I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 657

Dusk Bringer, who had been staring blankly at me, suddenly shot up.

‘Ash! Are you hurt anywhere?!’

‘No, it’s you who’s hurt, Your Grace! Your injuries are severe, so please lie down more.’

‘What? What are you… Ugh!’

Dusk Bringer, who had tried to raise her small body, groaned and fell back onto the bed. Only then did she notice the bandages wrapped all over her body.

‘Huh. So this is… what is this…?’

‘Looks like you’ve lost your memory too. Don’t you remember taking that breath for me?’

‘Ah…’

Dusk Bringer let out a weak voice, as if recalling the final moments of the battle with the Black Dragon’s eye, Ipian.

‘That’s right, I did… You were about to do something dangerous again, so without thinking…’

‘I at least had some minimal protection when I did that.’

I was inwardly taken aback, but I still spoke sternly.

‘You even put your armor on me and took the breath with your bare body, Your Grace. If you were going to do that, you should have worn the armor.’

‘…Your safety was the priority.’

Dusk Bringer mumbled, still half-asleep.

‘The life of the commander of this front line was in danger, how could I be stingy with my armor?’

‘…’

I pursed my lips.

In the end, my recklessness in not taking care of myself is hurting my heroes.

If I don’t fix this, more heroes will die trying to protect me.

‘But what can I do when the difficulty is screwing me over…’

With a sigh, I scratched my head and explained the situation after that.

‘Fortunately, right after that, Muyeong cut off Ipian’s head, so the breath stopped right there. If you had been exposed for a few more seconds, you could have been much more severely injured.’

‘I see, as expected of Muyeong… Hehe.’

That ‘sister’ talk again… How did the seniority system on this front line get so twisted?

Anyway, to continue the explanation of the situation at the time… Muyeong dropped Ipian’s head, and the battle ended.

However, the desperate breath that Ipian had spewed out in those final few seconds burned Dusk Bringer’s body. Even though she had deployed a barrier with the power of the berserk dragon, it melted instantly, and even the heroes standing behind her suffered minor burns.

After that, we returned to Crossroads. We spent a few days recovering from our injuries, reorganizing our equipment, and waiting for Dusk Bringer to regain consciousness.

Finally, Dusk Bringer opened her eyes today. I was honestly terrified that she might never wake up, so I’m glad she did.

I picked up an apple from the basket at her bedside and peeled it myself. My skills weren’t great, so it wasn’t peeled very prettily, but I still had to feed this dragon girl something.

‘It’s strange, but the elders on this front line keep throwing their lives away so dramatically. Who do you think you are, trying to retire all the time? I do not permit it!’

‘…Well, as long as no one was seriously injured, that’s good.’

‘No, you were seriously injured, you were…’

When I handed her the peeled apple, Dusk Bringer ate it without complaint.

‘So, what day is it today? And what time is it now? It looks dark, so I guess it’s night…’

‘…’

I stopped peeling the apple.

And I met Dusk Bringer’s gaze. Dusk Bringer blinked her amber eyes, not knowing what was going on.

‘Haa…’

I didn’t really want to tell a patient all this, but I had to tell her the truth.

‘It’s noon right now, Your Grace.’

‘…What?’

Dusk Bringer gestured towards the window in confusion.

‘What are you talking about, it’s so dark… Ah, is this another joke? These days, the jokes of young people are so difficult to understand…’

‘It’s not a joke, Your Grace.’

Sighing, I got up from my seat and pulled back the curtain on the window.

‘…!’

Dusk Bringer’s eyes widened, and she shot up from the bed.

I looked up at the sky with her.

‘It’s been getting darker for the past few days… and today, even the brightest time of day is like this.’

‘…’

‘Day has disappeared from this world.’

The sky outside the window was pitch black.

In the center of the oppressive black sky, as if covered by an artificial curtain… the sun was flickering far and faintly, like a full moon.

I spoke once more to Dusk Bringer, who was clenching her fist.

