Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 514: I Descend! (5)

For now, Cale decided to focus on Seventh General Hinari rather than the God of Death.

“It’s been a while since you’ve seen your father’s face, hasn’t it?”

“.......”

Cale had returned to the bedroom where the great general lay asleep, his heart stopped, and he quietly looked at Seventh General Hinari, who was kneeling across from him, bound.

She said nothing.

“What? Do you not have the courage to look at your father’s face?”

Flinch.

The Seventh General’s body reacted faintly, but she merely lowered her head and avoided Cale’s gaze.

“Th-this—”

Asiprang was staring at her with a face filled with anger, resentment, and betrayal.

By contrast, General Ferry of Island 16 spoke with all expression wiped from her face.

“Sir Cale Henituse. I think it would be best to lock her in the dungeon. Or else, for what comes later, killing her immediately would be the right choice.”

“!”

Asiprang was shocked by those words, but neither Cale nor the Seventh General was surprised.

Pfft.

Instead, Seventh General Hinari let out a laugh as if the air had gone out of her.

And General Ferry did not even pay attention to it.

How can she be so—

Asiprang knew better than anyone how close those two had been, almost like real sisters. He also knew just how much General Ferry had followed eldest sister Hinari.

If the great general had been like a teacher to Ferry, then Hinari had been a senior who walked ahead of her, or a role model.

Asiprang had felt that clearly. Yet the coldest person here right now was General Ferry.

“Ha.”

And Asiprang felt a little afraid of Cale, who was laughing in this situation.

“General Ferry. The Seventh General has to be kept alive. She knows about the second Emperor.”

“!”

For the first time, a clear emotion flashed across Seventh General Hinari’s face for an instant.

“What, are you surprised?”

Cale looked at her, still wearing a faint smile.

“.......”

But when he saw the Seventh General quickly collect her emotions and lower her head, he thought to himself.

She’s sharp.

After seeing Cale’s power and the strength of his companions, the Seventh General had immediately given up on fighting. She had tried to run only once, and after that she had quietly allowed herself to be bound.

However, she had not opened her mouth in any situation.

And I have to prod a Seventh General like this.

The reason was simple.

None of the three Wanderers have ever seen the second Emperor use her power.

The second Emperor.

She possessed a type of individuality that ate souls, but the Wanderers on Cale’s side said they had never once seen her actually use her power.

“She doesn’t speak much.”

“The second Emperor? That woman always covers her mouth. I’ve never had a conversation with her beyond official matters.”

“...I have seen her speak with the third Emperor, but the second Emperor is always... mysterious, I should say. A little unusual.”

The common point in the information that Ryeon, Cho, and Mujeon had each given him.

The second Emperor did not speak much, and she was mysterious.

There is too little information about the second Emperor.

The God of Death, the water dragon, Team Leader Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo, with whom he had hurriedly held a video communication, had all said they did not know. Choi Jung Gun was unreachable, who knew what he was doing, but in any case, there was far too little information about the second Emperor right now.

I need to get more information, even if it has to come from the Seventh General.

The Seventh General, who had met the second Emperor in person, was quite a good target for information gathering.

“Phew.”

General Ferry let out a sigh.

Cale recalled what General Ferry had said before they caught the Seventh General.

“She will not open her mouth for ordinary means.”

There was a reason she had said that.

“She is someone who has worn a mask until now and deceived everyone. How heavy must that mouth be? That poisonous resolve frightens me.”

That poisonous resolve that had deceived the great general, Asiprang, and the rest of her family.

“Furthermore, the Seventh General is not only powerful, but intelligent as well.”

“Her eye for detail is especially exceptional, to the point of seeming strange. That is why she is outstanding at reading political situations and strategy. And that is why I, who am upright but considered slow at judging political situations, followed the Seventh General so much.”

General Ferry had honestly revealed even her own weaknesses and shown what was in her heart.

Back then, her eyes had shown betrayal and hurt toward the Seventh General, but now she was simply cold.

Impressive.

Cale actually found General Ferry impressive for that. She was truly a person with a firm core.

On the other hand, the Seventh General seems a little different.

The corner of Cale’s mouth rose.

“The Seventh General must think she is smart.”

“.......”

The Seventh General still said nothing.

“That must be why you joined hands with the second Emperor to bring down the great general. You thought that was the only way you could seize your chance.”

“.......”

“And you probably made that judgment because you knew you could not defeat or overwhelm the great general and the other upper-island generals with your own strength.”

“.......”

“Looked at one way, after grasping the limits of your own ability, you could even call it a clever action that chose the best possible move. Right?”

“.......”

The Seventh General did not answer.

But deep down, she agreed with those words.

Was that wrong?

Just as she questioned that inwardly—

“You made a very foolish and very wrong choice.”

“!”

Her eyes turned toward Cale before she realized it.

