Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 305

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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 67. From Below

Before the deafening roar could numb everyone’s ears, only Kale Heniatus, standing closest, could hear it.
Seconds before the explosion erupted.

Aaaaaaah!

A scream pierced the air.
It was likely Honth.
Then the explosion consumed the world.
In that instant, a black radiance burst forth from Honth’s heart, engulfing everything around it.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kale Heniatus felt his heart pounding wildly within his chest.
That black light.

So that is true dark magic.

For some reason, my heart raced.
I had remained composed when witnessing black despair, yet inexplicably, my heart thundered against my ribs.
It was like that moment when Kim Rok-soo first encountered a monster on Earth—my body recoiled instinctively from something grotesque I had never seen before.
Back then, I had been afraid.

“Am I to be afraid again?”

I tightened my grip. Blood vessels burst across my eyes, staining them crimson.
I seized the reins with one hand while the other hand unfurled a silvery radiance.
That silver light descended toward the earth.

-Insufficient.

The shield spoke.
Simultaneously, Jjangdol said.

-Do not sacrifice yourself.

What do you want me to do?! I said no!
Kale Heniatus felt his temper flare up.
He sensed his body pushing past its limits. His vision was growing hazy.

Then, Kale caught sight of someone rushing past him.

“I… I have to save them.”

A trembling voice. A figure hurling herself toward the erupting darkness—no, toward the Swamp.
It was Merry.

The black robes turned toward the darkness. As a Necromancer, she sensed it instinctively.
A power far darker and more viscous than any golem core—something incomparably sinister. It was dangerous.

The people below would die, and perhaps even Raon would struggle.
And Kale had no strength left now.

“Dark magic… I can purify it.”

A Necromancer could purify it.
Merry moved on instinct, dredging up memories buried deep within her consciousness, and acted.
She reached out her hand toward the darkness.

Sizzzzzzle—

In an instant, the moment her hand touched the darkness, the back of her hand burned.
Merry’s fingertips trembled.
A tremendous force had made contact.

A power that surpassed her own.
Not Honth’s power, but the true strength of the one connected within Honth—she felt it.
It was immense.
It felt like facing Raon, or rather, like facing Erhafen.
Yet Merry reached out her hand.

【A Necromancer is weaker than a dark mage.】

A passage from a book surfaced in her mind.

“Instead, we can purify their power. But it comes at a cost.”

No cost without consequence.
A price must be paid.
The moment I witnessed Merry’s burning hands and understood what that price would be.

“Have you lost your mind?”

She withdrew her hand from my weakened grasp.
My trembling hands, drained of strength, reached for Merry. The instant I saw blood trickling from the corner of my mouth, I spoke.

“Don’t do this while you’re injured.”

Simultaneously, Merry witnessed the silvery light enveloping us both. At the same moment, a space shrouded in darkness materialized, and a small black dragon appeared.

“Merry, I’m sorry! I can’t even save the Black Bone Bird!”

Raon wrapped the three of us in silvery shields.
Layer upon layer, triple, quadruple. He confined us repeatedly as he spoke.

“We’re at our limit—the three of us closest to the blast point! Black Bone Bird, I’m sorry!”

Merry watched as Raon braced my back.

“Human! I’ve shielded the bottom too! You’re an idiot! More foolish than the talkative Hilsman! More foolish than Tunka!”

Merry witnessed the massive explosion and black light consuming the silvery shields that wrapped around the three of us.
Without thinking, Merry supported Kale Heniatus and braced Raon’s back.

“Thank you, Merry!”

Through the roar, Raon’s voice reached me faintly, and I felt Kale Heniatus’s body leaning against mine.
In that moment, Merry recalled the book’s back cover description.

Instead, we can purify their power. But it comes at a cost.

“But Necromancers already suffer their entire lives anyway. Why would I need to cause them additional pain or hardship? Besides, purification is a noble and righteous act that benefits the world. That’s why I found a way to do it without any cost.”
“Curious, aren’t you?”
“All you need is to become overwhelmingly stronger.”
“Just like me—the Sage of Death.”

Merry suddenly saw something.
Beyond the silvery shields, her vision darkened, the shields trembled, they continued to shatter, and even as Raon created new shields, she saw it.
It came from that darkness.

“I pray you become far greater than I am, my disciple who reads this book.”

Merry saw the path she had to walk.

She would grow stronger.
Overwhelmingly so.

Kwaaaaaaang—!

She did not close her eyes even as the deafening roar washed over her.
But most of the others collapsed, their eyes squeezed shut before opening again.

“Ugh!”
“Gah—!”

Several people could not hold back their retching.
The moment they witnessed Honth, the Sub-Tower Master’s disciple, his body glowing black as it exploded in the sky, revulsion surged up their throats.
An inexplicable nausea and rejection washed over them.
At the same time, terror flooded in.

“Uuugh, uaah—”

With the deafening sound, black light poured downward as if to engulf the people below.
Weapons had already slipped from their hands.
The soldiers braced themselves against the ground or clasped their trembling hands together.

Still, the black light did not fade.
It seemed as though it would descend upon them at any moment.

“…S, shields—”

Yet I could see a faint light blocking that darkness.
Silvery in hue, it appeared infinitely thin compared to the overwhelming blackness.

Crash! Crash!

The silvery shield trembled several times over.
The silver light waxed and waned, repeatedly surging and weakening as it held back the darkness.

“…Kale Heniatus.”

Tunka, the Grand General of Wipper, gazed blankly upward at the massive silvery shield. A barrier encircling the Empire’s earthen wall. The darkness was attempting to devour the earthen wall itself.
Moreover, he had clearly witnessed Kale Heniatus and Merry, who had been closest to Honth, consumed by the darkness.
Tunka slowly walked toward the place where Honth had been falling.

Both the remaining Imperial Army soldiers and the Wipper forces that had been charging forward had all forgotten their battle.

The darkness gradually subsided.
And finally, a clear sky appeared.

Whoosh—

The silvery shield slowly faded and vanished.
Thud. Tunka released the club from his hand.

Screech— Screech—

As the darkness disappeared, a massive Black Bone Bird pierced through the clouds above and descended urgently. It paused mid-air once, then landed on the ground.

Everyone stepped aside.
Clophe, commander of the Black Bone Birds who had evacuated to the sky while the darkness covered the earth, set down the people the bird’s beak had been carrying.

“Gasp, gasp.”

As Kale Heniatus descended to the ground, I drew in breath and lifted my head.
Tunka’s face came into view. He wore that ridiculous expression again—like some shonen manga protagonist. But I lacked the strength even to furrow my brow at it.

Raon had become transparent by then, and Merry was supporting him.
My entire body was drained of strength.

-Just leave it all to the Dragon. Why bother with a shield?

Jjangdol’s worried voice reached my ears.
Then what was I supposed to do?

Just because Dark had noticed the Dragon’s existence, was I supposed to reveal Raon to the Wiper Army, the Imperial Army, and everyone across the Continent?
That was impossible.

So I squeezed out every last ounce of strength and wielded the ancient power.
Then Jjangdol continued speaking.

-Why don’t you just be honest about it?

His voice was full of pity.

-Just say you acted on instinct.

Kale Heniatus bit his lip and ignored him.
I was already exhausted, and listening to nagging was the last thing I needed.

‘And I’m fine anyway, aren’t I?’

My stamina was depleted, but otherwise I was unharmed.

-Human! You’re going to die like this! It’s not a problem of your vessel anymore—you’re going to die from exhaustion!

I let Raon’s voice fade into the background.
But there was one concern that weighed on me more than anything else. A truly grave concern.
And that concern materialized right before me.

“Kale Heniatus.”

Clophe Seka descended from the Black Bone Bird and approached me, speaking.

“You are truly a hero, Kale Heniatus! A legend! And more than that!”

This is driving me insane.
Even Destructive Fire was slightly bewildered by the grandeur of the situation beyond his imagination. And now I’d even used the shield.
This was a situation I hadn’t anticipated.

Merry would restrain the Sub-Tower Master, and Choi Han would restrain the Crown Prince.
I had thought the glory would be divided evenly that way.
But if things went wrong, I could end up becoming a great hero among heroes. That had to be prevented.

‘…I’ll become a minor hero and retire quietly, living in obscurity.’

