How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 521

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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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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Noble Family (521)

Rather, I should be grateful that it’s past 4:30. I widened my eyes at those words, then nodded and matched pace with Leonard. That meant it was approaching 6 o’clock, which was advantageous for both of us.

Leonard naturally knew that the lever in the clock tower wouldn’t be one that returned to the bishops’ offices, and had finished considering whether it was safe to go up now or not.

But why wouldn’t the lever in the clock tower be one that returned to their offices? If they needed something like an observation deck, wouldn’t the other heavenly spaces we anticipated be sufficient without needing to go to the clock tower? Why would we expect there to be another lever in the middle between earth and heaven?

The reason is simply that they need a way to reach the experimental site. If there’s a lever installed to descend from heaven to the experimental site, that makes sense. They should maintain the space when experiments aren’t running, verify that magical formulas work properly, and even prepare for cases where problems arise during operation that can’t be resolved remotely. Then how do they ascend from the experimental site to heaven? First, we can think of warp, and this is reasonable. Pleroma might not install separate levers because they need to isolate the civilians used as test subjects in this location. The speculation we can give high probability to now that the incident is in full swing is as follows: the lever installed on the door handle leading to the basement of the bishop’s residence is essentially a lever for introducing civilians. The basis is ergonomic patterning. The bishop’s residence is a fortress, and in most fortresses or buildings, the first floor above ground is space for outsiders rather than the building owner’s space. This lever in the passage from the first floor to basement level 1 isn’t something the bishop uses, but something imposed on the ‘subjects’ brought to that parish. There’s likely a prison and subject storehouse in the basement with high probability. They sent subjects who wouldn’t be sent to the storehouse to the experimental site by having them touch the door decoration in front of the basement level. That’s why we arrived in the same way as subjects and opened our eyes in the middle of the plaza rather than the clock tower.

But where does this warp go from and to?

From ground to heaven? Here we must return to the beginning and think. Would the bishops really want to set foot together in the chaos where experiments are conducted? If I were a scientist, even if something was going wrong, I wouldn’t put my bare finger on the culture medium, and even setting aside such analogies, if the cost of installing safety equipment is clearly less than the potential damage costs, and the value of such fixed assets doesn’t deteriorate significantly over time, there’s no need to hesitate about installing safety equipment. Based on experience, they favor levers both outside and inside Pleroma’s world, so we can expect that the costs involved in lever installation and maintenance aren’t very high. Therefore, the bishops have no reason not to install barriers that primarily separate themselves from the subjects. In other words, we think it’s reasonable to warp from the clock tower to heaven.

However, a fundamental problem remains here – which is more cost-effective, warp or lever – and they concluded that levers are more cost-effective. Our speculation that ‘there should be a lever in the clock tower going up to heaven’ was reached through this process.

The clock tower should be a kind of intermediate base that separates them from the ground where experiments are conducted. The lever in the clock tower should be one that goes to a separated space where this field can be overlooked at a glance, and that space is a place where Pleroma can be directly faced, so it’s never safe. Seeing that we haven’t been discovered so far, there have been no humans remaining in the command tower from when we entered until now, and if it were a time far from 6 PM, we couldn’t rule out the possibility of them stopping by for inspection or schedules, so the need to stay alert would greatly increase, but at this moment approaching 6 o’clock, the possibility of them stopping by greatly decreases. Because we know they won’t make any attacks on the public today, Easter, we know it’s unlikely they’ll conduct space inspections or mock training at a time so close to the announcement time. If it were noon today, things might have been slightly different – it would still be on the safe side, but we would have had to prepare for slightly higher possibilities of ceremonial facility inspections. If they come here at this time, we’d have to think that even Ainsiedel’s prediction that they wouldn’t attack on Easter was wrong, and we’d have to think that physical chaos would break out across Germany at 6 PM tonight and modify our strategy.

The reality of the place, the purpose of the place, and what can be inferred from them. Skipping several inferences, the core is as follows. We can determine that this is an experimental site targeting civilians. There’s also the possibility they restored damaged space, but it’s not very convincing, because if the bishops needed space to fight by using their magical formulas on each other, they would have chosen other empty spaces, cathedrals, or natural environments rather than residential areas. They chose residential areas because they wanted a typical German environment. In what cases would there be a need to test special magical formulas on civilians in a field similar to the actual German environment?

Ainsiedel said as follows – ‘If Pleroma is going to seek the end times, shouldn’t there be prophecies that appear that realistic? They’ve already collected clues. The reason they haven’t announced a special joint operation on Easter of this special year when they seem to have found the semi-messiah called the ‘Messenger of the Covenant’ is… because the leadership is primarily decoding those clues.’

