Lout of Count's Family (Novel) Vol. 4

Lout of Count's Family (Novel) #4

by Yu Ryeo Han, LOKOnity (Illustrator)

NEW FACES, NEW POSSIBILITIES

Cale Henituse is a man more eager to top off his wine than topple his foes, but adventure always seems to find him! This time, he befriends a kind yet sheltered necromancer, an ancient gold dragon, and twin saints on the run. But the stakes rise when the fierce Tiger Tribe arrives from the far east, seeking both refuge and revenge. Their shared enemy wields a powerful fleet, offering Cale a golden opportunity to turn the tide in his favor. With land, sea, and sky at play, Cale must craft a brilliant strategy to outmaneuver his foes--and maybe even come out ahead for once!

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novel, Dragons, Novels, Adventure, Manga, Magic

391 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2025

Reviews

[V.ya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know by now what I’ll be getting from this series, and it doesn’t fail to deliver. Tons of adventures, funny mismatch between other people’s perception of Cale and what he thinks about himself, and of course, the endless quips of our “great and mighty” Raon that never fail to make me smile.

‹He’s going to teach me all his skills for free, human!› The black dragon grinned, the same way Cale did whenever he sold something to the crown prince.

The way Raon is developing the same mindset as Cale is hilarious. What can I say: like "father" like "son"? 🤷🏻‍♀️ And this "son" has gotten himself a gramps, too.

“I brought Gragon Gramps so that we can talk about the field trip!”

I still wish there was a bit more personality to the new characters, and a bit more danger in their adventures, though. Just like the last sentence in this book said (not quoted to avoid spoilers), everything is truly handed to Cale on a silver platter.

[₊˚⊹♡ cia ₊˚⊹♡ ia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
the first half of this book i read in like a day but the second half felt like it took me forever, idk if i was just distracted but i had a hard time focusing. not too much happened in the second half, but this volume was definitely building up to the war. the ending though had me intrigued. i hear vol 5&6 have a lot of action, so im excited for those.
i try not to rate these books too hard because i know that this is a 700+ chapter webnovel and from what I heard, the first 200 chapters are merely building up to the “good stuff”, so I should be getting close in the next few volumes. I am having a good time though! Sometimes theres just so many characters it gets a little overwhelming, but i like Cale and Raon a lot and love seeing their interactions.

[vin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hana, you have to be the one to defend yourself.”

“Being alive is what makes you great and mighty.”

GOSH I love Cale!! I love his ever-increasing family members, whom he grudgingly picks up one by one. I love the character dynamics, the misunderstandings, and the comedy. And this volume was so fun to read as the story progresses and Cale finally meets one of the antagonists.

Cale's dream of slacker life in question though...

Cale watched Bassen go with satisfaction, then stood. As he did, Raon materialized out of thin air.
“Human?”
“What?”
“Do you plan to become count?”
“What nonsense is this? Don’t ask me such a terrifying question.”

🤣🤣🤣

[I.M.BookMeIn · Rating 5 out of 5]

High Fantasy, Transmigration, Found Family, Adventure, Comedy, Dragons!
Chapters 123~160 of the web serialisation.
We officially welcome Eruhaben-nim to the crew, the most ancient dragon still alive, aka "Goldie Gramps" (I don't know what the translators were thinking when they came up with "Gragon", but we're sticking with the OG). The combination of the baby dragon and the ancient dragon is true gold.

A round black blob covered Cale’s eyes. It was Raon. “Hey! Gragon!”
Cale wondered for a moment whether he’d heard Raon correctly. Gragon? Is that a combination of “gold” and “dragon”…?
“You can’t stare at my weak human like that! Do you understand what a coward he is?”
[..]
The gold dragon, who hadn’t heard any of that, stared at Raon in disbelief. “He is indeed weak. More importantly, did you say he’s your human? Are you an idiot after all?”

Raon’s wings paused mid-flap again. He looked back at the gold dragon, who’d already called him stupid twice. Would they start fighting now? Cale felt cold, even with the thermal magic surrounding him.

Then Raon smirked. “I’m not an idiot—just very sociable! I’m not a socially awkward gold dragon who doesn’t even know how to shake hands!”

Also, Cale keeps striking gold (I know I'm overusing the word), but this time he didn't scam anyone.

“Stop doing stupid things now, human!” Raon cried, delighted. “Just travel the continent!”
Cale cut him off. “Raon.”
An odd feeling came over Raon. Cale was smiling. Brightly, in fact. “Why’re you grinning like that, human…?”
“I found you a lair,”

He also keeps picking up living-breathing baggage 😂, and looting (because duh)

This volume spans almost a whole year starting from spring until mid-December when Cale accompanies Prince Albert to the Empire to meet one of our biggest antagonists..

Arcs included:
1-The Ancient Dragon Part II
2-The Sun God Twins & Super Rock
3-War Preparations & The New Alliance
4-The Fire of Maple Castle
5-The Battle Against Arm’s First Battle Brigade
6-The Mogor Empire's invitation
7-The Sun Palace Incident Part I

[Caitlin Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Web novel chapters: 123-160

3.5 stars, and the half is for the Mogor Empire visit.

This volume covers meeting the gold dragon Erhaven, Cale gaining his final Ancient Power, the establishment of Cale & Co's base, allying with the Saint Jack and the Saintess Hana of the Empire, the formation of the alliance on the Western Continent to oppose Arm and the Northern Alliance's takeover, the battle against Arm's First Brigade (& Hana's partial revenge), the introduction of the Tiger Tribe, and Cale's visit to the Mogor Empire (with Prince Albert) to destroy the Alchemist's Bell Tower. Also, Cale finds the Divine artifacts for the Sun God and Death God religions. Very interesting backstory on the past saintess.

Thankfully, the repetitiveness of Cale acquiring more and more Ancient Powers is finished for good. He actually shouldn't be able to bare more than two, but he got lucky with the order he obtained them. Like, really lucky. But he needs just one last one to stabilize himself and not die. I can accept that.

I like Erhaven, and especially his relationship with Raon. He's constantly looking at Raon and thinking "why does he act like that? I've never met a dragon that acts like that. But also that's perfect. Now you're my successor." And Raon just pesters him and calls him Gragon Gramps.

I still think the series has a character problem. This is clearly a plot-driven story and not a character-driven one. Side characters like Albert, Ritana, Witira, etc, that are not part of Cale's party are great. My problem is with those within Cale's party, excluding Raon. Raon's relationship with Cale is well fleshed-out, and we get plenty of focus on him for being the main duo with Cale. I love Raon. But the others are just there to fight or do things. They're not that important. I thought Choi Han especially would get more attention, but he hasn't. The main group members all get some attention, but it's not enough, quite frankly. It's all just action or plot scenes, nothing to explore what makes them tick. Maybe that's because it's Cale's POV and he just doesn't care, but still. The cast is just so incredibly bloated as it is, a little depth would do wonders for the story. And I don't think their relationships with each other are developed at all. The side characters are far more interesting at this point.

I don't know. I like Cale and love his interactions with Raon and Albert. I love seeing everybody think of him as some amazing, purehearted guy when we know he's lazy and selfish (he believes that, anyway). The world building is interesting, and I always like getting more details. Plot wise, Cale has made significant preparations for the impending war in the 160 chapters covered so far out of the current web novel total of 1300~ chapters. A lot more is going to happen, and I know a lot of what's going on is still set up for that war that looks like may start next volume. There's just something holding this story back from being better the way I want it to.

[Su · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite volume of the series so far after (or tied with?) volume 1!

We finally get some notable peeks into Cale's changing/growing mindset, as he not only acknowledges that he isn't *just* looking out for himself but also "his people" and, again, can't help but be moved deep in his heart into wanting to help/alleviate the pain or terrible fates of the people he encounters. Perhaps because he, himself (and all the people around him), is starting to acknowledge/gain confidence in the fact that he has legit power, status, and ability to help others/change world events for the better, we see Cale in this volume leaning into that confidence with more willingness to plan and scheme and lay foundations for future developments he wants to move the world toward. Contrary to how you'd expect him to behave (shrinking back in fear) now that he's progressed past the point in time that he's read up to in the books, Cale has quietly seemed to realize he has real ability and enough stakes/care for the people around him and beyond, that he's willing to keep working, planning, and scheming to ensure the best outcomes for his kingdom, allies, friends, and so on.

Another reason I loved this volume (in addition to the fun new character "Gragon Gramps" aka Erhaven, Raon's teacher) is the development in Prince Albert's understanding and liking of Cale. In previous volumes, Cale had already caught his attention/interest and acknowledgement that here was a kindred spirit/equal in terms of wits and scheming that Albert estimated he could probably reliably ally with/use under the right circumstances to help his kingdom. But through certain revelations and further opportunities to work together in this volume, Albert, too, has seemed to have surrendered to the awesomeness of Cale and is surprisingly forward about his favor of Cale. At one point, someone looks at the pair of them together and thinks "that's the future of our kingdom," and I feel the subtext of Albert's actions/attitude is exactly that by the end of this volume. (Poor Cale -- he just wanted to be a count's lazy, lie-about older brother, but he seems to have inadvertently put himself on the path to becoming queen/prince consort of the whole country! XD). ABSOLUTELY loving their relationship, though I'm still Team Choi Han of course.

