How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 567

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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 (567)

“Also you, angel of midday… Do you not yet awaken those who sleep…”

Ulrike stared directly into Julia’s eyes as she recited from memory. Since she was holding out the paper, Julia must be looking at the author’s elegant handwriting right now. Even though she was indirectly asking what this was, there was no answer.

Even after waiting, Julia still said nothing, so Ulrike finally asked.

“What is this?”

For some reason Julia had a face that suggested she had an idea, but even so, she didn’t tell her. Right, she won’t say anything. Ulrike resolutely grabbed the silk cord attached to the lamp and pulled it sharply. Under the orange light, she examined the letter’s edges. It was somewhat carelessly crumpled. It seemed to have a slight fragrance too. Like a hastily sent letter, the overall finish wasn’t very neat.

Ulrike pursed her lips, then pulled them back and pressed them together as she thought. Telling those who sleep to awaken was obviously a metaphorical expression. If she interpreted it accordingly, this “sleep” (schlafen) could also carry the nuance of being indifferent. Since this was clearly a verse, she had to think of it in multiple meanings, and she had to do so even more because the “awaken” (erweckst) used here wasn’t the kind that “makes a sleeping person get up,” but was closer to awakening someone on a spiritual and mental level or evoking certain emotions or mental states. In other words, if she ignored context and read these polysemous words simply, the earlier “awaken” and the later “sleep” would inevitably clash, so she couldn’t help but think of the spiritual meaning, and from Ulrike’s perspective as a native speaker, she actually grasped the context the moment she saw “awaken” (erweckst), so it didn’t read that simply anyway.

Then who were those who sleep? If it meant the indifferent ones, what were they closing their eyes to? Those who live life as if dozing lightly, unwilling to see anything in the world clearly?

As it happened, Ulrike had just awakened from sleep. Every corner of the poem settled in her heart like snow and melted. Was it wordplay? Ulrike had never “fallen asleep” (einschlafen). She had simply been “sleeping” (schlafen) all along and was now starting to blink her eyelids. So for Ulrike, telling her to awaken those who “sleep” meant pulling those hazy consciousnesses that had never even awakened above the water’s surface. Until yesterday, I too was among them…

Thinking about it, Ulrike felt inwardly embarrassed and tapped her cheek with the fingers supporting her chin. For Ulrike, whatever was presented to her, her thoughts kept leading to life and the world. No, why am I being so awkward? Actually, this sentence itself might have been originally written to make one think that way!

Then what was the reason this letter arrived to her so timely?

Timing, timing… It might be a letter from Terminus Yukairya. Ulrike felt all the fine hairs on her body stand up for a moment.

“…There’s no context, so I don’t know. It’s hard to be certain of anything.”

This “sleep” might not be the epochal and social sleep that Ulrike was thinking of. What if it was indifference used in a theological dimension? What did the sender intend? Rather than encouraging me as I first thought, could it mean to bring the Messiah and awaken everyone?

Ulrike squinted her eyes thin as thread and muttered while shining light on the letter and turning it around. To interpret anything, you need to know the context, but how can I do it when I don’t even know what kind of poem this is? The author openly calls to an angel and tells the angel to enlighten those who sleep, but who is that angel? Angels belong to Christianity, but isn’t there no angel in charge of daytime in Christianity?

…Is there? Ulrike bit her upper lip and became serious. Despite growing up in a country where Christianity was a folk tradition, she didn’t know much because she hadn’t concentrated much on the pastor’s sermons. In fact, like many children her age, she went to church half out of duty and half to meet friends and people.

To make excuses, the pastor didn’t talk much about angels to begin with. Ah, so I need to know who this poet is to understand what kind of metaphor the angel of midday is! Ulrike stroked her chin. Goethe? Hölderlin? Kleist? Heine, Chamisso… Or is it a translation of a foreign poet’s work? Ah, then it would be even more unknowable.

Julia leaned over from behind, resting her chin on her hand.

“Your face looks serious, Luise.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“How could I not be serious? The timing is too perfect and suspicious. This looks exactly like a code.”

