Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 299

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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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“Your Highness, there he is!”

The Mage who had commanded the Mage Battalion during the first engagement cried out upon seeing Crown Prince Adin, his finger pointing toward the largest golem.

“That is the one who wounded Duke Hooten!”

A black helmet.
A human who had shattered the Empire’s swords without channeling aura.

Adin’s gaze shifted to the golem the Mage indicated, and there—darting across its surface—was a figure so diminutive, so insignificant in presence, it seemed almost trivial.

‘Is that a Sword Master, or merely a swordsman wielding some peculiar power?’

Adin was curious.
Yet it was hardly a matter of consequence.

‘I’ll simply capture and interrogate them. The answer will come.’

A simple problem indeed.
His lips parted, and he spoke toward the grey sphere.

“Number One will capture the helmeted swordsman.”

Number One.
The golem that Choi Han had ascended—the first golem ever recreated by the Alchemy Tower.
The golems were designated by size.

“Units Seventeen, Eighteen, and Nineteen will provide support. The rest advance on Maple Castle.”

Kuuung—
The golems stirred to life once more, obedient to command.

Number One, extinct since ancient times and now remade for the first time, was the most colossal of them all. The Alchemist seated in its control chamber began to manipulate the massive construct.

“A gnat clinging to me! Tsk!”

The Alchemist, having missed his moment to shine, grimaced and could not suppress his irritation.

Whoooosh—
A colossal fist descended toward the human clinging to its body like a fly.
The fist opened.
A massive palm swept down toward me as I climbed up past its thigh.

Boom!

The force was equivalent to a human swatting a mosquito on their skin.
Choi Han let out a dry chuckle.

“Treated like a mosquito, huh? Or is it more like a flying insect?”

I gazed up at the palm looming overhead and kicked off the ground.

Tap.
My body shot upward through the gaps between its fingers in an instant.
In that fleeting moment—

Crash!

A deafening roar erupted.
It was far beyond the sound of a palm striking a body.

—Choi Han! Behind!

I know, Raon.
Choi Han twisted his body.

Another golem’s hand lunged toward me suspended in midair. I caught sight of the control chamber within the smaller golem. An Alchemist sneered down at me from within, as if already certain of victory.

“You’re not in a weight class to interfere!”

The palm of Golem Unit 17 descended toward Choi Han.

—Choi Han, there’s one on the right too! And the left!

Massive black golems surrounded me from all directions, cutting off every escape route.
Darkness enveloped me as if night itself had fallen.

When I looked up, all I saw was the dark golem’s face looming above me.
One of the Alchemists in the control chamber shouted.

“We’ve got him! I’ll avenge Duke Hooten!”

Why did humans fear Dragons? Why did they dread Monsters and tremble before the Wyvern Knights?
The Alchemist could answer that simply.

‘Because humans are infinitely small before them.’

And so the golems controlled by the Alchemists sought to crush a single, infinitely small human beneath their feet.
In that moment.

“I don’t think so.”

A faint smirk crossed Choi Han’s lips.
These creatures, relying solely on their massive frames, were laughable.

“In the end, they’re still human-controlled.”

Ultimately, it was humans who piloted these things.

Why are Dragons and Wyverns terrifying? Simply because of their size?
No.
It was the oppressive aura—the killing intent—that only living creatures with consciousness could emit, just like humans.

‘An empty vessel remains empty.’

I twisted my body.

‘Right side first!’

CRASH!
The golem’s fist slammed into empty ground.
The earth trembled.

Tap.
I planted my foot on the golem’s shoulder and launched myself skyward.

‘Now, backward!’

My body spun through the air in a complete rotation.

Tap.
My feet lightly pressed against the back of the golem’s hand as it came from behind.

‘This bastard?’

The Alchemist watched.
Like a butterfly—no, like a bird—the human pushed off the golem’s hand and soared higher still.
He appeared utterly free.

The Alchemist felt it instinctively.
This could not continue—

‘No!’

The Alchemist manipulated the golem’s other arm.
The massive hand shot forward with terrifying speed toward the airborne Choi Han.

‘He dodged it!’

Yet Choi Han evaded the swift, powerful hand.
With remarkable ease.

‘The Empire’s Sword did not crumble for nothing!’

