How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 442

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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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“What…”

Elias trailed off with a dazed expression on his face. He gaped at me, opening and closing his mouth while staring only at me.

“…No way…”

“…”

I should explain. To Elias.

I lowered my eyes and slowly moved my steps, finally standing in front of Elias. I don’t know how I might appear to him. Did they mix together as Archduchess Maria said? It can’t be helped. When I think of myself, I can only recall the face I’ve had my whole life. Still, for Elias’s sake, I tried to recall Luca’s face. I made every effort to do so.

“…”

I raised my head and looked straight at Elias. According to the Archduchess, I’m in a soul state, so I’m not sure if raising my head and looking at him even makes sense, but at least I’m thinking of a human body.

“…Luca.”

Elias grabbed my shoulder. He tried to. His hand went right through my shoulder. Seeing his hand inside my body, he gaped with his jaw nearly dropping.

“Whoaaaaa!”

“Hey, wait…”

“Hey? It is Luca, right?! Right?! But…!”

An indescribable emotion flashed across Elias’s face in an instant. The moment I recognized what that expression was, my heart seemed to sink with a thud. Elias moved his lips with the same face as mine.

“Dead…”

“No.”

I immediately cut off his words. I placed my hand on his shoulder and spoke clearly at a rapid pace.

“I’m alive, and I know this might be hard to believe, but it’s astral projection. I had to be in a state closer to mana to find a way out. I brought someone… a soul to help too.”

“What…!”

Naturally, Elias froze with an expression of his common sense being shattered. I understand. Actually, I still can’t believe that astral projection is possible either. Elias looked around frantically and said.

“Then where’s your body?!”

“In a safe place, not here.”

For some reason, Elias didn’t show any particular doubt about that statement and let out a deep breath.

“That’s a relief. But…”

“But?”

“Are you okay? Your face…”

“…”

At least it’s not ‘Luca.’ Despite my efforts, I couldn’t definitively make myself one of the two. If it’s half and half despite my efforts, perhaps it’s because I know deep down that I can never become completely ‘Luca.’ I pointlessly stared at the innocent ground while choosing my words.

“Ahhh! Stop.”

Elias thrust his hand right in front of my face and waved it around.

“Did something go wrong with safety? Did you get mixed up with another ghost during astral projection?!”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then that’s enough. Don’t say anything. Nothing at all.”

When I raised my eyebrows questioningly, Elias answered nonchalantly.

“I don’t want to hear anything if it’s going to make you uncomfortable.”

“…”

His honesty made me feel like my thoughts and everything else stopped for a moment. I always liked that kind of honesty that sounds unfamiliar to anyone’s ears. Whenever it was directed at me, an indescribable emotion would wash over me like waves filling up around my feet.

“…You’re honest…”

“I really mean it, so what about it.”

I slowly nodded at those words and replied.

“Thank you.”

“Haha~”

Elias tried to ruffle my hair with his hand but got startled and quickly pulled his arm back.

“Hurry up and find your body and come back! I need to touch your hair.”

“Why on earth do you need to touch my hair…”

It would be more like the usual Elias to bite corks with his molars—or in the same way, to ruffle people’s hair whenever he gets annoyed—or hang on shoulders. Telling me to find my body for that purpose would be more rather than less strange, so I stopped talking.

Elias squinted his eyes and looked far into the distance.

“So that blurry~ person over there is the one who’s going to help us?”

“Right. Blurry?”

“Much more so compared to you.”

“Really…?”

Whether I was puzzled or not, Elias’s eyes lit up as he leaned his head close and observed my face.

“Is this what your soul looks like? No, wait. How can a soul have an appearance? Did you manipulate mana to create this, Luca? Because you didn’t want to wander around as a pale ghost?”

“Probably about half of that.”

Then Elias randomly placed his index fingers on both my cheeks. Knowing what he was trying to do, I snickered mockingly. Even if he tries to stretch them, he can’t. Elias observed even my laughing expression in detail and muttered.

“Fresh.”

“Is that an insult?”

“No. I like this too. Do you want to become like this~?”

Elias wiggled his eyebrows and teased me. I was asked before by the Archduchess if I wanted to become like this. Unable to answer, I shrugged with an ambiguous expression.

“But why are your eyes purple?”

“Ah, that…”

My perception just got mixed up. Until just now, they should have been blue eyes. I habitually thought of black eyes, then realized I was in front of Elias and quickly changed them to pink.

“Oh~”

Elias observed the impossible irises and whispered.

“Luca. This really seems like divine power. So this is what it means that divine power is a force close to the soul.”

‘Mm.’

Good. Hearing his insight, I felt like I had found something I definitely knew but had buried far in the back of my brain. Elias was also observing my soul intently with the same expression as mine.

