How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 505

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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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Having returned to reality, I picked up the astral projection cigarettes and metal rod that the Duke had left on the desk.

“So I just need to smoke this cigarette and carry the metal rod around?”

“Not at all! That’s a very incomplete development. If you want to find the lever by simply carrying it around, you’d have to ransack the room for quite a while. Practical technology should always be reliable according to its fundamental principles, but at the same time it must be easy and convenient to use.”

“Is that so?”

That makes sense. Maria wouldn’t be able to fire that quantum gun she mentioned in passing in the middle of combat with enemies… The Duke snatched the cigarette and spoke enthusiastically with all sorts of hand gestures like a fish in water.

“Smoking the cigarette is indeed good. Whether made as incense or cigarettes, it facilitates entry into the astral plane, so it would be best to start the search while inhaling. Even if you’re not going to the astral plane, it can heighten sensitivity to make detecting ether easier.”

“Good. I understand well.”

I also have the technology to make these cigarettes. I received the manufacturing method from Maria quite some time ago. This time the Duke put down the cigarette and picked up the rod.

“But this rod is incomplete. The rod needs to be modified or supplemented in a different way. To complement the technology, I need to analyze a ‘real’ lever.”

After finishing his words, the Duke looked at me quietly. The Duke wants me to take him to the object that makes him cross over to Pleroma’s world. I looked back at Emmanuel and then at the Duke again.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t even know if there’s a real lever in this area, and fundamentally I don’t want you to meet them directly. Can you only supplement this rod by seeing it directly? Is there no other way?”

Since the Duke has already been to Ecla Literer in France, it’s unavoidable that he becomes a target of Terminus Yukairya. In the original history, he became Pleroma’s target very early, so Pleroma will also grasp his importance before early 1888. I wanted to delay the timing of the Duke becoming Pleroma’s target this time, so I had no choice but to ask.

The Duke nodded with a face asking what I was questioning.

“Really?”

“Of course. Otherwise, I’d have to make artifacts for every possible scenario, and I’m not sure if that would be efficient.”

I thoroughly instructed him.

“Then don’t reveal to anyone that you’re a magical scholar. Minimize your words, and don’t act like you know anything no matter what the other party talks about.”

“As I just said, I’m confident in keeping my mouth shut.”

Though he became who he is today through events that can’t be entirely celebrated, it’s fortunate that he’s confident in hiding things. Recalling how he did his best not to get caught liking the occult about three months ago, I’m not afraid he won’t be able to control his enthusiasm. He only shows exceptional enthusiasm in front of people with similar tolerance and understanding as himself, but doesn’t do so outside.

Though it wasn’t the right topic to bring up now, I wanted to tell him to fold the Hermetic Society as well. Since it was a story that required more time and effort to bring up, I decided not to. It’s a topic that needs very careful approach, but another good proposal came to mind. I postponed that for the future as well, and spoke appropriately for the current situation.

“I’ll change your face. Think of a new name too, and let’s change your way of speaking. If we change everything, it won’t be recognizable, so if you must come along, that would be best.”

Then the Duke clapped his hands in delight and said.

“With divine power?! Good. Then may I show you a face I’ve wanted to try once?”

“No famous people’s faces.”

“Ah… I see…”

This person is disappointed? I was flustered even though I knew the reason. After thinking deeply for a moment, I consoled him.

“If it’s too similar, it might actually give away that it’s fake…”

“I know. I said something unnecessary.”

The Duke quickly regained his usual seriousness and courtesy, waving his hand and stepping back. It seems like I could accommodate him a little, should I ask? I hesitated for a moment and asked carefully.

“Whose face did you want to try?”

“The former German Emperor.”

I decided not to think about it further. Emmanuel seemed to feel the same way. Anyway, this wasn’t what was important.

First, I must eliminate the Pleroma in Bavaria in 1898. Second, I will stop them before the Pleroma here commit large-scale murders driven by greed. I can’t guarantee I’ll succeed in stopping them, but I’ll do my best to try. If the problems in the world where my friends exist are settled, and if the unknown system allows me time until then.

Therefore, even if this is an extra chapter, I have no intention of moving carelessly, so I must use methods that won’t cause major problems. In other words, it’s dangerous to immediately betray and thoroughly backstab Father Ralph Huber and then withdraw.

How should I go about meeting Father Ralph Huber? What sophisticated and clean methods are there? My contemplation didn’t last very long.

* * *

“Is this right?”

“It is.”

