Chapter 19 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Narke's Arrival
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'I really thought I was going to die.'
Even utilizing evenings and dawns, it was still overwhelming. Half a day of training had only raised my score by 0.4 points, and after making the potion, I was left with just five days.
I skipped class three times and barely managed to fulfill the proposal with nine hours to spare.
Fortunately, the gains in strength and endurance were substantial, sometimes yielding more than 0.4 points.
*Ding—!*
Congratulations!
'You have succeeded in Proposal 2: Achieve 0 points in "Stamina"!'
'Route 1 — [Chapter 3 Special Reward]' confirmed.
'I wonder what'll come out.'
Chapter 3 Special Reward
Got a trait you want? We've prepared just the thing for you!
'A trait?'
The phrase stirred a vague memory.
'No way... back when I said I wanted the exchange student trait, that's what triggered this...'
Guess I have to watch my thoughts from now on.
I watched the pure white orb of light hovering before me.
The light began to take a definite shape, forming a stack of notes.
They resembled pages torn from a book and folded. Glossy ivory paper bore tiny black ink letters. The gleaming light made the contents unreadable.
'Guess I just... pick one.'
Squinting, I reached into the stack.
Before I could even unfold a note properly, crisp white text appeared before my eyes.
*Ding—!*
Congratulations!
'Charm' trait added!
What?
The absurdity made me burst out laughing without thinking.
As if charm puts food on the table. A mage lives by magic, not by charming his way through life... What a joke.
'Bad luck.'
Better than nothing, but... do I really need this right now? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't shake the skepticism.
With mixed feelings, I summoned the Charm trait.
Charm Lv.1
— 'I wanna be friends!' Increases target favorability by 2 points
— 'You must be right.' Persuasion +20%
— 2.0 points to next level
Take back what I said about it being a joke.
I'd been too narrow-minded. Can't judge a book by its cover.
Favorability aside, that persuasion boost was seriously tempting. A solid long-term investment.
'Not bad.'
Satisfied, I dismissed the window.
* * *
"Narke! It's the day Narke arrives!"
Pie scampered excitedly over my shoulder, shouting.
Why was this guy here? He'd kept warping to my room using divine power, utterly fascinated that he'd found someone he could talk to.
After the eighth time I dragged him to the administrative office, a staff member contacted Narke and explained the situation. Narke said it was fine to let Pie roam free as long as I didn't mind.
Since I had to be alone past midnight anyway, I figured one extra animal wouldn't rattle me too much, so I agreed.
And... while cohabitating, I'd gleaned plenty of info on Narke. I'd decided to recruit him as an ally, but with barely any real conversation yet, vigilance was key—the more I knew about him, the better.
No need to probe directly about Narke first.
Pie spilled Narke facts nonstop anyway.
Recalling the useless tidbit that Narke, despite seminary origins, hated field rations, I muttered,
"Must be nice."
"Lucas likes it too, right?"
"Yeah, sure."
We'd gotten somewhat friendly, but I played along regardless.
"Narke'll be so happy to see us~!"
"Uh-huh."
I shoved him into his cage, warned him not to follow, and headed to class. The cage was pointless against divine-powered warps, but appearances mattered.
I pulled open the slightly ajar classroom door.
Students clustered at the back row, chattering noisily.
"Class 1-A must be sweating."
"We dropped the average sending a third-placer before midterms. No room to talk now."
"They don't remember that stuff. They'll just trash us for snagging their exchange student if we beat 'em."
"Let 'em talk. But we gotta win first..."
"Narke! Any sports you're good at? We've got a tourney before break."
Someone changed the subject, and the student in the middle grinned as he replied.
"Hmm. Most ball games, I'd say."
"Damn, we've won already. It's over."
"Why pressure the guy right away."
This school had exactly two classes per department.
With just two, a subtle rivalry brewed between them. From selected special class slots and average test scores to various competitions, nothing escaped comparison. Even professors sometimes encouraged it for achievement boosts.
'Can't be helped.'
Even in high school with more divisions, we'd joked—or seriously debated—which class was better.
It was like that obsessive pursuit of sports day prizes transposed onto grades and tournaments.
Gathering the nation's top talents only amplified the grade obsession compared to other schools.
Regrettably, aside from the entrance exam, Class 1-A—our rivals—had edged us out slightly ever since.
I handed notes to the students slumped beside my seat and sat down.
"Good luck today. You got this."
"...Yeah..."
As usual, they mumbled with dead-fish faces.
Then, my eyes met those of a student in the back corner. Narke, spotting me, flashed a grin and waved.
