How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 564

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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 (564)

I must protect Lucas while blocking them. When I turn my head, Lucas is already gone. He used concealment magic to hide himself. The smell of blood that had been flowing in the air is also gradually being erased. I don’t know how long that will last, but at least the fact that he concealed himself is consideration to free up Ulrike’s movement. Consideration that will be discovered and cut off when the enemy passes through this place.

Not only that, there were no visible traces of trampled grass either, as if he was manipulating minds. Of course he would. If it’s him, he would certainly do that. Ulrike thinks without concern what he would never say in front of Lucas. He cast concealment magic and reverse sound magic and ran in the opposite direction from where the bullet flew. But who are they?

When I concentrate, I can faintly hear the sound of dogs panting with their mouths open. All the hair on my skin stands up. The firing sound is not clean but messy. I instinctively knew that was a hunting rifle. Carrying hunting rifles means they’re not soldiers, whether mages or non-mages. Not police either. Hunters. My throat tightens. He still ran faster than anyone, but all sorts of considerations melted together in his head forming a complex that made it impossible to get his bearings. Even in the moment when he turns his gaze and light stretches out, thoughts are transmitted in his head at speeds he never expected in normal times. France would come to kill me, but the one tasked with that mission is a civilian. Why? Or are they deliberately pretending to be such? If I believe they’re pretending and kill them, only to find they’re just village hunters? No. No… Maybe they’re not people who came to kill me in the first place. How ridiculous. How hopeful.

Ulrike looked around. The thick tree he saw earlier. He needs that. A tree that’s ambiguously only as wide as a human body won’t do. Since the hunters haven’t gotten their bearings yet, there’s enough time to run. Ulrike whispered an incantation.

[Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it—]

Paang—

Mana blooms from his hands, becoming wind. Ulrike maintained two magic formulas while clasping his hands together.

[But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…]

With hands rippling with mana, he firmly grasped the tree. He climbed in one bound to the sturdiest branch from below. The ground about 3 meters below shakes dizzily according to the movement of his head. Once more. He climbed higher, much higher. Climbing to a branch that wasn’t too fragile, he hooked his legs on another branch and surveyed the surroundings.

When Ulrike curled his hand, green light rippled inside it. The light lengthened like a spear. His bleak eyes found a moving object.

A rabbit, a rabbit, or even a mouse. A squirrel or a chipmunk, anything with blood is needed. Because otherwise, the dogs will catch the faint smell of blood from Lucas. So I need to burst the blood of some innocent creature to confuse their senses…

My vision turned white, then returned as if commanding me to quickly kill something. My sight is only clear. That’s not a ‘person.’ It’s an animal. What’s wrong, you’ve been killing them well so far. When murder has become a habit, is it difficult to kill once more? How disgusting… However, he recalls that mammalian organs are no different from humans. Animal brains, lungs, and hearts look exactly the same as human ones when cut out and removed, and without going far, they too have eyes, nose, and mouth with the same functions as ours… What comes out when killed is no different from humans. But the pastor’s words that animals cannot go to heaven resonate in his head. The pastor had been an adult who sustained the beautiful world in his sunny front yard until now. The sunny beautiful church, the cross inside it, hymns, a sip of wine… Perhaps a cross will be carved on the tombstone as Lucas said. That beloved church said it. Animals cannot go to heaven anyway. Not being able to go to heaven means they are not beings close to God. The government said it. There are degrees of importance in life. It’s true. Ulrike was now prepared to kill Frenchmen to save his friend. Having been driven this far, he could do anything, and therefore could not hold light on his face. Ulrike looks down at the earth with a face so cold that anyone who knew him would not be able to recognize him if they faced him now. In a corner of his coldly cooled vision, he found a brown rabbit.

The rabbit was gathering its front paws at the base and eating something. How dull, if it heard gunshots it should have run far away. Not knowing its own future. Since there’s no time to delay, he aims the spear at the round back covered with fur. The wind slows as if it will soon stop. Time doesn’t only stretch when dying. It was the same when killing.

