How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 88

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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 (88)

“….”

This is the first voice I’ve heard since the basement on the first day.

I raised the corners of my mouth and tapped the desk.

‘I’ll need to keep this.’

The moment I heard it, the resolve I felt on the first day came back to life.

Adrian Ascanien smiled brightly.

[Congratulations. I’m truly happy that you’re doing well.]

[Ah, have you heard news of Prince Lucas Ascanien?]

[Of course. I heard about his first place when he destroyed the second stronghold in Ravenna.]

[At that time yesterday, one of his team members was seriously injured.]

[That’s right. My younger brother has always been my weak spot, but hearing that he worked hard and achieved good results gave me strength I didn’t have. Thanks to that, I was able to do his share for my comrade.]

In a normal family, he would indeed be a weak spot.

A younger brother seven years his junior, born with major constitutional problems, would inevitably be in such a position.

In reality, those constitutional problems don’t even exist, and far from being a weak spot, he’s considered someone who must be killed soon.

‘Anyway, I knew he’d come out like this.’

He can’t block his younger brother’s path after returning to the Empire, and my news has already spread widely.

Moreover, my participation in the experimental competition has ruined his plan to keep me at home.

The vacation at Imperial 2nd Education Institute has already started from the day we took the competition, and I’ve notified them that I won’t go home for the first week of the competition.

‘He’s telling me to read the room.’

The Antagonist also knows that Luca won’t take this as pure encouragement.

I pulled out the filter and crumpled the newspaper into my bag.

Then, the door opened.

Leo raised his eyebrows when he saw me sitting at the desk.

“Oh? You were awake. It’s only six-thirty.”

“I wanted to check today’s newspaper.”

“Ah.”

Leo had apparently already seen Adrian Ascanien’s article, nodding with a troubled expression.

It seemed awkward for him to add anything carelessly. I pointed to the basket Leo brought to change the subject.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, letters that came to the secretary’s office. I only brought today’s.”

Leo placed the basket on my desk.

Since a week ago, countless letters had been coming for Nicolaus. The same was true for Elias.

I sat on the edge of the bed and opened the letters one by one to read them.

‘How thoughtful.’

People of more diverse age groups and backgrounds than I expected had sent letters to Nicolaus.

Since it’s something I wouldn’t do myself, I feel even more grateful.

‘It’s a shame I don’t have time to reply to each one.’

I put the read letter back in its envelope and reached into the basket to pick up another letter.

‘Hmm?’

A thick letter caught my hand.

Judging by how much content was stuffed in, the envelope looked ready to burst.

“You inspected all of these before bringing them in, right?”

“Of course. Everything brought into the royal palace must be inspected.”

That means there are no blades or drug powders inside.

There probably isn’t anyone who would go that far to show malice, but you never know, so we must be thorough.

‘I’m curious what content they wrote at such length.’

[To the respected Count Nicolaus Ernst]

It was a letter that started ordinarily.

After flipping through the first three or four pages that could have been written as a report on this incident, the writer’s personal thoughts finally began to appear.

[…Count Nicolaus is just like me. You must understand my feelings well. We’re all people working to eliminate Pleroma, aren’t we.]

I checked the sender, but it wasn’t a name I’d heard before.

Counting them, there were nearly ten pages of letters. That means they wrote seven pages of just personal thoughts.

‘…Hmm.’

I’m grateful for the sentiment, but this level of passion is a bit overwhelming.

Of course, since it was about me and Pleroma from start to finish, there wasn’t anything written that could be a dangerous element.

While I was reading the last page of the letter, it became noisy outside and someone knocked on the door.

Knock knock knock—

“Class Representative, let’s go! Let’s experiment!”

“…That’s a Class 1 student’s voice?”

The Class 1 representative couldn’t come due to insufficient grades.

So they’re talking to Leo…

It’s quite surprising that a Class 1 student is calling the Class 2 representative like that. Coming to a place where students from across the nation gathered, it seems like solidarity formed just from being from the same school, regardless of class divisions.

Leo chuckled and approached the door.

“They keep calling me that…”

When he opened the door, two Class 1 students were standing there.

“Oh, you were both awake. We need to hurry. We can’t lose 10 bonus points!”

All students from our school placed within the top 50, earning a total of 10 bonus points for the entire team.

However, we can’t be satisfied with just that.

