Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 337

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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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The ancient dragon Erhafen’s body, which had been moving toward the White Star, came to a brief halt.

You should live a long life.

At those words, a hollow laugh escaped from Erhafen.

A thousand years. I had thought I had lived far too long. That was why I grew weary. Bored. Of course, that weariness did not stem from a lack of danger.

‘I questioned it from time to time.’

Just as the White Star had questioned his own existence, so too had Erhafen questioned the meaning of his.

‘Why do dragons live for nearly a thousand years?’

For what purpose?
What good was it to live alone for so long?

Among the countless sights Erhafen had witnessed across his thousand years, death was one of the most frequent.

All things born eventually perish. It was the natural order of existence. I harbored no resistance to this truth, yet watching those around me fade away was a grueling, sorrowful experience.

Erhafen had come to believe that the world had shaped dragons to be self-righteous, arrogant, and solitary by nature.
Solitude meant fewer such painful encounters with mortality.

Perhaps Erhafen’s care for the World Tree and the Elves had its own hidden reason. The World Tree was immortal, and the Elves were among the longest-lived of all races.

“I never imagined it would come to this in my twilight years.”

Erhafen suppressed the slight smile that threatened to surface, closing and opening his eyes once more. The White Star filled my vision.
The ancient dragon, whose gaze had grown cold and resolute, recalled Kale Heniatus moving toward the black clouds, and held but a single thought.

‘I must save them.’

I had to keep these creatures alive.
That was what mattered.
Erhafen hurled his spear toward the White Star’s hand, which stretched toward the sky.

“How dare you sever my arm?”

The White Star chuckled softly and unfurled a curtain of water with his other hand.

Crash!
With a deafening roar, the platinum spear and the water curtain collided. The platinum light exploded, momentarily blinding everyone’s vision in white.
And the instant that platinum brilliance faded, the White Star’s pupils dilated slightly.

“Ah, you did sever it. Old friend.”

Right before the water curtain’s edge, Erhafen appeared. His left hand struck the curtain.
The moment his left hand, brimming with platinum particles, touched the azure water.

Whoosh—
There was no sound.
Without any noise whatsoever, the water crumbled into powder and scattered. Piercing through that curtain, Erhafen’s hand extended toward the White Star.
And somehow, a new platinum spear now rested in his left hand.

The White Star’s bright amber eyes met the dragon’s eyes piercing through the water. Golden eyes with vertically elongated pupils—inhuman, unmistakably draconic.

“…Damn it. Truly befitting an ancient dragon.”

The White Star moved the hand that had unfurled the curtain again, and in that moment, Erhafen’s spear was hurled toward the White Star’s right hand, raised toward the sky.

Crash!

Once more, a tremendous explosion shook the Imperial Capital.

“Ugh!”
“Ugh! What on earth—what is happening right now?”

Beyond the City Wall of the Imperial Capital.
The Empire’s people gathered there could not hide their fear as they watched the black clouds engulfing the capital and the battle unfolding near the Alchemy Tower at the capital’s center.
Confusion had already been surpassed.
The sheer destructive force of the battle visible before them left only dread and terror for what was to come, not mere confusion.

Some, driven by fear, had already fled as far from the capital as possible, but those for whom this land was everything could only crouch beyond the City Wall and witness this battle.

“…Sir Bernard is… a Lich.”

The black-skulled lich that I had dreaded seeing again was gone. With the lich’s death, another figure emerged. And now this person stood with hand outstretched toward the sky, attempting something.

The ancient dragon Erhafen thrust his spear through the White Star’s right hand to discern and block whatever was being attempted. But the White Star’s left hand, brimming with water, intercepted the strike.

“Why?”

The White Star, grasping the ancient dragon’s spear, posed the question calmly to the one observing him.

“Curious about my Ancient Power?”

Erhafen’s mouth fell open.

“The sky is weeping.”

Every sense within him perceived the movements now occurring in the sky.

Wind.
Rain.
Lightning.
All things the sky could create or that existed within it converged toward the black clouds. A power so immense it sent shivers cascading across the ancient dragon’s entire body, so overwhelming it made his spine tingle with dread, emanated from the heavens.

Erhafen grasped the nature of this Ancient Power, and he spoke his conjecture aloud.

“Is this Ancient Power’s attribute the sky itself?”
“Yes. You’ve never heard of it before?”

The spear and left hand continued to collide. Even amid the clash, Erhafen answered the White Star’s question readily.

“No. This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

An Ancient Power bearing the strength of the sky itself. He had never encountered such a thing.
Yet that was not the true concern. Even as his skin crawled, Erhafen felt a new sensation and opened his mouth.

“You’re only using a fraction of it?”

