How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 269

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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 (269)

 

“….”

 

I smiled as I looked at the head servant.

 

Your Excellency? To Luca, he was someone who could be called a godfather, and he must have thought so too. He even came to the classroom and didn’t call me Young Master, didn’t he?

 

While I could clearly see the Anhalt government’s position of trying to gain benefits by riding the crowd psychology through the spokesperson’s attitude, I still couldn’t tell Ascanien’s atmosphere.

 

Due to the unpredictable wild card that was Georg Ascanien, Ascanien might still maintain their previous hostile attitude separate from the government, and they could take benefits while still treating me awkwardly. The Anhalt government wasn’t the entity that raised Luca, so they wouldn’t feel too guilty about changing their stance, but Ascanien was different.

 

In Ascanien, the only person who cared about Luca’s health and treated him warmly was Adrian Ascanien alone. Even he had shown his true colors to me, not Luca. It was uncertain whether Ascanien, who probably didn’t make a good impression on me, would maintain their previous attitude or change their stance like the Anhalt government.

 

While it wasn’t a situation where I could gather much information, I could now get a sense of things indirectly through the head servant.

 

I shook my head.

 

“Please call me comfortably.”

 

“Shall I? Let’s go, Young Master.”

 

He led me outside the station. Whether there was access control or not, there was no one on the platform except Ascanien servants. However, the moment I stepped outside Dessau Station, I could face the crowd standing densely beyond the control line.

 

They were all Anhalt citizens.

 

“….”

 

When our eyes met, the noise from the crowd suddenly stopped. I could feel shock and wariness in their round eyes. They were feeling tremendous confusion between the information they had believed and the Empire’s hero. I could read from their expressions that intense stubbornness and curiosity that they couldn’t trust the Empire’s testimony and had to see and evaluate me directly with their own eyes.

 

Those are them.

 

Those are the ones who, pushed by Hyung’s conspiracy, have despised Luca the most in the Empire.

 

I smiled at them and got into Ascanien’s carriage.

 

Ulrike, who was completely unaware of the situation, got in next to me with a tense face. While muttering to herself.

 

“I can’t believe I’m coming to Anhalt. Oh….”

 

“You said earlier you’d never been here.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Now Leo and Narke were also riding in this carriage together.

 

Whether Ulrike sensed the subtly tense atmosphere, or thought about my position as Pleroma, she brought up a question I never expected to come from his mouth.

 

“But are you close with your family? I’m worried that your mood might get hurt for no reason while we’re hanging out.”

 

“Well.”

 

I said quietly while opening the carriage window blind with my finger as we began to depart. Even after leaving the train station, citizens who came out to see me were lined up along both sides of the road.

 

“I’ll have to see how it goes now too.”

 

Narke was restricted from using her precognitive abilities for health recovery. Neither she, nor Leo, nor I could be certain exactly how the political situation here was flowing – we could only guess.

 

I smiled at Ulrike and said.

 

“We’re going to Residenzschloss Dessau now. Just wait a little.”

 

Residenzschloss Dessau was Ascanien’s main castle. Since this was the castle I came to when Hyung summoned me, this was my second time coming here.

 

Would it have been better if one minute felt like an hour instead? For me, the journey from Dessau Station to Residenzschloss was very quick. The distance that should take 10 minutes by carriage felt like less than 5 minutes.

 

“We have arrived.”

 

The head servant’s voice could be heard from outside the carriage.

 

In the distance, on the right side near the castle gate, Ascanien servants were standing. I had this thought before, but this time was incomparable to the number I had seen previously. This time it seemed like all the servants working not only in the main castle but in all 13 castles owned by the family were gathered.

 

And on the left side, administrators and parliamentary legislators from the Anhalt government had come out. Isn’t this the pinnacle of corruption from a modern perspective? It’s the same in this era too. This wasn’t something called for at the family level. This was national courtesy.

 

“…Wow.”

 

Ulrike glanced at me and exclaimed in admiration. I wanted to do the same, but my facial muscles remained in the same state as before.

 

That wasn’t what was surprising. What surprised me more was above them, that is, the Ascanien mages standing in front of me.

 

Creak―

 

The head servant opened the carriage door. I got out silently and raised my head.

