I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 475

A few days prior.

Crossroads, Southern Continent, the Temple.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Lily’s scream echoed through the temple.

Lying on the bed, Lily bit her lip, enduring the pain, and let out another scream.

“It hurts like hell, damn it!”

Priestess Jenice, who was injecting divine power into Lily’s swollen belly to ease her pain, said,

“How many times do I have to tell you! Swearing isn’t good for prenatal care!”

“Do you think I care about prenatal care right now?! I’m dying here!”

Lily’s delivery was near.

Lily’s private room was already in chaos. Midwives and priests bustled in and out, frantically wiping away amniotic fluid and blood.

And that wasn’t all.

“Lily! Hang in there!”

“We’re here for you! Aja aja fighting! [A Korean phrase of encouragement, like ‘You can do it!’]”

“Inhale! Inhale! Exhale! Exhale! Ha!”

A crowd of acquaintances had gathered outside the room like a cloud.

Magicians, alchemists, elves, and all sorts of other acquaintances… Everyone Lily had met since coming to the southern front had rushed to wait and cheer her on for the delivery.

“Our alchemist guild will sponsor the child!”

“What nonsense! Our mercenary guild’s mage alliance already claimed dibs!”

“Is the child an object to be claimed? And half of the child is an elf! Our elven autonomous region has already raised funds-”

“Hold on! Get in line, get in line! Our Crossroads Women Heroes and Mercenary Rights Committee, or CWHMRC for short, has already finished fundraising!”

“Why does that rights committee have such a weird name…?”

Starting with the fight to take the top spot on the list of sponsors, which no one knew when it was created,

“Have you thought of a name for the child?”

“But should the name be human-style or elf-style?”

“If it’s human-style, should it be imperial-style or Lily’s hometown-style?”

“The name for a boy and the name for a girl are different too…”

“I heard that hybrids are sometimes neutral?”

“Then how many possibilities are there?”

Even the issue of what to name the child.

They argued noisily, even grabbing each other by the collar, and finally, thinking they needed a judge, they poked their heads into the room and asked.

“Have you thought about what to do, Lily?!”

Lily, touched by the warm hearts of everyone who cared for her and her child, even teared up and answered powerfully.

“Get lost, you bastards-!”

In the end, Priestess Jenice, unable to watch any longer, came out of the room and dispersed the crowd.

“Okay, everyone, I know you all mean well, but the mother is having a hard time, so please go now.”

“But, I want to see the baby’s face…”

“We need to make the aunts and uncles remember them. There’s something called the imprinting effect, right?”

“We need to show ourselves now so they’ll follow us well later!”

Jenice sighed deeply in front of these people full of ulterior motives(?).

“Lily can’t use her legs, and the baby is a difficult birth, as if to prove it’s a hybrid… If things don’t go well, it could take a few more days.”

The amniotic fluid had broken much earlier than expected, and it had already been several hours since Lily, who had been transported to the temple, had been suffering from labor pains.

But the baby still showed no signs of being born.

Jenice, who had helped with the delivery of hybrid children several times, knew instinctively.

This delivery would be a very long and arduous battle.

It was obvious that even if they gathered here and made a fuss from the beginning, they would all be too tired to properly celebrate when the baby was actually born.

“I’ll let you know as soon as the baby is born, so come and celebrate then… Okay! Please go back now.”

In the end, at Jenice’s gentle request, Lily’s acquaintances scattered, making sure to ask to be called when the baby was born.

All that remained were Burnout and Bodybag.

These two elves had been taking care of Lily, who had been uncomfortable, all this time. Perhaps because they were more worried, they couldn’t leave.

“Priestess, is Lily going to be okay?”

Bodybag stepped forward to ask instead of Burnout, who couldn’t speak.

“I’m worried because she’s been suffering for the past few months…”

“How many priests do we have? Don’t worry. She’s just going through a tough time.”

Jenice reached for a cigarette out of habit, but realizing she was taking care of a pregnant woman, she quickly put it back in her pocket.

“The kids who give their mothers a hard time at birth usually grow up healthy. She’ll grow up very, very healthy.”

“Is there anything we can do to help…?”

The two elves asked earnestly. Jenice smiled.

“Then at least pray!”

“Ah, we don’t believe in the Goddess…”

Jenice winked at the two embarrassed elves.

“Then to the Elven God! The World Tree or whatever! We need the grace of your god right now, too, right?”

Jenice nodded and went back into the room.

Burnout and Bodybag looked at each other and, as if by agreement, simultaneously put their hands together in front of their chests.

If humans are taken care of by the human god, and elves are taken care of by the elven god, then who takes care of the hybrid born between them?

That was a problem to think about after praying to both sides.

***

Crossroads.

Above the southern wall.

Whiooooo-!

Two knights stood on the wall, where a dry winter wind was blowing.

These were Lucas and Evangeline, who were seriously inspecting the condition of the wall and testing the various weapons and defensive weapons.

“Uncle Lucas.”

Evangeline said abruptly, wiping an artifact with her hand. Lucas, who was aligning the cannon’s sights, asked without turning around.

“Speak.”

“When Lily unnie [Older sister] has the baby.”

Evangeline muttered with a serious face, her brow furrowed.

“It’ll be cute.”

“……”

What was she talking about?

Lucas, dumbfounded, turned around and snapped.

“Don’t state the obvious. Of course, it’ll be very cute.”

“That cute baby will be born soon, have you decided on a gift?”

“……”

Lucas, who had been silent, looked embarrassed and examined the next cannon.

“……Not yet.”

“You’re so insensitive. How can you be called the acting commander like that? A front-line commander should take care of these things.”

