How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 428

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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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The cliff of Beste Oberhaus happened to be cleanly cleared without a single tree, and the surface pushed by the excavator was pressed right against the building. Why? It might be because they expanded the building. But now, thinking about that…

Crash—

Nothing would change. The sound of tearing air strikes my eardrums. I’m falling too. The moment I grabbed Mecklenburg’s arms and waist, he grabbed my collar. I can feel malice in the hand gripping my collar. Right, I decided to accept this quietly, so that’s how it should be. Muttering curses inwardly, I squinted against the fierce wind obstructing my vision. The feeling of blood in my body flowing down, down and draining away—no, it feels like my feet will burst. My vision spins. It’s unlikely, but it feels like even the moisture that should be in my eyeballs is disappearing. Amber magic power explodes in front of my face. Mecklenburg’s magic power pressing against my back and neck penetrates between the magic power in my body. It’s like a blade—even as my eyes lose focus from the rushing blood, the well-honed attack magic awakened my mind.

“Stop it…!”

Taking on the magic power of a mage as strong as Mecklenburg with my whole body wasn’t easy. At this moment, his skill is frustrating. How nice it would be if he were at least at the bottom of the knights, though he would never remain at that level. They say when you’re about to die, the world looks slow, and it’s always true. The ground approaches and Mecklenburg’s magic power attacks me frantically without showing signs of exhaustion. My whole body feels like it will be torn apart by the aggressive magic power.

Still, if there’s one thing I can trust.

The sharply approaching amber magic power chokes my breath—but I can’t let him go. No, I had to do the opposite. I embraced the magic power that came at me with the force to shake me off. I pushed strength into the arm gripping his back. The amber magic power gradually burned red.

“Uh, urgh…!”

The panicked voice I had heard before burst out right next to me. The magic power that had been piercing my whole body instantly receded and the blood pooled in my legs flowed back through my body. Now the one being attacked is the opponent.

Magic isn’t something only Mecklenburg can use, and I can subdue Mecklenburg. Unless he brings hierarchy into play, the reverse doesn’t hold true. Though he would never admit it if he heard this.

A voice filled with pain continues. I quickly lowered my output and adjusted my attack level to neutralize the opponent’s attacks so Mecklenburg wouldn’t be harmed. I pushed strength into his left back, where his heart would be, and kicked my foot into midair. Crash—with the sound of stepping on air, my body flipped over.

I continued to let the two magic powers collide and explode while putting strength into the hand tightly embracing his back. I somehow moved my rattling arm and threw off my left glove. It’s slow. The falling black glove looks slow. The ring on my left hand glints over Mecklenburg’s shoulder. When I removed one hand from his back, my body suddenly fell away from him. Chills run through me. Still, I had to create a climax. Since I don’t know what the mechanism of this mind manipulation magic is like. I’m fortunate to have a useless accessory that can be disguised as an artifact. Thinking this, I pushed divine power into the silver of my left hand’s ring.

Crack—

“Wake up!”

“…!”

The moment I pushed Mecklenburg’s forehead with my left hand, composure disappeared from the face that had been coldly glaring at me. Finally. Understanding the situation, he opens his eyes wide and opens his mouth. His eyes turn toward his feet. Horror seeps in. Soon, he curls up his body and buries his face in his shoulder.

“Ah—”

“Wait…”

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”

“Be quiet!”

Crash—!

The heel of my boot hits the ground violently. I landed with magic power in my feet. Even though I had spread a barrier to reduce speed from the moment I could control Mecklenburg’s attacks, my whole body shakes from the impact. How on earth did Narke manage this? I threw the cumbersome human I had been half-carrying on my shoulder to the ground.

“Urgh!”

“…I almost died.”

My vision is dim. The blood flow slowly returning to its proper place makes me dizzy. I muttered with my head against my staff.

“It would be nice if mages could fly too.”

“Ha, huh… How is this, how did this…”

“How indeed.”

I said while rubbing my eyes in my half-darkened vision.

“It’s not the water supply. It’s not the soil either. We stopped by to check in the middle, didn’t we?”

“Wh, what…?”

“It’s not the air or the river either. If it were, we would all be contaminated. I don’t know if German Pleroma could have received the manufacturing method and produced it immediately, and I’m not excluding that possibility, but it would be too wasteful to do that to the river. Or should I say it’s quite appropriate since they know we came? But why weren’t the rest contaminated except Senior…”

“Stop, wait!”

Mecklenburg hit my leg. Still unable to get up, he looks up at me from my feet with frightened eyes. The moment I saw those eyes, my head hurt and I had to close my eyes again. Mecklenburg put strength into the hand pressing my shin and said.

