Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 446

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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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That bastard who plays tricks with people needs to experience it himself! Damn it! This time I thought he was going to betray us to the very end, and I was watching!

Kale Heniatus wanted to focus on what the White Star was saying. But his mind was already in the middle of the marketplace.

Does that bastard think our Kale is easy prey? Huh? Why cast illusions on that kind and pitiful Choi Han? Huh? Huh? You White Star bastard, answer me!

Excuse me, Sky-Devouring Water. How will the White Star respond to what you’re saying?

Go, Kale! Save this world from that rotten mud-like bastard! Damn it! I’ll XXX and XX that bastard!
Calm down.
Jjangdol! Would you calm down? An illusion, an illusion! That horrifying thing has appeared in the world again! How can such a XX situation like this even exist!

Good grief.
This is serious.
Kale felt his mind growing numb at the increasingly intense and crude manner of speech from the Sky-Devouring Water.

‘Even when speaking harshly before, it was always moderate, but why is it so severe this time?’

The only unusual difference from before was the existence of the Illusionist. Had the Sky-Devouring Water fought the Illusionist in the past?
Kale lifted his head, feeling his mind becoming dazed by the increasingly severe barrage of profanities from the Sky-Devouring Water.
At that moment, the White Star, whose eyes met his, pointed at Kale with a sword of fire and spoke.

“Why? Can’t you think of any method? Your mind is complicated, isn’t it?”

Yeah. My mind is complicated and noisy, that’s true.

“This time won’t be easy for you either.”

No, my mind isn’t complicated because of you—

Easy my ass! A mere fireball like that. A disaster? If Kale here passes out three times, I can summon every disaster there is! Huh? If Kale loses consciousness for about three months, huh? If we let a season pass, we can actually cause a real disaster!

No, why do I have to pass out three times? Why pass out for three months? Who knows what the White Star will do in the meantime.
Kale’s head began to ache.

“Let go of my neck?”

The moment the Illusionist’s voice reached my ears, I extended my hand forward.

Boom!
Flames collided with the silver shield. Whoosh. My body was pushed backward. The Illusionist’s neck had already slipped from my grasp. My palms, which held the shield, tingled with a sharp sensation.

Crackle, crackle. The flames erupting from the White Star’s fire sword easily created cracks in the silver shield.

“Quite different from before, isn’t it?”

The White Star was composed. The Illusionist and Sayehr approached his side. I was seized by an odd sensation.
Had I ever faced the White Star and his subordinates alone?

“You’ve imbued your sword with calamity and now fire as well. A single shield of yours cannot overcome this fire sword. You’ll need to employ multiple powers yourself, won’t you?”

He was right.
Just as the White Star said, I too would need to use multiple powers.

“To extinguish that pillar of fire outside and face both me and Sayehr, you’d need to use at least three Ancient Powers. Then you’d collapse quickly, wouldn’t you?”

Ha.
I let out a laugh that was almost a sigh, and the White Star nodded as if understanding.

“Because you have no allies to help you.”

That was also true.
Raon, Choi Han, and my other companions could not aid me now. I would need to expend more Ancient Powers than usual, yet I had no one to protect me when I collapsed.

“It was strange that you collapsed so easily despite possessing all five natural attributes of Ancient Powers. Your body was well-balanced. But once I pondered it, the answer became clear.”

The White Star had contemplated many things before coming to the Caro Kingdom this time.
Finding the last terrestrial power was important, but he possessed the patience to wait a thousand years.

“Your innate vessel is weak. No matter how well you balance the attributes or expand your vessel, the vessel itself is fragile and shatters easily.”

My skeletal structure was quite good, but my complexion grew increasingly pale and gaunt. Observing me, the White Star made two resolutions.
One was to capture Choi Han.

“The final one of my two objectives this time is to shatter your vessel.”

It was about destroying Kale Heniatus when he stood alone.

“Your companions seem to rely on you, but I noticed something—you’re the one who’d die without them. In the middle of a battlefield.”

As the White Star laughed, I had to admit it this time.

“…This time, I underestimated you.”

The White Star had seen one step further ahead.

-Is that bastard really saying his target wasn’t the final land’s power, but Choi Han and Kale?
-Seems like it.

Jjangdol spoke to me.

-Run.

The White Star also spoke.

“Run. If you get out of this window, you’ll at least encounter the Dark Elves, won’t you?”

Pillars of flame erupted from all four directions. Between them, I could see the panicked Dark Elves. If I encountered them, things would become far easier for me.

But I couldn’t run.

Boom! Boom, boom!
At the vibrations shaking the Banquet Hall’s floor, I turned my head. A dome shrouded in crimson smoke came into view.
Choi Han was inside that red dome.
Boom, boom! I could feel Choi Han’s struggles. His thrashing became vibrations that transmitted throughout the hall to everyone present.

“So you can’t run after all?”

The White Star laughed and pointed his sword’s tip toward the dome of crimson smoke where Choi Han was trapped.

