How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 545

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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 (545)

“What?”

I asked Ulrike back with my usual face. Ulrike wasn’t fooled and pointed at my pocket.

“Why are you hiding the letter? You put it in your pocket.”

“I’m not hiding anything.”

Then Ulrike roughly reached out and touched the opposite pocket. A rustling sound came from above the pocket.

“Oh my.”

Since Ulrike’s eyes widened, I answered shamelessly.

“I’m not hiding it, I’m just keeping it. It’s my letter.”

“So you’ve been showing them to us just fine until now, why? Is there strange content?”

At the mention of strange content, even Leonard, who had been losing interest in us, looked up.

“Is there a strange letter? Like Robert Mueller…”

“No. It’s not like that.”

“Did you get another note from the stalker?”

“No. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have stayed still.”

I persuaded Leonard as politely as possible. He watched me with trusting eyes while wiggling his finger.

“Luise.”

Crack—

“…!”

With the sound of the floor being torn up, grass rushed toward me like a chair. My hand reflexively reaching for the holster was caught by the grass. I raised my arm and grabbed and tore at it with my left hand, and though I tore it…

Thud—

Too late.

“Ah— no, come on!”

I let out a hollow laugh and grabbed my forehead with my left hand. Even though I hit my head on the floor, it was soft. I lay sprawled on the grass with the chair and looked up at the ceiling. Ulrike took the letter from my pocket, shook hands with my right hand caught in the grass, and stood up. I chewed over Leonard’s plant manipulation skills with a feeling of resignation.

“How does he calculate and move plants growing from so many different points individually…”

Teaching a mage who has grown this well without being taught is unnecessary. I wonder if I’m moving them in some wrong direction in the extra chapters.

“Whoa…”

Then Ulrike made a strange sound and opened his mouth wide. I had nothing to say and just stared at the ceiling. If I could leave, I would have left the room immediately. Ulrike’s mouth corners trembled as they went up and down repeatedly. The desire to tell him not to laugh because it’s impolite clashed with the desire to tell him to do something since it’s embarrassing. The former won.

“Don’t laugh. I know you need to censor it, but it’s nothing strange, so I hope you won’t be so sorry about it.”

But no one answered. I swallowed in this ice-cold tension and waited for them to say something.

As Ulrike’s face went back and forth between joy and shock and joy and shock again, Leonard asked.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing strange.”

Ulrike hesitated to hand the letter to Leonard but carefully placed the letter in his hands. Leonard received the letter from Ulrike and unfolded it with a serious face.

“So…”

Leonard read with a weighty expression until the third line, then slightly twisted one corner of his mouth at the next line. Each time he read a paragraph, he glanced at my face and hands and returned to the paragraph. Knowing well why he was doing this, I just nodded emptily. He read through the letter much more calmly than Ulrike with a composed face. Leonard, who had been leaning against the table reading the letter, folded it with a relieved expression and put it down on the table. Having completed the task of the problematic letter, he turned to the other side without helping me up, as if he had forgotten about me.

“Hey. Leonard.”

I called him seriously with respect, but there was no answer. Just then, Ulrike sat down like Leonard and asked seriously.

“If a commoner says they like royalty… I mean, if a Human says they like an Esper, what should you do?”

“It’s just how things turned out, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t accept them just because the other person wants it.”

“Is it because they’re Human?”

“No, we’re still the same humans. I mean you shouldn’t accept them out of pity when you don’t have feelings.”

Leonard assumes I have no feelings without even asking me, but Espers generally think this way. His shock at seeing the theatrical stalker deterrent scene that Cheringen and I devised was partly because we were acting foolishly, but also largely because he witnessed the probability of being struck by lightning with Esper thinking. At least Leonard was unusually learned in many areas for his age, so his understanding of Humans was also relatively high, but usually many cases like Ulrike can’t even get a sense of it. Among the hundreds of difficulties in this dystopia, fortunately, in one area at least, he matched my temperament. If not, everything would have approached me as a tremendous burden.

Ulrike sat with his mouth open and head in his hands as if someone was holding his mind, then spoke with renewed shock.

“Haha… Wow, this is… that thing.”

“A love letter?”

At Leonard’s addition, Ulrike snapped his fingers loudly.

“Right! That thing from 【Epi Brist】. In this case, they would send a letter saying they’d go to the address written here. Will you send one?!”

I now lay in the grass with my left arm as a pillow, just slightly nodding my head.

“No.”

“You’ll ignore it?!”

Since he shouted as if I had to send a reply, I answered reluctantly.

“I’d only say unpleasant things, so should I send it? If I really must, it wouldn’t be bad to say I’m grateful for the sentiment.”

“But can you fall for someone without actually meeting them? How? Here it says your eloquence during the speech was excellent, but that’s all?”

“I have no way of knowing that, but there are many such people in the world, so don’t be too amazed.”

“Many! When I watch you, you stayed home for a long time but you know so much.”

Does it work that way? I felt my heart sink and roughly deflected his sharpness.

“Thanks. Indirect experience is important.”

“Right. Right… I don’t understand well even when I read the writings left by these excellent Human teachers…”

Ulrike answered half-absorbed in the letter. He noticed the letter smelled like fruit and brought his nose close, then made a face like he’d been struck by lightning. Spraying perfume on letters is something the wealthy frequently do on any letter to show off their wealth, so it shouldn’t be awkward, but everything seems amazing to him.

“How long are you going to read it?”

I don’t know why I should be embarrassed when I’m not the one who wrote the letter. Ulrike was reading with his mouth open like someone who discovered something new, then suddenly remembered something and covered the letter while asking.

“This isn’t polite, is it?!”

“That’s right.”

“That person says your eyes are like cherry blossoms.”

“Yeah. I read it too…”

When did the whole nation curse about that… I’m happy that there are people who think well of it in their own way, but my shoulders trembled unintentionally because eye stories come up everywhere I go. Leonard spoke as if he had similar thoughts when the eye story came up.

“We should check if it’s really the Archbishop of Freiburg or not. It would be safe to find out if that person lives at that address, and if that person’s handwriting is correct. Is that okay, Lucas?”

“Of course. That’s what I was going to do, so thank you.”

Then Ulrike leaned under the table and asked.

“Lucas. Can I open the other letters?”

“…No.”

“Then you open them!”

Ulrike threw the basket next to me.

I swallowed and accepted the basket. I was reading the encouraging letters sent by citizens from all walks of life with a smile like before, when I had to stop again at one letter. I naturally maintained my smile and put it down like I did with the other letters, but Leonard, who was watching from across the table, tapped the table. How? Heartbeat? Or facial muscles? That guy has grown a lot too. I gave up hiding and muttered.

“I’ve been really lucky lately…”

“There’s another one! But you’re an Esper?!”

Ulrike clapped his hands and almost fell backward over his chair. Seeing this, he’s definitely my friend. I rolled my eyes in embarrassment and protested.

“It’s a happy thing.”

Then Leonard agreed with that statement.

“It’s not a bad sign. Lucas said earlier he wanted to emphasize his student image.”

“He did.”

“The fact that Lucas is essentially royalty does interfere with bringing his image down to be more approachable. Ordinary people don’t send letters to royalty writing whatever they want, but seeing this, doesn’t it mean he’s been accepted more flexibly?”

Leonard said while picking up the letter he received earlier. I nodded. Ulrike listened with cold eyes like when taking a class, then shrugged his shoulders.

“A ruling family member who acts as citizens desire in front of citizens does feel like a humble and sincere person. So Lucas’s desired first step was actually already successful.”

“That’s right.”

Good. This way, pushing a politician image in the media while being seen as friendly by citizens is the best method.

“It’s fortunate, but are these letters that were censored from Prussia?”

I said looking at the letters that were all torn open with a letter opener. Leonard answered.

“Bavaria’s post office also checked them.”

It was unavoidable, but if they were sent by someone unrelated to real enemies, I felt sorry. Even though the other party probably knew given the situation. I tore away the plants Leonard had moved aside and got up, then looked at my watch and gestured to my friends to go out.

* * *

“You’re here.”

As soon as we arrived in Berlin, we met Narke who was waiting for us there. Since it wouldn’t be good to show him traveling with Leonard, I wanted to gather the 101 friends as much as possible. It would have been nice if Elias was there too, but all five of us would think that. None of us wanted him to be arrested and suffer hardships. No matter how Prussia was sharpening their blade, no matter how far we could resist fate, we had to do our best if possible. Cheringen is still in Baden, but will return to Berlin soon. This is comforting news for me, and especially for Leonard who must be exhausting himself protecting Elias from the Empire. We had all become haggard without knowing it since before Easter, so if there was a chance, being together with everyone as much as possible would be good for mental health.

Ulrike hugged Narke and said something useless.

“You know what, Narke?”

“What~?”

“Lucas became a Kavalier.”

