『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Mages of the Tower (1) ༻
Late at night, people were chasing entertainment and pleasure. Bars opened up in the alleyways to receive customers; gangs patrolled the streets and men roamed the city looking for prostitutes, and the addition of one suspicious man in a robe was very inconspicuous.
“Welcome.”
The most notable gray zone and borderline of legal and illegal premises were the alleyway bars. Black Mage Manroji of the Tower of Mages, was someone who was well-versed with the works of the backstreets.
“Want a meal or a drink?”
The master behind the bar welcomed him in a not-so-welcoming way, as he did to every other customer. Manroji looked around and found a staircase leading to the basement.
“Here for a game or two.”
“Follow the stairs.”
They weren’t even thinking about hiding it. In truth, everyone knew how bars and pubs in the alleys had gambling dens and prostitutes so there was no reason to really hide it.
Heading downstairs, Manroji found a bustling crowd with people each enjoying their own games. Most of the games involved cards and dice for craps.
“Hehehe…”
Hiding his grin, Manroji took his seat.
The mage of the 4th floor of the Tower of Mages, Manroji, was a typical gambling addict, with such a severe addiction that he looked for gambling dens in whichever city he went to.
The only thing that set him apart from other addicts was…
‘That guy has two pairs. And the other has a straight, huh.’
Inside the dark underground den was a bat familiar stealthily hiding in a corner of the room. The familiar shared its vision with its owner, and provided Manroji with a bunch of information.
“Huhahaha…!”
“Aye shit. I lost again!”
“Damn it!”
It was another win streak today, but too many wins in a row was bound to make others suspicious so Manroji suffered a few intentional losses all the while enjoying his victory.
“May I please join?”
Right when the people were starting to leave, someone joined the table. It was a beautiful young woman.
She had ashen bob hair and was wearing an alluring dress. Her bewitchingly beautiful smile complemented her confident charm.
“Huhu. Of course.”
Seduced by the sudden beauty, he decided to drain the purse of this lady. It was a strategy he used often, where he made the woman he was fond of into a beggar before asking for their body.
And after an hour, he was able to succeed in his plan.
“A, are you really… going to give all the money back?”
“Hell yeah I am. Huhu. So hurry up and take off that piece of cloth.”
On one of the rooms on the second floor that was for accommodation and prostitution, Manroji led the woman he turned into a beggar into the room.
“O, okay.”
The woman became very submissive after losing dozens of gold coins at once. No matter how confident and attractive she was, she was the same as all the other girls that fell before his hands.
Thanks to that, Manroji thought to himself that his bed won’t be so cold during his stay in this city.
“B, but… shouldn’t we introduce ourselves at the very least?”
“Huhu, why bother? All you have to do is obediently lay yourself in my arms.”
“No. Of course I need your name.”
The atmosphere changed in the blink of an eye. The beauty, who had been shivering until then, suddenly looked at him with a chilling look in her eyes.
“Renya Claire. Owner of this building.”
“What?”
“Did we seem that easy to fool, mage?”
“…!!”
– Slam!
Something struck him on the back of his head, and Manroji fell face-first into the cold floor of the room.
“Fuu~. Mages. Every single one of them.”
“Great work. Can you wear some proper clothes now?”
“Was it too stimulating for someone underage, boss?”
Manroji’s consciousness faded away. The last thing he heard was the voice of a confident lady and… a rather familiar voice of a young man.
……….
……
…
After coming to himself, Manroji realized that he was in the basement, as well as the fact that someone was looking at him.
“W, who is it!? How dare you do this to me!”
“Hello, Mr. Wizard.”
“Huhp…!?”
Spotting the owner of the voice, Manroji gasped for breath.
In front of him was a man wearing a bizarre purple suit, and an eccentric clown-like makeup. He was looking straight into his eyes with a long smirk on his face.
“W, who are you!”
“…”
“W, why aren’t you saying anything!?”
“No, wait. It’s been too long since I watched the movie so I can’t think of a good phrase. Huu… It’s been 4 to 5 years since I last watched it.”
“What…?”
“Shhhh… It’s just a joke. Don’t fret.”
Manroji immediately started shooting his mana at the clown. It was a low-grade magic, Fog of Darkness, that did not need any chant. Despite the low level of the spell, it should still be enough to kill a random alleyway thug.
– Hwaaak!
But unlike his expectations, as soon as the fog touched the clown, light covered the darkness and pushed it away. The fog immediately disappeared into nothing as if it was cleansed.
“W, what…!?”
“I don’t even need the sun for a curse at this level.”
Manroji realized that his magic wouldn’t work on him. The opponent was too close for him to start chanting a medium-grade spell. It was incredibly obvious that a dagger would end up piercing through his throat the moment he welled up his mana.
He was therefore frightened and rushed.
“Do you know who I am!? I am a mage from the 4th floor of the Tower of…!”
“I don’t care but what I do know, is that your life will be over if I catch you telling another lie.”
The clown said with the bat-shaped familiar in his hand.
“Now, are you ready for a conversation, buddy?”
****
“Korin. It’s this way. Come here!”
