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

of the western part of

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

areas of the Empire that had turned black as

are the red

the

the precincts, including precinct

the dead

Clunk. Clunk.

was

recorded the entire map in

started in precinct 9 but has started to

out the

in the sky pretty well because they were in a high spot in the castle. The half-transparent black shield was repeatedly

that the black mages were

first rain cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

were slowly

we not know about this when it happened half a

Princess's voice was louder

This is

a year was a pretty

didn't tell you about this

his head so that it would not be noticed by others

this big happened six months ago but nobody in the Empire’s capital knows about

to look

was looking at the Second Imperial Princess

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

Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

looked at the First Imperial Prince and then the

Cale did the same.

his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial Prince had his fists clenched and was avoiding the Second Imperial Princess's

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

are a lot of people who knew about

before looking back

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

then heard

“...That’s odd.”

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

spoke in

someone is controlling the

his voice as he spoke

why it is

hearing a voice

was coming

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and

see the blue sky that was slightly grey beyond

The two colors started separate from each other but the blue sky

a year ago that the rain clouds were

Margrave in charge of Precinct

was a Marquis

why we sent people multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause

Marquis Helson.

this

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

to the Emperor but to the

he would not

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

a letter through the

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

mid-thirties but did not marry

want another family to feel the pain he felt losing his family and is determined to give his life fighting

be known

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

had added something

had a secret

He was a hidden believer.

former Margrave was a

current Margrave is aware of that fact as well.

Margrave is not

keeping his grandfather's

lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult,

are you

comment and watched as Zero took a step

“Is that our mission?”

Marquis peeked toward Zero after hearing the loosely asked question and

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

that mean the mission is a success if we simply find the

“That’s right.”

appeared on Zero's

the Margrave another

get rid of the cause?

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

you’ll be first place

in the

because of the

looking at each

calmly

you don’t

air sank cold

all have that great and mighty power. However, it will benefit

pointed out the

was pointing

survive through just because you are familiar

appeared on the

that if you

Boom.

Marquis stomped

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

looked

who had stepped

everyone. My name is Eaen and I am the

Prince opened

determined the aides for the

did

up toward the

was only for an

was silently looking at Mary but turned away after

looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned his

Margrave opened his mouth once

will start tomorrow! You will have

a soldier or a knight than a

as if they

“You are dismissed!”

the area first without

clue in half a year and they

his shoulders

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is going to be

grumbled

“Tsk.”

as if they were foolish before giving the top

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

turned his