How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 41

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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 (41)

The reporters wrote down that answer.

Another reporter asked Leo a question.

“The Papacy has conveyed their intention to provide divine support to the Empire regarding issues caused by heretics. His Highness the Crown Prince’s classmate, who purified Bavaria together at dawn seven days ago, is currently receiving offers from various parts of the Empire. Does Bavaria have any plans to scout him first?”

“We’ve sent a request, but nothing has been decided yet.”

He was talking about Narke.

Though he’s a foreigner, this isn’t the time to be picky, so he must have received countless offers as well.

Then, one reporter raised his hand.

“This may be an impertinent question, but… Count Nicolaus doesn’t remove his mask even in official settings. May we know the reason?”

I shook my head and answered.

“That question is difficult to answer.”

“Have you known His Highness the Crown Prince for a long time? You said you came from the Papal States, so Count Nicolaus, what did you do in the Papal States…?”

“I will only answer questions related to the topic at hand.”

Leo’s aide sitting beside me deflected that question.

Several reporters looked at me with disappointed faces, then realizing it wouldn’t work, asked questions appropriate to the conference content.

‘…Hmm.’

I should gradually consider this issue too.

As more people recognize Nicolaus, curiosity about the person behind the mask is bound to grow.

After answering their questions directly for a while and listening to Leo’s responses, time flew by.

“The scheduled time is up, so we’ll conclude the conference. We express our gratitude to the citizen representatives and media personnel who participated.”

Leo and I left the conference hall, leaving behind the aide who was wrapping up the conference.

Leo, who had been walking silently for a while, dismissed the security mage following behind him and entered a room used as a warp location.

“…It’s over.”

Leo collapsed onto the sofa as if melting and muttered.

“Good work.”

“Well, let’s go pick up Elias now.”

“Did you get word?”

“They finished proving it was a regular male mosquito. Your mana restrictions will be fully lifted once you arrive too.”

“Good, that’s a relief.”

I held out my arm in front of Leo for the warp.

Just like when he first saw it, Leo looked at the magical crime restraint with quite disgusted eyes.

“…You really look like a criminal.”

“Let’s not put it into words.”

“I’m sorry on his behalf. It really wasn’t supposed to be just you two going.”

“It’s fine. I achieved everything I wanted.”

“If you achieve what you want twice, it’ll be the end…”

Leo let out a hollow laugh and infused his mana. As the guarantor’s mana touched it, the mana restricted by the bracelet was released all at once.

It felt like blocked blood rushing forcefully to my fingertips.

Without hesitation, I snapped my fingers audibly and deployed warp magic.

* * *

After completely resolving my mana restraint issue, we entered the Isolation Ward for High-Level Mage Criminals.

We had come to see Elias.

Though Elias’s actions weren’t serious crimes, he was moved here because his mana couldn’t be controlled through ordinary methods.

“Woohoo~”

Elias, who had become considerably gaunt, was lying on the bed as if it were his own home and waved his hand.

Looking at his complexion, it seemed he had been under stress despite pretending to be calm all this time.

Elias suddenly sat up and gestured at Leo’s uniform.

“What’s with the outfit? That’s totally royal attire.”

“Is clothing what catches your eye right now?”

“Of course not. And… Nicolaus came too.”

The playfulness gradually disappeared from Elias’s face as he looked at me.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to cause you harm, but my thinking was short-sighted.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Thanks to you, I gained 3 points in national favorability in just one day.

…Though I can’t say that.

I sat in the chair beside him and answered.

“No need to apologize. It’s not like I wasn’t prepared.”

“What?”

“I was the one who judged that you could successfully complete the task, and I was the one who recommended you for this job. I didn’t ask you to take this position while going against team members’ opposition without anticipating this much.”

When setting Elias as the plaintiff, there was opposition within the team.

Naturally. The idea of sending the biggest troublemaker among school troublemakers to court, to the council, wasn’t easily accepted.

Elias stared at me silently for a while, then burst into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! This is the first time I’ve heard such an answer. You’re saying you gave me the job expecting I’d cause a ruckus.”

“Because it would be a ruckus with reason. The reaction was bigger than we expected due to your final choice. Look.”

I handed Elias the newspapers I had bought near the conference hall.

Elias carefully read the heavily censored newspapers, then burst into laughter again.

“…What’s written here isn’t false reporting, right? You really granted the demands?”

“It was a situation where we couldn’t not grant them. Though the media is controlled and everything was cut, protests are happening everywhere.”

Leo said.

Elias flipped through the newspaper increasingly faster with an excited face.

“Yeah, it looks like it. Seeing how everything was deleted, it seems we really succeeded properly. Nicolaus and I gained tons of supporters too. Hey, Uncle must be nervous~”

“Would you say we succeeded in screwing over the Imperial Palace to this extent?”

“Of course. Much more than I expected.”

Elias giggled at my words.

