I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 478

Temple Entrance.

“……Hmm?”

Torkel voiced his confusion.

Covered in bandages from head to toe due to leprosy, and with his face hidden by a helmet, he was driving a carriage.

He had just returned from a trip to the eastern port city to deliver medicine. However, the atmosphere was very different from when he had left.

‘What’s going on…?’

Blinking his eyes inside his helmet, Torkel stopped the carriage and entered the temple.

The temple interior was desolate, and the few people remaining were busily packing their belongings and leaving. Torkel was bewildered, not knowing what was happening.

“What is this……”

“Ah, Torkel! You’re back!”

Just then, Janice came out from inside the temple, waving her hand.

Her hair was greasy, and she had a dark stubble, looking like she hadn’t washed properly for days.

Torkel pointed around and asked.

“I just got back… but what’s going on?”

“Ah, you wouldn’t have heard? A monster is coming, or something, they said it’s a really dangerous monster. So, the temple is evacuating everyone except for the minimum personnel.”

“No, if you’re evacuating, send everyone. Why leave a minimum personnel at the temple?”

“Lily is in labor.”

Torkel’s mouth fell open. In the few days he had been away, Lily’s labor had begun.

“Then, Lily is evacuating…?”

“She can’t. It’s already a historically difficult labor… Ugh, you see how I look? I’m just helping, so how do you think Lily is?”

Janice waved her hand dismissively.

“She’s half-dead. Evacuation is out of the question.”

“……If an evacuation order has been issued, it means a normal monster isn’t attacking. Will the High Priestess stay here?”

“Well, the mother is here, would the priest in charge leave? Make some sense.”

Janice grumbled and then gestured with her chin.

“Torkel, what about you?”

“Of course… I’ll stay.”

Torkel clenched his fist and looked around the temple.

“I will not let the monsters set foot in this temple again.”

“……”

“I am the last line of defense on this front.”

Torkel’s voice was filled with deep regret.

Janice, who had been listening quietly, gestured towards the barracks.

“Come to think of it, Sir Lucas was looking for you. Go and report. I think they’re having a defense strategy meeting.”

“Yes. Then.”

Torkel bowed his head, glanced worriedly at the temple interior, then turned and ran towards the barracks.

“……Well, then.”

Looking in that direction, Janice swept her sweat-soaked hair back, stretched, and then turned back towards the temple.

“Let’s continue our war here too…!”

***

When Torkel arrived at the barracks, Lucas was standing at the entrance of the central conference room.

“Sir Lucas!”

“Ah, Torkel.”

Lucas’s face lit up when he saw Torkel.

“You’ve come at the right time. We were just about to start the strategy meeting. This way.”

Torkel awkwardly entered the conference room, where all the heroes remaining on the monster front were gathered.

Heroes who had fought together in several battles, and new heroes who were clearly nervous, having been organized not long ago.

And…….

“……?”

Five thugs huddled in a corner, laughing wickedly, who by no means looked like good people.

The Blacklist Five, who had been loitering at the Crossroads Hotel Casino, were also in the conference room.

Having retrieved all the weapons they had pawned, they were in a very menacing mood.

“Heh heh, just participating in one battle gets you a few gold coins…?”

“And they say you get ten times that for taking down a monster’s head?”

“With that kind of capital, we can clean out this casino!”

“Not just clean it out? Let’s just take it over!”

“Hoo, hoo, I want to waste the money I earned risking my life like trash…! Hurry…!”

Torkel unconsciously sat down far away from these loafers. They were the type of people he didn’t want to associate with at all.

“Everyone’s here.”

Lucas stepped forward to the front of the conference table and opened his mouth.

“I am Lucas McGregor, acting commander of the Southern Front. We will now begin the strategy meeting.”

Without further ado, Lucas tapped the blackboard with his staff.

“In half a day, tomorrow morning… the monster legion we will be defending against will reach the city walls. Some of you may have already heard, but this monster legion is a small elite force consisting of three high-ranking monsters.”

At Lucas’s words, the atmosphere in the conference room turned cold.

“The Gorgon Sisters Three.”

One of the Blacklist heroes, who had been spacing out, burst into laughter.

“Puhahaha! Gorgons? Those monsters from fairy tales that turn you to stone just by making eye contact?”

“……”

“Are you saying those legendary monsters are attacking here? Stop joking around!”

“Does this sound like a joke?”

Lucas growled.

“All the citizens of the city are evacuating, all the soldiers are on standby at the city walls, and… above all, this situation where we need to hire even trash like you, does that feel like a joke?”

The hero, who had started hiccuping at Lucas’s fierce aura, stammered and asked.

“A-are they really the Gorgon Sisters Three? Those from the legends?”

“That’s right.”

“Those petrifying monsters that have ruled the Sunken Islands for hundreds of years?”

“There are many related stories. It seems the target is the same.”

The silence in the conference room grew deeper and more uncomfortable.

Only then did the Blacklist thugs realize that the situation was no joke, and they hurriedly got up from their seats.

“……I-I’m out. I’m getting out of here!”

“I came to earn gold, not to commit suicide…!”

“How are we supposed to fight a mythical monster like a Gorgon?!”

It was then.

Swish!

Lucas drew a blade of light and aimed it at their necks.

