How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 261

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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 (261)

 

No matter how great a general Hannibal was and whatever his achievements had been until then, this time it was Hannibal’s defeat. Should we view this as the result of the god of fate not lending him a hand? Or should we see it as Hannibal’s mistake in underestimating Crispinus?

 

“…I.”

 

A voice dimmed by emotion continued.

 

“…I must not have properly evaluated your true worth. Perhaps, I might have hoped for this to happen…”

 

“…”

 

Lu Bar’s cold hand came down from my shoulder and entered my wrist. As if he wasn’t in his right mind, he was pressing as if to crush my bones. His eyes shook wildly without focus.

 

“If it came into my hands too easily, it might not have been fun. You would have felt uncomfortable. Is this the maximum capacity of the opponent I chose? Of course, I sincerely wanted you to come over and did my absolute best… But then, just at this moment, you to me…”

 

He buried his face in my shoulder.

 

“You’re the best.”

 

“…”

 

“As expected, you’re my greatest opponent. You asked why my emotions are directed toward you. Don’t you know the answer now? Previously you said to me, ‘If you’re looking for someone to compete with, it doesn’t have to be me.’ Don’t you now realize how much that showed a lack of understanding of the situation?”

 

“Ha…”

 

I burst into laughter at the absurdity.

 

‘He’s mistaking competitiveness for love.’ This was the topic I had asked about on the day I first met him and went on a date in Pleroma’s world.

 

It was just as I had thought then. He has such high self-love that he can’t see most humans as people who can match him. Because he loves himself excessively, he can’t help but love those who have made him admire them.

 

‘Should I call this an honor?’

 

Now comes the answer to the question I asked him earlier. Why did he hold 600,000 lives hostage and carry out this terror game? Obviously to gain profit. And through this plan, he could discern one more element. Through this terror, he could confirm once more whether it was okay to love me.

 

This situation where I saw through his strategy paradoxically ends with amplifying his love. More precisely, it would be madness rather than love.

 

He muttered with his face buried in my shoulder.

 

“Only you can compete with me. …Only I should be able to truly compete with you. Only I should be able to make you approach the game with sincerity.”

 

He gasped for breath, burst into laughter, and slowly raised his body. Then he looked down at me and said.

 

“How was it? Was the game I made somewhat fun? Doesn’t it finally match your level?”

 

“Fun? After holding 600,000 lives hostage?”

 

“No, no. I must have set too low a price for you. I should have made you panic more… I should have put more effort into making it.”

 

“You should be the one to understand your place first.”

 

He wants to put more effort into it from here?

 

I’m honestly curious about what would happen. A strategist like him isn’t someone you can easily meet.

 

At this point, I’m reminded of the strategic battle between Catacombs Chairman Simon Eberhardt and Max Lichthofen over the alliance between Catacombs and Pleroma.

 

Max Lichthofen is also an excellent strategist. However, this terror was an incident that kept me in an awakened state more definitively than that incident when Richthofen used me as a tool against Eberhardt. Throughout the entire month of February when I was on top of his schemes, I never once completely let my guard down.

 

And…

 

“You care too much about the ethics the world has created. Be honest. You enjoyed it too.”

 

“No.”

 

I gave a short answer to the crazy talk that sounded like background music and looked up at the pure white ceiling.

 

I want to know more about his strategy, his way of thinking as a leader. But because he’s in the enemy camp, I absolutely don’t want to know.

 

As I thought before, we could have been good friends. If only our beginning had been a little more ordinary.

 

“I love you.”

 

The nonsense was still flowing like background music, and just then, nauseating words pierced my ears.

 

“Let’s be honest since it’s just between us. We probably can’t be understood by anyone other than each other.”

 

“…”

 

“You know the reason too. We’re among those countless humans but can’t belong anywhere. That’s our fate.”

 

Haven’t I heard this somewhere before?

 

I smiled faintly while listening to that trembling voice.

 

“The world moves too slowly for us. It’s suffocating. You’ve felt it too. Haven’t you ever thought that you seemed to become a crazy person because your pace and theirs don’t match? Of course, I might be crazy, but I’m speaking from your perspective. Haven’t you ever become the only strange person because my pace and theirs are different? Why don’t my thoughts get conveyed to them? Why do I have to use all my strength to empathize with them? Haven’t you ever spent a long time trying to match them, thinking you were wrong because you were different from them? We…”

 

His cold fingers wrapped around my neck from behind.

 

“In this strange world, we’ve finally met someone who lives at the same pace as us.”

 

Strange world.

