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 the

cloth had a map of the western part of

be able to see the edge villages of the ten precincts

of the Empire that had turned black as well as the current boundary of

the red

the

including precinct 9,

are the regions where the

Clunk. Clunk.

was still shaking

the entire map in

has started to

out

could see the shield in the sky pretty well because they were in a high spot in the castle.

proof that the black mages were

rain cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

were slowly

about this when it

Imperial Princess's

true. This is

a year was a pretty

tell

his head so that it would not be noticed by

months ago but nobody in the Empire’s capital knows

look

looking at the Second Imperial

reporting the issue to the Imperial

Palace already knows

“Yes ma’am.”

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

Cale did the same.

Imperial Prince was still standing there without any expression on his face as if he was an ice sculpture while the

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed in

lot of people who knew

looking

the rain clouds to appear anywhere

Royal Highness. However, the rain clouds thankfully have not left the ten precincts so far

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

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

in

like someone is controlling

of people heard his voice as

why it is the

hearing a voice behind

Margrave was

Plop. Plop.

had almost ended and the

the blue sky that

colors started separate from each other but the blue sky was slowly dyed by the grey color that spread like

ago that the rain clouds were not a

in charge of Precinct

Helson was a

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

Marquis Helson.

information about this man he

been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations.

to the Emperor but to the

he would not treat the

‘He’s a fitting character.’

as

Durst had sent a

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

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

pain he felt losing his family and is determined

known by everybody

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling a piece

< P.S. >

old priest had added something

grandfather had a secret relationship with our

He was a hidden

was a

reference, the current Margrave is aware of that fact

course, the Margrave is not

keeping his grandfather's

lot of power despite being called heretics and treated as a

Human, why are

Raon’s comment and watched

“Is that our mission?”

Zero after hearing the loosely

three members and one team with four members will all put finding the source

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

“That’s right.”

twisted smile appeared

the

rid of the cause? Do we get first

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be first

in the

because of

were looking at each other warily or deep in

calmly spoke

you don’t die,

sank cold

all have that great and mighty power. However, it will

pointed out

pointing past

dead land is not somewhere you can survive through just because you are familiar with dead

appeared on

you wish to

Boom.

stomped

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

over as he looked at the aide heading over toward

stepped up

name is Eaen and I am the top

Fourth Imperial Prince opened

aides for

did

looked up

only for an

silently looking at Mary but turned away

was looking at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned his

Margrave opened his mouth once

mission will start tomorrow! You will

soldier or a knight than a

treated all of the candidates equally as if they were his subordinates who needed to complete

“You are dismissed!”

left the area first without any

half a year and they want us to take

shrugged his shoulders in

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

this is

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

as if they were

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned his gaze