I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 383

The Monster

Serenade is a civilian.

She is a merchant, not a soldier.

Civilians should have nothing to do with this quagmire. Civilians should not have to risk their lives.

Yet, she repaired an airship that couldn’t be obtained through normal means, brought it directly to the front lines, and participated in the battle, sustaining injuries herself.

It was with the help of such repeated sacrifices that we barely managed to achieve victory.

“……”

If the political situation hadn’t turned in my favor as the Third Prince.

If reinforcements hadn’t arrived.

If the adventurers of the Lake Kingdom hadn’t responded to an anonymous request.

If Serenade, a civilian, hadn’t risked injury to help me…

I would have been game over here.

Seeing the bloodstains on her body, the reality finally hit me hard.

My strategy is flawed.

So much so that I led many comrades to their deaths and even injured a civilian who had nothing to do with it…

“Your Highness?”

Serenade called out to me with a worried voice.

“Are you alright?”

“…Of course. I’m fine.”

I adjusted my expression and smiled.

“Thank you. Just, thank you, Serenade. Please be careful until your body is fully healed…”

“It’s really just a scratch. You don’t have to worry!”

Serenade waved her arm around as if she were fine, but I wasn’t so oblivious as to not notice the pain contorting her usually smooth brow.

And I wasn’t so oblivious as to point it out. I smiled and pointed towards the airship.

“It would be good to consult with Kaelibay about the airship repairs. Since he is the one who designed this airship.”

There was a loud banging sound from the lower part of the airship, as if Kaelibay was crawling around somewhere.

Serenade also gave a wry smile.

“Our people did their best, but there were many rough parts. With the original designer here, we can fix it better… so that we can be of help to Your Highness.”

Instead of saying thank you again, I squeezed Serenade’s hand once more.

Serenade blushed and smiled softly.

It hurt.

My insides, they hurt.

***

I came to the temple.

This was the real battlefield.

There were too many wounded, and not enough priests.

The only saving grace was that I had an abundance of medical supplies such as bandages, hemostatic agents [agents that stop bleeding], and potions.

Other mercenaries who were relatively unharmed, and citizens, were volunteering as helpers.

I saw Junior and the young mages, sweating profusely beside Damian, applying medicine to the wounded.

And in the midst of this chaos—she was not there.

Margherita.

Usually, she would be slumped over like an overworked office worker, but when she stood before a patient, she would fight fearlessly.

The R-rank healer [a rank indicating her skill level] who was with me until the end in my 742nd playthrough.

She had lost her life to the goblins who attacked the temple.

Despite the groans of countless wounded, the temple, where her irritable shouts were not heard… felt desolate.

I couldn’t bring myself to go inside the temple and just watched the scene from outside.

“…Your Highness.”

Then, I heard a voice from beside me. I looked in that direction.

A man wrapped in bandages all over his body, with a blunt helmet on his head, was limping along the stone wall of the temple. I nodded lightly.

“Torkel.”

“I heard that you pushed yourself quite hard in this battle. Are you alright…?”

At his question, which showed concern for me, I gritted my teeth.

Torkel had lost all of his party members. The Leprosy Extermination Unit was annihilated, leaving only the leader.

I couldn’t even imagine how much his heart must be festering.

Yet, he asked about my well-being.

Why?

What am I to him?

It was because I didn’t establish a proper strategy that your comrades died, wasn’t it?

“…I am truly sorry for what happened to your comrades.”

I tried my best to speak with a steady voice.

“I will hold their funerals with the utmost respect as soon as preparations are made. As quickly as possible…”

Torkel silently bowed his head to express his gratitude. I couldn’t bear to look at him any longer and turned my head back towards the temple.

“Why… why did I survive?”

Torkel, who had come to stand beside me, was looking at the inside of the temple—at the statue of the goddess.

“The Saintess… she shielded me and passed away.”

“……”

“Such a noble person, in place of a dirty man like me… she was struck by an arrow.”

I had already been informed of how Margherita met her end, so I just listened silently.

“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand.”

Torkel’s voice, which had been as stoic as a rock, gradually became heated.

“Wouldn’t it have been better if I had died?”

“……”

“Wouldn’t it have been better for the Saintess to live, and for a leper cripple like me to die?”

Thump!

Torkel struck his own chest and shouted.

“All I can do is swing a sword with this diseased body that can’t even feel pain! Rather than a reckless mercenary bastard…”

He was crying.

