How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 440

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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 midday sun of the South Pacific emitted light that was difficult to accept with blue eyes. At least it was for me. The heat beating down on my head was heavy enough to make my body sway. The light reflecting on the beach flashed across my entire field of vision like a flare, vivid and clear, while the heat shimmer from the sand made my mind hazy. So I was squinting.

“Ready!”

Click.

The sound of metal moving rang out.

“Fire!”

Bang――

Mauser’s old-fashioned Gewehr kicked upward. As six overlapping gunshots rang out with a time delay, strength entered the large hand holding my chin to prevent me from turning my head. The person kneeling with arms tied behind their back swayed like something fluttering in the wind. Blood burst out. They fell sideways. Thud. Only then did the hand holding my chin fall away. A dry voice came from above my head.

“This is the last one. There will be no more who insult His Grace the Duke and our Prussia.”

A police officer shouted. “Your Excellency Göring.”

“Yes. You may return now.”

Only then did I look up at the police officers. The police were pale with shock. They turned around. I removed the governor’s hand and followed them walking. I gripped a stone. I kicked off the ground and ran. Mana amplified my senses. “About the one who just died.” The most pale-faced person twisted his lips and opened his mouth. “Not only did he refuse to do labor for an entire week, but yesterday he alone refused the Easter dinner. If he had known he would die today…”

Then the chief said in a distinct Berlin accent. “He probably would have devoured it greedily like a dog starved for ten days! Being so unable to see even an inch ahead, he deserved to die.”

After silence, laughter erupted. They laughed as if they had to. With distorted faces to forget what they had lost, laughing like that without even knowing why they were laughing. The moment I faced their expressions, strength left my hands. At the moment when double violence was made clear, even at that age I seemed to vaguely feel that I had no right to blame them. The governor’s subordinates grabbed both my arms. White hands felt like blades.

unser Preuß’n.

Unser Preußen. Even as years passed, I spoke in a Berlin accent. That was a fate decided from the moment I was born and raised in the Hohenzollern Imperial Palace. There will be no more who insult our Prussia. I spoke in a Berlin accent. Thick clots of blood flowed along my tongue.

Berlin’s winter is bone-chillingly cold. On the day my height had just exceeded one meter seventy, I stood in the plaza receiving snowfall. In the hands of the Human guards protecting the castle gate were Mauser’s new-model Gewehrs. They were the same ones I used during military training.

“Your last words, sir.”

Berlin accent. I raised my head. A citizen in a shabby brown suit, with his neck in the gallows rope, spoke with a reddened face.

“Very well. Is this the insult that ‘our Empire’ inflicts upon its subjects?”

Father was behind the executioner, in an arch-shaped tunnel-like corridor. He stood at attention with no expression. Under the slanted sunlight that cast no shadows. The citizen shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Kill me!”

“…”

“Even if you kill me, your conduct will remain in history forever!”

Father slowly raised his hand. The executioner pulled the gallows lever.

Bang―

“The honor of Frankfurt again―!”

Bang―

People sank into the black hole in the floor. I didn’t know what crimes they died for. It was natural not to know. I learned that heat shimmer could rise even in the dead of winter.

That day at the dinner held in a room covered with golden decorations, I met His Majesty. With my much taller cousin Gagyeongja and my cousin who smiled confidently at everything and Father and all the people who shared blood with me. Father, who had given me blood, smiled and opened his mouth.

“Heavenly Father.”

“…”

“Thank you for allowing us this abundant dinner today. Help us remember the Lord’s love as we eat this food.”

“…”

“We pray that the Lord’s peace may come upon the world.”

Amen.

Laughter came. I didn’t laugh. When the prayer ended, Uncle raised his wine glass. Burgundy red wine shone like the sun in the chandelier light. I didn’t pick up my wine glass. Father urged me with anxious eyes. Uncle kindly waited with a benevolent smile until I picked up my glass. I felt myself dying. The moment I twisted my fingers to lift the wine glass from the table, Uncle raised his wine glass like someone holding a chalice, smiling warmly like a noble person. A Berlin accent was heard.

