How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 57

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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 Family (57)

I signaled to Elias with my eyes and immediately headed to the dormitory.

When I warped to the meeting place, Elias was already sitting there, having arrived at some point.

I brought a newspaper from the drawer and placed it in front of him.

“First, I’d like to hear what field you’ve been interested in.”

“Ah, right. Good. Come to think of it, you always ask for my opinion, don’t you?”

I tried to brush it off casually, but Elias was still smiling as he looked at me.

‘What should I answer?’

I wanted to say ‘Your choices are never wrong,’ but that would only burden him.

No, it’s more like even if you’re wrong, your choices are worth betting on, Elias.

“I like the choices you make.”

“Oh.”

Elias stroked his chin as if he’d heard something unexpected, then tilted his head.

“But then there are people like me who get warnings right up to the point of expulsion.”

“At least you didn’t get expelled.”

“Aha~ I see how it is.”

Elias giggled and laughed.

He casually flipped through the newspaper with one hand, then spread out the missing persons list and thrust it in front of me.

“Anyone can see this is Pleroma’s doing.”

I nodded and waited for him to continue.

“I was thinking about this after hearing about world replication and such – people who’ve been missing for years haven’t returned at all. They must have sent them all to Pleroma.”

“Yeah…”

I muttered while looking at the statistics he pointed out.

I expected it, but I didn’t think he’d actually bring up this topic.

Elias didn’t hear me mention the missing persons cases in the meeting. He came in after that.

Since I used information from the original work to form hypotheses, this information originally belongs to Elias anyway.

‘Even so, this should happen between half a year to a year from now.’

Thanks to moving up the barrier compatibility issue, he had the capacity to focus on other things, so he caught onto the case flow early.

It’s really amazing that he brought up this topic first.

I nodded.

“Right, this abnormal number of missing persons can’t be explained unless it’s those guys.”

“Exactly. The number of missing minors is especially increasing, right? Even though they’re openly interfering like this, why isn’t the Imperial Court doing anything?”

“When have they ever done anything properly?”

Elias was about to laugh but suddenly looked at me with a surprised face, then burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Wow, I’m really surprised. I didn’t expect to hear that kind of comment. I guess I’ve gotten too used to Leo.”

“…I was more surprised.”

“Did you think I’d side with the Imperial Court? That’ll never happen~ It’s the same as how you view Ascanien.”

Elias chuckled and started reading the data I had brought out.

‘Hmm.’

What should I do?

I know the conclusion of this case.

Elias targeted an orphanage in an area where missing persons cases frequently occurred, and discovered that two of the orphanage’s sponsors were Pleroma.

‘But I don’t know the names.’

I naturally don’t know the orphanage’s name either.

Maybe if it were a Luca chapter I read before sleeping, but it’s not easy to remember extra character names from the early part of the novel.

Honestly, I think I’m doing pretty well just remembering what I organized in my notes on the first day here.

‘Still, I should get a feeling when I see the actual written characters.’

I just need to narrow down the suspicious people and verify them.

I’m thinking of asking Narke, but if something comes up where I need to distance myself from him, that would be troublesome.

‘Isn’t there another way to identify Pleroma?’

I was lost in thought for a while.

There isn’t one right now. Let’s think about it later.

To advance the matter, I first need to obtain the list of the orphanage’s sponsors.

‘Can the Bavaria Investigation Bureau look into this issue too?’

Previously, it was data obtained through someone planted in the Dastrote Bavaria Branch.

It seems difficult to find even the sponsor list of such an obscure orphanage, but I should make the request once.

“Eli, do you have any plans you’ve thought of regarding this problem?”

“Hmm… I think we should start with local orphanages.”

“Why?”

“Look, there’s the map where you marked the incidents.”

Elias turned the materials used during the meeting toward me.

He placed his finger on an area filled with bright red X marks.

“Minor disappearances occurred in clusters around this facility. Right? There are definitely many in other areas too, but I think we should investigate here first. We’ll catch something.”

“Are you good with hunches?”

“Yeah.”

Elias nodded as if it were completely natural.

Since he’s right, I can only laugh.

“Alright, then let’s investigate this orphanage. First, let’s find the list of related people.”

“There will be Pleroma among them? You think so too, Luca.”

“I don’t know. But wouldn’t that be the most likely possibility?”

“Right… Like Strauchi.”

He muttered, then struck his crutch on the floor and stood up.

“Let’s go! To get the list!”

‘What are you planning to do after that…’

I swallowed those words and shook my head.

“Wait first. We can’t just go and ask for it out of the blue.”

“We’re going to though?”

“Will they give it to us?”

“They’ll gi… Ah, wait. I can’t deceive anyone with my leg like this.”

Elias clicked his tongue and plopped down in his chair.

I know what method he uses.

Just like when he disguised himself with a suitable identity while exploring restricted areas, he changed his eye color, wore an investigation bureau uniform, and pretended to be a detective to extract information.

‘Come to think of it, I only knew about the eye color-changing medicine because the protagonist used it.’

While I was recalling events from early in the semester, Elias clapped his hands.

“Alright! Then we’ll look into it tomorrow, and that’s the end of our discussion for today! Did you see outside? Students from other departments are already setting up booths.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Only our department students are all busy hunting magical beasts right now. Honestly, I think the school was being a bit cunning. Making us work the day before the festival? They want us to just play and forget everything~”

“It does seem somewhat like that.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

After that, I talked with Elias about school for a while.

