Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 476

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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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The Castle of Light, one of the three forbidden places on the Eastern Continent.
The white castle situated in that white desert.

The castle that Sherit had left behind for her children now rested in the Dark Forest, cradling Raon’s black mana within its walls.

Before Kale Heniatus, who had just arrived via teleportation, could even greet Sherit who came to welcome them.

Thwack!
“Ugh!”

I saw the Black Dragon strike his shoulder forcefully and dart away like an arrow.

-Human! I’m sorry!

The Black Dragon left a brief apology and flew off, flapping his wings vigorously.

“Raon.”

The moment Sherit called his name gently with a warm smile, he came to an abrupt halt. Stopping exactly one meter away, Raon gazed at the hall’s ceiling instead of looking at Sherit.

“…I’m back!”

Still keeping his gaze fixed on the ceiling, he suddenly cried out, then quietly flapped his wings to cling to Kale Heniatus’s back.

Meow!
“I went and came back!”

Instead, On and Hong approached Sherit’s side with light, easy steps. On glanced back slightly, and seeing Raon looking this way over Kale Heniatus’s shoulder, she grinned and beckoned him over with her front paw.

“Hmph, well! Since you’re calling, I’ll come!”

At On’s gesture, Raon crept over and squeezed in between On and Hong, claiming his spot.
Sherit watched the scene with an indescribable warmth filling her heart.

And Kale Heniatus turned his gaze away from that harmonious scene to look at the Dragon Hybrid.

“Sigh.”

A sigh escaped unbidden.
The Dragon Hybrid, who had been glancing at Raon, was now staring at Lord Sherit with an intensity that seemed to pierce through her. His expression was utterly vacant, as though his very soul had departed.
In that moment, the Dragon Hybrid’s eyes met Kale’s.

Swiftly, the Dragon Hybrid averted his gaze. His eyes wavering, he began to methodically absorb every detail of the Black Castle’s interior.

“This is maddening.”
“Kale, what troubles you?”

Kale shook his head in response to Choi Han’s question.
There was much I wished to say, yet the words refused to leave my lips. Instead, I approached Lord Sherit.

“Sherit. Where is Rak?”

Rak, the Blue Werewolf Tribe boy. He was currently training under Lord Sherit, learning shield techniques and various other skills.

“Ah.”

Lord Sherit offered a faint smile.
The smile that graced her freckled face appeared mischievous, and a gentle voice flowed from between her lips.

“He’s in training.”
“Training? Shield techniques?”
“Well…”

Lord Sherit pondered briefly before speaking brightly, as though she had found the perfect words.

“Hellish training.”

What on earth?
For a moment, I nearly stumbled backward. Observing my grimace, Sherit quickly opened her mouth, as if she understood my every thought.

“No, it’s not actually hell! It’s just such intense training that I described it that way.”

“Intense training” sounded suspiciously like “grueling, demanding training.”

“Rak and the children are enjoying it, though. They seem delighted—they say they grow stronger each day. The other day, watching the sunset, the children were laughing heartily. I felt so proud.”

I could not take Sherit’s words at face value.

Her words somehow sounded like, “Rak and the Wolf Tribe Children, exhausted from their grueling training, let out hollow laughter as they watched the setting sun.”

‘I should talk to Rak and hear what happened.’

Of course, Sherit would never have subjected Rak and the children to unreasonable training. Just by observing how she treated On and Hong, it was clear she was a Dragon who cherished young children dearly.

“I’m truly delighted you’ve all returned together, but may I ask what brings you here?”

Lord Sherit examined Kale Heniatus and his companions as she spoke. Then she noticed Kale’s gaze fixed upon someone.

‘Hmm?’

Sherit saw a figure step forward from where Kale’s eyes had settled—someone whose face was concealed beneath the deep hood of a robe.

“…What?”

As Sherit observed the hooded man, she suddenly felt an uncanny sensation. Without thinking, she glanced toward Kale Heniatus.
Kale swallowed a shallow sigh and opened his mouth.

“Lord Sherit. Might we have a word in private?”

Then he gestured toward Raon.