Literally translated as a medieval knight, or if not literally translated, it could be expressed as a person with chivalry. I scolded Ulrike with my eyes for mentioning what was written in the letter and shook my head. Narke expressed doubt with a smiling face. But he also seemed to have roughly caught on.

Ulrike understood my meaning and quickly covered his mouth, but unable to contain his joy, he moved away from Narke with a grinning face and gestured to us too. I patted Narke’s back. Leonard did the same.

Fai, who had been in Narke’s robe, jumped onto my shoulder in reality as well. Fai buried his face between my jacket and shirt, trying to settle in a place where he couldn’t properly settle. I picked him up and put him in my pocket. Narke walked beside me and asked.

“Did you have a good conversation with Count Lamour?”

“You knew about it too.”

“Of course.”

Narke smiled gently, then looked ahead and said.

“You look a bit more relieved.”

“Do I?”

Narke glanced at me and just smiled. He paused for a moment, then whispered in a lowered voice.

“That’s good. I hope you have many more memories like that in the future.”

“Thanks to you, I just made another memory like that.”

Then Narke laughed refreshingly. It didn’t last long. He lowered his eyes, then looked ahead as usual.

We walked to Imperial Central Hospital without warping. Along the way, I turned my head toward a yellow paper that caught my attention.

“Oh.”

My friends also heard the sound I made and turned their heads, then widened their eyes. I looked down at the navy double jacket and sky-blue shirt I was wearing. The same outfit was featured in the photo on the front page of the yellow paper. I went to the newsstand with half-doubt and bought that yellow paper.

“…Was this just taken?”

I muttered that and immediately refuted it. That couldn’t be, surely not. It must have been taken when moving from Prussia to Bavaria. Where? Was there something worth making into an article on an uneventful day like today? Besides, since I’m not yet of age, publishing my face in the newspaper would require permission from the school and authorities, right? In the photo, I was smiling while talking to Ulrike, and this time too, though it was a side profile, it wasn’t a photo showing the upper body like the previous ones where I was raising my fist and giving a speech, but rather cropped to the shoulders with my face in close-up. It was a photo with a different purpose.

I looked at the title above it and felt the blood drain from my face. No, then heat rushed up again. I was bewildered thinking about the backlash that would come.

[Preußische Schülerinnen schwärmen für verbotenen Schwarm]

“…”

“What’s the title?!”

Ulrike interjected and shouted. At this moment, I was so dumbfounded I almost collapsed. Someone had manipulated the media. Who? Why on earth? It was obvious. It was obvious, but my mind couldn’t accept it.

To put the title more gently, it was a phrase meaning that Prussian female students had begun to take interest in a forbidden idol, and the subject was naturally the person in the photo, and naturally it was nonsense. Since I didn’t want to know how to more accurately interpret this blood pressure-raising nuance, my brain would process everything I didn’t like as a foreign language.

“Gasp…”

My friends who read the title made strange sounds. What was clear was that the media was image-making me as a romantic idol for teenage students. If it had been an idol in terms of ability, that wouldn’t have been the image-making I wanted, but considering a political career, it would have been better than this. This was completely different in direction. The purpose was also different. I looked around at people walking on the street and pressed my cheek with one hand. The leather glove cooled the heat. I could see Narke covering his mouth and holding back laughter. My head went blank and I shook my head briefly.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t right. It’s wrong. Is this the time to laugh?”

“It’s funny though.”

“Don’t you know that excessive marketing like this causes backlash? It’s obvious they’re trying to screw me over.”

“No, no, how could there be backlash against you? It’s not wrong though. You saw two of them come earlier! How do you know there weren’t more among the unopened ones?!”

Ulrike didn’t even try to hold back his laughter and patted my shoulder while loudly consoling me. He was tilting his eyebrows while laughing, now almost crying, and because of that, he was raising his voice at the end of each word trying to speak properly. I tried to cover his mouth, then remembered I was a mage and cast a sound-blocking spell. I heard a sound close to a sigh from Leonard. Ulrike’s consolation wasn’t consoling at all.

Narke whispered while laughing like Ulrike but catching his breath.

“It’s really not wrong.”

“Why are you too.”

“Donnaiolo.”

Narke said only one word. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know what field Narke would come out so confidently in. He seems to have refined Ludovica Schneider’s nonsense into Italian. I wonder if he just read that from my head. I glanced at Leonard, who understood the meaning and was touching the corner of his mouth with his finger with a puzzled face, and signaled Narke to be quiet. Narke nodded.

