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

of the western

edge villages of the

could see the areas of the Empire that had turned black

are the

of the candidates

of the precincts, including precinct 9, had red marks on

regions where the dead mana

Clunk. Clunk.

window was

recorded the entire map in

but has started to appear in other precincts as

looked out the

the shield in the sky pretty well because they were in a high spot in the

the

first rain cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

did we not know about this

Princess's voice

is

year was a pretty long

Church didn't tell you about this either,

his head so that it would not be

happened six months ago but

to look at the

looking at the Second Imperial Princess as

to the Imperial

already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

at the First Imperial Prince and then the Fourth

Cale did the same.

as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

guess there are a lot of

before looking

be weird for the rain clouds to appear

have not left the ten precincts so far and the rain only falls in these areas before

heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

does it only rain in these precincts

in

like someone is controlling the rain

heard his voice as he spoke during a silent

it

turned after hearing a

Margrave was

Plop. Plop.

had almost ended and the wind was no longer

that was slightly

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

charge of

a Marquis of

people multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause but

Marquis Helson.

to recall information about this

Helson. He loathes politics and is from a Margrave family that has been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations. He has

loyalty was deep not to

not

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as a

Durst had sent a letter through the team

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

current Margrave was past his mid-thirties but did not

the pain he felt losing his family and is determined to

be known by everybody

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling

< P.S. >

priest had added something

had a

He was a hidden

was a secret

the current Margrave is

course, the Margrave

just keeping his grandfather's secret

of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because

are you smiling like

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

“Is that our mission?”

after hearing the loosely asked question

members and one team with four members will all put finding the source of this dead mana rain cloud as

a

“That’s right.”

smile appeared on Zero's

the Margrave

also get rid of the cause? Do we

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

be

in the room instantly

who had been anxious because of the rain cloud were

at each other warily or deep

calmly

don’t die,

heated air sank cold once

candidates here should be familiar with dead mana. You all have that great and mighty power.

pointed out

was pointing

somewhere you can survive through just because you are

appeared on

that if you wish to

Boom.

Marquis stomped

aides guide your respective candidates to their lodgings! You will be given areas

looked at the aide

who had stepped up was

My name is Eaen and I

Imperial Prince opened

determined the aides for the

Marquis-nim did

looked up toward the

was only

looking at Mary but turned away after

Human! That Margrave was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned

opened his mouth once

tomorrow! You will

more like a soldier or a knight than

all of the candidates equally as if they were

“You are dismissed!”

left the area

year and they want us

shrugged his shoulders

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

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

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned his gaze