How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 54

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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 Family (54)

Narke smiled for a while, then nodded his head.

“Right. What you said is correct.”

“….”

If he’s neither a priest nor a bishop, that narrows it down considerably.

Seeing Leo and Elias’s expressions change, Narke clapped his hands.

“Now, the atmosphere has gotten too gloomy~”

“….”

“Let’s take it slow. I wasn’t planning to keep hiding it from you guys anyway.”

“From us?”

Leo questioned, pointing out the puzzling part.

“Right.”

Narke nodded at Leo’s question.

But he didn’t delve deeper into that topic.

“What you want to ask is this, right? Why would a mage from the Papacy bother hiding his identity and come to the Imperial 2nd Education Institute?”

“Right.”

That he belongs to the Papacy isn’t strange just from seeing the divine power he uses.

Wouldn’t there be mages registered there around this age?

There are plenty. Especially the higher the rank, the more so.

As times changed and talent drain accelerated, the Papacy began placing mages in holy orders from increasingly younger ages to secure divine power.

So it’s not a problem that he’s a Papacy mage despite being 17.

But why someone who should be working there came to an Empire high school, and why he came hiding his identity, remains a mystery.

“Let me ask one thing. You don’t trust me, do you?”

“I trust you. But being in an unexpected situation makes my trust feel ambiguous.”

Leo answered without taking his eyes off Narke’s face.

“Right, I understand. To be honest, I wasn’t trying to deceive you. Like Lucas, I couldn’t reveal who I was.”

“Would you be in danger if you revealed it?”

Elias asked.

“Haha, that’s not it. Compared to Lucas, my problem isn’t that serious. I just made a promise not to reveal my identity in exchange for coming here.”

Only the situation of not being able to speak is similar, but there seems to be no similarity in terms of danger, and even though he must have promised the Papacy, there doesn’t seem to be any coercion.

“I don’t know you well yet, but honestly, I like you guys. You probably don’t feel close to me though.”

‘…Hmm.’

Of course he’d like us on his own.

Having insight ability, Narke can immediately tell what kind of person someone is and whether they’re trustworthy or not. But the reverse isn’t true.

‘I see one downside of insight.’

The one who can know even what wasn’t told can find common ground with the other person’s inner self and form intimacy, but the other party cannot.

If Narke’s words are true, an asymmetry in the relationship has already formed.

Leo frowned at Narke’s words.

“…Honestly, I can’t say we’re very close, but we haven’t even seen each other for two months yet, and we’ve only properly met during group meetings. Considering that situation, I think we got used to each other quickly. Is there really a need to already determine what kind of intimacy we have?”

Perhaps because a classmate suddenly brought up something negative, Leo comforted him with the tone he used when doing class president duties. Elias, who had been listening with an indifferent face the whole time, also agreed.

“Right, we just haven’t had many points of contact, so if you say that already, how are we supposed to get closer in the future~. I like you too!”

“Haha, so that’s how it’s taken. I wasn’t saying I was upset, but I wonder if I made you worry unnecessarily.”

Narke organized what he wanted to say and spoke again.

“It would be better to express it this way. You might find it a bit burdensome, but I trust you more than other friends. That doesn’t mean my level of trust is perfect though.”

“Right.”

“Still, if I didn’t trust you more than others, I would have refused the deployment order and would be sitting in the investigation bureau with you, right? I wouldn’t have stuck my face into a case that all citizens are paying attention to, even risking my identity.”

“You wouldn’t have. I’m really grateful to you for that.”

Leo, who had been listening to Narke’s words without any reaction, nodded and spoke.

“What, we planned from the beginning for one of us two to be deployed anyway. Anyway, I took on this job trusting that you wouldn’t tell anyone about my story. Even if you did tell, I wouldn’t blame you, but I hope you’ll know that one thing before hearing my story.”

Narke fell into thought for a moment, then spoke.

“I was appointed as a cardinal five years ago.”

“….”

Even though it was expected, the atmosphere froze.

He clearly answered that he wasn’t a bishop earlier.