“Raon, you—”

Kale Heniatus, about to tell him to come along, hesitated.
Should that boy join us too? He’s still so young. Kale’s mind grew tangled, and he decided to stop calling Raon.

“I want to tell you together.”

That was when the Dragon Hybrid stepped forward and spoke to Kale Heniatus.

“I want to tell you together.”

He bit his lip at Kale Heniatus’s gaze, which seemed to say, ‘What if Raon gets hurt?’ and opened his mouth.

“I will take full responsibility.”

Kale Heniatus exhaled a sigh.

“I’m not sure if you’ll be able to take responsibility for this.”

The Dragon Hybrid flinched at his cold words, but I gestured for Raon to continue. I couldn’t very well force him to stay silent when he wanted to speak.

“Human! What are you two talking about?”

I was simply thinking about how to minimize the hurt Raon would experience.
My mind grew increasingly complicated. This was harder than dealing with the White Star or the Demon Realm.

My companions watched me, and I issued orders to them.

“On and Hong, go with Choi Han to find Rak and come back. Choi Han, bring Rak. And Mess and the others too. I need to see their faces. And Vicross, prepare dinner. Oh! And stop by Harris Village to let the Lord’s Castle know I’ve arrived.”
“Young Master Kale, are the four of you going to talk separately?”

I nodded in response to Choi Han’s question, then took the two Dragons and one Dragon Hybrid to the Reception Room of the castle.

* * *

“Human! Why are just the four of us talking alone?”

The four of us settled into our seats in the Reception Room. I stroked Raon’s back as he sat beside me and opened my mouth.

“Raon. Dispel the hair dye magic on the Dragon Hybrid. Dragon Hybrid, you take off your hood too.”

Lord Sherit’s eyes widened.

A Dragon Hybrid?

She wondered if the strange sensation she had felt earlier was due to the Dragon Hybrid’s presence—a being rarely seen.

“Understood, human! Dragon Hybrid! I’ll dispel the dye!”

Raon’s black mana touched the Dragon Hybrid. With a soft sound, the Dragon Hybrid removed the hood, and the hair color shifted from red to its original black.

And Lord Sherit’s brow furrowed.

‘Not a Dragon Hybrid.’

He was not a being born between a Dragon and another form of life.
The pallid man, fading toward death, gazed upon Lord Sherit. She found something peculiar in his wavering eyes.

‘Why does he look at me that way?’

And what was this strange sensation?
Lord Sherit was now nothing but a phantom without form, yet goosebumps prickled across the back of her hand as if she were still flesh and blood.
What could be the reason?

She turned her gaze toward Kale Heniatus, who had brought this man. Kale, meeting her eyes, opened his mouth toward the Dragon Hybrid.

“I will listen quietly from now on, so speak first. Tell me everything in your own words.”

Kale Heniatus could see the Dragon Hybrid’s fingertips trembling faintly.
Damn it.

“If you cannot, then I will.”
“…No.”

The Dragon Hybrid shook his head.
He drew in a deep breath.
Even now, searing pain tore through his entire body, yet this breath he drew in this moment felt like an even more bitter poison.

Raon and Lord Sherit were reflected in his pupils.
One was black and one was white—polar opposites. Yet the two of them glanced at each other and smiled without the other knowing.

‘…He definitely said Lord.’

Kale Heniatus had called the woman before him a Lord.
She must surely be a Dragon Lord.

The Dragon Hybrid trembled with an indescribable emotion, unable to conceal the trembling that seized his entire body.

I am a Chimera created from the heart of this Dragon Lord’s dead child.
Fear and guilt surged through me.

Yet strange anticipation and longing washed over me as well.

The Dragon Hybrid felt as though a hollow laugh might escape him.

Longing?
I did not possess the dragon’s memories and emotions that comprised my heart. Therefore, the word “longing” was inappropriate.
After all, I still retained memories of the parents who had abandoned me.

And yet, longing was precisely what it was.

Family.
A longing existed for that which I had never truly possessed in my lifetime. And that longing had transformed into anticipation.
The Dragon Hybrid scoffed at such sentiments within me.