“…I didn’t want an explanation. Please don’t talk as much as possible. More than that, I, I…”

“You were under mind manipulation magic.”

I slowly pulled out the hand I had layered on my staff and showed him the ring.

“And I just hit you with an artifact and you woke up.”

“…”

“Think of it that way. Count Farnese gave it to me. With purifying divine power for protection.”

“…Of course, nowhere… More than that, you… How did you…”

Mecklenburg answered in a trembling voice, still seeming confused. I waited patiently but the words didn’t continue soon. I cut off his words and said.

“I warped here.”

Silence. Mecklenburg opened his mouth blankly at the unexpected words. His confusion is fully conveyed even through my blurry vision.

“If it were Senior here, you wouldn’t answer ‘Yes. Well done.’ Instead you would have asked what I expect you to do about it. Or tried to get on my nerves with words like ‘what confidence do you have when you can’t even warp properly.'”

“Wh, what, when did I ever go that far…”

“Also. The biggest problem was this. Senior isn’t someone who would welcome me saying ‘You came’ when I arrived. And when I keep bothering you by saying Senior, Senior, you shouldn’t just quietly look at me—you should get angry and tell me to get to the point instead of just calling you.”

“Clearly at noon and when we stopped by in the middle, I kept making noise saying Senior, and I didn’t say anything then?!”

“You’d tolerate it once or twice. Besides, I got straight to the point then, didn’t I? Just now I called you Senior three times and either said nothing or brought up useless topics. Don’t you know? You probably don’t. Senior isn’t someone who would tolerate this. Senior acts nice to other people, so others might not know, but from my perspective, that wasn’t something Senior would do.”

As I drew breath to speak, Mecklenburg raised his voice. His weak fingertips touched my shin again.

“Stop talking. I understand. …So you’re saying you followed me here. All the way here…”

His weak fingertips touched my shin again. I understood his restraint. I wiped the blood flowing along my nose and jawline and fell silent, then Mecklenburg opened his mouth.

“It feels like I had a dream. I clearly remember walking and having a conversation with you while smiling, but exactly what I said… I feel like I know but I don’t.”

“That would be the case.”

“More than that, what I was trying to ask…”

“This isn’t the time. What time did the dog come? What color?”

“After you left, about 30 minutes later. Yellowish-brown.”

“Phew… Any unusual features?”

“It had dust on it like other dogs normally do.”

“Besides that.”

“I didn’t even think to look properly. I don’t particularly like stray dogs.”

Obviously because they’d bring dust clouds. This guy isn’t someone who would like wild animals themselves. Would someone who tries not to get dust on his shoes welcome them?

“Then who would know about that dog well?”

“The Vice-Captain played with the dog briefly after coming here. He was in such a good mood he even whistled.”

“Does he like dogs?”

“Generally speaking, yes.”

I nodded and slowly put my hand into my belt clutch. Even while doing this, my arm keeps shaking unsteadily. Somehow rummaging through what’s inside with an arm that won’t move as I want, I grab Wittelsbach’s elixir. I had to activate the magic pathways that Mecklenburg had torn up with magic power. After drinking the second bottle and waiting briefly, my body slowly seemed to warm up. Ironically, drowsiness comes now. I slapped my cheek and slowly raised my head. Mecklenburg is still looking at me with a dazed expression. When I extended my hand meaning for him to grab it and get up, he finally stood up on his own, extended his wand into a long staff, and struck the ground. This is the process of checking whether there are people or objects made of magic power in this vicinity. After confirming there was nothing, he quickly put my arm over his shoulder and warped to the front of headquarters. Knowing I’m not skilled at warping, the moment we arrived in Brandenburg, more strength went into his arms holding both my arms. I felt strangely pathetic and said quietly.

“Even supporting me? I should be the one supporting Senior.”

“My apology must have faded too.”

“…”

An unexpected remark.

At those words, I looked at Mecklenburg. He gestured to the mages guarding the front of the headquarters grounds and quickly walked inside. He walked past the quarters and dining hall to the distant building where the Chief of Staff’s office was located.

Silence continues. Everything that happened today would be accepted as if it were all the product of mind manipulation magic, that’s what he means. I shook my head.

“No.”

“…”

“I misunderstood at first, but not now.”

Actually, it’s true that I started to suspect around 12:30 today when he apologized to me. Wondering what this bastard had eaten wrong, and given the timing, Atropos couldn’t help but cross my mind, so I checked if he had just washed his hands and gotten poisoned by some drug.

I tried to monitor Mecklenburg considering the possibility that he had been bought by Adrian Ascanien. With that intention, a problem occurred on the very day I came to Passau—that’s what I thought at the time.

