Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 294

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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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Boom— boom— boom—
The earth trembled once more with each beat of the drum.

“Insane! Absolutely insane!”

The Vice-Captain couldn’t help but curse, the vulgar words spilling from his lips unbidden.

“Vice-Captain! They’re soldiers from Wipper!”
“Soldiers too? Damn it! Are they planning an all-out assault?”
“…It seems only the mages remain in the castle! All the soldiers have come out!”

The voices of knights, alchemists, and mages tangled together. Yet all eyes remained fixed upon the battlefield.

Behind the Bear Tribe, tens of thousands of soldiers emerged, their faces grim and weapons drawn.
Though their numbers paled in comparison to the Imperial Army, they still numbered in the tens of thousands, and more than that—

“Madmen…!”

They were a gathering of the utterly insane.

Beings who had laughed and rampaged within the inferno of magic.
They charged forward with nothing but weapons in their hands, no armor, no protection.

‘…How terrifying.’

The Vice-Captain felt fear at the sight.
The Empire—where both magic and alchemy flourished, unlike other kingdoms, boasting technological prowess unmatched anywhere else. These soldiers charging at them with nothing but their bodies terrified him.

“…We’ll use the earthen wall as our defensive line and focus entirely on holding this position!”
“Vice-Captain!”

The Vice-Captain turned to look at the knight calling him.

“The Crown Prince will arrive soon! Can we afford to show such a passive stance?”

The Crown Prince will arrive soon, so let us fight courageously.
Vice-Captain Hilsman studied the knight’s eyes.
This was a knight who had witnessed his comrades torn apart by Wipper warriors within the magical Fire Pit. Fear was evident in his gaze.
It was an emotion that no Imperial soldier should display.

‘Peace has lasted far too long.’

A world untouched by war had persisted for an extended period.
Because of this, they did not understand the nature of war.

‘But Wipper understood it.’

An age of peace.
Within that peace, Tunka’s forces had begun fighting first.

‘They did not realize it.’

Even if one wielded a sword forged of gold, if one had never swung it in battle—
How could they possibly overcome warriors who had clawed their way through mud with bare hands, without even earthen blades?

The Imperial Army lacked the experience of crossing the Boundary Line between life and death.

“No. We hold the line.”

And so Vice-Captain Hilsman chose to endure. But immediately, voices of opposition erupted.

“That won’t work!”

It was the Mage and Alchemist commanders.

“Vice-Captain! We must fight as the Empire fights!”
“Exactly. We cannot show weakness! If our already diminished momentum falls further, it will be catastrophic! We must raise morale!”

Worthless bastards.
Rage surged through Vice-Captain Hilsman as he regarded the Mage and Alchemist commanders.

‘It’s the knights and soldiers who will die, isn’t it?’

The Mages and Alchemists would remain behind this earthen defensive line. But Vice-Captain Hilsman and the knights and soldiers under his command would venture beyond the line to clash with the Wipper Army.

“Vice-Captain! The Crown Prince will arrive soon!”
“Even if we’re defending splendidly, to the Crown Prince and the nobles, we’ll look pathetic.”
“That’s right! We need to show them we’re fighting hard so we can reduce responsibility for the previous defeat!”

Two knights stared at him with earnest eyes. The Vice-Captain closed his eyes as he watched the knights anxious about the Crown Prince’s gaze.

‘Damn it! Responsibility is the problem? Dying is the problem!’

How could knights trembling with fear over some responsibility possibly defeat the Wiper Army, who had already thrown away their lives?
Yet the Vice-Captain himself was ultimately just a Vice-Captain without authority to command all these soldiers.

“…Prepare for sortie.”

Soon, the wooden gate nestled between the earthen walls slowly opened, revealing the Imperial Army.
The 1st Knight Order, reduced to half strength, and Imperial soldiers who had swallowed their fear.

The earth trembled.
As the enemies drew closer, the ground itself sang.

“Krahahahaha! So you finally come to fight! Cowards!”

Tunka mocked the Imperial Army.
The battlefield was already filled with Tunka’s forces.
Soldiers maintaining wide formations, the Bear Tribe, and warriors filled the battlefield between Maple Castle and the Imperial garrison.

The Vice-Captain rode forward at the front.

“Their formation is loose.”

