Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 126: Morning in Rome (2)

Chapter 126: Morning in Rome (2)

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I did it with Laura two more times before leaving my castle.

Laura lashed out and called me a sex-crazed ogre in heat; however, I had an excuse. What else could the villagers do but panic if I visited them suddenly?

I used a magic orb to inform them beforehand that I would be visiting. I made sure to tell them that there wasn’t a significant reason behind my visit and that I was simply coming by to see how they’ve been doing lately. Mm. Aren’t I kind? Not only did I inform them of my upcoming visit, but I told them to not make a fuss about welcoming me as well. There’s probably no Demon Lord that’s as gentle as me.

I leisurely made my way to the village the next day.

* * *

It may have not been significant to Dantalian.

However, the forewarning he gave to the villagers about his visit was like a bolt from the blue to them.

The person visiting was a Demon Lord. Furthermore, he was the merciless and cruel tyrant who beheaded everyone that went against him with Riff’s party without exception. To the villagers, the name Dantalian was nothing more than a target of fear.

The villages fell into turmoil once Dantalian notified them through the magic orb of his visit. The chiefs of each village gathered urgently in order to hold a meeting. They utilized the already few horses they had to gather as soon as possible.

“The fact that he is suddenly visiting us after never having done so before……. I-It definitely means that, right?”

“Mm. Most likely.”

The men whose bodies became rugged through doing farm work all their lives nodded with serious looks on their faces.

“He finally wants us to offer him a tribute, huh…….”

The faces of the village chiefs became dark.

A tribute. It was like a type of tax.

Originally, they had no reason whatsoever to pay taxes to the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord asked for only their loyalty and assured them their full freedom in return; however, the incident with Riff’s party caused a problem.

There were 12 villages located near the dungeon. 5 of those villages revolted. That was nearly half of them. Demon Lord Dantalian granted them freedom at the price of their loyalty, and yet, the villages couldn’t even maintain their loyalty……. Their contract had been broken.

Among the villages that survived, there were many places that did whatever it took to survive during the adventurer party incident. There was a notion shared among the village chiefs that their villages could also get wiped out if they made even a single mistake. Tomorrow might be the day that that mistake is made. The atmosphere of the meeting gradually became gloomy.

“Let us voluntarily offer him a tribute before he asks for one.”

One of the village chiefs let out a sigh as he spoke.

“Did we offer a tribute because he asked for it and we thought it was unavoidable or did we do it on our own free will? There is a large difference between these two things. His Highness will most likely consider our honor.”

“Are you sure about that? I personally witnessed His Highness lead his army last year. That was definitely an evil spirit.”

Another person shuddered. He remembered seeing Dantalian give a passionate speech in front of his massive army of goblins. The sight of hundreds of monsters baring their teeth and cheering. He realized at that moment why Demon Lords were called the lords of monsters.

“He is not someone to consider our honor. He might include our heads on the list of tributes…….”

“T-That’s why I’m saying that we should prepare as many tributes as possible.”

It was around the time the meeting of village chiefs was becoming more grave.

“Hm.”

The young village chief, Parsi, tilted his head as he watched the others. He was the one who personally followed Dantalian and fought alongside him during the adventurer party incident. He got to watch Dantalian up close and thus knew that the Demon Lord wasn’t the type of person to go around demanding tributes like some delinquent.

‘This is irrelevant to me.’

Even if Dantalian ordered them to offer a tribute, Parsi believed that his village would be excluded. He fought the hardest on the Demon Lord’s side during the adventurer party incident, after all.

‘Honestly, these old coots are just cowering on their own. It also feels like that one saying, a guilty conscience needs no accuser……. Should I try prodding them?”

Parsi narrowed his eyes and glanced at the faces of each and every village chief.

Something smelled bad.

Parsi may be illiterate, but he was born with a sharp wit. He caught Dantalian’s eyes because of this intuition of his. Right now his intuition was telling him that something about these village chiefs gave off a bad stench.

“Hey, you old men.”

The young village chief opened his mouth. Everyone turned to look at him.

“Let’s be honest here. You guys did something that would get you in trouble if the Demon Lord found out, didn’t you?”

“Huh, what are you talking about?”

One of the village chiefs acted innocent. It was an excellent reaction, but the faces of 3 other village chiefs twitched. This didn’t escape Parsi’s sharp eyes that had been trained as he lived his life as a hunter. These old coots actually did something!

The polite tone that Parsi had out of formality quickly changed to a crude one.

“Fuck, say it now. What did you guys do?”

“……Like I said, what are you saying we did? Don’t reprimand us for no reason.”

“Jeez, you idiotic old man. I can tell just by looking at you guys that a couple of your villages had done something. Don’t you guys understand that it’ll all fall apart the instant one of you guys decides to snitch?”

Parsi jeered at them.

“You guys are already contemplating how much you should offer as a tribute. Do you really think someone isn’t going to snitch just so they can offer a little less for the tribute?”

“…….”

The man’s expression crumbled apart. He had a look of despair. Parsi was right. It was definitely possible that someone would snitch to the Demon Lord just so that they would not have to offer any tribute.

There isn’t some sizable sense of comradery between the villages, after all. They only maintained the bare minimum of trust whenever it was necessary. In other words, they would betray each other if necessary. Just a year ago, the militia of some villages joined together with the adventurers to pillage the funds of other villages.

Four village chiefs turned to look at each other. They looked incredibly troubled.

“Well, actually…….”

Shortly after.

Parsi shouted at the top of his lungs.

