The warden's office desk.
The room that always reeked of stale booze was now filled with the unexpected aroma of coffee.
Silvery hair shimmering like moonlight, and piercing green eyes.
A lean man exuding noble dignity sat there.
His black uniform bore a nameplate. Derek Minster, age twenty-one this year.
⚙ OBJECTIVE ⚙Survive your first week as warden.⚔ PASSIVES ⚔Gloom: Long years soaked in booze have left your eyes weary and intimidating. Corrupt Noble: The Minster family is infamous for contract killings and loan sharking. Noble Grace: Handsome as the second son of a count family. However, the above infamy halves this effect.
Yeah, back when I first got isekai'd into this game, this was my level.
No matter how well I did in previous playthroughs, right now I'm just a worthless young master who bought this warden position with money.
⚙ PERK ⚙You can inherit some experience learned from previous playthroughs. However, current Derek Minster's base stats are low, so only one class is possible.
If I had to pick one right now, it'd have to be the Swordmaster from my first playthrough.
Setting aside the alcohol addiction that makes my hands shake just holding a pencil.
⚙ CLASS INHERITED ⚙Sturdy body and experience from the first playthrough partially applied.
The stats I'd built up in my past life trickled into this frail body.
I swung a light punch, testing my returning senses.
Not the full power from my Knight Commander days, but at least the tremors were gone.
A satisfied smile crossed my face as I rose from the leather chair.
Then my eyes met those of the vice warden, who'd been staring at me oddly for a while.
⚔ CLEA ROCKHART ⚔Twenty-year-old vice warden with blue hair tied in a ponytail. A strikingly beautiful face rare even in the capital, now watching me warily.
"Full of energy on your first day, I see."
"Of course. I didn't expect to have such a capable talent as my vice warden."
I offered praise first, hoping to make a good impression.
But Clea's blue eyes remained ice-cold.
"I hear you were a famous wastrel in the capital. This isn't an easy place."
"Don't worry. I've heard the rumors. I'm here to work hard."
In this game, you can usually tell important characters by their looks.
Extras are drawn plainly, but key players almost always have standout appearances.
From memory, the woman before me had high charm and intelligence stats.
But since she wasn't a main character, she had a major flaw: a rotten personality.
A few players had hit on her just for her looks in the past.
No matter the approach, romance was impossible.
"Well, if you're just focused on the job, I can help."
Clea pulled a monocle from her uniform pocket and fitted it on.
Then she fetched a neatly organized ledger and thumped it down on the desk.
"But if you're thinking of getting cozy with the prisoners, give it up now."
Berryhill Prison Incident Log Last month: 10 incidents total. 6 guards began hallucinating during prisoner meals. 2 guards threw leers at prisoners and were murdered. 2 previous wardens lobbied prisoners and were executed for corruption exposure.
'Damn, laid out like this, it's brutal.'
My green eyes flicked toward Clea.
The vice warden stared back with the bored eyes of a sullen fox.
"I'm tired of cleaning up bodies."
She was a year younger than me, but her gaze treated me like a pathetic kid.
I wanted to shake off this damn reputation fast.
"You wouldn't get it, but I've been through worse. I'm prepared."
"I like the look in your eyes. Wonder how long it'll last."
Clea smirked faintly, clearly planning to test me—whether I was here to work or just another wastrel bluffing.
"Fine then. Let's get to work."
Her ponytail swayed lightly.
The vice warden opened the office door herself and gestured gracefully.
"I'll prepare your first duty as warden: prisoner interviews."
We headed down the old corridor to the basement stairs.
The stairs were so deep it took minutes just to descend.
"No guards in sight."
"Aside from me and the entrance guards, most are injured."
Clea adjusted her monocle and spoke crisply.
"With all these incidents, no action from above?"
"Those assigned here are mostly outcasts from the capital. They don't care if we die."
Clea, walking beside me, had been an imperial secretary.
She'd been exiled for assaulting a royal who obsessively courted her.
"So this prison is basically a lawless zone."
"Yes. That's why I sighed when you were assigned here."
Me? Why?
"I figured you'd be like past wardens, boozing away and wasting your salary."