Even today, Kale Heniatus harbored such modest hopes.
But his vision had gone dark.

“…Kale.”

Tunka stared at him.
The Wiper Army soldiers stared at him.
And the Imperial Army soldiers, now leaderless, stared at him as well.

The soldiers turned their gazes away upon seeing Kale’s helpless state. Then they saw the barren land that the shields had failed to protect, consumed entirely by the black light.
If hell had a physical form, one could say without hesitation that it looked like that.

Once more, the soldiers’ eyes turned toward Kale.
Kale wondered what he could do about this situation.

‘That Crown Prince bastard actually abandoned his own soldiers.’

No—he had made them sacrifices for the explosion.
He had planned to kill them all together.
A truly mad man, through and through.

And that madman had teleported away, while Kale had been too busy protecting people from the blast to catch him.
On top of that, he had thought the Sub-Tower Master was Honth. But with the true body elsewhere, this too felt like a deception.

Frustration welled up inside him.

Even as Kale’s vision blurred and his mouth went dry, anger surged through him.
That was when—

“Kale, I apologize.”

Choi Han appeared in his dimming field of vision.
Choi Han lowered his head, at a loss for words.

“Phew, what?”

As Kale Heniatus exhaled heavily with the breath he had been holding, he could see something falling to the ground.

Thud.
Kale’s eyes widened at what he could make out through his blurred vision.
Suddenly, his mind snapped into focus.

Huh?
This?

As Kale looked toward Choi Han, Choi Han lowered his head and spoke.

“I was unable to capture the Crown Prince as he panicked and teleported the moment of the explosion.”

Well, that’s fine. Raon couldn’t help either, so it happens, right?
The corners of Kale’s mouth began to curl upward.

“So instead, I captured the one who was attempting to teleport last.”

Sub-Tower Master Metelona lay bound on the ground.
Choi Han lowered his head once more.

Thud.
Another body dropped to the ground.
He spoke in a remorseful voice.

“I apologize. I was unable to capture or kill the Crown Prince.”

Kale let out a hollow laugh at what he could see through his dimmed vision.

“However, I severed his right leg. Additionally, I slashed near his right heart with aura.”

Choi Han placed one of Adin’s legs on the ground with a thud and apologized.

This, this, this insanely vicious madman!

Kale was left speechless at Choi Han’s words, which befitted the protagonist of this absurd hero’s tale. Then Kale could see Clophe approaching and offering something.

“What is this?”

When he asked, Clophe Seka spoke with an air of nobility.

“A recording orb that I quietly brought along by myself to preserve the records of legends.”

Could it be?
The moment Kale Heniatus looked at him with rare anticipation, Clophe Seka shrugged slightly and answered.

“The explosion of the Golem and Honth. It’s all captured.”

Clophe Seka’s eyes widened like a serpent’s as he spoke.

“In the battle of justifications that will unfold across the Western Continent from now on, or rather, in the battle of truth, we won’t fall behind.”

This clever madman!
Kale Heniatus lifted his head.
A clear sky came into view, and the voices of Merry and Raon reached his ears.

-Human! The Gold Dragon Grandpa contacted us! Now I think I can find the answer!
“I will grow stronger and protect it.”

Kale Heniatus continued to let out hollow laughter.
He lowered his head toward the ground.

“Hmm.”

My vision wavered for a moment.
Like anemia, the earth and sky spun dizzily, flipping upside down.

-Human!

Small front paws steadied me.
Merry as well.

I lifted my head.
I could see the Imperial Army and Wiper Army soldiers looking at me, but my companions came into view first.
I opened my mouth.
Grasping at my fading vision, I spoke.

“Choi Han.”
“Yes.”

Kale Heniatus spoke with quiet intensity.
The most critical matter of all.
They could not allow another incident like the Golem or Honth to occur.
That was the priority.

“We head to the Jungle first.”
“…Yes, understood.”

The moment Choi Han answered with grave solemnity, Kale Heniatus closed his eyes.

“Young Master Kale!”
“Kale!”
“Young Master!”
-Human! You foolish but kind human! No! Kale!

Kale Heniatus heard the voices, but he could not open his eyes.
He thought to himself.

Ah, I’m losing consciousness.
Damn it.

Then came darkness.

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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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