How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 490

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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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“Wouldn’t you have been friends with me if I weren’t like this?”

At those words, Elias’s eyes widened and he turned his head toward Leo. He could read subtle mischief in Leo’s expressionless face. When all our gazes returned to him, Leo propped his chin on his hand, smiled, and asked.

“When time passes and I’m no longer the kind of person who says such things, will you stop admiring me?”

“No way! I already know who you are, so how could that happen?”

Elias pulled away from the backrest and scolded him with a face that said he was asking about everything, then fell into thought.

“I would come to love even your changes. Sometimes I might miss the seventeen-year-old you, but I wouldn’t hate your growth. And I don’t like you because you’ve never once strayed from the right path, but because you know how to try to return to center even when you’ve gone astray.”

“…Did I do that? …Could you tell me exactly when and what happened?”

“This friend is really funny. How much have I watched you so far, and you want me to pick just one or two examples? After spending this much time together, I’m speaking comprehensively.”

I could understand why Elias was getting angry, because from my perspective, I could only say that was the case every moment. From what I read, it would be a lie to say Leo never felt envious of Elias’s talent while growing up. It would be an even bigger lie to say he never lamented his own meager talents. He could have pursued magical medicine where he had talent, could have dismissed his passion and affection for combat magic as something from his immature years, and could have distanced himself from Elias, who made him realize his limitations, for valid reasons. It was Leo himself who shattered all the fate that seemed arranged for him. Since all of this was an attitude Leo had subtly shown throughout his lifetime, it would be difficult for him to pinpoint exactly when and explain it to himself.

All of this is based on Elias’s subjectivity, but his testimony doesn’t differ from what I’ve also grasped about Leo through my experiences. Like everyone else, Leo probably didn’t think that deeply about himself, so he might be feeling unfamiliar hearing another person’s perspective. Leo asked once more with interest.

“What if I gradually change for the worse as I grow up?”

“Even so, I couldn’t help but like you. I told you. We’ve already been through time together.”

Leo tilted his head. Elias gazed at such a Leo and the coastal air flowing from behind him.

“If you went down the wrong path, I’d have to somehow try to help you regain your will. Because I know how essentially much good you’re capable of. Even if you as the person involved don’t know whether you’re going down the wrong path or not, one of us will notice. Then we’ll support you so you can change in a direction more worthy of yourself. Right?!”

Elias smiled and looked at Narke and me. I answered while looking at Leo.

“Of course we should.”

“I have friends like Catullus.”

Catullus was one of the figures who influenced Marcus Aurelius, and since we could all understand the classics, Leo joked using the Meditations. Even so, his expression remained calm as usual.

“So this is my Elias, not our Elias.”

I want to advise him to stop using phrases he used as a child. Since he keeps making sounds only the two of them understand in front of us, I can’t help but laugh awkwardly. When our Elias talks to Leo, it’s usually nonsense based on jokes, so Leo normally acts like he’s letting his words flow by, but since the words my Elias says to Leo are all sincere, he’s finding it unfamiliar when talk about his relationship with himself comes up in my Elias state. After Leo realized Elias was speaking with sincerity, he kept calmly closing and opening his eyes that had become lively with emotion.

“I’m moved. Even more so because I didn’t come looking for you expecting this.”

“Yes, this. This is fresh and good. When you’re moved, saying everything you feel about being moved!”

Elias giggled. I couldn’t help but laugh too. Then Leo rubbed the back of his neck and said with a troubled face.

“…You do that honestly too! Are you going to keep embarrassingly pointing out everything one by one?”

“No way! If I do it about five times out of ten, you do it about fifteen times out of ten, so it’s completely different. Even the five times I do it is all thanks to learning from you.”

At those words, Leo fell into thought, lowered his eyes, and smiled faintly. He seemed to be recalling old times we didn’t know about. Seeing his gentle smile, I even felt sorry about whether we should be intruding on Leo and Elias’s sincere conversation. However, Leo seemed comfortable even with us there, so while I was postponing my decision, he began speaking to Elias.

