How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 79

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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 (79)

As the building where the Pope primarily presides, the interior was the most magnificent among all the religious buildings I had seen so far.

I had visited as a tourist in reality as well, but seeing the scene without people in modern clothing or bustling crowds made me truly feel the ceremonial purpose of this place.

As I approached along the long nave, someone stood up from the priests’ seats arranged in a circle around the Chair of Saint Peter.

“You’ve arrived.”

“It’s good to see you, Your Excellency Baresi.”

The Pope, who was the Bishop of Rome, was not present, and there were nearly twenty auxiliary bishops and priests.

The bishop called Baresi raised his eyebrows and spoke.

“I never expected you to gather the entire Roman episcopal college for an honorary priesthood ordination on such a chaotic day, Your Eminence.”

“Haha, I was at that scene too, so please bear with me.”

“More than that, this is the first time in my life I’ve seen this place used for a mere examination meeting. My common sense is being completely shattered—what’s going on?”

This is something I want to ask too.

Since honorary priesthood only exists in the Roman diocese, it wasn’t strange that they brought me here.

Even so, this wasn’t the only place where ordination examinations could be held.

Especially since this was an urgently convened meeting, it seemed I was the only candidate being examined. If they opened this session just for me alone, there was even less need to offer the cathedral.

“It is His Holiness the Pope’s decision.”

Narke snapped his fingers, changing his vestments to cardinal colors as he spoke.

“Now, we have four hours left before the portal closes. Has everyone arrived?”

“We just need the Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to arrive.”

‘…Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?’

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was a deliberative body that had the medieval Inquisition as its predecessor.

The method of proving faith in this place, not reality, was obvious. They would start by using special abilities on me, just like Narke did.

‘I wonder how they plan to make me prove my faith after bringing me here.’

Just then, I heard the shout of a guard enhanced with amplification magic.

“Monsignor Clement Lorenzo has arrived!”

That person must be the Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I looked into the eyes of the monsignor walking from afar and opened his status window.

Clement Lorenzo

Favorability 0

Title: —

Stamina: +4

Mental Power: +7

Mana: +6.5

Skill: +8

Impression: +7

Luck: +3

Traits: Divine Power, Discerning Eye (Lv.9)

‘Level 9 Discerning Eye.’

It was the same type of ability as Narke’s.

But in terms of nature, it couldn’t be compared to Level 2 Insight.

Once the monsignor took his seat, Narke began speaking with a smile.

“First, I offer my gratitude to His Holiness the Pope for permitting the use of this place and to all of you for attending despite the late hour. The proceedings will be conducted not by me, but by Cardinal Cataneus.”

One of the auxiliary bishops who also held the rank of cardinal stood before the pulpit.

“I am Valdobino Catanio. Since this is a simply convened examination, we will omit the formal liturgical ceremony due to time constraints. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”

He looked at the priests and recited the Sign of the Cross in Latin.

Even though many things had changed, this wasn’t much different from what I knew in reality.

“From now on, we will discuss the qualifications of candidate Nicolaus Ernst for honorary priesthood ordination. Since the recommendation examination requirements have already been met, we will discuss three qualifications here.”

The cardinal continued speaking.

“First, the candidate must possess a pure spirit of service. Cardinal Farnese, please begin your opening argument regarding the first qualification.”

“Understood.”

Narke stood before the pulpit without any written speech.

He made eye contact with each of the priests once.

“Dear brothers. We are passing through the longest night in history. Now that the doctrines of faith and promise are being used as tools to justify greed, the Avignon Papacy and the Sack of Rome may be nothing compared to today’s dangers.”

Narke paused and looked around at the priests.

The bishops were nodding and waiting for Narke’s words.

“Ernst has consistently opposed Pleroma. He has unhesitatingly thrown himself into matters where nobles would not step forward for the safety of all people, and prevented the tragedy of the entire Empire being devoured by mere insects. It may not be felt because we stopped it before the experiment succeeded, but you know that we almost handed over all innocent lives in the world to Pleroma.”

‘…He’s packaging it this way.’

Less than half a day had passed since returning from the Cathedral of Asman, and I lacked the energy to argue and debate, but it seemed I didn’t need to worry.

“And today, he saved countless lives once again. The total number of victims who returned alive today is about 300, and considering that their plan wasn’t implemented for even a month, it’s clear that Ernst prevented countless future victims.”

Narke continued speaking without pause.

“I dare say that in the 10-plus years since Pleroma appeared in the world, there has been no one who threw their body away for order. Even if you grabbed anyone right now and asked, no one would say they could drop into the middle of enemy territory to help strangers whose faces they don’t know.”

Narke continued speaking while making eye contact with the priests.

“This is something that cannot be done unless you love your neighbor as yourself. That concludes my statement.”

Narke bowed silently and withdrew to his seat.

The cardinal who stood before the pulpit again opened his mouth.

“Regarding the first qualification, are there any objections?”

Someone lightly raised their hand.

From his vestments, he seemed to be someone who had obtained honorary priesthood.

“Please speak.”

“How long has it been since Ernst completed his confirmation?”

“…”

A subtle smile appeared on his face.

He was asking a question unrelated to what was said earlier.

He definitely knew something.

Narke placed his hand toward me and answered instead.

“That is an unrelated question.”

“I apologize. But it’s the most important issue. Is it true that no baptismal certificate exists under the name of Nicolaus Ernst?”

“…”

Narke’s face hardened.

—”Let me address this. You don’t need to be bothered by not having a baptismal certificate first. It’s ambiguous to say you don’t have one in the first place.”

Narke continued in a cold tone.

—”That person was selected based on divine power alone. He only received baptism because he was born into a religious family, but he’s someone who wields power through priesthood and dishonors us.”

He was openly criticizing someone while using honorifics in case divine power interference came. I could feel Narke’s position once again.

—”Most honorary priests are like that person. The reason they’re blocking you now is because they’re worried it might cause problems for their own episcopal selection later.”

Then the cardinal stopped the priest.

“Roman Priest, this is unrelated talk. Now, if there are no objections, let’s move on to the next item.”

The assembly was quiet.

There seemed to be no disagreement that Nicolaus had been active in the direction the Church pursued.

“For the second qualification, Nicolaus must be a believer who has completed confirmation. Cardinal Farnese, do you have materials to prove this qualification?”

Narke relaxed his stern expression, stood up from his seat, and asked.

“Your Excellency Cataneus, I’d like to ask first. There’s no requirement to fulfill a certain period after confirmation, is there?”

“That’s correct.”

Then, the same priest from before raised his hand and stood up again.

“Your Eminence Farnese must be well aware of what was decided at the Council of Trent. ‘Baptism given in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a true sacrament even if administered by a heretic’—that is, even if Ernst is Protestant, we can recognize it through proper procedures as long as he was baptized.”

The priest spoke passionately with a deliberately serious face.

“Yet no baptismal certificate exists—this sounds like Ernst is either a complete pagan or an atheist. The Vatican Council defined atheists as heretics.”

“…”

“Since you emphasized that ‘fulfilling a certain period is not necessary,’ you must be planning to argue that he can just receive baptism now. But we must think carefully about whether it’s proper to baptize a heretic.”

The priest sat down with a greasy smile on his face.

‘So this is how the brakes get applied.’

In fact, Lucas Ascanien had already completed his confirmation.

Since baptisms here are performed with long-lasting mana mixed in, touching the body reveals whether someone has been baptized.

‘Strictly speaking, there’s no problem with qualifications.’

But if that happened, it would openly reveal that Nicolaus was a fabricated identity.

Even with a mask on, they wouldn’t fail to anticipate such a thing, but there’s a big difference between directly experiencing it and leaving it in the realm of interpretation.

Then, one bishop spoke up.

“That’s right, Your Eminence. The fact that we cannot find a baptismal certificate from Count Ernst is quite problematic.”

“Correct.”

Narke began to smile at those words.

“That would be the case. Even if we complete the baptism right now, the issue of faith would still remain. So, let’s proceed with divine power verification first. Bishop Baresi, please show us a demonstration.”

Here it comes.

Since divine power equals faith here, proving it this way isn’t strange.

The bishop brought the chalice that was on the table and lightly tapped its rim with his wand.

Whoooosh—

A pure white light like sunlight rose harmoniously. It was a clean power of a different quality from Narke’s divine power, which had strong killing intent.

The bishop turned to me and said.

“This is how you do it. This is to determine whether divine power is fake or not, and how pure it is, so just tap lightly without putting in too much force.”

“Yes, I understand.”

I took Narke’s papal wand and stood on the platform.

‘He said to do it lightly.’

Since I’d already exhausted all my power by postponing Asman’s death, I couldn’t use it strongly even if I wanted to.

When I tapped the rim as I had seen, a cool breeze rose refreshingly with a small sound.

KWAAAAAAANG—!

“…”

“Hmm?!”

“W-wait! Wait a moment!”

Along with a gust of wind, pure white light spread out as if it would blind everyone immediately. The chalice had already shattered and fallen to the floor.

Several bishops hurriedly stood up from their seats and waved their wands. The magical light sources on the rattling ceiling slowly found their place within the bishops’ barriers.

“Block it properly!”

“It’s, it’s done!”

“Ah, so this is what happens.”

Narke sighed while laughing as if finding it amusing.

The bishop who barely regained his composure shouted.

“…Th-this… is a building with a very long history, Count Ernst…!”

“…”

Without saying anything, I even imagined a future where I’d become the culprit who destroyed a world cultural heritage site and be recorded in history books.

“That’s not Count Ernst’s fault, Your Excellency Baresi. Didn’t you clearly see that he only tapped it lightly?”

Narke, who had been standing back, approached my side.

“It seems this place suits Count Ernst well. This happens to everyone, so it’s not strange. However…”

“…However?”

“Such a reaction has only occurred three times throughout the history since magic.”

“…”

“I believe everyone has nothing more to say about divine power at this point.”

Narke looked between me and the people across from us, then continued with a smile.

“But theoretically, it’s not impossible to learn and use divine power even without faith. So finally, I’d like the Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to complete the verification.”

“…!”

Calling him directly when I should be avoiding him?

Even though he himself said I was an atheist when looking at me?

At this point, I’m curious how far Narke is thinking ahead.

The undersecretary stood before me with a reluctant expression, then looked at me and made the sign of the cross.

“…”

The hall became as quiet as a mouse.

Finally, the undersecretary looked at the bishops and spoke.

“There is no problem with performing baptism.”

“I see. That means he’s neither a heretic nor an atheist, right?”

Narke winked at me and asked with a relaxed smile.

“Of course. Didn’t the Minister already know this?”

‘Not an atheist?’

Does this mean that with level 9 discernment, I appear to be religious?

This was quite surprising. I wonder what kind of ability this really is.

But more than that, there’s definitely something Narke hasn’t told me.

‘More importantly, there’s something else I’m questioning now…’

Is he the minister?

When I looked at him with an incredulous gaze, I felt Narke finally avoiding my eyes.

Narke cleared his throat and called another cardinal.

“Your Eminence Cataneus. I think there should be no problem with the second qualification at this point.”

“Please wait a moment.”

It wasn’t the cardinal who answered. One of the bishops shook his head.

“Even if he has a faithful heart, giving baptism now for honorary ordination is also not desirable. We could be accused of simply appointing someone who hasn’t even been baptized over the long years just because he’s popular.”

“That’s right. Your Eminence Farnese, you’re thinking about something wrong. External circumstances are also important for the Church.”

The priest who had spoken earlier raised his hand again and spoke.

Narke smiled and delivered a sharp retort.

“That’s not something honorary clergy should say to each other. All honorary positions are externally impure existences for the Church. Didn’t you all come in based solely on divine power?”

“Your Eminence, please watch your words.”

One of the bishops said this and then presented another opposing opinion.

“There’s no doubt about Count Ernst’s divine power. But… no matter how honorary the position, elevating someone who hasn’t even been baptized until now is problematic.”

Priestly ordination cannot be accomplished without the power of bishops.

Of course, the bishop of the Roman diocese is the Pope, but these auxiliary bishops have been practically delegating the actual authority for a long time.

But now there was no dark expression on Narke’s face.

Rather, he was faintly smiling.

‘I was a bit puzzled at first… but I can’t help but smile.’

If Nicolaus doesn’t have a baptismal certificate, performing baptism would solve the problem.

But the issue here is that the body itself has already been baptized. Receiving baptism twice is not permitted.

So Narke would have had to adjust the situation to prove Nicolaus’s faith while ensuring he doesn’t receive baptism.

In other words, everyone’s dissuasion was necessary.

Now the key is what he’ll say…

Then, Narke spoke.

“Very well, good. You’re all of the opinion that it’s impossible to send Count Nicolaus to His Holiness the Pope as a candidate for priestly ordination. Is that correct?”

“That’s right.”

The bishops nodded.

Narke smiled gently and spoke.

“Then, if it’s appointment rather than ordination, there would be no problem.”

“…!”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

And I too had to work to manage my expression.

‘…If it’s appointment… naturally there would be no problem.’

‘Appointment’ is an authority that only the Pope possesses, and no one can refuse that decision.

And whether in reality or here, there’s only one case where the term ‘appointment’ rather than ‘ordination’ is used.

Narke smiled gently and raised his voice.

“I propose the cardinal appointment for Lord Nicolaus Ernst.”

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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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