Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 293

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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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To make that happen, I had to use my time wisely.
I stood atop the Maple Fortress Tower in Wipper Kingdom, gazing out at the world beyond.

“Commander, or rather, Priest.”
“Ah, Chief Advisor.”

I raised a hand lightly toward the approaching Chief Advisor Herrol, gesturing to the side.

“The Guardian Knight Clophe Seka.”

Ah.
Herrol let out a sigh. A man with white hair and eyes filled with melancholy came into view.

The symbol of the Indomitable Alliance and the Guardian Knight of the defeated North. That he had submitted to the Roan Kingdom was already a famous tale.
Yet Chief Advisor Herrol could not let his guard down when looking upon Clophe.

‘A Sword Master, the commander of the Wyvern Knights.’

The Guardian Knight had been defeated because of the miraculous power that Roan and the Heniatus Territory possessed, but the strength he wielded was genuine and still formidable.
Herrol offered his respects with courtesy, acknowledging that such a being had come to aid Wipper Kingdom.

“It is an honor to meet you, Guardian Knight.”

Herrol could see Clophe Seka smiling at his greeting. From that expression alone, the restraint and dignity of a true knight seemed to emanate, drawing an involuntary exclamation from him.
He appeared to possess even greater dignity than Duke Hooten, who was held as a prisoner.
He could now understand why the people of Paern Kingdom revered the Guardian Knight as sacred.
That sacred knight slowly opened his mouth.

“How could one as humble as I refuse the request of the great Kale Heniatus?”

Herrol’s body stiffened.
Regardless, Clophe continued with a radiant smile.

“Rather, I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to the making of legend.”

Legend?
Chief Advisor Herrol’s eyes wavered. Yet Clophe’s gaze remained as steadfast as stone.

“I must imitate Lord Kale Heniatus. My heart races at the thought of my name being etched into legend.”

Herrol Codian’s unfocused gaze drifted toward Kale Heniatus.
Yet Kale Heniatus turned away, and after a moment of deliberation, Herrol spoke—a true Chief Advisor to that reckless General Tunka.

“Wipper’s Sword Master and leader of the Wyvern Knights have graced us with their presence. We are simply grateful.”

A soft chuckle.
Laughter echoed through the air.
Herrol Codian’s eyes widened as he looked at Clophe Seka. The guardian knight raised one hand—the one not holding his staff—and spoke.

“My apologies. I couldn’t help myself.”

Clophe Seka barely suppressed his rising laughter as he offered his sincere apologies to Herrol Codian. Herrol Codian was about to take offense, but the genuine remorse in Clophe Seka’s expression and Kale Heniatus’s pitying gaze calmed his irritation.

In that moment, Clophe Seka and Kale Heniatus’s eyes met.
Clophe Seka recalled the conversation he’d had with Kale Heniatus through video communication the day before.

‘Clophe, people on the Western Continent still believe you’re a Sword Master who commands Wyverns. Isn’t that right?’

Exactly, exactly!
Clophe Seka could not contain his delight.

Now he could no longer wield aura.
These cursed limbs of his were like a time bomb.
And commanding Wyverns?
That had always been a deception perpetrated across the continent.

Yet most people still believed his false image to be truth.

‘Indeed, following Lord Kale Heniatus elevates my name!’

My name would truly be inscribed in legend.

‘Adin, you fool.’

The Paern Kingdom would be recorded in history favorably by surrendering before the legend that is Kale Heniatus, by choosing to stand with him.
But the Empire, the Crown Prince—

‘It’s over.’

Clophe wasn’t delighted because of the Crown Prince’s destruction. There was only one reason he was pleased.

‘I can survive.’

Whether he wore fake limbs or not, what mattered was that he and the Paern Kingdom endured. And Kale Heniatus was a man who understood deals.
He wielded not just the whip, but the carrot as well.

‘Clophe, if you handle this properly, I’ll have Roan express its support so that the Paern Kingdom gains the upper hand among the Northern Three Kingdoms.’

Simply following the legend had already yielded benefits.
Clophe barely suppressed his laughter, regarding Kale with a composed expression.

“I will do my best, Kale.”

Once again, his face was refined and dignified.
Yet having just been cackling like a madman moments before, the sudden shift to composure made him look genuinely unhinged. Kale’s expression grew somewhat displeased, but he simply nodded.

‘He’ll do it properly for profit.’

Clophe was disturbingly rational despite his madness.
Kale now had to move to properly utilize this broken man.

“Chief Advisor, you understand, don’t you?”

Herrol’s eyes, which had been confused as he watched Clophe, shifted. Kale spoke to him.

“Shortly, Crown Prince Adin and the Sub-Tower Master will arrive here.”

Herrol swallowed hard. Clophe’s eyes also sharpened as he regarded Kale. Both shared a single thought.

‘How does Commander Kale know such a top secret?’

That Crown Prince Adin had departed the capital for the battlefield was news known to most of the Western Continent’s power brokers.
But when he would arrive at this battlefield, no one could have known.
Thus Herrol had to suppress his astonishment at Kale’s intelligence network.

‘If anyone else had said it, I wouldn’t have believed them.’