“Shut up. I’m only good at wielding a sword, I’m not good at those things…”

Should he just give a mobile, diapers, or other baby supplies? Or maybe just a congratulatory gift….

Thinking about the items made him dizzy. Lucas, with a headache, groaned and looked at Evangeline.

“What about you, did you prepare anything?”

“Of course? Who do you think I am? I’m the president of the CWHMRC and the next lord of Crossroads, aren’t I?”

Indeed. Come to think of it.

This kid—who was now quite tall to be called a kid—was the heir to the Cross family. Lucas, realizing this anew, made a sound of surprise.

Evangeline shrugged.

“I have one year left until I regain the rights of the lord of this city, one year. Taking care of the welfare of the people belonging to my territory is natural! What I have to do in the future.”

Immediately, Evangeline laughed arrogantly, “Eumhahahat.”

“I’m going to inherit the title of Marchioness in a year, you know? Then you won’t be able to talk down to me like you do now, will you?”

“……I should ask the lord to give me a marquis title too. So I can talk down to you.”

“Oh, there’s no such thing! That’s unfair! That’s cheating! I want you to use honorifics with me!”

Lucas shook his head in front of the whining Evangeline and gestured with his chin.

“……So what did you prepare?”

“Oh, I got sidetracked. Ta-da! This!”

What Evangeline took out from the space between her armor, as if she had been waiting for it, was… a paper box containing clothes.

It was a fancy dress for a child, decorated with all sorts of frills and lace. Evangeline laughed, “Eumhahaha.”

“A dress to wear for the first birthday party! I bought it in advance with my own money!”

Here, Evangeline revealed her love for frills and lace once again. Lucas, clicking his tongue inwardly, was puzzled.

“First… birthday party? What’s that?”

“Huh? You don’t know about first birthday parties? The day a baby turns one year old is called the first birthday. It’s always a celebration in this town.”

“Ah, I see.”

It was a custom that Lucas, who was from the capital, had never heard of, but he immediately understood that it was a celebration of the first birthday of a child.

“Is there a reason to celebrate the first birthday so specially?”

“Of course. This Crossroads is the southernmost fortress city in the world, you know.”

Evangeline, putting the box of clothes back into the space between her armor, looked out at the southern plains.

“Basically, people die here. It’s a place where people who have gathered to maintain the front lines die and build a wall to stop the monsters.”

“……”

“Now, Crossroads has grown to be called a ‘city,’ but decades ago, it was a smaller village. How many children were born in such a place? And what was the probability of that child surviving the first year?”

Lucas closed his mouth and quietly looked at Evangeline.

Evangeline, with a face that had become more mature than when he first saw her, continued to explain.

“In this place where monsters and people are intertwined and dying, the birth of a new life, and its survival, are all things to celebrate.”

“……”

“So, I too… as the next lord, and as the heir to the Marchioness title, must bless all the lives that will be born in this city.”

Until a year from now.

Until the day Ash completes his three years in office.

She was declaring that she would protect this city and the new child that would be born.

Lucas, who chuckled at the young and fresh prospective lord’s determination, interjected.

“But why a dress? What if it’s a boy?”

“Oh, this uncle. Kids these days don’t have such distinctions! Even if it’s a boy, he’ll wear it well if you give it to him? It’ll be very cute!”

“Don’t project your desires onto other people’s children…”

Just as the two of them were bickering and finishing their inspection of the southern wall.

“Hah, hah! Sir Lucas! Sir Evangeline! It’s a big problem!”

A knight in armor came running breathlessly. The two knights turned around, puzzled.

It was one of the heroes belonging to Lucas’s knight party. The knight, who was sweating profusely, reported, panting.

“That is, the three parties that went on an autonomous exploration of the Lake Kingdom dungeon…!”

“Three parties? What happened?”

“They didn’t return even after the scheduled return time had passed, so I and other party members entered the dungeon to check….”

At the next words, Lucas and Evangeline’s faces hardened with bewilderment.

“We, we, found them all annihilated!”

“What…?!”

“Annihilated… you say?”

The knight led the bewildered Lucas and Evangeline.

“P, please check for yourselves! This way!”

***

Lake Kingdom. Inside the dungeon.

Lucas, who had entered the dark dungeon through the teleport gate, drew his [Bestowed Sword].

A blade of light was created, pushing the pitch-black darkness in all directions.

Similarly, Evangeline also held out her cavalry spear, which was imbued with the fire spirit.

The light emanating from the two knights’ weapons swept away the surrounding darkness like a wave.

It wasn’t long after they had advanced from the safe zone where the teleport gate was.

“This is…!”

Lucas’s face hardened with bewilderment.

There it was.

At the entrance of the narrow alley leading into the safe zone.

The fifteen mercenaries who had gone on an autonomous exploration. All of them, in the same miserable state as they were fleeing-

“……Petrified?”

They were petrified.

Some were collapsed, some were running, and some were kneeling and praying.

They had turned to stone.

“They all turned to stone while they were still alive…?”

Evangeline, who had never seen such a phenomenon before, muttered in a trembling voice.

“What is this… who did this….”

“……”

Lucas didn’t answer.

Instead, he picked up something that had fallen around the petrified heroes.

“This is….”

Lucas stared at the glittering, jewel-like object and muttered.

“……A scale, is it.”

Lucas picked up a scale of something and clenched his fist tightly.

And he stared into the darkness.

Into the ominous darkness that was spreading like a wave and making a sound like insects eating away.

“…….”

Something….

Something absurdly evil was lurking inside, preparing to attack.

To invade the human world and kill the living.