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

map of the western part of the

the edge villages of the

of the Empire that had turned black as well as

are the

the candidates

the precincts, including precinct 9, had red

are the regions where the dead mana

Clunk. Clunk.

was still

recorded the entire map in his

precinct 9 but has started

looked out

pretty well because they were in a high spot

was proof that the black

cloud appeared half a

Plop. Plop.

raindrops were

about this when it happened half a year

Princess's voice

is

a year was a

Cale, the Church didn't tell you

that it would not be noticed by others

but nobody in the Empire’s capital knows

to look at the

looking at the Second Imperial Princess as she

have been reporting the issue to the Imperial Palace

already knows

“Yes ma’am.”

Princess looked at the First Imperial Prince and

Cale did the same.

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

“Ha!”

Imperial Princess scoffed

a lot

looking back at

not be weird for the rain clouds to appear

have not left the

then heard Mary’s

“...That’s odd.”

as Mary mentioned! Why does it only rain in these

in a

sounds like someone is

people heard his voice as

why it is

hearing a voice behind

Margrave was coming back

Plop. Plop.

and the

that was slightly grey

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

half a year ago that the rain clouds were

charge of Precinct

a Marquis of the

past the wall to

Marquis Helson.

started to recall information about this man he received from

been protecting the western part of the Empire

not to the Emperor but to the

would not treat the Imperial family

‘He’s a fitting character.’

was perfect as a test

Durst had sent a letter through

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

mid-thirties but did not marry despite being

he felt losing

be known

‘Mm.’

back a groan after recalling

< P.S. >

priest had added something as

a secret relationship with our Fire

was a

Margrave was a secret

current Margrave is aware of that fact as

Of course, the Margrave is not a believer.

keeping his

called heretics and treated as a cult, but it seemed to be because

are

watched as Zero took

“Is that our mission?”

Marquis peeked toward Zero after hearing the loosely asked question and

and one team with four members will all put finding the source of this dead mana rain

that mean the mission is a success if

“That’s right.”

appeared on Zero's

asked the

get rid of

“Pffft.”

The Margrave scoffed.

you’ll be

the room

people who had been anxious because of

looking at each other warily or

Marquis calmly spoke

don’t die,

heated air sank cold

the candidates here should be familiar with dead mana. You all have that great and mighty power. However, it will benefit you

pointed out the

finger was pointing past the

is not somewhere you can survive through just because you

appeared

you wish to

Boom.

stomped his

your respective candidates to their lodgings! You will be given areas to strategize

he looked at the aide heading over

who had stepped up

meet you, everyone. My name is Eaen

Fourth Imperial Prince opened his

aides for the

did so,

looked up toward

was only for an

at Mary

Human! That Margrave was looking at Mary with

his mouth once

tomorrow! You will

soldier or a knight than a

of the candidates equally as if they

“You are dismissed!”

area first without

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

his shoulders

“Hyung-nim, this is impossible!”

is going to

grumbled as

“Tsk.”

as if they were foolish before giving the top

“To our lodging.”

“Yes, candidate-nim.”

was at that

Clunk--!

Fourth Imperial Prince turned his gaze