Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 363

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 81. When Night Falls

“Who are they?”

Those surrounding the First Mercenary Guild Branch expressed their bewilderment as figures suddenly erupted from the underground chamber.
However, the elite members of the Mercenary Guild reacted differently from the others.

“No, this can’t be!”
“This is impossible! How could this happen!”

Their eyes began filling with shock and chaos.

It was collapsing.
The secret location where the Personnel Registry—arguably the most precious cultural heritage of the Mercenary Guild, if not the entire Eastern Continent—was stored.
That invaluable place was crumbling.

“Commander!”

The commander leading the Mercenary Guild’s elite members could not respond to his subordinate’s desperate cry.

‘…Does this even make sense?’

His mind was consumed by that single question.

‘They’re destroying this place? Those people?’

He had rushed here upon learning of the enemy’s intrusion.
Yet he had never imagined they would destroy this location.

The reason was simple.

“…They’re burying the Personnel Registry? Erasing it? Those people?”

Why?

The Personnel Registry—a precious cultural heritage of immense value and a crystallization of formidable power and authority.
The Mercenary Guild had always been vigilant against threats to the Personnel Registry.
Because countless other factions coveted these records.

However, I wasn’t worried about it disappearing.
What madman would destroy this massive collection of records spanning nearly a thousand years?
All of it.

“…Commander! The Personnel Registry—isn’t the Personnel Registry disappearing?”

Yet such a madman had appeared.

“No.”

The vice-commander shook his head urgently in response to the member’s words. Yet despite the firmness of his denial, his pupils trembled helplessly.

“They must have moved everything to a different dimension first, then collapsed the structure.”

The vice-commander’s gaze turned toward the commander.

“That must be it, right?”

But the answer came from someone else.

“To move all those books without a single scratch would require at least half a year—no, a full year!”

Only the Mercenary King knew the path to the Personnel Registry, but the upper echelons of the Mercenary Guild also knew its approximate location and how to reach it.
In the Mercenary Guild, where strength was power itself.
The elite members here were among those leadership circles.

“…Or perhaps they used magic to move it. But we detected magical activity only four times. There isn’t a single person in this world capable of teleporting or transferring that many books to a subspace in just four instances!”

It was what all the elite members present were thinking.
That’s why their eyes held shock and confusion.

And that confusion wasn’t limited to just the Mercenary Guild’s people.

“…Squad Leader, shouldn’t we try to understand what’s happening here?”

A member of Combat Squad 2 under Dark spoke cautiously to his superior, Aturess Perf.
The member shifted his body to the opposite side from the Mercenary Guild’s forces while continuously observing his surroundings.

‘…The First Mercenary Guild Branch collapsing, no less.’

He gazed at the Mercenary Guild members flooding the area with shock and despair, his eyes narrowing with an enigmatic gleam.
Not only the elite operatives but also the mercenaries rushing in from behind halted their steps, staring blankly at the building that had been their symbol.

That was when it happened.
The voice of his superior, Aturess Perf, rang out.

“…How are they here?”
“Squad leader?”

Aturess Perf.
An assassin of formidable skill who had once held a considerable position within the Puff Family, one of the five great Assassination Families of the Eastern Continent.
For the first time in over a decade, the squad member could hear bewilderment in Aturess Perf’s voice.

‘No, it wasn’t bewilderment.’

It was fear.

‘That cold and merciless squad leader?’

Without thinking, he turned his head toward where Aturess Perf’s gaze was directed.
Aturess was not the only one looking that way.
All the numerous combat personnel surrounding this area had their eyes fixed on them, along with the collapsing wooden structure.

A middle-aged man transitioning into old age, his hair streaked white.
And beside him, a man who appeared to be in his thirties, gripping a greatsword in his hand.

‘They’re not on our side.’

He surveyed his surroundings.

‘…Nor are they from the Mercenary Guild.’

Then these two men belonged to another faction entirely.
Who could possibly have the audacity to destroy the First Mercenary Guild Branch and reveal themselves so brazenly?

That was the moment.
Squad leader Aturess Perf’s mouth opened.
Simultaneously, Crock, the captain leading the Mercenary Guild’s elite operatives, opened his as well.
Trembling voices spilled from their lips.

“…Molan.”

They uttered only two syllables.
Aturess Perf, in his late forties, and Crock, in his early thirties—they could not possibly be unfamiliar with those two men.
And the moment those two words left their lips, the atmosphere around them shifted.

“What? Molan?”

The younger members displayed confusion.

“…Molan? Could it be… Ron Mollan?”

