Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 325

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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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As Kale Heniatus fell toward the flat ground, Crown Prince Adin’s face reflected in his descending eyes.

A face twisted in pain, groaning.
When a smile spread across it, Kale laughed and shouted.

“Damn it, I knew this wouldn’t be easy!”

In that instant, black smoke erupted from Adin like a bomb.

As if a massive black serpent were surging toward the heavens, it burst forth from Adin and rose upward.
A force intertwined with aura smoke and dark magic.
That power engulfed Kale.

Crash!

As the silver shield collided with the black smoke in a deafening roar, Adin saw two figures rushing toward him.

Tasha and Choi Han.
Tasha launched herself into the air as if following a predetermined sequence.
Rising with dead mana and wind intertwined, Tasha resembled a small tornado.

She could see the silver shield being swallowed by the black smoke.

“Consume it.”

The wind spirit, her companion, obeyed her will.

Boom, boom! Crash!

A black typhoon swallowed the black smoke. But Tasha’s eyes did not hold that sight. In her rising field of vision, the terrace where Adin had fallen came into view.

Her gaze fixed on the dark mages among them.
My eyes were drawn to the dark mages among them.

According to what I found out after conducting surveillance, not all personnel at the Alchemy Tower are dark mages. It’s about half and half.

Kale Heniatus’s voice lingered in Tasha’s ears.

‘They also discovered people who had been captured as slaves. Fortunately, with the war ongoing and rumors spreading these days, they confined them to a storage shed within the Alchemy Tower rather than the Underground Chamber.’

Crash!
She lowered her head.
A black tempest completely engulfed the serpent.

Kale Heniatus descended leisurely to the ground.

‘Tasha, capture all the dark mages. Ignore the rest.’

Tasha assessed that Kale Heniatus was quite trustworthy to follow.
Why?

‘Just keep them breathing. Do whatever you want with the rest. Just bring them here alive.’

Because there was no unnecessary mercy.

‘Their lives aren’t ours to take. We need to hand them over to Sir Rex and the people of the Slums.’

And there was also unnecessary compassion.
She lifted her head. Dark mages frozen in place stared back at her.

Tasha curved her lips into a smile.
Why had she come here?

Bang!

The door burst open.
Dark mages and Imperial Knights entered the room.

Tap.
Tasha stepped onto the Terrace, spread both arms wide, and spoke with a radiant smile to those inside the room.

“Well then, the Dark Elf who will send you all to hell has arrived.”

Dark Elves surged up behind her. Covered in dead mana, the Dark Elves were all grinning.

And there was one more person smiling.
Crown Prince Adin’s expression returned to one of leisure.

“How amusing.”

Crown Prince Adin’s falling body twisted mid-air. Now his face, rather than his back, pointed toward the ground.
Yet it hardly mattered.

“You underestimated me.”

The leg severed by Choi Han’s blade.
Black energy erupted from Adin’s hands.

“Huh!”

One of the Dark Elves faltered.
A portion of the dead mana liquid he had been rushing to ensnare shifted rapidly.
And filled the space where the severed leg had been.

Tap.

Adin’s body descended lightly to the ground.
One of his own legs, and one mass of dead mana conjured through dark magic.

Where Adin’s right leg should have been stood something grotesque—unlike a human limb, it resembled a monster’s appendage.

“Temporary, but serviceable.”

Adin laughed.

To others, to the Empire’s people, he appeared a true monster—but what of it? They all deserved death anyway.
They all deserve to die.

He stared at the man descending in that distant place. Kale Heniatus’s complexion was fine. However, the attack directed at Adin did not come from the direction where he was looking.

“Where are you looking?”

Adin smiled and swung his hand. A sword of dead mana had materialized in his grip.
Adin smiled and waved his hand. A sword made of dead mana had already materialized in his grip.

Crash!

When Adin turned his head, Choi Han’s expressionless face filled his gaze. Adin greeted the one who had wounded his heart and right leg.

“Because of you, do you know how much I’ve suffered with my aching leg?”

Despite receiving no response, Adin’s smile deepened.

“Your Highness!”
“Your Highness, we have arrived!”

The corridors extending in all four directions were blocked by Dark Elves. However, the path descending underground from the Alchemy Tower remained open.

Half of the Dark Elves had ascended above the Alchemy Tower via the Terrace with Tasha.
As the door from the Tower opened, a group of people descended into the Underground Chamber.

“Your Highness! We have already contacted the Imperial Palace!”
“Soon the Mages and nobles within the Imperial Palace will join the Knights and come to rescue you!”

They were Knights and Mages of the Empire. Among them were also several dark sorcerers mixed in.
However, they had to halt their steps before they could even approach the Crown Prince.

“These, these Dark Elves!”

The remaining half of the Dark Elves.
They blocked the people’s path.