Sweat beaded on the operator’s brow. Even so, he could see clearly—the figure climbing ever higher, using the hands and feet of the golems attacking him as stepping stones.

The Alchemist controlling the seventeenth golem caught his breath sharply.

“…We’ve met.”

A black figure ascending, stepping upon the golem’s shoulder where the control chamber lay.

Black helmet, plain iron sword, light black garments.
Amidst everything shrouded in black, a crimson glow pierced through.
No—crimson eyes.

“…Our eyes, our eyes met.”

Through the gaps in the helmet’s face guard, I could clearly see crimson eyes staring back at me.
In that instant, a chill ran down my spine, and my limbs went numb.
I felt fear before a single human being.

Yet that human passed right by me.

The Alchemist piloting Golem Unit 17 finally grasped something and cried out.

“Number One! We must protect Number One!”

The moment that voice reached the gray sphere in Crown Prince Adin’s hand, Choi Han was already stepping across Number One’s shoulder.
He had passed through Number One’s cockpit.

Beyond the translucent glass, I could see the flustered Alchemist.
Simultaneously, Number One’s body twisted violently side to side, and both its hands reached toward the shoulder—toward Choi Han.
Even as Number One’s pilot fought to maintain balance, he realized something as he watched Choi Han evade the hands.

‘He knows!’

This bastard knows!
The black helmet dashing toward the nape of the neck.

“Your Highness! That swordsman knows the location of the core!”

This cannot be!
I had deliberately avoided the heart and abdomen, avoided the head, and hidden the core in an extremely small size at the nape of the neck.

Logically speaking, I knew it was impossible for that helmeted swordsman to pinpoint the exact location of the core on the nape of the neck—an area several times larger than a human—in a single attempt.

Moreover, he didn’t even possess an aura, did he?
How could he possibly destroy a golem’s body that could barely be cut by an aura and shatter the core?

‘Most importantly, an aura cannot destroy the core!’

An aura-level attack cannot destroy the core.
Only beings with properties similar to the core or those several tiers above with opposing attributes could shatter the sphere containing the core.

Yet he felt an uncanny, almost terrifying certainty.

‘That bastard knows where it is!’

He moves with knowledge of the core’s location!
His unfaltering stride and gestures made it clear.
If that were true, this was catastrophic.

He cried out without thinking.

“Don’t touch the core! It’s dangerous even to touch it, I’m telling you!”

The Sub-Tower Master said I could die!
His scream echoed like a wail, but it never reached the armored swordsman’s nape.
The golem’s body trembled.

Choi Han’s body advanced toward one point.

-Choi Han! It’s below the center of your nape! Just a bit further!

He heard Raon’s voice.
Choi Han gripped the sword’s hilt with tremendous force. In that moment, Raon spoke with a puzzled tone.

-…Choi Han? Are you hurt somewhere? Why are you releasing your grip? Your body tensed up!

Just as Raon said, the tips of Choi Han’s fingers trembled. He forced strength into those shaking hands.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Thump-thump.
My heart pounded fiercely.
My heart beat with an inexplicable intensity. Simultaneously, the aura within my body began to surge violently.

And it all converged in one direction.

My eyes fixed upon a single point.

Below the center of Golem Number One’s nape.
The place where Raon said the orb—the source of power—resided.

All of Choi Han’s senses concentrated on that point with such intensity that control became difficult.

Thump. Thump.
My heart pounded more violently.
Choi Han drew his sword.

The blade, his hand, his heart—all yearned for the source of the Golem’s power.
He understood instinctively.

‘I can become stronger.’

This is the final element of complete darkness I must obtain. I don’t need to overcome despair—I simply need to absorb this.
I don’t need to overcome despair and stand back up—I just need to absorb this.

With that realization, his blade pierced the Golem’s nape without hesitation.

Squelch.
Black aura erupted from the embedded sword. Imperfect darkness, invisible to others’ eyes, seeped into the Golem’s body.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
Choi Han’s heart raced.
Golem Number One convulsed with even greater violence.

“No! Don’t touch the core!”

The Golem’s pilot’s face twisted as if he might weep.
Finally, the Golem began to topple backward.
It was the pilot’s last act to throw Choi Han off.
Golems Seventeen, Eighteen, and Nineteen descended upon him.

But Choi Han saw none of them.
His hand drove the blade deeper still.

And then it sounded.

