Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 465

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

Chapter 103. Did I Have to Take Everything?

Lee Soo-hyuk, Team Leader.
Kale recalled him.

The company where Kim Rok-soo worked would have been nothing without Lee Soo-hyuk as its Team Leader.
Lee Soo-hyuk was counted among those regarded as legends and heroes in Korea’s awakener society.

‘Me?’

Once, an employee had asked Lee Soo-hyuk at a company dinner what kind of person he was before the world turned upside down.
Given how many achievements he had accumulated, the question came from genuine curiosity about who he had originally been.

‘Well, I was ordinary.’
‘What was your job?’
‘Me? I was unemployed.’
‘Oh, really?’
‘Hey, look at Kim Rok-soo butting in when unemployment comes up!’

Kim Rok-soo, who rarely attended company dinners, found himself intrigued by the Team Leader’s mention of unemployment at this rare gathering.
The Team Leader, watching him with an amused smile, merely shrugged at the employee who pressed further about whether he had truly been unemployed.

‘Yeah, really unemployed. An unemployed dreamer.’
‘Aw, that’s boring.’

The employee lost interest in the Team Leader’s answer and moved to another spot. Soon the dinner grew loud, and only one person paid attention to the Team Leader, who kept drinking alone.

‘What are you looking at?’
‘Team Leader.’
‘Why? You’re the cheeky youngest, calling me Team Leader like that.’
‘…I’m not the youngest, though.’
‘Once you’re the youngest, you’re the youngest forever. Anyway, why?’
‘What was your dream?’

Lee Soo-hyuk raised a glass filled with soju instead of answering Kim Rok-soo’s question. Then, gazing into the transparent glass at the clear liquor, he opened his mouth.

‘An actor.’
‘…Team Leader?’
‘Don’t believe me? Truth is, I dreamed of being an action star. Pretty cool, right?’
‘Action stars are cool, but Team Leaders aren’t cool at all, sir.’
‘Ha! Kid, you’ve got a sharp tongue.’

Lee Soo-hyuk chuckled and downed his drink in one gulp. In that moment, I found myself thinking.

He probably would have pulled it off.

If Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk had pursued acting, he likely would have succeeded. His physique was impressive, and his face had that perfect look for a protagonist with a troubled past in thrillers or action films.
Of course, such compliments never left my lips.

‘Well, he’d have made a decent henchman to a villain boss, I suppose.’
‘Is that so?’

Lee Soo-hyuk stared at me—the one who never quite fit in with the other team members and only spouted nonsense beside him—before speaking.

‘An actor must know how to contain anything. Sometimes you’re a judge, sometimes a murderer, sometimes the protagonist of a heartbreak. Each time, you must hold that person’s story, their life, within yourself. Only then can you truly become them.’

He laughed awkwardly, as if embarrassed, and continued.

‘That’s what I learned while unemployed! It’s just nonsense, pure nonsense. A guy who never even made it to supporting roles spouting pseudo-philosophy, hehehehe.’

Watching him laugh, I asked.

‘Isn’t that your ability, Team Leader?’

Lee Soo-hyuk’s gaze turned toward me.

‘Containing anything, I mean.’

A smile spread elegantly across Lee Soo-hyuk’s face.

‘Exactly. That’s my ability. Remember it well. Consider it payment for entertaining a drunk boss.’

He refilled my glass.

‘When the target you’re trying to contain comes to you—that’s your opportunity.’

Kim Rok-soo—no, Kale—stepped back from the memories of his past and faced the present reality.
Back then, Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk hadn’t been drunk at all. He had simply shown a man who didn’t quite fit in at the company dinner his own strength—the method of using a power he would have hidden as a secret from anyone else.

“Kiiiiaaaa—!”

Boom, boom! The Giant Snake lunged at Kale with its massive jaws wide open.
The snake wasn’t merely charging forward.

Crunch, crunch—the snake devoured the granite that blanketed the mountain peak, consuming it all. With each bite, its scales grew increasingly crimson, stained deeper in blood-red hues.
And the snake’s body swelled larger with each passing moment, as if the colossal serpent were about to crush Kale beneath its expanding mass that now covered the entire peak.
Drip. Drip.
The crimson liquid flowing from the snake’s mouth dyed the mountain peak red.

“…Kale!”

Choi Han’s voice reached him, but Kale’s gaze remained fixed solely on the snake charging toward him.
At this sight, Choi Han bit his lip and stepped back.

Kale’s dark brown eyes were observing the enemy just as Kim Rok-soo’s dark brown eyes had once done.
Kale was recording the snake.

‘I must trust him.’

Choi Han chose to trust Kale and retreated further, though he remained poised to rescue Kale from the snake at any moment.

Kale saw none of Choi Han’s vigilance.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
With each heartbeat, his eyes recorded the blood-soaked stone, the Red Snake—how it moved, what it destroyed, what sounds it made. Kale observed and heard everything, etching it all into his mind.
The voice of Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk from that company dinner echoed in his ears.