The Wiper Army spread wide and continued to disperse, even though a dense charge would have been insufficient. The Vice-Captain immediately grasped the meaning.
The Vice-Captain immediately understood what that meant.

“You want a one-on-one fight.”

That’s why he shouted.
Perhaps he was the only one among the Imperial Army who risked his life like Wipper.
That’s why he shouted.

“Close ranks, everyone! Our duty is to survive until the Crown Prince arrives!”

He chose to survive.

“Vice-Captain!”

I ignored the knight’s cry.

“Caution is acceptable! Soldiers, raise your shields before your swords! They are demons!”

They are demons.

“Kahahahahaha!”

At that cry, Tunka burst into raucous laughter and fixed his gaze upon me. His charging footsteps halted before the Imperial knights and soldiers gathered at the earthen wall.

“You have a good head on your shoulders! Among these demonic Imperial bastards, you’re the only one with sense! A true warrior like us!”

Tunka shouted thus and lifted his head.

“What say you, Crown Prince? In your estimation, who shall emerge victorious?”

I stiffened and turned my head back.

Upon the earthen wall.
A gray-haired man stood in military dress, surveying the battlefield below. His eyes gleamed with golden light beneath the sun.

Crown Prince Adin.
His gaze met mine.

“The Empire does not yield.”

I bowed my head.

‘It’s over.’

In the Crown Prince’s eyes, I must appear as a coward.
Crown Prince Adin, despite his affable demeanor, led the administration and political sphere with ruthless meritocracy. Everyone feared falling from his favor.

‘And I have fallen from it.’

The sword in Vice-Captain Hilsman’s hand lost its strength.

“You’ve worked hard, Vice-Captain.”

The 2nd Knight Order of the Empire.
A knight order directly managed by the Crown Prince himself. They appeared on the battlefield clad in golden armor.
At that moment, Tunka’s voice rang out.

“The one who came to suppress us sure talks a lot!”

Tunka made no effort to hide his mockery toward Crown Prince Adin.

“That, that bastard!”

An Imperial noble who had come with the Crown Prince furrowed his brow at the sight of Tunka. However, the Crown Prince’s eyes remained cold and calculating.
His gaze swept slowly across the battlefield.

Tunka and the Bear Tribe, warriors, soldiers, Rosalind.
And the swordsman in the black helmet.
Finally, the man in the brown robe atop the City Wall.

“Your Highness.”
“I see it too, Sub-Tower Master.”

The Sub-Tower Master standing closest to the Crown Prince was also gazing at the man in the brown robe. Her mouth opened.

“That one must be killed first.”

The Crown Prince looked at Sub-Tower Master Metelona. Simultaneously, he fixed his gaze on the young man beside her dressed in an alchemist’s robe.

“Honth, do you share that assessment?”
“The Sub-Tower Master’s judgment appears sound, Your Highness.”
“I see.”

Honth.
He was the Tower Master’s prized disciple and the Alchemy Tower’s heir apparent for the next generation.
At the same time, he was a child of the Slums—a miracle and the protagonist of a beautiful story that the Alchemy Tower had woven by embracing the Slums.

The Crown Prince intended to keep him by his side and create a new hero for the Empire’s people.
A war hero from the Slums.
For the Empire, the Crown Prince, and the Alchemy Tower, he was an excellent means to swiftly reclaim the hearts of the people they had lost.

‘And Kale Heniatus, plus one more.’

The Crown Prince gazed at the person beside him with affection, yet his expression remained cautious.

“Valentino, I’ve shown you such a spectacle from the very beginning.”

With the presence of these two, he could not afford to lose the hearts of the Empire’s people.

Of course, Valentino’s thoughts differed. He licked his lips. And his gaze turned toward the Wipper Kingdom’s side.

“Not at all. One must aid a friend. I shall go to the Priesthood.”
“Thank you. I am grateful for your friendship in coming to help me.”

At Adin’s response, Valentino laughed with genuine warmth.
What a damnable fellow. He regretted the time spent as this man’s friend.

‘You will pay the price for laying hands on Caro.’

Valentino left Adin’s side with a hardened expression and turned toward the Priesthood.
Adin watched him go and thought to himself.

‘How convenient. His expression is easy to exploit. Useful.’

Valentino, unable to hide his hardened face born of worry about the war. Adin kept him close because he was useful.

“Where are you looking! Crown Prince Adin!”