Clang!

It was the sound of glass shattering.
In that instant, Choi Han drove his sword forward as if possessed, concentrating his aura at the blade’s tip.
Black aura—imperfect darkness—shattered the orb.

Crack.

That was the moment.

“…It broke?”

The Alchemist of Unit Number One stared at the control panel, now blackened and charred, his eyes widening.
His lips trembled.

Had it been a force of mutual destruction several tiers higher, the danger alarm would have sounded.
That meant only one possibility remained—something with an attribute similar to the core itself.

“…A human possesses despair as an attribute?”

And despair this profound?
Fear drained the color from the Alchemist’s face.

“…I’m dead.”

The core had shattered.

“I’m done for!”

When the Alchemist kicked away from the control seat and fled outside.

Screeeeeeeech—

A bone-chilling sound filled the entire battlefield.
And everyone witnessed it.

Black smoke billowing up from the nape of the black golem’s neck.

Screeeech—
Screeeeeech— Screech—

A terrible cry accompanied it.
Choi Han found himself frozen, unable to move. The black energy flowing through his incomplete darkness transmitted through the sword into his hands.

Anguish.
Rage.
Despair.
The despair of those whose lives had been stolen.

-Choi Han!

Choi Han felt the despair of another.
No—the despair of hundreds crashed down upon him.

-Choi Han!

His eyes fixed on the point where the blade had pierced.
Something began to flow through the sword.

Drip. Drip.

From the wound of the motionless Golem Number One, liquid from within the core began to seep out.
Black liquid.
Dead mana.
Yet it differed from all the dead mana I had encountered before.

Despair emanated from it.
Darkness—an unfathomably deep darkness—flowed forth.
It was a mass of despair itself.

-Choi Han!

Drip. Drip.
Drop by drop, the liquid stained Choi Han’s ordinary iron sword black.

That resembled dead mana—I should avoid it.
Yet Choi Han could not. His body remained rigid, immobilized.
He understood instinctively.

How to obtain complete darkness in one’s hands.
An easy method I could use whenever I wished to avoid despair.

It was nothing more than becoming a monster that devoured the despair of others.

Choi Han’s heart and the aura within his body kept urging him to become that monster.

‘…No. This is… this is-‘

Choi Han’s face had drained of all color.

-Choi Han!
“You foolish bastard!”

Gasp!
Choi Han drew in a sharp breath. He felt a transparent, spherical form pushing his body away.
Simultaneously, he felt a hand seizing the back of his neck.

“…Raon.”

It was Raon who had pushed him away from the sword.

“…Clophe.”

And it was Clophe who had seized the back of his neck.
Choi Han was lifted upward, his neck gripped by Clophe, away from the sword.
He felt the cool yet paradoxically warm and supple touch of reptilian scales against his cheek—Raon’s front claws.

“…I, I momentarily lost my mind-”

I seemed to have momentarily lost my mind.
Just as Choi Han was about to say this.

Screeeee- Screee-
Screee- Screeeee-

The horrific shriek grew louder still. Simultaneously, black smoke spread ever further across the sky.
Like a firmament engulfed in flames, black smoke consumed the heavens.

Perhaps the Imperial Army and Wiper Army forces not engaged on the battlefield would find those things terrifying.

But that wasn’t the case.
Those very dark droplets invisible to those outside the battlefield.
A quantity of liquid so small it could fit in the palms of a human’s two hands.

Choi Han spoke urgently.

“That, that liquid must be destroyed.”

That black liquid—more terrifying than dead mana—had to be eliminated.
It should not exist in this world.

“Raon, I must inform Lord Kale. I must inform Lord Kale.”

That something more horrifying than golems exists.
The Empire, Dark—they must truly be insane.
The moment all of this emerges into the world, that’s when true hell begins.

Choi Han’s gaze shifted from Wiper toward the Imperial side. Across the earthen wall, among countless soldiers, I searched for red hair.
Red hair was difficult to spot. Only the countless Imperial soldiers moving back and forth were visible.

“The golem! The golem is destroyed!”
“Who is that? The one who brought down Duke Hooten?”

The Imperial side fell into chaos.
Their eyes saw only the suddenly halted Golem Number One and black smoke.

Screeeeeech—

A chilling sound accompanied it.

“Are all the golems going to be destroyed?”

