I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 704

It was afternoon before I knew it.

In the late autumn weather that had turned as cold as winter, the sun was clear today. The people gathered like clouds, gladly basking in the sunlight, stood below the platform and looked up at me.

There were kings, soldiers, heroes, and citizens. I carefully examined their faces.

“The monster we faced this time, the Black Dragon…”

I hadn’t prepared a speech, but the words flowed naturally.

“It was an opponent we shouldn’t have been able to defeat.”

If we were to assess it coldly, honestly, and based on objective power.

“Originally, the world should have been destroyed by now.”

Night Bringer was an enemy that could have annihilated us and ended the world.

“But we are alive now, basking in the sunlight. We split the night, defeated the evil dragon, and are breathing here alive.”

I looked around at the crowd.

“Why do you think that is?”

Everyone remained silent, looking up at me, waiting for my next words.

I smiled and continued.

“Because all the warriors buried here, and all the warriors who returned alive from the battlefield… did not think they could not win.”

I emphasized once more.

“Because they believed, like fools, that they could win… that they could protect this world.”

I’m not trying to push a theory of willpower or grit. From the start, it wasn’t an opponent that could be defeated with just that.

So, in short, this is the foundation. The most difficult foundation to maintain.

The heart that does not give up.

The unwavering will to not let go of the courage to fight, even in the most desperate situations.

“If even one person among all those who fought in this battle had given up the fight and laid down their weapons sooner.”

I looked back at the graves that filled the western plains.

“If there had been one less attack to try and wound the evil dragon, one less defense to somehow block the breath, and one less act of courage to jump into the fray to protect an ally.”

I clenched my fist, took a breath, and then.

Looking at the crowd again, I continued.

“We would have been defeated. By now, the whole world would have been quietly meeting its end, covered in snow and darkness.”

My voice gained strength.

“One attack from the enemy that we barely managed to block, one tiny wound that we inflicted on the enemy.”

People gritted their teeth, clenched their fists, and squeezed their eyes shut.

“The sacrifices of all those who fell, and the determination of all of us who survived, piled up… all of that combined to protect the world.”

With conviction, once more.

“Every action we took had meaning.”

When I paused, silence filled the graveyard for a moment.

It might have been my imagination, but it felt as if the dead resting here were also listening to my words.

I lowered my eyes and slowly quoted a passage from a philosopher on Earth.

“The world is deep. The world’s sorrow is deep. But joy is deeper than that pain.”

Raising my eyes again to meet the gaze of the people, I smiled.

“The night is deep, and the darkness is deeper. But the human desire for sunlight is even deeper.”

Under the clear sunlight that we had finally regained.

I slowly nodded.

“Remember the heart with which you fought in this battle. Remember the courage you had to face an unbeatable enemy without giving up.”

Yearning for the sunlight, fighting in the darkness without it.

If each of your hearts continues to remain that way.

“With that courage, we will be able to overcome any future wars… and the lives that follow. We will be able to overcome anything.”

No matter what adversity comes, we will be able to live in the direction we desire.

Following that, I slowly turned my body and bowed respectfully towards all the graves in the west.

“To all of you who have overcome another great challenge, and to all the comrades buried here. Thank you.”

Turning back, looking at the crowd.

I spoke with sincerity.

“Truly, thank you.”

In front of the faces of people with various complex emotions, I took a breath and slowly prepared the dedicatory poem for this funeral.

In fact, what to recite had already been decided.

Don Quixote.

The most famous knight on Earth.

A great human whose ridiculous actions made him a laughingstock, but who ultimately became a legend through his beliefs.

I recited the lyrics made from that story.

Thinking that everyone buried under the graves here, and everyone standing in front of me listening to my speech, was just like that man from La Mancha.

To dream an impossible dream
To fight an unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To go where others dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach for the unreachable star

No matter how far, no matter how uncertain
Following that star is my journey
Without doubt or hesitation, fight for justice
I will go to hell for a noble cause
If I follow this path of glory truly
Even if I fall and die, my heart will be peaceful and calm
For a better world, even if torn and scarred
If I have a bit of courage, I will fight
Towards that unreachable star

***

After the funeral, there were a few more schedules I had to attend, but they were urgently canceled.

That was because a bigger matter had arisen that I, as the Crown Prince of the Empire, had to take care of.

“Your Highness! His Majesty the Emperor has regained consciousness!”

At the soldier’s report, I immediately rushed to the temple.

Inside the temple, high-ranking priests belonging to the Order, including High Priest Rosetta, were rushing out. I asked urgently.

“How is His Majesty?”

“His condition is stable.”

Rosetta nodded and cleared the way inside.

“Please, go in.”

“Thank you.”

I carefully passed the priests and stood in front of the innermost sickroom.

“Father, it is I.”

After knocking lightly, I asked, and the Emperor’s reply immediately came back.

“Come in.”

I opened the door and stepped inside, intending to lighten the mood with a joke, but I had to shut my mouth immediately.

The Emperor lying on the bed was in a terrible state.

His left arm and left leg were gone, and his right eye was also bandaged.

During the ‘Night Closing’ operation, he had directly controlled the flight of La Mancha, and even while other heroes were incapacitated, he had piloted the ship and endured the attacks of darkness.

In the process, he was unable to actively protect his body, and thus suffered such great injuries to his royal person.

“Don’t make such a face.”