“For the Empire.”

Liberation.

The blood and pus that never freed me for even a moment and blocked my throat with bitter guilt every time I ate, the dinner table where I had to think of today’s last words every time I raised a glass, the bullets that pierced the heart of the world that stiffened my tongue every time I used my native language which was my foundation, the days when blood flowing through every corner of my veins stuck to my feet and followed me with every step I took – now it’s all over. The piercing guilt and love are now over.

Freedom. Finally.

[Gasp…]

I dozed off and woke up. The field reeked of blood.

[…What you said about going to the bell tower…]

Wind was cutting through me. It was damp.

[…You wanted to rest. Right?]

Moonlight streaming through the cathedral’s long windows seeps through my eyelids. Warm arms embraced me and buried a neck against my forehead. And cried.

Luca.

Perhaps it wasn’t heard because my vocal cords wouldn’t move. He gasped for breath as he climbed the narrow stairs that could barely fit one or two people. Dragging his legs, collapsing on the stairs and crawling up with his body. I knew where he had come. In childhood, and a few years ago, he had come to that place where we looked down at the Munich landscape. He came again when it was time to die.

A sobbing voice asked me.

[What were you trying to do at the end?]

I should sing a song.

With what I had been waiting for right before me, I answered with a smile. I’ve been reading books all this time for moments like this. There are many songs to sing. I was being cheeky, but seeing that my friend didn’t laugh, it didn’t reach him. Tears fell on my cheek.

[What song.]

Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound. The development is quite excellent. You might have read it too, but that…

[That’s not a song.]

I laughed. It was such a Luca-like thing to say.

Luca, your hands are cold. The words didn’t come out this time either. He was crying. There was more blood than tears. All that blood felt like tears. He was dying too. I somehow moved my hand and placed it over his.

Why are you crying, on such a wonderful day. The moon is clear. The sky must be clear, yes. What you want to say is so clear to me. I should have written a letter if I knew it would be like this. You might not know if you can survive either. Ah, I should have gone to Italy with you before it came to this. Only at the last moment do the words I want to say form in my heart. Laughter came. How did I come to meet someone like you. To meet a friend who lets me be myself until the end of my life – I am a blessed person. How could it not be so, when the end I meet on his lap is this happy…

[…I know.]

Sound spreads widely as if submerged in the deep sea. Cold arms embraced my head.

[Even if it’s like this――…]

“…”

The world is quiet as if covered with snow. It’s the end. I feel my breath falling asleep.

However.

One thing, only one thing held my feet. My friend’s fading life prevented him from leaving for the nine heavens. If I could save him with my remaining breath, if I could do so just once since it’s the last time…

―…Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

That would be good. God has never listened to my words, but I hold vain hope even knowing I will be rejected.

Whoooooosh―

―And I will give you rest.

I opened my eyes. There was light. White light like flames covered him and me and blazed. Body temperature was returning. Luca embraced me and frantically chanted spells.

―…Even to your old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you…

The bone-chilling pain that filled between my blood vessels was lifting. The half-destroyed core settled into place and sent mana throughout my body as if newly born. I couldn’t believe it. Luca, right now… I saw him with my vision that had returned like new. Covered in blood, he lifted my hand and swallowed the pooled blood. His Adam’s apple moved. His fingertips were stained pitch black. He was looking at my face and smiling with a face that had lost something. I might not have known if he was crying.

Seeing that face, if I were to say he was immersed in ecstasy.

Then would I be mistaken? He slowly pressed my heart with two fingers.

―Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I must have had a face that couldn’t believe what was unfolding before my eyes. My vocal cords rang as I willed.

“Luca.”

Luca drank blood, and my collapsed life force returned. My core returned as if new. How could this be possible? Luca was dying, and he couldn’t protect my core, nor could he take away all this pain like this. That couldn’t…

Luca asked with an indecipherable expression.

“How does it feel to be alive?”

“…”

How does it feel to be alive – now wasn’t the time to ask that. He had taken all the pain that remained in me. I couldn’t not know. And yet he was emanating divine power as if he himself had been reborn.

