How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 182
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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 (182)
“I thought the Primrose Pass investigation was only handled by the Brandenburg Investigation Bureau and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, but I never dreamed that Bavaria would cooperate as well. You must be quite pleased to have caught the scoop that Prussia failed to catch first.”
“….”
I remained silent and held back my laughter.
Earlier, before coming to Primrose Pass, I stopped by Bavaria.
The metal card the Chairman held is the identification I made then.
Naturally, it’s fake.
‘What am I, some Investigation Bureau member.’
Maybe if I were Bavaria’s Special Administrative Minister or Crisis Response Director.
I’m grateful that the event I prepared to induce division between the Chairman and Pleroma exploded so successfully.
With this, his and my interests align.
He gained justification not to hand me over to Pleroma, while simultaneously obtaining crucial information that holds my lifeline, and thanks to that, I gained time and opportunity to go deeper.
Of course, I’ve already caught a clue to save the Professor.
But there’s one final problem here.
Even though I can claim the Professor’s innocence by revealing the Chairman’s existence and abilities, I can’t present proof of that innocence, nor can I punish the Chairman.
Setting aside the reason for now, I should currently aim to extract as much information about the Chairman as possible. So I can combine it somehow later.
‘It’ll be a bit tiring, but….’
I can endure it.
And even excluding that final problem, there’s this immediate issue too.
The conditions for revelation won’t be just one.
If consent to conversation were the only condition, this guy should have dominated the world long ago. There’s definitely something more.
“Normally I’d hand you over according to Pleroma’s re-education request… but I can’t tolerate such a slippery eel on my street. Especially since re-education wasn’t even properly conducted.”
So they call the process of giving ‘revelation’ re-education. I heard that word with Asman too.
“Let’s do this. If we find a point of agreement, I’ll send you back to His Excellency. But if we can’t, you’ll have to stay under me.”
“Says who?”
“Wouldn’t the question of whose fault it is be more accurate? If the preparation had been more thorough, this wouldn’t have happened, so let’s say I’m solving your mistake as I please.”
He sat down to meet my gaze and asked in a conversational tone.
“You want to go back, don’t you?”
“Where to.”
“You should go home. Don’t you want to rest comfortably drinking warm tea where your beloved family is?”
Instead of answering, I stared at him intently.
At that moment, I felt pain in my head.
He grabbed my hair and lifted it to meet my gaze.
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone who doesn’t want to go home in this situation.”
“….”
I quietly looked at him and smiled.
I never said I didn’t want to go home.
‘So he can tell whether I agree or not even without me answering.’
He asked the question then used his ability on me, but it didn’t work.
It’s a good ability.
I looked into his transparent eyes and twisted the corners of my mouth.
“Now I see that the Chairman is quite emotional. Why, did you lose your anger management skills because your trump card didn’t work?”
“….”
The Chairman remained silent with a benevolent face.
Then he smiled so benevolently it was hard to believe he was the same person who had just attacked my solar plexus with his full weight.
“Do you enjoy life at the Investigation Bureau?”
“Not particularly.”
“I understand. Nothing is as tiring as organizational life.”
“It’s not the organization that’s tiring.”
It might sound like wordplay, but I’m serious.
He would know better than anyone right now that I’m not joking around. Since his ability didn’t work.
“I see. I’m not much different. More than that….”
The Chairman looked around and stroked his chin.
“I belong to several places, so I have multiple tasks I must do each day, but recently many of my plans have gone awry, so I spend most of my day working. Sometimes I wonder if I might just close my eyes while sleeping.”
“….”
“How about it. Can you understand my feelings?”
I just smiled.
His intention is transparently obvious.
‘He’s suspicious.’
Whether I’m Nicolaus or not.
Since Nicolaus lives with his face covered, suspecting he might be doing other work under his masked identity is reasonable. Moreover, if someone infiltrated this far to find him, he could reasonably suspect it’s Nicolaus.
The Chairman smiled and stared into my eyes for a while, then clicked his tongue and shook his head with the same expression.
“….”
It won’t work.
I’ve never made any judgment about my workload, and if I had to consider it now, my impression would be the opposite of what he said.
The Chairman spoke quietly.
“Earlier, you called it a trump card. That’s not a trump card.”
“Then?”
“Think carefully. Whether that scoundrel-like nature of yours is false or true, from my perspective, you’re optimal as the protagonist of a new business.”
He leaned his face close and whispered.
“I could throw you into that Abyss of Demons right now.”
“Hahaha….”
“Since it’s something you’ve never once thought about in your entire life, you wouldn’t be pleased. I understand.”
