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

a map of the western part of

villages of

the Empire that had turned black as well as the current boundary of

are the red

the

of the precincts, including precinct 9, had

where the dead mana rain

Clunk. Clunk.

was still shaking

recorded the entire map in

9 but has started to appear in other

looked out the

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

that the

rain cloud appeared half a year

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

did we not know about this when it happened

Imperial Princess's voice was louder

true. This is a

a year was a pretty

the Church didn't tell you about this

slightly nodded his head so that it would not be noticed by others after hearing Eruhaben's

months ago but nobody

turned to look at the

the Second Imperial

Imperial

Imperial Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

Imperial Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

guess there are a lot of people who

mumbled before looking back

for the rain clouds to appear anywhere on the

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

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

Mary mentioned! Why does it

in a nonchalant

someone is controlling

people heard his voice as he spoke

why it is

turned after hearing a

was coming

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and the wind was no

could see the blue sky that was slightly grey

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

ago that the rain clouds were not

in charge of Precinct

a Marquis of the

people multiple times past the wall to

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this

western part of the Empire for generations. He has a strong Knights Brigade

loyalty was deep not to the Emperor but to

meant that he would not treat

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as a test

Durst had sent a letter through the

family member, his grandfather the former Marquis,

mid-thirties but did not marry despite

felt losing his family and is determined to

said to be known by everybody in

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

had added something

had a secret

a hidden

was

For reference, the current Margrave is aware of that fact as well.

Margrave is not a

his

a lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because they had hidden believers

Human, why are you smiling like

Raon’s comment and watched

“Is that our mission?”

Marquis peeked toward Zero after hearing

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

mission is a success if we simply

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

the Margrave

get rid of the cause? Do we

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

be first

air in the room

anxious because of the rain cloud

at each

calmly spoke

you don’t die,

sank cold once

with dead mana. You all have that great and

pointed out

finger was pointing

is not somewhere you can survive through just

thick smile appeared on

if you

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

will be given areas to strategize

over as he looked

aide who had stepped up

everyone. My name is Eaen

Imperial Prince

determined the aides for the

did

looked up toward

only for

silently looking at Mary

Margrave was looking at Mary with

opened his mouth

mission will start tomorrow! You will have

more like a soldier or a knight than

if they were

“You are dismissed!”

the area first without

find any clue in half a year and they want us to take care of it

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

this is going to

grumbled

“Tsk.”

Noi looked at them as if they

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at that

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned his gaze