 

The same scene I had seen in Bavaria unfolded. They saluted me.

 

“….”

 

Just as there were mages belonging to the Imperial Court, this place also had mages at the family level. Whenever direct members of Ascanien officially returned to or visited Anhalt, such situations always unfolded.

 

Unlike the existing Anhalt army that was semi-forcibly incorporated into the Imperial army after the Empire’s establishment, these mages were newly hired as Anhalt’s private soldiers in the post-magic world, and since they worked for the family and monarch like the Imperial Guard, it was common for them to be mobilized for the ruling family’s events.

 

Such scenes would have been frequent for Adrian Ascanien.

 

This was my first time.

 

Of course, this was my first time visiting with an official mission, but under previous circumstances, I couldn’t expect standard treatment.

 

I noticed a distinguished guest had come home when I saw the servants’ welcoming greeting at the beginning of this year. Actually, that greeting was something Luca was qualified to receive too, but since I naturally couldn’t expect that greeting to be given to me, I deduced from it that Hyung had come home.

 

But Hyung wasn’t here now.

 

Since that distinguished guest, Anhalt’s crown prince, wasn’t here, unlike before, there was no need to save face for the Pleroma’s master.

 

So I could say this.

 

This scene wasn’t due to Hyung’s influence or anything else. It was entirely the result of me.

 

I lightly raised my hand to the front of my hat brim and lowered it.

 

They didn’t call Human honor guards, and seeing that they only assembled New Humans and didn’t perform more complex actions than that, this was just the right degree. I liked that they didn’t do the crazy thing of suddenly summoning old-generation protocol to curry favor. If they had done more than this, I might have sneered in disgust.

 

“Welcome back to Anhalt. All of Anhalt’s subjects have been waiting only for Your Excellency to come.”

 

The Anhalt Prime Minister, whom I was seeing for the first time, approached me and said so. Instead of answering, I extended my hand and requested a handshake.

 

He shook hands with me with a solemn face and stepped aside.

 

“It is an honor to meet His Highness Crown Prince Leonard Wittelsbach of Bavaria, Her Highness Grand Duchess Julia Zehringen of Baden, and His Excellency Duke Elias Hohenzollern of Prussia. I am Josef Ascanien, Prime Minister of the Anhalt government.”

 

I waited for him to finish talking with all the visitors, then walked toward the main gate with the head servant beside me.

 

The path was quiet due to the unusual protocol. Only after entering the building could I hear my friends’ small exclamations as their tension finally relaxed a bit.

 

We moved to the east side of the castle like that. The head servant pointed to rooms on both sides of the corridor and said.

 

“Young Master can use Young Master’s room until tomorrow morning, and we’ve converted the empty rooms here into guest rooms for your friends to stay in. First, the upper room is for His Excellency Elias Hohenzollern….”

 

I let their words flow past me as I looked at my room. Unlike the other rooms, a clean mahogany door with almost no traces of use stood firmly before my eyes. I slowly placed my hand on the doorknob as all my senses felt like they were hardening.

 

Creak―

 

“….”

 

The scene I had seen before spread out before me exactly as it was.

 

This aristocratic Baroque interior decoration, the marshland and Mulde River visible outside the window, the blue Elbe River meeting the Mulde in the distance – all held only bad memories for both Luca and me.

 

I had come to this place again. Back then I was brought here alone as a captive, but now I had come here directly at Anhalt’s request.

 

I looked down at the floor by the door. It felt like yesterday when I had collapsed here. The memory of the day the head servant came to school when Leo gave me sedatives under the pretext of delivering handouts, the memory of taking that medicine in the bed here, was still vivid. I remembered how my friends couldn’t come with me so they secretly put Fai in my bag and sent him.

 

“Wow, what? Is that stand actually gold?”

 

“Isn’t it brass?”

 

Not now. Now was different from then. The friends who were making useless noise behind me were here with me.

 

“Young Master. Let me tell you about the schedule for a moment. Please follow me.”

 

At the head servant’s call, the whispering stopped. I could feel all my friends’ gazes directed at me. I nodded to the head servant and smiled at my friends. Narke responded with a gentle smile.

 

Moving to the hall on the same floor and sitting on the sofa in front of the balcony, he sat across from me and opened his mouth.

