How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 463

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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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“Aaaahhhhh!”

We ran out like madmen. In the pitch-black underground passage where the only light came from the wand Narke held, we had to run faster than the water rushing beneath our feet. Even while running, despair washed over me at how impossible this seemed, but we had to do it to survive. I used barriers to reduce friction, sliding and running and sliding again repeatedly. Elias kept muttering beside me.

“This is insane. Crazy. Drowning pigs… we were pigs… we were pigs!”

“How could that be?!”

“Then what is this?! Why is water filling a perfectly fine passage?! Who got possessed by evil spirits?! Oh, Lord, save us XX… Then now you’d say ‘Why are you afraid, you faithless bastards’… Wait, this was in the murals too!”

Ah, damn it. Possession? Is it because of me? The biblical scene of possessing pigs with demons to kill them is related to me…?

That can’t be possible. Say something that makes sense. Murals coming to life and such things only happen in movies. I ran while kicking through the rising water. Elias closed his eyes, tilted his head, and muttered while running with all his might.

“Hey, Jesus will clear the water for us. According to the murals, that’s what happens. Anyway, this must have been an elaborate design to stop intruders. There’s a pressure sensor at the entrance that detected our presence and opened the floodgates!”

“How does it distinguish friend from foe?”

“There’s no such thing, it just pours everything out! Aaaahhhhh!”

Elias let out some strange battle cry and dashed ahead by himself. Dumbfounded, I opened my mouth. Having no choice, I took a deep breath and kicked the ground hard. Elias belatedly pulled me forward with magic to help and shouted loudly.

“Guys! We’re mages!”

“Right, that’s true! But so what!”

“Let’s make the barrier thick and block the water!”

“You think I haven’t considered that? What about the thought that if we block the water here, the passage will be destroyed by the pressure?”

“Damn crazy… But if you think too deeply about such things, you can’t do anything! Just go for it!”

“Hey, wait, if the passage collapses, it’s game over with no way to reverse it, and you say just go for it?!”

No matter what I said, Elias drew his wand and aimed it at the water rushing behind us. Blue light burst from his wand.

[. , ! …!]

“What language did you just speak? Chinese?”

“This is, Eastern, what’s it called, anyway I learned it from a magic book from there! Now the water will…!”

The water will?

I turned around with a glimmer of hope. The water that had been rising horizontally on the floor lifted into the air. I widened my eyes at the unexpected sight. However, it soon gathered into a single stream like a drill and began flying toward us in a spiral rotation. I screamed in horror at the approaching water stream.

“Aaaahhhhh!”

“Ah, disgusting! Actually, I don’t know this well. I must have recited something wrong.”

“You knew?! If you knew, couldn’t you have used something you actually know properly!”

“But the water gathered!”

“What’s the use?!”

“Hehehe, ahhh…”

Narke laughed making strange sounds like before. I can’t tell if he’s crying or laughing, but I want to cry. Though no tears came out, that’s how I felt emotionally. I drew my wand from my waist and spun it between my fingers. Aiming the extended staff toward the back, I shouted.

—The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me?”

Rumble—…

As light touched it, strange sounds came from the gathered water. Light flickered like lightning in the tunnel. White light spread through the murky lake water to the end, and the moment the magic gathered in the water flashed brightly, I swung my staff once more.

—Tell the Israelites to move forward. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide it!

Whoooosh—!

Wind from the water rushed toward us, brushing our skin. It was cold. Fragments of light that hadn’t touched the water poured through the air, making the dark tunnel flash white. The water that had been gathered together split in half, sliding up the walls to reach the ceiling. The three sides of the passage were surrounded by water, maintaining that shape while swirling.

Elias made a “huh, ha” sound and extended his hand to me. A high-five at this moment? Did he catch it from Julia? I smiled and slapped his hand, continuing to run.

‘This way we won’t block the water flow and burst the underground passage.’

The problem is how long do we have to keep running while maintaining this magic? How long can I maintain magic that interferes with natural elements in this state? My bones ached from ankle to shin. It’s been fine so far, but if this continues, I might end up walking with crutches like Elias. Then Narke suddenly turned toward us and shouted.

“Lucas, Elias!”

