Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 288

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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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Chapter 62. The Conductor

Bone birds soared through the descending inferno.

I felt the gazes of Rosalind and Herald Chief of Staff Herrol upon me. Yet I spoke while observing Duke Hooten and the bone birds.

“An orchestra without its conductor descends into chaos.”

Duke Hooten spewed blood.

“Your Grace!”
“Commander!”

Cries erupted from the Imperial Knights. Soldiers scattered in panic.

Who could have foreseen it?
That the Empire’s sword would fall to the assault of a barbarian who couldn’t even channel aura and a swordsman of unknown origin.

To the enemy forces drowning in chaos.
To the orchestra bereft of its conductor.

“We need only instill fear within them.”

It would end once we sowed the terror of their music crumbling.

Until now, I had orchestrated wars with minimal casualties. Especially, I had deferred the deaths of innocent soldiers as much as possible.
That was why.

“Priest.”

When Herrol called, I nodded and turned my gaze toward Choi Han.

I issued a command to the crimson eyes within the helmet that regarded me with a different meaning than Duke Hooten did.
He was the other conductor of this war.
Whose music would dominate the battlefield? That depended upon the conductor’s power.

“Charge forward.”

That message was conveyed to Choi Han through Raon, perfectly intact.

-Choi Han! He says the human should drag and run!

Choi Han began to run.
He drove his sword into Duke Hooten’s ribs and seized the back of his neck as he sprinted forward.

“Your Grace!”
“C-Commander!”

Chaos reached its zenith.
Cries that sounded like shrieks erupted from every direction. All personnel from the 1st Knight Order and the 3rd Knight Order fell into confusion, stumbling about in disarray.

“Cough! What—what are these bastards thinking!”

Even as Duke Hooten was dragged away by Choi Han with his collar seized, even as aura churned violently within his body, he still refused to release his sword. He raised his hand and unleashed his aura, attempting to strike at Choi Han who was dragging him.
And he tried to swing it at Choi Han who was pulling him along.

“That won’t do!”
“Ugh!”

The wrist holding the sword twisted in an unnatural direction. Duke Hooten saw General Tunka’s savage grin—the one who had twisted his wrist.
And General Tunka immediately struck the Duke’s face.

Smack!

“Cough!”
“Kahahaha! Nothing special! The Empire’s swordsmen are pathetic!”

General Tunka sneered at the Duke whose lips were split and face disfigured. He mocked him with such irritating glee that it was painful to watch.
At that sight, the Empire’s knights were consumed with rage beyond mere confusion.

“How dare that Wipper barbarian mock the Empire’s swordsmen!”

The 3rd Knight Order Commander turned his steps away from the direction of Maple Castle Main Gate and shouted.

“Save the Duke!”
“Yes, sir!”
“You—barbarian! Stop right there!”

As if they had been waiting for this moment, the 3rd Knight Order moved in unison with their commander to rescue Duke Hooten, the Grand General and the Empire’s sword.
Half of the 1st Knight Order also followed at the Vice-Captain’s command.

“Infantry, focus! The Knights Order will rescue the Duke and punish those two barbarians!”

The Vice-Captain of the remaining 1st Knight Order shouted, rallying the soldiers.

“Open the Main Gate for the Duke’s return!”

Roooaaahhh!
The Empire’s soldiers cried out and surged forward like a tidal wave of humanity toward the narrow Main Gate.

“Hold the line! Pierce with spears!”
“Thousand-Man Commander! Even as we thrust with spears, enemies keep pushing from behind, and the wounded are being swept forward!”
“Endure! We must hold until the Grand General arrives!”

The Maiple Castle Main Gate descended into chaos.

“Rosalind! The enemy mages are unleashing water-attribute magic!”

The Empire’s mages did not remain idle. They conjured water in desperate attempts to dismantle the Fire Barrier.

“Hold firm! Continue casting flame magic!”

Rosalind continued unleashing flame magic to counter their assault.

Whoooooom—
The highest-grade mana stones slowly circled above the Wipper mages. Yet the mages remained focused on maintaining the Fire Barrier rather than deploying the stones.
The enemy’s water-attribute magic poured in relentlessly, far more than anticipated.

