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

map of the

the edge villages of the ten precincts of the west on

could see the areas of the Empire that had turned black as well as the current

the red

the candidates

precincts, including precinct 9, had red marks on

are the regions where the dead mana rain

Clunk. Clunk.

was

the entire map in

rain cloud started in precinct 9 but has started

looked out

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

that the black mages were working

cloud appeared half a year

Plop. Plop.

were slowly

did we not know about this when it

Princess's voice

true. This is a

year was a

Cale, the Church didn't tell you about this

it would not be noticed by others after hearing Eruhaben's

six months ago but nobody in the Empire’s capital

to look at the

the Second Imperial Princess as

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

Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Second Imperial Princess scoffed

a lot of people who knew

before looking back

the rain clouds to appear

thankfully have not left the

heard

“...That’s odd.”

does it

spoke in a

someone is controlling the

voice as

why it

hearing

was

Plop. Plop.

almost ended and the wind was

sky that was slightly grey

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

year ago that the rain clouds were

Margrave in charge of

was a Marquis of

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

Marquis Helson.

about this man he received from

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

not to the Emperor

that he would not treat

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

Durst had sent a letter through the

not have a family. His only family member, his

mid-thirties but did not marry despite

to feel the pain he felt losing his family and

known by everybody in the

‘Mm.’

held back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

had added

a secret relationship with our Fire of Purification.

was a hidden believer.

former Margrave was a secret

the current Margrave is

Margrave is not a believer.

keeping his grandfather's secret

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

Human, why are you smiling like

Raon’s comment and watched as Zero

“Is that our mission?”

hearing the loosely asked

team with four members will all put finding the source of this dead mana rain

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

“That’s right.”

appeared on Zero's

the Margrave

of the cause?

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

be

air in the

of the rain cloud were now

candidates were looking at each other warily or deep in

calmly

don’t die, that

air sank cold

all have that great and mighty power. However,

Marquis pointed out

pointing

land is not somewhere you can survive through just because you are

smile appeared

you

Boom.

stomped

be given areas to strategize

he looked at the aide heading over toward

stepped up was

name is Eaen

Imperial Prince opened his

aides

did so,

looked up toward

only for

silently looking at Mary but turned away after noticing Cale’s

looking at Mary with such a

his

will start tomorrow! You

soldier or

all of the candidates equally as if

“You are dismissed!”

area first

even 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!”

is going to

subordinates grumbled as

“Tsk.”

at them as if they were

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at

Clunk--!

turned his gaze