How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 62

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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 (62)

“What?”

Faust disappeared?

What do we do if Faust disappears from the Faust play?

Elias and I briefly exchanged glances.

“Oswald went out and hasn’t come back. Leo, do you know anything about this?”

So the student playing Faust is Oswald.

Hearing the name, he’s one of the friends from the secret group.

Since he’s from Bavaria, he’s been close friends with Leo since the 3rd Education Institute.

‘It’s… 7 o’clock now.’

It was around 1 o’clock when I parted with Narke. Since they know when he disappeared, the friends performing in the play together must have briefly encountered him.

Leo asked calmly.

“Where was he last seen?”

“The practice room. He went out to buy a beard… and hasn’t come back.”

“…Why would he buy that…?”

“Faust is from the old human race. We forgot the characteristics of ancient humans.”

I expected the story of old Faust to come up, but it didn’t go that way.

Well, since the human species itself has already changed, the wizard humanity doesn’t have beards. To these guys, it would be recognized as a characteristic of the old human race first.

Unlike me, Leo immediately understood and asked.

“So, did he say when he’d be back?”

“Yeah. Still… he said he’d just buy materials and come back, but spending five hours looking for materials isn’t quite right, is it?”

“Something must have happened.”

“Right~ Up to two or three hours would be understandable, but five hours is too long.”

Elias chimed in.

A student said in a desperate voice.

“What if he doesn’t come back before the start? He’s the protagonist. What have we been doing for two weeks…?”

“…”

No one could speak up.

We hope he’ll come if we wait, but…

He hasn’t shown his face at practice for five hours now, so it’s awkward to tell everyone to just wait. If something happened, he won’t be able to come.

Leo said, holding his head.

“Isn’t there anyone else who memorized the script?”

“Narke probably knows it roughly…”

Leo bit the inside of his lip.

What good is it for his scene partner to know the script in this situation?

Besides, we need the role that Narke is playing too.

Moreover, he just knows it casually, so he probably hasn’t perfectly memorized the lines and movements that aren’t his role.

Elias asked lightly.

“How about playing two roles? Did you ask Narke?”

“That would confuse the audience. It’s not just people who enjoy theater. If we go in a non-mainstream direction, people might leave even after coming in…”

“Oh, wait! That Narke knows it isn’t certain either. That was just my guess.”

A student hastily clarified.

Leo stood up from his seat and gestured to the friends who came looking for him.

“Let’s tell the Professor first and go out to look for him. You guys come too.”

“Okay, got it.”

Then a student said cautiously.

“Leo, shouldn’t we prepare for not finding him? Honestly, meeting him at just the right timing in this vast capital is like finding a needle in a desert. There are four more schools having festivals right now.”

“Then we should find a substitute first before going. Isn’t there anyone who knows even a little of Faust’s script?”

“The kid playing Gretchen might know some…”

The student muttered uncertainly.

As far as I know, Gretchen is a supporting role with substantial screen time.

‘If we make him do it, who will play that role…?’

Sure enough, Leo grabbed his forehead.

“…That won’t work. Still, if they practiced together, they’d be familiar with it. Then I’ll go tell the Professor, so can you find out if there’s anyone who can switch roles with Faust right now?”

“Yeah, got it. I’ll ask the kids and come back. Let’s meet here later.”

The students hurriedly left their seats.

Elias clicked his tongue while watching the students’ retreating figures.

“The kids prepared so hard, it’s unfortunate.”

“Right. He should come back before the start, but where did he go?”

“It’s strange that he left for five hours knowing there was practice. Even though he likes to have fun, was he the type to abandon his assigned role and go play?”

My opinion is the same as Elias’s.

In my memory, he was a bit noisy but not an irresponsible person. Leo wouldn’t have brought him to the group in the first place if he was like that.

‘Something bothers me.’

“…Right. I’ll go see the Professor first.”

Leo left, and not long after, the students I saw earlier came back.

They desperately avoided my gaze and spoke to Elias.

“Elias, where’s Leo?”

“Not back yet. Is there anyone willing to play Faust?”

“No… They say the protagonist has too many lines.”

“Who did you ask?”

“We asked all the kids in the play. Narke says he’d try it once, but no one wants to switch with Mephistopheles, so it probably won’t work.”

