How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 413

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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 does someone die suddenly?”

 

“Exactly. They don’t seem to know the cause either.”

 

“You can tell that just from looking at this?”

 

“Intuition.”

 

“Right… I suppose so.”

 

I grabbed my head again. Then I asked Narke, who was staring intently at the newspaper article that contained only a single line.

 

“Do you think someone killed the Prime Minister with Atropos?”

 

“I don’t know that much, but I thought the same thing you’re thinking.”

 

The timing is too coincidental. Not long after decoding the cipher about ‘loading 100 barrels of Atropos onto a train bound for Austria-Hungary,’ seeing the Austrian-Hungarian Prime Minister die suddenly makes it not difficult to speculate that the two events are related. Narke’s insight big data was lending more weight to that speculation.

 

Under the premise that he died from Atropos, the Prime Minister’s death has revealed something we can figure out, which is this: Adrian Ascanien’s judgment appears far more accurate than the Commander’s judgment. If France were behind it as the Commander believes, there would be no reason to kill the Austria-Hungary ‘Prime Minister.’ Just being falsely accused of stealing artifacts wouldn’t escalate to assassinating a foreign dignitary, especially someone with the highest authority in the cabinet excluding the royal family – anyone would know that. They could interfere with foreign policy by causing widespread economic disruption through tariffs and trade, or heighten tensions by befriending anti-Austria-Hungary nations. Even in this era, when some friction has occurred, anyone you ask would say that utilizing such foreign sanctions is far more common than suddenly assassinating foreign politicians. Paradoxically, unless Atropos was used for another purpose, since it was used to kill the ‘Prime Minister,’ France is cleared from the list of suspects. For them to be the real culprits, there would need to be another motive. Of course, from Austria-Hungary’s perspective, France is currently a nation with diplomatic friction, so considering them as suspects is natural, but they too wouldn’t rate the possibility highly.

 

The Prime Minister died either first, due to personal grudges or interests, or second, by a third party who could benefit from his death even without knowing him personally. Since we have no way of knowing the first possibility right now, starting with the second, what can we naturally think of? The fact that the ‘Prime Minister’ died naturally leads to the idea that someone was dissatisfied with the domestic affairs under the Prime Minister’s jurisdiction, and if you know the rough history of the Austria-Hungary Empire, there would be suspects that come to mind. Who were the Austrians receiving the greatest criticism from at this point? Who were those under the rule of Habsburg, the predecessor of the current imperial ruling family Osterreicheste?

 

The Hungarians. Even though their kingdom’s name came to be placed alongside the Austrian Empire’s name after revolution and the Great Compromise, they are still second-class citizens of the Austrian Empire and continue to experience discrimination and exclusion by the Austrians. Since every movement has radicals and moderates, by now the Austrians are probably raging, saying ‘surely radical Hungarian nationalists killed our Austrian Prime Minister’ without anything being revealed.

 

I pressed my forehead and muttered.

 

“Austria must be in chaos. Finding Atropos will become even more difficult.”

 

“Right. I’m scared to go~ Hmm.”

 

“Should I pretend to be a foreigner, or pretend to be Austrian…”

 

I talked to myself and came to an answer. It’s better to pretend to be a foreigner. No matter how confident I am in my acting skills, in times when everyone’s nerves are on edge like this, it’s better not to create situations where I could be caught. I don’t know Austrian culture very well, and I’m not good at speaking ‘Österreich High German,’ that is, Austrian standard language. However, in this case, I must not say I’m Prussian. Absolutely not.

 

From what I can tell, Austrians of this period had the consciousness that after losing the Austro-Prussian War, they had to hand over the position of leader among German states to the ‘rootless’ count family Hohenzollern from the Brandenburg sandy plains, so they didn’t like Prussians. Since they consider their country virtually the successor to the Holy Roman Empire Habsburg, their pride was understandably hurt.

 

Narke, who had been stroking her chin, plopped down next to me and answered.

 

“That’s difficult. How about pretending to be Bavarian~?”

 

“Hmm…”

 

That’s a decent option. Bavaria and Austria have quite a good relationship. This is partly because the two countries have been connected through marriage for a long time—of course, in the Human era, Prussia and Bavaria were also connected through marriage, and even now European ruling families exchange magical power with each other, but Bavaria and Austria have such a strong image as long-time allies that the people seem to value it more meaningfully—and most crucially, both are dissatisfied with the power structure led by Prussia. During the Austro-Prussian War, Bavaria was Prussia’s enemy nation and Austria’s ally.

 

The problem is that I’m not very fluent in Bavarian. Then it would be good to say I’m from Anhalt, Mecklenburg, or Oldenburg, which don’t use that accent, but unfortunately, they would all look like Prussian lackeys—or at least in their eyes—so it’s a second choice. The languages I can speak skillfully are only Low German used in Anhalt, Prussian German, and High German as the standard language. I closed my eyes and narrowed my brow.

 

“It would be best to pretend to be from Baden or Bavaria, but even if I wanted to, the accent is a bit problematic. Should I learn it…”

 

“Learning it now won’t work.”

 

“That’s true. Narke, can you speak Austro-Bavarian?”

 

“No! I’m going to mix Italian accent with German~”

 

“That’s good.”

 

Since the Austria-Hungary Empire absorbed parts of northern Italy when it was the Habsburg monarchy, it wouldn’t be too strange for people with Italian blood to be walking around. Narke is actually from northern Italy too. Narke carefully put some unusual artifacts that appeared to be from the Papal States into her carrier and stood at the door.

 

“Let’s head to the Imperial Palace now, Lucas.”

 

* * *

 

At the Imperial Palace, they provided a reception room to install a temporary portal. It was a direct route to the border checkpoint crossing into Austria-Hungary. Until the very end, Adrian Ascanien was nowhere to be seen. He was busy fulfilling his duties as a politician of the Empire.

 

One of Adrian Ascanien’s adjutants extended his hand to me.

 

“Have you memorized all the materials? If you have them with you, please give them to me.”

 

I handed him the files. The government had compiled information that would be useful for this investigation and passed it to us, but we couldn’t take it to Austria. Among what they gave us, all we could take were a couple of forged passports made to reflect our requirements and the money the government provided. Therefore, in the meantime, I had read the files five times to perfectly memorize them. I didn’t need to read them that much, but I had nothing else to do.

 

“The portal will open at exactly 2 o’clock. There are 5 minutes left, so if you need anything until the last moment, please call me.”

 

“There’s nothing. Please be at ease.”

 

I answered briefly and sat on the sofa to wait. Then, the adjutant touched his ear and suddenly said.

 

“Tell them to come in.”

 

He must have received contact from the mage guarding this room. As soon as the door opened, I saw a familiar person.

 

“Lucas.”

 

It was a welcome face. As he entered, the adjutant left the room. Leo, wearing an Eschete uniform, came in with an expressionless face, took off his hat, nodded to Narke, then spoke in a deeply troubled voice.

 

“I heard. You got a new mission.”

 

“Didn’t you guys have additional training? I heard all the other teams are doing additional training.”

 

“We did. I finished everything and came out, but they told me to go back in. They showed me your video, so I immediately copied it and came out.”

 

“You can do it just by watching once.”

 

“There’s no reason I couldn’t.”

 

Leo exhaled deeply and pulled at his shirt front to adjust his appearance. Now there were only three people in this room, but perhaps worried about possible wiretapping, he cast a sound-blocking spell. Leo quietly looked at his watch, then ran his hand through his hair and spoke as if talking to himself.

 

“You did well, Lucas.”

 

“Thanks. A day or two?”

 

What’s this. I can see Leo laughing as if incredulous after saying that. I chuckled along with him and patted the seat next to me. Leo shook his head lightly, looked down at me, and spoke quietly.

 

“I know that nothing I say about this situation will change anything, but I can’t help thinking this. If I had done a little better…”

 

“You would be going to Austria-Hungary with Narke instead of me.”

 

“Right. That’s what I want.”

 

I can feel Narke glancing at him. I knew what he meant, but I shrugged with the same blunt voice and played dumb.

 

“I’m learning for the first time today that you want to get close to Narke. I still can’t forget that month-end evaluation day when we rode the carriage together to the outskirts.”

 

“Ah! That time~”

 

Narke laughed loudly, pleased about something. But Leo only smiled without much soul in it and kept his gaze elsewhere. Anyway, if it’s Leo, he wouldn’t have come here just to talk about past events. He’s definitely not a friend who dwells on past events for long, and rather, he’s someone who transforms such things into opportunities for development, so there’s no way he’d just talk about past exams. However, since I didn’t want him to be even a little downhearted after I left, I gestured to Narke for understanding, cast a sound-blocking spell, then looked at Leo with narrowed eyes.

 

“I can’t help but be disappointed.”

 

Leo glanced at me and tilted his head slightly. I leaned forward and continued.

 

“You can’t trust the skills of someone you’ve staked your life on? When my one and only friend underestimates me too much, I don’t know what to say. If we were strangers, I could at least try to explain somehow.”

 

“Is that how it works? Hahaha…”

 

Leo laughed out loud for once. Then, with a gentle smile, he lightly brushed his lips and spoke disapprovingly.

 

“It’s not you that’s the problem, it’s other people.”

 

“I know. But we haven’t even opened the lid yet. After making it to the top ranks, are you regretting not being first in training because you have nothing else to regret?”

 

“I wouldn’t call it regret…”

 

“Then what is it?”

