I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 277

Deep within the Lake Kingdom.

At its very center—a colossal skyscraper soared.

A black mist palace where viscous darkness poured down like a waterfall.

The Royal Castle.

Thud. Thud.

Crown was staggering towards this very place.

His body, ravaged by the plague, had already met death once, and in some deep place within, he opened his eyes again.

Immediately, he dragged his resurrected body towards the castle.

To have an audience with the king.

After passing through the guards and struggling to reach the audience chamber, the Demon King, sitting on his throne, called his name affectionately.

《Crown. You’re a little late.》

The Demon King was already receiving his first guests.

Raven and Salome.

The master of the plague and the great seductress. The two of them gnashed their teeth as soon as they saw Crown.

《You bastard, you clown who deserves to be torn limb from limb…!》

《Your Majesty! It’s him! That guy colluded with humans and attacked us! He made us suffer this humiliation!》

As the two nightmare legion commanders expressed their anger towards Crown, the Demon King raised his hand to calm them down.

《Now, now, calm down. I have no intention of blaming Crown.》

And that was because,

《It was I who ordered Crown to attack you.》

《……?!》

《Huh……?》

Raven and Salome were taken aback by the unexpected words.

Crown, who had been staggering, walked past the two monsters and stood beside the king.

From behind his mask, Crown’s eyes, looking down at the monsters, held a cold sneer.

《Let me say it again. Crown attacked you under my orders. This man is the representative of all humans in this Lake Kingdom—and also the inspector who monitors you.》

The Demon King chuckled. Raven, unable to understand, stepped forward and questioned him.

《Great King of Kings… I don’t quite understand your intentions.》

《Hmm?》

《Why did you order that clown to attack us, your loyal subordinates?》

《Rather, I want to ask you, Raven. Now, let’s sort out the order of events.》

The Demon King, who had been sitting on the throne, slowly leaned forward.

《Why did you kidnap the adventurers?》

Flitch.

Salome’s shoulders trembled slightly. But Raven remained completely still and answered calmly.

《It was to find and kill that human player named Ash.》

《Ah, so you kidnapped adventurers indiscriminately to kill Ash?》

The Demon King chuckled and shook his index finger from side to side.

《No, no… that wasn’t your only purpose, was it?》

《…….》

《You were experimenting, weren’t you? With the process of refining human dreams.》

Salome’s shoulders began to tremble like an aspen in winter.

Raven’s body couldn’t sweat, but he felt as if his palms were clammy.

《You kidnapped adventurers, used Salome’s abilities to trap them in dreams, and then extracted the ‘most terrible things’ from their dreams to try and manifest them in reality, right?》

They were caught.

The conspiracy they had been secretly carrying out.

Snap!

The Demon King snapped his fingers. Then, the wall behind the throne split open to the left and right, revealing a large space behind it.

《The right to refine nightmares and create monsters is only granted to me.》

Thump-!

Once the wall was completely open.

Inside, there were countless human-shaped figures piled up.

Covered in shadows, motionless like larvae wrapped in cocoons… countless humans.

From the heads of these humans, something like black droplets was extracted one by one and rose into the air, and these droplets gathered inside a huge glass sphere on the ceiling.

The black droplets gathered in the glass sphere splashed and fell into a magical device installed below.

The geometric magical device emitted a blue light and refined the black droplets.

Like slowly extracting high-quality coffee beans over a long period of time.

One black droplet, having completed the refining process, rolled out onto the floor.

It was no longer a black droplet, but had transformed into a grotesque monster.

Krrr…!

The Demon King, savoring the terrible cry of the newly born monster as if it were the sweet aroma of well-extracted coffee, snapped his fingers again. Snap!

Thud thud thud….

The wall behind the throne closed.

“…….”

Crown silently stared at the inside of the closing wall.

At his compatriots piled up like heaps, with an emotionless gaze from behind his mask.

《By colonizing this Lake Kingdom, collecting the nightmares of its residents, and gathering only the most terrible ones—I have given new life through my power.》

The Demon King turned his gaze to the two legion commanders in front of him.

《You too have gained new bodies through this refining process. Thanks to that, you were able to receive another chance in your already failed lives.》

Monsters who had invaded to destroy the human world and were defeated.

Even though they were defeated, the fears were imprinted in the minds, genes, and souls of the residents of the Lake Kingdom.

The Demon King forcibly extracted those memories and revived them. Salome and Raven were no exception.

They were monsters who had already been defeated and killed.

And here, they were given a second chance.

《…….》

《…….》

Salome and Raven were already kneeling, heads bowed. The Demon King clicked his tongue at the two of them.

《You must have known. My loyal subordinates. This task is only permitted to me.》

《Y-Your Majesty!》

Salome crawled forward on her knees, shouting urgently.

《I did nothing wrong! That Lunared wolf bastard! And, and Raven! That crow bastard seduced me first!》

《…….》

《He said I was needed to extract dreams for this work! And, and! He said that if we did it, Your Majesty would be very pleased…!》

Raven just watched Salome chatter on.

Salome made a pitiful expression and lay flat on the floor.

《It’s true! Please believe me! I’m just a simple and frugal succubus who’s happy with just the nightmare scraps Your Majesty leaves behind! You know that!》

《Salome. Salome. My cute and pitiful succubus.》

The Demon King, who had been holding back his laughter, nodded.

《Well, yes. You don’t have the capacity to plot such things.》

《Of course, of course! Salome is a foolish succubus! If I have a fault, it’s that I’m too gullible! Your Majesty! Please forgive me!》

The Demon King turned his head away from Salome and looked at Raven.

《Raven. If you have anything to say, say it.》

《…Your Majesty.》

Raven opened his mouth calmly.

