How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 460

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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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“Well, we’re now in a place surrounded on all sides by foreign countries.”

“All sides?”

I asked with a suspicious expression, sensing from Elias’s words that his definition of a central point on a mental map or foreign countries differed from mine. After all, we were still in Germany, and we hadn’t even moved far from Bavaria where we started—we were even still within it. Therefore, the north was still Germany. After a moment, I pulled my robe tightly with my hands against the inland wind that quickly began to feel warm and looked back. The carriage that had brought us here was disguised as a stagecoach, so it was already heading back toward Munich station. It would surely be dismantled in a warehouse there and sent to the royal palace.

“Where we’re standing is Bavaria. Beyond this is the Kingdom of Württemberg, to its left is Baden, below is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, below Baden is Switzerland, and to the left of Baden is the French Empire. It shouldn’t be difficult to picture this far, right?”

“Right.”

“We’re going to cross the village and go to Kressborn in Württemberg. Because we can’t cause trouble for Leo.”

“So you’re going to cause trouble for the neighboring country instead?”

Narke burst into laughter at my question thrown with a disgusted expression. Elias answered firmly while constantly running his hand through his shortly cropped hair.

“It’s not exactly like that, it’s killing two birds with one stone. I have a place I always go to, and actually where I’m going doesn’t have clear borders. We’re going to Lake Constance.”

“Lake Constance?”

I responded casually, but when I heard him mention Kressborn in Württemberg, I understood what Elias intended. I knew what diverse people he had freely associated with in the novel and what benefits he had gained. I couldn’t believe I was participating, albeit with a slightly different purpose, in one of the protagonist’s journeys that I had only read about—rather than being excited, I found it fascinating and a little thrilling, but the future looked very dark.

Of course, even if I hadn’t read the epic of his time as protagonist, anyone could quickly understand why he suggested going to the lake, and that was predictable without directly seeing what scheme he had prepared.

30 minutes later, after repeated warps and walking a bit between borders within Germany, we illegally entered the Kingdom of Württemberg’s Kressborn. Having arrived in front of Lake Constance, I looked with a dejected heart at the ferry boats and fishing boats firmly tied to the rusted mooring posts of the dock while smelling the damp fishy odor. People who work on boats might call a day like today with a clear moon and moderate wind an excellent day to ‘follow fair winds and seas,’ but for someone like me who has no connection to boat work, the moonlight illuminating the black water doesn’t seem like a benevolent searchlight bestowed by Isis—it’s just eerie. The Swiss and Austro-Hungarian borders that should be far away aren’t even visible, and ominous bird cries that sound like strangled necks—caw, caw—flow endlessly from the sparse tree clusters. The wooden planks forming the dock are so old that when waves hit, water droplets splash up between the floor gaps. Lake Constance is a lake, but it’s uncomfortably large to simply call it just a lake without any modifiers. It boasts a size that could barely swallow one administrative district of Tübingen if crumpled up well, much larger than Munich and slightly smaller than Seoul. At least that’s what I learned when investigating the natural environment of areas adjacent to Bavaria, and seeing it in person was truly breathtaking. While I was just looking down at the black water from the dock within Württemberg’s borders of Lake Constance, Elias patted my shoulder and ran to a residential house behind us, then knocked on the door.

Bang— Bang bang bang—

“Mister!”

Elias suddenly knocked on the door of an unknown residential house and shouted in the middle of the night. Before long, angry footsteps grew closer and the door swung open.

“Who is it!”

“It’s me.”

Elias answered with a sullen face, swaggering. The person now standing before him was unlike city people—he had grown his beard down to his chin. His skin was darkly tanned and his hands and forearms bore many scars from fishing hooks. He seemed to be a fisherman who made his living from Lake Constance.

And that was true. Elias had literally roamed all over Germany and in the process brought countless people he met into his network regardless of class or age. This person was a fisherman Elias had encountered when he stopped by a tavern in the Kingdom of Württemberg and got into a dispute, but they became friends after fighting—it would be more accurate to say the man took a liking to him first, recognizing they were kindred spirits in temperament—and Elias often borrowed boats here. Elias liked to depart from this neighborhood right next to Bavaria, touch the islands of the Grand Duchy of Baden, and return.

