How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 239

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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 (239)

“You are correct, Your Excellency.”

While crossing the hospital hallway, a researcher in a black coat next to the guard spoke to me with a stern expression. He was the Doctor of Public Security, currently serving as the advisory committee chairman of the counter-terrorism task force.

I am currently on my way to assist the counter-terrorism task force under the Crown Prince’s orders.

The guard mages supporting us from behind cast sound-blocking magic.

“We’ve discovered the real terrorist plan—their main scheme. We’ve already completed the procedure to confirm how far the problem has spread without provoking the perpetrators. Now all that remains is the help of mages, including Your Excellency Ascanien.”

“….”

“You burned the note our task force sent you, I presume.”

“I burned it.”

I also burned Elias’s letter. The letters written by Leo and Julia, as well as Haike and Ulrike, were in the safe, but I threw them all into the fire and confirmed they turned to ash before leaving.

Personally, I wanted to keep at least Elias’s letter, but I couldn’t let personal emotions interfere with the mission.

“Good. An inspector from our task force will check each of Your Excellency’s belongings in the room before sending them to your residence. More importantly, you haven’t heard the detailed circumstances yet. Let me quickly explain them now.”

The doctor cleared his throat, adjusted his voice, and spoke again.

“As Your Excellency said, the contaminated magical beast incident discovered at 6 PM on February 21st was merely a diversion. All Penthalon tourists have completed their entry into Brandenburg, and currently it’s impossible to attempt warping from Brandenburg or overseas into the interior. The 1st Guard Infantry Division of the Guard Corps, which has been in charge of Penthalon inspections since last night, reported no magical anomalies whatsoever.”

They certainly deployed a lot of people for inspections. Of course, it’s natural given the number of visitors.

The Guard Corps, a corps-level command located in Berlin responsible for defending the capital, currently has three divisions, and that 1st Guard Infantry Division, despite its name, is actually a unit composed of 15,000 regular mages. Mages who can’t join the Imperial Mage Association are usually incorporated into the Imperial Army this way. This was a system the Empire established after the Alsace-Lorraine battle I saw in Marco Schreiber’s memories to eliminate complaints about mobilization.

In any case, the fact that no particular problems were discovered is worth taking positively.

“In other words, no biological weapons have been confirmed in Berlin and Brandenburg so far. We’ve installed barriers and defensive magical fields between the city boundaries and Brandenburg boundaries, and various checkpoints from underground to 300 meters above ground. No contamination attempts were discovered here either, and all magical fields are currently operating normally without damage.”

“I see.”

“Now let me tell you about their terrorism.”

In front of the hospital elevator, the doctor extended his hand to me.

I looked down at his black leather glove and then back at his face. The doctor stared into my eyes and spoke in a weighty voice.

“From the moment you move forward, Your Excellency will officially participate in this counter-terrorism plan. You will be tasked with saving millions of citizens.”

“I understand. Isn’t all of Eschete already participating in the counter-terrorism plan?”

“Precisely speaking, only one person is.”

I nodded.

I understand what he’s saying. It’s true that everyone has been mobilized for the plan. But among our seven, only Leo has had his name put on documents with the highest secrecy classification. Narke can’t access classified information unless it’s a special situation since she’s a foreigner, and Elias is being intentionally excluded by the Imperial Court.

I took his hand. The moment his glove pressed against my wrist, my vision darkened.

I put strength in my legs and steadied myself. Fortunately, I didn’t show any noticeable abnormal reactions, so no one looked at me strangely.

There was no trace of the hospital with its disinfectant smell anywhere. What spread before us now was an underground strategy room with gray walls on all sides, dim lighting, and where every sound echoed.

I can see someone who was waiting for me here.

The Guard Corps commander I had seen somewhere at the meeting three days ago extended his hand to me.