“Kehehehe.”
“Hehe, I wonder how much stronger we’ve become.”

The Dark Elves were all laughing. Surrounded by the vast dead mana they had consumed for the first time in ages and the dead mana they had yet to absorb, they welcomed the Empire’s forces.

“We can find out by testing it.”

How much stronger they had become could be determined through combat.

“You, you madmen!”
“How dare you attempt to fight us in the very heart of the Empire!”

Clang, clang!
The Imperial Knights drew their swords, and the Mages’ sleeves began to flutter with mana.
A situation on the brink of explosion.
Then it happened.

Shhhhhhh—

A wind blew.
It was a gentle wind.

“…What?”
“What is that!”

The Imperial forces were bewildered, but the Dark Elves broke into even brighter smiles.

“Now we can fight freely.”
“Thank goodness.”

The Dark Elves relaxed.

Like a spring breeze, like a parent’s gentle touch, the soft wind gathered in one direction.
It wasn’t toward the Imperial side, nor toward where Choi Han and Crown Prince Adin stood.
Further back than that. Toward a place where one could not plant their feet firmly, the wind drew something white, piece by piece.

Bones.
Beyond the mountain of bones stacked like a peak, the scattered bones throughout the Underground Space converged into a towering heap. As they layered upon each other and the mountain of bones rose to the height of the shattered Terrace, a single figure stood before it.

The Imperial side pointed at him and spewed their fury.

“Kale Heniatus!”
“We heard he was dead—so it was just a false rumor after all!”

Yet they could not shake their fear.
The memory of that inferno that had consumed the Golem surfaced in their minds.
If he unleashed it here, the Underground Cavern itself, not to mention the Alchemy Tower, would become nothing but a hellish Fire Pit.

Tension hung in the air.
But when the warm spring breeze stilled and even the smallest bone fragment had gathered completely.

-Human, I’ve gathered it all!

Kale Heniatus spread both hands forward.

“Defensive formation!”
“Deploy the shield!”

The Imperial forces moved swiftly and urgently. Kale’s actions had snapped them to attention. However, those who had been trying to push past the Dark Elves toward Crown Prince Adin soon came to a halt.

“Hehehehe.”
“Haha, hahaha!”

It wasn’t because of the Dark Elves laughing like madmen.

“What is that?”

Silver light unfurled before the bewildered Imperial Knight’s eyes.

Whoooosh—
A colossal shield and wings spread across the Underground Cavern.
A radiant shield adorned with brilliant wings enveloped the pile of bones.
The silver light grew increasingly vivid.

-I’ve wrapped the shield in triple layers! Now that I’m magnificent, this is child’s play!

Raon’s spirited voice rang out. Kale held the shield open with one hand while reaching into his pocket with the other, pulling out bread and beginning to eat.

“This is ridiculous—I’m so hungry I can barely function.”

Using ancient power always left him famished.
Since Kale had to maintain the shield for an extended period, he munched on the bread steadily.
The Imperial forces stared at the peaceful scene with vacant expressions.

What?
Isn’t this an attack?
But then why did he wrap the shield around the pile of bones instead of around Choi Han or the Dark Elves?
Why there?

Yet in that moment, loud laughter erupted from multiple directions.

“Hahahaha! I knew our shield prince was the best!”
“What do you know! Puhahahaha!”

In that instant, the Imperial forces gasped in shock. Black entities surged toward them.

“These things! Attack!”
“Form a defensive line!”

The Dark Elves descended upon the Imperial soldiers. The Imperials recoiled in fear from the dead mana that clung to them, and instead, the mages and dark mages stepped forward.

“We have nothing to fear now! Crush them all!”
“By the Commander’s and Tasha’s orders, sweep them all away!”

The Dark Elves who had entered the Underground Cavern had been targeting only the containers filled with dead mana. They had no choice.

Because there were bones.

The Dark Elves felt deep in their bones what those white bones had left behind in this place.
A race born with darkness as their nature, yet close to nature itself, forced to walk beside death. They could not carelessly touch what the dead had left behind.
Those bones left by the deceased had to return to those still living in this world. That was the natural order.

To the Slums people who were evacuating the Imperial citizens above, and to those scattered across the Continent waiting for family members who had suddenly vanished.

Only then would death end not as death, but continue into tomorrow.

To the Dark Elves, that pile of bones was the only thing in the Alchemy Tower worth protecting, even if everything else could be destroyed and erased.

There was one Imperial who understood that sentiment.

“Puha, hahahaha!”

It was Crown Prince Adin.
He withdrew his sword from its clash with Choi Han’s blade and stepped back, bending at the waist as he laughed.

Kale Heniatus sat eating bread in an impossibly crooked posture. Yet his eyes were serious, unlike when he struck Adin with his shield. They were the eyes of one holding the most precious thing in this space.

“Hahahaha!”

