How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 258

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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 (258)

 

Leo looked around at everyone present. They were all waiting for Leo to continue speaking.

 

“First, regarding the alliance between Hohenzollern and Ascanien, this is actually something we should actively encourage. Currently, Prussia needs allies. While Bavaria is actively sharing information with Prussia and working to maintain friendly relations, considering the power dynamics between the two nations, it’s difficult for Prussia to easily join hands with Bavaria.”

 

Accepting Bavaria’s help would diminish Prussia’s influence. It could threaten their position as the empire’s hegemon.

 

This incident was resolved through cooperation between Lucas Ascanien and Bavaria. Therefore, if the achievements are utilized well, Bavaria has the opportunity to rise to an equal position with Prussia. Since Bavaria is a Catholic nation backed by the Papal States, perhaps even more than that is possible.

 

However, the expected backlash from Prussia in that process would cause countless damages to the empire. The idea of equal positions is just a pretty facade to begin with. Such peace can never be sustained. We’ve already watched the power struggles between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor for centuries. If there are two hegemons, one must inevitably step on the other to rise higher, or be crushed down by the other’s interference. There cannot be two suns in one sky. That is the nature of power.

 

In that process, Prussia will desperately bare its fangs to avoid falling. Surely in the worst case, they’re even considering mutual destruction with Bavaria.

 

“If we don’t want to cause much bloodshed and turmoil through radical power shifts, we must give Prussia a chance to recover.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

At Leo’s words, the King stroked his chin while lost in thought. It wasn’t meant as a rebuttal, but it was a topic that required explanation.

 

“Prussia advocates enlightened absolute monarchy, but they’re conducting severe internal oppression to maintain the unified empire, so their subjects’ patience is reaching its breaking point.”

 

The media outlets they control never report on the oppression and instead define some subjects as evil groups, which has effectively prevented rebellion until now—the method of othering subjects who want reform as criminal groups was very effective at deceiving the majority of subjects—but everything has its limits.

 

“The people of our era who have stepped onto the path of enlightenment are not the subjects of old.”

 

They have endured as much as they can. Absolute monarchy is destined to self-destruct, and Bavaria can gain power without hastily pursuing profits and taking on various risks.

 

Everyone understood that Leo’s words were heading in that direction. While there were slight differences in their individual opinions, there was no disagreement that minimizing risks was a good choice in a situation where continental-scale problems had arisen like now. The ministers nodded.

 

Leo took a breath and thought.

 

He didn’t know what conclusion Hohenzollern had reached regarding the possibility of self-destruction.

 

Wittelsbach’s conclusion was this: We will give them some opportunities, and we will prevent them from being overly greedy.

 

So now it was time to persuade Bavaria of Wittelsbach’s opinion.

 

Leo looked into the eyes of each person seated and opened his mouth. It had been a long time since he’d even glanced at the documents.

 

“The entities that resolved this terrorism can be largely divided into two: Lucas Ascanien, and the Bavarian government-Papal States. As you know, our Bavaria obtained dual-space magic dismantling techniques and purification magic from the Papal States and supplied them to Prussia.”

 

At the scene, I found the Minister of Magic with the Catacombs’ dual-space magic dismantling technique.

 

The Catacombs’ mages were temporarily incorporated into the Bavarian royal court.

 

Since we couldn’t lead the royal mages into Berlin and Brandenburg, from this point we had to obtain Prussia’s permission.

 

In that process, they didn’t ask about the source of the technology, but now that the incident is over and the turmoil has subsided, Prussia will question Bavaria’s technology.

 

This is why the Papal States’ name was mentioned.

 

We absolutely could not reveal that the source of the dual-space magic dismantling technology was the Catacombs.

 

If we did, the Catacombs would be destroyed, and Bavaria would also be unsafe for having joined hands with the ‘cleanup targets’ that Friedrich Hohenzollern had designated.

 

At this point, Lucas and I, and ultimately the Catacombs leadership, decided to join hands with the Papal States. We laundered the source of the dual-space magic dismantling and reverse dual-space magic dismantling techniques as Papal States scholars rather than the Catacombs.

 

‘Of course, that means the Catacombs’ interests would be violated.’

 

Therefore, we and the Catacombs leadership found several believers among the Catacombs’ magical scholars who belonged to Bavaria’s Munich-Freising Archdiocese. The Catacombs leadership selected someone who was actually a cleric in Munich-Freising as their representative, and we immediately contacted the Papal States.

 

We set up the scenario like this:

 

‘We discovered evidence that the Catacombs’ new technology was leaked to Pleroma. We don’t know when that magic will be used, but if something threatens people’s safety, we must share the dismantling technique with the nation. However, there are two problems: if we disguise our identity as imperial mages, there’s the problem of the Catacombs’ proprietary technology being stolen, and if we reveal our Catacombs affiliation, we cannot preserve our lives.’

 

The fact that dual-space magic could cause great damage if it fell into the hands of someone with bad intentions was proven by the fact that it was space magic that could never be attacked unless magic above a critical threshold was applied.

 

Of course, it would be difficult to grasp without seeing the magic directly. Therefore, Narke was of great help in persuading the Papal States of the necessity of this proposal.

 

As a result, the Papal States appointed the scholar sent as representative by the Catacombs as a secret cardinal. They conveyed this consideration as a means to ‘overcome supranational calamity and stand against Prussia’s unjust oppression of commoner mages.’

 

“The mere fact that we solved a problem Prussia couldn’t solve is reason enough for Prussia to be wary of us. Prussia will try to prevent Bavaria from receiving any more support from the empire’s subjects. Eventually, a third party other than Bavaria or the Papal States must emerge as Prussia’s ally.”

 

Leo continued speaking.

 

“Fortunately, the one who ended this terrorism is Lucas ‘Ascanien.’ He’s the younger brother of Adrian Ascanien, the Deputy Minister of Magic, and also a mage directly selected by the Imperial Court. Anhalt, being pro-Prussian and at least superficially a Protestant nation, is a good country for Hohenzollern to join hands with.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

“If they join hands, the imperial government will announce this: Anhalt is loyal to Prussia, and Lucas Ascanien is a faithful servant of Hohenzollern. Hohenzollern also fully trusted such a Lucas Ascanien and solved the problems that befell Penthalon until now, and this time they actively accepted his ‘requests’ for the unexpected terrorism and solved the terrorism together with Anhalt.”

 

There are some lies, but this is excellent. Anyway, the empire has come to this moment with Lucas’s help, from the contaminated rat terrorism to the magic lamp terrorism incident. Actually, the government—the Crown Prince—trusted Lucas and created a seat for him in a meeting he could never participate in under normal circumstances.

 

Since it’s based on facts, Wittelsbach can tolerate this much.

 

“On the other hand, if Prussia and ‘Lucas Ascanien’ join hands.”

 

More precisely, if Prussia tries to forcibly grasp Lucas Ascanien’s hand by borrowing the power of Adrian Ascanien or Georg Ascanien.

 

“…they will announce this: Lucas Ascanien achieved results by cooperating with the imperial government. In other words, the imperial government wasn’t trying to deceive the people by calling in choirs without any plan, but rather cooperation with Lucas Ascanien was prepared in advance, and they deliberately deceived the people to calm them until he was ready.”

 

He couldn’t tell the people here that Lucas was Nicolaus.

 

Therefore, he couldn’t say that they couldn’t simply hand over Lucas’s achievements to them. Since ‘Lucas Ascanien’s’ achievements were closer to belonging to the Imperial Court, no one would agree with Leo’s own words.

 

But this much needed to be conveyed.

 

“We must not let them recruit ‘Lucas Ascanien.’ If that happens, the Imperial Court will instead gain a card to attack Bavaria. Our government had a solution called Lucas Ascanien. But how was Bavaria able to belatedly intervene, dismantle the dual-space magic and reverse dual-space magic, and resolve the terrorism? Doesn’t this mean Bavaria foresaw the terrorism and prepared a solution in advance? …But why didn’t they tell our government in advance that they had a way to solve the terrorism?”

 

The high officials nodded with disapproving looks. It wasn’t a look directed at Leo, but rather one that came from the sufficient possibility of his words being realized.

 

Leo continued speaking at an appropriate pace.

 

“Bavaria knew terrorism would occur in advance to weaken Prussia’s influence but… didn’t reveal it. Instead, they secured technology to show themselves preventing terrorism. Now Bavaria will be branded as terrorists despite working for the empire’s peace.”

 

The King listened to his words with a calm face. Several officials had hardened expressions. It wasn’t absurd talk since they themselves had been suspecting this before coming to this meeting. That’s why the atmosphere became even sharper.

 

“Therefore, the part where Lucas Ascanien ‘directly’ requested help from Bavaria and the Papal States to solve this incident cannot be conceded to the imperial government’s lies.”

 

“Very well.”

 

At the King’s words, Leo nodded gratefully and said.

 

“Hohenzollern is already contacting Adrian Ascanien in the Papal States to request Ascanien’s cooperation. Soon, Hohenzollern will announce an official statement with Anhalt. Our Bavaria must preemptively reveal our cooperative relationship with Lucas Ascanien. That is all.”

 

“How do you plan to reveal it?”

 

It was the Kingdom’s Prime Minister’s question.

 

“What I’m about to say is still a plan in the verbal agreement stage. Now the ministers of each department can review this.”

 

“Yes, please speak.”

 

The ministers answered briefly.

 

To avoid being caught that Lucas was Nicolaus, they had to make them believe they borrowed the power of ‘Eschete,’ not ‘Leonard Wittelsbach.’ Therefore…

 

“Our kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Baden will directly rescue Lucas Ascanien.”

 

* * *

 

“I’m here!”

 

The Archbishop spread his arms in front of me.

 

Now, it’s been 7 days since I started staying here. It’s also been 5 days since I started moving according to the resolve I set earlier.

 

I knew well what he wanted me to do. I lightly hugged his shoulders. The Archbishop smiled and asked.

 

“Did you rest well?”

 

“Of course.”

 

My resolve to go along with that guy’s wishes remains unchanged. I was gradually increasing the intensity of my acting each day.

 

Today I held him a bit longer than before, and the Archbishop raised his eyebrows and said.

 

“You took that medicine?”

 

“No. I didn’t take it.”

 

My stomach is churning because I didn’t take it.

 

Now I see that emotion manipulation drug had the effect of making my mental state comfortable. Trying to act with a clear mind… of course, acting should be done with a clear mind, but I feel like something is trying to come up my throat.

 

The Archbishop handed his hat and muffler to a servant and asked me.

 

“Did you talk with the servants today?”

 

“No. Who would I talk to?”

 

“Ah, you must have been bored all day.”

 

The Archbishop said with a slight frown.

 

My answer was acting—though what isn’t acting right now—but anyway, there really wasn’t time to talk. The servants were busy working, and Lu Bar, the attendant, was constantly away.

 

The Archbishop had been here for less than 5 minutes but seemed in such a hurry, leading me to the room we’d been using as a strategy room and saying.

 

“Now, I have something to tell you today, so let’s quickly organize the information first. Then after that…”

 

“Wait a moment.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“How many hours will you be here this time?”

 

It seemed like an unfamiliar question to hear from me, as the Archbishop tilted his head and answered.

 

“…Well. Three hours?”

 

“Three hours? That’s too short.”

 

The Archbishop’s eyes wavered. He quickly composed his expression and smiled.

 

“…Ah, I never expected to hear such words from you. But we need to go quickly.”

 

“Can’t you stay a bit longer? I need to investigate something more this time.”

 

“What?”

 

The Archbishop looked up at me with surprised eyes. He was smiling subtly, but basically the surprise seemed greater.

 

He must be thinking, what nonsense is this when I need to find a way to kill the Bishop of Osnabrück as quickly as possible. As expected, he had the expression of wondering if my resolve had already changed.

 

Then he said with a face like he realized something.

 

“…Ah, it’s already been a week since you’ve been here. How many days was I away this time?”

 

“He hasn’t come for two days.”

 

“…Oh no, I thought it had been less than 3 hours….”

 

“That’s not right either.”

 

“The coordinate system seems to be collapsing more and more. Now it’ll be about 1 hour and 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. I’ll give orders to reinforce it so it doesn’t collapse at the 1-hour mark.”

 

Then he stared at me intently and muttered.

 

“By the way, it doesn’t seem bad to keep leaving you alone.”

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing. You must be very bored being alone.”

 

I nodded with a face that said ‘why are you asking something so obvious’ and said.

 

“Stay a little longer before you go. Even if you stay here for 12 hours, it’s only 30 minutes.”

 

“Should I?”

 

As soon as that answer fell, I smiled faintly and took his hand, saying.

 

“It’s nothing special, but there’s something I wanted to do together when you came.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Let’s take a walk.”