Leaving Emmanuel’s words behind, I hung the hastily made banner on a tree in the back and stepped up on the fountain bench in front of it. I could see people passing through the plaza and the streets beyond. I came back down and looked at where I would stand from the audience’s perspective. The banner I had made at considerable expense fluttered in the wind.

【The Lord’s Calling: A Brief Discourse on Death and Resurrection】

As I was looking at it with satisfaction, Emmanuel poured cold water on me from beside.

“Why do I hate this so much…”

“Your Highness is a Christian.”

“Just looking at it makes me sleepy.”

“I’ll speak well so you won’t fall asleep.”

I pressed down my hair that ended around my ears with my hand. I had styled it well with wax so my hair wouldn’t blow in the fierce midnight wind. Since I needed to become an ordinary religious person with no distinctive features in appearance, I had slightly changed my looks. Emmanuel looked at that appearance and threw out a comment.

“Short hair suits you well too. Though your face is blurry.”

“I know it suits me well too.”

“Your straightforward personality is nice. Then try removing just the divine power from your face.”

“I can’t.”

I can’t show my short-haired appearance without the cognitive disruption magic. Naturally, they would immediately think of Georg Ascanien, so it can’t be helped. Emmanuel, who seemed disappointed, leaned against the fountain and said.

“There are hardly any people who use divine power that way, really… I’m learning a lot staying with Count Everett.”

It’s because I frequently use making hair grow quickly or changing eye color with illusion magic for disguises, but most people don’t do such things with divine power. First, it’s an enormous economic waste, second, the formulas are never easy, and third, other arcane mages don’t have much power to maintain such difficult high-level magic using complex formulas. They’d rather save their divine power for use during work hours. Fourth, since people rarely have occasions to disguise themselves in life, most don’t even think to try. Applying cognitive disruption magic to faces also consumes considerable divine power since it interferes with everyone’s minds who see it with divine power.

I brought the paper and board I had prepared and handed them to Emmanuel. Emmanuel hugged the board and said.

“What’s this. ‘New believer registration list. Please sign if you were moved by the sermon.’ Oh my, such preparedness…”

“The sentence I left below is the key.”

“‘I will pray to the Lord for your peace’… Hahaha, atheist Count Everett is going to pray?”

“Of course. Now, let’s slowly begin.”

I set up a small portable desk in front of Emmanuel and climbed onto the fountain in front of the banner and shouted.

“Who fears death!”

My altered voice echoed loudly through the plaza. From now on, I will be a pastor from America, and I will utilize the characteristics of an era without cell phones. That characteristic is that if someone just passionately speaks about something standing on a flat stone in the street as a platform, people who find it interesting naturally gather around that speaker. If the content isn’t interesting, the audience would remain at three or four people, but otherwise you can get unexpectedly enthusiastic responses and even make the audience wait for the next speech. If I did such a thing in the 21st century where I lived, I could feel thorough loneliness in the crowd, but now it was different. I answered myself in a voice that was still loud but one tone lower than before.

“Those who have sinned fear death. Who else fears death!”

After finishing my answer, I shouted at the top of my voice again. I leaned my body toward the plaza and answered in a serious voice.

“Atheists and materialists fear death!”

“Huh.”

Emmanuel, who already knew I was an atheist, was dumbfounded and held his forehead. Unconcerned by such trivial reactions, I shouted again.

“Who else fears death!”

As I continued shouting, people passing through downtown early in the morning looked this way. I stared into their eyes and argued.

“Those bewitched by ancient aesthetics and pagans fear death.”

Then Emmanuel, standing with his hands behind his back next to the fountain, muttered.

“You’re amazing.”

“How do I look right now?”

“Perfectly unlikable.”

“Thank you.”

I straightened up again and shouted toward the empty plaza.

“True Christians do not fear death―! Those who are truly in the Lord do not fear dying!”

While people passing on the street showed interest, no one had gathered in front of me yet. Archduchess Maria, who had been wandering between buildings in the distance, approached showing interest―maybe it wasn’t pretense!―. She too had her appearance changed by my divine power, so outwardly she looked like a plausible commoner intellectual rather than nobility. I made eye contact with my first audience member―fake―and looked at the empty plaza in the air again. My goal wasn’t one audience member but saturation of the plaza. So I shouted again in a firm voice.

“In John Bunyan’s 【Pilgrim’s Progress】, the pilgrim feared death.”

“What the…”

When I mixed English between German and rolled my tongue, Emmanuel licked his lips and turned his head. I thoroughly ignored such incomplete reactions and shouted.

“Why? Because he feared being judged after death and falling into hell. Hell, ah, what a terrifying word! How pitiful is the pilgrim trembling in anxiety. So what does the evangelist who discovered the poor pilgrim say to him?”

