing toward him.

“Ugh!”

The aura was fast. But even in that moment, the Bear Tribe members continued pounding the Wyvern’s body.

Crash, bang! Bang!

Each time, the Wyvern skeleton extended its claws, attempting to wound the surrounding Bear Tribe members. But it was too slow.
The Wyvern’s claws repeatedly failed to reach the Bear Tribe members, merely scratching at their wings.

“Kahahaha! You think wings forged of iron and bone will shatter from mere claws?”

The Bear Tribe member laughed at the Necromancer on the ground attempting to protect the Wyvern. That very act of protection caused the black-haired Sword Master to lose his balance and stagger.
It was killing two birds with one stone.

“What good is aura if you just dodge it anyway!”

The Bear Tribe member evaded Choi Han’s black aura once more. That’s right—this Sword Master had only demonstrated his true power on solid ground. Whether sea or land, the sky was never his domain.
Of course, this Sword Master had fought the deceased guardian Knight Clophe before, but then he had ridden the bones of a dead Dragon, not the skeleton of some black Wyvern.

‘In the air, we have far greater freedom!’

The Bear Tribe was certain, and that certainty translated into action.
Boom, crash!
The wyvern shuddered. Amid the trembling, Choi Han could neither wield his sword properly nor fend off the assault.

“Ugh.”

A groan escaped Choi Han’s lips. With each one, the wyvern thrashed in silent agony, raking its claws at the Bear Tribe members.
But those claws never found their mark on the Bear Tribe’s bodies—they only left scratches across the wyvern’s own wings.

“Hahaha! How delightful! I’ll toss you and your wyvern into the inferno your allies have created!”

The Bear Tribe bared its tusks in a grin.

“We’ll see about that.”

In that instant, the Bear Tribe heard Choi Han’s voice. Simultaneously, a soft murmur came from Merry’s lips on the ground.

“It’s done.”

Black light began to pour from the dark wyvern’s hollow eyes.

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