“This is quite the field study…”

“…”

That last comment probably didn’t need to be said…

Anyway, I understood well. Elias had regained his usual energy and had somewhat escaped from the threshold of death he had stepped on eight hours ago, or about ten minutes ago in this place’s time. Before he recognized that I was me, he had a somewhat tired and sharp expression, so I can’t stay here forever.

“Luca, you said?”

A voice suddenly echoed in my head. The Archduchess, who had come close at some point, looked at me and asked.

“It’s my nickname.”

“How unique. Is this your friend? Nice to meet you. I’m Maria Osterreicheste.”

The Archduchess habitually extended her hand, and Elias, knowing she was a soul, shook hands with her. Elias made a dubious face as he grasped the air and tried to introduce himself.

“I’m… wait, excuse me?”

Elias tilted his head.

“There seem to be many Marias in the Osterreicheste family. I feel like I’ve met you before.”

“This is a middle name, and among our family ancestors there was a Maria…”

I carefully gestured to the Archduchess.

“Your Grace.”

“Ah, right.”

I had asked that if she met Elias, if she ever met him, not to ask about him and not to reveal herself to him either. It would only cause unnecessary confusion. In a situation where he was already tired from crossing the threshold of death, I couldn’t dump too much information on him. I had to limit information to the Archduchess for different reasons—I was worried she might grind me up—not in a negative sense, but academically—to advance magical studies. The moment I became visible, it became a useless request, but the Archduchess perceptively nodded with a sincere face.

“Let’s not ask about each other. What’s important at this moment isn’t identity, right? I’ll trust that’s the case. Now, follow me.”

I gestured to Elias and followed behind the Archduchess. Elias seemed to have questions, but after exchanging glances with me, he silently followed us.

The Archduchess was heading south of the plaza. Elias gestured for me to relay his words and asked.

“Why are we going this way?”

“From what I can sense, the natural mana is thinnest in that direction.”

“Ah, so you can just hear us directly.”

Oh ho. Elias made that sound and whistled. I spoke the words we needed to say on Elias’s behalf.

“I can guess why it’s thin. That’s where we first fell.”

“As I thought. If there was a crack once, it shouldn’t be difficult to create another crack… First, since human mana couldn’t create a crack here, we need to manipulate natural mana with astral bodies.”

The Archduchess spoke with a pleased smile. I took a bigger step forward and blocked her path.

“Your Grace. That’s good, but there’s a problem. If we make a mistake, we might be attacked by the contaminated people.”

“Contamination?”

“Yes. There are humans covered in mud here. They’re people who changed after being caught up in this incident, and they attack us in the process of craving human mana.”

“…Hmm.”

Archduchess Maria stopped in place and thought. She looked toward where the collapsed prison would be in the distance and spoke regretfully.

“We two are astral bodies so the situation would be a bit better for us, but it won’t work since there’s someone here in physical form. Or maybe…”

He snapped his fingers and looked at Elias.

“Friend. How about you stay a bit farther away?”

“Stay away?”

“Please hide with Count Everett here in a place where you won’t be attacked by the contaminated ones, holding your breath. Since Count Everett doesn’t know how to handle natural mana anyway, I’ll try to create a crack as quickly as possible. I only know this in theory, but anyway.”

“Everett?”

“….”

Since Elias’s eyes lit up with a curious expression, I let out a hollow laugh. This won’t do. I’ll have to give him at least some explanation when we return.

I exchanged glances with Archduchess Maria and continued conversing with him mentally.

“Your Grace. I have something I’m curious about.”

“Yes? Ask me anything.”

“Why can my friend see me?”

“Didn’t you ask me this before? Such things happen because souls resonate!”

That ‘soul’ and ‘resonance’ confuses me. When I remained silent at his abstract words, his voice came once more.

“The ether that forms your souls is similar. You two must possess very pure ether.”

“Pure, you say.”

“Ether that’s close to natural mana. When such ethers draw close to each other, that’s what I call resonance.”

“…I see.”

I took Elias to a small church about 300 meters away from the collapsed prison and climbed up to the roof. Elias also leaped up with mana and sat on the roof with me. We could see Archduchess Maria stepping on the debris and climbing to the highest point.

I asked Elias for understanding and spoke mentally.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes~?”

“May I continue talking to you?”

“Ah, hahaha! Yes. Of course.”

“Then what does it mean for a soul to be annihilated?”

Silence flows.

I looked at the Duke’s bright soul in the distance and waited for an answer. Soon, a quiet voice flowed into my mind.

“Do you mean souls that lived in the past are also annihilated?”

“Well.”

