How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 190

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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 (190)

“….”

It was a child I’d never seen before.

Whether his memories had been erased by mental manipulation magic, all his features except his eyes appeared blurry.

But I wasn’t unfamiliar with him.

I couldn’t not know who would say such things to Marco Schreiber.

‘A child, how unexpected.’

Now it was my turn to step forward, not Marco’s. Even in this world where light spread and made everything hard to see, I looked at his eyes that alone shone brilliantly and asked.

“Your name?”

“Abraham.”

[Blood?]

“I see, Abraham. Nice to meet you.”

[If you just give me blood….]

It felt like my throat was parching. It was Marco’s sensation.

[I can make up for everything. How? Do you have some way to turn back time?]

Marco swallowed his saliva. His vision swayed violently in sync with his quickened heartbeat.

[If I could just go back five years and stop the trip to Lorraine, I would….

No, I don’t even hope for that much.

If only the family I created with my magic power would return.

If only we could live together like before….]

When I closed my eyes once and opened them, the scene had changed.

I could see the darkened ceiling. When I turned my head, I saw my right arm covered in blood. A child with blood on his lips rolled his yellow eyes around to look at me.

I smiled and said.

“You’re inexperienced.”

“….”

Having two egos share this body must look quite insane, but I had to say what needed to be said. I had to scrape out what Marco knew about Abraham.

The child wiped the blood on his hands with a towel and answered.

“When you’re young, there are many things you can’t obtain.”

“Then why did you enter a young body? Well, I suppose you didn’t have a choice either.”

The yellow eyes turned toward me.

He seemed not to know the answer.

If Marco doesn’t know, there are limits to what can be discovered from his imagination.

But he does know.

He just can’t recall it immediately, but the ten years spent with Abraham must remain in his unconscious. Just like how the professors caught by the Prosecution reacted to the warp coordinates.

When I asked no more questions, the child opened his mouth.

“Only the final stage remains.”

“….”

“Do you wish for your children to live and breathe in this world?”

Marco didn’t answer. He just stared blankly into space with vacant eyes.

At that moment, everything faded away with a faint laugh.

“How touching.”

That was the last thing I heard.

This was the process by which Abraham gave Marco his revelation.

I was now in darkness.

Occasionally I would open my eyes, and those were times when I had to receive sedatives according to Abraham’s will. He had to take medicine and sleep during the day, and lend his body to Abraham from evening until dawn.

He didn’t know what Abraham was doing, and despite sacrificing his remaining fifty years of life, he never got to meet his reborn children.

I would have tried to kill Abraham, but Marco was different.

[The traces of my children that the yellow-eyed child brought me. I was satisfied with that.

My children were resurrected, returned to their early twenties from ten years ago, and in the world of those resurrected like them, they were getting along well with others and spending incredibly peaceful times.

Just knowing this was enough.]

It’s a sickness. To this extent.

Thinking this, I stopped walking in the darkness.

Crash—!

I struck the floor with my magic-infused staff.

As expected, the space didn’t break. It wouldn’t. Marco Schreiber becoming a zombie wasn’t because of Vitriol.

Instead of attacking further, I looked up at the sky and spoke.

“Are you satisfied?”

[….]

“Let’s have a conversation.”

No answer came, but I continued speaking on my own.

“The children must respect you greatly.”

[….]

“A parent who gives up their life for their children’s lives—could an ordinary human sacrifice fifty years of life and ego to save another? At least I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t want to either.”

Still no reaction in this space. It was time to keep talking.

“I’ve never had experiences like yours. I’m not in a position to say I can understand you carelessly. I don’t have the ability to fully understand you, and while I can admire love beyond my scope, I can’t know what it is.”

I had no intention of committing such arrogance.

My initial thought that I would empathize with Marco’s emotions over time, and then properly hear his foreign-language-like words, was wrong.

When his children’s deaths became almost certain and he began showing symptoms of delirium, I couldn’t understand anything except that the sound of a departing train was playing in reverse.

He wanted the Lorraine-bound train his children had taken five years ago to come back. I know that, but that’s as far as it goes. The depth and degree of that emotion was beyond my cognitive range.

“I just came to ask if this is what you truly wanted, Marco. Are you satisfied?”

