How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 264

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (264)

 

What if it’s not okay?

 

Of course, I didn’t answer like that. It was just a momentary rebellious thought given who I was dealing with.

 

“Yes, I’m fine. Please go ahead.”

 

“Your Excellency shouted the phrase ‘The Diocese of Osnabrück is looking for you’ at the end of the match. To be honest, regardless of what that phrase was, our government wasn’t certain that the curse would be lifted when we heard something. As you know, we lacked clear evidence to be so confident.”

 

Right.

 

So you’re asking what I knew when I shouted that code.

 

No need to think about it complexly. In this kind of Q&A, I don’t need to kindly explain everything I know one by one. Naturally, what I must do in this situation is pretend not to know.

 

The aide leaned toward me, clasping his hands together as he spoke.

 

“We’ve heard much about Your Excellency’s insight.”

 

“That’s rather unfamiliar praise.”

 

“You’re quite modest. I’ve heard many stories from the professors at the 1st Education Institute. They all say that even with problems that could be solved given enough time, insight is considered exceptional when someone approaches the correct answer in less time than others. If people have abundant time and will, they can find answers to even the most difficult problems, can’t they? What makes the difference is speed. Now, I think Your Excellency has probably noticed what I want to ask…”

 

I know. You’re really laying the groundwork carefully. At the same time, I can see the intention to prevent me from escaping.

 

Even they think this is a high-risk question. They too know that I’ve grasped their intentions to some degree, so they have no choice but to be cautious in conversation.

 

“Our government knows well that Your Excellency lifted the curse through your natural abilities. If possible, could you tell our government about that process in more detail?”

 

“It seems the aide believes I must have had some special clue.”

 

At my answer, the aide narrowed his eyes and smiled.

 

That’s a reasonable reaction. This question was already over here.

 

The real question they wanted to ask was this.

 

Did I have information given separately? In other words, was there information that the terrorist gave only to this Pleroma Ascanien, or information I received from Pleroma?

 

They deliberately praised me and packaged this real question as a request to ‘explain your thought process from one to ten,’ and the benefits they could gain from this approach are as follows.

 

First, people who receive praise can’t easily abandon those expectations. A sense of obligation to prove that worth to the person who praised me begins to settle in my subconscious. Because of this, instead of avoiding telling the truth by giving answers like ‘Actually, there wasn’t any special evidence, I just tried it because I had a feeling’—since they came to this interview to dig up evidence that I’m an accomplice of the terrorist—I become more likely to try to answer more logically even if I lie.

 

Second, if I fall for the above, the game is over. The more people talk, the more information they tend to give away. Even if ‘I as an accomplice’ try to modify the knowledge I have to fit their perspective, there’s a greater possibility that my knowledge as a criminal will be employed. Even if I’m not actually the culprit, it doesn’t matter to them. Even now when I’m not the culprit, if what I know ranges from 1 to 50, what they know ranges from 1 to 20. Since their goal is to catch even slightly suspicious words and actions, I mustn’t give them any opening.

 

Unfortunately for them, it was doomed from the first point.

 

I no longer have any desire to prove anything. Whether the end of proof is failure or success, the result is only endless fatigue.

 

“I’m sorry I can’t be of help. But the clues that led me to shout the answer are all that the government knows. The ‘tell everyone about it’ from the white phosphorus match. As I told the Minister of Magic at the time, I simply judged it worth trying, so I shouted what I guessed was ‘it’ on the spot.”

 

“Hmm, I see. I understand.”

 

He could have asked more, but he didn’t pursue this topic further.

 

The reason was clear. The government definitely knew about the white phosphorus match code, but they missed the opportunity to solve the problem directly because they mistook that code for a command the terrorist received. They probably don’t want to dig their own grave.

 

“Next, I’d like to ask about this. A question about the phrase ‘The Diocese of Osnabrück is looking for you.’ While organizing the places Your Excellency stayed, our government found several sentences made up of the alphabet letters of that phrase. They were written in your notes. How did you know about that anagram code?”

 

The government probably thought they had caught evidence to frame me as the culprit because of this. However, this is also evidence I can use when claiming innocence.

 

This attempt by the government to come and test the waters like this instead of immediately prosecuting me arose because of the above ambiguity.

 

Anyway, what they found was paper I deliberately left unburned, and his question is the good question I wanted. There’s no way it wouldn’t come up.

 

Let me think about this first. Before turning back time, I had intuited the book code. But in this timeline, I didn’t hear about the book code. The Minister of Magic only said during the competition, ‘Three book codes arrived at our office, and we decoded them all. Please forfeit immediately and come.’

