How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 574

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Noble Family (574)

“Wait.”

Ulrike grabbed Narke’s arm. He squinted one eye and asked.

“How do you know another letter will come? Is it because of your precognitive abilities?”

“Hmm…”

Narke slowly rolled his eyes and tilted his head.

“Intuition?”

Ulrike’s collar fluttered with the wind blowing through the clover field. Ulrike stood so still that even the slightest breeze was noticeable.

When we moved to the next location, what appeared was a small bridge and river, and likewise a small meadow with hills. Clover and wild grass swayed in the wind along the riverbank. When Narke struck the ground once more, both the river and atmosphere were dyed with light as if covered by a golden curtain. The clover field here truly looked like golden waves.

“This clover field also turns yellow when dyed by the sunset. The direction is opposite from before.”

Though Ulrike had a dark expression, she gazed in wonder as usual.

“Wow…”

“Haha. Want to look for some four-leaf clovers?”

Ulrike’s face momentarily regained its vitality. She seemed tempted, but closed her eyes and complained as if pulling herself together.

“Now isn’t the time for that…”

“Even so, it’s best to wait until the next letter arrives. Relax and rest easy. I’ll wait for the messenger bird to come while thinking about the next location.”

Ulrike nodded. Then after pondering, she seemed to make up her mind and tapped Cheringen’s arm.

“Hand Lucas over to me.”

“Well, I don’t want to do that.”

“Why?”

Cheringen glanced at Ulrike’s legs. Ulrike shrugged as if asking what the problem was.

“It’s fine! I’ve been running around until now.”

“First, that doesn’t make it okay, and second, running and adding weight are different things. Lucas is as heavy as we are.”

“I can tell he doesn’t look particularly light either.”

I, who had been listening indifferently, raised the corner of my mouth and retorted.

“How terribly sorry. It’s fortunate your arms haven’t fallen off yet.”

“Since you succeeded in gaining weight, let’s call it a good thing. Who did the coaching?”

“The class president.”

“Hmm, why such a formal title?”

What reason would there be for using such a distant, unused title? Since it was obvious Cheringen knew the answer and was asking anyway, I tried being stubborn once. Cheringen turned his body and spoke to me.

“At this rate, all the muscle you worked hard to build will disappear.”

“It’s too early to say such horrible things.”

Cheringen wiggled the fingers supporting me and pressed my forearm, then nodded somewhat as if that made sense. No matter what conversation we had, Ulrike persistently placed her hand on Cheringen’s shoulder and pulled him toward her.

“Don’t avoid it and listen, Julia. If I tried carrying you around, would you trust me and hand him over?”

“That would be enjoyable, but if blood burst from your legs, I’d be quite troubled.”

“Hey guys. Haven’t you been asking for my opinion this whole time?”

“It’s an important matter. Of course, of course I’ll ask. I can transport you much better than Julia, Lucas!”

The sincerity of asking while not even using a question form is remarkable. But the earnestness to persuade was clear, so that wasn’t the problem. I wrinkled my nose bridge and expressed my refusal with my whole face.

“It’s not a pleasant sight to see giants like you two being carried around horizontally. Being transported by people isn’t exactly a comfortable feeling for me either. I’ll ride on a bed, so let’s hurry up and find the clover field and go back.”

“Aha.”

Cheringen raised his eyebrows as if this was unexpected and looked around the midair.

“Not comfortable…? Hmm…”

“I’m sorry. But I’m truly grateful.”

However, Ulrike seemed to sense something from Cheringen’s words and bent down to my ear, shouting in a low voice—why lean to my ear if you’re going to do this?—.

“Lucas! Hurry and take it back. Quickly say it’s comfortable!”

“It’s comfortable.”

“There’s no sincerity in that. Luise, I’d like you to give me a chance to do my best. As you know, I want to receive good evaluations if possible.”

“No, since when did you care about such things? He said it’s comfortable!”

I chuckled and rubbed my face dry. Ah… So Cheringen is using my words to not grant what Ulrike wants. Whether he’s teasing Ulrike or me, anyway these guys must have played around like this at school too… I think. I want to land and get down immediately. Between Cheringen and Ulrike who ignored my gesture to move quickly and were playing around by themselves—in a situation where if I said they were playing around, only Ulrike would feel wronged—I complained indifferently.

“Just put me down. Whether blood bursts or not, I need to walk on my own feet.”

“See!”

“That doesn’t mean I’ll carry you either, Luise.”

Ulrike spread both hands horizontally with a face asking why on earth, and shrugged her shoulders. I wonder why these friends need to carry me around. It seems Ulrike has something to say to me alone, so I’m just staying still for now, but otherwise I really would have separated from both friends and walked by myself.

After all sorts of arguments, Cheringen put me down in the clover field. Since Ulrike started hanging on Cheringen’s arm, I became bewildered and asked again to just be put down on the ground. Cheringen seemed carefree, thinking he could just strengthen his arms with magic even if two people clung to him, but considering Ulrike’s persistence, it was obvious his requests would never end.

