I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 369

Crossroads. Temple.

“Bring more bandages!”

“We’re running out of potions! Hurry!”

“Saintess! You need to come here too! It’s urgent!”

I stood in the chaotic temple hallway, silently watching the heroes being carried away on stretchers.

Today’s battle had left a total of three parties incapacitated.

The Leprosy Eradication Squad.

They were the most severely injured party, having taken the brunt of the goblin attacks. They returned practically dead.

They would need at least a few weeks to recover.

The Holy Grail Expedition.

Their injuries weren’t as severe, but the problem was that they were a party heavily focused on damage dealers.

They weren’t as resilient as the tank party, so their recovery would take time.

And then, the Shadow Unit.

Two warriors. Two injured. One missing…….

And Lily, who had been deployed to rescue them, was also missing.

“……”

It was only the first day.

In the first battle, three hero parties were already out of commission.

The damage didn’t end there. The parties that had been deployed as decoys were also depleted and injured.

In particular, Junior’s mage party and Damian’s sniper party, the core of our firepower, were exhausted from excessive use. They needed time to rest.

“My lord.”

Lucas approached me. I turned to him, and Lucas gestured with his chin towards the other side.

“Bodybag and Burnout’s emergency treatment is finished…… Would you like to see them?”

“……I will.”

As I entered the sickroom, Bodybag and Burnout, who were wrapped in bandages from head to toe, immediately rose from their beds and saluted. I waved my hand, telling them to rest, and sat on a chair in front of their beds.

“Report exactly what happened.”

Since Burnout couldn’t speak, Bodybag took charge of the report.

Due to the Dusk Bringer’s use of Dragon Roar, the hunter’s hunting dog, who had been temporarily assigned to the Shadow Unit, had strayed from its position. And, unfortunately, the wall where they had gone to retrieve the dog was attacked……

The entire Shadow Unit was stranded trying to save the hunter who had been buried under the collapsed wall.

Trying to save the stranded Shadow Unit, two parties became incapacitated, and two core firepower teams were also exhausted.

And still, the goblin army was intact.

I covered my forehead with my hand as I listened to the report. Bodybag finished his report.

“……That’s how we returned through the gate. After that, we waited for Godhand and Lily to return, but the gate closed before they could…….”

“…….”

“I’m really…… sorry, Your Highness. Because of us, the front line suffered too much damage…….”

“It’s not your fault.”

I said it again.

“It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourselves.”

No one had malicious intent.

Rather, it was all good intentions.

People tried to save people. They tried to save a party member buried under the wall, a stranded comrade, and a lover whose life was unknown…….

Everyone risked their lives.

In this situation, who could blame whom?

But people were dying, the damage was accumulating, and the battle was becoming more difficult.

Everyone’s good intentions had gathered, but the result was disastrous.

“I was the one who ordered the use of Dragon Roar, and I was the one who ordered the dispatch of the rescue unit. All responsibility lies with me.”

I patted the shoulders of the two Shadow Unit members, who were bowing their heads in self-reproach.

“So, don’t think about anything else today and just rest.”

“But…….”

Bodybag began to sob.

“But, but…… the two new people, Godhand, and Lily…….”

“…….”

I patted Bodybag’s shoulder once more without a word, then left the sickroom.

Burnout was comforting Bodybag, who was covering his face with his bandaged hands and weeping.

As Lucas and I walked out of the temple hallway, Evangeline was waiting at the temple entrance, having just finished her emergency treatment.

The three of us silently rode back to the lord’s mansion in a carriage.

Inside the carriage, I spoke with difficulty.

“Was it right to give up?”

“…….”

“…….”

The two of them just looked at me without answering. I rubbed my tired eyes and muttered.

“If I had just given up on the Shadow Unit, the situation could have ended with just one incapacitated party. But I went for the rescue, and now we have three incapacitated parties…… and for a while, two firepower parties are also out of commission.”

This defense battle was a long one.

It would be at least three days, and it could be longer. The enemy’s scale was massive, and we had established a strategy to wear them down by dragging out the time as much as possible.

But the first button was buttoned wrong on the first day.

And I didn’t know how much of a snowball effect this would have. I had to completely overhaul all the guerrilla tactics from tomorrow.

“Did I make a mistake……?”

A sigh escaped me.

Was I endangering the entire front line by being caught up in compassion, by being bound by a sense of justice that I shouldn’t have been?

For the sake of victory, for the sake of the strategy, I should have been able to give up and cut things off decisively and coldly.

During the 742 attempts, I had thrown away people’s lives like bullets. I regretted being a monster who was only focused on the strategy.

So, trying to protect the people within my reach…… was that actually a mistake?

“Senior.”

Evangeline spoke calmly.

“You came alone to save me when I was surrounded by the golem legion before, didn’t you?”

“……That was because I was confident. That I could save you safely…….”

“You’re bluffing again, again!”

Evangeline suddenly reached out and grabbed my left arm tightly. Ugh?!?

“What are you doing! It hurts!”

“Do you think I don’t know that you’ve been having trouble using this left arm since that day?”

“…….”

Back then, when I went to save Evangeline.

I had suffered an injury that shattered all the bones in my left arm.

Thanks to the temple’s special treatment, I was able to move it somewhat normally, but it wasn’t as free as it used to be.

“These days, your left arm throbs whenever it rains, doesn’t it? Look now. It’s starting to snow, and honestly, it’s been aching since earlier, right?”

“……No, I’m not some old man, it’s not aching that much…….”

“I told you to stop bluffing!”

“Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

Since it was true that it was throbbing, I finally admitted it. Only then did Evangeline release my arm and nod.

“If you had really considered efficiency that day, you shouldn’t have come to save me with such a risk.”

“…….”

“But you saved me. Even risking your own life…….”

Evangeline’s emerald eyes didn’t waver.

“That’s why I sympathized and followed you. The banner you raised. To kill monsters and save people, the justice of this front line.”

“…….”

“You’re right, Senior. If we had given up on the Shadow Unit from the beginning, we could have maintained more of our forces for the remaining defense battle. But, if we had…… would the banner of this front line have remained intact?”

Should we abandon the stranded allies, or save them?

Strategy, or people?

It was a repetition of the same dilemma I had before.

Until now, the two had somehow been compatible. I could maintain the strategy and save people.

But, if the moment ever came when I had to choose between the two…….

Then I would…….

“We’re not risking our lives to maintain the empire’s territory. It’s for the pride of protecting everyone on the front line, and…… because of the cause you raised, Senior.”

Evangeline smiled and nodded.

“For that cause, I can die.”

The young knight’s voice was too heavy in meaning compared to its light tone.

So, I missed the timing to scold her, ‘Don’t say such things so carelessly.’

Lucas, who had been silent until now, also spoke.

“The day that cause strangles my lord may come someday. Perhaps that day is now.”

Immediately after, Lucas shrugged his shoulders.

“But, so what?”

“What?”

“As Evangeline said, isn’t this a front line to kill monsters and protect people? So…… don’t regret your decision, my lord.”

“…….”

“Please walk ahead on the path you have chosen, even if it is painful. We will silently follow.”

Lucas, who had opposed the dispatch of the rescue unit, was now pushing my back after I had made my decision.

Evangeline thumped my knee, which was still, as I was speechless.

“That’s right! You said you wouldn’t regret it before the operation started, so don’t actually regret it! You’re just doing a whole set of regrets!”

“Haha…….”

I smiled bitterly.

Suddenly, the emperor’s rebuke to me in the imperial capital came to mind.

– No matter how white and clean a flag you hold! The moment it passes through the battlefield, that flag will be stained with blood and ashes. My young son, do you truly not know this!

“…….”

The banner I raised. And my heart that held it.

It was agonizing, wavering, and gradually wearing away.

At the end of this path, would I still be able to stand holding that flag?

Would I be able to proudly wave the flag I had protected to those who followed me?

Or…….

“Hah!”

I raised both hands and slapped my own cheeks.

This was not the time to be thinking such thoughts. As the two knights said, even regretting was a waste of time.

I had already chosen the route, and the strategy was in progress.

I would find a way out. I would make a clever move. That was what I had to do as a commander.

“I’m revising the tactics.”

I took out the operation plan from my pocket.

I unfolded the second-day operation plan that had been originally established.

After roughly reading through the contents that were written all over it, I crumpled it up carelessly.

“Tomorrow’s guerrilla operation is…….”

And I looked at the two knights in front of me, and smiled.

“You two are going to have to work hard.”

Then Lucas and Evangeline also smiled back at me like mischievous children.

Well, I could understand Evangeline, but I didn’t know that even Lucas could make such a bad-boy smile…….

But, so what? What was needed to kill monsters was far from a kind and righteous character.

A slightly bad kid was just right.

Cracking my knuckles, I bared my fangs.

“Let’s start hunting monsters.”

***

Night.

The forward base where snow was falling.

《This is troublesome.》

Inside his makeshift barracks, Kali-Alexandr groaned.

Having taken off his helmet and armor, he was treating his own bloodied left arm.

There was no such thing as a doctor in the goblin army. There was no one who had learned healing magic.

The only one with any medical knowledge was Kali-Alexandr himself.

He sat in front of a mirror, laying out a knife, hot water, and a heated branding iron, and was performing surgery on his own injured area.

The spear that the elf had thrown had pierced his left shoulder.

The spearhead had shattered inside his shoulder, scattering broken metal fragments throughout the inside of his left arm.

He had cut open his arm and pulled out the larger fragments, but he couldn’t remove the smaller pieces.

Kali-Alexandr clicked his tongue as he looked down at his left arm, which wasn’t moving properly.

《That elf really got one over on me……》

The goblin amirs who were attending to him let out low groans.

Kali-Alexandr wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to look at the goblin amirs.

《My injury is fine…… how many amirs are left?》

《Kirik, we are the only three left……》

《So many have died.》

He was the highest-ranking officer under the Goblin King, but so many had died in vain.

The goblin janissaries were the same. He didn’t know how many had died in just one day, the losses were enormous.

The damage the goblin army had suffered was as great as the damage the monster front had suffered today.

《Select the seven janissaries with the highest achievements and call them here.》

After covering his injured left arm with a cloak, the Goblin King rose from his seat.

He was as calm as if he had never been injured.

《From the general goblin soldiers, select five hundred with the highest achievements and have them assemble by tomorrow morning.》

The war was still far from over.

His injury, and the absence of officers, needed to be concealed.

Finally, he pressed down the helmet that combined a mask and a crown, and returned to his usual unwavering appearance, he spoke.

《I need to ‘promote’ them.》