“If that’s the case, let’s say we annihilate the soul of Person A who lived in prehistoric times. Then Person A will die. And hundreds of millions of descendants who inherited blood and genetic information from Person A will lose the chance to be born, and we would be living on a different Earth than now. We can now think like this: if I choose to be annihilated now, all the ‘me’s that have existed until now will disappear together, and all the things that happened due to ‘my’ influence will also disappear.”

“Hmm.”

“So academically, souls are not annihilated. The ultimate annihilation of ether does not occur.”

Occult academically, that would be the meaning. The Duke continued speaking.

“Of course, from my perspective it’s different. Souls can be annihilated. If the energy forming the astral body is broken down completely and never comes together in the same form again, wouldn’t that be one kind of annihilation in terms of identity? If I become part of the ether that forms this world, can that be called ‘me’? Then where are the boundaries of ‘me’? What ‘me’ do funeral services commemorate? Are such commemorative occasions created simply because flesh can no longer meet flesh?”

“I expected to hear a Christian perspective answer.”

“One must know how to transcend one’s own world to advance scholarship. While it’s a clear fact that Christianity raised me, I must conduct research that can give insight to people of other worldviews through my worldview, but I must also know how to break away from the worldview that has formed me. Otherwise, limitations become clear.”

I smiled silently.

Yes, that’s why he achieved developments that surpassed the European magical scholars who only looked at Christianity and ran—the current mainstream magical studies.

“Actually, I believe there’s a way to completely annihilate even that ether. But that would be a method that causes absolute deficiency in the universe. As I interpret it, deficiency of ether does not originally occur in the universe. If a single life could artificially cause even the slightest deficiency in universal ether….”

“….”

“How thrilling. Doesn’t this mean we could also seek the absolute increase of ether? If that happened, humans would soon become gods, and if gods don’t have godly hearts, the universe might explode.”

“The end is apocalypse.”

“That’s right. If humans climb to the end of the Tower of Babel, they’ll end up killing themselves. All of this would become the form of a snake eating its own tail.”

“That would be so.”

“Under the premise that complete annihilation of ether is possible, if annihilation occurs, the past self should also disappear naturally, but if this happens, many things would collide in the multiverse theory and astral realm as you mentioned. In the end, ether might not be annihilated but return to the universe, and only the Maria Osterreicheste that forms ‘me’ might be annihilated.”

“….”

But you are in the same space as me now. Even though you’re just an ether aggregate, a ghost.

‘…No.’

We’re not in the same space. Yes, I need to be precise. In the world I live in, Maria Osterreicheste is already a deceased person who was turned to ash and scattered in the sea, and cannot come back to life by any means. The Maria of EC Stage 1 world cannot be the same as that Maria.

Good. Anyway, the reason I asked all this was none other than the problem of blood. How far can my blood interfere with human souls? How much can my ability allow in this world, and how much burden will I bear in the future?

Unresolved questions still remained in my mind. I was lost in thought for a moment, then sent him words again.

“I heard you well, Your Grace. Let me ask one more thing. This time it’s a slightly different theory, and what overlaps this time is only the observation target, unlike before. There’s an observer and an electron. Until the observer observes the electron, the electron can spin either up or down. However, the moment the observer observes the electron, wave function collapse occurs and the electron’s spin is measured in only one direction. In this theory, there is only one world. Does this theory intuitively match the concepts of astral and ether?”

“This is quite fantastical. What does an electron do? Moreover, even in the microscopic world, why would the direction be determined only when we see it? And why isn’t the observer subject to superposition unlike before? Because the observer is in the macroscopic world?”

“There might be some differences of opinion, but this theory doesn’t include the measurer in the quantum system, and above all, it’s just a model that omits many things for understanding, Your Grace.”

“It doesn’t seem like the electron is fixed by the influence of natural mana. How does it work just because humans see it? Does mana come out of the eyes?”

“In this sense, I’m telling you it’s just a model. It’s not about humans seeing, observation is the key.”

“Why?”

Let’s send this person to the 21st century. To think he likes studying this much—I feel sorry that I’m not skilled in science and magical studies. Thinking this, I pressed him.

“…Please answer. If this were true?”

“It doesn’t match.”

The Duke answered sharply. His words continued in my mind.

“Actually, the theories you’re talking about seem quite removed from time travel or astral concepts. At least they’re not the central theme. Am I right?”

“You’re right.”

“I don’t really understand what Count Everett means by wave function collapse, but if the superposition state that could spin up or down collapses at that moment and is determined as one, and if other possibilities are reduced, then for time travel, the multiverse theory you mentioned earlier seems more suitable. Just judging from what I heard from you. I wouldn’t say that theory allows time travel either, but in terms of possibility.”

Then the multiverse theory is an interpretation more open to the possibility of astral travel. Good. I agree with that.