More accurately, he poured out a flood of stories by himself.

Elias brought up new topics tirelessly.

“Come to think of it, you know we’re doing a play tomorrow, right?”

The Department of Magic ended up doing a play because someone drew the wrong lot. Fortunately, not everyone has to participate, and only about ten people from the class, including supporting roles, so I was able to avoid getting a part.

“The kids prepared hard, right? I hope many people come to watch.”

“Right. Ah! You know there’s an audience competition between our class… no, Class 1 and us? I think Class 2 will probably win. They’re doing new songs. It’s just everyone’s cup of tea.”

“What are we doing?”

“Faust. That’s why I thought I’d faint when I heard the spell Strauchi mentioned.”

“Spell?”

“You know, the line where I say ‘Stay, moment’ or something like that.”

Come to think of it….

Strauchi used something other than scripture to cover his magic formula.

Using scripture verses for magic spells is an unwritten rule here. Magic without scripture is unimaginable. You can’t even get approval from the Magic Department. All the spells I’ve memorized so far came from scripture too.

Magic formulas aren’t created just like that, and the spells that cover them are the same. You can’t just easily attach and detach them.

And yet he covered a magic formula with verses pulled from somewhere else?

That means Pleroma doesn’t have the unwritten rule or regulation about having to use scripture.

‘…I could use this pretty well.’

I found a method in an unexpected place.

I could use this for Pleroma verification.

Of course, I’d have to disguise myself as Pleroma too.

* * *

The dormitory was noisy all evening.

Since the festival was the very next day, yesterday I only did simple training with Leo and didn’t hold a group meeting.

And so, the day of the festival arrived.

From what I heard, they’d just do a brief morning assembly and let us go.

‘It’s no different from a marketplace.’

With all this chaos, whatever I do today probably won’t stand out. I should find the right moment to approach Narke.

Just then, Fai poked his head out from my uniform robe pocket.

“Narke said she’d buy me something delicious today!”

Wasn’t this guy a herbivore? There wouldn’t be anything for him to eat.

‘Come to think of it, he lives on holy water.’

As I continued these pointless thoughts, the noisy classroom suddenly became quiet.

“Good morning, students.”

The professor took attendance as usual and lightly tapped the lectern with his palm.

“Well, everyone’s here. There will be dormitory roll call too, so any student who goes out during the festival and doesn’t return will be marked absent. Remember that on days like this, you need to follow the rules even better than usual to avoid problems. And since other schools don’t have classes today either….”

All the high schools in the capital were having their festivals today.

Because of that, his speech was getting longer and longer.

I leaned back comfortably in my chair, petting Fai in my robe pocket while half-listening to his words.

‘Whether in reality or here….’

Even as I get older, I still wish they’d keep the sermons brief. I realized another pointless similarity. I understand teachers’ feelings better than when I was in high school, but it’s still boring.

As I was playing with Fai with my hand in my pocket for a while, the bell rang.

‘It’s over.’

I pushed my chair back hard and prepared to get up from the suddenly noisy classroom.

Just then, the professor was about to leave the classroom with the attendance book when he called Leo over.

“Class president.”

“Yes.”

I glanced in that direction and felt something hard touch my finger as I looked down. Fai seemed to want to play more as he bit and hung onto my finger. I lifted Fai up inside my pocket and whispered quietly.

“Later.”

Meanwhile, the professor kept talking to Leo about something.

“There will be a delivery to the first floor of the main building around 3 o’clock, so just put it in the classroom.”

“Yes, understood.”

“And if you have time, please look after your friend.”

“Excuse me?”

The class that had been noisy the whole time suddenly became quiet.

Leo’s confused response sounded strange somehow.

‘What?’

I looked up at this unexpected turn. I made eye contact with dozens of students remaining in the classroom all at once.

Friends from the same group looked more shocked than other students as they gestured between me and Leo with their eyes.

‘….’

Don’t tell me he’s talking about me?

* * *

This happens sometimes.

I’ve heard about it before. Of course, not from Luca’s position but from Leo’s position.

I’ve been class president several times, and even in years when I didn’t run for election, teachers often regarded me in a similar position.

There are always one or two students in class who don’t get along well with other friends, and when counseling sessions for such students or worried calls from parents come in, teachers try various methods, one of which is calling a student who makes friends widely and asking them to look after the isolated student.

Sounds unlikely? It happens. Actually, no matter how much you comfort them, there’s no faster solution than making friends.

You just don’t know because they don’t come up front and say ‘the homeroom teacher told me to look after you.’

‘…No wait. There were kids who came to the classroom and threw tantrums too.’

That’s when the teacher misjudged the student.

Anyway, the way they bring it up varies by teacher – some make ridiculous demands like mentioning it in school records and telling you to become friends with that person, while others naturally arrange group activities to include them first and just ask you to check on them occasionally.

‘…This one seems to be the former….’

He’s probably gotten too old and forgotten that teenagers have social relationships too. No, never mind. What’s the point of analyzing this now?

I never thought something like this would happen in my life. Well, actually it happened to Luca.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Leo stood frozen with a dumbfounded expression, then quickly regained his composure and nodded.

“I’ll do that.”

What’s with this guy….

I got up from my seat and shook my head.

“No, it’s fine, Professor. I have things to do today.”

“Things to do?”

“Today I’m going to the….”

I stopped mid-sentence and closed my mouth.

If I said I was going to the library on festival day….

I let out a hollow laugh and grabbed the back of my neck.

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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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