The room fell silent as if doused in cold water.
They glanced between Narke and me, lips twitching as if to speak to him.
*Scrape—*
"Good morning."
"Hello."
The professor entered for roll call, and students hurried back to seats to greet him. After announcements, he brought up Narke.
"Today's the exchange student's first day. He'll study with us for a year, so let's have a self-introduction."
Eyes locked on Narke again. He stood with a smile.
"Hello, I'm Narke Farnese, joining you this semester. Nice to meet you."
"You consistently scored well at your previous school. Hope you do the same here."
"Yes, thank you."
After roll call and first period, Narke approached me.
"Lucas."
He whispered.
"Got your message. Sorry for dumping Pie on you. He cause much trouble?"
"Nah, he was fine enough."
"Thanks for watching him. If you're free..."
"Narke."
A student cautiously called from the doorway.
Narke stepped out, returned shortly with a grin, and quirked his brow. I asked about the gesture.
"What?"
"They say rumors you're Pleroma, so watch out."
How kind.
I chuckled softly.
"What'd you say?"
"Told 'em I don't think so."
"..."
He always gave intriguingly interesting answers.
After a moment's thought, I asked,
"Wanna grab dinner and chat later?"
* * *
"Lucas."
Narke opened the dorm lounge door.
I set Pie's cage on the table.
"Brought Pie."
"Narke!"
"Thanks. Been good?"
"Fun!"
Narke just grinned without replying.
I placed tea before him and sat.
"Here."
"Thanks, I'll enjoy it."
"No problem. Get the school rundown?"
"Yeah, class rep helped. Can use the personal training ground starting today. Wanna come later?"
I needed to brief Leo on Narke, so no.
I shook my head lightly and changed topics.
"Nah. Anyway... got a question."
"What?"
"What species is this guy?"
"Oh, Pie? He's a dawn rabbit."
Rabbit?
Still reeling, I stared at Pie.
"...You're a rabbit?"
"Strictly speaking, not just any rabbit. Kinda rat-like, right?"
"Yeah."
More hamster-ish, but close enough.
"Knew it. Perfect color and size. Anyway... that's not all you wanna say, right?"
"Right."
I sipped my tea and spoke.
"First... gotta say this upfront. I can understand him."
"Huh? *Cough...!*"
Narke turned away, coughing. Face unreadable—amused or flustered?—he hacked a bit, then stared.
"What?"
Guess Insight doesn't cover this.
Makes sense. A level 2 skill knowing everything would put the world at his feet.
"Seriously... no, you really can hear him. Knew you used divine power, but not to this extent with Pie."
Must've confirmed with Insight just now.
And... no remote comms with Pie, apparently. Otherwise, Pie would've blabbed to him ages ago.
I memorized the info gleaned from his words.
Pie hopped from Narke's shoulder to the table.
"Now two people I can talk to~! Hope more hear me!"
"No can do. The diocese won't leave you alone."
Narke petted Pie's head with a smile, then fixed me with a straight gaze.
"Other questions?"
Straight to the point—nice.
"Yeah, lots about you. Sudden, I know, but it's important to me. Can you answer honestly?"
"Sure, after you saved Pie, that's the least I can do."
I nodded and continued.
"Why'd you think no one should know I use magic?"
"That day, huh. Felt it intuitively... Convincing enough? Hard to explain."
Intuition.
Insight could work that way. Matches the status info.
I nodded.
"Why don't you think I'm Pleroma?"
"Oh, that's definite. You've never died, for one."
Most agree on that—not special.
People see me less as a risen corpse-Pleroma, more as one bearing Pleroma's traits. Devotees exist without dying.
Narke gazed afar, lost in thought.
"Rumors say... you drank animal blood at four, killed a servant at five. Also steals mana from those nearby."
"You know your stuff."
"Your story's big news even in the Papal States."
Narke sipped tea, chose words carefully, then met my eyes squarely.
"You never drank blood willingly. Never killed. If you want proof, it's my intuition. But it's truth. You know that now, right?"
"Now?"
"You believed those lies until recently."
"..."
My lips curved up involuntarily.
Yeah, pre-possession.
A glint lit Narke's golden eyes.
He clasped hands and asked,
"Adrian Ascanien's no ordinary man, is he?"
"..."
"Framing his brother for murder? Impossible sane."
Adrian Ascanien... my brother's name.
Keeping my smile, I replied,
"Yeah."
The more we talked, the clearer it became.
This man had to become my ally, no question.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 501 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/how-to-survive-as-the-second-son-of-a-mage-family
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━