How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 17

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

How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (17)

Creak―

Ten minutes before the first class, I entered the classroom when most students would have already arrived.

“…What the hell?”

Leo, who was sitting in the classroom, looked at my face and asked as if he couldn’t believe it.

Then, as if he belatedly remembered that he had decided not to acknowledge me, he now silently turned his head toward me and began cursing with his expression.

I ignored his face that seemed to ask what on earth had happened and looked around elsewhere.

I made eye contact with those students from yesterday.

I let out a sneer and nodded toward them.

“I left you there, but you managed to get up and come here on your own.”

“….”

“Hey.”

The students stubbornly stared straight ahead, but only after I approached and tapped one of them on the shoulder did they tremble and look in my direction.

“Making me come over there myself?”

“Ah, ah, no… why am I…?”

The guy’s eyes looking at me shook like crazy.

He clearly remembered being called out and bullied by me, but he wouldn’t have any memory of being beaten so visibly like this.

Something had definitely happened, yet all that remained in his head was vague fear.

I smiled and grabbed his shoulder.

“Take your bag and come sit next to me.”

“Huh?”

“Sit next to me. All four of you.”

The guy slowly got up from his seat with a completely frozen face.

Then he asked with a face that didn’t understand why he should follow my words.

“Why next to you…?”

I returned to my seat and silently tapped my desk.

They exchanged glances and sat next to me with confused faces.

I asked casually.

“What class is this?”

“…Basic Biology… probably.”

“Right, good. Open your notebooks.”

The guys looked at each other bewildered and took out their notebooks. Just then, the Professor opened the door and entered.

“Hello, everyone.”

While the Professor was looking through the attendance list, I spoke to the students sitting next to me.

“What are your grades like?”

“36th place… These guys next to me are probably in the 40s. Why do you ask?”

At those words, I let out a hollow laugh.

“40th place out of 50? I can’t even expect you to have the ability to grasp key points.”

“But, you were also… weren’t you 48th place?”

Luca was like that. He was absent even on exam days. He occupied last place throughout, barely avoiding last place only in the final exam.

I didn’t bother answering that and pointed to the notebook.

“From now on, write down everything the Professor says without missing a single word. Don’t think about finding key points unnecessarily, record everything from beginning to end.”

“What?”

“Write it down. Everything.”

Everything? The Student looked troubled and frowned.

“But, why should we listen to you from earlier…?”

“Don’t want to?”

When I smiled and stared directly at his face, the Student slightly averted his eyes and dragged out his words.

“No, writing everything down is a bit…”

“If you don’t want to, then don’t do it. It’s your freedom. Studying isn’t something you do because someone forces you to.”

Don’t do it? This easily?

Is it really okay not to do it? Bewilderment appeared on the Student’s face again.

Just then, the Professor looked around at the students and tilted his head when he saw my face.

“Student Lucas, why is your face like that?”

“Ah, I was at dawn…”

I stood up from my seat and opened my mouth.

Bang―

The sound of the desk echoed through the quiet classroom.

The Student sitting next to me grabbed my hand tightly with a pale face. The Student whispered urgently in a small voice.

“I, I, I’ll do it…! I’ll do it! Everything!”

“…Hmm.”

“At dawn?”

The Professor asked back, looking between me and the Student next to me.

From far away, Leo let out a deep sigh. He seemed to have finally figured out what had happened.

The eyes of all the other students filling the classroom were the same.

I looked down at the guy holding my hand and raised the corner of my mouth.

“…It’s nothing serious. I had a bit of a dispute with my friends.”

“If it’s a violence incident, we’ll have to convene a disciplinary committee.”

“No. It’s not that serious. It was resolved amicably.”

The Professor didn’t seem to want to make a big deal out of anything related to me, so after thinking for a moment, he nodded.

“Hmm… If you need help, tell the professors anytime. Even later is fine.”

“Yes, I’ll definitely do that. Thank you.”

