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

map of

see the edge villages of the ten precincts of the west on

turned black as well as the current

are the

of the candidates

precincts, including precinct 9, had

regions where the dead mana rain

Clunk. Clunk.

window was

entire map in his

9 but has started

out

sky pretty well because they were in a

proof that the black mages were working

appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

were

know about this when it

Second Imperial Princess's voice was

This is a

was a

Cale, the Church didn't tell you

would not be noticed

happened six months ago but

look at

Second Imperial Princess as she

to the Imperial Palace on a regular basis, your

Palace already

“Yes ma’am.”

the First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial

“Ha!”

Princess

guess there are a lot of people

looking

not be weird for the rain clouds to appear

your Royal Highness. However, the rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten precincts so far and the rain only falls in

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

weird as Mary mentioned! Why does it only

in a

sounds like someone is controlling the rain

heard his voice as he spoke during a silent

why it is the

hearing

Margrave was coming

Plop. Plop.

and the wind was

sky that was slightly grey

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

ago that the rain clouds were not a natural

in charge of

was a Marquis of

multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this

and is from a Margrave family that has been protecting the western part of

not to the Emperor but to the

that he would not treat the Imperial

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as a test

priest Durst had sent a letter

member, his grandfather the former Marquis,

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

Margrave didn't want another family to feel the pain he felt losing his family and is determined

to be known by

‘Mm.’

back a groan after

< P.S. >

priest had added something

the Margrave's grandfather had a

He was a hidden

was a secret

is aware

Margrave

just keeping his grandfather's

heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to

why are you smiling like

ignored Raon’s comment and watched as Zero took a step

“Is that our mission?”

peeked toward Zero after hearing the loosely asked question

right. The five teams with three members and one team with four members will all put finding

the mission is a success if we

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

asked the Margrave another

if we also get rid of the cause? Do we get first

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

be

in the room

because of

were looking at each other

calmly spoke

you don’t

heated air sank cold

all have that great and mighty power. However, it

pointed out the

pointing past the

dead land is not somewhere you can survive through just because you are familiar with dead

thick smile appeared

if you

Boom.

stomped his

aides guide your respective candidates to their lodgings! You will be given areas to strategize with your teams and all necessary information will be delivered

clouded over as he looked at the aide

stepped up was approaching

My name is Eaen and I am the top

Imperial Prince opened his

aides for

Marquis-nim did so,

up toward

was only for

at Mary but turned away after noticing

with such a fierce gaze until he turned his

his mouth once

will start tomorrow!

more like a soldier or a knight than

as if they were his subordinates who needed to complete

“You are dismissed!”

area first without

any clue in half a year and they

shrugged his shoulders

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

Haaa, this is

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

looked at them as if they were foolish before giving the top

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at

Clunk--!

Fourth Imperial Prince turned his gaze and