“I like you because you’re this kind of person. You find things to learn from everything, and that’s possible because you don’t settle for phenomena but continue to reflect. You periodically thin out, dig up, and overturn the bottom so the stream flowing within you doesn’t stagnate or dry up, creating a path to that ocean. If you hadn’t tried to meet water without yielding even to hostile earth, could you really have been able to follow embarrassing habits even when looking at me? You say it’s thanks to me because you learned through me, but the person who included my traits in the realm of good, the person who decided to improve himself, was entirely you, and ultimately the one who helped today’s you come to be was also you.”

Hearing those words reminded me of the racetrack story. If seeing people overlapped with horses racing toward death is also part of the process of finding things to learn from everything, then his unconscious habit involves pain. Perhaps because pain led Elias this far, he can now befriend the complete opposite prodigy who shares his aligned aspirations. It was a thought I’d always had. Elias, who had been listening seriously to Leo’s words again, felt complete satisfaction and gratitude just as Leo had been grateful for his words, and raised the corners of his mouth upward.

I was deeply impressed by this conversation that was rarely seen, but I carefully looked at Narke, wondering if we should gradually give them space. Just then, Leo got up from the edge of the bed and filled our glasses with wine. Since Elias raised his glass high, we clinked our glasses from afar, but then Elias shook his head. Having no choice, we made our glasses clink against each other before Elias drank his wine. Thus the two silently ended the theme of this mysterious party. For the next part, Leo sat on the sofa with his back to the terrace. Even after sitting on the sofa, he spoke with an expression of discomfort due to the grass.

“Now, shall we begin? Where should I start the story?”

“Wait! Let’s go to the hot spring.”

Elias grabbed the neck of the wine bottle and got up from his seat. Leo, who didn’t even try to hide his bewilderment, looked absurdly at Elias’s retreating figure leaving the room, then alternately looked at us still sitting in our seats and twisted up the corners of his mouth.

* * *

“Luca’s coming in fully clothed again. There’s no one around and it’s perfect.”

Elias, half-submerged in water, glared at me. I sat on a portable chair I’d brought over, smiled, and said firmly.

“Well, I’m not going in at all. My skin will start peeling if I stay any longer. You guys go ahead and soak yourselves.”

“Ahhh~”

Elias tried to splash water on my legs wearing bathing shorts. I moved my knees to avoid it and refused.

“I’m still not going in.”

Elias, who had been looking dejected, dove underwater and popped up on the opposite side of the bath. He scolded Leo, who was entering the hot spring in regular clothes.

“Why have you been like this all along too? Aren’t you going to put the chair back?”

“I injured my arm.”

“Just get it wet!”

Leo shook his head vigorously.

“Are you really going to be the only one left out from before?”

“…It’s because of my arm.”

“Just wait until it’s completely healed… If it takes about two months to heal completely, that’s right in summer?”

Elias’s eyes widened. Leo pressed around his eyes as if even thinking about it was tiring. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t sleep due to watching our backs in Germany and participating in diplomacy overseas at dawn. Of course, Elias and Narke hadn’t gotten proper sleep either. Elias seemed to empathize enough with that fatigue, so he didn’t bother Leo and looked at Narke, who was sitting at the edge of the bath with only her feet soaking, sending her a look that said let’s play together. For some reason, Narke had become slightly calmer, like right after she returned from dealing with the Duke, but she quickly fixed her expression and splashed water. Elias made strange sounds and spread both arms to receive the water. He habitually tried to arrange the long hair that would have stuck to his shoulders, but since he’d cut it off to come here, there was nothing to catch in his hands. Elias, who had been stroking his unfamiliar black hair, made another strange sound and dove underwater, wriggling his body like a fish as he moved around the bottom of the bath. Really, it seems we did well not to bring him earlier.

