I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 410

It wasn’t easy to return from the Spirit Realm to reality through normal means. I mobilized all sorts of unconventional methods, system bypasses, and tricks. After countless hardships, I finally surfaced from the Spirit Realm and returned to the Crossroads, but… “…Wh, what…?” I stood dumbfounded and aghast before the changed South Gate of the Crossroads. The Crossroads… it had become a completely different city from what I remembered. “Kekekeke!” “Hehehe, vroom vroom!” “Huhu, today’s meal was delicious!” Men with mohawks and leather jackets were running around, wielding clubs and shouting strange cries. Whoosh… The city visible through the wide-open gates showed no citizens. It was like a ruin, lifeless and dead. The fortress walls were dented in places, and iron bars and barbed wire were attached grotesquely. And to top it all off. Kuurururung…! Whoosh whoosh whoosh. A large skull-shaped artifact hung on the south wall, with flames erupting from its eyes and mouth. “…What is this end-of-the-world mess?” I trembled as I watched the blue flames of hell spewing from the skull’s mouth. “What the heck happened to the city while I was gone?!” “Ah… well, that is…” “How can such a cataclysm happen just because I was away for a few days?! Huh?!” Then, Aider, who was behind me, hesitated before speaking. “Lord, you fell into the Spirit Realm at first, right?” “Uh… yeah, I did.” “And you returned through the Spirit Realm as well.” “That’s right.” “The flow of time in the Spirit Realm is completely different from reality. You passed through it a few times…” Aider glanced at me. “…Quite a bit of time has passed.” “…?!” I swallowed hard, feeling flustered. If the city had changed so drastically into this end-of-the-world state. How much time had passed while I was lost and wandering in that place…? It was then. “Hey, you two! Who are you?!” “Suspicious outsiders spotted!” The mohawked, end-of-the-world warriors who had been running around in front of the gate approached us. They licked their clubs and daggers, grinning. “We are the soldiers maintaining the peace of this city! What business do you have in this city?!” “You better speak honestly. Our boss doesn’t like unnecessary bloodshed, kekek…!” “Our boss is a ruthless person with no blood or tears, but he really enjoys drawing the blood and tears of others!” I strode towards the guys who were threateningly swinging their clubs. The mohawked men flinched and backed away as I approached. I glared at them and growled. “Take me to your so-called boss.” “Huh? No, well, that’s…” I yelled at the guys who were sweating profusely. “It’s urgent, you bastards. Right now!” *** And so, I entered the city with the mohawked warriors. The city was desolate, without a single citizen or even an ant. I sighed, looking at the empty cityscape. What in the world is going on… The mohawked warriors, glancing at me, led me to the barracks. “Acting Commander!” “We’ve captured some suspicious individuals!” The mohawked warriors shouted as they entered the barracks. Then, “Suspicious individuals, you say?” A blonde knight, who was standing at the entrance of the barracks, examining the piled-up weapons, asked. “A battle will begin in a few days, where did these suspicious people come from…” The blonde knight turned around, and our eyes met. The knight’s blue eyes widened. “…Lord?” I was speechless. His armor was full of scratches, he looked haggard from hardship, and he exuded the seasoned aura of a veteran, but. It was a very familiar face. I called out my knight’s name. “Lucas!” “Lord? Is it really you, Lord? Oh my god…!” Lucas dropped what he was holding and immediately knelt before me. “You’re alive, Lord!” “Of course. It was a bit rough, but I’m back.” They say that if you leave home, you’ll suffer, and that’s exactly what happened. Lucas looked up at me with a bright smile, then suddenly his eyes welled up with tears. “I thought…” And then he started to cry miserably. “I thought you were gone for good… Waaah…!” Lucas began to make his unique bear-like crying sounds, “Waaah- Waaah-“. The mohawked warriors who had led me here were sweating profusely. “Our boss is… a ruthless person with no blood or tears…” “He was our role model… an ideal warrior…” “He cries like a bear…” I tried to soothe Lucas, sweating profusely. Hey, hey! Your subordinates are watching! Stop crying, you’re embarrassing yourself! After a while, the composed Lucas explained the current situation to me. First, how much time had passed since I disappeared. “Half a year…?!” I gaped. “Has it been half a year?!” “Yes. It’s exactly six months and fifteen days. I’ve been counting the days since you disappeared, Lord.” Lucas added, blowing his nose into a handkerchief. I couldn’t close my mouth. No wonder it felt so humid, it was already past summer and approaching the beginning of autumn. Lucas also explained why the city had become so end-of-the-world-like. The mohawked guys were just newly hired mercenaries. The fortress was in such a state because it had been damaged in the battles that had continued for the past six months while I was gone. The large skull hanging on the south gate was a rare artifact acquired in the last defense battle. And the reason why there were no people in the city was because they had been evacuated in preparation for the upcoming boss stage. “We fought three more defense battles after you disappeared, Lord.” I had fallen into the other side after fighting the goblin army in Stage 15 and then completing Stage 16. In other words, the Crossroads had endured up to Stage 19 while I was gone. It was a great relief that the defense battle cycle had been long for the past half year. “Considering that a powerful legion attacks every five stages, the next defense battle will be a difficult one… so I evacuated the citizens in advance.” “You did well, Lucas.” After receiving various other major reports, I patted Lucas on the shoulder. “You’ve done well without me.” “I tried to do as you taught me, Lord… but it wasn’t easy.” We smiled at each other and chatted, when. “I’m back~ I asked the blacksmith, and they said they can somehow match the arrow quantity by the defense battle.” A female knight wearing a helmet entered the barracks. The female knight, who was carrying boxes full of arrows in both arms, looked this way and said, “Huh?” She dropped the boxes she was holding to the floor with a thud! “…No way.” Thud! The female knight kicked off the ground and arrived in front of me in the blink of an eye. She grabbed my shoulders, making me flinch, and shook me back and forth. “Senior?! It’s really you, Senior?! You’re back, Senior?!” “No, wait, uh, just a minute!” “Where did you go and come back now, really! Do you even know how worried we were?!” I stopped her from shaking me and asked, bewildered. “Let’s just ask this first. Who are you?!” “Why don’t you recognize your proud junior? It’s me, it’s me!” No, there’s no female knight with your physique among the ones I know… …Wait a minute. In the first place, there’s only one person who calls me ‘Senior’, right? “…Could it be, Evangeline?” “Then who else would it be!” The female knight took off her helmet, and her long platinum blonde hair flowed down her back. The mischievous smile with her prominent fangs was still the same. Her cheeks, which had become slimmer as she lost her baby fat, had a faint X-shaped scar, and… She had grown so much taller! No wonder I didn’t recognize her! “This is crazy, how much taller did you get in half a year?!” I’m not exaggerating, she really seems to have grown almost 10cm. Of course, even if she grew 10cm, she’s still shorter than me, but when someone who was barely 150cm suddenly grew so much taller… her body balance had completely changed, making her look like a different person! Evangeline nodded her head with a still-childish face. “This reaction! I wanted to hear this reaction! Can I finally say I have a real sexy-dynamite-hot body? Mwahaha!” She’s still obsessed with that dynamite hot thing, huh… “Even though I’ve grown this much, that old man still treats me like a kid, I was so frustrated. But now that I’ve been recognized by Senior, that old man has to recognize me too!” Lucas frowned, displeased, as Evangeline pointed at him. “What’s the point of growing taller? Your head is still that of a kid…” “Hehe, you say that, but you’re actually nervous, right? You’re scared that I’ll catch up to your height and surpass you, right?” “How are you going to catch up to my height?” “I’m in my growth spurt! I’ve grown this much in half a year, so I’ll keep growing!” I chuckled as I watched the two knights bickering with each other. Ah… I missed this. I missed seeing my subordinates chattering like this… “Your Highness?” A flustered voice was heard from the entrance of the barracks. When I turned around, there was a familiar brown-haired curly-haired boy… no, a young man. I waved my hand happily. “Damian! It’s been a while!” Damian rubbed his round eyes with the back of his hand and chuckled. “Haha, I guess I’ve been overdoing it lately… I’m seeing things…” “No, you’re a clairvoyant, there’s no way you’d see things.” “I’m even hearing things. Haha, really… am I a bit tired?” Damian muttered, then gathered divine power in his hand and put it on his forehead. “Heal, heal…” He waved it around. No, it’s not your head that’s broken! I’m real! After a while. “I thought you had abandoned us and gone to the Imperial City…” After confirming that I was real, Damian grabbed my sleeve and sobbed. “We all disobeyed your orders last time, Your Highness. So I thought you were so angry with us that you abandoned us and left…” “…I was wrong about that. And I’m not irresponsible enough to abandon this place like that.” No, it wasn’t intentional, but I did abandon them for half a year, so I was actually irresponsible… I looked at Damian. Damian had tied his longer curly hair into a ponytail at the back. And… “…Did you get taller too?” “Ahaha… I guess there was still room for me to grow.” He got taller too. Until now, he had a young appearance that could definitely be called a boy, but now that he’s taller and his features are a bit more defined, he’s a full-fledged young man. ‘…Half a year is a long time for children.’ When I was with them, I didn’t realize they were growing, but after being apart for so long, I really feel it. They grow day by day, and in half a year, they’ve evolved into their next form. And finally. “Your Highness!” Junior, who was the last of the main party members to hear the news, came running in a hurry. “I knew it! I knew it! I knew that Your Highness wouldn’t abandon us, nor would you die a tragic death outside!” Junior looked exactly the same as he did half a year ago. A wide-brimmed wizard’s hat, a baggy robe covering his body, and… “Cough!” …Even coughing up blood. As soon as he arrived in front of me, Junior dramatically spat blood on the floor. When I gaped, Junior wiped his mouth and stammered awkwardly. “…It’s, it’s a joke.” “No, that repertoire doesn’t work anymore, okay?” Everyone else has evolved in a positive direction, why are you coughing up blood again! Wasn’t that disease all cured? “I thought it was all cured, but the last remaining elements were left in the mana circuit… and that caused trouble again.” Damian cast a healing spell on Junior, who was ailing, saying ‘Heal, heal’. Lucas, who came next to me, explained with a bitter smile. “Junior has been overdoing it lately. It seems we can’t let the magic users rest…” “You overdid it, and your coughing up blood relapsed, is that it?” Junior, who had mostly recovered, gave a sly fox-like smile. “Anyway! I’m so glad you’re back, Your Highness.” “…” I looked around. Lucas, Evangeline, Damian, they were all smiling around me. “Yeah, really.” I made eye contact with each of my party members and said anew. “I’m glad to be back.” With all my heart, I said that.