I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 250

Crossroad City, the temple.

Hiding under a deep pointed hat, Junior hesitated in front of Reina’s hospital room.

He had come after hearing the news that Reina had just regained consciousness.

But for some reason, he didn’t have the courage to go in.

Then, the hospital room door burst open, and Priestess Margherita popped out with a ‘Hiiiik!’ sound.

“Ugh! That’s enough! What’s with the thank yous, thank yous! Please, just stay quiet and leave quickly when you’re all better!”

“No, what’s so scary about me wanting to buy you a meal to thank you for taking care of me? Come on, Saintess, Saintess! Geez…”

Reina clicked her tongue, watching Margherita’s retreating figure as she ran down the hallway.

Then, she turned her head and smiled brightly at Junior.

“What is it, little mage? Did you come to visit me?”

“Something like that… You look okay?”

“It’s thanks to the anesthesia. How could I be okay with a hole in my stomach? They say it’s mostly healed with magic, but I need absolute rest.”

Reina, who was unbelievably energetic for someone who had just woken up, turned back into the hospital room.

Reina, staggering, sat on the bed and patted it with her hand.

“Don’t just stand there awkwardly, come in! Tell me what happened while I was unconscious.”

Since that was his intention, Junior tried to step into the hospital room.

But.

He stopped.

His foot halted at the threshold of the hospital room.

“…?”

He could feel Reina’s questioning gaze. But Junior kept his mouth shut and lowered his head.

– A magic bombing survivor from the Camilla Kingdom, why is he protecting that woman?

The question Camus had thrown at him during the attack wouldn’t leave his mind.

The sound of the lightning and storm that had struck 15 years ago echoed in his ears. Junior couldn’t bring himself to get any closer to Reina.

“…I see. Is that how it is.”

Seeing Junior’s state, Reina easily understood the situation and smiled bitterly.

“Maybe this is the right distance for us. Jupiter’s daughter. It’s a miracle that we got so close in the first place.”

“…”

“There are some gaps that can’t be filled no matter how hard you try. We’ve been ignoring that gap by looking away, but I guess we’ve reached our limit.”

Junior clenched both fists tightly. His healthy right hand and his left hand, which had been burned by the magic bombing.

“I want to ask you one thing… Do you regret what happened that day?”

“…What exactly are you talking about? I’ve done quite a few things.”

“Destroying my country and burning my village.”

Junior’s face, lowered, was hidden by the brim of his pointed hat. Junior asked in a suppressed voice.

“Do you… regret it?”

Reina answered immediately.

“No.”

“…!”

“I have never regretted a single thing I did as a soldier.”

Reina’s voice was cold and functional.

“If I regret it, what does that make the subordinates who carried out my orders?”

“…”

“I am the commander of the magic corps. I have killed people, burned villages, trampled countries under my command, and there are subordinates who died in the process. If I comfortably regret and repent, what does that make my subordinates’ sacrifices?”

“…”

“I am a soldier, Junior. If it’s an order from above, I would do even worse than what I did to your village. And I won’t regret it until my last breath, and I shouldn’t regret it.”

Junior, clenching his teeth, stammered.

“Then, if, if you were ordered to kill me. Would you do it?”

“…That kind of order won’t come down.”

“What if it did?”

“…”

Reina sighed deeply and then,

“Yes.”

She answered.

“If that’s the order, I have to do it.”

“…!”

To Junior, whose face turned pale, Reina coldly spat out.

“I’m not like your mother. If it were Jupiter, she would have ignored that order, disobeyed, and then run away with you in her arms. She actually did. But I can’t do that.”

For the decades they had served together, Reina had liked Jupiter. She had wanted to live like Jupiter.

Because she was a person who couldn’t live that way.

“I’m being honest. Junior, I can’t live like your mother.”

“Then why!”

Junior’s voice grew louder.

“Why… why were you so nice to me? You don’t regret what happened that day, and you don’t want to apologize!”

“…”

“Why did you try to get close to me, and why did you heal my body? Why?”

Reina, who had been silent, lowered her eyes.

“I was tired. Of breaking and destroying things. I thought that if I protected and saved something like your mother, I might change.”

Both Junior and Reina simultaneously pictured Jupiter’s face.

The cheerful, white-haired lightning bolt…

Reina’s head slowly lowered.

“But, yeah… I see it now. That I can’t. I, who can’t regret or apologize, can never be like Jupiter.”

“…”

“That we can’t narrow the distance between us any further.”

Junior still stood at the entrance of the hospital room, unable to enter, and Reina, sitting on the bed, looked at Junior with a bitter gaze.

Junior murmured in a tearful voice.

“I wanted to forgive you.”

Reina laughed dryly.

“…I wanted to be your new mother if possible. Or something similar.”

Junior looked like he was about to cry. Reina slowly turned her head.

“But I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

***

Crossroad City. The prison.

“…”

Junior stood blankly in front of Camus’s cell.

He had gotten permission to visit from Ash. But actually having a one-on-one conversation with Camus was a burden.

More than anything, he didn’t know what to talk about.

The Empire. The Camilla Kingdom. Revenge. Forgiveness…

There were many topics that came to mind, but they wouldn’t form into sentences.

Junior didn’t even know what his first greeting to Camus should be.

He didn’t know what kind of answer he wanted to hear by coming here…

“Hey.”

