Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 115: The One Who Curses Digs Two Graves (11)

Chapter 115: The One Who Curses Digs Two Graves (11)

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Both armies finished getting into formation with the plains between them. The human army had spread their cavalrymen out in a line on both their right and left sides so that they could charge whenever they wanted to. If I were to make a rough estimate, they had at least 10,000 cavalrymen. Seeing 10,000 cavalrymen was truly a sight to behold.

A thing called aura exists in this world. Each nation likes to call it something different like air, emanation, aurora, etc, but in any case, it’s something that allows humans to become superpowered. This is what makes the military system here vastly different from the one back in my world.

To put it simply, it can drastically increase the strength of a knight.

No matter how strong you make your defenses with spearmen, if a knight swings his aura-enhanced sword, then he could cut the spears like a blade through stalks of corn. You can’t pierce a knight’s body even if you stab them with a sword or land a direct hit with an arrow. They become literal human tanks.

The military power of each nation depends on how many knights the lords of each respective nation possess. Rulers tend to become especially worried whenever they discover that one of their vassals have a lot more knights than necessary. You created another battalion of knights? Are you trying to start a rebellion?……They usually think along these lines.

Due to how important knights are, people tend to hire anyone that has a talent in using auras whether they’re a fallen noble or a commoner. The lords of minor territories are usually kept in check by their rulers, so they aren’t able to scout talented individuals. Therefore, those who are gifted are usually sent to the capitals of kingdoms or dukedoms where an effort to raise knights are usually made. In other words, where academies are born.

The ‘right to establish an academy’ is incredibly important.

Minor lords naturally don’t have the authority to create academies. You’d have to be someone like Margrave Rosenberg to be able to get those rights. As a result, the margrave had thousands of knights and cavalrymen. If they didn’t have the utmost trust from their rulers, then they would never be given the right to establish an academy. 

Despite this, spearmen and archers are not in a decline in this world. Why is that you may ask? The reason is simple: because monsters exist.

Monsters live in relative peace in the territories of prominent lords. Knights would come to subjugate them if they rampage too much, after all. They go wild to an appropriate degree, get appropriately subjugated, and live appropriately. The lords would even go out of their way to clear up unimportant places like mountain villages. All things considered, monsters are also shrewd creatures.

On the other hand, the situation in the territories of minor lords is the complete opposite. As mentioned earlier, minor lords only possess a small number of knights. They don’t have enough to send them out however they please to take care of rampaging monsters. Thus, monsters pillage villages in these areas as much as they want. 

It’s a type of contradiction within human society.

They have no knights because they’re minor lords, it’s hard for them to subjugate monsters because they don’t have knights, and since it’s difficult to subjugate monsters, the commoners incur the most losses. Moreover, the commoners aren’t able to move even if they wanted to because they don’t have the right to do so.

The affluent territories continue to flourish over time while it becomes harder and harder for smaller territories to live. Commoners can only live their entire lives either hoping to be talented in using auras or hoping that their sons or daughters are born gifted…….

Is this not funny? It’s a world where auras exist, but it’s still the same as my original world when it comes to these key factors. Except, the only difference is probably the fact that those gifted in using auras aren’t discriminated against by their gender and are all treated greatly.

The numerous spearmen and archers across the plains are those very lower-class people.

How else could they fight against monsters when they can’t rely on knights? There’s only one answer. If you have no teeth, then bite with your gums. Villagers have no other choice but to arm themselves.

They pick up their spears and bows and face off against terrifying threats like orcs and goblins by themselves. Like this, each village naturally creates its own militia. And then, when a large-scale invasion of monsters happens like it is now with our Crescent Alliance, they are ‘summoned’ under the pretext of protecting mankind. They call it a ‘summon’, but it’s no different from a forced draft.

If you understand up to this point, then my intentions should become clear.

Paimon. You most likely intend to make me receive the public rage of the humans by putting me as the representative of the Crescent Alliance. However, you are treating the humans as a single entity. This is most likely the limit of someone who was born as and has lived as a Demon Lord. 

I was born a human and lived as a human!

I know that human society is not and has never been a single entity. There are nobles. There are commoners. There are slaves. There are men and women, adults and children.

As there are oppressors and the oppressed, there are those who resist and concede. There is control and revolts. If there’s a fabrication that’s as elaborate and detailed as physics, then there are those who can see through this fabrication. I know about this contradiction of human society.

I’m the only one who can among the Demon Lords.

You shouldn’t have made me the representative.

I’ll prove to you that you made a mistake.

“Lord, it is time.”

Laura spoke up quietly. I was staring at a corner of my tent. Staring wasn’t exactly the correct term. My eyes were simply open. I was in deep thought. My consciousness surfaced like a submarine once Laura spoke up to me.

Once I turned my head, I saw the blonde-haired Laura and the pink-haired Lapis standing there. A human and a demon were standing side by side. These two were the most important people to me. Laura was my lover and vassal skilled at military affairs while Lapis was my loyal vassal who was the first girl to ever trust me in this world.

That’s right. It’s more than possible for these two to be side by side. I plan to drag this simple possibility into reality.

“All right. Shall we go?”

I left my quarters with the two of them accompanying me. Orc soldiers were standing at both of our sides like a wall. They were protecting the path I had to walk. I was the representative of the Crescent Alliance until the end of my speech. It’ll probably be difficult for another day like this where I’m treated with this much reverence to arrive. If it does, then it will most likely be in the very distant future.

I walked forward.

The emotions of monsters washed over me like a wave with each step I took. Excitement, anxiety, boredom, worry, concern, hunger, respect……. I was used to it. They washed over my shores for a moment before pulling away.

