Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 415

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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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Choi Han lost consciousness as the last thing he saw was Erhafen catching him with a startled expression. No—countless memories came flooding in instead.
And he became Choi Jung-soo.

“Jung-soo.”

Choi Han became Choi Jung-soo, beginning with the smiling face of Choi Jeong-soo’s Mother, who placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and spoke kindly to him.

“Our family has made its home on this land for generations. We cannot leave.”

“Our family has been rooted in this land for generations. We can’t leave.”
The young Choi Jung-soo’s question was answered by his grandfather with a faint smile.

“To me, he’s a nephew… so to you, he’d be a grand-uncle of sorts. In any case, there’s someone who will return. My younger brother as well… he came looking for home, but what would happen if no one was here?”

The young Choi Jung-soo nodded at his grandfather’s words and was satisfied.

Young Choi Jung-soo nodded and seemed pleased at his grandfather’s words.
After that, Choi Jung-soo grew older.

After that, Choi Jung-soo grew up gradually.
And one day, after finishing the college entrance exam and preparing for practical tests to apply to the Department of Physical Education.

Something like a movie happened.
A truly horrific movie at that.
Something out of a movie happened.
When the first act of that movie ended.

“…I will surely return.”

Choi Jung-soo bowed twice while looking at the collapsed tile-roofed house.

Choi Jung-soo bowed twice while looking at the collapsed tile-roofed house.
“When I return… I will surely restore it to how it was before.”

“Come back… I’ll make sure things return to how they were before.”

Choi Jung-soo, the sole survivor, made a promise to everyone who had stayed in that house.
And he found employment at a company.

It occupied an ambiguous position—neither a Guild nor a Government organization—but precisely because of this, it was a place where he could take on the most diverse assignments.

“Oh! You’re my only colleague? I’m Choi Jung-soo! Nice to meet you!”
“…Kim Rok-soo. Pleased to meet you.”

Choi Jung-soo greeted his colleague warmly.

“It’s a business trip.”
“Team Lead, shall we deploy?”
“Either way.”

Choi Jung-soo began undertaking various assignments alongside his colleagues—Kim Rok-soo, his peer, and Lee Soo-hyuk, his team lead, among others.
Since he handled frontline combat, his days were an endless cycle of injuries and hardship.
Yet it was worth doing.
Because he had gained a family—no, a new family.

Choi Jung-soo’s memories continued to unfold.

‘I hope peace comes like this, and we all live well together.’

He thought this as he looked at his colleagues.

‘I’m going to take them all to my hometown. The tile-roofed house will be spacious enough—Team Lead and Kim Rok-soo have probably already crossed over!’

As he carried out his missions, he began to imagine the future from time to time, and a gentle smile would grace his face.
Not a fabricated brightness, but a genuine smile.

Yet he was always anxious.
Death could come at any moment, and such was the nature of this world.

‘And now that time has come.’

Choi Jung-soo faced the moment when his anxiety became reality.

“…Choi Jung-soo.”
“I’m fine, Team Lead.”

He answered Lee Soo-hyuk cheerfully and offered a smile, yet his gaze never wavered from the colossal monster.

The monster Kim Rok-soo had foreseen had arrived.
Its presence exceeded all imagination.

I might die.
The thought struck him suddenly.

A soft chuckle escaped. When he turned to look, Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk pointed at Choi Jung-soo’s trembling hand gripping his sword and spoke bluntly.

“Your hand’s shaking.”

Choi Jung-soo saw his own trembling hand. Yet he laughed carelessly and asked.

“Is it that obvious, hyung?”
“Yeah. Very.”
“Ah, what a waste.”

At his response, the team leader shook his head and gave the signal.

“Attack! Kim Rok-soo, predicted trajectory!”

At those words, all the team members began charging toward the monster.

“Team Leader, three o’clock! Two retreating north, three northwest!”

Choi Jung-soo raised his sword, listening to Kim Rok-soo’s support from behind.

Crash!
With a strike against the monster’s leg, his final battle began.

“Hah… hah…”

Choi Jung-soo felt his body growing heavier by the moment.

‘Damn! That insane bastard of a monster!’

Choi Jung-soo’s face was twisted with venom as he stared at the monster.
It was overwhelmingly powerful.
There seemed to be no way to win.

He looked around at his surroundings.

‘…This is insane.’

He could see several fallen comrades.
Many others were wounded as severely as he was.

At this rate, unless they fled, they would all perish.

To survive, they had to run.

That was when it happened.
An unfamiliar voice reached his ears.

-Your fate was never meant to end in death. Why do you seek it? That is why I intervened so hastily.

His body trembled.
Choi Jung-soo’s entire frame shook.
What kind of voice was this?
Who was speaking?

For a moment, doubt and fear seized him. But the unfamiliar voice offered no answers, speaking only what it wished to say.