“Wouldn’t it have been better for the Saintess, who could save so many more people in the future, to live…?”

He didn’t shed tears, nor did he sob.

But with a blunt voice, he was pounding his chest that couldn’t feel pain, and pouring out his cries.

“All my comrades died, but why did I survive… and why did such a noble person, who should have lived much longer and spread light to the world… why did she die?”

“……”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t understand anything.”

Torkel lowered his head and banged his helmet against the stone wall.

“I should have died.”

I couldn’t offer any clumsy words of comfort and just listened to him.

“I… I should have died…”

***

No.

None of you should have died. You were all people who deserved to live.

I clenched my fist tightly.

I opened my tightly closed eyes wide. The world that had been shaking became clear again.

In this place full of death and pain, the task I had to do… became clear as well.

Ah.

Yes.

Now, I feel a little more resolved.

***

Crossroad’s southern field.

In this place, still littered with goblin corpses, Skuld grabbed Verdandi.

“Sister!”

“……”

Finally caught, Verdandi bit her lip and avoided her gaze. Skuld stood in front of Verdandi, unable to speak for a long time.

“You were… alive.”

“…Skuld.”

“You were alive. I thought you were surely dead…”

Skuld hugged her sister tightly. Verdandi lowered her eyes while embraced in her younger sister’s arms.

“…Why didn’t you tell me?”

“……”

“Why… why didn’t you tell me you were alive? Why for a hundred years… where were you, what were you doing?”

“The Holy Grail.”

Verdandi spat out briefly.

“As ordered by my eldest sister, Urd… I was looking for the Holy Grail that could save the World Tree.”

“The Holy Grail…?”

Skuld, who was dumbfounded, shook her head.

“Get a grip, sister. There’s no way such a legendary object actually exists.”

“……”

“The World Tree died a long time ago, and even its rotten stump was burned by the Empire. Now, all that’s left is the roots rotting underground. How are you going to revive it?”

“……”

“Come back, sister. The remaining elves, and I, need you.”

Skuld pleaded, but Verdandi was firm.

“I will find the Holy Grail. And I will revive the World Tree and restore the Elven Kingdom.”

“Please get a grip, sister.”

Skuld let out a long sigh.

“The Elven Kingdom was destroyed a hundred years ago during the race war. Our eldest sister, Urd, was executed, and the remaining elves are living day by day as slaves of humans, confined to autonomous districts.”

“……”

“Come back. Let’s work together to make the lives of the remaining elves a little better. We can do it if you help.”

“…I can’t give up yet. The Holy Grail is definitely inside that dungeon…”

As Verdandi didn’t back down, Skuld’s face twisted horribly.

“I alone…! After all my sisters died or disappeared, I alone led the surviving elves!”

“……”

“Our homeland was reduced to ashes! We were forcibly relocated to a distant land! Exploited, used! Starving, prostrate! Adults died, children were taken away! That’s how we’ve lived for a hundred years!”

Verdandi, with a pale face, faced Skuld, who was shouting in a shrill voice.

“Every moment of my life has been hell! I am the worst Elven Queen in history, who could only watch as my own people were sold for gold! Still, I willingly wore this crown of shame and humiliation. Because it was a responsibility I had to bear as a descendant of the Elven Royal Family!”

“……”

“But you, what? The Holy Grail? The Holy Grail?!”

Verdandi couldn’t meet her eyes. Skuld rebuked her sister in a voice that sounded like she was spitting blood.

“You’ve been chasing after a non-existent illusion for over a hundred years, leaving me and my people in hell! Is that what you’ve been doing?!”

Silence fell.

On the plains filled with goblin corpses, the two women of the Elven Royal Family were silent for a long time.

It was about time for me to step in.

“The Holy Grail exists.”

At my voice, the two elves, startled, looked at me.

I, who had been standing by the south gate listening to their conversation, slowly walked towards them.

“In the darkness of the Lake Kingdom. The 8th District Dungeon ‘Magic Tower’. It is sleeping there.”

“Prince Ash…”

“I and the Holy Grail Expedition Team will go there together and find the Holy Grail. How about waiting at least until then, Your Majesty?”

Verdandi is still needed on this front. I can’t let her be taken away.

Skuld smoothed her hair and composed her expression.

“I’ve shown you an unsightly side because of our family issues.”

“I understand. My family is also quite a mess.”

“Let’s put aside the matter between me and my sister for now, and continue the conversation we were having earlier.”

