How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 2

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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 (2)

〈 Chapter 0. All Beginnings Are Difficult 〉

Proposal: Make the optimal choice. (0/1)

* Route 1 ― 〈 Chapter 1. Help Yourself, and God Will Help You Too (1) 〉

* Route 2 ― 〈 Death 〉

‘This… could this be…’

….

Quest?

But the surprise didn’t last long.

Since opening my eyes in this world was already a tremendous shock, whatever appeared seemed much better than entering someone else’s body.

Rather, the appearance of this strange window gave me room to control my fear.

‘There are two routes.’

Move on to the ‘next chapter’… or die.

Coincidentally, I also have two choices I can make.

Avoid the poison, or drink it. One of these two choices is connected to my death.

Just one choice seemed to determine life and death. My breath caught from tension and my fingertips began to tingle.

‘…No.’

Let me calm down.

I loosened my stiff knuckles and looked at the bottle he was holding.

The poison glittered inside the bottle, leaving blue traces. It looked like something that would send me to the afterlife if I drank it.

I glared at that dark blue liquid and spoke briefly.

“…I drank it yesterday.”

“Well. Of course I trust that you’ll always tell the truth. But when anything goes through multiple hands, mistakes are bound to happen. For example, the person who brought you tea might not have mixed medicine into it…”

“….”

“Even if it’s all true, it doesn’t matter. I just want to clearly organize your symptoms for you. If you were to make a mistake in front of your friends… you’d be very sad too. Right, Luca?”

Even a demon wouldn’t be this demonic.

That bastard was always like this. In the novel and in Luca’s memories, he always acted like a good hyung.

No one would know what kind of inferiority complex and superiority complex were hidden behind those compassionate words and smile.

I exhaled and bowed my head deeply.

Whatever choice I made, since my life was at stake, I needed mental preparation.

‘He definitely said it was the optimal choice.’

I took a deep breath.

Then I snatched the bottle from his hand and poured the poison down my throat.

Every spot the poison touched, from my tongue to my stomach, burned like fire. The cold of the stone floor seeped into the left side of my face, and the poison I had just swallowed came gushing back up from my mouth. The noise I presumably made was blurrily muffled in my ears.

It was a strange experience.

“Hmm, so you really did drink it yesterday.”

Hyung’s laughing voice flowed into a corner of my consciousness.

How funny. The situation of a younger brother who has to quietly comply even knowing it’s unreasonable must be amusing. I understand. So…

‘Laugh a lot now while you can.’

Ding―!

Congratulations!

‘Proposal: Make the optimal choice.’ Success!

‘Chapter 0. All Beginnings Are Difficult’ Complete!

Confirming ‘Route 1 ― 〈 Chapter 1. Help Yourself, and God Will Help You Too (1) 〉’.

‘…Right. This is how it should be.’

Earlier, that bastard said ‘it’s fortunate you can go to school.’

Since Luca in the novel dies after graduating from school, it’s not time yet.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the novel’s content will continue exactly the same for me, so it was somewhat of a gamble…

‘It succeeded.’

Unlike my floating consciousness, my body felt heavy as a thousand pounds. Even as my mind distanced itself from my body, the corners of my mouth faintly rose.

Starting ‘Route 1 — 〈 Chapter 1 〉’.

「 Chapter 1. Help Yourself, and God Will Help You Too (1) 」

The pain didn’t matter. My pride wasn’t hurt either.

After all, I’ll be the one who survives to the end and laughs. I can’t die unfairly in this kind of world, especially not to someone like hyung.

So, instead of the protagonist, I’ll have to take care of hyung’s end myself.

* * *

I wonder how much time had passed, pure white sunlight shone through the curtains covering the window.

I felt no pain in my stomach lining and esophagus that had been burning from the poison. My body felt light too, as if healing magic had worked.

‘Hmm.’

I slowly raised my hand.

A pale hand with protruding knuckles moved according to my will.

I was alive.

And still in someone else’s body.

‘Earlier… what was that.’

Was it really a Quest window?

As soon as I thought that, something appeared before my eyes.

〈 Chapter 1. Help Yourself, and God Will Help You Too (1) 〉

Proposal: Life is up to you! Find what you need to do. (0/3) (71 hours 52 minutes 09 seconds)

* Route 1 ― 〈 Chapter 2. Help Yourself, and God Will Help You Too (2) 〉

* Route 2 ― 〈 Chapter 2. Even a Blindfolded Chicken Can Sometimes Find Grain 〉

Earlier it was definitely chapter 0.