It was Kale Heniatus speaking. There was no reason not to believe him.
Clophe also trusted Kale’s words. Of course, unlike Herrol, he had grounds for it.

‘This is definitely information given by Prince Valentino of the Caro Kingdom.’

Clophe had witnessed the conversation between Valentino and Kale.
Just as he had anticipated, Kale had obtained the information through Valentino, who was scheduled to meet Adin on the battlefield.

The Caro Kingdom was an old ally of the Mogur Empire, and Valentino was known to be Adin’s lifelong friend. Moreover, the Caro Kingdom was a nation that was rushing to aid the Empire even now.
Clophe didn’t know the details, only making educated guesses, yet his skin crawled.

‘Just how far does Lord Kale extend his reach?’

I could envision Kale’s mastery of the intricate web of power among the Western Continent’s elite.
At that moment, Kale’s voice reached my ears.

“Let’s begin.”

Before meeting the Crown Prince, I had to move quickly.
I opened my mouth, looking at Chief Advisor Herrol.

“The moment the Crown Prince arrives, we must show him a hellfire.”

Herrol gazed down at the Main Gate.
General Tunka.
He stood waiting with his warriors before the closed Main Gate.
Beside the General was the helmeted swordsman Choi Han.

“This time, we strike first.”

Kale’s voice was etched into Herrol’s ears.

“The remaining Imperial forces have seen their Knights Order nearly annihilated.”

In the first battle, when the Black Tower collapsed, there were casualties, but most of the infantry, Alchemists, and Mages survived.
However, the Knights Order, including Duke Hooten, was nearly wiped out.

“The Crown Prince will leave only a minimal force of Knights in the Capital and bring all remaining Knights, including the 2nd Knight Order.”

The knight order forces were not composed solely of the Imperial household knights.

“Furthermore, this time the Empire’s nobility are bringing their house knights as well.”

Herrol Codian’s expression hardened.
The Empire was formidable not only because of the Imperial family, but also because the noble houses had accumulated tremendous military strength alongside the throne for generations.

‘The Crown Prince intends to annihilate Wipper entirely.’

Now the power of the nobility had joined the assault.

“Elite alchemists, including the Sub-Tower Master of Alchemy, are coming as well, it seems.”

The Empire was arriving fully mobilized.
In such circumstances, the Wipper Kingdom had no additional forces to deploy. If anything, their numbers had dwindled due to the wounded from the previous battle.
Herrol Codian looked toward Kale Heniatus.

“So we strike first, before they arrive?”

Kale Heniatus nodded.
Before the Crown Prince arrived.

“We turn this place into chaos.”

Herrol Codian grasped the war horn. Then Kale Heniatus’s voice reached him.

“Our targets are the Empire’s remaining knights and the Lion Tribe.”

Wipper’s warfare was always the same.
The best defense was offense.

Boooooooo—

After the first engagement, the battlefield had fallen silent.
The blast of Herrol Codian’s war horn shattered that silence.
In that moment.

Screeeeeee—

The main gate of Maple Castle, which had been closed, swung open.

* * *

Buuuuuuu—
Edrich, one of the Lion Tribe’s heirs, froze at the sound of the horn echoing across the battlefield.

“Did those Wipper bastards just sound the horn?”

His gaze shifted toward the 1st Knight Order Vice-Captain, the highest-ranking among the few surviving knights.

“Damn it!”

But the Vice-Captain had no time to acknowledge the heir’s stare. He shot to his feet immediately, followed by the Chief Alchemist and the Mage Battalion Commander.

“The Crown Prince will be arriving soon!”
“Curse it! Why are these Wipper dogs suddenly making a move now, after staying quiet all this time?”

The Alchemist and the Mage made no effort to hide their alarm.
After the first battle, the Wipper Kingdom Army had raged as though ready to tear apart every last Imperial soldier, yet they had fallen silent and shown no reaction whatsoever.

Swish.
The 1st Knight Order Vice-Captain thrust aside the tent flap and rushed outside.

A desolate landscape scattered with the rubble of the collapsed Black Tower.
Ground scorched black and cratered by magical bombardment.
The Imperial Army had established their encampment a safe distance back from that devastated terrain.

Naturally, before that encampment stood a makeshift rampart constructed by the Alchemists and Mages. Built not of stone but of earth, that barrier had given the Imperial soldiers reassurance against the Wipper threat.

“The Wipper Army made no move even while we were building that wall. Why now?”

The Wipper Army had left the Imperial forces unmolested even during the construction of the earthen barrier.
So why this sudden action?

‘Of all times, it has to be now, just as the Crown Prince is about to arrive!’

The Knight Order Vice-Captain immediately climbed the stairs leading up the earthen rampart, with the Chief Alchemist and Mage Battalion Commander close behind.

“Ugh, how bothersome.”

Edrich, the Lion Tribe heir, regarded the Vice-Captain’s urgent demeanor with a bored expression. At that moment, Gronika, his relative and distant cousin who had been waiting outside the tent, approached him.

“Why not go up and take a look?”