“Just now, clearly…”

“Elias.”

He quietly called my name. He furrowed his brows and raised the corners of his mouth. He said with effort.

“I drank your blood.”

“…”

“This, I accomplished this by drinking your blood.”

Time didn’t seem to belong to us. I stared blankly at my friend’s face. What is this supposed to mean? I couldn’t guess at all. Surely, you, right now… He didn’t avoid my eyes. He spoke, drawing out each word.

“Now I can tell you. My ability is to absorb and amplify mana by drinking blood.”

All the countless rumors surrounding him flashed through my mind. Since when, how, why…! The moment the thought crossed my mind, I closed my mouth. There were many things I wanted to know, but I didn’t want to ask anything. Words are swords. Even if I had no such intention at all, my questions could slash his heart. If that happened, I felt I couldn’t bear it. From the moment I closed my mouth, Luca seemed to know my thoughts and spoke with an empty smile.

“Since Ash Wednesday. Until now, only Leo knows. I thought it might be Hyung’s doing, but… it’s more likely just my nature. The rumors were really, truly factual. Just a little bit.”

“…”

“I wasn’t trying to deceive you. Even on the day I first became friends with you, I had this nature…”

“No.”

I cut off his words without realizing it. I could see Luca’s confusion. The words jumped out of my mouth first.

“Don’t say such things. I…”

I don’t care what nature you have. Could I still have become close to you? No, making such assumptions now is meaningless. What’s important isn’t the past time of whether we could have become close or not…

The words I want to convey to him clump together in my head. That’s why I couldn’t say anything. Eventually Luca spoke first.

“I’m sorry.”

“….”

What could you possibly be sorry to me about? I couldn’t understand it at all. There was nothing he needed to apologize to me for.

“It’s not that I didn’t tell you because I didn’t trust you. You would accept anything, so that’s why….”

“….”

“That’s why I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want you to worry about things that I should be worrying about.”

“Luca.”

And then. He spoke briefly, slowly inhaling and exhaling once. He smiled bitterly.

“I didn’t want to admit anything with my own mouth. Even while drinking blood, I believed it was all against my will, that I was still the same, that nothing had changed.”

Luca lowered his gaze to the ground. Then he raised his head again and smiled with a resigned expression.

“I was wrong. There’s no way I wouldn’t have changed. This is what I’ve become, Elias.”

“….”

I slowly pulled his shoulder toward me. Luca followed my lead and embraced me. I rested my chin on his right shoulder and closed my eyes. The sound of his heartbeat was comforting. In this peace, I muttered something nonsensical.

“Share it with me. I want to have that too.”

“What? Hah….”

I could feel Luca’s bewilderment. I burst into laughter and patted his back. He chuckled along. As my laughter subsided, I slowly opened my mouth again.

“I thought for the first time that God had answered my prayer.”

“….”

I had thought it would be good if I could save you with my remaining breath. Even knowing it was impossible, humans seem to think illogical thoughts when their time comes. Do you know how I felt when that became reality? I wanted to tell Luca that. Luca stroked the back of my head as if he understood what I was trying to say. As I was grinning, he pushed me away in exasperation. He listened quietly to the sound gradually approaching the stairs, then stood up.

“Now, we have things to do.”

We had to deal with the rest. The rampage victims were climbing up here. Whether they were having trouble among themselves trying to climb the narrow stairs, loud noises frequently erupted from below. Even so, they were gradually getting closer.

Luca continued speaking.

“The rampage victims gathered in this cathedral are a problem, and the rampage victims continuously appearing in the city are also a problem. First, we need to solve this cathedral’s problem. And buy me 20 minutes.”

20 minutes.

Right, what Luca had said earlier flashed through my mind. Luca looked into my eyes and said.

“If you can buy me just 20 minutes, I might be able to find a way out of here.”

“What if you become endangered in the process?”

“That won’t happen.”

Luca answered with firm certainty. I was a bit surprised by that confidence and widened my eyes.

“So wait here for me. Even though I restored your core with divine power, this is… it’s no different from putting glue on broken pottery.”