They’re putting their heart and soul into finding evidence that they received prophecies of momentous events like the end times, and proudly claim they’ll announce the prophecy to the entire world at 6 PM today. As much as they firmly believe Christ is on their side, they can unhesitatingly carry out Christ’s will, that is, Pleroma’s will. Therefore, we can know what kind of experimental site they used this place as. They plan to cast this magical formula on German soil after Easter, when the time comes. Why? To judge according to the revelation given to them, or to forcibly expand their religious influence, or to show miracles and evangelize to people. This will be done tomorrow, the day after, or sometime.

But the problem is that ‘today’ we’ll attack them, and they can apply their magical formulas to us early. In that sense, we must find ways to break or defend against those bastards’ magical formulas.

But we’ve secured time to ransack their heavenly command tower with peace of mind. At least until 5:30, we’ll happily roam around those bastards’ space.

Leonard followed all my reasoning exactly. In a situation where we must risk any danger to succeed in the operation, and in the realm of reasoning rather than operation planning, he thinks at a similar speed to me. Leonard, who has decided to accept some irrationality or ingenuity, becomes even more so. In terms of operation planning, I deviate from standards somewhat more than him, but at times like now, he won’t stop me. While worrying about safety, he believes even in my seemingly reckless decisions, and has already applied brakes to prevent me from crossing the line. As long as I don’t cross the line, the non-standard strategies I create are Leonard Wittelsbach’s intention itself. Because he employed me and has been supporting me to this day.

Knowing well where the lever in the clock tower leads and since it’s past 4:30 as he said, we had no need to hesitate. However, Leonard called me to a stop.

“Don’t we need to check the ruins behind that 4th path?”

“The ruins…”

That’s worth checking. I checked my watch and said.

“Your Highness, it seems to me that magical formulas are being added to us depending on which path we enter. Just as the magical formula was applied when we entered the 8th path… there could be some problem with the 4th path too. Should we still go take a look?”

“Since we already came out fine, let’s try it once.”

I nodded at words that would be hard to hear from Leo, yet weren’t strange to hear from Leonard. We continued replenishing our divine power as we headed toward the 4th path.

The field scattered with grayish or milky white debris was visible even from afar. We’re facing a space like ancient Rome struck by disaster. I stepped where the sidewalk blocks of the residential area ended and the dust of the field began. This field seemed to exist in time severed before the boundary of the residential area. I picked up a piece of debris to examine and put it in my pocket. I plan to commission component analysis when we return. Leonard slowly extended his hand into the air to sense magical power and asked.

“Did battle take place here? If so, why did they set up something like these religious buildings.”

“It would have been nice if Haike Ainsiedel were here. What a pity.”

“I don’t even know if they really replicated unique abilities within the general field of magical studies.”

Leonard said with his eyes slightly narrowed. This space seems quite suspicious to him. We walked further inside but no major problems appeared for us.

“The principle is important too, but now isn’t the time to examine that. We still can’t know what magical formulas they used. They might have done something beyond our cognitive range.”

In other words, we only make the minimum rational inferences that enable speech, but can’t yet know what the truth is. We’ll commission analysis of the stone we picked up, and it’s time to return to the plaza.

Knowing there was nothing we could do in the ruins, we immediately moved to the clock tower. The wooden door of the clock tower is firmly locked. Naturally. Before entering, I infused Leonard with divine power again and surrounded myself with divine power too. Leonard brought his hand close to the door and said.

“It’s security-processed with magical power.”

“That’s why we looked and passed by earlier.”

Then Leonard slightly raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Do you remember?”

“I wrote it on the back of my hand.”

I continued speaking while imagining what would happen if we broke the door’s security magic.

“The fact that the door is security-processed with magical power must be preparation for cases where ‘subjects’ open this door and take refuge in the clock tower.”

“That’s right.”

If the inference that Pleroma brought civilians here and tested magical formulas on them is true, naturally observing how civilians react to magic is their purpose. They wanted to see how civilians evacuate and respond, so they didn’t lock the doors of first-floor shops. However, for realism they locked the doors of residential units, and for different reasons from residences, they also had to lock the entrance to the clock tower.

So what should we do.

I raised my head upward.

“Well, I don’t see any shining magical barriers or such. Then this is perfect for finding out whether they have paranoia or not, whether they have healthy minds or not.”

Then Leonard, understanding my intention, answered in a cool voice.

“If they did that even in their home ground, they would have died of neurosis long ago.”

“I’m relieved that Your Highness says so too.”