His hands grabbed us. The moment I felt magic flow through, we fell into midair.

“Uh—”

Instead of the disappeared water flow and tunnel, I see the black night sky. Even before looking down at my feet, I could guess. Narke had calculated the Z-axis coordinates in the air instead of on the ground. Yes, it was truly midair. There was no floor!

“Wait, ahhhhh!”

“Uhhhhhhhh?!”

Thud—

Impact struck and I squeezed my eyes shut. Familiar divine power rose from beneath my cheek. Narke’s barrier caught us. Now I see we were lying on top of a large oak tree with sparse branches.

“Huh…”

I had no strength to get up, so I lay looking at the sky, catching my breath and muttering.

“This is driving me crazy…”

What is this? What the hell are we doing…? I was so dumbfounded I laughed. Does illegal immigration have to be this treacherous? This is why people should live without committing crimes.

Anyway, we’re finally in Switzerland. I looked at the white light embroidered in the sky and whispered.

“Illegal immigration successful.”

“Yeah~ We survived.”

Elias kicked off the barrier and got up—the barrier swayed and he almost fell from the tree—then sat by my head and pulled my cheeks. I have no idea what he’s thinking or why he’s doing this, but that’s Elias for you. I had no energy to stop him, so I left him alone and closed my eyes.

If I hadn’t needed to survive Adrian Ascanien and could have just lived going with the flow, then I would have approached Elias, and wouldn’t I have gone on trips like this with Elias and Leo every time? Whether that would be a good thing or not needs more consideration. I opened my eyes again and said quietly.

“That passage. It looked like it was used until recently. At least the monks on that island know about the underground passage’s existence.”

Then Elias, who had been arranging—to put it nicely, arranging—my hair, nodded.

“Right, seeing how they replaced the door with a new one. Was there a flood at some point?”

“At least water must have periodically entered and left that passage. I felt it was too humid as soon as we entered.”

“That’s very suspicious. Then those monks can also illegally immigrate to Switzerland~!”

“That’s right.”

Then Elias fell deep in thought. I slowly continued speaking.

“What if the water didn’t come in because we stepped on the ground, but comes in and goes out according to a specific cycle? Then the monks would know which days of the month they can use that passage, and on those days they could freely cross to Switzerland and back in secret.”

“Oh.”

“When the lake floods or high tide comes, the passage fills with water, otherwise it doesn’t. How about that?”

“That sounds plausible. But whether it’s high tide or not, the passage is underground, so why would water fill it?”

“That’s true too. Investigation is needed. Let’s go back and look after some time passes.”

“No need to investigate. Lucas is probably right.”

At the words from over there, Elias and I simultaneously looked toward where Narke was sitting. He looked at the horizon and mountains where no water could be seen and said.

“People could directly channel water in, or a river could directly fill the passage. Before coming, I saw something like a line slightly protruding above the lake surface.”

A line. Narke quietly continued.

“I didn’t know exactly what it was, but thinking about it now, it might be a pipe or chimney. When the water level rises, water would enter through the chimney, and as water fills the cavity, it would flow into the passage through where bricks were missing. It might not be that, but… However, I don’t know where the water that enters drains out. We’ll have to investigate that when we return home.”

Narke looked at us and smiled.

“What’s important now is that we’ve finally come to Switzerland.”

“Right… finally. That’s fortunate. Where are we?”

“Zermatt. Below the Alps. It’s not too cold though, right?”

“No.”

Elias answered firmly while chattering his teeth. I agree. Not cold my ass. It feels like it’s below freezing. I slowly sat up and looked around. Mountains with pure white snow on their peaks could be seen in the distance. Zermatt, as I know it, is close to Italy. Narke gauged the height below the barrier, then jumped down to the ground without hesitation. It reminded me of the day I first met him. Then he called to us from under the tree.

“Come on! Come down, guys~”

I was about to jump down habitually, then remembered the condition of my legs. Only then did Narke seem to realize what I was thinking and raised his eyebrows. He spread his arms wide as if he’d catch me.

“Are you kidding?”

“Hahaha~”

“Forget it. I’ll step on the barrier and come down…?!”

From behind, Elias picked me up and jumped. Before I could be shocked, he channeled magic into his legs and landed lightly on the ground.