Elias returned the newspaper to me and said.

“Thanks. If I hadn’t done what you suggested, I probably would have just grabbed the Imperial Newspaper Chief Editor’s career and blackmailed him. I wouldn’t have particularly thought about broadcasting either… Ah, now I see you know how to raise the stakes. Targeting the whole nation, it’s thrilling even thinking about it again.”

“…You were really planning to blackmail?”

At Leo’s question, Elias shrugged with a face that said ‘why ask such a thing.’

“Of course.”

Leo, who had been smiling with a complex expression between causing chaos and achieving objectives, spoke up.

“Elias.”

“Yeah, what.”

“…You speak better than I thought.”

“…”

“…”

I chuckled seeing Leo’s awkward expression.

It reminded me exactly of his expression on the first day I made Leo my ally.

Elias exchanged glances with me with a bewildered face, then asked Leo.

“What… what happened to you?”

“What’s wrong with giving a compliment?!”

“No, I’m glad you finally recognize my skills.”

Leo smiled faintly at those words and answered.

“Yeah, you really did well. Bavaria aside, the rest could have actually become quite dangerous situations. It’s actually natural that people are reacting to you and Nicolaus like this.”

“Right~? How about it, don’t I seem more mentally sound than Uncle or the Federal Committee?”

“Yeah.”

Elias doubted his ears and opened his eyes wide.

“What?”

“I said yes.”

“…”

Elias opened his mouth as if his jaw would drop.

Seeing this situation firsthand…

This seems to have been moved up a bit too. I almost unconsciously synchronized Elias’s expression to mine before barely managing to erase my expression.

“You… should be lecturing me right now about how blasphemy charges work and all that.”

“It’s the truth. All the citizens are probably thinking the same thing as me right now.”

“Lu… Nicolaus.”

Elias called me with a serious face.

“What.”

“What’s with him… why has he been acting like this? Did his contents get swapped out?”

“He’s the same.”

“What are you saying about people…! Let’s just stop talking…”

Elias firmly grabbed Leo who was trying to turn around.

“No, thank you. It’s just the first time you’ve said something like that, so I was surprised.”

“Geez…”

“This worked out well. It seems like Leo is willing to cooperate with our plans without complaints from now on.”

Elias smiled and quickly turned his head toward me.

“We can’t let this opportunity slip by. What are you going to do next? You’re not planning to stop here, are you?”

“Of course not.”

There are countless things I can do to raise my reputation points.

Since I can’t stop at 5 points anyway, I have to keep moving endlessly until I achieve 9 points.

Leo felt an ominous feeling and asked.

“You’re not saying you’ll cause another uproar like this, are you?”

“Don’t worry. This time I have no intention of getting involved in politics.”

I looked at Elias and Leo in turn as I continued speaking.

“And before that, there’s something I need to tell you. I found Pleroma.”

“What?”

Leo and Elias’s faces became serious.

“To be precise, those with the highest possibility. There are two candidates. One each in the Moderates and the Anti-Barrier Faction.”

Surprisingly, there were no significant changes on the pro-barrier side. This means there was no one who held great resentment toward me.

“Two? There are two Pleromas~?”

“Both could be Pleroma, or only one might be Pleroma.”

“So who exactly are these candidates?”

“Legislator Werner Strauch from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Legislator Hermann Ribbentrop from Prussia. They’re from the Moderates and Anti-Barrier Faction respectively.”

Werner Strauch’s favorability was -5.

Even though it wasn’t particularly bad considering -10 exists, it was the lowest favorability among the Moderates.

It was even lower than the Anti-Barrier Faction members who fluctuated between -3 and -4.

Judging from previous interviews where he said ‘I’ll just follow the citizens’ will,’ he had the position closest to supporting among the Moderates.

If he truly held such a position, there would be no reason for him to dislike me.

And he quietly left his seat in the middle of the meeting.

I can’t judge his final favorability, but that’s exactly why I need to put him on the suspect list. I can’t ignore the possibility that he left because things weren’t going as planned and he couldn’t contain his anger.

‘But to step forward… if he really is Pleroma, he wouldn’t want to create opportunities to get his tail caught.’

There’s no reason for him to step forward and abandon his stance so far to oppose me and Elias.

Second, Hermann Ribbentrop had the lowest final favorability among those present.

His favorability score was initially -6, and at the end it became -5 even after applying traits.

In other words, without traits it would have been -8.

It could have become that way because he truly found our arguments distasteful, but you never know.

“So now the question is who is Pleroma.”

“Right. Is there a method? It seems like we’d get an answer if we just went and beat them up…”

Leo looked at Elias with contemptuous eyes at his half-joking remark.

Anyway, the way to find out is simple.

I slowly opened my mouth while lost in thought.

“If I hadn’t reported this problem, Pleroma could have gained great benefits, so they’ll thoroughly punish whoever failed the job. And the Pleroma who was in charge of the job must harbor tremendous anger toward me.”

