Dungeon Defense (WN)

* * *

I won the gamble. 

I inadvertently let out a cheer when Marbas appeared with his 2nd legion. Honestly, I was going to consider the timing and suggest to retreat back to the Black Mountains mainly because the humans will most likely gather faster than the Crescent Alliance. 

However, Marbas took my statement seriously. This was the result of raising his affection. The fact that I didn’t make Paimon pay for her crime during the hearing resulted in the affection of Marbas, who at the time was the moderator of the hearing, going up. That affection influenced this war.

In the end, everything started at the hearing……. I used to belong to no faction, but I created a connection with Barbatos and became a part of the Plains Faction which eventually led to the creation of the 8th Crescent Alliance. Is the world not treacherous? The misfortune that Paimon is currently facing all stems back to something she had done herself.

“So you’re the one who called over old man Marbas, huh?”

Barbatos stared at me quietly. I couldn’t read her gaze.

I revealed several things to her.

The fact that I had planned all of this since the beginning will most likely get revealed in the future, that’s why it was better to disclose a certain amount to Barbatos before then. It’d be troubling if people started to doubt whether I’m an active supporter of the Plains Faction or not, after all. Barbatos makes a great support beam. A support beam that could protect against the attacks of other Demon Lords.

“That’s right.”

“……Why did you trick me?”

I chuckled. Barbatos’ brow twitched.

“You’re laughing? Did you just laugh?”

“Ah, of course. It’s funny, after all.”

Barbatos’ palm came flying towards me. Slap, it struck my cheek.

She wasn’t a normal girl. Her strength stat is in the hundreds. I fell to the ground in an unsightly manner. The inside of my mouth felt numb and I could taste blood. Something solid rolled around my tongue. It was a tooth.

“Don’t laugh.”

An ice-cold voice settled on top of my head. Was she holding back her emotions? Was she so upset that she wouldn’t be able to think straight if she didn’t hold it back? I spat the tooth out.

“I tricked you? Don’t make me laugh. I have never deceived you.”

“You son of a bitch, how dare you try to use sophistry―.”

“Be quiet!”

I pushed myself up and stared right at Barbatos.

Ah, now I could clearly read the emotion in her eyes. It was rage. She believed that I had betrayed her. She was throwing a tantrum because she thought she was deceived by someone she trusted. This isn’t like you, Barbatos.

“Do you remember the day I visited your Demon Lord Castle? The day we drank that damn Baler wine. That was where we first decided to start the Crescent Alliance. It was quite the impressive scheme we came up with, wasn’t it?”

She glared at me. I continued without faltering.

I repeated the conversation we had that day.  ……A majority of Demon Lords don’t want to conquer the human world since the high-ranking Demon Lords might slaughter the low-ranking Demon Lords once they do so. This was the reason for our internal discourse and therefore we must paradoxically lower the number of Demon Lords in order for the Crescent Alliance to succeed…….

Barbatos shouted.

“So what!? You said it yourself, didn’t you!? If those Demon Lords don’t want to fight, then we just have to make those human bastards attack us first!”

I definitely did.

In a not so distant future, the humans will start to despise the Demon Lords to a drastic degree because of the Black Death. At that time, a subjugation of Demon Lords will most likely occur with a hero standing at the forefront. We have to weaken the humans considerably before then. We will make the humans attack us voluntarily and start a war. If this happens, then even the selfish Demon Lords will have no other choice but to fight earnestly. ―This is what I had stated.

However.

“Are you not forgetting something, Barbatos?”

“What?”

“There’s something else that I said.”

I let out a laugh.

“I definitely said that ‘we have to greatly reduce the number of Demon Lords.'”

“……!”

Barbatos’ complexion changed. Now she remembered.

I strangely felt pleased. My cheek that had gotten struck by her started to feel sore. I continued talking.

“Did you think that the number of Demon Lords would be reduced if we just start the Crescent Alliance? Did you think that’s the only method that I considered? I have no other choice but to say that you’ve severely underestimated your lover’s ability……Kuh.”

