How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 225

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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 (225)

The Antagonist muttered in a dazed voice.

“Let’s do it together.”

“Yes.”

“…Good. Really.”

The Antagonist approached me with eyes filled with madness, smiling.

“This can open your heart? You’re showing interest in me for the first time.”

“Maybe you’re interested in drugs. …Whenever my head doesn’t work well, I take morphine and go to bed, but I’m getting tired of that too, so I’ve been looking for new drugs in the magic potion category.”

I muttered while looking around at other medicine bottles.

“Though I haven’t been able to lately because of you.”

“Ah~”

The Antagonist smiled with unfocused eyes and continued speaking slowly.

“…Don’t worry. Worried that the fantasy might break? I like you no matter what. Even if you became a Human, even if you suddenly turned 180 years old, it would be fine.”

“But I wouldn’t be fine with it.”

The Antagonist was already uninterested in my words. He was completely absorbed in his own feelings and only said what he wanted to say.

“Drugs, huh. I thought that Nicolaus would think nothing of such things, but to think he’d feel guilt about addiction…? Hahaha! But this is really unexpected. Count Nicolaus taking drugs… Hmm… That Count Nicolaus takes drugs? How could this be… This is as satisfying news as watching Nicolaus Ernst deceive everyone and act as the high school representative team member.”

“You won’t tell anyone, right?”

“Of course not. Why would I? A new secret that only you and I know has been created, hasn’t it?”

The Antagonist answered with shining eyes.

I bit the inside of my lip slightly and said.

“Then let’s do it right now.”

“Ah, no.”

No?

When I just stared at him in disbelief, he said while half-embracing me.

“Next time. Let’s do it when we meet next time.”

“…Why? I want to try it now.”

“How about tomorrow? Or the day after? You’ll wait thinking about me until the day after tomorrow.”

His irises trembled greatly.

The Antagonist’s eyes were completely filled with thoughts of trying to utilize this opportunity. Now that he knew a topic I reacted to, he was clearly trying to use it as bait to make me count down the time until I met with him.

I could also glimpse his anxious heart, worried he might not hear a positive answer.

I pulled him slightly closer and lowered my head.

“Can’t we do it today?”

“…”

He stared at me intently before answering.

“Next time. It’ll be better the more you wait for it.”

For someone whose expression revealed everything, it was a firm refusal.

I could see his determination to persistently exploit this one opportunity he’d caught.

Anyway, the deadline for Eschede’s +12 favorability point proposal was approaching soon.

Whether I could fill all 5 points was questionable, but today and tomorrow were days I needed to get closer to my team members, so it didn’t matter how the Antagonist postponed the schedule.

“…Fine.”

I answered with a casual smile and moved to the side.

From then on, I ignored him and examined other vials and medicine bottles one by one. After asking about their uses for the third or fourth time, he didn’t answer my questions and muttered.

“To do drugs together…”

“…”

What am I supposed to do about that?

I smiled and answered.

“If you keep thinking about it, just do it now.”

“…To do it together. How can you say such things to me? That I have to postpone the opportunity to do drugs with you with my own hands! No, actually, if you had completely the same feelings as me, I wouldn’t have any reason to do this.”

Since he kept only saying what he wanted to say from earlier, acting like a real madman, I shook my head and moved far away from him.

There were no special new drugs. Magic potions that help extract blood faster, magic potions that maintain covenant magic while remaining in the blood, etc… These were drugs that Wittelsbach could sufficiently make if they wanted to.

‘…No, rather, it’s surprising that they’re comparable to Wittelsbach.’

There’s also the possibility that he didn’t keep important drugs at home.

I came outside while reviewing the labels and uses I had read earlier, and toured his house as I pleased. I was going to stop out of courtesy if he showed signs of dislike, but he only had shining eyes.

The manor was spacious and splendid.

It was much larger than the Wittelsbach capital villa I was borrowing, but that would be because this was an actual residence, not a villa.

“You prefer outside to inside.”

After finishing the tour and sitting on a bench in front of the lake, he followed and sat next to me.

A cool dawn breeze brushed by. The light from magic lamps installed throughout the manor grounds softly illuminated the surrounding scenery.

“It’s comfortable.”

Why does everyone go to forests and parks?

Before the stalker attached to me, I rested in the Wittelsbach Estate gardens and courtyards whenever I had time. I should occasionally smell the trees too, shouldn’t I?

And decisively, outside was better than inside for fighting when something happened.

After that, he was silent for a long time.

About 10 minutes passed, then he stared intently at my face and muttered.

“No matter how I look, pink eyes are the best on you compared to other colored eyes.”

Earlier I had been walking around with my eye color changed to blue. Walking around Pleroma with pink eyes would be like advertising for them to catch me.

“I see.”

“Of course, blue eyes are cool too. Though it’s quite a traumatic color for us. Especially Count Nicolaus’s dedicated team’s flag and armband colors are blue. Do you know why? When only your eyes are visible on your face, what would naturally come to mind first when recognizing you?”

“Hmm, it’s an honor that it left such a strong impression.”

Interesting.

I thought that and asked another question.

“What does my dedicated team do?”

“They track your location. They try to plant spies in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Recently they’re also focusing on Berlin.”

“Like how you know my identity, do those people also know me?”

“…”

He looked at me with the same smiling face and blinked. Then he grinned.

“That can’t be. If that were the case… hahaha… I’d have too many enemies, wouldn’t I?”

As expected.

Even though it was as expected, I didn’t think he’d answer so obediently.

I stroked my chin and asked.

“Where did you learn my identity?”

“There is a way. A way to know.”

He ended his words cheerfully and looked into my eyes again.

The Antagonist’s interest seemed to be more in my eyes than other conversations.

‘If I go too deep, he won’t answer. Anyway, I’ll be taking drugs when we meet next time, so it wouldn’t be bad to wait until then, but…’

“No matter how I look, it’s marvelous. How were you born with pink eyes? To think human eyes could be rabbit eyes…”

“…”

It was typical of the guy who rudely said things like ‘How does it feel to have a unique color?’ while staring at my eyes when we first met.

“I didn’t expect you to say anything proper, but it’s more shockingly insulting than I anticipated.”

“It was a compliment though?”

“How is that a compliment? Are you joking?”

I wasn’t born this way, but I didn’t want to inform the Antagonist of such facts. Instead, I felt an impulse to correct his wrong analogy.

‘Forget it… Let’s just not talk.’

No matter how much drug administration with the Antagonist was scheduled, I couldn’t just have such conversations in my spare time. The Antagonist would want to have pointless conversations with me since he wanted to act like my lover, but I didn’t.

I reviewed the conversation I had with the Antagonist earlier.

Probably he wouldn’t answer most things I asked. So, it would be better to ask more deeply about the stories he had rattled off with his own mouth.

“Let me ask just one thing.”

“Yes! What is it?”

“‘The Lord you have waited for’ and ‘the messenger of the covenant’ are the same being. Though ‘my messenger’ is a different person.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming.

It’s a question about the passage he mentioned earlier.

The Antagonist looked at me with a flustered expression, as if he hadn’t expected such a question to come up suddenly.

“If you misheard and relayed it wrong, I’d understand, but Pleroma wouldn’t just make such an error carelessly.”

“….”

“Why do you see the two as different?”

He had said ‘the messenger of the covenant has come, so the Lord will come soon.’ The same being split into two and coming separately – it definitely sounds strange.

Soon he broke the silence and spoke.

“Because Prophet Malachi expressed them differently.”

“Setting aside that it was obviously a sentence where you could tell they were the same person… the Bible often repeats content for emphasis. The expression changes in that process too. You should know this, right?”

“It was just a literary expression.”

When I just smiled and looked at the Antagonist, he shook his head as if he couldn’t handle it.

“Ah~ You’re quick to catch on. Getting hung up on such trivial details? What’s important is the fact that we’ll be saved, not things like that.”

As the Antagonist muttered like that, his eyes suddenly widened.

“Did you come all this way because you’re obsessed with trivial details?”

It’s something I heard from someone recently. I guess crazy bastards have things in common with each other.

I shook my head and answered.

“I don’t think it’s particularly trivial. Where’s the reason it wouldn’t be strange for the same subject to come at different times?”

“Like I said, if you’re going to be that strict about it, the Bible writers shouldn’t have used synonymous substitution either. It was wordplay that could be accepted somewhat idiomatically~”

The mistake with these guys was putting someone strong in combat rather than a theologian in the clergy position. After the Antagonist said something useless and received my sharp glare, he pondered and opened his mouth.

“When Christ came, people didn’t know He was the Lord. Then, did Christ know His own essence from the womb? Opinions are divided on this, but… the interpretation that He learned as He grew up is currently dominant. Is that enough?”

Enough for what?

But I just remained silent. I didn’t think pressing further would yield a better answer.

‘The messenger of the covenant only knew his humanity and didn’t grasp his divinity – is that it?’

They interpret things strangely, as befits a cult.

The divinity might follow later.

Anyway, this isn’t particularly new information for me.

It means Pleroma found a fake messiah – a 100% human who could never be the messiah, like all cults in the world – and now they’re performing necromancy hoping a god will dwell in him.

If not that, they might be metaphorically referring to a powerful newcomer who could save the Order as the lord of a new era.

But why isn’t it new? These guys are a group that brings corpses and resurrects them. They’re always doing this kind of thing.

The problematic part is that hundreds of thousands in Pleroma sincerely believe such shallow interpretations and put them into action. Too many people have bled because of that until now.

I just think I need to put an end to their antics someday.

“Who made this prophecy?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Only silence followed.

Yeah, you’ll have to tell me later. Though that’ll be in a few days.

Whether he was uninterested in whatever I was thinking, he just stared intently at me and said.

“I wish I looked like you.”

“What time is it? If we’re just going to talk about useless things like this, I’m going back.”

“Hmm, it’s still 12 o’clock by outside time.”

That’s all it’s been?

By the way, if I stayed until 5 o’clock, that would have meant 5 more days ahead. Knowing how their time flows makes me feel a bit queasy.

Of course, he’s been quite different from the moment he first promised to send me back.

Just then, he spoke as if reading my thoughts.

“If you want to go back, I’ll send you. I don’t want to make things difficult for you from the first day. Also… whenever you can spare an hour, we can spend a day together here.”

“It’s not 5 o’clock yet though?”

“It’s fine. Instead, please grant me one favor like I mentioned earlier.”

I nodded to indicate he should speak. He pulled out a medicine bottle the size of a finger joint from my jacket pocket.

What he wanted me to do was clear.

“You want me to drink this without even telling me what kind of medicine it is?”

“It’s an amplifier.”

“….”

Literally a drug you drink to enhance the effects of magic potions you’ve taken. I used it during the magic potion experiment competition before too.

Since I don’t seem completely fallen for him, he’s definitely trying to strengthen the effects of the drug I drank.

Anyway, I came here planning to absorb everything about him, and if dangerous results occurred, I could turn back time, so it wasn’t a particularly burdensome request.

However, since he knows my tendencies, I need to go against his wishes at least once to act out my calculating personality.

“I don’t really want to drink it. How can I trust that this is safe?”

“If I deceived you, I’ll never appear before you again.”

He spoke with serious eyes.

It seems he’s using the effects of the covenant magic drug I drank earlier.

It’s absurd that he considers the promise not to appear before me quite a significant price in his own way, but since the answer wasn’t important, I swallowed the medicine without hesitation.

There was no adverse reaction.

Instead, my breathing began to quicken slightly. The sound of the metal cap touching the glass bottle rang loudly.

His hand touched my cheek. One second of meeting those blue eyes felt like a minute.

After holding my face and observing my expression for a while, he smiled brightly.

“…Good effect.”

“….”

“Your face color matches your eye color. Now you seem a bit similar to me.”

“Do you have to say that out loud?”

Then he laughed lightly and pulled something out of the small bag he was carrying.

Similar to what I received from Cheringen and Leo, it was a small box wrapped in velvet. He opened the lid and held it out to me.

“Will you accept it?”

“….”

After confirming what it was, I felt my vision go dark. Even the amplifier couldn’t cover this.

‘Just how far did this bastard prepare?’

What he held out was an artifact. Specifically, a ring.

He had fallen into my trap without thinking he’d meet me today, so normally speaking, he shouldn’t have had time to prepare this.

This can only mean he fell into low-probability delusions and prepared for this moment quite a long time ago, right?

He must have firmly believed he’d be able to meet me someday. But why? Where does such baseless confidence come from?

“I want you to think of me even when I’m not here.”

He spoke with his eyes wide open and smiling. Moonlight illuminated his clean face.

I stared at him silently for a long time.

‘Should I just attack again?’

Although heat was circulating around my eyes, I could kill such emotions when thinking of my future.

But I can’t act rashly like that.

If this makes him think he has more of an upper hand, if he can feel completely at ease… it’s not a bad thing.

“I’m not the only one wearing it, right?”

He pondered for a moment then nodded vigorously. He removed his lace-trimmed velvet glove and showed me his hand.

The moment I saw the ring with the same design, goosebumps rose all over my forearms.

“Whew…”

“Why~”

“Why?”

Whether my response was creepy, he just smiled awkwardly with an ‘oops’ expression.

