Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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“What?”
It felt like I’d been smacked across the head.
Had I heard wrong?
Had I been hit so many times I’d gone insane? Or maybe, without realizing it, I’d been hoping to die? This guy in front of me might actually be a fake I’d conjured up. Since my ears had already stopped working, I could be hearing things that weren’t there....
Boom—!
In that instant, Leo twisted his upper body to block the attack.
My ears had already blocked out sounds above a certain decibel, but in my blurred vision, I could see him gritting his teeth with an expression I’d never seen before.
“......”
I got it.
The Leo in front of me was real.
I’d never even imagined he might not handle an attack with ease. He’d always been the standard of magic to me, the teacher who could beat me anytime... This Leonardo, surpassing my imagination, had to be the real one.
Leo stomped his foot, erecting a barrier behind us.
The vibrations bearing down on us retreated. He poured all his mana into the barrier, then slapped my cheek.
“Can’t hear me?! Lucas...!”
I could hear. I opened my mouth as quickly as I could, but it was like our senses of time were out of sync. Before I could even respond, Leo wrapped his hand around my throat and began muttering spells like a madman.
[Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, even as your soul prospers.... He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.]
His usual crisp voice was gone. I realized his composure had completely shattered as his voice began to tremble. With a choked voice, he recited the final spell.
[...Behold, all things are made new.]
Boom—!
Amid the relentless explosions closing in, Leo pulled back from my face and gripped my shoulders.
“Turn it back. That’s enough now, Lucas. Stop this and go back.”
“......”
“I might not be able to erase your memories, but this isn’t right. If this is for the greater good, then I...”
He knew about the retry.
My heart pounded wildly.
“If this is the greater good, I don’t even know what justice is anymore. I’m still too immature to understand. I’m not a brilliant politician like Mother, nor do I chase justice as doggedly as Elias, no matter if it stems from spite or whatever. I’ve always just followed the path laid out for me. I know maintaining that path requires many lives, but my heart can’t accept it.”
Yeah, I figured.
But that didn’t mean I could back down.
He’d said the old humanity would massacre the Jewish people, but he wasn’t all that different.
If the new humanity were truly transcendent beings as he claimed, he wouldn’t spout nonsense about suppressing the old humanity.
Dividing things into simple black and white and judging hastily is a telltale sign of how little someone has thought for themselves. More things in this world than you’d think can’t be split neatly like with a sword. Knowing I can’t reduce my entire thought process to zeros and ones, what wisdom do I have to define justice for others?
Even if we can hardly call them the same species anymore, the new humanity’s desire to trample others and rise—stuck in binary thinking—is no different from the old humanity’s.
He embodies the very inferiority he condemns in the old humanity. That’s the kind who’ll end up massacring them. That’s exactly why we can’t stop at just saving the professor.
As if knowing what I’d say, Leo continued, responding to my thoughts.
“I know. I know. They stand on peace built from their ancestors’ blood, killing countless people just for profit. But...”
Leo wore an expression I couldn’t read.
“Why does it have to be you?”
“......”
“Why do you have to be the one to judge them? I’m not talking about just jumping into this mess, Lucas. What gave you the power to turn back time, forcing you to be the one to fix their evils? What’s granting you this chance? This isn’t on your side. It can’t be. No one who’d burn you alive for peace could be on your side. Not even if it’s this world’s god— that doesn’t change that it doesn’t care for you.”
Leo suppressed his quickening breath.
The chairman, perhaps refusing to believe I’d been reborn, attacked Leo’s barrier in an agitated frenzy unlike before. He’d realized I hadn’t baptized him out of boredom—there was some scheme behind it. If I got caught again, an interrogation to uncover that scheme awaited.
At the same time, countless wizards warped into the room.
Leo blocked the attacks aimed at me and gave a faint smile.
“...Still, right now, I can only be grateful for that ability. I hate this situation where I know it’s choking the life out of you, yet I have to rely on it...”
“......”
“Promise me, Lucas. Say you will.”
Leo grabbed my blood-soaked hand and cast a healing spell.
His mana was completely unstable. The moment I realized it, the barrier he’d spread behind us began to crack.
“Go back. Let’s meet in the past.”
* * *
In that instant, I lifted my head.
Had I always seen the world through eyes like these?
Far off, a red sun was setting, and gray skies descended.
My fatigue lingered, but my vision was clear, like I’d gained new eyes.
I was standing firmly on my own two feet.
The realization hit me, and I reflexively clenched my fist. All my bones were intact. The tips of my fingers, once missing nails and stained with blood; my hearing; the throat and head that had stung relentlessly after drinking water—they’d all returned to normal, leaving me feeling lighter than ever.
“Lucas?”
I stopped abruptly, and Narke, who’d been walking ahead, turned back. A welcome face.
Now that I noticed, Narke’s black hair had turned gold. Mine was an even brighter gold, stabbing at my eyes. I hurriedly looked past him.
Far away, I could see the alley leading into Primrose Pass.
I was back.
To the moment before meeting Ludovica for the second test.
‘It’s over.’
Tension released, and I laughed.
Exhaustion brought on drowsiness, narrowing my vision. Realizing it, Narke’s face filled with shock as he opened his mouth.
* * *
‘...Huh?’
I had no idea how much time had passed.
I’d been on the street just moments ago, but when I opened my eyes, I was suddenly under the covers.
Must’ve just fallen asleep from fatigue.
But...
‘What the hell.’
I spat a curse and bolted upright.
What I should’ve seen upon waking was my room. No, after the incident, my room had been sealed off, so it should’ve been my hospital room.
I quickly turned my head.
Navy carpet curtains, unseen in the dorms, hung at every large window. The room was twice the size of my dorm, filled with antique-looking furniture that reminded me of my room in Anhalt. Or maybe Adelbert’s.
But in the end, it was a place I’d never seen before.
‘No way, again...?’
Had someone warped me here too?
No. I couldn’t go through that madness again. Not humanly possible, and my patience had worn so thin it’d pierced the core. Clutching my frantically pounding heart, I focused my mana. Fortunately, mana control was flawless.
‘This time, I’ll just wipe them all out.’
Instinctively, my fist clenched tight. I had no idea why I hadn’t blocked the mana, but I was grateful for it now.
Boom—!
“W-whoa, Lucas!”
The door flew open, and Narke poked his head in.
The moment I saw him, the tension in my shoulders melted away.
“...Narke?”
“You’re awake. Haha, you just collapsed on the street out of nowhere—I was freaked out~”
He approached, turning my face this way and that as he used his insight ability.
“Not like you chugged a whole bottle of booze or anything. You okay?”
“Fine. But why are you here? No, where is this?”
“Oh.”
Narke gave an awkward smile on his own, then glanced at the door.
As the room quieted, steady footsteps echoed clearly from outside.
They stopped right in front of the door.
Creak—
Leo stood there, his ivory hair neatly combed as always, staring at me with his usual impassive face. His pale eyes revealed no thoughts.
“......”
“You two talk~”
Narke didn’t properly answer my question, just laughed and slipped out of the room.
Leo roughly organized the stack of documents and odds and ends in his hands with a swipe, then sat on the sofa beside my bed.
“Get some sleep?”
“......”
“That bed’s from the palace. Not sure if it suits you.”
I didn’t respond, just stared at him intently.
This wasn’t the time for casual chit-chat.
Leo met my gaze with the same expression, then smiled faintly.
“You kept your promise.”
“......”
He knew.
He knew what I’d said in that time which had already vanished.
“I completely failed to keep the first one, though.”
This time, I couldn’t respond for a different reason.
‘No words for this.’
I’d thought turning back time, getting healed by Narke first, then meeting him would make it a perfect crime. Never imagined a variable like this.
Instead of pressing me, Leo just smiled and extended his hand.
Without a word, I placed my hand atop his. Leo twirled it around, then murmured softly.
“Looks fine.”
“It should be.”
Bones, nails—all back in place. Even my skin tone had returned to normal.
Leo set my hand back on the bed and said,
“Body might be fine, but not everything else.”
“......”
“So, did you get all the info you wanted?”
“Yeah. Everything.”
“Good work.”
I looked up at him.
From anyone else, maybe. But from Leo?
This was on par with Leo telling Elias, “You’re right,” in terms of shock value.
“You said you’d tell me once it’s all over. No idea what ‘it’ is, but seems like there’s still a long way to go before I hear it. Am I wrong?”
“No. But...”
He was right. I couldn’t tell him everything yet.
But for this part, there was no reason to dodge.
That time had become known only to Leo and me, and since we both already knew what the other knew, maybe no need to voice it.
But I had to. It was the bare minimum courtesy to a friend.
“As you already know. I can turn back time.”
“......”
“Not that I can always choose the exact point freely. Like you said, I fell into Primrose Pass that day, got the info, and came back. Same this time.”
I glanced down at the blanket over my legs and continued.
“You’re wondering when I got this. It was the day I met Strauch. I don’t know why it was given to me either.”
Leo, who’d been watching me intently, nodded.
“...Thanks for telling me.”
He crossed his arms and leaned back against the headrest. After a long silence, Leo stared into space and said,
“Since you trusted me and told me, I should too. Lucas, I can see the time you erased.”
I instinctively held my breath. I’d expected it, but hearing it straight was different.
How else could he show up out of nowhere and tell me to “turn it back”?
“Precisely, I can only see the time left in you, and time related to you. Just a guess, but... since you’re the one with the ability, the traces of erased time linger only in your mind. I can just read them.”
“Since when.”
“The moment you were dragged to Primrose Pass, turned back time, and warped straight to my room.”
“......”
I nearly let out a hollow laugh.
‘...He knows everything.’
“At first, I thought maybe you’d gone off to do drugs instead of the police station. But when you came to school and interrogated the professors, I was sure. Ah... you’re talking about another timeline now.”
“That alone?”
“No matter how well you hide it, you always act like someone who just fell into that place and came back, and you know info you shouldn’t.”
He’d sensed traces of the already erased time.
‘Gone to do drugs instead of the police station,’ he says. The marks from their experimental drug had vanished perfectly with the time turn-back. No way Leo could’ve known.
Taking my silence as insufficient evidence, Leo smiled faintly.
“You can’t warp on your own anymore either, Lucas.”