Conversely, those who had been in this world for more than a decade could not conceal their shock, finally scrutinizing the older of the two men with keen attention.

That was when it happened.

“Gasp! Back!”

The two men on the rooftop soared into the air.

“Retreat!”
“Fall back!”

And Captain Crock and Vice-Captain Aturess Perf each raised their voices.
Yet the others were already moving before those words even reached their ears.
They had no choice.

Boom—

A deafening roar shook the surroundings.

“Argh! Get down!”
“What—what is that!”

The ground trembled. Those positioned behind threw themselves down in panic. And those retreating swallowed hard, unable to suppress their horror.

Boom—

It was being swallowed whole.
Literally, the First Mercenary Guild Branch was being devoured into the underground.
This was far beyond a simple collapse.

The Mercenary Guild had gradually purchased the land around the First Mercenary Guild Branch over a long period of time.
In doing so, they prevented other buildings from being constructed nearby, turning the area surrounding the Mercenary Guild into vacant land.

“…Commander, I don’t think we need to go any further back.”

Commander Crock couldn’t respond to his subordinate’s words, his gaze fixed only ahead.
Wooden buildings and vacant land.
The space where they had stood collapsed inward, tracing a massive circle.

“…What?”

A member of Dark’s Combat Team 2 paused as he peered into the enormous crater.

“…Furniture? Bookshelves?”

At least ten meters below, tangled earth and stone mixed with the remains of wooden structures. Among them, he could see hundreds of massive pieces of furniture that resembled bookshelves, all twisted together.

The newly formed pit lay exposed beneath the sun, its existence hidden from no one.

That was why.

“Could it be? Team Leader!”

The Dark operative could roughly deduce what this place was and what its true identity had been.

“…I see.”

Team Leader Aturess Perf, receiving the gazes of his operatives, nodded.

“That was the Personnel Registry Storage.”

That was why the Mercenary Guild people had been so desperate, and why they were too shocked to even think of capturing those who had destroyed it.
Aturess Perf’s gaze shifted.

“Ron Mollan.”

Following his gaze, Jo Won’s body trembled slightly.

‘When?’

The spot where part of Combat Team 2, dispatched under Aturess Perf, had retreated to avoid the collapsing ground.
An ordinary house located there.

On the roof of that house.
An elderly man with snow-white hair stood at a distance not far away, looking down upon the Dark members.

“The Family Head remains quite secretive, I see.”

Team Leader Aturess Perf spoke in a friendly manner to the man in his sixties. However, at the silent gaze of the elderly man looking down at him, his lips twisted.

“You escaped so secretively that you got away like a rat, didn’t you?”

Fifteen years ago.
Most of the Molan Family’s retainers had died.
Only the bodies of the Family Head Ron Mollan and his son Vicross Mollan could not be found.

“You escaped so well that even when we hunted like we were catching rats, we couldn’t find you.”

Aturess Perf let out a scoff.

“I thought you’d hidden away in fear. What wind blew to make us meet here? Has your time come to an end?”

Thud.
At that moment, another figure crossed from the adjacent roof and positioned himself behind Ron. Aturess Perf spoke even as he watched him.

“Your son still seems to have many days ahead of him. It’s been a long time. I visited your family home a few times when you were young. Do you remember this uncle?”

Aturess Perf bared his teeth in a bright smile.
To him, a gentle voice descended.

“Yes, Aturess Perf. So you killed all the people of your own family?”

Aturess Perf’s smile vanished.
Aturess Perf.
A member of the Puff Family, one of the five great Assassination Families.
The man who had led the charge in slaughtering every member of Gren Puff’s family—the Mercenary King’s closest friend.

“No answer, then.”

Aturess saw Ron gazing down at him with a benevolent smile.
Yet those cold eyes held no warmth whatsoever. Those frigid irises spoke to Aturess, who stood below on the rooftop, looking up at him.

“The frightened rat isn’t me—it’s you.”

That was when it happened.
A soft chuckle escaped Ron’s lips.
And his hand moved.

“Ugh!”

Simultaneously, a small cry of pain rang out.
Aturess’s gaze shifted.

“L-Leader…”

The man Aturess had brought along as his deputy for this mission.
A small dagger was now embedded in the ground directly before his feet.
He had been stealthily approaching the building where Ron was.

Aturess saw shock written across his subordinate’s face, while Ron’s gentle laughter reached his ears.

“Your subordinates are even more rat-like than you.”

Aturess bit his lip.
He had understood the moment he laid eyes on Ron.
No—the moment he saw his physique.
A robust frame despite being in his sixties.
And the razor-sharp aura that enveloped him.