Cale was still looking down at her.

“Is it wise to join hands with a fiend because you want to try to defeat a tiger?”

Smile.

One corner of Cale’s mouth rose. It was a clear sneer.

“That act only creates one more puppet being jerked around by the fiend.”

“!”

The Seventh General was about to open her mouth and ask what he meant.

But—

“The one inside that great general’s body is not the great general, is it?”

“!”

At the words that followed, she could not help being shocked.

He knew that much?

She had felt something from the moment he mentioned the second Emperor, but—

“The great general’s soul must be with the second Emperor.”

“!”

“You fool.”

Cale shook his head as if he could not bear to watch her, then turned his gaze toward the door.

“I will show you just how foolish it was to join hands with the second Emperor.”

He called to the person standing by the door.

“Choi Han.”

“Yes.”

“Bring him in.”

Click.

The door opened.

And outside the door, where he had been waiting, Wanderer Cho dragged in someone who had been tightly bound.

“!”

The Seventh General recognized the person being dragged inside.

“The clever Seventh General must know who that is, right?”

“.......”

She remained silent, so Cale asked and answered himself.

“He is Third General Wooho’s closest aide. Mujeon.”

Generals ranked Seventh and above were unquestionably strong.

When they were all keeping one another in check, there was no way they would not know about each general and their closest aides.

“Do you know whose subordinate that man really is?”

The Seventh General’s body trembled.

An inexplicable fear surged over her.

“The second Emperor.”

And the moment she heard Cale’s words, her face began to turn white.

“What was the message you sent to the second Emperor through the video communication orb again? Ah, it was this.”

Cale recited some of the information that Mujeon, Wanderer Cho, and Ryeon had identified.

“Second Emperor. General Ferry has appeared with a healer who says they can break the soul prison. They say that healer will treat the great general soon. This is different from what you said. What will you do?”

The Seventh General’s face turned even paler.

It was exact.

It was identical to the message she had sent.

“You agreed to help me become the great general. So please answer quickly.”

The more she listened to Cale, the less the Seventh General could lift her head.

Was it fear that everything had been exposed?

No, it was not that.

Was Cale frightening?

That was not it either.

Had he not clearly spoken as if he would not kill her?

Her life was guaranteed. So what was there to be afraid of?

And yet she was afraid.

I was... I was wrong?

The possibility that the choice she had made might have been wrong—no, the situation that made it certain she had been wrong—felt terrifying to the Seventh General.

Because—

Because that was—

Hinari— Hinari—!

The Seventh General unconsciously curled in on herself.

Hinari— Hinari—!

She could hear the great general’s voice.

She could hear her father shouting.

This, this is not right— Hinari, this person is dangerous! You must not join hands with someone like this...! Avoid her! Run away!

She remembered her father’s soul as it was pulled out by the second Emperor, howling.

Even then, he had shouted to her.

You must not join hands with someone like this......!

Fear surged over the Seventh General.

“...Father—”

Had Father been right?

She barely stopped the words that had nearly burst out.

Because they were words she absolutely could not say aloud.

“Urgh!”

At that moment, she felt a hand seize her head.

“!”

Her head was forced up, and she saw Cale Henituse’s indifferent eyes looking at her.

Eyes that held no emotion at all, and therefore reflected her own appearance with brutal clarity.

In those pupils was the face of Seventh General Hinari, terrified.

Just as that sight turned Hinari’s mind blank—

“Now, look.”

Cale turned her head.

At the sudden action, Hinari’s head moved that way before she realized it.

But the instant she realized which direction it was, Hinari tried with all her might not to turn her head.

“What? Can you not look at your father’s face?”

Cale’s whisper reached her ear.

“Can you not look at the result you created while believing you had made a clever choice?”

Hinari closed her eyes.

But the dead body of her father, as if he had already died—no, as if his soul had vanished—had already been seared into her mind.

“That thing over there is not the sight of the great general dying.”

Even with her eyes closed, she could picture it.

Cale’s whisper reached her ears like thorns and drove itself in.

That was not the great general dying.

“It is you, after making a foolish choice and failing.”

Ah—

A groan escaped Hinari’s mouth.

Was he saying she had been wrong?

Was all of this, the chance she had aimed for while wearing a mask for more than ten years, all nothing but futile nonsense?

But this was not something that would end as simple futility.

“The second Emperor and the Third General intend to kill not only the great general, but you as well on the day of the great council.”

She had walked into the place where she would die with her own two feet.

Anger and contempt toward herself surged through the Seventh General.

You must not join hands with someone like this......!

Her father’s voice circled in her ears.

“No, let me say that accurately.”

But Cale’s words did not end there.

The original plan of the Wanderers, which Cale had heard from Mujeon, before Cale had interfered.

“A massacre.”

“......!”

