How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 192

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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 (192)

Why did it have to be him?

It’s not complicated.

First, the yellow-eyed child I met in the labyrinth. That was Abraham.

He wasn’t someone who received revelations like Marco, but the real body itself.

Why did I make that judgment?

‘It wasn’t difficult. That child was drinking blood.’

If he had been an existence like Marco, he would have had to extract blood and offer it to someone else.

Now I had two clues about Abraham’s appearance.

First, frighteningly bright ‘yellow’ eyes.

Second, a height of about 145cm at most. I could guess he was in his early teens ten years ago. He would currently be in his early twenties.

Now the Abraham candidates had been narrowed down to mages in their early twenties with yellow eyes. To know which of them was Abraham, I had to examine their actions.

Abraham gave revelations to professors to spray rampage drugs in Adelbert and Elias’s rooms. He was also the one who installed warp magic in my room.

The purpose of the warp magic was clear, so what I needed to consider was this.

‘Why did Adelbert and Elias become victims of rampage?’

It was time to bring up this problem that hadn’t been solved for the past three weeks.

Elias’s hypothesis was this.

‘When signs appeared that he would interfere with Primrose Pass’s business, they tried to frame him for Adelbert’s murder’, ‘After the search and seizure, they’re trying to kill him outright’.

The latter was half true, so let’s set it aside.

The fatal flaw in the former was, as I had thought before, that there was no reason to use rampage among the many murder methods. Even setting aside that they didn’t even show effort to fabricate evidence like putting rampage drugs in Elias’s room, if they were to use rampage, the murder charge would likely be directed at me, who was considered Pleroma, not Elias.

‘Then, if it wasn’t retaliation from Primrose Pass as Elias guessed, why did Abraham attack those two?’

Adelbert’s emotional changes were intense. It was perfect for the rampage drugs to show explosive effects.

Then why didn’t Philip, why didn’t Gunter become victims of rampage? What about the students who failed in the first and second selections?

They were all in emotionally weakened states, so why was Abraham completely uninterested in them?

‘Why’ did it have to be Adelbert Hohenzollern and Elias Hohenzollern among all those many people?

The answer is simple.

Because they were Hohenzollerns.

Elias’s problem was that he understood the two incidents linearly. It wasn’t that they tried to kill Elias after failing to kill Adelbert.

The two incidents were parallel events. Adelbert had to die, and Elias had to die too.

Instead, while there was no causation between just the two incidents, they had a common point.

‘Both are royalty at the Imperial 2nd Education Institute.’

It was an important factor that couldn’t be overlooked.

Now I just needed to find the common enemy of the royalty, but there was a crucial problem.

Their political camps were of completely opposite tendencies.

They were running to such extremes that it was difficult to find a common enemy.

‘There’s one more clue here.’

Previously, Adelbert had gotten drunk and tried to break Elias’s leg by falling down the stairs. If this had succeeded, the evaluation ‘a prince drank so much he couldn’t control his body and permanently disabled his relative’s leg’ would have followed him. While it might be overlooked for a lower noble, for someone from the Empire’s ruling family, it would be a huge stain as it would become a tool to question his qualifications.

Additionally, Elias’s combat magic career would have been cut short.

I was almost there.

So, who was it that gave Adelbert the drugged alcohol back then?

Even without going this far, Abraham’s identity could be easily guessed halfway through.

We know that Abraham has yellow eyes and is in his early twenties. We also know that Abraham has the 2nd and effective 3rd in line for the throne as enemies.

The sum of clues pointed to only one person.

“You’re in a hurry.”

A calm voice that showed neither panic nor shock.

Abraham, no, the Crown Prince turned his body completely to face me. His shining eyes moved right in front of my gaze.

“Also quite fast.”

What was hurried and what was fast?

Figuring out who Abraham was had been fast, and telling the Crown Prince that he was Abraham was hurried.

However, that was only his judgment.

“Since Your Highness couldn’t wait and even placed advertisements in newspapers, I appeared early. Your Highness seems unaware of your own impatience.”

I said this while raising my eyebrows.

A face that resembled Adelbert’s.

The face I had seen in the labyrinth was influenced by Adelbert’s subjectivity, so it was different from what I was seeing now.

Only by seeing him directly could I understand the evaluation people gave him. Unlike Adelbert, who shone with near-perfect everything, he seemed to exist to be forgotten by the world despite his intellectual atmosphere and dignity.

Except for one thing – his unforgettable yellow eyes.

Those eyes shone intensely as if trying to swallow the observer whenever the world around him changed little by little. Looking at them made it feel as if his existence didn’t belong to this world.

“Our priest really observes the faces of people he meets for the first time for a long time.”

“How many days in life would I have to see His Highness the Crown Prince?”

I had already been staring at him for a long time as if looking at a zoo monkey. Even to such blatantly rude stares and answers that left no room for excuses, the Crown Prince still maintained his initial expression.

He tilted his head briefly, then slowly opened his mouth as if recalling my earlier words.

“You mentioned advertisements. I have a duty to reassure my subjects. If my subjects are trembling in fear because of Abraham…”

The Crown Prince smiled warmly with his face that resembled Adelbert’s.

“I must rightfully make efforts for my subjects.”

“…”

“Since we’ve met again, let’s start with introductions.”

He extended his hand to me.

“I am Elizabeth Hohenzollern.”

The sounds of the world became quiet as if someone had turned down the volume. Sound-blocking magic had probably been cast at some point so our words wouldn’t reach outside, but when he extended his hand, everyone who had been watching the investigation around us began looking at us.

A superior had proposed an informal greeting. I couldn’t ignore it. I had no particular reason to ignore it either.

I lightly touched his hand. I tried to pull away quickly, but the Crown Prince’s long fingers pressed down on my hand.

“…”

I smiled as I released my leather gloves stiffened by the winter wind.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”

“I feel the same. To meet again the person who held such a grand funeral for me – there could be no greater joy.”

He spoke using my expression.

Indeed, no matter what anyone said, he was the president. The president’s insight belonged to this person, and even though the shell had changed, he never disappointed me as always.

Cold wind scattered the sound-blocking magic and passed between him and me. I smiled as I felt the wind.

“I’m glad you were satisfied. The fun of destroying ten years was quite good.”

“My death became your happiness.”

“Not just mine, but the happiness of countless humans trapped in Primrose Pass, and the happiness of those used by you, Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince stared at me with a smile, then turned his head.

“I’d like to continue our conversation, but it’s a bit difficult here. Since it’s hard to have a deep conversation in such a place, let’s move.”

He lightly flicked his finger and pulled my arm with magic power. The moment something without any warmth wrapped around my elbow, the space before me changed.

“Oh my.”

A muttering came as if he had witnessed something unexpected.

He spoke with a subtle laugh mixed in from a position where I couldn’t see his face.

“You seem quite fearful. You’re not even five years old…”

“…”

“I wonder who made you develop an aversion to warping.”

He probably wanted to provoke me a bit to see a hot-tempered reaction, but he picked the wrong person. I answered indifferently.

“That’s not for Your Highness to know.”

“At this point, you could just drop the formalities.”

Instead of responding to him, I slowly took deep breaths to slow my heartbeat and looked around.

The place he had moved to was an unfamiliar space.

‘Is this a library?’

Faint moonlight shone through long windows, allowing me to distinguish objects somewhat.

Banners and decorations in Berlin blue, darker than Bavaria’s, hung everywhere. Judging by the not-too-large scale, it was probably one of the imperial annexes.

However, he didn’t sit down but approached the door. It was a method often used in noble houses – he had clearly warped to another place, not the final destination, to avoid tracking.

When he placed his hand on the library door, light appeared on the navy door that had been hidden in darkness. Waves of magic power shook the air.

I glanced at the checkered tile floor that seemed barely touched by human footsteps and walked forward. Like the floor, everything looked brand new. The outside should just be the Imperial Palace, but something about the view from the windows felt unsettling.