When I just twisted the corners of my mouth instead of answering, he shook his head and laughed as if amazed.
Since I’m not afraid, his ability wouldn’t have worked this time either.
It won’t go according to the Antagonist’s will anyway, and even if it did, I’m skilled at enduring.
“Shall we try to create new common ground? If you’re not afraid, I’ll have no choice but to make you afraid.”
The Chairman lightly tapped the floor twice with his cane.
Crash―!
There was a thunderous sound as if the door would fall off. People in black robes entered the room.
If you’re not afraid, I’ll make you afraid.
It was a statement where the future was clearly visible.
I reflexively pulled up the corners of my mouth and clenched my hands tightly.
* * *
Drip―
“….”
Drip―
‘The wages of sin is death….’
“…but the gift of God is eternal life in the Lord. That’s Romans chapter 6.”
“….”
“It’s a passage that’s like the heart of Pleroma. Are you coming to your senses a bit?”
I felt water droplets from my hair touching and flowing down my face as I slowly lifted my eyelids.
Similarly, water covered my eyes so I couldn’t see the world properly.
The smell of blood that had been familiar until just now freshly stung my nose.
“I heard you lost consciousness once, so I came to wake you personally.”
I closed my eyes again.
Drowsiness washed over me.
The lighting in the room I’d been moved to was just dark enough that it was perfect for sleeping regardless of what the other person said.
“It must hurt a lot. How difficult this must be for you. You must want to go back now….”
A warm voice mixed with concern lingered in my ears.
My eardrum must have burst because the sound from one ear was already coming through as if someone was speaking from far away.
He lifted my head to examine my eyes. Fortunately, even in this situation, the hair covering my vision was bright gold. The eye color I had changed to the same gold would probably still be maintained as well.
He looked at me with a worried face, then after a long while, shook his head with an incredulous laugh.
“…Amazing. Don’t tell me you don’t even want to go back?”
“…”
“You’re impregnable. You don’t want to go home, you don’t care if I throw you among the Humans, you don’t particularly want to quit even when beaten… Did you receive professional torture training? I can’t tell if the Bavaria Investigation Bureau raises detectives or special agents.”
Wrong.
I’m not even affiliated with the Investigation Bureau to begin with.
I thought as I half-fell into sleep.
“No matter how special an agent, if they’re New Humanity, they’re ones who grew up pampered in warm manors…”
His words came through all broken up.
“If the situation was insufficient, you can experience more.”
After that, no sound could be heard.
I realized he had already gone outside when someone holding a hammer grabbed my hand and moved it to the chair’s armrest.
* * *
I don’t know how many hours passed.
Someone grabbed my head.
Splash—
Cold air touching my face flowed all the way into my lungs. My head hurt as if it would split.
I repeatedly took deep breaths and expelled water while coughing.
Someone’s voice echoed loudly from above. Now I couldn’t easily understand what they were saying.
[You wouldn’t open your mouth once no matter what we did, but you finally open it after being put in water.]
“Cough… Cough.”
[You must want to stop here. I understand.]
“…”
[I’ll send you back as you wish. This is what you wanted, right?]
I continued to catch my breath while letting out a laugh.
My lips were already split so I don’t know if it was conveyed that way.
One thing was certain – he had failed again this time. Even if he kept me here for another 24 hours, my thoughts wouldn’t change.
As expected, he also realized his strategy was completely wrong and clicked his tongue while shaking his head.
[This is practically an illness.]
I heard this from someone before.
It didn’t take long to recall.
It was something I heard from Strauchi.
I think so too. From what he said a few days ago, Leo probably thinks the same way.
[Do you know that the instincts that should be there to protect the body aren’t functioning properly? Did you already receive this level of training at the Investigation Bureau, or do you have bad memory and plan to forget everything, or have you given up everything thinking you can’t return anyway…]
I heard the sound of him taking something out of his clothes.
[Why don’t you tell me. You must know the reason for this numbness.]
He felt around my arm for a while, found a vein, and stuck a needle deep in.
The faint smell of blood wafted over.
“…What are you…”
[What am I drawing it for? Of course I’m drawing it to drink.]
While saying that, instead of drinking the blood, he injected it into another bottle.
In this situation where my senses were fatigued, the smell of blood came stimulatingly and made my stomach churn.
[Actually, I already drank one bottle, but to think I need to drink more because that wasn’t enough – it’s truly strange. I’ve only had this experience twice in my life. The other person was quite an eccentric.]
‘…Good.’
I learned one more condition for revelation.
Earlier, the Chairman called the street created with spatial magic ‘Primrose Pass as I perceived it.’
In the Catacombs too, they converted images from my thoughts and memories with spatial magic. But that was only possible after making me take medicine.
They didn’t make me take medicine, yet they’re extracting images from my head with spatial magic?
They gain the right to intervene with the target by drinking their blood.
This would be the inference closest to the correct answer.
‘This is more like Pleroma ability than anyone else’s.’
Pleroma among Pleroma.
Pleroma drink blood to replenish mana and give baptism, but that’s it. This guy doesn’t stop there and can manipulate the target whose blood he drank at will.
No wonder he thinks he’s too good to be tied to the Order.
To think of making a new order after even receiving Vitriol – it’s bad news for Pleroma who are destined to give everything away and be betrayed.
[If only bad things keep happening, you might not even know they’re bad things, so let’s have a calm conversation again. You seem interested in blood.]
“…”
[I can’t help but highly value Pleroma’s sophisticated resurrection doctrine and Vitriol abilities, but there’s one thing I find unreliable. Do you know how the resurrection they claim works?]
How would it work.
When even baptism and blessing methods aren’t known to outsiders, would they reveal the most core technology of literally reviving actual corpses to the outside?
[You wouldn’t know. 99% of Pleroma likewise don’t know the process and principles. Yet they just repeat that the blood of the covenant came to save the children from death. Do they really possess the blood of the Son of Man? No, it’s highly likely they resurrect using other wicked mediums instead of blood, and for legitimacy, took the theme of blood from scripture to package it plausibly.]
Saying that, he moved to an unexpected topic.
[Magic depends on human cognitive ability. The meaning and sanctity contained in incantations allow them to fully borrow God’s authority. In that sense, have you ever heard magic incantations involving blood?]
No.
The Magic Department never registers passages with blood in official magic incantations, even if they’re very core passages from scripture.
[None, right? Why? Because there’s no one who can use magic with blood incantations. But unlike them, I can take blood and approach others’ lives. That ability Pleroma truly doesn’t possess.]
He laughed as if truly satisfied.
Right.
If he can utilize blood beyond Pleroma’s abilities, he’s worthy of being a cult leader. Of course, I’ll have to eliminate him.
The Antagonist waved his wand to pull a chair from the corner in front of me and sat down.
[You’re not a Buddhist. Romans 6:23… To reflexively recite verses even while not fully conscious, I was moved by that loyalty.]
“…”
[Good. If it’s true you converted while knowing He atoned for our sins, then only eternal punishment like hell…]
“Go ahead and try.”
A voice that sounded unfamiliar since it had been long since I properly spoke scratched my throat irritably.
The opponent who had been silent for a while answered.
[I’m sorry. Religious talk seems to have gotten on your nerves. I thought we were almost there, but the point of agreement keeps disappearing at crucial moments.]
There must be types of agreement.
Can he only use his ability after gaining agreement in more intimate and deep conversations?
Like most magic, the conditions for activating abilities would vary depending on the opponent’s caliber.
Since it doesn’t work well on me, he’d need to gain more agreement.
He bent down to meet my gaze.
[To you, I am a target to be condemned. Why is that? If you’re someone with the resolve to judge the world, shouldn’t you rightfully carry out justice? The evil nature and ignorance possessed by Humans cannot coexist with the truth of New Humanity, and justice rests solely in the hands of us New Humanity who are wise.]
“Do you think New Humanity is that different? Don’t you know that everything you’re saying now is no different from the evil nature of Humans you so despise?”
[The wicked have been judged for generations and Humans still live in Sodom. I will save them before they perish. So my business is beneficial to all people. Providing base pleasures to Humans and granting eternal dominion to New Humanity – that is my religion and my business.]
When I didn’t answer, he smiled and stood up.
[As expected, you don’t agree. Further conversation seems meaningless. See you later.]
“No.”
At my words, he stopped abruptly and turned around.
“Is your name really Abraham?”
[Of course.]
“No.”
I squeezed out what little strength I had left to lift my head and look straight into his eyes.
He was also staring directly at me.
“You’re Gregorius.”
The Chairman stood still with his mouth slightly open.
[…Hahahaha! Who did you hear that from? You keep exceeding my expectations. That’s a name only Pleroma knows, so this makes me wonder if you’re a spy sent by Pleroma to kill me…]
He burst into laughter and approached me.
[Or… if you’re really Nicolaus.]
Just as I was about to sneer at those words, my eyes widened.
My core had become slightly lighter.
I hadn’t even realized I was feeling oppressed until now, but now I could clearly tell.
[….]
The Chairman raised his head to look up at the air.