Assuming time travel is possible, to support the Copenhagen interpretation, he influenced the past through astral projection. To support the Copenhagen interpretation, one would have to believe ‘he revived the already collapsed wave function to its pre-collapse state, making all conclusions rewritten,’ but this would fall into the contradiction of no longer being able to say one supports the Copenhagen interpretation. Even allowing for the fantastical nature of the time travel hypothesis, this is conflicting.

In the multiverse interpretation, going back to the past corresponds to advancing to a new branched world. Even if ‘I’ feel like I’m going back to the past through time travel, I’m not actually going back. This theory at least makes time travel possible.

But there are still problems. If the Maria of EC Stage 1 can travel to the past of EC Stage 1, she can travel to the past of the original—the world I believe to be original—and she could also travel to the past of Stages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and countless others after that, and she should also be able to travel to countless worlds branching at the quantum level in Stage 1 right now. According to his astral beliefs, the astral body should even be able to go to the future. However, according to the Duke’s words, while he can move his astral body to some pasts, he cannot astrally project to most pasts. Why does this difference occur?

“What problem is it that you’re worrying so much~?”

“…It’s nothing.”

The Duke’s joke about ‘Laplace’s demon would cry’ means he immediately grasped that the multiverse theory conflicts with Newton’s classical mechanics. Of course, just hearing unheard-of talk about wave function branching would make him think it’s different from what he knew.

I asked him if the world could be explained with determinism, and he answered that assuming the multiverse theory is true, when information is complete as in classical mechanics thought experiments, there exists no one who can know all past, present, and future—meaning if there is, it would be God: nonsense. It was a question I threw because I didn’t want to believe reality, but the answer didn’t consider me. Even Archduchess Maria thinks it’s an obvious problem.

Is it impossible to understand the world with the knowledge I have? Really? I needed to know why he could freely travel between worlds with my blood. Why specifically with my blood?

I felt as if even the weight of the lives the dead possessed had all climbed onto my shoulders. The meager knowledge I had wasn’t explaining anything to me.

“….”

Wind passes through me and ruffles Elias’s hair. I turned my head toward my friend beside me. Then, a strong light that stung the eyes briefly appeared in a line form in the distance, and cheers came from Archduchess Maria.

“Ah. Now…!”

Rumble—…

‘Huh.’

“Hmm?”

Both Elias and Archduchess Maria showed puzzled reactions. I was the same. The moment I stood up to see the situation.

Crash—!

“…!”

Black air surged from the light.

Those involved in the holy relic theft case flashed through my mind. No. I can’t leave that alone. I shouted toward the Duke.

“Your Grace!”

“Yes?!”

“You must return. Wake up from your sleep!”

“What, wait, just me?! Why?”

“Because…!”

The moment they discover you, they’ll try to squeeze you somehow!

Crash—!

The moment I stomped on the roof with my foot, the world turns black.

“….”

I opened my eyes with my cheek against the ground. It was the same world as before, the place I was in before entering the extra chapter. I ran toward the church where Elias would be, toward the collapsed prison behind it.

Even though the Duke can see the world in soul form through astral projection, he cannot go to the future, and even going to the past can only retrace just one past among countless worlds. That is, he cannot come outside EC Stage 1. He remains in an eternally annihilated state. That was the natural universe.

Taking his ether mass outside the world is going against nature, and going against nature only occurred through me. Without my blood, without me showing will and bringing him along, Maria could never observe the world.

So it’s something that won’t happen if I don’t do it. Something I shouldn’t do. If I don’t want to make the deceased’s will meaningless.

The mana loaded in my legs collides with Vitriol. Still, I had to run.

How long did I run? I can see the prison in the distance. Light and darkness were surging simultaneously from that place. Archduchess Maria’s crack succeeded. It’s because something made of Vitriol is trying to cross over from the other side again.

“Luca—!”

Elias’s booming shout can be heard. The sound gradually draws closer. I shouted toward him.

“Eli, get ready!”

“Again…!”

Yes, again.

Again in this insane world…!

I gritted my teeth and ran up to the collapsed ruins. At that moment.

Kaaang—!

“…!”

A strange sound rang out. The black liquid that had been surging through the air was covered by light pouring down so intensely it was hard to keep one’s eyes open, and disappeared. The one who had dealt with the Vitriol trying to cross over here slowly turned around. White hair fluttered before my eyes. Deep blue eyes slowly turned toward me.

“It’s been a while.”

A hollow voice pierced my ears in low tones.

‘Ainsiedel.’

After being momentarily flustered, I slowly twisted the corners of my mouth.

The purpose of coming to Gizingen had been achieved through twists and turns. Since the holy relic thief had come to find us directly.

He looked at me and Elias running from far away, then raised his pure white staff and struck it down on the floor.

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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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