How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 144

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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 (144)

The central hall of the dormitory was packed with second-year magic department students.

“Luca!”

Elias waved his hand as he approached. In the distance, Leo, who had been talking with his friends, glanced this way.

Looking at their expressions, fortunately they seemed not to have heard about what happened earlier.

“How do you come with just one minute left~? Weren’t you curious?”

“Of course I was curious.”

48 students would participate in the second exam, and only 24 of them would advance to the third round.

Among the eight teams, the four teams with the highest scores would receive bonus points for advancing to the third round. Since the bonus points were quite significant, if you didn’t make it into the top 4, you should consider it over.

In the end, competition between teams came first, so I couldn’t help but be curious about the team member announcements.

Like the other students, I stood in front of the empty notice board and quietly spoke to Elias.

“Elias.”

“So cold~”

“…”

He probably meant for me to call him by a shorter name, but I couldn’t call him that here too.

“What did you do after today’s exam ended?”

“What do you mean what? I watched you and the class president fight.”

“…What about after that?”

Elias looked puzzled, then whispered in my ear.

“Why ask when you already know?”

“You stayed in that building the whole time, right?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded to show I understood.

Earlier, Elias had followed us to the crisis response headquarters, and all three of us only returned to school at six o’clock.

If he had been in the headquarters building the whole time while Leo and I went to the scene, that would give Elias an alibi for the Adelbert incident.

Leo was naturally clear too since he was with Nicolaus.

But I had no alibi.

‘I should get some advice from Narke.’

I needed to be careful.

Drugging Adelbert with Pleroma had two possible goals.

First, to kill him.

Second, to turn him into Pleroma.

The second goal posed a tremendous danger to me.

Having been considered Pleroma all this time, I was most likely to be suspected in this matter.

Also, the perpetrator had plenty of reason to try to frame me.

“Oh!”

A shout came from among the students.

The list of second-round participants was being written on the notice board with magic.

[Team 1: Narke Farnese / Leonard Wittelsbach / …]

“Whoa…”

“What the.”

From the first line, several students exchanged glances.

“Wow~ Team 1 is the best from the start.”

Elias opened his mouth wide.

I had the same reaction inwardly.

“That team’s bonus points are guaranteed. I hope I get on the same team as you, Luca!”

“Yeah, me too.”

Of course that would be good.

If I teamed up with Elias, bonus points would be guaranteed.

‘I hope we get picked well.’

Since it was team activities…

No matter how well an individual performed, if they couldn’t blend with the team, they’d be mercilessly pushed back.

The standards for teamwork were also extremely strict.

I admit it. I didn’t expect I’d be the one doing group projects, so I set the standards too idealistically.

‘Well, even if I’m doing it, people’s lives are at stake, so it can’t be helped.’

While nervously watching the notice board, our names didn’t appear as teams 2 through 5 passed by.

“Hmm~”

Just as Elias, tired of standing still, put his arm on my shoulder, a list with my name was written.

[Team 6: Lucas Ascanien / …]

“Oh, Luca’s coming up now!”

[Julia Zehringen]

When that name was written next to mine, I unconsciously let out the breath I’d been holding.

For some reason, Elias started laughing like crazy, tilting his head. Actually, I roughly knew why.

I turned my head the other way to avoid Leo’s gaze.

Suddenly, I made eye contact with Cheringen. He had been making a surprised expression with raised eyebrows, but then smiled gently.

‘Good.’

The corners of my mouth naturally turned up too.

As long as teamwork didn’t completely fall apart, we were in the bonus point range.

[Melvin Klockner / Florian Osterhagen / Heike Einsiedel / Philip Goering]

‘Oh.’

Interesting combination.

Though there was an annoying guy and someone whose surname triggered trauma mixed in.

I clenched my left hand that had been broken in Osnabrück and closed my mouth.

Anyway, there was no one I’d have a conflict with.

This was the best.

Then, Cheringen approached me with a smile.

“We’re on the same team, Lucas.”

“That’s right.”

“Let’s do well for the next two weeks.”

Cheringen extended his hand.

Shaking hands again at this point was funny, but since he wanted it, I briefly took his hand.

No, I tried to end it briefly, but Cheringen didn’t let go and came closer, quietly asking.