Speaking of whom -- thankfully, our dear, old CH gets to have a bit more quality time/appreciation from his precious Mister Cale in this volume again. Though as always, everything is more subtle than I (and, I'm sure, Choi Han) would like in terms of their interactions. But Cale's moment of acknowledging that he might *want* to talk about his true self/transmigration experiences with someone (in the scene with the shaman) plus his growing warmth toward others/his found family, makes me hopeful that this extremely platonic story and protagonist may actually let his most devoted follower at least a little closer into his heart/confidence eventually. This volume at least gives me more hope of that than the previous two. Fingers crossed for you, Choi Han!

But meanwhile, the fantasy adventures and engaging political plot continue to be highly entertaining and imaginative. This series is so reliably excellent -- highly recommended to all!

[Aelvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cale's busy laying down the groundwork for the future trouble he knows is coming. With the introduction of a second dragon, various facts come to light---including one that forces Cale to reconsider whether he wants to hunt down another Ancient Power or not. With some unexpected new allies and an increasingly volatile political situation, Cale isn't getting any time to slack off . . .

This is another fun volume. Cale was content with the powers he had, until Erhaven gives him a very good reason to hunt down the earth-based power he's already heard about (and has been avoiding). What's fun is that the plot is starting to move well beyond what Cale could have guessed from the books he read before transmigration. Cale just saw powers that other people weren't using well and decided to pick them up himself. He had no idea there was a history to their original wielders, one that he's uncovering bit by bit. And it's also really funny watching Cale's mere existence baffle an ancient dragon.

I like seeing how life is going on in areas outside Cale's main focus. The war in the Whipper Kingdom (I refuse to call it Kingdom of the Whipper.... c'mon, translators) is progressing, which impacts international concerns. Prince Albert is quickly becoming Cale's go-to for everything troublesome, although Albert can't quite hate Cale for giving him everything he wants. He has a funny comment about Cale somehow outperforming Albert's entire intelligence division, and by now they're comfortable enough with each other to start honestly letting slip their real feelings of annoyance. And in the background, the real war is starting to become visible like a storm on the edge of the horizon.

Overall I'm still having a blast watching Cale try to convince the world that he's actually just trying to stay in bed all day (and his friends are less and less inclined to believe him). Highly Recommended.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story picks up with Cale Henituse, minor nobleman and self-proclaimed lout, and his company meeting another dragon, Lord Erhaven. Although Cale initially feared a confrontation between the older dragon and Cale's young charge, Raon Mir, the former ends up intrigued and decides to accompany the group so he teach pass on his wealth of knowledge to Raon.
That's the most sane occurrence in this fourth volume.
With the Empire and the secrete organization known as Arm stepping up their game and beginning to cause trouble for Rowoon, Cale and co. run around the country meeting allies old and new and scheming to foil their enemies' plans. At this point, Cale's knowledge of the "Birth of a Hero" book series has run dry, so he's on his own -- except for the dragons, sword master, dark elf prince, exiled princess mage, beastfolk, and father-and-son assassins...
This is such a fun series. Yes, Cale could be considered an "overpowered" protagonist (he has several Ancient Powers alone that are pretty handy, never mind his robust entourage), but for me, I enjoy these books for the characters and seeing how Cale flabbergasts everyone around him. Sometimes, the awe and altruism characters feel because of Cale feels corny and contrived, but those instances aren't all that frequent, and Cale's banter with Prince Albert provides the metaphorical bucket of water to the face to offset the facade Cale is unintentionally building.
Reading about Cale and his found family growing closer (and stronger) puts a smile on my face, and given that this is a light novel, I think it's fair to say that's exactly what it's meant to do.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to be enchanted by this series. Each book has so much happen that it's hard to go over it all and I also don't want to spoil anybody. At this point Cale has basically forgotten his decree that he wants to live a lazy life. He's always out here doing the absolute most and manipulating the strings of fate around the country/continent everywhere he goes. We collected a few new members into our party. Erhaven is great and I love him so much. I'm curious about the siblings and wonder what all Cale has planned for them. And finally we got another new family member right at the end of the book which is terrible for me because I am an audiobook reader and there is no mention of when book 5 is coming out (though I suspect next month). Overall an exciting story as always. In the interim I'm going to keep reading the manhwa (though at this point in the novel we are a bit past the manhwa). I find the manhwa to be a great supplementary material to the novel as it lets you see how certain scenes looked as they played out. Also shoutout to the new audiobook narrator in this book. He was excellent and not too different from the previous narrator so it was a seamless transition. I loved his acting and characterization and I can't wait to hear him again in book 5.