Not for a moment.
It was the bearing only a warrior could possess—one who never loosened the reins of tension, who had trained relentlessly to strike down enemies.

“Aturess Perf, isn’t that right?”

That was why Aturess Perf couldn’t rush at Ron the moment he saw him.

“Hmm? A spineless rat who has lost his nerve. Should I really keep such a member by my side?”

Aturess Perf’s gaze turned back toward Ron.
Ron wore a smile in his eyes, but his pupils were cold as ice.

“All of you are welcome to come at me together if you wish.”

Some of the Dark members looked toward Aturess Perf.
But Aturess Perf couldn’t move recklessly against Ron’s provocation. The same was true for his subordinates, who had coordinated with him for a long time—at least fifteen years.

Ron Mollan.
Who was he?

He was a man with the power to eliminate five Assassination Families and leave only the First Family standing, if he so desired.
That was why, even against the fearsome assault of Dark, even with the help of the White Star at the time, he had vanished without a trace to escape them.
And he had taken his son with him—a boy who had never even learned assassination or concealment.

Such a man had returned.
And he had spoken.

“If you can capture me.”

If you can capture me, then come at me.

“And you should prepare yourselves.”

The moment you attack me.

“When night falls, we will come to bestow death upon all of you.”

Every night, you will know fear.

“Every single one of you, without exception.”

Cruel words spilled from the Elderly Man’s lips, contradicting his gentle tone.
But what truly unsettled Aturess Perf was something else entirely.

‘When night falls, ‘we’ will-‘

We.
That word struck Aturess Perf.
No—it filled him with dread.

“…We?”

His question tumbled from his lips, and a gentle response came in return.

“Fifteen years—that time was never yours alone.”

Aturess Perf felt ice crawl down his spine, and his mouth opened urgently of its own accord. Yet no sound emerged.

“Ron Mollan!”

Ron turned his gaze away.
He could see figures rushing toward him, faces flushed with fury.

Naturally, they were the elite members of the Mercenary Guild.
In particular, Crock, their squad leader, charged forward while radiating a tempest of raw emotion.

“It’s been a while, little one.”

Crock’s face twisted at the words Ron Mollan directed toward me.
He was now a captain leading the elite members, but sixteen years ago, he was merely a boy barely scraping by in the Backstreet.

The man who had taught him the sword for one year.

“It’s been a while.”

Crock saw Vicross nodding behind Ron.
The man who had learned the sword alongside him for that one year.

Crock tightened his grip on the greatsword in his hand.
After learning greatsword technique for one year and joining the Mercenary Guild as its lowest-ranking member, he had been able to avoid that tragic scene fifteen years ago.

A chilling voice reached him.

“Quite the climb to captain, I see.”

It was a voice cold enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.
But this person was Ron Mollan.
Crock knew this was the real Ron, not the benevolent facade he sometimes wore.

Still, Crock leveled his greatsword at him.
He was the one who had to protect the guild in the Mercenary King’s absence.

“Ron Mollan! Was it you who destroyed the First Mercenary Guild Branch?”

He posed the question to Ron.
Crock’s response would depend entirely on the answer.
His grip on the greatsword was firm, unwavering. Over fifteen years, Crock had grown into a solid adult who understood responsibility and duty.

“Ha ha—”

I saw Ron break into a low chuckle.
Aged though he was, some things remained unchanged. That chilling, blade-like presence.

Ron looked at Aturess Perf, Crock, and those who followed them, then slowly spread both arms wide.
And he spoke calmly.

“Destroyed?”

In that moment, everyone’s gaze shifted toward Vicross.
Yet Ron continued speaking calmly.

“I haven’t finished destroying it yet.”

Mouths fell open.
Vicross Mollan.
The magical bombs held in his hands became visible.

“Surely not—!”
“…Him, him!”

Ron heard a cute voice in his mind as he felt the gazes of the bewildered people upon him.

-Lemonade Grandpa! When the human gives the signal, I’m supposed to throw magic bombs! The human said I need to do it properly and leave no traces at all! I agree, and all our family members agree too!

Raon’s excited voice rang out.

-Of course I’ll deploy a shield so other people won’t get hurt! Just trust the great Raon Mir! Kind Grandpa!

Ron’s lips curved upward.
It was a chilling smile, far removed from any kindness.

-Destroy it all! Just trust me!

Ron opened his mouth as he looked down at those gazing up at him.

“The time has come for the Molan Family to begin anew.”

The fallen Molan Family.
This current situation was quite excellent for unveiling a new beginning.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————