 

There’s a slight problem, but I can just handle this one by muddling through as well. However, to lead the atmosphere in my favor, I need to change the order of my answers.

 

“Very well. But first, let me explain why I thought this phrase ‘The Diocese of Osnabrück is looking for you’ might be a decoded message, as that would help your understanding. Would that be alright?”

 

“Please proceed as you’re comfortable. I wanted to ask about that as well.”

 

“That’s fortunate. To cut to the chase, shouting that phrase was quite an experimental attempt for me. As I mentioned earlier, I still had doubts about ‘tell everyone about it,’ but I had no basis to be certain that ‘it’ was this phrase. To put it more clearly, I had no evidence that this anagram code was the correct answer.”

 

“Then?”

 

“I simply relied on analogy. It might sound trivial.”

 

“Not at all. If it’s not rude, I’d like you to elaborate.”

 

“I was already paying close attention to the white phosphorus match code. The Imperial government must have been the same, right? I simply thought that terrorist’s method of presenting clues would be consistent.”

 

At my words, the aide nodded with a soulless smile.

 

My words differ from the facts. The two methods appear identical in using codes, but the entities that provided the two codes are different. Ainsiedel intentionally made it appear identical to the Archbishop of Freiburg’s method—the anagram ‘code.’

 

However, I’m now obscuring this fact and speaking as if assuming there’s one culprit. They too think there’s one culprit, not that multiple people caused this trouble through internal conflicts.

 

So even though I’m actually craftily creating logic, to them I’m continuously stating the obvious.

 

Whether he had a soulless expression or not, I spoke enthusiastically, even using some hand gestures.

 

“‘I thought the terrorist’s method of presenting clues would be consistent.’ In other words, as you mentioned earlier, it means I received the code in advance. Let me explain in detail now. A month ago, I received a note with a strange phrase at the Imperial 2nd Education Institute. The art festival was the only day outsiders could enter the Imperial 2nd Education Institute, which had been almost sealed after the nationwide rampage incident. Taking advantage of that timing, the culprit left me a bouquet with a strange phrase written on it.”

 

“The Imperial 2nd Education Institute.”

 

The aide asked back with a slightly displeased expression.

 

Since it’s a school supported by the Imperial Court, it couldn’t be received well. If problems arose here, the Imperial 2nd Education Institute would also be responsible.

 

“That’s correct. Shouldn’t you check the entry records from that time?”

 

“Yes, I’ll mention it to my superiors.”

 

He organized his expression and nodded.

 

In a normal situation, I would have just ended it there, but not now. I need to push once more here. I hardened my expression a bit more and leaned toward him.

 

“No, aide. This isn’t a matter to ‘mention once.’ There must be a culprit among those visitors. No matter how experimental my attempt was, wasn’t it confirmed afterward that it was the code to break the curse?”

 

“Ah, yes, of course. But this is now something that must be discussed with His Majesty the Emperor, and above all, I don’t have the authority to decide. However, I fully understand what Your Excellency is saying.”

 

He tried to show the most sincere expression possible and asked me another question.

 

“For now, there’s nothing more I can say about that part… Are there people who can testify about the situation at that time?”

 

“Of course. His Highness Elias Hohenzollern, Prince of Prussia was with me at the time. Besides that, there are several classmates who can testify that I received a strange phrase in January.”

 

“I understand. It’s troublesome, but please write that list here.”

 

The aide handed me a notebook.

 

I wrote down the names of Leo, Narke, the second exam team members, and the theater club people including Adelbert, then returned it. Anyway, they had heard the story from me within January—though most didn’t hear it directly. I deliberately didn’t write down Haike.

 

Seeing that, the aide smiled with an ambiguous expression. Before he could show more displeasure, I asked.

 

“How about it, were there no other reports? It’s uncomfortable to say this to Your Excellency the aide who came at the minister’s behest, but I too cannot just let slide the fact that such a problematic phrase came to me.”

 

“Of course. Our government also knows well that Your Excellency Ascanien suffered much damage from this incident and feels sorry about it.”

 

He immediately understood my meaning and defended the government.

 

I meant that as a victim of terrorism, I was thinking of conversely blaming the government.

 

When I didn’t answer and waited for him to speak, the aide shook his head and continued.

