Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 314

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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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Silence descended.

It was because Kale Heniatus’s appearance as he spoke of how there would be no regret if one died first was far too menacing.
But soon the silence shattered.

-Ha, hahaha-

Laughter poured forth from the video communication channel.
The laughter that burst forth as if genuinely amused harmonized perfectly with the cool spring night air.

-Hahaha!

But the one laughing was Crown Prince Adin.

-Phew, Kale Heniatus. You really are something.

The Crown Prince, barely suppressing his laughter as he took several deep breaths, called Kale’s name gently.

-You are truly an entertaining person.

His voice was affectionate.
He showed no concern whatsoever for the casual speech and threats.
Those listening to that voice furrowed their brows. Had anyone witnessed it, they would have thought he was addressing a close younger sibling.

And it was comforting.
They did not know that the furrowed brows of some would smooth out at that fact.
Rosalind and Choi Han in particular bore unfavorable expressions. They had been blindsided by the Crown Prince multiple times before.

‘No. That’s unnecessary thinking.’

Rosalind shook her head.
What could the Crown Prince, who was in the Empire and not here, possibly do?
Unease stirred within her, but she cast aside the needless worry.

At that moment, Adin’s voice came through.

-Kale Heniatus, what do you want?

A flinch.
Rosalind, Ritana, and Choi Han’s bodies stiffened. Ritana, the Ruler of the Jungle, understood immediately what Adin was about to say.

Temptation.
The Crown Prince had just openly attempted to seduce the enemy’s leader while the Imperial Army soldiers—his own men—were captured by the enemy.

-I want to know what you desire. I’ve given it considerable thought. What does Kale Heniatus want? Money? Power? Honor? Strength?

Adin continued in his characteristically pleasant voice.

-No. You don’t seek such things. And yet, you clearly want something.

Ritana could see Kale gazing steadily at the video communication device. As she watched, Adin resumed speaking after his brief pause.

-Like me, you want ‘something.’ Desperately.

Haha.
Adin’s low chuckle passed briefly, and soon he spoke with warmth, or perhaps excitement.

-I understand. The world may call you a ‘hero,’ but in my eyes, you are no ‘hero.’ You’re not simply a good person either.

How absurd!
Without thinking, Ritana stepped forward at Adin’s words. In that instant, Kale’s lips parted.

“You’re right. Your words are the answer.”

Ritana’s gaze shifted from the video communication device to Kale. She saw him gazing at the screen with a subtle smile playing at his lips.

-Exactly? My judgment was correct after all. I gave this serious thought this time, and without arrogance, I considered what you truly are.

Whoosh.
The black cloth covering the video communication device slowly drew back.
Then Adin’s face, bearing quite a healthy complexion, was revealed. Nothing else was visible—only his face against a black wall behind him.
His golden-tinged brown eyes met Kale’s dark brown gaze.

-Kale Heniatus.

Adin. Kale.
Both men’s lips curved upward.

-You’re similar to me.

Similar?
Ritana took another step or two forward.
Crown Prince Kale Heniatus was not the same kind of person as Adin. From the moment they met in the mist-filled forest and extinguished the flames in Jungle Zone 1, Kale had always been just in her eyes.
Of course, she couldn’t call him purely good, but he was fundamentally different from Adin.

“That’s right. We are similar.”

Her footsteps halted.
Kale had acknowledged Adin’s words once again.
That they were similar.
He had just admitted that he was a person similar to Adin.

Ritana glanced around her surroundings.
Dark Elf Tasha was the same, and there were others confused like herself. Even the enemies seemed bewildered. They appeared unsure how to react to the warm atmosphere between the two leaders.

However, the moment Ritana saw the expressions on Kale’s companions’ faces, she tightened her grip on her spear.

-Hahahaha!

At that moment, Adin burst into laughter and asked Kale.

-Then what do you want? Can you say it?
“Sure. There’s nothing I can’t say.”

Kale nodded. And toward the Crown Prince’s eyes—eyes that looked at me with a smile, as if delighted to meet a kindred spirit—he spoke, tossing the words out casually.

“To live as a free man.”

It was sincere.

-What?
“To live as a free man.”

To wipe out bastards like you and live peacefully in a comfortable world without anyone’s interference.
To live at ease as a free man without causing harm to others.
Kale was sincere. It was my dream—one I could proclaim confidently before anyone.

