How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 123

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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 (123)

Looking at the date, it was today’s newspaper.

It seemed Narke had left it before I arrived.

‘The pollution disappearing from the hot spring water… it’s not just because those guys are being cautious of us.’

Looking at these results now, that place must have been an experimental site.

Since they already figured out what kind of reactions people would show when they did certain things, there was no need to continue experiments in an area where a priest had barged in.

Seeing there was a 5-day gap from their withdrawal until today, it was clear they couldn’t afford to get caught at that time.

[…all victims share the common trait of residing near rivers. Particularly near the Saale River in Bavaria, over 100 victims occurred simultaneously…]

“…”

Bavaria, huh.

Demons or whatever, this behavior of concentrating attacks on Bavaria is definitely Pleroma’s doing.

“Fai.”

“Mmhm.”

“Could you call Narke? Leo or Elias would be fine too.”

“Got it!”

I put on my priest robes and wore my mask.

“Ah.”

With a sudden thought, I swept all the medicine from the drawer into my bag.

At this point, I can’t let my stamina hold me back.

The moment I closed the bag and slung it over my shoulder, Elias appeared before me with an extremely blurred appearance. He seemed to be using cognitive disruption magic.

“Oh~?”

Even though he knew everything when he came, Elias put on a mischievous expression and patted my shoulders firmly.

“Well well, Luca came back alive~ Do you know how much my mouth was itching without you~?”

“You seem to have been doing well though.”

When I answered with a smile, Elias frowned.

“That’s not it. I was scared thinking you’d become a corpse and never come back.”

“Hmm.”

Now that I look at him, despite his relaxed tone, his complexion doesn’t look very good.

Elias can’t help but feel uneasy.

He’s also in a position where he could be locked up at home immediately, school or whatever, if the Emperor gets displeased. He must see his own future overlapping with mine.

I opened my mouth to change the subject.

“Anyway, was there something you wanted to talk about?”

“What predetermined topic would we have between us? It’s just best for people in the same situation to talk together~ Well, so… how was it?”

Elias’s face gradually became serious.

“Nothing happened. I look fine, don’t I?”

“What do you think will happen going forward? That guy came to see directly how you’ve changed.”

“He did. I’ll let you know later. First, seeing this demon story here, the problem seems to have gotten bigger. Do you know anything?”

“Hmm… I want to hear about it now.”

Even while saying that, Elias immediately answered my question.

“It’s just as the newspaper says. Right now, over 500 victims have appeared throughout the entire Empire.”

“Has the investigation started?”

“It’s not a small number, so of course it started. But how do you investigate demonic possession? They’re only talking about needing help from divine magic users certified by the Church.”

Elias unfolded the newspaper that had been folded in half and showed it to me.

Indeed, all the article content was about demons. There was no mention of Pleroma at all.

‘They have no choice but to think that way.’

Right now it’s a time when nerves are so on edge that any incident makes people ask if it’s Pleroma’s doing, yet the Grand Duchy of Baden determined from the start that it was demons’ work and requested exorcism from the Papacy.

The damage pattern matched demonic possession symptoms perfectly.

Honestly, when I saw the victims’ behavior, I thought ‘they look possessed’ too.

No one suspects it’s Pleroma’s crime, meaning Pleroma could commit even bigger acts while hiding behind demons’ names without anyone knowing.

‘I need to make some kind of announcement as Nicolaus.’

To make an announcement, I need to know more precisely what’s going on.

First, I need to find out under exactly what conditions those victims were contaminated.

“Elias, let’s go. I need to meet the victims who were in Baden-Baden.”

“Ah, you want to investigate? It’ll probably be meaningless though~?”

Why?

When I looked at him with that expression, Elias continued.

“You said you needed to find out why only some became victims, right? So we went around investigating too… All the victims have no memory of that time. They don’t even remember the situation right before being possessed by demons.”

Water or food must be remembered since they happened hours before the incident.

No memory, huh. This is definitely the same symptom as when possessed by demons.

At this level, it’s understandable that everyone would be confused.

Anyway, if there’s no other way, I’ll have to divide the situation by conditions and try drinking it myself.

“Then, Elias.”

“Oh~ your expression changed. You’re thinking something fishy again, aren’t you?”

What kind of expression is that…

Elias chuckled and asked.

“Going to do biological experiments?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t need to. You speculated that emotional changes might be the cause, right? Narke has already confirmed that direction too.”

‘Hmm.’

