How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 186

—————
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 (186)

“Yes, that would be right.”

I answered with a smile.

“No matter how I think about it, the second week of January seems out of nowhere. Perhaps after the Pleroma Empire contamination incident broke out, you conducted the first irregular examination to check the safety of the faculty. Is that correct?”

“That’s correct. Haha, you’ve known well from earlier, so why ask…? They said we should check if the professors’ magical power is fine since they need to protect the school, and if there are any health problems.”

“They said to check. Who said that?”

“The Imperial 2nd Education Institute’s partner hospital proposed it. That’s the Imperial Central Hospital in the northern part of the capital.”

They proposed it.

Of course they would.

“How many days does it usually take for examination results to come out?”

“Even if it takes long, they come out after waiting about 2 weeks. If it’s just magical power testing, it takes about 3 days.”

“I see. How many vials of blood do they draw for magical power testing?”

“They just draw one vial with a syringe, usually. That’s what they did this time too. I know because I submitted mine as well.”

‘I suppose they were worried about arousing suspicion if they demanded too much blood.’

Since blood is deeply related not only to magical power but also to Pleroma, they would have needed to be careful during such a suspicious time as now. A fortunate situation.

He looked puzzled that I kept asking obvious questions.

It’s obvious but not an obvious situation. I need to be certain.

“Then, when will the results of this examination come out? There aren’t that many professors here, so is there a reason it should take as long as 3 weeks?”

“Ah… Come to think of it, I haven’t heard the reason for the delay. I should send a letter right away today.”

The Director said with a slightly troubled expression.

I exchanged glances with Leo.

Setting aside why they work this way…

What could be the reason they can’t give the results?

‘Because they used up all the blood that should have been used for testing.’

Especially since professors are stronger than ordinary mages, the Antagonist would have had to drink the entire vial they drew to safely enter their minds.

They’ll probably forge last year’s results and send those.

I shook my head.

“No. You don’t need to contact them.”

“Pardon?”

“I happen to have business visiting there soon anyway. I’ll contact the school once I get an answer. Would that be alright?”

“Ah, yes. Then I’d be grateful.”

“Thank you. That’s about all I came to ask today, and since my schedule is tight, I’ll wrap up here and be on my way.”

I stood up from my seat.

And the moment he stood up to see me off, I drew my wand and aimed it at him.

—Enter through the narrow entrance.

“…!”

I caught the Director’s collapsing body with magic, approached him, and spoke quietly.

“…You must not contact the hospital. Do you understand?”

He was looking down at the floor with unfocused eyes, then slowly nodded his head.

I smiled and released the magic.

“Good. Thank you.”

* * *

After leaving the Director’s office, I cast concealment magic and slipped out of the school through the back gate.

Students were already out in the campus looking around, so I had no choice.

Leo, who came out to see me off, smiled and spoke.

“How well…”

“How well?”

“How well you use your cunning. As always.”

“It wasn’t cunning, but the most rational and sensible method available to you. I didn’t rely on lucky guesses either.”

I said that with a smile.

Leo asked.

“Then how were you so certain from the beginning, Count? Didn’t you know there was an examination in January?”

“As Your Highness said, they have no way to obtain blood. If they could infiltrate the dormitories, they wouldn’t need to give revelations to the professors, and it’s not something they could pickpocket while passing by.”

“Hmm.”

“To obtain blood without suspicion and convincingly… There exists one method to make them voluntarily draw and submit their blood. Moreover, since a health-related disaster struck this month, a perfect situation was coincidentally created. Why would they let it pass?”

Leo nodded satisfactorily.

“Will you return to school now?”

“No. I’m going to the parliament.”

Leo looked at me.

He’s probably wondering what I’m going to do again. I shook my head to reassure him.

“You don’t need to come. Let’s meet in the evening, Your Highness.”

* * *

“Ernst. Here are the materials you requested. The magical power test results for Professor Johannes Rohn and Professor Stefan Traut haven’t come out yet.”

I immediately contacted the Emperor and had the Investigation Bureau thoroughly search the hospital like catching mice.

I flipped through the materials the detective handed me and snorted when I saw the blank magical power test section.

‘Surprising that they didn’t even think to fill it with last year’s test results.’

What does this tell us?

A simple mistake?

Well, since it’s human work, if the person in charge of this is careless and lazy, one could think that way.

But it’s insufficient. In any fight, the moment I underestimate the opponent, that game turns against me. Because I would be ignoring all possible scenarios myself.

‘The Antagonist hasn’t managed to place his person in the hospital yet.’

This conclusion is much more rational.

If he had a subordinate with easy access to blood from long ago, he should have been able to give revelations to all the high-ranking political and business mages living in the capital by now.

Going around seeking approval would be easy compared to obtaining blood, so there’s no reason to postpone it for long.

In other words, from this we can know that the Antagonist creating someone who received revelations in the hospital is a recent development, and that he failed to mentally influence that person who received revelations.

If it were a ‘real’ subordinate, they wouldn’t have left blanks for just those two, but would have manipulated the ledger more meticulously.

There could be several reasons for the sloppy handling afterward, but in this part, the possibility of calculation being involved is small.

“Thank you. I’ll go upstairs now.”

“Yes.”

I gestured to Narke and Adelbert who had followed me.

When I mentioned to Adelbert that ‘I was going to interrogate at parliament and needed to do some secretive activities,’ he immediately went to his father and begged to follow me.

So now, instead of the Imperial Court’s Arcane Mage, Adelbert was taking that position.

‘Since I’ve finished afternoon training too…’

Let’s go leisurely.

First, let’s go through this slowly.

The plan has changed.

When I met the Antagonist in the previous time, I said I had to meet him again ‘because there was no evidence to present to save the homeroom professor, and also to prevent the Antagonist from creating a religious group at Primrose Pass to expand his influence.’

I’m abandoning the first reason.

I need to go meet him only for the second reason.

When I was in that time, I was numb to violence and didn’t realize it.

If I have to meet him to obtain physical evidence, the situation becomes too complicated and turns against me. Because it’s not simply ‘kill and end it’ but ‘don’t kill him, first put him in front of a camera and make him confess.’

And… decisively.

‘There’s also the promise I made with Leo.’

To avoid putting him in a dangerous situation, I need to avoid it myself first.

So now I came to find materials that could be used as that evidence.

No, to be precise…

I came to create evidence.

“Prince.”

“Yes!”

I almost laughed at that voice full of spirit and coughed instead.

“The scene you’re about to witness won’t be a particularly pleasant one.”

“It’s fine. I think it’s a tremendous honor just to be able to watch you follow Ernst and resolve cases related to me!”

“I see….”

I elbowed Narke in the ribs as he was about to burst into laughter and entered the parliament building.

This was a place I had already visited in the time period that had been rewound and erased.

I recalled the appointment I had made with the legislator today and headed up to the top floor.

Narke silently followed me up the stairs and asked.

“By the way, you said yesterday I didn’t need to come, but why the parliament~?”

I had told Narke that.

In the erased time period, I had interrogated the legislators together with him, but after rewinding time, I told him ‘forget about parliament, we need to go to Primrose Pass first.’

In reality, I had already obtained all the information I could get from these legislators. There wasn’t any more information I needed to obtain.

Knock knock—

“I’m coming in.”

When I opened the door, the person who had given me information about Gregorius in the previous time period was standing before me.

“Count Nicolaus. It’s good to see you.”

Unlike the previous time period when he had been sobbing with a face full of terror, he approached me with a cheerful expression and attempted to shake hands. I lightly grasped his hand and drew my wand.

“Good to see you.”

—Enter through the narrow gate.

“…!”

The legislator’s eyes briefly went blank before returning to focus. He opened his mouth with confused eyes.

“Wait, Count…?! What are you suddenly doing…!”

—For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

When I recited up to that point, his eyes went blank.

I grabbed his head and looked around. Perhaps because my magic didn’t work immediately, Adelbert looked at him with surprised eyes.