—…Are you mocking my words?
“Not at all.”

It was a response delivered with utmost seriousness, far from mockery.

“Hey, being unemployed is such a difficult dream to achieve. What? Are you dismissing my dream right now?”

Ritana found herself momentarily at a loss for words. Kale Heniatus possessed neither charisma nor the elegant bearing of a distinguished nobleman. Instead, he embodied the very epitome of recklessness and frivolity—a hooligan-like demeanor she had never witnessed before.

She could also see Rosalind shaking her head in disapproval.
Alongside her, she observed Choi Han and Erhafen nodding silently in agreement.

“Listen, being unemployed is a better occupation than being a Crown Prince, unemployment. Right? After so long, I finally met someone like me and shared my dream, and you’re dismissing it? Right?”
—…Sigh.

Crown Prince Adin exhaled a sigh of exasperation.

—You have no intention of having a proper conversation with me.
“No, really. I’m being sincere.”

Kale Heniatus tapped his chest in frustration as he spoke, yet with each gesture, Crown Prince Adin’s gaze grew colder and more distant.

—Someone who manipulates everything from the shadows wants nothing?
“No, I want unemployment!”

Why couldn’t he understand what I was saying?
Kale Heniatus was genuinely frustrated, yet to everyone except his companions, it appeared as though he were thoroughly mocking the Crown Prince.

—Fine, fine. I understand.

Even so, the corners of Crown Prince Adin’s mouth did not fall.

“Yes. Thank you for understanding.”

Kale Heniatus nodded and spoke with casual indifference.

“Then I’ll be waiting.”

The lightness vanished from his expression. He spoke while capturing every detail of Crown Prince Adin’s image within the video communication channel in his eyes.

“I’ll be there soon.”

A smile still lingered at the corners of Adin’s mouth.

-Right. War is a race against time, so we must hurry. Tell me if you need anything.

He spoke casually, as if tossing the words aside.

-Before that, let me give you a gift.

A gift?
My eyebrows rose slightly.

In that moment, Crown Prince Adin’s palm appeared within the video communication screen. It was a small orb. The sphere began to shatter with a crackling sound.

That was when it happened.

Uuuuung—

My head turned to one side.
A Dark Elf near the epicenter of the vibration widened his eyes and cried out.

“The mana stones in the control room—the mana stones are malfunctioning!”

The Dark Elves who had been restraining the Alchemists manning the airship’s controls looked at the control room in confusion.

Uuuung—
The airship’s power source.
The mana stones suddenly began vibrating wildly and emitting heat. My expression twisted. Then I heard Adin’s voice.

-You see, I feel best when everything is handled within my grasp. Did I mention that?

Adin was laughing.

-The order I gave to the Jungle Kingdom was “destruction.”

Surely not?

-And I always prepare for contingencies. I always keep in mind the possibility that my proud Imperial Army might fail my orders.

Screech. Screech.
Whirrrr, whirrrr.
The mana stones poured out even more heat, and the airship’s hull trembled violently.

Crack. Crackle.
Kale Heniatus heard the sound of the wooden stems I had bound snapping. The airship’s propulsion devices, which had been woven into the branches, were moving excessively and breaking free from the branches’ grip.

As if indifferent to their own destruction, the entire airship began to heat up slowly.
The source was the numerous mana stones in the cockpit that generated heat and vibration.

Each mana stone served as a switch for the airship’s mechanical devices, central control, and steering mechanism all in one.

Kale Heniatus’s eyes met Crown Prince Adin’s gaze.

-Does the airship have a self-destruct device, or doesn’t it?

Ah!
Rosalind and Choi Han’s expressions twisted.
They suddenly recalled the Wipper War.
Crown Prince Adin was someone who didn’t care whether his own allies lived or died.
He was a man who only cared about obtaining results, regardless of the process.

In the Wipper War, Crown Prince Adin had brought Honth along using a self-destruct device. He was the one who had pretended to treasure it most.

What had he cherished most this time?

‘The airship!’

Rosalind shouted urgently.

“We have to stop the mana stones!”

Whirrrr—
At the same moment, red mana surged around her. She immediately moved toward the cockpit. And her face twisted in anguish.

“…Damn it!”

The mana stones of the airship, with its self-destruct device already activated, were spinning fiercely and vibrating beyond the point of stopping, spewing out heat.