“You…….”

“Yeah. I did everything.”

I intentionally told her to take the margrave’s land. This way, the leading members of human society would become anxious.

I intentionally asked her to capture the crown prince. This way we could lure in the other nations.

I intentionally did nothing even though I knew that Paimon would come.

“This way we could bring in the other Demon Lords!”

I got worked up and shouted.

“The Plains Faction is the bait! A venus fly trap that’s meant to lure in the armies of both the demon and human world! Here, in the Bruno Plains of Habsburg, the armies of all nations will gather. The nightmare will start here.”

“…….”

“I tricked you? Let me say this again. Don’t be ridiculous. In the first place, you agreed that we had to lower the number of Demon Lords. This was also the purpose of the Crescent Alliance. Up to this point, I have constantly been loyal to this goal of ‘ours’. Am I wrong?”

Barbatos refused to answer. She had lowered her head, so I could no longer see what sort of expression she was making. However, I know that if it’s her, she should come to the realization that I was right.

Barbatos muttered with her head still lowered.

“Then……you could have told me beforehand.”

“No.”

I answered immediately.

“We have to thoroughly make the Plains Faction out to be the victims. We absolutely cannot allow the word to spread that we had deliberately set all of this up. Look. You were able to cry genuinely because I didn’t tell you. The Demon Lords and monsters that saw you will treat you as the undeniable victim.”

I, Dantalian, was able to coincidentally notice Paimon’s scheme because I happened to doubt her. This has to be the main scenario that’s established.

The Plains Faction will gain a justification once the 8th Crescent Alliance comes to an end. The justification of having fought at the forefront for the sake of demonkind. On the other hand, the Mountain Faction will lose their goal of ‘attacking their allies for the sake of demonkind’ and simply become known as ‘the faction that tried to attack their own kind’.

If we’re lucky, then the current political situation with the Mountain Faction above the Plains Faction will end up reversed……This will push the Demon Lord armies further into turmoil. 

“If you wish to trick your enemies, you must first trick your allies. This is a basic strategy. It may not be praiseworthy, but what I did was not something that warranted a slap.”

“…….”

Another long silence fell over us.

How much time had passed? Barbatos abruptly asked a question.

“What about that……human advisor of yours?”

“Huh?”

The question was so out of the blue, that I ended up asking back. My human advisor, in other words, she meant Laura De Farnese. Why was she bringing up Laura here? I didn’t understand.

Barbatos asked again.

“I’m asking you whether that human advisor of yours knew or not. The fact that you had controlled everything about this war.”

“……No. She knows a certain amount, but she doesn’t know everything. I’m not the type of person to tell people everything just because they’re my subordinate.”

“Then, is there anyone else?”

Lapis came to mind.

“There is.”

“Is it only one person? Or several?”

Her questions were becoming more ambiguous. No, is there some sort of meaning behind these questions? I recalled Ivar Lodbrok and answered.

“Two. Probably.”

“Two, huh.”

Another silence.

What was she getting at?

Barbatos slowly got up while I was staying silent since I didn’t know what to say. She then murmured something in a whisper. I didn’t know what she had said, but I could tell that she had cast a spell.

“All right.”

Barbatos spoke.

“This place has been completely sealed. No one will be able to hear us even if one of us were to scream.”

A sense of unease washed over me.

I spoke in an extremely courteous tone. 

“……Uhm, Miss Barbatos. Why did you cast such a spell?”

“Hoo.”

She smiled slyly.

“So you’re saying that you’ve been all comfortable by yourself even though the people around you have been miserable, huh? Adding to this, there are two people in the world who know something that I don’t?”

“H-Huh?”

“You have to first trick your allies in order to trick your enemies? Bullshit. Then am I just an ally and those two people are your true allies?”

The situation was taking a weird turn.

Barbatos seemed to be incredibly upset about something. Her face was smiling, but the aura she was emitting wasn’t pleasant at all. If anything, she looked more annoyed than when she slapped me earlier.

“You were my first, too……. Someone like you went around cheating on me?”