“You absolute morons!”

The other village chiefs who weren’t involved in this incident also stared at the group of culprits in disbelief. They looked as if they were staring at lunatics. A village chief from the wrongdoing group stammered.

“I-I mean, it would have been a waste to not do anything on a perfectly good field…….”

“Are you saying that as an excuse!? Those fields don’t belong to you guys!”

The crime committed by the four village chiefs was as follows.

There were villages that were burned down after getting swept up in the Riff incident, but that didn’t mean the fields they had cultivated were also destroyed. The village chiefs salivated as they stared at the fields that had survived.

Can’t we use those?

There are many second sons and third sons who don’t have their own fields. They were used as a type of labor force since they couldn’t succeed their families’ farms. The village chiefs persuaded them and gave them the fields to work on as if they were an act of kindness. As if the fields belonged to them. They asked for half of their harvest as compensation. 

“You guys should get hit by an arrow!”

Parsi lashed out. The other villages might end up getting wrapped up in this because of what these guys had done. 

Think about it. What would happen if someone were to snitch about a matter that no one else had noticed until now to Dantalian when he visits? It would seem like we had intentionally kept this a secret. We would all be suspected as accomplices. 

The land of the villages that had disappeared because of the revolt belongs to Demon Lord Dantalian. The land that belonged to rebels goes to the person who suppressed the rebellion, this is the most basic of common sense. In other words, what these village chiefs had done was take possession of pieces of their lord’s land at their own discretion and give them to their village people while applying their own taxes.

This was a splendid act of rebellion. 

Assuming ownership of land without permission and the crime of making their own taxes……. Parsi couldn’t fathom what they would have to do to pay for these crimes. This wasn’t something that could be resolved by offering the heads of 3 or 4 village chiefs. It probably wouldn’t be enough even if an entire village’s worth of people were executed.

“H-Help us. If you guys feign ignorance, then even the Demon Lord shouldn’t…….”

“Are you insane? Damn it. I don’t have a hobby of getting myself killed.”

Parsi took out his dagger. The village chiefs started to shout in a panic once they saw him pull out his weapon.

“What are you doing!?”

“If we let this slide, then the innocent people in our villages will end up losing their lives. Sorry, but you guys are going to have to die here. Hey! If you guys want to live, then stick with me!”

Parsi’s action was quick and decisive. He moved in swiftly like a beast and stabbed at one of the village chiefs who had committed the crime. His dagger accurately stabbed into the village chief’s neck. The village chief let out a cry as he fell over.

The other village chiefs took out their daggers once they saw this. A short scuffle followed. Thanks to Parsi’s efforts, the innocent village chiefs came out victorious. Parsi wiped the blood from his blade as he grunted.

“Let’s offer their heads to the Demon Lord first.”

“What should we do about the tribute?”

“Hm.”

The situation had become troublesome. The tribute which they originally didn’t have to offer had now become essential. 

Fundamentally, the people here were used to sharing responsibility. It’s not like you could avoid being punished since you weren’t the one to commit the crime. If a pair of brothers commit a crime, then the entire family would take responsibility. If a neighbor commits a crime, then the 5 households around that neighbor would have to take responsibility as well. This was an era where this had become normalized.

From the Demon Lord’s perspective, this would simply seem like an occurrence that happened because the other villages didn’t watch over each other properly. Parsi gnashed his teeth.

He suddenly remembered the human girl who walked alongside the Demon Lord. Laura or something. He was certain that she was around the same age as him. She was a girl with unimaginable beauty.

“How many single women do you guys have in your villages?”

“We have two.”

“Our village has three…….”

Adding them all together would make around ten. It wasn’t a number that satisfied Parsi, but he suggested offering them to the Demon Lord anyway. They might be able to make their tribute look more appealing by adding virgins as a type of bouquet. 

“Dear me, I am already getting a headache about how the young’uns from my village will complain.”

“Will we have to buy slaves from somewhere? Tsk tsk. Even the Gods are indifferent to our troubles. How have things ended up like this?”

Everyone had mixed emotions. There were originally 12 villages, but it was reduced to 7 after the rebellion and now they were about to shrink down to 3. The saying that humans are their own worst enemy went through everyone’s heads. 

“Sons of bitches!”

Parsi couldn’t hold back his anger as he stepped on a corpse. It was incredibly disrespectful, but no one stopped him.

The remaining village chiefs immediately returned to their villages. They were pressed on time. They spent the entire night pushing their village people to create a tribute. The single women who suddenly had their fates bound to a Demon Lord wept.

Their families were extremely angry, but they had no other choice but to withdraw once they found out it was for the sake of their village. This wasn’t an era that was good enough to allow one to live on their own without the support of their village. The sound of women crying echoed throughout the night.

* * *

“Have mercy!”

“Please, would you look into your heart to forgive us this one time?”

The first thing I saw as soon as I arrived at a village was a bunch of people prostrating on the ground. They had piled up a large stack of grain. For some reason, orcish girls were sitting quietly in front of the grain with flowers in their hair.

I’m certain I told them there was no meaning behind this visit.

“…….”

I felt so bewildered that my mouth hung agape. What are you guys doing?

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Uhm, I don’t have much to say. The character popularity poll is still going on if you some of you guys happened to miss it. I’m actually surprised by the number of votes VenusPanties has. She seemed like such a minor character to me, and yet, she has more votes than 5 other characters. A truly surprising result. Welp, the month is ending. I hope you guys are adapting well to 2021. 

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.