“I’m Hugo Straus. I already know about Your Excellency, so I’ll skip introductions. I sincerely thank you for joining our plan. For the remaining 1 hour and 53 minutes, we must protect the citizens in the 100km² event venue spanning Berlin and Brandenburg.”

While 150,000 people will enter the opening stadium, many more are at the Penthalon event site for tourism purposes.

It’s not strange that he skipped proper self-introductions and ceremonial greetings. This isn’t the situation for that.

1 hour and 53 minutes. The sound of the second hand on the wall clock ticks loudly. It’s the only time to stop those bastards’ new plan.

“I want to know what the new plan is and what role I should take on.”

“Your Excellency’s role is to provide us with the most efficient ideas. His Highness the Crown Prince directly ordered that since Your Excellency is the right person for strategy, you should be assigned to review countermeasures for this terrorist plan.”

“My shoulders feel heavy. I’m just a new member of the Association, yet I’m taking on such an important responsibility—I didn’t expect this.”

The lives of hundreds of thousands of people currently at the Penthalon event site depend on fewer than ten people, including myself. By my reasoning, this terrorist incident isn’t the end, but that doesn’t change the fact that we must handle this plan first.

I don’t know if this Crown Prince bastard thinks national affairs are a joke, putting whoever into the plan.

Honestly, discussing terrorism with this person in the same place is absurd in itself. It’s fortunate enough that he’s taking me seriously.

Seeming to understand that I spoke with that intention, the other party shook his head.

“You don’t need to worry. After 72 hours of thorough preparation, our government and military have established a system that can defend against any attack. Also, besides Your Excellency, there are three more responsible parties including myself and the doctor, so there will be plenty of opportunities to exchange opinions.”

He looked at his watch and patted my shoulder.

“Within 1 hour and 51 minutes, if there’s a physical opportunity.”

He extended his hand to me.

It’s clear we need to move to another location. I swallowed and took his hand.

The scenery changed again. It was similar to where we were before, but I could see low-saturation teal walls and ceiling made of anti-magic minerals, apparently intended to prevent magic from spreading around.

It was a completely empty room. All that was there was a small desk in the corner, a fire extinguisher, the magical lamp illuminating us, and a thick iron door. No, I should include the red button the commander is holding.

Looking around, I spoke quietly.

“The terrorists must have tampered with the magical lamps.”

“As expected, you figured it out immediately. That’s right. This is a set replicated by our task force 2 hours ago.”

The commander pointed upward.

“It looks like an ordinary magical lamp, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“It actually is an ordinary magical lamp. However….”

The commander pressed the button firmly.

Kwaang—! Crash—

I reflexively closed and opened my eyes.

Broken lamp glass was scattered on the barrier installed 30cm above my head.

The wooden stand attached next to the glass tube supplying magic to the magical lamp caught fire.

“It’s white phosphorus. There’s fine white phosphorus powder inside the lamp. When fire melts the glass tube and heat transfers to the pipes inside….”

Kwaang—!

The same loud noise as before was heard.

Even the other lamp installed near the wall exploded.

“A chain reaction occurs, causing explosion accidents more rapidly.”

“Hmm…. White phosphorus, you say.”

“That’s right. Your Excellency previously judged the white phosphorus matches to be a code. Considering that the matches disappeared without a trace from the police station and today’s confirmed bombing attempt using this white phosphorus, those matches might not have been intended as a code but as a warning of today’s terrorism.”

The commander said this in a soulless voice, then shook his head and immediately continued.

“Up to here is just the police station’s opinion. I personally think those eleven letters were a code as Your Excellency suggested. It was probably a code warning of today’s incident. It would have been good if we had decoded it early, but unfortunately we couldn’t catch on to today’s events because the matches were stolen.”

Instead of answering, I stared at him intently.

There’s no information to be gained from discussing this topic further.

I asked about the earlier topic.

“White phosphorus has a very low ignition point, so it would easily explode inside the lamp. But then it should have exploded long ago—why didn’t it explode until now?”

