Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 351

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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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When I opened my eyes, a stranger greeted my vision.

‘Who is this?’

The boy appeared to be in his mid-to-late teens.
When his eyes met mine, he widened them in surprise.

“Oh, Lord Kale. You’re awake already?”

I stared directly at the boy calling me “Lord Kale” and my face contorted visibly.

‘The moment you fear most will come to greet you.’

The trial’s words flashed through my mind.

“…I’m a lord?”

Does this relate to the moment I fear most?
My expression grew strange. Am I truly afraid of this?

“Still groggy, my lord?”

The boy’s manner toward me—a lord who governed an entire fiefdom—was as familiar as if he were addressing a close elder. When I simply stared at him, he shook his head with a playful grin.

“Yes, yes. You’re the most famous lord, after all. The great hero who saved not only our Roan Kingdom but the entire Western and Eastern Continents from the clutches of the White Star.”

My face contorted immediately.
At that expression, the boy’s grin turned mischievous.

“Just as I thought—you always make that face when I mention it. Come now, get up. You need to have breakfast.”

I watched the boy’s retreating figure as he approached the half-drawn curtains.

‘Saved from the White Star’s clutches?’

That phrase burned more vividly in my mind than the words “great hero” or “lord.”

‘…Is this after everything has ended?’

Does this current trial represent the aftermath of everything concluding?

Kale Heniatus’s gaze, which had been following the boy, came to an abrupt halt at one spot.
And he flinched.

A mirror came into view.

‘…By rough estimate, mid-thirties.’

Unlike the twenty-year-old Kale Heniatus, a face radiating maturity gazed back at me from the mirror.
It was a face that appeared remarkably listless and languid, yet now it was contorted with displeasure.

It was precisely my expression.

Whoosh.

The sound of curtains being drawn reached my ears. I opened my mouth as sunlight streamed into the mirror.

“How old am I?”
“Pardon?”

The boy repeated the question in apparent confusion, but I paid it no mind.
I was in the midst of a trial. To complete it swiftly, gathering information about the current situation and assessing the circumstances came first.

“Oh my, my lord.”

The boy sighed before answering.

“You are thirty-six years old this year, sir.”

Thirty-six.
That word stirred something peculiar within me.
The Birth of a Hero—stepping into that story before becoming Kale Heniatus, when I was Kim Rok-soo, I had been thirty-six years old.

During a day of rest, I had watched The Birth of a Hero and recalled my past self, sprawled listlessly in my cramped room.
My furrowed expression showed no sign of easing, and as if noticing this, the boy deliberately raised his voice and spoke with forced cheerfulness.

“It’s been more than ten years since peace came to the continent. It’s all thanks to you, Lord.”
“My thanks for what?”

The moment I blurted out my response without thinking, the boy reacted.

“Hehe! You always answer like that, Lord!”

At the playful laughter, I slowly turned my gaze away from the mirror and looked to the side.

Then I saw a window that had been hidden behind drawn curtains.
The view beyond the window entered my vision.

“…This is the Lord’s Castle.”

My bedroom in the Heniatus Count Estate. Seeing a bedroom that looked identical to it, I assumed this was the Count’s Mansion. However, the height of the landscape visible through the window was higher than usual for my bedroom in the Count’s Mansion.
But for a bedroom in the Count’s Mansion, the height of the landscape visible outside the window was higher than usual.

It seemed that this version of Kale Heniatus had created a bedroom for himself in the Lord’s Castle.
It seemed that Kale Heniatus of this place had made his own bedroom in the Lord’s Castle.

“…Why does he have a bedroom at the Lord’s Castle instead of at the Count’s Mansion? Does he have so much work that he can’t go home?”

I filed away this piece of information and gazed carefully at the landscape beyond the window.
Kale Heniatus input one piece of information into his mind while gazing intently at the landscape outside the window.

Above, a clear sky was visible, and below, more buildings than before and people moving between them came into view, looking small.

Kale Heniatus, who had been quietly watching this, opened his mouth.

“…But then again.”

Something that should be there was missing.
There’s nothing that needs to be there.

Kale Heniatus, carrying the last memories of Kim Rok-soo, spoke.
Kale Heniatus, who had reached the age where he possessed the last memories of Kim Rok-soo, spoke.

Where is Ron?

None.
It had always been Ron Mollan, my servant, who needed to wake me.

And when I opened my eyes in the morning, the beings who should have been beside me were absent. Those who yawned or complained of hunger, or who woke earlier than I did and huddled together to discuss their world travels—they were gone now.

The children were gone.

My gaze, devoid of all emotion, turned toward the boy.

“…Ah.”

The boy’s expression grew troubled.

“Um, Lord. Are you very tired?”

The boy tried to change the subject.
But faced with my serious gaze as I simply stared at him, the boy opened his mouth with an awkward smile.

“Hero Ron Mollan lives on in the hearts of you, Lord, and all of us across the continent.”

Ha.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. I closed my eyes.

Suddenly, I recalled the people who had approached me when I was Kim Rok-soo, standing vigil as chief mourner, offering words of consolation.
Some of them had spoken with expressions of regret.

‘Rok-soo, or rather, I should call you Team Lead Rok-soo now. Team Lead Rok-soo, we will all remember your sacrifice and that of the others.’
‘Everyone will recognize the great achievements of those people.’

When the great catastrophe struck Earth.
Most people lost one or two family members.

And the people under Team Lead Lee Soo-hyuk at the company where I had started as a new employee all survived alone, with no family remaining.
Unlike Kim Rok-soo, who had become an orphan long before the catastrophe, Team Lead Lee Soo-hyuk and his team members all lost their families in the great catastrophe.

That was why, at that time, only I and Kim Rok-soo could stand as chief mourners.

And now.
Kale Heniatus found his mind replaying the boy’s words from moments before.
The answer to the question of where Ron was.

‘The hero Ron Mollan resides in the hearts of you, my lord, and all of us across the continent.’

I closed my eyes.

Was it a jest?
It was possible this mischievous boy was merely joking.
A calm voice flowed from his lips.

“What of On and Hong? And Raon?”

The boy’s answer came.

“…My lord-”

A call brimming with regret and concern. That alone was answer enough.
I recalled the contents of the trial once more.

‘The moment you fear most shall come to meet you.’

My pupils wavered like waves upon the sea.

“…A cruel trial indeed.”

My eyes trembled slightly—the expression of one who knew not what face to wear.

‘Hey, Kim Rok-soo was tough. Didn’t shed a single tear.’
‘Right? All his colleagues and seniors died when he started, yet his expression never changed.’
‘His expression didn’t change, but I’ve seen him frown a few times.’
‘Tough. A really tough bastard. Does he even know what sadness is?’

I rose from the bed immediately. The boy who appeared to be a servant approached, and I walked toward what seemed to be the bathroom door.
The servant spoke to me.

“You have no scheduled appointments this afternoon, my lord.”

A lord with no schedule?
Father, Count Derth, was always busy.
Kale Heniatus opened his mouth.

“…What about the fiefdom’s affairs?”

The boy tilted his head at Kale Heniatus’s question but answered faithfully.

“His Majesty sent excellent talents to the fiefdom for you, my lord, didn’t he? That’s why you entrusted everything except important matters to them, isn’t it? And, His Majesty said he would grant your wish.”

Kale Heniatus’s expression became strange in that instant.
His Majesty.
Kale Heniatus’s wish.
Suddenly, Robit Crossman came to mind.

The king who had supported him so he could become a lord living at ease.
It was similar to Robit Crossman’s intention of making Kale Heniatus a man of leisure.

“…What is His Majesty’s name?”

When Kale Heniatus asked the question, the boy answered with a bewildered expression.

“Robit Crossman, my lord.”

It was not the name of Alberu, the First Prince and Crown Prince.
It was the name of the Second Prince.

“…How irritating.”

Anger surged through me gradually. In contrast, my body grew cold as if drenched in icy water.
Kale Heniatus did not know it, but his fingertips trembled faintly.
However, his voice that spilled from his lips was calm.

