How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 542

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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 (542)

“It’s snowing.”

I muttered while looking at the sky. Then I leaned my body, kicked off the ground, and stood up.

“There’s no way it’s snowing! Did you change the settings?”

“No. I fixed it to summer.”

Ulrike squinted her eyes in confusion. Now that I looked, Ulrike often expressed emotions with her eyes. However, despite our confusion, no more snow fell. The weather remained hot enough to make us sweat.

“I should go out and check.”

Nevertheless, Ulrike thought deeply with sharp eyes, then went outside the water. Normally, it’s impossible for participants to leave Mimesis from inside without dying or breaking Mimesis’s rules, but she must have some kind of controller that allows her to exit. She disappeared toward where we had thrown our clothes.

Leonard, Cheringen, and I could only stare blankly at each other. Cheringen threw the chestnut-like nuts he held in his hand to Leonard and me. After thinking briefly, I roughly buried them in the dirt behind me and returned, while Cheringen smiled and cracked the fruit with his teeth. Then he spoke casually.

“Even though it’s Mimesis?”

“Unconsciously.”

“They’re unripe, so you don’t need to put them back. Even squirrels won’t look for them.”

“I see.”

When I plopped down next to them, Cheringen supported his body with his arm behind him and spoke in a comfortable position.

“They’re hazelnuts. They ripen completely in autumn, so they’re good to eat then.”

They looked quite like chestnuts, but they weren’t after all. Unfortunately, the only hazelnuts I knew were hazelnut-flavored coffee. Cheringen certainly didn’t mind playing with peers his age. I couldn’t tell how deeply he had played—with children who seemed naive to him—with that leisurely expression in everything, but he seemed to have enjoyed trying various things. Having been born and raised in the city, I didn’t know the names of fruits other than popular ones like chestnuts, nor did I find them particularly tasty. Considering that this city was much more nature-friendly than 21st-century Seoul, it couldn’t be helped, but even in 21st-century Seoul, if I had frequently gone to mountains and parks, I might have known them well enough. I didn’t have many such opportunities. As if reading my thoughts, Cheringen tilted his head sideways and teased.

“Such a city person.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone from Karlsruhe.”

“Hahaha!”

Cheringen burst into clear laughter. Everyone here was born and raised in big cities, so it was absurd to say such things. Cheringen leaned back a bit more, then flicked his hand to magically pull over an unripe hazelnut from the distance. He rinsed the hazelnut in water and brought it to my lips.

“Ah.”

“Why?”

“Try eating it.”

Cheringen seemed to smile as if he wanted to see whether I could eat the hazelnut or not. What couldn’t I eat? When I remained indifferent, Cheringen pressed the hazelnut right against my lips. Only then did I take the hazelnut and bite it roughly. Leonard didn’t even try to stop me. This solidified my thought that these two often shared the same intentions.

I knew that hazelnuts had shells. I cracked the shell with my small molars, and when the shell opened appropriately, I took out the hazelnut that had been half in my mouth and dipped it in water again. Then I tore off the cracked shell underwater and let it flow away.

Since Cheringen gestured with a smile, I lightly chewed the tip of the hazelnut. And at that moment, I had to squint my eyes.

“…! It’s astringent.”

“Hahaha.”

I barely managed to chew and swallow what I was eating, then let the rest flow into the water. I sighed and dipped both hands in the water. Then I splashed water on the friends beside me who were just laughing.

“Haha.”

“Why did I…”

Leonard chuckled and muttered. Cheringen casually wiped the water flowing down his face. I pressed my forehead.

“How did you have no change in expression when it tasted like that?”

Though I asked that, Cheringen just smiled gently and closed his eyes. As always. Leonard, who raised only one corner of his mouth crookedly in an expression that made it unclear whether he was smiling or looking down on Cheringen, explained.

“To make you eat it.”

I shook my head and got up from my seat. Walking around a bit, I encountered a tree with small apple-like fruits. This was obvious from its appearance, so I knew it well. Though I had never eaten one. I took off my wet vest, rolled it up, filled it with apples, and brought them to my friends. Ulrike had also returned by then. I asked the friends gathered on the dike about the apples.

“Anyone want to eat apples?”

“You try it.”

At Cheringen’s words, I just smiled. When I set them down beside me, meaning I wouldn’t eat them, Leonard laughed. Even without trying, they’d probably be sour or astringent…

I sat next to Ulrike and asked.

“So, Luise. Nothing unusual outside?”

“Yeah. Totally fine. What should we play now?”

“Well. I want to dry my clothes.”

I lay down with a thud in a sunny spot and closed my eyes. My wet clothes stuck to the ground. It felt good to bask in the sun, as if they were already starting to dry.

Something covered my face again. Feeling the endlessly piling leaves, I asked Ulrike.

“What is it this time?”

