How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 566

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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 (566)

They came.

Under the rushing wind, Ulrike neither smiled nor felt relief. When faith became visible, instead of jumping for joy or crying, he calmly reached out to the messenger. The hand extending down from the open sky and the faded, eerie eyes carved like those of an animal made the person within the crack look like a divine statue carved in the Vatican.

No mage dared attack into that space.

When their fingertips overlapped, the pure white glove slipped into Ulrike’s wrist and pulled him up with tremendous force. It wasn’t human strength. Leo’s powerful magic, like a black conductor’s baton flicking inward to draw people in, knocked Ulrike to the ground. While carefully carrying Lucas to avoid tearing his wounds, only Ulrike’s body was contorted as he arrived at an unfamiliar palace, where other mages quickly caught him and leaned him against the wall.

Ulrike pressed his head back against the wall with cold eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Orange crystal chandeliers, the soft indoor air, carpets, wooden floors… And German.

They had returned. It was unbelievable. Narke and Leo caught Ulrike and Lucas against the dead-end wall and checked their condition. Looking into the distance, he could see people from the Imperial Court and the secretary of the French Minister of Magic. Are you satisfied now? Ulrike wanted to snap irritably, but he didn’t have such habits, so nothing came out. Narke’s divine power flowed into his body. The surroundings were chaotic, perhaps because someone else’s condition was too serious. Someone urgently asked Ulrike.

“What happened?”

“Those bastards…”

As Lucas moved his lips while being loaded onto a stretcher, Leo firmly refused and looked at Ulrike in the distance.

“Don’t speak. Luise. Could you explain?”

Ulrike looked at the abdomen where Lucas was holding his hand. Both his upper and lower garments were soaked with blood. Whether he had touched his face with those hands, there wasn’t a patch of skin that looked intact. His face still had the color of a corpse. Ulrike was also wearing only a thin undershirt with a jacket and coat over it, stained with Lucas’s blood. Ulrike looked at the blood with dry eyes and said.

“Exactly as it sounds. They pulled their tricks. When the building collapsed, I was in the hall of an unfamiliar mansion with four doors. No, that’s not what’s important. Lucas said that place was an illusion… I didn’t believe it, but it was true. Later reasoning suggests they made us attack each other. I don’t know what methods were used. But when I opened my eyes…”

When I opened my eyes.

Ulrike only twisted his lips silently. He could feel Narke turning his gaze away for him. The skin around Leo’s eyes couldn’t contain the iris’s edges. The skin of his neck rippled faintly. Leo spoke like a breath.

“You stabbed him.”

“Yes.”

Leo’s head turned weakly. As if someone pulling strings had let go of the threads connected to his body, he moved his lips while looking obliquely at Ulrike’s side with a body drained of strength. It seemed as if someone was draining the blood from his face and filling that space with emptiness. Ulrike closed his eyes against the distorting chandelier light. He heard the sound of something trampling over the carpet.

Thick arms embraced his shoulders. Like someone who had lost their soul, the arms that had fallen as if dropping gradually gained strength. Bodies that had been separated by a vast gap came together. Leo asked while stroking his back from beyond his ear. In the silence, the end cracked so minutely it was barely noticeable.

“How did you get here?”

Leo slowly patted his back as if trying to slow Ulrike’s heartbeat. It wasn’t reproach. You returned because you didn’t lose your mind and overcame it. He was asking about what the young man who had fearlessly gone on a long, distant journey and encountered storms had to sacrifice of himself to be able to return.

“I don’t know.”

Leo said no more. From school onward, he had been cautious in all matters, and many people relied on him. Ulrike now deeply understood why his friends followed Leo so well and wanted to spend time with him. It wasn’t just his high-born family status that naturally made one shrink that drew people to him, but the warmth conveyed through his caution that remained as an unconditional sanctuary for everyone. In the silence, Ulrike instead heard an answer through his warmth. It smelled like grass under sunlight.

