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 of

cloth had a map of

the edge villages of the ten precincts of the west on

could see the areas of the Empire that had turned

the

of the

precincts, including precinct 9, had

the dead mana

Clunk. Clunk.

window was

recorded the entire map in

9 but has started to

out

because they were in a high spot in

that the black

rain cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

were

know about this when it

Princess's voice was

is a

year was

the Church didn't tell you

slightly nodded his head so that it would

ago but nobody in

look

the Second Imperial Princess as she

to the Imperial Palace on a regular basis, your

already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

the First Imperial Prince and then the

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Second Imperial Princess scoffed

are a lot of people

mumbled before looking back at

for the rain clouds to

rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten precincts so

heard

“...That’s odd.”

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

spoke in a

someone is controlling the

of people heard his voice as he spoke during

is why it

turned after hearing a voice

was

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and the wind

could see the blue sky that was slightly grey beyond

started separate from each other but the blue sky

ago that the rain clouds were not

in charge

a Marquis

we sent people multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause but we haven't

Marquis Helson.

to recall information about this man

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

not treat the Imperial

‘He’s a fitting character.’

perfect as a

a

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

current Margrave was past his mid-thirties but

he felt losing his family and is determined to give his

known by everybody in

‘Mm.’

after

< P.S. >

priest had added something

reference, the Margrave's grandfather had a

He was a hidden

Margrave was a

the current Margrave is aware of that fact

the Margrave is

is just keeping his grandfather's secret

power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it

Human, why are you smiling

Raon’s comment and watched as

“Is that our mission?”

after hearing the loosely

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

that mean the mission is a success if we

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

the Margrave

we also get rid of the cause? Do we

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

you’ll be first

in the room

who had been anxious because of

looking at each other

calmly spoke

you don’t die, that

heated air sank cold once

mana. You all have that great and

pointed out the

was pointing past the

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

appeared on the Marquis’

you wish

Boom.

stomped

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

eyes clouded over as he looked at the aide

had stepped

everyone. My name is Eaen and I am the top

Imperial Prince opened

aides for the

did

up toward

only for

looking at Mary

was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze

Margrave opened his

start tomorrow!

Marquis seemed more like a soldier or a knight than

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

“You are dismissed!”

the area first

year and they want us to take care of it in

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

Haaa, this is going

subordinates grumbled as

“Tsk.”

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

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned his