Trash of the Count's Family (Web Novel)

He asked Duke Fredo who was in no condition to respond.

“…Haaaa…haa……”

Duke Fredo was barely breathing as he looked toward Cale with dim eyes and faintly smiled before releasing his aura that he had been forcing out until now.

Plop.

His hand limply fell to the ground.

“Young master-nim, please-!”

Solena, who was carrying Fredo, was still begging Cale for help in a raspy voice as if something was wrong with her vocal cords.

“Choi Han!”

“Yes, Cale-nim.”

“Bring them inside right away!”

“I’m on it!”

Choi Han moved toward Solena as soon as he heard Cale’s order.

“I will escort Duke Fredo.”

Choi Han could feel his body getting wet as soon as he carried Fredo.

It was blood.

The problem was that there was so much blood and dust on Fredo to tell where he was bleeding.

Fredo was in an extremely dangerous condition.

“Lily.”

“Yes sir!”

“Over here. Please take care of Solena.”

“I will!”

Lily headed over to Solena without asking any questions after hearing Cale’s request.

A knight by her side moved with her and helped her support Solena.

“…Y…young master-nim-”

During the time Cale was working with Duke Fredo in the Endable Kingdom… Solena had been the one to help him by his side while he was transformed into young master Naru.

That might be why she was calling Cale young master-nim right now.

Cale looked toward her.

“I don’t know what is going on but I'm guessing you guys came here hoping that we could help.”

It was a hope for survival.

“You can rest now. You survived.”

Solena sighed in relief and closed her eyes.

Her body grew weak and limped over.

“Young master-nim! She seems to have lost consciousness!”

“Orabuni! Shall I call a priest over?”

Cale shook his head after hearing the knight and Lily's comments.

“I will take care of the treatment stuff so just move her.”

“Yes sir!”

Cale started to speak into the air after seeing that the two Vampires were moved.

“Raon.”

-What is it, Human?

Vampires.

They were beings that Cale could not just openly show to priests or healers.

Potions might end up being poison for them.

“Please call Mary over. Oh, call Eruhaben-nim as well. Also contact Tasha.”It’s for their treatment isn't it? Do not worry! I will take care of it all!

Cale nodded his head.

Now that he had brought the two Vampires in and contacted the people who could heal them…

Now that he took care of the pressing issues…

“Ron.”

“Yes, young master-nim?”

“Get them.”

“I understand, young master-nim.”

The only thing left now were these Cat tribe bastards.

They were gathered together with the Cat who seemed to be the leader at the center.

“Boss, what do we do?”

“What else? We have to run.”

“Ugh. We lost a chance to kill a traitor……!”

“Shut up.”

“…Sorry sir.”

They could see a red fog surrounding them at that moment.

“Ha!”

The boss Cat scoffed in disbelief.

One of the Cats by his side started to shout.

He was glaring at the two kittens who had caused this red fog.

“You dare to crawl over to the Cat tribe's enemies while the blood of the Cats flows inside you? This is why you bastards are mutants and weak- ugh!”

He could not finish his sentence.

The Cat urgently twisted his body.

A sharp dagger brushed past his neck.

It would have pierced through his neck if he had not moved.

The Cat who barely dodged the attack looked toward the fog. He could see a cold set of eyes.

“The blood of the Cats? How dare you. These children have the blood of the Molan household.”

A silent anger could be felt through the old man’s eyes.

“What fucking bullshit!”

Ron smiled benignly at the Cat who swore in disbelief.

“They have the blood of the Molan household since they have carried on the Molan techniques.”

A small smile appeared on On and Hong’s faces as they continued to create the red fog.

The Molan techniques.

Ron had taught them the Molan household’s foundational techniques other than assassination.

On started to speak.

“Let’s go.”

On and Hong disappeared into the red fog.

Their stealth technique was much more developed than in the past and that was the beginning.

“Ugh!”

The Cat who had been shouting that On and Hong were mutants ended up having his neck pierced in the end.

Ron and the members of the Molan household continued their attacks.

There were about 10 Cats including the injured but the Molan household had more and had On and Hong on their side.

It was a complete disadvantage for the Cats.

‘Fuck!’

The boss Cat could feel it in his skin and started to frown every time he heard the small groans of his subordinates around him.

If he fought with them…

‘I could escape with a few of them.’

But that was not the problem right now.

They were here to kill Duke Fredo. There was a simple reason they had let him reach the Henituse territory.

‘We let him come here so that we could find Cale Henituse inside the black orb.’

But there was a problem now.

‘Cale Henituse is awake now?’

That could only mean one thing.

It meant that Cale Henituse had successful completed the god’s test.

The human who had looked as if he was dead until not too long ago still looked weak but he was fine.

Duke Fredo was not the issue anymore.

‘I need to inform the liege about Cale Henituse's status!’

Gulp.

