How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 168

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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 (168)

“….”

What?

My brain buffered for a moment.

‘…Did he find out?’

Sweat began forming inside my gloves. I tried not to clench my hands into fists.

This bastard, don’t tell me… he can see through retries?

No, it’s time that’s already disappeared. How could he know about time that only remains in my head?

When I didn’t say anything, he tilted his head and continued speaking.

“You don’t look well.”

“….”

I felt a chill in his tone. Though I might be being overly sensitive.

My body would have healed itself automatically.

While it’s true there are lingering effects from the retry, Leo couldn’t know about anything else.

“Like I said earlier, I went to purify the Police Station. It’s natural that I used too much divine power in one day.”

“I wonder.”

“Why are you saying ‘I wonder’? I went to the Police Station and obtained information about the dormitory with my authority. You know well that I didn’t have time to do anything else after coming back from the Police Station. There was nothing else besides that.”

Instead of responding to my words, Leo reached his hand toward my left arm. I reflexively pulled my arm back.

“….”

Leo looked down at his hand left hanging in midair.

I knew intellectually that this was a bad move, but it was a reaction I couldn’t control.

‘…At least my mind doesn’t return to the previous state….’

I cursed inwardly. I knew that everything had been nullified by turning back time, but I remembered that everything from the injection to the baptism had been done to this arm, so I unconsciously defended it.

Now neither of us spoke.

Looking at Antagonist’s reaction, it seemed like I was making excuses, but in this timeline, it was the truth. I really had only been to the Police Station.

And could I possibly say ‘I can turn back time’? Wouldn’t that make me a complete lunatic? Even with magic existing, humans couldn’t transcend time itself. Retry was just an ability that would get me dragged to a laboratory immediately.

‘…Say something, anything.’

I already had more than enough things to worry about.

Leo stared at my expression for a long time before turning his head away.

“Right.”

“….”

“If you say so, then that must be it. For now.”

I studied his face.

Unlike before, Leo’s face showed no expression at all.

He definitely knew something. He knew, but just like I wasn’t speaking, he clearly wasn’t speaking either.

“…Yeah, good thinking.”

Sorry, but I can’t reveal the retry. Turning back time isn’t within the realm of magic. That’s not just my conviction, but academically recognized.

That’s why even when I first confirmed I had the retry ability, I couldn’t be purely happy about it.

The problem is that if I report the warp magic installed in my room to the school, either way, he’ll become suspicious of how I found out about this.

“….”

This feels like entering a tiger’s den.

But there’s no choice.

I can’t take the foolish path of not reporting it, and Leo is the right person for this job. And even if I ask Narke or Elias to do the same spell instead of Leo, Leo will inevitably find out everything in the end.

If the result is the same even with a detour, it’s best to entrust it to Leo even if it raises suspicion.

Leo crossed his arms and asked.

“What do I need to do?”

“Don’t go into the room at all, just stand in front of the door and then go call the Professor. Since I’m the first discoverer, once the Professor grasps the situation, I’ll head over there too, so for now….”

I’ll send Leo first, and while Leo calls the Professor, I need to go check if Narke and Elias are awake, and if they are, warn them never to warp to my room.

Just as I said that and turned around, Leo grabbed the hood of my robe.

“…What now?”

“Lucas. You told me to call the Professor.”

“Right.”

“Are you planning to go advertise that you’re Nicolaus?”

Only then did I check my outfit.

I was still wearing the formal attire I had put on to meet the Emperor.

‘With so many things hitting me at once, I don’t even have time to be conscious of my appearance.’

“You must be really tired. Hurry up and change.”

I nodded and briefly held my head.

My school uniform is at the inn. I couldn’t carry it around since it would be discovered during baggage inspection at the Imperial Palace.

Of course, I naturally have one in my room too….

But I can’t go there right now.

Leo chuckled as if he understood without me saying anything.

“…Go to the inn and come back. I’ll call the Professor when you return, so take your time.”

“No. How many uniforms do you have?”

“Five sets. Why?”

This is the first time I’ve seen someone with five school uniforms.

Is this what being royalty is like?

I thought for a moment.

“Let me borrow one.”

“Sure, fine.”

Fortunately, Leo didn’t seem to have any cleanliness obsession about this kind of thing.

Actually, going back and forth would be better.

But I don’t want to warp anymore.

Even if it’s a building I just stepped on, I can’t trust it.

The only reason I came here was because I had to preserve the scene quickly or I’d have to turn back time again, but if that wasn’t an issue, I would have walked here.

Leo shoved a school uniform at me.

“Here. Don’t you even have enough mana left to go to the inn and back?”

“That’s how it turned out.”

I answered briefly and quickly changed clothes. Meanwhile, Leo repeated my words.

“You said not to open the door. I just need to detect mana from in front of the door? And then immediately call the Professor?”

“Right.”

“What exactly is it?”

“Someone seems to have installed magic in my room.”

“What?”

“I found out through my authority. Just go for now.”

I went out and knocked on Elias’s door at the end of the hallway.

Naturally, this sleepyhead didn’t wake up.

I blew mana through the door crack and waited for a while.

