Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family (196)
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"Is it over?"
As I stepped out of the detention center, a voice so unmistakably hollow rang out that I couldn't pretend not to hear it.
Turning my head, I saw the Crown Prince waiting for me, holding a box of liquor with just one attendant at his side. The attendant greeted me politely the moment he spotted me and then warped away somewhere.
"It was truly touching. Even though the professor has no idea you're his student, to get a full hour of visitation time."
"Do you think that's something you should say?"
"It's hurtful that you won't even call me 'Your Highness.'"
He approached me slowly, right up to my nose.
"Even if I did use your professor, he's the homeroom teacher for my dear cousin, so I figured he'd be useful and asked for him as a bonus. Good call on that."
He's talking about the blood, no doubt.
I sneered and asked,
"You think it was a good call?"
"Who would've thought such a big fish was buried in there? If I hadn't used Johannes Ron, I never would've met you."
He bored into my eyes. The expression fit perfectly.
His gaze was fixed so intently on mine that it felt like he was examining the pattern of my irises.
Just as my patience was about to run out, he turned his head and spoke.
"Don't glare at me like that. The professor will live out a peaceful life beyond his natural lifespan without any issues. If the money runs out, the imperial family will provide support. If he needs servants, tea, or a house, we'll handle that too. If he needs the best treatment in the country, he'll receive it for life under the name of Hohenzollern."
"......"
"Hard to believe? You lent him to me for a week, so I'll return more than that. Once I release those who've served me, I never let them live bad lives."
"What a ridiculous creed."
"It's the way of a monarch to repay loyal retainers who give everything with utmost devotion. Don't you think?"
He turned to me with a radiant smile.
"With that in mind, why don't you consider it too, Excellency?"
"My answer is no to all of it. If you're just planning to waste my time like this, I'll be going."
"You're in a hurry."
His tone shifted again.
He slightly blocked my path.
"I called you here today to apologize. Because I have something that could be helpful to you."
"......"
"What if it's something I've never shown to anyone in my lifetime? Does that pique your interest?"
When I just stared at him without responding, the Crown Prince gave a gentle smile and grabbed my elbow as he stood beside me.
"I'll warp us. I promise it's not dangerous."
He waited for my consent.
Anyway, I'd already talked it over with Leo. If anything happened, he'd come after me immediately.
If that didn't work, we'd turn back time.
"Let's go."
I closed my eyes, and a cool breeze brushed my face.
'A forest?'
The air carried a fresh scent of trees.
I slowly opened my eyes.
To be precise, it wasn't a forest—it was a park thick with trees. Though calling it a park felt off, as it seemed untouched by humans for ages. Even now...
'No, there's one.'
Just as I thought no one was around, I spotted someone leaning against a gas lamp, lying down. He was dressed almost like a beggar.
The Crown Prince approached the man without a care for his ragged appearance.
"Daniel."
"......"
"Long time no see."
The Crown Prince sat in front of him and waved his hand. The beggar began to react.
"Mmm."
"Come back to your senses."
"Ah, long time no see. Elise?"
The Crown Prince didn't reply.
Instead, the beggar kept babbling.
"Good timing. Know what I saw yesterday? A kobold tried to eat my leg. We need to exterminate these mad monsters."
"......"
What was this nonsense? Was he not right in the head?
The Crown Prince, accustomed to it, smiled gently.
"Kobold? That's just a fairy from folktales, Daniel. Time to wake from your dream."
He pulled out the liquor he'd brought and poured it straight into the beggar's mouth without hesitation.
"Cough...!"
He'd snorted some up his nose and jolted upright, coughing violently.
Surprisingly, his eyes cleared instantly, and he looked at us with full awareness.
"Yeah, that's it. Elise, long time no see."
'What was "that"?'
"Haha, looks like the world makes sense now."
"Yeah. But my opinion on exterminating kobolds hasn't changed. They're burrowing into my ears, eating my brain."
"Wasn't it your leg earlier?"
"......"
By this point, I was certain.
This wasn't just sleep-talk. The man wasn't mentally ordinary.
