How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 14

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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 Noble Family (14)

It would inform the family that I’m still in a bad position at school.

Since school uniforms are custom-made by direct orders from the family, if the uniform gets damaged, that news has to be delivered home.

In this case, Luca wouldn’t tell them the reason why his clothes got ruined. I would naturally do the same. There’s no need to make the family get involved unnecessarily.

‘…Of course, if they have even the slightest awareness, they’d immediately know why the clothes got damaged.’

Even so, there’s no need to worry about honor issues.

It would be a mistake to think the family would throw a fit, considering bullying a member of Ascanien as an insult to the family.

I’m not practically part of that membership, and everyone knows that fact.

The explanation ends with just one thing: Ascanien’s image became even better ‘thanks to not abandoning the demon-possessed child and consistently treating him—though without improvement—feeding him, clothing him, and putting him in a good school.’

In short, everyone in the Empire thinks of Luca and Ascanien as separate entities.

Even while eagerly biting and tearing at Luca, there are plenty of guys who would instinctively bow their heads first if they met a ‘real’ Ascanien.

So there’s no need to think about problems like the family getting involved, and I only need to think about news that might reach Hyung’s ears.

If he finds out about this, Hyung will…

‘He’ll be grinning from ear to ear.’

Should I make Hyung happy for a moment?

I took off my jacket and threw it down.

“Oh, you threw it on the ground for us to step on?”

Thwack—!

Someone stomped hard on the jacket. Dust flew up from the frivolous kicking.

“Hahahaha!”

“Hey, do it properly.”

Other students giggled and cheered.

‘…Sigh…’

I felt somehow unpleasant. Watching them all genuinely rejoice together after kicking someone else’s clothes made me start to feel a bit of reality shock about where exactly I was.

Most importantly… the confidence that the family won’t get involved at all unless this spreads widely is something only Luca, who grew up in that house, could have.

Even though people think of Ascanien and Luca separately, allowing them to treat Luca like a bug, going beyond that to cause physical trouble is a completely different matter.

The reason Luca hasn’t been openly bullied until now is because as long as Luca carries the family name, the family can impose ‘nominal’ punishment or pressure.

‘So these guys…’

They’re guys who can’t see even one move ahead.

It was amazing in itself that these thoughtlessly moving guys hadn’t hit Luca until now.

“But look, this bastard keeps showing no reaction.”

Gaining confidence from the cheering, the guy stepped forward and grabbed my collar.

“You did what you were told, now you want a reaction too?”

“…What…”

A look of confusion briefly crossed the face of the student grabbing my collar.

No matter how he looked, this wasn’t the appearance they knew.

If it were last year, from the moment they called him here, he would have turned pale beyond belief, looking like he was about to leave this world.

‘…I thought he was just pretending to be tough.’

Can he maintain the act even in this situation?

Once they grabbed his collar, they naturally expected him to drop the pretense and reveal his pathetic true nature.

The student gripping the shirt put all his strength into his hand.

I opened my eyes wide and brought my face close.

“I’d have to squeeze out some tears here for you to feel like you won, right?”

“This bastard…”

“Then you’ll never win in your lifetime.”

At my sneer, the student’s eyes crinkled with anger.

His hand moved to the wand at his waist.

Thwack—!

“Ugh!”

“Hey, you said you’d keep it quiet!”

From his attack, I was thrown against a distant wall.

The surrounding students shouted in panicked voices, not expecting magic to come out.

“It’s fine, it’s far enough here that no one can hear.”

The guy irritably spat on the ground and stood in front of me.

Following the shoulder pain, my head gradually started ringing.

I grabbed my head and glared at him.

‘He doesn’t know when to stop.’

Seeing how they’re worried about the sound spreading in this situation, the rest of them aren’t normal either.

Should I just use magic? Since I can make them shut up with divine power anyway, it probably wouldn’t be a big problem.

‘No.’

That’s the last resort.

I slowly found my sense of direction and got up.

