Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 275

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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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“Why are you scattering money?”

The ancient dragon Erhafen responded calmly to Raon’s question.

“When I had some doubts about the world, I used to scatter money around too. It’s a good experience to spend as much as you want.”

Kale Heniatus thought that even this dignified-looking ancient dragon must have been quite the handful in his youth.
Raon, having regained his composure, spoke directly into Kale’s mind again.

-…Gold Dragon, that’s not it. Human! The Gold Dragon grandfather doesn’t seem to understand exactly what that shocking yet joyful behavior of humans is!

Erhafen then asked Kale a question.

“When will you do it?”
“Tonight, sir.”
“Tonight?”

Erhafen had assumed that scattering money meant going somewhere to spend it.

‘Spending money at night… Is he planning to drink expensive liquor? I thought he was buying a few mountains.’

He was surprisingly frugal with money.
Erhafen looked at Kale with an expression of surprise. Kale felt the gazes of his companions and patted his inner pocket. Inside it was a pouch.

-…Hehe… Last time it was two billion… This time it’s five billion…!

Destructive Fire, the miser, remembered the five billion gallons that Kale had mentioned to Crown Prince Albert before. At the same time, he recalled something else.
Destructive Fire asked Kale.

-But can you use the Golden Pass on the Eastern Continent?

Kale Heniatus had not yet used the Golden Pass he had personally received from Crown Prince Albert. Therefore, the five billion gallons that the Crown Prince had given him might as well not exist.
Realizing this, Destructive Fire’s voice lost its vigor.

-…Five billion won’t be possible then….

After that, his voice fell silent in Kale’s mind. It was an exit that somehow suggested he was huddling in a corner somewhere, shrinking away.

However, Kale Heniatus paid it no mind. He spoke to the Ancient Dragon and his companions, who continued to stare at me.

“I think we should go somewhere quiet.”

Choi Han and On’s expressions became peculiar.
Erhafen’s expression also grew increasingly strange.

Night, and a quiet place.
It was an odd combination for scattering money.
But Kale Heniatus didn’t give them time to ask further questions. He finished the last sausage Ron had brought, stood up from his seat, and looked at one person.

“We need to talk.”

Screech. The chair scraped as the Dragon Hybrid rose to his feet.
Even his standing posture was poor. In his weakened human form, the remnants of his light attribute and Choi Han’s darkness collided within him, surely inflicting excruciating pain.

“Follow me.”

With those words, Kale Heniatus headed toward the third floor of the inn, and the Dragon Hybrid followed without protest. Raon accompanied them.

* * *

“Sit.”

When Kale Heniatus pointed to the chair across from him, the Dragon Hybrid sat down across from him with an expressionless face.
A neat but quite luxurious room. The end room on the third floor—Kale Heniatus’s private quarters.

Kale Heniatus tossed the words at the Dragon Hybrid, who stared at me.

“How many combat squads does the Dark have remaining on the Eastern Continent?”

It was straight to business.
At that approach, the Dragon Hybrid let out a small laugh and opened his mouth. Unlike his trembling limbs from pain, his tone carried not a hint of wavering.

“Currently, Squad 2 and Squad 3 remain. Originally there were three squads total, but didn’t you all destroy Squad 1?”

Squad 1, the highest combat organization among the Dark’s collective forces rather than individual power, had sunk after engaging in battle with Kale Heniatus’s group while crossing from the Eastern Continent to the Western Continent by ship.

It had been possible thanks to the unique circumstances of the sea and the Whale Tribe.

The Dragon Hybrid had only recently learned that those people were Kale Heniatus’s group, but the Dark organization still hadn’t found the culprit responsible for the incident.

Kale Heniatus didn’t answer the Dragon Hybrid’s question and quietly tapped the armrest of his chair with his index finger.

Tap. Tap. Tap.
The finger that had been tapping in a fairly steady rhythm stopped at the Dragon Hybrid’s question.

“Are you going to kill the remaining teams 2 and 3 as well?”

Though feigning an expressionless face, the Dragon Hybrid was quite curious about what plan Kale Heniatus intended to unfold. To him, Kale Heniatus answered indifferently.

“Who knows?”

Kale Heniatus leaned back from the chair he’d been resting against and bent his body slightly forward. Then, looking at the Dragon Hybrid across the table, he continued.

“Hypothetically speaking.”

Kale Heniatus began to imagine a certain scenario.

“If people have no money and no base, wouldn’t it be incredibly difficult no matter how many of them there are?”

If the Dark organization’s base disappeared and all the money in their headquarters vanished, how would all those combat teams and regular members survive? Where would they eat and sleep?

“And if mercenaries started pecking at them from all directions, wouldn’t it be absolutely unbearable when they already have no money and no base?”