That’s probably because I murder my own soul before killing that thing. Was there no alternative to this killing? Look at this. I cannot overcome this wall without killing the soul that keeps ruminating. I’ve never heard of a ruminating murderer. The more I think, the more I become an unfit person as a mage. So because I’m an unfit person, I remembered the young horse that was at the manor. That finicky horse given as a gift from another noble family took quite a while to befriend, perhaps because it was displeased at leaving its home and mother’s embrace. I named it Margarete after my middle name, and later it would turn around thinking I was calling it whenever someone called Ulrike’s full name.

The horse’s black eyes had pupils. The face looking back was reflected there. The round eyes that were only black without whites were funny, so when I laughed out loud, it made a snorting sound while shaking its head. The servants said not to go near this bad-tempered horse as it might bite faces, but Margarete had never killed even a mouse that got in its way. It was just irritated because it wanted to go to its mother’s embrace. But they said animals have no ability to think. They said animals are beings that cannot commune with God unlike humans. They said they are beings that cannot be saved. For Ulrike, who absorbed everything adults told him like a sponge, it’s now an echo that feels like a story from another world since it no longer exists in this world. The world said there are those who should live in this world. There were indeed degrees of importance in life. While his insides twisted, Ulrike felt as if a spear had pierced his own head. So of course I should kill it, to be troubled by this is not being in my right mind. Just as the school and imperial court all said it was okay, all the memories that raised him now tell Ulrike that killing by necessity is okay. However, Ulrike recalled God’s command to rescue animals by putting them on the ark.

Taang—!

The rabbit runs away. Now time flows quickly at its proper speed. Because leaves have hit the branch close to the sky about twenty times so far, he knows about 5 seconds have passed. Ulrike’s eyes found a deer with huge antlers not far away.

They said it’s okay to kill.

Because we are always right, they said it’s okay to kill anyone who is not us. That was devotion to the fatherland and the greatest honor obtainable as a nobleman. You’ve been doing it well in normal times. The image of school friends who proudly boasted about the number of animals they killed like medals comes to mind. They said it. Killing animals is nothing compared to killing people. I know that much. Ulrike scattered the spear he made and twisted his fingers. A dagger took shape.

Swoosh—

He wrapped the blood gushing from his arm with mana. Even this place without organs hurts this much when the blade touches it.

[Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…]

Ulrike’s other hand wrapped the blood in a round shape with mana. When he threw it far away like throwing a bomb, the sound of dogs running could be heard.

[Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently.]

The sound of blood dropping was not heard. It scattered in the air like spray, impossible to find. A faint smell of blood rises from the air far away. The running dogs hesitate and change direction.

He knew why his friend, who had more outstanding and superior skills than anyone, tried to accomplish many things himself. Not only because he had sufficient ability to succeed, but because he didn’t want to bring about other deaths. Whether physical death or mental death… The more that happens, the more his own conscience cannot endure. He was the first to realize that something was going wrong. He would not be surprised at all if Ulrike now said with a pale face that he realized murder had become a habit. He had already walked the path of exhaustion first through a series of past events that Ulrike didn’t know about.

Do you believe you should have been under your friend’s protection? Doesn’t saying you would share the burden while knowing nothing now seem like arrogance?

[so that you may test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.]

Ulrike grabbed another handful of blood and held it toward the opposite sky.

As the sages say with one voice, the less one knows, the more certain one is about everything… It’s true that the lacking humility is regrettable. However, with the knowledge I had then, it couldn’t be helped, and in fact, even if I turned back time with this knowledge, I would show off once more. I do so because I now vaguely understand.

Hwak—

He calculated the path and carefully threw it to prevent approaching the place where his friend would be lying using concealment magic. The sound of the confused dogs’ running is amplified in Ulrike’s ears.

It makes Ulrike bend his knees and extend his feet. He leaned his body and ran.

Taang—!