The number had advanced. I didn’t know what principle it worked on, but it was fascinating.

‘If something like this appears, does that mean there’s also a status window…’

It’s not even a game, surely not.

But if it’s not a game, why is it giving me quests under the name of ‘proposals’?

Then, pure white text appeared in the air.

Lucas Rene Ascanien

Title: The Empire’s Greatest Fool

Stamina: -5

Mental Power: -10

Magic Power: ?

Skills: 0

Reputation: -10

Luck: -10

Trait: Dawn777

“…Oh.”

It appeared. But…

‘Why the hell are they all negative?’

No.

Skills is 0. But that point wasn’t comforting at all.

‘What’s that title about.’

I let out a hollow laugh as I scanned through the window.

Lucas Rene Ascanien.

Right, originally it was Lucas.

Luca is just a nickname that hyung calls me, not my real name.

In the novel too, everyone except the protagonist and hyung called me Lucas.

Reputation probably refers to my image. And trait is…

‘Trait.’

Can I click on this?

I tentatively brought my finger to the name that reminded me of a hangover remedy.

Dawn777

―Until final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’: 777 days 1 hour 6 minutes 37 seconds

―Possibility of change: 0.2%

“….”

I dismissed the window and turned my head away.

Whatever I had seen, it certainly wasn’t information I wanted to face.

But… no matter how much I didn’t want to see it, I couldn’t just keep turning away.

“…Damn it…”

I gritted my teeth and muttered the status window again. When I found Dawn777 and clicked on it, the same window appeared.

‘777 days until death.’

That’s roughly a little over 2 years and a month.

‘And the possibility of change is 0.2%.’

The reason it’s an ambiguous 0.2% instead of 0 is probably because I succeeded with the ‘proposal’ in Chapter 0.

If I continue to succeed with proposals, I should be able to raise that probability.

‘Not bad.’

Even without this guidance, it’s natural that my survival would depend on my choices. At least it was fortunate that I could see it.

Let me try to achieve the best results with the best choices going forward.

Knock knock―

“Young master.”

Just as I was about to look around the room, a servant carefully opened the door and entered.

“You’re awake. It’s been nearly a day since you collapsed. The eldest young master healed your injuries with magic yesterday.”

Healed?

Anyway, my ‘hyung’s’ act of being kind is quite something. While I held back my sneer, the servant spoke again.

“You were exposed to intense light suddenly and your eyes were severely damaged. Please be careful not to look directly at light until today, and your stomach hasn’t fully recovered either, so you shouldn’t force yourself to eat. All your luggage has been sent to the dormitory, so please rest comfortably until tomorrow morning before moving.”

The servant rapidly rattled off his words and then carefully retreated with a tense expression.

“Then, please rest for a moment and I’ll bring you a meal.”

“Hey.”

At my words, the servant’s eyes widened greatly.

He gaped with a shocked expression and finally managed to squeeze out a small question.

“…Yes?”

Of course, the servant wasn’t the only one surprised.

‘Hey’? Thanks to that, I could clearly feel that this wasn’t the world I used to live in.

Of course, that person wasn’t surprised because I called him rudely. He was just surprised that I spoke to him at all.

‘That makes sense.’

Luca had become extremely introverted due to his hyung. He barely talked to even the servants he saw daily.

The servant looked around stiffly and asked back with a face that still couldn’t believe it.

“…Do you mean me?”

“Who else is here if not you?”

At the continued rude remarks, I bit my lips tightly.

Is this the sentiment here?

Looking back at my memories, Luca also didn’t bother to speak politely to servants as a member of the family.

Of course, his tone was very timid and lacking confidence. My current tone was actually more similar to hyung’s. Since the one speaking was me and not Luca, it seemed my personality was reflected.

‘Well, that worked out well.’

To drag hyung down below where I am and rise above where hyung is, the existing weak personality would be difficult.

Of course, if I keep using this tone, everyone will notice my change. What I’ve already said can’t be helped, but I need to start acting like the original Luca.

I secretly relaxed the tension in my throat without the servant noticing.

Meanwhile, the servant quickly came to his senses and corrected his posture.

“I apologize. Please speak.”

