How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 414

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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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“Me….”

 

“How is it?”

 

Where Narke should have been standing, a Chimera Student was there instead. She lightly lifted her navy hat adorned with flowers and smiled. The gesture was more disciplined than refreshing, like someone who had lived long as a papal guard, but anyway the student before my eyes made such a gesture. At the thought that someone had thrown Narke away and brought some complete stranger in his place—no, this might be the truth!—I felt the blood in my entire body turn cold as I looked around. But Narke was nowhere to be found, and clearly, this, this….

 

I felt darkness closing in despite the bright spring day and shouted.

 

“Nar…. Conrad! What are you doing?! Are you in your right mind?”

 

“It’s fine to just call me by name. I just called your name too.”

 

“Ah.”

 

Only then did I become aware of the sound-blocking magic surrounding us and grabbed his shoulder. No, I tried to grab it. My hand stopped floating in midair.

 

“Narke…! What are you thinking?! You’re going to continue like this?”

 

“What’s wrong with it? Lucas, you’ve done plenty of disguises too.”

 

“….”

 

“If we don’t borrow the power of divine force, acting as a Demon Woman would actually be impossible. We just couldn’t do it for that reason, but is there any reason we shouldn’t? Since we can borrow divine power now, isn’t it fine?”

 

Of course there was no reason not to. If there were no ethical disqualifications in the method and no problems in achieving the objective, what would it matter? However, I was just surprised at applying a new method I had never considered. Moreover, the Human before my eyes was someone I was seeing for the first time. Really for the first time. Only his facial muscles moved exactly like Narke’s, but there were no other similarities. Unlike Espers who are basically born by overlaying individual genes and magic power onto a touched model, he looked not much different from any other Human, that is, he looked distinctive like other Humans while ironically being one of those ordinary Human Europeans whose faces don’t leave a deep impression at the same time. My occupational disease was analyzing his role. He was currently trying to act as an unremarkable ordinary person.

 

The Human student, that is Narke, smiled with a confident face and said.

 

“We use everything we can use. That’s the basics of disguise, Lucas.”

 

“Have you done this often before?”

 

“No, haha. This is when I try taking on a new role.”

 

A role, indeed. Narke always seemed to like acting, as usual. And he was actually quite good at it too.

 

Narke looked straight at me and continued speaking.

 

“Now, listen. Lucas, you should already know why I chose this appearance. What do those ‘male students’ we heard about mean to us?”

 

“…I’m not sure if we’re actually male students, but anyway the word choice is very Human-like.”

 

“That’s right. But besides that.”

 

I stared at Narke intently and said quietly.

 

“It interferes with the investigation. We’re being watched by them. ‘Why are there two foreign male students,’ would be something that rubs them the wrong way.”

 

If we said we came to study abroad, the wariness might lessen somewhat, but we decided not to make such excuses. Why we decided not to make the excuse of studying abroad is easy to recall, but to go over it once, it’s because the ‘possibility’ of problems arising increases. Let’s say I claim I came to study at the University of Vienna in a crisis situation on a completely different level from that restaurant earlier. Someone with suspicions would investigate the University of Vienna, discover that no German who looks like me exists in any department, and immediately the unidentified duo would be reported to the police. It would be a matter of time before the fact that there are ‘spies impersonating University of Vienna exchange students’ in the Empire is shared with police throughout Austria. From now on, I’ll decide not to go over areas that can be deduced this simply. Additionally, the fact that Germany planted us in Austria-Hungary is known only to the bare minimum—typically diplomatic missions—and Austrian police are not cooperating in this area.

 

What’s important is this. That Human earlier called us Students. If Student in English just means ‘student,’ then Student in German means male college students. He didn’t see us as middle or high school students. That’s where the problem arises. Because we appear to be adults, we become even more objects of antipathy to them. But would the problem be solved if we were both students? That’s not the case either. If we get caught in a situation we can’t brush off like earlier, we’d be asked who our guardians are, and whatever answer or action we provide, the decision we made earlier to ‘not make excuses about studying abroad’ would quickly become meaningless.

 

I stroked my chin and asked.

 

“So, if we can’t help being foreigners, you’re going to fix the male student part?”

 

“Exactly. Let’s use Human stereotypes.”

 

“My head is already aching….”

 

When I let out a hollow laugh, Narke in front of me laughed along.