 

“You must be very tired. Young Master can rest until before noon now.”

 

“That’s a lot of free time.”

 

“That’s right. From 8 PM tonight, there will be a 30-minute interview. Twenty journalists from Anhalt and Prussia will join together in the banquet hall on the first floor. Since our Anhalt will review the final press materials from each newspaper, you can approach it without burden.”

 

They’re naturally doing censorship. Since I had no intention of making statements contrary to Anhalt’s wishes at this time, it wouldn’t be a loss for me.

 

“And His Grace the Duke will arrive at noon.”

 

“I was just about to ask where Father was, so that’s timely.”

 

At my words, the head servant raised his eyebrows. I clasped my hands together, smiled, and asked.

 

“I’m truly happy to be able to see Father. What business brings him here?”

 

* * *

 

I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know – I was being sarcastic.

 

Fortunately, the head servant understood what I meant. Since he was someone who felt sorry about Father treating me poorly, there was no need to be more sarcastic with him.

 

They needed to know that this was already a family that had failed to give me trust once, but there was no need to be completely hostile either.

 

I remained on the balcony of the hall after the head servant left, looking at the scenery outside. Outside the castle, crowds wanting to see me were still swarming. Light was rising in the sky that had been dusky.

 

‘Lucas Ascanien’s identity is still unstable.’

 

This moment when crowd psychology had explosively formed couldn’t be said to be entirely on my side. It was characteristic of crowds that they could easily turn to the opposite extreme with slight agitation. Anyone wanting to survive in politics shouldn’t purely accept this moment when the Empire was extolling one person as a hero. As supporters increased, so did antagonists, and from now on, forces trying to bring down ‘Lucas Ascanien’ would emerge. This extreme state of excitement needed to enter a stable period.

 

The problem was that if Lucas Ascanien, who had once fallen and then risen, fell again, this time the possibility of recovery would become extremely low. Of course, that was if he fell to the same level as the previous downfall.

 

This was the same whether I integrated identities with Nicolaus now or not.

 

‘This is all thinking based on assuming attacks from Hyung, who is my rival.’

 

Currently, there was no need to consider other enemies. My future would change depending only on what cards Hyung brought.

 

I could try to block Hyung’s attacks by preemptively integrating Nicolaus with me to solidify my reputation value.

 

But even in this case, my future would still be divided by what kind of cards Hyung brought. From what I could see, that bastard had been patient for a long time. He definitely had a plan. If Hyung brought cards that would make public sentiment fall away again, Lucas Ascanien was destined to plummet into the mud along with Nicolaus. To aim for the high return of attack nullification, I had to accept such high risk.

 

‘Of course, what Hyung can actually do at this point is unknown.’

 

Then should I postpone integration with Nicolaus? Even assuming the worst case where Lucas Ascanien fell once, there was room to use Nicolaus as a recovery card under the premise of going through arduous time. In this case, I’d have to avoid attacks on Nicolaus too, but it was lower risk than the above case. Unlike Lucas Ascanien, there was almost no need to worry about conspiracies and malicious rumors about Nicolaus, because Bavaria’s intelligence department was collecting information circulating on the European continent.

 

However, fundamentally, Lucas Ascanien’s re-downfall would extremely weaken even Nicolaus Ernst’s identity.

 

In other words, successfully blocking the decisive blow that Hyung has been preparing since last January, or perhaps since October last year, is the crucial key to my survival.

 

And my answer to Hyung’s attack is this.

 

I have no option to let my reputation points drop by taking the hit.

 

Whatever process I go through, the only future that exists for me is one where I solidly establish this public opinion.

 

And I hope he doesn’t believe that I’ll only defend forever.

 

After deflecting Hyung’s strike, I expect that soon, I will change my strategy.

 

Defense is over. It’s time to gather information to attack Adrian Ascanien and lay the foundation for Empire politics. Even if that information is from 10 years ago, even if it’s information that no longer exists, somehow.

 

‘First, let me check before that.’

 

Dawn777

 

— Until final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’: 588 days 5 hours 48 minutes 13 seconds

 

— Possibility of change: 60.9% (+7.0%p)

 

‘Hmm.’