One or two more people gathered. The Duke standing at the front answered.

“He asks if he can see the small gate in the field.”

“That’s it! The pilgrim says he cannot see it. So the evangelist asks if he can see a shining light. Only then does the pilgrim answer that he thinks he can see it. So the evangelist tells him to go straight there. What is there!”

One more old man approached. The Duke answered seriously.

“There is a narrow gate.”

“That’s right. The evangelist advises the pilgrim that if he knocks on the narrow gate, someone will come out and tell him what he should do. Of course, the pilgrim cannot go straight to the narrow gate, and even after going, the path is not smooth. But if we pass through the narrow gate according to Christ’s will, salvation, that is, eternal life, unfolds before us.”

“Who is the person giving the speech now?”

Then, someone approached and quietly asked Emmanuel. I caught that small sound. Emmanuel answered.

“This is Pastor Ulrich Wirth, who just returned to his homeland from America.”

“A pastor! Protestant then!”

“But it’s worth listening to. It’s Christianity anyway. It’s certain that we all must head toward the narrow gate.”

Emmanuel answered calmly when he had been sneering alone earlier. The passerby stood in front of the fountain with a face that said that made sense and stroked his chin. I looked into the air and shouted.

“Like this pilgrim who was initially seized with terror, those who have not yet passed through the narrow gate fear death! Then true Christians, we Christians who pass through the narrow gate and the narrow path, have no reason to fear death! What on earth do we fear!”

After about five or six people gathered, it was smooth sailing. Since people were gathered, others would stop and listen once, wondering what was happening, then repeat. Every time I uttered a word, old men and several young people gathered. I cried out like someone facing the end times.

“The core of Christianity is resurrection. Christianity is a religion that fights death and wins, nothing else. God and Jesus triumphed over death and showed us that directly. The Bible testifies to Jesus’s resurrection! When all other religions tell us to accept death, to wait for the afterlife, our Christianity names death as an enemy and proclaims that it will be destroyed in the end!”

“Wow…”

Emmanuel covered his mouth. I could guess what he meant by that reaction. At least he wasn’t admiring because I had aptly quoted First Corinthians. I waved my hand and shouted.

“The world today has fallen into decay. We place too high a value on reason and free will, committing the same sin as when humans first thought only of themselves and were cast out of Eden. We are departing from God’s embrace! What’s even more troubling is that the Christian world, whether in the United States or Europe, has long since knelt before science and abandoned the doctrine of biblical inerrancy! As a result, we Christians are turning away from truth with notions like ‘only the soul is immortal’ or ‘we come alive only in the afterlife after death.’ This is related to the trend of being unable to accept the Bible as truth due to scientific advancement. Even we Christians must not cynically dismiss the scriptures in such a manner!”

“Is the afterlife Heaven? What happens if we don’t come alive in Heaven!”

One audience member seated at the back of the crowd shouted the question. I nodded deeply and answered.

“Our flesh will be resurrected right here in this place!”

Silence flows. I glared at the frozen audience and shouted.

“How can flesh be scientifically resurrected! The resurrection of flesh is scientifically impossible!—Young atheist intellectuals who inherited the blood of the Enlightenment will say this. But they are wrong. The scriptures tell us that ‘flesh will be resurrected’!”

“This dispensationalist! Go back to the United States!”

Someone’s rebuke came flying. One person’s opinion is not the opinion of everyone. The fact that so many people remained in their seats was proof that my words were persuading them. I too pointed at him and raised my voice.

“This is exactly it! Our age is so steeped in science and reason that it refuses to accept the mysterious truths that the scriptures hold. The belief that truth must necessarily be based on science is corrupting our times. Science brings us the fear of death and makes us drift away from Jehovah!”

“That’s right!”

Someone spoke as loudly as I did. I nodded with eyes full of righteousness and pressed my voice firmly.

“We must remember the scriptures. There are these words in First Corinthians: ‘But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith’!”

“Amen!”

Someone shouted even though the sermon wasn’t finished yet. Now even Maria had a somewhat bewildered expression. Emmanuel was beyond words. I should tell them both to manage their expressions more diligently. I spoke enthusiastically once more.

“Also, Isaiah says this: ‘But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead’! We postpone everything that’s hard to believe to after death and pray comfortably in church with peace of mind. Even when Jesus died and was resurrected, the idea that the soul is immortal was widely believed, but the fact that flesh is resurrected was accepted as nonsense. However, ‘God did not make death,’ so is it right for Christians to reserve all these truthful beliefs and pass them off to the unknown world beyond death, unable to fully accept the glorious truth that the scriptures proclaim?”