 

He said Wunderland, not Seltsame Welt. Even at this moment, I realized he was quoting Alice in Wonderland and let out a hollow laugh. He’s playing with me right now. Looking at the ecstasy and madness in his eyes, it wasn’t particularly strange behavior, but for him, this time is no different from the peaceful time we spent over the past ten days. Rather, it’s time that stimulates his pleasure even more.

 

“We’re not strange people to each other. What should I do with this touching moment?”

 

“Sorry, but I’ve heard these words from someone else too.”

 

From Abraham.

 

At those words, the Archbishop stopped stroking my neck and looked at me. On his face was not jealousy but only curiosity.

 

“Do you acknowledge that person too?”

 

“…”

 

He’s asking if I acknowledge Abraham as my rival.

 

To be honest like never before, I can understand what he and Abraham meant when they desperately sought empathy from me—that we can’t be understood by outsiders and we can’t understand outsiders either, and only we can be complete understanders of each other. That point makes me uncomfortable.

 

This doesn’t mean I agree with their other ideologies. Abraham thinks that excellent people should be valued accordingly and it’s okay to give differential treatment to inferior humans while ignoring their basic rights—he never says this is ethically right, but thinks it’s consequentially inevitable for maximizing welfare—so he can be seen as completely opposite to my position.

 

However, regarding ‘those words’ of theirs, what they commonly said isn’t something I completely can’t understand.

 

This is a story about the categories of normal and abnormal, and the obsessive self-reflection and subsequent frustration that minorities inevitably go through. It’s about how ‘good’ abnormalities, for example pathological perfect memory abilities that society accepts as good traits, return as double violence to individuals. Although neither the Archbishop nor Abraham talked that far, we know what the essence of this one or two-word plea of ‘can’t only we truly be each other’s understanders’ is.

 

It’s not a story that can be ignored. Abraham’s attempt to create a religion that would lead humanity starting from Primrose Pass, although the above anguish wasn’t the primary cause, isn’t completely unrelated. He treats the white sheep flock he doesn’t understand as inferiors and wants to create a world made of black sheep. Abraham’s underlying eugenic ideology starts from this.

 

Could such a person not be my enemy? Because he’s such a human, I must acknowledge him as an enemy.

 

“I acknowledge him. Because he’s someone who really gave me a hard time.”

 

“…Ah, I’d like to meet that person too.”

 

The Archbishop said with a flowing laugh.

 

“If we get out of here alive, let’s go meet that person.”

 

“Can we get out alive?”

 

“Haha, do you think you can kill me today?”

 

At that answer, I couldn’t help but laugh.

 

We’re both in the same situation.

 

I’m facing the very person who put Pleroma on the path to revival, and he’s facing Pleroma’s enemy. Neither of us believes we can easily kill the other.

 

Of course, if I could completely neutralize him like killing him without actually killing him, that would be better. I have no intention of making two Werner Strauchs or having two Ainsiedels.

 

So…

 

“Let’s start with negotiation.”

 

“Negotiation. Tell me.”

 

“From today onward, don’t use innocent people’s lives for your benefit.”

 

“…”

 

This isn’t the end. If he backs down here, there’s more I need to demand.

 

For example, ‘Retire from Pleroma and go live somewhere else.’ With those abilities in the enemy camp, it’s only a loss for me.

 

Of course, this is a negotiation that can’t be concluded. It’s all loss for him. If he were someone who could accept this, he wouldn’t have carried out terror against 600,000 people in the first place.

 

I’m just giving him a chance to choose.

 

The Archbishop slowly raised his eyebrows and asked.

 

“If I do that? If I say I’ll do that, will you be with me?”

 

“Together. In what sense?”

 

“Let’s quit all this tiresome worldly business and go somewhere to live peacefully. How about it?”

 

“Didn’t you just enjoy fighting? How exactly am I supposed to accept your suggestion that we go into seclusion together?”

 

“You can want two incompatible things at the same time. If you live a life of bloodshed for too long, you sometimes come to want peace…”

 

“You’re destined to return to lands where blood flows. Because fighting is your nature that you can’t bear without.”

 

“That’s the same for you too.”

 

“…”

 

The Archbishop looked down at me gently with a face of inexplicable certainty.

 

Just then, a faint vibration was felt on the table.

 

I shook my head and smiled.

 

The negotiation is over.

 

Crash—!!

 

The white marble ceiling seemed to collapse, then pieces of the cathedral’s ceiling appeared. A thick floral scent suddenly hit. The white limestone table I had been lying on changed into the dais that had been used for the engagement ceremony earlier. It was natural since it was space magic covering over it.