“…”

“Luise. I know it’s you.”

“A shade! You’ll get tanned!”

“It’s fine, Luise. Getting a little tan isn’t bad.”

Having bronze skin among students this age was something to be proud of. I had no particular feelings about skin color, so I didn’t particularly pride myself on being tanned, but I didn’t need to prevent it either. Now that I wasn’t doing work where I couldn’t control my appearance as I wished, it didn’t matter whether I got tanned or not.

“No way. You just stay like this. I’m the only one who’ll get tanned.”

“It’s Mimesis anyway.”

“Ah~ Aha~”

Ulrike laughed briefly and seemed to mutter curses—wanting to tan like this, I should take Ulrike tanning when summer comes—then removed the leaves piled on my face one by one. She left only what was on my eyes and went back into the water.

“Look at this, trout~”

After a while, I heard Ulrike boasting to Leonard and Cheringen about catching fish. Even during this, I kept my eyes closed, receiving warm sunlight on the moss and clover.

How much time had passed? The wind direction changed. I removed the oak leaf covering my eyes and sat up. The wind penetrating inside my shirt was different.

“Wait.”

Snow was falling again. Leonard and Cheringen, who had been absorbed in their own world, laughing and talking, also turned their heads.

I opened my mouth and kicked off the ground to stand up. Cold wind swept across my body. The water began freezing solid from upstream in an instant. Blue leaves from the sky began falling as autumn leaves.

Crack— Crash—

Leonard, with terrifying judgment, flicked his hand to make grass grow from the bottom of the stream. He managed to turn the stream into flatland and created a path for Ulrike to easily escape. Above and below the floor Leonard blocked, water froze and hardened white.

“That earlier…”

I muttered curses, feeling chilled to the bone by the blowing east wind. I looked to see if what was really falling from the sky was snow, and no matter how much I doubted it, it was snow. Just 10 seconds ago it was summer, but now it’s winter.

“Wow. I’m about to freeze to death.”

Cheringen crossed his arms, smiled, and spoke. What remarkable composure in this situation. I turned around to look at Ulrike behind me.

“Luise, the Mimesis settings…”

When I tried to speak to her, I saw Ulrike’s face was resolute. Holding a plump trout skewered on a long branch like a weapon, she looked at us and quickly pointed downward.

“Let’s go down to the Residential Area! There’s no time!”

“Wait, this isn’t the time to go down…”

“Hurry!”

I grimaced, then quickly found the jacket I had thrown up above and ran downward.

“Hey, Luise. Luise!”

“What?!”

“Huh…”

It was so cold I couldn’t even speak. My not-quite-dry clothes were freezing, dropping thin ice fragments every time I moved. Ulrike’s lips were equally blue.

“Luise, you need to go out and check what’s happening! You have the controller.”

“No! If I go out now.”

“Why not?! I’ll go out myself, so give it to me.”

“Aaaaah.”

“Are you Elias?!”

Ulrike skillfully jumped over rocks and tree roots, sliding down the sloped hill. Then, with whatever confidence had kicked in, she stepped onto the frozen water. Leonard and Cheringen across the stream also widened their eyes in surprise. Cheringen quickly maintained his curled lip corners again, but I couldn’t.

“Yay~”

Ulrike screamed while stretching one leg straight and bending the other inward, sliding down the slightly sloped frozen stream. When the slope ended, she climbed back onto the road where I was running and flew around by wrapping magic around trees.

“Wooooh!”

“…”

I felt increasingly speechless. I was just bewildered by the bone-chilling wind, amazed by this student’s stamina as she flew around like a monkey, and couldn’t adapt to having to keep shaking my head as snow piled on my eyelashes melted and entered my eyelids, making my head cold. Most of all, running in midwinter wearing a not-quite-dry shirt was almost suicidal, and the future of entering a coffin seemed closer than normally going down to the Village. I asked my friends across the way.

“Hey, guys—! Why aren’t you stopping Luise?!”

“She doesn’t seem like she’d listen even if we tried to stop her.”

Leonard answered coolly and simply. Cheringen seemed to be in the same situation.

“Luise! You changed the weather!”

“No—!”

“What do you mean no!”

“Really no! I don’t know how to change settings from inside!”

“Then this happened because of your poor operation?!”

“No?!”

“Then is it safe?”

“Yes! I can guarantee it—!”

It doesn’t seem like you can guarantee it though? My joints are freezing, so at this rate I might roll down. And there’s something I’m increasingly suspicious of… I widened my eyes and bit my lips. Then Ulrike shouted.

“Uh! Uhuh!”

“Ah.”

Fortunately, we began to see a village where people lived ahead of us. Since it was probably set to have no people, only the village would remain. Ulrike naturally climbed over the fence of the first old house that came into view. We followed him inside.

“…Alright, one, two.”

