Chapter 174: Mina’s options and Mina’s consent. Introductory torture. Education choices.

You chuckle, the sound echoing off the vaulted stone ceiling. "Telling would take even longer than listening, Queen Mina. So let us listen to her choices instead."

You turn to the young princess. Her crimson eyes meet yours without flinching, though her small hands tremble at her sides. You produce a ring from your inventory, holding it between two fingers so the candlelight catches its surface.

"This ring provides sustenance," you explain. "The wearer no longer needs to eat or drink. Even as a vampire, it will forever provide what your body requires."

Young Mina stares at the ring, then at you. Her mother's hand tightens on adult Mina's shoulder.

"I have entire worlds you can live in, free of men entirely," you continue. "Places where you would never be threatened. Or I know of worlds where vampires never existed in the first place, where you could live in relative peace among ordinary humans. Or perhaps you want to live with more adventure, becoming stronger as you experience one world after the next."

You pause, letting the weight of the options settle.

"The rule I make is this: from the moment consent is given, she will know she will be mine for the next four hundred years. After that, it is her choice. So, Princess Mina, what life do you choose? And will it satisfy your future self and your mother?"

Silence stretches through the throne room. Young Mina's crimson eyes flick between her mother, her older self, and the ring. Her jaw sets with a determination that mirrors the queen standing beside Lucretia.

"Four hundred years," young Mina says. Her voice is steady for a twelve-year-old. "That is how long my mother is dead in the future."

Queen Mina flinches.

"To be accurate, it's when I learn of your story and decide to give you this offer." You correct idly, "She is still dead long after four hundred years."

"If I go with you," young Mina continues, "those lords cannot kill her. They lose their reason. Yes?"

"They lose their pretext," you confirm. "Your mother's death becomes purposeless."

Lucretia's voice cuts through, cold as steel in winter. "You speak of my daughter belonging to you for four centuries. What does that mean? What will you do to her?"

Queen Mina steps forward, separating herself from her mother's embrace. She wipes her face with both hands again, standing straight, a queen who ruled alone for four hundred years.

"Mother. Let me speak."

Lucretia's crimson eyes burn, but she falls silent.

Queen Mina faces young Mina directly. "Little me. Do you understand what he is offering?"

"He is offering to own me," young Mina says without hesitation. "In exchange for a life where I live."

"Not just that." Queen Mina kneels, bringing herself to eye level with her younger self. "He is offering you a future where you are never alone. Where you are wanted. Where you have companions and purpose and strength." Her voice cracks slightly. "I spent four hundred years building a nation because I had nothing else. I had no one who chose me simply because they wanted me."

Young Mina's eyes widen.

"I consent," Queen Mina says, standing and turning to face you. "I consent to my younger self being taken. To being groomed into a willing adult partner, with the protections and life you have described." Her crimson eyes are fierce. "But I have conditions. She will never be harmed. She will have companions her own age. She will be educated, not just trained. And when the four hundred years end, she will be free to choose without obligation."

Shalltear shifts beside you, her crimson eyes gleaming with something approaching respect for the vampire queen's directness.

Young Mina looks at her mother. "Will you come too?"

Lucretia's composure finally breaks entirely. Tears stream down her pale face as she kneels before her daughter, taking both small hands in hers. "I cannot, my darling. I must stay. I must deal with the lords who would murder me. I have responsibilities to those who I have ruled over."

"But you will live," young Mina whispers.

"I will live," Lucretia confirms. "Because you will not be here for them to use against me."

Young Mina turns back to you. Her crimson eyes hold centuries of precocious awareness compressed into twelve years of life. She extends her hand toward the ring.

"Adventure," she says. "I choose adventure. I want to become strong."

"Your conditions are trivial," you say to Queen Mina. "What you have asked for is less than what I already intended for her following ten to twenty years."

You take young Mina's extended hand in yours. Her small fingers are cold, vampire-cold, and they tremble only slightly as you slide the ring onto her finger. The metal warms instantly, bonding to her flesh with a soft pulse of golden light that makes Lucretia gasp. Young Mina's crimson eyes widen as the ring's sentience wraps her consciousness, a presence gently settling into the periphery of her awareness.

"There," you say. "It will sustain you. It will protect you. And it will teach you."

Young Mina stares at the ring, then up at you with an expression that balances fear against something fiercer. Determination. Anticipation.

You turn toward Lord Ivanovic. The vampire noble has gone rigid, Vera's katana still positioned between him and her Queen. His pale face holds the desperate calculation of a cornered animal.

"Before wrapping this up, there's something I want to check. Undeath to Life."

The spell descends from above, a column of soft celestial radiance that bathes Ivanovic in golden light. There is no dramatic transformation. No screaming. No flesh melting away to reveal hidden truths. The spell simply illuminates its target and fades.

The result is anticlimactic in the extreme.

Ivanovic's skin flushes. His crimson eyes flicker, losing their vampiric intensity for a fraction of a second. The pallor drains from his face, replaced by something warmer. More alive. More human.