He didn’t say it was all over or that it wasn’t your fault. Though he might have wanted to say so since he didn’t know the inside story, it was better for Ulrike that he didn’t. Nothing was over, and it wasn’t entirely not his fault either. Thinking coldly, Ulrike couldn’t say he bore no responsibility for this accidental injury. To prevent recurrence, they should dig to the roots to assign blame while pointing to Terminus Yukairya as the real culprit, but acknowledging the phenomenon as it was seemed like a way to heal wounds without being unseemly. If this friend had said, even as empty words, “You bear no fault at all,” and covered the wound with sweet words like sugar, Ulrike might have yielded to the human impulse to forget all pain and laid his body down below. In the stream water that would cleanly wash away the pangs of conscience…

The retreat of now recognizing murder as habit only to forget it again lurked within the peace. Ulrike, who had awakened all his senses keenly, had no intention of being drawn in by the beautiful song from the deep sea. His friends didn’t push him to go that way either.

“Thanks to you.”

Instead of a song, an unadorned simple sentence reached him. Ulrike closed his eyes at his friend’s quiet words. Whether this calm eloquence was excellent or his thoughtful heart was exceptional, he always reached people’s hearts in all matters. He stood by his side in silent promise without a single word of coming.

He was a good friend he didn’t want to lose. Ulrike found it quite novel. How did he know such subtle discernment that comfort acceptable as words to offer on unfortunate days actually belonged to comfort that shouldn’t be given, something no one could know until directly told… Ulrike remembered his friends’ childhood. The young Prince of Bavaria he had first encountered was exceptionally sharp and good-natured even then, but surely they knew nothing on that day. Though they grew up in the same space, they had each passed through battlefields unknown to the others to reach today. That fact became an anchor for Ulrike to grasp in the middle of the storm.

The nostalgic reflection of why he hadn’t been close to such a friend from childhood was meaningless. Right, it was because their dispositions didn’t quite match. It was because he, the only direct royal bloodline among ordinary nobles and various collateral lines filling the school, was in too high a position. Students couldn’t easily accept that the friend studying beside them would become king unlike themselves, yet they treated him more as an exalted person than as a friend. Ulrike might have inwardly felt the same way, though he spoke comfortably. Without the selection from two or three months ago, he probably still wouldn’t have readily stepped forward to spend time together.

The crisis had brought a friend he would never have become close to right before his eyes. Not just Leo, but all the others were the same. It was fortune within the misfortune of the times.

“You completed the mission.”

Leo continued speaking. Ulrike murmured with his eyes closed at the spell-like comfort that came when falling asleep.

“That’s really nice to hear.”

“I’m glad you’re ready to accept the truth.”

Leo was accustomed to praising casually. Ulrike burst into laughter, reminded of their school days. He remained still, holding Leo even as people around them gathered necessary evidence and left to take him to the hospital. Leo must have wanted to go to his seriously injured friend too, yet he never once stopped the hand slowly patting Ulrike’s back. Ulrike murmured as drowsiness overcame him.

“When we were young, I never thought you and I would have a day like this.”

“Me neither.”

Leonard burst into quiet laughter. Closing his eyes, the faces of friends from their 3rd Educational Institute days still appeared clearly. The days of observing from the corner of his eye the 4th-year student of the 3rd Educational Institute who stood out for his exceptionally good physique compared to his peers and even took oaths every year seemed like yesterday. When their eyes met, Leo would smile first in a princely manner and offer greetings, or if the situation wasn’t favorable, both would just blink and pass by. Though they weren’t that close, how many years had they seen each other coming and going? Even without conversation, all the classmates belonged to one space and were like air – people who would continue to be in one space, so they never left Ulrike’s mind. Everyone felt like distant relatives. If he had to pick friends who weren’t like that, it would be Lucas, Narke, and Haike, who didn’t come from the 3rd Educational Institute. Though he had no particular thoughts at first, by today it was different.

They were filled with different meaning. If the 3rd Educational Institute classmates were like beloved hometown friends to Ulrike, the three he had only recently become close to were comrades met on the journey. Hoping they would always be by his side was like hoping great upheaval wouldn’t overcome peace. Their decline would be peace’s decline and injustice’s advance. Conversely, their strength was proof that peace was still victorious and injustice’s decline.