I was in the downtown area of Merkarva City with Marie. It wasn’t because of anything serious; we were out to have a look at a distribution company affiliated under the Dunareff Family, which had officially created a branch in Merkarva.
『Dunareff Fresh Produce』
It was a company that hadn’t existed in Merkarva City in the last iteration. Looking back at it now, there had been a lot of changes in the campus as a result of Marie’s confinement.
One of them was that the academy cafeteria food had turned horrible and stayed horrible for a very long time.
“Senior. If I remember correctly, the company that supplies the Academy with food was one of your companies right?”
“Hnn? Umm, I think so? I think my dad ‘donates’ them though.”
“…”
Donation…? Seeing the dumbfounded look on my face, Marie chuckled and tapped me on my nose.
“I’m joking! There are more than 3,000 people including the staff. Of course we can’t give that much for free!”
“R, right? Plus, there’s no way all those potatoes would be free…”
“Ah, for the potatoes, I’m taking a small portion out of the amount we supply the kingdom with using my allowance to share with everyone.”
“…”
By ‘small’, you mean the mountain of potatoes that are kept in a separate potato warehouse… right?
“Anyway, so why are we going there?”
“It’s the opening rehearsal day for our store today, so I thought we could try out some sample food. There were a few things I wanted to give you as well!”
“I see.”
The store that Marie led me to… was pretty big. It was like a massive fruit and vegetable warehouse, and it also had a second floor along with a restaurant. It seemed that they had the intention of wholeheartedly jumping into the food industry using the abundant ingredients they bring directly from the south.
But… wasn’t this like the tyranny of a large corporation, making all the nearby small companies go out of business?
“Can you give us this potato puree, some hash browns, potato cake, potato meat stew, potato gnocchi, a potato croquette, fried potatoes, and a potato pie? Thank you!”
As if this was what she had been wanting to show me, Marie asked for a bunch of dishes directly from the chef.
“Here you go, Korin! Don’t hold back!”
The large table was full of potato dishes. I had a feeling that every type of food on the planet that involved having potatoes as the main ingredient was here.
“…I got to say, Senior, you really have an addiction to potatoes.”
“Hnn? Come on, Korin. There’s no such thing as a potato addiction!”
“Be honest, Senior. How many potatoes do you steam every day?”
“A, around 80? But I share them with my friends!”
“How many times have you had a meal that did not include potatoes over the past year?”
“P, potatoes are… like rice.”
“Look. I’m telling you; you’re addicted.”
“No! I am not addicted to potatoes! I love corn, sweet potatoes, and carrots just as much! I can quit potatoes if I want to!”
Come on; we don’t usually use the term, ‘quit’ for dishes, young lady! Only people with an addiction to soft drinks, caffeine, or smoking would use that word.
“Are you sure?”
“I am!”
Seeing her confidence, I picked up a pinch of salt and flicked it on top of the steamed potatoes. White crystals fell like raindrops on the hot steaming skin of the potatoes, making them more tempting than ever.
“…”
“…”
I deeply stared at her, as a bead of sweat slowly traveled down her forehead. Her golden eyes shivered and wandered between the potato and me.
“Can I eat this and quit potatoes from tomorrow?”
“Don’t worry and just eat it.”
“Hehe.”
Marie returned a wide smile and picked up one of the salted potatoes before breaking it into two and giving me a half.
“You will help me eat half of it, right Korin?”
“Of course.”
We started indulging ourselves in the food and eventually began talking about the mages from the Tower.
“Oh right. Korin, you know the mages that visited our Academy from the Tower?”
“What about them?”
“You volunteered to guide them right? Apparently they were going to tell me to do it.”
“Hohh~”
According to the original storyline of the game, Marie was supposed to be confined in the basement of the Academy at this point in time. And plus, there was supposed to be research going on about ways to suppress her instinct as a vampire to help her recover from her primal instincts.
That was probably why the Dunareff Family cut off their ties with the Academy in the original game.
However, the Tower of Mages had a different opinion of Marie.
She was an extremely precious and valuable Elder-level vampire. They saw big potential progress in the future of their magic studies by investigating her flesh and blood.
As expected of those crazy wizards with no ethical and moral restrictions holding them back, they were eager to carry out human experiments as if they were nothing.
“Senior. I was going to tell you sometime soon, but…”
“Hnn?”
“The reason the Tower visited this time around, is probably because of you.”
“Umm… B, because of me?”
Marie looked puzzled for a while after hearing what I said, but it didn’t take long for her to understand what I meant.
She too was a genius mage with extraordinary talents, and knew just how valuable her flesh and blood were.
“…Why?”
But even so, she was still doubtful and that was for valid reasons.
“It won’t… end well if they do something to me though?”
Marie Dunareff.
Even though calling her the princess of the Potato Empire was just a joke, it was still undeniable that she was from the family responsible for most of the continent’s supply of food; the one with the most amount of land and the richest household of the entire kingdom.
In the original storyline, the Dunareff family wasn’t mentioned after the fall of Marie but she was currently still walking around just fine, with a better public perception of her than the game.
One might therefore ask this question. ‘Who would dare touch Marie Dunareff? For just some random experiments?’
