How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 597

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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 (597)

Sarah Hohenfelss has the ability to manipulate memories. Believing that her ability would be of great help to missionary work, this research group investigated all the relics and records she left behind long ago, and thanks to that, I lived holed up in this basement, stuffing my memory full of quality materials I didn’t know about. When they saw that I didn’t grow a beard even after several days, they seemed convinced I was an Esper, but they said nothing. They probably thought it worked out well since we each held one secret about the other. The fact that I’m an Esper – even if reported somewhere, it seems the Prince has already roughly caught on anyway, so regardless of whether these people speak up or not, on some appropriate day I’ll either die or survive, one of the two. Whether they knew or not didn’t matter to me.

First, I tried to find people who might fall for Pleroma’s wicked techniques, and the top priority was those who had possessed people to find Abel.

“Have you arrived?”

“I practically live here now.”

A young priest said that while noisily setting down a bundle of Mr. Kruger’s materials on the table. He had become fairly close with me. I raised one eyebrow and grinned.

“That’s the plan.”

Then the young priest giggled and sat down in front of me. This person was one of those who flew to Munich. He said he was twenty-five years old and had just become a priest. He has the lengthy name Casimir Lowenstein-Bertheim, and as you can tell from the name, he’s a prominent nobleman.

I glanced at Casimir’s typical southern face and then turned my head away with a disgusted expression. It was amazing how these so-called clergymen could possess people, and even if it was simply ‘pretending,’ they could conscientiously put a person in trouble. Let me say again – these people weren’t Pleroma or Terminus Yukairya, they were just ‘Catholic priests.’ This is what astounds me.

So how did they cause possession? They simply applied aconite extract to mail. That’s what they said. Since no black smoke or anything came out, it didn’t seem like Vitriol rampage to me either. Casimir casually spoke while flipping through séance meeting minutes received through Mr. Kruger’s servant.

“Abel disappeared in the meantime, so there’s no special harvest. We thought Abel would become bait and catch us a big fish. We need to fill up this archive a bit, don’t we?”

“Let’s wait a bit longer.”

“Hmm. We should. The priest who accompanied me has a tendency to easily dismiss people, so he keeps saying I’m wrong, but I think Abel is real. Abel is not an ordinary person.”

“What makes you so confident? Where is there a prophet who can’t even pass the test you people gave?”

I answered halfheartedly. There were actually no days from the beginning when I was startled by Abel stories. Unfortunately, I had no intention of losing to these people.

“It was such an amazingly well-made problem that he might not have been able to pass.”

“More than anything, he might have passed. After pointing out Madam Kruger as a spy, what next? Didn’t he disappear? That might mean he has no more business with us and got what he wanted.”

You lay out the mat. I thought that while turning the ancient document. Casimir was unexpectedly sociable, so perhaps because of that, when he didn’t get an answer, he would go “hmm, hmm” to draw attention. I pretended my brain wasn’t working and casually asked.

“What did you want to ask if you met Prophet Abel?”

“Of course I’d have to ask about the environment since creation. We’d be supplementing the Bible from the beginning. And then… I’d ask if the reason he can keep speaking even though he’s dead is really thanks to faith in God.”

So the reason Abel’s words keep being passed down. This guy is interested in the body dying but the spirit living on. I couldn’t help but think of someone. Someone who could speak even though they died by my hand…

“You’re very interested in the dead.”

I said calmly. Casimir answered.

“You’re also researching resurrection of the dead, aren’t you?”

“Honestly, I don’t have expectations.”

“How weak.”

I just chuckled at those words. Casimir wants to become close with me. He would talk to me when my reactions were about to stop. Like this.

“Something stinks.”

“Informal speech?”

“People who saw Abel all said he was mysteriously handsome enough to be unforgettable once you see him.”

“Living in this world, there are such people.”

“And they said he spoke standard German.”

I nodded. Casimir’s gaze touched my neck. Well, yes. Now I understand. He rolled his eyes to look at my profile and asked.

“You get told you’re handsome a lot, don’t you?”

I smiled and loudly closed the report. Then I answered Casimir, who had a rather serious face.

“Are you suspecting me now? If I were Abel, I would have solved it myself long ago, so why would I come here?”

“I’m asking because you look exactly like that – are my eyes just knotholes or what?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?! This traveler, really.”

People of this era had more old-fashioned expressions compared to 1898. Since I didn’t tell them my name, they didn’t ask for my name and only called me traveler. I smiled briefly, then gradually showed worry on my face. Casimir’s laughter also diminished.

“I also want to try speaking with the dead. Then I could ask Kunigunde von Hohenfels if she could help me.”

“Exactly. So it would be good if both you, traveler, and I could find Abel.”

“That’s fine for me, but why do you priests do this kind of work?”

“For God’s sake.”

Even though he says that, it’s ultimately for his own personal gain. However, the focal point that unites the group as one seems to be nothing other than that justification.

However, I still had no intention of making such a conclusion. The clergyman who brought me had a long conversation with me. Anyone could see it was a qualification test, but unlike Pleroma, who was desperately trying to increase their followers indiscriminately, they wanted to confirm sincerity more essentially. Seeing how they worried I might abuse the techniques…

First, they do feel some social responsibility regarding this occult.

Second, they thought about the possibility that I might be someone without sincerity. If there’s no sincerity, it wouldn’t benefit the group.

Both 1 and 2 probably have some influence, but I wanted to think more about number 2. Sincerity. Sincerity. Does this strong demand for sincerity only apply to me as an outsider, or does it apply to clergymen in general?

The former is possible, but if it’s the latter, things would flow quite interestingly. This paradox couldn’t make me smile.

I touched around my heart. That clergyman must have been a mage. Not as strong as Leonard’s, but certainly some more bothersome contract pierces through my heart like a rectangular piece of lead. This must be what allows them to confidently say they can kill me anytime. Then after completing the initiation ceremony, isn’t the demand for sincerity not really necessary? Do all of them engage in this activity with some ‘sincerity’ that makes them work hard enough to die?

Insufficient.

Having observed all along, I quickly reached a conclusion. Compared to the amount of materials left behind, I was the only one ‘now’ here who had deep interest in Sarah Hohenfelss. They left the research to me and no one else cares. Even listening to conversations coming and going, Sarah Hohenfelss wasn’t their interest. To find someone who would save Sarah Hohenfelss, I needed to move the time period a bit further back.

In other words, there’s nothing to gain by staying here continuously. And…

I input Casimir’s various words through one ear and kept my gaze in the air. My eyes recalled the brown paper I saw earlier.

I had already found it during my stay. Absorbing fire. It was a document considered so unimportant that it was just stuck anywhere among their numerous bookshelves. This was also a magical formula said to be created by an old alchemist. However, it doesn’t say it creates and absorbs fire through blood. The keyword ‘absorbing fire’ probably isn’t as rare as I thought. Since the image of absorption is connected to purification. They might have thought of devouring fire as absorbing fire.

The problem is, even considering that, it’s hard to ignore that materials found in Würzburg in 1851 also exist in France in 1898. Allowing too many possibilities here and dismissing it as coincidence wouldn’t be desirable. Then, how? When? There might not be an information network connecting the two countries in this time period?

Fingers tap my shoulder.

“Shall we go to my house?”

Casimir asked while putting his coat over his cassock. I raised my eyebrows, looked at him, and nodded.

“Ta-da.”

These are such days. Putting information into memory as it comes, getting to know people. I’m at a tavern on the street directly opposite from Casimir’s mansion. I purified my glass and drank beer. Casimir and his lover, who had taken off his priest robes and become appropriately merry, were laughing. I don’t know what he’s doing dating someone when he’s a priest. Amazing people who only don’t do one thing. I gave a casual eye greeting to my new friend who was observing me with curious eyes while sipping alcohol, and drank my divinely-powered liquor.

Not long after, I spotted a group of students in their twenties wandering the streets. Then when the atmosphere became appropriately drowsy, I got up from my seat. I wrote to His Highness the Prince, asking if I could get the address of one of the seniors who had tormented me. I said if possible, I would go to the school administrative office soon to ask. Since they wouldn’t give me the address if I just asked.

After sending that letter, when I went to the administrative office an hour later and asked, the employee was already somewhat stiff. His Highness the Prince’s—secretary—paid attention to my letter so quickly, how surprisingly delightful. His loyalty seems to be moved to tears by that, and the down on my shoulders seems to stand up stiffly. I was sarcastic while being grateful. Without difficulty, I visited the home of someone temporarily suspended until formal disciplinary action.

“Good day, Mrs. Hofer. I’m a friend of Senior Hofer.”

“Who?”

The person who came out was a typical 50-year-old Human. ‘Mrs. Hofer,’ an adult from a bourgeois family troubled by her child, looked at me with wary eyes.

“A friend. The school administrative office sent me. It’s nothing much, but they asked me to ask when he’ll use his cabinet until, and I personally wanted to have a chat.”

“Ah, then…”

Mrs. Hofer nodded with a tired, displeased face and let me inside.

“Tell Jonas that a friend has come. You can go to the reception room that our Hans will guide you to.”

I quietly went to the reception room and waited. Although my intention to stay quiet remained unchanged, I couldn’t cause trouble for Mr. Hofer, who already looked troubled by his son who goes to university and plays bully.

“Who the hell is coming, who…”

Grumbling could be heard even from outside the door. With a clicking sound, I greeted my senior with an exemplary smile. The senior called Jonas froze like a statue and tried to leave. I had prepared to get up in advance knowing this would happen, so I grabbed the senior’s wrist.

“Whoa!”

The senior made a strange sound and jumped. I dragged him in and closed the reception room door. After sitting down, when he seemed to have calmed down a bit, I spoke to him then.

“The reason I came is nothing much. Tell me what kind of person I was.”

“Just a first-year, what… Why are you here…!”

“Tell me every move I made as you know it. Well, even something like ‘when we came to bother you, you were eating’ would be fine.”

The senior seemed worried that I had come with the intention of interfering with his disciplinary action, but he quickly accepted my recklessness due to the next reason.

“Alcohol smell.”

“I’m not drunk, so please tell me.”

“Just…”

The senior hesitated for a long time, then groaned as if nothing came to mind and muttered.

“You seemed like a loser, what else…”

“What else?”

The other person’s eyes shook wildly then found composure.

“You always seemed to be studying… You seemed to be studying but you read more books than expected. Were they novels?”

“What kind?”

“That much… well… There should be borrowing records.”

“What kind.”

“Well, detective novels or something… wasn’t it?”

“What about friends you hung out with? You all must have cut them off. Letters?”

“L-letters? That’s…”

He hung his head low. I clenched my hands on my knees and bent my chin below his head to ask.

“You opened and read them, didn’t you?”

“No… It’s not exactly like that…”

“What did they say.”

Startled by looking into my eyes, he didn’t want to be pushed back and deliberately shouted loudly.

“What letters would someone with no friends have! All there was were tuition bills that got burned.”

What’s the point of burning tuition bills for someone who came as a scholarship student… I once again realize that there’s a separate level of pathetic incompetence that I can deal with in this world. However, I expected this much.

“No letters came at all. Are you certain?”

“Before asking, are you confident that you had many friends…”

“Cut it out, you bastard. Just answer what I’m asking.”

I put strength into my hands gripping my knees. Nothing changed except for the veins rising on the back of my hands, but he shouted loudly as if letting out a lion’s roar.

“Mom! Aaaaah!”

I covered the guy’s mouth and sat him down. My eyes met with Mrs. Hofer’s, who had opened the door with a startled face. I scolded my senior.

“It’s not just you and your mother in this house right now, so you’re being rude to Mrs. Hofer. I understand that you’re familiar because you’re family, but you should show even more courtesy to your mother, who deserves respect above all others.”

Then Mrs. Hofer was seriously impressed.

“What a true friend indeed. My child, my son. You’ve really chosen a good person.”

Since that wasn’t praise for her son to hear, I bowed silently and answered instead.

“Thank you for your kind words.”

“Thank you? I’m the one who’s grateful. Jonas, I was already worried because you’ve been constantly causing trouble at school, so how did you manage to befriend such an excellent person?”

“Hahaha.”

While Mrs. Hofer and I laughed, my senior said nothing. He looked bewildered with an expression like he’d been blindsided, just rolling his eyes around. Then, after listening to all the sounds of Mrs. Hofer leaving the room and going down the stairs, he pointed at me with a reddened face.

“You! To my mom!”

“What.”

“…”

“You’re grateful, right? What else is there? Senior.”

My senior scratched his head with a face like nothing came to mind. He pulled down his cravat with a frustrated expression and barely managed to say one thing.

“There definitely weren’t any personal letters that came, well, there were some from the school though. And you did try to join a club…”

“But didn’t join?”

“Well, the Brüderschafttrinken…”

“This is also thanks to you guys. What kind of club do you think I wanted to join?”

“I don’t know…”

I wondered if hitting this guy once would make his brain cough up what it was hiding. Since I couldn’t do that, I also considered using divine power. However, when someone’s head doesn’t work this well originally, whether I use divine power or do anything else, there’s still a bit of delay before they speak, so I pondered a little. My senior looked at my indifferent eyes and kept clearing his throat endlessly while drawing circles with his pupils.

“…That.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“There was a tattoo.”

“What?”

Then, my senior turned his head. I also shifted my gaze slightly to the side. There was noise coming up the stairs from below the second floor drawing room. The iron entrance door closed and opened. The sound of greetings could be heard faintly. Looking at my senior, he also had a face that didn’t understand what was happening. I watched this pathetic bastard quietly, then got up from my seat.

Just then the door opened, and a servant looked at me and gestured politely.

“A friend?”

Me?

I reflexively exchanged glances with my senior, but looking at this guy’s blank eyes that knew nothing would make me blank too, so it wasn’t a constructive choice. I coldly turned my gaze away from the guy. Since I had to go down, I could see for myself.

A tall Esper with short black hair like mine was at the manor entrance. Whether it was raining, he elegantly folded the black umbrella he was holding and opened his eyes wide as soon as he saw me. His eyes briefly shone with joy, then quickly wavered with anxiety.

“Luca, it’s been a while.”

Fluent French pronunciation flowed through the German’s manor. He crossed the carpet with his long legs and carefully took my arm.

“What are you doing here.”

Even as his face brushed past mine, my mouth didn’t offer any useless answers. Mrs. Hofer’s and my senior’s bewildered gazes moved along the same path as mine. The moisture beading on his profile and the tips of his hair—was it rainwater, or what? With an anxious face, he cast a sound-blocking spell and urgently led me away.

“This is terrible. What on earth did you do? Let’s go quickly. Time is of the essence if you want to avoid harm.”

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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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