How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 405

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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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[There is punishment in fear— He who fears has not been made perfect in love!]

 

Kwaang—

 

Finally. I can finally use special magic.

 

The air that instantly turned green flew fiercely toward one direction. Betin, who was about to change his sword back to a staff, abandoned the transformation. The moment he caught the sword tip with one hand and held it horizontally to block the attack, the barrier temporarily erected through the sword collapsed with a thunderous roar.

 

Kwaang— Kwagwagwang!

 

Betin, who had retreated, swung his sword in midair to change it into a staff and caught it, then spat out the blood pooled in his mouth. There was no way the barrier would collapse so easily, and doubt and challenging psychology rose in his gleaming eyes. I smiled and said to such Betin.

 

“Senior, are you afraid of my attack right now?”

 

“Hahaha…”

 

What I just used was similar to the neutralization magic formula that Betin had been using, where my mana circulates in the air and serves to suppress the opponent’s mana. So his barrier had no choice but to collapse.

 

I exclude magic that can be used more easily with divine power. Since there is someone participating in this place and watching our duel. I wrapped river-like mana around my staff and said.

 

[I came to cast fire on the earth—]

 

[What do I wish if this fire is already kindled,]

 

Betin interrupted my incantation and kicked the ground. Since I had no regrets about what was interrupted, the disrupted magic formula in my head was quickly pushed to the back and my mouth opened immediately. My hand rose to the sky.

 

[Commit your way to the Lord! Trust in him and he will act—]

 

Kwagwagwang—!!

 

Green mana poured down from the sky. Betin had never even looked up at the sky, yet he perfectly avoided the point where that mana would crash and struck down with his staff.

 

“Well now. [But he gives more grace; therefore it says—]”

 

[—He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday!]

 

Betin no longer seems to want to make the situation boring with neutralization formulas. His first incantation and my final incantation unfold simultaneously. Green light that stings the eyes like hundreds of light bulbs turned on rushes toward him. Even among that light, I can see Betin’s black staff swinging. A strange tone with Mecklenburg’s voice gradually grew louder in my ears.

 

[—God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.]

 

Kuung—

 

A thunder-like sound strikes my eardrums. My eyes and heart seem to swell with strange pressure along with the drum-like beating. The tip of the sleek staff shaped like a tree branch approaches before my eyes, reminiscent of a sword. Betin clearly still can’t give up his attachment to swords. I clicked my tongue at that spear-like staff, and while the smell of blood and the incantation he left behind seeped into various parts of my body and interfered with my senses, I moved my lips. This is your God the Lord who will go with you—

 

Kwaaaaang—!

 

He will never leave you nor forsake you. From my perspective, the alien green mana pushed the arc trajectory that Betin’s staff should have originally drawn up to the sky. Along with the sound of landing, Betin’s murderous voice was heard from far away.

 

[Does God rebuke you and bring you into judgment because of your reverence?]

 

My eyes are gradually stinging. Just as I thought that, something hot flowed from my nose. My senses caught the mana first above all else. Ash-like mana approaches from above my head. A cry whose emotion is difficult to distinguish between anger or joy approaches along with the sound of kicking the ground.

 

[Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?]

 

This incantation must have summoned clouds. I knew from experience that if I put up a barrier, it would shatter into pieces with no way to block it. Even at this moment, tens of thousands of glass shard-like attacks are being driven down with the help of gravity. Is not your wickedness great… I raised my staff upward.

 

[You hypocrites.]

 

Kwaaaaang—!

 

[You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret this time?]

 

As I struck down my staff, the dust was cleanly swept away along with the fierce wind, and my mana was added to the tens of thousands of attacks. The cluster of green particles that became one mass and then tore into seven branches began chasing the mana in Betin’s body from the moment the guidance formula was overlaid. When Betin’s mouth opened carrying Mecklenburg’s voice, the smell of blood instantly thickened.

 

[You will pray to him, and he will hear you.]

 

Kwagwagwang—!

 

[And you will pay your vows!]

 

Indeed, Nepomucena Betin was not only skilled in swordsmanship. My attacking mana that was approaching him simply stopped with a thud, then bent and seeped into the ground with a roar.

 

Kwadeudeuk—!!

 

Then it pierced through where I was standing and rose up. Kwaang— The moment I used the barrier as a foothold to take a running start into midair, I could see the mana from before that had surged up from the floor completely scattering as they canceled each other out. Time difference. Since the two attacking manas were eating away at each other, the attack he sent to me like hitting a ping-pong ball would naturally disappear soon, which means this was his deception. Naturally.

 

Below my head, Betin’s staff crosses through the air from right to left. Laughter mixed with ecstasy was heard.

 

“Caught here?”

 

Mana that fluctuates wickedly and sharply according to Betin’s personality approaches toward my abdomen. The corners of my mouth twist as my spine grows cold. If it seeps into my core, I will collapse, and it was crystal clear that my temperament would try to devour his mana. Even knowing this, my mouth goes dry. The time spent in the air before landing on the floor feels like an eternity.

 

‘Caught, indeed.’

 

Who says anyone is caught? I rolled my tongue a couple of times in my mouth.

 

[And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?]

 

Kwaaaaang—!!

 

The mana that was approaching my body deviates from its trajectory. Landing on the floor and covering the floor with green waves, I aimed my staff at Betin’s mana floating in midair and struck down. Mana that was made of his mana anyway and wouldn’t harm him, but would sufficiently interfere with his senses, poured down over his head. The second verse following ‘You hypocrites.’ It was a different magic formula but… at least it was good that I could continue the flow from before.

 

Kwaang—

 

Betin, who struck down his staff and nullified his own attack, spits out another clump of blood. I can see Betin’s knees shaking unsteadily. He had already exhausted his mana neutralizing my special magic, and that trick from before where he tried to induce my misstep to catch a 0.1-second gap must have been his final strategy.

 

‘He still hasn’t collapsed.’

 

Simply amazing. If he can endure, what can I do about it? Before my thoughts could finish, his incantation pierced my ears.

 

[You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways!]

 

Ssaek— Kwagwagwang— Kwaang—!

 

A cluster of light that I didn’t create swirls and sweeps through the arena. I barely managed to deflect the attack using the decorative part of my staff and twisted the corners of my mouth. Betin was launching attacks that filled this entire arena while standing still in place. I swung my staff in a figure-8 pattern and took steps toward him.

 

[But he knows the way that I take—]

 

“Junior likes special magic too much… [When you are brought low, you will say it is exaltation.]”

 

[—When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.]

 

[God saves the humble!]

 

Betin’s dark mana surges toward the sky. Betin’s mouth opened again, and though he didn’t make a sound, that was the same for me too.

 

Kwagwagwang—…!

 

‘But his purpose stands firm, and who can turn him back?’

 

The roar from the collision of mana scatters above in the sky. I brought out the end of the incantation I had kept in my mouth and finished it.

 

[What his soul desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me.]

 

Blood has long since stained his clothes. He is using too much mana right now. Yet the vigor in his eyes still hasn’t died, and the strange smile hanging on his lips remained the same. I now looked at Betin, who could no longer exert the strength to move excessively while leaning on his staff, and struck the ground with my staff with a thud.

 

[Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to the light.]

 

“Cough…”

 

[But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?]

 

Betin, with Mecklenburg’s face, just continues to glare at me while gripping his staff. He has no strength to move, and doesn’t even have the strength to turn his head to spit out the blood pooled in his mouth.

 

It’s not only Nepomucena Betin who is watching our duel. From Adrian Ascanien who came here for succession rights issues to the mages who must be desperately interested in our succession rights for either interest or economic reasons, countless people are positioned in the seats. Seeing that Betin knew the magic formulas I use well, he seems to have watched the Penthalon matches with deep impression, but even if everyone knows what my skills are like in that way, and even though they’ve already seen enough of our abilities, there’s no need to additionally use techniques I don’t need to use beyond that. Just raising the mana density in the air was sufficient. I continued chanting incantations and flowing out mana.

 

[Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.]

 

[…Do not fret because of evildoers…]

 

[The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’]

 

[…Be not envious of wrongdoers…]

 

[From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?]

 

[…For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb!]

 

Kaang—!

 

I deflected what must have been the last well-sharpened attack that flew at me and continued walking toward him. Unlike his mana, Nepomucena Betin was just standing leaning on his staff in the same state as before. The breathing transmitted through the speaker gradually quickens. I opened my mouth with much slower breathing.

 

[It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ God understands the way to it, and he knows its place—]

 

Kwaaaaang—!

 

[For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder!]

 

Kwaang—

 

Before I could finish the incantation, the heavy body collapsed to the floor. He tried to push against the floor, but his elbows were already trembling greatly.

 

I recalled the way Mecklenburg used water and pressed down the mana that spread like liquid over his body. If I could use divine power, I would have used it, but I can’t right now. I knelt beside him and pressed firmly on his back where his heart would be, putting a magic formula in my mouth that would make movement impossible without causing him any more harm.

 

[Love is in this: not that we loved God…]

 

[10, 9, 8…]

 

[But that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.]

 

[…4, 3.]

 

“Keup, kek…”

 

Every time Betin exhales, blood flows from his mouth. It was the same for me. Dried blood interferes with the muscles around my mouth. My ears are stuffy and a thick clump of blood is stuck in my throat.