“I’ve been feeling lately that you’re surpassing me. But then Choi Han knew about ‘that character’?”

That was when it happened.
Boom!
The moment an unprecedented massive vibration burst from the red dome, I could see the Illusionist drawing a new symbol.

Sssssss—
Crimson smoke coiled around itself like chains, and dozens of iron shackles drove simultaneously into the dome.

“Bind him.”

The command was clearly directed at Choi Han. The Illusionist touched the back of his neck and smiled at Kale Heniatus.

“Kale, if you do anything reckless, Choi Han will suffer for it.”

Despite the mocking taunt laced with derision, Kale could not move as he watched the dome being consumed by chains.
White Star turned his gaze away from Kale.

“Stay bound there.”

Being unable to move because of a single subordinate was Kale’s limit. White Star, who had waited a thousand years, needed to push Kale to fight beyond his limits, to shatter his vessel completely.
After all, this man had a role to play on his behalf—one that required him to remain alive.

Whiiiiing—
A wall of wind materialized beneath White Star’s feet like a stepping stone. He kicked off from the terrace railing and soared beyond the Lord’s Castle.

“Damn it!”

White Star dismissed Kale’s curse with a scoff and gazed down from the sky above the Lord’s Castle. He could see the Dark Elves below, bewildered at the sight of him, and the territory’s residents fleeing in panic from the towering pillars of flame.

“Hell itself.”

It was a scene of pure catastrophe.
People fled in terror, unable even to gather their belongings.

“So this is Kale Heniatus’s move.”

Prince Valentino and the Knights Order surrounding him came into view, their eyes fixed on White Star. They could not approach the Lord’s Castle, and their shock at the pillars of flame and the fleeing residents was unmistakable.

“Under normal circumstances, that prince would have been a decent move, but now he’s become the worst possible liability.”

Prince Valentino and the Knights Order were now caught in White Star’s trap—hostages who could die at any moment without consequence.
White Star looked back at Kale Heniatus within the terrace. He could see the bloodshot eyes glaring at him.

‘Yes, keep glaring like that. Eventually, you won’t be able to hold back and will come at me.’

If you wish to save the Territory residents, the Crown Prince of the Caro Kingdom and the Knights Order, and the Dark Elves, then come at me.
With the Ancient Powers you possess, until this vessel shatters.

The White Star’s sword pointed toward the sky. He felt the flames enveloping his surroundings. Pillars of fire flowing like lava.
Sensing the power of fire rising from all four directions of the Dubori Territory, the White Star opened his mouth.

“Come to me.”

In that instant, the Territory residents who had been fleeing collapsed to the ground.

“F-fire!”
“…Ah… c-calamity…”

Beneath the four pillars, the earth split open. Four rivers formed along the cracks. Something—whether lava or fire—flowed through them.
No, it wasn’t flowing. That crimson mass carved and consumed the earth, terrifyingly forging its own path. And it rushed toward the White Star at tremendous speed.

“Get out! Come on, get out now! The belongings don’t matter anymore!”
“But still, ah, ah- our home!”

Crash!
The houses in the path of the crimson liquid vanished without a trace. Those fleeing collapsed to the ground with ashen faces.

“That, that person is the White Star…”

Prince Valentino found himself at a loss for words. No—he couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t because of the approaching heat.
The White Star didn’t seem human.
No, he didn’t seem to exist in this world at all.

The spectacle he unfolded felt like a scene from mythology itself.

“Your Highness.”
“…A Dark Elf.”

A familiar Dark Elf approached him. Tasha, whom Prince Valentino had seen a few times before, stood before him with a recognizable face.

“Have you come to relay a message from Lord Kale Heniatus?”
“No.”

Valentino bit his lip at the shake of his head. Yes, what could Prince Kale accomplish in this situation?
Then Tasha glanced to Valentino’s side.

“I came to hear what Prince Kale has to say.”
“…Came to hear?”

Valentino’s gaze shifted sideways. There stood the sorcerer Gashan, his eyes fixed upon the Lord’s Castle.

Caw. Caw.
Amidst the chaos, Valentino suddenly recalled the raven’s cries that had continued echoing all this while.

‘No.’

It wasn’t merely echoing—it was growing louder.
The cries of the ravens multiplied with each passing moment. Valentino lifted his gaze. In the black night sky, within the darkness that the towering flames had yet to reach.

Gashan’s mouth opened.
The raven perched upon the Terrace of the Lord’s Castle, a mouse clenched in its beak, its eyes gleamed. Those eyes were fixed upon Kale’s lips.

“…Wait.”

The Bear King Sayehr approached Kale, his body wrapped in radiant light.

“Wait for what? Are you speaking to our lord like this? Kekeke, will we really wait just because you ask us to?”

He cast a scornful smile at Kale, whose vacant gaze remained fixed beyond the Terrace, toward where the White Star had been.

