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 the western

be able to see the edge villages of the ten precincts of the

that had turned black as well as the

are the

of the candidates

of the precincts, including precinct 9, had red

the dead mana rain

Clunk. Clunk.

was still

the entire

started in precinct 9 but has started

looked out the

they were in a high spot in the castle. The half-transparent black shield

proof that the black mages were working

first rain cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were slowly

not know about this when it happened half a year

Imperial Princess's voice was

This is a

a year was a pretty

didn't tell you about

nodded his head so that it would

ago but nobody in the Empire’s capital knows about

to look at

Second Imperial Princess as

been reporting the issue to the Imperial Palace on a regular basis,

Imperial Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

Second Imperial Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince and then the Fourth

Cale did the same.

his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial Prince had his fists clenched and

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess

there are a lot

before looking

be weird for the rain clouds to

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

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

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

spoke in

sounds like someone is controlling

lot of people heard his voice as he spoke during

why it is the

after hearing a voice behind

Margrave was

Plop. Plop.

rain had almost ended and the wind was no longer

blue sky that

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

ago that the rain

Margrave in charge of Precinct

a Marquis

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

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this man he received from

of the Empire for

loyalty was deep not to the

not treat the Imperial

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as

sent a letter through

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

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

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

be known by everybody in

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

old priest had added something

a

was a

was a secret

is aware of that fact as well.

course, the Margrave is not

He is just keeping his grandfather's secret tightly

called heretics and treated as

Human, why are you

Raon’s comment and watched

“Is that our mission?”

hearing

five teams with three members and one team with four members will all put

mean the mission is a success if we simply find the

“That’s right.”

twisted smile appeared on Zero's

the Margrave

if we also get rid of

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be

in the room instantly

of the rain cloud

each other warily or deep

calmly spoke

don’t die,

sank cold

familiar with dead mana. You all have that great and

pointed

pointing past the

you can survive through just because you are

smile appeared on the

if you wish to

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

areas to strategize with your teams

he looked at the aide heading over

who had stepped up was

you, everyone. My name is Eaen and I am the

Fourth Imperial Prince

aides for the

did so,

looked up

was only for an

silently looking at Mary but turned away

with such a fierce

his mouth once

will start tomorrow! You will have one

Marquis seemed more like a soldier or a knight than a

treated all of the candidates equally as if they

“You are dismissed!”

the area

year and they want us to take care

his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is

subordinates grumbled

“Tsk.”

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

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned his