Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 447: …Can I Take It All? (10)

Seeing Choi Jung Soo standing there grinning like he had done something worth being proud of made irritation surge up in Cale at once.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

He spoke to Choi Jung Soo.

“Don’t smile.”

“Heh, hehe-”

At that, Choi Jung Soo started grinning even more.

Raon, On, and Hong saw that and turned serious.

“Human, Choi Jung Soo is acting weird!”

Nyaaaow!

“...This is serious.”

Instead of looking at the average ten-year-olds, Cale turned his gaze toward Hitelis, who was still unconscious, and spoke.

“Team Leader.”

“Yeah, got it.”

Sui Khan walked over to Choi Jung Soo.

Shhk.

He drew his sword from its sheath.

“Uh, uh!”

Choi Jung Soo stopped smiling.

“Team Leader! Are you going to hit me? No, if you’re going to hit me, use the sheath. Why are you drawing the sword? Huh?”

His face had gone pale.

Then—

Slice.

Slice, slice.

The chains binding Choi Jung Soo from head to toe were cut as easily as paper.

“Man. I thought you were really about to hit me.”

Looking at his body being freed from the restraints, Choi Jung Soo started grinning again.

It was then.

“......”

A chill ran over him, and Choi Jung Soo looked at Sui Khan.

Sui Khan was staring straight at him.

Why did the face of Lee Soo Hyuk in his thirties seem to overlap with this teenage Sui Khan?

A strange shiver ran through Choi Jung Soo, and Sui Khan spoke in a low voice.

“I don’t think I ever said I wasn’t going to hit you.”

His voice was calm, with no rise or fall to it.

Choi Jung Soo shut his mouth.

Because he had realized that Team Leader Sui Khan was angry.

And Cale—

He’s really angry.

The look on Cale’s face as he stared down at Hitelis was the look of someone who seemed ready to smack the back of her head a hundred times on the spot.

Choi Jung Soo remembered the time employee Kim Rok Soo had smacked the back of an unconscious guild leader’s head ten times.

To be honest, it had not even been in secret.

He had just kept hitting him like he didn’t care whether the man woke up or not.

Of course, that had been on the day one of their teammates had been badly injured because of that guild leader’s greed, so none of the team members had tried to stop Kim Rok Soo.

Remembering that, Choi Jung Soo simply stayed quiet.

Huh?

Then his eyes met the average ten-year-olds.

Raon, On, and Hong were sitting there in a row.

The three of them could not bring themselves to come any closer. Even On looked restless.

Hmm.

Choi Jung Soo forced down the bitter smile that almost came up.

The way he looked was not normal.

Even though the illusion had vanished, he could still feel the pain of that crushing pressure from the gaze that had been constricting him.

And the pain of dozens upon dozens of wounds—

pain close to death.

That pain still lingered like an afterimage, making him remember it even now.

That was why Choi Jung Soo had no choice but to act even lighter, and why both the Team Leader and Cale were probably going along with that mood.

“Choi Jung Soo.”

Raon crept closer and spoke carefully.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

For a moment, Choi Jung Soo almost laughed.

Raon asking if he was hungry even at a time like this reminded him of Cale, and that in turn reminded him of the Team Leader.

So in the end, it all goes on.

With that thought, and with the sense that nothing truly disappeared, Choi Jung Soo felt the afterimage of the pain that had brought him to the brink of death fade a little.

Slice.

Even then, Sui Khan carefully cut away the countless chains wrapped all around Choi Jung Soo one by one.

In truth, he could have cut them all at once, but he was probably being careful in case it put too much strain on Choi Jung Soo.

Sui Khan knew it, Choi Jung Soo knew it, and Cale knew it, so not one of them hurried him.

Booooom—!

The tremors that «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» had been rolling in from somewhere farther off in the building were now right outside.

Maybe they were already coming from the entrance itself.

But none of them cared.

“Hey. Cale.”

Choi Jung Soo, however, cared a little.

“I got caught by the strongest holy knight here, you know?”

The words poured out of him.

“He’s several times stronger than I am. I can’t beat him.”

His voice sped up. Raon, On, and Hong looked at him in confusion.

