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

map of the

will be able to see the edge villages of the

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

the red

of the candidates

precincts, including precinct 9, had red

regions where the dead

Clunk. Clunk.

window was

the entire map in his

has started

looked out

in a high spot in the castle.

proof that the black mages were

cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

were slowly

about this when it happened

Imperial Princess's voice was

true. This is a bit

a year was a

Church didn't tell you about

that it would not

but nobody

turned to look at

Second Imperial Princess as

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

Imperial Palace already knows about

“Yes ma’am.”

First 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 was avoiding the Second Imperial Princess's

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

are a lot of people who knew about

mumbled before looking

rain clouds to appear

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

then heard

“...That’s odd.”

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

in

someone is controlling

heard his voice as he spoke during

why it is the

turned after hearing a voice behind

Margrave was coming back

Plop. Plop.

black rain had almost ended and

that was slightly

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

determined half a year ago that the rain clouds

in charge

a Marquis of the

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

Marquis Helson.

to recall information about this man he

of the Empire for generations. He has a strong

was deep not to the Emperor but

not treat the Imperial family

‘He’s a fitting character.’

perfect as

sent a letter through the

family. His only family member, his grandfather the former Marquis, met his death fighting

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

feel the pain he felt losing his family and

said to be known by everybody

‘Mm.’

a groan after recalling a

< P.S. >

old priest had added

grandfather had a

a hidden believer.

Margrave was a

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

course, the Margrave is not a believer.

just keeping his grandfather's

been thinking that the Church had a lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because they had hidden

are you smiling

watched

“Is that our mission?”

after hearing the

members will

the mission is a

“That’s right.”

appeared on

the

also get rid of

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be first

in the room

anxious because of the rain cloud

were looking at each other warily or deep

Marquis calmly

you don’t die,

heated air sank cold once

dead mana. You all have that great and mighty

Marquis pointed out

finger was pointing past

land is not somewhere you can survive through just

appeared on the Marquis’

you

Boom.

Marquis stomped his

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

as he looked at the aide heading

stepped

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

Imperial Prince opened

aides for

Marquis-nim did so,

up

only for an

silently looking at Mary but turned away after

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

his

start tomorrow! You

a soldier

as if they were his subordinates

“You are dismissed!”

left the area first without any

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

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is going to

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

Prince Noi looked at them as if they were foolish

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at

Clunk--!

Imperial Prince turned his gaze and