[Nitzan Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 Stars

I genuinely love this world and characters so much. Like, Cale Henitus/Kim-Roksoo is one of my top 10 characters of all time. And this volume introduces another favorite of this series - Erhaven! I love our Gold Dragon so much. Raon is proving once again that he is a great and mighty dragon that can melt anyone's heart *squeezes cheeks*

Reading the official translation of this volume felt a lot like reading it for the first time because, honestly, having read the entirety of Part One in the fan translation (~800 chapters of the webnovel), I had forgotten much of what had gone down in those earlier portions.

Like, I had forgotten how Cale ends up recruiting the saint and his sister; I had forgotten the whole masquerading as priests to help the Whipper Kingdom & estinguishing a second wall of fire; I had honestly forgotten how we got the divine items OR the fact that the sound of the wind was instrumental in that. I did remember Cale wreaking havoc on Hais Islands, though 😂

Anyways, I did go ahead and purchase the available remaining volumes because this re-read with the official translation is just so much fun! (minus choosing to call our prince Albert. I am still salty about that one, LOL).

[Periplus Bookshop]

Pada volume keempat ini, Cale Henituse bertemu dengan sekutu baru, yaitu seorang necromancer baik hati, seekor naga emas kuno, dan sepasang orang kudus yang sedang dalam pelarian. Namun, keadaan semakin tegang ketika suku Harimau dari Timur datang, mencari perlindungan dan membalas dendam. Dengan musuh yang menguasai armada kuat, Cale melihat kesempatan emas untuk membalikkan keadaan. Kini, dia harus merencanakan strategi cerdas untuk mengalahkan mereka. Di tengah pertarungan yang melibatkan pasukan darat, laut, dan udara, Cale berusaha untuk keluar sebagai pemenang dalam situasi penuh intrik ini.
https://blog.periplus.com/2025/07/07/...

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I basically read this is one day, it was that good. To be frank, this is more of a build-up arc where not too much happens, but we're introduced to Hana and Jack and Kage comes back into the story. I love Mary and her development where she helped save someone despite needing to be in pain herself to do so. The Tiger shaman makes me laugh with how he acts. The cliffhanger was pretty killer though (even if I already know how everything goes down).

[Nova Marcin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire book felt like a wild rollercoaster from start until finish. Without getting to into any spoilers, there were some big reveals, some absurd meetings, and a lot of "did that really just happen" moments that left me wanting more. I genuinely cant wait for book 5 since I have it at the time of writing this review after waiting a month to finally get it. This series is probably one of my favorites of all time.

[MyDoRyS · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is SO much fun! It has a little bit of everything. I personally don't enjoy politics/military/royalty, but this story is fun even with all of them. Maybe because the major focus is not on them, but on how the MC gets inadvertently involved with them. Looking forward to the next book! On to my next adventure, Happy Readings!!!

[The_BookAce · Rating 4 out of 5]

RAAHHHH I FINISHED

overall this book was a tad slower than the other 3, but that was entirely my own fault for taking a while 😅 things are ramping up, and I can’t wait.

Plus we got another cat not, so there’s that

[Hannah (Fully Booked Penguin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a comfort series for me. We go from one part of the adventure to the next, picking up new friends and cycling through the rest of the crew.
Cale just can't catch a break, i.e. a holiday, but it makes for fun reading!

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still not always sure what Cale is thinking, but the story continues to entertain, and several interesting developments happened here.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.75/5.00 Stars

[Elmax · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still a wild ride and always so entertaining

[Nad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it so much… I’m now in dilemma whether to wait or continue with the fantranslation…. The cliffhanger this time is very intriguing!!!

[Yuan Sys · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a fun volume T_T i was trying to push reading this off because 5th vol hasnt been released yet but ugh i couldnt help it, I guess this is where I start waiting or reading online

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jacquie Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little more gritty as Cale fights with his found family to stop the coming war, or at least put his people in a position to win

[Caris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series makes me smile

[Sarah Mimande Mimande · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing as always, love this series and this author!

[【K】 · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was hard to put down

[Citybones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigue siendo una serie confort. Avanzamos ligeramente el plot, Cale es un badass que consigue más poder y dinero y los malos pierden. Lo que necesito para desconectar en el bus.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, it's interesting to read Cale's adventure 😆

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it when scammer Cale and his loyal baby dragon are in action LMAO. Raon and Eruhaben's (Erhaven) dynamic is both sweet and funny.

[Lenka · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's just getting better and I can't wait for the next one! 🥰