Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 394

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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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In the sudden darkness that engulfed Kale Heniatus’s vision, several scenes flashed past in rapid succession.

‘Kim Rok-soo!’

I heard Choi Jung-soo’s voice. I could see someone blocking my path, sword in hand.
The world seemed consumed by darkness and flame as a massive monster materialized upon the earth. Subordinate creatures poured forth around it in overwhelming numbers.

Then I saw my colleagues rushing toward those creatures.
As teammates, as seniors, as friends.
Those I had fought alongside were charging into the jaws of death.

‘Kim Rok-soo! Contact the Government and Central immediately! Send emergency alerts to every Guild!’

Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s voice echoed in my ears.

I—Kim Rok-soo—had spoken then.

‘…This is impossible, Team Leader. This is impossible.’

As the rear support handling tactical analysis, I had examined countless records from after the monsters appeared and reached my conclusion.

‘If we engage that monster now, we will die.’

Lee Soo-hyuk threw back a question in response.

‘Then what should we do?’

I could never forget the face of Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk as he asked that, nor the face of Choi Jung-soo as he adjusted his grip on his sword.
And I had no answer to give him.

The major Guild responsible for the district had fled.
Because of that, there was no one with the power to stop the monster that had suddenly appeared in the neighboring area.

Yet there was someone who had anticipated this sudden emergence.

‘Kim Rok-soo, it is not your fault.’

Kim Rok-soo—Kale Heniatus was the only colleague whose voice had reached him in a teasing tone, now crashing over him like a tidal wave.

‘Hey, if it weren’t for you, things would’ve gone really bad.’

Back then, Kale had possessed the records and data, along with his abilities, to predict the emergence of that monster—one recorded as possessing the second-greatest destructive force in Earth’s history—an hour in advance.

One hour.
Brief, perhaps, yet it was that crucial window to contact the Guild responsible for the area and evacuate the people.

But Kale—Kim Rok-soo—had managed to anticipate the monster’s emergence and general location, though he had failed to properly gauge its true power.
As a result, despite his team arriving fully prepared, they found themselves facing an entity that far exceeded their expectations.

The conversation from that day replayed in Kale’s mind—that moment, the acrid smell of smoke and flame, the world that had been nothing but black and crimson—heard, smelled, seen, and felt all at once.

‘Kim Rok-soo, wipe your nosebleed. If you’re overloaded, you should rest.’

Kale wiped away the blood with his sleeve at Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s words, even as he listened intently to what he was saying.

‘Still, thanks to you and us, almost everyone evacuated. Well, the responsible Guild ran away, but all we have to do now is hold back that monster until reinforcements arrive.’

Kale felt his mind growing hotter, heat rising within him.
Yet even so, the records in his mind did not cease.

Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s next words came back to him.

‘Nothing difficult about it. Right?’

Standing before that terrifying monster, Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s demeanor remained composed.

‘Hey, when has our team ever had it easy? We’ve always had to scrape by.’

Never once.
Since joining the Company and working under Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk, Kale had never fought with overwhelming advantage.

Not a single time had things ever been easy.

‘This time is just like always. So we do what we have to do. Right?’

At that moment, Kale had laughed at Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s words, because he was right.

‘What? Kid, you’re laughing?’

Lee Soo-hyuk and Choi Jung-soo left Kim Rok-soo behind, who was letting out a hollow laugh, and joined the other comrades in combat against the monster.

Kale Heniatus felt his mind suddenly tangling into chaos.

‘And then—’

What happened after this scene was clearly, unmistakably recorded.
Those scenes flooded through my mind with blinding speed.
Yet I couldn’t properly read those records.

The destructive power of the monster.
Comrades fighting.
Everyone in mortal peril.
Comrades rushing toward me.
Multiple scenes entangled together.

My mind, which had been burning hot moments before, seemed to grow cold.
It felt like sinking to the bottom of a deep lake frozen over with ice.

And in the darkness, a scene appeared.

In my crouched vision, I saw everything shattered by the colossal monster.
And from far behind, I heard the signal tone indicating that reinforcements had arrived.

‘…You, you—’

And.

‘You—’

Before Kim Rok-soo, who couldn’t properly continue speaking, I saw Choi Jung-soo kneeling with his sword driven into the ground.

‘What, damn it.’

Choi Jung-soo, with nothing left to vomit and only blood smeared at the corners of his mouth, was jesting even as he died.

‘Please.’

And then I saw Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk closing his eyes as he entrusted the rest to me.

That was how it ended.
Every member of the team died that way.

‘Kim Rok-soo! Rok-soo!’

And when only Kim Rok-soo’s life remained, I came to my senses at the call of the reinforcements who had grabbed my shoulder.

‘And then, after that, I—’

Kale Heniatus recalled what Kim Rok-soo had done at that moment.
At that scene where all the team members were dying. After seeing Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk’s face with closed eyes once, and Choi Jung-soo’s bowed head once more.

‘Situation report.’

I spoke calmly while looking at all the government officials, guild members, and ability users who had come to face the unprecedented monster.
Because the team leader and my colleagues had asked me to.

‘I will explain the combat patterns of that unranked monster.’

I explained the combat first. Then, as I—powerless in battle—stepped back and those who had come to support began fighting the monster, I made a request to the person beside me.

‘Please take care of the bodies.’

Because at that time, Kim Rok-soo had no strength left to move.
Pouring out the last of my strength while bleeding from my nose, I explained the monster’s abilities. The reinforcements all listened to that explanation, but not a single one of them told me to wipe away the blood.

In that moment, Kim Rok-soo—Kale Heniatus—felt as though the world was collapsing.

‘…It was too late.’

The reinforcements had arrived far too late.