“That’s exactly it. That’s the problem. They made it with a very sophisticated system. The white phosphorus powder was wrapped in protective magic. When new magic is injected into the magical lamp pipes in that state, the magic surrounding and containing the white phosphorus moves rapidly and collides with the phosphorus. The magical formula is designed to work that way. The reason I said ‘more rapidly’ is here. Along with the magic flowing through the pipes, the heat from the fire transfers to other magical lamps, raising the pressure in other lamps at a faster rate.”

I nodded slowly and listened attentively.

Whoever did this—I’m still at the speculation stage and not certain, but they’re quite an opponent worth fighting. There was someone who made me think this way just a few days ago.

The fact that this threatens the safety of at least hundreds of thousands to at most millions of citizens wasn’t amusing at all, though.

The commander continued.

“There’s another problem here. Unknown drugs have been injected into the magical lamp pipes.”

The commander waved his hand to remove the barrier and used magic to bundle the glass fragments and throw them to the floor.

He took out a small bottle from inside his jacket, opened the cap, and shook it lightly three or four times. The transparent reagent turned black.

“Hmm.”

“You understand. It’s a rampage drug. Currently, the concentration has been lowered to 1/5 level, made to a degree that doesn’t harm health. The white phosphorus was injected to increase pressure inside the lamp and break the glass, but the real thing is this. The perpetrator flowed high-concentration rampage drugs through the magical lamp pipes. In other words, rampage drugs are mixed in the air along with the magic that produces light. When the lamp glass breaks, the rampage drugs will mix with the air the citizens breathe. Also, while fire didn’t spread now because there are no easily combustible materials, other problems could arise in places like banquet halls or botanical gardens.”

“Sophisticated.”

“Indeed. It’s truly a plan worthy of Pleroma.”

“….”

While I remained silent, the commander extended his hand. It was time to warp again.

We moved to the underground control room we had visited earlier.

Now even the Minister of Magic, who is the task force chairman, was around the table. Seeing that several other people worthy of joining the meeting hadn’t come, some must have already been deployed for countermeasure preparations.

The commander silently offered him a handshake and then spoke to me again.

“Perhaps this Penthalon will give us the opportunity to wipe out Pleroma’s leadership in one fell swoop through this terrorism. The leadership will be desperate not to miss this good opportunity. Enemies blinded by profit and moving boldly are always good opponents to bring to their knees.”

I wonder about that.

Pleroma’s leadership decided to pull out of this plan.

It’s information obtained from a well-treated Pleroma at least at the Monsignor level, but there’s no point in revealing this. If I did, I’d only end up being dragged to the Empire’s intelligence department’s interrogation room.

I organized my thoughts and spoke to them.

“You seem to have already found a solution. Don’t I have no need to be here?”

“What kind of solution do you think there is, Your Excellency?”

“It’s a matter of flowing divine power from the point where the magic pipes begin. But the perpetrator will be closely watching the starting point of the pipes. Then, remove the ceiling finish in boiler rooms or storage rooms between rooms to make the pipes visible, and cast purification magic there. Rather, shooting magic from the middle would solve the problem more quickly.”

It’s not like they called me because they couldn’t think of this simple solution.

As expected, the Commander smiled. The tension of having to finish all preparations before the opening in about 1 hour and 40 minutes was still palpable, but it was a confident face that came from having already prepared countermeasures.

“Correct. We are also preparing such methods. Additionally, as a post-incident measure, we’ve collaborated with Bavaria Royal University of Pharmacy to develop purification agents that can neutralize runaway chemicals in the air within 5 seconds, and 72 hours ago we installed newly developed mana sprinklers from the United States on all event venue ceilings. Even if the lights explode, our citizen protection measures are designed to operate clearly.”

When the Commander finished speaking, the Doctor of Public Security, who was the advisory committee chairman, opened his mouth.

“But problems still remain.”

“What are they?”

