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 the

cloth had a map of the western part of

will be able to see the edge villages of the ten

could see the areas of the Empire that had turned black as well as the

the red

the candidates

precinct 9, had red

regions where the dead mana

Clunk. Clunk.

window was still

entire

9 but has started to appear in other precincts

looked out

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

that the black mages were

rain cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

about this

Imperial Princess's voice

is a bit

a year was a pretty long

tell you about

so that it would not be

happened six months ago but nobody

turned to look

the Second

to the Imperial Palace on a regular basis, your Royal

Imperial Palace already knows

“Yes ma’am.”

the First

Cale did the same.

standing there without any expression on his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial

“Ha!”

Second Imperial Princess scoffed

lot

looking

would not be weird for the rain clouds

However, the rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten precincts so

heard

“...That’s odd.”

as Mary mentioned! Why does it

in a

sounds like someone is controlling the

lot of people heard his voice as he

is why it is

after hearing a voice behind

was coming back

Plop. Plop.

and the wind was no

the blue sky that was slightly grey

but the blue sky was slowly dyed by

a year ago that the rain clouds

Margrave in charge of Precinct

a Marquis of

is why we sent people multiple times past the wall to investigate

Marquis Helson.

to recall information about this man he

been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations. He has

not to the Emperor but to the

meant that he would not treat the Imperial

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

had sent a letter through

a family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis, met his death fighting against

mid-thirties but did not marry despite being a

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

be known by everybody in the

‘Mm.’

a groan after recalling

< P.S. >

old priest had added something

reference, the Margrave's grandfather had a secret relationship with our Fire of Purification.

He was a hidden

was a

Margrave is aware

course, the Margrave is not

He is just keeping his grandfather's secret tightly

called heretics and treated as a cult, but

Human, why are you smiling like

watched as

“Is that our mission?”

Zero after hearing the loosely

The five teams with three members and one team with four members will all put finding the source of this dead mana rain cloud as top

mission is a success if we simply

“That’s right.”

appeared on Zero's

asked the Margrave another

rid of the cause? Do we get

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be first

the room

of the rain cloud

looking at each other warily or

calmly spoke

don’t

heated air sank cold once

of the candidates here should be familiar with dead mana. You all have that great and mighty power. However, it will benefit you to remember

pointed

was pointing past

somewhere you can survive through just because you are familiar

appeared

if you

Boom.

stomped

candidates to their lodgings! You will be given areas to strategize with

eyes clouded over as he looked at the

who had stepped up

is Eaen and I am

Prince opened his

aides for

did

up toward the

only for an

looking at Mary

Mary with such a fierce gaze until he

his

mission will start tomorrow! You

like a soldier or a knight than

the candidates equally as if they were his subordinates who needed to complete the

“You are dismissed!”

area first without

in half a year and they want us to take

his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

this is

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

them as if they were foolish before giving

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned his gaze