How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 27

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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 (27)

“Tell me which professor ordered you to watch me. I already know everything. If you tell me the truth, I’ll just let you go.”

The guy’s eyes trembled. He rolled his eyes behind me and dragged out his words.

“That… no…”

“Who is it!”

“Tr-Traut! Professor Traut ordered me to!”

At my intimidation, the guy squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

Good.

Traut… he’s one of the scholars who became a professor long ago with Ascanien’s support.

He’s a mage, but not currently a professor in the Department of Magic – he teaches magic in another department.

Now I clearly understand why he misunderstood hyung’s letter.

This guy knows that the Ascanien Family made a pact with the Imperial Court to protect Luca. Anyone who had connections with our family would know this story.

So Traut must have thought hyung’s letter was sent to ensure the pact wouldn’t be broken – meaning to properly monitor whether I was making contact with Pleroma.

I smiled and let go of the student’s shoulder.

“Yes, good. Thank you.”

“…Huh?”

“Now, since you ran into me, you thought it would be better to talk with me and gather information. Right?”

“What, what are you talking about…?”

“And, while we’re at it, I think it would be good to change the surveillance person from now on.”

I glanced at the student’s jacket badge and continued. It’s a Knight’s Department badge.

“You’re not even from our department. Who would be able to properly monitor me? Someone from the same department, same class, and same special class would be optimal conditions. You also think you’re not the right person for this. So tell the professor tomorrow. No matter how I think about it, you’re in a severely inadequate environment.”

“What are you talking about since earlier…”

It’s understandable that he’d ask what I’m talking about. It’s not the truth, but mental manipulation magic.

I felt my head aching as if it would split and frowned. Then I aimed my wand and spoke the magic I had used a month ago.

―Enter through the narrow gate.

The guy’s eyes went blank.

But this time, he can’t fall asleep here.

I caught the student who was about to collapse to the ground and steadied him in the direction he had come running from, then placed divine power on his forehead to wake his consciousness. Strength immediately returned to the student’s body. The moment he opened his eyes, shock spread across his face.

“Ah!”

The guy looked at my face and jumped back while shouting.

The last memory remaining for him now is of me suddenly turning around. He must have been startled when we came face to face, not expecting me to turn around.

He came to his senses and greeted me with a trembling voice.

“…Ah, hello, Lucas. Right?”

“Hello.”

I greeted him while raising one eyebrow.

The guy rolled his eyes and forced out a laugh.

“Um, what a strange coincidence to meet here. I wasn’t trying to follow you or anything… just happy to see you.”

That’s what I should be saying.

This guy will tell Professor Traut all the information he discovered, so if I use this opportunity in reverse, I can confuse the information hyung wants to know most.

For that, I’ll need to act appropriately for this situation.

As I stared at him with a slightly displeased expression, he chewed his lips and continued speaking.

“Ah, actually I was thinking of trying to talk to you.”

“Talk to me?”

“The kids have been talking about you a lot lately. I heard that you’ve become really… sociable, unlike last semester.”

I just nodded with narrowed eyebrows. He hurriedly continued.

“Um, but you seem a bit uncomfortable right now. Since we met at the edge of school at this late hour…”

“Of course it’s a bit awkward. So you’re saying you chased after me to have a conversation?”

When I answered in the direction I had imprinted on him, a pleased expression crossed the guy’s face. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, he raised his voice slightly and answered quickly.

“Right. I happened to see you coming out of the library, but you suddenly started running. I wondered if something was wrong, so I followed you. Sorry if it made you uncomfortable.”

“…No, it’s fine.”

I shook my head while looking at him.

How could I be uncomfortable?

From now on, this guy will unknowingly deliver the false information I fabricated to the professor, and the professor will also write it in detail and send it to hyung.

I don’t even need to go to tabloid journalism. I found an effective disinformation strategy, so I should make good use of it this time too.

* * *

“Professor.”

A student knocked on the door of the Magic Swordsmanship professor’s research lab.

A nameplate with Stefan Traut written on it gleamed in the sunlight.

When he heard the voice telling him to come in, the student naturally entered and sat in front of the professor.

The student brought up the topic to the professor who was still concentrating on his work.

“Nothing special happened during the day.”

When the professor looked up and stared at him quietly, the student continued.

“There was something a bit strange in the evening – he came out of the library at 11 o’clock and just ran toward where the 3rd Education Institute is located. I followed him…”

“You followed him.”

The professor narrowed his brow and nodded. The student avoided his eyes and scratched the back of his neck.

“It seemed suspicious that he was going to a school where young students attend. I got caught, but… I handled it well. He said he was looking around because he lost an animal.”

The professor looked at the student with eyes that asked if he came all this way just to tell such a story. The student hurriedly got to the main point.

“After talking with him for a long time, he hasn’t changed much from his first year. The stories about him changing were exaggerated.”

“I see…”

The professor nodded and wrote something down on paper.

“It became obvious during our long conversation. The reason he seems more normal than expected is probably because everyone only exchanges a few words with him.”

“You’re saying he can hold normal conversations briefly. Anyway, it’s surprising that the student can have conversations, even briefly. Did you find out the reason?”

“Yes, he said he needs to improve his grades.”

At those words, the professor tilted his head and asked back.

“Grades?”

“He said his family wants him to improve his grades. He also talked about attitude scores or something, but I don’t know what that has to do with anything…”

“Hmm.”

The professor nodded and quickly wrote something on the paper.

The student narrowed his eyes and fell into thought.

“It was hard to understand, but… putting it together, I think he adapted because of participatory classes. Unlike our department, the Department of Magic places great emphasis on activities like presentations. It’s just my guess though.”

The student shook his head again and fell into doubt.

“No, even so. He couldn’t change that much just to improve his grades…”

“People can accomplish anything when they’re cornered.”

