Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 9

—————

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

—————

Sub-butler Hans immediately ordered another servant to fetch Choi Han.

“Where is that fellow at the moment?”
“Ah, I believe he’s in Chef Vicross’s kitchen with Servant Ron.”

As I entered the study, my heart gave an inexplicable lurch. Were the three of them truly growing closer?

“I hear he’s been learning simple cooking from Chef Vicross.”
“Cooking?”
“Yes.”

One corner of my mouth lifted. Cooking, indeed. More likely he was learning about torture methods, or Vicross and Ron were marveling at Choi Han’s swordsmanship. It was painfully predictable.

I walked naturally to my desk and sat down. I tossed a casual question at Hans, who stood motionless before me.

“What was it that fellow asked for?”
“Ah.”

Hans sighed at my abrupt question, then began his report with a serious expression. It was, of course, information I already knew.
Hans spoke of the tragedy in Harris Village, his sorrow and regret evident, and told me that he and Choi Han had delivered Pae, the village chief they’d brought with them, to the Lord.

“Father met with that fellow?”
“Yes. The Count immediately issued orders to the Lord’s Castle to dispatch investigators, knights, and soldiers for both the funeral and a thorough investigation.”

I fell silent for a moment, hesitating before I spoke.

“But I hear that guest refused to go with them.”

Hans recalled Choi Han’s demeanor as he recounted the incident to the Lord.
He’d spoken calmly, yet his fingertips trembled. Hans had learned the boy was only seventeen. He’d arrived late to the village because he’d been gathering medicinal herbs alone, which had saved his life, but to witness all his neighbors and friends lying dead at such a tender age—the trauma must have been immense.

“Is that acceptable?”

So Hans asked me: Should we allow him to forgo a final farewell?

“It’s his choice.”

Kale dismissed Hans’s question and steered the conversation elsewhere. He understood why Choi Han was the way he was. Choi Han had already buried the bodies and paid his final respects; what remained for him was vengeance for those whose futures had been stolen.

“Has the servant Ron been looking after him continuously?”
“Yes. He attends to his meals each time, and treats him quite kindly.”

Indeed, the three of them seemed to complement each other well.

“Ah.”

Hans continued, as if something had occurred to him.

“It appears Ron injured himself again this afternoon while working. He had a bandage wrapped around his wrist.”
“Is that so? Make sure he gets medicine.”

Another person killed, no doubt. I answered with indifference. Then Hans’s voice came again.

“…I shall convey your words and heart to Ron without fail, young master.”
“Do as you see fit.”

Hans seemed about to say something more in response to my apathetic demeanor, but before he could, another sound echoed through the Study.

Knock, knock, knock.

Choi Han had arrived. Hans opened the door, and I could see Choi Han standing in the doorway. When I gestured for Hans to leave, he bowed his head and quietly slipped out of the Study. Only Choi Han and I remained.

I pointed to the chair across from me, with the desk between us.

“Come and sit.”

Choi Han slowly looked around the Study before taking the seat across from me. I allowed him sufficient time to examine the Study thoroughly.

Like a righteous and intelligent hero, Choi Han loved books. That’s why, the moment he emerged from the Dark Forest and entered Harris Village, he asked the village chief to teach him to read. After gazing around for some time, Choi Han’s eyes finally turned toward me.

“What is the price of the meal?”

He cuts right to the chase. I smiled at Choi Han’s directness in broaching the main subject. The price of the meal. He was meticulous about the debt he owed.
A meal’s worth of debt. Choi Han was meticulous about repaying what he owed.

Kale—Kim Rok-soo—had realized that he’d gotten the opening details of “The Birth of a Hero” wrong, and that small variables would gradually emerge from that mistake. So he’d tried to proceed without twisting things further, but.
He had to go to the Capital. And that would only magnify the variables.

Kale placed a single sheet of paper on the desk and fixed his gaze on Choi Han.

“A task has come up where you might earn your keep. But first, I need to judge whether you’re capable of it or not. In other words, this is an interview.”
“Please, go ahead.”

Choi Han responded readily to the mention of being evaluated. So Kale asked.

“Do you know how to protect people?”
“…What do you mean?”

Choi Han hesitated for the first time, paused for half a beat, then answered. His gaze began to sharpen as he looked at Kale. But Kale kept his eyes fixed on the paper atop the desk.

