Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 427: One Man, Two Roles, and Chaos in the Demon World (2)
<They say the Order of the God of Chaos has appeared in the Demon World?>
The sender of that message was Aurora, head of the mediator group.
The sole surviving bloodline of the previous Demon King, and the one standing opposite the current Demon King.
Cale needed to hear the details of this.
Ding!
Another message arrived right after it.
<This contact came from Choi Jung Soo, who is currently out of contact. Judging from the content of the message, it seems the connection was forcibly cut off. An emergency appears to have occurred. The location from which the last message was sent is presumed to be the Demon World.>
Cale’s face hardened.
A memory surfaced in his mind.
I’ll be sending those two over there soon.
Choi Sun Hee, CEO of Sun Co. in the Third District and Alberu’s secretary.
He had told her that he would send Choi Jung Soo and Sui Khan over and that she should make use of their help.
Naturally, Cale had sent those two a message.
They definitely said they understood.
But the two of them had not gone to the Third District.
And Cale had not had the time to pay attention to that.
They’ll handle it on their own, like always.
To be honest, when it came to carrying out “certain missions,” Cale trusted Choi Jung Soo and Sui Khan—who had been with him since his days as Kim Rok Soo—even more than most of the companions he had met as Cale.
“Ha.”
Cale let out a breath.
His head was starting to ache.
Originally, before asking the two of them to handle matters in the Third District, he had first asked them to do other things.
For Team Leader, the God of Chaos.
He had asked him to gather information on them.
And Choi Jung Soo—
The Demon World.
He had asked him to look into the Demon World.
The two of them also had lines reaching into the divine realm, so they would have been able to gather more information.
“......”
After seeing the message over Cale’s shoulder, Choi Han’s face stiffened. His lips parted before he realized it, as if something was about to come out.
But someone else spoke first.
“An emergency situation...”
It was Cale.
“...happened to Choi Jung Soo?”
The corners of Cale’s lips were curling upward.
Choi Han swallowed down a groan and shut his mouth.
“Then we’ll have to go straight to the Demon World.”
At the smiling words Cale let out, no one reacted.
“Eruhaben, please come later with Ron and Beacrox.”
Apitoyu.
Cale intended to get a report on how that world was being rebuilt.
“And tell Lark I’ll pass the divine relic to him a little later. Or tell Lark to come to the Demon World and get it.”
He was also planning to send the divine relic for the Blue Wolf through Lark.
“And I’ll look over the portal while I’m at it.”
The portal created in the Black Castle.
He had heard it had been properly completed, and that now that New World was becoming a real world, an even more advanced portal had been made.
He had intended to confirm that too.
If that portal proved superior to the virtual-reality entrance created by Neo, the Dragon Lord of the Purple Blood family, then the possible uses for it would be limitless.
We could borrow help from all sorts of worlds.
If he could summon all the powerhouses from the worlds Cale and his group had helped until now and bring them into New World—
We could crush them with numbers.
Not just the hunters, but even the Order of the God of Chaos and the Demon World could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
And we could get help from our world too.
Unnamed 1.
Cale’s home, where the Roan Kingdom and countless other kingdoms existed.
He might be able to call in several forces and companions from there as well and fight together.
Cale had intended to confirm all of that, but—
“Then I’ll be going first.”
He gave the ancient dragon Eruhaben a farewell and had no choice but to head to the Demon World with the others.
Choi Jung Soo.
That bastard had gone out of contact?
And while sending information about the Order of the God of Chaos, in the Demon World?
“Ha, ha—”
The laugh came out of Cale on its own.
–Choi Han, Choi Han!
Raon urgently called out to Choi Han.
–Our human looks really, really angry right now! He looks like he’s going to smash everything!
Then Raon flinched again.
–Heavenly Demon, Heavenly Demon!
Raon spoke to the Heavenly Demon, whom he was not even close to.
–Choi Han and our human both look super angry!
In truth, the Heavenly Demon, Eruhaben, and the others did not know much about the relationship between Choi Jung Soo and Cale.
They could only guess based on what they had seen from Cale all this time.
“H-human! Let’s hurry and go!”
Nyaaaow!
Nyaow!
The group with an average age of ten—excluding Eruhaben Miru—immediately sided with Cale’s decision, and soon after replying to Aurora, Cale arrived in the Demon World.
*****
“Welcome.”
Aurora, head of the mediator group, came out to receive Cale.