The scene before my eyes changed.

It was a cafe terrace I’d never seen before.

When I turned my gaze away from the lake outside the terrace where it had been fixed, I saw another Marco Schreiber sitting across the round table.

[This is the last place we all came together, and it’s just the same. The scenery here is truly beautiful.]

Of course it would be the same. It’s just a memory.

[I’m satisfied. I couldn’t be more satisfied than this.]

“Any regrets?”

[None.]

The Marco before my eyes looked truly at peace.

Abraham really chose a good target. A person perfectly suited to his will.

“No regrets even if Abraham does unimaginable things with your body?”

[That has nothing to do with me.]

As long as the children lived, that was enough?

Yes. That would be fitting for the man from those memories.

“How are the children doing? Tell me a bit about it.”

[Ah, the children. They’re studying. They’re majoring in industrial magic at our proud Empire’s finest university.]

I was at a loss for words.

He was… living in delusion right now.

He couldn’t distinguish between present and past.

It wasn’t simply because this was his abyss.

He must have been like this ever since being consumed by Abraham.

“Imperial 1st Education Institute?”

[That’s right, you know it well. You’d know since you’re me too, but our eldest is valedictorian of the entire undergraduate program. He takes after me a lot, I suppose.]

“He would resemble you. He’s a human born from your magic power.”

[Hahaha! Right. Our second child still doesn’t find studying interesting and goes to school half-heartedly, but you know what he says? He says he doesn’t need honor or money, he just wants our family of three to live together forever. Hahaha!]

“….”

[He’s grown up well. This is enough. As long as he grows up kind, I don’t care what his grades are like.]

Once he started talking, he continued bragging about his children without being asked.

[Actually, mages usually only make one child, don’t they? Commoners might be different, but for us mage nobles, it often creates troublesome situations. But my children have never caused me worry. They’re so considerate of each other, watching them makes me truly grateful….]

“Your children were lucky to have such a father.”

[I was lucky. To have such angelic children.]

“….”

I smiled lightly and rolled the bottom of the teacup in front of me in circles on the table.

“That’s a good answer, but not the one I wanted. This is a story from when your children were in college, Marco. Just because the faces of the resurrected children returned to how they were 10 years ago doesn’t mean those children are attending college again.”

[Hmm?]

“Right now your children have been reborn into Pleroma and are contributing to the development of the Order. Don’t you know how they’re doing?”

[…The children are attending college. The eldest will become a politician like me after graduating school. The second still has no interest in studying but….]

“No, Marco. That’s not the present.”

When I interrupted, the old man looked at me.

“You’re continuously replaying past memories. Tell me about reality. Your children are not alive.”

He opened his mouth.

Soon he shook his head.

[…No, didn’t I promise Abraham? The children are alive.]

“Their bodies may still be breathing, but they can no longer be called the same people as before their rebirth. Do you know why?”

I clasped my hands together and leaned forward.

“That’s Pleroma’s way. Pleroma arbitrarily turns back a person’s life and removes all the time they’ve walked. Then it makes them write a new life on top of that as servants of the Order. They don’t hesitate to put their hands on heads and arbitrarily inject their ideology into them.”

[….]

“Your children have probably completely forgotten their feelings and memories about you. If they had those, they would go looking for their father instead of being loyal to the Order.”

The one sitting in front of me looked at me with empty eyes.

“That’s the price of resurrection. Instead of being resurrected, that person must dedicate everything of themselves to the Order. Does what I’m saying sound like a curse?”

At the faces that passed by even when I tried not to recall them, I took a breath and muttered.

“I’ve already seen such people. I’ll never forget them for the rest of my life.”

[…My children….]

“If your children were alive, they couldn’t just stand by and watch some demon-like thing occupy their father’s body.”

[….]

“If they can’t notice that there’s a demon in their father’s body pretending to be their father, that too would be proof that those lovely children have now become different beings.”

[….]

“That’s why Abraham doesn’t show you the children directly. They’ve become completely different people to an extent that would be embarrassing to say he ‘kept his promise.’ Is it okay if they don’t remember you? The children are no longer the beings you remember. They’re different people with the same bodies.”

Tears flowed from Marco’s eyes.

[It’s okay.]