“…One wrong move and this whole thing detonates.”

Even with her magical prowess, Rosalind had no confidence she could maintain the balance of the rampaging mana stones.
Like a magical bomb counting down to detonation, the airship’s control room was now in that exact state.

-Hahahaha!

Crown Prince Adin’s hearty laughter echoed through the space. In that moment, I turned my head to the side.

“Your Majesty—”

The Chief Alchemist stood trembling with a deathly pale face. Unable to move his body, he was lost and consumed by fear.

“Your Majesty, I must survive—”
-Hahahaha!

The Alchemist’s plea to survive was swallowed by Adin’s laughter.
Yet the Crown Prince’s voice was drowned out by Ritana’s.

“Everyone evacuate the airship! Get to safety!”
“Follow His Majesty’s orders! Dark Elves, summon spirits immediately and transport the people!”

Tasha followed with rapid commands of her own.
I slowly turned my gaze. My face was contorted.

-A nice gift, wouldn’t you say?

Adin could see my face twisting further.

“…You’re garbage.”
-It’s amusing watching that angry face every time. In the end, you’re always the one who suffers and takes the damage.

When the Tower Master’s disciple Honth exploded, my desperate rush to stop it resembled this moment.
To Adin, I was simply the one who always lost.

-Just wait.
“…Damn bastard!”

Adin could see me trembling with barely contained rage. The video communication screen shook from the intensity.

“Commander! What should we do?”
“Your Highness, let’s retreat for now!”

The Crown Prince heard Rosalind and Ritana calling out to Kale Heniatus urgently. He responded with an affable smile, speaking in a leisurely tone.

-Try saving the others like last time, why don’t you? Ah, deploying a shield might be difficult? Do your best.

And in that moment, he burst into hearty laughter at Kale Heniatus’s subsequent actions.

-Hahahaha-!

Crack!
The video communication orb was hurled to the ground, fracturing.
Yet that sound was drowned out by the airship’s vibrations and the noise emanating from the mana stones.

-Hahahaha!

Only Adin’s laughter continued.
He could not suppress his amusement at the sight of Kale Heniatus hurling the communication orb with a contorted, furious face.

Crack! Crackle!
Kale Heniatus stomped on the video communication orb with his foot. The connection wavered, yet Adin did not cease his laughter.
Rather, he spoke with evident delight.

-Your angry face is amusing, truly amusing! Hahahaha!

Crackle!
The moment Kale Heniatus stamped on the communication orb one final time with savage force, the sphere shattered completely, severing the connection entirely.

-Haha- ha.

The Crown Prince’s laughter abruptly ceased.
The connection with Adin was completely severed. There were no more video communication orbs through which to reach him.

“…Commander.”

Rosalind hesitated at the sight of Kale Heniatus, then approached with a hardened expression and grasped his shoulder.

Whirrrrr—
The airship grew increasingly heated, transforming into a bomb on the verge of detonation.

“Your Highness! I’m furious, but we need to evacuate everyone first! And I’ll deploy a shield—”
“That’s enough.”

Rosalind watched the shattered video communication device and fell silent at the sound of Kale Heniatus’s voice, his head bowed low.
Her urgent expression shifted subtly.

“Your Highness?”

She saw Kale Heniatus slowly lifting his head.

He was smiling.
Quite refreshingly.

As if his furious expression from moments ago had been nothing but an act, he smiled like that.

‘…An act?’

The moment Rosalind slowly lowered her hand from Kale Heniatus’s shoulder, she heard him speak casually.

“That fool doesn’t know the value of things. That’s why someone like Crown Prince Adin is utterly worthless.”
“…Pardon?”

Rosalind was taken aback by his sudden words, but her eyes widened as Kale Heniatus’s gaze fixed on one point.
He spoke while looking at that direction.

“I’d like to make use of this airship if possible. It would be a shame to waste it.”

The Chief Alchemist trembled, unable to move. Kale Heniatus’s eyes, directed toward that figure, gazed beyond the alchemist.
When the alchemist had desperately called out the Crown Prince’s name moments ago, Kale Heniatus had been looking at a certain presence beyond this man.
He posed his question to the one smiling just as before.

“Is that not so, Erhafen?”

The ancient dragon Erhafen.
He smiled at Kale Heniatus’s words that followed.

