How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (117)

I put on the white mask I received from Narke and ran down to the lower floor. Fortunately, I hadn’t removed my fascia or changed clothes during the break, so there was no problem going out immediately.

Even though everyone should have woken up from the screams by now, not a single person had come out into the hallways of this vast manor.

‘…Could it be they’re afraid of getting caught up in trouble if they come out?’

[Aaaahhh! Uaaahhh!]

Agonized screams came from the room directly below where we had been staying.

No one would be able to come out carelessly after hearing such sounds.

I stood by the door and exchanged glances with Leo.

First, I needed to call Narke.

According to what I read earlier, it’s optimal for two or more priests to participate in an exorcism ritual.

But right now there isn’t a single properly educated person available. Opening it rashly could only invite disaster.

I looked at Fai clinging to my shoulder. Seeing that it followed me, it must have been scared to be left alone.

―”Fai.”

“…”

―”Do you know where Narke is? Could you go get him if you do?”

Fai blinked rapidly and disappeared from my shoulder.

Not long after, the sound of something tumbling came from upstairs.

Elias came running down first.

Narke, who followed behind him, shook the water bottle in his hand and said.

“I didn’t expect you to come out already, but you’re fast.”

Narke’s divine power stirred around the water bottle. The moment he flung open the door, pitch-black air rushed out.

A servant with bloodshot eyes charged at us as soon as he spotted us.

[Aaaahhh!]

“Calm down.”

His arm couldn’t reach Narke.

Narke pressed him down with divine power and said.

“I need to find out the body owner’s name. Could you check his belongings?”

“No, it’s Martin Durer.”

“How did you… Ah.”

Narke asked in surprise, then looked at my eyes and nodded.

He seemed to realize that I could know the names of people I was seeing for the first time.

Crash―!

Light flashed like a camera flash and the servant collapsed backward. Narke operated divine power with one hand while bringing the water bottle to his lips with the other.

“I’ll help, so open it with your hands.”

“Ah, thanks.”

[Let go!]

When his limbs and chest were pressed down with divine power, a completely torn voice was heard.

‘This isn’t a voice from this world.’

Did he get vitriol stuck in his vocal cords?

While I observed him, Narke withdrew his divine power and dipped his finger in water to draw a cross on his forehead.

Instantly his body jerked up violently. Foam-mixed saliva was flowing from his mouth.

“Hmm, typical demonic possession symptoms. But this level of condition is too sudden… I’ll have to check if it’s really correct now. Elias.”

“Yeah, tell me.”

“Could you watch to make sure no one comes to spectate?”

Elias nodded and closed the door, standing outside.

Leo was already reciting prayers without anyone asking him to.

Since Leo’s family believed in Catholicism and Elias’s family believed in Protestantism, Leo was suitable as someone to watch and assist with the Catholic ritual.

“Leo, please continue. I drive you out, ancient enemy of humanity, come out from Martin who is God’s creation.”

While Narke muttered commands, Leo continued reciting prayers without response.

After continuing prayers for some time, focus returned to the possessed victim’s eyes.

“I think I’m better now.”

Unlike before, it was a clear voice. He looked around with confused eyes and tried to sit up.

“Thank God. But what did I just…”

Bang―!

Narke struck the restraint magic placed on his chest with divine power. His face contorted sharply.

“…”

“I command in the name of God, reveal your name.”

[Why should I?]

It was that voice from before.

My eyes met with Narke’s.

‘…This is just like being possessed by a ghost…’

Quite surprising.

Of course, the surprise was brief.

Because it wasn’t more surprising than a group of blood-drinking corpses thriving with over 120,000 believers.

Narke looked at Leo and me and asked.

“We might end up in a standoff for over 24 hours like this… Will that be okay?”

“…I think this is a situation where we have to see it through to the end regardless of whether it’s okay or not.”

First, when we arrived here, we met the nobleman and exchanged simple greetings. In that situation, just leaving would put us in an awkward position too.

Also… after seeing someone foaming at the mouth and thrashing around, I can’t bring myself to say let’s just abandon them and go to school.

Narke probably asked because of the problem of all four of us being absent, but we could send two and I could submit a sick leave.

Narke nodded at my words.

“That’s true. If it’s not over by the time, we’ll have to send Leo and Elias. Let’s try it for now.”