An unexpected answer.

I tried to suppress my emotions.

He spoke in a calm voice.

[It’s okay if they don’t remember me. As long as they’re breathing in this world, that’s enough.]

“Wasn’t your wish to form a happy family again? Abraham made a contract to turn living people into corpses for the next 50 years, and surely told you he would ‘let you make up for everything.'”

[….]

“Your children will become murderers. That’s quite different from the children you remember.”

[Can that make my children happy?]

“They might be able to build achievements. They won’t have any moral concepts, but there might be happiness that comes from achievements. But those are no longer emotions felt by the people you knew.”

[That’s enough.]

“….”

I shook my head.

“A parent’s heart is hard to understand. Even after being deceived, instead of seeking revenge, you just lower your standards.”

This is possible because regarding the most essential matter of ‘survival,’ he still thinks he hasn’t been deceived.

But he’s still human.

Crack—

As if time had been fast-forwarded, the garden’s colors died and the leaves hanging on the trees fell. The wind began to blow fiercely, making strange sounds.

Magic power shook violently. Cracks were forming in space.

But I couldn’t stop here.

“Marco.”

[….]

“I’m sorry, but you need to know this. Abraham won’t keep the contract. In 10 years, your children will die once again.”

Crash—!

I raised my arm to block a wooden railing that flew from behind. As if something had happened in the sky, the wind shook the building with tremendous roaring.

A whisper that sounded like a soul had left came.

[They’ll die?]

“You’re not living in 1887, but in 1898 with the 20th century right ahead. After Abraham took your body, he went to Pleroma and revived the children. Of course resurrection isn’t Abraham’s power but Pleroma’s power. But you know too, don’t you? That Abraham is now trying to break away from Pleroma and create a new religion.”

The wind sound grew increasingly fierce. The teacup rolled and fell.

I raised my voice.

“In this situation, if you were Pleroma, could you not kill that apostate’s children? Is there any reason not to reclaim the blessing given to the apostate’s children?”

[….]

Marco’s mouth slowly opened.

I could feel terrible emptiness in his features. His eyes lost their light.

[Surely he gave me a chance to make amends….]

“Actually, you knew it all along, didn’t you.”

In this crazy wind, the sound of a train departing came from somewhere. I opened my mouth, paying no attention to that confusion.

“That from the moment Abraham decided to become a cult leader, your children became beings only waiting for death.”

Crash—!

The wind sound that seemed like it would burst my eardrums.

Everything turned black.

The screaming completely dominated my brain. The wind was sweeping the world as if it would blow everything away, aimed at me.

I shouted in the massive storm that buried even my own voice.

“The contract is over! Now you don’t agree to anything about Abraham. Is there any need to show mercy to one who broke a contract made with his life?”

To kill the Antagonist, the revelation must be severed, and to sever the revelation, several conditions are needed.

First, Marco’s mental strength must become equal to or stronger than the Antagonist’s mental strength.

Mental strength of -6 to at least +8.

It’s a daunting number, but moving from one extreme to another extreme is easier than expected. You just need to examine why he had no choice but to be positioned at an extreme.

The shocking fact that his family died bound his memories, life, and mental strength to that moment 10 years ago.

So there’s a possibility.

If he just faces the fact that ‘Abraham is trying to kill his family again,’ there’s a possibility he could rise to his limit.

And second.

Marco must withdraw his consent.

Crash—!

I stomped the floor hard with my foot. The wind sound now began to sound like wailing.

I promise. This resolve I’ve spoken of today will not change until the day I draw my last breath.

Muttering quickly, I changed Marco’s wand into a staff and struck it down on the floor.

—These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.

Blinding light spread from below.

I came for this.

For the Antagonist’s funeral.

The Antagonist will never become the Antagonist again. The life he built for 10 years ends today, and the one who had his life stolen for 10 years will return to his original position.

“I’ll help you so you can stop Abraham with your own strength. So….”

In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

They were, but are no more.

The wind sound became even more violent. It was hard to even stand properly, let alone open my eyes. I gripped the staff tightly with both hands and straightened my body.

I looked at the darkness that was crying out loud and said.

“Say that you do not consent, Marco.”

* * *

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

I opened my eyes in the silence.

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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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