Then it came.
Kale Heniatus’s voice reached Rosalind and Herrol Codian.

“Move the warriors.”

Herrol Codian squeezed his eyes shut.
At Maiple Castle Main Gate, the reason the infantry and half of the 1st Knight Order could not breach the gate was due to both its narrow passage and the Wipper soldiers and warriors holding the line.

Tunka and Choi Han dragged Duke Hooten in the opposite direction from the Main Gate.
Yet the warriors held the Main Gate even as half of the 3rd Knight Order and the 1st Knight Order mobilized.

‘If the warriors withdraw, the soldiers will struggle to hold the line.’

The Wipper soldiers would face difficulty.
Herrol Codian knew this.

And his eyes slowly opened wide.
Those eyes were smiling.

He grasped the war horn.
It was the first time.
The first time Wipper had sounded the war horn. The first time the Chief Advisor had stepped onto the battlefield.

Boooooo—
The war horn’s cry echoed across the battlefield.
Pelia, the spear warrior who was General Tunka’s left arm, responded to that sound.

“Save General Tunka!”

At her cry, the warriors began to break from the Main Gate in unison. They kicked off the ground and charged toward Tunka and Choi Han.
Simultaneously, Chief Advisor Herrol Codian moved near the Main Gate and began issuing commands through amplification magic.

“Deploy the first defensive formation!”

The eyes of the Thousand-Man Commanders changed.

The Wipper Kingdom fought recklessly. The Empire despised such fighters—a rootless amalgamation, they called them. But more than two years had passed since the first battle with the Magic Tower, approaching three.
Though they lacked history, the foundations were being laid.
It was a time when, even without history, the foundation could be laid.

The soldiers began to form their defensive formations.
Chief Advisor Herrol Codian’s voice blanketed the Main Gate.
Herald Chief of Staff’s voice engulfed the Main Gate.

“Hold on! Attack!”

Contradictions aside, the soldiers began using arrows and spears to hold their ground.
At this sight, the 1st Knight Order’s Vice-Captain cried out.

“No warriors! Sweep them away!”

The moment had come to target the Main Gate.
The Vice-Captain of the 1st Knight Order had no doubt that even if warriors came to aid General Tunka, the Empire’s Knights would defeat them and return victorious.

“Tch, what in blazes are you thinking!”

Even as he was being dragged away, Duke Hooten’s blazing gaze fixed upon Choi Han, whose face was hidden behind a helmet.

The aura churning within his body was superior to his own.
The one concealing it now deliberately ran slowly while dragging him along.

“Your Grace!”

Soon after, the Empire’s Knights who had caught up to Choi Han and General Tunka began forming a circle to encircle them.

“Everyone focus on rescuing His Grace!”

The 3rd Knight Order Commander issued the directive as their representative.

“And if the situation becomes untenable, you may execute those two!”

This madman!
Duke Hooten opened his mouth to speak, looking at the 3rd Knight Order Commander.
Execute? A Sword Master?
They might manage it, but surely most of the Knights would be wounded in the process.
General Tunka as well. And weren’t the warriors coming anyway?

Knowing this, Duke Hooten had to command the 3rd Knight Order Commander.

‘Do not interfere!’

That is what he should have said. Swallowing hard against the overwhelming aura of Choi Han that consumed his insides, he opened his mouth.

“Do not—cough!”

Thwack!
General Tunka’s fist connected with Duke Hooten’s face once more, and he sneered at the Imperial Knights.

“The Empire’s black swords freezing to death—how pathetic the Empire’s weaklings are.”
“You, you insolent bastard! How dare you!”

The Knights’ eyes blazed with such intense fury it seemed ready to overflow. Even as the 3rd Knight Order Commander remained surrounded, he shouted at General Tunka, who was sprinting away in the opposite direction from the Main Gate.

“You’re surrounded! Release the Duke! In the end, if we fight, it’s you who will die!”

Then Duke Hooten saw the helmet turning toward him.

Boooooooo—
The horn of Wipper sounded.
The Sword Master with crimson eyes seized Duke Hooten by the hair and forced his gaze skyward.

“Look.”

The clear sky came into view.