I know that to be appointed cardinal, one must be a bishop, but seeing how strongly he said he wasn’t a bishop, it seems the reality and system I knew are different.

There would be identity issues too, but if he was going to hide it, why not hide it thoroughly? Why did he wear bishop’s robes? But the issue of apparent rank would also be important from a diplomatic dimension.

Sending such high-level personnel and being misunderstood as having sent an ordinary mage would be wasteful in many ways.

Elias broke the silence and asked.

“A cardinal of all things? Wouldn’t you have been twelve then?”

“Right. I was able to use divine power almost from birth.”

“Wow, you were just born with it.”

Narke laughed lightly and continued.

“Honestly, I’m worried you might feel distant from me… but you’re not ordinary either, so it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Yeah~ Just speak comfortably. We’re all the same humans here.”

Elias waved his hand back and forth.

“The reason I specifically came to the Imperial 2nd Education Institute is… right, this is the biggest reason you were wary of me. I said earlier that I used divine power almost from birth, right? Even though I delayed the appointment age as much as possible and reached that position at twelve, it’s not like I lived normally before that.”

‘….’

Wait. There’s one thing I can predict about why he came here.

I quietly asked.

“How long did you attend seminary?”

“About half a year before appointment. It was actually just a name put on paper when I came of age.”

“Was there a reason you didn’t attend long?”

“Hmm… there are many reasons, but the adults judged it would interfere with my work.”

“What kind of work were you doing that you couldn’t even go to school?”

Elias casually threw out a comment.

“Haha, properly explaining would violate regulations… you know what makes this world go round, right?”

“It runs on magical power. From one to ten.”

“Right, that’s it.”

Narke nodded and answered.

“….”

Everyone fell silent.

Though he cut out a lot of content, thinking of the most plausible hypothesis, it sounds like he provided divine power to maintain the family.

From all the talk about being unable to reveal his identity, being in a similar situation to me, it seems his very existence was classified.

Everyone seemed to gradually guess why Narke came here.

“Aren’t you getting too down? Haha, it wasn’t that hard for me! If I had been born into a commoner family, maybe, but I wasn’t. It wasn’t done so unreasonably either, and honestly, I was pampered and grew up naive.”

Of course, since the family’s wealth, power, and future depended on him, they had to treat him like a master.

I silently waited for his words to continue.

“Still, I wanted to experience it at least once. There are many people at the magic schools over there who have heard my story. If I was going to live the same life at school, it’s much more comfortable to come to a place that doesn’t know me at all.”

“…I’m sorry if I pressed you.”

Leo apologized with a darkened face, pressing his brow.

“No, I originally judged that I could tell you guys, so I said it.”

“I feel like trash for suddenly suspecting you! Hahaha!”

Elias burst into hearty laughter.

Then he leaned back in his chair again and muttered.

“Geez, even our uncle who only thinks about exiling his nephew didn’t stop him from going to school.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“Don’t worry too much, Leo. This is your house.”

“….”

Elias avoided Leo’s glaring eyes and brought up another topic.

“Fortunately, the festival is coming up soon~ You got a role with a lot of screen time in the play too. You’ll be able to properly enjoy school life before going back.”

“That’s right.”

“That sounds nice. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to play because of my leg… But wait a minute. Can you attend university in the Empire?”

“Well, as long as my affiliation doesn’t get discovered, I think I can attend here.”

Narke smiled gently.

At those words, Elias’s eyes flashed as he clapped his hands together.

“Hey, let’s empty our brains, guys~ Does anyone know what we were just talking about?”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“….”

I let out a hollow laugh at Leo’s dry response.

In the classroom, someone would usually play along with Elias’s nonsense at times like this, but everyone here has a different personality. At least it’s fortunate that Elias doesn’t back down from any reaction.

‘Anyway…’

Those two aside, I’m not in a situation to be fooling around.

Just from listening, there’s nothing strange about it.

It’s true that he could reach that position at that age, and it’s true that he has the qualifications to do so.

It’s also true that numerous families extract magic power from children born strong to accumulate wealth.