It was a hastily revised plan, but it seemed it might yield greater benefits. If he could prevent Choi Han’s group from obtaining the ancient power, and acquire what he needed in the meantime, that would be ideal.
After all, to them it was merely a side matter—a power that was there or might as well not be.

Kale continued speaking indifferently, his gaze still on the paper.

“What I mean is simple. Not killing people—protecting them. Can you do it?”

Silence fell. No answer came from Choi Han. Kale lifted his gaze from the paper to regard the man seated across from him. Choi Han kept his head lowered, and after a long moment, he finally answered.

“I don’t know.”

Tsk. Kale clicked his tongue. This was precisely why the current Choi Han was so difficult to handle.

“But you can kill people?”

This time, the answer came easily.

“I can.”
“Then you’ll manage protecting them too.”

Choi Han’s pupils trembled for an instant.

“That’s different.”
“Being difficult doesn’t mean you can’t do it, does it?”

There were few things in this world that one could avoid simply by calling them difficult. Such had been Kale’s life—a existence where avoidance was rarely an option. That was precisely why I had welcomed this reckless body of mine, a body that could simply live without restraint. Yet, damnably, a mountain had appeared that I would need to cross for a comfortable future.

I stared at the man who would cross that mountain in my stead.
Choi Han let out a hollow laugh, like air escaping from a punctured vessel.

“That is indeed the case.”
“Right. Then this is my final interview question.”
“Yes, please ask.”

Gazing into those clear eyes, I posed my final question.

“What is your name?”
“You don’t know?”

Of course I knew. He was the man who had been planning to strike me.

“I heard it from someone else. But I wanted to hear your name directly from you.”
“Choi Han.”

Choi Han extended his hand.

“I am Choi Han.”

I grasped his hand.

“Right. I am Kale Heniatus.”

The brief conversation that could be called an interview ended quickly, and naturally, he had passed. I slid the paper I had placed on the desk toward Choi Han.

“Your job to earn your keep is simple.”

Two names were written on the paper. And the location where they were to meet was also noted.

“Go to the Capital with these people.”

These were the companions Choi Han would meet as he traveled to the Capital. Through the fifth volume of “The Birth of a Hero,” Vicross and these two would become Choi Han’s companions, growing and strengthening together.

Rosalind. Rak.
One was a princess of a neighboring kingdom who had survived an assassination attempt and was returning to her own country. The last was an injured child. Of course, that child was the heir to the Wolf King—capable of transforming into a wolf.

The princess of the neighboring kingdom, Rosalind, was formidable and coldly rational. She possessed destructive power second only to Choi Han, and she wielded it with calculated precision.
She harbored no interest in the throne itself. Instead, her goal was to construct the continent’s greatest magic tower—a dream she would pursue relentlessly, growing into a hero in the process.

‘That grand duke from the kingdom who attempted the assassination would later be tortured by Vicross.’

The torture scene had been described in such vivid detail that my heart trembled. Lately, it seemed my heart trembled more frequently and intensely than ever before in my life.

“Rosalind. Rak.”

At Choi Han’s voice, I nodded my head.

“Yes. Those two. You can read, it seems. That’s fortunate.”

Choi Han stared intently at the two names. My gaze fell upon the characters spelling “Rak.”

Rak. In this world, elves, dwarves, and beastfolk existed. Yet among them, the beastfolk were the most enigmatic.
Beastfolk. Here, the term encompassed not only mammals but also avians and reptilians. Beastfolk differed from monsters—they possessed reason and intellect.

‘Rak possesses the most superior bloodline among the wolf tribe.’

Rak, who inherited blood that commanded wolves. The purer a beastfolk’s lineage, the weaker and more ordinary they appeared in either beast or human form. Yet when they entered their berserk state, they became more savage and brutal than anyone else. And Rak was the sole survivor of the blue wolf tribe.

I withdrew a map from the drawer and spread it across the desk.

“Initially, you travel with me.”

My finger pointed to a specific location.

“From the midpoint onward, we separate. You proceed as I’ve written on this paper.”

Choi Han listened without question or hesitation. I observed him for a moment.
There was a reason we needed to travel together until the midpoint.

‘I must avoid the mad dragon.’

In the early episodes of “The Hero’s Birth,” there always appeared a villain who emerged after me. But that villain was no mere fleeting obstacle to be devoured.