Not everyone under mind manipulation magic walks around like zombies with unfocused eyes. Like when Leo subtly touched the Bavaria caretaker’s mind in the extra chapter, even when under mind manipulation magic, there are plenty of cases where they appear relatively ‘normal.’ I suspected that Mecklenburg had been caught by such magic and approached me favorably. Since water might not be the only problem, I checked shoes too. Until I went to find Mecklenburg at 4 o’clock, I suspected both water and soil, and at 4 o’clock I stopped by the checkpoint and talked with him under the pretext of investigation.

Then, I finally theorized that water, soil, rivers, and air might not have been used as tools for the crime. Because strangely, Mecklenburg was a bit kind, but the rest of us 101 weren’t under magic. Starting with me. If the river had been contaminated, even I, who was only a 25-minute walk away, should have been soaked in the drug, and contaminating a river isn’t as easy as one might think. The fact that his kindness remained within acceptable limits as Cheringen said inevitably reduced my suspicions.

I wasn’t certain. Even then, Mecklenburg was a bit kinder than usual. So I tried to find out when his colleagues went to the bathroom and continued to pay attention to everything around. Even the mud on the rabbit’s feet. I said quietly.

“But earlier at the fortress, you started to say this but stopped, do you remember? ‘I immediately chased it away. Somehow the Vice-Captain’.”

“…I vaguely remember.”

Mecklenburg answered quietly with a not-so-good expression.

“I’d understand the Vice-Captain meeting the dog alone at noon, but it sounds like he came again after that. Please explain.”

“…I was thinking, is today some special day or something.”

Mecklenburg let out a long sigh and spoke slowly.

“A yellowish-brown dog ran into the hall outside the checkpoint. I was about to send it out wondering how it got here, when the Vice-Captain came running from the other side where he was inspecting ship cargo, picked up the dog, and carried it out.”

“Something impossible by Senior’s common sense happened. To actually pick up and carry out a stray dog…”

“How nice that you have energy to joke.”

“So what happened next?”

“The Vice-Captain came and touched my neck. You wanted to hear this answer, right?”

He said while pointing behind himself. I narrowed my eyes and asked.

“Correct. But your neck?”

“He said the coat collar in the back was turned inside out. So I thought, did something go wrong today?”

“Senior isn’t someone who would wear a coat collar inside out, right? And is Senior someone who would permit physical contact? Even if it’s just a coat, from another person’s perspective, it would take tremendous courage to put hands on Senior’s clothes…”

Getting that far, I realized this bastard was supporting someone so dirty he’d hate even holding hands, and was inwardly impressed. Whether I gained enlightenment or not, Mecklenburg now seemed to lack even the strength to react and briefly responded with a sigh.

“Is that a compliment?”

“Yes. Anyway, Senior would have gone to wash where the Vice-Captain’s glove touched.”

“Someone came in right away so I couldn’t do that. I wiped it with soap about 10 minutes later.”

“How thoughtful… I suppose you were fortunate enough to have time about 10 minutes later?”

“No. I was so nervous that my throat was stinging, so I had to excuse myself to my colleague and go.”

“Hmm, I see.”

After that, no one spoke. After a long while, Mecklenburg quietly spoke again.

“I’m sorry.”

“Senior, you have nothing to apologize for.”

I answered while looking straight ahead. I could feel him watching me. I brought up something that might sound rather out of the blue.

“Atropos can be spread by local residents. For example, under the pretext of managing pastures, they could spray water containing Atropos all the way to German soil.”

“…”

“But there aren’t many Espers near the border. So it would make sense to execute such a plan on a special day like today. I don’t know how much concentrate they put in the drinking water Aqua Panna, but they seemed to put ultra-high concentrations of Atropos in the holy water. Just dabbing and sprinkling a few drops was enough to show effects. But what would be the reason for not contaminating the rivers and land today?”

“Why do you keep asking when you already know?”

“I’m conserving my energy for speaking.”

“…I don’t know who I’m talking to about what. Contaminating rivers isn’t an event that happens often. Think about the flow rate of the Danube. A businessman can’t help but think about costs. Pleroma is a businessman. Since Espers are the target, continuously contaminating entire rivers would be extremely irrational. And as for the land, even if you contaminate it, you might get poisoned by breathing that air, but that doesn’t seem like it would have a strong effect either. To get mercury poisoning a few hours after sprinkling mercury on the ground, what exactly would you have to do and how much?”

“Hmm.”

It was a good thought, but that wasn’t what I was asking about.

“The enemy had no intention of tampering with all of our minds. First, even if they wanted to, it would be difficult to actually carry out in practice, and the aftermath would also be realistically difficult to handle. It could be executed if sufficient supporting systems were in place, though. But why did Senior suddenly become their target today when neither the water, air, nor land was contaminated?”

