How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 228

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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 (228)

The shop owner readily nodded his head.

“Go ahead~ But if you leave it to me, I can take good pictures for you.”

“Haha, I know. But this time we’ll take them ourselves.”

I paid him the photography fee and rented the camera.

Even in our past, cameras from this period were light and small enough to hold by hand. Of course, it would have been a bit burdensome if you wanted to hold it with one hand instead of both. The mana-powered camera also looked similar to cameras from our past and wasn’t very light either. But with a Human body, it shouldn’t be too difficult to hold with one hand.

I touched the wooden camera box and checked how to operate it. There was mana stored in a glass bottle inside the box, so you could take a picture right away by pressing the button on the side. After confirming that its functions weren’t much different from those used by the royal family or newspapers, I channeled mana into my arm and tried holding the camera with one hand.

Haike came over and started peering around.

“Why did you rent that? But this is the first time I’ve seen someone channel mana into their arm to take pictures.”

“What’s wrong with that? You have to give your best even when playing.”

“So this is how you give your best.”

“Haike.”

I stood in a spot with adequate lighting and pulled his shoulder close.

When I flipped the camera around and held it up high, Haike’s eyes widened.

“What?”

“Just taking a picture, that’s all.”

“But why are you taking the picture from above like this?”

“Let’s try it once. Haike, don’t lift your head, just look at the lens with your eyes, okay?”

I wasn’t sure if he’d like it.

Actually, even in modern times I hadn’t voluntarily taken pictures like this very often, but I still remembered my friends nagging me to pose properly. When I was working, I often took them to post on social media too.

Even if the era was different, we were all the same people anyway, so this much should be… reasonably well-received, I thought.

My prediction wasn’t wrong.

30 minutes later, Haike’s eyes lit up as he received the developed photos first.

“…Wow.”

Haike, who seemed unable to decide what to say and kept moving his mouth, soon continued speaking like a machine gun.

“So this is how it comes out when you take it from above. Even when I was going around taking pictures all the time, I never saw anyone hold it and take pictures of their own face. Is this trendy these days?”

Not yet…

There were occasionally people in this era who took pictures of their own faces with cameras, but not enough to call it a trend, and it was more like taking one or two shots as a joke. So there were no cases of paying attention to angles either.

When I had nothing to say and just gave an awkward smile, Haike smiled faintly.

“Good.”

“Really? I’m grateful if you accepted it that way.”

“I like this better. We look closer, don’t we?”

Haike smiled brightly. I smiled back at him the same way, then turned my head slightly to look outside.

Receiving admiration for doing something ordinary somehow made me feel sorry.

To shake off that uncomfortable feeling, I deliberately thought about something else.

‘What if I tried doing a selfie business with mana-powered cameras here…?’

That’s not bad?

Having thought that far, I quickly shook my head.

I was already getting hundreds of thousands of pels monthly from the sensory transfer artifact patent. Since it was something I had properly fixed and made during the Strauchi incident, Leo had registered the patent under my name.

Then, Haike kept switching between looking at the three developed photos and said,

“Have you taken pictures often? I’m frozen stiff but you look natural in all of them.”

“…”

Again having nothing particular to answer, I sat next to him and naturally changed the subject.

“Haike, you seem to come here often, so you must really like taking pictures.”

“Yeah. I’ve been making photo albums since middle school.”

“Really? Can you show me when we get back?”

“Of course.”

We continued talking about photography as we left the shop.

Rather than a conversation where we clearly exchanged words with each other, it was mainly me bringing up topics and Haike answering.

“What made you start liking photography? Even if you want to preserve memories, people don’t usually develop it into a hobby like this.”

“…”

The answer didn’t come right away.

Just when I was thinking whether this was a topic I shouldn’t have asked about, Haike answered dryly.

“Because of Mother’s photo. I can’t see Mother.”

“…”

Suddenly?

But I understood why this story came up. I remembered what Haike had said at the Eschede launch celebration banquet: ‘I want to try living with Mother after graduation.’

Feeling my vision go dark, I apologized.

“Ah, I see. Sorry. I asked something unnecessary. You don’t have to talk about it.”

“No. I want to talk about it.”

“…”

He wants to talk about it? I couldn’t stop him when he said he wanted to talk.

Since it wasn’t that I particularly didn’t want to hear it, I nodded.

“Do you know why I can’t see Mother? Somehow I feel like you would know.”

“I know. It must be because of a contract, right?”

“Right. Uncle mustn’t find out. The condition for me becoming the heir of the Einsiedel Family was a contract between Mother and Uncle that I would never see Mother for life.”

It’s a common thing.

When creating heirs or adopting relatives, they use this kind of contract to prevent the mana provider or biological parents from claiming ownership of the heir’s mana.

“I was separated from Mother when I was five, so my memories are vague. When I moved to the direct line, Uncle returned all of Mother’s photos I had brought to Mother, but there happened to be exactly one left with me.”

“I see.”

“At the time I didn’t think much of it, but after a few years I thought it was quite valuable material worth preserving.”

Valuable material worth preserving. That expression…

As expected of a Human. Not all Humans necessarily talk like Haike, but thanks to Haike’s personality, a truly unadorned expression close to the Human basics came out.

However, I didn’t feel any aversion. After all, expressions are just shells, and the emotions he feels aren’t much different from others, and as if to show that, his following words were extremely human.

“Sometimes when I feel like a strange person, looking at Mother’s face gives me peace of mind.”

“…”

I didn’t answer further.

I recalled how Narke had specifically asked Haike ‘What do you want to do after graduation?’ Narke isn’t someone who does useless things. ‘Haike being curious about his mother’ must have been quite important information.

That said, I had no intention of interrogating the Legislator like cross-examining him to extract information just to resolve my suspicions about him.

I was just wondering if Haike was willing to tell me what he had been agonizing over, whether I could listen well and use it for his benefit.

“Do you want to see Mother?”

“I want to see her. Right now even. …Of course, I don’t have much affection for Mother. Mother probably doesn’t remember me properly either, right?”

“…”

“But I’m curious. Why can’t I feel emotions properly? If I had lived with Mother instead of Uncle who has no interest in me as a human being, would something have been different? Do I resemble Mother in personality? If I do, I think I’d be confident that I didn’t grow up wrong, and if I don’t… wouldn’t that mean there’s a possibility I could become such an ordinary adult too?”

I already knew well from our conversation at Ainsiedel Manor that Haike viewed his lack of emotion as a problem.

While I was grateful for the deep trust that led him to share intimate stories with me, at the same time there were no other words I could say here. If my good intentions could be read as ignorance by him, it was better not to speak carelessly.

I just nodded and walked toward our destination. The setting sun shone in front of us, making the day feel warmer than at noon. Now the only sound in this narrow, quiet residential area was the sound of melted snow and mud with each step of our shoes.

At some point, car horns and horse hoofbeats could be heard faintly. The cheerful conversations of Humans began to be heard softly in the background. Just as the entrance to the commercial district began to come into view, Haike pointed to a red sign attached to a building beyond the alley.

“Oh, there’s the kegling hall.”

* * *

The place we entered was a gaming hall made for commoners. I had chosen a place mainly frequented by the middle class, thinking Haike might find it unfamiliar, but since it wasn’t a social club anyway, we took off our jackets and rolled up our shirt sleeves as we pleased.

Even so, we couldn’t feel the recreational atmosphere like in modern times. Why?

‘…There’s someone playing piano here…’

I wonder what that’s about, but it sounds nice.

Still, it seemed to be a sufficiently exotic space even from Haike’s perspective, not just mine as a 21st-century person. He followed behind me, looking up at the ceiling where gas lamp pipes were visible, and observing the bourgeois young men in relatively comfortable attire. Of course, to me it looked formal enough that it wasn’t particularly interesting.

Before Haike could get addicted to Human-watching, I pulled him to the side and said while examining the balls, of which there were only two types unlike bowling,

“Haike. Are you good at kegling?”

“I’ve only done it once or twice at social gatherings. And that was when I was young.”

“I see.”

To make him enjoy it, should I adjust my level to match his somewhat? I had a lot of experience with bowling, but if there was a big skill gap, there would be no point in keeping score, so Haike would probably not find it particularly interesting and get bored quickly.

‘Hmm, but what I did in the 21st century was bowling, not 19th-century kegling, so I’m caught off guard.’

Looking at it right now, unlike bowling, there was no culture of changing shoes, there were only two balls, and there were ropes where the gutters should be. There were only nine pins too.

Everything else was quite similar, but it would take time to adapt, so there was no need to make allowances for it.

Then, Haike quietly called my name from beside me.

“Lucas.”

“Yeah?”

It was a strangely tense voice. It reminded me of that voice when he suggested we go take photos together.

Sure enough, Haike’s eyes were sparkling.

“Want to make a bet? The loser buys beer.”

Haike was the first to make such a proposal?

That’s significant progress. He must be quite enjoying this situation.

By the way…

“You’re going to drink beer again?”

“…I was going to suggest drinking while we play?”

“Mm, alright.”

I smiled and handed him the ball.

And 30 minutes later, I decided to retract that smile.

“At least you got a spare…”

Haike, standing in front of the lane, trailed off and pouted.

To be honest, when he said he’d tried it once or twice as a child, I secretly thought he’d send everything into the gutter.

‘I feel sorry for him.’

Haike had struck three times earlier and was very disappointed about missing once. He seemed to want to strike cleanly throughout this entire game.

Haike dusted off his hands and looked at my score that the scorekeeper had written down.

“Lucas, you’re really good at this.”

“Really? From what I can see, you’re better?”

I couldn’t be completely terrible since I often went to bowling alleys in the 21st century.

For someone who tried it once or twice as a child and someone who went regularly to play similar games to produce comparable results, I could really feel how excellent Haike’s athletic abilities were.

So we spent about two and a half more hours just rolling balls around. It was more like inertia than fun, but since we both had personalities that wanted to see things through to the end, we weren’t satisfied with a slight score difference and kept concentrating until we could definitively beat our opponent.

Around 8 PM, Haike timidly asked while radiating his mana from his hands.

“Lucas… How long are we going to do this…?”

“I don’t know. Should we stop now?”

I wiped my sweat and put down the ball.

Meanwhile, the scorekeeper approached and handed us the scorecard.

Though I wasn’t familiar with kegling rules, I could clearly see that in all the games we’d played so far, I had beaten him three times and he had beaten me four times.

Haike’s eyes widened as he quietly asked.

“Did I win?”

“That’s right. Congratulations, Haike. Let’s come play again next time.”

I smiled and patted his back.

I didn’t feel frustrated enough about losing to develop that level of competitive spirit in kegling, and even if I had developed competitive spirit, we weren’t close enough for me to express it.

Rather, I wanted to congratulate him more actively, but I didn’t have the energy for that.

Haike didn’t seem to care much about that and wandered around here and there with a strangely excited face. Then he bought new beer from the counter and thrust it at me.

“Drink.”

“Huh? Didn’t you say you won?”

“You bought me a drink earlier.”

“Hey, Haike. It was a bet.”

“Drink.”

“…”

I didn’t know why he made the bet if he was going to do this, but since it seemed like it would repeat infinitely if I refused, I just took the bottle and held it.

Right then, Haike suddenly spoke up.

“What should we do now?”

He wants to go do something else right away? I was thinking we’d look for a cafe or something.

Only my fingers and back were tired, but I guess I still had the strength to walk around.

I looked at Haike’s eyes, which had grown larger than usual, wondering if he’d had fun hanging out with me today, and smiled lightly.

I hadn’t really been conscious of it, but after dealing with some stalker bastard and the Pleroma, working on getting a high school student’s favorability felt much more relaxing. At least he’s still just a high school student for now.

‘It is a bit concerning that he still hasn’t given me any favorability points…’

It also sounds like he wasn’t satisfied.

But considering that Haike had only voluntarily given me exactly 1 favorability point so far, I was prepared for this much. Above all, I won’t know until I see it through to the end.

I smiled and pointed outside.

“It’s time for dinner. Want to go check out the market?”

* * *

“This is my first time at a market.”

An hour after we’d stopped by the market, Haike said that to me. We were already sitting on a park bench eating sausages we’d bought from market stalls. It had gotten dark quickly, so we were relying on streetlight.

I shrugged and answered.

“Me too.”

At least this was my first time at this market. I’d had no occasion to go because of my status.

It would have been the same for Haike. Fortunately, he wasn’t someone who was snobbish about status, so he just excitedly wandered around. In the process, he’d clearly spent all the money he’d brought. There were far too many paper bags lined up next to his chair.

In contrast, all I’d bought was one plate of sauerkraut.

“Why are you only eating sauerkraut?”

“I’m not really hungry.”

“Wow.”

He let out a soulless exclamation and glanced at me before casting magic to refill his empty bottle with beer. I wondered why Haike was speaking to me first for once. It seemed clear he’d opened his mouth to distract my attention.

He drank his alcohol expressionlessly and said quietly.

“Today was fun.”

“Ah, I was worried it might not be fun, so I’m glad.”

“No, really.”

He slowly smiled.

“That was the first time I took photos like that with you, the first time I played kegling with a friend, the first time I went to a market, and the first time I talked to you about my mother.”

“…”

I nodded and smiled.

From my perspective, confirming that most things that weren’t particularly special to me were all received as special by him made me feel like my shoulders were getting a bit heavy.

I was his first friend, and I’d shared many of his firsts with him. Since we were sharing memories that would remain deeper than other memories, I needed to be more careful about everything in front of him.

Of course, it was a bit puzzling that despite giving Haike such intense memories, his favorability hadn’t increased by even a single point. But it wasn’t resentful. He had no obligation to show the reaction I wanted, so I’d never had negative thoughts about Haike’s reactions.

However, now I needed to examine the intention behind this quest, not Haike himself.

‘First, let me check one thing.’

I opened the possibility change window.

Dawn777

— Until final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’: 596 days 13 hours 03 minutes 13 seconds

— Possibility of change: 48.9% (+3.0%p)

‘48.9%.’

Good.

Let me think slowly at this point.

Whether the reason he’s looking for his mother is to confirm the source of his emotional deficiency and get confirmation that he’s fine as he is, or to get confirmation that he too has the possibility of change, or if it’s actually purely because he wants to meet the existence called parents instead of his uncle who’s indifferent to him—I don’t know.

I still can’t know exactly why Narke’s eyes changed as if seeing through something when Haike said he wanted to live with his mother after graduation.

The only thing I know right now is that since Narke reacted that way, there’s something to this situation, and perhaps that could be the way to prevent the future where Haike becomes a villain.

‘Why do I think that?’

Isn’t that a leap?

Normally, since I’d have no basis to think that way, I wouldn’t have even considered it as a possibility.

But I have a reason to consider it now.

I did my best, but there were clear limitations to achieving this quest.

I tried to get close to Ulrike, who had the second-lowest score after Haike, but all I got from her was 4 points. The other points I received were: Haike 1 point, Julia 2 points.

All team members except Haike already have affection scores exceeding 5 points. And as I know from experience, when stats are already raised high, it’s difficult to increase even 1 point in a week’s time.

In conclusion, this is a proposal that’s structurally impossible to clear unless I target Haike, whose affection score is close to 0. The system created this proposal assuming I would gain affection from Haike.

Raising Haike’s affection, who doesn’t give me points, means I need to touch his fundamental emotions beyond simply becoming friends with Haike like today.

‘Why is it giving me such a dangerous proposal.’

Perhaps it’s related to Haike’s future.

Let me try an experiment.

“Haike.”

“Yeah?”

“If you had a chance to see Mother, would you want to meet her even now?”

“Of course.”

An answer without a moment’s hesitation.

His eyes instantly sharpened, with none of his usual indifference to be found anywhere.

I quietly looked at him. As if surprised by the words he unconsciously let slip, he covered his mouth before returning to his usual calm expression.

“…It’s just wishful thinking. If I appeared before Mother, she wouldn’t particularly welcome it either… Well, honestly I don’t care about that kind of reaction, but we made a contract not to meet.”

Instead of answering, I opened the possibility of change window again.

Dawn777

— Until final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’: 596 days 13 hours 02 minutes 55 seconds

— Possibility of change: 51.9% (+3.0%p)

“…”

It went up. Just 3%p from a single sentence.

Now what this proposal is telling me has become clear.

The proposal is telling me to change Haike’s future.

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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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