 

Actually, we could mix in mental manipulation magic to make our words sound exactly like those of Austrians to people talking with us. But it’s better to save good tools until the end. For example, if we’re foreigners and then get chased after being caught at a crucial moment, and only then use the method of ‘becoming Austrians with divine power,’ since they have no data that we can use divine power, the number and types of countermeasures they deploy would remain within manageable limits. But if we openly use our secret weapons everywhere from the start, advertising the fact that we’re publicly going around messing with people’s brains, it would be no different from giving them a chance at victory. Of course, if we remain as Austrians and don’t get caught, it would be beneficial, but we can’t help but consider the possibility that we might not. Just like with the study abroad case.

 

Narke quickly snapped his fingers.

 

“There were three things that were problems for us. Foreigners, Human males, two people. All these elements combined were the problem. Actually, if only one of us had been moving around, there might have been less hostility. But we can’t move to different places separately.”

 

“If only the Prime Minister hadn’t died suddenly….”

 

The investigation is becoming troublesome because of the Prime Minister who seems about 90% likely to have died from Atropos. As I held my head and muttered to myself, Narke laughed.

 

“Haha, then moving around would have been completely easy. But the Prime Minister’s death gave us a clue to the case. Anyway, as we are, being foreigners on top of everything, we’re objects of suspicion. Earlier, we were considered to ‘possibly be prepared to do something that could harm this country and might actually be capable of doing it.'”

 

“Did you read that with insight?”

 

“Of course, but you felt it too. But what if we’re in this form?”

 

“….”

 

I was briefly flustered as a 21st century person, then narrowed my eyes and asked.

 

“Why can’t you do intelligence work in that state.”

 

What becomes immediately apparent when learning about the history of espionage is this.

 

Using members of groups that people don’t suspect or suspect less for intelligence purposes is a method with a long history. Most of the cases I know shined during World War II, but since I couldn’t tell Narke about that, I couldn’t say anything. Narke seemed to understand my meaning and nodded while speaking.

 

“Of course, from our perspective, the Humans’ pathological obsession with gender is puzzling, but they’re beings of a different species in a realm we can’t understand. So let’s put aside our common sense and think from their perspective. Humans are much more tolerant of male-female compositions than male duos. Why is that? The basis and progression are quite different, but anyway, they’re also not very tolerant of female duos either.”

 

“….”

 

I pondered this unfamiliar question thoughtfully and stroked my chin.

 

“…Crime rate…. No, that’s not it… Because they’re crazy about romance?”

 

“Hahaha!”

 

Narke burst into hearty laughter and then grinned.

 

“Right. We now appear more ordinary than anything else. This doesn’t mean we didn’t look ordinary before. We were sitting in the restaurant like perfectly ordinary people, but they couldn’t gauge our purpose. We might suddenly stand up and shout ‘Long live Hungarian independence’ or ‘Death to Osterreicheste,’ or as Prussian intellectuals, we might gloat over Austria’s suffering and decline. Perhaps as non-Austrians, whether we became Germans or Italians, we might side with the Hungarians under Austrian oppression. In that sense, we become thoroughly ‘unknowable others’ and dangerous factors with sufficient potential to damage their noble community.”

 

“….”

 

“But why are they tolerant of male-female compositions?”

 

“…We.”

 

I found myself opening my mouth without realizing it. I quietly told Narke, who was waiting for an answer, something I had never understood in my entire life.

 

“Because we appear to share happiness that they can universally understand.”

 

“Exactly. Yes, Lucas. You knew it too. We need to become beings that appear completely non-threatening to them. We didn’t come to Austria harboring even the slightest possibility of harming them, but for our happiness, memories, and youth.”

 

“….”

 

“There’s no better option than this. Perhaps one of us could act as an adolescent Human to ease their wariness, but that’s where it ends. It wouldn’t be a way to bring an already negative image up to zero.”

 

Narke smiled while looking at the distant Residential Area.

 

His insight and foresight would be bringing him confidence right now. And at the same time, the memories and realizations of my entire life knew that his insight wasn’t wrong. Perhaps my entire life of having to act out what being in love was without even knowing what it meant and show it to the public was an extreme experience that couldn’t be shared with the general public, so I might not dare to hastily say he was right….

 

Rather, precisely because of that, in this situation I could understand Narke’s choice. Narke, who had been looking around with a relaxed face, extended his hand to me and continued speaking.

 

“Or should we experiment a bit more?”

 

* * *

 

That’s enough. Why test anything more?

 

I was completely convinced. Hadn’t I felt their rejection directly at the restaurant earlier? I wasn’t leisurely enough to experience more such rejection. Narke’s problem-solving method was quite different from mine, where I consider numerous hypotheses only in my thoughts and then don’t take unnecessary risks in reality. He was the ‘let’s try this and that once’ style, while I was the ‘let’s only take the path with the highest final success probability’ style.

 

‘…At least it’s fortunate he has insight.’

 

No, perhaps because of his insight, Narke came to prefer directly confronting various situations. His insight and foresight might be stealing away all the pleasure and thrill that comes from uncertainty.

 

“….”

 

If that were true, I wouldn’t need to deliberately erase the sudden sense of kinship I felt.

 

However, whatever the case, this isn’t a trip but an operation to steal poison that could kill millions, so I can’t relax enough to experiment with subjects that can be confirmed through thought alone.

 

By the way.

 

I still hadn’t adapted to the perfect stranger walking beside me, matching my pace.

 

In the Empire, the only mages who could change appearance with illusions would be Narke and me, but among them, Narke’s technical skill in maintaining illusions was on a different level from mine. Narke quickly gave this unfamiliar face a name, and in his effort not to attract attention, he chose the common name Johanna. I muttered as I walked toward the Train Station.

 

“…Your divine power amount is impressive.”

 

“Haha, it’s not that much, just a matter of efficiency.”

 

“Efficiency?”

 

“Right. If I put 10 units of power into illusions, you put in 100 units, so my magic power just feels like more.”

 

“Hmm, well, you’ve used it your whole life, so that makes sense too.”

 

“But Lucas.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

I tried not to feel awkward about this complete stranger calling my name, and answered as warmly as possible while keeping my head down to meet his brown eyes.

 

“You know you’re talking while looking at my neck, right? Haha.”

 

“….”

 

I let out a hollow laugh and turned my head. Of course. Narke’s real field of vision is at an eye level not much different from mine. That ‘Johanna’ appearance right now is just an illusion, and others and I are only seeing false images overlaid on Narke’s original appearance. I cautiously brought my hand to the empty air above his hat at a sudden thought. True to being an ‘illusion,’ I only felt air currents on my hand. Nothing else touched, but Narke made a “huh” sound and staggered.

 

“You almost poked my eye.”

 

“…Sorry. So there really is something there.”

 

“Right. My face. Should I make myself taller….”

 

“No, keep wearing the parasol.”

 

Considering average height, getting any taller would make you easily noticeable.

 

The Train Station was, as expected, not easy to enter from the start. As soon as we opened the door and entered, we could see someone in Police Station uniform stopping people.

 

“Since we’re near the border, we’ll do a brief inspection. Are you Austrian?”

 

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

Despite the answer of being Austrian, the police officer stared at him intently and then gestured to his Colleague.

 

“Search him.”

 

At those words, the citizen looked around with a bewildered face. Even though he answered yes, a search followed. We couldn’t just brush it off and enter. The police were distinguishing whether people were their own citizens or not based on appearance and clothing, and even if they were real Austrians, if there was anything that caught their subjective judgment, they would search first and ask questions later. He soon came over to me and asked the same question.

 

“Austrian?”

 

“No. I’m German.”

 

“Show me your passport.”

 

I showed him the forged passport—since transformation magic was cast on this too, I had to carefully check what passport it was displaying. Narke did the same. However, this side was also subtly casting mental manipulation magic on the police officer reading the passport.

 

I glanced at Narke’s ID photo in a suit, swallowed nervously, and looked into the police officer’s eyes. He quickly returned our passports and asked.

 

“Where are you two headed?”

 

“We’re going to Vienna.”

 

At those words, the police officer raised his eyebrows.

 

“Why are you going to Vienna?”

 

Now they’re questioning foreigners about going to the capital too? I expected this, but this is quite difficult. If they’re this exclusionary… I think if I had said I was Hungarian, I wouldn’t have even been able to enter the train station. I spoke with an indifferent expression.

 

“For travel. The timing has unfortunately become poor, but we had set the date in advance.”

 

I finished speaking while turning my head toward ‘Johanna’. Johanna, who met my eyes, smiled sweetly and extended her hand. I kissed the back of her hand and smiled, as people of this era typically do. Personally, regardless of the era, when I saw lovers lost in their own world, I usually felt nothing and sometimes found it tiresome, but acting it out wasn’t difficult. That had made up my entire life. The police officer looked at the young people with an expression that seemed both pitying and exasperated, then nodded his head as if to say hurry along.