I stomped the ground noisily with my foot and stretched my hands upward. Magical power wrapped around the arch pillars of the bell tower above the clock and came back down. I immediately created a barrier in the air and kicked off it. The barrier shattered beneath my feet. I installed plank-sized barriers the same way and rose into the air, and knowing that looking down would be the end, I ignored the creaking sounds from below. When I reached an appropriate height, I continued climbing stairs while quickly shooting magical power outward toward the pillars of the high bell tower. I need to calculate the magical formula to have elasticity. If I’m wrong, it’s over – why am I thinking such thoughts at this height! Muttering curses inwardly, I laid safety devices under my feet with my other hand and kicked the air once more so magical power would pull me. Wind sounds of a completely different dimension from before struck my ears. As I approached the floor of the opposite bell tower, I switched and shot my other hand toward the completely opposite pillar, wrapping magical power around the arch of the bell tower ceiling. All magical power decomposed and scattered in an instant.

“Whew.”

When the red magical power returned to the air, I was hanging from the bell tower ceiling before landing on the floor and catching my breath.

Leonard came up much more easily than me. Only now looking down, I could see the plants he had grown returning to their original places. Since wind kept roaring up toward my face, I stopped looking down below the bell tower. Leonard said to me.

“I was supporting from the ground but didn’t expect you to go around like that.”

“I wasn’t watching the ground situation. As you know, it was an extremely dangerous situation.”

“Next time I’ll have to teach you how to make stair-shaped barriers.”

“Please teach me today if possible.”

“If there’s time. Count, divine power.”

Leonard quickly said, meaning to surround myself again. I twitched my eyebrows and surrounded my body with divine power. Leonard put on the monocle he had removed before coming up. He looked around in all directions and found the lever without difficulty, saying calmly.

“The lever is here.”

I nodded. The bell tower is open on all sides with granite pillars supporting between the tower and ceiling. At the center of those pillars is a lion head relief, and the northern stonework itself is flowing subtle magical power. I exchanged glances with Leonard, then said to him.

“There should be no one upstairs, but let’s prepare just once before going.”

I mixed all the faces of Pleroma priests I knew to create an appropriately ordinary face, and Leonard did the same for me. Then we counted with our fingers. 3, 2, 1.

When I touched the lion relief, a familiar scene unfolded before my eyes. Wow, I looked around in inner admiration. There were no signs of people. Like I had once seen in headquarters’ mimesis strategy games, the scenery below was visible as is. So we kept running around in that maze with countless arms… After escaping that place, my head became much clearer.

I looked up at the sky. If I went up just a little more from here, I felt I could meet clouds like in the Catacombs space. Though that wouldn’t happen. I walked to the strategy room deck behind and examined what levers were there, and soon had to suppress a hollow laugh. The levers here were…

“They really look honest.”

Leonard said quietly behind me. I held my forehead and finally laughed.

“Did you read my thoughts?”

“Anyone would think that.”

The levers here were really ‘levers.’ I stood silently looking at more than twenty levers rising from the floor. They never expected anyone to come here. They make no effort to hide them. Well, who would have something like these ‘lever-finding glasses’? It’s even an item that can’t be made without my blood. Rather, it was right to evaluate that they had made overly meticulous devices in their offices and cathedral. I gathered the documents scattered on their deck table and read through them line by line. I had to remember everything. Leonard gathered the few materials from the three bookshelves behind and handed me only what was necessary, saying.

“I think you probably came up with the same thought as me.”

“About after the operation begins?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’re probably thinking the same thing. We just need to know the way home now.”

I adjusted my gloves and looked at the numerous levers.

“Which one would be the path to the Bamberg diocese bishop’s office, Your Highness.”

Then Leonard says what I said earlier.

“It really would have been nice if Haike Ainsiedel were here. Or Narke Farnese.”

In other words, there’s no answer. I stared at the levers and swallowed.

“There’s no method, Your Highness. We have to pull them one by one ourselves. Fairly, this first lever here… seems like it would go to the leadership conference room so it looks dangerous, let’s start pulling from the middle lever of the first row. Do you agree with my decision?”

“Since there’s no better method than what you said, do that.”

I nodded while examining the wear level of each lever. They’re all similarly worn so we can’t tell which was pulled more often. So to do as I said, I slowly stood in front of the middle lever of the first row.

“Just come right over.”

Leonard nods at my words. I slowly took a deep breath and pulled the lever back sharply. As my vision became dark, Leonard appeared beside me at almost the same moment.

Before my dark adaptation was complete, I felt my skin grow cold. I reflexively held my breath. I could see the points of spheres glistening in the yellow light of candles, the only light source. Then the colors of cage decorations came into view.

People in bishop’s robes were sitting around a round table, looking at us.

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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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