‘As long as they don’t kill me.’

After hearing everything, I would be fortunate if Lord Sherit and Raon simply refrained from killing me.
I emptied my heart. Emotion was a luxury for one whose death day was already determined.

“I…”

I averted the Lord’s gaze and opened my mouth toward her.

Why was this happening?
Why was my voice trembling so?
Even though I had emptied myself of emotion, why was this occurring?

The Dragon Hybrid began to speak without finding an answer.

“I was once human.”

Kale Heniatus closed his eyes at that moment and leaned back against the sofa.

From this point forward, this was not his place to intervene.
He had considered leaving, but decided to remain in case of any unforeseen complications.

“…My parents sold me to the White Star…”

A story Kale Heniatus had heard once before now flowed from the Dragon Hybrid’s lips anew.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen him speak so formally.’

Kale Heniatus realized he was witnessing the Dragon Hybrid speak with such courtesy and formal language for the first time, and he continued to stroke Raon’s back without pause.

Even amidst it all, the trembling voice of the Dragon Hybrid reached his ears, unfolding a tale.

A story of being sold to the White Star, then traveling with him before becoming trapped in some cave.
And the story of becoming a Chimera.

…A story of what he had become a Chimera with.

“On the day I became a complete Chimera, the White Star told me.”

Kale Heniatus continued to stroke Raon’s back with even greater care, without pause.

“I have embedded the heart of the Red Dragon into your heart.”

For just a fleeting moment, Kale Heniatus heard the sound of someone drawing in a breath, though his eyes remained closed.
The trembling voice of the Dragon Hybrid continued even in that instant.

“‘Your heart carries the blood of the Last Dragon Lord. Therefore, you will surely become a great Dragon. Become a Dragon and succeed me. With you, both things will be possible,’ he said.”

In that moment, Kale Heniatus opened his eyes.

Kuuuuung!
The Reception Room trembled.
He hastily embraced Raon, who was burrowing into his arms, and gazed forward.

Not just the Reception Room, but the Black Castle itself was shaking violently.
It was trembling.

“What, what is that-!”

Kale Heniatus could see Lord Sherit gripping the Dragon Hybrid by the collar.
She was certainly a phantom. Yet Lord Sherit’s eyes, which possessed memory and consciousness, were bloodshot and deeply flushed.

Her hands, gripping the Dragon Hybrid’s collar, were trembling violently.
Red Egg.
Those words pierced her heart. From that moment on, she could not think of anything at all.

“You, you–, no, my child’s heart– my child,”

She stared at the Dragon Hybrid, unable to form her words properly. Her pupils trembled relentlessly.

“Human, human.”
“Yes, yes.”

Kale Heniatus continuously stroked Raon’s back within his embrace.
Raon kept his eyes tightly shut. His small body trembled. It was different from when he had sought revenge against Benion Sten of the Sten Marquis House in the past.

Kale Heniatus held the six-year-old child firmly in his arms.

“Would you prefer to leave if you don’t wish to listen?”

Raon’s closed eyes opened. Tears glistened within them.

“Do as you wish. I will ensure that everything you desire comes to pass.”

Raon felt Kale Heniatus’s softly whispered voice pass through his ears and touch his heart. Though his tone was characteristically cool as always, it carried an unmistakable tenderness.
Raon closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and spoke.

“…I will listen. But you must stay beside me.”

Raon turned his head. Lord Sherit stood with her grip on the Dragon Hybrid’s collar, her gaze fixed upon Raon. He met her eyes hesitantly before finally speaking.

“And… Mother must be here too.”

At those words, Lord Sherit’s expression crumbled.
She swallowed back tears that threatened to overflow and the anger that surged within her. Instead, she released the tension from her trembling hands. Her grip on the Dragon Hybrid’s collar loosened.

“Cough, cough!”

The Dragon Hybrid, freed from the chokehold, coughed and steadied himself.

The Black Castle, which had trembled in resonance with Lord Sherit’s turbulent heart, grew quiet once more.

Yet her heart had not found peace.
Her hands, which gripped her collar tightly, still trembled, and her voice, now deeper and more subdued, directed itself toward the Dragon Hybrid.