“Wait….”
“Why do you keep muttering to yourself? Huh? Why do you pretend to speak while your mind races frantically? It won’t matter anyway.”

That was when it happened.

“What did you show me?”

Kale’s gaze turned toward the Illusionist.

Boom, boom, boom!
Choi Han continued to thrash within the Dome. Yet his movements grew increasingly feeble.

“I’m not sure.”

The Illusionist approached the dome covered in crimson chains and caressed it tenderly.

“Simply… reminding them of their most desperate and agonizing moments? Making them want to die?”

The Illusionist stroked the crimson chains with care.
Thud, thud! Thrashing could be felt from within the crimson dome.

“How pitiful. What torturous illusions must they be witnessing in there? What good is being a Sword Master? Humans crumble before suffering in the end.”

She gazed at Kale’s contorted face with a radiant smile.

“I harbor ill will toward you, Kale.”
“What ill will?”
“That fire in Jungle Zone 1—I was pretending to be a sorcerer and tried to extinguish it, you see? And I had planned to place the Jungle under my control. That was my first conquest plan for the Western Continent.”

The more Kale’s expression twisted, the deeper the Illusionist’s smile became. In that moment, Kale’s lips parted.
The words the Wind Spirits had spoken during the day.

‘The Bear King called the Illusionist Elysnet!’
‘Right! But doesn’t that name sound familiar?’

Yes. It was a name I’d heard before.
No—a name I’d seen before.
Though the appearance was different, I had definitely seen that name.

“Conquest, you say. So that’s why the King of Molden Kingdom is here?”
“Oh, you know my identity?”

Elysnet I, the young king who had ascended to the highest position of Molden Kingdom in her thirties—one of the great powers of the Eastern Continent—gazed at Kale as if he were something adorable.

“Well, you’ll be dead today anyway. I’ll forgive you for knowing my identity.”

Click.
In that instant, I undid another button. The Mercenary Guild’s roster flashed rapidly through my mind. My lips opened.

“…Please wait.”
“Hm? What did you say?”

The Illusionist, who had been about to mock Kale Heniatus further, released his grip on the chains and began weaving hand seals directed at Kale Heniatus.

“Should I toy with you through illusions as well? Come on, use the Ancient Powers to your heart’s content, will you? Hm? Why does your face look like that?”

At that moment, the Illusionist caught sight of Sayehr’s contorted expression.

Weeee— Weeee—
Suddenly, an alarm blared across the entire Lord’s Castle. The Illusionist’s pupils dilated. This alarm sounded in only one circumstance.

‘…The mana disruption device!’

When something went wrong with the mana disruption device, the alarm would sound.
In that instant, my hair color shifted back to red as the dye magic unraveled.
Instead, another spell from Raon Mir enveloped me.
Raon Mir’s voice reached my ears.

-Human! I brought the golden Dragon grandpa!

Raon Mir shouted, brimming with fury.
Raon Mir had taken Gashan with him, gone to the Dark Forest, and then traveled to the Eastern Continent.

-Grandpa keeps nagging that if he’s so great, he should be able to handle this much! Human, please tell grandpa later that I’m great!

Yet beneath those words lay unbridled excitement.

-Wait for it! Soon, the great Raon Mir will enter the Dubori Territory! Hehehehe!

Weeee— Wee—
I straightened my posture rigidly as the alarm continued to blare. Before me, I could see the Illusionist’s twisted face.
My lips curved upward into a smile.

“Why that expression? This alarm sounds like the mana disruption device warning—”

But I could not finish my words.

“Hahahahahaha—!”

A tremendous laugh echoed through the Banquet Hall. Mingled with the alarm, the laughter carried an eerie quality, as if a mad shriek had been woven into its brightness.
My gaze fixed upon a single point.

“…Choi Han?”

Laughter echoed from within the dome covered in crimson chains.
A sound that was less laughter and more of a scream rippled outward.

* * *

The moment darkness suddenly engulfed me, I found myself confronted with a day from my past at the edge of that darkness.

Crackle. Crackle.
As I took a step forward, I lowered my head.
Calluses marked my hands, yet they were small—a child’s hands. And I wore a school uniform.

When I exhaled, white breath misted before me.

“An illusion?”

I took in the landscape of the day I first fell into the Dark Forest. I fumbled at the inner pocket of my school uniform jacket.
I had arrived here with nothing but the uniform itself—no bag, no possessions.
Yet the uniform had pockets.

When I felt a thin wallet, I quickly pulled it out. Originally, I would have fumbled about carelessly, forgotten it on the very first day, and never found it again.
The moment I opened the wallet, I understood.

“It’s an illusion.”

I gazed at the family photograph tucked inside.

This was definitely an illusion.
I was certain of it.
Why?
The faces of my family in the photograph were faint and indistinct.
The illusion could not overcome forgetting.

I remembered the day I first fell into the Dark Forest, yet I could not remember my family’s faces. My lips twisted into a bitter smile.

“Damn it.”

The eyes of the boy were ancient.

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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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