Like that, four hours passed and he returned to normal.

Six in the morning. It was the perfect time to finish up and return to school.

The nobleman who had been waiting outside greeted us with a face that looked more haggard than ours for some reason.

“Thank you, Priest. And…”

He looked at Leo and Elias, who had strong cognitive disruption magic cast on them, and greeted them the same way.

“Brothers, thank you. There has never been such a case in the manor before, so what will happen now? Won’t you come until the weekend?”

“We only pray to lessen suffering, but ultimately exorcism depends on His will, so it’s difficult to give a definite answer about what changes might occur.”

Narke answered calmly.

“For now, I’m planning to come tomorrow too, so don’t worry too much.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

The nobleman seemed to have his soul in the afterlife due to the shock he’d already received.

Perhaps noticing this, Narke began comforting him with various words.

‘Hmm.’

Until now, I couldn’t get a sense of what demons actually were.

But now…

‘Earlier, something like black magic power was flowing out from the possessed person.’

That was one of the characteristics I read about in the exorcism ritual book.

But what’s the possibility that it was vitriol?

Wasn’t that also something like black magic power?

Vitriol is known as a viscous liquid, but Ainsiedel expelled vitriol into the air like magic power.

Contrary to common belief, it’s possible to emit vitriol in states other than liquid.

‘One more thing.’

Among the drugs Richthofen administered was one that ‘converts magic power to vitriol.’

That drug didn’t work on me, but Leo was briefly affected. The surrounding air turned black then too.

‘Well, it doesn’t change that it’s a characteristic mentioned in the exorcism ritual book, so it’s still just a hypothesis… but I should investigate.’

I looked at the nobleman and spoke.

“I have a request.”

“Ah, yes, please tell me. I’ll comply with anything.”

“Please investigate the characteristics of the victims.”

“M-more than now? We already sent over the materials, but are there insufficient parts?”

“The materials you sent are just personal information and behaviors suspected as causes of possession, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Narke raised his eyebrows.

He seemed to grasp my thoughts before I even spoke.

I said to the nobleman who was still standing there bewildered.

“Please investigate where the victims ate what food up to three days before their possession, don’t miss even a single glass of water.”

* * *

The shock of how to investigate all that when there wasn’t even a divine power mage in the estate crossed my mind, but he was still cooperative.

He answered that he would find out somehow and saw us off.

“Pleroma, huh. So Lucas, what you’re saying is they weren’t possessed, but poisoned by vitriol.”

Narke stroked his chin and leaned his chair back.

As soon as lunch time came, I called Narke to the Student Union Building basement and explained the hypothesis I had established to him.

“I don’t know if all those possession symptoms are the same as vitriol poisoning symptoms, but it certainly makes sense. But when I used my insight ability, I didn’t think of that.”

“Yeah, that point bothered me a little too.”

Narke pondered for a while before opening his mouth.

“Vitriol might be something of evil. If it’s a problem this deep, it’s not strange that insight couldn’t derive it directly.”

“Mm.”

“Let’s try investigating in the direction you mentioned. We already requested materials anyway, so we should be able to receive them today or tomorrow~”

I nodded.

Whether it’s demons or Pleroma, from the Papacy’s standpoint, both are targets to be eliminated, so whatever result comes out, it’s not pointless work and worth trying.

“Then I’ll see you in the classroom later, Lucas.”

Narke smiled satisfactorily and waved his hand. As if he had gotten a taste for greeting with his front paws, Fai was doing the same action.

Looking at the clock, there were still 30 minutes left until lunch time ended.

‘There happened to be one corner at school where I could dig for information.’

I should go dig around a bit.

When I went to the 3rd Year Class 2 classroom, Richthofen, who happened to be returning, saw me and raised his eyebrows.

“Seeing you here.”

“I came because I have something to ask, Senior.”

Richthofen herded his friends into the classroom and came back out to the hallway.

“What is it, club?”

“No way. I joined the theater club.”

“You didn’t seem to like acting much?”

“…Well. Anyway, that’s not what I came to ask about. Let’s move somewhere else.”

“Alright.”

Richthofen went up to the rooftop and sat in front of a table.

Then he cast a sound-blocking spell and said.

“What did you come to ask about?”

“About the drug you fed us in the Catacombs. You fed us a drug that turns mana into vitriol.”

