I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 335

Godhand’s voice cut off, and I was anxiously on edge.

*Thud. Thud.*

Heavy footsteps, and then.

*Scrape. Scrape.*

The sound of something being dragged came to my ears.

The heavy footsteps stopped in front of me, and the bag over my head was yanked off. Ugh?!

My vision was suddenly bright, and I couldn’t get my bearings. I frowned, waiting for my eyes to adjust.

“Good afternoon, Your Highness Prince Ash.”

It was the voice I had heard in the prison a few days ago. Soon, the person in front of me came into focus.

“Mason… !”

It was that spy, just as I suspected.

Mason was covered in blood, as if he had just been through a fierce battle. And his physique was much larger.

I didn’t know he was going through a growth spurt. Or maybe he was doping with steroids.

Mason grinned, his lips curling up in a savage smile.

The thick beard… it’s weird to say this, but it was stiff and strong, like that of a wild beast rather than a human.

“Thanks to you, I caught the rats.”

With those words, Mason threw what he had been dragging onto the floor.

“Kuhk!”

“…”

It was the two elves from the Shadow Squad. I was furious.

“Godhand! Burnout! Are you okay?!”

Mason put his boots on the bodies of the fallen elves and shrugged.

“I knew all along that these guys betrayed you and sided with Your Highness.”

“What… !”

“That’s why I leaked false information. And just as I thought, they took the bait.”

A few days ago, as soon as Mason and the Aegis Special Forces entered Crossroads, they leaked that information to Godhand, and Godhand immediately reported it to me.

As soon as I heard that Mason had approached Lucas, I immediately captured Mason and put him in prison…

Could it be that all of that was a calculated move?

“The Aegis Special Forces is not a place where double agents are allowed to live.”

Mason, with his foot on Godhand’s injured area, chuckled.

“Aren’t you worried about your fellow elves struggling to survive every day in the autonomous region? Acting so recklessly like this. Huh?”

*Squeak-*

Mason’s boot pressed down on the wound, and Godhand couldn’t help but scream.

“Kuhhh!”

“That’s enough!”

I shouted, and Mason glanced at me from under his thick eyebrows. I spat out the words.

“I don’t care about those elf slaves. Stop dragging on the side issues and tell me your real purpose.”

“Real purpose?”

“Yes. There must be a reason why you came all the way to the southern end of this continent and are causing such a ruckus.”

I asked through gritted teeth.

“Is your goal the First Prince Larc’s concubine and children?”

“That’s not our team’s concern.”

“Then, are you trying to kidnap and kill me?”

“That’s not it either, Your Highness. It seems you have some misunderstandings about our Special Forces. We’re not so bold as to dare harm a member of the Imperial Family.”

Mason spoke nonchalantly, even though he had kidnapped a member of the Imperial Family.

I couldn’t hold back my anger and yelled.

“Then what the hell are you doing all this for? It’s not like you’re playing games, and do I look like I’m easy enough for you to play riddles with?! Hurry up and tell me your real purpose, resolve it, and get out of my city!”

“…”

Mason, who had looked briefly surprised by my shout, chuckled.

“Don’t get so worked up, Your Highness. You don’t seem to be in good condition.”

Mason gently stroked my forehead with his thick hand.

It was a concerned touch, like he was my uncle, which made me extremely angry. I wanted to kill him, the bastard!

“Alright, the reason we brought Your Highness here is to ask for your help with our mission… I’ll tell you everything.”

Mason pulled a chair and placed it in front of me, then sat his large frame on it.

And then, he began to speak calmly.

“Your Highness Prince Ash. The truth is, we were dispatched here… several months ago.”

“What?”

“When the intelligence network of Crossroads was destroyed a few months ago, we came down to restore the network and carry out a special mission.”

When I revealed that Godhand and Margherita were spies. I destroyed the temple communication line connected to Margherita’s side.

That was already more than half a year ago, and Mason was saying that he had been dispatched here since then?

“Restoring the intelligence line was easy. But the problem was this special mission that His Highness Fernandez gave us directly.”

Mason scratched his chin as if embarrassed.

“No matter how hard we tried for the past few months, we couldn’t carry out the mission, and we couldn’t return empty-handed, so we ended up using the extreme measure of kidnapping Your Highness.”

“…”

“We need Your Highness’s ‘cooperation’ to carry out the mission we received. That’s all.”

I asked, bewildered.

“What… what is that mission?”

“The top priority special mission that His Highness Fernandez gave us directly, that is…”

Mason hesitated for a moment, but eventually blurted out honestly.

“… ‘An audience with the Demon King’.”

“…?”

Wait, my mind froze.

It was such an unexpected nonsense that my head couldn’t function properly.

“What?”

What? What did he just say?

Mason calmly explained it again.

“We are dispatched here as the human representatives sent by His Highness Fernandez, who will be the next emperor of the Empire, to have a direct audience with the ‘Demon King,’ the ruler of the monsters.”

“…”

I was stiff, but I managed to squeeze out the words.

With nothing but sincerity.

“What the hell are you talking about, you crazy bastards…?”

***

Mason told me everything they had done in Crossroads for the past few months to meet the Demon King.

It was easy to establish a base in Crossroads.

This city, suffering from a chronic labor shortage, did not refuse anyone who came to work.

They planted people everywhere and quickly restored the intelligence network, but the audience with the Demon King was not going well.

“We already knew about the dungeon under the Black Lake. The problem was how to enter the dungeon…”

They had succeeded in getting under the Black Lake.