“Erhaben, at this rate, the Crown Prince will believe the airship has been destroyed.”

I watched Erhaben slowly raise his hand. I recalled the conversation we had shared before this operation began.

‘Kale Heniatus, I’ll handle the Central region and the airship. Of course, everyone will believe you humans accomplished it all.’
‘Ah! Erhaben.’
‘What?’
‘If possible, I’d like to salvage it.’
‘Greedy bastard.’

There was no need to spell out what I wanted to salvage.
The airship. That was all.
The ancient dragon spoke with ease.

“Then you can have it now.”
“Yes. What should I do next?”

Delighted at the prospect of claiming the airship, I was ready to deploy a shield or do whatever was necessary.
Once Rosalind grasped the full situation, she marveled at my fixation on the airship even now, then moved forward to assist Erhaben.

That was when I saw the noble being smirk with amusement. Erhaben spoke with utter arrogance.

“No. I am sufficient.”
“…What?”

In that instant, the ancient dragon’s two fingers collided.

Snap!

A crisp sound rang out as platinum-hued mana erupted from Erhaben.

“Ugh!”

Without thinking, I shielded my eyes with my hand.

It was blinding.
The platinum light bursting from Erhaben was blindingly brilliant.
Had there been a sound piercing enough to rupture eardrums, everyone would have mistaken this radiance for an explosion.

Kale Heniatus stumbled backward without thinking, and a faint sound reached his ears.

Fwooooosh—

It was crumbling.
The sound of something solid turning to powder, to dust, filled the air.

-Human… that old golden Dragon really is incredible!

What?
Raon’s voice came through with genuine admiration.
Kale Heniatus slowly opened his eyes.

He looked around.
Everyone, like him, had either retreated a step or two or collapsed to the ground with their eyes covered, and now they were opening their eyes one by one.

-Wow! Human! Look at the sky! Wow!

Raon’s exclamation reached him.
When Kale Heniatus opened his eyes, what he saw was the control platform soaring upward into the heavens.

The control platform and various mechanisms that had connected the Airship to the mana stone.
The control platform, which had been joined by metal, crumbled into powder as it ascended higher and higher, carrying the mana stone with it.

“If you touch that carelessly, the balance will break and it will explode!”

Rosalind’s alarmed voice rang out.
Yet contrary to her concerns, Erhafen maintained perfect balance as he sent the mana stones soaring higher and higher, until they became mere dots in the distant sky.
And moments later.

KABOOM! KABOOM!

A deafening roar echoed from that distant height.
Platinum-colored dust scattered across the sky, drifting slowly downward.

Kale Heniatus heard Rosalind’s voice, genuinely flustered.

“This… this isn’t something so simple. A rampaging mana stone, a rampaging mana stone…”

He had no answer to her words.
Instead, Kale Heniatus turned his gaze toward Erhaben. Standing unconscious before him was an Alchemist.

The ancient Dragon, who had been staring blankly at that Alchemist, broke into a grin the moment his eyes met Kale Heniatus’s.

“Simple.”

Simple?

“Have you done this before, long ago?”

…Long ago when, exactly?
Five hundred years ago? A thousand years ago?
In that moment, the voices of two Dragons echoed in his mind.

-Human! As expected, you are weak! Gold Dragon Grandpa is incredibly strong! But you seem to be pushing yourself! Still, you are a Dragon after all! You’re fine! You’re great, second only to me!

Unlike the fussy six-year-old Dragon’s exuberance, the other Dragon’s words were remarkably simple yet weighty.

-I am a Dragon.

…Such a Dragon indeed.
Kale Heniatus found his lips curling upward uncontrollably.

-Weak human! Can I pilot this Airship? Let’s go destroy the Crown Prince!

Just as Kale Heniatus’s lips began to rise, another voice reached his mind.

-Meokbo is full.

Meokbo spoke.

-Purify the dead mana for me. We need to hurry.

Kale Heniatus turned his head.
Black wooden stems filled the entirety of Sector 7.
And ascending onto the Airship, dragging a black robe behind her, was Merry.

The moment he saw them both, he finally burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha!”
-Human, are you excited about destroying the Empire? I’m excited too!

In the dead of night, at the heart of Sector 7, Kale Heniatus laughed with unbridled exhilaration.

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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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