“No—!”

An old man shouted from among the audience. Then countless identical responses followed. Several people left their seats while many more people crowded toward the back of the crowd.

“Whether you go to Heaven or Hell after death, you’ll learn what true resurrection and eternal life are then? That’s not right. Everything is accomplished on the surface. The Day of Judgment comes to the surface! Our resurrection and eternal life are also accomplished on the surface. I ask again: Is it right for Christians to reserve all these truthful beliefs and pass them off to the unknown world beyond death?”

I immediately struck the air with my hand and shouted.

“It is not! That is why the Lord says: Now open your eyes! The time has come to open your eyes! Now the Lord calls us. Jesus calls us!”

“Oh, what nonsense…”

Emmanuel’s whisper reached me. It was probably because I spoke in German then switched to English, but it was necessary now.

Small clapping sounds came from among the audience. Several people turned their heads toward where the sound came from. The faint recognition that started weakly soon spread into thunderous applause and cheers. It might not seem like much when viewed from below, but looking down from above, it was as if the entire plaza was stirring. I grinned and raised my clenched fist. Then I bowed politely. I bent down and whispered into Emmanuel’s ear beside me.

“Now, Your Highness.”

“This is embarrassing, so let’s go.”

“Say something that makes sense. Please gather a list of the people sitting here. To show such interest in eternal life—they have sufficient potential to be Pleroma candidates.”

Emmanuel still doesn’t understand why Pleroma must be uprooted. Because he hasn’t experienced it firsthand. Still, he doesn’t refuse my requests—Emmanuel, who let out a hollow laugh, took the board with the roster and approached the audience. When he began distributing pens and the roster to people, some waved their hands dismissively and left the plaza, but many people wrote their names with faces filled with righteousness.

After the audience dispersed, I carefully placed the roster in my bag and whispered to Emmanuel.

“Now, since the sermon in Hallstatt is finished, it’s time to go to Bamberg, the city right next door. It’s only an hour away by carriage.”

“You’re going to do this again? Oh my~”

“Of course. Rumors spread in an instant. The clergy is a small world, so even more so. We can’t miss this opportunity.”

Emmanuel didn’t answer. He placed his hand on my shoulder and asked calmly.

“I understand. But Count Everett, let me ask you one thing. Were you a pastor in the United States?”

“Of course not. I clearly told you I’m an atheist.”

Emmanuel tilted his head with a soulless smile.

“…Well, whatever, let’s say that’s true. What with visiting Bamberg’s city hall last night, the Bamberg Diocese where Father Ralph Huber belongs was the target from the beginning. If we were going to do this, why not start in Bamberg?”

“Not really. There’s a difference between having even one buffer and not having one, isn’t there.”

I dragged Emmanuel into a deserted back alley and prepared to warp.

“Let’s go after Your Highness finishes class. It’ll be after lunch, so more people will be moving around than now—that works out well.”

* * *

And so I am in Bamberg’s plaza. Not far away are Bamberg Cathedral and the city hall over the river.

The current time is 1 PM. I spread both hands under the blazing sunlight and shouted powerfully.

“Now the Lord calls us. Jesus calls us—!”

“He’s doing that line again…”

Emmanuel whispered and shook his head. He held pens and the roster and distributed them to the audience.

I saw people wearing cassocks standing in the distance. Those Catholic clergy belonging to Bamberg Cathedral waved their hands when the roster came around to them. The thinnest one among them began gesturing something to his colleagues. Soon the fellow priests left their seats. Only one person, the gaunt priest, remained at the edge of the audience. He stayed there watching me even when the audience began to disperse one by one. When the plaza became quiet, he approached me.

“I listened to your sermon with great impression, Pastor.”

“Thank you. You’re a priest from up ahead, aren’t you.”

“That’s right. I’m a priest at Bamberg Cathedral.”

He pointed to the large cathedral beyond.

“Your views on death and resurrection were very impressive, Pastor. I’d like to hear more of your insights—if it’s not presumptuous, may I know how long you’ll be staying in Bamberg?”

“Your name?”

“Ralph Huber.”

Yes, what a welcome name. His time staying in Pleroma probably played a part in his obtaining the auxiliary bishop position… I slowly nodded and showed a gentle smile.

“Of course. I too would like to have a conversation with you, Father. I was planning to head straight to Bayreuth and Nuremberg after finishing this sermon, but if you wish, I’ll stay in Bamberg until today.”

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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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