Ulrike tried pulling the door handle, but it didn’t budge at all. He nodded as if he had expected this.

CRASH―!

Then he rammed the door with his shoulder and broke through the wood. I reflexively screamed as my head started aching at the sight.

“Ahhh!”

“Why? Why why?!”

“What are we going to do in this winter if you break all the doors?!”

“Let’s stay on the 2nd Floor.”

Ulrike said with a determined face and ran upstairs. Fortunately, Leonard created feet from vines to cover the door where wind was coming in. Exhausted, I collapsed onto the sofa on the first floor. The cool fabric touching my body gave me goosebumps.

Leonard sat on the sofa next to me. Some grass mass crawled over to me and covered my entire body. Looking to the side, I saw Leonard had also made something like a robe from grass to cover himself…

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“We really end up doing all sorts of things.”

“Right. It feels like playing headquarters games.”

Even so, Leonard seemed to have no regrets. He looked at the trout skewer that Ulrike had thrown on the table and left, stroking his chin. Then he started calling Cheringen, who was adjusting his clothes, to say something. Meanwhile, all kinds of grass climbed up Cheringen’s body and began to take the shape of a robe. Seeing him take care of his friend like this―though it was somewhat naturally expected, it still felt unfamiliar―made me smile.

After listening to Leonard’s words, Cheringen quickly nodded, rummaged through the kitchen, took something, and went outside.

Not long after, light flashed outside and we heard thunder.

CRASH― RUMBLE―

CRAAASH―!

I just smiled crookedly at that sound. I could tell what he was doing without looking. Creating lightning to get fire―it was so close to primitive that sometimes it made my spine stiffen. Not long after, a black shadow that appeared beyond the door spoke to my back.

“Lucas, could you remove some of the grass?”

I pushed the grass stems hanging on the door as far to the side as possible before Cheringen could burn down the house. Cheringen came over carrying a thick burning branch and winked at me. When Elias did it, it looked free-spirited, but when Cheringen did it, it just seemed novel.

Coming inside, he smiled and put down the cooking oil container he was holding in his other hand, then dropped the branch onto the fireplace logs. I went to his side and used magic to create a weak wind to kindle the fire.

Crackle―

The slowly spreading fire melted my frozen bones. I sat close enough that my eyelashes might burn and closed my eyes. Cheringen called Ulrike down from upstairs, so now there were three people warming themselves in front of the fireplace. Actually, I thought we could just go sit in front of the lightning-struck tree, but such thoughts didn’t seem helpful for survival.

Cheringen asked Ulrike if he could grill the trout, and at his cheerful answer, put the skewer over the fire. Leonard, who was making robes for Ulrike and growing plant stems on the living room floor to use as firewood, discovered something caught in the ground and made a “hmm” sound.

“What?”

“Look at this.”

Leonard grabbed and tore up the wooden planks that made up the floor without hesitation.

“Why are they doing this…”

I muttered while glancing at my friends who were breaking the house’s floor. Leonard, who had finally pulled out what was caught, tilted his head.

“Potatoes?”

“Oh, let’s eat these!”

Ulrike received the potatoes from Leonard and was delighted as he brushed off the dirt. I asked out of curiosity.

“Why are potatoes buried here?”

“Well, when you think of Germany, you think of potatoes, right?”

Ulrike answered cheerfully. There were still questions, but no one could deny that. I watched Leonard and Ulrike digging up potatoes together and thought. I didn’t know which place was copied with Mimesis, but as long as I stayed close to Leonard, I wouldn’t starve to death. With Cheringen added, we’d have fire, so we could build civilization. Looking at it now, my abilities were pretty useless for this kind of survival. I thought I should stick close to my friends. I went outside to pick up some branches suitable for skewers, threaded the potatoes on them, and asked Leonard.

“Are you wearing the potato brooch I gave you well?”

“…”

“Why no answer?”

“Of course I’ve kept it safe.”

Leonard raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled politely, then heated the skewer I handed him over the fire.

“What about the tomato I gave you with it?”

“That too. I’m thinking of giving that to Narke later.”

Germany means potatoes and Italy means tomatoes―Leonard understood my intention exactly. While we were wrestling with potatoes, Cheringen spoke to Ulrike.

“Luise, want to go out together for a moment?”

“Oh, sure!”

Ulrike followed Cheringen and disappeared, even though it was questionable whether going outside in this weather was good. I sat in front of the fire without thinking, drying my clothes, when not long after, they came inside scattering snowflakes.

“Ta-da~ What Lucas picked earlier was still left on the ground.”

Ulrike smiled and showed the apples he had gathered in his arms.

“Weren’t these not very good to eat?”

“Not at all.”

Cheringen, who came close to the fireplace right away, stirred the logs with a poker and buried the apples under the ashes.

“They’re good to eat this way.”

