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 the

of

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

turned black

are the red

of the

of the precincts, including precinct

regions where the dead

Clunk. Clunk.

window was still

the entire

started in precinct 9 but has started to

looked out the

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

that the black mages were

cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were slowly

we not know about this when it happened

Second Imperial Princess's voice was

This is a

year was a

Church didn't tell you

that it would not be noticed

months ago but

to look

looking at the Second

to the Imperial Palace on a regular

Imperial Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

any expression on his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial

“Ha!”

Second Imperial Princess

guess there are a lot of people who

mumbled before looking back

be weird for the rain clouds to

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

then heard

“...That’s odd.”

Why does it only rain in these

in a nonchalant

is

voice as he spoke

it

hearing a voice behind

was coming back

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and

could see the blue sky that was slightly

colors started separate from each other but the blue sky was slowly dyed

the rain clouds were

charge of Precinct

Helson was a

the wall

Marquis Helson.

information about this man he received

has been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations. He has a strong

was deep not to the Emperor but to the

meant that he would not treat the Imperial family

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

a letter

does not have a family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis, met his death fighting against dead

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

pain he felt losing his family and is determined to give his life fighting

be known by everybody in

‘Mm.’

after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

priest had added something

had a secret relationship with our Fire

He was a hidden believer.

former Margrave was a secret

Margrave is aware of that fact

the Margrave

his grandfather's

being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because they had hidden believers all

why are you smiling like

Raon’s comment and watched as Zero

“Is that our mission?”

Zero after hearing

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

mission is a success if we

“That’s right.”

smile appeared on Zero's

the Margrave

also get rid of the cause?

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be first place

in the room instantly

anxious because of the rain

at each other warily or deep in

calmly spoke

you don’t die, that

sank cold once

all have that great and mighty power.

pointed out

pointing past

somewhere you can survive through just because you are

smile appeared

that if you wish

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

be given areas to strategize with your teams and all

looked at the aide

who had stepped up was

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

Prince opened

the aides

did so,

looked up

only for an

was silently looking at Mary but turned away after

was looking at Mary with such

Margrave opened his

tomorrow! You will have

a soldier

the candidates equally as if they were his subordinates who needed

“You are dismissed!”

area first without any

They couldn’t even find any clue in half a year and they want us

his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

this is going to

subordinates grumbled as

“Tsk.”

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

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at

Clunk--!

turned his