How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 26

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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 (26)

“You seem completely fine. Are you really okay?”

After the dawn meeting ended, Leo said while throwing away the remaining tea.

At those words, Narke, who had been lounging with his chair tilted back, looked back and forth between me and Leo and asked.

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“Lucas has been assigned a surveillance person.”

At those words, Narke’s face became quite serious. Narke put his chair back on the ground and raised his eyebrows.

“What, already? How did you find out?”

“He went to the Post Office and inquired that a letter from his Hyung seemed to be missing. What did you say again?”

Leo looked at me and asked. I poured the last sip of cold tea into my mouth and answered.

“Isn’t there something else coming for me.”

“Where does this kind of cunning come from…”

Leo shook his head and sat down after making fresh tea.

It’s a method you can use without much thinking, but from Leo’s perspective, who only pursues orthodox methods, it would be a roundabout question he’d never use in his lifetime, so that reaction makes sense. I just nodded.

Unlike Leo, Narke seemed to like this method and started giggling.

“Haha! That’s a really simple and quick method. So, did you find out who it is?”

“No, I have to check from now on. There’s no point asking who it is since they won’t answer anyway.”

“Really? Should I find out for you?”

“No thanks. To check that, you’d have to grab people one by one and confirm.”

Level 2 insight ability isn’t omnipotent.

Since it can only be used within the target’s perception range, it can’t grasp the inside story of events the target doesn’t know, and the depth of what can be discovered is also limited. Moreover, since it’s not area magic but magic applied individually, you’d have to face each person one by one to determine who the surveillance person is.

If it were an ability with no restrictions at all, I might ask for help, but it’s difficult since it consumes mental energy and causes headaches.

Narke closed his mouth and nodded slowly.

“Well, that’s true. Too bad. Should I warp Fai into the Post Office?”

“What would come out of warping Fai?”

Leo asked with a hollow laugh.

“He’s highly intelligent. Though he can’t read letters well.”

“What?”

“He talks too. I’m only telling you because it’s you, Leo.”

Leo couldn’t close his mouth and glanced at me with a troubled expression.

It was a face that said ‘what do I do with this crazy person.’

I was about to say that I’m also one of those crazy people, but just smiled and answered Narke.

“I don’t think Fai would be good at taking out ledgers from drawers and finding the right pages. And thanks for worrying, but it’s fine. I can find out.”

“True, sending Fai would have many obstacles.”

“…”

Leo made an indescribable expression at the continuing Fai talk.

Narke, who had been deep in thought, clapped his hands.

“Ah! Why haven’t you tried mind manipulation magic?”

“It’s better not to use magic if possible. Since there will be situations where I’ll need it even if I don’t want to, I want to minimize it beforehand.”

“This means you have a way to find out without using magic now.”

At Leo’s words mixed with laughter, I nodded.

“Exactly.”

* * *

It’s simple.

Just live righteously without getting caught.

Wake up in the morning and diligently go to the special class, attend lessons, eat meals in my Room, come out again to attend lessons, eat meals in my Room again, and don’t come out from there.

‘It’s a bit concerning that both Leo and I skip the special class evening study sessions…’

I appealed that my health wasn’t good and decided to only attend once a week as mandatory.

Since Leo has always come to the Training Ground since becoming a second-year, even if there’s a common time when we’re both absent, it won’t arouse much suspicion.

For the organization meetings every other day, I can just warp there as usual.

Just doing this much, there won’t be any information leaked to their side.

However, there’s a hidden obstacle here.

The people who approach me to talk are a bit concerning.

I scribbled my thoughts in my notebook and let the magic potion class go in one ear and out the other. The Professor in a gown looked at the students and asked a question.

“Does any Student know what relationship existed between the Wittelsbach Family and medicine before magic appeared? Let’s have someone other than Student Leonard answer.”

Laughter from the students and Leo could be heard. The Professor took his time and then looked at me and said.

“How about the only Student who got a perfect score on the written exam answer? Lucas Ascanien.”

I put down my pen, stood up from my seat, smiled, and answered simply.

“There was no significant relationship in the pre-magic era.”

“Correct. I brought this up because today’s lesson is about the wound treatment medicine developed by the Wittelsbach Family. It’s the first magic potion developed after magic appeared, and it changed the history of magical medicine and magical pharmacy…”

Situations exactly like this, when I have to speak up, are the problem.

It’s the time when changes in me can be most noticeably confirmed.

‘There have been more appointments since the midterm exam.’

It’s not just the magic potion subject.

Similar phenomena are occurring in all seven subjects where I got perfect scores.

Also, Leo mentioned that students who became curious and wanted to try talking to me started appearing.

The Class 1 Student who greeted me yesterday in the special class was probably one of those types. I don’t know how many more such students will appear. And the surveillance person will be watching me then too.

However, I can’t act like the Luca from first year every moment just because of one person who reports my stories. That would drop my image to rock bottom once again.

Anyway, Hyung probably confirmed my changes through tabloids or local newspapers.

Keeping my appearance neatly organized, having proper conversations with people, and so on.

So there’s no need to act like my first-year self, but it’s also not desirable for stories about my changes to be constantly imprinted in Hyung’s brain.

‘I should check today.’

I closed my notebook and focused on the class.

* * *

I collected notebooks from the students and left the Classroom. Even after midterms ended, the Antagonists’ note-taking had to continue. Anyway, they need to maintain this level for finals too.

After eating dinner in the Dormitory, I came out and walked listlessly to the Library.

Occasionally I stopped walking and turned my head this way and that to check my surroundings. Since it was only seven o’clock, there were many people on the street.

Students looked at me with puzzled eyes as I stopped abruptly and surveyed my surroundings, then disappeared.

After reading books in the Library for a while, I hurriedly left the Library an hour before midnight.

As expected, around this time there weren’t many people visible. I looked around in all directions and walked quickly from the Library’s front gate to the Back Gate, then started running blindly toward the path leading to the 3rd Education Institute behind it.

When I was out of breath, I briefly put my hands on my knees to catch my breath, then ran with all my might again.

I stopped briefly and turned my head back.

There was no one on the street.

I checked my surroundings and noticed that my shoelace had come undone from being stepped on by my other foot, so I sat behind an Alley to tie it. I untied the intact lace and retied it too. I needed to create some time.

Then I stood up and took steps one by one, stepping on small stone fragments rolling on the ground.

Whether because it was night or because there were no people, even small sounds echoed loudly. It was perfect for revealing my location.

Just one more corner turn from here, and the Park at the edge of the School would appear. I widened my stride and turned direction at high speed. And as soon as the Park came into view, I quickly turned my body toward the direction I had come from.

Crash―!

“Ahhh!”

“Yes… I’m surprised you got caught so directly like this. I’m so sorry I could almost cry. Honestly, I never thought you’d be caught at this stage.”

I pushed the person who had been following me against the wall and applied force to my hand.

A person I’d never seen before shook his head with a flustered face.

“What, what…!”

“You came well, even using sound-dampening magic.”

“Let go!”

The Antagonist twisted his arm. I pushed him against the wall once more and asked quietly.

“Who are you?”

“What, what do you mean who…?!”

“I asked who you are. Who told you to move so stupidly?”

This Antagonist isn’t the one who received Hyung’s letter.

The person who received Hyung’s letter had once again assigned this Student a task.

Hyung is not someone who works so carelessly.

While I had to arbitrarily use the term ‘watcher,’ there wouldn’t be a single sentence in the letter Hyung sent telling them to watch me. What if the recipient betrayed him? Why would he do something so bold?

The letter that other recipients received would be full of warm phrases showing concern for his younger brother, just like mine was. Among them would be a story about how he’s worried about his younger brother who forgets his health and devotes himself to studying, so please occasionally relay news about me.

Given that his younger brother finds Hyung intimidating, it wouldn’t be strange to hear about my well-being through others. Hyung would have mentioned this point to the other party as well. All the logic was sound.

If only the letter recipient hadn’t arbitrarily speculated about Hyung’s intentions, his plan would have proceeded smoothly.

Unless you know each other inside and out, if you arbitrarily dig into intentions the other party hasn’t revealed and act on them, it only creates discord. How could they judge the countless possibilities and their relative importance with such confidence?

The recipient misunderstood the intention.

They must have misinterpreted the ordinary words asking to relay news because he was worried, thinking it was a roundabout way of telling them to watch me, a Pleroma.

Of course, part of it is true.

But there was a reason he didn’t openly mention surveillance. If they were going to carelessly dissect someone else’s intentions, they should have considered that far.

‘This time Hyung made a bad move.’

Choosing the wrong person and letting everything be discovered like this.

‘Should I start thinking about what Hyung wants?’

What Hyung needs to know in this situation is this:

What’s the reason for the change in not just grades but attitude as well?

Is he trying to change in order to live independently, or is there some other reason?

He needs to know the exact reason.

If it’s the first reason, then the 20-year system Hyung built would all become useless someday, so he’d need to prepare immediately.

So Hyung is keeping the first possibility in mind.

But if he openly assigns a watcher, in the first case, it would only confirm Hyung’s malice toward me.

In the end, that recipient chose the path of becoming stupid despite using their brain.

The Student shook his head violently and shouted.

“Assigned? No! Nobody ever assigned me anything…!”

“What do you mean nothing.”

Someone Hyung can trust, someone who knows both Hyung and me well enough to be asked about my well-being, or someone who could know.

The Student doesn’t quite fit the intersection of these two conditions. If one passes, the other gets somewhat blocked.

I stared into his eyes intently and said.

“It’s a Professor. One of the professors at Empire 2 Academy instructed you to watch me. Am I wrong?”

I smiled and tightened my grip on the hand holding the Antagonist’s shoulder. His face turned pale.

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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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