When it became impossible to tell whether Elias’s face had flushed from alcohol or been heated by Etna’s hot spring water, Leo, who had been waiting quietly, spoke.

“Now listen.”

“Speak. I can answer while playing.”

Elias was backstroking while hitting the water surface hard with his arms, and Leo, seeing that Elias’s face was above the water surface, couldn’t say much. He could only resign himself and speak.

“Right, then… First, let me say that the situation is much more serious than I expected. So let me ask this first. Did you find the spy?”

Then Narke, who had been quiet, spoke.

“It’s Duke Orsini. Duke Orsini was the bridge connecting Terminus Yukairya and the Papal States.”

When the words Duke Orsini were heard, Leo seemed to immediately know who he was, looked flustered, then asked with sharp eyes again.

“If you’re talking about the head of the family, the reason no culprit was caught in interrogations so far… is it because he doesn’t enter the Vatican? Or is it because of his unique ability?”

“Speaking of just the Duke, you could say it’s because he’s not affiliated with the Vatican. But even without entering, he’s already exerted much influence on the Papal States. For example, when the Papal States claim they’ll recruit additional papal troops and Swiss Guards, Duke Orsini sends them a list of recommendations. The people selected that way faithfully perform their duties in the Papal States as Duke Orsini’s subordinates.”

Leo nodded.

“But Duke Orsini was so thorough that he didn’t pass the orders he received from Terminus Yukairya to just one person. To give another example, the Duke ordered the Swiss Guards he had planted to open doors without question when someone in yellow clothes passed by, and the person wearing those clothes was a Human disguised as a colleague of the pipe repair workers who had passed through the same door 5 minutes earlier, someone who had to find a rat corpse somewhere in the Vatican and cut open its belly. Because 30 minutes earlier, another of Orsini’s collaborators had fed the rat a small glass bottle containing poison and a note, then sent it down into the soil under the Papal States’ walls. Another person might be a fruit delivery man who arrived at the Papal States. That person received Duke Orsini’s order to deliver a glass bottle placed on a windowsill together, and without knowing what was in that glass bottle, he did it because they gave him extra money. It’s just an example, but because everything was fragmented like this, the Papal States couldn’t find meaningful culprits through interrogation.”

Then Leo stroked his chin and said.

“It’s become difficult to find the accomplices who actually carried out the relic theft.”

“Right. It’s like countless people each contributed about one screw’s worth to build a building.”

“To think they’d circumvent things this way… Do you think this is Terminus Yukairya’s method?”

“Yes. And it was possible because the culprit is an old man. A wise-looking old man with virtue, fame, power, and wealth is the perfect advisor to bewitch young people. Each of the people gathered that way entered the Papal States and participated in crime without knowing it.”

When Narke finished speaking, Leo nodded. Elias began urging Leo.

“Then, now it’s your turn to speak, Leo. What’s so serious?”

“Let’s go slowly. When I was at the Crown Prince’s palace, I received a letter saying ‘Along with the Atropos problem, the next phase will arrive soon, so there’s something to ask of you.'”

What’s the basis for confidently making such vague talk about ‘the next phase will arrive soon’ at night? I couldn’t help but think of The Pythia of Delphi, so I clasped my hands together and asked.

“You said it took four hours from receiving the letter to arriving. Were there no reports about us during that time?”

“Other than news that Rome’s influential power holders had gathered, and news that Monterotondo’s archive had exploded and a Cardinal cleaned it up, there was nothing. That was the most important news among what I heard about Italy’s situation in real time through the intelligence department. There was no mention of fire, but both were because of you, right?”

Narke nodded.

“…It’s interesting to encounter traces of you like this. Anyway, that letter was extremely cryptic and diplomatically bewildering, but I had to understand that much couldn’t be written in documents if it was classified, and seeing the portal generation plan written below, I had no choice but to be certain that the Papal States hadn’t called lightly. To think I’m telling you this, my professional conscience is conflicting…”

“Ah, don’t think of it as telling a friend. You should tell Count Nicolaus here everything you have. He’s the future Chancellor.”

