Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 255

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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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Whoooosh—

Kale Heniatus’s body plummeted downward, ever downward through the depths.

Inside the lake, vision blurred as if shrouded by mist.
Only crimson blood flowing from Kale’s lips traced a scarlet path through the water.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My body trembled.
The lake itself was vibrating.

The lake pulsed in steady rhythm, like the beating of some vast heart.

Following that resonance, a voice I thought lost echoed through my consciousness.

—I was born a slave.

A voice reverberating across the entire lake.

The Judging Water.
No—the voice of the water that devours the sky spoke once more.

—I knew not who my parents were. The only thing I remember is the shackle bound around my ankle. Then one day, a god came to find me.

Her earliest memory was the shackle fastened around her ankle.
Having lived hearing a thousand times that her roots lay in slavery, a god came to her.

—He told me I possessed talent and freed me from slavery.

He said I had talent that could be used for the world.
So the god shattered my first shackle.

—But in its place, he bound me with a new one. That shackle’s name is the ‘Judging Water’.

Yet the second shackle forged by the god pierced her heart.

—People revered me for receiving the attention of the divine, and they believed without question that I would resolve the problems scattered across the lands. Yet those who sought to exploit me attempted to bind me in shackles once more.

As the third shackle was about to be fastened.

—I fled.

The only days in her life that held joy.
Breathless from running, yet still—those were moments of happiness.

—I met those who alone would help me, and fled to the Eastern Continent.

I fled alone.
Those who had made my escape possible remained behind on the Western Continent, binding shackles of their own making to their ankles.
They said they had work to do.

Without exception, they stayed on that land and fought, each declaring they had duties to fulfill.
And so she fled.
She became free.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The vibrations within the lake began to accelerate. Simultaneously, Kale’s body convulsed violently, as though caught in a raging current.

And within that misty lake.

Whoooosh— Whoooosh—

Something cut through the mist, drawing closer to Kale with gathering speed.

Clank—

Chains.
Translucent chains forged from water surged upward from the lake’s depths, rushing toward Kale at tremendous velocity.
Then her voice reached him—laced with laughter.

—But I never learned how to live freely. I had never lived that way, not even once.

I became free, yet I did not know how to live as a free being.

The vibrations within the lake intensified further. The chains, utterly unaffected by the tremors, surged toward Kale at breathtaking speed.

Whoooosh—

And finally, the chains that had reached him began to bind my limbs as I struggled desperately to maintain my balance.

My brow furrowed.

Clank, clank-clank.

The chains wrapped around my limbs and began dragging me downward.
As if determined to prevent me from ever escaping the lake again, they pulled my body toward the Lake Bottom.

In that instant, the lake trembled with tremendous force.

Boom—

I exhaled sharply.

“Ugh!”

The chains quivered violently. The lake convulsed with even greater intensity. My body shook, and even the steadfast chains finally began to tremble.

Boom, boom—
The waves grew more violent still.
When the chains were finally swept away by the raging current.

—Escape.

The Woman’s voice filled my mind.
Her voice retreated deeper into the Cave, growing distant. A faint whisper reached me.

—I cannot command these chains.

That was the moment.
The corners of my mouth lifted.

The reason I had been able to endure underwater for so long began to slowly reveal itself.

Whoooooosh—

A brilliant blue light began to emanate from the nape of my neck.
A radiant azure glow unseen within this mist-laden lake.
The presence that would grant me absolute freedom within these waters.

Dominating Water.

I drew upon a portion of that power, though only meager reserves remained.
My body became enveloped in a soft, luminous blue aura.

Even in such scant measure, its essence was dominion itself.

Crack, crackle, crack.

The chains binding my limbs fractured and shattered under the strain. I moved fluidly, casting them aside with ease.

—Is that… a power of dominion?

The moment the woman’s voice reached my ears, I simply rotated my neck and loosened my body.
My eyes were not clouded like the mist within the lake.

They were sharp and focused, locked upon my target.

‘Escape? Not a chance.’

I did not flee from battles I was destined to win.
My body surged downward toward the Lake Bottom at tremendous speed.

Not sinking by chains, not forced down by another’s will.
The Lake Bottom was my destination.