Narke sits on the clover hill, receiving the sunset he created with his eyes closed. He hadn’t looked very pleased since the Papacy called for him, but now he seems to have no major complaints. I wonder why, and it seemed like Ulrike found that strange too.

Ulrike stuck close to my side and slyly searched through the clover with her eyes. While doing so, she muttered.

“You’re in a bad mood because you can’t walk alone, right?”

“And that’s why you two fought over who would carry me?”

“…”

“It’s not bad enough to matter. It’s just that my fatigue level increases because movement is inconvenient.”

“As expected, someone who wins through strategy is different. If it were me, I’d be lying down sadly.”

Ulrike laughed somewhat playfully, but her smile quickly disappeared.

She silently picked a clover and placed it on the wound on my stomach. She picked another and stuck it in her hair. I wonder what she’s doing. I didn’t play like this when I was a high school student. Even if people lamented that science and reason dominated the world, the 19th century still had one foot in the embrace of nature and tradition. My friends’ sensibilities were like that too. They were pure enough to pursue romance, and in that purity there were no prejudiced notions or calculations yet.

I picked clover and rabbit clover flowers within reach and wove them into a circle. When it took some shape, I slipped it onto Ulrike’s finger.

“Here. A rabbit clover ring.”

“What? What is this. How did you make it?!”

“Just…”

“What’s with your dexterity?!”

“…”

You want to ask how I did it, right? With practice, you can become somewhat capable in any field, no matter how bad you are at it. I just don’t bother practicing in other areas. I muttered while lost in thought.

“I used to make them often in the past.”

Ulrike kept her mouth wide open while carefully handling it. She smiled like someone who had obtained gold, then ran to the other friends to show off the ring and came back. Ulrike, who sat beside me proudly, reported the other friends’ reactions.

“They’re asking why you only made one for me.”

“Hahaha.”

I have no intention of making more. When I closed my eyes, Ulrike began weaving my hair with clover stems. She fumbled around for a while as it wasn’t going well, which is natural. She’s doing something I never even thought to try with good creativity. Ulrike rummaged through my clothes and pulled out a dried, withered flower. She sent magic into it, but naturally she didn’t have Leonard’s ability so she couldn’t bring the plant back to life. Instead, Ulrike stuck it diagonally in her formal jacket pocket, took out her wand and camera, and photographed me. Since this sunset was fake, she would have had to emit light under actual darkness.

Ulrike became quiet again, resting her chin on her hand, then muttered.

“Thanks to you, we all survived. I was talking with Julia about the west gate, and no matter how I think about it, we survived thanks to you.”

“That’s not it, it’s thanks to our cooperation. Are you thinking about what happened yesterday afternoon again?”

“Of course. If I didn’t think of that incident when seeing your stomach, that wouldn’t be me.”

I looked at Ulrike. She anxiously looked around with eyes made transparent by the sunset, then stared into space without focus like an ancient statue. Her lips moved.

“I’ll make it so you can use only your head for life without any hand-to-hand combat.”

I was quite surprised by those words and wondered how to respond, but it wasn’t really something to worry about.

“You’ll do that for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Then sure. Thank you.”

The fact that I’ve always preferred physical work, both then and now… I won’t bother mentioning it. Most people who make it into the alliance are like this, but not surprisingly, I’ve always preferred running around to sitting at a desk. Anyway, Ulrike wasn’t trying to chase me away from the field, but just expressing her will to do this much for the team, so it was nice to hear.

Ulrike seemed to feel a little more at ease and began seriously searching through the clover where I was lying, casting a sound-blocking spell and whispering.

“Listen, Lucas. Julia said another letter will come to us. And Narke said the same thing. I wonder why.”

“Julia said that?”

“Yeah. She knew letters would keep coming even before we came here to Italy.”

“Hmm… You assumed the culprit was Ainsiedel. If the culprit is Ainsiedel, thinking letters will keep coming is actually natural. Didn’t she mean it in that sense?”

“But she seemed too certain. And also, what if it’s not Ainsiedel?”

“…You’re the one who said Ainsiedel might have done this because the culprit can use the Papal States’ messenger birds, Luise.”

“I know. I’m just considering all possibilities like you do.”

Since I did that, I have nothing to say. Ulrike muttered.

“Don’t you have any hunches?”

“Well, like Narke said, I think we need to receive a few more to know. The person who sent the letter probably meant for us to look for something here, but for now it only sounds like they’re telling us to look for clover.”

“That’s exactly what I find questionable! They should tell us what to look for all at once, so why keep tearing it up and sending pieces? It’s suspicious behavior.”

Ulrike chewed on rabbit clover, then spat it out because it was bitter and whispered to me.

“Leo and Julia went over there to see if there’s anything hidden here…”

“Did we?”

“…No. This is a bit much.”