The beggar nodded toward me.
"Who's the one next to you?"
"My friend."
"Friend? Don't cause trouble. The young man next to you doesn't think of you that way at all."
Daniel scolded him.
The Crown Prince, knowing full well about his mental issues, just kept smiling softly no matter what he said.
"So, why are you here? At this hour of dawn."
"It's almost morning. Don't beggars have to get up early to scavenge?"
"You take care of me every day. Why would I?"
"Hahaha. Glad you're doing well."
The Crown Prince laughed and pointed at me.
"Nothing much, but I'd like you to tell me about this friend. Focus on things he doesn't know."
"Ugh? No way. If that's the case, you leave."
I nearly let out a hollow laugh at the sharp refusal.
I managed to hold it in out of courtesy, but the Crown Prince laughed freely.
"Ah, you only talk if I leave?"
"Yeah. Or tell your own story in front of this young man."
"Hmm, not bad. I want to stay friends with Sir Ernst forever, so I'll bear this loss."
He looked at me and said,
"Fine. But give me one more sip first."
The Crown Prince poured liquor into his mouth wordlessly.
Irritating as it might be, his expression remained serene, his movements practiced—as if this was routine.
The beggar gulped it down greedily, then looked at the Crown Prince with slightly sharper eyes.
"Yeah. You've piled up more karma since I last saw you."
"Karma, huh."
"Parents or children, you're no different from Herod. My head hurts from the wailing, so tone it down."
"Quite the insult. But religiously ignorant as I am, historically he was a fine ruler, so I'll take it as praise."
"Lend me that oily tongue of yours. I could argue with it and stay sane longer."
Instead of responding to the trivial jab, the Crown Prince gazed down at him quietly.
Daniel cackled before opening his mouth.
"Such talk means little to us, so tell the young man beside you something he'll like. Humans are a synthesis of finite and infinite, transient and eternal, freedom and necessity."
"Picked up some Schopenhauer quotes lately?"
"Not like you'd go home and dig through books. What you need now isn't his works. He described the self that way, but if you judge from a layer beyond the self..."
He wagged his finger, eyes darting about, then locked onto the Crown Prince's.
"The being that's finite and infinite, transient and eternal, free yet necessitated—it's no one but you."
"Haha..."
"Coincidence made you that way. Didn't I always say so? Elise, why do you keep me as your advisor?"
"......"
"To follow providence. You could purge an old man half-eaten by kobolds, but you can't purge providence. That's not a power granted to the Crown Prince of the Holy German Empire."
"Of course. That's why I cherish you."
For providence, as you just said.
The Crown Prince murmured with a faint smile.
"Even if it didn't start with your will, isn't it time to turn back? You know the master has appeared."
"Hmm."
The Crown Prince stepped back, as if he'd heard enough.
"That'll do, Daniel. The one beside me doesn't know about himself, so tell him more deeply."
"No. Unless you reset the calendar, I won't give you a single grain of rice."
The Crown Prince wordlessly poured more liquor into his mouth. He convulsed upright, coughing with a metallic rasp for a while, then looked at us contentedly.
Yet he still wouldn't speak. It was a mad scene hard to follow, but the Crown Prince seemed used to it.
With a half-playful smile of resignation, he looked at me.
"If I stay, he'll never talk. I'll step out for a bit and come back when you're done."
He vanished cleanly from the space.
The beggar started choking, perhaps from breathing wrong.
Without a word from me, he spoke as if reading my mind.
"Don't worry. I forget everything after this time passes. Especially, I don't blab secrets of those who have debts to collect."
"......"
I'd been considering turning back time, assuming he read something and would pass info to the Crown Prince.
He answered without me saying it—spot on.
'Not just any beggar, then.'
The Crown Prince keeps him around on purpose.
Meaning his words are worth hearing.
Even if they're cryptic, like before.
Puzzles can be solved by mulling them over, and I already half-understood what he'd said to the Crown Prince.
Worst case, no loss.
I bent one knee to meet his gaze.
At that moment, the beggar burst into mad laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
"What?"
"No, it's just the first thing I see. You didn't want to be Rosalind that badly?"
Rosalind?
Why here?
I stared at him blankly.
"You were originally Orlando, huh? But now you're in the right place. You came to live as Rosalind. You must live as her."
A chill ran down my neck.
I stared into his cloudy eyes without blinking.
"You're ready for it, aren't you?"
'...As expected.'
Abraham didn't keep him for nothing.
This isn't about the play.
He's talking about why I had to come to this world.
"Or is it still far off? Doesn't matter. You have no choice anyway."
I stayed silent.
It felt like a blow to the back of my head; the questions I should ask wouldn't come out. I'd expected him not to be ordinary, but to know I came from another world...
My lips curled up soon enough. No idea where he found this guy or stashed him away, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Even info I don't grasp now can be used when the time comes, if I store it.
"Besides, you're already Abel—why become Orlando? It's already you. The play where the brother tries to kill his sibling for centuries? If the blood of the younger soaked into the earth cried out to the heavens, everyone would've rioted, but in the end, they all live sloppily as they please—truly 'as they will.' In my view, it's a hopelessly botched play. The Abel before me walks through hell, and life doesn't end in sloppy Shakespearean love like his tragedies."
Abel.
The Genesis figure killed by his brother Cain's jealousy. Contextually closer to Luca's story than mine.
Now he's talking about Luca, not me.
"My brother is Cain?"
"I don't know who your brother is. But I know your blood, soaked deep into the earth, cries out its innocence."
"That's not my blood."
"Only God knows. I'm sleepy. As you heard, half my brain is gone..."
Why bring up the brain again?
Even if it sounded like nonsense, I couldn't end the talk here. I grabbed the liquor bottle and asked,
"Want some?"
"Ah, yes. Yes. Good."
He took the trembling bottle and chugged it.
Far from getting drunk, he seemed to sharpen with each gulp.
The beggar shrugged, eyes clear.
"What will you do? Our almighty Father God won't cast Cain out of Eden even for killing his brother. So why make that choice?"
"What choice did I make?"
He ignored my question and continued as he pleased.
It felt that way.
"Cain was permitted existence by God by staying in Eden. But these Shakespeare characters resolve everything in the Forest of Arden! As if Cain doesn't matter, whatever's there gets cut off in that forest—is that the will of Yahweh and Shakespeare? I'm no sage, but you know."
He closed his eyes pensively, opening them slowly as wind blew.
"This world is a stage, and all men merely players. They repeat beginnings and ends, playing many parts in one lifetime."
"......"
"And you've lived all humans. So now, more than anyone, you must be Rosalind. You have to."
"I don't see how coming here relates to that."
Be Rosalind.
In what sense?
The heroine of a romantic comedy? I'd done that countless times in reality.
From my late teens, my career was filled with it. Whether I wanted or not, acting worthless emotions as the world's most precious was my life and job.
As he said, in the 21st century, I was never not Rosalind.
And now, I must become it?
"You're already prepared."
He gazed at me intently.
He hadn't answered a single question. Just spouting what he wanted.
"Whether you want it, know it or not—none of it matters now. Wondering why?"
"......"
"Caesarea is right around the corner. Have a pleasant trip."
A kindly smile formed on his face.
Then, his head slumped forward. Like switching off power, he passed out.
I slowly stood.
"Quite cryptic, isn't it?"
The Crown Prince's voice.
"A gift I can't give again, so treasure it."
"Where'd you find him?"
"Long ago. Heard about a lunatic spouting creepy nonsense in southern Prussia, went to see..."
He smiled, eyes distant in reminiscence.
"And there was this gem. Useful if you interpret well. He guided me to victories all these years, but now his senses are off, or something. To let Sir Nikolaus hold his life hostage."
Useful if interpreted well.
Agreed.
Following the catacomb phrases and my bouquet notes, now this too.
He grabbed my arm and continued.
"Too bad I can't know what you heard."
No need to reply.
I nodded to signal moving; he warped us.
We were back on the street near the prosecutor's office. Cold winter wind blew.
Releasing my arm, the Crown Prince looked up at the dawn sky and said,
"Satisfying, as you wished. Chairman dead, professor back to routine, Primrose Path crushed... Your position as Nikolaus is even stronger than before."
Fixing his gaze on me, he smiled.
"I lost this time."
"......"
"So this gift is for peaceful days ahead."
"Peace."
"I even gave you my intel. Well, useful only when you can decipher it."
I smiled without answering.
Seeing no intent to hold on today, he checked the sky's hue.
"It's late."
Unlike before, he smiled cleanly and bid farewell.
"See you later, Sir Ernst."
* * *
Three hours later, I arrived at school.
"You look so sleepy, Lucas~"
Narke said as he sat me down.
No wonder.
I had no idea how many sleepless nights in a row.
Plus, I'd grown used to no morning classes, so being summoned at 8 a.m. felt off.
'But I get why they called us early.'
Smiling, I looked at our class's temporary homeroom professor.
After announcements, as roll call ended, he smiled and surveyed the students.
"Good news, everyone. Professor for 2nd year Magic Department Class 1-B will return this Friday, the day of the third exam."
"Huh?"
"The professor? Wasn't he on leave?"
Students' eyes widened. They didn't know about the detention, but everyone had regretted his sudden farewell without warning.
With positive reactions, he raised his voice.
"With the professor back, morning classes resume after the third exam. Great, right?"
No one replied—probably not great.
But faces brightened at his return. This scene showed how the usual homeroom treated us.
The temp answered trivial questions, then reminded us.
"Four days left to practice for the third exam. Manage your condition, keep team harmony to the end, and train hard."
"Professor, what's our third like?"
"Can't say, haha. But no need to worry."
No one was worried anymore.
After train stations and Alps in the second, nothing would faze us.
"As you know, final passers and teams announced right after third. Professor arrives exactly that day—our Class 1-B must claim the top team spot proudly."
Faces turned serious. Gulps echoed.
It was truly the endgame.
After a month's exams, early February teams mobilized externally.
Rampages down from early January's peaks, but still 50-100 daily in the capital—not negligible. With groups handling one each, that's 50 mage teams needed.
"Roll call ends here. Go train."
Third-round students rushed out more energetically than usual.
As I rose leisurely to slip away, someone grabbed my shoulder.
"Lucas."
"Oh, Julia."
"You look exhausted. Lots of weekend training?"
"Haha..."
I brushed it off with a laugh.
Our team didn't practice weekends packed—Primrose Path left no time. Most teams were the same.
Then, Chelinggen stopped abruptly.
"Ah."
"What?"
"You pierced your ears, Lucas."
My heart sank despite no guilt.
It hadn't been long since I hid it from my brother; no immunity yet.
And above all...
'I cast perception distortion magic?'
Sure, maintaining it drained stamina, so not strong, but spotting this tiny thing amazed me.
As I thought that, my core tingled.
Looking up, Leo—at the hall's end with friends heading to training—glared coldly our way as always at school, then turned and left.
'What the hell, this guy.'
Ready to counter if he signaled my core again, but Leo went downstairs without more fuss.
I smoothed my core and asked Chelinggen,
"Obvious?"
"Nah. Can I see?"
Not obvious, yet he spotted it. Like Leo, his combat magic prowess meant sharp observation.
"No issue, but see? Really?"
"Yeah. Okay?"
"Go ahead..."
"Haha, thanks."
Chelinggen brought his hand near the artifact, then stiffened. Before I could question, he smiled.
"Sky blue."
"Yeah? Thought it was almost colorless."
"Lucas."
"......"
Why the sudden name...
Did he sense class rep mana? I stared at him.
But his words were unexpected.
"Want an artifact as a gift? Got one perfect for you."
"...Ah."
This?
Tension gone, I laughed and shook my head.
"Thanks, but just the thought. Hard to remove now."
"What about piercing another?"
"Must be good."
First time he pushed like this.
We'd barely talked outside training or magic—no data.
Chelinggen pointed to his ear.
"Yeah, great. I wear mine daily. Stabilizes core gaps, helps training. These types absorb artifact mana, so effects linger even after removal."
"Hmm, sounds good."
"Tell me anytime if interested."
"Got it. And..."
Smiling, I tapped where my necklace hung.
"Used the one you gave before well. Thanks."
Worked great at baptism.
Preserved my humanity.
Chelinggen's eyes widened, then he beamed.
"No biggie. See you at evening roll call."
He waved and headed to training.
Turning to Narke, who'd hovered waiting,
"Lucas! Heike wants dinner together tonight. Join?"
"Sure."
Narke chattered to the training ground.
School, as Lucas—couldn't discuss Primrose or else. Right, but bantering with friends felt fresh after so long.
From artifacts to training,
"Oh yeah. Not curious about Team 1's teamwork?"
Team 1: Leo and Chelinggen.
Rest bottom-tier, so now individual passes only—unlike before's harmony for bonuses, they'd shine solo.
I'd thought that.
"They pulled off a real team somehow."
Rough start, but synced fast.
In survival mode, their teamwork impressed.
"Yeah, heard. Leo and Julia are different~ But we'll do better!"
"Right."
I replied opening our training room door.
Like yesterday and day before, third training was peaceful.
Rare lately.
From Monday to Friday, amazingly nothing happened. I sorted Abraham's Primrose records, distributed real-time to agencies blocking Crown Prince nonsense; purified Bavaria, supplied divinity for Wittelsbach meds, advised imperial rampages—that was my routine.
Felt like pre-Abraham days.
'This normal pace feels unreal.'
Four days passed uneventfully.
Friday.
Third exam day.
* * *
[We now begin the third selection for the 2nd year student militia.]
Back here.
I eyed the 1st Academy logos everywhere.
But not the gym—1st Academy student militia training ground.
"Finally third."
"Waiting a month for this? Feels like forever for finals."
Chatter from lined-up students pre-start.
Then, overhead announcement.
[Notice to 2nd year third-round advancers. Exam rules soon. First, third selection brackets.]
'Hm?'
Brackets?
Unexpected.
Students reacted same.
Third was individual passes, not team exam.
Front students muttered.
"Huh, bonus points again?"
I checked the board.
Team 1 vs 3, 2 vs 4.
Winners get 1 bonus point each.
'Hm.'
Low points aside...
'1 vs 3. Skipping one to match?'
Leo vs Elias.
I'm Team 2—none of my business.
Team 4 sans Melvin: no friends, so fighting them good. No special marks—solid upper-mid team, no standouts.
'Too bad they match.'
Leo, Julia, Elias.
Explosive exam.
Post-second filtered weaklings—no team battles for bonuses needed.
Why?
'Everyone's good.'
Especially 1 and 3—even match; no predicting winner.
Anyway, watch Elias and Leo teams clash opposite for bonus. Rare sight.
I relaxed my shoulders.
[Team 1 announcement.]
"Announcement?"
Students buzzed.
Me too—odd.
Teams already set.
What now?
[Team 1: Josephine Ruon / Hildegard Blomberg / ....]
"Huh?!"
"What? I'm Team 4?"
"Yeah? What? Teams..."
Narke beside me gaped at brackets, then names.
[... / Narke Farnese / Leonard Wittelsbach]
"Huh?"
"...?"
I was stunned too. What?
Narke's my teammate—suddenly with Leo?
'Crazy bastards pulled this on exam day?'
Yep.
Third training too smooth—'suspiciously so.'
Too smooth.
Imperial Second Academy style: drop in Alps sans gear, no way they'd allow peace in finals.
Absurdity curled my lips.
[Team 2.]
[Team 2: Victoria Bierman / Joachim Glychen / ....]
Not time to laugh.
Think.
Team 1: all top-tier, two untouchables.
Team 2: all mid-low.
Weak vs 1, but they face 4.
So Team 3 vs powerhouse 1...
[Team 3 announcement.]
[Team 3: Lucas Ascanien / ....]
"......"
Narke and Leo's gazes pierced me.
Prediction spot-on.