“Right, the demon has a lot of lines too~”

At Elias’s words, a student asked cautiously.

“…Elias, would you play Mephistopheles? Actually, we wanted to cast you from the very beginning.”

“What, is that an insult?”

“No, no, no! Anyway, Narke ended up taking the role!”

“Well, sure. I’ll do it if I can just go up and say anything.”

Elias leaned back in his chair and chuckled.

The student asked without giving up hope.

“Have you read Faust by any chance?”

“I have read it.”

The students exchanged glances with each other.

“Can’t we do improvisational theater…? Wouldn’t that be okay?”

“Let’s try it once. Elias, when I read, give me the next line.”

“I said I’ve read it, not that I know it well. Alright, go ahead.”

Elias crossed his arms and nodded.

The student quickly opened the script and recited the lines.

“About your kind, I can roughly guess your identity just by hearing the name. That aside, who are you?”

“I am Mephistopheles.”

“…”

“Ah…”

“This won’t work.”

At that reaction, Elias grabbed the armrest and bolted upright.

“What?! I answered exactly by the book! What does it say there?”

“I am part of the power that always wants evil yet always does good.”

Elias just blinked at them and then opened his mouth.

“…Are you kidding?”

“…”

“Someone asks who you are and you say this!”

“But they do say this! So you have to memorize it… Ah, no good. Improvisational theater won’t work either. The audience will gather, but it’ll become a complete mess as it goes on.”

“Should I try playing Faust?”

The students whispered among themselves. Elias clapped his hands with a face full of competitive spirit, provoking them.

“Do it! Come on, give it a try. I’ll receive it well.”

“Alright, then I’ll give you Mephistopheles’ lines.”

The student took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“You amuse me. I wish we could get along well with each other. I have come here now, dressed as a young nobleman, to relieve you of your troubles. So I advise you to dress like me right away.”

“What? Why should I?”

“…It’s not over yet. Then you will be able to fully experience what life is like.”

“Hmm? Haha! You think troubles disappear just by changing clothes? Aren’t you taking life too lightly? If it were anguish that could be solved by that alone, I wouldn’t be here in front of you like this.”

The students’ eyes widened at those words.

“Oh! That was good just now.”

“I did cut the lines down to 1/10… but this seems like it could continue?!”

“Right. How should we shorten it? Ah, the next person’s sense will be important here.”

The student holding the script pressed his forehead with his other hand and opened his mouth.

“I can solve that anguish for you. Though I may not be a very great being, if you’re willing to mingle with me and step into this world, I will gladly submit to your wishes.”

“…Hmm, is that so? No take-backs.”

Elias raised the corners of his mouth with a face full of greed.

“…”

“How much are you planning to exploit…”

“…Act as Faust, not yourself! Faust should hesitate once!”

“Ah, don’t expect too much from someone who’s only read it once~”

At the student’s scolding, Elias laughed and leaned back against his chair again.

The students resumed their conversation, scribbling notes in their scripts.

“It keeps getting cut off. Faust needs to ask what he has to do in return… but Mephistopheles has to avoid talking about the price.”

“There won’t be just one or two of these situations, can the next person answer right away without creating gaps?”

“It seems difficult. The friend playing Gretchen especially isn’t the type to handle this kind of thing. Improvisation won’t work.”

The students’ faces darkened once again.

Elias tapped the table to draw their attention.

“Hey, why not. I’ll just do it.”

“No, actually, even if the next person can handle it, if you do it like you just did, Faust’s part gets reduced by more than half and there’s tons of time left… We can expand the compressed parts, but finding places to add lines and making the kids memorize them in the remaining three hours is… not enough.”

“I’ll somehow fill the remaining time. Say what I want to say, you know.”

The students who were half-convinced exchanged glances, then shook their heads vigorously.

“No, no way. Somehow I feel like if we let you just talk, our class will get disciplined.”

Just then, Leo returned to his seat.

The students avoided Elias’s gaze and greeted Leo.

“Oh, Leo!”

“What are you doing? Did you find a substitute?”

“No. There are too many lines to memorize in three hours.”

Leo sighed softly with a face that said he expected this and spoke.

“I see… When I told the Professor, he said he’d contact other schools. Let’s go look for someone too.”

“What about the substitute?”

“There’s no one to take the role, so it can’t be helped. He said if no one comes by 30 minutes before, he’ll remove the name from the participant list, so let’s try to find someone before then.”

The students closed their mouths with complicated expressions.

One student glanced at me as he turned to leave, seeming about to say something, but disappeared at his friend’s urging.

Elias clicked his tongue and turned toward me.

“Let’s just do our own thing. Should we go spy on Class 1? I’m curious how boring their rehearsal is.”

“That won’t get us a stamp, is that okay?”

“Ah, right.”

Like Narke, Elias wasn’t someone who looked particularly strange wandering around with me.

There was this advantage because he was considered such an unpredictable person.

Elias looked around and said.

“Well, isn’t there anything you’ve wanted to try?”

“You’re saying the exact same thing as Leo.”

“Haha! Well, this is your first festival.”

I have nothing to say to that.

Rather than having fun, I’m concerned about a student disappearing on a day like this.

‘No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem like just skipping.’

Since there’s no way for me to go out and search right now, I have no choice but to wait until the Professor and Leo find them.

As the sun set, it was getting chilly. Even wearing a winter robe, there was nothing I could do about the cold wind hitting my face. I got up from my seat and pointed to the Student Union Building where the practice rooms were.

“We got the stamp, so let’s go watch Class 1’s play like you said.”

* * *

The Class 1 practice room we went to was completely excited.

Now I could see that forty out of fifty students had gathered here to watch the play practice. At the same time, they were rejoicing that Class 2’s protagonist had been absent from practice and hadn’t appeared at all.

“…”

Everyone seems to think it’s just skipping.

They don’t seem to be considering the possibility of crime at all.

The number of people going on stage is less than ten, but was this really an event that the entire class would be so enthusiastic about…

It’s highly likely this happened because of the competition with Class 2.

Elias, whose affiliation was ambiguous, looked at the practice room window with an indifferent face as we walked through the Student Union Building hallway.

A Class 1 student who had come out of the practice room spotted Elias and shouted.

“Elias! Which side are you cheering for?”

“Who knows? Guess.”

“It’d be Class 2.”

“I don’t know about that, but aside from classes, sacred music is a bit much for a festival.”

“Faust is right though?”

Elias shrugged his shoulders.

He didn’t seem to think that was particularly appropriate either.

The Class 1 student exaggeratedly tilted his eyebrows and joked.

“By the way, what’s Class 2 going to do without a protagonist~ Are they going for a Mephistopheles one-man show?”

“He’ll come.”

“But I heard there’s a first-year who hasn’t been seen for more than half a day. Did you know? First-year Department of Magic students were going around asking if anyone had seen him.”

“Oh, really. I see.”

Elias answered halfheartedly and shook off the Class 1 student.

‘…’

There’s another person who hasn’t been coming?

It’s festival day and there’s frequent entry and exit from outside, so it could happen… but the fact that they’re actively going around asking means there was something strange on their end too.

Either they went out together and got separated, or someone said they’d go out briefly and disappeared.

‘Instead of searching among themselves, they should properly report it to the school.’

They might have freely gone outside since it’s festival day, but at the same time, everyone’s guard is down because it’s festival day.

“Elias.”

“What~?”

“…Never mind.”

Sorry to say, but the school wouldn’t trust Elias’s words.

I can’t just grab anyone and ask them to tell the school, so I should find Narke and ask her to report it to the school.

Just then, our class’s Vice-Class Representative came to the Student Union Building and started distributing scripts to Class 2 students.

Elias waved the script and asked the Vice-Class Representative.

“You want us to memorize this now?”

“Yeah, try your best.”

“There’s less than two hours left! Let’s just go with improvisation!”

“No way, I tried it with the kids and it failed in less than 10 minutes. It’s fine when it’s just a few lines, but as it goes on, we can’t guide it to the conclusion. Huge gaps appear too.”

Elias also seemed to understand what I meant and just nodded without raising any more objections. Unless we had practiced coordinating multiple times with improvisation in mind, it would be difficult otherwise.

“Oh, right. Lucas.”

The Vice-Class Representative looked at me and asked cautiously.

“By any chance… did you cram for the midterm exams?”

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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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