Chapter 57 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family (57)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I gave Elias a look and headed straight back to the dorm.
When I warped to the meeting spot, Elias was already there, seated, though I had no idea when he'd arrived.
I pulled a newspaper from the drawer and set it down in front of him.
"First off, I'd like to hear what field caught your interest."
"Ah, sure. That's fine. You always ask for my opinion nicely, huh?"
I tried to brush it off lightly, but Elias was still grinning at me.
'What should I say?'
I wanted to reply, 'Your choices are never wrong,' but that would just burden him.
No, even if they were wrong, they were worth betting on.
"I like the choices you make."
"Oh."
Elias stroked his chin as if caught off guard, tilting his head.
"Then you might end up getting warnings like me, right on the verge of expulsion."
"You didn't actually get expelled, though."
"Ahaha~ I get the vibe now."
Elias chuckled gleefully.
He flipped through the newspaper lightly with one hand, then spread open the missing persons list and shoved it toward me.
"Anyone can see this is Pleroma's doing."
I nodded, waiting for him to continue.
"After hearing all that talk about world duplication this time, it hit me—people who've been missing for years aren't coming back. They must've all been shipped off to Pleroma."
"Yeah..."
I murmured as I glanced at the statistics he'd pointed out.
I'd expected it, but I hadn't thought he'd bring up this topic.
Elias hadn't heard me mention the missing persons numbers at the meeting—he'd come in afterward.
I'd used info from the original story to form a hypothesis, so technically, this intel originated with Elias.
'Even so, this was supposed to happen between six months and a year from now.'
Pushing forward the barrier aptitude issue had freed up focus elsewhere, letting him catch onto the event flow early.
It was impressive that he'd brought it up first.
I nodded.
"Yeah, no one else could explain this abnormal spike in missing persons."
"Right? Especially the minors—those numbers are climbing. They're getting bolder, but why isn't the imperial family doing a damn thing?"
"When have they ever?"
Elias started to laugh, then stared at me in shock before bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha! Whoa, that caught me off guard. I never expected you'd say something like that. Guess I've gotten too used to the old Leo."
"...I'm more shocked than you are."
"You think I'm defending the imperial family? Never gonna happen~ Same as how you see Ascanien."
Elias smirked and started reading through the materials I'd pulled out.
'Hmm.'
What to do.
I knew how this incident resolved.
Elias targeted orphanages in areas with frequent disappearances and discovered two Pleroma members among their sponsors.
'But I don't know their names.'
I didn't even know the orphanage names.
Unless it was from the Luca chapters I'd read before bed, remembering extra names from the early novel was tough.
Honestly, I'd done pretty well remembering what I'd jotted down in my notes on day one.
'Still, seeing the actual names would jog something.'
I could narrow down suspects and verify them.
Maybe ask Narke? But if that created distance between us, it'd be a problem.
'Is there another way to investigate Pleroma on my own?'
I pondered deeply.
Nothing came to mind right now. I'd think on it later.
To move forward, we needed the orphanage sponsors' list first.
'Can the Bavarian Investigation Bureau dig into this?'
Last time, I'd gotten the info through a plant in the Dasrote Bavarian branch.
Finding sponsors for some obscure orphanage might be tough, but I'd request it anyway.
"Elri, got any plans in mind for this?"
"Hmm... I think we start with local orphanages."
"Why?"
"Look, you marked the incidents on this map from the meeting."
Elias spread the materials from the meeting in front of me.
He pointed to regions slashed with thick red X's.
"Clusters of minor disappearances around these facilities. Right? Other areas have 'em too, but I say we comb here first. Something'll turn up."
"You've got good instincts?"
"Yeah."
Elias nodded as if it were obvious.
He was spot on, so I just laughed.
"Alright, let's check out that orphanage. First, track down the related names."
"Bet there's a Pleroma in there? You think so too, Luca?"
"No clue. But highest odds, right?"
"Yeah... Like Strauchi."
He muttered, then slammed his crutch on the floor and stood.
"Let's go! Get that list!"
'And then what...?'
I swallowed the words and shook my head.
"Hold up. We can't just barge in and demand it."
"Why not?"
"Would they hand it over?"
"They'd... Wait, damn, can't bluff with this leg."
Elias clicked his tongue and plopped back into the chair.
I knew his method.
Like when he'd scouted restricted zones disguised as someone legit—change eye color, don an investigator uniform, impersonate a detective, extract info.
'Come to think of it, I learned about the eye-color potion from the protagonist using it.'
As I recalled the early semester, Elias clapped.