‘Night is coming, Your Grace.’

Night-Bringer… true to his name, had finished preparing to descend.

And he had cast a veil of night over this world.

Dusk Bringer, her face pale, turned sharply to me, her sharp teeth clenched. And just as she was about to say something-

‘Your Grace?!’

‘You’re awake, Your Grace-!’

Her four personal dragon knights rushed into the sickroom in a flurry.

Originally, they had been nursing Dusk Bringer day and night, and I had taken over for a while so they could get some sleep, but it just so happened that Dusk Bringer woke up at this time.

The dragon knights, their eyes red, clung to the Grand Duke like children. Dusk Bringer was flustered but soothed the dragon knights, and was scolded by them for recklessly throwing herself around and getting hurt.

‘…’

I watched them from a distance, then slowly backed out of the sickroom. I didn’t want to disturb the time they were spending together as lord and vassals.

‘There’s no need to tell them the exact time left, not right now anyway.’

When I came out of the sickroom, the long corridor of the temple stretched out before me.

Standing in that corridor, where lights such as candles and torches were densely lit even though it was midday, I looked up at the dark sky again.

‘…’

Faced with the ‘night’ that had really come so close, I clenched my teeth without realizing it.

The final battle is just around the corner.

Stage 40. Until the Night-Bringer invasion.

In the next, just 7 days-

***

Whistleeeee-

The cold wind howls in my ears.

Even though it’s still autumn, the temperature has dropped sharply as a veil of darkness has been cast over the sky and the sunlight has weakened. It feels like it’s about to snow soon.

‘Not only night, but winter is coming early too.’

Why did the final season of the three-year campaign have to be brought so close?

‘That bastard is causing a lot of trouble even before he appears.’

The lord’s mansion. The study.

Back in my study, I grumbled and threw a few more logs into the fireplace. I nervously pushed the fire poker in and rummaged through the fireplace, continuing to grumble.

‘A guy who can’t be satisfied unless he advertises his arrival all over the place… a guy who enjoys seeing people panic and suffer because of him… like a division commander visiting a military unit on a holiday…’

…Huh? Wait, is this about me?

I suddenly reflected on my own behavior of barging into the heroes’ dorms whenever I was bored. No, but it’s fun to play with my subordinates! You guys too, right? Huh?

‘This ‘veil of darkness’ came from the Black Lake and is gradually covering the sky in the area.’

And to play with the division commander on a holiday, the main party members were gathered in this study.

Among them, Junior reported to me with a serious face.

‘At first, it was just over the lake, but it has gradually expanded, and now it has swallowed even Crossroads. If this continues, it is expected to cover the entire southern region within a few days… and eventually the entire world.’

‘That’s a crazy scale…’

Stop with the power show, you evil dragon bastard! You’re breaking the world’s balance all by yourself!

‘…By the way, I’m curious, how do people in the world perceive celestial bodies like the sun and moon?’

‘Huh?’

‘You know, like geocentrism, the flat earth theory, that kind of thing…’

I was curious about what people in this world thought about this phenomenon of the sky turning dark. What is the astronomy of this world like?

Then Junior looked at me as if I was talking nonsense.

‘Of course, heliocentrism is the accepted theory. The earth is not flat, but spherical…’

‘What! Why do you know so much!’

‘I became a heliocentric genius who fell into a geocentric world’… I was having a fantasy of being transported to another world! I wanted to present a new astronomy and hear reactions like ‘Woah, Prince Ash is amazing!’

This place was accepting heliocentrism as a matter of course. I was getting ahead of myself. Sigh.

‘Well, the earth still revolves…’

‘Yes?’

‘No, it’s just my usual nonsense… By the way, is it even possible to cover the sky this much with magic?’

I tried to show off the knowledge of earth science that I learned in high school but had mostly forgotten, but Junior answered calmly again.

‘The opponent is a mythical evil dragon who controls the ‘night’. There’s nothing he can’t do.’

‘…Ah, I see. There’s nothing he can’t do.’