I descended deeper and deeper into the lake’s darkest depths.

Those outside the lake could perceive none of this.
Vicross especially could sense nothing within this needle-thin space.
Yet he could see the water spear cease its movement, and the chains suddenly reversing their course back into the lake—as though searching for me.

Whoooosh—

Dissonant sounds echoed as the chains stirred. Vicross’s feet twitched, as if drawn toward the lake.

But he did not move. Instead, he recalled the face of Kale Heniatus as he plunged into the lake.

Kale had smiled as he dove in, descending without hesitation into the water’s depths. There was not a trace of fear in his expression—only certainty.

The Kale Heniatus that Vicross knew was a man who did not leap into impossible situations, who judged all things with cold precision.
If such a man had thrown himself into that lake, there had to be a reason.

‘I should wait.’

For now, waiting seemed the wisest course.
But the moment Vicross saw Erhafen’s expression, he wondered if he should reconsider.

“…Erhafen?”

Erhafen said nothing.
His brow furrowed, he stared only at the lake.

He had no choice.

Kale Heniatus had plunged into the lake as though he possessed a plan. Knowing him as Erhafen did, there should have been no great cause for concern in this moment. And yet.
If you knew him as he usually was, you shouldn’t be too worried even in this situation. But now.

I don’t feel it.

That aura so suffused with natural power—it was nowhere to be sensed.
I couldn’t feel even a hint of that natural energy.

As if severed, the energy vanished in an instant.

While Erhafen noticed that fact, there was a being who sensed it even more keenly and faster than Erhafen.

Thump. Thump.

The Young Dragon, more attuned to Kale’s presence than any other, constantly aware of his existence, immediately sensed the vanishing of his aura.
The Young Dragon, who was more sensitive to Kale’s aura than anyone else and constantly felt his presence, noticed that his aura had disappeared.

Raon heard various sounds. So he roughly sketched the picture. The clever Dragon deduced that either Kale Heniatus had jumped into the Lake, or Kale’s presence couldn’t be felt due to something in the Lake.

Yet Kale’s absence felt overwhelmingly real.
I couldn’t sense his aura at all.

Thump. Thump.

Erhafen was beside me, and Vicross was beside me too. With them there, nothing terrible could happen to Kale. I knew that for certain.
I knew it clearly.

My eyes began to change.

“Kid, don’t worry about Kale.”

Erhafen’s voice reached my ears from outside the dream. But such words weren’t enough to satisfy me.

One minute. Two minutes.
Time continued to pass, yet I couldn’t sense the human’s aura at all.
This was unprecedented.
An absence of Kale I had never experienced before.

I lifted my head.
The trial ground within the dream.
The colossal dragon still loomed above me.

I believed that defeating this dragon was the only way to awaken from this dream.

I had to escape.
I had to break free from this trial quickly.
When facing a powerful existence, what should I do?

The young dragon, still ensnared by its ankle, flapped its wings while ignoring its own wounds, contemplating how to bring down this overwhelming force.
The Black Dragon had once pondered this very question when encountering a formidable enemy—another dragon in the past.

That was when it happened.
A flicker of something crossed the Black Dragon’s eyes.

A conversation I’d had with Kale at the Jjangdol Mansion came to mind. It was when I’d been so discouraged about failing my first growth that I’d buried myself under the blankets, worrying about what would happen if I encountered another dragon and had to fight.

‘What if I meet another dragon with a terrible personality?’

Kale spoke to himself as he deliberated.

‘I thought I was clever.’
‘I am clever…! No. I cannot even grow-‘

Then Kale offered a remarkably simple answer.

‘Then run away.’
‘…What?’
‘If you meet a rude dragon, just run away.’

Escape.
He spoke without hesitation—when facing a stronger opponent, flee. And he immediately provided the reason.

‘Survival is what makes you great.’

Raon. The Black Dragon lifted his head and gazed up at the massive dragon once more.
He had thought he needed to overcome that Black Dragon to survive this trial.

‘You’ve already survived since the cave.’

Yet in this moment, Kale’s words—the words of us humans—filled Raon’s mind completely.

‘Survival. That is strength.’

