Chapter 298
Chapter 298
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 298
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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“…….”
“What are you doing just standing there all spaced out?”
Lucas smirked, raising an eyebrow. That usual air of lazy nonchalance, which had always grated on me a bit, didn’t stir any particular emotion in me today. No, more precisely, it eased the tension coiled inside me.
I staggered toward him, and the attendants caught me with startled looks. Squeezing out words that wouldn’t come, I said to them,
“Will you go back inside?”
Normally, I’d have smiled and gestured politely, but I couldn’t manage it now. Almost throwing a tantrum—like someone my age had no business doing—I shoved and pulled at Lucas, dragging him away from the attendants.
“…No sound barrier?”
“…….”
“No need to go far—just cast a soundproofing spell, Leo.”
My thoughts scattered into fragments in my head. I wandered aimlessly to a deserted spot, not stopping until I reached the shade of a tree by the lake, far from the building. Lucas stared down at the spot as if reminiscing about something, then lifted his head. Our eyes met—mine darting frantically between his gaze and my hands, as if I’d forgotten what to do with them. Lucas, sensing my confusion, patiently waited for me to speak.
A breeze brushed past me. As if burying my voice in the wind and letting it drift away, I finally dragged out the words that wouldn’t come and opened my mouth.
“How did you do it? Me and you….”
“…….”
“…we came back together. It’s not my imagination, right?”
“Yeah, it’s real. Six hours ago?”
Lucas murmured, looking up at the sky. Sunlight filtering through the tree branches fell across his face.
“The sun was setting earlier. Nice light.”
“This is impossible.”
“It’s possible.”
He stated it matter-of-factly, with his usual expression, then lightly stomped his foot.
Boom—
Light burst from beneath his foot, pouring along the willow trunk, bleaching the green grass white. The lake surface was soon covered in light too, giving the illusion of sinking into a dream. The wind created by his divine power lightly grazed my face.
If this place, made by Lucas’s divine power, had to be someone’s dream, was it mine? Even after gaining the privilege to read lost time, my endless greed had wished for this without knowing the end—and now it had come true. If this wasn’t my dream, what was it?
As I was lost gazing at the nature that felt like it belonged to another world, Lucas snapped his fingers. With a whoosh, red magic wrapped around his hand and flared up. Crimson flames—impossible to replicate—sprang before my eyes, and a cool yet strangely viscous magic seeped into my veins. He scanned the garden, where the sun seemed to have settled, and said,
“Ever imagined this?”
“…No.”
“Right. If this place beyond your imagination isn’t reality, then what is?”
Endless divine power rustled his hair. Amid the swirling leaves, Lucas grinned playfully. He mixed red magic into the air, then used divine power to change his eye color. His magic soon turned yellow, then matched mine. Creating a rainbow in the sky, he said,
“Ah, this is when I should tease you. What kind of person am I in your imagination? What does the me in your head do?”
“…You do anything. Whatever you do, it’s all real.”
I blurted out words that had been lurking in my mind without my realizing it. Lucas raised an eyebrow and asked,
“So, you mean I do everything you imagine. That the me in your imagination is the real me?”
“Maybe….”
The friend before me was turning my imagination—everything I’d only dreamed of—into reality. He made the impossible possible.
Lucas let out a disbelieving chuckle at my mutter. At that moment, pain stabbed my forehead.
Smack—
“Snap out of it.”
“…! What the hell?!”
I scowled, rubbing the spot where his magic had struck. Lucas brushed down his arm, looking exasperated.
“What kind of context makes you say that…? I’m seriously getting crisis vibes. At this rate, you’ll make me use R=VD as an innate ability.”
“What crisis?”
“Either getting dragged into your magic PhD process or donating ten years’ worth of my magic to your research.”
“Why so specific? I’m not getting a PhD, and I won’t ask for a donation. What’s R=VD?”
“It exists.”
Lucas laughed, saying it gave him chills but circling the area as if in good spirits. Then he continued on my earlier question.
“So, even if I jumped into the lake right now, you wouldn’t doubt your eyes?”
“I would. But you’re the kind of person who could do it in reality too.”
“…This is awkward. What if I said I’ve truly fallen for the owner of this ring?”