The Emperor tried to get up but lost his balance, and I quickly approached and helped him sit up on the bed.

The Emperor, looking at his empty left arm and clicking his tongue, opened his mouth.

“If I can see the morning sun again, losing an arm and a leg is not such a high price.”

“…”

“Ah, I should add one eye too.”

The Emperor seemed to be joking, but I couldn’t laugh.

When I remained silent, unable to say anything, the Emperor clicked his tongue and gestured to me with his right hand.

“A king must speak of the future, not the past that has already been lost. Put aside my irreversible injuries and tell me about the situation at the front.”

“…Yes, Father.”

I told the Emperor everything, one by one, about how the battle with the Black Dragon ended and how the front lines had been managed over the past week.

The Emperor, who had listened to all the reports with his mouth tightly shut, sighed quietly.

“So. Now you are the successor to the Dusk Bringer Grand Duke… Dawn Bringer, the successor of the Bringer Duchy.”

“That is correct.”

“At the same time, you are the Crown Prince of the Empire, and my only son by blood.”

The Emperor’s wrinkled lips curled up into a smile.

“The land of the Bringer Duchy, which has been separated from the Empire for so long, will finally return to the Empire.”

I blinked silently.

“Are you planning to… merge the Bringer Duchy into the Empire?”

“Of course, shouldn’t I? From the beginning, the Bringer Duchy was just a western fortress of the Everblack Empire.”

The Emperor calmly explained the history of hundreds of years ago.

“It was a place similar to this Crossroad. A fortress built to withstand attacks from neighboring countries. The progenitor Grand Duke Bringer, who became the guardian dragon of the Empire, was appointed as the lord of that place… and around that fortress, villages were formed, and cities were formed, eventually becoming what it is today.”

From the start, the progenitor dragon Dusk Bringer had no desire for human territory, so although he received the title of Grand Duke, he did not receive rights to the land.

He was appointed as the administrative head to manage and supervise the military facilities and the surrounding area in the west, and since then, it was only by custom that the descendants of the Bringer Grand Duke had ruled that land.

In the end, and in reality, it was accepted by the world as a duchy ruled by a duke. Legally, it was entirely the territory of the Empire, according to the Emperor’s explanation.

And now that I have inherited the blood of the Grand Duke, the Emperor has gained the justification to absorb and merge the Bringer Duchy into the Empire.

“…”

Looking at me in silence, the Emperor burst into a hearty laugh.

“It seems you don’t want that, though.”

The Emperor picked up a cane placed next to the bed and stood up, staggering.

“I will support you.”

“It’s alright. I need to adapt.”

The Emperor refused my support and, with a limp, moved to the window on his own.

The Emperor, who had been quietly looking down at the brightly lit Crossroad in the afternoon for a while, asked abruptly.

“Have you found the answer to the trial I gave you?”

“…”

The trial the Emperor had given me.

It was… the question of how far I would embrace the darkness of this world.

– My son. You once said that you would kill monsters and save people. And I asked you, what is the definition of the people you want to protect?

– And you answered that question by creating the World Protection Front. All beings who try to communicate and understand each other are the people you want to save.

– Then I will ask you once more. Even if that being who tries to communicate and understand has an indelible evil, will you still embrace them? Will you still protect even such an opponent?

I had decided to protect people.

And people are beings who try to communicate and understand.

From here, the Emperor went a step further, reminding me that those I wanted to protect would never be completely good.

Petty, narrow-minded, insignificant, and evil—that the ‘people’ I wanted to protect were beings close to darkness.

“Now that you have become the Bringer Grand Duke, you must look back at the shameful and brutal history of the Bringer Duchy.”

The Emperor continued relentlessly to me, who was still silent.

“Having directly inherited the Grand Duke’s flame, you must have also glimpsed it. That the history of the Bringer Duchy, and the life of the Grand Duke, were not beautiful. That the history of the flame is also a history of ash and soot.”

“…”

“Also, since you will become the Emperor of the Everblack Empire in the future, you will inevitably inherit the blood-stained legacy of the Everblack Empire.”

The Emperor turned towards me, his back to the window.

As before, with the backlight behind him… the Emperor was smiling.

“I guarantee it. The darkness of this country is deeper and thicker than you can imagine. And you must inherit this darkness.”

“…”

“Now, answer me. New Bringer. The next Everblack to follow me.”

Now that he had lost his divinity, and even an arm, a leg, and an eye, the Emperor still pressured me with a boiling charisma.

“What will you do with the darkness of this world? Do you still have the arrogance and recklessness to embrace all of this?”

“…”

“Or, as I suggested earlier, have you leaned towards cutting it off, selecting and choosing only what is easy to swallow…?”

“…”

“Come, answer me quickly, Crown Prince! What is your answer to the trial I gave you!”

I, who had been listening quietly, chuckled without realizing it.

In fact, my answer had already been decided.

But the only reason I was hesitating to answer now was that I wanted to give him the answer after the Emperor had fully recovered, if possible.

Because…

“…Father, are you really alright?”

The answer I was about to give would completely turn the Emperor’s insides upside down.

I stared intently at the Emperor and smiled. Perhaps startled by my inexplicable momentum, the Emperor flinched.

“The answer that this rascal son, whom you placed in the position of Crown Prince, will give, the view of the Emperor that I have chosen…”

With my eyes narrowed, I whispered softly.

“May completely destroy this Everblack Empire.”