How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 480

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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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My vision was becoming distant. To confess, this wasn’t my first time experiencing something like this. However, this moment was different from that time when, like a rebellious student in adolescence, I had walked a tightrope between a kind of rebellious spirit, twisted curiosity, and mysterious fundamental fear, trying to discover what pebble was creating ripples on the surface of the world. The sight of an unfamiliar old man, presumed to be the Duke of Orsini, reciting passages from 【The Name of the Rose】, published in 1980 in another world, word for word without a single mistake, with bloodshot eyes in the archives of Monterotondo on this day, April 12, 1898, was truly terrifying and confusing. I was in a crucible of chaos. Even though Elias was right beside me, he felt a hundred million light-years away.

Since I am clearly not omniscient either, I don’t really know how things work, but judging from experience, the world I lived in and this world originate from the same root. To be honest, after all I’ve experienced so far, this much was too obvious, and the fact that I was having such basic thoughts—comparable to “the Earth is spherical”—meant I wasn’t in my right mind. I was going in circles before illogic. If the multiverse theory is true, this place would be a world that was identical to the world I lived in, then diverged from a certain year and developed in different directions from my world, and applying Gabrielle’s theistic perspective, it would be a Chronos that received God’s gaze among them. And I still don’t think an omniscient being exists.

Thoughts emanating from various parts of my brain saturated in an instant. It’s now 1898, technological development is on average at mid-20th century level, and in science there are gaps by field, spanning or sometimes transcending the 20th and 21st centuries. Such early advancement, unlike this case, wasn’t strange at all. Since technology has flow, it wasn’t particularly strange for inventions similar to what I knew to emerge in this world that shares the same roots as my world—whether in the 19th, 20th, or 21st century, how many ideas emerge almost simultaneously in academia! Using the scientific established facts of the era that pile up like Tetris as ground, primitive desires often not accepted as demand call forth invention as supply. Since humans fundamentally use the world as soil, it’s natural for similar results to be produced from the soil of the same era and society. But what the old man uttered wasn’t similar. It was identical text without a single error. Art works certainly have trends, flows, and movements, and cannot be unrelated to their era, but unlike inventions, they’re based on individuals rather than formulas. Normally, if a person isn’t born, the work doesn’t come into being either. Even if Aristarchus’s heliocentric theory wasn’t accepted in his time, it was eventually accepted in Copernicus’s era—by similar logic, even if Bell hadn’t existed, long-distance communication devices would have emerged, but for 【The Name of the Rose】 to exist without its author doesn’t make sense. I’ve never heard the nonsense that Umberto Eco, the author of 【The Name of the Rose】 who was born in 1932 and died in 2016, was alive in 1898, and even if someone with exactly the same genetic sequence was born in 1832 and died in 1916, that person of this era couldn’t write exactly the same sentences that the real Umberto Eco wrote, and we don’t need to go far for this. The Eco of 1980 could write 【The Name of the Rose】, but the Eco of 1970 or 1990 couldn’t have written exactly the same work. Playing a character today and playing it ten years later cannot make them the same. If you write down today’s thoughts in tomorrow’s diary, it becomes a different sentence from what you would have written today…

Up to here, I realized not even a few seconds had passed. A bombardment of thoughts was pummeling my head. The panic wasn’t wrong. I had to face it. The old man before me knows something that doesn’t exist in this world. He knows a book that exists in ‘my’ world. The gray-haired old man should have been in his 100s, but with wrinkles on his face and an emaciated body, he looked at least 30 years older, yet he gazed at me and Elias with eyes burning like a young man’s. I intuited that he thought very clearly, unlike Daniel or the bedridden old men. Even as my whole body trembled, I stared into the old man’s eyes and called up the status window, just as I had done with Matteo. He had the name I heard from Narke, was indeed the Duke of Orsini, and possessed a unique ability called ‘Concentration’ at level 10, but judging by the ability’s name, it didn’t seem closely related to knowing 【The Name of the Rose】. However, the fact that it was level 10 was worth being wary of in itself. My mouth moved first.

“What do you mean?”

The Duke didn’t answer. As if believing one of us would know the lines he recited, he simply stared through us. I pushed Elias, who was making all sorts of faces, behind me and asked.

“Did you make up those words?”

I couldn’t ask questions carelessly either. Because Elias was beside me. And to avoid giving this person clues about me, I had to do my best to pretend ignorance while still asking precise questions. However, the Duke mercilessly repeated only nonsense.

“I heard someone who can speak the language from before Babel would come.”

The Pentaron mask, triangular hat, and cloak I was wearing were brought to openly infiltrate the Duke of Orsini’s room. I had Elias wear them for the same reason. But who would have thought the Duke would come looking himself. To think I ended up wearing this mask to protect us from the Duke’s mad statements—I hadn’t expected this. He spoke clearly.

