Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 251

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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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There are traces.
At those words, Kale Heniatus could not afford to waste any more time.

Three days.
A span both long and short.

“I’ll listen to the explanation on the way.”
“Very well.”

Kale wrapped Raon in the blanket once more and cradled him against his chest. With Erhafen present, he could teleport directly to the Eastern Continent without delay.
At that moment, Erhafen turned his gaze toward the tent entrance and spoke.

“The Crown Prince has arrived.”

Moments later, Kale sensed rustling sounds near the tent entrance. Now that he thought about it, Choi Han and the others had grasped the general circumstances, but Crown Prince Alberu would certainly find Kale’s sudden departure from the operation puzzling.

“May I enter?”

Alberu’s voice came from outside the entrance. As Kale, who held Raon in his arms, looked toward Erhafen, the latter approached the tent entrance and lifted the fabric aside.
Alberu paused upon seeing Erhafen.

The platinum-haired knight who had come as Kale’s escort when the 4 Nations 1 Race Alliance was formed in the past. There had been no word of his arrival, yet to encounter him directly at the tent like this was enough to give Alberu pause.

At the sound of Kale’s voice in that moment, Alberu shifted his gaze away from Erhafen and stepped forward.

“Your Highness, I would prefer if only you entered.”
“I was planning on it anyway.”

Alberu was already stepping into the tent alone. If this was a matter significant enough for Kale to abandon the operation, then secrecy would be paramount.

“What is this about?”

Crown Prince Alberu cut straight to the heart of the matter. Kale preferred such direct conversation as well.

‘It’s time to tell him now.’

Kale strode forward until he stood directly before Alberu.

“Why is he like this?”

Alberu hesitated again at the sight of Kale Heniatus striding across the dark tent with an expressionless face, drenched in blood from head to toe—a truly ominous appearance.
But what followed left him utterly bewildered.

“…Huh?”

A vacant sound escaped him, hardly befitting a Crown Prince.
Alberu’s pupils trembled.

A creature’s face peeked out from between the folds of a blanket bundle. Round and plump in appearance, it looked quite adorable even with its eyes closed.
But that wasn’t the problem.

The moment Alberu’s eyes met Kale’s, a calm voice struck the back of his head like a hammer.

“It’s a Dragon. A Dragon in its first growth phase.”
“…Huh?”
“Six years old. His name is Raon Mir. A fine name I gave him.”
“…Huh?”

But Kale wasn’t finished speaking. He held Raon Mir in one arm while pointing at Erhafen with the other.

“This person is an Ancient Dragon. The oldest Dragon to have lived on the Western Continent.”

Alberu’s eyes blinked.
He shook his head slightly for a moment.

‘Am I exhausted?’

Had he not slept properly for days?

While commanding his troops and organizing the military camp, Crown Prince Alberu had been able to learn the detailed flow of the war through video communication, which he hadn’t witnessed in person.
Judging that someone who was essentially Kale’s hands and feet would be best suited to give him the most objective account of the war’s progression, he had called upon the least busy person among Kale’s group to hear about the battles.

That least busy person was Hillsman Vice-Captain of the Heniatus Territory Knight Order.

As Alberu listened to Hillsman recount the aspects of the war, the more he heard, the more he had to wonder why he was so exhausted.

‘His Highness unfurled a silver shield. Then, alongside that magnificent barrier, he burst forth liquid fire to construct a wall.’
‘A water barrier spread from Kale’s hands, and the Whale Tribe began their rampage!’
‘After that, the shield shattered. I thought with the arrival of such tremendous crisis that His Highness would collapse. But then, His Highness unleashed the ancient power he had concealed. After the shield and water, finally he launched hundreds of stone spears into the sky!’

I also heard reports of Choi Han and the others’ exploits. But Alberu found himself doubting his own ears at Kale’s account of the shield, water, and stone spears.

‘And so I finally realized that the shield does not break! Your Majesty!’

Hilsman, reporting with veins bulging from his neck and an impassioned tone, appeared quite excited. Under normal circumstances, I would have questioned his objectivity at such behavior, but seeing the Knight Commander of the Royal 1st Knight Order sniffling behind Hilsman and the temporary commander of the Mage Battalion nodding in agreement, I could say nothing.

‘A Dragon, you say?’

And not just one, but two?
My eyes turned toward the Ancient Dragon. The Ancient Dragon shrugged his shoulders with an impassive face.

“Pleased to meet you.”

The Ancient Dragon treating me like a subordinate.
I had thought he was a guard knight, but he was a Dragon.

I was utterly dumbfounded.

But Kale’s report continued.
Kale still had more to say.

“Ah, and if I make a mistake, I will explode and die in three days.”
“What? You crazy—!”

