Dungeon Defense (WN)

“…….”

It felt like about forty minutes had passed. Daisy opened the iron door and came out.

Daisy’s face contorted when she saw the two of us. It was only natural. An adult man and woman were sitting on the floor and looking at her with expectant eyes. Moreover, the fact that the two people were her father and teacher was probably enough to make her question life itself…….

“What are you two doing?”

Daisy was covered in blood. The scent of blood was mixed together with the fragrance of rosemary, meaning that she most likely used a considerable number of potions. However, that didn’t matter to me. The problem was her face.

“Haaa…….”

Jeremi and I let out a sigh at the same time. Daisy had her usual emotionless look resting on her countenance. An unwavering impassiveness. The two of us shook our heads.

“How could someone not be sad or enraged after cutting up her own brother’s heart…….”

“This teacher of yours is extremely disappointed. How could a child be so uncute?”

“How are we supposed to gain the strength to endure the rest of the day if you do not show us even a slight bit of despair? I cannot believe that raising a child turned out to be this fruitless.”

“This is all your fault, Your Highness. The child built up a tolerance because you put her through so much. You really have no talent in childrearing.”

As our conversation progressed, Daisy’s gaze grew colder. It was a stare reminiscent of looking at food waste, or rather, it was a gaze that looked down upon maggots entangled in food waste.

Unfortunately for you, Daisy, Jeremi and I are dirtier than maggots. They cannot possibly compare to us. Your gaze alone isn’t enough to inflict mental damage on us. Moreover, aren’t you also a fellow maggot now? Let’s not fight and get along peacefully.

“What could I have possibly expected from a fool like you?”

I stood up and grabbed Daisy’s wrist before entering the operation room. Unexpectedly, Daisy followed behind me rather meekly. She was so light that it was almost like I was pulling a bundle of straw. She had most likely consumed a lot of energy focusing on the surgery.

“Hmm?”

Luke was lying passed out in the middle of the room. Only his lower body was covered by a towel, but the rest of his body was so clean that you could barely tell that he had just undergone surgery. I chuckled.

“Despite leaving yourself covered in blood, you cared for your brother quite a lot.”

“…….”

“Well, never mind. Repeat after me.”

First, Luke cannot harm Dantalian.

Second, Luke cannot harm those dear to Dantalian, and he must never turn away when Dantalian and those dear to him are in danger.

Third, Luke must obey Dantalian’s orders.

Fourth, Luke will prioritize Dantalian’s life over his own.

These were the same commands I had long ago imposed on Daisy.

I made sure to also add ‘Between Daisy’s command and my command, Luke must prioritize my command first’. Daisy repeated my words in a flat tone. Now Luke and Daisy were both my slaves.

‘Status’.

I murmured in my head as I gazed at Luke. The usual wretched sound effect rang out as a blue status screen appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Luke Race: Human　　 Master: Daisy Attribute: Good(55)

Level: 21　　　　Fame: 1,788 Job: Adventurer(C), Swordsman(A+)

Leadership: 43/100　　Might: 107/140 　　Intelligence: 27/125 Politics: 29/95　　Charm: 84/100　　Technique: 19/81

Affection: 50

*Titles: 1. Legendary Adventurer 2. Legendary Mercenary 3. Dungeon Breaker ( – ) *Abilities: Tactics(C), Swordsmanship(A), Operation Arts(C), Persuasion(E), Horsemanship(A), Elemental Magic ( – ) *Skills: Volunteer Soldier, Clarity( – ), Lethal Move Nullify ( – )

Current thought: [Unconscious] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I smiled bitterly. As usual, his stats were amazing.

Even though his level was only in the 20s, his Might stat was ridiculously high. This was thanks to the effects of his titles. With both the titles <Legendary Adventurer> and <Legendary Mercenary> active simultaneously, his Might increased by a whopping 12 points every time he leveled up.

Since the title <Legendary Adventurer> was activated relatively late, this was actually on the lower side. If he had activated it earlier, he could’ve reached his limit of 140 by now.

This was how it manifested in reality—overwhelming talent.

After witnessing a display of swordsmanship just once, Luke could not only replicate it effortlessly but also master it completely within a fortnight’s time. By the end of a month, he could seamlessly integrate the technique into his own style, adapting and employing it as though it had been ingrained in him since childhood.

There was no other way to describe him but as a genius. The time he took to learn something was unbelievably short. Everyone who had taught Luke and Daisy praised them as unprecedented talents.

For instance, while Luke had high Might stats, his Intelligence stat was lacking. On the other hand, Daisy’s intelligence stat was outstanding. Despite being only fifteen years old, she had already mastered eleven languages and voraciously consumed books on geometry and philosophy written in the ancient imperial language.

……How lucky of them.

There was a lot I wanted to say to them, but it was fine. However, it wasn’t like I took Daisy in as my adopted daughter and Luke as my godson for no reason. They themselves will probably never know the reason.

“Daisy, I order you as well. You cannot order Luke to perform an action that may harm me or those dear to me. Exceptions can only be made when given my direct approval.”

“Understood.”

Daisy glanced at me.

“It’s done now.”

“Hm? What are you saying is done?”