 

[Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.]

 

I continued chanting with the mindset of cultivating the Way, breathing in slowly and little by little. It wasn’t anything else—I had to focus my mind on using magic.

 

[5.]

 

[We love because he first loved us.]

 

Suddenly, Betin’s eyes closed and his head turned completely to the side. Then his eyes snapped open again.

 

“…!”

 

As I put strength into the hand gripping my staff to strengthen the mana covering his body, Betin’s body disappeared before my eyes. The sight of the green mana that had covered him scattering in midair was a scene sufficient to confuse me.

 

All kinds of hypotheses surge in my head. Could he have escaped? No, that can’t be. The fact that he disappeared without a trace like this means that his physical burden exceeded the allowable limit and Mimesis sent Betin out.

 

As I opened my mouth and jerked my head up, a notification sound was heard.

 

Beep—

 

[7 minutes 32 seconds. The match ends with Lucas Ascanien’s victory.]

 

* * *

 

Being expelled from Mimesis didn’t mean he was weak. Rather, in this situation, it was the opposite.

 

While others would accept defeat and collapse when faced with pain of 100, he wanted to continue fighting even when faced with pain of 150, which normally no one could endure. Betin kept his eyes wide open until the end, trying to fight more, but the fact that the Mimesis artifact directly ejected the user meant that the pain Betin experienced had exceeded the pain threshold set considerably high by Imperial Mage Association standards.

 

‘…I’m really feeling here why his reputation isn’t good for nothing.’

 

What was he trying to achieve by going that far? I know there are all kinds of people, but no matter how I think about it, if I had to duel someone personally, I wouldn’t really want to face this person. If it were someone else, they would have just given up and laid down when they spat out a bowlful of blood.

 

‘How did he not lose consciousness in the first place when he was bleeding so much from his face…’

 

His mana circulation speed seems extraordinary, so if he donated a core sample to Bayern Hospital, it would be of great help to medicine.

 

After the evaluation ended, I didn’t return to my seat but went straight to the infirmary near the east gate on the first floor of the arena. I had to visit out of courtesy, and also…

 

It seemed better to exchange greetings with people who were peers of Adrian Ascanien, especially the rare person among them who didn’t have much fondness for him.

 

Creak—

 

“Senior.”

 

“Hm?”

 

Betin, who had been sitting on the bed drinking an elixir, frowned when he saw me. Soon Betin put down the bottle with a sound and raised his eyebrows as he spoke.

 

“What face brings you here?”

 

“What face? It’s not like I did anything wrong, is it?”

 

“That’s obvious.”

 

Then what am I supposed to do… I wondered if I should turn off my brain when dealing with this senior like I do with Elias, then sat in the empty chair in front of him. A medical staff member I’d never seen before approached me and spoke.

 

“Your Excellency. You need treatment.”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

He looked closely at my nose, then left with an ambiguous expression. Other problems aside, unfortunately the issue caused by drawing too much mana remained even after turning off Mimesis. Still, just having a nosebleed was something that would resolve itself if I drank a few bottles of elixir like Nepomucena Betin.

 

I sat silently and looked at Nepomucena Betin. He looked at me with raised eyebrows, then flopped down on the bed.

 

“You seem close with Mecklenburg?”

 

“Not particularly so.”

 

“Your fighting style says otherwise, junior.”

 

I was caught. At least by this person. I’m glad the time I spent buried in extra chapters and my acting weren’t wasted. I smiled and replied.

 

“Why would that be? That’s strange.”

 

“Whatever, I’m not close with him either. Ah~ I should be watching that bastard face-plant on the floor right about now, but what am I doing here…”

 

He really doesn’t seem close. More precisely, Nepomucena Betin is the type who would easily joke around even while saying they’re not close, but Mecklenburg is the type who would hate it enough to not even want to reciprocate that. That was his personality.

 

“And I’m not close with your hyung either.”

 

“Then do you dislike me too?”

 

“…”

 

Nepomucena Betin pulled up the corners of his mouth and sat up.

 

“What if I do?”

 

“That would be sad.”

 

“Ah, if you respond like that, it’s no fun to say this.”

 

No fun? More than that, you also have something to say to me. It seemed that way from when you brought up the topic of relationships without being asked, but what are you planning to say. I just smiled silently. Betin said what he wanted to say regardless of what expression I made in response.

 

“I find it more fun when people are flustered rather than happy.”

 

“I’ll be flustered for you. Do you have something to say to me?”

 

“How could I not have something to say?”

 

Betin continued with a mischievous smile.

 

“Are you interested in training with me from now on? I’ve been watching for over a month and I like your style, junior.”

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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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