Oh. Erhafen let out an admiring whistle at that sharp profanity, and I stopped mid-sentence, wiping my face with both hands.
Kale continued with an unperturbed expression.

“The ancient power has developed a problem. Right now I’m barely holding on with a temporary measure, but apparently I can only endure for three days.”

Crown Prince Alberu found myself at a loss for words at his composed face. It was not the face of someone telling lies, nor was it his nature to speak falsehoods of this magnitude.

And thinking about it, what he said was likely to be the truth.

‘His Highness kept coughing up blood, so I worried whether something terrible was happening, but he commanded the battlefield with unwavering composure!’

Hillsman Vice-Captain’s voice echoed through my mind.
It was an established fact that whenever Kale used ancient power, he would suffer injuries or require recovery time as a consequence.
A man like that had used three ancient powers he’d kept hidden as trump cards. Could his body possibly be in normal condition?

“That’s why I believe I’ll need to operate separately for the next three days.”

What a foolish bastard.
Crown Prince Albert felt curses rising to the tip of his tongue, but he restrained himself.

He occasionally sensed that he and Kale were similar people. Neither overlooked profit, and both occasionally employed underhanded tactics. Yet when their purposes served the greater good.

The greater good.
Crown Prince Albert was the one who shouldered the weight of that name and pressed forward.

After a long moment, he opened his mouth.

“Three days of leave. You must return after that without fail.”

He wanted to grant more leave, but he had to speak the word “return” without exception.

“Understood. As Your Highness, the Sun of Rowan, has commanded, I must obey. After the war, I’ll resign from my position as commander. I’ll accept the compensation generously, but I decline the medal.”
“…You talk too much. How does a man like you earn the title of Silver Shield Prince.”
“I dislike that title as well, Your Highness.”

Despite Kale’s genuine distaste for the epithet, Crown Prince Albert pretended not to notice Kale, Raon, and Erhafen as he headed toward the tent’s exit. It was the wisest course—to feign ignorance of their existence.

Whoosh.
The tent flap was drawn open and then closed again. Kale turned his gaze from the sealed entrance and walked toward Erhafen, who had already constructed a teleportation circle.

Beneath Erhafen’s feet, an intricately inscribed magical circle glowed with brilliant light. As Kale stepped onto it, Erhafen immediately activated the spell.

Whirrrrr—

My vision blurred as I closed my eyes.
The moment I felt my body being transported, I heard the Ancient Dragon’s voice.

“That bastard’s teleporting directly to Olien’s Lair.”

The Ancient Dragon who had lived longest on the Eastern Continent—Kale was being transported to his lair.

* * *

The moment I opened my eyes, I could see the ruined cavern.

The Lair, which must have once been filled with beautiful carvings as if a massive cave had been sculpted for that purpose, was now blanketed in dust and partially destroyed, stripped of its former grandeur.

No one would ever believe this cavern had been a Dragon’s Lair.

Yet Kale recognized it as a Dragon’s Lair the moment he entered. Erhafen’s bitter voice reached his ears.

“The final resting place of a Dragon who did not die of natural causes.”

A Dragon that did not return to nature.
Whether by suicide or murder, a Dragon who departed before completing its destined lifespan bore a different form than those who lived out their full years.

Before Kale’s eyes lay a Dragon in grotesque decay.

Dragons who lived their full span, who completed those long, endless lives, exhaled brilliant light at the moment of death, scattering as luminous dust into the world.

But like the Dragon bones in the Dark Forest Black Swamp, a Dragon who did not live its full years underwent decomposition like any other natural creature.
Slowly, very slowly, it seeped back into nature.

“Normally decomposition takes about a hundred years, but this one…”

Erhafen paused, exhaled softly, and continued.

“This one died in its own Lair, so decomposition was delayed. Being in such a pristine space slowed the decay. That’s why it looks like this now.”

Kale could say nothing.
He could vividly feel why Erhafen had been enraged.

Around the dead Dragon’s heart, a section had been hollowed out.
The Dragon’s corpse—better described as gnawed rather than eaten—had lost its heart and the flesh around it, continuing its decay in that mutilated state.

“Olien was a Green Dragon. A terribly rude one, always talking back, a completely undisciplined bastard. But he was quite decent, almost as much as the little one.”

Erhafen buried the old memories instead of speaking them aloud and walked ahead.

“Follow me. I’ll show you the traces of water.”

He smacked his lips for a moment before speaking.

“Once all the truth is revealed and I’ve extracted every piece of information I need from that bastard, I’ll return him to nature. Without fail.”

Erhafen saw Kale Heniatus walking alongside him.

“Let’s move quickly.”