The corners of Kale Heniatus’s mouth were gradually rising.

“So the Dark organization on the Eastern Continent would want to ask the Western Continent for help. But here’s the thing—the Western Continent is already at war with the Empire, the Dark organization, and the Alchemy Tower, so asking for help would be awkward. Then the Dark organization on the Eastern Continent would really be in trouble, wouldn’t it?”

Kale Heniatus continued with an expression of pity for the Dark organization.

“And if we went around stirring up the Mercenary Guilds rumored to be corrupt all over the Eastern Continent while declaring ‘We are the Real Arm!’ and overturned all the rotten gangsters in the Underworld, they’d be absolutely furious, wouldn’t they?”

The Dragon Hybrid’s expression became strange.
He tried to organize Kale Heniatus’s words. Essentially, he was talking about destroying the Dark organization and simultaneously cleaning up the corrupt Mercenary Guilds and parts of the Underworld, wasn’t he?
The Dragon Hybrid spoke his honest thoughts.

“…Are you trying to do something good?”
“What nonsense is that?”

Kale was genuinely taken aback. Watching the Dragon Hybrid’s peculiar expression, he continued with an exasperated tone.

“Do you know what wicked people hate the most? That’s what I’m going to do.”

What do wicked people hate?
The Dragon Hybrid pondered the opposite of “wicked.” No matter how hard he thought, only “good” came to mind. Wouldn’t wicked people despise the opposite of themselves?

“So you’re trying to do good deeds?”

Sigh.
Kale exhaled deeply. Thinking the Dragon Hybrid was rather dim-witted, he opened his mouth again.

“Wicked people don’t care whether others are good or bad, whether they volunteer or not.”

Look at the world.
Wicked people don’t care how others live.

“They only rage when their own possessions are taken from them.”

The more I expose the corruption within certain Mercenary Groups, the more the corrupt will rage. The Underworld is no different, and neither is the Dark.
With each loss, they will grow angrier, and eventually, they will know fear.

That was Kale’s plan.

From now on, everything the Dark possesses will be claimed one by one by the Real Arm.

Though the Dragon Hybrid hadn’t heard the full plan, he grasped its essence and asked Kale. His expression was so grave that no trace of pain showed through. It matched the state of his heart.

“…What should I do?”

Six months.
What was he supposed to do during that time?
It was the most pressing question for the Dragon Hybrid. He waited for Kale’s answer. And that answer came far more quickly than he expected.

“Rest.”
“What?”

For a moment, the Dragon Hybrid wondered what Kale was talking about. But Kale had said his piece.

“For now, do as you wish. Of course, under surveillance. Your freedom will be restricted.”

I planned to keep the Dragon Hybrid confined under strict supervision, without freedom.

Sword Master Hana and this creature were different.
Hana had made enemies of Dark and the Empire—they were targets I needed to eliminate. But this one was not. Rather, because he was a key figure Dark would seek out, he had places to live and somewhere to return to even outside my territory here. So naturally, I had to grant him less freedom than Hana.

Unaware of the Dragon Hybrid’s inner turmoil, I suddenly spoke what came to mind as I stared blankly at him.

“Ah, and nothing is free.”

Why would I feed him for nothing?

“I know you’re injured. But you’ll work here.”
“…Work?”

The Dragon Hybrid was genuinely flustered.
He recalled the work available here. The first floor of the Inn from just moments ago. A space where ordinary humans came and went, where staff bustled about their tasks.
The delicious aroma of food prepared for breakfast brushed against his nose, and the murmur of voices made it anything but quiet. A place far brighter and more luminous than the dark cave.
Yet even sitting among them, no one looked at him.

He slowly opened his mouth and looked at me.

“You mean work at the Inn?”
“Yeah. Nothing is free.”

Of course, I planned to tell Ron and have him assign this creature miscellaneous tasks suited to his injured condition.

‘Ron will figure out appropriate work on his own.’

Probably something like folding napkins. I couldn’t very well assign cleaning or serving to someone in pain every few seconds, could I? And if he collapsed in front of customers, that would be troublesome.
If he messed up again and collapsed right in front of a customer, that would be a headache too.

“You’re an adult too, so you should pull your own weight.”

The Dragon Hybrid rolled the phrase around in his mouth. The words sounded strange to him.
The Dragon Hybrid rolled the words around in his mouth. The words sounded strange to him.

“Me, working at that Inn? Among all those people?”

He felt increasingly strange.
Even now, every few seconds the wounds Choi Han had inflicted throbbed as if he might go mad, yet they were assigning him work. Why did his heart feel so complicated?
The peaceful scene of the inn came to mind.