“You have already signed a contract to participate in this defense.”

Lucas declared coldly, his face expressionless.

“In other words, you are soldiers of this Southern Front until this defense is over, and your lives are in the hands of me, the acting commander.”

“……”

“Desertion is punishable by death under imperial military law. So sit down, mercenaries.”

All five of the Blacklist mercenaries prided themselves on being capable, but the aura Lucas exuded was on a different level.

Lucas’s spirit, which had grown over the past two years fighting and killing mythical monsters in the battlefield… was not something these thugs, who had wasted their lives addicted to gambling, could overcome.

“Sit down!”

“Kuh…!”

The hierarchy was established with just his aura.

The five Blacklist heroes gritted their teeth but had no choice but to sit down.

Lucas, having finished organizing the situation with his force, immediately put away his sword and changed his tone to a gentle one.

“And, there’s no need to worry too much. I have no intention of giving you a suicide mission… like fighting the Gorgons head-on.”

“What?”

“With our current forces, it’s too risky to fight them head-on. It would be better to devise another plan.”

“Then…?”

Lucas nodded and pointed to the blackboard with his staff.

“The strategy we will use in this defense is….”

And he spoke the contents of the plan that Ash had left behind.

“‘Tag’.”

***

“Haa, haah, ugh……”

Lying on the bed with a pale face, Lily bit her already tattered lip.

Even though her lower body had long been unusable, the labor pains continued relentlessly. Clutching her blood-soaked collar, Lily spoke in a dry voice.

“……I won’t die.”

She had been on the verge of death several times, but Lily’s eyes still held a strong will.

“I promised that person.”

Remembering the face of the man she had loved, but who would not return.

“I will live.”

Lily took a breath and looked down at her swollen belly.

“Mom will definitely live….”

Her gaunt face trembling, Lily forced a smile.

“Don’t give up either, baby……”

Even as the monsters drew closer, the priests and midwives who remained in the temple to help Lily assisted her through the night.

And…….

The long night passed, and the sun rose indifferently.

***

In the dry sunlight of an early winter morning.

Thump… Thump… Thump…

With heavy footsteps, the Gorgon Sisters Three entered the wide plain.

Euryale, one of the Gorgon Sisters Three, could fly, but not for long periods.

Therefore, they started walking again before reaching the enemy’s fortress… and now they had arrived in the humans’ front yard.

Finally, the southern wall of Crossroads began to appear in the distance.

The first sister, Stheno, and the second sister, Euryale, still had blank faces without reason, but Medusa’s face had a smile.

《Our walk was a bit long, sisters. But we’re here now.》

The city wall looked sturdy, but that was all.

Medusa was confident that with her and her two sisters’ power, they could eventually subdue the enemies, no matter how long it took.

《Let’s break through that defense line, and then go back to that damned Lich, White Night… and ask him how to break our curse.》

Medusa shook the chains around her two sisters’ necks once, making them clink, and smiled bitterly.

《……I don’t care if there’s no salvation.》

Medusa wiped the drool from the corners of her two sisters’ mouths, who were gaping.

《It’s okay if what White Night said is a lie. Then we can just go back to our hideout and hibernate again.》

Yes, that would be fine.

What good is salvation? What is so necessary about her sisters regaining their reason?

It was more precious for the three of them to live together…….

It was when Medusa was thinking that.

《Huh?》

Whoosh-!

The sound of something flying came from afar. Medusa looked in that direction.

The sky seemed to darken, and then something covered the sky and fell towards them.

Cannonballs.

It was a barrage of fire from the human side’s city walls. The overwhelming number of cannonballs momentarily blocked the sunlight, creating shadows.

《……Ha.》

Looking up at the barrage of cannonballs, Medusa sneered with her long, torn mouth.

《Really, why do humans always do the same things, no matter how much time passes or where they are.》

Kiiiiing!

Medusa’s eyes emitted a sinister yellow flash.

《And why are they always so foolish…!》

A clear yellow magical light burst forth, emitting a powerful magical wave forward.

Whoooosh!

And—it turned to stone.

The cannonballs that had been pouring down, filling the sky, had all turned into stone.

《Now, it’s your turn, sisters.》

Following that, Medusa tightly gripped her two sisters’ leashes and used her magic to send an order to her two sisters. Then,

Kiiiik!

Kyaaaa-!

Stheno and Euryale emitted sound waves from their mouths, shooting them at the falling stones.

Thump! Kuguung…!

The petrified cannonballs, falling like rain, were all pushed away or shattered by the sound waves, unable to even approach the three sisters, and fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

In the rain of rocks, Medusa suddenly hummed a song in her native language.

Φρίξον ήλιε, στέναξον γη

The sun burns, the earth groans

Εάλω ή πόλη!

The city has fallen!

Εάλω η πόλη!

The city has fallen!

A wicked joy settled on the monster’s face as she finished the short song.

《Let’s go, Sister Stheno! Sister Euryale!》

Taat-!

Under the pouring sunlight, kicking off the ground.

As carefree as children running through a field.

《Let’s rampage for the first time in a while! Like we did in the old days when we were young!》

As they had always done, to kill all the humans nearby.

The Gorgon Sisters Three began to run towards the walls of Crossroads.