Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 266

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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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“I agree.”

Sword Master Hana expressed her agreement with Kaige’s words in a subdued manner.
As Kale Heniatus’s expression grew more bitter, he caught sight of Saint Jack approaching him with a troubled look on his face.
Jack drew near and spoke in hushed tones.

“Your smile just now was different from usual, but I know the goodness and justice in your heart, sir. I have heard of the deeds you have accomplished. You saved the people of the Roan Kingdom and many other kingdoms, did you not? I thought it was truly befitting of you, sir. However, however.”

Sorrow settled into Jack’s eyes.

“I am merely worried that your heart has suffered greatly from having to harm your enemies. Of course, I too have now experienced things, and I understand that I must change and become harsher in order to protect myself and my people.”

His innocent face had matured somewhat.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Beyond Jack’s shoulder, Kale Heniatus could see Kaige shaking her head with a deep sigh, and Hana looking at her brother with sympathy.
He turned his gaze back to Jack and answered his question.

“I am fine.”

At his calm and composed response, Jack composed himself and nodded.

“I understand your intentions well, sir.”

What intentions? Kale Heniatus wanted to ask, but he refrained from asking further. He could hear the sigh of the ancient Dragon Erhafen.
Kale wanted to ask, but he didn’t ask any further. It was because he heard the sigh of the ancient dragon Erhaben.

“…that human, that Saint is truly kind. His heart is upright. He’s a Saint!”

Kale Heniatus ignored Raon’s voice as well and spoke while looking at Jack and Kaige.

“For now, please rest. There are others in the First Floor Reception Room, so you can rest there or rest in your Room. Make yourself comfortable.”

Kale Heniatus and Hana’s eyes met. Still without her robe, she exposed her scars, and her gaze had become even more fierce than before.

“You follow me.”

Kale Heniatus descended into the Mansion’s underground chamber with only the two Dragons and Hana. Hana followed behind him and asked.

“Where are we going?”
“To a Prison—though it may become an execution ground.”

Execution ground.
At those words, Hana’s lips twisted upward into a smile. She was curious about Kale’s true intention in bringing her to such a place.
Kale stopped before the Underground Training Ground’s door and spoke.

“Today, I may save one of the Red Stars—the very heart of Dark. I may need to keep that Red Star with me for six months.”

At the word “Dark,” Hana’s smile vanished from her lips.
She had always insisted that she herself would be the one to kill Dark, that she had trained all this time for that singular moment. Kale continued speaking to her.

“You despise Dark and wish to kill it. But you’ll have to live alongside it for several months.”

That was what concerned Kale.
He worried that this blood-crazed Sword Master Hana might suddenly lose her temper and slit its throat. She was more than capable of doing exactly that.

“Kale Heniatus.”

Soon, Hana’s voice reached him. Kale slowly turned his head to look at her.
Hana spoke honestly to the Kale who gazed upon her.

“I have my pride too.”

He had allowed her to stay at the Jjangdol Mansion and, moreover, had prevented the Whale Tribe from killing her.
Hana understood her desire for vengeance against Dark just as well as she understood what she herself had done. Her lips curved into a smile once more.

“There’s no need to spell things out like this.”

The fact that Kale Heniatus was calling her aside now and explaining the situation in advance could perhaps be described as an act of “consideration.” Hana didn’t mention it because the word consideration felt awkward to her, but she removed her hand from the sword hilt.

“If you try to save him, I’ll leave you alone.”

Kale felt that the conversation had somehow gone slightly off track.
Kale Heniatus felt like something about the conversation had gotten a bit off track.

“Should I have told you that you’d die in six months anyway?”

Kale Heniatus felt oddly unsettled but decided to let it pass.
He had his reasons for keeping the Dragon Hybrid alive. When Kale and the others returned to the Kingdom Capital, Erhafen would go alone to the Jjangdol Mansion to retrieve the Sun God Cult twins and Kaige. Before Erhafen departed for the Jjangdol Mansion, Kale had made a single request of him.

‘Erhafen, would you be able to make it for me?’
‘As long as you bring me the materials, making it is no problem. But why?’
‘I have a use for it.’

