I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 727

“Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow, Aither?”When was it?Aither, exhausted from playing the fake prince, was slumped on the sofa when Ariel, sitting across from him with refreshments, asked this.Aither’s eyes widened as he asked,”A picnic?””Yes. There’s a hill in the outskirts where my brother and I used to play often when we were young. There’s a large zelkova tree, and flowers bloom in the summer…”Ariel smiled awkwardly.”You’ve been working so hard for me and the royal family. There are no schedules tomorrow… well, you can refuse if you don’t want to or if you’re tired.””No, no! I don’t dislike it at all!”Aither waved his hands frantically and smiled sheepishly.”Thank you for the invitation, Princess. I’ll… I’ll be looking forward to it!”However, the two of them couldn’t go on a picnic to the outskirts the next day.It suddenly rained.So, instead of going on a picnic, they sat side by side in the pavilion of the royal palace courtyard…And watched the rain together.Why is the memory of such an ordinary day, without anything special,So deeply etched in my heart?***”Haa! Cough, cough, cough!”The moment the Lake Kingdom sank. By the lake.Aither was afflicted by the first curse—the curse of eternal life.However, due to the princess’s banishment order, he was ejected from the Lake Kingdom without receiving the second and third curses placed upon it.And from the lakeside, he had to watch the entire Lake Kingdom sink, and in the process, witness that no one but himself could escape.”…”Faced with the destruction of a world, Aither, a mere human, was overwhelmed.The vast kingdom disappeared like bubbles beneath the lake. Aither could do nothing but stare blankly at this sight.After the entire kingdom had sunk without a trace, and the tremors and noises that had shaken the heavens and earth had all ceased.A thought belatedly occurred to Aither.’What should I do now?’Thinking about it carefully, he didn’t need to do anything for the Lake Kingdom.He was just a slave used by the Lake Kingdom, not even a citizen. He had spent his entire life doing dirty and menial work, and was dragged in to act as a substitute just because he resembled the prince.He had no family, no friends. No ties, no connections.He could just shake it all off and leave.Just as he thought that.Clink.Something in Aither’s pocket made a sound. Aither, puzzled, reached into his pocket and pulled it out.It was a wooden identification tag made of black wood.’This is…?’It was Princess Ariel’s identification tag.Her name and identity were engraved on it, and befitting a royal’s tag, it was luxuriously made… from a piece of Everblack [a rare, dark wood].’When did she…’It seemed that Ariel had given it to Aither at the moment she issued the banishment order.Why was that?Why did the princess pull him out of the Lake Kingdom at that moment, and why at that moment… did she give him the most precious thing she possessed?- Aither.The image of Ariel smiling brightly suddenly flashed before his eyes.The person who gave him a name.And the first person… to treat him as a ‘person’.- Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow?”…”He knew.That the warmth was not entirely directed at him.That the princess was merely projecting the image of her beloved older brother from her childhood onto him.Royalty and slave, citizen and non-citizen…There was a distance between her and him that was greater than the distance between heaven and earth.But, even so.’I want to save her.’Even if the whole world is destroyed, only you.’Only you, I want to save…’After carefully tucking the tag given by the princess into his chest.Aither staggered to his feet.”I don’t know what I have to do…”With determination etched on his frail face,”I’ll do anything, Princess.”Aither quietly looked down at the surface of the lake, which was gradually turning black and murky.”So… please wait just a little longer.”And so.To save the destroyed kingdom, the fake prince began his long journey.***”…And after that, well, it’s just a repetition of boring stories.”Aither finished his story and looked at me.”At first, I just blindly grabbed a sword and fought. I thought that if I killed all three sages who cast the curse… the Demon King and his companions, the situation would be resolved.””So, did you succeed in killing them?”I, who had been listening to the story while munching on popcorn (which was a bit rude, but the story was going to be long), asked in surprise.Aither nodded.”Yes. I defeated two of them. The two who had established their bases at opposite ends of the continent, after a really long and terrible fight… I was able to repel them. Both were beings from a higher dimension, so it was very difficult to defeat them.””Wow.”To be honest, Aither, this guy, looks frail and pale, and even as a joke, he doesn’t seem like the type to fight on the front lines. But he must have been quite something back then?”If you have eternal life and an unyielding will, anyone can do this much.””No, usually people’s wills break…”Don’t talk so easily like you’re explaining a recipe for a college student.”In the Lake Kingdom, did you see that only the left and right of the three statues were broken? Those statues were erected after the Demon King occupied it, and since I defeated the other two sages…””So the left and right statues were broken. That’s what it was.”Aither let out a soft sigh.”That’s how I lifted the second and third curses. But there were hardly any people left who could come out of the Lake Kingdom, and since the Lake Kingdom had already sunk into the water, there was no strength left to lift it back up.””…””Besides, I couldn’t defeat the most important Demon King.”So, if you think about it.Is this Aither’s ‘first playthrough’?”Time just passed meaninglessly, and eventually, monsters poured out of the Lake Kingdom, saturated with evil, and after the world was destroyed…”Even though it must be a heartbreaking story for him.Aither calmly explained the past.”When all life had disappeared and I became the last human on earth, I received two offers at the same time.””Two?””First, the Goddess. She offered me the position of a race god.”I remembered what Aither had told me a long time ago.That when you become the last survivor of a race, you can ascend to the position of a race god.Aither was an immortal being with eternal life, so he reached the end and became a race god.”And then, the Demon King offered a deal.”Aither smiled bitterly.”Since we both failed to save the people we wanted to save, he suggested we play this destruction game ‘one more time’.””