-I offer you a proposal.

Choi Jung-soo, sword still gripped in his hand, felt his grip on reality slip away at the appearance of this strange voice.

-I will save you.

And his heart seemed to plummet within his chest.
Without thinking, Choi Jung-soo found himself listening intently to that voice.

The promise of salvation.

-In exchange, you must go to another world. That world will be warm to you. You will find many good people there.

What does that even mean?
Choi Jung-soo was bewildered by the sudden words.

-This case is unusual, so unlike your ancestors, I’m giving you a special choice.

But the moment the ancestors were mentioned, Choi Jung-soo suddenly recalled his grandfather’s words. The family sorrow his grandfather had told him when he was older, a high school student.

‘They all disappeared at some point. Without a trace. We never heard from them again. How did something like this happen to our family….’

Choi Jung-soo, who frequently read fantasy novels, found himself forming a hypothesis as his grandfather’s words and the voice of this strange entity intertwined.
And the entity spoke once more.

-I will let you live. I can promise you that much.

I could live.
Those words struck Choi Jung-soo’s mind like thunder.
That was when it happened.

Crash!

A tremendous roar erupted.
And Choi Jung-soo saw his comrade blocking the building wall the monster had hurled at him, holding an iron plate like a shield.
He saw the back of the comrade standing before him.

“Ugh!”

The comrade held the iron plate like a shield, but overwhelmed by the force, he was pushed back and collided with Choi Jung-soo.
Then he turned and glared at Choi Jung-soo.

“Hey! Choi Jung-soo!”
“…Kim Rok-soo.”
“Get your head in the game! Do you want to die? Why are you spacing out all of a sudden?”

Ah.
Choi Jung-soo realized he had momentarily lost focus.
Even in that moment, the strange voice continued.

-See? You’re in mortal danger. Don’t you want to live?

It was a sweet voice.
Choi Jung-soo’s grip on reality wavered once more.
Then, the monster’s attack came flying at them again.

“Cough!”

My comrade Kim Rok-soo’s body was sent flying, tumbling across the ground.
The sheet of iron he’d hastily grabbed crumpled and rolled across the dirt.
Kim Rok-soo’s arm was twisted at an unnatural angle.

“Tch, you bastard! Get your head straight!”

Choi Jung-soo saw Kim Rok-soo roughly grabbing his own arm and urging him on.
Words from someone bleeding profusely from his mouth from exerting too much force—someone with no offensive capability whatsoever.

Finally, my mind cleared.
My sense of reality returned.

-You almost died again. What do you say—want to come with me?

Slap!
Choi Jung-soo struck his own cheek.
And he reached out his hand.

“What?”
“What else? Just provide support from the rear!”

Choi Jung-soo grabbed Kim Rok-soo by the nape of his neck and dragged him backward, then leaped up from that spot.

Boom!
The massive monster’s attack grazed past the spot where they’d been.

“Why are you mad? I fell! Don’t you see my arm is broken?”

At Kim Rok-soo’s spirited complaining, Choi Jung-soo let out a small laugh.

“Then why did the rear support come to the front?”

And he offered a rebuke he didn’t truly mean.
Of course, Choi Jung-soo knew the truth. Kim Rok-soo had thrown himself forward to save him.

He looked around at his surroundings.
His comrades were all fighting with their lives hanging by a thread—no, practically throwing their lives away.
And he wanted to do the same.
Wasn’t that enough?
I should live the way I want to. Shouldn’t I?

Choi Jung-soo gripped his sword tighter and charged toward the monster.

Attack and take hits.
Fall and rise again.
Swing the blade once more and get hurled back.

“…Gasp… Huff. Gasp….”

Choi Jung-soo finally collapsed.
His breath was suffocating him.
Breathing grew harder and harder. His body had no strength left, no sensation.

Through his blurring vision, he saw his fallen comrades.
Some had died with their bodies intact—a mercy, at least—while others had met gruesome ends.

‘…Even the team leader….’

Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk was in a similar state.
And then he saw Kim Rok-soo.

‘Thank goodness.’

At least one person might survive.
Choi Jung-soo had never seen Kim Rok-soo’s face like this before. That guy always wore a sullen, pouty expression and had an infuriating way of saying things that were actually right.
Watching that pouty face crumble was truly, unbearably painful to witness.

-Do you have any regrets?

Again.
That nonsense echoes in my ears once more.

-Choi Jung-soo, didn’t you once wish to return to your hometown and live off the land, farming? Are you truly prepared to die?

I wanted to laugh.
Choi Jung-soo wanted to laugh heartily at those words. But lacking the strength to do so, he simply answered within his mind.

‘Just something I said. Just something I said.’