“…Haha… To think that story would come up here. That’s right.”

To readily admit such inappropriate words while wearing Imperial 2nd Education Institute robes instead of Vigilante Corps robes, it feels quite discordant.

“Where did you get it? I obviously know you received it from Pleroma, so explain what you know besides that.”

“If I answer, will you join the club?”

“…”

When I narrowed my eyes, he waved his hand dismissively.

“Alright. Before, I said we received vitriol that 5,000 people could use for a year, right? It was delivered in capsule form and I opened one person’s portion and used only half.”

“Come to think of it, if we were allies, you would have just fed us memory drugs, so why did you feed us that?”

“Because the Captain attacked my core.”

So he was suspected.

It was probably because of the question I asked, ‘Why are you stalling for time?’

I don’t particularly feel sorry about it, so I changed the subject.

“Come to think of it, the subjugation has worn off now.”

“That’s right. Now I just need to release that one.”

This bastard still hasn’t undone the magic I cast?

Since I cast it weakly on purpose, it can be undone with just a little effort.

He could have eliminated it along with destroying the Captain’s, but he’s doing all sorts of things.

“Undo it yourself. As I said before, with your skills, you should be able to do it.”

“Hmm… You don’t seem to know your own skills, but unlike the Captain’s, yours can’t be undone with my magic.”

Really?

‘Then I’ll just leave it.’

I was able to cast the subjugation magic because he was defenseless, but if he were in a state where he could freely use magic, it would be difficult to cast due to being blocked by defenses.

There will be occasions when I need to use it.

Richthofen let out a hollow laugh as if absurd.

“…Looking at your expression, it seems you have no intention of undoing it…”

“Later. Then, why didn’t it activate even though I drank it?”

“That’s because your mana didn’t become unstable. You asked earlier why I gave you the drug together, right? That capsule is originally a drug meant to be taken together with a memory-replaying drug. So to avoid suspicion, naturally I had to feed it according to the original dosage method.”

As I listened attentively, Richthofen continued.

“It induces nightmares to target the moment when mana becomes unstable. There needs to be a space for vitriol to enter.”

“I see. Does Pleroma also give vitriol to believers using this method?”

“That… I’m not sure. I did hear that the drug they gave us was for sales purposes.”

So they gave something slightly different?

Anyway, since I know they also inject vitriol directly into blood vessels, I’ll pass on this question for now.

After that, I bombarded him with questions until lunch time ended. After filling a page of notes with questions and answers, I brought up closing remarks.

“This should be enough. Thanks for the information.”

“Alright. Ah, wait a moment.”

I was about to get up from my seat but looked at him.

“Did you meet Miss Marian Baum?”

“No.”

“Go to the theater on the weekend.”

* * *

I thought about going even on a weekday, but he said she wouldn’t come to the surface on weekdays because she’d be busy handling Catacombs affairs.

That dawn, we supplemented our sleep from evening and moved to that place.

While Old Church member Leo was understandable, New Church member Elias didn’t need to get involved, but he stubbornly followed us, even taking naps while warping.

“You sleep a lot.”

“A lot~ Share some with me, Luca.”

“If I share your sleep, I’d sleep almost 12 hours.”

“Nice. Let’s catch up to Leo’s height.”

He’s saying random things like sleep talk.

Actually, I already knew he slept a lot since it came from the novel.

The nobleman here moved his residence to the cathedral, afraid of something. When we warped there, the nobleman who came out after hearing news of our arrival welcomed us.

“Here are the materials you mentioned yesterday.”

“That’s fast.”

“There’s someone in the Grand Duchy of Baden government who knows a little divine power, so we received help.”

I handed over the materials.

‘…Hmm.’

This is a bit unusual.

The work places and places they stopped by are similar for some reason, but there’s no particular overlapping food.

“Wasn’t there anyone who said the taste of food they ate was unusually different from usual?”

“Yes, I haven’t heard such words.”

Then the victims might not have been attacked by Pleroma, but might have truly been possessed by demons, though it’s not easily understood rationally.

‘Wait.’

I stopped my hand while reading the victim’s personal information.

At that moment, a certain thought suddenly crossed my mind.

‘…there’s no law saying the drug has to be mixed only in drinks.’

Just then, my eyes met with Narke, who had been looking at the materials together.

It seemed we had reached the same conclusion.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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