Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 79: Watchdog of Humanity

“Your Excellency, we have received an urgent message.”

“Did something happen?”

A man who appeared to be in his forties looked up from the documents he had been working on. Fritz von Rosenberg. He was an aristocrat of the Habsburg Empire and was also one of the two margraves in charge of the Black Mountains. He possessed an elite cavalry.

“The green fortress has fallen.”

“Oh?”

He removed his monocle and gazed at the butler sharply.

“What are their numbers?”

“According to the report, it is an army of a thousand monsters. 3 Demon Lords have formed an alliance, but none of them are higher than rank 30. Nonetheless, they possess 5 ogres.”

“5 ogres, is it?”

The margrave brushed his mustache.

“That is indeed threatening; nevertheless, that is not something which the remaining fortresses cannot handle. What did the commanding officer say?”

“They said that Your Excellency has nothing to worry about as they will stop the monsters.”

He nodded.

“It is an opportunity for them to distinguish themselves in battle. My relationship with the commanding officers will only worsen if I were to swoop in and take all the glory. Inform them that I will trust in their confidence and not dispatch my troops. However, I will prepare my soldiers so that they can be dispatched immediately if they request for it. Also, inform the captain of the Scarlet Wild Boar cavalry to rally his men.”

“Immediately, Your Excellency.”

The butler bowed courteously and left the office.

For a brief moment, Margrave von Rosenberg considered the possibility of a thousand monsters getting through the remaining 3 fortresses. He didn’t have to think for long. A thousand monsters isn’t even remotely a threat. The only task he has to worry about is restoring the losses that the fortresses may suffer while fending off the monsters.

The margrave returned to working on his documents. The Black Mountains are safe. The issue isn’t external but internal. He had heard that the political strife in the capital has been becoming more fierce. The margrave fell into deep thought about whether His Highness the Crown Prince would succeed or not.

* * *

My strategy proceeded without any problems.

A unit took a detour around the green fortress and set up an encampment behind the fortress. Once they set up their encampment, we sent another unit of 500 monsters to attack the fortress from the front. We assaulted the gate from both ends. It’s comparable to crushing a tomato in your hand. The green fortress was captured with almost no effort.

Normally, people say that the attackers have to have a force three times the size of the defenders when trying to carry out a siege, but that’s only when humans are fighting each other. I’m not sure about goblins, but orcs have a much better physique than humans on average. If you play your cards right, then you could carry out a siege with equal numbers.

We have a thousand monsters including 5 ogres. Not only were Demon Lords taking command and making the monsters move in an orderly manner, but we assaulted them from both ends as well. Even if the defending troops were veterans, a fortress being defended by an army of only 500 human soldiers is nothing special.

“War feels unexpectedly empty.”

“It is different from taking down a few adventurer parties.”

Laura responded sincerely to my thoughtful comment.

“Your Lordship is commanding from the barracks and not the front line. It is very rare for a commander to personally witness the horrors of war.”

Laura and I were looking around the camp while mounted on horses next to each other. It’s as she said. I may have gotten involved in the operation, but in terms of strategy, I didn’t participate in the battle. I’m participating in the Crescent Alliance with only 32 golems and 10 fairies. Thus, we were excluded from the battle.

I smiled wryly.

“Horrors of war, is it? What we are witnessing right now is already quite horrifying.”

The monsters around us, in other words, our allies, were eating. Regardless of the time period, logistics are the most important when it comes to managing armies. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the flow of war is determined by how you give provisions and other types of supplies to your forces.

Different from modern society, this is an era where maintaining a supply line is difficult. Therefore, a fundamental of army logistics is to ‘procure things locally’. In the case of humans, they would accomplish this by purchasing provisions from locals or pillaging. But what about monsters?

⎯ Krrrb, kkchh.

An orc was biting away at a piece of meat just a few meters away from us. The orc nonchalantly tossed aside the leather and chain armor that got in his way as if he were deboning a fish. He then took a bite. I could clearly hear the sound of saliva splattering around.

The piece of meat was a human’s leg.

The local procurement method that demons resorted to was brutal. They offered the corpses that resulted from the battle as provisions. It wasn’t only the human corpses, but goblin and orc corpses were treated as provisions as well. Even now, there were several trails of smoke rising here and there. They were all the results of corpses being cooked……. From the humans’ perspective, this would probably seem like Hell itself.

I was vomiting all over the floor just three hours ago. The wretched scent of intestines and corpses burning had filled my nostrils and shook my skull. And yet, the feeling that was being transmitted to me, in other words, the feeling being felt by the monsters was hunger. Damn it!

My senses were being overwhelmed by a horrid stench, and yet the feeling blooming in my mind was hunger. Seriously, is this not torture? I can say with the utmost confidence that being able to read the emotions of others isn’t a blessing. I’d like to sincerely refrain from feeling hunger towards human flesh.

“Your Lordship is right. This is also a horror of war. Nevertheless, I believe there is a different burden that monarchs must carry.”

“A burden meant for only monarchs…….”

I muttered absentmindedly and Laura nodded her head.

“Normal soldiers are allowed to cry out after seeing how harrowing war is. Peasants can lament and curse about the unfairness of life. However, monarchs are different.”

She paused which resulted in me stopping as well. Before I knew it, the two of us were facing each other on horseback. Laura’s unwavering gaze was directed right at me.

“Commanding officers are not allowed to blame someone else for the misery. They cannot blame the world either. This is because they are the ones taking responsibility for the war.”

“…….”

“Your Lordship, look at the corpses scattered around us. There are no distinctions between humans, goblins, and orcs. Why did they die? Who are the ones who forced them onto a battlefield?”

There was nothing to say.

I was the one who had ushered them into a battlefield. Zepar, Amii, and all the other Demon Lords are the culprits behind this war. However, there being a lot of accomplices doesn’t change the fact that I’m one of the culprits. Especially since this strategy went according to my design. What if the battle went in a different direction? ……Then some of the people who died now might have met a more favorable fate. I had caused their deaths.

Laura looked at me with a steely gaze.

“You will suffer and it will be tiring. It is fine for you to feel these emotions. However, at the very least, blaming another is something that is absolutely not allowed for a monarch.”

“……I.”

I opened my mouth and was surprised. My voice felt emotional. Am I sad? Even now, after having received Laura’s words in their entirety, I felt sadness. Funny enough, this fact made me feel relieved.

I’m currently taking in the hunger of hundreds of orcs. This isn’t my own hunger. What am I supposed to settle with while within this hellish pot of emotions? Sorrow, only this is my emotion. I was validating myself……. Nevertheless, my sense of self was way too weak.

How long will I be able to maintain myself while within these waves of emotions pouring out from other people? At the moment, I’ve gone as far as to suffer from manic depression. However, the Demon Lord syndrome that Lapis told me about before might happen…… Laura’s right. Leaders have to carry a burden, but what will happen if the mental state of the person carrying the burden crumbles? This is what I fear.

“What will happen if I begin to suffer too excessively? I mean to the point where I can no longer carry this burden. No, what will happen if I become so impoverished that I can no longer be called Dantalian……?”

“You have this young lady.”

Laura assured me.

“I will never leave Your Lordship’s side. Have you forgotten? I have devoted my all to you. I vowed that my success and loss will be solely Your Lordship’s success and loss. This is applied the other way around as well. Your Lordship’s success and loss will also be my success and loss.”

Her tone didn’t falter even slightly. I continued to listen to her in silence.

“Your Lordship has killed a thousand people. I have resolved myself to follow you who had done that. Therefore, the responsibility of murdering a thousand also lies on me. The suffering Your Lordship experiences, I shall experience as well. I will share the pain that Your Lordship goes through.”

“…….”

“Do you remember the man who was this young lady’s master while she was a slave?”

Of course.