‘Kim Rok-soo, opportunity has walked right to you, hasn’t it?’

Yes.
The opportunity has come now, Team Leader.
The snake is coming toward me.

‘Then listen here.’

The serpent drew closer. With each movement of the colossal creature—now as massive as a great building—the very rocks shattered beneath it.

‘Look carefully. You see better than I do, don’t you?’

Yes. I’m watching.
I’m watching even now. Recording everything.
I’m recording every detail of that serpent.

‘Then you’ll see it. The core of what you’re capturing.’

Kale waited.
He waited, watching the approaching serpent, feeling his heart thunder in his chest.

Until the serpent’s core revealed itself.

Because that serpent, too, was ultimately an Ancient Power!

Voice of Wind was a spinning top beneath a rock surrounded by a whirlwind.
The Unbreakable Shield was a pit beneath a tree.
Scary Rock was a stone placed within a mansion.
Destructive Fire was a statue at the heart of lava.
Vitality of the Heart was a stone tower at the center of a whirlwind.
Sky-Devouring Water was a spear bound in chains.

“What are you?”

That Red Snake is not the true form.
Blood-soaked stone, what is your real shape?

An entity that obstructed the path to obtaining Ancient Powers. Yet at the heart of each obstruction, an Ancient Power always existed.

‘Well, Kim Rok-soo. What do you think? You should be able to see it, shouldn’t you?’

Kale—Kim Rok-soo—gazed at the Red Snake while echoing Lee Soo-hyuk’s voice in his mind.
Crash! Boom! The colossal serpent shattered the Mountain Peak as it advanced, its jaws still grinding through stone as it drew within inches of Kale’s face.
Yes, it had consumed the rock.

But where had that rock gone?

Kale’s lips curved upward.

‘Can you see it?’
‘Team Leader, are you drunk?’
‘Hey, can you see it or not?’

Yes, Team Leader.
I can see it now.

One second, two seconds, three seconds—
I recorded the snake’s form at each interval.
The recordings and the present moment overlapped in my mind.
Then I saw it.

The snake’s body growing progressively larger.
The snake’s scales turning increasingly crimson.
The red liquid dripping from the snake’s mouth in ever-greater quantities.

“Kiiiieeeeee!”

And finally, when the snake raised its body and lifted its head before me, when it reared both head and tail to swallow me whole—

“Found it.”

I finally saw it.

I saw the snake’s tail.

A cracked rattle.
The rattle that had cracked when struck by my spear.

The more violently the snake thrashed, the wider the crack spread.
Crackle, crackle.
And finally, when the crack split completely open—

A small stone hidden within the rattle became visible.
A single red stone entered my vision.

That’s it.

‘Look, Kim Rok-soo. Do you see that center point? Then listen.’

Kale’s body moved.

“Kiiiieeeeee!”

The serpent’s gaping maw descended toward Kale with devastating force.

‘Charge at it. Understand? Kim Rok-soo, rush toward that center. When you do, the power of embracement will surge.’
‘It won’t be my power of embracement that surges, but rather the Team Leader’s embracing ability.’
‘Ah, come on! When I’m explaining my superior abilities, at least listen, will you?’

Crash!
The serpent’s head slammed down.

“Kale!”

Choi Han’s startled cry pierced through the deafening impact.

“Kiiiieeeeee!”

The serpent unleashed its fury.
Its mouth was filled only with shattered stone fragments. The serpent’s crimson eyes moved, and within its gaze appeared a human charging forward.

“Huff, gasp, huff.”

Kale ran.
I didn’t use the Voice of Wind. Using more ancient power would likely cause me to lose consciousness.
I didn’t accept Choi Han’s assistance either. Only this way could I fully claim this power as my own.
My mind raced as I sprinted with such intensity that my breath came in gasps up to my throat.

Observe. And record.
And predict.

‘It charges again!’

Just as I predicted, the serpent lunged once more.
I imagined the creature’s movements. I didn’t need much data. There were only so many ways that massive body could move on this narrow mountain peak.

And I need to be your target!

“Ugh!”

Shattered stone fragments tore into my body. Yet I had anticipated the timing of the serpent’s scales writhing.

‘3, 2, 1’

I counted down as I pushed off the ground with all my might, launching myself upward.
To the maximum this wretched body could achieve.

“Kale! Behind you!”

Choi Han’s voice reached me.
I felt hot breath from behind. The serpent’s rough, ragged breathing.
Drip. Drop.
Red liquid fell above my head.

But I didn’t care.

“Got it.”

My scarred hands gripped the serpent’s rattle. My fingers touched the red stone nestled within the broken rattle’s gaping crevice.

‘Now I can leave it to you. Once the embracing power surges up from my heart, it’ll handle everything. How’s that? Pretty amazing ability, right?’

Yes, Team Leader.
I felt an immense power rising from my heart. A tremendous force flowing through my hands. That force passed through my fingers and touched the red stone.

