How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 479

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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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“I didn’t see Annunziata that way.”

Elias turned to look at me with a teasing expression.

“Didn’t Narke say earlier that Annunziata Orsini is the heir, not the duke? It’s also strange that the Orsini Duke is ill. If Annunziata Orsini is around 60, the duke would be around 100, so he’s already sick?”

“If he’s planning to leave early, that’s certainly an age where he could be ill enough.”

“I suppose so.”

Elias readily agreed. I held up Matteo Orsini and asked.

“How much would I have to feed him to cause brain damage with alcohol?”

“Did you make him drink the liquor I gave you? That was expensive.”

“This person is also a nobleman, so expensive liquor would suit his taste.”

“True.”

Elias answered nonchalantly and then grabbed Matteo Orsini by the collar and slammed him against the wall. I grimaced at the sickening sound of impact. Elias lifted his body to hit Matteo Orsini once more and said.

“Unless you’re going to make him drink about ten bottles at once, it’s hard to expect him to become stupid from alcohol. Just slam him against the wall.”

“Hmm…”

This definitely happened before too. I don’t think this will necessarily make him forget his memories. Sometimes I’m startled by Elias’s methods, but he was merciless toward people who interfered with achieving his goals. That was always consistent. He gave opportunities to those who were within his boundaries or straddling them—in other words, to individuals he unilaterally held hope for and to unspecified masses—but such people were rare for him, and above all, humans that Elias had placed within his boundaries rarely truly interfered with him.

I checked whether blood was flowing from Matteo’s head or not, and took him away from Elias. To be honest, I had no intention of causing that much harm, and unless it was an urgent situation where my safety and that of others was at risk, I didn’t want to attack anyone—excessive actions never lead to good results, and humanly speaking, I don’t feel inclined to do so. Elias perceptively asked without me even explaining about Matteo Orsini.

“Didn’t we need to erase that person’s memory?”

“Right. But… before using such physical methods, let’s have Narke try it. Since he was at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he probably has better skills than me.”

“Sure, whatever.”

Elias shrugged with a face that said either way was fine. I stroked my chin and looked around the archive.

“To punish the culprit, we need to find evidence. No matter how much judicial authority Narke has, he can’t just throw someone in prison for the reason that there’s no letter from the Secretariat of State.”

“Narke really had judicial authority?! Wow, the Papal States still use the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as an inquisition…”

Elias said that much then played dumb and changed the subject.

“Right, well. We need to find evidence. Besides, you’re saying there’s also a culprit in the Secretariat of State. Let’s find out which bastard sent the letter.”

“Maybe the Secretariat of State was just one bridge too. The Secretariat of State is a smokescreen and there might be another Orsini Cardinal behind it who’s the real culprit. In other words, if there are at least three accomplices…”

Then Elias hit my back.

“There it is again. Luca’s endless thinking.”

“Is it that bad right now?”

“Yeah, it’s that bad.”

Elias answered while stretching my cheek. I nodded and patted Elias’s shoulder.

“Annunziata Orsini probably went to the Forum Romanum. We need to ransack that person’s room now. I’ll do the ransacking, so you find out if there are any hidden rooms in the archive.”

Before Elias could even nod, I smiled and preemptively said what Elias was going to say.

“That’s your specialty, right?”

“Ah, of course.”

Elias seemed excited about finding hidden rooms, breathing audibly with excitement as he changed his wand to a staff. Elias uses wands a bit more often than staffs because they’re less obstructive when moving, but this time it seems he can use a staff.

I too have hardly used magic that affects someone’s mind until now, but from now on I will use it a bit more actively. When the mansion was full of people, using magic was also troublesome. Not technically troublesome, but socially troublesome—could I really safely ransack the house after putting all those people to sleep? How could I handle the aftermath? I could do it if I tried, but there was no need to take big risks at every moment. Consequently, even if someone finds out that there was a problem at the house, the difference between whether my escape route and path forward are secured or not is considerable, and therefore now is different from before I destroyed the Pythia of Delphi. Now, unlike earlier when everything was orderly and peaceful, everyone has left their places and scattered, and at the same time, high-ranking servants would have followed their master to the Forum Romanum and the Papal States, leaving only minimal guards and low-ranking servants in the mansion.

Of course, the best thing would be if no problems arose that required using divine power and I naturally blended in as a servant from outside. I can only hope that the clothes I’m wearing now and Matteo’s divine power pocket watch will help. I put Matteo down in the archive, pulled out a suitable letter from the bookshelf, and put it in my bag. As I went outside the archive, I tapped the artifact to contact Narke.

“Narke. Did you find it?”

[There are Secretariat of State documents intact in this archive. But only ordinary content.]

As I knew earlier, he had grasped my plan and was moving accordingly. Only ordinary content—with this, the hypothesis that there’s a culprit in the Monterotondo mansion gradually solidifies. I asked Narke.

“Just in case, search all the other rooms thoroughly too. Important documents and correspondence might have been kept in rooms rather than the archive.”

[I should. Be careful, Lucas.]

I said I would. Now it was time to find where Annunziata’s office was. I wandered around the first floor of the main building, looked into several rooms that seemed like reception rooms, and headed to the second floor. The servants in black dresses and formal wear were indeed wandering the mansion in confusion. They speculated among themselves about why their master had stormed out, and in the process, they also speculated that seeing how he took a carriage without warping, it might be an important meeting with other families. No, that’s wrong. The fact that the heirloom fragment broke doesn’t necessarily mean the Pythia was destroyed. Annunziata Orsini and his associates consulted with each other and stopped by the Forum Romanum just to check, just in case—they didn’t immediately realize the Pythia was destroyed and head to the Forum Romanum. A neatly dressed young servant approaches. The servant glanced at the gold pocket watch chain on my vest and asked.

“I haven’t seen you before, what brings you here?”

As expected, he won’t mistake me for a servant. I maintained an expressionless face without smiling and took out a letter from my bag.

“I came from the Conti to deliver correspondence. I need to see His Excellency Annunziata Orsini.”

To compensate for my poor Italian skills, I let divine power flow into the space. Thanks to the subtle cognitive disruption magic that made it difficult to distinguish before and after, the servant felt no sense of incongruity and answered kindly.

“The master is currently away. I will deliver it for you.”

“No, since it’s confidential, I must deliver it directly myself. I came to deliver the correspondence along with what the Conti side discussed regarding the very reason he’s away now, so I’ll wait in his office.”

“Then here in the reception room…”

“Does the Orsini treat an envoy assigned to such an important matter this way?”

“…”

The servant was bewildered for a moment—understandably so—and now turned his head with a troubled face to seek help from his colleagues. However, perhaps there were no more experienced servants here than him, as the three or four servants on this floor all had the same expression and just watched us silently without saying anything. The servant led me into Annunziata Orsini’s room. Since he would be standing guard at the door watching me, as soon as I sat down, I gestured and commanded.

“Please bring me a useful notebook and pen. And so we can discuss immediately when His Excellency Annunziata Orsini arrives, please move the servants on this floor to the lobby and other places.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, I’d like a latte too.”

The servant left the room without asking about the purpose of finding a notebook and pen. He could have suggested having coffee together when the master arrives, but since he didn’t, he seems to be still undertrained.

Either way, since I’ve expanded the servant’s movement range to the kitchen, it’s time to utilize the secured time. I quickly pulled out my wand and rolled it in my hand. When I struck the carpet hard with the elongated staff, divine power flowed.

—Seek and you shall find.

“Secretariat of State.”

There was nothing. Nothing glowed anew anywhere.

“Vatican.”

Now light shines from various places. I skimmed through those documents and confirmed they were unimportant official documents and such.

This time I skimmed through the books on the bookshelf and pulled out a book with a particularly worn spine. Nothing happened. There was no secret room. I stepped firmly on the carpet with my shoe heel and swept it. There were no level differences or grooves. There were no loose floorboards either. I examined under the office bookshelf but found no useful traces. In other words, Annunziata Orsini didn’t keep the Secretariat of State’s letter in his room either.

Before the young servant returned to the room with a notebook and pen the guest could use, I began opening the doors to other nearby rooms.

I found other rooms instead of the office. I passed two rooms, but they were all rooms used for storing Annunziata’s belongings and for his daily life. There were no Secretariat of State letters in the bedroom or study either. This room I just entered seemed to be a dressing room with only his ceremonial clothes collected. I cast the same ‘seek and you shall find’ spell and said Secretariat of State. Naturally, there was no letter in this room. However, I became interested in a tricorn hat and white pantaloon mask hanging on one wall and took them out. Seeing that even a cloak was hanging as a complete set, this seemed to be clothes and mask worn at the Venice Carnival. It’s a festival that’s over now, but he must have attended a few months ago. Thinking so, I purified the mask, cloak, and tricorn and put them in my bag. I also took one for Elias. I tapped the artifact to call Elias.

“Elias.”

[Yeah?]

“Is there another room?”

[There is. Is there no Secretariat of State letter there?]

“None.”

[I see, that’s unfortunate. The door here won’t open with wire, so I’ll have to break it with a hammer or something. Bring some useful tools.]

“I will.”

I peeked around the backyard and took one of the tools the gardener had scattered around and headed to the archive. Since there was no hammer, I brought a saw. As soon as I arrived, Elias pointed to a door at the end of the circular building in a corner of the first floor, hidden between bookcases. I shook my head and handed him the mask and cloak. Since I ransacked the room of Annunziata Orsini, the temporary power holder of this mansion, and nothing came out, there are now three remaining possibilities. Since I’m thinking of testing one of these possibilities, from now on he and I should gradually conceal our identities.

Elias obediently put on the mask and pointed to the door again. When I handed him the tool meaning for him to do it, he was a bit flustered—he probably didn’t expect me to bring a saw—and pushed the saw into the relatively wide gap on the left side and began filing the hinge part. I crossed my arms and watched, then casually said.

“Couldn’t you just kick it with magic power in your leg? Or break it with your fist.”

“Luca. Humans should use tools.”

“…Mm. Right, it’s good to use less strength.”

How amazing that I’d hear such words from Elias. Just as I thought that, Elias, who had removed two of the four hinges, seemed to have forgotten what he said earlier and kicked the door to cleanly secure the room. When I looked at him with a ‘what are you doing’ expression, he tilted his head. I think either he asked for tools from the beginning with the intention of making it easy to kick, or he was swayed by my words midway. I sighed once and said.

“If there’s nothing here either, there are three remaining options. One is that there’s simply no culprit in the Secretariat of State.”

“Wow~ If he’s going to give such a boring cipher, tell Ainsiedel not to give us ciphers anymore.”

Elias says in a cold voice. He believes that Ainsiedel must have put multiple meanings into one clue. I also think that’s likely if he’s someone who thinks at a high level like Ainsiedel, but I also think it’s necessary to leave open the possibility that it’s not. I continued speaking while changing my wand back to a staff.

“Another is that Annunziata Orsini received the Secretariat of State’s letter and immediately burned it. But seeing that there aren’t even ordinary notices from the Secretariat of State, he’s definitely keeping them somewhere. To say he’s keeping them at the Marcellus Theater mansion, even though the two Orsinis are family, they’re definitely different houses.”

“Right, if they had to share even documents received at their respective houses, that would be quite worrying for the future. This is the same as me not living in the same house as those yellow-heads… It’s the same as you not living with Isabella Ascanien.”

Elias said while stroking his chin. It would be possible to transfer and store them, but this would be the same as Elias’s family sending mail to Albertina Hohenzollern’s house to hide important documents. Even though they’re the same family, considering the power struggles among nobles, it’s not a very feasible thing. I stepped into the new room in the archive, and at that moment I felt the back become pitch black. This new room was a place isolated by space magic. I struck down with my staff and said.

—Seek and you shall find.

“Secretariat of State.”

This time too, nothing changed.

I smiled. After all, even inside the mansion, they absolutely couldn’t hide letters in an archive that all the Orsinis in the mansion used jointly… Unfortunately, there were no letters in the room used by Annunziata Orsini, the heir, either. Elias said.

“You know you’ve only mentioned two so far?”

“I know.”

“The other one is… I can roughly guess.”

How fortunate that he understands.

The fact that there’s no letter here either means that Annunziata Orsini is not the culprit, but rather the bedridden Orsini Duke is the culprit. The fact that the duke is bedridden is not important. The Orsini Duke is deceiving his children and everyone else.

Then, footsteps were heard from behind.

“I heard that someone who knows the world before Babel would come.”

We quickly turned around. A Transhumanist Elder was walking toward us. He had bloodshot eyes and was holding a staff with trembling hands as a walking stick. When we were flustered by his appearance, he began speaking in a strange voice.

“Penitenziagite…. Vide quando draco venturus est a rodegarla l’anima tua. La mortz est super nos. Prega che vene lo papa santo a liberar nos a malo de todas le peccata! Ah ah, ve piase ista negromanzia de Domini Nostri Iesu Christi! Et anco jois m’es dols e plazer m’es dolors… Cave el diabolo. Semper m’aguaita in qualche canto per adentarme le carcagna. Ma Salvatore non est insipiens! Bonum monasterium, et aqui se magna et se priega dominum nostrum. Et el resto valet un figo seco. Et amen.No…?”

It was bewildering. What the old man was saying was nonsense, so to speak, composed of various languages and dialects. I stumblingly interpreted what he was saying. Penitenziagite was, as far as I knew, a word meaning repent, and I could recognize words like Jesus Christ, diablo, and amen by pronunciation, and I could understand words originating from Latin somewhat vaguely, if not clearly. Elias, being a European who had learned enough, would have been the same. However, the old man mostly mixed languages from various countries and also made sentences that didn’t make sense…, having thought this far, I finally realized what he had said. My hair stood on end.

This was dialogue from the novel 【The Name of the Rose】 that I had read before coming here. And since that was a 20th-century work, it couldn’t exist in this world at this time.

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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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