Ulrike examined the letter with sharp eyes.

Und ‘du’, also ‘you’ angel… It’s speaking to you so directly and closely, Ulrike. That’s all the letters seemed to say. Ulrike grabbed her head trying to figure out what enemy’s scheme this was.

“Ah, we need Elias for this kind of thing. If it were Elias, he would have immediately known what poem this text came from…”

Ulrike recalled Elias, who always walked around stylishly and casually. Since she had known that friend since childhood, Ulrike thought of Elias first when thinking of poetry. There was no other friend who memorized verses as well as Elias and used them at the right time and place. Most of those passages were used when drinking or teasing others, but Ulrike somehow found that rascal-like friend cool and once read through poetry collections written by Germans.

Having grown up together since childhood, she thought he would sympathize, but Julia answered skeptically as if it wasn’t the time to worry about that topic.

“Well. Is there a need to know that context?”

“Hm?”

“Maybe they didn’t include the full text because there’s no need to know the context.”

Ulrike looked down at the suspicious letter once and looked at her friend’s face whose intentions were unknowable once. Julia raised her eyebrows and answered kindly.

“Even if it’s not that there’s no need to know, knowing the context might lead to misunderstanding the letter writer’s intention. Since there’s emotion that can be grasped with just this sentence, if the sender’s intent is fulfilled with that, there’s no reason to include more.”

“How do you know?”

“Hm?”

“How do you know?!”

“Hmm.”

Julia only gave incomprehensible answers, then tilted her head slightly to one side and turned it back.

“Well… doesn’t it come out sufficiently if you reason it through?”

“No, I didn’t know. Unlike you, I tried to reason through context. Lucas also investigates everything to reason out something. Among all that hard work, he luckily picks up one or two things.”

Ulrike spoke coolly trying to persuade Julia, but Julia was still skeptical.

“Right. In this case, that reasoning through context seems to cause misunderstanding of the intended meaning. If you think about why the sender wrote and sent only one sentence, wouldn’t you think like me?”

“That makes sense. But we should also consider the possibility that whoever sent this created some kind of code.”

Ulrike tidied up her seat while nimbly tilting her eyebrows with life in her eyes. Julia watched that scene while resting her chin and said.

“Possibility. You’re becoming like Lucas.”

“Well, we’re a team. We have to move as one body and mind.”

“At this rate, you’ll all get mixed up.”

“Isn’t that what living is, getting influenced by giving and taking like that? Surely Lucas must have taken something from me too.”

“Hmm, certainly so.”

Ulrike stopped while tidying the bed. Lucas really took something from me? Elements that make up me were transmitted to Lucas? When? She turned around and looked at Julia at the unexpected answer.

“What part is certainly like that?”

“It wouldn’t be fun if I told you.”

At Julia’s leisurely answer, Ulrike lost strength and raised the corners of her mouth. She got up from her seat trudging, then straightened her shoulders as if nothing had happened and shouted.

“Right. I need to find out what poem this verse came from. Is there a library in this hospital? Or I need to go see the Professor.”

“The Professor.”

Julia frowned slightly for the first time. Since her mouth was smiling, it must have been an unexpected reaction.

“I mean the literature professor at school! If it’s the Professor, he’d know who wrote it even with just one passage. Or I could go to Narke and ask her to use divine power for a ‘search’ spell. Perfect.”

“Really…”

There seemed to be a hidden question of why go that far. Julia closed her eyes and chuckled, then politely extended her hand flat toward the door as if to say go ahead if you want to go somewhere. Ulrike said.

“Meanwhile, Julia, you watch to see if anyone approaches Lucas’s hospital room. It’s an important matter.”

If it’s about the Messiah, Lucas would definitely be threatened. Just as he worked hard for everyone’s sake, Ulrike couldn’t help but work hard for what would happen before her eyes. Julia nodded with a face that said she understood enough without saying more and wiggled her finger.

“Got it. But I want to suggest something else.”

* * *

“Don’t you have to go clean up the city?”

