I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 787

《……》

A long silence hung in the air.

After a moment, the Demon King, his posture stiff, responded with a sullen expression.

《Save me? You?》

His voice was laced with utter bewilderment.

《What ridiculous nonsense is that?》

“……”

I took another deep breath.

“Don’t misunderstand, Demon King. You deserve to be punished.”

《……》

“Your wicked game has caused irreversible damage to my world. It has inflicted wounds that may never heal. You must pay the price for your evil deeds.”

To him, who looked even more perplexed, I enunciated each word clearly.

“However—on the path I intend to take, your salvation happens to align. The path I take to save my world and the salvation you seek are on the same trajectory.”

《……》

“So, I will save you, Demon King.”

I slowly raised my hand and clenched it into a fist.

“If you prove your worth and do your best to help me, that is.”

《……Hah.》

The Demon King, who had been scoffing, tilted his chin.

《That’s absurd… Do you even know what my salvation is?》

“……”

《Alright, then explain it. What is this path you intend to take, that my salvation lies at its end?》

I stared intently at the Demon King.

“I am going to the Spirit Realm now. And there, I will save one person.”

At these words, cracks appeared on the Demon King’s previously composed face.

“The very person you have been searching for through countless eons.”

《…What?》

He let out an enraged shout.

《That can’t be, don’t talk nonsense!》

“……”

《She was not in the mortal realm, nor in the underworld, nor in the Spirit Realm in between, nowhere! Do you think I haven’t searched? I have scoured every sky, sea, and land in this world. But she did not exist!》

I listened quietly to the Demon King’s frantic outburst.

《So, it’s in a nightmare. She must be sealed in the cesspool of monsters collected by this cursed nation!》

“……”

《Because the people of this nation defined her as a ‘monster’ and ‘exterminated’ her! Because the people of this nation stored all the monsters they killed in nightmares!》

“……”

《That’s why I deliberately plunged this nation into hell! And I have been searching through the nightmares collected by the people of this nation for countless eons! To find her and save her…》

From the Demon King’s body, a terrifying evil energy, unlike anything I had ever experienced before, spread in all directions.

Covering the entire castle with his dark energy, the Demon King roared.

《To find her and, this time, corrupt her soul completely!》

“……”

《But, what did you say? You know her whereabouts, which even I don’t know? Stop talking non-》

“A thousand years ago, that person was certainly called a ‘monster’ and was exterminated.”

I explained with a bitter smile.

“Now, she is called by a different name.”

《What…》

“In this world now, the name that person is called is…”

To the bewildered Demon King, I slowly revealed her identity.

“…’Goddess’.”

I slowly recalled the very old story I had heard directly from that person not long ago….

***

A thousand years ago.

A small village by a lake.

Here, the human race lived in a small settlement.

The human race did not form proper nations and lived divided into settlements and villages.

This was because they were oppressed and enslaved by other powerful race nations.

Other races could use magic, but humans could not.

Races chosen by the Outer Gods received magical power from their respective race guardians and rapidly developed their civilizations. But the human race was not chosen.

In the end, the human race was at the bottom, doing the menial work for other races, and barely surviving as the smallest and weakest race.

The woman was born and raised in this small village by the lake.

It was an unremarkable small village where they fished in the lake, gathered wood in the nearby forest, and raised livestock in small fields and a few pastures.

Although other race nations often demanded excessive taxes and came to cause trouble.

The woman had no particular complaints about such reality.

She was already used to living that way. Everything was a natural sight.

Humans were born as slaves.

The woman married a simple and kind man who had grown up in the village with her, and they had a cute son.

The woman thought she was happy and had no complaints about her life.

There was only one concern.

Her father, who had gone mad.

After her grandmother, who had also suffered from madness, passed away, her father inherited her grandmother’s madness… and turned into a madman who always muttered strange nonsense.

Now, he lived alone in a small hut built on the corner of the lake, with no one visiting him.

Only the woman periodically visited her father to give him meals and see if he had any inconveniences in his life.

Her father’s symptoms worsened. The inside of the hut was filled with parchments covered with incomprehensible symbols and formulas, covering the walls and floor.

She was worried about her father’s condition, but the woman was basically bright and cheerful, so she did not worry too much and spent each day.

That day was the same.

The woman prepared a meal and visited the hut where her father lived. The woman opened the door briskly.

“Father, I’m here! Have you eaten? I made a new dish today…”

The woman had to stop speaking.

In the center of the hut.

Her father was quietly dying in a pool of blood, having cut his wrist.

“Father?!”

The panicked woman rushed over to try to stop her father’s bleeding, but it was already too late.

Even as he was dying, her father seemed to recognize his daughter and muttered in a fading voice.

“I’m sorry, my daughter…”

“Father, no! No…!”

“I’m sorry for passing on this terrible curse…”

Thud.

Her father’s head tilted forward.

The woman stared blankly at her dead father. She did not know what to do in the face of this sudden situation.

It was then.

《Is this the end?》

A voice came from behind.

Surprised, the woman turned around, and there… a huge figure made of shadows was bending over, looking into the tragic scene inside the hut.

《She had more tenacity than her mother, but she still didn’t last long.》

The startled woman stumbled backward and asked in a trembling voice.

“W-who… are you…?”

《Ah. Now that I think about it, I should introduce myself to the new sacrifice.》

The shadow spread its arms and bowed politely.

