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

villages of the ten precincts of the

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

are the

of the candidates

the precincts, including precinct 9, had red

regions where the dead mana rain

Clunk. Clunk.

window was still

the entire map

started in precinct 9 but has started to appear in

out the

a high spot in the castle. The half-transparent black shield was

that the black mages were

appeared half a year

Plop. Plop.

were slowly

not know about this when

Second Imperial Princess's voice

is a bit

was

tell you about this either,

nodded his head so that it would not be

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

look at

was looking at the Second Imperial Princess as she

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

Imperial Palace already

“Yes ma’am.”

at the First Imperial Prince and then the

Cale did the same.

as if he was an ice sculpture

“Ha!”

Princess scoffed

are a lot of people who knew

mumbled before looking back at

not be weird for the rain clouds to

the rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten

then heard

“...That’s odd.”

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

in a

someone is controlling the rain

his voice as he spoke during a

is why it is

after hearing a voice behind

Margrave was coming back

Plop. Plop.

rain had almost ended and the wind was no longer

sky that was slightly

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

a year ago that the rain clouds were

Margrave in charge

was a Marquis of the

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

Marquis Helson.

this man he received from the

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

was deep not to the Emperor but to

that he would not treat the Imperial family

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

a letter through the team

a family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis, met his death fighting against dead mana.

past his mid-thirties but did not marry despite being

felt losing his family and is

was said to be known by everybody

‘Mm.’

groan after recalling a

< P.S. >

priest had

a secret relationship with our Fire of

a hidden believer.

was a secret

is aware of that

Margrave is

is just keeping his

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

are

comment and watched as

“Is that our mission?”

after hearing the loosely

teams with three members and one 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

asked the Margrave another

we also get rid of the cause? Do

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

be first place

the

been anxious because of the rain cloud

were looking at each other warily

Marquis calmly

don’t

air sank

should be familiar with dead mana. You all have that

Marquis pointed out

pointing

can survive through just because you are familiar with dead

smile appeared on the

you wish to

Boom.

Marquis stomped

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

clouded over as he looked

had stepped

is Eaen and I am

Prince opened

aides

did

up toward the

only for

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

That Margrave was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until

Margrave opened his mouth

tomorrow! You

more like a soldier or a

if they were his subordinates who needed to complete the

“You are dismissed!”

area first

half a year and they want us to take care of it

his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

this is

grumbled

“Tsk.”

Imperial Prince Noi looked at them as if they were foolish before giving

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned his gaze