Because Choi Jung Soo’s body was still trembling. He could have calmed down first and then spoken.

That was what the children thought, but even stranger was the fact that Cale did not tell him to rest.

“......”

He only listened in silence.

Choi Jung Soo spoke rapidly.

“Anyway, I heard that holy knight reporting to the Pope. You know gray sickness, right? If it’s you, you would’ve figured it out. It causes corruption of chaos in people.”

He wanted to pass on as much of what he had learned as possible.

“I think the holy knights planted seeds all over the place. They said they even ran tests in a few villages to see how well the seeds would sprout. That’s how gray sickness became known at all.”

Cale kept his eyes on Hitelis while listening closely to Choi Jung Soo.

“The Order of the God of Chaos has a divine relic. It’s called ‘Chaos Carried on the Wind.’ They said it can make the chaos seeds sprout all at once.”

How were they supposed to spread gray sickness throughout the Demon World?

“The top-tier holy knights were carrying that relic around while they ran the tests, and once they confirmed the tests had succeeded, they delivered it back to the Pope. Apparently it belonged to the Pope in the first place. Anyway, those seeds won’t sprout unless the Pope uses the relic.”

The Order had already prepared the answer.

“From what I heard, though, using the relic doesn’t mean every seed everywhere sprouts all at once.”

The fear of gray sickness, the plague that would spread slowly across the Demon World—

“Just like the word wind in the relic’s name, ‘Chaos Carried on the Wind,’ it sounds like it spreads gradually. They had stages set up, so once the seeds sprouted in one region, it would spread into the next region after that, and then the next. Like the seeds of a dandelion blooming in one place and then scattering everywhere on the wind.”

The center of commerce and mining.

Dioriel.

Because goods and money gathered there, countless people came and went through that city, which meant the infection of gray sickness would begin in Dioriel and then spread with terrifying speed across the Demon World like the wind.

“So from the Pope—”

Choi Jung Soo, who had been continuing, suddenly faltered.

Sui Khan had stopped cutting the chains and was staring past the prison cell into the underground corridor.

The broken entrance.

Team Leader Sui Khan was looking at it.

“They’re coming.”

Someone was coming.

Cale and the average ten-year-olds also looked toward the corridor, where only faint light remained.

The shattered entrance.

Crunch.

The moment the sound of footsteps crushing stone came from there—

Bzzzzz—

Raon raised black mana.

And Sui Khan stepped in front of Choi Jung Soo.

Choi Jung Soo’s whole body was covered in dozens of wounds like scribbled marks.

Only now had he finally realized the intrusion that Sui Khan had already noticed.

He’s not in normal condition.

At any moment—

At any moment, he could lose consciousness.

That was why Cale had silently listened to Choi Jung Soo as he hurriedly spilled everything out.

And Choi Jung Soo, because he did not know when he might pass out, had done the same.

Passing on information.

For Lee Soo Hyuk’s team, delivering information to Kim Rok Soo had always been one of the highest priorities.

Step.

Someone stopped walking.

Choi Jung Soo lifted his head.

Ah.

Then he swallowed the sound that almost escaped him.

His vision was blurring.

He could not see well.

...I’m going to pass out soon.

It would not be long now.

Then he heard the Team Leader’s voice.

“Clopeh Sekka.”

That was probably for his sake.

Ah.

Relief wrapped itself around Choi Jung Soo.

Maybe because of that, his vision blurred even more.

It was different from the dizziness that had washed over him through all the pain he had felt until now.

This was peace.

In that peace, Choi Jung Soo felt the tension leave his body.

Then Cale’s indifferent voice reached him.

“Just sleep.”

Yeah.

I think I can sleep now.

I said everything I needed to say.

Of course, if he could hold out longer and help them here, or at least drag this body around and escape on his own, that would be best.

But that seemed impossible.

As he listened to the footsteps coming closer, Choi Jung Soo barely forced his mouth open.

“...S-sorry—”

After letting those words out, Choi Jung Soo gave himself over to the darkening, fading vision.

Now I’ll probably pass out.

Then, suddenly, one thought crossed his mind.