[Ugh….]

Good.

He’s sleeping, so there’s no problem.

I crossed the Cloud Bridge and went over to the building where Narke’s room was.

I knocked on Narke’s door too, but there was no response either.

“Lucas!”

Fai warped onto my shoulder.

As expected of an animal, he immediately knew I had come.

“Is Narke sleeping?”

“Yes!”

“Good, that’s all I needed to know.”

“What is?”

[Professor. Here it is.]

[In this location…]

At that moment, the sound of several people’s footsteps came from the opposite building connected to this one.

Simultaneously, the door in front of me opened quietly and swiftly. A hand grabbed my collar and pulled me inside.

“…?!”

Narke, dressed in pajamas, patted his chest and smiled.

“Lucas! You startled me~”

“Who’s the one who just grabbed my collar…”

“That’s not what’s important. Right?”

“…”

I stared intently at his face.

Narke blinked his drowsy eyes.

“Narke. How much do you know?”

“Well… I can tell that you need my help.”

I smiled and quietly fell into thought.

“Are there no other traces?”

“I don’t know right now~? Why?”

“No. You’re right. I need your help.”

“Ah! Let me guess. Since there’s a gap because of Nicolaus, we need to get our stories straight. Right?”

Narke said this while smiling.

I just silently looked into his eyes.

This isn’t a problem that can be solved so simply.

When I think about it, he tells me everything except information that would be troublesome for him to know, or crucial information.

Why?

Does he really not know? Or is he being considerate of me.

After experiencing what just happened, I can’t just let anything slide.

While thinking this, I brought up a different topic.

“So, can I know what you did from 6 PM to midnight?”

“Hmm~ Nothing. You eat dinner alone in your room anyway, so no one would know you disappeared from 6 to 7. We definitely need to get our story straight from 7 o’clock – from 7 to 8, I trained with my team friends, and I said you were resting because you were sick.”

Narke rolled his eyes, trying to pull up his memories.

“And… from 8 to 11, I studied. From 11 onwards, as you know, it’s bedtime so I slept.”

“Right, that’s everything. Narke, can we say I rested in your room from 7 to 8? Let’s say I went to see Fai.”

Many people know that Narke keeps an animal.

They just don’t know it warps around and talks.

“Good! After that, we can say from 8 o’clock you had a strategy meeting with me, Lucas. Since we’re both leader types, all the kids advancing to the third round will understand. Right?”

“Right.”

“Until midnight is a bit long, so after that we can say the strategy meeting turned into board games~”

Narke pulled out a box from under his bed and tapped it.

Right, we roughly have an outline. It was fortunate he didn’t meet other students after training.

When I just smiled, Narke smiled along and brought up another topic.

“But what about the uniform? Why are you wearing Leo’s? If you really need one, wear mine~ Want to change into it even now?”

Seeing how confident he is, he must have used insight.

Instead of Leo who has a big height difference, Narke and I don’t differ much, so this would be a much more rational choice.

But anyway, I couldn’t exactly strut down the hallway in Nicolaus’s formal wear, could I? I did need the uniform to get from there to here.

In any case, what he just said was a good clue.

He figured out that I borrowed Leo’s uniform, but he couldn’t figure out why I had to do that.

The reason I couldn’t go wake up Narke or Elias was because I didn’t want to warp into their rooms. It wasn’t a situation where he could say ‘if you really need one, wear mine.’

In other words, Narke couldn’t read memories from before the retry.

“No. The size fits well enough. And if I wear yours too, we’d have to do laundry twice.”

“Haha, that’s fine~ But Leo has bright colored jackets too.”

Student Council members wear different jackets from regular students.

Leo wasn’t in Student Council from the first day of first year, first semester, so of course he’d have one.

Anyway, that’s not what’s important.

“Narke. Really nothing comes through about what I was doing?”

“…”

Narke stared at me intently, then smiled and asked.

“Right. You just went to the Police Bureau? If you ask like that, I get curious~ I want to try using my ability until my head explodes.”

“If you use it, you can find out?”

“Hahaha, maybe someday? Where did you really go?”

“No, never mind. You’re right that I went to the Police Bureau. Just, you know, just in case.”

So he doesn’t know after all.

This is normal.

I got up from my seat.

“Thanks. I’ll get going now.”

“Lucas, wait a moment.”

Narke grabbed the end of my jacket.

“Why?”

I didn’t need to ask.

Because Narke immediately pointed to his wardrobe.

After that, I had to argue with him for a while before I could finally leave Narke’s room after changing uniforms.

“Lucas! You’re only going to wear it for less than a day anyway, so just give it back without washing it~”

Right, this is much safer.

At least no one will wonder why a uniform that was the right size until yesterday suddenly became baggy. Though who would remember someone else’s uniform size anyway.

“Hahaha, aren’t you being too sarcastic~? It’s not that bad. Anyway, try not to arouse suspicion!”

“Right, thanks.”

I’m genuinely grateful. It’s just annoying to take things to the laundry, but there’s no harm in listening to someone with insight abilities.

Narke looked at Fai on my shoulder and said.

