Dungeon Defense (WN)

Everyone returned to their personal quarters after the meeting was adjourned.

Paimon grabbed me and pulled me to a corner. There were guards posted at the outskirts of our camp, but Paimon waved them away. Once the spectators were gone, Paimon turned to glare at me.

“I cannot accept it!”

There was a fire burning deep within Paimon’s eyes. Oh dear, it’s embarrassing if you look at me so passionately. I casually shook off her gaze.

“What are you saying you cannot accept?”

“Do not play dumb, Dantalian. That is a slaughter. An imprudently cruel act.”

“Imprudent and cruel, is it……?”

I repeated those words with my mouth. Those words felt like they were sticking onto my tongue.

Paimon took out a glass vial from her pocket during this brief moment and threw it on the ground. The purple liquid from the bottle created a magic circle on its own. It was probably a spell that made the area around us soundproof. Paimon lost all of her Circles, but she was still capable of creating magic potions. With this, a secret room was created.

“We have come too far to suddenly become reluctant to do cruel things.”

“This lady said that it was imprudent and cruel. Do not intentionally change my words. If there was a cause, then I would have gladly stood for something like a slaughter. But what cause does this plan have?”

Paimon spat out coldly.

“That slaughter is purely for the sake of pushing Brittany into a corner. A slaughter purely for the sake of seizing victory!”

“The republican’s victory, Paimon.”

“…….”

We locked eyes. Numerous soundless words were exchanged between us. It happened right when I thought we had finished talking.

– Slap!

What a clear sound. Those were the words that went through my head.

“…….”

“…….”

Before I knew it, my head was turned. I turned to face Paimon again. The corners of her eyes were watery.

Right when I was about to open my mouth, Paimon’s hand moved once more. The sound of skin-to-skin contact rang out. My head was turned away once again. I turned back and Paimon swung her hand again. This was repeated about six times.

“You hypocrite……!”

Paimon was gnashing her teeth.

“How could you deliberately devise the worst possible option! If you thought that I would not notice, then you were gravely mistaken! Dantalian, you are a vile hypocrite. War kills people. It is an inexcusably evil act. Nonetheless, other people at least have an excuse……. They’re doing it for justice, for God, or for their nation.”

“…….”

“In other words, you have completely eviscerated your excuse. What you are doing is undeniably evil and has no room for excuses……. You are not trying to ask for forgiveness or understanding. You are doing this solely to maintain your horrid purity!”

I stroked my cheek.

How long has it been since I was last slapped by someone? No, I’ve never been struck to this degree before. Or at least, from what I can immediately remember. Words unconsciously flowed out of my mouth as I rubbed my cheeks absentmindedly.

“So? Am I in the wrong? As you already know, I caused the Crescent Alliance. Tens of thousands of people have died. Do you understand? Tens of thousands.”

Children, demons, humans, beast tribes, and even Demon Lords. They were all killed indiscriminately.

“Should I go in front of them and tell them, ‘I’m sorry, I have my own circumstances, so you guys have to die.’? Do I have to say this? Paimon, answer me. Do they have to listen to my excuse?”

“…….”

“Are my circumstances enough to warrant the deaths of tens of thousands? Hah! Those must be quite the circumstances.”

I smirked.

I didn’t smirk on purpose. My tone and expression had all escaped my control and were moving on their own. Fine. Move however you want. It’d be unsightly if I didn’t make any rebuttal after being slapped like that.

“Try standing before the lives of ten thousand and telling that to them. You have to be sacrificed for the sake of the nation, so your deaths are absolutely essential. You do not have to say it is for the nation. You can say it is for justice, for God, or for republicanism. Say whatever you want……. Not! It is all nonsense! There is no way that they would understand!”

I grabbed Paimon’s wrist tightly with the intent to break it.

“There will never be a time where the deaths of tens of thousands is absolutely essential. Never! Try saying something like that in front of the victims……. I will not stand idly by. I swear that I will kill every single oppressor in the world!”

“…….”

“All of the cities attached to Parisiorum will be burned down tomorrow.”

Regardless of sex or age. I won’t distinguish between good or bad people either.

The plan will be carried out thoroughly solely for the sake of getting rid of Henrietta and Agares.

“There must be no excuses for my actions. It must not be understood either! Paimon, do you understand? Tens of thousands will be killed for my sake, and since this is the one and only truth—it must become an unyielding truth!”

“…….”

“This is not a problem that you can get involved with. This is a problem between the tens of thousands I kill and myself. Do not get involved however you please.”

I pulled Paimon down by her wrist, making her stumble forward and onto her knees. Even though in terms of strength, she could overwhelm me by a landslide.

My entire body was screaming at me to smoke. I dug through my mantle and pulled out my pipe. I tried to press the tobacco into the end of the pipe, but the pipe ended up slipping out of my hand and rolling on the ground. I picked it up but dropped it again.

“Damn it.”

My hands were shaking. I couldn’t tell if this was because of withdrawal or my anger. But one thing was certain: I was not in a good mood. I picked up and dropped my pipe about five times. I felt like a retard. No, maybe I am one……. I laughed at myself.

I stomped on my pipe. It was a luxurious item that a master earthenware craftsman from Saxony had specially made for me. It wasn’t easy to break, so it simply got pushed into the dirt. Rather than relieve my annoyance, it made me angrier.