Mecklenburg just looked at me silently. His expression suggesting whether we were playing twenty questions was impressive. I walked forward looking straight ahead and spoke quietly.

“I should be the one apologizing. Senior was used because I came looking for you at 4 o’clock.”

“What? What do you…”

“Today’s target was me. Not you, Senior.”

The shadow of the building blocked the sunset.

We had arrived at the yellow Neo-Renaissance building where the Chief of Staff’s office was located. As I tried to go inside, leaving him behind, Mecklenburg grabbed me with a shocked expression, unable to close his mouth. When I stepped closer to him, sunlight pierced my right eye. I slowly explained to him.

“They knew I would grab onto Senior, so they gave Senior the command to fall from that balcony. That way, they could send both mages into concussions.”

If I had been weaker than Mecklenburg in terms of magical power, I wouldn’t have been able to create a barrier and would have crashed to the ground with him. Wasn’t he attacking me while holding me tight so I couldn’t escape? Mecklenburg was naturally being controlled by someone else, so he wouldn’t be able to create a barrier either. And there aren’t that many mages who can create barriers to reduce falling speed. Unless trained, mages or whatever, humans are supposed to just close their eyes and scream when they fall from high places, no different from other humans.

I cast a sound-blocking spell and asked quietly.

“Senior. Do you remember how Nicolaus Ernst’s political debut came about?”

“…Of course. There probably isn’t another case among politicians on this continent who became a politician by gaining fame through such reckless marketing.”

“I suppose you’re referring to my gracious invitation to the Federal Committee meeting. What was the agenda then?”

“Meppen contaminated mosquitoes.”

“You remember well.”

I immediately turned around and went upstairs. Mecklenburg hurriedly followed behind me. I found the office and knocked on the firmly closed door.

“Are you in?”

Then someone who appeared to be a secretary came out and spoke politely.

“He is currently dining with the Finance Minister.”

“I have something urgent to tell him. He needs to return immediately.”

“No, he cannot return. After the meal is finished…”

“At least tell him! This is an urgent matter!”

At those words, I could feel Mecklenburg turning pale and looking at me like I was crazy. Not just any crazy person, but someone completely beyond salvation. I understand. But the real crazy one here is the guy who’s leisurely eating dinner while blocking information sources when it hasn’t even been a day since Atropos was actually discovered.

The secretary nodded with a displeased expression and said something into the artifact by his ear. Not long after, I could see a familiar elderly Esper walking over with an annoyed expression.

“Count Lucas Ascanien. I’m curious what brought you all the way here.”

As expected, he was displeased. The truly insane one is here. Did I call him out of boredom? I pushed Mecklenburg’s back and said.

“The 98th Unit representative here has been exposed to Atropos, Your Excellency.”

At those words, the Chief of Staff turned pale as if he had encountered a murder case and widened his eyes. He frantically examined Mecklenburg and shouted.

“What, what?! Right now…”

“He was under mind control magic, but it’s been dispelled now with a colleague’s divine power.”

The Chief of Staff’s face hardened. He too realized this wasn’t the time to be eating. He opened the door wide, strode in, sat at his desk, pointed to the chair in front, and said impatiently.

“Sit down and explain. How did this happen? Who, when, where?”

“Your Excellency, let me tell you this first. Vice-Captain Erich Reichenau of 98th A is already under mind control magic as well. We need to immediately assemble the 98th Unit and detoxify the drug.”

The Chief of Staff noisily opened the warp mailbox, pulled out letter paper, and scribbled words. Whether he completely believed it or not, it was fortunate that he didn’t dismiss the words of a mage the government trusted enough to deploy on foreign operations just before. I continued speaking.

“I don’t know who the culprit is, but there’s an Austrian Maria Church right at the border. Someone working there was likely used as an intermediary. There were continuous contamination attempts from the moment we arrived until 5 PM.”

“Understood. Do you know how they brought in the drug?”

He had been burying his head in the paper for a while, then looked at me with an unexpecting expression while pulling off his pen cap. If I couldn’t answer, he would go investigate that from now on. What a waste of time. In a situation where every minute and second is precious, investigate from the beginning again?

I looked down at him and spoke in a clear voice.

“They sprayed dogs with insects contaminated with Atropos and made them cross the border.”

Silence fell.

The Chief of Staff and Mecklenburg were looking at me with stunned faces. Mecklenburg understood what I had said earlier. As his face was turning white, I spoke quietly once more.

“Your Excellency, this matter must be reported to the Supreme Council. We must fight another biological war following Meppen. It’s not a choice—it’s already upon us.”

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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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