My field of vision broadened.

An empty plain appeared before me.

I had completely left our camp.

The Demon Lords were gathered here. Paimon, Marbas, Agares, Gamigin, Barbatos……. Chairs were only prepared for the highest-ranking Demon Lords.

You’d have to be as skilled as them to be able to control a massive battlefield. They could give orders no matter where their battalions were. Low-ranking Demon Lords didn’t have that much control, so they had to move with their troops. The very fact that these individuals could sit here leisurely proved that they were the most talented individuals of the Demon Lord army.

“How do you feel, Dantalian?”

Barbatos sounded strangely pleased as she hummed.

“You aren’t shivering like some coward, right?”

“Of course not. My life is a bit too cruel for me to be able to do something like that.”

“It’s going to become crueler.”

She grinned.

“The reason why I didn’t complain that much about the Mountain Faction’s condition isn’t just because of the negotiation. Dantalian, I figured that there’d be no stage better than this for you to step out from the shadows and onto the main stage.”

Barbatos was showing a gentle smile that didn’t befit her. She looked like a poet who was looking down at a young child.

“Monarchs are those who lead. They represent the collective opinions of their subjects. You cannot become a king through only schemes and ploys. Do you have the qualities to lead the people? Do you have the appropriate justifications? We have to prove these things with every step we take. From this point forth, your words will not only be words, but it will also be the will of the people. Now then, Dantalian.”

She pointed up at the sky.

“Look at the sky.”

It was a clear sky with no clouds in sight. The spring showers were gone and the sun was shining down on the land. As usual, the sky was peaceful.

“Look behind you.”

She pointed behind me. There were 10,000 monsters crowded there. The emotions of 10,000 wished for either the battle to start or for this to end as soon as possible. The sound of metal clanging together resonated throughout the crowd and the sound of shouting could also be heard. A countless number of red banners fluttered in the wind.

“Look forward.”

She pointed forward.

The plains were before us.

The only thing I could see on the land in front of us was an open and smooth field. There was nothing there that could be considered an obstacle. It was desolate but peaceful. However, it was distant, but I could clearly see the movement of flags and banners beyond this desolation. Small dots filled the other side of the plains.

For an instant, everything felt silent.

Complete stillness. 

“This is a battlefield that rulers gaze upon.”

Barbatos continued in a low voice.

“My beloved friend, go and come back a ruler.”

Is that so?

Is this the scene that has always been in front of her all her life?

Has she lived for thousands of years while facing this solitude?

She didn’t want me to stop at only being a schemer, strategist, and subordinate that is used in the Plains Faction. She wanted a comrade who could stand as her equal and look forward to the future together. At one point, Paimon and Marbas were her comrades.

She most likely believed that another comrade would appear one day. She then waited. She waited for a long time. It was then that I appeared before her. She saw me as a promising individual. She tested me with slightly wishful thinking. I had gone and exceeded her expectations. I wonder what she felt. 

It’s most likely not a simple affection that Barbatos has towards me. It’s something that can’t be fully explained through the word affection. I’m the possibility that finally appeared after a thousand years of waiting.

Thus, she treated me more cruelly. She gave me affection but assigned me as the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance. She made me her general staff but also sent me out on the battlefield. Now she was pushing my back and urging me to become a ruler.

Truly, is she not a troubling Demon Lord? At most, I’m someone who will only be a schemer. I could cry and grovel on the ground hundreds of times if it means I could survive. Telling someone like me to become a ruler. I felt both happy and troubled at the same time, so I wound up showing an awkward smile.

“I’m going to end up dying at that rate, you know?”

Barbatos chuckled.

“A life with no danger and hardship doesn’t exist. Even if one does exist, what purpose would that kind of life have? Go forth. Put your foot forward and face the hardship. Shouldering more danger the further you go is only natural, but what of it? Dantalian, something valuable enough to be grasped by these hands lies beyond that danger.”

Don’t aim only for survival but aim for what lies beyond as well. 

Barbatos assured me that it was now time for me to do this. She really is a strict teacher. She wasn’t encouraging me like Lapis did by saying that she trusted me, nor was she vowing to be by my side forever like Laura did. She was simply reprimanding me and telling me to stop slacking off since this is just how the world is.

I shrugged.

The 10 or so mages that were preparing the magic circle on the side reported that they had finished their preparations. Marbas gazed at me. His gaze was asking me if I was ready to begin. I gave him a nod. Marbas began to count down.

“Let us begin. Ten, nine, eight…….”

The magic circle let out a white glow. Magic circles become white whenever multiple people stack their magic on top of each other. The magic circle created a vivid line of light that instantly encircled me. I could still hear Marbas’ voice beyond the white light. Five, four, three, two, one…….

It was time.

A massive three-dimensional image should’ve appeared above us around now. It should be displaying something like an image of me. I was curious as to how it must look, but I restrained myself. It would only make me unsightly.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of humans and demons were looking only at me.

“Oh, humankind, listen.”

As this all unfolded, I opened my mouth.

“All of history until now has been the history of class strife.”

Now then.

It’s time to poison the world.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. It’s time for the famous Speech of Bruno Plains again. All things considered, this sort of means we’ve mostly caught up to the LN in a way? Well, these two versions aren’t exactly the same, but this means we’ll be treading on new ground that the LN hasn’t reached. Hooray?

On another note, the Patreon thing is going well so far. Doesn’t seem like anyone is really complaining. It’s not a substantial boost, but it’s a start.

I’ll see you guys on the next release.