Adin turned his gaze back to Tunka, who shouted at him.
He offered Tunka a gentle smile. It was merely the smile of one gazing upon prey.

His lips parted. A command rang out.

“All Knights Orders—target the necks of the Wiper Army.”

Thud-thud-thud-thud—
The thundering of hoofbeats shook the earth.
Knights poured forth.
Beginning with the 2nd Knight Order, over a thousand knights from the Empire’s noble houses surged forward, each bearing their own heraldic emblems.

“Ahahahahaha!”

Tunka laughed at the sight of them, raising his club high.

“Charge!”

His roar cut through the thunder of hoofbeats and consumed the battlefield.
In that same moment, Tunka’s gaze fixed upon the Crown Prince.

‘Hmm?’

The Crown Prince faltered under that stare. To one so skilled at reading others’ emotions, Tunka’s eyes seemed… peculiar.

‘…Is he mocking me?’

The Crown Prince’s mouth opened.

“Stop.”

The knights’ movements suddenly stopped. The moment they looked at the Crown Prince in confusion, Tunka’s mouth opened.

“Smart bastard.”

In that instant, a sound reached Adin’s ears.

Whee-whee-whee— whee-whee-whee—

A flute’s melody.
The man in the brown robe—he was playing the flute.

Then, tens of thousands of Wiper Army soldiers began to move.

I raised my hand.
They lifted both hands high, ever higher.
Hands raised as if in triumphant salute.

“What is that?”
“Huh? What are those spheres?”

Warriors, Soldiers, Bear Tribe—all held the same deep blue spheres in their hands.
The Wiper Army soldiers each gripped one sphere in both hands, while the Empire’s Knights stared at them in bewilderment.

Shhhhhhh— Shhhhh—

The wind blew.
A wind from a different direction than the spring breeze that swept from the Empire to Wipper.
Through that wind emerged a massive skeletal bird.
Four more appeared in succession.

“Ha, haha—!”

Crown Prince Adin burst into laughter. He was genuinely delighted.

“Quite a number.”

One. Four.
And then dozens more appeared.
Dozens of skeletal birds, smaller than the five that came before, filled the sky.
The Dwarves were controlling them. They stood atop Maple Castle in the Wipper Kingdom.

Shhhhh—
In that moment, the wind blew and the hood of the brown robe was swept away.

Crown Prince Adin fixed his gaze upon the figure in the brown robe.

White hair was visible.
And blue eyes—those eyes like the sky itself, glimpsed through the mask’s openings.
A white-haired man with his face concealed by a mask covering from his nose to his forehead, emanating an air of mysterious enigma, raised his hand.
And the moment that hand pointed downward.
Tunka cried out.

“Run!”

What? Run?
The Empire’s soldiers froze in shock.
It began with Tunka. His raised hands dropped toward the ground.

Crash!

A sphere shattered, and a deep blue liquid spilled into the world. Simultaneously, the Crown Prince’s command rang out.

“Fall back. It’s the Canyon of Death fire.”

Tunka and the Crown Prince’s eyes met. Tunka bolted, his voice sharp with disdain.

“Annoying bastard.”

He recalled the deep blue flames that had consumed the Canyon of Death itself—born from nothing but that liquid.
Over a thousand knights frantically relayed the Crown Prince’s order across the battlefield.

“Retreat! His Highness commands it!”
“Fall back!”

But the moment Tunka turned, those behind him began dropping their hands to the ground in succession.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

Tens of thousands of deep blue spheres were hurled across the battlefield.

“Kahahaha!”

Laughter erupted from every corner, beginning with Tunka.
Mad, unhinged laughter.

As the wind shifted, the Imperial Army’s eyes began to witness the flames.

Deep blue as the darkness of a sunless night.
The deep blue fires—the Dragon’s wrath contained within tens of thousands of spheres—began to manifest one by one.

It began small.
Yet the flames that split into tens of thousands of branches gradually merged together, growing in magnitude.

“…Canyon of Death.”

Crown Prince Adin’s brow furrowed.

“-It will be larger than that.”

The small fire grew to the height of a man, then continued expanding in size and stature.
Like a tranquil shoreline gradually consumed by a raging tempest.
Beneath the sunlit sky, the dark blue flames stained the earth in shadow.

Tunka ran.

