"The village of Yorksha huh… It's only a day's journey from this city, not too bad actually… And the mission is only to defeat a single danger level 30 monster. Not bad either!" Lisvern smirked and placed the paper back down on the table for the others to see.

"Yeah… But this request is kinda odd isn't it?" Taylor remarked.

"Yer right." Vernon nodded. "The pay is way too low for a request like this. In fact, it's actually the bare minimum for a danger level 30 request. 25 silver coins? Even the lowest a person would usually see for a level 4 request would be 50 silver coins. I can guarantee you 99% of adventurers would laugh and not take the request as they don't see it worth the time or effort. The reward being so low could only mean one thing... it…"

"It means that the village is really desperate," Alucard casually interrupted, finishing Vernon's sentence. "They probably slaved away trying to gather the money needed and simply posted the request as fast as they could…"

"Is-Is that why you chose this request Mr. Alucard?" Tayler asked.

"Yes, partly." Alucard turned his head to face them. "Anyways, so, what will it be? You guys willing to help me out with this one? I can't really do it myself considering I can only take level 2 missions and I'm not sure I can face that beast all alone." He leaned forward and asked, his sombre voice easing into the table's ears.

"Well yeah!! Of course! We've done a lot of requests like this! This shouldn't be more than four days to finish if we set off right now! If anything, I find this too lenient for saving our asses yesterday!" Lisvern's smile grew bright as he peered over towards Alucard, tapping his back once more.

"Yeah, it'd be best if we leave now. I don't see a problem with any of this, we needed something to do anyway so why not right? What do you guys say?" The archer commented before looking over towards Vernon and Taylor.

"Of course I'll join!" Taylor asserted.

"Yeah, whatever, I'm in." Vernon yawned and waved his hands.

"Is that so… Thank you so much for your generosity! Four days to complete is just the amount of time I was looking for. I'm truly in your debt sir Lisvern. You and all the hollow slayers…" Alucard lowered his head.

"Just call me Lisvern okay? No need for honorifics. And besides, you're not in my debt! If anything, we're all still in yours until we get this mission finished with!" Lisvern leaned in closer, and he watched as Alucard slowly lifted his masked visage up to face him. "Anyways!" He smirked, suddenly bursting out of his seat, smacking his hands on the table as he grabbed the request paper with his right. "I'm gonna go to the front desk to confirm the request! You guys go out and get ready! Alucard, me and my team will see you at the southern gate of the city in two hours. Then we'll set off! We have 6 hours of walking ahead of us so we can discuss much on the way! How does that sound?"

"It sounds good to me."

♦️ ♦️ ♦️ ♦️

Alucard sighed upon re-entering his room, one that bore much weight to it as his expression turned into a bright smile, forcing his sun-aching body to rest upon his rock-hard bed.

'That went a lot better than I expected!' He thought to himself, staring up at the ceiling before he suddenly felt a rumbling down in his pockets as Luck emerged to greet him.

"M-my lord! How is your wound? Do you want me to heal it for you now?" Luck asked in a jittery voice, his body sweating all over.

"Don't worry Luck, the wound should be going away now. See?" He lifted his mask up slightly to reveal his chin. "It didn't really hurt that much anyway."

"Okay… If you say so…" Luck nodded. "But, was that really necessary my lord? Did you really have to do all of that?"

"In my eyes, yes… I had to gain their trust no matter what, and I need to make a foundation for why I keep my face masked anyways, now is a good start… "

Prior to going to their group, Alucard had visited the restroom. Of course, there was no way he would be able to injure himself with his own magic, so he had to improvise. Thus, he took a cup of water and heated it up with a fireball to boiling temperature before slathering his chin with no hesitation despite his weakness, all for the burn marks.

And as for the rot, he had just asked Luck to cast a light spell against him which invoked a debuff onto him, one that would cause rot to fester upon his undead skin. Indeed, despite his words and silence at the time, the pain was immense, yet worth it in his eyes.

For now, this was the only way to justify his mask and the only way to sell his lie, at least until he gained the illusionist class or another spell that allowed him to temporarily change his face.

"My lord… Are you sure you can trust that group?"

"No, not really… Even though there are very clear advantages to joining them, I can't say I trust anyone actually… But, do I really have any other choice?" He relaxed on his bed even more as he closed one of his eyes.

"I suppose not…" Luck replied, looking down as Alucard responded.

"Looking at things objectively, they do seem pretty trustworthy. The chances of them turning on me are pretty low, that's why I'm so willing to go with them. They seem to have a reputation and an honour to uphold. They could have killed me last night and claimed I was one of the bandits who attacked them, yet they didn't and even offered me their help whenever I needed it. I don't see or understand any ulterior motives they could have, they seem like nice people. But like all things in life, things aren't always as they seem… I can't get too careless…"

"Don't worry my lord! I have your back all the way!! I'll kill them all if I have to!" Luck shook his head and puffed his tiny chest wide in a manner that Alucard could not help but chuckle at.

"I'm certain you will, Luck… I'll be counting on you…"