“I feel completely reborn, what are you talking about. Wait, you’re going alone right now?!”

As I tried to get up, Luca pressed down on my shoulder.

“I can do it alone. Thanks to you.”

“….”

I could tell the intensity of the mana seeping through my shoulder was extraordinary. How much amplification was this? Hidden behind the stigma of Pleroma, truly, if not for that, this was an ability anyone in the world would want. Luca glanced down below the observation deck and said.

“You’ll have to buy me 20 minutes anyway later, Elias. Fight for me then.”

“…Alright.”

If that’s what he wanted, I could help from above. I’d watch from the observation deck and jump right in if things looked bad. And more than anything, I didn’t want to refuse Luca’s request. He was someone who spoke his mind, so if he really needed help, he would have said so already. Luca straightened his blood-soaked coat and looked back at me with a smile.

“I’ll finish up and come right back. Let’s meet in 20 minutes, no, 30 minutes.”

Creak―

After I answered with a smile, the observation deck door closed. The rampage victims’ screams grew louder then quieter. Crash, the sound of mana exploding rang out. I staggered to my feet and moved my hand. A blue bow and arrow were created.

‘Whew.’

Then I concentrated mana with the clear divine power covering my core. My mana radiated into the air.

Crash―…

As the world turned blue, the observation deck glass turned white and scattered like snowflakes. I inhaled and pulled the bowstring taut, then immediately aimed the bow downward. I aimed at the hearts of the rampage victims gathering in the cathedral. My fingers released the string.

Crash―

“Aaaahhh! Aaaahhh!”

‘One more.’

Crash―

Ahhh―… The last sound of life scattered away. I slowly moved around the observation deck, aiming arrows at the empty floor. Far away, even farther.

[I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.]

Crash―!!

The shot arrow split into four branches and struck down into the floor. Blue light covered the road. The rampage victims who had entered the cathedral felt the mana and rushed outside. Whoosh― Crash― The sound of tearing air rang in my ears.

How much time had passed?

After the screams that rushed through the ground and air, the world quickly became quiet.

I waited for a while, but Luca didn’t return. I didn’t know where he was going, but he said he’d go right away, so that made sense. Let me clean up to see if there are other rampage victims who gathered here before Luca comes. He said he was safe, but I don’t know what state he’ll return in. I opened the observation deck door. The countless stairs winding around made my vision dizzy and drew me toward them. The cathedral stairs in Munich that I had once climbed whistling, dead drunk the day after visiting the execution ground, were covered in blood this dawn. Unlike when I was dragged here, I was now stepping on the stairs with my own two feet. As I went down, I took in that blood one by one with my eyes. It wasn’t hard to imagine the friend who would have fallen here, gotten back up, and dragged his body. When I finally stepped on the wooden floor that touched the ground, I faced the statue of the Virgin Mary receiving starlight in the distance. Even though I wasn’t Catholic, I made the sign of the cross. Even though it was neither a confession to Maria nor to God, I wanted to do so.

I slowly walked to the nave. Moonlight still came through the long windows, illuminating the corridor. Mud and some blood. The moment I pushed the bloody spot with my shoe.

Crash―!

The mud that had been human rushed at me, so I immediately ducked to avoid it and stomped my foot. Blue mana covered him. The mud quickly crumbled. There was still someone left unprocessed. It was good that I came down first. I violently swung my hand down to gather mana and threw the door wide open.

Crash―!

Vitriol that flew from somewhere hit the barrier and melted. As expected. There were still those hiding between the shrubs and corridors. I created a sword with mana and rushed toward the rampage victim. Or rather, I tried to.

Crash―!

“…!”

Blue mana came from somewhere and struck the rampage victim. I heard the rampage victim’s scream of pain, but that wasn’t important right now. There couldn’t be human mana here. For such mana to strike in a space where that was impossible, again…!

“….”

I doubted my eyes. In a space where there couldn’t be people, two people stood far away. My gaze turned to the mage standing further forward.

Asian.

No, a Eurasian, a young man who somehow resembled Luca, was standing before me.

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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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