‘Actually, you know? I named it “embrace,” but I’m only telling you this—that power is less about embracing and more about… restraint? No, that’s not quite right either. Ah, yes—dominion!’

Lee Soo-hyuk spoke with a laugh.

‘That power is like dominion. It subjugates the target, binds it, and places it in the palm of my hand.’
‘…That’s quite ferocious for something called “embrace,” isn’t it?’
‘Ah, even a power like that becomes an embrace if I use it for good purposes. Right? I only use it for good deeds.’

I laughed.
Just like Lee Soo-hyuk.

“Kiiiiieeeek!”

The snake began to emit cries of agony. Its massive body started to writhe.
The snake thrashed its body back and forth, desperate to dislodge Kale from its form.

“Ugh!”

The tighter the snake struggled, the harder I gripped the orb and the red stone.

“Aaaaagh!”

The pain intensified, and the snake could barely writhe anymore. As time passed, the ‘Embrace’ emanating from my two hands wrapped around the red stone.

Crack, crack!
As expected, the orb shattered into fragments.

“Kraaaagh!”

The snake’s cries grew more intense, and an unfamiliar voice echoed in my mind.
Like the other Ancient Powers, once the obstruction vanished, the voice of the power’s owner, which had been hidden, became audible.

-How delightful.

My lips twisted into a smile.
The owner of the blood-soaked stone. He was the Ancient White Star.

-It seems you’ve found the power of this land. Will you take this power and plunge the world into terror? A most excellent idea-
“You’re talking nonsense.”
-What?

I recalled Lee Soo-hyuk’s final explanation.

‘At the end, just place the embraced power wherever you want to put it! Then the embrace is complete!’

I apologize, Team Leader.
I am not a man capable of such things as embrace.

My lips curled upward in a most sinister smile.
The red stone, surrounded by transparent energy, was gripped in my right hand. I thrust my left hand into my robe and tore out the object from my chest.

Something that was always attached to the commander’s uniform.
A golden turtle badge indicating affiliation with the Heniatus Count Family—no, the Heniatus Duchy.
Kale brought his left hand, which held the badge, to his right hand.

The crimson stone and the golden turtle badge made contact.

-Y-you, what are you doing right now? How dare you-!
“Dare? This trash is just spouting off whatever comes to mind.”

Uuuuuu-
I felt a power thrashing within my two hands. Red light burst through the gaps between my fingers—the power of the crimson stone. But that power could only emit light; it was blocked by the ‘Embrace’ ability and couldn’t escape outward.

-Ugh, kgh, kraaaaaaagh-!

The cry of the Ancient White Star echoed out.
But that sound grew progressively quieter.

And finally, when the crimson light that had been seeping through my finger gaps vanished and the power of Embrace disappeared as well, leaving only the sensation of the badge in my hand.

“Kale.”

I grinned widely at Choi Han, who had approached me.

“It’s done.”
“Ha, haha-”

Choi Han burst into laughter at the sight. It was a laugh of relief.
That was when it happened.

-Human!
Meooooow!
“Kale!”

The group climbing up the mountain peak came into view. Leading them was the hunter Bob, and the moment he reached the summit, his eyes widened.

“The snake, the snake is collapsing-!”

Before he could finish speaking, the crimson snake collapsing appeared before his eyes.

“Ah.”

I let out a gasp of admiration.
The crimson scales of the collapsing serpent fell away one by one, scattering into the air like flower petals caught on the wind.
The snake crumbled to the ground, its scales dispersing as it vanished without a sound.

The sight was breathtakingly beautiful to the hunter Bob.
The mountain peak rising through the mist.
The sunset was descending, and crimson scales danced like flower petals toward it.
And at the center of those red petals stood Kale.

“Truly, I never thought that serpent would actually disappear.”

The elderly hunter’s eyes, who had spent his entire life fleeing from serpents, trembled.
He watched the group approaching the red-haired man.

-Human! Are you alright? Did you gain strength? You didn’t lose consciousness? You look perfectly fine!
Meow!
“You did it!”

I turned my gaze from the group and looked down at the Heniatus Duchy badge in my hand.
And my lips curved upward.

‘Team Leader, if you infuse it with that much power, what comes next?’
‘What comes next? Well, you just use it whenever you need to. It’s mine, so I should be able to use it however I want, right?’
‘Oh, that’s nice.’

Yes, it was very nice indeed.
I caressed the badge affectionately.
I would use it properly whenever the need arose.

‘Should I embrace the other Ancient Powers of the White Star like this and use them as well?’

Jjangdol spoke to me cautiously, as I contemplated a usage method that had nothing to do with the word “embrace.”

-Um, um, you won’t lock us away, right? Right? Huh? We have affection, don’t we?

At that moment, Raon’s voice echoed in my mind.

-Human! I’ve received a message from the Dark Elf Tasha.

A message from the Land of Death, where the White Star is located.

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