True to his nature of acting before speaking, he let out a shallow laugh watching Kale stride ahead of him. Erhafen soon positioned himself in front of Kale, who didn’t know the way, and guided him to the secret space.

Kale walked through the massive Lair, which despite being crumbled and shrouded in dust, still emanated an antique charm, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

A dragon’s secret space.
Where could it be?
I was truly curious.
And about the hints of ancient water power that might be there as well.

Corridors, reception rooms, studies, and even bedrooms—Kale’s expression remained composed as he passed through every space, until he came to a halt upon reaching the destination.

“…A bathroom?”
“To be precise, a bathtub. I’m quite fond of half-baths.”
“I see.”

The dragon’s secret space was a bathroom.
As Kale stared at the space with a lukewarm expression, Erhafen placed his hand on the bathtub. That was the moment.

-Are you going to make a sacrifice?

What?

Jjangdol reacted.

-Will I get to eat again?

The Glutton Goddess’s voice also rang out.

Why are these two acting like this?
As Kale’s mind grew complicated, he squinted his eyes at the brilliant light that seized his vision.

Uuuuuung—

Erhafen’s hand held a platinum-hued mana.
The moment that mana made contact, countless emerald magic circles activated in the bathtub. And those magic circles soon began to envelop the entire bathroom.

At the same time, Kale let out an exclamation.

“…Wow.”

A forest appeared.
The ordinary cave that had been a bathroom transformed into a forest.

“Olien’s attribute is wood. That creature created a forest within his personal space.”

Where the bathtub had been, a tree now stood. The tree was massive, and at its base was a circular hollow carved out.
And within that hollow, a diary was visible. The diary was wrapped in ordinary leather, with a small parchment tucked into its middle.

Erhafen picked up the diary.

“A dragon’s most precious treasure is actually records. A record of their existence in this world. That’s why the first thing they place in a secret location is always records.”

He thought he was spouting unnecessary information to Kale and Raon, so he quickly opened the diary. The diary opened to the page where the parchment was inserted.

“This page alone in the diary is written in the Western Continent’s language, not the Eastern Continent’s.”

The single page of the diary written uniquely in the Western Continent’s language. Erhafen picked up the parchment resting on that page.

“It’s an ancient parchment with preservation magic. It seems like something left from a very long time ago. This might be the clue we need— Hmm? Why does your expression look like that?”

Kale’s face became subtly ambiguous—somewhere between smiling and crumpling.
A single character on the parchment was written very large and clearly visible.

【Letter of Resignation】

A familiar intensity transmitted through him. He recalled the time when he received a wooden tablet from an Elf Priest at the World Tree Elf Village, one related to the water of judgment.

That too had been written as a letter of resignation.
Only the contents were slightly different.

The wooden plaque bore these words:

【World Tree, you foolish bastard! I’m finally free!】
【Judging Water? Now I’m a liberated soul!】

The intensity of the message was striking, and it confirmed that this ancient power’s owner was far from ordinary. But this time, the content was somewhat different.

【You wicked bastards! Casting me out? You white-haired fools. I should blast you all with a water cannon!】
【The god only makes me work, and you white-haired bastards scheme to stab me in the back! Why don’t you try getting stabbed yourselves!】
【I’m free! Judgment can freeze to death! I’m going to play!】

The increasingly intense words made Kale’s mind spin with complexity.

The Dried-up Lake in the Paern Kingdom.

The place where a god who cherished a child cast them out to create a river, and in anger, the god took away the water.

The one who had cast that person out was the Seka Family, bearing the symbol of white hair.

‘Could it be?’

Was the child the god cherished the owner of this ancient power?
Kale read the final sentence.

【I’ll cause chaos just like Jjangdol the Lightning Spender! Just you wait!】

Jjangdol the Lightning Spender. The destructive fire.
A memory surfaced of one of the deeds done by the ancient power’s owner who loved money.
It was a story he’d heard when visiting the World Tree—how the destructive fire had overturned the Northern Continent and caused the World Tree to sense danger.

A question suddenly occurred to him.

‘Who extinguished that fire?’

Kale wondered if the one who had extinguished the fire might be the owner of the ‘Judging Water.’

“There’s a location in this diary where this parchment was discovered. I suspect the power of water might be present there.”

Kale’s gaze turned toward the diary.
In that moment, Jjangdol spoke to him through his mind.

-First the Glutton Goddess, then Jjangdol, the Thief, the Crybaby, and now-

The Unbreakable Shield, the Destructive Fire, Wind’s Sound, the Vitality of the Heart.
Those names passed through one after another.

-This time, a mad one.

What kind of one?

-Are you trying to sacrifice them?

At Jjangdol’s voice, filled with genuine concern, Kale found himself at a loss for words.

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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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