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 the

cloth had a map of

edge villages of the ten precincts of the

had turned black as well as the current

the

of the

precincts, including precinct 9, had red marks

are the regions where the dead mana rain clouds

Clunk. Clunk.

window was still shaking

recorded the entire map

rain cloud started in precinct 9 but has started to

out

the sky pretty well because they were in a

the black mages were working

cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

know about this when it

Imperial Princess's

is a bit

was a

the Church didn't tell you about

head so that it would not be noticed by others

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

to look at the

looking at the Second Imperial Princess as

reporting the issue to the Imperial Palace on a

already knows

“Yes ma’am.”

Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince and then the Fourth Imperial

Cale did the same.

there without any expression on his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the Fourth Imperial Prince had his fists clenched and

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess

lot of people

mumbled before looking back at

the rain clouds to appear

However, the rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten precincts so far and the rain

heard

“...That’s odd.”

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

in a nonchalant

like someone is controlling the rain

a lot of people heard his voice as he

it is

hearing a voice behind

Margrave was coming back

Plop. Plop.

and the wind

that was slightly grey beyond

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

the

Margrave in charge

a Marquis of the

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

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this man he received

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

loyalty was deep not to the Emperor but to the

that he would not treat

‘He’s a fitting character.’

perfect as a test

had sent a

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

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

the pain he felt losing his family

known by everybody in the

‘Mm.’

groan after

< P.S. >

had added something as

reference, the Margrave's grandfather had a

He was a hidden

former Margrave was

is aware of that

course, the Margrave is

his

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

Human, why are you smiling like

ignored Raon’s comment and watched as

“Is that our mission?”

peeked toward Zero after hearing the loosely asked question and

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

is a success if we

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

the Margrave another

rid of the cause? Do we get first

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

you’ll be first

the room instantly

people who had been anxious because of the rain

looking at each other warily or deep in

Marquis calmly

you don’t

air sank cold once

be familiar with dead mana. You all have that great and mighty power. However, it

pointed

pointing past

can survive through just because you are familiar with dead

smile appeared on the Marquis’

you

Boom.

stomped

areas to strategize with your teams and all necessary information will be delivered to

he looked

who had stepped

name is

Prince opened

determined the aides for

did

up

only

was silently looking at Mary but turned

That Margrave was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze

opened his mouth once

will start tomorrow! You will have

soldier or a

if they

“You are dismissed!”

left the area first without any

a year and they want us to take care of it

his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is going

grumbled

“Tsk.”

they were foolish

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at that

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned his gaze