Our school isn’t specialized in magical pharmaceuticals.

While we’re not complete outsiders since we’ve studied magical pharmaceuticals for nearly 10 years since the 3rd Education Institute, this place was full of students from national magical pharmaceutical specialized schools who sweep awards whenever they enter competitions.

There was a reason they were acting like this from 6 AM.

Leo packed his bag and went out to the living room.

“Right, we should go.”

* * *

“Alright, let’s start practicing now.”

Leo stood in front of the blackboard and tapped the desk.

I came here yesterday too, but this laboratory was similar to modern laboratories except for being decorated more classically.

The equipment and safety devices were all properly equipped, just like everything I’d seen in school laboratories before.

The two Class 1 students seemed proud that they came early because they called for it, muttering to each other.

“Hey, we’re totally diligent.”

“We have to be diligent. If we want to beat Bavaria Magic Medical Specialized School.”

“Why are you stating reality?”

Leo waved his hand to organize the students’ conversation and said.

“Right, as you said, what we learned at school is basic here. It comes out much more difficult, so let’s prepare properly according to the exam format.”

“Good, let’s work hard!”

“Right, first, is anyone planning to apply to Imperial 1st Education Institute’s medical department?”

No one raised their hand.

That makes sense, because if they were, they would have gone to a specialized high school optimized for magical medicine.

One Class 1 student let out a dispirited laugh.

“Hey, this is trouble. I hoped not, but we’re all general track. If the announcement had come out early, we could have prepared properly for at least this competition.”

Since everyone here is unrelated to magical pharmaceutical studies, the other students except Leo don’t even know the exam trends.

“I knew there wouldn’t be any. Still, since we’ve come this far, we can’t take the exam given to us carelessly. Right?”

“Of course. If we’re capable, we should get all the awards we can!”

“Good, I’ll explain starting with past exams. Last year’s magical pharmaceutical 64th round exam was wound healing medicine.”

“That’s easy?”

“It looks easy. But… What part of the body is the wound healing medicine we learned at school used for?”

“Can’t that just be used anywhere?”

“Were there specific body parts?”

“It’s used on limbs. Only when arteries aren’t damaged.”

At my response, the Class 1 students turned their heads sharply to look at me with wide, round eyes. Rather, their reaction made the Class 2 students start looking at the Class 1 students with puzzlement.

The Class 2 students were already accustomed to me speaking up, but those students had never taken classes together with me, so it was understandable.

“That’s right. The wound treatment medicine required here in the 64th round is premised on ‘assuming tetanus vaccination has been administered, in case of arterial damage.'”

‘They already have tetanus vaccines here too?’

I think I might have heard about it briefly. Magic really is amazing….

The students frowned and asked.

“Then, so what? We didn’t learn that stuff.”

“That’s right. But problems that can’t be solved at high school level don’t appear. How should we handle this—has anyone thought about it?”

Narke raised her hand.

“We’d need to make blood vessel generation medicine too~ We could spray that first and then spray the wound treatment medicine, right?”

“Exactly. This level of difficulty appears in the 64th round. Manageable, right?”

“Oh, then it’s easy.”

You need excellent adaptability in exam situations to easily handle such applications.

Since Narke and Leo seem capable of thinking quickly, there’s no worry about this part.

The problem is….

‘I know the given time is short.’

If you don’t internalize the recipes for making each basic medicine, even if you recall the manufacturing method, everything ends due to lack of time.

I asked quietly.

“What’s the exam time?”

“For this problem… 7 minutes are allocated.”

At those words, a Class 1 student’s jaw dropped.

“…What?! When do we do the heating!”

“Heating takes 5 minutes. So two out of five should make medicine to suppress excessive bleeding, and three should make wound treatment medicine.”

“Wow, our coordination needs to be perfect.”

The Class 1 students shook their heads.

Leo gave an ambiguous smile at their reaction, then spoke again.

“There’s one more thing needed here. How long does it take for regular wound treatment medicine to take effect?”

“About 30 minutes.”

“Right. To pass last year’s first exam, you had to succeed within 60 seconds.”

“….”

Everyone fell silent.

A Class 1 student barely collected himself and asked.

“…Don’t they not sell that kind of medicine…?”

“Right, exactly. Actually, there’s a reason it’s not used.”