I smiled and sat down.

Then I took out a thin book with a cover from my bag. It was a book I had borrowed from the Library to study divine power special magic.

I opened the book, placed it under my textbook, and gestured to the students sitting next to me.

“What are you doing? Not writing.”

“….”

The students stared blankly down at my book, then hurriedly moved their hands when the Professor began speaking.

* * *

“Well then, see you next week. Make sure to review well.”

The Professor gathered his materials and went outside.

The guys next to me jumped up from their seats and gasped for breath.

“Huff… It’s, it’s over.”

“Lucas! We wrote everything!”

The students’ tearful cries could be heard.

At their cries, I looked up from my book and quickly skimmed through the notebooks.

Naturally there were blank parts, but since there were several people taking notes, they were filling in each other’s blank parts.

I returned the notebooks to the students again.

“Well done.”

“…You’re not taking them?”

“Geez… There are even people who only study for the first period. What, does School end after just the first period?”

At those words, the students’ faces became gloomy. I smiled and patted their shoulders.

“Hang in there until six o’clock.”

Like that, after regular class hours ended, I collected all the notebooks. The students handed over their notebooks with dying faces while massaging their arms.

“Look at how your handwriting is flying away. Can’t you do it properly?”

One of the students who was listening to my scolding hesitated and opened his mouth.

“…But, by any chance, will you report…?”

“I won’t.”

When I shook my head, light returned to the students’ faces. I watched that sight quietly and continued speaking.

“As long as you keep doing this from now on. As far as I know, violence incidents can be reported anytime until graduation. Right?”

“Huh? Oh, no… then…”

I smiled as I looked at the students who couldn’t continue their words.

I had already gone to the hospital and gotten a medical report.

Unlike before, I slowly read through the notes and nodded my head.

Sitting still and listening to high school lessons I already knew was an incredibly difficult task.

What could be finished in 30 minutes with just lecture notes, I had to sit through for a whole hour.

It wasn’t like the curriculum was the same as reality either, so I couldn’t completely ignore the classes, which was a bit troubling…

‘This is good.’

I closed the notebook filled with lecture content and grinned.

“Well then, I’m borrowing this.”

* * *

Not long after Lucas left his seat, one student sighed and rubbed his face with both hands.

“That bastard’s a thug…”

“Wh-what kind of thug rips out notebook pages…”

“Either way, it’s extortion! Isn’t the notebook my property?!”

When the student burst out angrily, another student shook his head.

“Calm down. He clearly said he was borrowing it. Let’s see if he returns it.”

“If he doesn’t return it, I’m reporting him immediately.”

“He’ll return it. He’ll have to if he wants to make us take notes again tomorrow.”

“…”

Everyone fell silent.

It was a statement that made their vision go dark.

* * *

I stopped by my room to stack the borrowed notebooks on my desk, then moved to the training ground.

“What the hell happened yesterday anyway?”

When I looked up, my eyes met Leo’s as he sat casually on a training ground chair.

Right, I knew he’d ask. It would be stranger if he didn’t.

I thought for a moment then answered briefly.

“Got beaten up a bit.”

Of course, that wasn’t what he was asking about – he probably wanted to know how the incident unfolded…

But there were many things I didn’t need to tell him, like how the Antagonist brought up Leo or how I made them eat dirt.

Better not to explain at all than leave room for slip-ups.

‘I won’t get halfway through if I talk carelessly.’

Especially about making them eat dirt.

I kept my mouth shut, thinking of Leo’s upright behavior.

Leo looked at me with an incredulous expression again and shook his head.

“Fine, whatever… That’s not what’s important. Did you get examined?”

“I did. Just some bruises.”

“That’s a relief.”

Leo nodded and casually brought up a random question.

“So, did you win?”

“What?”

I let out a hollow laugh at the unexpected question.