Kale Heniatus simply said what he needed to say to him. There was no need to speak to him with the consideration shown to Choi Han, Raon, or the others.

“Ah, and I’ll ask Erhafen to dye your hair. Just in case the Dark catches your eye. Do you have a color you’d like?”
“A color I’d like?”
“Yes.”

The Dragon Hybrid’s gaze turned toward Kale Heniatus’s crimson hair.
The White Star he was told to call father. Kale Heniatus, whom he had mistaken for a fellow hybrid. The Dragon Hybrid’s silence grew long as he recalled them. Since Kale had no intention of waiting, he opened his mouth.

“Decide later and tell Erhafen then.”

He then brought up what seemed to be the most important matter at hand.

“Rest for now, and when I call you again later. That’s when you’ll come with me to strike at the Dark.”

There was not a trace of a smile on Kale Heniatus’s face. The Dragon Hybrid’s expression hardened as well. Kale posed a question.

“How many central bases does the Dark have?”

There was no need to know all of the Dark’s numerous branches.
Only the center where all information converged mattered. And where information gathered, the organization’s financial flows also converged.

The Dragon Hybrid knew that location precisely.

“Two.”

Kale waited for his next response, and the Dragon Hybrid opened his mouth with a peculiar expression.

“One of them, your subordinate knows well.”
“…My subordinate?”
“Yes. Your subordinate, Ron Mollan.”

Kale Heniatus closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
The Dragon Hybrid continued speaking calmly.

“I was startled when I saw him at the inn earlier. I’ve never seen him in person, but his appearance was important to the Dark leadership fifteen years ago. Especially someone like a Branch Chief or the Red Star who’s been around for over fifteen years would know.”

The only family head and second-in-command who fled among the five great families that once controlled the Underworld of the Eastern Continent.
Moreover, a family that excelled in information and assassination.
Dark had thoroughly searched the Eastern Continent trying to find the fled family head and second-in-command, but failed. And now, fifteen years later, the effort to track their whereabouts had grown lax.

But the Dragon Hybrid remembered Dark’s actions from fifteen years ago when they were searching for Ron Mollan.
Ron was important to Dark.

“Ron Mollan, the Molan Family Territory is one of our central bases.”

The greatest family of the Eastern Continent, excelling in concealment and information. Their territory was literally a fortress. Dark seized it and immediately conducted reinforcement construction, transforming it into their center of operations.

Kale Heniatus muttered without realizing it.

“…This is maddening.”

I thought the Empire side was urgent while this place was leisurely, but it wasn’t.
Here lay old, accumulated matters—threads that needed to be cut.

‘Raon, Choi Han, Ron, Rak, On, Hong—’

I recalled the matters I needed to sever, mend, and reconnect. Of course, my own life came first.
So I spoke to the Dragon Hybrid.

“Get out. We’re done talking.”

I decided to handle what I needed to do first.
Just as a butterfly’s wingbeat in one place could become a typhoon, if I proceeded methodically, I could eventually create a great storm.
To those who hadn’t seen the butterfly, the storm would seem sudden, but the butterfly could foresee the storm from the moment it first flapped its wings.

I flapped my wings once more to draw one of those foreseen events.

The result was about to manifest that very night.

* * *

While Choi Han, On, and Hong remained silent, Erhafen lifted his head.

Whoooosh—

The night wind rustled through this place.
Gray Eye Forest.

In that very location where I had obtained the Sky-Devouring Water, I gazed up at the starlit night sky—moonless because it was a new moon—before lowering my head.

A massive lake shaped like a human eye came into view.
The water that had once been gray now shimmered with starlight, appearing perfectly ordinary. Kale Heniatus stood at the lake’s edge. And Raon hovered anxiously above the water with his invisibility dispelled.

My lips parted as I observed the scene.

“…Didn’t you say something about scattering money?”

Kale Heniatus turned his back to the group and stepped toward the expansive lake.

“Yes, I will scatter money.”

His expression remained serene.
But the expressions of Erhafen, Choi Han, On, and Hong grew increasingly strange. Raon cried out.

“…If you need my piggy bank, just say the word, human! I can give it to you anytime!”

Splash.
The water at the lake’s edge made a sound as it brushed against Kale Heniatus’s shoe. The water and his toes were touching. Erhafen’s urgent voice rang out.

“Are you scattering money into the lake?”

It was utterly absurd.

“Didn’t you say it was a trial? Strengthening ancient power by scattering money into a lake like this? Those humans who possessed the forces of nature would never impose such a trial!”

Erhafen turned to look at Kale Heniatus.
In Kale Heniatus’s mind, the murmuring of one person echoed.

-Finally…! Finally! Ah, ah— A moment I’d be happy to die for, finally!

He’s insane.
I ignored Destructive Fire’s words and opened my mouth.