“Continue. Tell me everything.”

At her words, the Dragon Hybrid straightened himself and opened his mouth.

“Cough! Ugh, cough!”

Yet the continuous coughing forced him to stop speaking.

The collar Lord Sherit had seized caused no pain whatsoever. That was not why he was coughing.
The strength transmitted through her trembling hands was so feeble it was astounding. Because of this, he could feel the shock that the Lord herself had received.

The Dragon Hybrid, whose body had weakened to its absolute limit, had always managed his violent pain, but the moment Lord Sherit seized his collar, he lost that control.

Eyes brimming with tears as she looked at him, pupils filled with rage. Yet eyes that ultimately shed no tears.

The instant I witnessed this, control over my body became impossible.

I had heard news of my child through talk of death, and after my child died, that heart was excavated and used as material for a Chimera.

The Dragon Hybrid understood Sherit’s actions in seizing his collar.
Yet for some reason, somehow, he just wanted to cry.
Even though he was a wicked creature, he wanted to cry.

But he too swallowed his tears.
He had no right to weep. He barely suppressed the cough and opened his mouth again.

In that moment, Lord Sherit, whose emotions had been shaken to the point of losing reason, gradually calmed herself and gazed upon the Dragon Hybrid with complicated eyes.
The man before her was the one who had made her child’s heart his own.

‘…That child did not choose to become this way either.’

The Dragon Hybrid’s childhood—abandoned by parents, trapped in a cave, forced to become a Chimera.
Sherit felt various emotions surge and recede within her heart, churning violently. Clear judgment was impossible.

Even in that moment, the Dragon Hybrid’s story continued.

“After becoming a Chimera in that manner, I consumed several Dragon hearts as I grew. I underwent my first evolution, and then….”

A story of undergoing a second evolution but failing to achieve a third.
And during that time, the countless misdeeds he had committed.
Then becoming entangled with Kale Heniatus and the events that unfolded.

“…I ordered Redica to discard the Red Egg somewhere in a cave on the Western Continent….”

The Dragon Hybrid had spoken of instructing the preservation magic and regular visits after abandoning the Red Egg on the Western Continent, and these words now flowed from his own lips.

“…Ha!”

Lord Sherit let out a hollow laugh, her expression one of utter disbelief. Her gaze upon the Dragon Hybrid grew increasingly complex.
Kale Heniatus could not fully comprehend all of her feelings, yet he understood somewhat what occupied her heart now.
The Dragon Hybrid had claimed to have abandoned the egg with his own words, but in truth, he had been protecting and concealing it.

“…But I heard from Kale Heniatus that Redica had actually sold that Red Egg to the Sten Marquis House….”

Kale gazed at Raon.
Those deep blue eyes, their depths unknowable, were fixed upon the Dragon Hybrid.

Raon, who had been confined and raised in captivity within a dark cave by Benion Sten.
This Black Dragon was now hearing the reason why he had become this way.

Kale could not fathom Raon’s emotions either.
And so he held Raon all the tighter. That was all he could offer.

“…And presently, I have become human, and my draconic power is nearly depleted. Soon, soon—”

As the lengthy account drew toward its end, the Dragon Hybrid faltered, unable to speak his final words. Then, Lord Sherit’s cold voice pierced the silence.

“You are dying soon?”

The Dragon Hybrid’s gaze turned toward Sherit.
Their eyes met—Sherit and the Dragon Hybrid. The Dragon Hybrid opened his trembling lips.

“Yes. I will die soon.”

In that moment, the Dragon Hybrid could see Lord Sherit’s contorted face, her expression filled with emotions that words could never capture.
She closed both her eyes.

Sitting rigidly upright, she appeared as an unyielding tree, unmoved by anything.
Yet he could sense that this tree was weeping—silently, without tears.

The Dragon Hybrid’s lips parted as he witnessed this.
A voice trembling endlessly broke the silence of the Reception Room.

“I-I’m sorry.”

The Dragon Hybrid bowed his head and body endlessly downward.

Kale Heniatus closed his eyes once more.

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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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