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

cloth had a map of the

to see the edge villages of

of the Empire that had turned black as well as

are the

the

of the precincts, including precinct 9, had red

are the regions where the dead mana rain clouds

Clunk. Clunk.

was still shaking

entire

but has started to appear in other precincts

looked out the

a high spot in the castle. The half-transparent

the black mages were working

rain cloud appeared half

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were slowly

not know about this when it happened half

Princess's

is a

was a pretty

didn't tell you about this either,

so that it would not be noticed by

months ago but nobody in

look

at the Second Imperial Princess as

the issue to the Imperial Palace on a regular basis, your

Palace already

“Yes ma’am.”

at the First Imperial Prince and then

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Second Imperial Princess scoffed

a lot of people who

before looking

not be weird for the rain

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

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

does it only

spoke in a

like someone is controlling the

heard his voice

is why it is

after hearing

was coming

Plop. Plop.

and the wind was no

blue sky that was slightly grey beyond

two colors started separate from each other but the

the

in charge

Helson was a Marquis of the

wall

Marquis Helson.

to recall information about this man

been protecting the western part of the Empire for generations. He has a strong Knights Brigade and his loyalty to the Empire is

to

not treat the Imperial family

‘He’s a fitting character.’

perfect as a test

had sent a letter through the

have a family. His only family member, his grandfather

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

Margrave didn't want another family to feel the pain he felt losing his family and is

said to be known by everybody

‘Mm.’

groan after

< P.S. >

priest had added something

the Margrave's grandfather had a secret

He was a hidden believer.

former Margrave was a secret

current Margrave is aware of that

course, the Margrave is

keeping his grandfather's secret

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

why are you

comment and watched

“Is that our mission?”

peeked toward Zero after hearing

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

a success if we simply find the

“That’s right.”

smile appeared

asked the Margrave another

rid of the cause? Do we get first

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

sure you’ll be

in the room instantly

because of the rain cloud were

were looking at each other warily or

Marquis calmly spoke

you don’t die, that

sank cold

have that great and mighty power. However, it

Marquis pointed out

pointing past

land is not somewhere you can survive through

thick smile appeared on the Marquis’

that if you wish

Boom.

Marquis stomped

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

over as he looked at the aide

stepped up

everyone. My name is Eaen and

Fourth Imperial Prince opened his

aides for the

Marquis-nim did so,

up

was only for an

looking at Mary but turned away after

at Mary with such a fierce gaze until he turned his

opened his

will start tomorrow! You

like a soldier or

all of the candidates equally as if they

“You are dismissed!”

the area first without any

They couldn’t even find any clue in half a year and they want us

his shoulders

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

Haaa, this is going to

subordinates grumbled as

“Tsk.”

if they were foolish before giving the top

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Prince turned