Ulrike swept the surroundings with sharp eyes. He glanced at Narke and moved his hands dazzlingly in search of four-leaf clovers. The leaves and hands dyed golden in the sunset reflected light, creating a beautiful scene from the corner of my eye. When I turned my head to look, the clover woven in my hair fell. Watching Ulrike’s hands made me feel embarrassed that my resolve not to play had become meaningless for so long, so he suddenly raised his head and asked Narke.

“Narke! You said letters were coming. When are they coming again?”

“Hmm, that’s what I’m wondering. Seeing how long it’s taking, it seems the Papacy isn’t sending letters again. It’ll come mixed in with the next papal letter.”

“So the Papacy has to send letters?”

Ulrike slowly lowered his head while muttering. He whispered in my ear.

“It’s probably because the culprit is inside there. Then shouldn’t we root out that culprit?”

“That’s what Narke, Elias, and I did last time.”

“How was it?”

“Not very good. There were so many powerful mages… They had their own prophetic tools which made it difficult. They don’t have them now though…”

“I figured they’d be strong. It would be hard to make plans carelessly. But Lucas, if Ainsiedel’s confidant is inside the Papacy, it wouldn’t be bad for us to secure that person’s safety.”

“That’s true.”

“We’re under a serious imbalance in our relationship with Ainsiedel. All we know is that he’s a distant relative of Haike and that he’s obsessed with dead people. …He doesn’t seem to love Haike that much, but he seems obsessed with the fact that Haike is family. So, he’s not interested in Haike as a person’s well-being, but because Haike is an Ainsiedel family member, he thinks he has control over him. His actions are completely like adults who stake their lives on family, but when you look closely, what that person is most obsessed with is a dead politician. Anyway, we know nothing except that the person is twisted in many ways.”

“Capturing Ainsiedel’s confidant…”

It’s not a bad idea. Except for the fact that Ainsiedel throws away his confidants like old shoes and replaces them whenever… Right now our goals align with Ainsiedel’s so we can go together, but considering the future, we need to gather information in advance. Should I tackle the extra chapter?

Just then, four pigeons flew above our heads. Narke stretched out his hand to create a perch for the birds. Ulrike stopped his actions and looked at Narke. Leo and Julia did the same.

As Narke unfolded the letters one by one, he spoke while reading the second one.

“They came from different departments. The Papacy conducted brief interrogations but there was no one showing suspicious reactions.”

“Then who in the Papacy is sending these letters?”

“They must have found a way. …Hmm.”

It wasn’t a thoughtful hum in response to Ulrike’s protest. Narke smiled while carefully cradling another pigeon.

“Look at this, everyone. This friend isn’t a carrier pigeon sent from the Papacy. There’s a spy mixed in.”

“What! Why are you saying that with a smile?”

“Hah…”

Along with Ulrike’s worry, Leonard snorted at Narke who was being too carefree. Regardless, Narke’s eyes widened as he read the letter.

He placed the paper on his palm and blew on it. The magic carried in the paper was drawn to Ulrike’s hand. Ulrike immediately passed the letter to me.

[Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells]

“I know this one too. It’s Keats’ poem.”

“Right. They only pick famous ones to send.”

When I put the letter back in Ulrike’s hand, he passed it to Leonard. Then he came to my side and whispered.

“Unlike the one sent from Germany, maybe they sent an easy-to-understand poem because this letter was sent to guide us to a location? Actually, Julia said there’s no need to understand the context of the poems. I don’t know what basis she has for saying that… But seeing how they only send such easy poems, it seems Julia might be right.”

“I’d like to know what basis Julia had for saying that.”

“Exactly. But listen to this. Look here, this poem mentions dying twice. ‘Soft-dying day’, and ‘as the light wind lives or dies’. Even if they’re idiomatic expressions…”

“You’re saying they didn’t choose this part for no reason?”

“That’s what I think. Besides, there are actually two more lines between lines 5 and 6. The person who sent the letter intentionally omitted them.”

Just then, Narke clapped his hands too. The sunset illusion lifted and darkness spread.

“Reading this poem, I know where we should go. There was a plain I used to visit often when I was young. If we don’t find anything here, let’s go there.”

As if we’d find anything. When Narke landed below the hill, all the friends gathered there. Ulrike, worried about losing time for secret conversation with me, picked me up faster than anyone and held hands with everyone.

Narke slightly raised his front hooves and counted. On the third step, we opened our eyes in a place where the wind felt different.

“Oh… Here—”

Ulrike said that and took a step forward, then his face hardened as he looked at the ground. The sound of paper crinkling was heard.

Cheringen picked up a letter envelope that had fallen at the warp point at his feet and took out the contents. He twisted the corner of his mouth with a troubled expression and handed Ulrike a palm-sized bundle of papers.

Ulrike froze upon seeing the papers. Leonard looked puzzled at Ulrike’s reaction and gently turned his hand outward to hold it. I thought he’d say something, but everyone remained silent.

Leonard quietly looked down at the papers and gently unfolded and shook them.

“These are photos of us. Taken in Rome.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————