How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 77

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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 (77)

Could there have been a better choice?

Did I permanently block the path to atonement with my own hands until the very end?

Wasn’t there a more fundamental solution besides erasing memories?

‘I could have erased emotions through drugs.’

Even now, if I wanted to restore the memories and give him medicine, I could do it easily enough.

But I don’t want him to feel any more pain than this.

If Gelda Asmann holds resentment toward me and expresses anger, I can accept it.

Apart from the greater cause, on a personal emotional level, I did commit a wrong, so I have no intention of avoiding my fault with various excuses and justifications.

But then what?

Does it end with letting him harbor resentment?

‘That can’t be right.’

When emotions driven by evil are directed at me, I’m not the only one who suffers damage.

Anyone led around by emotions of any kind is bound to suffer themselves.

Tormented day and night by an unresolved past, grinding their teeth in resentment, retracing even the first greeting of their first meeting, wondering if this wouldn’t have happened if they had acted differently—I could clearly see a future of imagining tens of thousands of cases that might have unfolded differently, self-blame, and feeling hatred.

‘…Of course, through that process, they might eventually become free later on.’

If so, should I have watched Gelda Asmann struggle with the wounds I inflicted and grow enough to contemplate the past only after a long time had passed?

A third party might say that even that is within the realm of sin I must bear, but at least I cannot do that.

Some wounds can be overcome even if a difficult process follows, but some wounds cannot.

Also, there’s no guarantee that wounds will lead to growth, no guarantee that he won’t live a life filled with distrust, unable to trust others until the day he closes his eyes.

Even if you think you’ve overcome it, there are things that remain deeply rooted in life.

Don’t you know that even if you no longer dream of that day, there are things that seep into your very existence?

‘Even if I can’t change the past, if I can prevent him from going through all this process in the future…’

Naturally, I have no choice but to take this path.

“…Lucas, look at me.”

When I stared into space without responding, Leo sat down to match my eye level and tapped my shoulder.

“…!”

Leo finally stepped back only after confirming my expression.

I squeezed out a voice that wouldn’t come and asked.

“Do you have an antidote?”

“I brought it. How many stages?”

“Stage 10, double dose. Is there a way to make it now?”

Leo couldn’t hide his shock and looked back and forth between me and Gelta with his mouth open.

“What happened?”

“…Excuse me, what’s the situation right now? Why are you here, and did we perhaps do something…?”

Gelta couldn’t finish speaking and looked at her own appearance and mine with suspicious eyes.

At those words, I could see Leo’s face turn cold.

From another person’s perspective, it would be absurd for a criminal to say such things, but seeing Gelta speak normally with a face that hadn’t been hurt by me, I could feel the reality of the end.

“Nothing.”

I still drew out a faint sound from my main voice.

“I’m sorry for everything until now.”

“Pardon?”

This ends things with Asman.

Now I’m the one who needs to process emotions.

I’ll have to try not to recall everything that happened until now.

I cleared my throat and called Leo.

“Leo.”

“Tell me.”

“Please deliver something about divine power to the investigation bureau later.”

Leo nodded silently, seeming to understand the situation.

The investigation into Gelda Asmann will be conducted based on documents I obtained rather than her own confession.

Since I erased her memory, there isn’t much she can say about what she did.

“What about the others? Did the plan execute properly?”

“You’re asking about the plan first in this situation?”

Leo continued speaking while using healing magic on me.

“Elias will be coming here soon. We found other regional Pleroma and broke their brainwashing, and Narke is on standby with other Papacy mages. We did everything you wrote down, so don’t worry.”

“Good, thank you. What time is it in real time right now?”

Leo, already knowing that time flows differently between the two worlds, answered without much question.

“I remember it being almost 6 PM.”

I had come here at dawn.

I’ve been here for quite a while. It felt like more than two days subjectively.

But that’s not what’s important right now.

“The news must have already come out. Can we cross over to that side now?”

“It would be cutting it close.”

That’s what I thought. Then I have no choice but to do it myself.

I immediately looked at Gelta.

“Ms. Asman. You still have something left to choose.”

“A choice?”

“You remember that you’re Pleroma, don’t you, Ms. Asman?”

Gelta’s face hardened as before.

“I know that Pleroma made me, but I…”

I know what words will follow.

Since I completely removed the brainwashing, she wouldn’t have favorable thoughts toward Pleroma.

“I know what you’re thinking, so you don’t need to worry. More than that, we don’t have time.”

“…We don’t have time?”

“Your blessing is about to be revoked. So before that happens, I’ll ask again. Do you want to live?”

“Of course…! Yes. Wait a moment. Couldn’t you give me at least a simple explanation?”

“Lucas.”

Leo, seeming to have received contact, touched the artifact at his ear and called me.

As far as I know, there’s only one contact that would come at this time.

The moment I shifted my gaze back to Gelta, her face crumpled completely.

“Aaaaah!”

Gelta clutched her chest area and collapsed to the floor. Her fingertips began turning black and burning.

This is the first time I’ve seen such a sight.

Of course, I’ve never heard of being able to save Pleroma with divine power either.

‘I don’t know if it will succeed, but…’

Seeing that Narke executed my plan as is, it means it’s not something definitively impossible.

When I stopped by the school, I wrote down how to handle cases where Pleroma like Asman existed.

I also needed to think about those who were innocent citizens until a month ago being killed again by Pleroma.

‘Actually, I thought the leadership would revoke the blessing from the time I made Kopfmann unconscious, but they didn’t.’

Considering that Gelda Asmann lived for nearly four days in this world’s time after that, you can see that the leadership and lower ranks aren’t very closely connected.

So the most likely time for revocation is when it’s reported in the newspapers. No matter how disconnected they are, they would read the newspapers.

I grabbed the screaming and convulsing Gelta and pressed hard on her chest area.

—And I say unto you again, Ask, and it shall be given you…

“No, no… Aaaaaaaah!”

Just when it seemed to get better for a moment, Gelta screamed again.

I continued speaking while feeling Leo’s healing magic seeping into my body.

—…For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

This divine power incantation ends here. But the situation isn’t over yet.

Then I have no choice but to continue. I immediately brought out another incantation.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Him, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has…”

At that moment, the strength left Gelta’s body.

Because he looked dead, Leo hurriedly checked his pulse.

But I could tell immediately that he wasn’t dead.

‘The divine power has settled in.’

He can hold on for at least half a day now.

I slowly removed my hand from Gelta’s heart.

This was the last of my responsibilities.

Ridiculously, the past time flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern.

‘…At first, I thought it would end once I secured the orphanage list.’

I secretly thought it would be simple. Now I can only laugh about it.

“Lucas?”

Leo, who had suddenly raised his head, asked in a flustered voice.

This long plan was truly over.

With that thought, drowsiness poured over me.

* * *

“Are you awake?”

I turned my head toward the voice I heard from beside me.

Leo was looking down at me. Elias was also sitting in front of him, and both were wearing unfamiliar uniforms.

I could see the same room I had seen before, indicating we were in Bavaria.

“Why are you so slow~? Aren’t you waking up too late!”

Before I could open my mouth to say anything, Elias joked with a smile. Leo looked at Elias with an expression that said ‘is that really what you should be saying right now?’

I just smiled and looked at the blood pack connected to my arm and asked.

“Blood transfusion?”

“Yeah. You lost a lot of blood, so we had no choice.”

I didn’t know it was enough to require a transfusion, but since it took a long time, a lot must have been drawn.

As I was lost in thought, perhaps trying to change the subject, Elias patted his shoulder repeatedly.

“Look, Luca. I don’t use crutches anymore.”

“Congratulations.”

I guess it was already time.

It’s December now, so it was time to remove them.

Elias has been living quite quietly due to his treatment, so I’m looking forward to what kind of trouble he’ll cause from now on.

“You can’t trust that and start running.”

“Hey, I won’t run~”

Elias answered in a tone that didn’t inspire any confidence.

Seeing these guys acting as usual made me feel like I was back to daily life after a long time.

“Come to think of it, where is Narke?”

“He briefly returned to the Papal States while the portal was open.”

Since divine power was needed to handle the blessing issue, the Papacy had asked for a mage to be summoned.

But… now that I actually heard the portal was open, I was unnecessarily worried about Hyung in the Papal States.

I should be worried about what excuse that bastard will use to come over here.

“So, when is the portal supposed to close?”

Perhaps understanding the intent of my question, Elias spoke in a voice full of mischief.

“Good question, Luca. Leo has a gift for you.”

“What?”

Leo let out a hollow laugh.

Elias tore out a page from a newspaper and suddenly held it out.

The Papal States aren’t safe either… 12 regions within the Papal States under Pleroma’s influence

Below that was an article stating that the Papal States also had selected areas for personnel supply like the Empire’s 48 regions, and they were set to benchmark the Empire’s case in earnest starting from the end of this month.

What is this now?

I never found anything like this?

“This is…”

“After you found and sent the documents, we went up through Eric Asman. I wasn’t even thinking about it, but this guy threatened and extracted it.”

I didn’t expect these friends to go that high up. Come to think of it, they weren’t the type to just sit still.

More than that…

Who’s doing the threatening now?

More than anything else, I laughed at that fact and looked at Leo, who responded with a ‘what now?’ look.

Actually, since the Bavarian Mages attack incident had put things on high alert, there was a possibility of bringing personnel who had been deployed externally back domestically, but since traces of Pleroma were also discovered in the Papal States, that possibility was greatly reduced.

Since it was moved according to a treaty concluded between the two countries, even more so.

So… now, as long as Pleroma runs rampant anywhere, Hyung, who must protect the safety of the Papal States, cannot return to the Empire.

With things like this, it should be fine to expand my range of action a bit more.

‘I’ve properly tied Hyung’s ankles.’

I smiled as I took in the article word by word.

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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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