Even in the novel, I’d read scenes of Leo stopping the Protagonist from getting into fights, but I didn’t remember reading about him asking about wins and losses.

‘He’s already assuming I used magic.’

He wouldn’t have brought up winning or losing a fight unless magic was involved. I answered lightly.

“They wouldn’t be listening to someone who lost.”

Leo burst out laughing at that answer.

“Ah, now I feel a bit better. Right, who taught you anyway. There’s no way you’d lose to guys like that.”

“It’s interesting that you naturally assume I used magic.”

“Those bastards aren’t the type to keep boundaries. Magic was the only way to get out of that situation.”

I nodded.

From trying to make me eat a living animal, they’d crossed the line long ago. If I hadn’t used magic, I really would have ended up putting it in my mouth.

“How are the other students reacting?”

“They think you got beaten up one-sidedly. And they’re speculating that those bastards accidentally hit your face and got caught for it.”

A perfectly reasonable reaction.

It wouldn’t be easy to think that someone who can’t even use magic beat three or four mages.

Ultimately, this meant word about my magic hadn’t spread.

I only got divine power as a reward, and I self-taught the mental manipulation magic using divine power…

‘Pretty effective for something I studied alone.’

Special magic using divine power was worth continued investment in the future.

Of course, after focusing on more fundamental things first.

Right now I needed to raise my stamina score faster.

If divine power usage was hindered, mental power was the same.

It was the fourth week of September now, and once next week passed it would be October. It had already been almost a month since the new semester started.

So… it was time to speed up supplementing my status window.

Three hours after starting training, Leo stuck his wand at his waist and checked his watch.

“It’s ten o’clock. Let’s head back.”

I nodded while wiping off sweat.

Unlike me, Leo showed no signs of fatigue and smiled as he greeted me.

“We did train at a higher intensity today though, good work.”

“Yeah, you too.”

This was why I needed to raise my stamina stat quickly. Even when trying to do something for improvement, stamina became an obstacle.

‘Let me see how much I gained from a day of training.’

I called up my status window.

Lucas Rene Ascanien

Title: Hunter of ???

Stamina: -3.3 (+0.1) [-0.3]

Mental Power: -7.6 (+0.1)

Magic Power: ?

Skill: +1.065 (+0.05) [+4.065]

Impression: -10

Luck: -6.385 (+0.1)

Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power

0.1 per day, 1 point in ten days.

For reference, last week it was 1 point per week.

As the values got larger, the amount of increase was getting smaller.

Still, generously estimating two months would be enough to escape the negatives, so it wasn’t a problem yet.

The problem was after that.

I focused on the skill category.

The skill score, the only positive one, was rising by smaller amounts each time compared to other categories. Once it crossed into positive territory, the speed would become incomparably slower than now.

‘Since everything left will take longer and longer, it’s right to get through the negative ranges as quickly as possible.’

Time was limited but there was much to do.

Should I cut back on sleep?

While I was having various thoughts and packing my bag, Leo exclaimed and called me.

“Ah, Lucas.”

“What.”

“The medicinal ingredients you mentioned arrived. Today’s the fourth day you mentioned before.”

Leo showed me a box he had placed under his bag.

Hmm, if I’m going to make that during exam period too, I really will have to cut back on sleep.

Just as I was having such thoughts, a familiar notification sound rang out.

Ding―!

〈 Chapter 3. Constant Drops of Water Pierce Through Stone (1) 〉

Proposal 2: Achieve ‘Stamina’ score of 0 (0/1) (167 hours 59 minutes 58 seconds)

* Route 1 — 〈 Chapter 3 Special Reward 〉

* Route 2 — 〈 Chapter 4. One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer 〉

“….”

“Lucas?”

When it takes ten days to raise it by 1 point… they’re telling me to raise it by 3.3 points in just one week.

Right, it was about time for this kind of proposal to come up.

I wondered why things were so quiet when the title looked like that.

I snorted at the unrealistic time limit.

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