“Could you lend us a boat? The smallest one.”

Elias spoke in fluent Bavarian dialect, mixing in the somewhat impolite and vulgar speech patterns commonly used by ordinary children. I knew he could speak regional dialects from all over Germany, but seeing a Hohenzollern who spoke Berlin dialect and used the dignified speech patterns characteristic of royalty as his native tongue speak like a Bavarian mountain valley native—and an 18-year-old with quite a history as a neighborhood leader at that—felt miraculous. Whether I admired from afar or not, the fisherman asked back with a bewildered expression.

“What? At this hour? It’s midnight right now, boy.”

“The three of us are going to practice for a play. We need to use a boat.”

“What school on earth has students float boats on a river to perform plays?”

“Our school. We perform outdoors for graduating seniors.”

“Then couldn’t you just go to a stream and practice with a raft?”

“Why should I? A person should properly play in big waters. Even if I drown and become piranha food, I’m going to ride a boat on Lake Constance. Please lend it to us.”

“Well, really….”

The fisherman shook his head in disbelief and leaned against the doorframe with his arm. After observing Elias, he pointed and asked.

“Your hair that looked like you never learned manners has finally become neat. But haven’t you graduated yet?”

“Yes, of course. I’m still a first-year… Anyway, I’ll even pay money, so could you lend it to us? We’ll only ride it briefly and tie it back to the dock before sunrise today.”

“Then pay the fee in advance. I don’t want to get up again.”

“Alright.”

Elias rummaged through his pockets and earnestly counted out dirty money to hand to the fisherman. The fisherman counted the four bills Elias handed him and raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.

“I’m always curious—where does a student get money?”

“Well, there are many ways.”

“You’re not stealing from somewhere, are you?”

“How did you know?”

When the fisherman’s face hardened, Elias adjusted his tie pretentiously and shrugged his shoulders.

“Just kidding. I go to work after school. I earn money to have fun.”

“What about your friends over there?”

“They do the same.”

“That’s right.”

I answered in a Bavarian accent.

Either way, the fisherman tucked the money into his waistband and, seeing Elias as just a spirited child, chuckled and patted his shoulder.

“Come play often.”

“Yes.”

Elias tipped his hat in greeting and turned around.

When the door closed, Elias walked with long strides to the end of the dock in one breath, pressed the ferry boat right against the dock platform, and leaped onto the boat. The boat rocked as if it might capsize at any moment, but he was very relaxed, as if this wasn’t his first or second time. Narke also followed him onto an empty spot, and the two pushed the boat close to the dock to prevent it from drifting further while looking up at me. I quietly watched the ferry boat that swayed greatly with even the slightest waves, then sighed and carefully sat beside them. Then Elias skillfully untied the rope bound to the mooring post and threw it onto the planks. Suddenly an exquisite wind pushed the boat, and we drifted sideways with the current. In an instant, the dock moved away from our side. Elias clapped his hands and boldly shouted.

“Successful illegal emigration!”

“Hahaha.”

“We’re still in German territory though….”

I muttered while gripping the oar and spinning it upward to make the boat move forward. No, I tried to move forward in spirit, but since I was far from a life of rowing, I just spun the oar uselessly, truly demonstrating what an urban bumpkin was like. Then Elias directly corrected my clumsy posture, pressed the arm muscles where force should be applied with his hands to show me, and cheerfully shouted.

“Still! Now, let’s all start together. Let’s somehow prove that we didn’t lie to the boat owner.”

“Hmm~ I pass.”

“What are you asking us to prove.”

At my question, Elias said “Hey” and scolded me as if asking why I was being like that. I roughly guessed what he was trying to do, so his scolding was justified. He intended to practice for a play. I simply didn’t want to speak loudly on the lake in the middle of the night and draw attention. Reluctantly, I cast a sound-dampening spell for Elias’s entertainment.

“No one else? Then I’ll start first.”

Elias warmed up his voice with light stretching and then shouted loudly. His usually cheerful voice had become as majestic as when reciting an epic poem, but I knew he wouldn’t be reciting an epic. As expected, Elias opened with an 18th-century story I had read somewhere before.

“When you had finished preparing to leave, I headed to Peterhof. I was there enjoying my holiday to the fullest, so vigorously that I could lose my mind, with maximum pleasure. But hoping to make my journey more beneficial, I decided to visit Kronstadt and Schlüsselburg as well.”

While reciting, Elias tried to correct Narke’s rowing skills, but Narke rowed very skillfully even without his corrections. Narke rowed vigorously while watching Elias’s recitation with interest. When appropriate passages came, Elias squinted his eyes and spread both arms toward the sky while acting.

“Because I heard there had been great changes there. Anyway, I spent two very pleasant days in Kronstadt, viewing numerous foreign warships, the stone outer walls of Kronstadt fortress, and buildings soaring to the sky. I also enjoyed imagining in advance how beautiful this place would become while watching the new Kronstadt downtown development plans with interest. Anyway, it was tremendously enjoyable.”

“Hahaha. This sounds like something Elias would say~”

“Right? The night was silent and bright, and the fresh, invigorating air was so gently pleasant to my heart. Could a hundred words from me be better than going and experiencing it directly! I wanted to feel the beauty of nature and welcome the magnificent spectacle of the majestic sun rising from the calm horizon, even if just once in my lifetime. So I rented a boat with twelve oars and headed to S.”

Before we knew it, we were listening to Elias’s recitation with interest. He felt exactly like a traveler who had once taken a twelve-oared boat and suddenly departed for S. Elias’s black hair fluttered in the wind. His equally dark-colored eyelashes covered and revealed his irises. Each time he closed and opened his eyes, passion blazing from those blue eyes that could be seen anywhere in the world could be felt—even though what he was reciting wasn’t a novel praising travel and nature. Even while memorizing all these passages, Elias didn’t slack off in his rowing, so we came to float on a massive lake surrounded on all sides by water. No dock or forest was close to us.

“Up to about 4 versts, nothing happened. The monotonous sound of rowing made me drowsy, and so… my eyelids closed heavily, preventing me from enjoying even the fragments of light created by water droplets falling when oars lifted toward the sky. Thanks to my overflowing poetic imagination, I was already flying in ecstasy over the meadows of Paphos and Amathus. Imagine it. The midday beaches of Cyprus, the pastures, the lofty temples built when the Greek gods were the supreme rulers of heaven and earth.”

The last two phrases were Elias’s ad-lib. I laughed lightly and called out the name of the character Elias was playing to add encouragement.

“That must have been enjoyable, Che.”

“The water droplets falling on us now are like obsidian too. Pretty~”

Narke went one step further. I had no choice but to ignore those words. Because water falling from the oars was soaking our heads and shoulders just like rain. Anyway, Elias seemed satisfied with our responses, made a gun shape with his hand and gestured, then shouted again.

“But suddenly the sharp sound of wind rising in the distance completely drove away my sleep. My eyes were still so heavy, yet pitch-black cumulus clouds charged over my head, threatening me as if they would pour down!”

“….”

Narke, who wasn’t using Insight, started chuckling. I knew the development of this novel, but I didn’t expect him to recite this far, so I muttered on Narke’s behalf.

“The work selection seems like a joke, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

Elias paid no attention to whatever we said and continued acting.

“The mirror-like calm water surface began to ripple, and then tranquility completely fled. I was truly delighted to see that sight. Because I witnessed nature’s great power!”

“He must be crazy.”

I criticized the character’s joy. For some reason, Elias almost couldn’t contain his laughter at my words, then returned to seriousness and acted.

“Of course, I don’t mean to speak arrogantly, but other people’s surprise was quite enjoyable to me. So I shouted like Verne. [Ah, how wonderful!] But the wind wouldn’t stop and grew even fiercer. I thought we must hurry to shore.”

