I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 302

The meeting between Larc and me ended close to dawn.

As leaders of the Western and Southern Fronts, we argued fiercely and reached agreements amicably.

“Ash.”

But in the end, the conversation circled back to,

“Don’t forget. We are brothers.”

A personal matter… it concluded with the topic of brotherhood.

Larc stared at me for a moment, then nodded.

“So, I want to trust you.”

“Trust me all you want, brother.”

Larc added with a smile as I grinned.

“And, I want to trust Fernandez too.”

“……”

No, you’re supposed to fight to the death with that Fernandez… I gave you advice from the bottom of my heart, but you’re not listening.

“You both are precious younger brothers to me. I don’t want to see our empire’s guardians divided and fighting each other.”

Larc spoke with a firm face, but with a determined tone as if he had made up his mind.

“If you truly want Bringer Duchess to survive, I will turn a blind eye. And if Fernandez wants the throne, I will gladly yield it.”

“……”

I was momentarily speechless at this declaration.

Is that how much he wants us to be together within the framework of family? This eldest brother of ours.

“So, Ash. My brother. I would be happy if the three of us, the only brothers in the world, could get along well and have a deep bond of friendship.”

“……”

“I… just want that.”

Larc, who had spoken quietly, swept back his slicked-back hair. I gave him a warm smile.

“Me too, brother.”

I thought that even family members needed this kind of conversation.

Even though it was a lie. I answered him.

“I hope everything works out, misunderstandings are cleared, and our brothers… the guardians can once again have peaceful meetings.”

That will never happen.

The Imperial City will be engulfed in the flames of civil war, and the empire will be torn in two. We can never go back to the days when the four of us held guardian meetings.

But just as saying ‘let’s have a meal sometime’ is more of a greeting than an actual invitation to eat.

With that wish in mind, I said those words.

Larc, who seemed to understand my meaning, gave a bitter smile, slowly got up, and put on his hood.

“Then, see you again. Brother.”

Unlike before, he gave me a less painful, light hug.

Larc strode out of my mansion.

I didn’t bother to see him off and stood at the entrance of the mansion, watching the eldest prince’s back as he walked away.

Maybe because he’s tall, his strides are wide, and he quickly disappeared.

“…Is he gone?”

Once Larc’s presence had completely vanished, Dusk Bringer peeked out from the roof of the mansion.

“Is he really gone? That Larc? Without swinging his sword once, without sinking the ground or uprooting buildings, he just talked a bit and quietly retreated?”

Dusk Bringer looked down at me with an unbelievable expression. I shrugged.

“He’s very fond of his brothers.”

He cares for me, and he cares for Fernandez. So, he had no choice but to rush back to the Imperial City.

Compared to the scale of the crisis, the change of direction was absurdly easy.

Thanks to Fernandez’s timely rebellion, this side was able to get through it easily.

Tap!

Following Dusk Bringer, her knights descended one by one from the roof.

From the warehouse in the backyard of the mansion, my hero characters also came rushing out. I clicked my tongue.

“I didn’t even tell them to, but they were all ready for battle…”

“A strong person like that was sitting in front of you without hiding his presence. How could your subordinates have stayed still?”

It seemed they were all ready to jump in if I was in danger.

All of my hidden party members were drenched in cold sweat. I chuckled as I looked at my subordinates, who looked like wet puppies.

Larc is clearly beyond the norm.

He possesses strength that far exceeds the realm of humans. They must have felt more pressure than when facing a regular boss monster.

I lightly patted them on the back, telling them to go in and rest since the situation was over. The party members returned to their respective quarters with exhausted faces.

“By the way, what exactly did you talk about to make Larc retreat?”

Dusk Bringer, with her eyes wide open, asked me after confirming that Larc had left Crossroads through the main gate.

I simply told her that Fernandez was going to start a rebellion, and Larc was returning to the Imperial City to stop it.

“A rebellion… indeed, that’s a major event that makes the issues of me or the Southern Front ‘trivial’.”

Dusk Bringer, clicking her tongue in understanding, lowered her eyes and then,

“…Ash. Do you know that all the descendants of your imperial family receive a divine revelation?”

She suddenly opened her mouth on a topic I had never heard before.

“Huh? A divine revelation?”

I frowned, completely unfamiliar with the story. A divine revelation?

“The empire’s guardian tree… the Everblack, is also a magical lighthouse that foresees the future.”

The black thorn tree that was frozen with the emperor in the deepest part of the imperial palace.

It was the story of the tree from which the empire took its name.

“The fate of the direct descendants of the imperial family is directly linked to the future of the empire. So, the imperial grandchildren receive a prophecy about what kind of life they will live even before they are born.”

Perhaps it was because she was the king of the Bringer Duchy, a brother country of the Everblack Empire.

The Bringer Duchess, who was once on good terms with the empire, knew all the customs of the empire.

“And according to that prophecy, they are given a middle name that only the imperial family uses.”

“Ah…”

I wondered where they got the imperial family’s middle names from, but it was from that black thorn tree.

“I was also at the place of that divine revelation. At the request of the emperor… Traha, I looked into the future of Everblack together.”

Dusk Bringer called the current emperor, Traha ‘Peacemaker’ Everblack, by his name without any hesitation.

They must have been quite close before the relationship between the two countries soured.

Well, this duchess is older and, in terms of lineage, higher up. She might be like a relative grandmother to the emperor.

Anyway.

“What kind of future was it?”

“Traha was said to have three sons as his successors.”

I was inwardly surprised. I thought that a future prophecy would be accurate at best like a weather forecast, but it even got the number of children right.

“The Everblack prophesied that the first son would suffer because he was too warm and compassionate, and conversely, the second son would cause problems because he was too cold.”

“Wow, the accuracy is no joke?”

That thorn tree could have made a fortune if it had been a fortune teller in Korea.

Dusk Bringer chuckled.

“So, Traha gave his two sons the opposite middle names.”

“Huh?”

“Literally. He gave them middle names that were the opposite of the prophecy.”

To Larc, who had a warm nature, he gave ‘Avalanche,’ meaning ‘avalanche’.

To Fernandez, who had a cold nature, he gave ‘Emberkeeper,’ meaning ‘keeper of the embers’.

Instead of living according to their innate destiny, he switched them, hoping they would compromise with each other.

I put my chin on my hand and made a ‘hooo’ sound.

“That’s interesting.”

I’m not a believer in fate, but these kinds of stories are interesting.

“So, actually, Larc is ‘Emberkeeper,’ and Fernandez is ‘Avalanche’… ?”

“Well, middle names are given according to the emperor’s taste.”

Dusk Bringer crossed her arms and let out a soft sigh.

“Hearing about Larc and Fernandez suddenly reminds me of something. That incident from decades ago…”

I suddenly felt a chill on the back of my neck.

Winter is near. Maybe it will snow soon.

Hearing about their middle names, I had that thought.

Then, the blizzard of the coming winter. The avalanche that will fall on this empire.

Is it Larc? Or is it Fernandez?

Which one is the true master of this winter?

“…Um, Duchess. Then.”

I slyly moved next to Dusk Bringer and poked her side with my elbow.

“What kind of fate did the third one, me, receive?”

“Huh?”

“I’m a little curious about what kind of fate was prophesied that led to this kind of middle name.”

Bonehater.

How terrifying and horrible must the prophecy have been to give such a terrible middle name to their beloved youngest son?

I was curious, so I poked her side, but Dusk Bringer coughed! and changed the subject.

“…I don’t remember.”

“No! How can that be! You remember the other two, but not me?!”

“It’s hard to say this, but Larc and Fernandez are two of the most outstanding geniuses in the history of the Everblack imperial family. On the other hand, you… you’ve been a lost cause since you were young. There was no need to pay attention to you compared to your two brothers.”

Dusk Bringer poked at Kim Ash’s delinquent gangster history, and when I made a hurt expression, she coughed again and looked embarrassed.

“So, I guess I forgot about it. Please understand.”

“That’s too much… making me curious and then…”

I grumbled, but then I became curious about something else.

I moved to the other side of Dusk Bringer and poked her other side with my elbow. Dusk Bringer panicked and struggled.

“No, just say it! Why are you poking my side all the time!”

“I’m just trying to be friendly… Anyway. Speaking of names, I’m curious about something else.”

Actually, I’ve been curious about it from the beginning.

“Why is your name Dusk Bringer, Duchess?”

How can a person’s name be Dusk Bringer?

…Not in a mocking way.

It was because this young duchess in front of me was using the name of her distant ancestor as her own.

The empire’s guardian dragon and the world’s last fire dragon. The legendary red dragon who married the empire’s emperor hundreds of years ago and gave birth to the first Bringer Duke. Her name was Dusk Bringer.

She was the one who stopped the world-shaking serpent Jormungandr [a mythical serpent in Norse mythology] and protected the empire.

Dusk Bringer inherited that name. Is there a reason? Is it like Jupiter Junior?

“……”

Then, Dusk Bringer just stared up at me. Why are you looking at me like that? Was it a rude question?

“…Ash. You have the qualifications.”

“Huh? Qualifications?”

What are you talking about all of a sudden? We were talking about names?

“You accepted my people, and as you promised, you drove away Larc… and his pursuers. You accepted us, who were rejected by all our allies and abandoned by the world. You have already earned my trust.”

“Well… haha. I’m grateful that you say so.”

I’m happy to be praised, but why are you changing the subject when we were talking about names!

“…But, not yet.”

“Huh?”

“I want to watch a little longer to see if you are qualified to know the meaning of my name.”

Dusk Bringer slowly took her gaze away from me and whispered softly.

“When the time comes, I will tell you first. The meaning of my name.”

“Oh… okay.”

I asked lightly, but I got a very heavy answer.

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

I didn’t know, but this neighborhood seems to put a deep meaning into names. They engrave fate into middle names, and they contain meanings that they can’t tell others.

“Okay, let’s stop talking about names!”

Dusk Bringer, with her usual playful face, grinned, revealing her sharp teeth.

“You were great today, Ash. I will trust your words even more from now on.”

Since Larc and the 1st Legion of the Imperial Army, who were the biggest concern, retreated without fighting, she seems relieved. Her face is bright.

I gave her a smile.

“I will thoroughly monitor the movements of the Western Front and the Imperial City. Please spend the winter here without worry.”

“Yes, thank you so much.”

Dusk Bringer, who smiled back at me, bowed her head and then left the mansion with her knights.

I looked at the north where she was heading, and then I looked back to the west. Larc was already gone without a trace.

The world is now changing drastically.

I can only desperately run along the path next to the collapsing cliff.

***

“……”

Heading to the shelter outside the north gate, Dusk Bringer was thinking.

In fact, she clearly remembered.

The fate of the third prince of the imperial family.

The prophecy that the Everblack had spat out to the emperor, which was like a curse.

– Your third son will tear the empire to pieces and destroy it.

– But at the same time, your third son will make the empire prosper forever.