Trash of the Count's Family

Sadness when it is blue.

Sloth when it is yellow.

Failure when it is green.

Indignity when it is purple.

Wrath when it is black.

Cale looked down at his black outfit and the ends of the sleeves of his white shirt underneath before quietly mumbling to himself.

His friends who had died while going up against the unranked monster…

Even in the company that Cale, no, that Kim Rok Soo worked for, most of the members in the vanguard of his team were people who had gathered at the start of the company. That might explain why they did not have many close people around them.

That was the case for most people after the cataclysm, but this was a team formed by people who especially did not have much family or people close to them.

‘It might also be because team leader Lee Soo Hyuk gathered those kinds of people by his side.’

But it wasn't as if most of the team members had nobody at all.

Some of them had some living family members, while others at least had distant relatives who were still alive. Furthermore, some had friends that they had been close to since even before the cataclysm.

But unbelievably…

It was so weird that it was almost laughable, but…

Choi Jung Soo, the person who had the best relationship with the others on the team… And Lee Soo Hyuk, the person who cherished the whole team and led them all forward…

These two people did not have anybody to take care of their funeral or serve as chief mourner.

‘Only me.’

Kim Rok Soo was the only one for both of them.

Kim Rok Soo, the guy who scoffed a lot and didn't really get along with people… He was all they had.

He was the only one who could take responsibility for sending them off.

‘It's the funeral.’

Cale realized that he had come back to the time of the funeral when he had sent Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo off one last time.

Once the original chaos subsided and people started to form societies and civilizations to press forward after the cataclysm…

One of the things that changed the most was the funeral tradition. The reason was simple.

Too many people had died.

And even more continued to die every day and will die in the future.

Funerals became extremely simple and short. People had to deal with so much sadness that they couldn’t even process it properly. They had no idea when the monsters would attack again. They had to bury the unprocessed sadness in their hearts and push forward to survive.

Of course, there were many who left this world without even getting a funeral. It led to a lot of people thinking that they should be thankful if they could at least say goodbye one last time to their loved ones.

“Team leader Kim.”

Cale raised his head after hearing a voice.

There was someone smiling awkwardly and reaching his hand out toward Cale, who would have been standing in the chief mourner's spot in front of Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo's portraits if this was a normal funeral before the cataclysm.

Cale knew this person very well, although it had been unexpected.

Cale had immediately succeeded Lee Soo Hyuk's position as team leader and continued to work after Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo's funeral was over.

He happened to overhear people from other departments talking about him at one point. They had talked crap about him without even knowing that he was there.

‘Hey. That emotionless bastard Kim Rok Soo didn’t even cry when the person who saved his life died. How can someone be so emotionless?’

‘…Who knows? At least team leader Lee Soo Hyuk picked a good successor before he left. Kim Rok Soo is very good at his job.’

‘He may be an emotionless bastard, but at least he is good at his job.’

Of the two people talking…

The person who was talking crap about how Cale had no emotions and didn’t cry… This was the team leader of a different department.

‘This person was here as well.’

The fact that this person had been at the funeral was new to Cale.

‘Yes, a team leader like him should have been here.’

He should have been at this place.

However, the memories of this moment were not clear in Cale’s mind.

a point where he could not take in the situation and environment around him such that he only clearly remembered the

the process, but Kim Rok Soo had enough on his plate just taking care of the send

‘I was young.’

Rok Soo was young and rough around the

‘However…’

man in front

that this guy had called him team leader Kim. Even though Lee Soo Hyuk's funeral was not over and Kim Rok Soo had not returned

‘Team leader Kim?’

company had respected Lee Soo Hyuk’s wishes and named Kim Rok Soo as the new team leader, but this was still

“…Team leader Kim……?”

Soo, who did not shake his hand and was staring at him. Cale grabbed the man’s hand. He

leader on my team is team leader

eyes

is an illusion, but it

the flustered man smile even more

to be the team

gently, but Cale still silently stared at him. His eyes were not the eyes of a young and rough around the

hard to deal with, isn’t

was trying to be respectful and

man’s hand and

It is

seemed to be at a loss for words as he looked at Cale. There were a lot of funerals for different team

why they were acting like

time without any emotion, surviving

had thought that something like that was the only way to persist at

that that was not the

endure past sadness, loss, and this

to stand firm without being shaken up by them. It was okay to be shaken up by these things

trees that break during typhoons or reeds that sway in all directions. Furthermore, not all humans were the same. They each had their own styles and just had to live in

older, and felt as if he now knew what

not because he had met Lee Soo Hyuk in his dream and heard that Choi Jung Soo was doing

memory made it so that he could not forget his sadness, but

now say the following. He turned toward the

the time, it

He was sad.

was still the

“I am sad.”

this moment came up as

the fact that the cataclysm struck

the things that Lee Soo Hyuk had created and

wanted to fuck up and kill

“That is why…”

Because of that…

need to do my best

do even better for

that it was a smile that was full of emotions, a bitter smile that appeared after a

will find a way to persist if I keep doing

the method of overcoming

through it for

now I can persist through it

Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo with the smile still on his face. He then turned to look at the man who had just shaken

if this was

“This isn’t bad.”

“Excuse me?”

man asked after not hearing properly, but Cale ignored

test isn’t bad

At that moment…

Crack.

saw the face of the man in front of him

Everything Cale could see

symbolized sadness

yellow light rising at the

Yellow.

That symbolized sloth.

* * *

highness! You

“It’s fine.”

“But!”

stop him. The Knight Captain could not say anything else but

Crossman

in Puzzle City were saying a lot of

told everybody that the real Cale and the rest of the first dispatched team were fighting against a fake Cale, but the chaos and

opened his eyes

Roan Kingdom’s soldiers in Puzzle City had mainly

though Alberu had not said or

Captain realized something while looking at

is

toward his Majesty, the current king, but the incidents at Puzzle City led to people both inside and outside

individual was leaving City Hall and heading for the temple as soon as he opened his

“…Fuck!”

hesitate to swear despite a lot of people being around