I never even told them that emotional changes might be the cause, but they figured it out and reached conclusions on their own.

Then there’s no need for me to experiment on my own body. Narke’s abilities feel quite good at times like this.

“Then Elias, let’s go see our friends now.”

“Ah.”

Elias narrowed his eyes slightly as if troubled, then opened his mouth.

“Right now probably isn’t a situation for conversation. It’s been four hours since this article came out, right? Even with the clergy the Papacy brought, they’re honestly short-handed, so those two are running around like crazy.”

“…Hmm?”

“I also came using magic, so I have to go back.”

So he was planning to leave me here?

Such an important matter, only now?

* * *

“This way!”

When I contacted the Bavaria Investigation Bureau, I was quickly guided on where to go.

The scene I arrived at was not something you could watch with both eyes open.

Elias, who came with me, put up a physical barrier with a troubled expression.

[Aaaahhhhh!]

[Save me!]

From everywhere came screams that were no longer voices of this world. The air was already stained black.

A mage from the Investigation Bureau cast light magic and spoke with a panicked face.

“I can’t tell you how fortunate it is that you came here, Count. Right now both the Papacy and the Imperial Court keep sending mages, but people keep becoming like that, so there’s no way to handle it anymore.”

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but does this look like demons to you, Teacher?”

Elias asked quietly.

“How could it be? God wouldn’t do this to us, this… this can’t happen. Not just one or two, but over a hundred.”

Well, it’s Pleroma who did this.

I let his religious remarks go in one ear and out the other as I looked around.

“You said this area has the worst damage.”

“Yes, that’s correc…!”

Crash―!

Before he could finish speaking, something that looked like vitriol came rushing at us.

The mage put up a barrier and breathed heavily with a pale face.

Having been here for a long time without any solution, he seemed to be gradually feeling fear.

Crash— Clang—!

Elias struck the air with his wand without hesitation.

Elias’s magic power broke through the mage’s barrier and captured someone in the distance.

[Kyaaaaaaah—!]

Crash— Bang—!

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come…”

When an inhuman scream was heard, the mage frantically recited the Lord’s Prayer while firing magic.

It wouldn’t mean anything since it wasn’t a demon, but I didn’t stop him.

What could I do when he insisted on doing it himself?

“How many are left now?”

At those words, the mage repeated my question to himself, then said to me.

“23 remain.”

“What about mages?”

“We have 50 right now, but from what we’ve seen so far, we need at least three to handle one person, so it’s not enough.”

Then he tapped the artifact on my ear with his wand.

“I’ve connected you to the command center, so you should be able to hear now. You can speak into this.”

“Yes, understood. Then…”

I looked around and opened my mouth.

“Will more reinforcements come?”

“They said they’ll send ten more within 30 minutes. They’re not people who use divine power.”

30 minutes?

I understand that they can’t send personnel quickly since there are other areas in chaos besides here… but it’s too long.

I don’t know about other things, but I know what I need to do.

I tapped the artifact on my ear and said.

“I’ll head to the center for now. Please give me the warp coordinates.”

The Investigation Bureau mage’s eyes widened at my words about going to the center, but I had already moved to the coordinates I heard.

This place was already filled with black smoke, making it impossible to distinguish anything.

Bang—! Crash— Bang—!

The sounds of attacks from all around were loud enough to shake my body.

I tapped the artifact again and said.

“I’m going to stop their movements briefly from now on. Attack during that time.”

After waiting a moment, someone’s voice came through.

[Message delivered.]

Good.

It’s fortunate that everyone here is wearing artifacts.

It would be problematic if they couldn’t respond properly during the time I buy.

I spun my wand once to make it a staff and struck it on the ground.

—If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish!

At that moment, all sounds around me disappeared.

The vision filled with black smoke now turned completely white.

At the same time, I could see attacks from other mages raining down everywhere.

The moment I grabbed the artifact to move back to where I was, my eyelids began to close.

‘…Wait.’

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was inside a building.

It was probably Bayern Hospital.

‘…Damn…’

There was this ambush.

The painkiller was so effective that I had forgotten my condition wasn’t very good.

“Hello, Lucas.”

A familiar voice came from somewhere.

Leo was sitting with his arms crossed, looking at me.

I nodded at the welcome face I hadn’t seen in a while and said.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you bother to greet someone.”

“You seem fine.”

Leo said that with a smile. It wasn’t exactly a proper smile. He continued calmly.

“I heard from Narke that you’re not in good condition. So I asked Elias to prevent you from coming… but I don’t know how you ended up here.”