Leo carefully tilted his friend’s back to lie down and lifted him up. Like walking on clouds, he moved smoothly. Ulrike felt accumulated fatigue eroding his mind, yet no sleep came at all, and murmured.

“Who would have thought I’d be here with you instead of the class president.”

“You’re still the class president.”

Leo answered reproachfully. But we’re not going to school. Ulrike chuckled. He narrowed his eyes, knowing the light spreading in his vision was putting him to sleep rather than awakening his mind.

“You were going to become student council president again this time.”

“How do you know when it hasn’t even been decided yet.”

“How could you not be chosen when you’re the most popular at our school? Teachers and friends all like you best. What about during the 3rd Educational Institute days? Are you seriously asking that?”

When Ulrike spoke with slight playfulness, Leo burst into refreshing laughter. Then he gave thanks.

“Thank you.”

“Talking with you feels like being at school.”

“I’m glad you felt that way.”

Leo answered while looking only ahead.

“I’m happy I could make you recall good memories today, even in this way.”

He really knew about today. Peace settled in his heart. Ulrike remained silent, casting his gaze beyond the path like him.

It wasn’t long before he learned that Leo had no time. Narke and Leo succeeded in pressuring France to open a portal via Bavaria and returned to downtown Berlin. Just because Lucas and Ulrike had returned didn’t mean everything was over. Only their mission had ended.

Even after simple examination and treatment, Ulrike didn’t fall asleep. Without knowing where he was being moved, he just kept his eyes open and was lost in thought. He couldn’t sleep today. Besides, he wasn’t tired like someone newly born. Instead, he wanted to see all things clearly. So this was a philosopher’s day. Ulrike recalled words he had once said jokingly at school.

Ulrike, who had been sitting on the bed in the dark hospital room, raised his head. Someone entered through the open door. He didn’t ask the room owner’s permission as if entering his own home. Ulrike glanced at him and murmured.

“I thought it was Haike.”

“Sorry it’s not. Here, letters.”

Julia sat beside him and held out two letters. Ulrike accepted them but didn’t turn on the light. He had much to think about and didn’t want to read letters.

“Who are they from?”

“One came to the alliance, but I said I’d take it instead. The other one you should read yourself.”

Julia said this and sat back comfortably. He could have asked why he didn’t turn on the light and pulled the lamp cord, but he didn’t. Julia maintained his usual leisurely smile, so Ulrike couldn’t feel the deep consideration he had felt in Leo’s silence, but he knew this appropriate indifference was also consideration. Why didn’t he ask about the lighting that anyone would normally ask about? Precisely, this was indifference for the sake of consideration among all his indifferences. Ulrike thought so. He must have heard that Ulrike had stabbed Lucas in the stomach.

Recalling memories of the 3rd Educational Institute, Julia was a friend whose heart one could never tell when it opened. It always seemed open and yet not. Ulrike thought of that fair leisure and smile. It was unknowable because it was fair. He also recalled his own smile that had been fair in its own way. Even so, that fairness didn’t seem to come from the same brightness as Ulrike’s, nor did it seem to come from wounds. He didn’t deliberately put on airs – though none of their team did – nor did he deliberately act light, nor did he deliberately hide anything, yet nothing was known about him.

Julia was wearing only a vest. This meant he had been stationed elsewhere in this hospital and came to Ulrike’s room with his jacket left behind.

Ulrike turned his head and asked quietly.

“Is Lucas okay?”

“Mm, of course. But we’ll need to watch him a bit more. The pain increases every time he bends his body. He’s also receiving blood transfusions…”

“Blood transfusions?”

When blood was mentioned, Ulrike unconsciously raised his voice in surprise. Then Julia tilted his head with a smile.

“Why?”

“…No. Visits aren’t allowed yet, right?”

“Of course.”

Ulrike smacked his lips and hung his head. Julia laughed quietly.

Only silence flowed for a while. Ulrike wondered why this friend didn’t leave. He didn’t want him to leave, but just wanted to know if there was a special reason. After Julia received milk tea ordered through the hospital kitchen, Ulrike broke the silence.

“I think I know why the cultists keep bringing up Lucas. Because he’s strong. That’s all.”