Recalling that conversation, Kale opened the door to the Underground Training Ground.

Creeeeak—

The heavy door slowly swung open.

“You’ve arrived, Young Master?”
“You’re here?”

The two Whale Tribe humanoids, who had already sensed his presence, greeted him—Paseton with courtesy, Archie with casual ease. Yet at a mere gesture from Kale, both departed the training ground without a word.

“Mm.”

Sword Master Hana swallowed hard as she gazed upon the center of the training ground.
She recalled her past self, addicted to dead mana. Before her now stood a form far more grotesque than that—neither human nor monster, but something in between, occupying the center of the training ground.
She furrowed her brow.

It was not revulsion or disgust.
It was the memory of her former self that unsettled her.

‘Why does he only pick up things like this?’

She found it curious—both her past self and this dying crimson star—that Kale had such a peculiar habit of gathering only such things. Yet for Kale, there was nothing curious about it. It was simply reality.
But for Kale Heniatus, it was nothing particularly surprising—just reality.

Faint breathing barely filled the space. Kale drew close enough to hear the Dragon Hybrid’s shallow breaths, crouched down, and met his gaze.
Weak breathing faintly filled the space. Kale Heniatus drew close enough to hear the Dragon Hybrid’s faint breaths, crouched down, and met his gaze.

Choose.

But the week Kale had allotted him was drawing to a close, and he had no strength left to smile one final time.
But as that week Kale had set drew to a close, he no longer had the strength to smile one last time.

The Dragon Hybrid looked past Kale Heniatus toward the Ancient Dragon Erhafen.
He had conversed with the Dragon for the first time. It was nothing remarkable. Yet the Dragon Hybrid yearned to speak with him again. That someone was naturally Kale Heniatus.
His lips parted.

“Why are you keeping me alive for six months?”

Before making a choice, he was curious about Kale Heniatus’s reasons for letting him live. And without the slightest hesitation, he received an answer.

“You need to return to your home.”
“…My home?”
“Yes.”

Kale Heniatus did not trust the Dragon Hybrid.
No matter how pitiful his circumstances were, no matter how twisted his environment had made him—or so others claimed—he could not yet trust the Dragon Hybrid.
Because there was a past where this creature had attempted to kill both him and others.

The lives of those around him mattered far more than this creature’s tragic tale.

So during those six months of keeping him alive, Kale Heniatus would move alongside him and handle what needed to be done. He told the Dragon Hybrid what he must accomplish.

“Your home, ‘Dark’. You must guide me to that place where you dwelled.”

Ah.
The Ancient Dragon Erhafen let out a gasp at the thought that flashed through his mind. But it did not reach the Dragon Hybrid, and he had to continue his conversation with Kale Heniatus.

“If you’re curious about a secret location, couldn’t I simply tell you about it?”
“How can I trust you?”

The Dragon Hybrid was left speechless by the immediate retort.

“I cannot trust you. So you must guide me with your own feet and show me properly.”

He asked something that came to mind about Kale Heniatus, who drew the line clearly once more.

“What will you do once you know the location of ‘Dark’?”
“That’s none of your concern.”

Kale Heniatus’s lips curved upward subtly as he answered firmly.
From that expression, Erhafen became certain.

‘He’s planning to blow up Dark’s base!’

A few days ago, I had asked the Black Dragon if he could mass-produce “Dragon’s Wrath.” The Black Dragon had assumed it was only for use in the war against the Empire and the Alchemy Tower, but that wasn’t the case.

‘This man is already thinking ahead and moving with Dark in mind, even beyond the Empire.’

Just as Erhafen had thought, I was moving forward with the intention of working hard and then enjoying a peaceful, uneventful late twenties.
That resolve was solid enough to remain unshaken even if a natural disaster were to strike.

The Dragon Hybrid met that unwavering gaze and stared back with his lips pressed firmly shut. He had heard that this man was only twenty years old. Yet his eyes held a firmness that surpassed his own, despite having lived for nearly nine hundred years.

Those eyes were speaking now.
Choose, they said.

Slowly, the Dragon Hybrid’s lips parted. They trembled. For the first time, a moment where he was choosing his own life.

“… In six months, at that time….”