“No, this can’t—”

Duke Hooten’s eyes trembled.

A colossal white spear streaked across the heavens.
A spear forged by five bone birds.

The spear hurtled toward a single target with devastating force.

“…The, the Alchemy Tower…!”

The tip of the white spear was aimed at the Black Tower.
Tribal Chief Kanel stood at the very front and cried out.

“They’re targeting the Black Tower where the Lion Tribe resides!”

While the mages and alchemists of the other Black Towers focused on offense, those atop the Alchemy Tower where the Lion Tribe sheltered concentrated on protection instead.
This tower would fall first.

The Tribal Chief couldn’t see behind him, but he could sense the agitation of the Dwarves—the operators of the four bone birds following in his wake. They were likely targeting the Lion Tribe.
Because of this, he locked eyes with Edrich of the Lion Tribe, who was glaring at him, and shouted while gripping his hands with all his might.

“We can do this!”

At the same moment, Kanel’s body trembled slightly.

Shhhhhhh—
He felt the wind pressing against his body as he cut through the sky diminish. An invisible, transparent barrier became palpable.

A transparent membrane enveloped his body and those of the other Dwarves, along with the bone birds and this white spear—all of it faintly emanating presence from Tribal Chief Kanel.

The Tribal Chief gripped the bone bird’s reins tightly.

‘He’s here. He’s arrived!’

When they had arrived at Maiple Castle Inner Fortress with Rosalind and entered their private space, the Dwarves were introduced to that great one—someone they had wanted to avoid out of fear, yet stood beside Commander Kale Heniatus.
Kale had said:

‘You’ll be fine if you work together.’

A voice reached the minds of the Dwarf operators.

-Dwarves! I will help you!

The Dragon’s voice resonated.
The Dragon’s transparent shield enveloped the Dwarves and the bone birds.
The Tribal Chief recalled Kale’s words.

‘They’re incomplete birds that haven’t yet become phoenix, but this will be enough for the first battle.’

The Dragon will protect your wings.

The Tribal Chief spread the bone bird’s wings wide.
The massive white spear’s tips unfurled completely.

“Do they have a death wish? These madmen!”

From Edrich of the Lion Tribe, he sensed astonishment and a contempt for the Dwarves that had not yet faded.

“Do you truly believe you can topple the Lion Tribe with such tactics? You’re nothing but weaklings who can only manufacture trinkets!”

Edrich and the Lion Tribe were enveloped in a shield conjured by the Mage.
The Empire had chosen to protect the Lion Tribe after all. They did not attack the Dwarves.

When the approaching bone bird’s spear collided with the Alchemy Tower, the Dwarves would inevitably suffer injury.
Ordinary bone could never shatter the tower.

Yet the Dwarves’ ears still echoed with the words from their previous conversation.

‘Paint the bone white.’

Bone birds.
But their true form was that of black-bone birds.

The bones reinforced by Necromancer Mary’s dead mana were harder than that Black Tower itself.
Moreover, the Dwarves and bone birds would sustain no damage.

-Dwarves, I will protect you!

The Dragon said he would protect them.
It was the first time. Never before had the Dragon shielded the Dwarves from behind.

Edrich of the Lion Tribe cried out.

“If anyone dies today, it’ll be alone! You foolish dwarf bastards!”

Then, Tribal Chief Kanel roared with all his might. With every ounce of his voice. So that all nearby could hear.

“You stupid lion cubs! I’ll bring you crashing down!”

Thus, the Lion Tribe could not properly hear the Mage’s voice, pale with dread as the spear drew near.

“A massive! A massive barrier enveloping those birds!”
“What?”

The Lion Tribe and Alchemists reacted belatedly, but it was already too late.

CRASH!

A white spear pierced through the Alchemy Tower.

The white spear surrounded by the Dragon’s protective barrier and its operators remained unscathed. The Dwarf Tribal Chief laughed as he watched the Lion Tribe members slowly descending through the air, supported by flight magic and shield magic.

And he shouted.

“One more!”

Now it was truly beginning.
The Dwarves felt the power of their ally, the Dragon, and realized just how formidable the black bone birds created by the Necromancer were. There was nothing to fear.

“The sky is ours!”