 

Beyond the Archbishop’s arm gripping the dais, I could see several familiar faces. The moment the Archbishop turned his head to look at them, my eyes went to the restraints connecting him and me.

 

‘Hmm.’

 

There’s one thing I need to convey.

 

Leo, who had come leading the mages of the Kingdom of Bavaria’s army, was pointing his wand at the Archbishop. Yet his gaze was directed at me below the Archbishop.

 

I squinted my eyes at him, sending the signal we had arranged in advance.

 

I must not use magic right now.

 

The moment a large amount of mana dispersed into the air from the spatial magic dissolution just now, a shock was applied to the restraint’s limiting magic.

 

What does this mean?

 

It means the Archbishop was putting all his strength into initiating transformation magic at every moment. With shocks hitting both inside and outside simultaneously, an anomaly occurred in the restraint’s wavelength.

 

‘It makes sense that he’d keep trying to transform.’

 

The stats I discovered through Lu Bar’s status window were honestly miserable, excluding the skill value. That’s also why I kept him bound in Lu Bar’s state.

 

On the other hand, the Archbishop’s body stats are similar to Ainsiedel’s, though there are differences by category. Simply putting aside whether he wants to look good to me or not, he’d want to return to it somehow.

 

Leo, who had been looking at me with an indifferent expression, slightly raised his gaze to look at the Archbishop, at Lu Bar’s face. A cold voice echoed through the vast cathedral.

 

“This is somewhat different from what I heard.”

 

“…Ah~”

 

The Archbishop flicked his hand and narrowed his eyes.

 

“Direct Wittelsbach. Finally. I wasn’t conscious of it because I had no interest in you, but you really seem to see me… This is quite an important matter, but could our component compositions perhaps be similar?”

 

“Come out.”

 

At Leo’s words, the Archbishop rattled and shook his restraints. A gentle smile appeared on his face.

 

“My fiancé won’t let go of my hand, so what should I do? I’d like to fulfill His Highness the Prince’s request, but it’s difficult.”

 

“Get up from your seat and step away.”

 

“Any reason for not using mana? Rather than standing there blankly, it would be better if you tried swinging your wand.”

 

It’s the tone for addressing royalty, but the content lacks any particular respect.

 

I can see pistols at the waists of the Bavarian Mages. However, whether they follow the manual or exercise flexibility, they won’t use those right now. Since the possibility that the Archbishop might use me as a shield can’t be completely ruled out. Thanks to his +8 skill stat, Lu Bar was more skilled in combat than me.

 

The Archbishop muttered in my ear.

 

“Your friend is quite perceptive too. You must have sent a signal, but… I didn’t expect him to notice right away.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

“He realized that if mana spreads in the air right now, I’d try to use it to escape. Right? I thought I’d finally be able to return to my face when your reinforcements arrived here, but you’re the best at crushing hopes… But you know.”

 

Before the warning countdown even ended, Leo gestured. The mages who had been approaching us step by step while watching the Archbishop’s movements began running toward us. The Archbishop put one hand inside his jacket.

 

“As much as I pay respect to your excellence, you too…”

 

“…!”

 

Crack—

 

My right hand flew toward him, but it was too late. The pocket knife stabbed the carotid artery and the skin beside it. The pierced skin became hot as if on fire. The smell of blood. The moment I felt my blood’s mana spreading into the air, human teeth bit and tore at the punctured skin. The sound of liquid being swallowed. In that instant, I saw shock spread across Leo’s and the other mages’ faces. The Archbishop licked his lips with his tongue and said.

 

“…Your mana quantity is quite impressive. I trust you didn’t underestimate me too much.”

 

Thud—!

 

With the sound of feet stomping forcefully, platinum hair that had come loose from its ornaments fluttered before my eyes.

 

Crash— Bang—!!

 

Loud impact sounds struck my ears. Leo, who had given the signal to begin the attack, swung his wand. I couldn’t know exactly since the world kept flashing black repeatedly. The Archbishop drew his wand from the holster behind his robe and aimed it at Leo.

 

The Bavarian Mage’s attack hit the Archbishop’s barrier, causing light to burst endlessly. The Archbishop wore a light smile as he blocked the attacks coming at him, only turning his head toward me.

 

“I’ll cleanly acknowledge my first defeat. But…”

 

In an instant, his eyes passed over the wand I was aiming and fixed on my face. The Archbishop smiled and said.

 

“We should play best of three. Don’t you think?”

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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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