When my body would burst and kill me.
At that moment.

“I want to die.”

The instant those words left his lips.

A sharp intake of breath.
The Dragon Hybrid gasped. His limbs began to tremble. His entire body suddenly went rigid, leaving him unable to speak.
His eyes fixed upon a single point.

It wasn’t just him.
The Black Dragon and Sword Master Hana were also staring with wide eyes at one person.
Kale Heniatus—he was different from his usual self.

Sitting there in an ungainly crouch, yet from him emanated an aura so suffocating it was palpable.
Sword Master Hana looked down at her own hands. Her fingers were trembling finely.

An aura was pouring forth from Kale Heniatus with such intensity that it pressured even a Sword Master. Like a human standing before vast nature, dwarfed by the grandeur of the sight—she felt herself shrink as she beheld his back.

“…This is.”

As Erhafen exhaled a sigh with his breath, he felt the Black Dragon Raon’s front paw touch his body.

“Time for us weak humans to look a little stronger!”

Sword Master Hana’s brow furrowed beside him.
A little? This?

“Of course, today it’s not just a little—it’s a lot stronger!”

Even “a lot” didn’t capture it. Hana clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly. Otherwise, her hands would betray her with an unseemly tremor for all to see.
But the ancient dragon, free from that oppressive weight, turned away from Raon’s satisfied expression and looked toward Kale Heniatus.

‘It rivals Dragon Fear.’

This momentum matched the Dragon Fear that an ancient dragon emanated.

‘No—it equals it.’

The intense aura of a superior being that flowed forth when an ancient dragon released its presence in its true form—Dragon Fear itself.
Yet this was not Dragon Fear.

‘This is that power.’

The power of a Dragon Slayer that the ancient dragon felt when observing Kale Heniatus.
Dragon Slayers emanate an aura that does not crumble before Dragon Fear. Erhafen was witnessing Kale Heniatus actually wielding that power for the first time.

And he saw Kale Heniatus drawing upon yet another force.

A human radiating an aura rivaling the world’s mightiest race—dragons—drew a white crown from his embrace. To any observer, he appeared made for that crown.
Anyone who beheld him now would surely call him ‘king.’
Soon the white crown in Kale Heniatus’s hand began to glow softly.
Erhafen spoke the Dragon Slayer’s other name.

“…Traitor.”

The other name of the Dragon Slayer—one that only an ancient dragon who had lived longest across the Eastern and Western Continents could know.

A human with a body capable of consuming dragons and growing stronger.

That human was a being who defied the laws of nature.
Not a mutation or an anomaly.

The Dragon Slayer Clan had, for generations, elevated a single patriarch to lead their house.
Such a patriarch possessed the power to destroy ecosystems—shattering the hierarchy of superior and inferior races bestowed at birth, capable of hunting dragons.

Nature rejected such a Dragon Slayer.
Thus, the Dragon Slayer could never become a “King.” They existed only outside nature’s order, battling dragons in eternal exile.

Yet it was said that dragons did not simply hate the Dragon Slayers of that clan.
Why?

Though nature spurned them as traitors, dragons understood that no creature could exist without a natural predator.
The dragon’s sole rival. Their only natural enemy.
They could not bring themselves to despise that singular existence, even as they hated it.
A creature without a predator would grow complacent.

Erhafen gazed at Kale Heniatus with eyes gleaming with fascination.

He had heard tales of the false Dragon Slayer, Sirem.
Through those tales, he learned that the power of the “true” Dragon Slayer had fractured and scattered across the world, and the clan had vanished.
And now, those dispersed powers were gradually converging upon a single person.

Yet that man was one who saved dragons.
Far from hunting them, he was someone who could not bear to witness death itself.

‘A new dragon hunter may emerge. Or perhaps, a new traitor to nature itself.’

A new era was gradually opening.
The Ancient Dragon felt as though, in the twilight of his long life, he was beginning to glimpse the light of this new age.

Ancient powers once unknown to the world wielded great strength in Kale Heniatus’s hands, and dragons began to intertwine with one another.
Though Dark existed as an enemy, and the Continent remained in turmoil, the Ancient Dragon could see the light beyond it all.