“So, how did things go with Leonard?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone was curious about who won.”

Cheringen’s face showed mischief as he asked.

Now that I looked, other students were also glancing at Leo and me.

“Well.”

“Haha, it’s fortunate it wasn’t a situation requiring hospitalization. You ended it well with words, right?”

I nodded.

Somehow this guy also thought fighting Leo would lead to hospitalization.

There were hardly any guys in this school who could beat Leo in a fight.

“Ah… Oh no.”

Then, I heard Elias let out a short sigh beside me.

Looking at the notice board, the announcement for all eight teams was complete.

In the distance, I could hear Leo gathering his team friends.

“Should we go set up a meeting time too?”

Cheringen gestured toward his room.

Though it was free time, to get to know the team members as quickly as possible, we needed to greet the friends who became our teammates.

* * *

After setting the meeting time, I came to the School Infirmary once again.

I thought visiting wouldn’t be allowed at 10 PM, but since the system was running on magic without staff anyway, I could come and go until the building doors were locked.

Knock knock—

[Please come in.]

Adelbert’s weak voice could be heard.

The Antagonist had come to the hospital immediately after the exam due to the aftermath of being pushed to the brink of a rampage.

When I quietly opened the door and entered, I saw a dark room with no light except for the streetlamp glow from outside.

“Why are you sitting in the dark without even turning on the lights?”

“It’s time to sleep.”

“The Manager is coming soon too, right?”

“That’s… true.”

Adelbert had called the Drama Club President here, saying he had something to discuss. I knew this from what the Manager had told me.

He nodded and turned on the lamp placed on the Side Table.

‘Hmm.’

Once the light came on, the Antagonist’s expression I could see wasn’t particularly dark.

The Antagonist’s grade I heard about this time was 6th place out of 25 teams, 8 points.

If converted to a grade level, it barely reached 2+ grade.

‘Even if it’s just barely passing, this is pretty good.’

It definitely wasn’t a score you could call poor.

However, even though it had risen three levels from the previous 3+ grade, it was still a low grade for Adelbert.

Looking at the Antagonist’s surprisingly calm expression despite this, I asked.

“Are you okay?”

The Antagonist didn’t answer.

After a long silence while I was watching the students wandering around outside, he quietly replied.

“No.”

“…”

He continued speaking as if talking to himself.

“I was angry.”

“Why?”

“I felt sorry for the Friend I worked with, and sorry for myself… No, I was disappointed in myself.”

When pushed to the brink of a rampage, people usually get hospitalized and continue receiving observation and treatment.

But the Antagonist went straight to take the exam without time for that.

There was nothing to be disappointed about. Getting a 2+ in that situation was quite good.

Moreover, the students would have the previous 3+ strongly imprinted in their minds, so now that it had risen to 2+, they would think the Antagonist had regained his skills.

Then, Adelbert suddenly spoke up.

“Senior, have you ever experienced this? That position I believed was mine becomes someone else’s overnight, and now I have to look up at that position.”

All the time.

I’m at the point where it doesn’t even move me anymore.

“This might not be unfamiliar words to you, Senior, but in our era, academics aren’t just simple learning but a tool to prove one’s investment value. And I always thought I was working hard to defend the value befitting my position.”

Not surprising.

It would be harder for children thrust into politics from birth not to have this kind of mindset.

He paused for a moment and continued.

“I thought I was walking the right path.”

“So people with low grades aren’t walking the right path?”

“…”

The Antagonist nodded after a long pause.

“That’s what I thought. In terms of how to put in effort.”

“Your belief was shattered overnight.”

“Yes.”

The Antagonist smiled faintly.

“As royalty, I must become someone who isn’t shameful to show to the people, and I must have the value to be entrusted with leadership. I told you this before.”

I nodded.

Adelbert continued speaking without hesitation.

“My excessive despair might not have been because of that.”

“…”

“It’s as you said, Senior. The reason I thought His Majesty, His Highness, and Count Nicolaus would be disappointed in me was probably because I despised myself and was thoroughly disappointed in myself. It wasn’t about royal duty or anything else, but because I couldn’t believe I had fallen to that position which I had arbitrarily judged as wrong.”

I nodded silently.