“Hoo.”

I can’t go insane. Going insane would also be an excuse. I know that……. Hold back your anger.

I closed my eyes and breathed. Think about it. You should be able to stop your hands of all things from shaking. Like hell I’ll let people conclude that the person who slaughtered tens of thousands was actually a lunatic. Going insane is also a right. I don’t have a right like that…….

I turned my back to Paimon as I calmed down a little and walked away.

Something grabbed my mantle. It was probably Paimon’s hand. However, I didn’t let that stop me as I continued forward. The thing that was grabbing my mantle soon fell off.

I don’t really remember what happened afterward. Before I knew it, I was already back in my personal quarters. Daisy was reading in the room. She made a weird face when she saw me. I paid her no mind as I laid on top of my blanket.

“Did you clumsily lose your drugs, Father?”

Daisy asked. Her voice came from behind me since I had my back turned to her.

I muttered with my eyes closed.

“I don’t do drugs anymore.”

“If my memory serves me right, this is exactly the forty-sixth time you claimed to be quitting drugs. They say that even dogs realize their mistake after the third time, but there should be a limit to short-lived resolutions…….”

“I know you’re amazing, so shut up.”

It became quiet.

The sound of Daisy smoothly flipping the pages of her book filled the room. I was lying down on a bed, but I couldn’t sleep. It was in times like this that I despised being a Demon Lord as sleep wasn’t an absolute necessity for us. I would be able to refresh my mood if I could sleep. It felt like there was a weight on my chest.

I muttered as if I were groaning.

“……Alcohol.”

“Haa.”

I heard a sigh. I didn’t feel like getting angry at that.

Daisy spoke.

“Father, your plan is undeniably effective, but do you have to go out of your way to structuralize the republicans and royalists? A bunch of demons slaughtering humans indiscriminately. This alone would be enough to pressure the ruler of Brittany to take responsibility for the city.”

“……How foolish. If we do that, then the other nations would get involved.”

Pressuring Brittany isn’t our only goal. Our ultimate goal is to isolate Queen Henrietta.

“Republicans are getting revenge against royalists. If we have a cause like this, then it will lower the likelihood of another country getting involved. If demons start a slaughter, then they would just form an Anti-Crescent Alliance group again…….”

“I see. But putting Bernicia and Sardinia aside, what about the Kingdom of Castile?”

“It does not matter. If Castile gets involved, then this war would expand into an international conflict. They would ask Sardinia and Bernicia for assistance, and Frankia would fall into utter chaos……. This is not a bad scenario…….”

Of course, this wasn’t the best-case scenario. If this happens, then the war would escape from my grasp. Castile, Bernicia, and Sardinia, I have no connections with any of these nations. Our current situation was perfect with just the Republic of Batavia…….

“For the sake of that, it would probably be good to get our hands on the Empress Dowager or the Emperor……. We would be able to seize a firm cause…….”

“In that case, which of the two would be…….”

Daisy kept asking questions. I kept giving her answers, but my consciousness was gradually fading away. My eyes were already closed, but it felt like another pair of eyelids were closing. A voice entered my ears, but it was hard to comprehend their words now.

On that night, it was the first time in a long while since I didn’t have any dreams.

* * *

The next day after the plan was decided, slaughters disguised as pillaging were carried out.

Pillaging was a normal thing in this era. Nevertheless, our army kicked it up a notch. The adult men were naturally killed, but women and children were also killed according to the situation. The humans screamed and asked for mercy, but our answer was firm.

“The people you killed four years ago must have said the same thing to you.”

There was no need to even ask.

Humans were tied up and transported from the villages and towns around Parisiorum. They were all tied to logs and placed in front of Parisiorum’s south gate. The Brittan guards were clearly perplexed as they looked down from the ramparts.

“These people are war criminals that slaughtered innocent civilians under the claim of them being republicans four years ago. There is no room for argument that the Queen of Brittany was the one who devised this crime.”

I raised the volume of my voice with a sound amplifying magic tool.

“Lord of Brittany! If you have even the smallest bit of conscience left inside of you, if you have the courage to admit to this crime in these people’s stead, then open the gate and surrender. If you do not respond within five hours, then these people will have to pay for their crime of slaughter.”

Should I say that it was as I expected? No response came back to us in those five hours. The guards on top of the rampart moved around busily, but Queen Henrietta never appeared.

“……Is that your answer, Queen?”

I slowly looked over the 50 humans who were hanging from logs.

People filled with despair, people with their eyes closed and praying constantly, and people who had dropped their heads in exhaustion after desperately struggling all this time. There were dozens of types of faces here. I gave an order to our soldiers who were waiting beside them.

“Carry out the execution.”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. We get to see Dant experience some more mental decay in this chapter. I guess it’s cool in a way that Dant is trying to shoulder all of this by himself so that other people don’t have to carry this burden. He already knows the amount of shit he’s done, so he most likely thinks it’s fine to just pile more onto that. The question is whether the people around him are able to figure this out. Well, Paimon probably pieced it together here.

On a side note, the construction finally started across the street. They finished the demolition about a month and a half ago and did nothing until now. The empty space got filled with trash pretty fast, but at least the trash is all gone since they’ve finally started the building process. I love waking up to drills and the feeling of my entire house shaking.

Welp, I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.

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