“Cornered?”

The student made an incredulous expression, then realized he was in front of the professor and relaxed his face.

The professor stopped his pen and waved his hand.

“That’s enough. Did you find out anything else?”

“No, not really… nothing. All he does is stay in the dormitory or library all day. He said himself that he doesn’t do anything special. Since he has no friends to hang out with at school, it can’t be helped.”

“I see. Good work. That student will continue to be like that, so only come to me when he shows strange behavior.”

“Yes.”

The student turned around, then stopped abruptly in place. The professor, who had been scribbling something on paper, looked up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah…”

The student’s eyes widened as if he remembered something, then turned back toward the professor.

“…But, Professor. As you know, I’m from a different department than that student, and we don’t have many points of contact.”

“So?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if a student from the same department did the surveillance? A student from the Department of Magic special class would be better than me, wouldn’t they?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to do it?”

“No, that’s not it… No. I’ll be going.”

The moment the student hurriedly opened the door, his eyes met with someone standing in front of the door.

“Oh.”

The student hesitated slightly and stepped aside. Narke gave the student a light nod and entered the professor’s research lab.

“Hello, Professor.”

“What brings you here?”

“I’d like to attend your lectures during the break, and I’m wondering if there are any subjects that would be recognized by my exchange school. Could I look into it?”

“Of course, please sit here.”

Narke glanced at where the student had left, closed the door, and sat down. Then he glanced at the professor’s desk and asked.

“By the way, was that about Lucas just now?”

* * *

“From now on, Narke has to monitor Lucas~!”

“That worked out well. But you do understand what it means, right?”

I let out a hollow laugh at Fai’s excitement.

I went up to the rooftop on the floor above and listened directly to Narke’s words as Fai relayed them. It seemed like we could read each other’s words within a few meters.

Anyway, that’s why I sent Narke at that time.

If I continuously applied mental manipulation magic to the monitor, the professor might notice. When the tail gets too long, it gets caught.

Then I just need to change the monitor myself.

Leo would do it if I asked, but Narke was more suitable for this task. Narke could deliver false information more naturally than Leo.

Narke boasted extensively that he had been getting along quite well with Lucas since coming on exchange, and could investigate things other students didn’t know about.

Even if a student from the theological school treated a student suspected of being Pleroma well on the surface, there was no way he could truly trust him, so the professor readily entrusted the monitoring to Narke.

‘He’d be surprised if he knew that Narke himself was the first to tell me the Pleroma rumors were false.’

I should check if my survival chances have changed at this point.

Dawn777

― Final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’ in 716 days 21 hours 13 minutes 01 seconds

― Change possibility: 7.9% (+1.0%p)

When I first met Narke and checked, it was 6.4%. In between, it rose 0.5%p, and this incident raised it another 1%p. I let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

“Narke’s coming out!”

Fai jumped down from my shoulder and headed toward the stairs.

Now that this matter was somewhat concluded, it was time to focus on the big picture again.

I followed Fai down, received Narke’s greeting, and headed to the annex.

* * *

Today’s meeting started a bit early since it was the weekend.

I leaned against the desk and looked at the students.

“We’ve been focusing on data collection so far. Now we’re going to move into full-scale analysis.”

“Wasn’t what we did before analysis too?”

Melvin asked with wide eyes.

“I mean putting everything together comprehensively. First, let’s talk about how activities will proceed from now on. You all know that the Imperial Court currently has a Pleroma processing headquarters, right.”

“We know.”

“There are countless departments there, but the core is two places. Strategy and combat. We’re going to focus on what the strategy department does, and only go on field surveys when necessary.”

Of course, Leo and I plan to go out frequently.

After seeing the Chimera werewolf, the thought of going out again completely disappeared… but rather, because of that existence, I need to go out and confirm that the novel’s development is changing. That way I can respond to changes in Pleroma too.

I spread out the materials I had prepared on the desk and answered.

“Pleroma started moving with new rules two years ago when they gathered 100,000 believers. I investigated crime records from two years ago and classified the number of crimes by month.”

I handed out papers with graphs drawn on them to the students one by one and read out the numbers.

“Starting from January: 11, 8, 7, 4, 5 cases.”

“It’s gradually decreasing.”

“Then from June it surges again and decreases. 13, 8, 10, 5. And from October again: 9, 15, 14.”

One student frowned and asked.

“This… isn’t there just no pattern?”

“Wait, it seems to decrease a bit when one season ends and transitions to another. Is it a preparation period?”

“Hmm, that makes sense.”

The students began conversing and reasoning on their own. Leo tapped the paper with his pen and looked up.

“The crimes from October to March are mostly property damage and assault. The crimes from June to August are mainly classified as abduction and enticement. But rather than these types, I think we’d understand faster if we knew exactly what incidents occurred.”

I took out a notebook with newspaper clippings and opened it.

“Right, from October it’s mostly crimes of vandalizing cemeteries and stealing corpses, or extracting blood from living people or livestock. In contrast, from June it’s mostly kidnapping, abduction, and unauthorized illegal propaganda.”

“They do crazy things whether it’s winter or summer.”

At one student’s comment, Narke burst into laughter and said.

“Haha, it’s more that the nature of the crimes is different. Their activities change by season. Right?”

“Exactly. If winter crimes are mostly about Pleroma’s resurrection, eternal life, and magic, then summer crimes are mostly about cultivating believers and maintaining the organization.”

As things gradually became clearer, the students examined the information with much more serious expressions.

I took out an article and handed it over.

It was an article about strengthening management and supervision of public cemeteries in winter and thoroughly verifying the identity of visitors.

“This level of information is something the Imperial Court already had, they just didn’t openly publicize it. To this, we need to add one more thing.”

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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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