Wind began to blow around us too, and the ferry boat swayed. I grabbed Narke’s right arm tightly. When water almost leaked in toward Narke’s side, Narke inhaled and brushed his chest.

“Storm clouds completely covered the sky. Due to fierce waves, we couldn’t control the rudder, and gusts would place us on the crests of wave vibrations then drop us into troughs, making our rowing completely useless. Because of the wind, we were just being pushed around. Then the shore became frightening.”

“How quickly he became frightened.”

“When navigation was smooth, it was comforting, but now it’s heading toward despair. At that moment nature seemed to envy us, and we were enraged that nature hadn’t shown its greatness earlier. But hope that drives humans to extremes made us strong, so we earnestly encouraged each other.”

“Hope that drives us to extremes made us strong….”

I repeated his words. Because it was such a characteristic line of his, all this felt even more real. So speaking of which—if I have the illusion that the sky seems to be getting a bit darker, yes, that must surely be an illusion, but I don’t know why my spine feels so chilly. The moonlight reflected on the water surface seemed to have diminished slightly. Though it might be a coincidence that clouds occasionally covering the moon while riding the wind and Elias’s recitation occurred at similar moments, I didn’t want to let this ominous story continue any longer.

“Stop, stop.”

“Our boat floating on the waves suddenly stopped and wouldn’t move. Even using all our strength didn’t make it budge from where it had stopped!”

“It’s moving fine. Ah, it moves well. Elias, let’s just imagine going to Cyprus to pick oranges.”

In this novel, the character’s boat gets stuck between rocks and runs aground, then reaches a situation where the boat fills with water, and though the captain barely climbs to land and asks an officer for help, he’s flatly refused and goes alone to a distant outpost to borrow a merchant ship to rescue his passengers. The character feels wronged and angry at the attitudes of the officer and his superior, the regional governor, and goes to find them both, but only hears the response ‘rescuing stranded ships is not my duty’ and leaves. The character feels terrible disillusionment and prepares to leave the city while telling the protagonist his travel epic. Anyway, this book was one Elias would read with great impression, and I did too, but precisely because of that, reciting the above passage at this moment would only bring us gloomy stories. I didn’t want to picture a future where our ferry boat fills with water and one of us swims to shore to seek help.

“Alright. Part 2 recitation is for next time.”

Elias also seemed to feel that the signs were getting bad, so he looked up at the sky to gauge the wind and closed his mouth. Then he shamelessly said to me.

“I took your suggestion about going to Cyprus to eat oranges seriously. Remember that.”

“I just said to imagine it. And…. Everything’s fine, but I have one question.”

I had come to the middle of the lake trusting Elias and Narke. They said they would handle the illegal emigration and immigration themselves. But there was a problem.

“I have a question. If we’re going to take a boat to Switzerland, there’s the Grand Duchy of Baden at the mouth of this lake. Departing from Baden’s Gaienhofen or Constance and entering Switzerland would be the fastest route. No, we don’t even need to do that. There’s land connected to Switzerland’s interior below this lake.”

Paradies and Altstadt are Baden territories attached to Swiss land below the lake, and crossing from there to Switzerland is possible within a minute on foot. Then Narke said with a pitying expression.

“Because of Atropos, the Baden government installed barriers at Paradies and Altstadt to prevent anyone from entering or leaving freely.”

“Just like the civilian control around contaminated areas. I expected that. But if we can’t pass through there, what’s the point of taking a boat to Switzerland now? If crossing the border on land has barriers, but going to shore doesn’t have barriers? That’s not right.”

“Right, there will be barriers over each country’s portion of the lake. We haven’t been caught yet because we’re still in German territory.”

“Then why the hell are we on a boat?”

Elias spoke confidently.

“We’re not going to set foot on Swiss mainland. Luca, you know Raihenau Island, right?”

“Yeah, it’s right next to here…”

Raihenau Island is an island located just below the Constance region, to the right of Gaienhofen that I mentioned earlier, and it’s the largest island in Lake Constance. Elias playfully struck the water with his oar as he spoke.