“Finally the stone has broken and you’ve come.”

He was talking about The Pythia of Delphi. Then the Duke must have received an oracle from The Pythia of Delphi that ‘on the day the heirloom breaks, someone who knows the time before the Tower of Babel will come to the archives of the Monterotondo manor.’ I shook my head and asked.

“…You’re mad. Who on earth would know the world before the Tower of Babel fell? Could the era when the world used only one language have actually existed in history? If you’re talking about something like primitive sounds from before civilization, they certainly would have communicated, but even now that much…”

Then the Duke’s neck veins bulged as he contorted his face.

“You’re not a Christian. Someone who uses divine power but has no faith!”

“It doesn’t make sense. What is this world before Babel? Who could know such a thing?”

Then Elias spoke up.

“If there’s someone who might know before the Tower of Babel, it would be someone who knows that era’s language. Unfortunately, there’s no such person among us… Ah, is that nonsense actually metaphorical? Even if knowing all languages of this era and being able to communicate with people worldwide would be equivalent to ‘knowing the pre-Tower of Babel collapse era’… Sir, there’s no one in the world who knows all languages of this era.”

He shrugged his shoulders, maintaining his characteristic leisurely manner while suppressing his confusion. Elias stepped forward with a crooked smile. The Pentaron mask had an opening for the mouth, so his expression was visible.

“More importantly, we’re from the State Council. We need to retrieve the letters we’ve sent so far.”

The old man says sternly, “You’re not from the State Council.”

“So what? We still need to retrieve the letters.”

Elias takes another step forward. However, the Duke spoke in a hollow voice, as if he had completely changed personality, with none of the pressing tone from earlier, just like when he first spoke to us about ‘before Babel.’ He was trying to enlighten us for speaking wrongly.

“Why do you say there’s no one who knows all languages?”

“Sir, realistically, could a human brain manage that? Even if one had sufficient ability, after learning about 5 languages, they’d get bored and quit. There are countless languages and countless dialects on those countless continents. How could a human learn all those languages?”

Even Elias, who can imitate numerous German dialects, says this. It’s the right thing to say. At the same time, I felt distant as my head felt like it was boiling. The Duke corrected our words once again.

“However, knowing all languages in the world is possible.”

“It’s impossible. Who says so?”

“God!” The old man shouted, raising his hands to the air. “God said that today, on this land, in this place, someone who knows before Babel would come! He said He would take away the prophecy that day! Ah, Penitenziagite! 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!”

Elias opened his mouth with the expression of someone who had seen everything crazy. The Duke thinks the oracles from The Pythia of Delphi are revelations from the Christian God. When I think about it, it was natural. The Senate, Christian to the bone, would regard it as God’s revelation, not as ancient Greek oracles. I whispered, trying to hold onto my fading strength.

“Then did God also tell you that strange sentence?”

“These are words you speak. Do both of you know the time before Babel? Or is it one person? One of you can speak these words!”

The Duke’s thunderous shout pierces my eardrums. Elias, thoroughly disgusted, twisted his lips and shook his head.

Unfortunately for Elias, the old man was right. The oracle was correct. I knew what it meant and could recite the entire sentence right now. The Duke not only knew Eco’s writing but was looking for me.

Not even a bit of heat accumulated in the mask. All the blood in my body cooled and pooled at my feet. How could The Pythia of Delphi know about a 1980 novel from the world I lived in? How could something from this world know about the world I lived in? Is The Pythia of Delphi something that arose naturally? Was an oracle that I would come to this world also given to someone? Perhaps to Narke? The fact that an oracle was given means countless things must be accomplished from that oracle, and the Duke telling me this passage means this is the natural order, but what should I learn from his words? According to the Duke, ‘I can speak those words’ means I am Salvatore.

The mixed language the Duke spoke was what a monk named Salvatore said when he first appeared in 【The Name of the Rose】. The narrator in the work described Salvatore’s words as ‘either Adam’s language used by humanity from creation to the Tower of Babel era, or the primitive language from the day after the Tower of Babel fell.’ The old man now seems to use ‘someone who knows the world before Babel’ in a supreme sense, but the Salvatore I know isn’t a lofty and great person, just a somewhat eccentric monk who has wandered various places.

