I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41. The Secret of the Special Quest
What greeted Mina Alkes was neither the gallows in the Plaza nor the Underground Prison.
It was a lord with an inhuman appearance, seated in a pitch-black carriage.
“How delightful to meet you, Mina Alkes.”
‘…Why is a lord suddenly appearing here?’
Mina swallowed hard without realizing it.
She’d resigned herself to losing everything or receiving a whipping at worst, but being thrown into a tiger’s den was another matter entirely.
‘How does he even know my name? Could it be my Master?’
If it was that mad old witch, it wouldn’t be strange for her to know a monstrous lord who’d lived for a thousand years.
…But what if she really does know him?
Should I deny ever receiving anything from that hag?
The lord observed her in silence before letting out a soft chuckle.
“I can hear the gears turning in your head from here.”
Caught off guard, Mina stammered as she spoke.
“N-no, that’s not it… I simply didn’t expect someone as distinguished as you to know of someone like me.”
“I know well. Both you and that small vampire beside you.”
He knows about Vlad too!?
Mina cried out in alarm.
“N-no, this child isn’t a vampire! He’s just a hybrid!”
Mina pinched Vlad’s forearm, signaling him not to stay silent.
The boy, who had been standing there like a sack of grain, finally spoke.
“What Mina sister says is right… I’m not a monster, I’m a dhampir.”
Interest flickered across the lord’s eyes, which gleamed with a subtle, opalescent light like wet pearls.
“It seems you two are quite fond of each other.”
Mina gripped Vlad’s hand tightly, her entire body tense. She tried to appear composed, but her frame kept trembling.
Could he really know everything?
If he knows about Vlad’s origins as well….
“Would you consider entering my service?”
“Huh? What? Yes?”
She answered a beat too late, her mind consumed with imagining the worst scenarios.
But the lord continued unhurriedly, as if unbothered.
“I mean to employ you. Both you and that small vampire.”
Employment? Not execution and a shared grave, but employment?
As Mina hesitated, unsure how to respond, Vlad spoke first with a question.
“Me? Why? I can’t do anything except kill peo——”
“Hey!”
Mina cried out sharply, and Vlad, belatedly realizing his blunder, corrected himself.
“Oh! I can assist Mina sister. I can read and write in the imperial script as well….”
The lord cut him off with an indifferent tone.
“No. You are skilled at tailoring and garment-making.”
“You can’t even sew?”
Mina Alkes looked up at the lord, utterly bewildered by what she meant. But the lord showed no inclination to explain further.
She flicked her fingertips with an indifferent expression.
“I’ve given you ample time to consider. Now choose—will you ride in my carriage, or in the escort carriage?”
It was an ultimatum: become a subordinate, or go to the Underground Prison.
Mina swallowed back a surge of curses.
‘What kind of choice is this?’
But her hesitation was brief.
‘…If I’m going to die either way, I might as well die with my backside on velvet cushions!’
She gripped Vlad’s hand firmly.
And climbed boldly into the black carriage.
[Mina Alkes has sworn allegiance to you!]
[Vlad de Vil has sworn allegiance to you!]
The moment both of them boarded, the system displayed recruitment confirmation windows.
Camilia calmly examined their status windows.
[Mina Alkes]
Level: 1
Class: Alchemist
‘This one’s no different from the game.’
Mina Alkes, a short-haired beauty with distinctly feline features—her blonde hair streaked with gold and emerald eyes dotted with golden flecks—was an additional character from the Golden Age DLC.
The cat-eared girl had been a controversial character that had set the forums ablaze with debates about whether she fit the Dark Tower aesthetic, but her performance was merely mediocre.
She could be recruited after the summer festival in the first year.
Either pick her up after she gets injured at the festival, or find an injured cat near the Slums and care for her.
Simply healing her was enough to recruit her, and if you succeeded in defeating or driving off the master who pursued her, she would offer unwavering loyalty.
She was a rare character whose loyalty remained unchanged even if the lord was evil or evil-aligned, so Camilia rarely passed up the opportunity to recruit her.
She was the only alchemist companion available in the first year, and her potion-crafting skills were quite respectable.
‘I thought she’d snuck in during the festival, but she’d been living in the Slums all along.’
Acquiring Mina Alkes was fortunate.
The problem was not her, but the reddish-brown-haired boy clinging to Mina’s side.
[Vlad de Vil]
Level: 6
Class: Assassin
‘Only sixteen and already level 6? This is insane.’
In this world, even a Knight Order commander could reach level 3.
In other words, a level 6 assassin meant one of the nation’s handful of strongest warriors.
Naturally, Vlad de Vil was no ordinary boy.
His epithet: “Flayer.”
He was a named hostile NPC known as one of the three great commanders of the Assassination Unit.
To reiterate—a hostile NPC.
Which meant he was originally an impossible character to recruit.
‘How on earth did he end up joining me?’
It wasn’t as though I had no inkling of the answer.
I pulled the special Quest window I’d tucked away in the corner of my vision into clear view.
As expected, the reward for the special Quest had changed.
[Special Quest Appeared]
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Reward: Vlad de Vil (New Companion)
-Quest has begun!
‘…Now I understand. This special Quest was originally designed to recruit companions who wouldn’t normally be recruitable.’
Of all people, it had to involve both Mina Alkes and Vlad de Vil.
Of course, if I forced myself to find a connection, it wasn’t impossible.
Some of the potions used by the Assassination Unit were created by Mina.
But that was all there was to it. There were only a few lines of dialogue related to it, and when encountering Vlad de Vil, there were no special interactions or events either.
I wanted to dismiss it as a discrepancy between the game and reality, but the inconsistencies were far too numerous to ignore.
‘How were the two of them able to escape?’
The Assassination Unit was formidable enough, but Mina’s Master was no less a fearsome adversary.
There was no way she would have simply let them flee.
‘Even if they managed to escape, how did they get all the way here?’
Unlike modern society, the lands beyond the cities in this dark fantasy world were absolute hell.
Considering the distance between the capital of the Fallum Empire and Nidst, their escape seemed nothing short of miraculous.
‘No… no matter how much I think about it, I can’t make sense of it. Then why was Mina’s recruitment Quest in the game the way it was?’
Why was Mina lying alone, and so grievously wounded at that?
If she’d had a companion, she wouldn’t have been left in such a state.
‘Did Vlad de Vil leave before the festival? Looking at it that way, it doesn’t seem likely. So then, who attacked the two of them during the festival….’
I stopped my habitual tapping of my fingers against my knee.
‘The ones who injured Mina during the festival—could they have been the Assassination Unit’s pursuers?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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