“First, we don’t know exactly how far the contaminated mana has been injected. We discovered all this truth by confirming abnormal reactions in the opening ceremony venue’s steam room mana lights, but that’s as far as it goes. In other places where the temperature hasn’t risen, we don’t know where this problem has occurred.”

I nodded.

That makes sense.

“Second, there’s no way to recover the white phosphorus powder injected into the lights. Let’s say we immediately suction the air from the pipes from both ends. In this case, naturally the mana from the mana lights would also be suctioned, causing a blackout across the entire site. You understand that we can’t have time delays when casting cooling magic.”

‘Hmm…’

So they called me to quickly think of the optimal way to solve this.

“There’s no need to recover the white phosphorus immediately.”

Everyone looked at me silently.

I continued speaking immediately.

“You said that attacking the pipe holes would bring the terrorist execution closer.”

“That’s right. The culprit is probably monitoring the points where pipes start in various places, or the valve connection points between pipes. They need to cast magic on those locations.”

“Could you give me the building cross-section?”

Actually, I don’t need a cross-section. But it was better to at least pretend to think about something.

I pretended to look at the cross-section, then tapped my finger on the gap between the floor height and ceiling height.

“Couldn’t we cast cooling magic between the floors?”

“…”

“Between floors – as you know, more precisely, the mana light pipes are laid between the ceiling finish and the slab. Since it would be troublesome to drill through walls, we could cast magic limited to the concrete at that height. No matter how much programmed mana activates gas movement, if the temperature approaches absolute zero due to the cold applied to the lights, making it impossible to approach the ignition point, the white phosphorus won’t react as easily as before. Of course, visitors might complain about the cold air rising from the floor, but I think it’s better than becoming a sea of fire.”

The Doctor of Public Security stroked his chin and nodded. I continued speaking.

“If that’s not feasible, you could just cast cooling magic directly on the ceiling indoors, but in this case you should expect complaints about the indoor temperature approaching below freezing. …Obviously, as I said.”

Since silence continued, I looked at my watch.

1 hour 34 minutes, now 33 minutes. The hour and minute hands moved with clicking sounds.

I looked at the people gathered around the table and continued speaking.

“You might be disappointed that it’s not a method using special drugs or special magic spells. However, with 1 hour and 33 minutes left until opening, this is the only method I can provide without new infrastructure or techniques.”

“No, it’s not disappointment. You certainly extract countermeasures quickly. Low cost, high efficiency – if the economics world saw Your Excellency’s economic efficiency, they would applaud. It’s truly regrettable we didn’t work together sooner.”

Those were the Minister of Magic’s words.

From what I can tell, people of this era tend to speak too much like writing compared to modern times. I mean they use a lot of exaggerated metaphors.

Anyway, it seems to have taken some time, but they must have thought of this method too.

Rather, it’s reassuring. With how many brains gathered here, if they hadn’t thought of this, I would have started preparing to leave the country from that moment.

The Commander opened his mouth.

“If Your Excellency also thinks this is the best… good. There are no other ideas.”

“Yes.”

“Then, now the key is choosing where to cast the cooling magic. To cast magic on every floor and every room of every building on the site would require at least 1,000 mages. As you know, having numerous mages with unique abilities like freezing or cooling disappear at once is a situation likely to arouse suspicion. Since they’re also an organization, they’ll be monitoring us through division of labor. Since there are limits to the manpower we can mobilize, we must target exactly where contaminated substances were injected and cast cooling magic only in minimal spaces.”

Beep—

1 hour 30 minutes.

Just as I was about to answer, everyone’s gazes met. Everyone stood without expression, but I could feel the weight of this space growing heavier.

If someone is planning terrorism, they would naturally want to target when the tension of the curtain rises to its peak. Therefore, there might be a brief respite even after the opening begins, but if we mistake that for real breathing room, it’s over.

Considering the time needed for execution – summoning mages, setting individual deployment times, and having them stand by – we need to make a decision now.

The fact that their chemicals weren’t caught by the barrier means they intentionally injected contaminated chemicals avoiding barrier locations. How could we easily detect chemicals injected into pipes in such a way?

This place has newly built shopping districts, theme parks from various countries for Penthalon tourists, art museums, and botanical gardens. We can’t inspect all those buildings.

I took a deep breath and looked at them.

“…To summarize, if we stagger the cooling magic installation, our actions will look suspicious to the culprit, and then the culprit will immediately detonate all the mana lights on the site at once. So to prevent this terrorism, we must cast cooling magic on the entire site simultaneously. But we lack the manpower for that, and if we requisition large numbers of related mages from various locations, the possibility of arousing suspicion increases. Therefore, you’re saying we must find where the chemicals were injected and use selection and concentration to cast cooling magic only in precise locations.”

“Correct.”

“But selection and concentration is impossible time-wise. Rather, bringing large numbers of mages and casting cooling magic comprehensively would be faster and safer.”

“We think so too.”

The Commander said that and nodded.

He’s openly telling me to come up with a clever plan.

“I’m sure you do. Then wouldn’t it be fine to use a slight workaround?”

“A workaround?”

“Let’s put on a performance.”

“A performance?”

Whether he found it absurd, the Commander was about to laugh hollowly but corrected his expression, perhaps remembering the Crown Prince. The Minister of Magic was waiting for what would follow.

The Doctor of Public Security, who understood my meaning, shook his head with serious eyes.

“I understand what you mean. It’s a childish plan, but it’s not really a workaround. Rather, since ancient times nations have systematically utilized entertainment to disperse citizens’ attention, so it’s an orthodox method.”

He’s saying this as if it’s something to be proud of. I thought this as I saw my stopwatch begin displaying 1 hour 28 minutes on the screen.

The Doctor looked at the others and said.

“However, the difference is that today we must deceive not our citizens but Pleroma. Though it wasn’t in the plan, it would be good to have performances using ice and snow throughout the entire Penthalon branch. Then requisitioning cooling magic ability users might not seem strange. Adrian Ascanien, this is the plan you mentioned, correct?”

“Mm.”

There’s always someone who says something different even when everything’s laid out for them.

Creating and performing an unplanned program suddenly one hour before opening is suspicious from the start. The culprit will become even more alert. There’s a possibility they’ll move extremely, fearing their plan will be disrupted, precisely because we’re suddenly performing an unscheduled show using cooling magic. It might seem overly sensitive, but there’s a possibility they’ll become urgent instead, like a thief’s feet getting cold.

So, isn’t there a safer way to go?

I shook my head.

“It’s similar, but no. How about this?”

* * *

I looked up at the sky.

It’s now 9:40 PM, time for the sky to become completely dark. However, the sky was as bright as 6 PM when the sunset glows.

Because they’re doing all sorts of things with fire everywhere. Mages who use fire as their unique ability and circus performers with experience were gathered from across the Empire and deployed throughout the Penthalon site.

I’m now in front of Heilichtum, that is, the new art museum created for Penthalon. Right in front of the art museum was the Spree River, and children were releasing sky lanterns from small boats floating on the river. When they reached an appropriate height, the lanterns scattered into the air and the mana inside transformed into fire in the sky, forming patterns. To me it wasn’t particularly new scenery, but the children were jumping around frantically on the boat, screaming.

The mana that exploded like fireworks in the sky came down to the ground. Several bourgeois Humans strolling through the park in front of the art museum here laughed and caught the mana with their hands. That was also fire.

I caught a spark flying through the air—processed with mana so it won’t spread—with my hand. Due to the surrounding mana, the fire rolled around in my hand completely like a water droplet.

‘This could work as a hand warmer.’

It’s hot. It’s now the night of February 24th, midwinter, and right in front of a river at that, but the heat from the fire is so strong I feel like throwing away my coat right now.

Of course, such peaceful thoughts quickly flew away at the fact that there are now 20 minutes left until opening.

I sent that fire back into the air and looked at the Human approaching the entrance.

One Human took off their scarf and fanned themselves with their hand, shaking their head.

“It’s hot.”

“Cooling magic will soon enter each floor inside. Please go in.”

“Oh.”

A middle-aged Demon Woman looked into my eyes, then rolled her eyes and smiled as she greeted me. She didn’t seem to intend to show outright antipathy, but seemed a bit surprised after confirming who I was.

When I opened the door for her, the Human felt the wind escaping from inside to outside and raised her eyebrows.

“Mm, it really does seem cooler inside. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“It would be nice if it were cooler, please tell them to cast it a bit earlier.”

The Human made a joke and waved at me before going inside.

Even if it’s hot outside, the interior can’t be affected—if we mess up, all the white phosphorus will explode—so we surrounded the building exterior with mana fields that block heat. Therefore the interior is cool, but people are still feeling the heat.

I smiled and greeted her, then closed the door again. And I tapped the artifact.

Now a natural foundation was established. There was no need to delay further.

I raised my head like someone with nothing happening. Since everyone was focused on the sparks flying through the air, no one was watching me.

The emergency committee is waiting for my words beyond the artifact. I cast sound-blocking magic and said one of the predetermined codes.

“I’m getting a bit nervous as we approach the start.”

[…]

“Could you read Ezekiel Chapter 34 from the beginning?”

* * *

“It’s been a bit cold since earlier.”

Inside the opening ceremony venue, Elias stood on the outer edge of the first floor audience seating and spoke quietly while looking at the screen mounted high in the distance.

Beep—

The notification sound began to ring.

One minute before the opening. Most of the officials and spectators had already entered. The faces of all the officials were rigidly hardened.

Elias looked at Leo standing beside him.

“Where’s Luca?”

Instead of answering, Leo shook his head. His gaze turned to the dim mana lights illuminating the audience seating. Since this place had an open ceiling, the possibility of problems occurring here was small. But he couldn’t help but look in that direction. From now on, it would be decided whether this opening would be a beginning or an end.

Leo opened his pocket watch and looked at the rapidly decreasing second hand.

Boom—

The sound of fireworks followed.

At the same time, flower petals scattered. Divine power falling from the endless sky sparkled like stars. Seeing this spectacle in the vast arena expanded with spatial magic to accommodate 150,000 people somehow made it feel like being in another world. The cheers of people had already begun, quickly drowning out the sound of the band’s music that had been playing for the past 10 minutes.

Beep—

’10.’

The moment the sound indicating 10 seconds remaining came from the artifact worn by officials, Elias, who had been looking straight ahead, spoke to Leo.

However, nothing could be heard. Leo only looked forward without responding. As if Elias hadn’t expected an answer either, he now just stood with a hardened face without opening his mouth.

Flags from over 50 participating countries unfurled below the audience seating. The countdown voices of spectators from each country grew louder and louder. Four seconds passed while slowly closing and opening his eyes several times.

‘5.’

The high notes of wind instruments continued in rapid tempo. Then, the sound of a large trumpet followed.

As the cheers made his ears unable to function properly, now his ears were catching sounds that were difficult to hear.

‘4.’

The divine power that had been falling from the sky stopped.

The light of the mana lamps went out, and now the light of the night sky appeared brightest in this place. From somewhere came the sound of stage equipment pulleys moving.

Perhaps slightly missing the beat, the notification sound passed by once quickly while counting to three.

‘2.’

All music sounds ended.

Leo closed the lid of his pocket watch and moved his lips slightly.

‘1.’

The lights came on.

The Emperor’s figure could be seen from one side of the arena. As the mana screen showed his face, the fanatical cheers of 150,000 people struck their ears.

The Emperor opened his mouth with a solemn expression.

[Dear New Humanity and Old Humanity from all nations, welcome to Berlin.]

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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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