“Now, ten things that come to mind when you think of Raihenau Island!”

“What? Grand Duchy of Baden territory, Lake Constance, medieval period, Frankish Kingdom, monastery, Ottonian manuscripts…”

Hmm. I held my head and shook it. It wasn’t my region, and aside from knowing it was right above Switzerland, I hadn’t really studied much about it. What I recited was just from history books, and I didn’t know much about Ottonian manuscripts either. Elias seemed satisfied at this point and winked at Narke.

“Medieval, monastery, Ottonian manuscripts. Good guesses. Narke. Your turn.”

Actually, I heard about it from Narke too—Elias said this while winking. Narke explained Raihenau Island to me.

“Raihenau Island was a place where many Christian architectural structures were built during the medieval period. Churches dedicated to the Virgin Maria and Saint Marco were built there, as well as churches dedicated to Peter and Paul, and George. Saint Marco’s relics have been in the monastery there since the 9th century. Now that the Constance bishopric has expanded to include Raihenau Island, it’s become quite secularized, so there’s nothing important to see except the monastery.”

“So we’re going to Raihenau Island first? Since it’s the same Germany, we could have just warped there. The fact that we didn’t means…”

There must be a reason. I calmly waited for Narke to continue, and he gave the answer I expected.

“Right. We’re secretly leaving the country without telling Trier Cathedral. The Catholics must absolutely not know that we’re heading to Italy. So the Raihenau monastery must not know that we’re smuggling ourselves either.”

I nodded at Narke’s obvious statement. But there was still an unresolved problem beside us.

“So you’re planning to secretly dock and enter the monastery? Narke, we need to go to Switzerland. I’d like to know what we’re going to get here.”

“In the past, the monastery on Raihenau Island was famous for manuscripts. Emperors and bishops would commission biblical manuscripts from the monastery. The Raihenau school’s manuscripts were famous for their delicate and ornate decorations and transcendent paintings, and they had a tremendous influence on later art. During wars, France even stole manuscripts made here.”

“Hmm, right. So?”

I was starting to guess what he was trying to say, but I frowned and asked, unable to believe the reality.

“Now, let’s talk about Constance. Constance, which occupies the land above and below to the right of Raihenau—what kind of city is it historically?”

“I’ve read that trade was active there. And the Council of Constance was held there.”

“Right, exactly. In medieval times, Constance was on the route from Germany to Italy. It was also a city that benefited from the active trade that flourished in medieval times.”

Meanwhile, we reached a quiet dock in Constance. Narke cast concealment magic around us and got off the boat. Elias and I also followed him off. When Elias pointed his wand at the boat and briefly cast a spell, the boat slowly drifted away and began returning the way we came. This was how he planned to send the boat back before dawn.

I watched the leisurely floating boat and turned my head. From here, I could see the dark land of Raihenau. Narke whispered in a slightly excited tone.

“I grew up looking at a picture book compiled from pages of Raihenau manuscripts when I was young. It was clearly a picture book that appeared to be drawn by the Raihenau school about a thousand years ago, but wasn’t recognized as an official manuscript.”

“…”

We stood quietly on the dark dock of Constance in silence. To be precise, Elias was grinning with joy, and I barely managed to listen to my friend’s words while feeling a chill down my spine as I could predict what would follow.

“And this is something I found out while studying German folklore—there was supposedly an underground passage in Raihenau where they smuggled paintings for biblical manuscripts. If the folklore is true, then paintings that didn’t go through inspection crossed into what is now Swiss territory through that route.”

I bit my lips and let out a hollow laugh. Oh, this can’t be. As if having Elias wasn’t enough, we had one more person among us who would do such things… I asked resignedly, even though I knew what lay ahead.

“So?”

Narke’s eyes gleamed in the darkness. Even though he had taken medicine to darken his eye color, I couldn’t miss the excitement that filled those eyes.

“We’re going to find the thousand-year-old underground passage.”

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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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