Trash of the Count's Family

TCF2-22

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

The black rain was as thick as the unexpected rainfall in the middle of summer.

Clunk. Clunk.

It also brought gusts of wind with it.

“The edge precinct black mages truly are skilled~”

Cale turned his head after hearing the melodious mumbling.

‘He’s smiling?’

The mercenary with disheveled hair was smiling while looking out the window. That made Cale think about his suspicions.

‘Is this bastard really a member of the Agents of Destruction?’

There were not many reasons to send a subordinate out of the capital no matter how many times Cale thought about it.

‘Hmm?’

Cale turned toward the Fourth Imperial Prince who was standing past Zero.

‘As expected, the trash demeanor is just an act.’

The Fourth Imperial Prince, who was looking out the window with quite a serious gaze, had both of his fists clenched. It was only for an instant, but he even cursed under his breath as if he was holding back his anger.

- Human! Will our team be okay? One was smiling like a fool before turning serious while the other was angry but suddenly chuckles and pretends to laugh!

As Raon mentioned, the two candidates had quickly hid their emotions.

‘The two of their emotions aren't the issue right now.’

Cale looked away from the two of them and looked outside.

Swooooooosh-

The black rain mixed with the wind and turned into something like a small storm.

And that storm-

Baaaaaang!

Slammed into the shield.

Crack.

A portion of the shield broke.

"Will this be okay?!”

One of the candidates became shocked and almost shouted to an aide to ask.

One of the aides stepped forward.

‘That person is the one who was speaking to the Margrave.’

Cale recalled that this was the last aide to speak to the Margrave before the Margrave left.

“Please don’t worry. There are over one hundred black mages in Precinct 9. In addition, they are all at least at the middle-grade level.”

The aide’s face was stiff despite telling them not to worry.

“This level of rain cloud is not enough to destroy it.”

The candidate who asked the question seemed a bit relieved after hearing the aide’s confident remarks, but Cale had a thought after hearing the answer.

‘What if it gets past this level of rain cloud?

Then what happens?

Will the shield break?’

Cale heard someone who had the same question as himself.

“Are there instances where it gets worse than this level of rain cloud?”

It was the Second Imperial Princess.

‘Hmm.’

The Second Imperial Princess had formed a team with two candidates who did not stand out much.

‘The team is set up so that the Second Imperial Princess would shine the most if they do their mission well.’

The aide closed her mouth for a moment at the Second Imperial Princess as Cale quickly came up with that assessment.

The rest of the candidates and their subordinates all turned toward her.

Clunk. Clunk.

The wind that seemed to be getting worse was slamming against the window.

Thankfully, there was no black rain hitting the window.

“Currently.”

The aide pushed up her glasses a bit as she responded.

“Currently, there are no rain clouds stronger than this.”

“...It sounds like there will be in the future?”

The aide sighed at the Second Imperial Princess's scary gaze.

“The rain clouds have slowly gotten stronger since the dead mana rain clouds first appeared, your Royal Highness.”

“Mm.”

Someone groaned.

"And the amount of time in between each instance of rain cloud has been getting shorter.”

“Is it impossible to determine the cycle of the rain cloud?”

“Yes, your Royal Highness.”

The Second Imperial Princess looked up at the ceiling for a bit before asking.

“What exactly is this rain? I've never seen something like this before.”

This was also Cale’s first time hearing about this.

‘This is different from the erosion methods the Church told me about.’

There were multiple methods of dead mana erosion spreading throughout Xiaolen, but there were some common symptoms.

‘The ground slowly turns black.

Or liquefied dead mana shoots up from underground in places where the foundation has lost strength.

Finally, river water polluted by dead mana flows down and erodes other pieces of land.

I’ve never heard of it being through rain clouds.’

The eroded lands did have dead mana fog but it was not something that moved.

“The Margrave should be explaining this for all of you, but I will give a short explanation because of the current situation.”

The aide walked toward a wall without a window.

Cale could see a long cloth that resembled a curtain on the wall.

The aide pulled at the cloth.

Chhhhhh-

“It's a map.”

a map of

a map of the

the edge villages of the ten

the areas of the Empire that had turned black as

are the

of the candidates

precincts, including precinct 9,

where the dead mana rain clouds

Clunk. Clunk.

window was

recorded the entire map in

rain cloud started in precinct 9 but has started

out the

the sky pretty well because they were in a high spot in the castle. The half-transparent black shield

was proof that the

first rain cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were slowly

this when it happened half a

Imperial Princess's voice was

is a

was

tell you about

nodded his head so that it would not be noticed by others after

big happened six months ago but nobody

look

the Second Imperial Princess as she

issue to the Imperial Palace on

already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

looked at the First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

still standing there without any expression on his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial Prince had his fists clenched and was avoiding the Second Imperial

“Ha!”

Princess

there are a lot of people who knew about

before looking back at

rain

left the ten precincts so far and the rain only falls in these

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

Mary mentioned! Why does it only rain in these precincts before

in a nonchalant

is controlling the

lot of people heard his voice as he spoke during a

why it

turned after hearing

Margrave was coming back

Plop. Plop.

rain had almost ended and the

the blue sky that was

sky... The two colors started separate from each other but

determined half a year ago that the rain

Margrave in charge of Precinct

Helson was a Marquis

past the wall to investigate the cause but we

Marquis Helson.

recall information about this man

loathes politics and is from a Margrave family that has been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations. He has a strong Knights Brigade and his loyalty to the

to

would not treat the

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as

Durst had sent a letter through the

have a family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis,

Margrave was past his mid-thirties but did not marry despite being

feel the pain he felt losing his family and is determined to give his life

said to be known by everybody in

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

old priest had added something as

reference, the Margrave's grandfather had a secret relationship

a

former Margrave was

the current Margrave is aware

Margrave is

He is just keeping his grandfather's secret tightly hidden.

a lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because they had hidden believers

Human, why are you smiling

comment and watched as Zero took a

“Is that our mission?”

after hearing the loosely

with four members will all put finding the source of this dead mana rain cloud as top

a success if

“That’s right.”

smile appeared on Zero's

asked the Margrave another

we also get rid of the cause?

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

you’ll be first place

in the room

people who had been anxious because of the rain

looking at each

Marquis calmly

don’t

sank

the candidates here should be familiar with dead mana. You all have that

Marquis pointed out the

was pointing

can survive

thick smile appeared on

that if you

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

given areas to strategize with your teams and all necessary information will be delivered to

looked at the

who had stepped up was

to meet you, everyone. My name is Eaen and I

Prince opened

determined the aides for

did so,

up toward the

was only

was silently looking at Mary but turned away after noticing

Human! That Margrave was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned

his mouth once

start tomorrow! You will have

Marquis seemed more like a soldier or a knight than a

as if they were his

“You are dismissed!”

area first without

clue in half a year and they

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

Haaa, this is going

grumbled

“Tsk.”

them as if they were foolish before giving the top aide, Eaen,

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned