I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 354

In games, hero characters interact with each other and build affinity. The relationships between them often reflect their professional characteristics. Among these, the job that most quickly gains favor with allies is undoubtedly the healing priest.

Because they heal the wounded allies.

Next is the tank.

As a job that sacrifices itself by taking the attacks for allies, it is inevitable that the hero character being protected will have a high affinity for the tank.

Therefore, in games, the second job with the highest character affinity after the healing priest was the tank.

They usually had friendly relationships with other hero characters.

However, the Leprosy Extermination Unit was different.

The negative trait [Leprosy] they possessed not only affected their combat performance but also had a greater impact on their interpersonal relationships.

No matter how hard they tanked and protected their allies, it was nearly impossible for them to build friendly relationships.

Still, from my perspective as a user, it didn’t matter.

In the game, performance was the top priority, so I didn’t see a big problem and favored the Leprosy Extermination Unit.

But now that the game has become reality, I am only now realizing the fatal demerit of [Leprosy].

Even though the Leprosy Extermination Unit has been at the forefront of every battle for the past ten days, fighting exemplarily… even at the temple where they came to heal their injuries, they were being avoided by their allies.

Even though they were injured while protecting those allies.

“Thank you for caring about someone like me, Your Highness. And Grand Duke.”

Torkel muttered, waiting for his turn in the corner of the temple, still insisting on being treated last.

“But please, don’t get too close to us out of momentary pity… the divine punishment will spread.”

“Divine punishment…”

“It is divine punishment. How much sin must we have committed against the goddess to live in this form?”

I tried to offer words of comfort to Torkel, but swallowed them back.

He is someone who has lived his entire life in pain with this disease.

My clumsy comfort might only end up hurting him more.

“We tried to be reborn into the world without fully atoning for our sins, so the goddess gave us the appropriate punishment.”

Torkel muttered numbly, blood dripping from his wounded body.

“Because being born into this world is a sin for us…”

It was then.

“Excuse me for interrupting.”

With a rattling sound, a cart filled with medical equipment was pulled, and a healing priest came to our side with a tired face.

“The goddess is not such a petty person, you know?”

It was Saint Margherita.

She approached, her face exhausted from today’s hard work, and growled irritably.

“What’s with all this talk about dragging sins from a past life into this one and being punished… that’s all just stories people made up, you know? Our goddess isn’t so narrow-minded.”

“……”

Torkel, who was flustered, stammered and asked.

“Is that… what it says in the doctrine?”

“I’m saying this because there’s not a single mention of that in the doctrine. She’s a god, for goodness sake, would she be so free to hold grudges and inflict diseases on people one by one?”

Margherita took out bandages and medicine bottles from the cart and pointed at Torkel.

“And also! I told you to treat the most injured people first. Torkel, why do you always hide in the corner and get treated last? If your wounds get worse, it just adds to my work. Can’t you see how much work I have?”

“…It’s not a big injury.”

“Not a big injury, my foot. If someone else was hurt this much, they’d be unconscious and carried away by now. What’s that pool of blood at your feet? Our priests have to clean that up too, you know?”

“……”

“Don’t show off just because you’re strong, and come earlier next time. Got it?”

Torkel didn’t answer.

Margherita roughly but accurately applied medicine to Torkel’s wounds, bandaged them, and administered healing magic.

After the treatment of his physical injuries was roughly finished, Margherita wiped the sweat from her forehead and gestured with her chin.

“Take off your helmet. It looks like the inside is also injured.”

“……”

“I said take off your helmet.”

“Th-the helmet… I can’t…”

When Torkel hesitated to the end, Margherita glared fiercely.

“I’m busy! Take it off! Quickly!”

Watching this scene, Dusk Bringer and I hugged each other and trembled like aspen trees.

Doctors are scary…

“……”

Torkel, who had been hesitating, raised his hand and slowly took off his helmet.

From where Dusk Bringer and I were, we could only see the back of his head, but his horribly festered and discolored skin was clearly visible.

Margherita frowned deeply as she treated the wounds on the crown of his head and behind his ears.

When the treatment was almost over, Torkel asked quietly.

“Isn’t it terrible?”

“It is.”

“……”

“It’s always like that. Treating injured people is always terrible.”

Margherita said indifferently, wiping her blood-stained hands on her apron after finishing the treatment.

“For me, there are only two kinds of people. Injured people and healed people.”

“……”

“To be honest, Torkel, I don’t care about your skin. I treat injured people with their bones and internal organs all messed up every day. I see things much more terrible than your skin disease every day.”

Margherita stared straight into Torkel’s eyes and spat out fiercely.

“So, I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but from now on, if you have a big injury, come for treatment first. Don’t make my terrible work twice as bad by letting it get worse.”

With a rattling sound, Margherita, who was pulling the cart towards the inner part of the temple, caught sight of me. A look of bewilderment crossed the saint’s face.

“Your Highness, are you here because you’re sick?”

“No, I’m fine, but… just in case, I came for a checkup…”

“……”

“…I came, but it looks like the temple is busy, haha. I’ll be going now, Saint.”

I answered awkwardly and poked Dusk Bringer with my elbow.

‘It’s all because of the Grand Duke that we’re here and feeling awkward!’

‘How was I supposed to know it would be like this!’

While we were doing that, Margherita scolded Dusk Bringer and me in a stern voice.

“Your Highness is the one who declared a state of emergency in Crossroads. This place is no different from a field hospital right now… If you don’t have any special symptoms, it would be better to postpone your checkup.”

“I’m sorry…”

“But if you’re worried, ask Damian. Or you can call your personal physician from the capital. And it would be nice if you could also send some reinforcements here.”

Margherita gave a rough nod with a tired face and disappeared inside with the cart.

“……”

“……”

I kept poking Dusk Bringer’s side with my elbow.

Dusk Bringer flinched and moved to the side, saying, ‘I said I’m sorry-‘

“……”

Meanwhile, Torkel sat still in the spot where he had been treated, then slowly put on his helmet.

“…If it’s not because of the sin of being born into this world.”

His muffled voice from inside the helmet was weaker and fainter than before.

“Then why, why did I get this disease? If it’s not divine punishment, then what cause, what karma, am I suffering this pain for?”

“……”

“I’m sorry for worrying you, Your Highness. Your Grace. I’ll be going now.”

Torkel bowed and then limped out of the temple.

Standing in the empty temple, Dusk Bringer and I both sighed deeply.

“Hoo~”

“Haaa…”

Dusk Bringer, who was tasting bitterness, looked up at me and said.

“It’s difficult.”

“Isn’t it?”

That’s how the world is.

It’s always difficult for the one who worries.

If we lump together my enemy, and the person with leprosy, and say that it’s all wrong to be born into the world.

Then, if we declare them as targets to be eliminated and oppressed, the world would be easy.

But the world is not that simple.

So we must worry. Even if we don’t reach the right answer and wander, we are still human because we worry.

‘How luxurious…’

To be worrying about this in the face of the impending wave of monsters.

It was so human that I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

***

At the same time.

Deep within the Lake Kingdom. Zone 8 War Zone.

This place, built like a large stadium, was originally a facility where the residents of the Lake Kingdom watched various intense sports.

The Goblin Legion was using this place as their base. Because there were so many of them, they were also occupying several other places.

But today, this War Zone was empty.

It was because they had begun to move all their troops to the main gate of the Lake Kingdom for the upcoming battle.

In the middle of the empty stadium, the Goblin God-King Kali-Alexandr remained, contemplating the tactics for this war.

A small number of his guards remained with him, protecting him.

《50,000, is it.》

After finally recalling the number of the legion he would command this time, Kali-Alexandr muttered briefly.

《…That’s not much.》

In his prime, the Goblin Legion led by Kali-Alexandr numbered nearly one million.

He had unified the greenskins of the entire continent and devastated the west of the world. He had destroyed countless countries and exterminated countless races.

50,000 was not a small force, but it was certainly lacking compared to that time.

《To give me only 50,000 and say that he would give me an ‘unprecedentedly large legion’. The King of Kings.》

To the Demon King, goblins were just goblins after all.

He must have thought that 50,000 was a lot for ‘just a goblin king’ to command.

《He doesn’t call me ‘Kali-‘ when he calls my name, and he greatly underestimates my capabilities as a commander…》

Kali-Alexandr sighed faintly.

《It seems that the King of Kings greatly underestimates the capabilities of our legion.》

Still, however, he is loyal.

It was also an undeniable fact that the demon had given him a second chance.

‘How do I use these 50,000 lives…?’

Unlike other monster legions where each member is an elite, the Goblin Legion is a mass-attack legion that pushes with numbers.

The lives of the legion members are like bullets and spearheads. The strength of the Goblin Legion comes from sacrificing the lives of goblins without hesitation.

50,000 might be enough to break through the defense line guarded by the guardian of the human world.

But Kali-Alexandr’s goal was not just to break through the defense line.

‘It’s not enough to conquer the world.’

The long-cherished wish of his race that had not been fulfilled.

To resume the conquest that had stopped in the western lands.

As the leader of the goblin race, that was Kali-Alexandr’s goal.

From the beginning, the monster front guarded by Ash was just an obstacle to overcome, not the final goal.

‘After breaking through the defense line, I will head north and gather the remaining greenskins in the human world under my command… By the time I reach the northern end of the world, I will be able to restore the power of the old legion.’

Like an invading army.

Kali-Alexandr decided to handle the supply of goods and the expansion of troops on the spot.

To do that, he must first cross the walls guarded by the guardian of the human world… Kali-Alexandr began to subdivide the organization of the 50,000 soldiers for an efficient invasion.

It was then.

Kwaang-!

The main gate of the stadium was shattered and scattered in all directions.

The horrified goblin guards pointed their spears in that direction, and Kali-Alexandr raised his eyes in bewilderment.

《Krr. Krrrk.》

A huge, green-skinned monster appeared, making a grotesque laughing sound.

A huge orc with a muscular body covered in spiked armor, carrying a large pillar as a weapon on his back.

The Orc Emperor, ‘Rage’ Daimark.

In his hands, he held the heads of the goblin guards who had been guarding the entrance to this base.

Crack!

As Daimark tightened his grip, the heads of the two goblins, who were screaming in pain, shattered.

The Orc Emperor laughed cruelly, threw away the corpses, and smeared the blood on his hands on his lips.

Kali-Alexandr asked calmly.

《What brings you here, Daimark? I thought you were assigned to stop the ‘Nameless One’.》

《Krrrk… Alexandr. Can’t you see?》

Urrrrr…!

Through the open gate, an orc legion poured in. All of them were sturdy warriors several times larger than the goblins.

In an instant, Kali-Alexandr and his guards were surrounded. The Orc Emperor grinned, showing his protruding tusks.

《It’s a rebellion, you weakling god-king!》

《…I received command of this invasion of the human world from the King of Kings. If you attack me, the King of Kings will not forgive you.》

《Krrrk! Nonsense. The King of Kings has always turned a blind eye to us killing each other!》

Thud!

Daimark lightly swung the huge pillar he had been carrying on his back and slammed it into the ground. Then, the Orc Emperor roared roughly.

《I will kill you here and become the ruler of the greenskins! And I will command this invasion of the human world!》

《…….》

《You goblins are the mold of the world. You are the trash born from the leftovers of what the god made after creating us orcs! You have no warriors, no war songs, no festivals, no honor! You’re just barbaric creatures who push with numbers and burn the world!》

It was absurd to be called barbaric by an orc, but it was true.

Goblins had nothing.

He, the god-king, had ordered them to wear clothes and carry weapons in the style of the old western human kingdoms, but most of the goblins did not understand the meaning of all these things. They were just following orders.

A barbaric race that did not even have the culture of the orcs.

That was the goblin. If he, the god-king, disappeared, they would instantly revert to a state worse than the Stone Age, and that was what had actually happened.

《Today, I will kill you and correct the hierarchy between orcs and goblins.》

Daimark roared and began to charge forward.

《Goblins! You are a race whose birth is a sin! Now, until the human world is destroyed and countless eons pass, serve us orcs as slaves!》

《A birth that is a sin…》

Kali-Alexandr stood up from his seat and drew a scimitar from his waist.

《I’ve heard that often.》

The Goblin God-King muttered cynically.

《…This side didn’t even want to be born.》

The Goblin God-King’s blade and the Orc Emperor’s pillar collided.

And the civil war between the greenskins began.