Skuld, who had instantly changed her expression to a gentle one, looked at me with serious eyes.

“I’ve heard about the banner that the monster front has been raising and maintaining for the past year since you came here. ‘Kill the monsters, protect the people.’ It was said that you also said, ‘If it’s within reach, save everyone.’”

“……”

“And that those people included not only our elves, but also people of other races and other countries.”

The Elven Queen took a step towards me. I silently faced her.

“You don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve encountered such an inclusive cause.”

“……”

“Prince Ash. The world is becoming more and more filled with hatred. I am one of the younger elves, but I could easily feel that the world has been becoming more and more filled with malice over the past lifetime.”

“……”

“The banner you have raised can unite this divided world again. So…”

“I apologize for interrupting, Your Majesty.”

I cut her off.

“That banner is abolished as of this moment.”

“Pardon?”

“Kill the monsters, protect the people… a beautiful cause.”

A self-deprecating smile appeared on my lips.

“But I have only just realized. That you cannot protect people with beautiful things.”

“What does that…”

“What protects people is not a banner. It is a well-sharpened sword. I have learned that this time.”

I looked back at Crossroad.

At the southern wall, which was burned and collapsed miserably.

And at the lives I had caused to be lost.

“Therefore, that banner is now abolished.”

“…Then what banner will you raise now, Prince Ash?”

“I will still protect people. However.”

I spoke my new resolution.

“If I have to kill people to protect people, I will do it.”

“…And the definition of ‘people’ will be decided by you?”

I affirmed without words. A cold disappointment flashed across Skuld’s face.

“If you can save more ‘people,’ you might exclude a specific race or an entire country from those ‘people.’”

“……”

“I think I was wrong about you.”

Skuld turned away abruptly.

“In the end, you are no different from the other kings.”

“……”

“Let’s pretend this conversation never happened.”

Skuld walked away without looking back, towards her soldiers who were waiting over there.

As I quietly watched her retreating figure, Verdandi approached me cautiously.

“Ash, are you, are you alright…?”

“Huh? I’m fine.”

I smiled brightly.

“Don’t worry about me, go talk to your sister.”

“……”

“It’s been a hundred years since you met. You must have a lot more to talk about. Go on.”

Verdandi looked at me with trembling eyes, bowed her head, and then ran towards her sister.

I don’t understand.

Why is everyone looking at me with such worried eyes?

My mind is clear, and my resolve is firm. Finally, all the confusion has disappeared.

I walked along the southern field. In the center of the field, a dirty flag was fluttering.

It was the white flag that I had planted when I used [Imperial Territory Declaration].

It was once a white and straight flag, but now it was stained with human red blood and goblin green blood, and it was half-burned, shedding ashes whenever the wind blew.

Like the countless lives that died following this flag. I grabbed the tattered flagpole…

“……”

In all 742 of those games, I always threw my characters to their deaths.

I threw countless subordinates to their deaths without any remorse for the sake of efficient clearing of the entire game.

I never questioned that act.

I was a monster.

A monster obsessed with efficiency, who only knew strategies, who didn’t see people as people. And that’s why I succeeded in clearing the game.

-Yes.

Why did I only realize it now? Wasn’t I actually painfully aware of it? That’s why I cleared the game like that, wasn’t it?

To save more people.

Someone has to die.

If that’s the reality, then I just need to order deaths as efficiently as possible.

If you kill people, you can save other people.

Why did I turn away from this simple equation?

Because I was cowardly. Because I was weak. Because I was not ready as a king.

But now I am ready.

-Then who will decide who will die? Who will order the deaths? Who will bear that weight?

The Goblin God King’s voice echoed in my mind.

-If it is to protect the world. Shouldn’t someone put on the skin of a monster?

Yes.

If you can save people by killing people.

Then, it has to be me.

I have no choice but to order those deaths.

“You’re right, Alexander.”

I covered my face with my hand and smiled bitterly.

“It has to be me.”

Crack!

I broke the flagpole I was holding in my other hand. And I threw the flag carelessly on the ground.

-The moment will come when you have to sacrifice your most precious thing to protect this city.

The advice that the Margrave of Cross gave me a long time ago came to mind.

Those words that were like a prophecy and a curse.

Finally, it has become a reality.

To protect this city.

To protect this world.

I will give up my most precious thing.

The banner.

The goal of protecting people…

To save more people,

I, myself,

Will become a monster that devours people.