Jack Aland. He was a foolish but beautiful slave merchant. I wanted to be his friend, but I couldn’t.

“At that time, Your Lordship could have killed that slave merchant and you naturally should have killed him. There was a possibility that Your Lordship’s life could have been at risk if you let him live, after all. Despite this, you did not kill him. When I questioned Your Lordship about your decision, you told me this: to you, life is something where you take in all of the coincidences.”

I remember. How could I not remember this?

“For some reason, Your Lordship wished to spare the slave merchant, regardless of whether that decision came back to bite you or not. Your Lordship, if that slave merchant came back in the future to get revenge, would you have regretted your decision?”

“……No.”

Laura nodded as if she had expected this response.

“You tried to spare the slave merchant because that is what you wished for. As that was solely your decision, Your Lordship would have most likely accepted any conclusion without regrets. This young lady decided to follow Your Lordship because I was charmed by that way of life. Your Lordship had shown me that……people are able to guarantee things besides their own death.”

She smiled widely.

“This young lady wishes for Your Lordship to continue to live like this till the very end.”

“……How unfair, Laura.”

I shrugged in an exaggerated manner. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to hold on if I didn’t joke around like this.

“Laura, you know that this battle is not the only thing which I am responsible for. I am the one who instigated the 8th Crescent Alliance. The vanguard, the 6th legion, the entire Crescent Alliance, all of the wars which these groups will cause……. If you think about it, they will have all been caused by me. Laura, you are asking me to simply carry all of this as a burden. Tens of thousands of lives might vanish. Are you telling me to carry the weight of this number of lives?”

“That is correct.”

She answered without any hesitation.

No, there was even a smile on her lips. Normal people would struggle to even carry the burden of a single person’s life. She was asking me to take responsibility for hundreds of thousands of lives. As if it were a matter of fact.

“Your Lordship is not a sage-king. Are you not a Demon Lord? If you are a Demon Lord, then you must naturally take responsibility for those lives in this manner. Your Lordship, walk the path of a Demon Lord.”

“The path of a Demon Lord is it……? It is Hell.”

I laughed weakly. Regardless, Laura is right. This is the only way of life that I can choose.

I only now figured out why Laura had dragged me out from my tent while I was vomiting and brought me out to look at the encampment while on horseback. She was telling me to stop trying to run away.

This field that’s covered in corpses and the numerous clouds of smoke coming from the campfires cooking the corpses. As I am the one who had brought upon this scene, I have to take this sight in more than anyone else⎯⎯This is what Laura is telling me. She also intends to bear this sight. Laura has sworn to accept things at the same weight as my burdens.

I couldn’t bear this situation without laughing.

“A vassal that drops her lord into Hell. It appears that I have obtained quite the disloyal subordinate. Very well, then. Will you fall into the same Hell as me, Laura?”

“Of course.”

An immediate response. I know that that wasn’t a light answer. This scene of slaughter must undoubtedly look dreadful to a 17-year-old girl. Laura had responded as such while feeling this. Seriously, she’s way more mature than I am.

We urged our horses forward again. We advanced between the corpse-burning fires and flesh-eating monsters. If the Crescent Alliance expedition goes as I plan, then a massacre far greater and incomparable to this battle will occur. If I can’t take this current burden on, then there’s no way I could endure in the future.

I moved my horse at a reasonably slow pace. Laura matched my speed. This was for the sake of engraving the sight before me even more into my brain and eyes. The sound of flames crackling and flesh being chewed on didn’t leave my ears for a while.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. This was a lot easier to translate compared to the last chapter. Repetition hurts. In any case, I still hate the new WordPress update. They removed useful functions cause they apparently haven’t fleshed this update out completely yet. I confirmed this when I asked them where certain functions were, but was told that they’re still trying to improve this update. Please don’t release an update if you haven’t worked everything out. It isn’t an improvement if you’re trying to work back in functions that previously existed.

Bleh, I’ll see you guys in the next release.