The Tribal Chief spread his wings wide, his chest overflowing with exultant words.

Crash!
Boom!

The Black Towers began to crumble.

Duke Hooten stared blankly at it all.
Yet before he could even witness all seven towers fall, his head bowed downward. Black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He saw the helmeted swordsman looking down at him.

Choi Han, his eyes burning crimson, spoke slowly to the Duke.

“I summoned them on purpose.”
“…Ah.”

A sigh escaped the Duke’s lips.

Choi Han spoke of deliberately summoning the 3rd Knight Order and the 1st Knight Order.
Behind him, Duke Hooten could see Maple Castle.

A trumpet’s call rang out—

With the sound of the horn, all light drained from Duke Hooten’s eyes.

Magic surged skyward.
Dozens of offensive spells erupted from Maple Castle toward the heavens.

Rosalind’s voice rang out from atop the City Wall.

“All units, attack!”

The supreme-grade mana stones that had shimmered above the Wipper mages maintaining the fire barrier began to shatter one by one, radiating intense light.

Crack. Crackle.

Wipper’s other strength—the power that had once made them absolute rulers.
Magic.
The true essence of mages who had secluded themselves for decades in research now ascended toward the sky.

And it converged on a single point.

Where Duke Hooten stood.
The spells descended upon that location.

In the midst of the fierce battle with the crumbling Black Tower.
On ground where only the Empire’s knights and Wipper’s warriors existed.

The magic targeted that very ground.

Duke Hooten closed his eyes.
Tunka’s voice, tinged with madness, reached his ears.

“Hell has no dignity, no elegance. War is hell.”

Then Wipper’s magic poured down upon the earth.

Boom. Boom.
Crash, booooom—!

Thud.
The Duke was hurled to the ground as if discarded.
As his eyes opened, he beheld the surroundings being laid waste by magic.

“Krraaagh! Magic-reinforced armor!”
“Raise your shields!”

The anguished cries of the Imperial Knights pierced through the gaps in the explosions.
Armor reinforced with high-grade mana stones was no match for an attack channeled through supreme-grade mana stones, infused with decades of Wipper’s concentrated magical essence.

The Knights, their armor shattered, desperately holding up their shields, were pitiful humans cast into the very depths of hell itself.

Yet for others, this was familiar ground.

“Tear them apart! Kill them! Don’t stop!”

The warriors of Wipper.
Those blessed with magical resistance.
They surged into the magical inferno at General Tunka’s command, responding to his roar.

Dozens of spells still cascaded across the battlefield.
Unlike General Tunka, who possessed absolute magical immunity, the Wipper warriors each bore wounds and bled profusely.

Yet they charged at the Imperial Knights with wild shrieks and laughter, their eyes ablaze with madness.

“Behold! In the end, all that remains is the human body!”

General Tunka bellowed, seizing a Knight by the throat and hurling him to the ground.
Brutally and primitively, the Wipper warriors focused on slaughtering the Imperial Knights. When weapons shattered, they used their bare hands; when their hands were blocked, they used their heads and legs.

“Kill them!”

At General Tunka’s command, the warriors moved like madmen into the magical Fire Pit.

The Empire’s mages could not aid the Knights.
They were too occupied erecting shields and evading the collapsing debris of the Black Tower.

“Ha, haha—”

Duke Hooten lay sprawled on the dirt, staring blankly at the spectacle unfolding before him.
There was no elegant, orderly Imperial Army here.

All around me, everything crumbled and burned.
Those thrashing about in that inferno were only those who threw themselves into the destruction without regard for their own bodies.

The shattered commander looked toward the swordsman with crimson eyes who had destroyed him.
But the swordsman gazed elsewhere—toward his own commander.
Upon the walls of Maple Castle, the sole figure standing upright as though time itself had frozen around him.
Kale Heniatus.

The moment he raised his hand, Choi Han opened his mouth.

“It’s over.”

The first battle had ended.

The Black Tower lay in complete ruins, the Imperial Army had not breached the Main Gate, and the majority of the knights had been annihilated.
And Duke Hooten had been captured as a prisoner by the Wipper Kingdom Army.

The Empire’s blade, the Empire’s strength, had been broken.

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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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