Ulrike read the main text and asked while holding back laughter.

“They say many letters asking about you have come to the Prussian authorities.”

“The yellow papers have quite a lot of information. How many is ‘many’ exactly?”

“Well. But isn’t this the image-making you talked about, Lucas? The subject is Prussian ‘students.'”

“I said to emphasize being a student, but I didn’t intend to emphasize this kind of thing. That student thing also meant a student politician image, not this kind of student-like quality.”

I pulled out another yellow paper from the newsstand. The same photo of me in blue clothes, the exact same photo as if they had shared it, with a similar title attached. I squinted and asked.

“This one too?”

“This one too… [Der Herzensbrecher, der die Herzen preußischer Schülerinnen erobert hat]… Hahaha!”

Ulrike looked around and pulled out yet another yellow paper. I cast a sound-blocking spell around Ulrike, but he dodged it. This one wasn’t much different either. It was a title about Prussian students’ preferences. This and that all say the same thing with different words. Narke covered his mouth with his hand and muttered while laughing in shock.

“Herzensbrecher…”

“Someone fan Lucas a bit.”

Ulrike teased me by flipping the hair on my forehead. I was starting to break out in cold sweat, so I took off my jacket. Processing it as a foreign language was reaching its limit now. Actually, it didn’t work. Still, the meaning of each word wasn’t important at all. Only the context that outrageous media play was taking place was important. I was afraid of the consequences that would follow. Leonard, who had been behind us, finally burst out in a hollow laugh after holding it in.

“Ha…”

“Is it funny?”

“No. Actually, it’s serious.”

Leonard immediately became serious and answered earnestly. Ulrike, who had been quietly shedding tears from laughing, was surprised and asked carefully.

“Why? It’s a bit embarrassing, but is it serious enough?”

“Unless Lucas is in the entertainment industry, this kind of publicity is unnecessary and rather a minus.”

“Exactly right.”

At my bleak answer, Ulrike rolled his eyes and asked with his face why it was a minus. Leonard crossed his arms, tilted his head, and answered.

“Especially for Lucas, his young age was a handicap. Right now, Lucas has no credibility regarding political experience and career, and to receive recognition that doesn’t match his age, he needs to have weight beyond his years. He should approach the public in a friendly way, but in the media, he should continue with the tone of yesterday’s speech to establish his position. These articles now are like introducing a celebrity who’s gaining popularity among teenagers through gossip, not someone who will become a politician in the future. Like introducing some trend that will end in a flash someday.”

“Ah, right. Now I understand. They’re cleverly messing around. There was nothing like this until yesterday.”

Ulrike answered while frowning. Even so, he chuckled again when looking at the titles. I bought all the yellow papers by type and gestured for us to hurry and go.

“Right. And there wasn’t enough time to actually measure students’ preferences. Whether the trend is real or not doesn’t matter, and they over-represented some cases to create the result they wanted. In the end, this way, it’ll be easy for peer citizens and politicians to have negative feelings. It’s the best way to plant a negative image without openly criticizing.”

“You don’t need to worry about them having negative feelings. They won’t be able to refute it much.”

Ulrike tried to console me seriously while smirking. I don’t trust Esper insight. As I was thinking that, Narke made a “pfft” sound. I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders with the feeling of wanting to lament. I didn’t know Ludovica Schneider would trip me up like this. Leonard tilted his head at those words and said.

“I think so too, but at a time when he should secure his position as a future politician, highlighting something completely unrelated to ability and diverting the attention gathered so far to another field is a trick to hold him back.”

“Especially if it’s this organized, even more so. It would be more problematic if this kind of publicity continues for a while.”

At Narke’s agreement, Ulrike nodded seriously. Leonard looked at me and asked.

“Whose doing would this be?”

There’s no need to think further. There’s only one person who would try to screw me over in such an extraordinary way. When I simply called out the name in answer, Leonard nodded with a face that said he knew it. Ulrike looked puzzled about why that name suddenly came up and snatched the newspaper from my arms and spread it out. He seems to believe the answer is in there.

“Gasp…”

Ulrike covered his mouth and held his breath as laughter came again when he saw the article title. I could see Leonard and Narke standing beside him biting their lips. Narke now laughed openly without holding back. I glanced at my so-called friends laughing and smiled in resignation. No, that won’t do. I shouldn’t give up. I widened my eyes again and looked at my friends.

“Guys, don’t do that. Let’s solve this first.”

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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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