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

a map of the western part of

will be able to see the edge villages of the ten

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

the

of the candidates

precincts, including precinct 9, had red marks

where the

Clunk. Clunk.

window was still

the entire map in

but has started to appear in other precincts as

out the

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

cloud appeared

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

not know about this when it

Imperial Princess's voice was louder

is a

year was a pretty

didn't tell you about this either,

his head so that it would not be noticed by others after

happened six months ago but nobody in

to look

looking at the Second Imperial Princess

the Imperial Palace on a regular basis, your

Imperial Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed

guess there are a lot of people who knew

before looking back

for the rain clouds to appear anywhere

thankfully have not left the ten precincts so far and the rain only falls in

then heard

“...That’s odd.”

Why does it

in

is controlling the rain

lot of people heard his voice as

it is the

turned after hearing a voice behind

Margrave was

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and

see the blue sky that was slightly grey beyond the

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

determined half a year ago that the

charge of Precinct

a Marquis of the

why we sent people multiple times past the wall to investigate the cause but we haven't

Marquis Helson.

this man

a Margrave family that has been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations.

was deep not to the Emperor

would not treat the Imperial

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

priest Durst had sent a letter

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

his mid-thirties but did not marry despite

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

said to be known by

‘Mm.’

groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

had added

grandfather had a secret relationship

was a

former Margrave was

reference, the current Margrave is aware

the Margrave is not a believer.

just keeping his grandfather's secret tightly

been thinking that the Church had a lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but

why are you smiling

Raon’s comment and watched as Zero

“Is that our mission?”

hearing the loosely asked question and

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

the mission is a success if we

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

the Margrave another

of the

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be first

air in the

anxious because of

were looking at each other warily or deep

calmly

you don’t die,

heated air sank cold once

You all have that great and mighty power. However,

pointed out

finger was pointing past

land is not somewhere you can survive

appeared on

that if you wish to

Boom.

stomped

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

over as he looked at the aide heading over toward

aide who had stepped

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

Fourth Imperial Prince opened his

the aides for

did

up

was only for

at Mary but turned

looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until

his mouth

start tomorrow! You will have one

Marquis seemed more like a soldier

of the candidates equally as if they were his subordinates who needed

“You are dismissed!”

the area first

any clue in half a year and they want us

shrugged his

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

Haaa, this is going to be

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.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned