How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 569

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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 (569)

That made sense. This was Italy, after all.

We’re standing at the end of the Sant’Angelo Bridge with Vatican mages and German mages behind us. This bridge, built long ago by Emperor Hadrian to connect his mausoleum to the city center, is an indispensable part of any Roman tour, whether in the 21st century or the 19th century. Ulrike’s eyes now hold the angel sculptures of Sant’Angelo Bridge, the Tiber River, and the countless Milky Way connecting the pitch-black river and sky.

Ulrike soon alternated looking between me and Leonard and Narke in the distance, letting out exclamations of joy. Then she ran closer to us and shouted as if asking.

“What! You were just in Germany, how did you get here?! Was connecting portals allowed?”

“Well—”

Ulrike wasn’t worrying with a troubled face but was rejoicing. Seeing that made me happy too, so I opened my mouth loudly, but Ulrike looked at me, clenched both hands into fists, and quickly spilled out what she wanted to say in her excitement.

“I know! Right now we didn’t come here to play but flew here through a diplomatic portal! Am I right? You’re abusing it.”

“Abusing it, you say. We got permission and visited for multiple purposes.”

“Right, Leo and Narke even opened a portal to save us! Hey, guys. Even without saying it, I know the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Papal States must have pulled strings. That’s why you sent Narke in the first place! Since you opened it anyway, you probably opened the portal one more time to conduct diplomacy with the Papal States, and I tagged along with you guys and came all the way here! Yes! Don’t explain anymore!”

How can someone speaking in the wide open outdoors have a voice so loud it hurts the ears? Whether he was afraid we’d waste time with various greetings and situation briefings, or whether he couldn’t even make such calculations and was just babbling excitedly, he shouted first whenever we tried to say anything. Ulrike even threw away the crutch she was supposed to use and ran to the front of the bridge to look down at the nighttime Tiber River. I calmly cast sound-dampening magic and changed strategy.

“That’s somewhat correct, but you didn’t ‘tag along with us.’ Don’t say it like that. It’s not for anyone else but for you that we abused it, and we want to do so even now.”

“But earlier you said it wasn’t abuse…”

Leonard quietly objected. Ulrike, who had been looking down at the river, turned her head.

Of course it was true that we connected the portal for diplomacy, but there was no need to open a portal when we could have used warp mail through two or three connections, and once we opened it and came over, there was even less need to keep it open. We were the ones who induced the portal. Why? Because we wanted to bring Ulrike. Thinking she tagged along with us was a complete misunderstanding of the stage we laid out centered on her—at least what we wanted to do today.

“Then you didn’t come to participate in diplomacy?”

“Of course not, Luise. How could we in this state. Other people will handle the diplomacy.”

I said while tapping the bed. It was a bit awkward being the only one sitting diagonally on a wheeled bed while everyone else was up and walking around, but the hole in my stomach wasn’t classified information—everyone involved already knew about it. Other people might not know who stabbed me though.

Actually, I should avoid sitting right now too, but I couldn’t just come all this way and only look at the sky—that wouldn’t be good for Ulrike’s mental health either—so I remained in an ambiguous state, neither lying down nor sitting up.

“You came to Rome for me? You convinced the government?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

The sound of the flowing river was quiet. I pondered what to say and spoke just one sentence.

“You didn’t look like you were in a good mood.”

You wouldn’t be in a good mood. There’s no way you could be. We all think the same thing. To an unrelated person, Ulrike might seem to be in her right mind even after stabbing a friend in the stomach, but we had to imagine what kind of collapse might be happening inside her, and we were fully capable of doing so.

For example, what if you felt severe guilt about that incident and ended up apologizing when we should be meeting again with smiles? I brought you to this place hoping you wouldn’t do that. I hadn’t planned to say all this. But Ulrike needed to know that we arranged this occasion for her sake.

Only then could our plan to wash away his sense of debt be realized. If he didn’t know our true intentions, he would sink back into the state of a worried debtor even while resting in Rome today. While it was unavoidable for him to be depressed from pain, I wanted to prevent him from being depressed while being with us, especially with me who would remind him of bad memories, thinking ‘this isn’t the time to be laughing so carefreely.’ So he needed to know that we were doing this for him. That more than anything, we wanted him to laugh carefreely right now.

If it were anyone else I wouldn’t know, but Ulrike had the ability to truly respond to that wish without feeling obligated. Wouldn’t he?

Ulrike made eye contact from far away for a while, then came closer. He silently took my hand with both hands like he was praying, knelt on the floor below the bed. He put his hand to his head and stayed still, then closed his eyes as if listening to the pulse transmitted through his hand, breathing in the same rhythm as me… then placed his hand on my stomach. The steel-thick bandages wrapped just below my ribs and layers of clothes couldn’t capture the sensation. Ulrike didn’t say anything, as if answering my wish. He conveyed everything with his eyes and raised his head. Again, the faint starlight of the night sky filled his eyes. Ulrike grinned as if telling me to look at this face and looked down at me once more. It seemed like he was personally telling me that if making me smile was my wish, he would grant it. As I had always believed this sincerity was Ulrike’s strength, there was no sign of acting.

“We came to where lemon blossoms bloom, right? Though we couldn’t all come together.”

I smiled while mentioning the story Leonard and Narke had conveyed. Ulrike, who opened his mouth saying “Ah,” now connected the information and quickly turned his head toward Julia. Even so, he seemed to have expected it to some extent just before coming here, quickly returning with a face that said he knew it would be like this. He grabbed my ear to look, then gazed at Leonard and Narke’s ears from afar, shook his head and snickered.

“That’s right. On the day the swallows leave Rome, we came to Rome.”

Ulrike grabbed the bed I was lying on and pulled it toward the river. The pace was gradually accelerating and there seemed to be a subtle slope, so I grabbed the bed band crossing my body and looked back urgently.

“Hey, wait a minute. You do know this is a bed, not a cart, right? What if we fall into the river—”

“What do you take me for!”

Even so, stone fragments caught under the wheels made the bed rattle. I heard the voices of friends behind me trying to stop Ulrike and advised him.

“First, know this. We can’t go too far. It’s good to stay within the Papal States, and preferably only within Rome. And among Rome, it would be even better if we stayed near Vatican Hill.”

“What! We can’t just stay on Vatican Hill! Rome is… well, it’s unfortunate. Anyway, there probably isn’t much time, so it won’t be enough to see all of Rome. Then, can the four of us play without those mages?”

“That’s what I asked for.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Ulrike licked his upper lip with his tongue, then grabbed the upper part of the bed like a handle. Even though it was a simple bed, the weight wouldn’t be ordinary, and my weight was added to it, but this bed moved too easily through Ulrike’s magic-infused arms. The night breeze changed direction and permeated my whole body. I sensed the future the moment the bed head was spun around and shouted.

“Aren’t you using your crutch?!”

“It would be nice to have!”

“What are you saying?”

“I can run without it! It’s torn muscle, not bone!”

“You’re kidding! That’s the same thing—”

“Woooooah—”

Ulrike let out a strange cry and ran toward the opposite street. I squeezed my eyes shut against the wind and pulled my head inward. Ulrike does in Italy what he could do in Germany. Just because he’s excited. Since it was night with no carriages or cars around, he ran madly toward the street. I muttered to Ulrike while hearing the commotion of three friends rushing out like catching thieves.

“I should have just brought a fixed bed.”

“That won’t work. I wouldn’t be able to take you around!”

“No, Luise. I’ve never heard of or seen a crazy person riding around on a bed. The reason I came in this state wasn’t for you to take this bed everywhere you go—, no!”

Thanks to Ulrike going up a low hill as if it were nothing, I experience the new sensation of my body tilting backward. The slope isn’t that steep so the wound is still fine. More than anything, riding a bed around like a car makes me wonder how strangely the pedestrians walking around at this hour must view us.

“Is your stomach okay? I’m checking with my magic power.”

“With that kind of care, stop running!”

I meant to go into a Vatican building, rest properly, and have you guys go out and play, not to wander around the streets like this. Obviously!

“Hahaha, that’s not so obvious to Ulrike though.”

Narke, who had somehow caught up beside us, was talking while running with a face that didn’t look too strained. If you have strength, please stop him. I thought that, but Narke either pretended not to hear or didn’t read it, just laughing. Leonard and Cheringen seemed to have given up, appearing to converse among themselves in the distance. I pulled the blanket to wrap around my shoulders while glancing down below the wheels. If we came up a hill, there would naturally be a downhill path too, right? That’s right. Now it’s a downhill road.

“Luise. Let’s not go downhill from here, but turn around properly and go.”

“Right, I have no intention of going down. Let’s go to that green space over there and make a plan for what we’ll do and play. Julia bought so much food at the market that we couldn’t even finish it all, so I wondered what that was about, but we should eat it now.”

Ulrike pushed the bed with enthusiastic, excited steps—personally, I’m starting to think what kind of spectacle this is and want to laugh, so I wish he’d stop pushing—but after pushing it around for about three or four minutes, he seemed to get the hang of it and created a barrier on the ground surface to reduce the rattling. He pushed the bed onto the grass and ran back to Cheringen to get a paper bag. Then he leaned close to my ear and whispered quietly.

“Julia definitely didn’t think this far ahead.”

“What else is there?”

“Right. If we came for tourism, we should eat the street food here, not eat German food after coming to Italy!”

“That makes sense.”

Unlike me, who thinks of every meal as just for filling calories unless it’s a time when I can particularly enjoy food, Ulrike valued meals while traveling—even if it was a meal eaten on grass.

“We need to finish all this quickly and go eat new food. Let’s put it in our stomachs quickly to get rid of it.”

I nodded reluctantly and picked up a cranberry flour bread.

“Lucas.”

“What.”

“We came to Rome!”

“Yes. Though I’m wondering what’s been different from Germany so far, since instead of going sightseeing anywhere, you’ve been running around empty roads, but yes.”

“No, Lucas. Look carefully. Look at the scenery. Everywhere, even in the air we breathe through our noses, there’s an old smell. It’s really not a figurative expression—those clay bricks and Italian marble are giving off the scent of Rome.”

At those words, Narke, who had been watching from the side, burst into laughter and chuckled quietly. Apparently, right now Ulrike was looking at this Rome and thinking of ruins he’d only seen in pictures and ‘ancient Rome,’ but to a local 19th-century modern person, it would sound strange to hear someone speak so emotionally about his own neighborhood. I muttered inwardly with half acknowledgment and newfound wonder.

“Why do you like Italy so much…”

“What should we do for fun in Italy on this night? Ah, we have to go to the Trevi Fountain and make a wish! Is it walkable from here?”

Narke, like a local, quickly answered that question.

“Hmm, it’s a 20-minute walk.”

“Really? Narke! If it’s okay…”

When Ulrike pulled Narke close to whisper in his ear, Narke nodded as if he expected it. Somehow anxious, Ulrike made another request.

“We absolutely must go here, even if it’s in the middle.”

“Yes, I understand your intention well. For that field, there’s a place I’d like to take you.”

“Good. Then… Narke, if it’s okay, could you guide us around Rome? Ah! If I’d had time to prepare, I would have made a list this long.”

Ulrike stretched his hands up to the sky while swaying his body. On the other hand, Narke’s reaction wasn’t very positive. He answered with an apologetic smile.

“Hmm, I don’t know what there is in Rome that you guys might enjoy.”

“Huh?”

Ulrike, who knew all about Berlin’s entertainment, was puzzled about what this meant as he applied his own situation, then quickly nodded.

“That’s possible. Well, if you came for exchange, you must have been busy studying!”

“Something like that?”

“Right.”

At the implication that he only studied and didn’t play, Narke rolled his eyes slightly with an expression of ‘so that’s how it works.’ Ulrike handed bread to Cheringen and Leonard, who had just arrived. Meanwhile, Narke whispered with a mysterious smile.

“But as a Roman, it’s difficult to let such an assessment pass.”

* * *

I’m just looking at the sky as we go. Rather than ‘sitting’ on the bed and going around the streets, lying down like a patient was a way to hear fewer exclamations like “mamma mia.” Apparently, people walking by had common sense too and weren’t open-minded about beds wandering the streets.

Fortunately, Ulrike and the other three friends also had common sense and didn’t drag me into stores, and one of them always stayed nearby to watch the situation. This really wasn’t why I brought the bed. At this rate, it would be better to just rent a carriage and lie there, even if the lying space would be quite narrow… While I was snorting at these thoughts, Leonard, wearing a party mask, looked at his watch and shook his head.

“They’re not coming out.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Where did they go?”

“Hmm…”

Since they said they’d make plans to play but ended up just following wherever Narke went without discussion, I don’t know where they are. Leonard avoided answering, then quickly spotted friends beyond the alley and acknowledged them. Ulrike, Narke, and Cheringen, who had been in the store, approached. They were all wearing suspicious party masks too.

“I hope we win.”

Ulrike muttered while hanging on Narke’s arm and came to my side. Win what? Before I could ask, Ulrike, who was grinning, brought his head close to my ear and whispered.

“Lucas.”

“Huh?”

“Pick five numbers from 1 to 90.”

I frowned and turned my head away. Then I looked at Narke. Since Narke was still wearing that clear smile regardless of what expression I made, I looked back into Ulrike’s eyes without gaining anything and asked.

“Why should I pick those?”

Ulrike tilted her head without answering, then smiled and gave a vague response.

“Then that owner mister will give you a paper with numbers on it.”

“….”

I was so dumbfounded that I stretched my mouth downward and looked at Narke again. Then I looked at Cheringen. Since everyone except Leonard was smiling, I quickly let out a hollow laugh and shook my head.

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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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