Ulrike whispered while sitting in an old restaurant in Berlin. When she went down to the hospital’s warp point with crutches, the place Julia brought her to was a restaurant called Zur letzten Instanz (To the Final Instance). The restaurant name was strange but the food was good. She knew it well since she often went there when attending school.

Julia, sitting across from her, shook her head.

“It would be good to go.”

“Then you stayed purely for me~?”

“Of course.”

Julia answered so and raised her water glass. Ulrike said “Cheers” and brought her glass to it. Julia, who drank water, spoke as if reminiscing.

“Leonard worries about you a lot.”

“That’s why he’s class president. Even though he doesn’t look it, his heart is delicate.”

“He certainly doesn’t look it.”

At Julia’s smiling words, Ulrike raised her hand. Julia, who had been wiggling her eyebrows and shrugging her shoulders, clapped at that. Ulrike whispered at a volume the staff couldn’t hear.

“More than that, I need to investigate the letter… I need to send a letter to our literature professor right away.”

“Do it later. More letters will come.”

“How leisurely. How do you know more will come?”

“Intuition.”

If the culprit wants our actions, they’ll definitely send more codes. Ulrike understood what Julia didn’t say and nodded.

Food came out before long. Ulrike half-ate, half-didn’t eat the soup, then picked up her knife and fork and cut the Eisbein. She didn’t feel like eating, but she needed to gain strength to investigate this suspicious letter.

“I heard. You were in a place that tested your minds.”

Ulrike felt her throat completely blocked at Julia’s direct question. Naturally, it was hard to easily recall what happened before stabbing her stomach. But Julia was looking at Ulrike with a shameless face as if she had deliberately brought up that topic.

“That’s right.”

“Explain it to me. I’m curious how it was.”

“Regarding the principle, I don’t know anything except that it was a space my mind was involved in. You’d probably have to ask Lucas about that. That friend reasoned it all out.”

“If it’s okay, tell me what you saw.”

It wasn’t okay, but Ulrike thought briefly and decided to speak. Rather than keeping it stored in memory, having a conversation with a friend and sharing opinions seemed like it might give her a slightly different perspective or more information. By different perspective, she meant not a different perspective on sin, but a new view of the enemy.

“Hmm… We were in a pure white manor hall. There were four doors, but strangely Lucas told me not to open the west door. To the north was a dining room, and that dining room was connected to a very nice, sunny, warm corridor. To the south was another hall with a fountain out of nowhere. The east door wouldn’t open no matter how much we pulled, and we couldn’t even open the west one.”

“Did you open them in order starting from the north?”

“That’s right. We did it in the order I mentioned.”

“Good thing you didn’t open it.”

She knows right away like this. Ulrike waited silently for Julia to get an answer. Julia opened her eyes leisurely and was lost in thought before speaking.

“Four doors in a hall is obviously suspicious to anyone. There must be a connection to the directions and their meanings. North usually symbolizes danger, but it’s interesting that there were elements that put your mind at ease instead.”

“No, north is fundamental. There’s the North Star. Looking back at history, how much sailors searched for the north.”

At those words, Julia smiled with a face that said she now got the idea.

“Right, that’s also valid. North is the standard and foundation of all things. Then the corridor and dining room you saw must have been places fundamentally necessary for you.”

“…I guess so. That corridor was just like our house.”

“You must have wanted to escape the crisis and return to your roots.”

Julia said so and drank a little alcohol.

“Then what is the south to you? South would rather symbolize abundance.”

“Oh, right. When I think of south, ‘Do you know the land where lemon blossoms bloom’~ comes to mind.”

“You’ve always been quite fond of Italy, I see.”

The most famous piece with this name is Johann Strauss II’s instrumental work, where ‘the land where lemon blossoms bloom’ refers to Italy. It’s a phrase quoted from the work of the national writer Goethe. Ulrike said this while carefully tearing at the pork knuckle with her fork.