“You must want to know where this is. This is the 5th floor of the Prince’s Palace.”

The Crown Prince walking ahead spoke quietly.

The Prince’s Palace is a 3-story building with no 5th floor. It was an unhelpfully brief explanation without any details, but it was sufficient as a clue.

“The device is quite sophisticated.”

He turned his head to meet my gaze and smiled.

“I’m only telling this to you, Priest.”

“I don’t want to know such state secrets. Let’s pretend I didn’t hear it.”

“How cold of you.”

“…”

When someone is deliberately trying to get under your skin, I wish they’d do more target analysis first, but when they come at you like this instead, it has the annoying effect of being so absurd it’s irritating.

Of course, even that was interesting information.

The person before me is the Antagonist, but at the same time, he doesn’t seem like the Antagonist.

When he’s using Marco Schreiber’s body versus when he’s using his true form, even his personality changes slightly.

There seemed to be no one else on this floor, as no one appeared until we entered a room after quite some time.

Only after the Crown Prince entered the room at the very end of the hallway did someone knock and enter.

A servant brewed tea and placed it before us along with snacks.

The Crown Prince gestured.

“Please drink. Since I couldn’t properly host you before, I’ll treat you properly this time.”

“…”

“I didn’t put anything in it.”

He took my cup and drank from it without hesitation, then gestured to the servant waiting nearby. The servant took out a new cup in front of me and showed me the process of pouring fresh tea.

Even if they weren’t in their right mind, those who had been somewhat socialized knew well what kind of suspicion they aroused in others.

Of course, even with such verification, I had no intention of drinking it. I lost interest in the tea and asked what I needed to know.

“Let’s hear what you called me here to say.”

“For the same reason as you.”

“The same reason.”

He looked at me and asked.

“Did you come here to kill me, Priest?”

An easy question.

I answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“No.”

“I thought so. At least not today. I thought you weren’t someone with such poor calculation skills, Priest, and I’m pleased that my expectation was correct.”

I kept my mouth shut as much as possible to make him talk more. I had no intention of carelessly running my mouth and giving him information.

“You don’t have much information about me, Priest. What you know remains in the realm of speculation. What you know for certain is that with current information, you cannot eliminate Abraham, and if you choose the easiest method of murder, you and many others will be purged for generations for the crime of assassinating the Crown Prince.”

He was right.

Murder is the simplest but most foolish choice.

And there’s a decisive reason why it cannot end with just killing his physical body.

As he said, it’s still in the realm of speculation, but I’m certain of it.

“You probably came here today to declare war on me. To say that if I do anything foolish, you’ll reveal to the world that I am Abraham. Since I could plan to frame you in preparation for that, you’ll try to find a way to kill me as quickly as possible. So from now on, you’ll try to track my movements.”

The moonlight reflected through the window shone in his eyes like the sun. With an utterly calm expression, he asked with intense conviction like his gaze.

“Am I wrong?”

“Your Highness should know the answer.”

“As you know, my position is fundamentally no different from yours. However, I can tell you it will be quite different from what you expect.”

He snapped his fingers and caught something.

A metal ring, no, a bracelet.

“This is a tool that the first-generation mages used when embedding artifacts into skin. I modified it for interrogating people, and it works quite well.”

He put it on his right hand. As he turned the protruding square part toward the inside of his wrist, he said.

“I regret my mistakes and wish to turn everything back.”

Puk—

I raised my eyebrows.

The smell of blood stung my nose.

He removed his gloves and moved his hand onto the table. Blood stained his white sleeves and dripped onto the table. Looking closely, blood was flowing from the skin where the bracelet was.

“This is how it reacts. It judges truth and falsehood through the flow of magic power, so it sometimes shows errors, but not often. If you think I’m putting on an act, you can use it yourself.”

“Such a tool wouldn’t be used by the Investigation Bureau?”

“Because I didn’t hand it over. Even Pleroma doesn’t know about this tool. If you think I’m me, there’s no reason to carelessly hand this over to others, is there?”