Crown Prince Adin lifted his smiling face, his gaze passing over Choi Han to settle on Kale Heniatus beyond him.
The smile vanished from his expression as his lips parted.

“You’re different from me, aren’t you?”

He heard a different voice—not from Kale, who was picking at his ear, but from another.

“Obviously.”

It was Choi Han. With a stern expression, he leveled his sword at Adin.
Kale Heniatus and Crown Prince Adin.
How could a man who walks the difficult path when an easy one lies before him be the same as one who seeks only the easy way?

Adin straightened his posture and surveyed his surroundings.
A vast Underground Cavern.
To the south, the Imperial forces clashed with the Dark Elves. At first glance, the Dark Elves appeared pressed into a defensive position by sheer numbers, yet they grew increasingly formidable as they fought with frenzied ferocity.

And to the north, Kale Heniatus stood guard, having shaped bones into a mountain-like barrier.

Finally, the center.
An empty expanse.
Only two figures existed there—himself and Choi Han.

The corners of Adin’s mouth rose as he opened his lips.

“How absurd.”

A vacant battlefield seemingly created for two people alone.
Adin shook his head with a good-natured smile.

“Choi Han, you are a Sword Master, but—”

Adin was a novice dark mage and an expert-level master swordsman.
Choi Han, meanwhile, was a Sword Master who had transcended humanity itself.

Yet this battle differed from ordinary combat.
Adin stated this fact with calm certainty.

“You cannot defeat me, who has obtained complete despair.”

Crown Prince Adin was fundamentally different from a mere novice dark mage who merely harbored dead mana.
Adin, who had consumed black despair itself—complete and utter despair—believed in his own mind, and could see with his own eyes, that he stood on an entirely different tier from ordinary dark mages.
The same held true for swordsmanship.
Adin spoke to Choi Han with a gaze that looked down upon him.

“Your attribute is beneath mine. Beneath mine.”

Choi Han’s aura was now useless against Adin.

“Your aura gets devoured by me. You felt it just now when we clashed, didn’t you? I, a supreme-level Expert, blocked a Sword Master’s blade. And I did it with absolute ease. Isn’t that proof enough? If I were to get serious, could you possibly defeat me?”

Adin asked Choi Han with an expression of utter disdain.

“But will your master even permit it? Will he tell you to fight?”

Choi Han gazed at the supremely confident Adin and recalled the days before.
The conversation he’d had with Kale Heniatus echoed in his ears.

‘Choi Han, you’re certain about this?’
‘Yes.’
‘But your attribute will be devoured, they said.’

Choi Han recalled once more the answer he’d given then.

‘Sir Kale Heniatus.’

Rosalind, Rak, Merry.
They were all growing stronger with each passing day.

The moment I witnessed Sir Rex’s anguished cry, Harris Village flashed before my eyes.
In that instant, I felt it.
I want to step into this battle.

‘As for me.’

And so I spoke truthfully.

‘I am one who killed those that sought to devour me and lived.’

The Dark Forest.
Monsters with greater strength than me.
Monsters faster than me.
Monsters far superior to me.

Every single monster was stronger than me and sought my life.

I am Choi Han, the one who defeated them all, grew stronger, and climbed my way up.

‘Sir Kale Heniatus, survival isn’t defined solely by strength and weakness.’

At that moment, Choi Han could see Kale Heniatus wear a bitter expression for the first time in response to his words.

‘You’re right. Living is exactly that.’

Then, with his usual expression, he issued an order.

‘Then you handle the Crown Prince.’

Choi Han lowered his head with a stern expression. Crown Prince Adin—an enemy he would have to eliminate when considering not just this operation, but the future ahead.
That’s why Choi Han could only answer Kale Heniatus, who had entrusted such an enemy to him despite his weaknesses, with a bow.
A light voice reached him then.

‘It’d be a waste to just kill him outright.’

It was Kale Heniatus.

‘Beat him up a little.’

Choi Han lifted his head.

‘And if it seems like you can’t manage, fall back. The others can handle it then.’

He answered with a smile.

‘Yes, I understand.’

Choi Han etched the conversation from a few days ago into his heart as he gazed at Adin.
Permission granted?

“Yes, I have your permission.”

Ha!
Crown Prince Adin couldn’t hide his exasperation. But soon his expression hardened.

Uuuuoooong—

Savage darkness bloomed from Choi Han’s blade.
Incomplete darkness, and within it an equally incomplete despair.

It began to blossom forth, spreading from the sword across Choi Han’s entire body.
He declared with a composed face.

“I will grow today.”

My new life, which began in the Dark Forest.
I have always had to face powerful enemies.

“And I will survive.”

Choi Han pointed his blade’s tip at Crown Prince Adin.

Kale Heniatus smiled.
I’ve been feeling it more and more lately.
The birth of a hero—that was now a tale of the past.
There was only reality.

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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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