As soon as he moved to the tree next to him, Ulrike felt the wind made by the bullet that flew to the tree where he had been. Bullets rain down with intervals of fractions of a second, and this hunter is surely a person with good senses. Even though the invisibility magic formula was probably canceled midway, to grasp the throwing position just from that… It doesn’t matter now. Ulrike lowered his body and carefully jumped to another tree. A bullet strikes the back of his ankle that hadn’t fully moved yet. The body barrier rippled. Ulrike kept his mouth firmly shut. The hunter doesn’t rest and pumps and pushes to shoot every second. Persistently tenacious.

Another explosion is heard from behind. Another hunter has followed. Gunshots are heard off-beat from different directions, and there seem to be more than just one or two. Ulrike’s eyes went once toward where Lucas would be lying, then toward where the dogs confused by his scattered blood would be, and he was grateful that the hunters were focusing their attention on him. Killing those hunters is not technically difficult. Earlier there was the choice of ‘me instead of animals,’ but now there are no spare choices, so I must deal with them. However, unless I prove that this incident is France’s fault, if I defeat them, France will widely advertise that ‘a German Royal Mage killed French civilians.’ With so many hunters mobilized like this, what excuse do they plan to make? Will they say it was a day when there was a hunting club or something? There are many corners to cleverly escape from. Despicable and sordid, bastards who won’t know self-restraint until they get properly screwed…

Taang—

Ulrike raised his arm to create a barrier. The elastic barrier fluctuates. Then he immediately moved to the tree across.

“…There! The bullet doesn’t go through!”

A shout in French echoes loudly. Every time he moved between trees, the recoil shook the leaves and those shaking leaves revealed Ulrike’s position. Bullets are skillfully shot one step ahead. Ulrike thrust out his arm and deflected the bullet’s direction with mana. Some of the shot fired from the opposite side grazed the hem of his coat. Leaves fall and branches shake, appearing only slowly. With bullets scattering from all directions, there’s no way to survive unless he strengthens the body barrier in front of his eyes and strongly pushes back the bullets flying from all directions with equal force. Lucas spoke as if we were invincible, and we might be invincible, but there are limits to blocking this rain of bullets…

Bang—!

Ulrike raised his left hand and desperately pushed away the bullet that came under his chin. The bullet stopped in front of the lumped green air and rolled down helplessly. Cold sweat flows down his mouth corners that have hardened downward without humor. He temporarily shook a distant tree with mana. Bullets fly aimed at other places. Think. Fundamentally, the position has already been discovered, and there’s no choice but to directly strike them. But if I threaten their lives, as I thought earlier, I might be put in danger instead. From logic like ‘since you attacked first, we can also legitimately mobilize mages to suppress you’ to responsibility theories about Germany. Ulrike drew his wand. He muttered quietly.

[You came out with your bow, you called for many arrows.]

The aimed wand tip points toward the center of a beech tree standing several meters long behind the hunter. When the tree shakes, the hunter whips his head around. As his upper body turns, his gun is aimed backward. Ulrike continued the incantation—[You split the earth with rivers.]

“Uh, uh—”

Wind swirls as if it will uproot the tree. The panicked hunter tried to escape from where the fallen leaves were swirling, but it was too late.

[The mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high!]

Kwaaaaang—!

The explosion and surprised voices overlap. The wind blowing from over there greatly dishevels Ulrike’s hair and jacket collar. The bangs that had been neatly combed are already down, stabbing his eyes. The loud noise that hurts the ears takes away the voices of other Frenchmen. The other Frenchmen who had been making futile attempts after being confused about position due to Ulrike scattering the trees earlier, hurriedly climbed up the hill but hesitated and retreated. When Ulrike tilted his head to send away the flying thick branch debris, they screamed and fled backward. Random bullets sent around the storm graze Ulrike’s side and charge at his flank. Ulrike swung his auxiliary wand to create a sword with one hand and struck it away. Even if he wasn’t used to his left hand, he could do that much.