"All the rumors about me are fake. Look how handsome I am, right?"
Clea's eyes widened like a shocked fox.
Still, in previous playthroughs, plenty of noble ladies fancied me...
If not for the world's end, I could've lived easy as some rich guy's boy toy.
"I'll give you an honest assessment if you come back alive."
At the bottom of the stairs sat a desk topped with white flowers memorializing dead guards.
"Your first prisoner is the Fake Saintess."
Fake Saintess.
Hearing that familiar name wiped the smile from my face.
A beautiful woman with snow-white hair and red eyes.
She wore a red dress and claimed to be the saintess from scripture.
"Real name: Anje Renault. Age nineteen this year. Captured in neighboring Bern city."
Crime: Inciting the populace.
Brainwashed 300 citizens to beat a local lord to death.
Ten Holy See priests stepped in to barely subdue her and fit her with a sealing necklace.
But power still leaked out, so she was exiled to this remote prison.
"Why exile instead of execution?"
"Just speculation, but... rumors say the saintess is a secret Holy See experiment."
"Experiment?"
"Yes. She kept getting stronger, risking exposure, so they hid her here. Planning to explode her brainwashing magic talent to seize the empire."
Spot on.
She hadn't reported it up due to lack of proof, no doubt.
Accusing the Holy See on suspicion alone was suicidal.
With religion poised to devour the empire, they'd revenge-kill any accuser.
"Thanks to their barrier on the prison, she can't escape, but she's still dangerous. Until they develop a way to control her, we're just feeding her guards."
Quiet fury etched Clea's face at the door.
She hated her own powerlessness despite knowing everything.
"Be careful. Even upright knight-types suffer hallucinations."
"Knights are actually more vulnerable."
"What do you mean...?"
"Knights are exposed to mental breakdowns often. To survive, they've had to kill someone."
In the dim passage lit by a single lantern, my gaze turned deadly serious.
Dark circles formed under my eyes, like in my Swordmaster days from past playthroughs.
"That guilt becomes perfect fodder for the saintess."
Clea touched her soft chin, pondering.
She glanced at my face, then her lips quirked up from her blank expression.
"An attack that won't work on you, then. You've lived completely selfishly."
"Are you mocking me now?"
"No, I'm saying you're suited to face the saintess."
It sounded like praise...
Classic aide personality wordplay.
"Gotta praise you here so you won't chicken out. Fighting!"
The expressionless beauty raised both fists.
Pretty face, but it didn't pump me up.
"Alright, I'm going in."
"Need a moment to prepare."
Clea removed her monocle.
Then placed black glasses over her sharp eyes.
"Glasses out of nowhere?"
"Meeting the saintess's eyes bewitches you unknowingly. These blur my vision on purpose."
Makes sense.
"Gimme some."
"No thanks. Only one pair."
"I'm going alone, so lend them."
"Oh, alone? Here you go."
This time, I narrowed my eyes serpent-thin.
My vice warden was brutally honest.
"Take care of the surviving guards while I'm gone."
"Already on it."
I gripped the underground corridor door handle.
Suddenly, the blue text that only appeared when I died floated in the air.
⚙ SYSTEM ALERT ⚙Warden duties begin the moment this door opens. Proceed?
Why scare me now...?
No turning back after coming this far.
'Of course.'
I shoved the ancient door handle hard.
The instant I did—
Even with the Knight Commander's perk inherited, chills wracked my body.
⚙ DUTIES COMMENCED ⚙New warden duties initiated. Bad ending list updated.⚠ BAD ENDINGS ⚠"Saintess's Sweet Embrace." (Auto-suicide by throwing yourself in if prisoner reform fails.) "Grand Elder's Retribution." (Family corruption exposed, execution if prisoner reform fails.) "Moon's Curse." (Eyes gouged out, agonizing death if prisoner reform fails.) ...⚙ UPDATE ⚙Bad ending list expanded from '3' to total '999'.
"Huh...?"
I thought warden life meant reforming just three disasters and done.
But the moment it started, hundreds of ways I could die updated.
'I think I picked the wrong class.'