I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 207

“Damian.”

A voice is heard.

“Damian, wake up!”

A familiar voice is heard.

Damian slowly opened his eyes. As his blurry vision cleared, he saw an old ceiling with dust-filled sunlight falling in patches.

A frayed blanket and the smell of warm milk. A creaking bed and a cold breeze coming through a window that wasn’t fully closed.

‘Huh?’

This was the orphanage where he had grown up as a child.

As Damian slowly raised his upper body, a girl sitting on the edge of Damian’s bed put her index finger to her lips and made a shushing sound.

“We were supposed to climb to the top of the back mountain today! You didn’t forget, did you?”

It was a girl with her hair cut short like a boy.

Tanned skin, faint scars on both cheeks. Long, thin arms and legs, and a mischievous smile full of playfulness.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Damian smiled at the girl.

“Sorry, Ban. I overslept.”

“Hehe, it’s okay. I knew this would happen, so I came to wake you up.”

With a ‘heave-ho!’ sound, the girl, Ban, got off the bed and reached out her hand to Damian.

“Come on, let’s sneak out before the headmaster catches us.”

Ban smiled brightly.

“This time, we’re definitely going to the top!”

“……Yeah!”

Damian smiled shyly and reached out his hand to take Ban’s.

But the moment Damian took Ban’s hand.

Thud! Rumble……!

The surrounding scenery changed in an instant.

This was a collapsing forward base. The battlefield where he was dragged to as soon as he was assigned to Crossroads.

Soldiers were screaming and falling everywhere, and the sounds of cannons and the roars of monsters filled the surroundings.

Damian blankly looked around.

Around him, now dressed in blood-soaked priestly robes, black spiders with glaring red compound eyes were swarming.

One of the spiders fiercely swung its claws. But Damian was too exhausted to move.

“Damian, get out of the way-!”

Then, someone rushed in and pushed Damian’s body back.

In Damian’s dazed eyes, he saw Ban’s face smiling as she pushed him away.

“You really are someone I have to look after……”

Thud! Thwack! Splatter-!

With a terrible sound, Ban’s body was torn to shreds. Damian screamed.

“Ban! Noooo!”

Damian crawled towards Ban, who was lying in a pool of blood. Ban coughed up blood, but still managed to smile.

“Hehe, it’s okay. You know me, right? I’m the invincible Ban… This much doesn’t even hurt……”

The spiders’ claws mercilessly tore Ban’s body apart.

The leather breastplate and chain mail she wore were shattered without any use.

“No, no, no……”

Bones were visible, and her insides spilled out. Damian barely suppressed his sobs and tried to use healing magic next to Ban.

“I’ll fix you, Ban. I, I can fix you. Just hold on.”

However, his magic wouldn’t gather.

He had already exhausted himself by spamming healing magic.

He had no magic left to heal the most precious person because he was busy healing others.

“Please, Ban. I’ll fix you. So please……!”

Ban’s blood-soaked hand slowly grabbed Damian’s hand as he sobbed and muttered.

“Damian.”

With her face mangled by the monster’s claws, Ban smiled faintly.

“Do you remember the day we climbed to the top of the back mountain at the orphanage?”

“……Yeah. I remember. Of course, I remember. How could I forget?”

“Don’t forget that promise we made then.”

“But, Ban, I can’t without you……”

Damian tried to reply, but Ban was no longer breathing.

She closed her eyes peacefully, and her smiling head fell down.

“……Ban?”

The warmth instantly faded from Ban’s hand. Damian stared blankly at the face of his friend who had passed away.

And- everything stopped.

The spider monsters that were rushing in with roars, the sparks of exploding gunpowder, the blood flowing from Ban’s wounds, the tears pouring down Damian’s face. Everything.

Only then did Damian realize.

This is a nightmare.

It was a past memory that had already passed, that could not be changed or touched.

“Ollop!”

A cry of anger flowed from Damian’s mouth.

“Is this your doing again……!”

Then, Ban’s corpse, which had closed its eyes peacefully, suddenly opened them. A wicked voice leaked from her blood-stained mouth.

