Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 462

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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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Kale Heniatus immediately teleported his group and arrived at this location.
This was the Stone Mountain he had seen on the map, a place called Nake Mountain.
Kale Heniatus recalled his conversation with Taylor Sten before coming here.

‘Hmm, what business could you possibly have in such a place…?’

Taylor Sten, who had learned their destination while seeing them off, rarely showed bewilderment at Kale Heniatus’s actions.
Though Taylor Sten had deceived the White Star by fabricating ancient documents using the keywords ‘Land of Death and Treasure,’ he didn’t actually know the power of that final land itself, so Kale Heniatus found his bewilderment difficult to understand.

Could there be some hidden agenda I’m unaware of? Or perhaps some other issue?

Kale Heniatus asked Taylor Sten carefully.

‘Is there something I shouldn’t do if I go there?’

Since this was happening within the Sten Territory, he needed to have a proper conversation with Taylor Sten to avoid future complications.

‘No, sir. There’s no reason you shouldn’t go. Within the Sten Territory, there’s nowhere you cannot visit. However.’

Taylor Sten, who had been hesitating, spoke quietly with an awkward smile.

‘Do you know the legend of Nake Mountain?’
‘The story about snakes?’
‘Well, I’m not entirely sure whether that legend is true or not. But you see, this is somewhat.’

Taylor Sten continued speaking with an expression suggesting he found it difficult to say.

‘That mountain is where people go missing every year. And teleportation doesn’t work there.’
‘What? Teleportation?’
‘Yes. The coordinates cannot be locked onto there.’

When attempting to teleport from region A to a specific point on Nake Mountain, naturally the mage on the A side would need to magically lock onto the coordinates of that location.
But Nake Mountain was a place where coordinates simply could not be locked onto by magic.

‘And since it’s covered in fog, you’ll need to go with a skilled hunter.’

Taylor Sten stepped away briefly, then returned and handed Kale Heniatus a list of famous hunters active near Nake Mountain, speaking cautiously.

‘I’m not entirely certain why you’re leaving, but it’s clear you’re doing this to save the Western Continent from that villain.’

Taylor, gripping Kale Heniatus’s hands firmly, gazed at him with deep respect and admiration.

‘I hope you return safely.’

At those words laden with respect and concern, Kale Heniatus offered an awkward smile and departed, ending the conversation with Taylor.

And now.
Kale Heniatus, who had teleported to the village closest to Nake Mountain, felt perplexed as he listened to the words of an elderly hunter renowned for his experience and wisdom.

“Anyway, you young people are all the same, which is why I’m saying this! Mister Bob, I don’t know what your circumstances are, but don’t go to that cursed mountain! Understood?”
“Elder, how can I not go?”

The hunter Bud wanted to help Bob, whose name was similar to his own, the young man who introduced himself as a merchant.

“Goodness. I, Bud, would like to help our Mister Bob here, what with our names being so similar and all. But these are dangerous times, you see.”

He pointed behind his house.
Beyond his home, which stood at the highest point in the village, Nake Mountain loomed, completely shrouded in mist.

“Enter that cursed mountain and half of you will die, I tell you.”

The Mercenary King Bud, who had been silent until now, opened his mouth.

“But half of them survive, don’t they?”
“That’s only because they went when there was no mist, you blue-haired youngster!”

In an instant, Bud had become the blue-haired youngster, and he smoothed down his hair while clamping his mouth shut. Though he appeared somewhat pouty, neither the hunter Bud nor the merchant Bob nor anyone else in the group paid it any mind.

Pat, pat.
-Bud! Why are you gloomy? Why are you upset? I’m curious!

Only the Silver Cat tapped Bud’s leg with her front paw, and the voice of the invisible Raon echoed in his mind.
The moment Bud’s shoulders sagged, Choi Han approached the elderly hunter.

“Elder.”

The hunter Bob trembled the moment Choi Han approached. It felt exactly like encountering a massive beast while out hunting.
At the same time, his gaze was drawn to eyes that gleamed with the depth of years.
Choi Han made a calm request to Bob.

“If guiding us is difficult, at least tell us what we should be cautious about. We must enter that mountain immediately. We must hurry.”
“Well, this is something.”

Bob scratched his head vigorously. That was when the merchant Bob, who had been standing quietly, spoke with courtesy.

“We will provide a generous commission.”
“Ah, no. It’s not like I’m doing this for money—”
“Ten million Gelons. That is the commission.”

At the excessively large sum, the group momentarily looked at the merchant Bob—Kale—with surprised eyes. Regardless, Kale regarded the hunter with a solemn gaze.
The hunter Bob was not swayed even by the amount of the commission, meeting Kale’s eyes with a hardened gaze weathered by time.

“…Sigh.”

With that, he exhaled deeply and went into his home.

“Hey, it’s obvious you’re not doing this for money!”

Bud jabbed Kale in the ribs, reproaching him.
That was the moment.

“If you want to live, you must follow my words unconditionally?”

The hunter appeared with a bow and quiver slung across his back, dressed in leather armor and fully prepared to climb Nake Mountain in an instant. Bud stared at the hunter with an expression of astonishment at how quickly he had readied himself, but Kale lowered his head and made his request.

“Please guide us.”
“Then where should we go? The mountain peak?”

To the hunter asking about their destination, Kale, the one who had commissioned them, replied.

“Where the red snakes appear.”

Nake Mountain.
A mountain known for its red snakes that devour intruders.
Those snakes appear most frequently when mist covers the entire mountain, and they are said to bring death to people in an instant.

“…You, you madman! I’m not some money-crazed old fool!”

The hunter’s voice rose without his realizing it.

“You’re going to find a snake? Are you trying to get yourself bewitched?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“…Truly? Not below the cliff?”
“Above the cliff.”
“Ha—!”

When the voice of a beloved echoes through the mist,
they say that if you follow that sound, you will see a beautiful serpent covered in crimson scales.

They say that if you follow the serpent as though bewitched, you will soon find yourself stepping beyond the cliff’s edge.
And then you fall helplessly down the cliff and die.

“Are you asking me to take you to that cliff?”
“Yes, sir Bob.”
“Good heavens, Bob or whatever! Why would you young people go to that cliff?”

He tapped his chest with his fist, as though filled with regret.
He had no choice.

“Have you ever seen the faces of those who fell from that cliff and died? Or at least heard about them? I’ve seen them myself, I have. How do you think they died?”

The very thought was horrifying.
Because Bob the hunter knew Nake Mountain well, he had taken the families of the deceased down below the cliff quite a few times.
Sometimes they were discovered too late, already decomposed or reduced to bones, but there were also times when they were found quickly.

After seeing the state of those corpses, Bob was deeply shaken.

“They were all smiling. Dead, yet smiling, I tell you!”

After witnessing that expression, Bob had not gone near that cliff, that precipice, ever again.

“Sir, I’m not asking you to take me all the way to that precipice. Just guide us to the path near it. We’ll handle the rest ourselves.”
“…You want me to watch people die? No amount of money could make me do th—”
“We’re going to kill the snake.”

Hunter Bob stopped speaking at Kale Heniatus’s words.

Kill what?
That snake?
That ghost?
How?

Kale Heniatus, meeting Bob’s gaze, grasped the shoulder of the man standing beside him. At that signal, Choi Han drew his sword. A faint black aura bloomed from the blade.

Bob’s eyes widened.
Even having lived his entire life in a small village at the foot of a mountain, he knew of the existence of Sword Masters and aura.
The elderly man’s lips gradually curved upward as he stared at that aura for a long while.

“Hehehehe.”

With a brief chuckle, he shut his house door. Then he looked at Kale Heniatus.

“I don’t need money. I might witness the greatest hunt of my life, and lending a hand to such an endeavor is a profitable venture indeed.”

The old hunter turned toward the rugged mountain shrouded in mist.

“Follow closely behind me in single file. We must hurry before nightfall, so we’ll take the narrow shortcut!”

Kale Heniatus immediately followed behind him.

-I’m right behind you!

The invisible Raon followed, then Vicross cradling On and Hong, followed by the Dragon Hybrid and the Mercenary King in turn.

“Are you alright?”

Bud asked, uncertain how to respond, watching the Dragon Hybrid’s face drenched in sweat beneath his hood. The Dragon Hybrid said nothing, merely waved his hand and followed behind Vicross.
Choi Han took up the rear of the group.

The hunter pulled out a pouch and handed it to Kale Heniatus, shouting loud enough for everyone at the back to hear.

“If you don’t want to be charmed by the snake’s voice, cover your ears with the earplugs inside the pouch! They say even magic can’t block that sound!”

Kale Heniatus peered into the pouch. It seemed the old man had brought out enough earplugs to account for even nine-year-old children. Kale Heniatus secured a set for Raon as well, then passed the pouch to Vicross. The elderly man spoke with a firm expression.

“And once is fine, but if you see something crimson, don’t look at it again. Absolutely not a second time! Do you understand? You look straight ahead. Only at the back of the person in front of you.”
“What about you, sir?”

At Bud’s question, the hunter grinned.
He pulled a black cloth from his pocket and covered his eyes. He also plugged his ears with earplugs.