 

Good, I’m satisfied.

 

Not even 200 days have passed and it’s already about 61%.

 

Even with 588 days remaining, only 39% is left until 100%. Objectively evaluating, my strategy so far has been successful in multiple dimensions.

 

Since the foundation has been built, the rate of increase is accelerating, so filling the remaining 39% will take less time than I expected. Now my goal is to stabilize this crowd psychology and gain 1% at a time to reach 70% within March.

 

Of course, there will inevitably be variables in that process. Minimizing variables and controlling them so they don’t work against me even when they occur is my biggest concern.

 

I left the balcony and headed toward the eastern part of the castle.

 

As soon as I turned the corner, my friends’ noisy voices echoed through the hallway. Ulrike, who spotted me just then, placed her hand on my shoulder and said in a shocked voice.

 

“Hey… I toured the house while you were gone, and you’re really rich. What the hell?”

 

Father would be the rich one, not me. Anyway, I couldn’t help but laugh at Ulrike’s innocent admiration. My expression, which had been tense without me realizing it, relaxed thanks to her.

 

It’s a bit awkward to hear this with people from Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden here. Actually, even though it’s a ruling family, Anhalt is a small country and its economic power falls far short compared to those three.

 

Perhaps noticing that I had arrived, Elias, who had been lying face down on his bed—or rather, only his voice—joined the conversation between Ulrike and me.

 

“As expected of a country that has an Emperor. Oh~ nice.”

 

“Emperor?!”

 

Ulrike’s mouth fell open as she turned to look at me. Even though she wasn’t that close to Elias yet, she seemed shocked by his words. I quickly waved my hands.

 

“No, he’s not talking about our country’s Emperor.”

 

There’s a Russian Emperor from the Ascanien—Anhalt-Zerbst lineage. The famous Catherine the Great, Russia’s enlightened absolute monarch, is from this family. She’s certainly a German from Ascanien, but since she’s a ‘Russian’ who overthrew Peter III, who made critical mistakes in war due to his inability to abandon his German identity, and directly ascended to the throne as Czar, there aren’t any Ascanien people who particularly boast about that bloodline.

 

‘Elias probably knows this well anyway.’

 

He was just joking around as usual.

 

Then, Elias’s mana flowed sluggishly toward me. It meant to follow the mana. When I stepped into his room, Elias suddenly sat up and asked.

 

“When can we drink the liquor?!”

 

“I’ll bring it whenever you say.”

 

“No, not just me drinking it. We all have to drink together!”

 

“Sorry. I can’t drink. Maybe before bed at the earliest.”

 

“What!”

 

Even after drinking so much on the train, he still seems to want more alcohol. He collapsed on the bed with a considerably shocked face.

 

“Ah… No way. Then I…”

 

“Drink with Haike. He seems to be quietly waiting for the liquor too.”

 

“Hmm~ Haike’s good.”

 

Even after answering like that, he just blinked and looked at me. I answered firmly to those sparkling eyes.

 

“I have to go out in a little while. Wait until evening.”

 

“Okay… Then you have to drink until you’re drunk! Ah, I want to see Luca drunk today!”

 

Bang—!

 

I won’t get drunk.

 

I didn’t answer and closed his door.

 

Narke had closed her door and fallen asleep first again, and Ulrike and Haike had disappeared, probably touring the castle. Cheringen was having some conversation in Leo’s room, but when our eyes met, he smiled and waved his hand.

 

I lightly waved back and entered my room, lying down on the bed.

 

“…”

 

Because of memories from my previous visit, my only feelings about this place were hostility and tension toward Hyung.

 

However, just having my friends here made all the tension I had completely disappear as if washed away.

 

It’s different from before. Now, no matter what Adrian Ascanien does, he can’t completely destroy my foundation.

 

I immediately sat up.

 

It’s time to organize the possible attacks and possibilities that Adrian Ascanien could present and establish countermeasures for each.

 

And time passed quickly.

 

As I skipped meals and focused on thinking, I heard the bell announcing one hour before noon.

 

Knock knock—

 

[Young Master. You need to come down soon.]

 

I hear the slightly nervous voice of the head servant. I closed my notebook and stood up.

 

Father had arrived at the castle.

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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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