《You’re always late to realize, Damian.》

“Don’t speak with Ban’s mouth! Get out of my head right now!”

《You’re saying strange things.》

Ban’s corpse stood up straight, twisting its bloodied body grotesquely.

《I am Ban, Damian.》

“Don’t talk nonsense! You’re not Ban, you spider monster!”

Damian covered his tear-stained face with both hands and screamed.

“Leave Ban alone! Let her rest in peace……!”

《Does it matter if I’m Ollop or Ban?》

Ban’s corpse, staggering closer, whispered into Damian’s ear.

《-You killed both of us anyway?》

From the face covered by both hands, Damian’s two brown eyes flashed open.

Damian quickly stretched out his right hand, and a long magic rifle was grabbed. It was [Black Queen]. Damian pointed the muzzle forward.

Click!

Damian’s magic rifle was aimed at the space between the eyebrows of Ollop, who had taken Ban’s form.

《There’s only one way to stop this nightmare, you know?》

Ban, or rather, the black spider queen Ollop, was smiling leisurely, regardless.

《Give up fighting me and escape into a peaceful dream.》

Damian tried to shoot a magic bullet into the monster’s forehead, but-

“……!”

He couldn’t.

In an instant, the surroundings had changed back to the orphanage of his childhood. And Damian’s gun was aimed at the young Ban.

《Give up fighting. Damian. Let’s escape together.》

Smiling sadly, Ban whispered.

《Then we can live happily here.》

***

“Damian!”

At the shout in front of him, Damian suddenly opened his eyes.

The scenery of the collapsed forward base, the orphanage of his childhood, the corpse of the dead Ban, the smile of the young Ban, and Ollop’s voice all disappeared.

It was morning, with bright sunlight shining down. It was the temple of Crossroads.

The surrounding white stone walls were badly damaged, and Damian was holding the magic rifle Black Queen in his hand.

Damian looked around in a daze. He couldn’t understand why he was standing here.

“Calm down, Damian.”

The muzzle of the gun in Damian’s hand was pointed directly at the man in front of him – Ash.

But Ash was not at all flustered and was speaking calmly.

“It’s me, me. Ash. Do you recognize me?”

“Your Highness……?”

“Yes, it’s me. It’s okay, calm down and put the gun down.”

Damian awkwardly lowered the magic rifle in his hand. Then, a collective sigh of relief poured out from the surroundings.

When Damian looked around, his party members were aiming their weapons at him.

“I…….”

Not understanding the current situation, Damian stammered.

“What did I, do?”

Ash gave a troubled smile.

***

I first took Damian to my mansion.

After wrapping Damian in a blanket in the reception room and giving him a cup of warm cocoa, I explained to Damian what had happened.

This morning. The black aura emanating from Damian and the magic rifle [Black Queen] had become so thick that it was leaking out of Damian’s room.

When the priests went into Damian’s room out of concern, Damian’s body, which had been asleep, was covered in a black aura, and then, as if he were sleepwalking, he started rampaging while wielding the magic rifle.

It seemed like he was about to cause a major accident if left alone, so I and the party members, who were hastily summoned, tried to subdue Damian.

But fortunately, Damian woke up on his own at the last moment, and the situation was resolved.

“…….”

“Damian.”

I spoke in a soft voice to Damian, who was looking down at his cocoa cup with a troubled expression.

“Are you feeling okay? Are you overdoing it, or are you tired, or anything?”

“……Your Highness.”

“You can be honest with me. You know that, right?”

Damian, who had been biting his lip and looking down, opened his mouth hesitantly.

“I’ve been having nightmares every night lately.”

“Nightmares?”

“I dream of the most painful moments of my life. But, I can’t tell the difference. Whether it’s a dream or reality.”

“…….”

“I told you before that I had a friend named Ban.”

I nodded.

She was the friend who died saving Damian in the tutorial stage, he had said.

“I keep seeing Ban die… In my dreams, Ban dies, dies, and dies again. She saves me, and is brutally torn to shreds……”

“…….”