Thump. Thump.
Suddenly, Kale’s heart began to pound fiercely.
The guilt, rage, and sorrow that had roiled Kim Rok-soo’s heart came surging up. The things I had barely managed to lock away down there began to thrash wildly.

It was that moment.

-Human!
“Kale Heniatus.”

Tap. Tap.
I felt small front paws touching my back and a hand resting on my shoulder.
A voice came from behind me.

-Human, are you alright? Something felt wrong, so I came to check!
“I didn’t see anything. Your back just looked strange to me.”

It was Raon and Albert Crossman.

I blinked my eyes.
The darkness that had clouded my vision vanished, and the familiar walls of the Crown Prince’s Bedroom came into view.
I quickly folded the paper bearing the Death God’s message in half and concealed it, then turned around.

Behind me stood Albert Crossman with a displeased expression, while Raon, naturally invisible in his transparent state, could not be seen.
I opened my mouth to speak to Albert.

“What is it?”

I expected Albert Crossman to sigh with exasperation, letting out a dismissive “Tch!”
But instead, I noticed that the expressions of Albert and the others seated around the nearby table had shifted in ways I did not anticipate.

Everyone’s face had grown grave.
My eyes met Albert’s.

“Are you alright?”

Albert saw my ashen face and lips that had turned a sickly blue.
Cold sweat drenched my forehead.

He had witnessed me cough blood and suffer pain before, but never like this.

I looked exactly like someone who had witnessed something terrifying and been struck by profound shock.

Albert’s gaze shifted from my face to the paper I held in my hand.
The contents of the already-folded paper remained hidden from view.

‘What on earth did I just see?’

Questions swirled in my mind, but Alberu blocked my raised hand.

-Human, human! Are you okay? Ron told me to remember and tell him if you were about to collapse!

I heard Raon’s voice. I spoke toward Alberu, who couldn’t approach due to my gesture, and the invisible Raon.

“I’m fine for now. Let me look a bit longer. I haven’t finished reading yet.”

I gave a slight nod to Priestess Cage, who had bolted upright beyond Alberu’s shoulder, then slowly turned back around.

“…Understood. Return to your seats.”
-…I understand too! I’ll return to my seat, you weak fool of a human!

As I felt Alberu and Raon retreat, I unfolded the paper once more.

Five minutes.
Only five minutes had passed—or rather, diminished—since my vision went dark.

I recalled Kim Rok-soo’s birthday.

The paper the King of Death had conveyed through Priestess Cage. The time counting down across its surface.
When all those numbers reached zero, the moment of choice would come for me, they had said.

I thought of the day those numbers would become zero.

That day was Choi Jung-soo’s birthday, and Kim Rok-soo’s birthday as well. It would also be Choi Jung-gun and Choi Han’s birthday.
On that day, I would have to make my choice.

‘How ironic.’

I couldn’t find the right words to express it.
I could see the part I hadn’t finished reading.

【Choi Jung-soo couldn’t die back then.】

That’s right.
Choi Jung-soo couldn’t have died back then.
Lee Soo-hyuk and the other team members couldn’t have died back then either.
And.

【Kim Rok-soo.】
【You were the one who should have died.】

I cannot die either.

Flames ignited in Kale Heniatus’s eyes.

Those people back then couldn’t have died.
And I couldn’t have died.
And my people here now cannot die.

The remaining letters left behind by the King of Death became visible.

【Yes, you were supposed to die.】
【But humans are one of the existences that shatter the laws of the world and all coincidence.】
【The humans who tried to save you broke the law that dictated you should die.】
【I respect and revere such humans.】
【You learned much from those humans, and you live exactly as you learned.】
【I’m curious what choice you will make.】

Kale Heniatus folded the paper and placed it in his inner pocket.
Then he turned around.

Priestess Cage, Taylor, and Rosalind remained seated at the table, while Alberu stood a short distance away with his arms crossed, watching him.
Raon was likely invisible near Alberu. Judging by the slight wrinkle at the hem of Alberu’s shirt, Raon was gripping it.

Kale Heniatus saw Priestess Cage carefully open her mouth.

“Young master, was it something unpleasant?”

She had transcribed the image shown by the god, but she could neither read nor understand it.
She couldn’t even distinguish whether it was a picture or letters.

It was a message from the King of Death meant only for Kale Heniatus.

At her question, the group looked at Kale Heniatus with different emotions—tension, worry, and more. In that moment, Kale answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Just.”

Despite their pallid, exhausted faces, their eyes blazed as if fire itself might ignite from within.

A choice?
With the White Star running rampant like this, what choice was there?
If I step back, what happens then? How does anything get resolved?

Avoid it?
Run away?
If we all fled together, perhaps—but alone? I could never abandon them, not even in death.

Kale made no attempt to conceal the rising fire within him, casting his words forth like a challenge.

“Just ignore it.”

Now that the ‘birth of a hero’ no longer existed in this world.
I would live as I pleased.

“…You’re ignoring the word of a god?”
“Yes.”

The King of Death had told Kale to choose.

“You said to live as I please, didn’t you?”

Kale had interpreted those words in his own way.

“So that’s what I’ll do.”
“…What does that mean?”

When Alberu asked carefully, Kale replied.

“Cause chaos.”
“…What?”

Kale knows he is selfish and wicked, that those precious to him matter most of all.

“I’m just going to overwhelm them and crush everything.”

I preferred overwhelming fights.
That way, we wouldn’t get hurt.

“Isn’t that what you’ve always done?”

At Alberu’s casual retort, Kale Heniatus broke into a grin.

“I’m planning to do it even more.”
“…You have quite the irreverent smile.”

I let Alberu’s words pass through one ear and out the other.

Even in that moment, one second, two seconds—time continued to slip away.

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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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