On the other hand, Narke seemed to have caught on like before.

“I have no intention of breaking a promise I’ve made once, but….”

I said that and immediately snapped my fingers.

“You’ll need to cooperate.”

“…Gasp…! W-wait! What are you doing…!”

The legislator immediately regained focus and clutched his heart with widened eyes.

I brought my face close to his and tilted my head.

“You must be quite flustered.”

“…!”

I felt the instinctive fear that had melted into his eyes and smiled.

He had noticed.

The Antagonist knows that I know where his weakness lies.

“Pleroma’s self-destruct device, isn’t it? No matter how I look at it, it’s remarkable. Shall I trigger it a bit more?”

“N-no, what did I ever do to you…!”

Crash—!

I slammed him onto the desk. I tied his hands behind his back and drew my wand, throwing it to Narke.

Fortunately, the Antagonist couldn’t collect himself from the series of shocks and let me do as I pleased with him.

Adelbert just stood there with his mouth agape, staring at me.

‘I don’t usually interrogate people this way.’

Even though he had seen it before, this would just create unnecessary prejudice. If it weren’t for Pleroma, I wouldn’t have treated him like a serious criminal from the start.

Narke kept his wand pointed at him from the side.

“Please tell me everything you know about Gregorius. This isn’t what I want to make you do, but try reciting it once.”

“G-Gregorius…?”

“You know, don’t you? The person who betrayed Pleroma and is trying to create a new religion. And you were assigned to monitor him.”

“…!”

His eyes shook wildly.

“I-I can’t betray the organization, how could I….”

“Betraying Pleroma…. Well, wouldn’t that be much better than melting to death in this very spot?”

His face turned deathly pale.

This was the same person who had confessed everything to me in the previous time period.

I had seen his shallow loyalty and strong desire for life. That desire had very high utility value.

Since I had no data on the tendencies of the person who had melted to death, I decided to meet with this one this time.

“I know how much you know about Gregorius, and I know what you can testify to. But to you, my words probably seem like simple threats and you find them unreliable, right? Let’s try a test. —Through the narrow gate….”

“W-wait! Wait!”

He twisted his body.

When I stopped speaking, he nodded his head as if trying to calm me down instead of using his arms. However, looking at his complexion, he was the one who needed calming.

“Wait. Just wait a moment, Count…. I’ll die if you do that. I’ll die….”

I grabbed the arm of the person who was already sobbing and rambling incoherently and flipped his body over.

“You wouldn’t want to die. If you follow my words, Pleroma will kill you, and if you’re loyal to Pleroma, I’ll kill you right now.”

The Antagonist nodded his head vigorously.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell you to betray Pleroma.”

“Then….”

“Tell the Order this: that the Chairman was acting suspicious, so you used Nicolaus Ernst to pressure him.”

“…!”

He stared at me with wide eyes.

I heard Narke exhale sharply behind me. Adelbert was standing far away with his mouth open.

“Do you know about Abraham, Legislator?”

“A-Abraham…? No.”

“Good. You merely played along with me for a moment. Tell Pleroma that I first requested interviews with the legislators about Primrose Pass and the Chairman.”

“….”

“However, you happened to recently discover evidence that Gregorius was trying to draw the Humans of Primrose Pass into his religious group under the alias Abraham. By accepting Nicolaus’s timely proposal and revealing information about the Chairman, you could use his power to pressure the Chairman, and going further….”

I grabbed his collar and brought his face close.

“Perhaps you might find a clever plan to kill Nicolaus Ernst or draw him into Pleroma.”

“….”

“You have two choices. First, convey the scenario I’ve proposed to Pleroma. I’ll let you keep your life and continue in that position.”

I released his collar and pointed my wand at his face.

“Second, melt and die right here.”

He visibly had a seizure.

“Alexander Kruger, Legislator.”

“Y-yes….”

“You’re only in your forties, it would be a waste to die like this. You could naturally live another 110 years. In fact, you probably borrowed Pleroma’s power because you wanted to live even longer, to become stronger….”