He must have felt something too.
But his expression remained calm. He looked down at me and spoke gently.
[Did you prepare this? Why don’t you try attacking me.]
I didn’t prepare this. I don’t know what’s happening either.
‘Anyway…’
It’s an opportunity.
Of course, for an opportunity, he was looking down at me with an extremely calm face.
I know why he’s so confident.
‘His mental power stat was -6.0, and +8.0.’
Marco Schreiber has -6.0 mental power. However, for some reason he currently has +8.0 mental power.
His other stats also show such stark differences that he might as well be another person.
What does this mean?
The one currently controlling his brain has +8.0 mental power.
That’s not Marco Schreiber but…
‘It’s Gregorius’s mental power.’
The problem I thought about earlier, the reason why ‘I can’t provide proof of innocence and can’t punish the Chairman’ was exactly this.
He’s standing before me using someone else’s body.
[Do you think you can attack your way out? Since it’s come to this, let me tell you a secret.]
He approached me again, bent down and whispered in my ear.
[This isn’t my body.]
That’s why the Antagonist didn’t drink my blood earlier but put it in another bottle. He’s probably planning to go back and give it to his real body.
If I turn back time and point to Marco Schreiber as the culprit, Gregorius will never use his body again.
And he’ll use someone else’s body to operate in Primrose Pass and create the Order.
Once again, the real culprit would escape while only someone else’s flesh gets punished.
‘There’s no answer to this whole situation.’
No matter what threat I pose to Marco, the Chairman just needs to slip out from within.
So in the next timeline, I need to claim the Professor’s innocence while meeting the ‘real’ Chairman.
What I need to look at here is exactly this.
Marco Schreiber’s title.
‘Chairman.’
Even the status window’s title calls Marco Schreiber the Chairman.
My title went from ‘???’s Hunter’ to settling on the boring name ‘Count Nicolaus’ because that’s how people perceived me.
In other words, to many people, Marco Schreiber is already accepted as the Chairman. It means the Chairman always uses that body for external activities.
And as I’ve known since Strauchi, I can use magic to some extent in their atmosphere.
Since it uses my life force, there’s always a clear limit line set as it always has been.
‘The opportunity is…’
If I use it small and frequently, safely five times.
If I use it big, maybe once or twice. Going beyond that would make me lose consciousness.
Especially in a situation like now where my body isn’t in good condition, the consumption would be even greater.
[Even if you are Nicolaus and try to brainwash me, the body’s owner won’t be able to answer anything.]
He smiled with a benevolent face.
[Even if you attack, it won’t be a problem for me at all. I’m sorry that the device you worked so hard to set up became unusable.]
―Therefore…
As I quietly opened my mouth, the Chairman tilted his head and looked at me.
Kwaang—!
I broke the chair and thrust out my hand.
My already broken hand couldn’t exert force, but thanks to drawing out magic power, there was no problem.
Kuung—!
I checked my blurred vision to confirm him. Fortunately, my magic aim was good. Because I burst magic power in one shot to knock him down, I felt intense pain in my core.
Anyway, he said I’d be sorry.
There’s no need for that at all.
Kwagwang— Kwang—!
I put up a barrier against the Vitriol rushing at me and crushed him with magic power. When I groped the floor, the water that had been used on me earlier got on my hand.
―Go therefore…
“What the…”
—And make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age!
The Chairman’s face, which had maintained composure throughout, contorted.
An expression of not understanding my actions passed by, as if asking what the hell I was doing.
‘Of course.’
I just baptized him.
I said I need to claim the Professor’s innocence in the next timeline while meeting the real Chairman.
First, to meet the real Chairman’s body in the next timeline, I need to meet this guy, which means I’d have to get baptized by Ludovica and get dragged here again.
‘How can I do this crazy thing again.’
I can’t do that.
The traces of orthodox baptism remained even when time was turned back.
The Chairman using Marco Schreiber’s body will notice in the next timeline that something has happened to the mind of the body he likes to use.
With this, in the next timeline I can meet Marco Schreiber without this arduous process.
Using magic in air that blocked magic use caused intense pain in my core. The barrier broke and pitch-black Vitriol rushed before my eyes.
‘I need to use…
Retry.
I can’t go on like this. Feeling my consciousness fading, I bit down hard on my tongue.
Kwaang—!
[…Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.]
At that moment, my ears became muffled. Light poured into my vision.
It was a familiar voice.
Ivory hair entered my blurred vision. The moment I recognized the face of a human who shouldn’t be here, my eyes widened.
“…Lucas!”
Leo was gripping my shoulder.
“Turn it back!”
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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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