“The first promise made between us. It has been fulfilled.”

I furrowed my brows, failing to understand what she meant.

Shortly after, the answer struck me like a bolt of lightning.

“……You.”

“Father, you promised that you would not kill Luke under ‘any circumstances’ should Luke swear his true allegiance to you. Luke is now bound to you, Father. The wager is over.”

Ah.

Ahh?

My facial expression contorted greatly.

The conditions I set for Daisy were as follows: If Luke enters into a magical slave contract, pledging both his body and soul, then I would acknowledge it as Daisy’s victory. And as Daisy said, Luke had just entered into such a contract.

It was Daisy’s victory.

Up to this point, it was fine. I lose nothing even if Daisy wins this bet. Naturally, I already took this into account when casting the slave contract.

The issue was Daisy’s goal.

“You……. Don’t tell me you did all this just to protect Luke?”

Until now, I thought that Daisy wanted to make Luke a slave to erase his name from my list of candidates. However, she was going out of her way to emphasize here that she had won the bet.

In other words, it was a lie.

Threatening me to remove Luke from my list of candidates and going on about how she was the only person allowed to kill me were all farces.

Her only goal was to protect her precious brother from my grasp.

Daisy spoke.

“I was shaken when I realized that you considered Luke as one of your candidates. No matter how you think about it, Luke is in no way capable of facing you. If things went according to your plan and you managed to raise Luke, he would undoubtedly perish at your hands, Father.”

“…….”

“Thus, I had to nip the danger in the bud.”

My rage gradually built up.

I growled out my words, making it sound as if I would tear her apart at any moment.

“Were you lying when you swore to kill me?”

“No, that was not a lie. I was being genuine. However…….”

The corners of Daisy’s lips curled upward.

“There is no reason for me to make that kind of vow for you, Father, am I wrong?”

I instinctively slapped Daisy’s cheek.

Daisy slumped weakly to the ground. However, she didn’t scream. Lying on the cold stone floor, Daisy looked up at me. A smirk played across her lips.

“Are you upset, Father, because I prioritized Luke before you? How amusing. Father, you are someone who monopolized the affection of all. It is unsightly to see you this upset simply because you were unable to monopolize my—.”

I didn’t even wait for her to finish her sentence as I kicked her in the abdomen. She finally let out a slight groan this time. I had yet to vent out all my anger so I stepped on her a couple more times.

It took me a while to calm my breathing. My anger-fueled breaths were flowing up my lungs and out of my mouth. Daisy simply stared at me with narrowed eyes. She did let out a few painful groans, but it didn’t seem like she was in much distress.

If anything, she looked triumphant.

There was a pride of victory in Daisy’s eyes. I could see it. Daisy let out a cough before smiling.

“Father, do you wish to monopolize me entirely?”

“…….”

“If you wish for me to look at you and you alone, then you must also look at me and me alone. If I put my eyes solely on you only to see that your eyes are wandering here and there…… That is not exactly fair, now is it?”

Daisy laughed. She must’ve suffered an internal injury as she coughed out some blood.

“Everyone refuses to tell you the truth, Father, so I will be the one to do so. You did not love Demon Lord Paimon. Not one bit.”

“How dare you!”

I drove the tip of my foot into Daisy’s abdomen again. Despite my effort, the smile on her lips refused to disappear, enraging me further.

“Demon Lord Paimon had become a doll who prioritized you and you alone. But what does that matter? If you had also prioritized only Demon Lord Paimon, it would have been fine. In the end, you—Ugh!”

I had fully pressed my shoe against Daisy’s chest this time. This seemed to be effective as Daisy couldn’t continue her words. However, after about thirty seconds, she seemed to have gotten accustomed to the pain as she murmured.

“In the end, you……did not love her fully…….”

“…….”

“And yet, Father, you wish for me to look at you and you alone, to devote everything I have to killing you……. There is a limit to being unfair and irrational. Did I seem like such a kind child to you……?”

A faint smile danced on Daisy’s lips.

“If you wish to claim me entirely, you must first look at only me. This is the least you can do. The fact that you are trying to monopolize my gaze when you are already looking at Consul Elizabeth and Demon Lord Barbatos…… That is outrageous.”

“You’re just a brat who cannot do anything on your own.”

I gnashed my teeth.

What an incorrigible child. From the moment we first met until now, she has not changed one bit. She’s just been sharpening her fangs. In other words, this was what she was saying to me, “Sacrifice your life to me. Only then can I offer mine to you.”

“If this is how you want to play it, then go ahead. But remember this. I am not someone who would sacrifice everything for someone as trivial as you! No matter how much value you have, you cannot compare to the forty thousand lives on my shoulders!”

“Then you will not be able to monopolize me either, Father.”

After delivering one final kick to Daisy, I left the operating room with long strides.

The faint sound of Daisy’s laughter from behind continued to irk me all the way out.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Does this mean Daisy got one over Dant? I wonder.

In any case, not much else to say. I’ve been pretty swamped with work lately and trying to destress whenever I’m home, so I haven’t been able to translate that much recently. I’m going to hope after the upcoming week, my schedule will loosen a bit again. One can only pray.

Sorry for these late uploads and I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.