Just seeing those French people shout to be careful because Ulrike, who blocked bullets, wasn’t an ordinary person showed this, but that wasn’t something any mage could do. Lucas was much stronger than such an Ulrike, and this could be known without fighting, just from the fact that even after being stabbed, he blocked it with magic power and ran around on two legs.

They were pushing people to cliffs for being strong. It seemed like pushing someone’s back saying, try falling from this height and surviving. Who? The cultists. Why? Because they still planned to make him a messiah. Not only Pleroma but Terminus Yukairya seemed the same. Though it was unknown if they regarded Lucas as a messiah, they at least seemed to be trying to crush Pleroma’s hope to defeat Pleroma.

“To stop their recklessness, we must stay awake. Until now, Lucas has often protected us… that is, this country and its people, but I learned more clearly today. That requires strength.”

He knew that. There was inevitably a limit to struggling alone to protect everything one loved. Someday there would come a day when killing was unavoidable, and in some cases it would truly be unavoidable by any means, but there would be times like today when faith could make killing unnecessary. Lucas was the same. His choice to collapse the building to get back his Mecklenburg senior was because he trusted his abilities and friends. Ulrike was determined to do his best for everyone’s light, including his own.

Ulrike spoke to the friend who seemed to have willingly come to be an audience, though no one had asked.

“I don’t believe there are those who deserve to die. So I don’t want to kill anymore those I was taught were people who could be killed. But I also have no intention of letting those we were supposed to kill murder my friends. Where on this taut tightrope should I find balance? I was thinking about that.”

“Where do you want to find balance?”

“By trusting you all. And making you trust me too.”

Like what Narke and Leo did for us today. I know it sounds like a monk’s words. How ridiculous for someone who should kill enemies to say he’ll first look for other alternatives to murder. Saying he released captured French police without killing them might sound like a declaration to lead even colleagues down the path of death next time.

Julia said nothing. Then he stared intently at Ulrike and asked.

“No regrets?”

“About what?”

There are too many categories. At Ulrike’s question, Julia raised the corners of his mouth and nodded.

“I don’t know.”

“It would be a lie to say I have absolutely none or that I have them. But… I’m glad to know. Perhaps I’ve long wanted today’s realization.”

Before it became irreversible. Before killing more people and eventually forgetting that this was murder. Actually, even if we quit alliance work, the fact that we’re murderers doesn’t change. Ulrike’s thoughts, which had been layered upon thoughts, naturally moved beyond physical murder to the invisible massive flow that pushed people toward death, and that conclusion was the reflection that we had all made murder a habit. Everyone in the world commits murder without knowing it. Because it’s truly not stabbing someone to death with a knife. Could anyone living as a human in this world assert they had never pushed someone toward death? So ironically, Ulrike might have to trust the world while worrying about it. Just as he believed that relying on friends and striving to make friends rely on him was the best course. That anguish left worry on Ulrike’s face, but his eyes were filled with composure. Ulrike looked into Julia’s golden eyes and asked.

“What about you?”

He asked if he wanted to know.

“Well.”

Ulrike looked at Julia, who sat with his arms crossed and an unknowable expression. His smile was the same as usual. His face showed not the slightest emotion of either not wanting to know from fear or wanting to know from curiosity. Julia seemed to have simple interest or seemed indifferent. Even after looking for a long time, he couldn’t figure it out.

Ulrike had a staring contest with Julia, then burst into laughter first and turned his gaze to the letters. He casually unfolded one letter and opened his eyes wide.

“Student council president.”

“Student council president?”

“Lucas has a friend at Victoria Lyceum. They said they recently became close. The sender’s name stamped on the envelope is different, but the letterhead has that person’s name. Why did they send a letter?”

“Hmm.”

Julia slowly tilted her head from side to side. His gaze was on another letter, so Ulrike unfolded the paper that caught his attention.

“And this one….”

Ulrike made an ambiguous expression this time as well. Wondering if he had misread the text in the darkness, he pursed his lips and tilted his head in confusion before showing the contents to Julia. It was a single-line letter.

[Also, angel of midday! Do you not awaken those who still slumber?]

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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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