“How could I not go in this situation?”

If you’re going to tell me not to come, you should have said it properly.

I said that as I got up from my seat.

Now I noticed that Narke and Elias were also sitting nearby.

“Is the situation over?”

“Yeah. The area where you were… was completely handled 15 minutes after you cast your magic. The other places just finished now.”

That’s a relief.

“I actually had something to tell you guys, and here we are all gathered.”

“What is it?”

Now that Pleroma has pulled this crazy stunt nationwide, we obviously can’t just leave it alone.

The Bavaria government will be fine since the King will give instructions…

Since things have gotten this big, other countries will investigate too. But with the focus on demons right now, it’s uncertain whether proper investigation will be conducted.

Now, countries that know this is Pleroma’s doing must first analyze their intentions. There will be information we can gather in that process.

‘It would be good to make an announcement under Nicolaus’s name first.’

I spoke slowly.

“Do you know how Pleroma deceives people?”

“Of course~ They say they can make you live forever.”

At Elias’s answer, Leo continued.

“They also advertise that they can make non-mages use magic.”

Vitriol is actually a substance that works well on non-mages.

While vitriol, which is like ‘someone else’s magic power,’ is poison to those who already have cores, it melts into those without cores in their bodies as if it were their own magic power.

That’s the known characteristic of vitriol.

At this point, there’s material we need to examine.

“Leo. Can you bring the materials we took from Pleroma?”

“Sure, fine.”

Leo warped somewhere and came back.

I searched through those papers and found one document.

Among the things I had skimmed before, there was useful material for now.

[Diocese of Osnabrück Blessing Exclusion List]

From what we learned during Asman’s case, blessing here refers to vitriol. I moved my gaze to one person’s name.

[Caroline Bexler] [Reason: Constitutional Incompatibility]

‘Constitutional incompatibility.’

The phrase ‘constitutional incompatibility’ fills this entire page.

I held up the paper to show my friends.

“Seeing that there’s mention of constitutional incompatibility, there must be non-mages who can have vitriol implanted in their bodies and those who can’t.”

“But they advertise that everyone can do it? That’s complete fraud for people who joined thinking they could.”

Elias shook his head vigorously as he spoke.

Right.

Pleroma advertises as if everyone can have vitriol to increase believers, but that’s not true.

In Pleroma’s world, there was something called aptitude.

“That’s right. Let’s look more into what cases constitute incompatible constitution.”

—Seek and you will find.

“Incompatible.”

‘Hmm.’

There it is.

Honestly, I hadn’t read all the documents, so I wasn’t expecting this much.

I picked up one glowing piece of paper.

It was a paper with personal information of a Pleroma member.

I read one sentence from it.

“Determined as unsuitable subject as Vitriol ultimately vaporizes without transforming into a core.”

“…Wow, I wondered how they made people without cores use magic, so this is how they did it?”

It seems Vitriol becomes a core in non-mage bodies.

In that case, they can operate like the Pleroma we’ve seen so far, and if not, they’d be unsuitable subjects.

And judging by the word ‘vaporizes’, all those said to be possessed by demons this time must be unsuitable candidates.

Then Leo, who was flipping through papers, spoke.

“There seem to be far more unsuitable subjects than suitable ones.”

Leo showed me the list of suitable subjects.

The length of the lists in the data differed by almost four times.

A realization flashed through everyone’s eyes as they saw this.

‘So this is how they operate.’

Those bastards are short on people right now.

No, they’re not exactly short, but they’re not satisfied since they want to expand their forces. Plus, I completely destroyed their manpower supply network.

Anyway, being short on people means they’re also short on suitable subjects.

I smiled and opened my mouth.

“So they tried to procure suitable subjects from the surface.”

“How do they even think of this? They’re not just ordinarily crazy.”

Elias said in a cold voice.

It’s quite surprising, but those bastards seem fundamentally accustomed to this kind of thinking.

The Catacombs documents I brought to the Emperor before also mentioned using the entire Empire as Pleroma territory.

“They must have been deeply impressed by Strauchi’s mosquito contamination. This is no different from that.”

I said quietly.

Pleroma is trying to turn the surface into a testing ground for suitable subjects.

No, it’s already becoming that.

This is the most hopeless crime among all the bastards’ crimes we’ve seen so far.

Now more people will unknowingly become Pleroma and get tainted by Vitriol like that.

‘Hmm.’

I had a good idea.

“I should go make a deal.”

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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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