“I don’t know why no one ever told me about this. To be okay with breaking others’ expectations, I first had to break the expectations I had of myself.”

“You’re figuring it out on your own like this, so why would someone else need to tell you?”

“Haha…”

He lightly rubbed his face and spoke as if sighing.

“It’s fine now. I feel wronged that it wasn’t for the drug, but I couldn’t have done better than this today.”

It’s obvious he’s not satisfied.

The anger of wanting to immediately find whoever drugged him shows in his eyes and tone.

But I couldn’t sense the fear toward the Emperor or Crown Prince like before.

‘Did he achieve self-reflection after being pushed to the brink of rampage…’

Impressive.

I’m not being sarcastic, I was just amazed at feeling his speed of development.

He now looked at me with serious eyes.

“Senior. Count Nicolaus is…”

“…”

“Are you him?”

I smiled lightly.

“No.”

“…”

The Antagonist just blinked and shook his head.

“Of course. I said something pointless.”

He burst into light laughter, then looked at me again and said.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I took the exam and properly organized my thoughts.”

Ding―!

Affection +1

He wasn’t the type to give these out so easily.

Anyway, from my perspective of trying to raise the Antagonist differently, this worked out well.

This much means he’s starting differently from the past when he was obsessed with the Crown Prince’s expectations and lived thinking the Crown Prince’s goals were his own goals.

“Good.”

The moment I smiled and gave a simple answer, someone knocked on the door from outside.

Adelbert raised his voice and said.

“Ah, you must be here. Please come in.”

“Hello~”

The Club President entered the Room.

After a very long greeting, Adelbert brought up the main topic.

“I heard the regular performance is scheduled for two weeks from now. It overlaps exactly with the second exam.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Right.

That’s why everyone avoided the lead roles with many lines.

Adelbert spoke as if troubled.

“Manager. I’m really sorry, but… I can’t perform as an actor in this play.”

“What?!

“…”

“I’m sorry. But with my current stamina, I have no confidence in memorizing all those lines. Instead, I can cover the preparation costs, so I wonder if that would be possible…”

After going berserk, it’s normal to hospitalize someone for a week and monitor their progress.

Since the Antagonist is a mage, his recovery is fast, so we just threw him into the exam right away, but resting would be the right thing to do.

But….

The Manager stood frozen with his mouth agape before barely managing to speak.

“Th-then the protagonist role will be empty….”

“Couldn’t we get a substitute from outside?”

If we get the lead from outside, it won’t have any meaning as our school’s performance….

I placed my hand on Adelbert’s shoulder.

“Junior.”

“Yes?”

“There are things that can be solved with money and things that can’t.”

“Ah, that’s true, but….”

But the Manager’s eyes were already sneakily turning toward me.

“….”

* * *

The next morning, at the appointed time, I went to Team 6’s meeting room.

And I didn’t say I would take the protagonist role.

The Manager is desperately trying to persuade me, but I don’t care.

They’ll find another way. Whether they give him memory technique tutoring or I completely re-edit the script, there must be a way. If not that, honestly, assigning it to someone else wouldn’t be a problem either.

‘Who the hell drugged Adelbert….’

Now that I think about it, that bastard is messing everything up.

As I held my forehead and was lost in thought, Cheringen clapped his hands to gather attention.

“Everyone’s here.”

Naturally, our team had taken on the appearance of being led by Cheringen.

I looked around at the team members with stern faces.

I was satisfied with this combination, but honestly, except for Cheringen and me, everyone’s expressions weren’t good.

The reason was clear.

I rested my chin on my hand and looked toward the end of the table.

A lanky guy with neatly swept black hair avoided my gaze.

‘That guy must be Florian Osterhagen.’

Philip’s friend, one of the guys who tried to feed me Fai at the beginning of the semester.

Philip, sitting next to him, also clearly looked uncomfortable because of my presence.

And Melvin’s expression wasn’t good because he was on the same team as those two. Philip’s group doesn’t behave very well toward friends with gentle personalities like Melvin. That’s still the case even now.

Also, the last person.

I looked at a student with dark blonde hair and gray eyes.

Heike Einsiedel.

That one seems relatively indifferent at least. But since she’s the only one from Class 1 in Team 6, she did look a bit flustered when the announcement was made.