This fantasy world! It seems like common sense is the same as Earth, but then it’s not!

‘Sigh…’

I ran my fingers over my brow.

Whether it’s scientific or magical, it’s not the time to deny reality. There’s something actually happening in front of my eyes.

Anyway, the sky is covered in darkness, the temperature is dropping, and an early winter is coming.

It’s just over Crossroads right now, but if Night-Bringer appears in a week… the day might really disappear from the entire world.

If we fail to defeat Night-Bringer, that night will last forever.

The world will freeze, and drown in an endless darkness.

‘…The soldiers are getting anxious, my lord.’

Lukas, who had been watching me, carefully opened his mouth. Then, Evangeline followed.

‘Not to mention the citizens. The whole city is in chaos.’

‘I see. The soldiers, the citizens…’

The next moment, we all looked at the last member of the main party as if by agreement.

Click, clack, clunk…

Damian was quietly cleaning and checking his magic rifle.

His expression was calm, and his hands were steady, but the problem was that I had never seen Damian do this even in the study.

He’s anxious. Even the heroes who fight monsters at the front lines.

‘It would be stranger if they weren’t anxious.’

If you wake up in the morning and the world is still dark, what could be more terrifying than that?

Until now, the word ‘destruction’ had been hovering around us as an invisible atmosphere, a hazy air. We were anxious, but our perception was dull.

But now that the day has been deleted, destruction has become a clear reality hanging over our heads.

No one can help but be afraid.

The end of the world is really just around the corner.

‘Distribute the winter clothes we prepared for winter, and also supply the stockpiled firewood. Start distributing supplies to the citizens as well.’

So I gave practical instructions.

To keep the hearts of the people who were floating in anxiety on the ground.

‘As instructed in advance, we will do what we can, as we have been doing.’

The magic core of Ipian that we recovered this time, as well as all the stockpiled high-grade magic cores and materials, were all put into equipment production.

People worked day and night, and the construction of the southern wall was finally nearing completion. Everyone was working their hardest for the final battle against the Black Dragon Legion.

From Plan A for defeating the Black Dragon to Plan F as a backup plan in case of failure, all were prepared in Crossroads. Military strategists from various countries around the world put their heads together and came up with ideas.

Under the direction of my father, Emperor Traha, Crossroads was also finishing preparations for the final battle.

‘Of course, if Plan A… direct subjugation fails, then all subsequent measures are just desperate struggles…’

But it’s better than not trying. That struggle might work.

‘As I’ve said many times, the heroes who will directly participate in the subjugation of the Black Dragon… rest a little more.’

I looked around at the main party members and smiled gently.

I had briefly briefed them on the tactics for fighting the Black Dragon in advance. I will give more detailed tactical instructions again soon, but…

Still, I wanted to give the heroes a full rest.

To fully recover from the injuries they sustained in the last battle, and to squeeze out and unleash all their remaining strength in the final battle with the Black Dragon.

And, also…

Perhaps this is the last peaceful time we can spend.

‘Until I summon you, take your own rest. You can immerse yourself in contemplation, spend time with loved ones, or just do nothing and sleep.’

I smiled.

‘Let’s spend this long night in our own ways.’

As soon as I finished speaking, the four of them looked at each other…

‘My lord, then I’ll take a nap here… I’m tired from staying up all night.’

‘Ah! Me too, me too! I want to sleep too! Move over, mister. Let me use your lap as a pillow!’

‘Then Your Highness, I’ll just finish the notes I was working on.’

‘This room is warm and it’s easy to breathe… I’ll stay here a little longer too, Your Highness.’

And so, all four of them naturally took their places on the sofa in my study and lay down. Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?

I dragged my chair from behind the desk and placed it between the children’s sofas, and sat down on it as if lying down.

After that, there was no more conversation.

We just stayed still, listening to each other’s breathing… spending a quiet time in front of the burning fireplace.

Looking at the flickering small fire, I wished.

May this long night before the final battle be peaceful for everyone.