“Fai, you should go inside too~”

When I removed Fai clinging to my shoulder, Fai closed its mouth and warped back into the room.

The moment I was about to turn around, Narke called my name.

“Lucas.”

“What?”

“Be careful.”

“…”

I nodded and moved to the opposite building.

I could easily sense that the atmosphere was unusual.

Beyond the bridge, a door lay fallen and rolling around on the pure white marble corridor.

When I looked up, I met eyes with Leo who was managing his expression, and professors whose faces had turned pale. Our Class Professor spoke with a face like he’d seen a ghost.

“Student. You’re safe.”

* * *

‘Of course I’m safe.’

Retry is the best ability.

Though if these people found out about it, it would become the second thing to drag me down after my possession.

‘Of course, right now it’s not retry but something else that will drag me down.’

I looked around the meeting room with its bleak atmosphere.

Despite it being past midnight, an emergency meeting was being held.

None of the Department of Magic professors had been sleeping anyway.

Since yesterday afternoon, Adelbert’s attempted rampage incident had been reported to the Emperor.

And now another crime had occurred at School.

This would be both a golden opportunity to catch the culprit and the darkest night in Imperial 2nd Education Institute history.

Because three crimes occurred consecutively at the school that should be the safest in the Empire.

And I know how the story will unfold from here.

The Department Head Professor asked Leo with a face that had quickly darkened.

“How did Student Leonard know that dangerous magic was cast in the room?”

“I felt magical power from in front of the door.”

Leo said expressionlessly.

The Department Head tilted his head and said.

“I didn’t feel it at all. Not until I opened the door.”

“….”

“You’re saying Student Leonard felt this. Since the student possesses remarkably keen senses, I feel that’s entirely possible, but it’s somewhat surprising that none of the four professors felt the aftereffects of that magical power.”

That professor is now pressing Leo, probably having gone mad from the consecutive problems.

It didn’t seem like he thought Leo was a suspect though. He’s fundamentally on the opposite side from Pleroma, so putting him on the suspect list would be unreasonable.

He just seems desperate to squeeze out some answer about whether he knows who the culprit is.

“If you put it that way, I have nothing more to say. Ever since I heard the news that Elias nearly went berserk, I tried to inspect our department students’ dormitory whenever I had time. I didn’t… know such a thing would happen from the very first day.”

“Yes, you wouldn’t have known. Did the student witness the scene of the crime being committed? I’m asking if you saw anyone passing by in front of Student Lucas’s room.”

As expected, the professor said exactly what I predicted.

Leo shook his head.

“I didn’t see anyone.”

“I see. Student Lucas.”

The Department Head seems to have become really impatient.

He roughly nodded at Leo’s words and immediately called me.

“I heard the student was feeling unwell and rested instead of training. During that time, did you ever see anyone approaching your room?”

“No.”

“I see. Around midnight, the student wasn’t in your room. From what time were you out of your room?”

“I was out from 7 o’clock.”

“Where to?”

“To Narke’s room. I was there from then until midnight.”

Then, the Professor from Class 1 of the 3rd Year Department of Magic raised his hand.

At this interruption in the middle of a good conversation, everyone’s attention focused on him.

He began stating the obvious.

“Everyone. I believe the culprit behind the attempted rampage incident of the House of Hohenzollern students committed this crime as well.”

“That may be so, but first we must consider the possibilities broadly.”

“Of course. But to commit that crime, one would need to know the warp coordinates of our school dormitory, which are top secret to outsiders, and among those, the detailed coordinates. Wouldn’t it all connect through one pathway anyway?”

He looked around at the faculty and continued.

“In the suspicion investigation regarding Student Adelbert, we couldn’t point to any of the faculty as suspects. What was the reason for that?”

Internal investigations had been conducted among the faculty for some time, but no suspects emerged.

What could be the reason?

First, there is no culprit among the professors.

Second, the faculty’s investigation was inadequate. This includes turning a blind eye or deliberately conducting almost no investigation.

The possibility of the second is not very high. Because the Emperor is involved.

Assuming they did their best in the investigation, in this case, all investigation methods except divine power would have been employed.

In a place filled only with pro-Emperor politicians, they couldn’t have failed to do their best in the investigation, so ultimately their conclusion is…

“We limited the targets who could contact Pleroma within the school to ‘adult mages.’ That’s what caused His Majesty the Emperor’s anger. After all, there was no progress whatsoever in the investigation over the past three days.”

It can only flow toward the first option.

And it’s obvious how things will develop from here.

The professors gradually grasped his intention and furrowed their brows. The 3rd Year Department of Magic Professor continued speaking without concern.

“The culprit might not be a professor but a student. Perhaps a student who approached the victims disguised as a good senior and friend. And perhaps the culprit is a student who decided not to stop at disguising himself as the first witness, but to disguise himself as a victim.”

I leaned back against the backrest and looked into his eyes. I knew this would happen long ago, but experiencing it directly feels different indeed.

I had to prevent one corner of my mouth from rising.

The 3rd Year Department of Magic Professor looked down at me and said.

“Isn’t that right, Student Lucas Ascanien?”

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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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