“W-Wait! Cheat? Cheeeat? What kind of nonsense is that!?”

I yelled in fear.

“When did we officially become a thing!?”

“You fucker. I’ve been a maiden for 2,000 years. You have to take responsibility when you fuck a worldly maiden, you know? Not only did you not cherish me more than anyone else, but you dared to trick me as well?”

“When did I fuck you!? You fucked me!”

“Hah. I was a maiden and you weren’t.”

Is she insane!?

I raised a finger.

“Who cares whether you were a maiden or not!? Who’s the one who used their seduction spell and forced me to get excited!?”

Barbatos’ brow twitched. She was definitely smiling, but there was a shadow over her face. It was as if I had dared to mess with her royal anger.

“Oh, what? Did you not like having sex with me?”

“No, well, that’s not what…….”

“Then did you enjoy it?”

I nodded very cautiously. I was certain that if I responded negatively, then a scythe would immediately be summoned to send my head flying. In truth……it wasn’t that bad either.

Barbatos spoke in an even tone.

“In conclusion, you enjoyed having sex with a girl who looks like a 12-year-old on the outside and, even though you were that girl’s first man, you didn’t take responsibility like a man and decided to deceive her.”

“…….”

“The public likes to refer to men like you as sons of bitches, you son of a bitch.”

No, this is definitely wrong. She isn’t wrong if you look at the situation without any context……but, in any case, this is a false accusation.

Furthermore, it may have been Barbatos’ first time with a guy, but hasn’t she played with women numerous times? What does she expect to accomplish by acting pure, by acting as if her first time had been taken by a guy? Why is the flow of the conversation turning me out to be the bad guy now?

“Additionally, it’s only appropriate for sons of bitches to get beat up like sons of bitches.”

Something was summoned in Barbatos’ hand.

It was a whip.

A cold sweat went down my back.

I managed to open my mouth, but my tongue trembled on its own.

“B-Barbatos, I’m not sure why you’re mad, but let’s have a rational conversation. Okay?”

“You retard. I’m upset because you don’t know why I’m upset.”

Barbatos grabbed the whip with both hands and pulled at it as if to test its strength. At the very least, the whip looked incredibly firm from my perspective. This absolutely wasn’t a good piece of information to receive on my end.

“Furthermore, my anger has been piling up every single time you opened your mouth and said something. So it’d be a good idea to keep your mouth shut.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry for not telling you about my plan beforehand!”

For now, I tried apologizing. I don’t believe I did anything wrong, but I remember being told that apologizing to women was usually always the right answer.

However, Barbatos continued to only smile slyly for some reason. 

“Retards remain retards till the very end. Hah, how could I have let someone like you get the best of me!?”

“U-Uaaaaah!?”

The tip of the whip flew towards at a terrifying speed.

I will omit what followed after for the sake of protecting my dignity.

However, I will mention that I begged in every conceivable way and, ultimately, I managed to calm Barbatos down. Of course, the reason why she was so upset still remains a mystery.

She liked me because I was like a dog, but now she beat me up because I was like a dog.

This is a guess, but it might be because I made her do something embarrassing like cry in front of her subordinates. Barbatos is a very proud person, after all. She might treat this as a type of eternal humiliation. If this is the case, then it’s understandable that she would beat me up this much.

Nonetheless, even if this were the case, isn’t it unfair? It’s illogical……. If I weren’t such a benevolent man, I would’ve become sullen and left the Plains Faction a long time ago. What a wretched woman.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. These chapters have been pretty fun to translate. Compared to other stories I’ve worked on, I can at least rely on the DD author to word his sentences properly and not repeat the same type of phrases over and over again. In a lot of the Korean WNs I’ve seen, they strangely like to use the same expression almost constantly throughout the chapter. Maybe Korean people don’t mind it as much, but I personally dislike seeing a lot of repetition since it’s like one of the things that’s drilled into you when you’re little: that you should avoid repetition in writing. Sort of feels like lazy writing when the same structure is seen constantly. Well, rant aside, life goes on. I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.