“Done~ Easy, right?!”

“Hehe…”

“What’s wrong, we’ve done this before.”

“…”

Right. At Giessing Stadelheim. Elias was smiling mischievously. I smiled back at him and looked at Narke. Narke winked at me and sat under the tree. Following him to sit, Narke placed his hand on my boots and recited an incantation.

—When the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted, the moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days.

Light seeped into my legs. My legs felt refreshed as if the magic had been cleanly organized.

“What’s this?”

“I can’t be a perfect cure, but at least I can organize the magic to flow well. That way it’ll heal faster.”

“Hmm. Thanks.”

“Let’s do this often.”

“Well… we’ll be going back soon anyway.”

“Right. But still.”

Narke patted my leg and got up again, approaching the opposite trunk. He gauged the location through the scenery from where he stood, then created a shovel with his wand and began digging the ground. I watched the process, impressed that he had stored all sorts of useless things.

Actually, when people do illegal warps, they usually calculate coordinates directly between locations and move to secluded places since going to official warp points would risk getting caught, but if you miscalculate values in this process, you could die. Like how we just fell from midair. Warp magic adjusts values to make the caster land on top when objects are placed on coordinates instead of integrating them with those objects, but if you’re unlucky enough to memorize coordinates underground, adjustment or whatever, you’re as good as dead. It would be fortunate if descendants discovered the body while digging.

But it seems Narke didn’t come to the wrong place—he had business at these coordinates from the beginning. Narke let out a sigh of relief.

“Found it.”

“What is it.”

“There’s a box I buried here when I was young.”

“When you were young?”

“Maybe not that young. Before going to Germany, one day I thought I should do this.”

Narke pulled out a glazed wooden box from the pit. The edges were decorated with gold. He opened the lid, swept the contents into his clutch, and handed us several items.

“I thought my future self would use these. Today’s me sent a message to my past self.”

What Narke handed over were prayer beads and silver bands. Surprisingly, when I put the silver band on my wrist, it automatically shrank to fit my body perfectly.

As I stared at it with an absurd smile, feeling like I was looking at an earthworm wrapped around my wrist, Narke kindly explained.

“It’s an artifact that blocks magic~ Originally I used it when working, but today it would be good if you all used it too.”

“New technology is the best.”

“Haha. At our Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, we’ve been using this technology for decades. Only we can use it.”

“Hmm, right.”

I’m really curious who the Papal States spy is that managed to communicate with Terminus Yukairya while breaking through that tremendous papal technology. I put another band around my neck and ankle. Narke did the same, then tapped the band on his wrist against the one on his neck.

“If you want to remove it, tap like this. Then they’ll combine~ Just gather them on your wrist and take them off.”

“Isn’t this mercury? What kind of silver is this liquid?”

“It’s not liquid, it’s a mass of magic~ Haha. It feels strange but you won’t get sick.”

“Won’t get sick?”

A guess? When I questioned him with a laugh, Narke laughed along and changed the subject.

“Still, there’s no choice. With just this, no matter how much we’re mages, we won’t get caught in barriers. Good, right? So don’t take it off.”

“What?”

There was such a thing?

When entering Germany, they would inspect luggage so he couldn’t bring it? Or was it because he had no intention of revealing this to us until now? Narke remained silent, just smiling, then answered playfully.

“This is really precious. You can’t lose it. You understand, right?”

“…”

To have the foresight to bury the right number of these in a Swiss tree trunk. Of course, there might be more bands in the box, but it’s already amazing that he put in enough for all of us to wear on our limbs in advance. Elias was also staring at Narke intently, then nodded and asked.

“Should we start by searching your subordinates? If they have these items, they could secretly leave the country.”

“That might be true, but… anyway, if you belong to the Papal States, these barriers aren’t a problem whether leaving or entering. The most important thing is that we examined everyone’s heads and found nothing. There were no traces of memory erasure either.”

“Hmm.”

“Maybe there was a problem with the examination itself. What if they colluded and covered for each other?”

“This is a very realistic problem… Then do we really have no choice but to go and investigate?”

“Right. We still need to remember the clue about St. Mark.”

“On our way here, we passed countless ‘Marcos’. Do you think that clue is still valid?”

“Yes.”