The Ancient Dragon gazed upon Kale Heniatus, the center of that light.
Then he grimaced.

A groan escaped him.

I caught sight of Sword Master Hana turning her head with a sharp intake of breath beside me.
The Ancient Dragon approached Kale Heniatus slowly. Yet contrary to that imposing momentum, his expression appeared half-detached, almost serene.

“Ha… damn….”

Fatigue was etched across Kale Heniatus’s face as he swallowed a curse.

Gluck, gluck.

“Krraaaagh! Kugh!”

The jewel of the white crown greedily drank in the Dragon Hybrid’s blood with a grotesque sound, while the Dragon Hybrid’s voice was laden with agony.

Gluck, gluck.

The unusually potent white jewel consumed and devoured the draconic power mixed within the Dragon Hybrid’s blood.
Though it might seem cruel, I had not healed the Dragon Hybrid’s wounds from the previous battle. I had merely applied basic hemostasis.

Thanks to that, the crown was now drawing blood through a grotesque suction opening in the wound that Choi Han and Raon had created on the ship’s hull.

‘What if he dies from blood loss like this?’

Witnessing the Dragon Hybrid’s severe anguish from fear and pain, I found myself genuinely concerned for his wellbeing. That was why I intensified the power of the ‘Dominating Aura’ even further.

I was currently enveloping myself in the ‘Dominating Aura’ at maximum intensity. It was because of the advice from the master of the Dominating Aura’s power.

-Dominating Aura. Do you know why this power of pure bluff is necessary? To those unfamiliar with it, it appears to be nothing but a con, utterly useless in actual combat.

That was true.
It was a power perfectly suited for deception.
Yet this power too had its necessary purpose.

-To deceive this crown. This crown is the only thing in the world that fears this momentum.

Kugh!
The Dragon Hybrid inhaled sharply and finally lost consciousness.

“…Phew.”

I instinctively grasped what I needed to do in this moment and whispered it to the crown.

“Restrain yourself.”

I unfurled my dominating aura to its limit. It was enough to halt the Ancient Dragon’s advancing steps.
That aura concentrated upon the crown. Trembling faintly, the crown quivered as I issued my threat.

“Unless you wish to be split in two, trampled to dust, and erased from this world without a trace, you will do only as much as I demand.”

The Ancient Dragon was bewildered once more.
This was hardly something one would say to an unconscious Dragon Hybrid, and was I truly threatening an object rather than a person? The Ancient Dragon hesitated for a moment, uncertain of the situation.
Yet I continued my threat with absolute sincerity.

“This disgusting crown. I will destroy you someday.”

Trembling faintly.
The white crown vibrated visibly.
I delivered one final warning.

“If you wish to live long, obey me.”

Gulp, gulp.
The white crown began to absorb the Dragon Hybrid’s blood more slowly and gently than before.

“Hah!”

I heard the Ancient Dragon’s exclamation as I watched, and only then did I mutter with a satisfied expression.

“Pity. I was wondering if I could throw it and crush it like last time.”

Gulp. Trembling faintly.
The crown ceased its feeding and trembled violently.

“…What are you doing? Get back to work?”

At my following words, the crown slowly drew in only the dragon’s blood remaining in the Dragon Hybrid’s body. I turned my gaze from the crown to observe the Dragon Hybrid.
The Dragon Hybrid’s black scales gradually disappeared as human skin began to show.
It was proof that the dragon’s heart engraved upon the Dragon Hybrid’s heart was slowly losing its power.

It was at that moment.

Beep— Beep—

The emergency alarm of the video communication channel sounded.
Raon approached and spoke to me.

“Human! The uncouth Tunka! Tunka is calling!”

Tunka, the Grand General of the Wipper Kingdom. A call had come from him.
I answered calmly.

“Ignore it.”

First, I needed to deal with this Dragon Hybrid, and then I could call back afterward.

“Understood, ignoring the uncouth Tunka’s call! But a message came too!”
“What is it?”
“‘I miss you, my friend. I need your help.’ That’s what it says!”

What nonsense was this?
When did I ever become Tunka’s friend?

I let out an incredulous laugh at the absurdity of it all.

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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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