Wind, rain, lightning. The sensation warned Erhafen that the power now converging was not its full extent.
The sky.
The power contained in that very name could not be merely this. The force now making every fiber of his being shudder was not its totality.
A thousand years of experience sent him a warning.

The White Star smiled.

“That’s right. I have no intention of going all out. This much is sufficient.”

The platinum spear and the water-wrapped hand clashed and held their ground. A tense stalemate where neither force gave way.
Even in that situation, the White Star gazed at Erhafen with bored eyes, while Erhafen stared back at him with a slightly hardened expression.

The reason the White Star wasn’t going all out.
Erhafen didn’t believe the White Star’s words. That’s why he could ask so calmly.

“Is your body under strain?”

In that instant, the White Star’s smile faded.
Seeing him like that, Erhafen spoke as if it were nothing special.

“It seems you, like Kale Heniatus, are carrying multiple Ancient Powers within your body. Surely that doesn’t come without burden?”

When one possessed multiple Ancient Powers, their conflicting properties would strain the body.
Of course, it depended on the vessel’s capacity, but ultimately, when using Ancient Powers, that impact would translate into pain for the wielder.

“Of course, if you obtain all the properties and achieve balance, that would be different.”

Water, fire, wind, earth, wood.
Kale Heniatus now possessed all the properties, allowing him to escape the influence of Ancient Power attribute collision and maintain stability.

A smile gradually spread across Erhafen’s lips. He remembered the White Star bleeding from the corner of his mouth after colliding with his spear moments ago.

“It seems you haven’t acquired them all yet? Your balance is off, isn’t it?”

Erhafen spoke with a gentle smile to the White Star, whose smile had vanished.

“You’re not the only one who has lived a thousand years. I lived a thousand years in a single lifetime.”

With those words, a massive wave surged up behind Erhafen’s back.
It was a wave covered in platinum particles. Erhafen had no intention of holding back his power.

“Perhaps I should go all out?”

The ancient dragon gestured toward the wave that rose up beyond his shoulder.

“Go.”

A massive wave of platinum particles surged toward the White Star. He gazed unflinchingly at the overwhelming torrent of power bearing down on me.
Then his lips curved upward into a smile.

“Erhafen, so you wanted to bind me down and keep me contained.”

A blade of fire materialized once more.
The sword descended, meeting the golden wave head-on.

“Ah!”

Saint Jack, watching from below, let out a cry that was half gasp, half exclamation.
The sword that should have cleaved through the golden wave—the flames erupting from it did not advance toward the golden torrent.

“…Young Master Kale!”

The fire bursting from the blade shot skyward in a boomerang arc toward Kale Heniatus ascending into the heavens. Only then did the White Star smile and turn his sword toward the platinum wave.

“Kale Heniatus’s Ancient Power is inferior to mine. It’s incomplete.”

No matter which Ancient Power Kale wielded, none could overcome the White Star’s current arsenal. Thus, whatever Kale attempted now, he could not destroy the power emanating from the White Star’s sky attribute.

“This is troublesome, isn’t it? Don’t you need to go help? You must want to protect Kale Heniatus.”

The White Star’s eyes, directed at Erhafen, had shed their weariness and filled instead with intrigue. Within that gaze lay Erhafen, a faint smirk playing at his lips.
In that moment, the White Star hesitated.

Kwaaaaaang!

The White Star’s flames collided with something and erupted in explosion. A silver shield shattered into fragments alongside the inferno. Kale’s face, ascending toward the sky, twisted in anguish.
The silver shield shattered into pieces along with the flames. Kale Heniatus’s face contorted as he was sent flying toward the sky.

“…sigh.”

He said it off-handedly, as if tossing the words away.

Why are you here?

Three layers of silver shields wrapped around his empty surroundings. And beside Kale Heniatus, a plump black dragon had taken its place. The dragon flapped its wings and spoke with confidence.

“I’m going to live as I please!”

A hollow laugh escaped Kale Heniatus. The dragon’s chubby front paw quietly grasped the hem of Kale Heniatus’s jacket, as if refusing to let go under any circumstances.
Kale Heniatus, his face contorted, turned his head in the opposite direction.

“Why are you here?”

Sword Master Hana. As if she had never worn a vacant expression, she spoke bluntly with a sullen face.

“Are you an idiot?”
“What?”

Why would she call me an idiot in a situation like this?
As Kale Heniatus stared in bewilderment, Hana, riding on a skeletal dragon, reached her hand toward him. Then she snatched the white sword from Kale Heniatus’s grip.

“Do you know how to use a sword?”
“….”
“Do you know how to use this?”
“….”

Raon answered in Kale Heniatus’s stead.

“Human, you have nothing to say!”

That was true.
I had nothing to say.