Only then did Raon see clearly.

Instead of the colossal dragon soaring above him, he saw a sky far more vast than that dragon itself.
A sky so boundless that even a massive dragon could not fill it.
The sky that lay higher still, beyond the shoulders of a dragon thirty meters tall.

There.

Not the dragon’s instinct, but the culmination of all he had endured spoke to Raon. The countless experiences he had accumulated alongside Kale revealed a new path before him.

Escape did not require victory through combat alone.

To disrupt this game itself.
To abandon this trial’s very stage.

Raon’s lips began to curl upward—a smile that anyone seeing it would say resembled Kale’s own.
The Young Dragon resumed its wingbeats.

It was said that a dragon’s growth was a battle against itself.
But Raon had arrived at a different understanding.

There was no need to battle myself.
The problem was this battlefield that forced me to fight myself.

When my objective changed, multiple paths emerged.

There was only one path toward that mighty dragon.
But toward the sky—toward that boundless sky—the paths were infinite.

The path I chose to walk was my own.

The young Black Dragon’s lips kept curling upward in an irrepressible smile.
Had it been a dragon that lived alone, there would have been no one to tell it such things. A dragon was always meant to stand alone, forever solitary, violent, and selfish by nature.

But Raon had learned many different ways of living.

Winning was not what mattered.

The Black Dragon had finally found the method that pleased it most.

Flee.
That was not cowardice.
What mattered was that everyone lived.

Raon Mir.
The Black Dragon began to feel a sudden joy.

I can see my path now.
That sky occupied only in part by this Black Dragon.
Beyond that sky.

I need only go there.

Raon soared upward.
He shook off the entities grasping at his ankles.

“This is all fake.”

That dragon, these entities clawing at my ankles—all of it was false.
This battlefield was a fabrication.
The real world lay elsewhere.

Reality.
The path I must walk with everything I have learned. That path is reality.

I could see the bonds waiting for me at the end of that path.
I will save them.

Raon soared upward.
I could not sense the aura of our weak human. I had to hurry.
Growth and such—I was already strong.

Or rather, as our human would say.

‘Escape first, then strike from behind when they least expect it. Survive, and then smash the back of the dragon’s head or whatever comes next. That’s how you win.’

That would suffice.
Raon flew without hesitation toward the sky beyond the colossal dragon, toward the reality beyond that sky. With every ounce of strength, pouring everything into flight was grueling, yet Raon did not stop.

And those wingbeats brought change.
Black mana began to bloom slowly within Raon’s body, which had been unable to wield mana within the dream. He reclaimed the power that the trial had sealed away.

Yet Raon Mir, unaware of this transformation, kept his gaze fixed forward, ascending endlessly upward.

* * *

And in another place.
The figure who had been descending ceaselessly reached his destination.

Kale could see the very bottom of the lake.
He lifted his head.

Whoooosh— whoooosh—
Chains surged at him from all directions, cutting through the mist-like currents of water. Even as my Judging Water pulsed with faint power, the chains pressed forward relentlessly.

They meant to bind my limbs, to lock me away.
As if a criminal must face judgment.
They targeted only me.

—Run!

Her voice came again, more intense than before.

—Your dominion weakens.

She was right. My power over the Judging Water gradually diminished.

—So run!

The lake trembled again, scattering the chains’ trajectory.
But I didn’t run.

‘Why does she keep telling me to flee?’

I let out a soft laugh and stepped forward.
A space filled with water.
Fog so thick I couldn’t see an inch ahead, my body swaying with the currents, the sound of chains cutting through water from all sides—

Yet at the very bottom lay solid ground.

My stomach still churned.
Having experienced that inversion once, I had no desire to endure it again.

So the moment I saw the lake, I decided.

‘Invert it from within first.’

My foot rolled against the lake bottom—against the earth itself.

Boom—

A tremendous resonance, incomparable to anything before, vibrated through the interior of the lake.

Just once.
Only once could I wield the terrifying power of Jjangdol.

I used that single opportunity now.

Whoooosh—

At the Lake Bottom.
Massive stone spears began to manifest one after another.

I had never fought a losing battle.
And this was a battle I would win.

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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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