Edrich was far from pleased.
Having come as the Lion Tribe representative, it would have been beneath his station to take the field with mere foot soldiers—unless the Crown Prince himself appeared. But then Gronika spoke words that moved Edrich to action.

“The Dwarves. Have you forgotten?”
“Ha… those bastards.”

Edrich could not forget the Dwarves who had mocked him as he fell. His feet began to follow the Vice-Captain.

‘I came because of Father’s orders.’

He had come to aid the Empire to solidify his position as heir, yet Edrich harbored no intention of exerting himself. The existence of the Flame Dwarves was truly an irritation to him.

“…I must kill those wretches.”

These insignificant creatures must learn the price of daring to lay hands upon the Lion Tribe—the noblest blood upon the earth. He climbed slowly atop the earthen wall.

Buuuuuuu—

With the sound of the Wipper war horn, the battlefield that had been still beyond the earthen wall finally came into view.

Screeeech—
The silence of the battlefield shattered as the main gate of Maple Castle swung open.

Tunka appeared. As expected, the Grand General stood at the very front.
The Empire’s Vice-Captain cried out.

“Summon the Knights! Ready the infantry!”

Then came the voices of the Mage and the Alchemist.

“Prepare the Mage Battalion!”
“1-Hen, ready the liquids! This time we must use alchemy properly! The Crown Prince and the Sub-Tower Master will arrive soon!”

The Imperial Army’s leaders grew desperate.
The Crown Prince was coming.
The Sub-Tower Master was coming too.
They couldn’t afford to show weakness before them.
But the soldiers were different.

“…They said the Crown Prince will bring the nobles soon.”
“Can’t we just hold the line with earthen walls for now?”

The soldiers hadn’t forgotten the Empire’s catastrophic defeat—that terrible phantom of destruction. Everything shattered, Imperial Knights dying in the flames.
That memory lingered, feeding their fear of Wipper.

“Why aren’t you moving faster?”

But ultimately, soldiers were beings who had no choice but to obey. They could only follow their superiors’ commands.
The Knight approached the Vice-Captain and reported.

“Vice-Captain! The 1st Knight Order is fully prepared!”

The Knights who had barely survived were ready to march back into battle.
The Vice-Captain gazed at the battlefield and replied.

“We deploy shortly.”
“Yes, sir!”

His gaze turned toward Tunka, the warriors, and the Helmeted Swordsman.
The Lion Tribe’s Edrich was no exception.

The Helmeted Swordsman.
Not even a Sword Master, yet he had utterly subdued Duke Hooten, the Sword Master himself.
This mysterious figure was the variable in this battle.
Edrich of the Lion Tribe looked past the Helmeted Swordsman toward the sky above Maple Castle.

“Dwarf Kanel.”

Would that bastard appear as well?
If he did, I would kill him without fail. Whether he rode a Wyvern or not, I would bring him crashing to the ground and end him.

“Kehehehe.”

Just imagining it filled Edrich with uncontrollable laughter.
That was when it happened.

Poooooooo—

The horn trumpet sounded once more.

“What…?”

The Vice-Captain rubbed his eyes.

“Edrich!”

Gronika, the Lion Tribe matriarch, called out to Edrich, her kinsman and successor. Yet Edrich could not answer her cry, his gaze fixed upon the battlefield below the earthen wall.
No—upon the Maple Castle Main Gate.

“Kahahaha! Now comes the second war!”

General Tunka strode forth with arms spread wide, utterly composed.
The swordsman in the helmet leveled an ordinary iron blade toward the Imperial Army.

Yet that was not the problem.
Tunka and Choi Han, with the warriors behind them.

And beyond them.
The beings now pouring through the Maple Castle Main Gate.

The Vice-Captain cried out.

“…The, the Bear Tribe!”

Hundreds of berserk Bear Tribe warriors.
They shattered the silence of the battlefield as they emerged.

The Lion Tribe members were thrown into confusion.

It was only supposed to be the Dwarves?
Did the Bear Tribe who went to the Canyon of Death betray ‘Am’—no, betray their own Bear Tribe?

“…Edrich.”
“Damn it.”

Edrich cursed and recalled the Bear Tribe’s ruler. Simultaneously, he gazed at the Bear Tribe members emerging from the Maple Castle Main Gate.

“…They’ve betrayed the King.”

The face of Edrich, the Lion Tribe heir who dreamed of another king, contorted with rage.

Thud. Thud. Thud.
Iron spheres attached to the ends of chains connected to the Bear Tribe’s wrist shackles.
Hundreds of iron spheres rolled across the ground in unison with the Bear Tribe’s footsteps, sending tremors through the earth.
The ground itself screamed.
And atop the Maple Fortress walls.

“…That one has appeared as well.”

Edrich fixed his gaze on that figure in the ‘brown robe’.
At that moment, a Mage from the Imperial Army climbed onto the fortress wall and cried out urgently.

“The Crown Prince will arrive shortly!”

And simultaneously, Tunka’s roar reached the Imperial Army’s ears.

“I shall unfold the second hell!”

War by another name—hell itself.
With the countdown to the Crown Prince’s arrival dwindling, the second battle commenced.

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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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