-I didn’t say the means were objects or a white sword. That includes your ally beside you.

Cale’s Power spoke in Kale Heniatus’s mind.

“…sigh.”

Kale Heniatus let out a sigh and watched himself with a faint smile, lowering his head between Hana, who was adjusting the sword, and the black dragon, whose wings fluttered.
And the moment I lowered my head, a certain sight came into view.

“You think waves of this magnitude can stop me?”

I could see the White Star slowly slicing down through the massive platinum wave with his Destructive Fire sword, from above to below. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, yet the power with which he silently carved through the mana wave was remarkable.

But Kale’s attention was drawn to something else before the splitting waves.

Erhafen and the White Star locked in combat.
Below them.
The sight visible from the ground.

“…Why—!”

Why weren’t they fleeing!
My brow furrowed deeply.

At the Alchemy Tower Plaza on the ground.
I could see Choi Han, Merry, Jack, and Sir Rex gathered there. Moreover, I spotted Rosalind casting flight magic on them in the plaza—apparently the airship had been left somewhere else.

“Good grief.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

“I told them to flee—”
“Then you flee too, human! Why aren’t you going!”

Raon’s rapid-fire words, delivered as he charged in, left me speechless. But I had to regain my focus immediately.

Screeeee—
The eerie wail flowing from the black clouds ceased. I accelerated my pace.

“Hurry.”

Unease washed over me.
The White Star still seemed preoccupied with his exchange with Erhafen.
Erhafen appeared to be blocking the White Star’s Destructive Fire sword quite well while simultaneously launching offensive magic.

That was the moment.
My eyes met the White Star’s as he lifted his gaze.
Eyes revealed between the mask’s gaps.
The corners of those eyes curved upward.
Erhafen’s voice reached me.

“Everyone, run!”

It was a desperate cry.
At the same moment, a massive platinum light began spreading from Erhafen like watercolor bleeding across paper. Yet Kale Heniatus could not afford to pay attention to that spreading radiance.

Uuuuoooong—

The black cloud was letting out a roar.
Kale turned his head.

“Ugh, ack!”

Sword Master Hana gripped the vibrating white sword with both hands, desperately trying to steady their trembling. When her gaze met Kale’s, Hana forced a smile and opened her mouth.
Her voice wavered.

“…That’s strange. My, my hands are shaking?”

Kale’s face contorted.
Hana’s face was drenched in cold sweat. It had begun the moment the black cloud released a different kind of roar than before.

“Human! I sense something strange inside the black cloud!”

Raon spoke to Kale.

“Despair! There is despair within it!”

Kale saw a flash of light between the black clouds. No—it was not light.
Something black was flashing.
Black lightning.

Black lightning that seemed ready to strike the earth at any moment flashed like an arrow drawn to its bowstring, aimed at the ground.

Uuuuoooong—
Listening to the sky’s roar, Kale looked down at his feet.
The platinum light had already reached him. It passed over his feet and swept across his body.

A platinum-hued barrier.
A colossal platinum shield enveloping all that existed beneath the black clouds. As the platinum barrier expanded past my waist and soared higher, I could see Erhafen supporting it.
His two hands spread upward as if cradling the heavens themselves, straining to hold the black clouds aloft with that platinum barrier.
Surrounding Erhafen were Choi Han, Merry, and Rosalind.

And before them stood the White Star.

I could see the White Star laughing. He moved with such ease, as though Erhafen could never withstand the power of the heavens—and his gaze toward me suggested I was equally powerless.
At that sight, I spat out a curse.

“That unlucky bastard.”

Whether he’d lived a thousand years or not, he’d always be an unlucky bastard.

-Kale.

Destructive Fire and my power called out to me.

-We are not destroying the lightning. We are destroying that black radiance.

I know.

“Sword Master Hana, Raon.”
“Why? I’m coming with you.”
“I’m going too!”

Sword Master Hana’s hands trembled, and Raon stared intently at Erhafen’s platinum barrier. To their responses, I spoke calmly.

“Hide beneath Sir Erhafen’s barrier.”
“I refuse.”
“No way, human!”

Crack, crackle.
Raon and Sword Master Hana turned their gaze.
It was not the sound of black lightning flickering within the black clouds, ready to strike the earth at any moment.

It was a different lightning.
Golden lightning.
A golden radiance flickering as though it might surge toward the heavens at any instant.

Kale broke free from the platinum barrier that had risen to his chest and ascended higher, positioning himself level with the black clouds as he spoke to his companions.

“I’m going to burn it all away.”

So stay back.

-At maximum output?

Cale’s Power asked, and Kale answered.

“Yeah.”

Kale smiled as he felt the immense power coursing through his entire body.

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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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