The guy seemed to think he had cornered me adequately with that earlier attack, regaining his initial leisurely attitude and wearing a full smile.

“Look at those eyes. Don’t you know something happened on your side a few days ago? Learn from Leo and that blue whatever Hunter. No, wait. Learn from me first, you bastard.”

I doubted my ears and tilted my head.

Unfortunately, he didn’t repeat it.

‘Damn… what did I just hear…’

The surrounding students didn’t notice my reaction and burst into laughter.

“This bastard just spouts random nonsense.”

“Hahaha, if he learns from you, his eyes will rot, damn.”

The guy chuckled at his friends’ words and pushed them aside.

“I’m talking. Hey, while you’re at it, learn some behavior too and reform yourself. Actually, we all figured it out.”

“What.”

“You want to become like Leo or whatever, those kinds of kids.”

‘Hm?’

Publicly, Leo and I have no connection whatsoever. It’s a stupid deduction based entirely on subjective judgment from start to finish, without a single solid piece of evidence.

‘He wouldn’t want someone with higher status than him.’

If I, who already far surpass these guys in terms of family background, come to my senses and live properly, there would be plenty of room for status changes even if I can’t use magic.

In the end, this whole mess happened to somehow prevent me from entering the category of ‘normal.’

“While you’ve been trying to pretend to be normal, Leo went to remote places with other mages and beat up demon bastards. If you want to become normal, you need to do at least that much, right?”

“Hey, thinking about it, just the fact that Leo and this guy attend the same school shows they’re completely mismatched in class.”

“Of course, this bastard can’t even use magic.”

Laughter shook my ears.

I lowered my head and clenched my hands. My nails dug into my palms.

‘I never thought of this.’

I have no idea how I’m supposed to learn from myself. At this moment, I missed the long hair I had cut off. I couldn’t manage my expression and sighed while frowning.

“…While I was doing things above my station, he contributed to society, is that what you’re saying.”

At those words, one student wrinkled his eyebrows as if feeling sorry and burst into suppressed laughter.

“You understood correctly. Know your place, will you. I feel sorry for you. Of course you’d want to become like Leo too, but you can never keep up. Just use that time to…”

I waved my hand dismissively out of annoyance.

“Right, just live like before, that’s what you’re saying. Let’s say you’re right. I might not have abilities like Leo.”

“It’s not that you might not have them, you just don’t.”

“Well, you’re right. But…”

I smiled at those words and nodded.

“That doesn’t mean I’ll go back to how things were. Especially after hearing this from you guys, I feel like I definitely can’t do that.”

“…Really?”

At those words, the student made a threatening face and stepped closer.

“Seems like you don’t get it.”

“Hey, hold back. This place is empty so it echoes well, so keep it quiet.”

“Ah, fine. I’m going to finish this now anyway.”

The antagonist had another student bring my bag that had been placed far away.

“Since you want to change that badly, I guess there’s no choice. Try living earnestly. But… let us help you with just one thing.”

“No, I don’t think it’ll help.”

At those words, one student standing behind looked up at the sky and sighed.

“This bastard is really annoying to the very end…”

“Whatever. Lucas, you know that the driving force of your magic is blood, right?”

“You still believe that?”

“You were using magic bit by bit in the first week. After that, you just stood there stupidly again… Do you know how heartbroken we were? Now you can’t use magic differently from other Pleromas because you’re not drinking blood again.”

“You’re quite meddlesome.”

“No, it’s not meddling, I’m worrying about you as a classmate.”

“I don’t need it. No matter what you do, I can’t use magic.”

I shook my head, trying to wrap this up appropriately.

At that moment, three students standing around the antagonist grabbed my arms. My center of gravity shifted in an instant.

“…!”

“You don’t need it? That’s funny. You never know. How can you tell without even trying.”

At this unexpected situation, I bit my lips tightly.

‘Should I shake them off with magic.’

Actually, since I have a countermeasure, using magic wouldn’t be a huge problem. Should I just blast them and make them shut up?