Lucas tapped the metal inside his left glove. He meant the Archbishop of Freiburg’s sapphire ring. Thinking of his track record made my head spin, but I took a deep breath and tried to respond calmly to his statement.
“If you said that, there’d be a reason. And you already…. Forgot what you showed me that day? Lucky the others didn’t see it. Nothing shocks me more than that now.”
“Hmm.”
Lucas blatantly played dumb. As he chuckled hollowly, he checked my complexion. From his expression, he’d noticed I was relaxing and regaining my sense of reality. Before he could broach the main topic, I quietly said,
“Nice of you to be considerate.”
“When have I ever been considerate?”
“Right. My mistake.”
“…….”
Lucas looked at me like I was crazy, then spoke. As expected, it was the answer to my earlier question.
“You asked how I did it. The artifact you’re wearing holds someone else’s innate ability.”
“…….”
“And I put my ability into that gem you’re wearing.”
An ability that turns back time.
As expected, it was unbelievable. There’s no way an artifact containing another person’s ‘innate ability’ could exist in this world.
Imitating innate abilities with artifacts is theoretically possible. Say someone has wind manipulation. By layering multiple spell formulas to activate simultaneously, we can cast spells like an air-element mage.
But containing the innate ability itself?
What does that imply?
Innate abilities aren’t just spells that produce fire, water, or move air. Abraham’s ability to control someone indefinitely after drinking their blood just once and gaining ‘consent’ is also an innate ability. What layered spell formula could replicate that?
There are limits to what can be imitated, and Lucas’s regression and Abraham’s control are prime examples of the unimitable. The ability that manifested in Lucas this time—amplifying magic in someone’s blood and converting it to his own—is the same.
Lucas was saying he could store an unprecedented transcendent ability in a tool. This couldn’t be ordinary technology. It’s a monumental breakthrough in magic studies, and whoever controls it could plunge the world into extremes.
Separate from my joy at sharing Lucas’s ability, a chill ran through me at the existence of technology as dangerous as Abraham’s or Lucas’s transcendent powers.
At the same time, a guess about Lucas’s condition flashed in my mind.
“Then, because of this….”
“Because of what?”
Lucas remained nonchalant. Probing his magic, I asked,
“What happened to your core?”
“Hmm, the backlash was pretty bad when I made it. If an amateur tried copying it recklessly, they’d be done for. At least there’s a penalty, so that’s good?”
“…….”
Lucas had worried about the tech falling into the wrong hands too. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
“So your core is… destroyed again. But that’s not all from what I sense. What exactly happened?”
“Yeah, a bit of a problem cropped up. Don’t you know me? I’ll recover.”
“…….”
That annoyingly confident line was meant to reassure me. At a loss for words, I stood there as Lucas changed the subject, pointing to my ear.
“I made it an earring so it wouldn’t fail just sitting on your skin. Even so, you don’t meet the conditions to turn back time yourself… but it has to work properly to get caught in my ability. If you hate it, slice some flesh from your arm and embed it.”
“What? Who lives like that these days?”
“You said you didn’t want another ear piercing.”
His teasing words pierced me. I turned away and forced my mouth open.
“…That was before I knew. I didn’t know… this was what you were thinking.”
Sensing he’d seize the chance to tease me more, I cleared my throat and changed the subject.
“…Where’d you learn this tech? What’s this about conditions?”
“Conditions later. Less ‘learned’ and more… I found out investigating this incident. This tech is the key clue to solving the jewel theft.”
Suddenly, a lingering question eased. I’d wondered since before meeting Lucas this morning. He’d spent half a day investigating the jewel theft, then suddenly wanted to hear my story. Now he said it was truly connected. Where had he investigated to uncover this?
Lost in thought, staring elsewhere, Lucas said,
“It’s a tech whose existence I’d suspected before. Ever think about it? There’s a hole in something we glossed over. How does Pleroma give people ‘revelations’ without Abraham? How do they pull off that brainwashing ‘ideological education’? No way Abraham handled all tens of thousands of Pleroma alone, right? He’d drop dead from overwork.”
Lucas snickered sarcastically.
“Abraham manipulates bodies directly sometimes, but that’s not accurate. He just sends telepathy and implants commands deep in the mind. Even without moving bodies, he can instill dogmatic thoughts. That’s why he was a core figure in Pleroma. Why they distrusted him founding a religion too.”
“…Right. Ludovica tried handing your ideological education to Abraham.”
“Yep. But how did that ‘chairman’ drink the blood of at least tens of thousands, get consent one by one so diligently, and implant dogma in all those brains? Physically, even two bodies wouldn’t suffice. Ah, is that why the crown prince slacks on duties?”
He’s not slacking that much. He just doesn’t advertise his achievements. Elizabeth von Hohenzollern’s interests are clearly elsewhere from politics, earning him flak like ‘forgettable royal’ in anti-imperialist circles. Expectations are sky-high as heir apparent.
I asked Lucas,
“So Pleroma already knew this tech?”
“Ambiguous. If they knew such transcendent tech, why haven’t they advanced more? Forget conquering the Empire—even with brilliant innate-ability mages, why delegate dioceses with so much power instead of centralizing? With this, the founding leaders could’ve thoroughly subordinated talents like Freiburg’s archbishop or Abraham. Pleroma’s structure would’ve been different.”
“Right, if they had it from the organizational founding.”
Lucas nodded at my words.
“If acquired after solidifying structure, the org chart stays, but most dioceses likely don’t know. Leadership monopolizes, crafts artifacts, distributes. Or both hypotheses wrong. What if not crafting tech, but someone with ‘innate ability to copy innate abilities’? Making that transferable is amazing too….”
Lucas rattled it off, then bit his lip.
“What’s wrong.”
“…Nothing. Just thinking. Head’s complicated.”
“You’re always like that. Keep thinking, and you’ll get ‘innate ability to copy and grant innate abilities’…. Ignoring low odds, it means tech to copy innate abilities into artifacts exists.”
Lucas shrugged at my words but didn’t deny.
Setting Pleroma aside, I now fully understood why he called it a theft clue.
To confirm my guess, I looked at Lucas and said,
“You think Archduke Österreich-Este got this tech and injected an ability into the sapphire parure.”
“Yeah. Someone knowing that stole the parure to use the ability. Precisely, the archduke never acquired it. He developed it.”
“How the hell did you find out.”
“Checked his records. The Hermetische Gesellschaft Narke and I visited the day before yesterday—he founded that club. Given he developed the tech, he’s practically an artifact expert.”
Lucas stroked his chin.
“Now, ask the archduke this: What ability did he put in the parure?”
“…If it was stolen, it’s no ordinary ability.”
“Right. Ask what ability, and who’d know. Easy.”
My tension melted into a hollow laugh. A clue like this—great, but shocking. Smiling ambiguously, I said,
“Didn’t expect it to wrap so neatly. I investigated till yesterday, found nothing. Investigation Bureau too.”
“No, still something nagging. The archduke claims no idea why it was stolen.”
True. Assuming he made it an artifact with an innate ability, if he truly wanted it back, he’d have mentioned the tech.
If the tech mattered more than the jewel and he didn’t want it spreading, not requesting investigation help makes sense.
There’s more we don’t know.
‘Regardless, how’d he uncover tech our enemies covet….’
Pushing down the doubt, I said to Lucas,
“We’ll talk directly then. Meeting him tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
Lucas answered shortly, then patted my shoulder.
“Go on. Go perform preemptive victim control.”
“You?”
“Hospital, then prep questions for the archduke.”
Instinct hit. His relaxed expression said no plans to prep with me or bring me. Smiling, Lucas tapped his ear.
“Watch the artifact doesn’t fall out.”
* * *
One more leech attached.
Or maybe it was already stuck.
“Why’re you following?”
I asked Leo walking behind me. His calm reply came.
“I’m the rep here. Why can’t I?”
“…….”
Right. He’s the squad leader.
We’re heading to meet Archduke Österreich-Este. Without info, guiding questions are tough, but we know he dabbles in occult and invented this dangerous tech. Center interrogation on that, probe his 12-year memories.
Narke, matching my stride beside me, stared at us and smiled.
“Leo, new piercing inside your ear.”
“Yeah.”
“Happy with it?”
“…!”
“Haha~”
Narke playfully tipped his uniform cap brim, raising an eyebrow with a grin. Advertising his ability use. I stifled a laugh, thinking,
‘As long as he’s satisfied.’
Leo’s face chilled, but Narke reading him like this helps gauge moods. Rare for Narke to read others besides me—always fresh.
Leo ground out,
“Don’t use your ability, Narke. Think of your health.”
“Haha. I’m as healthy as you now.”
His expression showed no intent to provoke—it was true. Narke had recovered, back to sturdy normal. Early March first week—plenty time to heal.
We soon reached the appointed building, entered the palace-provided reception room. A familiar face, yet vastly different vibe, stood—a New Humanity.
Leo removed his hat and said,
“Pleased to meet you, Your Highness Archduke Österreich-Este. I’m Leonard von Wittelsbach.”
“Pleased. We’ve met occasionally. Grateful His Highness the Crown Prince assigned our family heirloom theft to you.”
The archduke smiled, but worry over the lost parure filled him.
‘What?’
Had his vibe changed in 12 years? Features subtly altered too, but especially the aura. Friends might not notice, but having seen him 12 years ago myself, the odd feeling lingered.
Clothes and hair same old-fashioned. Overall, ambiguous. Shaking his extended hand, I said,
“Lucas Ascanien.”
“Heard much. Pleased.”
“…Archduke Leopold Österreich-Este, correct.”
“Yes. Don’t use that much—call me Maria casually.”
Maria Österreich-Este.
Status window matched the name, but numbers differed sharply from my memory.
‘This is….’
Trouble. Smiling, I released his hand.
Leo sat, opened the binder. The archduke clasped hands, ready to listen. Looking into the archduke’s eyes, Leo said,
“First, we’ve heard all about the sapphire parure’s components and the incident details.”
“Then what shall I tell you? Can it be found?”
“Our Empire will do its utmost. First, any other spells on the parure?”
Leo asked from the investigation log. Doubt shadowed the archduke’s smile.
“Of course anti-theft spells. It was in our mansion museum.”
“Besides that?”
“No. What other spells go on a parure?”
The archduke narrowed his eyes. Narke glanced at us—nothing off signal.
Gesturing to Leo for permission, I skipped prepared questions for another.
“No required spells on parures, but we need every detail. Any clubs you’re in?”
Seeming abrupt, the archduke rolled his eyes, then shook his head.
“…They know I manage Österreich-Este’s parure, but club members have no reason to steal.”
“…….”
Staring instead of answering, I waited. Grasping my intent, the archduke replied with a subtle expression.
“I’m in a Vienna riding club. Why…?”
“Nothing else? Like….”
Stroking my chin, glancing at notes, I looked up and asked,
“Hermetic Society or such.”
“…! Did those people steal the parure?!”
“No. We listed Empire auction clubs to check if it surfaced at auction. Just reciting in order.”
“Relieved then… Thought you’d found a lead there. Surprised.”
The archduke shook his head like he’d misheard. I raised an eyebrow smiling—why?—and he mirrored, squinting.
“Occult nuts stealing my parure? Worst case. Who knows what they’d do with family heirloom. As Christian, I can’t allow it.”
“Of course.”
Narke nodded, answering for me, then signaled me his words rang true.
Naturally. Adding to earlier doubt, now certainty.
This is someone else.
New Humanity siblings from innate-ability mages often match components and ratios closely. If early ones turn out decent, later similar. They look more twin-like than Old Humanity siblings.
This case fits.
Plan to ask everything today, but need to reschedule.
Ignoring notebook questions, I asked,
“Good. Then… who had the sapphire parure before?”
“Our family continuously. In reports too. Made from jewels in family for centuries.”
The archduke answered, puzzled at the obvious.
“Personally. You manage now, Archduchess Maria. Who before?”
“Hmm. Important? Management same—no big help….”
“Important. No leads, so want to meet them too.”
Felt Leo’s gaze on me. Narke calmly eyed only the archduke.
“There’s a senior brother, same name Maria Österreich-Este….”
The archduke hesitated like reluctant topic, then continued.
“Passed some time ago. I’ve managed since. Must talk to previous owner?”