He was a Marquis who led a faction among the nobility. He tormented both the crown prince and Choi Han relentlessly. Of course, he would fall by around volume two, but it was here that Choi Han and the Marquis first became entangled.

‘That bastard raised a mad dragon.’

A rampaging dragon, literally.

Though still not fully grown, the black dragon was currently being abused in a cage secretly constructed by the Marquis’s heir, trained to obey the Marquis’s every command.

‘This is insane. Aren’t dragons the strongest beings in this world? How is it even possible to tame a dragon?’

Yes. It’s possible.
The Marquis obtained a dragon egg through the Secret Organization, then shackled its limbs the moment it hatched and fitted it with a mana control collar around its neck to raise it. I couldn’t even fathom how powerful this Secret Organization truly was.

But why wouldn’t the world’s strongest being live up to its name?
Even that small black dragon, less than five years old since birth, was still a dragon. And dragons eventually go mad and rampage.

Despite its young body, it unleashes enough mana to shatter the control collar. That mana was born from sacrificing its own lifeforce.
The young dragon, raised without ever seeing light in that cave, abandons its own life for one final taste of freedom. And so, having escaped, the dragon loses all reason and spirals into madness.
The rampage eventually threatens the village where Choi Han resides, and he confronts the black dragon.

【Choi Han gazed at the dragon, no more than a meter in length. With that small body, it had sent an entire mountain flying, and the villagers faced certain death. Yet Choi Han could not bring himself to attack the dragon carelessly.】
【Its eyes, devoid of reason, were filled with anguish and sorrow. But the black dragon’s mouth was smiling. That was unbearably tragic.】

Choi Han slays the black dragon, finally granting it the freedom of death.

Kale Heniatus had to go to that village.

‘Either Choi Han handles it, or I stop it before it goes berserk and set it free.’

It was on the way, so there was no avoiding it. If I didn’t pass through that village, I’d have to take a long detour, which would waste time and throw off the story’s progression. My arrival at the Capital would be delayed.

‘Despite its name, the rampaging dragon is supposedly quite adorable.’

The records described it as a black dragon with short, cute limbs. Such a being going mad was all the more terrifying. Kale Heniatus set aside his thoughts about the dragon and finished giving Choi Han his instructions.

“And come to the Capital with the ones who bear those names. That’s your compensation.”

Choi Han posed a question.

“…So I just need to protect them?”
“Do as you see fit.”

They would be strong enough without needing my protection. Especially Princess Rosalind—even if Kale Heniatus threw a truck’s worth of attacks at her with that unbreakable shield of his, she wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Do as you wish. But you absolutely must come to the Capital. And you need to meet me with your face intact. You can manage to protect yourself, right?”

After this, there would be no further meetings between Kale and Choi Han. It was because entanglement with Rak would create another conflict between the Secret Organization and Choi Han. Through this encounter, Choi Han would naturally prevent the dangers that threatened the Capital, just as the book had described.

“Why aren’t you answering? Can you do it?”

Choi Han’s eyes grew sharper.

“Yes, I can.”

His tone seemed more formal than before, but Kale let it pass. He felt his body relax as he watched Choi Han tuck the paper into his chest.
I should have had a drink. Facing Choi Han in this body was exhaustingly draining.

“Get out.”

With a casual wave of dismissal, Choi Han headed toward the door. Kale leaned back against the chair, watching him, and spoke just before Choi Han could open it.

“By the way, everything today is a secret, understood?”

Without turning around, Choi Han turned the doorknob and answered.

“I understand.”

There seemed to be a hint of laughter in that voice, but it was no concern of Kale’s. Left alone, he retrieved pen and paper and began writing in Korean. After working for some time, he left the Study and went to his father’s office.

“Father.”
“Yes?”
“I need money.”
“Understood. I’ll have the steward arrange it.”

I needed a considerable sum. When Kale lay in bed holding another check for ten million Gelons, the servant Ron approached and placed a water bottle on his table, saying:

“It’s warm lemon honey tea. Our son made it especially for you, Young Master. Have a peaceful night. I will always be by your side.”

Sleep fled from Kale entirely.
Regardless, I needed to send those two away with Choi Han.

And the next morning, Kale Heniatus opened his eyes and immediately headed toward the Slums.

—————

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

—————