“I will move alone this afternoon.”

With those words, he entered the bathroom alone. He could see the bewildered servant outside the door, but Kale Heniatus paid no attention.
He had not asked the new servant’s name.
He did not want to ask.

* * *

“…My lord?”

I saw the knights calling out to me, but I merely glanced at them before walking forward.
The knights didn’t block my path, but their expressions darkened.

‘Damn it.’

Understanding what their expressions meant, I felt a curse rising unbidden to my lips.

A thick book rested in my hands.
I gripped it so forcefully it seemed I might shatter it, yet the tome was too sturdy to bear even the slightest mark.

A book retrieved from the Lord’s Castle Library.

I had spent the entire day searching through it.

The history inscribed within this place.
Those sixteen years that had slipped away.
I searched frantically through them all.

Crackle.
The sound of dead leaves crumbling reached my ears.
It was autumn here now.

Unlike the late spring of reality, this place had descended into late autumn.

I walked forward, my gaze fixed ahead.

Crackle, crackle.
Dead leaves were trampled and crushed beneath my feet.

Yet my eyes remained locked forward, and my expression betrayed nothing.
I stopped walking.

“…Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

“…This is clearly fiction, a mad test.”

The book fell.
Thud.
The fallen book splayed open.

【…The final battle with the White Star. The Heniatus Territory came under attack from the White Star, and the Count’s Mansion crumbled.】

In my eyes, the devastated Heniatus Count Estate came into view.

【In the absence of Kale Heniatus, the people of the Count’s Household who endured while waiting for him protected the territory’s inhabitants, yet they suffered fatal wounds or met their end on that very spot. Of course, all those who sustained fatal injuries also lost their lives.】

Count Derth, Countess Viollan, Basen, Lily.
Butler-candidate Hans, Head Chef Vicross, Servant Ron.
Everyone connected to this Count’s Household was gone from this place.

Everyone connected to me had died.
Only I survived.
It was severance.

Severance from the world.

Whoosh.
The pages of the book, scattered and opened by the late autumn wind, fluttered.

【…Choi Han and Rosalind, the two of them unleashed a combined attack but could not withstand the lightning that poured down in a wide range and lost their lives. However, thanks to them, the people of the Western Continent beneath that lightning were able to survive.】
【…No more Necromancers exist on the continent. The last Necromancer, Mary. She was the final one.】

As the pages turned, countless names passed by.
On and Hong, Rak, Vicross, Erhafen, Jack and Hana, and so on.

And all those pages were crumpled.
Thin cuts existed on my fingers.

Wounds created from crumpling pages, from hastily flipping through paper.
My eyes had turned red with burst capillaries.

【The eternal friend of the hero Kale Heniatus, Raon Mir. The story of this Dragon must also be told. His noble death…】

Whoosh.
The wind ceased, and the book finally stopped on a single page.

【The Final Battle. Only the hero Kale Heniatus survived that conflict.】
【…He expressed his wish to preserve the traces of his family and comrades who had fought alongside him in that battle within his mansion. In response to the hero’s final request, Robit Crossman, the current ruler of Roan, chose to prioritize the wishes of the last hero Kale Heniatus over creating a place to honor the heroes and storing their belongings there.】
【…However, no one could determine which mansion Kale Heniatus had spoken of. After the Final Battle, he had secluded himself in his territory and never appeared before the world again.】

Kale’s lips parted.

“Jjangdol.”

There was no answer.
The Ancient Power Owners. None of them responded to Kale’s voice.
I needed to end this trial soon.
I had to end this trial. No—I wanted to end it.

Kale picked up the book.

【His mansion】

Those words caught my eye.
Kale turned my steps around.

I felt as though I knew where everyone was.

Jjangdol Mansion. The place where Kale had wanted to live once everything was over.
The Dark Forest.
That was where I headed.

“…I’m absolutely sick of this.”

This kind of trial.
The silhouette of thirty-six-year-old Kale Heniatus moving forward resembled that of thirty-six-year-old Kim Rok-soo.
Kale’s shoulders bore the weight of exhaustion.

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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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