The two werewolf guards react simultaneously, their hackles rising, their nostrils flaring. One of them snarls and takes a step backward. The other grabs Ivanovic's arm and sniffs deeply.

"Lord Ivanovic is human," the werewolf announces, his voice thick with disbelief.

Vera's katana is at his throat before he can draw another breath. "You infiltrated the Castle. You sat in my queen's court. You plotted her murder."

Ivanovic's composure shatters completely. His eyes dart wildly between you, Vera, and the Gate still shimmering behind Queen Mina. There is nowhere to run.

You chuckle. "I'm surprised that worked."

Lucretia rises from her throne, her maternal grief transmuting into something far more dangerous. Her crimson eyes fix on the human impostor with the cold fury of a vampire sovereign betrayed.

You turn back to Queen Mina. "This Gate to the future will last for twenty-three more hours if I don't dispel it. Would you like the time to say goodbye to your mother? I do highly advise being in your own timeline when the Gate closes."

Queen Mina looks at her mother. At her younger self, standing with the ring glowing softly on her finger. Her jaw works for several seconds before she speaks.

"Twenty-three hours," she repeats. "Yes. I want every moment."

She turns to you and bows, a queen acknowledging a greater power. "Thank you. For this."

You take young Mina's hand in one of yours and Shalltear's in the other. The vampire princess's cold fingers grip yours with surprising strength. Shalltear squeezes back possessively, her crimson eyes gleaming with satisfaction at the successful acquisition.

"I won't be here when it closes," you tell Queen Mina. "Be careful not to push it's time."

You teleport.

The throne room vanishes. The salt wind and candlelight disappear. In their place, the familiar infinite expanse of Jibril's library materializes around you, towering shelves of crystalline knowledge stretching into impossible distances. The Gate to The Dance in the Vampire Bund dimension snaps shut behind you with a sound like breaking glass.

Young Mina Tepes stands in the library of a multidimensional dungeon, wearing a ring that will reshape the next four hundred years of her existence. She looks up at the impossible shelves, at the winged angel who manages them, at the vampire guardian beside her who radiates ancient power.

"Adventure," she repeats softly, her crimson eyes reflecting the crystalline light. "This is adventure."

Shalltear laughs, a genuine sound of delight. "Oh, I like this one, my lord. She has spirit."

"I like this one too," you agree with Shalltear, then turn your gaze upon young Mina Tepes with deliberate menace. Your eyes narrow. Your voice drops to something cold and theatrical.

"Young lady. Are you prepared to endure the greatest of torture to begin your new life? I warn you though. Your body will easily endure. Your soul may not."

Mina's crimson eyes widen. Her small hands ball into fists at her sides. She swallows once, hard, her ring glowing softly on her finger. Then her jaw sets with that fierce determination you saw in the throne room.

"I chose adventure," she says. "I will not break from something as simple as torture."

You snap your fingers. "Clothier's Closet. Fancy Cosplay Variant."

The spell erupts around young Mina in a cascade of shimmering fabric and floating accessories. Her simple dark dress dissolves into motes of light as new garments materialize around her small frame. The first outfit settles: a frilly gothic lolita dress in deep crimson and black lace, complete with a bonnet trimmed with tiny bat wings. Ribbons cascade from every seam.

Mina stares down at herself. Her crimson eyes go round as saucers.

"This is your torture?" she demands, her voice pitching higher with indignation.

You are already conjuring a magic camera from your inventory, snapping the first picture. The image fabricates instantly into a poster that floats beside you, Mina's mortified expression preserved in perfect detail.

Shalltear's laughter rings through the library like silver bells. "Oh, this is wonderful, my lord! Put her in the maid outfit next!"

The spell cycles. Mina's gothic lolita dissolves and reforms into a frilly black-and-white maid dress with an absurdly oversized bow at the back. Her silver-white hair is suddenly styled in twin tails tied with ribbon. She looks like a porcelain doll brought to life.

"I will have your head for this," Mina hisses, but there is no real venom in it. Her cheeks are flushed pink, the first color you have seen on her pale vampire face.

Another picture. Another poster.

Shalltear steps forward, examining the floating wardrobe with growing interest. "My lord, some of these would fit me as well."

"Then try them," you say.

Shalltear's eyes gleam. She plucks a sailor uniform from the floating collection and holds it against herself. "This one."

You cycle the spell to include her. Shalltear's elegant black dress transforms into a navy-blue sailor fuku with a red ribbon at the collar, her silver hair suddenly styled in a high ponytail. She strikes a pose with practiced grace, one hand behind her head, her crimson eyes sparkling with mischief.

You take the picture. Shalltear preens.

Jibril appears from between shelves, her blue eyes widening at the spectacle. "My lord, what are you doing to the new arrival?"

"Fashion show," you say simply.

Jibril's wings flutter with sudden interest. "May I participate?"