“Krahahahaha! It’s hell! Pure hell!”

He heard the cries of Rosalind and Herrol Codian.

“Bring the slower soldiers using flight magic!”
“Open all gates! Let the soldiers and warriors inside!”

The mages and soldiers and staff officers remaining within the castle stood in predetermined formations, assisting the fleeing soldiers in orderly succession.
Those who stumbled or lagged were lifted by flight and haste magic, and where the gates were narrow, ropes and ladders were lowered from the city wall to swiftly bring people inside.

Swift yet composed.
While the Imperial Army erected earthen walls, the Wipper Kingdom Army had prepared solely for this scenario.

Rosalind and Herrol Codian shouted.

“The fire will strike soon!”
“The wind will blow with greater ferocity!”

Tunka halted his steps.
Glancing to the side, he saw Choi Han wearing a black helm.
The two watched as the soldiers and warriors safely withdrew, then lifted their gazes.

The White-Haired Man upon the city wall.
He raised the flute to his lips once more.

Adin saw the White-Haired Man.
Though distant, his presence was unmistakable.
Their eyes met.

‘So that’s the ringleader.’

He was the conductor.
It was the moment Adin smiled.

Shrieeek— shriiek—

The skeletal birds spread their wings wide.

Whoooosh— whoosh—

A fierce wind, different from before, began to blow.
A wind blowing opposite to the spring breeze that swept from the Empire toward Wipper.
The wind stirred by dozens of skeletal birds changed the direction of the flames.

The blue-green fire began to surge violently.

“Your Majesty! The flames! The flames are intensifying!”
“The fire is spreading toward the Empire!”
“What a mountain of flame!”

Voices of nobles erupted from all directions.
Yet Adin kept his gaze fixed solely on the White-Haired Man.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The blue-green flames collided and merged, creating ever-larger infernos.
It was becoming a colossal conflagration vast enough to swallow an entire city whole.

That inferno rushed toward the Imperial Army.
With the very winds of nature overturned, the flames mingled with the gale, their black maw gaping wide as they surged toward the Empire.

“…I can’t see anything.”

A wave of dark blue flames filled Crown Prince Adin’s vision.
Maple Castle was no longer visible.

“M-Mages! We must mobilize the mages, Your Highness!”
“This inferno! The Alchemist too! Your Highness!”

The nobles cried out urgently, shuffling toward the earthen wall below.
That was when it happened.

“…Your Highness!”

Adin, who had been standing motionless, turned his head at a knight’s voice.
A pallid man was climbing atop the earthen wall. With a knight’s support, he was barely making his way up. Adin’s mouth fell open.

“Young Lord Kale Heniatus. It has been a while.”
“Your Highness.”

Red-haired Kale Heniatus, supported by Vice-Captain Hilsman, had arrived at the battlefield.
His calm voice carried an even firmer resolve.

“Of course I had to come. We must save everyone, must we not?”

Ah.
One of the nobles let out an exclamation.
His condition was already known among them.
Despite such a state, a righteous man moving to save the entire Empire.

“…The hero of Rowan has arrived.”

The noble could not contain his admiration.
A hero was truly a hero. Even as the hellish dark blue flames surged forward.
Without realizing it, their eyes were drawn to the hero, unable to look away.

Then a voice echoed in Kale’s mind.

-Human! The golden Dragon Grandpa is so pitiful! He’s done nothing but suffer!

I dismissed Raon’s voice lightly.
Crown Prince Adin spoke to Kale.

“Will you help us?”

Kale Heniatus pulled away from Hilsman’s supporting arm and managed to stand firmly on his own.
The commander in the black uniform who had once saved Rowan bowed slowly to the Empire’s Crown Prince, then straightened.
His gaze was as hard as stone. His lips parted.

“For the sake of peace, I will move.”

The voice of the invisible Raon reached my ears.

-Extinguishing fire first, then starting another! Humans are truly peculiar!

I would move for my own peace.
Crown Prince Adin spoke to me with a gentle smile.

“Thank you, Lord Kale. I’m counting on you.”

In that moment, I thought.

‘Let me become a hero of the Empire.’

I painted a smile across my face—one that was difficult yet righteous and sorrowful, befitting a commander.

-The human acts so well!
“Ugh, our young lord.”
-Even the talkative Hilsman performs admirably!

I naturally ignored the commentary.

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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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