If I’m the one speaking those words, will I die to Bernard Gui? I wanted to ask that. Salvatore is someone caught by the inquisitor Bernard Gui sent by the Pope. I couldn’t help but think of someone. Salvatore is burned at the stake by Bernard Gui in the movie and in the novel it’s unclear whether he died or lived. Since the Duke spoke sentences written by Umberto Eco, not the movie, there’s no need to consider the film. However, to condense and transform Eco’s lengthy work into a two-hour movie for theater screening would necessarily require changing the content, and despite knowing that such circumstances don’t alter Eco’s writing, I felt as if the fact that Salvatore died in the movie was like an official seal confirming that Eco’s Salvatore was also close to death, telling me I was destined to be burned soon. There’s no basis to believe Narke would finish me off, and I listened to this person’s words half as if dreaming, thinking this person was also at least half in a state of fanaticism, but now I had to grab even the rope a madman threw…

At the same time, I felt my mind becoming clear. The most important thing is safety. I grabbed Elias’s wrist and said firmly to the old man waiting for our confession.

“There’s no one among us. You’ve got the wrong idea.”

I recited warp points and rubbed my fingers against the inside of Elias’s wrist, but we didn’t move. Naturally, it’s impossible in this room. Since spatial magic was laid, the coordinate system was different, making movement impossible. Would it be possible outside? There’s a possibility this old man came out blocking everything, but I had to try. I said, putting strength into the hand holding my staff.

“Come out, Your Excellency.”

Kwaaaaang—!

Light struck. I swung my staff to kick away the opponent’s divine power and rushed at the Duke. Despite pushing away the light, my whole body stung from the divine power that flew in from behind. Along with Elias’s sigh, his blue mana that surged from behind turned to nothing. Despite his age, the Duke was strong. I had expected this since I’d already seen the numbers assigned to him in the status window. He skillfully deployed magic without uttering spells aloud, making it impossible for us to know what magic he was using. It became difficult to intercept or counter his magic. I brought my hand to my ear to inform Narke of the situation, and before I could touch the artifact, I heard a notification sound.

[Lucas.]

—If we confess our sins.

Divine power bursts along the staff’s trajectory at my shout. Narke continues speaking.

[You don’t need to tell me what happened. But the future where I arrive isn’t good. That person doesn’t welcome insight, and knows I can use insight. Maybe that person will set fire to that place…]

Narke’s voice sounds intermittently muffled and broken. He was speaking while swallowing. I had the intuition that it was blood flowing down from his nose. He can’t use insight without seeing the Duke’s eyes. He must have relied solely on foresight. Since that foresight isn’t necessarily correct, I wanted to ask him to come help, but I couldn’t. If fire breaks out in this place made entirely of wood, there would be nothing but death.

[So…]

—He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!

Kwaaaaang—!

As I shouted the spell, I crashed into the bookshelf behind me. Impact sounds came from elsewhere too. Elias’s blue mana penetrated through the divine power before scattering. The Duke’s mana doesn’t stop despite the saturation of divine power I performed. Then, the best approach now is to disperse attention and stop the old man with simple physical strength. The moment I reached this conclusion and swung my staff again, the old man’s voice rang from the sky.

—I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the business that is done on earth, and I saw that God has given to the children of man a grievous task to be busy with!

The word concentration sticks to my eardrums. The shout seeps in. I felt the world stop. There was nothing. I seemed to see the outlines of microorganisms floating in the air. In that moment I was certain I was in the 21st century. My head felt like it would split. It felt like someone was tearing my scalp with a knife and splitting my brain. My skull had disappeared. Because it felt that way, I briefly thought my brain matter was flowing as cold sweat. I thought a single peak rising upward on a hospital test graph was stabbing my eyes. Now he’s seeing Caracas station in his mind’s eye. Holding luggage in his hands. Through the darkness, a train’s headlight—of the Saint-Plon Orient Railway—rushes forward. It can take a B-like cross structure, but this is a reversible transformation. Various transcription repressor factors belonging to non-histone proteins thus attach to make DNA A-form or the influence of language on national customs is thus obvious, yet humanists despised the Middle Ages. The concept of superman has been historically misused, but even so it wouldn’t have been a concept compatible with liberals. We depend on vacuum fluctuations for 19th century European intellectual history, and random and probabilistic fluctuations in curved spacetime occur through tug-of-war between adjacent spaces. In 1955 Wheeler, who combined quantum mechanics and general relativity, said ‘German philosophy (deutsche Philosophie)’ is nothing other than an artificial union and dispersion trying to create mentally high-level identity, but if not, the nature governing the universe exists. If you pound like that, even hell’s gatekeeper would lose his mind. Chaos finally created a masterpiece. If the latter is correct, the inferior exists for the superior and the superior exist for each other. I had to come to my senses but couldn’t. A bombardment of thoughts was pummeling my head. The electrical and chemical actions of the brain isolated me from the world for a lifetime, then went down along my jaw and spine, crushing everything. Probably, it was certain.

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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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