“Why are you scattering money into the lake?”
“What? Then where should I scatter it?”

Erhafen opened his mouth again. He had grown calm.

“Are you trying to spend all the money you obtained from the Underworld? Ancient power wouldn’t impose such a trial, so tell me what’s going on. I’ll help. I have quite a bit of money myself.”
“Well…”

Kale Heniatus shrugged and pulled a small object from his pocket. He moved without hesitation, having instinctively understood that strengthening the ancient power he possessed had no effect on his vessel.

A small magical pouch appeared in his hand.
There was only one being beside him who recognized it.

“H-human! That, that thing!”

Raon was flustered.
Raon knew that pouch.

The VVIP auction that had opened when they visited Caro Kingdom.
At that time, the transaction with the Bishop of Sun God Sect in Caro Kingdom.

Over the gem called Night’s Joy, Kale Heniatus and the Bishop had conducted an auction between just the two of them.

‘150. Only from 10 billion onwards can’t be paid in a single transaction.’

Kale Heniatus had asked, and the Bishop had answered.

‘How much?’
‘200.’
‘How much?’
‘220.’

When the Bishop called out 220, Kale Heniatus added one more bid.

‘230.’
‘…You shameless bastard.’

Night’s Joy was sold for 23 billion Counds. The Bishop threw him a small money pouch. It was a money pouch inscribed with subspace magic.

‘Right then. One billion Counds.’

A pouch containing one billion Counds appeared before Raon’s eyes once more.
Kale Heniatus handed the pouch to the Merchant Bilos and had him purchase the ‘Wolf King’s Diary.’ And naturally, the ‘Wolf King’s Diary’—merely a beast-themed collectible to ordinary people—did not fetch one billion Counds.

It was far cheaper.

Thanks to that, the Wolf King’s Diary and the remaining funds returned entirely to Kale Heniatus. He placed a portion of the money he had received from the Sinten Merchant Guild’s guildmaster—with whom he had dealt besides the Bishop—in exchange for the Fire Crystal into that pouch.

For reference, he had sold the Fire Crystal to Sinten Merchant Guild Master Flavin Sinten for three billion Counds.

‘Three billion.’
‘What, such insane talk!’

The astonished expression of the Sinten Merchant Guild Master flashed through Kale Heniatus’s mind. A small portion of the fortune earned then was now contained in this pouch.
The money from the Sun God Church Bishop and the Empire Trading Company mingled together within the pouch.

The Young Dragon’s pupils trembled violently. Without realizing it, the Young Dragon cried out.

“…That pouch is a b-billion Cound pouch! It’s sh-shocking!”

Silence descended in an instant.
Choi Han, On, and Hong said nothing, and even Erhafen was speechless this time.

Whoooosh—

As the wind swept past, Kale Heniatus even pulled out Raon’s special potato sack. At the sight of him rummaging through it, Erhafen finally spoke.

“That crazy bastard.”

It was at that moment.

Rummmmmble—

Erhafen’s expression changed.
The earth trembles.
And the aura of nature could be felt.

The most destructive among nature’s auras, and simultaneously an entity so relentless it would incinerate itself.

“…Fire.”

I began to sense the aura of fire.
In that moment, Jjangdol’s cry echoed through my mind.

-…This madman! A hundred million! A hundred million! A hundred million!

Destructive Fire, Jjangdol the Destructive Fire had heard Raon’s words. I felt the power of fire raging within my body.

-A hundred million! Ahahaha, a hundred million! Hehehehe!

I hesitated, my hand gripping the purse of money.

‘…Has he lost his mind?’

Destructive Fire seemed somewhat—no, extremely excited.
As my expression grew complicated, I heard Jjangdol’s voice after a long time.

-This is troubling.

Jjangdol continued in a weary voice.

-That power which burned the Northern Region has appeared once more.

Jjangdol summarized the current situation simply.

-A calamity has returned.

…A calamity?
I froze, and he lowered his head.

Kuuuung—

A vibration of a different dimension surged up from the earth. I felt the fire raging within my body.

Fire is weak to water.
Yet this was fire that had fought on equal terms with the power of water—the Sky-Devouring Water—a force so mighty that even a god had to bind it.

The fire was never weak.
A single meaning embodied in its name—destruction.

-Ahahahahaha! Party, party! Burn it all!

Kale Heniatus furrowed his brow at the loud voice of Destructive Fire before his eyes widened.

“…This is bad!”

A lake that resembled eyes.
That lake began to change.

Shhhhhhh—

The water that had filled the lake evaporated at tremendous speed, and the Lake Bottom cracked open. Then crimson liquid began surging through the fissures.

-Party, party!

Destructive Fire began to rampage.

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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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