“Right.”

Leo nodded.

“What would that person have to do to restore their honor or position internally?”

“They’d have to produce results matching this failure.”

“Right. So that person has no choice but to come after me or Elias.”

Elias said earlier that he knows how to raise the stakes.

As such, our value has also increased. It’s the same from Pleroma’s perspective.

“If they eliminate us who gained nationwide support through this incident, they can prevent future damage we might inflict on Pleroma, and also give the image that Pleroma doesn’t just sit back and take it. Among countless options, it’s the method that can produce results fastest while delivering massive shock to the public.”

“You’re saying our deaths would become their propaganda tool?”

“Right.”

Elias laughed as if he found it interesting.

I continued speaking.

“Regardless of timing, that person will contact us to offset the damage. And whoever contacts us will be the Pleroma who suffered damage from this incident.”

* * *

The next morning, Monday came and I went back to school.

The events at the Council were so intense that even though I only rested for two days over the weekend, it felt like I was going to school after a very long time.

The spy won’t contact me immediately, so I have a few days to investigate.

I put my bag down at my seat in the Special Class and opened my theology book.

‘The Class 2 kids aren’t here.’

Only four Class 1 students are here.

As for why the Class 2 students aren’t here… I understand well enough.

I exchanged nods with a Class 1 student I had talked to before and sat down.

The students immediately continued their conversation once I sat down.

“I thought it was a lie that he filed a lawsuit, but it was real? Yesterday a friend told me about the Imperial Newspaper so I watched it just before it ended. Did you see it?”

“There probably isn’t anyone who didn’t see it. They ran out of paper 5 minutes after it started and had to get refills.”

“I thought I was seeing things wrong. I was like ‘Is something wrong with my head?’ but everyone was saying the same thing.”

“Right. The biggest shock was that he could say something like that. Ah, if it was going to be like this, he should have just stayed in Class 1… Who were the ones who said to send him to Class 2?”

The Class 1 students in the Special Class huddled together, laughing and whispering among themselves.

“Be quiet and study!”

The conversation stopped only after the supervising Professor opened the window from the hallway and shouted.

Even after leaving the Special Class and entering the classroom, the situation was the same.

There wasn’t a place in school where Elias wasn’t mentioned.

Actually, that was already the case.

But while he was famous for causing trouble until now, his image within school had changed following the same positive tone as the entire nation.

Everyone might become like those legislators when they grow up, but since they’re still at an age where their sense of justice is alive, most seemed to agree with Elias’s words.

Elias’s seat was already packed with students, and the same was true for Leo and Narke.

Leo had his own attention, and Narke also received attention regarding the mage selection matter.

‘It’s quite noisy.’

Listening, I occasionally heard my story being mentioned too.

Before, they saw me and Elias as complete partners to the point of considering me an accomplice.

As such, the attention directed at Elias is actually pouring toward Nicolaus in similar amounts.

It just feels like all attention is concentrated on him because this is a school and Elias is a student here.

But regardless of inside or outside school, the direction of interest toward Nicolaus is slightly different from Elias’s case.

“What’s the reason he won’t take off the mask? Leo, have you seen his face?”

Leo didn’t answer and smiled while smoothly deflecting the question.

While attention is pouring toward Elias regarding his achievements, Nicolaus is receiving more interest about what might be behind the mask, though his achievements matter too.

The questions I experienced during the Bavaria press conference were actually common interests of all Imperial citizens.

‘Since I’m going around suspiciously… it can’t be helped.’

I would have the same reaction.

When he goes hunting, they might think it’s just his concept, but… since he went to the Council looking like that, this kind of reaction is unavoidable.

“Elias, how did you get to know Count Nicolaus?”

“Leo introduced me. I’m sleepy now, so let me sleep properly~”

“Ah, wait a minute. Elias, is this real?”

A student handed Elias a magazine with an obviously indecent cover.

Elias, who had been lying down drowsily and ignoring the students’ chatter, this time chuckled in disbelief as he read the text on the cover.

“What’s this, a Nicolaus Ernst special issue?”

“It came out from Daslotte this morning. Is what’s written here real?”

Daslotte is the Empire’s representative yellow journalism publication.

‘…’

What do they know to publish a special issue about me?

I don’t expect there to be any proper content. I’m just curious what nonsense they wrote.

Elias glanced at me briefly, then smiled and opened the booklet.

“Let’s see… New personal information obtained from Bavaria and eyewitness testimony. Hey, Leo! You need to manage information properly.”

“What does it say.”

Leo asked.

It’s probably just filled with false rumors anyway.

Even thinking that, I couldn’t easily take my attention away from it.

Actually, it’s natural. How could I not be curious when someone made a booklet about me?

“I don’t know. I’m going to read it from now. So, 77 years old… Huh?”

“…?”

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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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