“And I’m just helplessly watching.”

Damian’s head drooped even lower.

“When I’m tormented like that all night and my heart is tattered, Ollop appears.”

“Ollop, you mean…….”

“The monster queen contained in this magic rifle.”

The black spider queen we killed in the tutorial stage. Her name was Ollop.

“Ollop offers. If I give up fighting her, she’ll send me to my most beautiful memory……”

Damian’s hands holding the cocoa cup trembled.

“And then she shows me the happiest memory of my childhood, the most peaceful and warm memory of my life… And, Ban is alive… I, I don’t know what to do.”

“…….”

“But if I don’t surrender, that dream quickly ends, and I return to that day at the forward base. And Ban dies in front of my eyes. Again and again……”

To think he was being subjected to this kind of mental torture.

I looked at Damian with a pitiful gaze.

‘As expected, the cause is…….’

[Black Queen].

I glanced at the magic rifle placed at Damian’s feet.

It must be because of the newly opened option of this Nightmare Slayer.

– Ollop’s Hunger: The user is consumed by nightmares, revealing their inner darkness. If the user wins the battle for dominance with the nightmare, the darkness disappears. If they lose, they are completely consumed by the darkness.

It seems he is in the middle of that ‘battle for dominance’.

I thought he would just emit some dark aura, show some chuunibyou [a Japanese term for someone who acts like a delusional teenager] symptoms, and resolve it on his own, but I never imagined he was going through such a difficult time.

“Damian, how about we just dispose of that magic rifle?”

No matter how good the equipment is, Damian with [Clairvoyance] is much more precious.

When I cautiously brought it up, Damian was startled and waved his hands.

“P-Please don’t do that! I… I will definitely! Overcome it, Your Highness.”

“But…….”

“I’m serious. I’m confident. I’m not so weak that I’ll succumb to such a nightmare!”

No, you were weak.

Even today, you were almost consumed by that nightmare, weren’t you? That’s why you lost control of your body and went on a rampage.

“Please… give me a chance.”

Damian pleaded earnestly.

“This is my nightmare and my darkness. So… I’ll be able to resolve it.”

“…….”

“Give me a chance to sort out my memories with Ban… Your Highness.”

It was the first time I had seen Damian speak so earnestly, and I couldn’t help but nod and give him permission.

“Okay. But Damian, remember this. If something like today happens again, I will immediately confiscate your gun. Understood?”

Then Damian’s face brightened.

“Yes, Your Highness! Please trust me. Hehe…….”

It seems he has regained some composure. He’s even showing that awkward chuunibyou smile again.

Damian quickly gulped down the remaining cocoa, then quickly grabbed [Black Queen] and got up.

“I, I’ll be going now! I’m sorry for causing you concern today!”

And then he quickly left the mansion. Clutching the magic rifle preciously in his arms.

“…….”

I clicked my tongue, watching the black aura that was slowly spreading out behind Damian.

If Damian can overcome that ‘darkness,’ it will be an opportunity for Damian to grow, but if he can’t, the risk is too great.

If I were thinking about the strategy, it would be right to just dispose of [Black Queen].

But…….

– Give Ban back. Give me back my friend…….

I remembered what Damian had said to me, crying, when I first met him in the tutorial stage.

I also remembered what Damian had muttered when he was under a cursed mental attack in the underground passage while progressing through the dungeon ‘Path of the Defeated’.

– I’m sorry, Ban. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being alive. I was wrong. So…….

“…….”

Damian is a cheat character [a character with overpowered abilities].

He is the strongest trump card I have, who will carry me through this game to the end.

But at the same time, he is also a fragile and ordinary boy.

I want Damian to be happy. I want him to shake off his past regrets and guilt, and be able to forgive himself.

And to do that, he needs to learn how to face the past.

‘Hang in there, Damian.’

I decided to trust Damian’s own judgment. I decided to trust Damian’s confidence that he could overcome the darkness.

And I hoped that this process would help Damian’s mental growth.

……And it didn’t take long for me to realize that this decision was a mistake.