"Absolutely."

The spell expands again. Jibril's librarian attire transforms into a flowing magical girl costume complete with a star-tipped wand, her blue hair cascading in impossible ringlets. She examines herself with scholarly curiosity, turning to examine the wand's construction.

A soft sound draws your attention. Irene Belserion stands at the end of the aisle, rubbing sleep from her eyes, her scarlet hair disheveled from her nap on the reading couch. She stares at the scene before her: a vampire princess in a maid outfit, a vampire guardian in a sailor uniform, and an angel in a magical girl costume, all posing while floating posters multiply around them.

"Did I miss something?" Irene asks.

"You're just in time," you say. "Clothier's Closet."

Irene's sleeping robes transform into a regal queen's gown of deep scarlet with gold trim, a crown materializing atop her scarlet hair. She blinks at herself, then at the others, then shrugs with the easy acceptance of someone who has stopped questioning Blank's whims.

"At least this is comfortable," she mutters.

Young Mina has recovered enough composure to glare at you while the spell cycles her through a princess gown, a bunny suit that makes her squeak with outrage, a school uniform, and finally a tiny tuxedo with tails that makes Shalltear double over laughing.

"You are the worst torturer in history," Mina declares, crossing her arms over her tuxedo-clad chest.

"And yet your soul endured," you reply, snapping another picture. "Welcome to your new life Mina."

You cycle the spell one final time. Shalltear ends up in a frilly pink apron over a swimsuit, her silver hair in twin braids adorned with strawberry clips. Jibril transforms into a lab coat with goggles perched atop her blue ringlets, a chalkboard floating behind her. Irene becomes a pirate queen with a tricorn hat and an eyepatch she keeps pushing up to actually see through. And young Mina Tepes stands in a wedding dress with a veil, her crimson eyes blazing with murderous intent above a flush that reaches her ears.

"You are a monster," Mina declares, yanking at the veil.

You snap the final picture. "And yet your soul endures."

Shalltear dissolves into laughter, pulling strawberry clips from her braids. "My lord, you have traumatized her beautifully."

You dismiss the spell, everyone returning to their original attire. Then you speak out to Nazarick's consciousness. "Nazarick. This is Mina Tepes. She will be residing here. Prepare appropriate quarters and register her for access."

The dungeon responds instantly. A subtle warmth pulses through the floor beneath Mina's feet, and the ring on her finger vibrates in acknowledgment as Nazarick's awareness extends toward her, cataloging her presence, her needs, her preferences. A doorway shimmers into existence along the far wall, revealing a corridor that wasn't there before.

"Your bedroom is there," you tell her. "When you're ready."

Mina stares at the appearing corridor with wide crimson eyes but says nothing, her hand drifting to the ring on her finger.

"Now," you continue, turning to Jibril. "I need you to show Mina and Irene the stories from several worlds. She'll be choosing her base education from them."

Jibril's wings flutter with immediate scholarly enthusiasm. "Of course, my lord. Which worlds?"

"Middle school equivalent: Pokemon, Assassination Classroom, My Hero Academia, and World's End Harem. High school: The Irregular at Magic High School, Eminence in Shadow, and Fullmetal Alchemist. College: Log Horizon and Saga of Tanya the Evil."

Jibril's blue eyes sharpen with recognition. She begins pulling crystalline data tablets from shelves, her movements swift and precise. "An excellent curriculum selection. Pokemon for elemental theory and creature bonding fundamentals. Assassination Classroom for tactical thinking under pressure. My Hero Academia for power classification systems. World's End Harem for biological sciences and population dynamics." She pauses, glancing at Mina. "Perhaps with supervision for that last one."

"The Irregular for systematic magic theory," Jibril continues, stacking tablets. "Eminence in Shadow for strategic misdirection and information warfare. Fullmetal Alchemist for transmutation principles and equivalent exchange philosophy. And Log Horizon for governance systems while Tanya provides military strategy and resource management."

Irene peers at the stack with growing interest. "You want me to watch these with her?"

"Company while she reads and watches," you confirm. "You might find them interesting yourself."

Irene shrugs, her scarlet hair swaying. "I've nothing better to do today. At least it's not another nap."

Mina steps toward the tablets, her small hand reaching out to touch the first one. Pokemon glimmers beneath her fingertips, images of creatures she has never seen flickering across the crystalline surface.

"I begin with these?" she asks, looking up at you.

"Jibril will redirect you if you stray too far." you say. "Take your time. There's no rush."

Shalltear tugs at your sleeve. "My lord, may I stay and watch as well? I find myself curious about these other worlds."

Jibril has already begun arranging a reading alcove, summoning comfortable seating and a viewing screen that materializes from the library's infinite resources. Irene settles into a chair with easy grace, pulling the first tablet toward her.

Young Mina sits between them, her silver-white hair catching the crystalline light, her crimson eyes already scanning the first page with the focused intensity of a vampire princess who chose adventure.