At those words, he took a deep breath, trying to hold back tears.

I pretended not to hear it and whispered calmly.

“Wouldn’t it be too unfair to melt to death in some council chamber of a parliament building whose location you don’t even know? It’s not like I kill every member of Pleroma. Cooperation comes first when cooperation is possible. In that sense, I’ve even devised such measures for your safety….”

“….”

“Your answer is slow. If you don’t want to live, Legislator, then there’s nothing I can do.”

—Enter through the narrow gate.

His eyes briefly went blank before returning to focus. He must have been so shocked that I could hear his heartbeat from here. He shook his head frantically.

“N-no…! Stop!”

“No?”

“I-I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do as you want, so please stop the divine power….”

“You’ve made a wise decision. I look forward to working with you.”

I extended my hand. He stared blankly at my hand. Adelbert also looked back and forth between me and his hands tied behind his back with a face full of questions.

“Oh my. You can’t shake hands.”

I pretended to think and lightly hugged him.

“Let’s greet each other like this. Let’s work well together from now on, Legislator Kruger.”

I placed my hand on his back where his heart would be and whispered in his ear.

―I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

“…!”

He gaped at me with his mouth wide open.

I felt a certain kind of refreshment as I stood up from my seat.

Now I have only four humans subordinated to me. I didn’t really want to increase this kind of thing, but somehow it ended up this way.

Since he seemed unable to easily accept reality, I clapped my hands as I had done to Leo.

“Kugh…!”

He instantly bent his body forward deeply.

‘It seems more painful than I thought.’

Well, it would feel like his heart was being struck. I feel sorry for Leo. I even twisted it more severely than this for him, yet he endured it well.

“Your core is bound not only to Pleroma but also to me, so it would be best not to betray me. It seems like… it would be good to have a safety device.”

If you only use the whip for too long, work motivation drops.

I softly changed my tone of voice.

“I promise you. I will not tell anyone that you have your feet in both camps. But if you go to Pleroma and tell them that I made such demands… only you will die. From Pleroma’s perspective, there’s no reason to keep a card that’s already been exposed.”

“Yes, yes. I understand. Thank you. Thank you.”

I looked down at him, who was now even shedding tears as his tension seemed to have been released, and opened my mouth.

“Now, there’s something you need to do for me.”

* * *

The preparations were more than half finished.

No, actually it could be said that everything was completely done.

Now only what I need to resolve remains.

“I wondered why you were suddenly looking for priest robes.”

“I have to go find my son.”

At those words, Narke laughed.

The cloak draped over his cassock fluttered.

Though it had been several months since I entered the priesthood, it wasn’t clothing I wore often, so it still felt unfamiliar.

On the other hand, Narke looked as if he was finally wearing clothes that suited him. Though it was ordinary priest’s clothing, not cardinal robes.

Narke, who had been walking three steps ahead of me, turned around and said.

“You look good in it too~”

“Yeah… thanks. Stop reading my thoughts.”

I smiled while looking at Narke’s eyes that had turned blue. Even in the darkness, his eyes shone brightly.

Narke, who had been staring at me intently, burst into laughter.

“Haha, it does suit you, but it is unfamiliar. To think you’d wear those clothes with that face. And that too….”

That person is also me, strictly speaking.

I smiled and raised my head. Jeremaiah’s thin golden hair, worn down without a part, swayed before my eyes.

Narke looked around this street and said.

“…In a place like this. We’re probably the first orthodox clergy to set foot in a place like this wearing priest robes, Jeremaiah.”

That would be right.

The place I had to come wearing priest robes was not the school but here, and the person who should wear priest robes is not Lucas or Nicolaus, but Jeremaiah Caetani.

“What does it matter.”

I rolled my wand between my fingers.

An illusion appeared as if stars were scattering on the pitch-black path of Primrose Pass. Sunlight-like radiance undulated as the wand transformed into the Papacy’s staff.

“Let’s begin.”

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