But if he really wanted to have a proper school life, and if he absolutely had to leave the Papal States for an exchange to the Empire, that story should have appeared in the novel too.

But I’ve never read a single word about Narke’s story.

The statement that he came here because he wanted to live normally might be true. With that much power, it’s actually harder to live normally.

But there’s no law saying there can be only one cause for something.

There’s another factor that made him act differently from the novel.

‘It’s likely because there was a change that didn’t exist in the novel at that time.’

As far as I know, it’s just me.

But it wasn’t a change significant enough for rumors to reach the Papal States. I just answered questions once or twice and used a little magic during class.

Could he have heard news about me and hurriedly prepared for an exchange in about two weeks?

Looking at it this way, my change doesn’t seem to be the reason he came here.

‘But I can’t end it here.’

I looked at him and opened the favorability window.

Narke Farnese

Favorability +7.5

His favorability was 7 from when we first met.

How could someone I’d never met have such a high value?

Fai is a similar example, but it wasn’t strange at all that Fai had a favorability of 10 from the beginning.

Fai believed I had saved him on the first day, and knew that day that we could communicate. It makes sense that his favorability came out high.

But why did Narke show me a favorability of 7?

At first, I was too busy being wary of him being an unfamiliar character, so since having such high favorability meant the possibility of him harming me was considerably low, I didn’t dwell on this issue for long.

When Narke was talking with Leo and our eyes met, he smiled.

I smiled gently back at him and fell into thought again.

But on this topic, it’s worth examining why his favorability was different and higher than others.

* * *

After that, we went back and forth between school stories and Strauchi stories several times until past midnight before we could finally sleep.

Since it would be difficult to get answers when we’re all together, I can’t investigate the real purpose of his exchange until I create a situation where Narke and I are alone.

Above all, before finding that out, there’s something I need to focus on now.

Sunday morning came, and I received contact from the King and went to meet him.

When I entered the room, the King sent out all his attendants and greeted me briefly.

“We meet again.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It’s an honor to see you.”

I gave an appropriately formal greeting and sat in the chair he indicated.

Since my identity was probably discovered anyway, and wearing a mask in front of the King wasn’t proper etiquette, I removed my mask and placed it on my lap.

He stared at my face uncomfortably intently, just like Elias had done, then opened his mouth.

“I’ve already taken care of the windows, so don’t worry.”

“Yes, thank you.”

He must mean he made it so people outside can’t see in.

Then the King opened his mouth again.

“From the Empire to the Papal States, everyone’s talking about Legislator Strauchi’s case. Did you read the newspapers during your break?”

“I did. It seems the reaction is big because it’s been a while since a Pleroma in such a position was discovered.”

“That’s right. Because of that, I personally hold your courage in high regard.”

He paused in thought, then tilted his head and spoke again.

“No, should I say Prince of the Duchy of Anhalt rather than Count?”

“….”

Again…

But contrary to his words, his face wasn’t hardened.

Rather, he had an expression as if leisurely waiting for my reaction, and there seemed to be no particular ill feelings.

In the novel, whenever descriptions of him appeared through Leo’s dialogue, evaluations that he wasn’t easy-going often appeared, and I think I know why.

First, let me say what I need to say.

“I apologize for not telling you until now. No matter what I say, it doesn’t make it not a crime, but I never intended to deceive Your Majesty.”

“Yes, I’ve heard everything.”

“I know it was illegal. I will properly accept punishment.”

“Then I become an accomplice who stamped a seal on what I knew was fake identification.”

He raised his eyebrows and smiled faintly.

‘Hmm.’

Right. Fortunately, we’re on the same page.

My position has been conveyed well enough.

I remained silent to show I understood.

If I responded with denials or claims that it was my fault, I’d be making him speak twice.

His intention was clear to anyone. If we were to argue about the law, neither of us in this room had done anything right, so let’s stop the principled discussion here.

Sure enough, he immediately brought up a different topic.

“I heard you’re close friends with the Crown Prince. Are you getting along well with the Crown Prince?”

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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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