“…Ahem, where is hyung right now?”

“He went to the Imperial Palace the day after coming here.”

“The Imperial Palace?”

“Yes.”

The Imperial Palace.

It goes without saying, but where hyung is physically will determine the difficulty of success.

Hyung is a mage affiliated with the Imperial Court, and in the novel, he was often dispatched overseas for diplomatic activities.

Seeing that it’s 2 years before my death, hyung, who is 7 years older than Luca, would be in his mid-twenties, so it’s about time he’d start going overseas.

“Do you know when he’ll return to the territory?”

“Probably… the work he’s taken on this time will take at least another year to finish. Even after he returns to the Empire, I don’t know if he’ll stay in the territory.”

He went overseas.

That was somewhat fortunate news.

I can move a bit more freely for the next year.

“Um, young master. Do you have anything else to say?”

“No, you can go now…”

Wait.

Just in case, I stared at the servant and called up the status window.

Anton Clausen

Favorability –5

Title: —

Stamina: +2

Mental Power: +2

Mana: +0.5

Skills: 0

Impression: +3

Luck: +1

Traits: —

“…Cough…!”

“Y-young master?”

I choked and coughed after seeing the items below the name.

Favorability… that’s probably a score related to my image with high probability.

Do I really have to see my rock-bottom image displayed in such stark numbers?

‘…At least since this person is my servant, it’s -5 instead of -10…’

I accepted the handkerchief the servant offered and coughed lightly.

Well, regardless of the score, now is the time to focus on being able to see others’ information.

‘This could be useful.’

As I silently looked at the status window, the servant carefully asked while checking my complexion.

“Young master?”

“Right. You can go now.”

“Yes, please wait a moment and I’ll bring you a meal.”

The servant left the room and quickly returned with food.

Since I was a patient, my meal consisted only of an aperitif that was no different from water and pudding made from ground grains.

I quickly finished the meal and looked around the room.

‘It said to find what I need to do.’

I was planning to find it even without being told.

I called up the proposal window again.

〈 Chapter 1. God helps those who help themselves (1) 〉

Proposal: Life is up to you! Find what you need to do. (0/3) (70 hours 53 minutes 01 seconds)

* Route 1 ― 〈 Chapter 2. God helps those who help themselves (2) 〉

* Route 2 ― 〈 Chapter 2. Even a blind chicken sometimes finds grain 〉

The meaning of Route 2 is strangely irritating.

It means the story will progress even if I fail this proposal, but… there’s no need to deliberately fall into a negative route.

Let’s try them one by one.

I picked up the notebook placed on the nightstand. It was time to organize how I should move from now on and what the novel’s content was like.

While I had a good memory, I couldn’t rely on my head alone. I picked up a pen and started writing.

‘First, the overall plot.’

To summarize in one line, it’s the story of a scoundrel protagonist born as a collateral branch of the current emperor who experiences various incidents over 10 years and finally becomes emperor.

In the process of ascending to the throne, the protagonist eliminates Luca’s hyung, who was practically the right-hand man of the existing emperor.

In that process, Luca’s death was highlighted, and hyung’s true nature was revealed to everyone.

Luca’s story is just one of the many incidents the protagonist dealt with.

I frantically wrote down the information that kept popping up, skipping the meal that came again, and caught my breath.

I also organized the general character relationships.

‘Now it’s time to decide how I should move.’

It wasn’t a difficult problem.

Until I build my skills and secure many allies behind the scenes, I just need to avoid actions that would make hyung come to kill me, like openly using magic.

So there’s a more important problem than this.

No matter how restricted my freedom of action is, I need to make at least one companion who can act as my hands and feet.

‘I remember the protagonist is currently attending the same school as Luca.’

That would be an excellent connection.

He’s just a problem student now, but he’s someone who will become emperor in 10 years.

Then… should I become friends with the novel’s protagonist?

‘No.’

Maybe later, but right now I need to focus and prioritize.

I looked away from the protagonist’s name.

And I underlined another name next to it.

Ding―!

Applause for your insight!

‘Suggestion: Life is up to you! Find what you need to do’ 1/3 achieved!

Upon achieving this goal in subsequent stages, survival probability will increase by more than 3%.

‘Hmm.’

Seems like I made a good choice.

I won’t target the emperor, but rather pull the kingmaker who made the protagonist emperor to my side.

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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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