…””As the representative of the entire destroyed world, I agreed. And the world was ‘reset’ to the moment after the Lake Kingdom sank.”Since the Demon King’s two companions were beings of the same high dimension, they remained defeated even after the regression.In other words, from the second playthrough, all he had to do was defeat the Demon King.But…”I didn’t succeed.”Aither waved his hands with his usual nonchalant attitude.”I really tried everything, but I couldn’t defeat the Demon King or save the Lake Kingdom. I just kept repeating hundreds of years of futile battles.””…””Then, my soul reached its limit, and feeling the limitations of fighting directly, I started looking for a proxy player…”Aither winked at me.”And after that, well, it’s as you know.””Indeed…””Because I had a piece of Everblack, I revived the nation that could stop the monster invasion—the Everblack Empire… and then I discovered you, who had the aptitude for regression, and after fighting countless battles shoulder to shoulder, we’re here.”Aither smiled brightly and picked up his cold teacup.”It was a long story.”It was a long story.But Aither’s actual battles were a hundred million times longer than this story.Aither, who had glossed over and glossed over much pain, loneliness, and anguish, stared intently at me.”Actually, what’s the point of the long tales of failure? Now, all that matters is that our last battle, that one time, is a success.””…You’re right, Aither.”I grinned.”No matter how many times we get beaten, if we win with a final, awesome throw, that’s all that matters, right?”What does it matter if you lose 9999 times? The one who wins the last time lives with the feeling of winning for life!”Hehe. You’re absolutely right.”We looked at each other for a moment and chuckled.I patted Aither on the shoulder.”By the way, after keeping your mouth shut for so long, it turns out it was a love story after all. You sentimental fool.”Aither scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.”To be precise, it’s unrequited love.””Oh, you’re admitting it, that it’s a crush. I was getting ready to tease you in case you tried to deny it.””If it were back when I was younger, I wouldn’t have admitted it. I would have denied having such feelings, saying how could a slave dare to love a princess.”Aither lowered his aged eyes behind his glasses.”But I’m old, Lord. I’m older than anyone else in this world.””…””I know very well now that the childish feelings I had back then were a crush.””Those feelings back then?”I asked carefully.”Then what about now?””…I wonder.”Aither fiddled with the empty teacup for no reason.”I’m curious too. The first feeling I had when I decided to save her was definitely love. But now…”He hesitated for a moment, trying to form words, but then gave up and laughed weakly, as if he had lost his strength.”What is it, my feelings? Why have I been trying to save that person for so long?””…””Well, the reason doesn’t matter anymore. I just want to see it. The real ending we’ll reach.”A moment of silence passed.Thud.Aither put down the teacup, clasped his hands, and took a breath.”Now, we’ve talked enough about the old days… shall we talk about the future?”He changed the subject.The main topic we should be discussing in this place.”The path to the Lake Kingdom, which was blocked, is now open.””Yeah. So I was about to send out a free exploration team.”The next stage is 45.It’s a boss stage. We need to scout out who the opponent is.”Let me tell you first.”But Aither said something else.”Now, if you enter the Lake Kingdom dungeon, you can encounter the final boss in the deepest part.””…?!””It was the same in the ‘game’, right? You could meet her from this point.”I swallowed hard.”The final boss is…”‘The Sleepless Lake Princess’.”Aither nodded.”Yes. It’s Mu-myeong [meaning ‘nameless’ in Korean].””…!””What do you think was the reason why entry to the Lake Kingdom was blocked all this time?”Aither recited the cruel truth calmly.”It was her monsterification process. The entire Lake Kingdom was covered in darkness. And the transformation is already complete.”The person he had a crush on.The person he had been trying to save through countless battles.In this final playthrough, she had already lost her humanity and become a monster. He spoke so calmly about it.”Bearing the nightmares of everyone in the Lake Kingdom, becoming the embodiment of those nightmares, she has now become a being more powerful than any monster in this world.””…””And when stage 50 starts, she will leave the Lake Kingdom and head to the human world.”Aither was now staring straight at me with cold eyes.”In the ‘game’, you had to kill her before that to stop the monster invasion and win.””…!””In other words.”With a voice as cold as his gaze.Aither spoke the victory conditions from the game.”To ‘win’, you must kill Mu-myeong, who has transformed into a monster, from now until the start of stage 50.””…””Of course.”Immediately after, Aither smiled brightly.”This is not the ending I desire. And it’s probably not the method you had in mind either, Lord.”That’s right.I had my own way of saving Mu-myeong, and a strategy to turn this whole game upside down.And Aither said he was going to leave this place to prepare for ‘something’ from now on.”The final move I’m going to prepare from now on, and the strategy you have in mind, Lord.”Aither, who smiled slyly like a villain, winked.”How about we combine these… and do something spectacular?””…””A final ‘destruction game’ that will surprise the entire universe, the most spectacular one…”Ah…If you say it like that, who in the world could refuse!I chuckled and reached out my hand.”Alright! Let’s do it, accomplice!”Aither also took my hand.We shook hands firmly and laughed wickedly.”The best finale to end our tiresome joint front…!