How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 66

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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 (66)

‘I feel like I’m going to die.’

I can’t see the clock, but it seems like about three hours have passed.

For three straight hours, I’ve been training without a single break, so now sweat is flowing like water. Because of that, I can barely keep my eyes open.

I usually train for about three hours, but this time the intensity of training was different from usual.

I was too busy blocking the attacks that Antagonist was unleashing like crazy to find any opportunity to launch a proper attack on him.

‘…Is this bastard taking out his anger on me…’

Of course not, but the training intensity was so absurd that such thoughts naturally came to mind.

“Get up.”

“….”

Leo clapped his hands, meaning I should get up quickly.

Antagonist also looked tired since it was rare for him to go this crazy like today, but he didn’t seem to be as exhausted as I was.

When I tried to get up from my position but unintentionally collapsed face-down again, Leo asked in a tone completely devoid of sincerity.

“Want to rest a little?”

“….”

Only four days had passed since I was injured by Strauchi, so my stamina hadn’t fully recovered.

And yet I’m being pushed to the limit like this, so it’s killing me.

‘…Still, now isn’t the time to worry about that.’

Pleroma’s warning target is Nicolaus, and Bavaria suffered damage as the price for supporting me.

Thinking about that, I have to endure at least this much.

I got up on my knees and raised my wand again.

“No, let’s continue.”

* * *

“You’ll need to rest well until the weekend. I’ll contact your homeroom professor, so let’s have you hospitalized for about two days.”

That evening, I went to the School Hospital.

Since there were classes on Thursday and Friday, I needed to get permission to legitimately skip them somehow.

Still, I didn’t need to fake illness to get a rest recommendation. Having trained for a full 11 hours from 6 AM to 6 PM, excluding 1 hour for meals, I was already a walking zombie.

‘Zombies originally walk though…’

Look at this. My brain state isn’t good either.

I let my gaze wander, then remembered there was a person in front of me and answered calmly.

“I’d like to rest in the Dormitory, is that possible?”

“With this condition, it would be better to just rest in the Hospital.”

“I’m most comfortable in my own Room.”

“Hmm, then come back on Friday. Let’s check your condition once more then.”

Good. This secured time to get my skill to 4 points.

I left the Hospital and looked around.

Thick fog filled the streets as if it was about to rain. Due to the incident, there were no students walking around School, and no voices could be heard from the buildings.

It was so quiet that it was hard to believe yesterday had been a festival.

Recalling what happened yesterday, a corner of my heart began to feel bitter.

I walked quickly to shake off the thoughts.

‘Should I check my status window briefly during travel time?’

Lucas Rene Ascanien

Title: Count Nicolaus

Stamina: +1.4 (+0.1) [+4.4]

Mental Power: -0.9 (+0.2)

Magic Power: ?

Skill: +2.85 (+0.15) [+5.85]

Impression: -9.9 [-6.8] [+6.61517849]

Luck: +1.25 (+0.1)

Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power, Charm (Lv.2), Retry (Lv.1)

It was 2.7 when I first started.

Now, 12 hours later, it’s increased by 0.15.

Since it’s positive, I was keeping even 0.001 in mind, but thanks to training while reviving my stamina that was completely depleted by medicine, I was able to raise it relatively quickly.

When I ate dinner at the Dormitory and moved back to the Training Ground, Leo, who was sitting in a corner with his bag, handed me an envelope.

“The investigation results came. You were looking for the list of Orphanage sponsors.”

“That’s fast. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ve set the clock, so let’s start training from 30 minutes.”

At my request, Wittelsbach contacted the Prussian Investigation Bureau.

Given that, I thought it would take a bit more time this time, but the results arrived at a similar speed to when I left it to Bavaria.

I flipped through the file and read through the names.

‘Hmm… Maybe because they’re extras from the very beginning, there are names that catch my attention but I’m not certain.’

To remember for a long time, I need to review a bit, but it’s already been over two months since I came here.

The number of sponsors on the list is about 20.

Since I asked them to find only people who made regular donations within the past year, the scope was already narrowed.

‘Still, it would take time to visit all 20 people.’

Fortunately, I clearly remember that the two Pleroma were family to each other and had been donating quite a lot of money each time.

Considering that point, the candidates narrow down to 4 people.

‘Since they’re family, I can think of it as investigating two teams.’

