Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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“Ugh...”
I looked down at the opponent who still seemed unable to spare the energy to listen to me.
At that moment, something warm trickled down from deep inside my nose.
I recoiled instinctively for a second, but I immediately realized what it was.
‘The curse is similar to before.’
I wiped the blood away with the back of my hand and smiled.
Using this much mana and only getting a nosebleed? That’s not bad.
I didn’t know the mechanism causing the bleeding, but as long as it didn’t burst from my brain or heart, I could keep going.
When I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up, his eyes—still unfocused from the pain—turned toward the blood on my hand.
“For a moment, I thought you might not be Pleroma after all... but sure enough, you’re no human.”
Strauch, who hadn’t batted an eye even with mana-mixed blood, was impressive all over again.
Anyway...
‘It’s about time for the interrogation.’
Last time I calculated, I figured I could cast magic four or five times.
Back then, I’d gathered it all at once, but I couldn’t do that now.
I’d used it once already, so let’s say I had four chances left.
Two of those would go toward dismantling his spatial magic.
But even that, I needed to hold back on now.
The good news was, if he didn’t want the spatial magic destroyed, he couldn’t attack me aggressively either.
I yanked him up and kicked the chair aside.
“W-Wait!”
Wait, my ass.
I channeled divine power into the hand gripping his collar and slammed his head into the floor with my full body weight.
Boom—crash!
“Guh...!”
When I couldn’t use mana properly, I had to move efficiently.
This level of impact should have separated him from the space he was in.
—Enter through the narrow gate.
His pupils dilated wide in an instant.
Success.
Seeing the mind manipulation magic take hold confirmed the double-space magic had shattered.
“Double-space magic. The spell you were using. That’s what you call it too?”
“......”
He slowly nodded.
“Yeah, instead of thinking up a new name, you must’ve been plotting what else to extract. How far has this technique spread?”
He didn’t answer.
It was a vague question, to be fair.
I let out a light breath and rephrased.
“Is it circulating only within the Osnabrück Diocese?”
No way, but let’s expand step by step.
The moment I thought that, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
He nodded to this question too.
‘...It hasn’t left Osnabrück?’
After a whole week?
That would mean the diocesan bishop of Osnabrück was either sitting on reports for achievements or had betrayed the organization...
High chance it was the former.
“Can your master assemble everyone in the Osnabrück Diocese?”
He nodded.
If master meant the diocesan bishop, could he really gather every believer in the diocese on a single day?
What an impressive hierarchy. Cults really were something else.
I smiled and tightened my grip on his collar.
Time-wise, this was about the end.
“What’s your master’s name?”
“...Ain...”
“Name.”
I asked again, but he repeated the same.
Ain was the English indefinite article equivalent.
Since he kept saying it, it seemed like that was the full name, not an article.
In that instant, robed priests warped in.
Crucifixes around their necks bore the Pleroma insignia.
I had no intention of resisting—it’d be a waste of points—but before I could even lift my head, my vision went black.
* * *
How much time had passed? I opened my eyes again, feeling that same soft sensation.
Someone stood in the distance, back turned.
‘...Eli?’
No, not him.
The color was Elias-white, but even with his hair tied back, it reached his waist.
As I blinked to focus, he whipped around.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
He smiled softly, eyes crinkling.
“I heard you were looking for me. So, what do you want to say?”
“......”
His face was unforgettable at a glance.
Not just because he was handsome—subjective standards aside—it truly was.
No human aura clung to his features.
I pulled up his status window.
Ainsidel
Favorability: -10
Title: A _
Stamina: +9.5
Mental Strength: +6
Mana: ?
Skills: +7
Impression: +1
Luck: +5
Traits: Charm (Lv.5), A _ (Lv.8), Permanence (Lv.10)
‘Ainsidel.’
This was the master of the guy I’d just met.
The diocesan bishop had come personally, just as he’d said, “I’ll bring someone worth knowing.” What luck.
‘And... favorability of -10?’
Interesting.
Even through the status window, no first name—just the surname.
Ainsidel was a Prussian noble surname.
I sat up and said,
“You saw everything through your subordinate.”
“Haha! So suspicious. Good thing you live up to your reputation.”
Ainsidel perched on the bed and continued.
“I didn’t see it myself, but I heard about it. So, what did you want to tell me? I cleared my busy schedule and came all this way because you called... If it’s nothing much, I’ll be pretty disappointed.”
“What do you plan to do with me?”
“Make you what you said, I suppose.”
Yeah, no better option.
I scrutinized his features one by one and asked,
“How?”
“Didn’t Bern tell you? He’s smart; he must’ve been trying to turn you into that.”
Who the hell was Bern, talking like that?
As I stayed silent, he shook his head with a tsk. In a flash, his hand shot to my throat.
Crash!
“......”
“How’s that? Just like what you did to my subordinate earlier.”
He murmured in a languid tone.
Ignoring him, I peeled myself off the bed and tended to my head where it had hit the floor.
As expected of Pleroma—starting with the irrational.
I met his eyes straight on and said,
“Who’s Bern?”
“Hahaha!”
He laughed so hard his uvula showed.
In that moment, I was certain.
I hadn’t even properly conversed with him yet, but I got it.
This guy didn’t operate on common sense.
Everyone I’d met so far had some semblance of it.
But this one embodied the world’s idea of Pleroma.
‘A diocesan bishop should be in Pleroma’s leadership, and to reach that level, you apparently had to be this insane.’
He stopped laughing maniacally and looked me dead in the eye.
“We haven’t introduced ourselves properly, have we? I’m Ain.”
“First time I’ve met someone asking to be called by just their surname.”
I sneered, and Ainsidel tilted his head like he didn’t get it.
“Your surname is Ainsidel.”
“Wow, how’d you know it’s a surname?”
He stroked his chin intrigued, then tightened his grip on my throat.
“See? That’s more like it. The one who killed Bern can’t be anything less than extraordinary.”
“......”
Now I got it.
I kept my eyes locked on his as I thought.
He was talking about Werner Strauch.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“No, you did.”
“Well, that works too.”
It was true I’d driven him to the brink of death.
Even after my answer, Ainsidel’s smile didn’t fade.
To him, it was now a given that I’d killed him.
He was plotting the next step.
No way he could be this calm otherwise.
“What’ll you do? Don’t you think even Pleroma have family and friends?”
“And you pretend not to know that the people Werner Strauch tried to kill were someone’s family and friends?”
He smiled without answering.
“That kid could’ve lived forever. What’ll you do? Huh? Should I turn you into Bern instead?”
“......”
He was insane, confirmed.
Derailing the conversation to ramble his own thoughts? Already hopeless.
As I glared at him contemptuously, he grinned and patted my shoulder.
“Kidding.”
He sprang up and muttered,
“We have plenty of time... Let’s get to know each other slowly.”
“Need be?”
“We’ll see a lot of each other. I like you.”
Favorability -10 was rock bottom, yet he phrased it like this. The world was vast.
But we wouldn’t get to know each other.
Now I knew how to move.
I summoned the retry window.
Taking in Ainsidel’s form, I muttered,
“Rewind.”
* * *
“...Strauch was based in Osnabrück. It’s the contract he made with the Pleroma diocesan leader there.”
Everhardt was speaking to me.
I rubbed my neck and took a deep breath.
“...Hoo...”
At that moment, Leo and Richthofen both looked at me.
“What’s wrong.”
“Nothing.”
I brushed it off vaguely.
The dried blood on my face was gone now.
My vision was still dizzy from the ability’s aftermath, but the shock headache had vanished clean.
Everything was back to normal.
I took a deep breath and said to Leo,
“You can drop the disguise now.”
“...What?”
Leo narrowed his eyes.
Fair reaction. No useful info the whole time, and now this out of nowhere.
‘Drop the disguise’ meant shatter the illusion on his body to call Narke.
The mana cloaking Leo was Narke’s, and if it broke, Narke would judge it a crisis and come to us.
‘One variable, though.’
Before coming here, we’d explained everything to Marian Baum.
And asked that if someone identical to Michael Schultz appeared on the surface, to bring him to the catacombs.
He gave no reply.
Makes sense. We’d used him.
No blame if he refused.
So first, break Leo’s illusion and see if Marian Baum honored the request.
“......”
Leo stared at me, then snapped his fingers.
The illusion mana shattered, revealing Leo’s true form.
As expected, neither Everhardt nor Richthofen flinched.
I looked at Everhardt and said,
“Let’s go.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll send you over there. But on one condition.”
Everhardt tilted his head, studying my face.
“Everyone here except you has to go. Can you manage that?”
“Pleroma are guarding it. Impossible.”
Yeah, figured.
I aimed my wand at his heart and said,
“Then make it possible.”
“......”
I felt Leo’s baffled stare, but he didn’t need to know I’d thought this far. Handle it yourselves.
With that thought, I continued.
“I’m heading over now to recover your group’s stolen techniques. You know how strong they’ll get with them, right?”
“...Recover?”
Richthofen asked blankly.
Everhardt stared at me, then said,
“...If we stagger the time, it’ll work. An hour after you go, we head there.”
“Why didn’t you say that sooner?”
I turned to Leo.
“Tell Narke: Grab some random guy, steal his clothes, and come to me. Also, find the Osnabrück diocesan cathedral and archives locations and pass them on.”
“Got it.”
Luckily, Leo nodded nonchalantly even at the unethical bits.
I downed the potion without hesitation.
* * *
Same room as before.
“They say you took strong medicine in the catacombs and hurt your stomach. We’ll prepare a proper feast starting next meal.”
“Yeah, get out.”
I shooed the servant away quickly.
Then, I unfolded the paper I’d held since waking.
Narke’s handwriting.
‘Fast.’
It held the illusion magic formula I’d put on Leo.
No idea how he knew what I wanted and prepped it so quick, but perfect.
I memorized the formula on the paper and applied it to the form I’d seen earlier.
Unbound white hair cascaded down into my view.
An illusion that even altered my own perception? Impressive.
I cautiously touched my face. It felt like a different bone structure from Luka’s.
First time trying it, but I’d memorized right—my voice had changed too.
Felt gross, honestly, but best option.
I roughly wiped the streaming nosebleed and stood.
Crash!
The servant I’d seen before burst in confused, eyes darting between me and the empty bed.
“...Master? Your Excellency Nikolaus is...”
Fast. He must’ve sensed the mana I pulled from the core.
Recalling the bishop’s leisurely tone, I opened my mouth.
“I sent him.”