《It is a clear fact that I have arrogantly infringed upon your privilege. But truly, know that everything stemmed from my loyalty to you.》

《Oh. Would you like to explain this loyalty?》

《It has already been five hundred years since you occupied this Lake Kingdom and refined monsters from nightmares.》

Raven glanced up at the Demon King.

《But no matter how much you scrape together nightmares, you still haven’t found the ‘someone’ you’re desperately searching for within them, have you?》

《…….》

The Demon King’s aura changed.

Until now, it had been a gentle aura mixed with playfulness, but in an instant, it became a terrifying aura, like the flash of a blade.

Salome, terrified, whispered to Raven with her lips. Hey, what are you doing! Are you crazy! Why are you provoking him more!

But Raven ignored her and continued to stare at the Demon King.

In the Demon King’s face, covered in black shadows, his two white, split eyes narrowed.

《Raven. You always… have such good instincts.》

《I don’t know what you mean by ‘always’… but anyway, I was just trying to find a different method for you.》

《Is that different method to search through the dreams of those adventurer bastards?》

《That’s right. If the person you’re looking for isn’t in the nightmares of the Lake Kingdom residents… they might be in the nightmares of others, right?》

《Haha!》

The Demon King, letting out a short laugh, leaned back into his throne.

《…You’ve dug yourself a good escape route, Raven. It wasn’t a bad justification.》

《It was just a sincere loyalty to you.》

《But no matter the justification, don’t ever infringe upon my power again. I don’t want to kill my precious legion commanders with my own hands.》

The Demon King slowly raised his head and looked at the ceiling.

《…And, that person is definitely in the nightmares here. I can feel it.》

The Demon King’s tone became a little tender.

《If not, there would be no meaning in me repeating this work hundreds and thousands of times…》

《…….》

《…….》

Salome and Raven, watching the Demon King’s mood, exchanged glances.

Is it over? Is he forgiving us?

《I will let it go.》

The Demon King waved his hand dismissively, as if he were annoyed.

《I’m just turning a blind eye. Make sure this doesn’t happen again.》

《Yay! That’s our King of Kings~!》

《I am deeply moved by your boundless generosity.》

Salome and Raven bowed their heads in joy.

Crown, who had been watching from the side, clicked his tongue inwardly. What a pity….

《So, did you meet my opponent player… Ash this time?》

The Demon King asked with a smile again. Then, Salome gnashed her teeth with a resentful expression.

《Yes! I met him, I met him… but, oh my god, I’ve never seen such a rude bastard before?》

《Rude? How was he rude?》

《It’s annoying that he ignores all my mind control! But, well… I’d just think, ‘Oh, this guy’s good,’ and let it go!》

Salome raised her face, which had been hit earlier, and showed it to the Demon King.

《He punched me in the face! Look, can you see this? He punched Salome’s pretty cheek without any mercy!》

《You? With a punch? Hahaha! That’s certainly a rare occurrence!》

《I-It’s not something to laugh about, Your Majesty! I’ve never been hit before in my life!》

Salome clenched her cheek, still feeling the heat from where she had been hit.

《Not even from my father, and not even when I was defeated in my previous life… I’ve never been hit with a fist! All the human men would just be mesmerized by me! He’s the first man to treat me like this.》

Salome brought her two fists together in front of her chest.

《Just thinking about Ash makes my heart flutter, my body tremble, and I feel like I’m going to cry…》

Salome turned her head sharply and looked at the Demon King.

《What is this feeling, Your Majesty?! Please tell me!》

《Your heart flutters, your body trembles, and you feel like crying…》

The Demon King pondered for a moment and then answered simply.

《It’s love.》

…Huh?

What did you say?

Raven and Crown, shocked, turned to look at the Demon King. But the Demon King nonchalantly spoke once more.

《That is love, Salome. My femme fatale.》

《…Love?》

Salome, who had been staring blankly with wide eyes, slowly lowered her head.

It was as if something was filling the empty space within her two hands clasped in front of her chest.

《This is… love?》

Raven was about to urgently say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ but the Demon King was faster, putting his finger to his lips and making a shushing sound.

Raven shuddered inwardly, thinking. That perverted Demon King, again!

《I see…》

Salome murmured with a brightened face.

《This feeling was love…!》

No.

That can’t be it. Maybe. No, absolutely not.

Raven and Crown thought, but they couldn’t say it out loud.

Because the Demon King was watching Salome, who was blushing and happy, with a chuckle, as if teasing her.

The senses of a succubus are volatile, so they do not understand deep emotions.

Therefore, they vicariously experience human emotions through the dreams of others and infer the forms of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.

They crave emotions more than anyone else, and for that, they absorb the dreams and essence of others. But they only lick the shell and never approach the essence.

That is a succubus.

Salome, a succubus, was no different.

She had lived for hundreds of years, and on the surface, she acted as if she perfectly understood and copied human nature, but inside, she was empty.

Therefore.

This one word that the Demon King had thrown out as a joke was creating a huge ripple within her.

《Ash…》

Salome said shyly with a flushed face.

《Wait… I will definitely make you completely mine…!》

《…….》

“…….”

Raven and Crown, for once, made eye contact and nodded silently at the same time.

They thought they were on completely different sides, but this time, a deep sense of empathy passed between them.

The fact that a terrible… spectacle was about to unfold in Salome’s future.

‘A terrible future is coming.’

A faint smile then crossed Crown’s lips as he grumbled inwardly.

No matter what Salome did in the future.

Imagining Ash suffering because of it, it was a little enjoyable.

‘What can you do, Ash? This is all your karma.’

Bad boys are supposed to pay the price for their actions.

This was an immutable law.