The moment she saw his face, she started walking.
“I’ll explain on the way to where Choi Jung Gun is.”
Cotton, the vice priestess and former saintess of the God of War who had brought Cale’s group into the Demon World, fell back behind them.
Cale did not even have the attention to spare for her.
“And just a short while ago, we received word from Sui Khan.”
It was because of what Aurora said next.
The Order of the God of Chaos.
Sui Khan, who had been investigating them, had sent word?
And he had sent it to Aurora, not Cale?
Something happened to Choi Jung Soo or Team Leader.
Aurora pointed up at the sky.
“That is the contact he sent.”
Cale lifted his head.
“Mm.”
Raon reacted.
“Human, it’s a hawk!”
A black hawk was circling in the sky.
“There was a letter tied to its ankle.”
As Aurora continued walking, she pulled something from her arms and handed it over.
“Waaah! Village chief!”
“Who are these people?”
Children popped out from all over the place and greeted Aurora.
They were the villagers Cale’s group and Aurora had saved last time, the ones who had nearly been captured by the Demon King’s army and killed.
Together with members of the mediator group, they had moved to another hidden place, settled there, and formed a village.
“Stop bothering the village chief and come over here!”
“Oh dear, the children— I’m sorry, Village Chief!”
Reading the atmosphere, the villagers quickly dragged the children away.
The children might not know, but the adults of the village knew about the mediator group and Aurora’s true identity, so they could not help but be cautious.
They had also been warned in advance.
The people who truly saved you are coming.
And so they had been told to be absolutely strict about security.
The Demon King’s core military force, the Demon King’s army.
Among them, the Eighth Army was central.
The true benefactors who had blocked the Sixth Army of that Eighth Army and saved the village.
The villagers were eager to help them.
“......”
Aurora merely inclined her head toward the villagers.
Usually, no matter how exhausted she looked, Aurora would still smile and greet them, so the children too clamped their mouths shut at the sight of her grave expression.
Rustle.
Cale unfolded what was less a letter than a torn piece of cloth.
<Please deliver this to Cale Henituse.>
Sui Khan’s—no, Team Leader Lee Soo Hyuk’s—handwriting.
Even after being reborn, his handwriting had not changed.
The letters were even written in Korean.
He wrote it that way in case it got discovered.
A great deal had been written on the torn cloth.
Blood.
The letters had been written in blood.
Just how bad did things have to be for Sui Khan to go this far?
“......”
Cale’s expression hardened more and more as he read through the contents.
He even stopped walking.
<The Order of the God of Chaos has infiltrated the Demon World.> <The Pope is presumed to be here.>
There was a saint in New World, and a Pope in the Demon World?
<Currently tracking and identifying the location of a force presumed to be a holy knight order (2 at Choi Jung Soo’s level, plus around 100 holy knights at roughly mid-level-ability level).>
Two at Choi Jung Soo’s level?
And around a hundred mid-level ability users on top of that?
Here, “mid-level ability users” referred to the rough upper-middle-lower classification Lee Soo Hyuk had used in the past to size people up back when Kim Rok Soo had worked under him.
If they were mid-level—
Around somewhere between early Beacrox and Rosalyn.
That was the range he meant.
And there were around a hundred people that strong?
And two of them are even at Choi Jung Soo’s level?
He had to mean the current Choi Jung Soo, not the one from the past.
“Ha.”
Cale was dumbfounded, but at the same time, it made sense.
If he’s secretly tailing a force like that, then Team Leader—Sui Khan—would have no choice but to move quietly.
Rather than risk being noticed by using a magic tool or an ability, using a hawk—a method that looked old-fashioned—would be better.
<Lost contact with Choi Jung Soo. Please confirm.>
Team Leader had Choi Jung Soo on his mind too.
<The location from which this letter was sent can be identified through the hawk.>
The black hawk now circling above the village.
If they followed it, they would be able to find the last place where Team Leader had sent the letter.
And there’ll definitely be some marker there for the next destination too.
Because Team Leader Sui Khan was not the type to leave things sloppy.
Cale’s gaze fell to the end of the letter.
Of the two final sentences, one drew his eye first.
<I’m fine.>
Heh.
A faint laugh slipped out of Cale before he knew it.
“Still the same.”
How many times had he received letters like this back when he had been Kim Rok Soo?