“The Tower of Mages is one of the pawns of Tates Valtazar.”
“Tates… Valtazar. That’s the scary person that you are fighting against, right?”
“Yes. When the world gets destroyed by the Advent of Paradise, the authority and financial power of any of the current forces won’t matter a single bit, so that’s probably the belief pushing them forward.”
That was one of the most frightening aspects of Valtazar and his forces.
They were unhesitant and did not hold back regardless of what crazy things they had in store, because if things went according to their plan, civilization was going to be destroyed and recreated. New gods will descend unto the world along with paradise.
“I, I had no idea they were planning for something so scary…”
Although I did mention briefly to my party members about the powerful and frightening forces of Valtazar, and how everything I did was to ruin their plans and defeat them, it was my first time providing details about their plan.
“Valtazar’s plan is to collect all the Primal Rune letters… open up the path to Tir na nog, prove his right as the supreme king with the 4 treasures and usurp the throne.”
With the right to control paradise that comes with it, his plan was to release beasts of the Shadow Paradise into this world.
“A destruction of civilization and recreation. They’re trying to wipe out everything in existence, and live in a new world led by new gods. Haa… it’s like the storyline of a trash fantasy novel.”
“But it’s scary that they actually do have the power to pull that off.”
Marie was sincere in listening to my story, and believed it instead of calling it absurd and groundless.
“Korin. The reason you told me this is…”
“I am going to use everything I can in order to save the world. How much do you trust me, Senior?”
“…”
She responded to my question with a short silence, before standing up with a smile. From the other side of the table, she moved over to the chair next to mine, sat down and…
“Korin. You don’t have to ask me that every time.”
Tap. The girl rested her head on my shoulder, and replied with a voice that was a lot calmer and resolute than usual.
“You see, Korin, I can do anything you want me to do. No matter what you tell me to do… because you are my Korin.”
“Senior…”
“Hehe… Actually, I’m happy that there’s something you need my help with. You’re always so perfect with everything you do so… I was a bit sad that there was not much I could help you with.”
“You’ve been of tremendous help until now already, Senior. During the King of Iron Mountain, the festival and the secret lands of druids. You helped out a ton.”
“I’m greedy, you see. I want to be wayyyy ahead of everyone else.”
Marie soon said with a determined look on her face, that made her look like she was ready to withstand any adversity.
“A, actually… there’s something I want to ask of you, Korin…”
“Do you have a request for me?”
“R, rather than a request, uhh… a reward? Something like that… or a motivation…”
Motivation, huh. Of course, that was very important but… was there something Marie needed my help for?
“Y, you seee…”
Marie fidgeted with her fingers, rubbing them meaninglessly with a blank smile on her face. After fidgeting for who knows how long, she gulped and continued with a tone of voice that seemed to be that of a young girl.
“Once I am done with what you are asking me to do, Korin… can I ask for something in return?”
“Uhh… of course. Like, you can even tell me right now.”
“T, that’s a bit embarrassing and…! I… I need some more time!”
What was it, I wonder? That Marie was going to ask of me?
“Sure. There’s nothing I can’t do for you, Senior.”
I was being serious. There was nothing I wasn’t willing to do for her.
“Well then, Senior, can we go somewhere together?”
“Uunn?”
Marie tilted her head like an adorable child.
****
I took her and headed to the Happiness Hotel which was still in my possession. This hotel, which had been built especially for the festival, was still operating as a normal hotel.
Even though I entrusted the operation and maintenance of the building to Renya, the executive of the intelligence guild, I was still using this place as my hideout.
“K, Kokokokokorin? W, what does this mean?”
“Sorry? What was that at the end?”
For some reason, Marie was trembling like crazy. She was very fidgety and constantly rubbed her hands, and just couldn’t stay still.
“I, I see… Maybe I… d, don’t even need to ask for it?”
“We have to go down to the basement.”
“Umm, basement? Uhh, wouldn’t it be… better to do it somewhere brighter?”
“What do you mean?”
“N, nothing! You do what you want to do, Korin! I, I’m okay with anything!”
Marie was constantly saying some random things that I couldn’t understand. She was having trouble walking down, so I grabbed her by the hand and headed down the basement.
The basement of the hotel was used not for guests but as a storeroom. Even when we were first planning out the structure of the hotel, I had designed this part of the building with certain uses in mind, and made sure it was as secure as possible.
“It’s right here.”
“H, huu, huu…”
Was she bad with dark places? I led Marie, who seemed extremely nervous, and walked into one of the dark rooms of the basement.
“H, here, huh. I, I see… the dormitory walls are thin so that’s why… W, where’s the bed… huh?”
As soon as we opened the door, Marie stopped her feet without even taking another step forward. That was understandable though, because in the middle of the room was the black mage Manroji, whom I had kidnapped just yesterday.
“I will leave it to you, Senior.”
“K, Korin?”
Holding onto the shoulders of the nervous Marie, I continued.
“Please turn him into a vampire.”
– Smirk.
Although there was no mirror in the room, I had a feeling that my smile must have appeared quite evil.
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