He subconsciously gulped.

It was because he could not fathom what Cale Henituse would have gained and how much stronger he would have gotten by completing the god’s test.

‘…He said that it would be impossible for Cale Henituse to be here if he did not pass the test.’

That was what his liege, the White Star, had told him.

‘That test is something you can only wake from if you pass. You have no choice but to accept him.’

‘If that happens, only Cale Henituse and I would be qualified to battle each other to rule the world.’

That was why he needed to inform the White Star about this situation.

The boss Cat started to move extremely carefully and stealthily like he had never done before. He increased all of his senses to the max.

He could hear his subordinates being injured and getting caught, he could even faintly feel the enemy assassins’ movements.

He would use this as the foundation to escape.

At that moment…

“Where are you going?”

A silver-haired child with a nonchalant expression appeared in front of him.

“On.”

He then heard an old man's benign voice behind him.

“You must capture him before you ask questions.”

“I understand, grandfather.”

“Meeeeeow!”

The boss Cat felt a hand strike the back of his neck before his whole body went limp.

‘N, no-!’

He couldn’t lose his consciousness like this!

‘I need to let him know!’

The boss Cat had a lot of things he wanted to say but only managed to say one thing before he fainted.

“…I must inform the liege that Cale Henituse has woken up-”

Squeeze.

Hong left a paw print stamp on the fallen boss Cat’s cheek.

It was a green paw print stamp with sleeping poison on it.

“Young master-nim. It seems that he wanted to escape to inform the White Star.”

Ron carried the boss Cat over by the collar and reported to Cale who started to frown.

Ron continued to speak in a benign voice after seeing his reaction.

“It would have been useless anyway. The citizens of our territory have seen your return so the information would quickly spread throughout the Western continent anyway, young master-nim.”

Ron was right.

The White Star would learn of Cale's return whether this Cat ran away to report it or not.

Cale was upset but started to walk toward the gate without saying anything because he knew Ron was right.

“Throw all of the Cats into the underground prison. Figure out what happened.”

“I understand, young master-nim.”

Cale left the rest to Ron and carried On and Hong as he walked toward the Duke's Estate.Human! Mary and Goldie gramps will be here soon! I contacted Tasha and she said she would look into it before calling me back!

Cale stopped for a moment and looked up at where he presumed Raon to be.

“Ron.”

“Yes, young master-nim.”

Cale looked at the thick city walls and stealthily gave an order.

“Find out if there are any more rats in the city.”

He had a feeling the Cats would not be the only ones.

“Yes. Young master-nim.”

Cale started to walk toward the Duke's Estate again.

“We have taken care of the basic treatments. They should regain consciousness soon.”

“Good job, Mary.”

Mary shook her head.

“I am familiar with dead mana but I did not dare to proceed with thorough treatment because they are Vampires so I only did the basics.”

Cale looked toward Duke Fredo who was lying on the bed.

Mary continued to speak.

“It is just that Duke Fredo's restoration ability is quite strong that he should quickly heal if we do some basic treatments and support him. The problem is Miss Solena.”

“…Is it serious?”

Eruhaben started to speak instead.

He could not treat Duke Fredo because of dead mana but he was helping Mary and imparting his wisdom to her.

“She has fewer injuries than Duke Fredo, but she is lacking in immunity and restoration ability. She also seems to have used up a lot of stamina to carry Duke Fredo here.”

“She is in danger for multiple reasons.”

Cale nodded his head and looked down at the back of his hand.

He could see his veins.

He thought about his blood that should be flowing through those veins.

‘Looks like this bastard Fredo won’t need it but it might be needed depending on Solena’s development.’

He asked Mary to take care of her.

“Please take care of Solena. Let me know if she wakes up or if she’s in danger.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Solena was not in this guest bedroom but the other guest bedroom next to this one.

“…What a headache.”

The atmosphere in the room changed after Eruhaben quietly mumbled.

Only Eruhaben, Choi Han and Cale were now left in the room.

Cale had send the children averaging nine-years-old to Beacrox to eat as it was dinner time.

Children needed to eat properly.

"Cale-nim, do you think the White Star found out about Duke Fredo?”

Eruhaben said something as well after hearing Choi Han’s question.

“If it is Duke Fredo, he would have planned a few different escape routes in case the White Star found out. That is probably why he chose to stay behind at the Endable Kingdom. The fact that he ended up this injured and barely managed to escape is a big deal.”

He was certain.

“It was something unexpected. Something unexpected must have happened. It must have been something Duke Fredo could have never even imagined.”

Choi Han’s eyes sank down after hearing Eruhaben’s statements.

They already had a headache with the issues regarding Puzzle City and now their concerns were worse seeing the strong Duke Fredo looking like this.

It was at that moment.

Knock knock knock.

They heard someone knocking on the door.

“Who is it?”

Choi Han walked to the door.