On monster-ravaged Earth, communications had often been worse than they were here, and whenever Cale received letters like this, Team Leader always left behind the same line.
I’m fine.
That was how Team Leader always wrote.
So Cale knew.
“You’ll be in danger soon.”
Whenever a message like this came, Team Leader always came back injured afterward.
Step.
Cale started walking again.
Keeping pace with him, Aurora resumed walking too and opened her mouth.
“That is where Choi Jung Gun is staying.”
The deepest part of the village.
The building hidden behind the trees had a structure much like a temple.
Hum, hum—
The closer they got to it, the more they could feel a pulse.
It must have been from the magic circle protecting Choi Jung Gun from the corruption of chaos.
“The moment we received contact from Choi Jung Soo, we immediately started looking into traces of the Order of the God of Chaos on our side as well.”
Aurora did not stop speaking.
“But we were unable to find any trace of them at all.”
After meeting Count Lupe, Aurora and the mediator group had gained the authority to act on behalf of ownership over his merchant company.
That meant not only immense wealth, but effectively an “information channel” as well.
The information network of the greatest merchant company in the Demon World was formidable.
And yet they had found nothing.
Which meant—
“I don’t know about the depths of the Demon King’s palace, or the Demon King and those close to him. But as far as ordinary Demon World counts, ordinary demons, and the commercial sphere are concerned, no one knows anything at all about the Order of the God of Chaos.”
She added,
“Of course, I am excluding the rumors about ‘Dark’ that spread because of us.”
Dark.
The secret force of the Order of the God of Chaos.
Naturally, she was excluding the rumors about that.
“There is one rumor we did hear, however.”
Cale’s gaze shifted to Aurora.
By then, they had stopped in front of the building where Choi Jung Gun was sealed within a magic circle.
Very few people were allowed inside.
“In some villages and cities, there are rumors of something called gray sickness.”
Gray sickness.
At those words, a «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» strange light entered Cale’s eyes.
“Since the mana of the Demon World is gray, the rumor is only that it might be some kind of mana-related illness. But I think we need to dig into it further.”
Gray sickness.
Aurora had not yet grasped anything about its symptoms or cause, but the instant Cale heard the name, one thing came to mind.
“It reminds me of the corruption of chaos.”
No one refuted Cale’s words.
Cale recalled the skill Purification of Chaos, which he had looked over before coming out of the game.
Though Cale was outside the game now and could not use that power as a skill, he instinctively understood how it had to be used.
And he also understood the prerequisite needed for that skill.
[Skill: Purification of Chaos]
[A purification ritual must be carried out together.]
Just as the information Team Leader Sui Khan had found indicated.
To use Purification of Chaos, a ritual had to be performed first.
And I know that ritual too.
Cale knew the ritual as well.
“I’m going inside.”
Step.
Cale entered the building where Choi Jung Gun lay.
<I’m fine.>
And together with that sentence, the final line that had remained.
<The God of Chaos seems to want to become the only god in a place untouched by the hand of any god.>
A place untouched by the hand of any god.
That was the Demon World.
The Demon World was waiting for a demon god.
And New World, too, had not yet fully been touched by the hand of a god.
Of course, now little by little, the touch of the gods was reaching that world as well, and an Absolute God would soon be born.
The God of Chaos.
Why that being had tried so desperately to descend upon New World.
Why that being had appeared in the Demon World.
The answer was slowly coming into view.
The Order of the God of Chaos.
The order that existed wherever chaos existed.
Now, they wanted to stain the entire world with chaos.
“......”
He looked at Choi Jung Gun, who lay there as though peacefully asleep.
More gray had spread through his body than before, and gray veins bulged out more hideously.
It even looked as though fluid was seeping from them.
Hhhh, hhhh—
His breathing was weaker than before.
Fainter.
So faint it would not have been strange if it stopped at any moment.
Even though Cale had come as quickly as he could, well before the Time Remaining ran out, Choi Jung Gun’s condition was bad.
“For now,”
Following Team Leader’s trail and gathering information.
Finding Choi Jung Soo.
He would do all of that together with his companions.
But before anything else—
Looking down at Choi Jung Gun, Cale spoke.
“Let’s save you first.”
Cale came back out of the building and said to Aurora,
“Let’s hold a festival in the village.”
Purification of Chaos.
For some reason, it felt like he was going to need that power a lot from here on.
And Cale still did not know what the purification ritual would bring to the village—
and to the Demon World.