When everything finally ended, what would I want to do?
I had decided to go down to the countryside with Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk and farm. Tend an orchard, cultivate fields, and live that way. And I was going to drag that Kim Rok-soo—the one claiming to be unemployed—along and put him to work.
Because that bastard would stir up trouble while claiming to be unemployed. Better to spare him the hardship and have him live quietly doing farm work instead, so I discussed it that way with the Team Leader.
The other team members also said that when the time came, they’d visit in summer and help during harvest season, so I should buy meat.

Just, that kind of talk.
The sort of thing you say when you don’t know when you’ll die. Dreams you’d love to achieve someday, but since they’re difficult to realize, you speak your true wishes like a joke. That sort of thing.

‘Just that kind of talk.’

Choi Jung-soo found even thinking increasingly burdensome.
Now his vision was growing dim.

Kim Rok-soo’s voice reached my ears.

Not weeping, though he was the type who wouldn’t cry until the very end.
It sounded like he was calling for me. Why did it sound like a wail?

-Is this your choice?

Choice? What choice?
Life simply unfolds this way sometimes.
…Of course, I wanted to live longer.
I wanted to live, but still, I couldn’t abandon him and leave alone.

Choi Jung-soo could offer no further answer.

That strange voice grew increasingly faint.

-It was Kim Rok-soo who was meant to die. But it has changed.

…Ah, I’m a bit worried about Kim Rok-soo. He needs to survive properly.
Choi Jung-soo felt himself being pulled deeper and deeper into darkness.
Now nothing reached him, nothing touched him.

Yet the unfamiliar voice continued to murmur on.

-There’s little left for me to do now. Humans are truly remarkable beings.

Choi Jung-soo no longer had the strength to do anything.

-Choi Han.

In that moment, Choi Jung-soo faltered.
No—Choi Han regained consciousness.

-I am the God of Death. I wonder if we shall meet again.

A voice echoed through my mind.

“…Gasp!”

And I opened my eyes.

“Choi Han! Are you awake?”

Slap!
I swatted away the hand reaching toward me. I sensed the other person’s bewilderment, but I had no time to concern myself with such matters now.

‘The memories—the memories—!’

Choi Jung-soo’s life, his memories, his emotions crashed into my mind like a massive tidal wave. My breath came in gasps.
A burden different from physical pain shook my very being.

“Gasp… gasp. Huff….”

I drew in a deep breath.
Gradually, my sense of reality returned.

Plink. Thud.
Droplets fell onto the back of his hand.

“…You-”

Erhafen’s flustered voice reached his ears.
But these were not Choi Han’s own tears.

Choi Jung-soo.
They were his tears.
Or perhaps the tears of someone who might have been my nephew.

The tile-roofed house where Choi Jung-soo had lived.
It was my father’s hometown home.

Plink. Plink, thud.
The tears kept falling.
I didn’t fully understand why I was doing this.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you? What’s going on?”

But soon I saw Erhafen clearly—his hand grasping my shoulder, his face etched with alarm as he stared at me.
My lips parted.

“…Kim Rok-soo.”
“What?”

I rose from the bed.
My hand closed around the sword sheath standing beside me—the one Kale Heniatus had given me. I looked down at the blade before asking Erhafen.

“Where is Kale Heniatus?”
“Huh?”
“I need to go there.”
“You don’t seem to be in your right mind. Where are you going-”
“I’m going.”

The moment my eyes opened, I teleported away using magic.
And now.
The instant I took in the sight of where the teleportation had brought me.

“…Why does your face look like that?”

Servant Ron approached with a stern expression instead of his usual benevolent smile. Beside him, Clophe Seka sat collapsed on the floor, staring at me with tear-stained cheeks as if I were a madman.

Whoosh!
Erhafen arrived shortly after.

“Erhafen.”

I ignored the words and gazes of the others, pointing upward.

“Could you cast a flight spell for me?”
“Ha. Fine, I understand. But—”
“I’ll apologize later. Thank you for looking after me.”
“…Ha, seriously.”

Erhafen cast a flight spell on me.
I immediately soared upward and moved swiftly.

-Choi Han! Did you really cry? Did you have a nightmare? Let me comfort you!

I pretended not to hear Raon’s voice either.
I moved quickly.

Boom! Boom!
I flew toward the place filled with Destructive Fire that continuously erupted in endless small explosions.
The Destructive Fire parted to let me through.

Whoosh.
I felt the heat, but the flames did not burn me.
I pierced through the fire and lightning, reaching the center.

And there, I could see a masked figure.
Looking at Kale, I opened my mouth.

“What should I call you if you’re a friend of my distant cousin?”

Kale laughed awkwardly and answered.

“…Ha ha, well. What should I even call you? …?”

His words stumbled and cracked.
Kale Heniatus’s face contorted.

Choi Jung-soo was Choi Han’s nephew?

Oh, this was a disaster.

—————
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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