 

“Though the timing is like this, I hope you two have a pleasant trip. Now, since this is right next to the border, there will be inspections. Austrians…”

 

They quickly turned to speak to the person behind us.

 

If I had been with Narke in his true form and said we were ‘going on a trip,’ it wouldn’t have failed to pass, but at least we would have had to leave our passports with the local police and write a travel permit and pledge. At least that’s how it was when I received police training in Germany. That was an area where individual civil servants were allowed some discretion, like how the Austrian was body-searched earlier. But they had to take responsibility for it accordingly.

 

The embarrassingly sharp atmosphere we experienced in the restaurant and the dozens of gazes fixed on us weren’t here. Those standing here showed a surprising lack of interest in us foreigners and passed us through with surprisingly simple responses. Just the appearance of one person and the external relationship between two fake identities had changed.

 

“…”

 

I felt sick to my stomach. Somehow I felt nauseous.

 

I walked looking straight ahead and left the entrance crawling with police.

 

We bought tickets and returned to the waiting room. Looking around, the newspapers were all black. There were more people at the train station than expected, but perhaps due to the incident, it was very quiet without even the sound of an ant. The atmosphere was particularly bad because it happened to be someone who was highly regarded by the Austrians. Some were even wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs.

 

I picked up a newspaper placed on a chair. The back page was completely black, and the front page was covered in bold blackletter type.

 

[Prime Minister Rudolf Traf Dies]

 

[Osterreicheste Official Statement: “Deep condolences to Prime Minister Traf, who was Austria’s loyal pillar and advocate for the people”]

 

[Vienna, Mourning Processions Continue]

 

[Vienna Police: “Cannot rule out possibility of Prime Minister’s assassination, will investigate thoroughly”]

 

“…”

 

After that, we waited another 30 minutes. The time waiting for the train in the waiting room was completely like sitting on pins and needles. If we spoke, our foreign identity would show—because of those damn ‘subtle’ accent and word differences—but we couldn’t casually cast sound-blocking magic outside. Unless we did it briefly.

 

And after waiting a bit more, I learned that the waiting room and platform were closer than expected, so this place sometimes became noisy. Even then, most people were talking about Hungarians and the dead Prime Minister.

 

“…Hungarians poisoned him. There have been many people in Hungary who believed in sorcery since ancient times. They used magic to kill the Prime Minister! Someone transformed and added poison.”

 

“But didn’t they already inspect all the food the Prime Minister ate from dinner? There was no poison.”

 

Since only 3 hours have passed since the Prime Minister died, there’s also little information. Most of what they’re saying is nothing more than rumors.

 

“Then how did he pass away? There’s no method. It must be the work of those who command Satan.”

 

‘Occult…’

 

Since nothing’s been revealed, they jump to this topic. But I had to listen. In the 19th century without SNS, to gather public reactions, there was no choice but to enter restaurants like before, loiter around crowded parks, or eavesdrop on chatter at train stations like this. At times like this, someone would luckily climb onto a platform or something and loudly expound their thoughts—give speeches—and people would gather and respond enthusiastically.

 

“Theo.”

 

Then, ‘Johanna’ whispered. Theo was the alias I was using. Narke rustled the newspaper he had taken half of and whispered.

 

“They say no poison was detected in the Prime Minister’s body.”

 

“Human poison?”

 

“That’s right. Things like belladonna or potassium cyanide.”

 

“What about magic potions?”

 

Aren’t we going to look for magic potions? That the Prime Minister was struck by Atropos—that’s the first hypothesis.

 

Narke thought for a moment at my question, then whispered quietly.

 

“The body rotted, so they won’t be able to determine it.”

 

“…Rotted? Is that written somewhere?”

 

“No.”

 

“…”

 

Does that mean he found out using his ability? For Narke’s ability to work this well, it’s been a long time since something like this happened.

 

More than that, given that we’re placing high probability on poisoning by Atropos, the most important issue is where the Prime Minister went and what he did recently. According to information obtained by the government, he had been suffering from heavy workload as Easter approached ten days away, attended meetings until yesterday evening, left work at midnight, and came back to the Prime Minister’s residence early this morning. Then at 10 AM, he suddenly collapsed while drinking water at the residence, and his secretary only discovered him 30 minutes later. That’s all.

 

Now the key is what he did during his personal time at dawn. The materials provided by the government earlier listed the clubs where the Prime Minister was active. The places where he was active were only a riding club, hunting club, and wine club.

 

‘I wonder if he really had the energy for club activities while suffering from heavy workload…’

 

Honestly, I wonder if he died from overwork, but Espers are hard to kill from overwork no matter how much you work them, and in Esper age, the 50s are vigorous years. For now, we plan to challenge all these places as soon as we get to Vienna.

 

I looked at the personal ads section of the newspaper and moved my head toward Narke’s ear. Then, someone behind us laughed and spoke to us.

 

“What conversation are you having like that?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

I turned around with an awkward smile. An old man pointed at me and ‘Johanna’ and asked.

 

“I was wondering what young people were saying to whisper like this.”

 

“Ah.”

 

I sighed briefly and continued.

 

“Since an unfortunate incident occurred, the atmosphere isn’t good, so it feels wrong to speak loudly.”

 

“German?”

 

“…”

 

He figured that out just from me speaking a bit longer? They’re impressive. At the same time, my back stiffened. My gaze reflexively turned to the surroundings. The gazes of people buried in newspapers fixed on us.

 

How were the gazes in the restaurant earlier? No one stepped forward to say anything, but each time, faint hostility or wariness lingered in the surrounding atmosphere and sidelong glances. Again, there were absolutely no direct problems in the restaurant either. It’s just that the annoying ‘gaze’ that would naturally attach to Prussians had changed to be just a little more blatant than usual, now that xenophobic psychology had grown due to the Prime Minister’s death, along with the era’s characteristic in-group consciousness. Even if a third party felt it was nothing special, those brief annoying gazes weren’t very comfortable for the person experiencing them.

 

But…

 

“What brought you to Austria? The day isn’t good since the Prime Minister passed away right as you arrived.”

 

“We came to travel together. We just got engaged.”

 

Now it was different.

 

I lightly took ‘Johanna’s’ hand and showed it while smiling. Even during this, my attention was on the ‘Austrians’ sitting in the waiting room. The uneasiness I felt in front of the police earlier wasn’t fake. The Austrians quickly turned their gazes away with uninterested faces. A few children were looking at us with curious eyes. They thought I was lovers with the person sitting next to me. Exactly as we intended, perfectly. At this rate, even if secret police spoke to us on the street, us being caught by someone and wasting time would happen much less frequently than before.

 

It’s going smoothly.

 

But I felt like throwing up. My stomach churned more than before. It wasn’t because I was acting with my friend. Acting with friends happened often. Not only that. There were times when I had to kiss the friend playing the opposite role. So acting was, fundamentally, nothing. I just felt sick for some unknown reason. Maybe I know the reason, but I couldn’t tell right now. I could feel Narke looking at me with momentarily confused eyes.

 

“Oh, I thought so. Then you two are…”

 

The old man tried to talk to us more. I didn’t have the leisure to respond. I reflexively cut off the old man’s words and asked.

 

“Have you read Max Muller’s 【German Love】?”

 

I belatedly realized it was a conversation I had with someone, sometime, in the 21st century, but I had neither the intention to retract the question nor the mental leisure to do so. The old man cheerfully responded to the reflexively blurted question.

 

“Of course I read it! That author’s father is famous as a poet, isn’t he? I…”

 

“What do you think about the ending?”

 

“They should have gotten married, but it became regrettable that she left early!”

 

“Is that so?”

 

“Yes. If Mueller hadn’t made Maria die from illness, it would have had a truly excellent ending…”

 

[The train to Vienna will arrive soon!]

 

Outside, a station worker rang a bell and shouted loudly. If I had been mentally present enough to check the time, would I not have asked unnecessary questions to cut off the old man’s words? But I would have asked anyway. I grabbed Narke’s hand and immediately stood up from my seat, finishing my words.

 

“That’s right. We were talking about that story too.”

 

Then I quickly walked away from the elderly Human who wanted to continue conversing with us. An unexpected obstacle. Having made passage free, a problem arose with me, right in front of Narke. Since it was a problem completely unrelated to the operation, and since it might have already been read but I didn’t want to reveal memories I didn’t need to show him, and since I didn’t want to organize what I was thinking, I didn’t want to be in front of him. As soon as I boarded the train, I walked looking for the bathroom. My steps grew faster as I crossed each car.

 

“Wait.”

 

Someone grabbed my arm with strong force from behind. Narke, who had dispelled his illusion at some point, was looking at me calmly.

 

“Wait a moment.”

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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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