No. It’s better to get through this without using magic if possible.

But…

‘That depends on what they do.’

If it’s just a moderate beating, I should just wait and see. If it’s more than that, then I don’t know.

Then, the antagonist smiled and took something out of his bag.

“What do you mean you can’t use magic no matter what method is used. We’ll make you use it somehow. We’re just trying to help you in your way. Even if only pathetic magic comes out, that’s your fate, whatever.”

The antagonist spouted nonsense while giggling. In his hand was a soft lump.

I frowned and observed the lump.

“What is this…”

The moment I confirmed what it was, I was at a loss for words.

An animal that was hard to tell whether it was a mouse or rabbit was hanging limply in the antagonist’s hand.

“Looks like you recognized it.”

I looked at the animal with puzzled eyes.

Why this? It’s not like he brought it for me to observe this unidentifiable animal.

At that moment, an absurd hypothesis flashed through my mind. I slowly moved my gaze from the mouse to the antagonist.

The student met my gaze, crouched down, and pushed the limp mouse in front of my face with a vile smile.

I could hear the giggling sounds of those holding my limbs, but it quickly faded from my consciousness.

“Eat it.”

“…”

“I kindly caught it for you. There happened to be this little mouse running around the dormitory corridor.”

This isn’t sane. I became curious how they could have such thoughts toward a person.

From what I could see, that mouse-like animal wasn’t even in a contaminated state. It seemed like they really just caught a perfectly normal animal that was wandering around.

It looked clean, but there wasn’t a single movement. No matter how long I watched, the mouse showed no intention of moving.

“I didn’t kill it.”

The antagonist shrugged as if playing innocent and raised the corner of his mouth.

“You have to kill it. Like you did last year.”

“…Last year? That’s funny. Did you forget that was a false rumor you spread?”

“It’s true anyway. Change your eye color first before talking.”

The claim that one’s magic power color turns red from absorbing others’ magic power is just Pleroma nonsense. I glared at them with cold eyes.

The student now pushed the mouse right up to my nose.

“I feel so sorry for you. People need to know their place. That way they don’t have useless expectations. The person who gives up first and accepts reality is the wisest, so why don’t you understand that?”

“Why don’t you stop this.”

“I don’t want to?”

The antagonist instantly grabbed my jaw. Weight was also applied to my held arms.

“Why, are you scared that you’ll confirm you really can’t use magic? Don’t worry too much. If you eat it alive, it might be different. Who knows? You might suddenly become good at using magic.”

“It would be fun if it really worked.”

“Mmph…!”

‘Are they insane.’

These bastards really intend to make me eat this. My heart started beating like crazy. One student pressed down on my leg as I kicked. Meanwhile, the animal’s body temperature was transmitted to the skin around my mouth.

“We’re helping you use magic, right? Let’s just verify that rumor directly first.”

A vile smile hung on the student’s lips.

At that moment, a red flash flickered as if a light had been turned on.

Kwaaaaang―!

“Aaah!”

“What?!”

The student grabbed his face covered in dirt and dust and screamed. The light that flashed for an instant remained as an afterimage, making my vision unclear. The students who had been holding my arms groaned and rolled on the ground from the magic that hit their hands.

I got away from that spot and tried to steady my violently shaking vision while gasping for breath.

“…I really don’t know who the real Pleroma-like bastards are. Who’s calling who…”

“What was that just now?!”

“So this was how you were going to help me use magic? It’s definitely effective, yeah…”

I burst into bitter laughter and grabbed a handful of stones and dirt rolling on the ground.

Then I grabbed the collar of the student who had been holding the mouse.

“Lift your head. It would be good if you opened your mouth before I pry it open.”

“Wha, what…”

The student looked back and forth between my face and the dirt in my hand, stammering. His face showed he didn’t understand why I was holding dirt in this situation.

The student hurriedly shifted his gaze to his friends around him. I followed his gaze and looked around, then pressed the student’s jaw as if I would crush it.

“Don’t look away. You need to become human before leaving today.”

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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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