《The wish-granting demon, the owner of the monkey’s paw, the fallen constellation… Well, there are many nicknames. But everyone calls me this.》

A white mouth cracked open like a fissure on the shadow’s face, forming a long smile.

《Demon King, they call me.》

“D-Demon King…?”

To the woman who was only trembling, unable to understand the situation, the Demon King spoke in a kind voice.

《Your distant ancestor prayed to me. He said he had something he absolutely wanted to accomplish, so he asked for ‘endless time’ to be able to do it.》

“……”

《Anyway, why are there so many fools who want eternal life, giving all sorts of reasons!》

The Demon King, slightly annoyed, pointed a finger at the woman.

《So, I proposed to your ancestor, how about giving ‘endless time’ to his descendants, and your ancestor readily agreed. Thus, your clan obtained endless time… the ‘curse of regression’.》

“Curse of… regression…?”

The woman muttered, bewildered by the incomprehensible words.

The Demon King nodded.

《Now you have inherited the curse of regression. You, your son, and his children, will continue… to pay the price for your ancestor’s mistake, forever.》

The woman still could not understand the situation well.

“My ancestor, and my father, what were they trying to do by obtaining that time…?”

《Hehe, that’s the fun part…》

The Demon King shrugged playfully.

《It wouldn’t be fun if I told you. It seems your father left some records, so go find them.》

“……”

《Now, what kind of tragedy and what kind of corruption will you show me… I’m looking forward to it.》

The Demon King’s huge body slowly disappeared.

《I will always be watching. To see what kind of destruction you will head towards…》

After the shadows had all disappeared.

The woman could only look back and forth between the spot where the Demon King had been and the body of her father, who had fallen and died, with a blank expression.

***

After holding her father’s funeral.

The woman visited her father’s hut again.

As before, her father’s hut was filled with parchments covered with incomprehensible shapes and letters.

The woman carefully organized the parchments and stacked the books.

In the process, she found a bundle of notes written in readable letters.

“Did my father write this…?”

Whether it was written before her father’s madness worsened, the beginning of the note, written in a relatively calm hand, read like this.

“……”

The woman traced the following sentences with her hand.

She had learned to read from her father when she was young, but she had not used letters since then, so she was practically illiterate. Reading one sentence at a time was a struggle.

“If the human race is to escape slavery… we also need the light of magic…”

The moment she tried to read the next sentence.

Weeping-

The cry of a young boy was heard from afar. It was the woman’s son.

Startled, the woman put down the note and ran back to her house to take care of her son.

To her, her young son and her life of working one day and eating the next were more important than these incomprehensible notes.

…….

Time passed.

The woman tried to revisit her father’s research several times, but failed each time. She had little knowledge and no sense of mission for the research that her ancestors had continued.

The number of times she visited her father’s hut gradually decreased. Once a week, once a month, once every six months….

Life was harsh, her child grew up quickly, and time flew by in the blink of an eye.

Before she knew it, the woman had forgotten her father’s hut. She had forgotten the curse of regression. She had forgotten the existence of the Demon King.

She sealed and forgot the events of that day in the hazy memories of her young childhood.

…….

Decades later.

The woman, lying on a warm bed, smiled peacefully among her grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, and great-granddaughters.

“Everyone has come because it’s time for grandma to go…”

It was not a bad life.

It was ordinary but peaceful. She had loved ones, and she had worked hard to build her life.

She had more children, and those children had more children….

Her clan had prospered.

And as proof that she had lived her life diligently, her descendants had gathered like clouds to see her off in her final moments.

The woman looked at each of the people who had come to see her off with a proud heart.

And, among them….

Hehe.

A shadow-like figure, with a white mouth open in a smile.

She belatedly discovered it.

“……!”

The woman’s face turned pale in an instant.

She raised her trembling hand and pointed at the shadow.

“Y-you… you are…!”

Everyone in the room was surprised and looked in that direction, but they could not see anything.

The existence of a huge evil, spreading its shadows with a wicked smile… was not visible at all.

“What are you talking about, mother? There’s nothing there…”

While her son was speaking with a smile, the woman could not breathe.

Because the Demon King, who had already come close, put his face close to hers and whispered like a snake.

《Was your ordinary life enjoyable?》

“……!”

《Then, it’s time to go back.》

At the same time as she widened her eyes, the woman took her last breath….

***

Click. Click. Click.

Gray magic rotated, and it sounded as if some kind of mechanical device was interlocking backward.

***

“-Huk!”

The woman, with her eyes wide open, breathed out roughly.

“Huk, huk, huk?!”

She broke out in a cold sweat, barely catching her breath, and looked around.

Just a moment ago, she was lying on a bed surrounded by her family.

But now, this place was… the hut where her father had committed suicide by cutting his wrist.

“H-how…?”

The woman muttered weakly, unable to believe it.

She checked her young hands, clean without any wrinkles.

Then, she looked at her father’s corpse, dead in a pool of blood.

《The way the curse manifests in your clan is different for everyone… Indeed, is this how it is for you? When you die, you regress to ‘this time’.》

A familiar voice was heard.

Startled, she turned around, and the huge shadow—the Demon King—was laughing quietly.

《I told you, this is a curse.》

“……”

《You don’t even have the right to die as you wish.》

Looking into the woman’s trembling eyes, the Demon King laughed wildly, filled with joy.

《Now, during this ‘endless time’, what will you be able to do… what kind of tragedy of despair and frustration will you write in your endless life, show me!》