“All the leaders from Islands 1 through 18 who gather at the great council tomorrow will die.”

Gasp.

The Seventh General drew in a breath without realizing it.

That future, that moment—she had absolutely never—

“Everyone who could protect the sea will disappear, and the second Emperor will take it.”

She had not wanted that.

“That is the future you created.”

But it was the future the Seventh General had created.

“Do you like it?”

“Haa, hah.”

Hinari’s breathing grew ragged.

She had to say something.

This situation! She had never intended this, she—

“I-I had no choice— I was going to be the great general—”

Her true feelings burst out without hesitation.

“Hey.”

But Cale did not want to hear the Seventh General’s inner thoughts.

“I have no intention of listening to your excuses.”

The position of great general.

Had she not caused all this trouble because of that one thing, in the end?

Cale was not curious about the inner thoughts of someone he could not understand.

Rather, for the sake of the people around him, he simply needed information.

“If you want to live, tell me everything you know. Like that one did.”

“.......”

Cale’s finger pointed at Mujeon.

Hinari was able to recall Mujeon’s situation and her own.

“You’re supposed to be smart, aren’t you? Then you should know. The only way for you to live is for me to get rid of both the second Emperor and the Third General.”

“.......”

She steadied her breathing and could not easily open her mouth.

But Cale waited.

Someone who had betrayed her family.

Someone skilled in strategy, who could find a path to survival with uncanny precision.

What action would someone like that take in this situation?

Regret?

Repentance?

Who knew.

Cale did not want to know the emotions of someone like this. He could roughly guess how she would act.

She would look for a way to survive.

“What was the second Emperor you met like?”

Cale asked for information.

“.......”

Seventh General Hinari, unable to control her trembling lips, looked around.

Then she soon bit down hard on her lip.

As expected, she was quick at reading the situation.

She had simply failed to judge whether the person she joined hands with was one she should have joined hands with or not.

“Then let me ask one thing first.”

See?

Because she was clever and knew she would not die, she was stepping forward to ask a question first like this.

But really, how foolish.

“Ha.”

Cale laughed.

Truly foolish.

“Do you think you are in any position to ask me anything right now? Are you going to make the same misjudgment you made with the second Emperor?”

“......!”

Only then did the Seventh General’s complexion turn blue, and her pupils shake.

It was the face of someone who had truly felt that her life stood at the crossroads between life and death.

Of course, Cale had no intention of deciding what to do with the Seventh General’s life himself.

He could not recklessly decide what should be decided by those who had been directly harmed by and connected to this matter.

However, with this kind of person who used her head like this, he simply thought this method would be a little more efficient in making her desperate.

One day.

Cale had to finish everything necessary within that time.

“Fine. Since you say you’re curious, I’ll hear it.”

Cale smiled smoothly and patted the Seventh General’s shoulder.

While he was at it, he even tidied the hair he had messed up while holding her head, then asked with warmth.

“Go on, ask. What are you curious about?”

“......!”

The Seventh General tried to shake her head.

“It’s all right, ask.”

When Cale spoke softly one more time, the Seventh General understood that she must not refuse, and opened her mouth.

Cale waited for the words she would soon pour out, her face deathly pale.

I am curious.

What exactly had Hinari been trying to figure out even in this situation?

A slowly trembling voice reached him.

“...Which day-of-the-week second Emperor did you meet?”

Hm?

At that moment, a strange light appeared in Cale’s eyes.

But the Seventh General, overwhelmed by fear, did not notice it and poured out words as if making excuses for the question she had asked.

“I met the Wednesday second Emperor and the Friday second Emperor. Th-the great general’s soul should be inside the body of the Friday second Emperor. That is the best I know......!”

“Lift your head.”

“!”

Hinari saw Cale meeting her eyes right in front of her.

“Tell me about that in detail.”

The Friday second Emperor.

Did that not sound as if there were second Emperors for each day of the week?

The three Wanderers never said anything like this.

Wanderer Cho, Ryeon, and Mujeon.

The three of them had merely said that the second Emperor did not speak much and was mysterious.

Those words sounded different to Cale now.

And suddenly, he thought again of what General Ferry had said.

“Furthermore, the Seventh General is not only powerful, but intelligent as well. Her eye for detail is especially exceptional, to the point of seeming strange.”

They had said the Seventh General’s eye for detail was strangely outstanding.

Perhaps there was a reason the Seventh General had acted as if she were testing him even in this dangerous moment.

“Seventh General.”

Cale sensed that this was an important moment.

The strongest Wanderer after the first Emperor.

The second Emperor.

He had obtained information about her.

“How did you meet the second Emperor for the first time?”

Cale realized he had gotten hold of something important.

“...At first, she approached me saying she was a puppeteer. That day was Wednesday.”

Puppeteer.

A strange light appeared in Cale’s eyes as he looked at Hinari, who had said that word.