Elias teased. Leo looked at Elias with a face asking why he was doing that and sighed.

“Even if not, it’s a topic I must discuss. The talks were conducted with the Secretary of State receiving His Holiness’s words and conveying them to us, and His Holiness said Germany is dangerous. Even the Frenchman. But it’s nothing special. We’ve also completed our analysis that Germany is dangerous.”

Since Leo spoke while looking at me, I nodded. Leo continued speaking to his friends.

“With Pleroma killing key figures from other countries fundamentally, excluding Germans—though they even had to kill Austria-Hungary’s Chancellor—anyway, the conclusion of our analysis is that German responsibility theory could emerge on the continent. Many countries still don’t know it’s Pleroma’s doing, and places like Spain that haven’t suffered direct damage don’t even know of Atropos’s existence, and crucially, Atropos’s existence is still kept strictly classified in each country and hasn’t been revealed to the public, so it’s only quiet for now.”

“Right. But is it really correct to say Germany is dangerous because of that?”

“Yes. So the Papal States said they would ally with Bavaria now.”

“….”

The sound of splashing water subsides. All of us except Narke opened our mouths and stared at Leo. When I guessed, their entire conversation flowed not explicitly but with intentions embedded in words. We couldn’t help but know what the Papal States had proposed to Bavaria.

“What harms international society is Germany’s Pleroma, and the responsibility for failing to eliminate Pleroma for over ten years lies with the German government. And the core of the German government is led by Prussia. Therefore, now that the subject that developed Atropos is suspected to be Pleroma, the fault lies not with Germany but with Prussia. This is precisely the Papal States’ position.”

Leo continued explaining to us who were frozen, and finally said the core of what we were thinking.

“The Papal States are trying to build an absolute alliance with Bavaria and check Prussia with this opportunity.”

Leo’s euphemistic way of speaking didn’t mitigate the shock of this situation. This is telling them to cut ties with Prussia and leave the German Empire. As a Catholic country, it’s telling them to come under the Catholic leader’s sphere of influence. Perhaps it’s telling them to return to the era when papal authority was strong. It’s telling Bavaria to become like the Austrian Empire. The Papal States will help Bavaria transform into the Bavarian Empire. On one hand, it might protect Bavaria from international society overheated by Pleroma, but on another hand, it’s inducing the German Empire’s division and filling Bavaria with false hopes. The German Empire, a great power, will meet its end, and that might be good in some ways, but in the current situation, it heralds the emergence of ‘another European great power.’ The Papal States will successfully check the frighteningly growing Prussia, and if they demonstrate skilled political power from then on, they can reclaim on the Italian peninsula the status the German Empire had. Now the former of the two aspects seems quite absurd. Do the Papal States want the era when Germania consisted of small states to return? Elias, who usually wouldn’t side with Prussia, stayed dazed for a while, then barely opened his mouth to speak.

“Leonard. They could violate sovereignty.”

“Yes. I know. So… I have an idea.”

“What is it. Tell me.”

“Not now. I’ll tell you while having deeper conversations with you about this topic. And, Lucas.”

“Yes. What.”

I answered while trying not to make a serious expression. Leo looked at me and said calmly.

“I have no intention of returning to headquarters immediately. I’ll ‘officially’ rest as headquarters gives me leave. Even if I have to wear fake bandages.”

I nodded. It was right after that when I felt something strange about the words fake bandages. The moment I slightly frowned in puzzlement, he said firmly.

“But I need to set the broken arm right away. Lucas, you need to help with the treatment. And I’ll also help you heal completely.”

Treatment? I’m not even a doctor, so how? It would be a lie to say I didn’t feel déjà vu. I felt my currently fine ear and throat area grow cold as I looked at his arm, then reflexively looked down at my leg.

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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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