‘…Is she related by blood to that Ainsiedel?’

Ainsiedel is a Prussian noble family, so they could certainly share the surname.

I can’t be certain whether the guy I met was really from that family or an imposter.

At least in appearance, she doesn’t resemble that guy.

Maybe because Ainsiedel has white hair, or because of her relaxed way of speaking, she actually gave off more of an Elias vibe.

‘Let me check her status window.’

Heike Einsiedel

Affection -2* [Cannot be conquered]

Title: ―

Stamina: +6

Mental Power: +3

Mana: +5

Skill: +4

Impression: +2

Luck: +1

Traits: ―

Not bad, but there’s a world of difference between this and the stats of the Ainsiedel I saw.

Except for the high possibility of a blood relationship, there didn’t seem to be much connection.

‘But still….’

Cannot be conquered?

This is the first time I’ve seen this among everything I’ve encountered.

‘This makes me want to try even more.’

Of all people, someone with the surname Ainsiedel shows up as unconquerable?

Does this mean I can’t raise her affection? It seems to mean there’s a clear limit.

The thought of maxing out the conquest stages to level 5 and naturally visiting the manor to find out if she’s related to the Ainsiedel from Osnabrück won’t leave my mind.

‘While I’m at it, let me check my team members’ affection levels.’

I quickly moved my gaze without arousing suspicion and opened all the affection windows.

Julia Zehringen

Affection +3 [Conquerable (2/5)]

Florian Osterhagen

Affection -3* [Conquerable (1/5)]

Philip Goering

Affection -1* [Conquerable (1/5)]

Melvin Klockner

Affection +7 [Conquerable (3/5)]

Yeah, not bad.

With this level, if I raise my charm trait today or tomorrow, it’ll be a decent usable score range.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to raise the levels significantly with these team members to make our teamwork even better.’

Especially Julia and Melvin.

But that aside….

“….”

I suffered mental shock and closed all the windows.

It wasn’t because of the values.

Just looking at all this at once made me question what I was doing and where.

‘Sigh….’

I’m thinking about cigarettes for the first time in a while.

Then, Cheringen, sitting comfortably with a relaxed expression, looked at the second team announcement sheet and said.

“There are three teams likely to be in the bonus point acquisition range. Team 1, our team, and Team 8.”

Despite this insanely cold atmosphere, the students glanced around and nodded.

“Team 1 has Leonard Wittelsbach and Narke Farnese, as you know. Our team, you already know about, and Team 8 has Elias Hohenzollern and the current first place from Class 1.”

The remaining five teams excluding these three don’t have any top-tier students.

“First, Team 8 seems most likely to have discord. What do you think?”

“….”

Cheringen’s tone was dry.

The higher the ranking, the bigger the bonus points received.

Not satisfied with just being in the bonus point acquisition range, he must have mentioned other teams to climb even higher.

While everyone was just reading the room, having lived together as friends for over ten years, I nodded.

“That’s likely.”

Team 8 has five members from Class 1, and Elias alone from Class 2.

It’s the complete opposite situation from our team.

And Class 1 students generally don’t like Elias. If he had gotten along fine there, there would have been no reason to come to Class 2.

Elias is now on the same team as five enemies.

‘He’ll have to do well.’

Anyway, I want to live as a team with the Antagonist.

Well, I’m sure he’ll do fine without me worrying… but I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of temperament he’ll show in the process.

“The exam is in two weeks, but there’s a joint training session organized by the student council in a week. Let’s gather information about the other teams on that day. And… it would be good to find out now whether our team should display our true abilities that day or not.”

I burst into laughter at Cheringen’s smile.

“You’re confident.”

It doesn’t seem like it’s time to consider that yet.

If we shouldn’t display our abilities, it doesn’t matter if other teams look down on us—no, rather, because we’re outstanding, we should break down other teams’ guard.

I asked with a light laugh.

“Wouldn’t it be better to check our teamwork first before deciding?”

“Right. We’ll know immediately once we actually run together, but if there are discord factors like Team 8, it seems better to cleanly cut them out before going in. So…”

Cheringen raised his hand halfway and gestured.

His gaze was already directed toward Philip.

“Someone you don’t get along with?”

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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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