"Alright! We'll check tomorrow, and call it for today! Seen outside? Other departments are already setting up booths."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Our dept's kids are all still out slaying beasts. Honestly, I think the school's playing smart. Hitting us with work the day before festival? Means play and forget~"
"Kinda seems that way."
I let out a hollow laugh.
After that, we chatted about school for a while.
More like he unloaded a barrage of topics nonstop.
Elias showed no sign of tiring as he pulled up new ones.
"Oh yeah, you know we're doing a play tomorrow?"
The magic department drew the short straw and got stuck with theater. Luckily, not everyone—only about ten per class including supporting roles—so I dodged it.
"Kids prepared hard? Hope a big crowd shows."
"Yeah. Oh! Our class... I mean, Class 1-A's competing with audience turnout against someone. Bet Class 1-B wins. They're doing a new song. Just hype."
"What's ours?"
"Faust. Thought Strauchi fainted hearing the incantation."
"Incantation?"
"You know, 'O moment, linger on' or whatever."
Come to think of it...
Strauchi had covered his magic circle not with scripture, but something else.
Local canon: magic incantations use Bible verses. Magic without scripture? Unthinkable. Can't even get magic division approval. Every chant I'd memorized was biblical.
Magic circles aren't whipped up overnight, nor are their overlays. Not something you slap on and peel off.
Yet covering one with a non-scripture quote?
Meant Pleroma ignored that unspoken rule.
'...This could be useful.'
An unexpected angle.
I could use it to verify Pleroma.
Of course, I'd have to disguise as one too.
* * *
The dorm buzzed all evening.
With festival tomorrow, we'd skipped the group meeting after light training with Leo yesterday.
And so, festival day arrived.
Word was they'd do a quick roll call and let us loose.
'The fairgrounds have nothing on this.'
In the chaos, whatever I did today wouldn't stand out. Perfect time to approach Narke.
Then, Pie poked its head from my uniform robe pocket.
"Narke's buying me treats today!"
Wasn't this thing a herbivore? Not much edible out there.
'Oh right, lives on holy water.'
Mid-stray thought, the noisy classroom fell silent.
"Good morning, students."
The professor called roll as usual, then lightly tapped the lectern.
"Everyone's here. With dorm curfew checks, anyone who leaves during festival and doesn't return counts absent. Especially today, follow rules stricter than usual to avoid issues. Also, other schools have no classes today..."
All capital high schools had festival today.
The announcement dragged on.
I leaned back in my chair, petting Pie in my robe pocket, half-listening.
'Reality or here...'
Even older, the wish for shorter sermons stayed the same. Another pointless realization. I understood teachers more than in high school, but still sleepy.
Fingering Pie in my pocket playfully, the bell rang.
'Done.'
I shoved my chair back amid the sudden uproar, ready to stand.
Then the professor, roster in hand, heading out, called Leo.
"Class rep."
"Yes."
I glanced over, felt something hard on my finger, and looked down. Pie, wanting more play, chomped and hung on. I lifted it in my pocket and whispered.
"Later."
The professor kept talking to Leo amid it all.
"Around 3 PM, delivery to main building first floor— just leave it in the classroom."
"Yes, understood."
"And if you have time, look after your friends a bit."
"Pardon?"
The rowdy class went dead silent.
Leo's flustered reply felt off.
'What the hell.'
I looked up at the anomaly. Locked eyes with the dozens of remaining students.
Our group friends looked more horrified than the rest, nodding at Leo toward me.
'...'
He didn't mean me, did he?
* * *
It happened sometimes.
I'd heard of it before. From Leo's perspective, not Luca's, of course.
I'd been class rep a few times, and even non-election years, teachers treated me similarly.
Every class has one or two kids who don't mingle, and when consults or worried parent calls come, teachers try stuff—including asking the social butterfly to watch the outsider.
Think it doesn't happen? It does. Nothing beats friends for quick fixes.
They don't say 'homeroom told me to babysit you' upfront, so you wouldn't know.
'...Some kids got pissed when they found out in class.'
Teacher misjudged there.
Methods varied by teacher: some nonsense like 'befriend them for your record,' others natural, like pairing in group work and casual check-ins.
'...This one's the former...'
Too old, forgot teens have social circles. Whatever. Why analyze now.
Live long enough, this happens. To Luca, technically.
I couldn't hold back the absurd giggles.
Leo froze blankly, then composed and nodded.
"Understood."
What the fuck, man...
I stood, shaking my head.
"No, it's fine, Professor. I have things to do today."
"Things?"
"Today, I..."
Stopped there.
Say library on festival day...?
I gave a wry smile, rubbing my neck.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 463 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/how-to-survive-as-the-second-son-of-a-mage-family
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━