 

“I don’t know if you heard, but just before Your Excellency chanted the spell on the day of the terror attack, a book code saying ‘showed the answer to over 100 people’ arrived at the committee. So Your Excellency wasn’t the only one to receive such codes. I can’t give a definitive answer since we’re still investigating, but I think Your Excellency might be one of those 100 people.”

 

“I see. Don’t tell me not even one person besides me has come forward yet?”

 

“As of now… that’s correct. We’ll contact you again after completing the investigation, so please wait a bit longer.”

 

At those words, I narrowed my eyes and nodded.

 

‘Hmm.’

 

Good.

 

Up to here, it went as intended.

 

They had room to attack me using the terrorist’s hint ‘showed the answer to over 100 people.’ For example, ‘We thoroughly investigated Prussia and found no one else who received strange phrases, so what’s going on? Why did only you receive such a thing? This way, the government can’t abandon suspicion of a self-staged act.’

 

Since the codes that came to the Ainsiedel mansion and catacombs cannot be reported, the case will inevitably flow this way.

 

The moment all five codes are revealed, many things must be disclosed. My identity, the Nicolaus-catacombs relationship, the catacombs-Ainsiedel relationship, the Nicolaus-Ainsiedel relationship, the fact that there’s a Pleroma Bishop among Haike’s family members, etc.

 

Regarding this code problem, Narke said she would handle it when we had a meeting with friends before, but I still don’t know how it turned out.

 

However, the aide just consumed that good attack tool while defending the government. Of course, the government can raise the issue again, but it primarily prevented it from being used as an attack tool against me.

 

The aide looked through the papers he brought and opened his mouth.

 

“Then, let me ask just one last question. How did you decode that code? Did anyone help with the decoding? It’s a necessary question for our government’s merit investigation.”

 

“What kind of help are you referring to exactly?”

 

“For example, did someone tell you key words like ‘diocese’ or ‘Osnabrück,’ or were there additional codes related to it?”

 

What I said earlier should have been sufficient answer.

 

Merit investigation, my foot. Since it’s the last question, it’s definitely blatant.

 

I listened to his words expressionlessly and shook my head.

 

“No. As you know, receiving that code was over a month ago. I just tried combining possible words as a pastime over those 5 weeks. It was 27 characters, not 270. Naturally, I didn’t attach much meaning to it at first, but only when the terror attack happened did I realize it was some kind of serious code.”

 

“I see. Then returning to the original point, your certainty that it was a code…”

 

“It’s hard to see the nonsensical phrase ‘Audienz dubioses schockiertes’ as an attempt to convey the real original meaning as is, isn’t it?”

 

“Haha, that’s true.”

 

The aide laughed roughly, scribbled something down, and closed his notebook. That laugh still had no soul.

 

It must have been an interview with little gain. He didn’t achieve even one of the purposes for coming here.

 

Thinking there was nothing more to extract, he extended his hand to me and said.

 

“I sincerely thank you for responding to the government’s request. It was sufficiently helpful.”

 

“I’m glad it was helpful.”

 

“Haha, when you’re feeling better, we’ll visit again regarding the Pleroma matter.”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

I shook hands with him, and as soon as he left the room, I sat back down.

 

After spacing out for about 10 minutes, a servant opened the door and spoke to me.

 

“The Anhalt government spokesperson has arrived. Would you like to meet with him right now?”

 

“Yes. Please tell him to come in.”

 

Soon someone wearing Anhalt’s formal attire entered and greeted me.

 

“Adrian Ascanien. It’s been a long time. I am Ulrich Oster, the Anhalt government spokesperson.”

 

“Nice to meet you.”

 

I replied and pointed to the seat in front. The spokesperson sat down while observing me for a while, then said:

 

“You’re exactly as I heard. You’ve changed a lot.”

 

“Mm.”

 

Is now really the time to talk about how I’ve changed?

 

When I didn’t continue speaking, he tactfully changed the subject.

 

Most of what he talked about concerned the alliance with Prussia. He continuously made requests to not antagonize Prussia and to express our loyalty as their ally. Unlike the Minister of Interior’s Aide from the German Empire government earlier, he didn’t ask about my thoughts on handling the terror incident and just kept making requests.

 

It was natural since press conference schedules would soon be packed tight.

 

And he enthusiastically explained that I would become the second Adrian Ascanien in the Empire and that Anhalt was also expecting this.

 

I expected it, but…

 

‘This is surprising.’

 

The Ascanien and Anhalt government that treated Luca as a murderer, locked him up in the castle, and acted like he didn’t exist, now want to make me the second Adrian Ascanien?