Narke answered Elias’s question firmly. Elias raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. Narke gestured, and we held hands with him and stood in a circle. It was time to cross the border again and go to Italy.

“From now on, we’re going to the Swiss border checkpoint. Well, I’d like to go to Rome and have fun eating this and that…”

Narke muttered while looking at the night sky. Rome or whatever, I just wanted to leave Switzerland quickly. Standing around in this sub-zero Alpine village was quite difficult.

“Since it’s still night, it won’t be fun to play, right? Should we go to Venice first, where St. Mark’s Cathedral is? When we get to Venice, I hope you’ll connect the clues creatively like you did before, Elias.”

“Yeah! Then let’s go to Rome to eat meat!”

“Good~”

Narke answered with a bright smile. I smiled watching them and asked.

“Guys, that’s all fine, but how are we going to cross the border? No matter how much you know Italy’s coordinate system, Narke… you can’t warp coordinates without crossing the border.”

“Right. Elias, please. We’re going to a checkpoint near our guard unit. Today is the application deadline.”

“Swiss Guard~?”

“Yes.”

“Is that by any chance that thing?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

At those words, I frowned. What are these guys talking about?

“Elias again? Wait…!”

Wait or not, we warped to another location. It really was near a checkpoint, and across a street surrounded by trees, I could see a lit checkpoint building. I sighed deeply and grabbed my forehead.

“Hey, I have a guess right now, so explain…”

Before I could finish speaking, Elias grabbed my shoulder.

“No, Luca. Hit me once. Really hard. Hard enough to make my nose bleed.”

“Are you crazy? Why would I do that?”

“Ahhhhh~”

“What do you mean ahhh! Get a grip!”

I was dumbfounded and pushed away Elias who was clinging to me. But Elias stuck to me like gum again and muttered.

“Then just pretend a little. You understand, right? Luca, even if you didn’t go to school, you know how to throw punches, right? Right? You know how to fight too, right?”

“No, so why exactly?!”

“This isn’t it. Act a bit more like that. Kids who don’t study. From today you’re a high school student who doesn’t study. Hurry up and get ready to play. You want to play but you can’t because I stole your money.”

“How specific.”

“Uwaaaah!”

Elias made a loud noise and suddenly swung his fist at me. I was shocked and slightly turned my body to the side. Seeing this, Elias seemed to gain confidence and started acting up even more, trusting me. I reflexively tried to draw my wand, but got hit on the shoulder by Elias and gritted my teeth from the pain as I dodged. Then Elias was surprised and made rabbit eyes as he swung his fist—there seemed to be no option not to do it.

“You should dodge, Luca!”

“Wait, hold on…”

“Why aren’t you hitting me?! Hurry up and hit me!”

“Are you insane!”

“Ahhhhh! Hiyaaaauaaaak!”

Elias started overacting to an absurd degree. He seemed to be trying to draw attention with noise. I dodged Elias’s punches and turned my head.

‘Where’s Narke?’

Where did this guy go again? Why is this kind of thing necessary to cross the border? Is he trying to draw attention and use mind manipulation magic? But there was absolutely no need to go this far for that, so there must be another reason. How exactly does he plan to cross the border by doing this? I can only imagine a future where we can’t cross the border at all and get locked up in jail. Could getting locked up in a Swiss jail be our goal tonight? I have no idea. I couldn’t understand Narke and Elias’s plan.

Crash—!

Finally, Elias grabbed my collar and knocked me to the ground. This guy was making a crying face but grabbed my collar and shook me around, telling me to act quickly.

‘Ah, I don’t know…’

Even so, I can’t hit Elias, so I should at least try to escape. Considering our builds, this position was very disadvantageous for me. I grabbed Elias’s arm and pulled his leg inward sharply. I kicked off the ground with my left shoulder and pressed his shin with my right leg as I turned my body. The moment I flipped Elias onto the ground, a flashlight beam hit us.

“Hey students! Students!”

People who appeared to be caretakers came out of the building, two or three of them running toward us. I was shocked and opened my mouth. I need to explain that it’s a misunderstanding. I can’t go to jail after coming to this country. The moment I pressed the ground to get up, Elias firmly grabbed my arm.

“You can’t go!”

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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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