Leo spoke while skillfully mixing ingredients and heating them.

Then he stabbed the experimental skin placed beside him with an awl.

Blood began flowing like from human skin.

When he turned off the fire and sprinkled the boiling medicine on it, the damaged tissue swelled up in less than 10 seconds.

“Oh, did it work?!”

“Wait a moment.”

The students frowned and stepped back.

The skin bubbled like foam and kept surging up above the epidermis.

“Even a slight mistake in control causes side effects like this, making it too dangerous to sell. But exams from the 64th round to the finals require this kind of medicine. And without side effects, at that.”

Everyone can make regular medicines well.

Only for difficulty adjustment do they make you create medicines not sold in the market.

‘Isn’t this a training ground for future dark mages….’

Unfortunately, since this is also part of entrance exams, it can’t be helped.

As standards keep rising, they have no choice but to create problems of increasingly bizarre difficulty each year.

Leo looked around at the students and said.

“Actually, just passing the 64th round would be miraculous for us. Until last year, all teams that advanced to the 32nd round were students from Bavaria’s Magical Medicine Specialty School.”

“…You mean this year is the first time students from outside the specialty school entered the exam hall?”

“It’s almost the first time. So let’s set our goal at exactly advancing to the quarterfinals, nothing more.”

Everyone nodded with enthusiastic faces.

Since teams that make the quarterfinals receive full support from the Bavarian Royal Academy, advancing to the quarterfinals was many students’ goal.

Of course, that’s my goal too.

To properly make the most of the final week, I need to get into the quarterfinals where I can receive special education from the Royal Academy during vacation.

I stood up from my seat and said.

“Let’s start even a minute earlier. We’ll need time to get used to this.”

“Right, everyone put on safety goggles and gloves too. I’ll time you.”

“What’s the topic?”

“This same one. I’ll step aside for now, so try it among yourselves.”

Leo looked around at the students and placed his hand on top of the stopwatch.

“Start.”

“Hey hey hey, who can make blood vessels!”

“I’ll do it with Lucas.”

Narke poured the base magic medicine into a beaker.

“Since we need layers, let’s go from outer membrane to inner membrane. Hmm, all the ingredient names for magic medicines are unfamiliar.”

“For the outer membrane, tissue replication medicine, and a little guidance medicine.”

When I explained the abbreviations written on the bottle, Narke nodded.

“Good, thanks. For the guidance medicine for the inner membrane, I’ll go with the 1.5cm learning range one. This is the widest here.”

“Okay.”

Like that, after about 3 minutes, our medicine was finished.

But….

“Ugh, really! We should be starting heating by now.”

“Ah, no good. Should we just blast it with high heat? Let’s set up two alcohol lamps.”

“Oh?”

“….”

“…What’s with the ‘oh,’ we’re approaching 4 minutes now.”

Leo made a realistic comment.

But even without such reality checks, the Class 1 students’ faces were already gloomy despite their playful words. They were also glancing around apologetically toward us.

“…How much do we add for 3% in 100mL?”

“What? Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“Ah, ah! 3mL!”

Their minds must have frozen due to the time limit.

Since it was time to heat but they were still making medicine, nothing seemed to register due to thoughts of failure.

Their hands selecting ingredients were also wandering around aimlessly.

Since this was learned at the beginning of second year, it would be natural to forget it now that a semester has passed.

Unless it’s magic medicine learned from very early childhood, it’s difficult to remember manufacturing methods for long without a related major.

You couldn’t say they were negligent in their studies in that regard.

‘I understand, but… this is problematic.’

Normally I’d let each person do according to their ability, but not now.

I opened my mouth.

“Hey guys.”

“…Huh?! Why?!”

As if expecting words like ‘aren’t you doing this properly’ to follow, a Class 1 student asked in surprise.

“…No, I’m not trying to scold you. Are you guys good at calculations?”

“Huh? Yeah. Somewhat.”

“You don’t know 3% of 100mL but you’re somewhat good? Can I trust that?”

“S-sorry, that was…. I was so nervous my mind went blank. So why?”

“Do you think you won’t be nervous if you memorize the manufacturing method again?”

“Of course.”

The Class 1 student’s eyes instantly turned serious.

Yes, that’s the spirit I wanted to see.

I nodded and gestured toward the table with my chin.

“I’ll call for you. Give it a try.”

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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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