Two teams is worth meeting directly.

Now, I just need to think about what profession Narke and I should disguise ourselves as to approach them.

If things go smoothly, after that I’ll move together with Elias.

As I was reading the list, Leo picked up his bag and asked.

“What did the Hospital say?”

“The Hospital naturally told me to rest.”

“For how many days?”

“No need to know. We’re going to train anyway.”

“….”

Leo couldn’t bring himself to say that was true and closed his mouth. He thought about something deeply, then asked carefully.

“Did I teach too quickly without giving you time to recover?”

“Are you joking now? Just do it like we’ve been doing.”

“No… I was worried about that, so I asked home to prepare some medicine.”

“I already got some from the School Hospital though?”

“This will be more effective.”

Leo took out a leather pouch from his bag.

His confidence is amazing. But if it’s Wittelsbach, that makes sense. Without much response, I took out the medicine Leo had sorted and ate it.

Leo rummaged through his bag, took out a box, and said to me.

“Oh, Friend asked me to give you this too.”

“Hm?”

This guy keeps pulling things out of his bag.

When I opened it, there were miscellaneous writing supplies with the School emblem stamped on them.

It has exactly the visual that School would give as prizes, so it’s not surprising.

In the transparent box that came with it, krapfen and blancmange were lined up.

“It’s for the kids who participated in the play, but the food was probably added by the kids. They said thanks for helping out.”

I don’t feel like eating snacks, but it must have been hard to prepare this in such a chaotic situation, so I appreciate the thought.

I should thank them on Monday.

Then Leo pointed to the file I was holding.

“So, you think there are Pleroma among this list?”

“It’s nothing to lose, so I’m going to try looking. Anyway, Narke likes going out in disguise, so we’ll investigate all the suspicious ones.”

Right, I need to disguise myself for this task too.

However, I can’t do it as Nicolaus.

Nicolaus, who has a lot at stake with every move he makes, should only appear at the most decisive moments.

Before that, it’s best to show up as something that’s neither Luca nor Nicolaus.

Leo didn’t ask any more questions and nodded at my words.

“Hmm, I see… Narke would be perfect for searching. What are you going to disguise yourself as?”

“I’ll have to think about it from now on.”

Beep—

As soon as I finished speaking, the stopwatch rang.

Leo took out his watch, closed the lid, stood up from his seat, and smiled.

“We’re going to train. Will you be able to think while doing that?”

* * *

Ding—!

Congratulations!

‘Achieving 4 points in ‘Skill” successful!

‘Route 1 — 〈 Proposal 2 〉’ confirmed.

“Hey, the kid’s dying. It wouldn’t be strange if he went straight into a coffin right now.”

“…”

Elias, who came to watch, clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

Then he looked at Leo and shouted.

“You met Strauchi last week. Don’t you know?”

“I know. I’m also a bit… sorry about that.”

Leo covered his ear on Elias’s side and frowned.

Leo’s excuse is actually true.

From around the time when Bavaria joined hands with the Papacy to declare war against Pleroma, and the Imperial Court hurriedly joined in to form a three-way alliance, Leo also moved while considering my stamina.

It was me who returned that considerate attitude to its original state.

‘The faster I raise it, the better.’

Since I’m doing it anyway, I should raise it significantly while the stage is set. Otherwise, since I have my foot more in politics than in combat magic, improving my skills will keep getting delayed.

‘I achieved it a day early, so let me check the stats.’

Lucas Rene Ascanien

Title: Count Nicolaus

Stamina: +2.2 (+0.8) [+5.2]

Mental Power: -0.1 (+0.8)

Magic Power: ?

Skill: +4.0 (+1.15) [+7.0]

Impression: -9.9 [-6.9] [+6.61523261]

Luck: +1.75 (+0.5)

Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power, Charm (Lv.2), Retry (Lv.1)

‘Even though my skill increased, stamina is still a problem.’

How could health that went to the other world over 10 years be perfectly recovered in just 2 months?

At least the final score is 5.2, so there’s no problem using magic, which is fortunate.

‘Anyway, now my pure skill score has reached the average level of students here.’

No matter how childish these guys here seem—which is true—in terms of ability, they’re at the Empire’s highest level for their age group.

If before I covered insufficient technique by pushing through with magic power, now I’ve reached a similar level to them.

As Elias continued to give Leo reproachful looks, Leo changed the subject.

“So, did you bring the materials?”

“Of course.”

A few days ago, I asked Elias for disguise materials.

Thanks to his thorough preparation for always going around causing trouble, he had many useful materials.

I knew that information from the novel, but when I naturally brought up the topic, he got even more excited and showed me various disguise materials.

Elias opened the bag he brought with a loud sound.

“Ta-da~”

“What’s that?”

“Glasses.”

Elias held the glasses up to my face.

“Perfect for an intellectual image. Try them on!”

The glasses Elias brought were thin silver-rimmed glasses.

Unlike the glasses I knew, the temples weren’t curved and were attached to each other—a design you’d see in a museum.

Of course, the lenses had no prescription, but the surface was quite damaged, so looking in the mirror, my image appeared considerably blurred and hazy.

‘Satisfactory.’

“I brought clothes too, try them on!”

I put on the coat he handed me over my shirt.

It was clothing with absolutely no aesthetic sense, cleverly avoiding fashion trends and looking excessively heavy for the season. Even though it was November, a fur coat that weighed down the shoulders was a bit excessive.

Moreover, even though Elias and I are similar in height, the clothes were quite large. It seemed like Elias had also prepared these clothes specifically to create a stuffy-looking image.

“Wow…”

“What.”

Elias didn’t answer my question and shook his head.

Leo, who was watching from the side, said.

“Still looks like Lucas though. Just looks like someone who’d distribute illegal propaganda.”

“Now we need to change the color~”

“What do you mean looks like someone who’d distribute illegal propaganda?”

I’ll interpret that as having a ‘please believe in the faith’ kind of feeling.

I snapped my fingers as Elias suggested.

The color of the hair falling into my vision became bright. My eyes probably turned blue too.

“Hmm, that won’t work.”

“Everything suddenly became bright, which is a bit much. This looks somewhat like Adrian Ascanien.”

Since both of them reacted this way, I can’t go with this.

I’ll need to memorize a new formula.

I took out the divine power color booklet I had brought and made Leo and Elias sit down.

“If you don’t like any of them, let’s pick some colors.”

* * *

After various twists and turns, Narke and I disguised ourselves as local newspaper journalists.

When we tried to find some useful profession, age became an obstacle and we couldn’t use it.

To easily convince people that we could move around freely at a young age, we’d need to be at least nobles or mages, but both of these could be seen as a big burden to commoner sponsors.

Still, if you’re a high school sophomore, with good styling you can look like someone in their twenties, so we did look reasonably adult now.

‘And even if this doesn’t work, I need to prepare for any possible situation, so I should hide being a mage.’

When Monday came, I took Narke, who seemed mysteriously in better spirits, and caught a carriage heading north of the capital.

I had already arranged for someone from outside to get interview permission from the sponsors.

I drew the curtain to the window connecting to the coachman and spoke to Narke.

—”Narke.”

—”Oh, it feels fresh when you talk like me too~?”

—”Right… Later, while I’m leading the conversation, use your ability. I’ll bring up some potentially sensitive topics, so don’t be flustered.”

What’s the point of having 30% persuasiveness if I don’t use it?

I should make good use of it so they don’t storm out in the middle of conversation when I bring up topics that might sound a bit rude or offensive.

—”Okay, got it. But the red hair is fresh, Lucas.”

—”Does it look strange?”

—”No. How should I put it? It’s not because of the color, but overall the way you’re dressed up looks exactly like a twenty-something intellectual who wants revolution.”

—”…”

Anyway, it’s welcome that it looks different.

Narke dressed more neatly than I expected, and with his hair slicked back and glasses like mine, the image of the Narke I knew didn’t immediately come to mind.

Narke said while looking outside.

—”I’m curious which of the two might be Pleroma. Your speculation definitely seems trustworthy.”

I hadn’t told him how I narrowed it down to those two, but he seemed to have figured it out with his insight ability.

―”Nothing comes to mind?”

―”Yeah, I haven’t met them yet. Even if I try to predict, I need to be in that situation for it to work well.”

That makes sense.

Anyway, it’ll be revealed soon enough when we meet them directly, so there’s no need to hope for luck.

After about 30 minutes, the carriage stopped on a road at the outskirts of the capital.

We knocked on the door of the building at the address we had received in advance.

“Is anyone there?”

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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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