Chapter 123: - Mages of the Tower (1)

༺ 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.

“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.