The moment a fearful noble’s gaze turned toward the Crown Prince, I could see his face twisted in a peculiar way.
And there was a group with red hair watching over such a Crown Prince.

“Young Master! This, this is—”

Vice-Captain Hilsman suppressed the urge to cheer at the golem’s destruction, glancing nervously at the Crown Prince before addressing Kale.

“…Young Master?”

Then he grew alarmed.
Kale was clutching at his chest above his heart.

“Young Master! Are you in pain again? Do you feel like you’re going to cough up blood?”

Vice-Captain Hilsman’s voice reached me.

-Human! Why again? Raon and Choi Han discovered something terribly distressing!

Raon’s urgent voice also echoed in my mind.

-Human, we must hurry. This is serious! Even I, even I can barely handle it! Can Grandpa manage this?
“Young Master, is your heart aching?”

But I couldn’t properly hear any of this.
My mind was elsewhere.

Screeeech— Screeeech—

A horrific wail and black smoke.
The moment I saw only that emanating from the motionless golem.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
My heart began pounding wildly.
My entire body convulsed violently.

‘Why is this happening?’

In that moment, the voice of the one who was always silent resonated in my mind.
The vitality of the heart. He spoke.

-It’s like back then.

At that moment?
Kale Heniatus drew a deep breath in sync with his heartbeat, his question hanging in the air.
This time, the voice of the unbreakable shield—Meokbo—echoed forth.

-We had to fight thousands of golems back then. Golems are beings crafted from dead mana and the resentful spirits of the wronged. The liquid core within them is something utterly, utterly horrifying.

Next came the words of Voice of Wind, the Thief.

-Golems. To flee from them together, you need my power. To protect your people from them, you need the strength of earth. To escape together, use the wind. If you wish to protect everything, harness the earth.

To flee together, use the wind. To protect all, use the earth.

-And finally.

At that moment, another voice interjected.
It was Sky-Devouring Water.

-To destroy those things?
-Our names were not given without reason.

Kale Heniatus turned her words over in his mind.
To ‘destroy’ them.
Even as he contemplated this, Sky-Devouring Water whispered softly.

-What do you need to erase both the ‘golems’ and the ‘black despair’ of dead mana that binds those spirits?

There was only one answer.
Kale Heniatus spoke it aloud.

“…Fire.”

Fire that ‘destroys’.
The voice of Jjangdol reached his ears.

-Do you know why that stubborn fool ended up setting fires across the Northern Western Continent? Of course, the initial reason was different, and there was also the matter of helping Sky-Devouring Water, and well, there was also the chaos this mad bastard caused.

Setting fire to the Northern Western Continent.
It was a task that few would dare attempt, no matter how desperate.
Yet Destructive Fire had to be driven to madness to save it.
To save the Western Continent.

-The one who eliminated the most black despair and golems on the Western Continent was Jjangdol. That’s why he was at least a hero to us.

Fire and light. An existence that fought despair while enveloped in Destructive Fire, becoming fire and light itself.

-The true power of perfected fire is to destroy or purify all things.

Destruction, or purification.
Fire—a natural attribute where contradictory forces coexist.

Kale heard the voice of fire, which had been silent until now.
For the first time, that voice was serious.

-Golems and black despair contain the despair of those robbed of life. They are part of terrible dark magic, not nature’s death.

…Dark magic? Not alchemy?
My voice, stripped of its usual lightness, had become infinitely grave.
Destructive Fire spoke its will and conviction for the first time.

-That filth must be destroyed. No one should ever have their life stolen like that. One’s own life must be protected.

Kale felt all five ancient powers stirring together for the first time.
They cried out in unison.

Destroy it!

Kale released the tension from his hand that had been gripping his chest.

“Young Master, are you alright?”
-Human, are you okay?

Raon and Hilsman could see Kale’s expression.
Kale lifted one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile.

‘These damned ancient powers and I think alike.’

That pleased me greatly—immensely, in fact.
Yes, such things must be eliminated. My nature could not simply overlook them.

At that moment, one of the forgotten powers began to shed the constraints that bound it, as the new master’s will aligned perfectly with the will of the previous master—the hero.
These powers had never required a vessel in the first place.

Within Kale Heniatus’s body, the flame of one once hailed as the ancient world’s greatest warrior began to kindle anew.

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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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