 

“…”

 

After thinking for a moment to choose his words, he opened his mouth, but I immediately shook my head and continued.

 

“Trust me once. I’ll make the time you spent regretting feel worthless.”

 

I showed a confident smile and extended my pinky finger. Leo now looked down at me with an incredulous face, raising one corner of his mouth and holding back laughter. Since I was also saying things I don’t usually say mixed with playfulness, I felt the same way. When I shrugged again with a face asking what he was going to do, Leo waved his hand dismissively and nodded in agreement. Before he could say anything, I quickly opened my mouth.

 

“Sit down for a moment. I actually had something I wanted to ask you.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“You’re speaking standard German right now.”

 

“…Right? Why is that?”

 

“If it’s okay, could you speak some Bavarian for me?”

 

“Why?”

 

Leo made a bewildered face. Then he narrowed his eyes and pointed at me.

 

“I’ll speak it if you want me to. But in front of someone like you… who speaks standard German, I don’t usually use it.”

 

“Don’t you know I speak Anhalt Low German? And you used it sometimes in Bavaria.”

 

“That was in front of Bavarians. You’re not one. Have I ever spoken Bavarian to you?”

 

“No. Why?”

 

“Why do you think? At least tell me what you want to hear it for.”

 

“I was wondering if I could pretend to be Bavarian from now on for the mission. It’s good to prepare multiple identities in case of emergency. I want to know if my accent is okay.”

 

“Then you should speak, not me. Go ahead and try.”

 

I was hoping to copy it while listening. Well, what would change from hearing a word or two? I cleared my throat unnecessarily. Then, recalling all the Bavarian I’d heard and countless phonetic symbols, trying my best to pronounce all those sounds as accurately as possible, I opened my mouth.

 

“I don’t know what to say. How is it? Do I sound Bavarian?”

 

Leo, who had been looking at me with crossed arms and a smile as if to see how I’d do, continued looking at me with that same expression. When I responded to that subtle smile with my own subtle smile, he waved his hand dismissively with a gentle face.

 

“Do you have to copy it? Give up.”

 

“…”

 

I hadn’t said anything, but for some reason Leo burst into laughter. I was laughing too, the same way. The difference was that mine was a somewhat deflated laugh. Fine. Pretending to be Bavarian is out. Just because someone is Bavarian doesn’t mean they always have to speak Bavarian, so speaking standard German would be fine, but if I happen to meet someone from the same ‘hometown,’ it would be awkward, so let’s not make that choice.

 

Now there was 1 minute left. The moment the second hand pointed to 12, the adjutant knocked on the door with perfect timing. Before breaking the sound-blocking spell, Leo smiled and said goodbye.

 

“Have a safe trip, let’s meet again in good health.”

 

* * *

 

Stepping through the portal was difficult this time too. Only after Narke pushed my back toward the door on the other side like before could I face the outside air.

 

Before coming out, I had changed my eye and hair color. With an artifact on my wrist that neatly organized and limited the magical power I radiated outward, I pretended to be a very ordinary Human German with deep golden eyes and similarly deep blonde hair with Narke’s help, while Narke came out in her usual appearance.

 

We passed through the checkpoint easily thanks to the Imperial Court, but now everything after that was the problem. Warping around Austria freely from here—we needed to know the coordinate system of this place with the government’s help at least, but we couldn’t do such things openly. We had to use it appropriately but not abuse it. Therefore, we would take a train to Vienna, the center of the incident, while also gathering information.

 

Before that, we had to stop at a restaurant in Salzburg, the major city closest to the checkpoint. We weren’t hungry, but to properly adjust our future course of action, it would be good to mingle among locals before getting on the train in earnest.

 

After walking for about 30 minutes to reach a place that had a decent downtown appearance, Narke and I entered the restaurant that seemed to have the most people. When I used the Bavarian greeting I knew and sat down, a waiter brought us menus.

 

During this time, my attention was on the conversations of the restaurant customers.

 

“…Hungarians. Are there any Hungarians in this restaurant?”

 

“Keep it down.”

 

“If there are, get the hell out! Leave Austria!”

 

Someone drunk was shouting at the top of their lungs. Responses like “That’s right” filled the entire restaurant. There didn’t seem to be any Hungarians here to begin with, but they were cursing Hungarians into midair. As expected, they were blaming the Hungarians for the Prime Minister’s sudden death.

 

Narke didn’t give them even a glance and brought over the menu. I naturally scolded Narke, who immediately opened to the alcohol section.

 

“No. You can’t get drunk from midday.”

 

“There’s a way. You could blow it away for me~?”

 

“….”

 

She meant using divine power to blow it away. Narke probably wouldn’t drink enough to get drunk anyway, but I didn’t particularly want to drink alcohol. Without responding, I turned my head toward the owner passing by our table and said.

 

“Are you taking orders? Scrambled eggs and sparkling water, please.”

 

“German?”

 

At that sharp retort, all the noise in the storefront disappeared. Everyone’s gaze turned toward me. The owner continued asking with a stern face.

 

“Prussia? Saxony? Hanover?”

 

From what I just said, he realized I was German. I had used standard language and spoke briefly, so it probably wasn’t simply a matter of accent. I might be mistaken though. If so, was it a difference in vocabulary—if true, then as I confirmed earlier, I couldn’t say I came from Bavaria.

 

“I came from central Germany.”

 

“The person next to you too?”

 

At that question, Narke nodded.

 

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

“…Rührei, you mean Eierspeis, right.”

 

He was talking about scrambled eggs. The owner stiffly corrected my ‘standard German’ to the Austrian style and went into the kitchen. Even after he took our order and went into the kitchen, the silence didn’t lift. Everyone was looking at us foreigners with sharp eyes. Normally it wouldn’t be like this, but the country’s atmosphere seemed frozen due to the Prime Minister’s sudden death, which couldn’t rule out the possibility of assassination. Especially now that they were already badmouthing Hungarians and the solidarity and unity among Austrians had strangely strengthened in a weird direction, it was natural that foreigners couldn’t be viewed favorably.

 

Far away at a table, drunk Austrian middle-aged humans were tapping their table. When we looked in their direction, the human gestured with his chin and asked.

 

“You students over there.”

 

“….”

 

More precisely, he said ‘male students.’ German had clear gender distinctions even in words. Not only was there the matter of die, der, or das that came before words, but the words themselves were different. Thanks to us wearing somewhat commoner-like clothes, fortunately we weren’t seen as Espers, and as intended, we seemed to be mistaken for male humans.

 

The older human asked with bloodshot eyes.

 

“When did you come to our country?”

 

“…It’s been a few days. This past Monday.”

 

“Why did you come? It’s not vacation time these days, is it?”

 

“I have relatives living here.”

 

“What relatives? How so, did you both come to see relatives by any chance?”

 

This was clearly an expression of hostility. Throwing interrogation-like questions at a table far away in the restaurant was hard to accept as small talk, but we both knew well that this wasn’t a country where small talk went well anyway. Narke and I exchanged glances. Not because we had no excuses, but because their hostility far exceeded my expectations. Narke seemed to feel the same way, as she had a somewhat serious expression.

 

Thud—

 

Before we knew it, the owner had set down scrambled eggs and sparkling water on our table. Having naturally avoided answering, we finished our meal and left the storefront.

 

I looked at the train station in the distance and muttered.

 

“Now I understand.”

 

“I know….”

 

Narke cast a sound-blocking spell and whispered in response.

 

What did I understand? I understood that we needed to be prepared for a lot if we wanted to travel around the Austro-Hungarian Empire in this state. I called Narke by the alias I had prepared in advance.

 

“Conrad.”

 

“Haha… yes?”

 

“We need to take the train now.”

 

“….”

 

“The problem is we need to buy tickets. Even if we present passports stamped with the Empire’s seal, they’ll definitely ask why we came to their country and what two students are here to do, just like earlier. And it’ll probably be even worse than before. And….”

 

I looked at the humans wearing Austro-Hungarian police uniforms. Those with swords at their waists glanced at us with sharp eyes and quickly passed by. I whispered only after they disappeared.

 

“Police are patrolling around.”

 

“Mm.”

 

“We need to revise our plan for now. I was going to say we came to see relatives, but that would only work in bigger cities.”

 

“That’s true. If we said who our relatives were, they looked ready to find them immediately.”

 

“The possibility of them actually searching isn’t that high, but it’s true we’d get caught. …Should we say we came to do odd jobs?”

 

Narke burst out laughing. My words must have sounded like nonsense. I followed where Narke was walking, looking down and lost in thought.

 

“Since we’re seen as male students, we can’t say we came to work as teachers, and we can’t say we came to deliver newspapers… Should we say we came traveling?”

 

“‘Two students together’?”

 

“Don’t be sarcastic….”

 

Narke repeated what that human had said earlier. I let out a hollow laugh and exhaled deeply. I was lost in thought, stroking my chin, when we reached the shade of a tree in some garden and I snapped my fingers.

 

“There’s no choice. Let’s make a more detailed list of relatives. And we need to decide when you’ll use divine power. It’s too obvious when I give signals….”

 

“No, Lucas.”

 

Narke, who had stopped behind me, answered in a serious voice. The moment I turned my head half a step back, I froze when I realized the other person’s face wasn’t at my eye level.

 

Where Narke should have been stood a human I’d never seen before. An unfamiliar human of the same age, whose face I had no idea where it came from, adjusted an unfamiliar parasol and smiled leisurely with Narke’s expression.

 

“There’s a way.”

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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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