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.”

map

had a map of the western part of

edge villages of the

the areas of the Empire that had turned black as well as the current boundary of the

the red

of the

of the precincts, including precinct 9, had

the regions where the dead

Clunk. Clunk.

was still shaking

recorded the entire

started in precinct 9 but has started to appear in

looked out

well because they were in a high spot in

the black mages were working

cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

did we not know about this

Second Imperial Princess's

This is

a year was a pretty long

didn't tell you

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

big happened six months ago but nobody in

to look at

the Second Imperial Princess

Imperial Palace on a regular

already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

First Imperial Prince and then the Fourth Imperial

Cale did the same.

there without any expression on his face as if he was an ice

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

guess there are a lot of people who knew about

looking

weird for the rain clouds to appear anywhere on the

not left the ten precincts so far and

heard

“...That’s odd.”

Why does it only rain in these precincts

spoke in a nonchalant

sounds like someone is controlling the rain

a lot of people heard his voice

it

turned after hearing a voice

was

Plop. Plop.

ended and the

sky that was slightly grey beyond the

blue sky... The two colors started separate from each other but the blue sky was slowly dyed by the grey color that spread like

year ago that the rain clouds were not a natural

charge of Precinct

Helson was a

sent people multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this

has been protecting the western part of the

deep not to

would not treat

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as a test

had sent a letter through

current Margrave does not have a family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis, met his death fighting

was past his mid-thirties but did not marry

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

known by

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a

< P.S. >

priest had added

For reference, the Margrave's grandfather had a secret relationship with our Fire

was a

was

current Margrave is aware of

course, the Margrave is not

is just keeping his grandfather's secret tightly hidden.

had been thinking that the Church had a lot of power despite being called heretics and treated

Human, why are you smiling like

watched

“Is that our mission?”

Marquis peeked toward Zero after hearing

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

a success if

“That’s right.”

smile appeared on

asked the Margrave

rid of the cause? Do we get

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be

air in the

people who had been anxious because of the rain cloud were

looking at each

Marquis calmly spoke

don’t

heated air sank cold

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

Marquis pointed

pointing

survive through just because you are

smile appeared on the

that if you

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

You will be given areas

as he looked

had stepped up was approaching

My name is Eaen and I

Prince opened his

the aides

did

looked up

only for an

Marquis was silently looking at Mary but turned

at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned

Margrave opened his mouth once

tomorrow! You will have

Marquis seemed more like a soldier or a knight

equally as if they were his subordinates who needed to

“You are dismissed!”

the area first without

a year and they want

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is going to

subordinates grumbled as

“Tsk.”

Noi looked at them as if they

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at that

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned