Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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A suffocating standoff unfolded amid the crowd.
Elias was the first to break the silence, letting out a laugh-mingled shout.
“What the hell is this now?!”
“…Wow.”
Narke stuck his hands in his pockets and tilted his chair back, marveling. It must’ve been that I’d said something ridiculous before he could even use Insight.
“…Lucas.”
Leo called my name, then spent a long moment just scratching his head in silence.
Say something if you’re gonna call me—that’s the scariest part.
I spread my hands and opened my mouth.
“Let me explain properly. I’m not saying I’ll actually become a Pleroma follower. I’m just going to pretend to be one.”
“…Either way, you’re talking about diving even deeper than this. You trying to get yourself killed? Of course not. But….”
Leo inhaled deeply, still pressing his hand to his forehead.
“Lucas. It might sound overly sensitive to you, but I don’t want to recreate the same situation as last time.”
“Yeah~ Honestly, watching from the sidelines is pretty nerve-wracking.”
Elias nodded along with Leo’s words, grinning.
He’s talking about the Strauch incident.
Right after that mess, there was the festival, which loosened things up a bit, but then a bunch of Bavarian wizards got attacked by Pleroma around that time too. He must be exhausted.
But at the same time, because of that incident, he doesn’t want to back off from Pleroma either.
He’s just baffled right now because I haven’t explained properly—he’s not outright refusing or anything. He’s only asking me to confirm the risks of the plan.
I’d love to minimize the risks, but there’s no way around it, so all I can do is convince him why I have to head back into the enemy camp.
“Yeah, sorry about that. But I’ve got my own reasons why I can’t drop this plan either.”
Leo just stared at me without reacting, so I jumped right in.
“First off, if I don’t pose as a Pleroma follower, the amount of info I can get is limited.”
Why would I spill the plan to some guy who isn’t even Pleroma?
To extract info from Genda Asman, changing his emotions isn’t enough—I need to match his position too.
Leo nodded, clearly getting it without me saying more.
“Second, Pleroma’s plans were involved in turning Genda Asman into one of them. The kidnappings steadily increasing in Heirigenji started before he joined up. He was targeted to make those abductions smoother.”
“Yeah.”
“In the end, our enemy isn’t just Genda Asman, Pleroma’s tool. It’s Pleroma itself, sourcing manpower from Heirigenji.”
And….
Is it really just Heirigenji?
The scale of their operation is proportional to the gains I stand to make.
Before, I said Pleroma had at least three.
In the novel, Elias only caught the surface level, not the depths.
I need to uproot it all and see how far their plans extend.
“Yeah. Hearing you out, it sounds like you’re even thinking of going into Pleroma’s world. Your plans always look reckless—and they are—but….”
Leo clamped his lips shut, exhaled heavily, and looked at me.
“They’re just as effective. So, is there anything we can do to help?”
* * *
Today marks the fifth day since I started coming to meet Genda Asman.
Luckily, every time, the first person I ran into after taking the drug was Genda himself.
Avin Asman—no, Eric Asman—must really be buried in his business, because he never stuck around the house.
‘Good for me.’
I’d come to Asman’s place again today and glanced outside.
The plainclothes cop Leo had tipped me off about was across the street at a café, rustling a newspaper and occasionally glancing this way.
And….
Elias might need to take back calling it mechanical.
Whether it was the drug working properly or not, a negative feeling toward the plainclothes cop staking out the house flashed through me for a moment.
‘I get why Leo was wary now.’
Of course, I rejected it the instant I felt it and pulled myself out of the emotion, but the fact that it even arose was pretty shocking.
Just then, Genda Asman came up behind me and sat at the table.
“Looks like I’ll be staying home today. Right?”
“You must be tired.”
“I’ve been out and about nonstop lately.”
He’d been dragged around the capital for days under the guise of a tour, so yeah, he deserved a break.
Anyway, it was about time for me to bring it up, so no issues there. The weather was overcast today anyway, and it was pouring like that other day.
‘A bit early, but….’
No helping it. I didn’t have time to drag my feet.
I smiled silently, and Genda asked me,
“What’d you do during the day?”
“Scouted places I want to go with you, Asman. Though I like just hanging out at home like this too.”
I sat down and answered with a smile.
‘This is wild….’
Coming out of my mouth?
A disorienting sense of disconnect hit every time, but luckily the drug kicked in right on cue, keeping me from bolting out of the chair.
Genda waved his hand, laughing.
“Haha, something besides that.”
“I mean it.”
I smiled back at Genda, who had that “I know you don’t” look, and continued.
“Alright, in my spare time, I analyzed the trends. Wondering if I should stick to the planned direction.”
“Hard worker. When do you plan to publish the paper?”
“There’s some disagreement among my partners, so it’s dragging, but we’ll wrap it up before the first half of next year.”
Wrap it up? Yeah, right—no publishing ever.
Forget the first half; I’m not dragging this out past December. Time to end it here.
I leaned forward with a soft smile.
“And you, Asman?”
“Well, I’m restarting work today… but it’s kinda awkward telling you, Baizel. Personal stuff.”
Yeah, well said. No need to hear it—it’s Pleroma business.
Time to probe. Genda Asman was keeping our relationship purely out of curiosity so far.
I looked into Genda’s eyes and pulled up the favorability window.
Genda Asman
Favorability +7*
Sure, the interest was high, but the emotional flavor felt different from mine now.
He’d approached me lightly from the start—nothing like the seriousness the drug induced in me. Made sense since we’d only met recently….
‘His expression says it all.’
Even now, Genda was tilting his head, watching my reactions with an amused face.
I’d taken the 8th-stage drug today, so he’d probably noticed the difference from yesterday.
He brings up something too personal to discuss just to see how I react.
If he’s just gauging responses, why meet at all? My guess: he’s still new to his powers and testing them out freely.
Either way, the key point was that no matter my attitude, I was emotionally in the inferior position right now—and he knew it.
‘Perfect.’
Just as planned.
I’d dropped straight to the ultimate beta without a single deviation.
This kind of relationship turned my stomach, but it was the ideal setup for smashing through his defenses—the perfect spot.
The foundation was solid now. All that was left was to actively leverage the image of me he’d built inside his head.
“Personal stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“Am I not worthy of knowing yet?”
“…….”
At that, the corner of his mouth twitched upward, suppressed.
“Probably not.”
Yeah, of course he’d say that. Who’d blab Pleroma secrets lightly?
But my position’s different. The topic’s out there, so let’s draw it out today. I don’t want to drag this inappropriate relationship any longer.
“Too bad. Any idea when?”
“Won’t take too long, I think.”
“So I can keep seeing you until then?”
He burst out laughing.
“Well, yeah. That depends on you, Baizel.”
“Ah, good. But… now that I’ve heard that much, I don’t think I can wait.”
“Hmm….”
Genda held back a laugh, drumming his fingers on the table.
Obvious without looking. He’d see it as me whining.
Whatever—he’d taken the bait as intended. Hope he views me as some lovesick idiot babbling nonsense.
Because….
Now came the bombshell.
I quickly pulled up the trait window.
Retry Lv. 1
― Return to the most recent checkpoint in 〈Chapter 5〉
― 1 use: 2.0 points
― To next level: 2.0 points
* Owned points: 5.0 points
* Luck until next point gain: 0.25 points
‘Two uses available.’
Plenty.
If I pick wrong, rewind immediately.
I looked at Genda, who was just grinning, and spoke.
“…Let’s go wherever you want. First a small world, then a big one—I’ll show you.”
Before the words even finished, the smile vanished from his face.
As I registered the shock in his reaction, Genda quickly schooled his expression and lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Suddenly?”
I shook my head instead of answering.
“I get it up to here—no, with you, Asman, I can understand even more.”
“…….”
His face hardened again.
I could practically hear his guard going up.
‘That’s the idea.’
I desperately held back the laugh bubbling up.
Before, I recalled Pleroma used something other than scripture for their spells.
If they used Faust quotes for the decisive magic that turns people into Pleroma, they’d surely referenced it elsewhere too.
So I’d picked lines that could be incantations and recited them straight….
‘He bit.’
I hadn’t even asked “Are you Pleroma?”—just said “I understand even this much.”
If he reacts like this when he brought it up first, what can you do? Even playing dumb would’ve worked.
I savored Genda’s stiffening face while crafting a gentle smile. The drug made soft expressions easy—surprisingly, just looking at his face made it natural.
I reached across the table and clasped his hand atop mine. Fortunately, no revulsion—he didn’t pull away.
“I can understand anything. Because I’m in that position too.”
“…….”
“I know bringing up something sensitive to you was bold. Sorry if it was rude, but….”
I pressed a kiss to the back of his hand and asked,
“I want to help. Can I?”
…Gotta ask Elias if he has any booze.
Maybe Elias was right calling him mechanical. Made me think I should come next time on the 9th stage.
Anyway….
‘Spill it.’
I spoke as confusion seeped into Genda’s rigid face.
Now it was time to hear.
How they planned to hand people over to Pleroma from here on.