Kwagwagwang—

[At the brightness of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear, the sun and moon stood still in the heavens. You will make my feet like the feet of a deer; you enable me to tread on the heights.]

Ulrike did not close his eyes even at the flashing light. The first mages would have been intoxicated by this scene. The power to shake and judge the world God created with a single gesture like God, the authority to make His creatures, humans, tremble, would have seemed truly like Yahweh’s grace. This is how the priest returns. Holding substantial power. The myth of Ion Forso, full of Christian symbols, would have begun at this very moment. Ulrike looked with dead eyes at the storm raging from his fingertips and the trees and rocks swept up in that storm. The hunter desperately tries to breathe, but the wind blocks it. In his panic, he grabs his nose and the hunting rifle flies away in the wind. When the hunter’s body was about to be lifted, Ulrike withdrew his hand.

As expected, he’s neither a mage nor anything else, but a hunter who was pretending to be a hunter for France’s innocence. What does that mean? Because he’s a real hunter. As an animal hunter, he would have received orders to go to where there’s a smell of blood here and kill people. Ulrike thought about the other hunters who had scattered to who knows where, strengthened his reverse sound magic, and jumped down from the tree. He couldn’t keep drawing their attention forever. He had to ‘send a signal to inform them.’

A long time has passed. Even though a long time has passed, the other person we left behind doesn’t come. They probably can’t easily find the place that fell across the border either. They would have had to negotiate between countries to forcibly open a portal, but even if they don’t know what mechanism it is, they might not even be able to predict that location. Fear not, behold. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Ulrike recited an incantation to summon a messenger. A messenger connecting foreign ports and cities. As if crossing through a door, the severed space connects through him. Door. Ulrike doesn’t know much about state-managed transportation magic, that is, portals. He has only heard that government mages gather together to use this spell. Not knowing any calculation formulas, he madly repeats and memorizes, only drawing pictures.

The recent storm was localized. Yet as if they had been waiting for him to attack using magic as expected—surprisingly, even though he didn’t attack people, seeing them come out like this makes me think their skill at cleverly twisting non-existent events into existing ones is extraordinary—or as if trying to hide their true intentions, French mages in police uniforms led their colleagues and came running from far away. One or two hunters now visible in the distance regard the mages like saviors and retreat to a distance. Ulrike quickly reached toward where his friend would be and carefully lifted the body he caught so no blood would burst. The mage who had been showing his profile whipped his head around. Even though he was in concealment magic, he’s quick. Being the same kind of mage, he could know how he knew and how he would know.

[Et Adoni-bézec s’enfuit, mais ils le poursuivirent—]

Kwagwang—!

Blue-black mana sparks like pure white electric light. Ulrike twisted his feet and ran down the dirt slope. Gunshots are heard. Whether they attached guidance magic, the attacks follow, but the mana that went out from Ulrike’s feet when he gave up one beat and rolled blocks it like a barrier.

[et l’ayant pris, ils lui coupèrent les pouces de ses mains et de ses pieds!]

There was no time to interpret what magic it was and respond accordingly. If necessary, he pushes through with force. Using the arm cut with the blade, the wound on his arm that hasn’t healed yet churns. What was transparent returns with color. Lucas used concealment magic binding himself and Ulrike. Ulrike looked down at his friend’s face with a hardened expression and wide eyes.

“Kup…”

Lucas frowns. He barely raises his dangling arm to cover his nose and mouth. What I eat is me. At the inexplicably spreading resonance, Ulrike’s heart is momentarily trapped in darkness. He was not such an innocent person as his school friends widely believed. He knew with insight that Elias was not such a bad friend, and knew with intelligence the realistic basis for Lucas trying to bear the burden on behalf of many civilians and colleagues. In fact, he also knows he cannot be with them until he lives past a hundred as he wishes. He just doesn’t say anything. He tried to feel the imperceptible mana in the air. Where should I pray for an answer to return? Fear not. Behold, I… Reaching a small hill not hidden by trees, Ulrike thrust his wand-holding hand toward the sky.

[I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.]

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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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