“Also, when migratory birds fly south, it means winter is slowly coming. There’s also a song called ‘When the Swallows Return Home.’ There are no swallows in the lyrics though… ‘When the swans fly south, to where the lemon blossoms bloom, when the fading evening glow sparkles through the blue-green forest, the heart aches… Farewell, ah farewell, farewell is truly painful~’ goes the song.”

“So if the north represents tradition and foundation for you, then the south would be change.”

“You could see it that way. Lucas prevented me from touching the water from that southern fountain.”

“If you had touched that water, something might have changed. Lucas probably didn’t know why there was water in the south, but seeing water flowing out of nowhere looked dangerous, so he stopped you.”

“Oh.”

Ulrike’s reaction became serious. The doubts she had in her dazed state seemed to be washing away a little. Julia put down her spoon from the stew bowl and crossed her arms.

“Haha… This feels like fortune telling. But at this point, I can figure it all out.”

Ulrike nodded while chewing her meat. Though it was all in the past, his eyes were growing increasingly serious. Julia spoke in his place.

“I understand why the eastern door wouldn’t open. Hope is originally invisible. New beginnings are fundamentally shrouded in mystery.”

“…Right, the sun rises in the east.”

That’s right. Ulrike felt a lightning-like realization flash through his mind. The Magi also came from the east, and sometimes the Messiah is believed to come from the east. The altars of some churches face east. The east was associated with abundance, mystery, hope, and the unknown. A new space we don’t know about… In that situation, the east was completely unknown. At that time, Ulrike couldn’t predict at all what would happen to them before the next day’s sun rose.

“Or maybe you didn’t have enough hope to look toward the east. Or at least you were too anxious to imagine the future. Then, the west.”

Julia took a sip of alcohol and continued.

“You’re Protestant, so you might not be consciously aware of it on the surface, but having grown up under European culture, you would have internalized this knowledge and concept at least. Today, when Protestant influence has grown, practical urban planning determines cemetery locations, but it wasn’t so in the old days. Cemeteries were mostly located to the west of churches.”

“Because that’s the direction where the sun sets.”

Ulrike said this while squinting. Julia snapped her fingers.

“The end of life lies where the sun sets. Seeing that the east gate wouldn’t open, Lucas must have become convinced of the traditions and customs remaining in your unconscious.”

Ulrike held his head and stayed still in that position. Noticing that his appetite had completely disappeared, Julia smiled and said.

“At times like this, you should praise yourself for not entering the west gate in the end.”

“Lucas stopped me. That’s why I didn’t go in.”

“Most of our great mages, steeped in their own convictions, would have entered despite being stopped, so that’s a meaningless condition. Accepting his opinion was your doing, wasn’t it?”

Ulrike thought for a moment and laughed like a sigh. Still, talking about it seemed to gradually clear away the black ash of those memories. Conversation had the power to change many things.

Ulrike, who was already quite objective by nature, had no intention of denying those words and nodded.

“That’s right. Still, I must thank Lucas properly when he wakes up.”

“I never said not to, so do as you please. Is your leg okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Julia didn’t answer. Ulrike wondered about something and stayed still, then dutifully finished the remaining food completely.

“Delicious. Food is definitely best in Berlin.”

“Hmm.”

“Food is definitely best in Baden.”

“You haven’t even eaten Baden food though?”

Ulrike smiled and sent a look that said to just go along with it. Then he brought up a random topic to divert his friend’s attention.

“To come to a restaurant famous for Napoleon’s visit on a day when there’s chaos because of a Frenchman… Since Napoleonic France was ultimately defeated and this is still a German restaurant today, well, does this also mean that Germany will eventually win this matter too, so cheer up?”

“How novel that you’d think of even this.”

“Right? Well, now I should get going.”

To the Professor. I need to look into this letter before Lucas wakes up. Ulrike thought this as he stood up from his seat. Julia watched Ulrike quietly, then when Ulrike swayed his body slightly from side to side trying to move away from his seat, she held out her hand. It meant to wait. That’s when Ulrike noticed the communication artifact hanging on Julia’s ear.

Julia smiled and said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

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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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