“It's me.”

It was Duchess Violan’s voice.

Cale nodded his head and Choi Han opened the door.

Eruhaben disguised himself as a knight and moved behind Cale.

“Cale.”

Violan had not come alone.

“Hyung-nim.”

“Orabuni.”

Basen and Lily were looking at Cale while standing behind Violan.

Violan let out a short sigh before pointing to the two children.

“They were so adamant that they come with me. That is why we all came together. Can we come in?”

“Of course. You are in charge of everything right now, mother.”

Duke Deruth was at the capital right now.

That was why Duchess Violan was in charge of the Henituse territory and the Duke's Estate, and it was only natural for her to know about the Cats and these unfamiliar visitors.

“I heard that you threw the Cats into the dungeon. Ron said that they are the White Star’s subordinates.”

“Yes, that is correct. As for this person and the person next door-”

Cale flinched and turned his head while trying to explain about Fredo and Solena.

“Oo…ooooooooo…….”

Duke Fredo had let out a quiet groan.

The way he was frowning made it seem as if he would wake up soon.

Eruhaben immediately looked toward Choi Han.

“Choi Han, go call Mary!”

“Yes sir!”

Choi Han started to move past Violan and the children to head out.

Duke Fredo's eyelids slowly lifted and revealed his eyes.

“You're awake?”

Cale asked while making eye contact with Fredo.

Duke Fredo's mouth slowly opened.

“Lo……”

He was having trouble speaking but sounded as if he was very happy to see Cale.

Long time… no see… my son.”

It was a joke.

Duke Fredo was showing his joy by bringing up the time Cale had spent as young master Naru.

“Gasp!”

“Eek!”

Basen and Lily heard him though.

“…Son?”

“…Son?”

The two of them repeated the same thing over and over and what they were thinking was clearly visible on their faces.

“What bullshit is that?”

"Who the fuck is this guy?”

Cale flinched and turned toward his siblings after hearing them using such words for the first time.

That was why he did not manage to look at Violan.

Choi Han, who had been walking past Violan, subconsciously stopped walking after seeing her hand.

Violan’s hand was slightly shaking.

Choi Han raised his head to look at her face.

Her eyes were so focused on Cale and Duke Fredo as if she didn't even notice Choi Han looking at her.

‘…Why does she have such an expression-’

It looked as if tens of years were instantly passing through Violan’s face.

It was an impossible to explain type of expression.

Choi Han found this to be weird because Violan was always flawless with her expressions.

It was at that moment.

“You must be fine since you can speak such bullshit.”

Duke Fredo chuckled at Cale's comment.

“My son, how can you say that your father is speaking bullshit?”

“Your son my ass. Just sleep if you're only going to keep bullshitting.”

Cale completely ignored Duke Fredo’s statement and looked toward his two stiff siblings.

“There’s no need to pay any attention to this bastard’s bullshit.”

Basen smiled and nodded his head after hearing Cale clearly call Fredo a bastard.

“Yes. I knew that it was complete nonsense. It was just so unexpected that I wondered if he was someone you treated like a father, hyung-nim. Hahahaha-”

Lily removed her hand from her in-house sword she carried around instead of her greatsword and quietly mumbled.

“…I thought a weird enemy had infiltrated our house……”

Choi Han could see Violan’s mouth starting to open.

“…Ah. Of course. What delusion-”

She let out a short but deep sigh.

She seemed to have been shocked by what she just said and flinched before turning her head to look around.

Choi Han noticed before she moved and quickly looked away from her as if he didn't see anything and headed toward Mary.

“Huuuuuu.”

He heard Violan sigh again behind him.

Choi Han stealthily peeked back. Violan looked normal again.

Violan was looking at Cale's bright red hair that had grown quite long.

There was a lot of affection in her stoic gaze.

Duke Fredo started to speak at that moment.

“Cale.”

“Yeah?”

“Soon.”

Fredo looked as if he was in pain.

He barely managed to calm himself down and continued to speak.

“The sacrifices will be moved to Puzzle City soon.”

Cale started to frown.

Everybody in the room was looking at Fredo.

“There will be two different summoning rituals.”

Fredo continued to speak looking as if he wanted to cry.

“Why are you here in the middle of the night after saying you’ll be here tomorrow?”

Alberu nonchalantly commented as if he could not believe that Cale was here.

“You truly are disrespectful.”

“Nice to see you again, your highness.”

“Ha!”

Alberu was shaking his head side to side.

“You and my instructor are the only ones who visit the crown prince's bedroom through the window.”

He looked toward Cale and Choi Han who were entering through the window with disbelief.

Cale smiled brightly and started to speak with an extremely well-oiled glib tongue.

“Your highness, you are as radiant as the sun in the middle of the day despite being in your pajamas.”

“…Sigh.”

Alberu could only sigh, wondering what Cale had done now.