I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 599

Temple. Intensive Care Unit.

Nobody and Chain, who came to visit, clicked their tongues at Candler, who was lying on the ICU bed with a blank face.

“She really messed up her head.”

“She really can’t walk properly now.”

“That’s what happens when you lie~ I told you everything would come back.”

“Still, it’s a miracle she’s alive. Tsk tsk.”

Candler had survived.

How she managed to survive that massive explosion, right in the center of the southern plains, was a mystery.

Whether the golem had sacrificed itself to protect her at the last moment, or some miracle had worked…

But as a price for being caught in the explosion, Candler suffered terrible injuries.

Her whole body was burned, and she suffered a severe head injury. Both of her legs were burned, leaving her unable to walk properly.

Now, she was lying on the ICU bed, just breathing in and out, staring blankly into space.

“……”

“……”

Similarly wrapped in bandages, Nobody and Chain stared at Candler’s room for a long time.

“Get well soon. Then we can play poker together in this boring room.”

“Yeah. It’s boring with just us two old guys.”

“Call us when you come to your senses! Shout out loud! Got it?”

After throwing out those silly words, the two mercenaries slowly walked away from the ICU.

The faces of the blind swordsman and the black mage walking down the hallway were stiff.

***

Next to that ICU room.

Gulp, gulp!

Kellybay was gulping down liquor straight from the bottle.

His condition was also very bad, with bruises and burns all over his body. Damian pleaded with Kellybay, who was continuously drinking.

“Father-in-law Kellybay. You’re in this condition, please don’t drink… At least after you’ve finished treatment…”

“…Can I even be sober right now?”

Kellybay, who had placed the empty bottle carelessly on the bed, mumbled in a slurred voice.

“My son went off to die on Jeronimo, and do you know what I did while watching that?”

“……”

“I got on a lifeboat. To live. My son went to die, but I wanted to live.”

Kellybay wildly swung his short arms.

“The lifeboat, caught in the explosion, was thrown around and fell off a cliff, and do you know what I was thinking then?”

“……”

“I was scared. I was scared of dying. Then the parachute popped open, and the lifeboat slowly landed at the bottom of the cliff… Do you know what I did?”

Damian closed his eyes tightly. Kellybay repeated the words he had said several times.

“I sighed in relief…! I was alive, I was relieved without even realizing it! I was relieved that I escaped the explosion that killed my son!”

“…Father-in-law.”

“What kind of father am I… What kind of father am I…”

Kellybay fumbled for an empty bottle with his bloodshot eyes.

“I’m a selfish, old, stubborn dwarf who only knows about his own life. Why was I saved and my son died?”

“……”

“How can someone like me become the next king!”

Kellybay threw the empty bottle at the other dwarves who were peeking outside the ICU.

Clang-! Glass shards scattered with the sound. The dwarves screamed and backed away.

“Get out! All of you get out! Get out before I smash your heads!”

The dwarves retreated in a hurry at Kellybay’s threat.

After quietly watching Kellybay, who was breathing roughly, Damian also slowly stepped out of the room.

“Rest, Father-in-law. Don’t think about anything…”

“……”

Finally, in the empty room, Kellybay’s trembling hand, which had been tracing the empty bottle, covered his face.

“What… What can I do for you, my son… It’s already too late…”

***

The next day.

West of Crossroads. Cemetery.

In front of the funeral that had come again, the area was crowded. This was because the number of people who had died this time was too great.

“……”

I pressed my lips together as I watched the scene.

Many people had died and were injured. More than 50 heroes had died, and the number of injured heroes reached 200.

The casualties among the regular soldiers were well over 1,000.

For the past three days, I had been leading the restoration work during the day and visiting them one by one at night to comfort them all.

However… if all that sadness could be alleviated by a mere commander’s consolation, what sadness would remain in the world?

The city was still in mourning.

Flags were draped over each coffin, holy water was sprinkled, and the choir sang…

I was staring blankly at the chaotic scene of the funeral when someone approached me.

“Your Highness Prince Ash.”

When I turned around, it was Macmillan, the commander of the airship fleet, who was approaching me, limping on crutches.

I nodded.

“Commander Macmillan. How are you doing?”

“My personal injuries will heal with time. But the wounds I suffered as the admiral of the fleet will probably never heal.”

The airship fleet was virtually annihilated.

Most of the airships mobilized for this battle were decommissioned.

The flagship Alcatraz, which symbolized the empire, also performed a splendid last dance, but ultimately could not avoid being decommissioned.

“The enemy was an extraordinary monster… but this damage is too great. I will report to the imperial family, and I will also receive appropriate punishment.”

“Punishment…”

“The Alcatraz is an airship that symbolizes the Imperial Family. I must be punished for decommissioning such an airship…”

Immediately after, Macmillan put a pipe in his mouth with a bitter expression.

“Well, I’m not in a position to say that in front of Jeronimo.”

“……”

Jeronimo was completely destroyed. No trace of it could be found.

It was at the center of the explosion, so it had all melted away.

“What are you going to do now?”

Macmillan, who had been smoking silently next to me for a while, asked. I straightened my collar and answered.

“What do you mean, what am I going to do? I’ll do what I’ve been doing.”

“What you’ve been doing… You mean you’ll keep fighting the monsters?”

“……”

“All the defensive facilities from the forward base to the southern wall have been lost, and the airship fleet has been annihilated. The casualties are in the thousands. And those are all the casualties suffered by the elite of the front lines.”

I listened quietly. Macmillan continued.

“I heard that the black dragon, the next monster to attack, gave us a grace period. It’ll probably be only a month or two. Can we recover from this damage by then?”

“…What are you trying to say, Commander Macmillan? Are you suggesting that we abandon Crossroads and retreat from the front lines?”

“If necessary, wouldn’t it be better to do that? If we retreat to the central part of the continent, there are several imperial fortresses. Or we could even withdraw the army to New Terra for a perfect response…”

“……”

His points were valid.

However….

“Crossroads is the final defense line, Commander Macmillan. If we retreat from the defense line here, we don’t know where the monster’s path will lead. At the very least, the southern part of the continent will be devastated, and if it’s a cunning one like the black dragon, it might end all the worlds we don’t protect.”

“……”

“This fortress city is the entrance to the human world. We have to die here.”

Cutting off Macmillan, who was about to offer more opinions, I suddenly asked.

“Commander Macmillan. If the world were to end tomorrow, what would you do today?”

Macmillan, who was flustered by the sudden question, scratched his chin and replied.

“…Well, I guess I’d lie in bed all day, reading my favorite books and smoking.”

“I see.”

Macmillan asked me as I nodded.

“What would Your Highness do? If the world were to end tomorrow.”

“I’d charge in.”

“Yes?”

“I’d charge into the end of the world.”

I stared silently at the south.

“And I’ll take that end of the world by the throat and protect the world.”

“……”

“That’s my plan this time.”

“Yes?”

“You’ll see, so don’t worry too much right now.”

The ceremony was progressing quickly. It was my turn to speak.

“Thank you for your efforts in this battle. Let’s talk again later.”

After nodding to Macmillan, I went down to the platform.

Macmillan tilted his head and followed me.

***

As I stepped onto the platform, people’s gazes were fixed on me. There weren’t many people who were physically well, and even fewer who were mentally well. Everyone’s faces were full of sadness and wounds.

Some faces even had a chilling anger.

On the faces of my heroes who had lost loved ones, hatred and resentment were surging.

“……”

That was also each person’s way of suppressing their grief.

I took a breath and slowly opened my mouth.

“Today, I will stop talking about the things I have said many times before. Instead, today I want to talk about a miracle.”

I said, scanning the crowd.

“It’s the story of a mercenary named Candler.”

The soldiers’ gazes focused on me. I continued.

“This golemancer was terrified of the monsters when she first participated in battle. After that, she exaggerated her injuries and retired.”

I smiled slightly.

“I don’t want to criticize this.”

Everyone wants to run away from an incomprehensible enemy.

Those who can fight despite such fear remain soldiers, and those who eventually reach their limits retire.

This is not a matter of better or worse. It is also not a matter of right or wrong.

It’s just something that happens. It’s just something that all of us, struggling in this crazy world, experience.

“But. After this, Candler joined the front lines again. And she sacrificed her life to protect the city.”

If she hadn’t summoned the golem and carried the corpse of the Lord of Flies.

The city would have been more devastated than it is now. Maybe we would all be dead.

But what I want to talk about is not the results she achieved.

It’s her heart.

“For someone who had reached their limit and ran away to come back to fight again. That is not just something that happens. It’s not something that happens everywhere.”

I shook my head.

“This is impossible.”

Once more, with emphasis.

“This is a miracle.”

People were watching me intently. I continued.

“The miracle is not that she summoned a golem and lifted the monster’s corpse. It is the heart of this ordinary human being who risked her life and decided to fight again… That is the miracle.”

I slowly lowered my head.

“In this battle, there were countless noble sacrifices.”

Burnout.

Kellyson.

Skuld.

The Insect Busters. And in countless places where my gaze could not reach, countless people…

They sacrificed their lives for the world.

“What made them fight by throwing away their lives?”

I raised my head again and looked around at the people.

“We are ordinary humans. Compared to those giant monsters, we are truly small and insignificant beings. It’s natural to want to run away. That’s instinct. But what is it that allows us to stand here and fight to the end?”

I clenched my fist.

“The human heart that fights against those monsters that are so big and so terrifying. I want to call this human heart, which is more incomprehensible than any incomprehensible monster, a miracle.”

“……”

“All of us who stood here and fought are writing a miracle every day, fighting and overcoming the impossible. We are living in a miracle.”

I raised my voice.

“My people.”

Everyone straightened their posture and looked at me. I continued.

“I want you to remember this miracle that you have created. I want you to be proud of this miracle. I don’t want you to think of this miracle as something ordinary. I want you to be aware of how great a thing you are doing.”

I looked at the ruined south of the city.

“The situation is not good. We are now standing on ruins. But these ruins are the ruins that were protected by the miracle of all of us who participated in this battle.”

After giving a faint smile to the people,

“Let’s start again on these ruins, believing that there is something here that those monsters can never destroy, that there is something here that those who have fallen before us wanted to protect.”

I slowly looked at the newly built cemetery.

The faces of the people who had fallen flashed through my mind in turn.

“……”

After taking a breath and calming my mind.

I recited the poem I had prepared, honoring the dead.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate

***

At the same time.

Lake Kingdom.

Deepest darkness of the 10th District, the source of darkness located in its core – the Royal Castle.

《…….》

Night Bringer sat on the throne in the audience chamber, his eyes tightly closed, still as a statue.

Long silence flowed in this place where darkness had fallen, and there was no movement in the audience chamber as if the world had stopped.

How long had it been?

The black dragon slowly opened his eyes. In the darkness that had fallen, his golden eyes opened as if light was rising.

Suddenly, a low voice flowed from between the black dragon’s open lips.

It was an old verse that the demon king, who was originally the owner of this place, often recited.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor PLAYER

That struts and frets his hour upon the STAGE

And then is heard no more. It is a TALE

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

***

Signifying NOTHING.