Right.

To Abraham, both the Imperial Palace he belongs to and Pleroma would all be competitors.

With his bracelet-wearing hand still on the table, he said.

“Let me tell you. I know that you hold my social life in your hands. One revelation from you and I’ll be finished.”

“…”

“You met me as the Antagonist the day before yesterday, and yesterday you met His Majesty and visited the Imperial Palace. I know what else you’ve prepared. You must have collected everyday, decisive testimony that would support evidence that I am Abraham, while the witnesses themselves have no idea it’s about Abraham. I won’t stop that.”

He won’t stop it.

Even at words that sounded fake, his device didn’t pierce his blood vessels. The blood remained dried as it was.

Even though my eyes never once looked anywhere other than the target and kept scrutinizing only him, the Crown Prince spoke with a clean expression without any emotional disturbance.

“Let’s do this. Kill me.”

“…”

“You know what kind of killing I mean. If you, not someone else, kill me as the Crown Prince, I will gladly accept it.”

The corner of my mouth twisted upward.

The Crown Prince’s eyes watching my face were calm, unreadable. Nevertheless, it was easy to tell what lay behind his words. I smiled gently and said.

“A clear proposal. You speak as if you’re doing this for me, but it’s not for me at all.”

“I’d like to know why you think that.”

“If I do my best to kill you, you’ll be able to figure out my patterns. It means you’ll have a chance to learn how much I know, what I don’t know, how I think, and what attack methods I prefer.”

“…”

“It’s not a disadvantageous proposal for you. Since we’re both considering mutual benefit, it would be better not to speak as if you’re doing me a favor.”

“Hahaha…”

The Crown Prince burst into light laughter.

“You really are something, Priest. I didn’t think the one who baptized and entered the labyrinth to install barriers in Count Schreiber’s mental strength would be ordinary, but your thought process is truly exceptional.”

“…”

“I said earlier that you don’t have much information, but that’s about what comes next. Until now, you’ve learned too much. No, you’ve actually taken trivial things that can barely be called knowledge and synthesized them to find the answer yourself. Thanks to that, we could meet like this without dragging things out for long, so I can only say thank you.”

“You flatter me. I’m not being modest. In this state where all clues are telling you the answer, did Your Majesty hope I would wander around knowing nothing?”

“It’s certainly more comfortable dealing with such ordinary people.”

“How disappointing for you.”

“I said comfortable, not that it was interesting.”

The Crown Prince leisurely took a sip of tea and looked out the window.

It was raining.

“Priest Jeremiah Caetani belongs to the Papacy and was someone who didn’t exist in records until last year. He has Italian maternal and Bavarian paternal lineage, and the entire family has been in America for 30 years… you can find exactly one line of records created this year. He came through Bavaria airport, the only place in the country beyond Prussia’s reach, received a tourist visa and safely passed through the Prussian quarantine station at the Bavarian border, waited there for half a day, then took a train to Berlin during peak hours. All accommodation records remain as well. Except for what I mentioned earlier, no abnormalities could be found.”

He smiled and shook his head.

“Ah, really so sophisticated. Do you know how much it cost to investigate?”

His tone of speech changed.

Now it begins.

I thought this while smiling and remaining silent.

“It’s laughable compared to when Daslotte was making a fuss about him being the Empire’s greatest ugly man. No, honestly, what’s most ridiculous is that all the media has been calling him a national hero no different from a saint. In reality, he’s someone trying to achieve his goals by seducing Pleroma at Primrose Pass… and succeeding spectacularly in just three days.”

“…”

“To call him a scoundrel just looking for opportunities to set foot in brothels and casinos would be insufficient – his situational judgment is exceptionally good and his execution ability is not lacking either. Whatever you imagine, it’s excessive. In the end, among the people I know, the only one with such judgment would be…”

I silently maintained the same expression as before.

Only the Crown Prince continued to change his expression from moment to moment as if finding it interesting.

Yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness.

“Just one person. Count Nicolaus, how refreshing to meet you in this way.”

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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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