...But it doesn’t sound like there’s only one set of footsteps.

But he could not continue the thought.

His mind and body, which had barely held out in the pain, had no choice but to sink into the peace that had finally arrived.

“......”

And just like that, Choi Jung Soo lost consciousness.

Watching his limp body, Sui Khan swung his sword.

Slice, slice, sliccce.

The few chains that remained were severed, and Choi Jung Soo’s body dropped away from the wall and pitched forward.

“......”

And the one who caught that falling body quietly looked down at him.

From the oldest wound to the newest ones Hitelis had left behind—

after examining them one by one, he lifted his head and looked at Cale.

“Was this the work of the Order of the God of Chaos?”

Cale looked at the one who had asked.

At Choi Han.

Then he nodded.

“Yeah.”

The expression vanished from Choi Han’s face.

Cale looked at the other two who had come with him.

They were Clopeh and the Heavenly Demon.

Clopeh spoke first.

“On the way here, we found those two and brought them with us.”

Since Clopeh already knew, to some extent, about Cale’s plan, it could not have been too difficult for him to make his way down to the second underground floor.

The Heavenly Demon spoke when Cale’s gaze shifted to him.

“Choi Han found traces of Choi Jung Soo. After that, this place was the nearest location, so we came here and searched the surrounding area. Then, when we saw the battle break out tonight, we used the confusion to infiltrate.”

The Heavenly Demon’s gaze turned to Choi Han for a moment.

...Savage.

Choi Han was showing no outward emotion at all, but there was a savage aura coming off his back as he held Choi Jung Soo in his arms.

Wasn’t he his only nephew?

The Heavenly Demon had heard a little about the relationship between Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo while traveling with him.

Choi Han looked younger, but judging from the condition Choi Jung Soo was in as a Wanderer, he had assumed there was a complicated story there and had not asked further.

He’s my brother’s son.

That was all he had heard.

Choi Han was the uncle, and Choi Jung Soo was the nephew.

The only surviving descendant, the only surviving bloodline.

And that descendant was in very bad shape right now.

The Order of the God of Chaos made a mistake.

Dozens of shallow wounds were scattered all over his skin.

At a glance, it did not look as though any bones were broken or his organs were damaged, so the Heavenly Demon had initially thought there would not be any major issue with his health.

That’s only because I’m a third party.

The Heavenly Demon stayed silent.

Because not only Choi Han, but Sui Khan and Cale as well, were all in much the same mood right now.

“Cale.”

Sui Khan, after staring at Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo, opened his mouth.

“Are we going to stop gray sickness now?”

Originally, they had come to rescue Choi Jung Soo and gather information about gray sickness.

They had to stop what the Order of the God of Chaos was trying to do, and they had to stop the demons from dying as well.

“Clopeh.”

Rather than answer Sui Khan’s question, Cale turned to Clopeh.

“What’s the situation upstairs?”

“The top-tier holy knight and Mol, the leader of the Third Army, are still locked in a standoff. However, Mol appears to be gaining the upper hand. The battle is currently fiercest near the building entrance. If time passes, Mol will likely defeat the holy knight.”

“And?”

“Then Mol will die.”

Cale’s gaze shifted to Clopeh.

“Even if General Mol barely manages to defeat that holy knight, there are still many holy knights guarding the Pope. Even if the highest-ranking holy knight does not step in himself, Mol will die to the others. He is on the verge of exhaustion.”

Clopeh judged that Mol would kill one top-tier holy knight, only to be overwhelmed and killed by the others afterward.

That alone would mean Mol had served his purpose, but—

The highest-ranking holy knight must still be staying beside the Pope.

In that situation, Clopeh found himself wondering how they were supposed to deal with the Pope.

The leader of the Third Army is weaker than I expected.

He was supposed to be one of the current Demon King’s blades, yet the top-tier holy knights serving the Pope seemed the sharper blades.

It was then.

“No.”

Cale spoke.

“Hm?”

Clopeh, who had asked back, paused.

Cale had finished thinking, and now he looked rather certain.

“General Mol hasn’t used all his strength yet.”

“...Hasn’t he?”

The Sound of the Wind had told Cale.