“Huh…”

That’s a new method. Thinking that, I pulled out the somewhat cooked potatoes, and Cheringen began touching the charcoal on the potato skins with his hands. Leonard muttered indifferently.

“Luise, fight back.”

Before I could ask what to fight back against, Cheringen smeared charcoal on Ulrike’s cheek. When Ulrike’s mouth fell open, Cheringen smiled at Leonard’s words and said.

“That friend already knows me too well and won’t play along anymore.”

“‘Anymore,’ you say. I guess you don’t know that none of your attempts have ever succeeded?”

“Hmm, I only have memories of enjoying pleasant times with you, but I guess you think differently.”

“How could that be? I enjoyed watching you try to interfere with me every single time.”

“I’m honored.”

Cheringen looked back at him and wiggled his eyebrows. Ulrike seemed to have no intention of fighting back, just watching nervously as their conversation appeared fierce on the surface―though by now it seemed to me more like confirming memories. Just when I thought it was over, Cheringen didn’t miss the opportunity and touched my nose with his charcoal-covered finger too. When our eyes met, Cheringen grinned.

“It suits you well.”

“If something suits me, then say it suits me…”

I chuckled and wiped off the charcoal with my still-damp clothes. After that, there was nothing to do but eat the well-cooked trout. We just ate trout in the living room that was dyed yellow with sunlight. Since we had used up some energy earlier, no one spoke. The well-grilled fish was edible even without seasoning. As the quiet time continued, I finally felt as peaceful as when sleeping under the sunlight again.

Cheringen picked out an apple from among the ashes with the poker. Then he brushed off the ashes and handed it to me.

“If you eat it now, it won’t be sour.”

“Ah, thanks.”

I carefully tasted it and my mouth stretched sideways at the unexpected sweetness.

“It’s like apple juice.”

“Right?”

How does Julia know about things like this? The more I think about his wide range of experiences, the more novel it seems. Cheringen also handed baked apples to Ulrike and Leonard. Ulrike took a bite of the apple and clapped with his hands and wrists. He threw the apple up and caught it in his mouth, biting it and eating it all in an instant. Then he went back to tearing at the trout. Ulrike muttered.

“I can’t believe this is the time we’re spending.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s so peaceful.”

“It went from midsummer to midwinter and you call it peaceful.”

At my bleak words, Ulrike shook his head and smiled with a face that said that’s exactly why it’s good.

“Would it feel like this if we actually went on a trip to the countryside?”

“Well, we couldn’t trespass into someone’s house. And we couldn’t break the floor either.”

“Mimesis is the best.”

Ulrike answered listlessly as if he had given up the idea of actually trying such things. He raised his hand and said emphatically.

“Haike should experience this too. When Haike wakes up, let’s all come back here together.”

I’d like to do that. It would be nice if Elias and Narke came together too. The moment I thought that, the outside of the window turned slightly yellow.

“Oh.”

“It seems like it’s becoming autumn.”

Leaves appeared on the trees outside the window again. Before my and Leonard’s words were even finished, Ulrike sprang up like a spring and cleared away the grass hanging on the door.

“Let’s go pick ginkgo nuts! Hurry! Get up quickly! Hazelnuts will be delicious to eat now too!”

Who keeps changing the seasons? I thought that to myself as I got up sluggishly. I slowly followed behind Leonard and Cheringen. Now the world was dyed with autumn foliage. I slowly picked ginkgo nuts with magic. The frozen water had also melted at some point. Leonard and Cheringen, who were walking ahead, looked back at me and gestured. I waved my hand telling them to go ahead. Cheringen pointed at the water and Leonard looked at him silently. I didn’t know what conversation they were having, but I suspected they were suggesting going into the water again.

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

At the scream, Leonard and Cheringen turned their heads toward me. When I looked back to see what was happening again, Ulrike was running toward us with a black object chasing him. I closed and opened my eyes to identify that object.

It was a bear.

“No, why since earlier…”

I stood there dumbfounded, then drew my wand.

“Luise! We’re mages!”

“Uh―”

Ulrike is in no state of mind to use magic. I run along with her, looking back and chanting spells. Ulrike’s voice grows closer.

“Aaaaah―”

Why is she coming this way? Why? I kicked off the floor and created waves with my mana. The rising tide of red mana flow crashes into the bear. Despite my heart racing from the shock, the corner of my mouth twists in momentary relief. At that moment—

Kwaaaaang―!

Divine power emanates from the bear’s paws. I had no choice but to be certain of what it was. As a bewildered smile spread across my face, the bear disappeared before my eyes.

“…!”

Instead, far away and above, a tall human figure appeared. Black robes flutter in the wind. Behind me, Ulrike opens her mouth wide and wipes away sweat.

It was Narke. Gripping staffs in both hands, he smiled and greeted us.

“Hello.”

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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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