 

Setting aside their shamelessness, this is proof that Hyung hasn’t pulled any tricks. From Eschete until now, Hyung hasn’t stopped me. He must have seen everything from the third test to the match with Gabrielle Caetani.

 

‘In that case…’

 

I can’t just let this slide.

 

Is that guy really the type to just sit back and watch?

 

“The Anhalt citizens are currently in a state of confusion. Before the national tour, we should hold a press conference in Anhalt first…”

 

“I’ll do that. But there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

 

I interrupted him, but he didn’t show any particular discomfort and answered.

 

“Yes, please go ahead.”

 

“I need to send word to Hyung, but I haven’t been able to do so. Have you perhaps contacted Hyung?”

 

“Ah, of course. The Vice Minister was really worried. He exchanged letters with me constantly for the past two days about Lucas Ascanien’s physical condition, and when he heard today that you had awakened safely, he was extremely pleased. I’d like to show you the letter, but… I didn’t think to bring it.”

 

“I see. That’s a relief. Did Hyung perhaps say anything else about me?”

 

“Well, that’s…”

 

Right. If Hyung talks about me, he’d talk more to the Ascanien rather than a government spokesperson. The core conversations would have mostly gone to Ascanien people. Though maybe they also had similarly information-less conversations like the spokesperson.

 

I immediately asked the next question.

 

“I understand. I’d like to meet him in person and greet him again. Does he have any plans to return home?”

 

“No, not yet. Actually, the Vice Minister has requested the Empire government to expand his jurisdiction. He’ll be very busy, so he’ll return home in August as scheduled.”

 

I nodded. He smiled and began listing concerns about terrorism again.

 

‘…Why is he so quiet.’

 

There must be a clear reason why he’s so quiet. What is he trusting to act like that now? I exchanged letters with Hyung a couple times after entering Eschete, and from then until now, he’s been completely calm.

 

He has a plan I don’t know about.

 

This must be the only answer.

 

The Anhalt government spokesperson left after rattling off precautions by himself like that. His purpose was entirely to look good to Prussia. Like the aide from the Empire government, he also asked about the truth of the incident, but that was also just out of concern about giving Prussia something to criticize.

 

‘Everything’s going smoothly so far.’

 

Now it’s time to hear from Leo about why exactly he told me to come to Bavaria.

 

I mean an answer about why he specifically said that when this place is already Bavaria and I’ve been to Bavaria as routinely as eating meals even without Antagonist suggesting it.

 

As I came out to the hallway, an elderly nobleman who wasn’t there initially suddenly greeted me familiarly.

 

“It’s my first time meeting you, Adrian Ascanien. I am the Duke of Hohenlohe-Oehringen, caretaker of the Wittelsbach royal family.”

 

“Nice to meet you. What brings you here?”

 

I’m really meeting a lot of people today.

 

Anyway, he was wearing an appropriate smile, and his attire and style strangely proved that he was Bavarian. He wasn’t someone I’d met as Nicolaus, probably because he was a family servant rather than a kingdom civil servant.

 

He held out a letter he was carrying and said:

 

“Prince has left a letter for you. Please check it.”

 

‘Leo did?’

 

I unfolded the white letter he offered.

 

There was clearly no writing, but as soon as I opened it, navy blue ink appeared on the paper.

 

[To Lucas]

 

[I didn’t know I’d end up talking like Elias, but only you read this.]

 

“…”

 

It must be because of ‘only you read this.’ The fact that he ended up talking like Elias seems unpleasant to him – I can feel his mood isn’t very good just from reading the sentence.

 

[The interviews are really long. I was going to wait until all your interviews were finished, but I don’t have time due to my schedule, so I’m leaving this letter first. See you later.]

 

“Hm?”

 

He has a schedule, but in that gap he was going to tell me why he told me to come to Bavaria?

 

And he’s not even telling me when he’s coming?

 

‘He’s not usually like this.’

 

What got into him today?

 

I turned the letter to the back page and asked:

 

“Where did Prince go?”

 

“I cannot speak about royal official duties. Have you finished checking the entire letter?”

 

“Yes.”

 

As soon as I said that, the letter scattered into light. The caretaker looked over my clothes and said to me:

 

“Are the robes you’re currently wearing from the Imperial Palace?”

 

Out of nowhere?

 

“That’s right.”

 

“I see. You’ll need to come with me now.”

 

“…?”

 

We stared at each other in silence for a long time. Only after a while did I break the silence and speak with a hollow laugh:

 

“Why?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————