I quietly looked down at the artifact, then pulled out the ring and put it on roughly where he probably calculated it should go.

The size fit perfectly, which was even more creepy. Of course, since the drug effects were neutralizing that creepiness, I was able to avoid attacking him first because I couldn’t stand the goosebumps.

I was about to sigh when I looked at his face. He wasn’t smiling brightly as I expected, but was just looking at my hand with an indecipherable smile. His face contained a madness I’d never seen before. He slowly raised his head and smiled. Then he pulled out his wand and lightly touched it to the ring.

“When you go back, can you promise not to drink the antidote?”

“Why?”

“I know very well that you extremely hate me when you don’t have the drug. So please.”

“….”

At least he’s perceptive.

I’ve been showing my displeasure all this time, but if the Antagonist comes out like this, I need to stop being stubborn. My emotions due to the drug are the only part he thinks he has the upper hand on.

I answered expressionlessly.

“Fine.”

He smiled gently and channeled mana through his wand.

For a moment, my skin stung as if cut by a blade.

“…!”

The mana inside this began interfering with the mana in my hand.

It’s an item that works on a similar mechanism to the artifact Leo gave me. However, while the mana in Leo’s artifact connected with my core inside my body—probably because the Antagonist made it using my mana—this artifact doesn’t connect to my core.

In that sense, I think it would be much easier to dismantle. The problem is….

I pulled off the ring.

The text that had been engraved inside the ring remained on my finger.

[Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt]

It was written backwards like a mirror reflection, but I could still read it.

The ring’s mana will probably detect and react to the antidote’s mana here….

This is basically telling me not to take it off. Anyone who sees this would ask why I wrote text on my finger.

‘More importantly, this kind of thing should be done where more mana flows.’

A finger? It would be more effective to put this kind of thing inside the forearm skin like the old mages did.

This would be a good example of being obsessed with symbolism and missing the essence. I mean that as thanks.

I muttered while looking at the ring set with what appeared to be a sapphire.

“I guess you can’t steal my gloves now.”

“…!”

The Antagonist looked at me with wide eyes, as if he’d gotten an idea.

I think he might be thinking that if he steals my gloves, I’ll have to advertise the ring everywhere.

What am I supposed to do if I wear something like this when I haven’t had an engagement ceremony with anyone? If I weren’t just a Student, this would go straight to the front page of Daslotte.

I said seriously with a stern expression.

“Are you joking? I could just throw it away.”

“Ah~ Right! I understand. I’ll remember that.”

He kept smiling brightly beside me, unable to keep his hands still as he tugged at the ends of his gloves, seemingly pleased about something.

After that, no one spoke.

I didn’t speak because reality hit me, but he probably didn’t because he’d achieved his lifelong dream. I’m filming a crime drama while the Antagonist is filming a romance by himself.

Thinking he should break the silence now, he looked at me with a flushed face after moving his lips for a while and said.

“I’ll send you back now.”

“Yes. You thought well.”

“I said I’d send you back at five, and though it’s a bit regrettable…. It’s a promise.”

He stood up from his seat and extended his hand to me.

I took his hand and stood up out of courtesy.

“Thank you for today.”

“….”

“See you tomorrow.”

The moment he smiled and greeted me like that, the scenery before my eyes changed.

The Human who had been by my side all along disappeared, and I was in front of the main gate of the Wittelsbach Estate.

Judging by the familiar mana I felt in the air, this was really Our World.

“….”

I was back.

How many times had I returned completely intact like before I left, without even turning back time? It wasn’t like I’d just gone for a neighborhood stroll—I’d even met a Pleroma Bishop?

‘…Though there is the downside that I’ll have to get an injection next time we meet.’

Since I brought it up first, I’m prepared for it. Rather, I got permission, so it could be seen as a good thing.

I opened the gate, entered, and walked quickly through the garden to the manor building entrance. No, I was almost running at the end.

Dating a Pleroma Bishop in the middle of enemy territory apparently wasn’t very comfortable. Except for the regretful feeling of not being able to see him, the path home was unusually more comfortable than other times.

I was prepared for so many things, but I’m completely fine except for one bit of mana imprinted on my finger skin. I can just ask Leo if this can be removed with Wittelsbach technology.

If not, I’ll do the injection with that Stalker and then turn time back to today again.

Before I could even open the first entrance to the manor, the door burst open.

I saw my Friends who hadn’t even changed clothes until this hour.

Narke took a deep breath when he saw me.

“You’re 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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