Then, a hoarse voice came from inside the cell.

“How long are you going to just stand there?”

“Whoa!”

Junior, startled, looked ahead and saw Camus standing close to the cell bars.

His face was swollen in many places from being beaten, but his cold and gloomy eyes were still sharp.

“You keep doing that, and it’s bothering me. Do you have business with me?”

“S-sorry… I just…”

Camus’s tone softened as he recognized the hesitant Junior.

“You’re that mage from back then. The one who said he was from the Camilla Kingdom…”

“…”

After watching Junior bite his lip, Camus slowly sat down on the floor next to the bars.

“You seem to have something to say. I’ll listen, so speak.”

“Huh?”

“Like you said back then, we’re from the same hometown, aren’t we?”

Camus shrugged.

“You have a troubled face, so speak comfortably.”

Junior, who had been dazed for a moment, soon began to speak incoherently.

The magic bombing he had suffered when he was seven years old. The family he had lost. Jupiter, who had taken him in. His life for 15 years.

What had happened after he joined the front lines here. Jupiter’s death. His meeting with Reina. The story of how he had gotten close to Reina…

And after Camus stabbed Reina, everything had become unclear.

Whether he was an Imperial or a Camilla Kingdom citizen, whether he should forgive Reina or take revenge… he didn’t know.

Camus, who had been listening to Junior’s outpouring, slowly asked.

“How old are you now?”

“Twenty-two…”

“You’re young. If my second son had lived, he would have been about your age.”

Camus chuckled.

“I’m fifty-three. There’s a time difference of over 30 years between you and me.”

“30 years…”

“I was thirty-eight when I lost my country and my wife and children. Everything I had built up in my life was reduced to ashes. My hatred is as deep as the weight of the thirty-eight years I lost.”

Camus’s eyes became distant for a moment.

Was he thinking of his lost family? Junior couldn’t tell.

“The 15 years after that were spent fighting to reclaim my country, but I failed, so in fact, my entire life was taken by the Empire.”

Camus gestured to Junior.

“But you’re different. You lived as a Camilla Kingdom citizen for 7 years and as an Imperial for 15 years.”

“…”

“You’ve already lived twice as long as an Imperial. We’ve lived in different eras, and the depth of our hatred is different. It’s not strange that you feel more attached to the Empire than to the Camilla Kingdom.”

Junior clenched his fist tightly. Camus continued.

“I have no intention of criticizing you for assimilating into the Empire. Don’t feel guilty about yourself for living as an Imperial.”

“…”

“Likewise, don’t criticize me too much for not forgetting revenge even after 15 years since the country was destroyed… for wielding a sword to repay blood with blood. Because there are gaps in people’s hearts that can’t be filled.”

Camus was saying the same thing as Reina.

Junior murmured softly.

Gaps that can’t be filled…

“We just survived, didn’t we? In our own ways, inevitably.”

“…”

We inevitably survived, huh.

The expression was so painful and accurate that Junior felt a pang in his heart.

“What should I do from now on…?”

Camus thought for a moment and then opened his mouth.

“If you want to forgive, forgive. If you want to take revenge, take revenge. If you can’t choose either, that’s okay too. Keep thinking about it. Until you find the answer you want someday.”

“…”

“But don’t forget. Everything you’ve been through.”

Camus’s scarred hand grabbed the iron bars. He growled in a low voice.

“That there was a man like me.”

“…”

“Don’t forget the Camilla Kingdom. That’s the burden we survivors have to bear.”

Camus released his hand from the bars and staggered back into the prison.

“I’ll be executed soon. It’s probably best not to associate too much with a bad criminal like me.”

Junior blankly watched his retreating figure disappear into the darkness.

***

Outside the prison, Ash was waiting.

“Junior.”

“Your Highness.”

Ash, who smiled gently at Junior’s awkward greeting, gestured towards his mansion.

“There’s a defense strategy meeting tonight.”

“Ah…”

“It’s a call-up. Jupiter Junior. Return to the main party.”

Junior, gripping his staff tightly, nodded readily.

“Yes.”

“How’s your body?”

“My injuries are almost fully recovered. You don’t have to worry.”

Ash glanced inside the prison and smiled bitterly.

“It seems like your inner turmoil hasn’t been resolved?”

“…Yes.”

Junior shook his head, then slapped his own cheeks with his fingertips, and then looked straight at Ash.

“But the monsters aren’t coming to listen to my worries. I’ll put my worries aside for now and return to the front lines.”

Ash, who had been looking at Junior with surprised eyes, was about to say something, but then closed his mouth.

And he gestured towards the carriage waiting nearby.

“You know I always prepare a delicious meal for every defense meeting, right? Let’s go. They say that when you’re feeling down, you should go for meat.”

He didn’t quite understand the wordplay, but he could feel Ash’s concern for him.

As he got into the carriage, Junior thought.

He didn’t know what kind of life he would live in the future.

Whether he would forgive Reina, forget Camus, he couldn’t know anything about the future.

But he was a mage hired at this monster front line.

To continue these worries, he had to first defeat the monsters that were coming at him.

“Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“After we blow those monsters away coolly…”

Junior smiled brightly at Ash.

“Let’s share our worries all night.”

“…”

“I want to hear Your Highness’s worries too.”

Ash nodded happily.

“Okay. Anytime.”