 

* * *

 

“…Good effect. So time was the answer.”

 

“What?”

 

I pretended not to understand the Archbishop’s muttering and turned around. The Archbishop, who had been walking along the lakeside a step behind—he had said he would do so—shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

 

“What did you do while I was gone?”

 

“Reading books?”

 

“That’s all you did?”

 

“Then what else should I do?”

 

This time I didn’t particularly act and just answered according to my personality, but Antagonist didn’t care at all and laughed.

 

“Should we eat after our walk? I feel like I just ate so I’m not particularly hungry, but you should eat breakfast now, shouldn’t you?”

 

“Yes, that sounds good.”

 

After that, neither of us said much.

 

I asked quietly.

 

“You know what? I don’t even know your name right now.”

 

“….”

 

“I don’t know exactly what position you hold in Pleroma either.”

 

“….”

 

“Tell me now.”

 

He didn’t answer.

 

Why am I suddenly asking this? Well, why do I keep acting to accommodate Antagonist?

 

Because the time has come to slowly bring this to an end. I can’t stay in this location forever.

 

Anyway, to return to the topic, I did see Antagonist’s name through the status window, but he has never directly said his name. I don’t know if he was pondering whether to tell me his real name or his physical body’s name, or if there’s another reason.

 

He slowly opened his mouth.

 

“I found out where that Bishop of Osnabrück is.”

 

As soon as those words fell, I turned around.

 

Seeing my expression, he smiled.

 

“Why are you so surprised? With my abilities, what is there that I don’t know?”

 

“There was something?”

 

“Haha.”

 

He laughed and brushed it off, then looked at me and said.

 

“You’ve waited a long time. Now you can be free. So, in just a little while, we’ll be able to move around your world or Pleroma’s world more freely.”

 

“….”

 

I looked at him without answering and waited for his next words.

 

“In 3 hours, I’m going to attack the Bishop of Osnabrück with other Pleroma.”

 

“By yourself?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Go with me.”

 

“You know that’s not possible.”

 

Of course it would be.

 

Just thinking strategically, I would actually hold back our allies.

 

I deliberately asked in a sunken voice.

 

“You can come back, right?”

 

“I have to make sure I come back.”

 

“….”

 

Even though my expression crumpled, he wasn’t shaken at all. Instead, he just spoke calmly.

 

“This might sound sudden, but I must say this. Before going out in two days, I’m thinking of holding an engagement ceremony.”

 

I pointed to myself. As expected, he nodded.

 

Right, it would be me. Who else would he do it with besides me? Who else.

 

I finished the reality denial I had been doing all along and silently showed him the ring.

 

It was a gesture asking what more he wanted to do when he had already taken care of even the engagement gift. I think this is in a realm where I’d be humanly curious even while acting like I liked him.

 

He understood my question perfectly and answered with a smile.

 

“I want to have more confidence.”

 

“You said something similar before? Since then, I haven’t taken the antidote as you said.”

 

“That’s right. Then I should express it this way.”

 

He, who had been holding one of my hands, pulled and grabbed my other hand as well.

 

A gentle smile was rising on his face.

 

“I will continue to live until this earth becomes cosmic dust. From now on, I will watch countless nations fall and rise, watch countless people return to dust and then the next generation being created from that dust, and watch the process of the next generation emerging from that and returning again. During that time, many things might become dull.”

 

His eyes turned not to me but behind me. He was looking at the dusky dawn sky and that wind. The sound of reeds swaying sounded like waves.

 

“Do you know? Even when the moment comes when all things lose meaning and nothing remains within me, even when the moment comes when terrible fatigue devours me again and again, there are memories I cannot forget.”

 

The Archbishop’s eyes were now directed at me.

 

“I want to fill my memories with you. So that I can think of you until the day when history repeats dozens of times and finally meets the end of the world.”

 

His face was flushed. A little more strength went into his fingertips holding my hand.

 

“What about you?”

 

* * *

 

“No.”

 

Elias held his head. Then he shouted at Leo.

 

“12 hours have passed! At this point, it’s already… isn’t this a disaster!”

 

The two and Narke were now back in Berlin.

 

Everyone knew that disaster meant death. Except for Elias, the two knew the answer, but due to the atmosphere, no one opened their mouth.

 

Then Leo looked down out the window and answered quietly.

 

“He’s not dead.”

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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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