“I am the human who has visited Nake Mountain shrouded in mist the most times and lived to tell of it.”

With those words, the Elderly Man turned forward again. He extended both hands ahead and began moving forward, feeling his way through the ground, rocks, and trees.
Kale Heniatus realized he had found the right guide. The entire group, including those averaging nine years old, covered their ears and entered the mist-shrouded forest, their eyes fixed only on the back of the person ahead.

The Elderly Man was fast.

Though I thought he might be slow with his eyes and ears covered, the Elderly Man’s footsteps were steady as he walked a path he had traveled for decades.
Kale Heniatus followed silently behind him.

‘I like the pace.’

I couldn’t know when contact would come from the Land of Death.

‘The White Star surely returned directly to the Land of Death.’

Because he and Choi Han, and moreover, needed to obtain the power of the land.
That brought worry and tension to Kale Heniatus. Of course, the Dark Elves and Merry were waiting for the White Star while setting traps they could use for several days.
But variables exist everywhere. Kale Heniatus couldn’t let go of his tension.

Gulp.
The sound of my own swallow seemed unusually loud.
Shrouded in mist where I couldn’t see ahead properly. I could barely make out the back of the hunter Bob. The trees and grass covering both sides of the narrow path hindered my steps, but I couldn’t turn my gaze away.

Because the hunter’s warning came to mind.

Instead, I decided to use this time of walking straight ahead in silence to organize my thoughts.

‘What kind of power will the final land grant?’

I first thought of a question about the power I might soon obtain.

‘It’s definitely not a weak power—’
—I am a stone.

In that moment, a voice echoed through Kale Heniatus’s mind.
It wasn’t a sound heard through his ears, but a voice far too familiar to him.
Scary Rock. His calm voice transmitted directly into Kale Heniatus’s thoughts.

‘…What are you saying? Then you’re the stone, Scary Rock. What else would you be?’

Kale Heniatus’s expression grew bewildered.

—Yes, a stone. I am a stone. And one of the first weapons humanity ever held in their hands.
‘A weapon?’

Kale Heniatus’s brow furrowed as he walked, watching the Elderly Man’s back.

—Humans have no sharp claws, no swift legs to flee with. Therefore, to fight their enemies, they needed to grasp something in their hands. They needed weapons.

For hunting, or to kill enemies, or to conquer and dominate.
Humans needed weapons.

—One of those first weapons is stone. This rock within your body.

Scary Rock.
Kale Heniatus had always found the word “scary” before the name peculiar.

—That is why I am Scary Rock. Countless lives across this continent’s history have fallen to this stone.

Yet now he understood why such a name had been given.

—But though I am Scary Rock, I wished to be used to build City Walls rather than be thrown.

So that everyone within these walls could live happily, unharmed and at peace. I wanted to be a steadfast shield for them.
Or even if I crumbled, I hoped to become the soil of this land, a foundation for new life to flourish, or a resting place where weary souls could sit and find respite.

And since stone is the most common thing to find everywhere, I went to places where people could rarely afford expensive and powerful weapons, fighting enemies including those under the Ancient White Star.

—But it seems another land chose to keep me as a weapon in the truest sense.

The power of the earth that the Ancient White Star possessed.
Scary Rock had stood at the very front during the final battle, so he had to face that weapon head-on.

-They say all things die and return to the earth, becoming soil. That is why the earth contains so much death within it.

Scary Rock had always believed the earth to be the place where life was born, but this power was different.

-A stone drenched in blood. I called this other power of the earth by that name.

I did not know its original name, but Scary Rock had named it upon witnessing this power.
Crimson. It was a power as vivid as a stone drenched in the most vivid blood imaginable.

‘…What kind of-‘

Kale Heniatus felt a chill run down the back of his neck at the ominous name.
That was when it happened.

Sssssss-

In an instant, goosebumps erupted across Kale Heniatus’s entire body.
Even though he had covered his ears, the sound reached him.
But it was not the voice of the one he longed for.

‘…So it was possible after all?’

Kale Heniatus’s eyes darted to the side.
In that moment, a crimson wall appeared in his vision.
No—the massive body of a serpent covered in blood-red scales loomed before him like a wall.

‘Damn it!’

Kale Heniatus quickly turned his head.
A serpent.
Without a sound, without any noise of destruction, the serpent had appeared.
No, the subtle sound of the serpent’s movement could still be heard faintly even now.

Sssssss-

A serpent with a body larger than Kale Heniatus’s height moved alongside him.

‘Damn, this is a bit scary.’

The sight before him—something that seemed like it belonged in a terrifying drama about legendary hometowns—made Kale Heniatus feel a chill run down his spine.

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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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