But the main gate of the Lake Kingdom remained firmly closed, and they couldn’t find any other entrances.

The only entrance, the [Dried-up Drain], was a place where you couldn’t enter without the guidance of NPCs [Non-Player Characters, in-game guides], and most of the NPCs had been kidnapped by the Nightmare Legion recently.

In the end, they couldn’t even enter the Lake Kingdom, let alone have an audience with the Demon King.

“Eventually, we even attempted a plan to enter through the gate that opens only during the monsters’ sortie, but we had to retreat after losing half of our agents to the flood of monsters.”

Mason, recalling that time, bowed his head to me.

“To have fought against such terrible hordes of monsters… I truly respect you, Your Highness Prince Ash. I mean it.”

“…”

I just glared at Mason and listened. Mason shrugged and continued.

“Just when we didn’t know what to do and were about to give up… we were able to obtain one piece of information. It was the story that Your Highness Prince Ash freely travels to and from the dungeon under the lake, and that a guest from there had visited Crossroads.”

“…”

“So, our plan changed. To seek cooperation from Your Highness. But since Your Highness is hostile to the monsters and the Demon King, there was no way you would help us willingly…”

“So you kidnapped and threatened me?”

“Well, that’s how it turned out.”

Mason smiled bitterly. I stammered and asked.

“What the hell are you trying to do by meeting the Demon King? That guy who’s hell-bent on destroying humanity, what are you, a human, going to talk to him about?”

Mason shrugged, and with a tone of ‘Well, there’s no point in hiding it anymore,’ he told me honestly.

“It’s a declaration of surrender.”

“…”

For a moment, my vision went white.

“…I guess I’m not in good condition.”

I shook my head and swallowed hard before opening my mouth.

“I think I misheard you. Say it again. What did you say?”

“It’s a declaration of surrender, Your Highness Prince Ash. A complete expression of the human’s intention to surrender to the monsters.”

*Throb.*

My head started to throb. I wanted to rub my aching temples, but I couldn’t move because my arms were tied.

At this point, it was beyond the realm of what could be understood with a sound mind.

The only explanation was that they were crazy and trolling.

No, but why?

“Who the hell are you to throw in the towel when people are fighting so hard?! You crazy bastards! Even right now! My soldiers at the forward base are fighting the monsters, risking their lives!”

I shouted loudly. Mason just listened quietly.

“Instead of helping them, you’re causing trouble and plotting behind their backs? I can’t understand it at all! Why did Fernandez start a rebellion, and why is he trying to surrender to the Demon King?!”

“How would a hunting dog like me know the deep intentions of His Highness Fernandez? I’m just carrying out the mission I received.”

Mason clicked his tongue and continued.

“However, His Highness Fernandez said this.”

“What?”

“‘This is the only way to save the Empire.'”

“…”

“No one will understand, but he said that this is the only way. That he is ready to accept everyone’s finger-pointing and insults if it can perpetuate the Empire.”

I gnashed my teeth and growled.

“I can’t cooperate.”

“Your Highness Prince Ash.”

“Do you think I’m crazy enough to cooperate with that kind of thing?”

My head was throbbing so much that I felt like throwing up, but I couldn’t help but shout again.

“Fernandez is not the Emperor, nor is he the commander of this monster front! He has no right!”

“…Well, what do you think? His Highness Fernandez will become the Emperor, and the Emperor is the one who oversees all the fronts of the Empire. And he is the one who represents all the humans in this world.”

Mason nodded with a serious face.

“Soon, this world will move according to the will of His Highness Fernandez.”

“I’ll stop it.”

“Before that, how about worrying about your own body first?”

Mason, who had risen his huge body from the chair, approached me with threatening steps. I gritted my teeth.

“Earlier, you said you weren’t bold enough to harm a member of the Imperial Family?”

“That’s usually the case. But for the sake of the mission, the Aegis Special Forces is a group of people who can create courage where there is none.”

“You crazy bastard…”

I spat out fiercely.

“My subordinates will be here soon. Lucas, the young master you served, will be at the front, holding his sword and cutting off your head.”

Mason, who had come right in front of me, shrugged.

“Young Master Lucas is dead.”

“What…?”

“I just came from stabbing him in the heart with my own hands.”

Mason pointed to the blood splattered all over his body. I widened my eyes.

“Don’t lie.”

“There is no salvation, Your Highness Prince Ash. Please help me carry out my mission while I’m being nice.”

Mason’s huge hand grabbed my shoulder.

“Today, my patience is a little thin. The beastification is all good, but the problem is that the thread of reason is getting thinner… No, is this also an advantage?”

Mason smiled dangerously and put strength into the hand that was holding my shoulder, then-

“Just kidding. There’s a much more gentlemanly way.”

He slowly let go of my shoulder.

And then, he took out a syringe filled with pink liquid from his pocket. I widened my eyes.

“That’s, could it be…”

“Yes. It’s a forced hypnotic drug extracted from a succubus. It’s a very rare item in modern times, where succubi are almost extinct.”

Mason smiled confidently.

“No matter how strong your will is, with just this, I can make you crawl on the floor like a cute pet.”

“…”

“Hehe, Your Highness will have to move as I tell you.”

I pretended to be scared and trembled. Oh, how scary!

‘I’m completely immune to mental status effects…’

Even the seduction of the Succubus Queen doesn’t work on me, so how could a hypnotic drug extracted from a succubus below her work?

This is bulletproof glass, you bastard!

‘More than that…’

I bit my lip and looked outside through the window.

‘Lucas… is dead?’