Dungeon Defense (WN)

Barbatos’ eyes narrowed. What are you plotting? Are you sane? I inwardly hoped that she would reprimand me severely like this. No Demon Lord values the Crescent Alliance more than she does. There’s a chance that she’d be enraged by the fact that I had arbitrarily created a situation to make the Crescent Alliance form.

However, she pleasantly sent my expectations flying. She laughed.

“Go on. Give me a refreshing explanation.”

Her golden eyes glimmered with curiosity and interest. It seems she thinks that I have some sort of profound scheme. I laughed awkwardly. Something about receiving more trust than expected from the other party made me feel a little ticklish.

We sat on the chairs brought to us by the spectral butlers. I was the first to speak.

“For thousands of years, the Crescent Alliance has failed time and time again. Even though they possessed armies far stronger than the humans’. There’s no doubt here that the internal discourse between Demon Lords and rivalry are the reasons for these failures.”

Barbatos snorted. She was letting her discontent show. It’s obvious what she was discontent about. Barbatos was sick of the foolishness of the other Demon Lords…….

Don’t worry, Barbatos. I’ll destroy every last bit of your stress all at once. You should just act befittingly to your appearance and have a happy life as a teenager. Stress is one of the reasons why your chest doesn’t grow as a teenager.

“Think of it the other way around. Why did the Demon Lords start internal discourse during the wars? Who would do something so insane not once or twice, but 7 times?”

“Because they’re utterly stupid.”

“That’s an interesting hypothesis; however.”

I chuckled. It seems that Barbatos abhorred the other Demon Lords vehemently. I hoped she would calm down a little. We have to proceed with our conversation with absolute calmness and with objective mindsets.

“If the Demon Lords were that idiotic, then they would have never survived until now. From what I understand, the Crescent Alliance failed for one reason: because it was too powerful.”

“Hey, you weasel.”

Barbatos scowled. Weasel? Is that my nickname? No young man is as slender as I am, so this is complete slander. At the very least, I wish she’d call me a fox instead.

“I understand that your head works quite well. I also understand that you’ve lathered your tongue in olive oil. Nonetheless, it failed because it was too powerful? What sort of nonsense is that?”

The situation was like this.

No matter how much manpower is assembled, most human nations aren’t able to gather more than 30,000 to 40,000 men. This may still be considered a large amount, but that isn’t enough to stop a Demon Lord’s forces. Even if they attacked with an army of 30,000, we could easily block them by sending three or four rank 10 and above Demon Lords. Monsters are simply that much stronger than humans.

Even if every nation in the human continent were to form an alliance, they would, at the very most, be able to form an army of 300,000. A majority of their men would also be poorly-trained conscripts. On the other hand, the Crescent Alliance’s forces have the manpower of at least 100,000. All of them being monsters. ‘Overwhelmingly onesided’ is probably a term that was created to be used in situations like this. I wanted to show my appreciation to our ancestors for creating this term for our future generations.

“To be honest, Barbatos, out of all the members of the Crescent Alliance, you’re probably the only Demon Lord who genuinely hopes for the victory of demonkind. To the other Demon Lords, the human nations are nothing more than existences which they can destroy whenever they desire. If anything, what they fear most is their fellow Demon Lords.”

“……Demon Lords being afraid of other Demon Lords?”

“Haven’t you ever thought it was bothersome? A monarch is an existence that stands at the top and leads the people. Who could possibly live comfortably in a nation with 72 monarchs? The only reason this abnormal structure has been allowed is due to the humans’ stubborn tenacity.”

I chuckled.

“Almost every Demon Lord must have thought about this at least once. What’ll happen after we conquer the human world? I’m certain that they’re constantly trembling due to the fear of being killed by a higher-ranking Demon Lord.”

“H-Haa!?”

Barbatos exclaimed with an expression that said she didn’t understand. She looked like she wanted to argue, but I continued before she could.

“I killed Andromalius a short while ago and you took my side. How do you think this appeared like to the other Demon Lords?”

Barbatos isn’t some mere Demon Lord. She’s the head of the Plains Faction. Even if she approached me purely out of goodwill at that time, the others that were watching us would have no other choice but to consider the bigger picture.

“The entire Plains Faction protected Dantalian, the Demon Lord murderer; additionally, the Plains Faction has always despised the Mountain Faction, so they probably wouldn’t think twice about killing other faction members……the other Demon Lords are probably thinking along these lines. The Mountain Faction Demon Lords especially will take this case more seriously.”

“There’s no way…….”

“There’s no way they would? You’ve always gone around calling the Mountain Faction pieces of trash and that you’d take them out if you could. Those threats didn’t sound like bluffs.”

She closed her mouth tightly.

Barbatos, you’re are one of the strong. The strong would never consider the position of the weak. Once she saw the other Demon Lords not participating actively during the war against the humans, she labeled them as cowards and fools. Saying that they weren’t able to win against mere humans because they were dimwitted.

In truth, what they feared most was high-class Demon Lords like her.

It would be appropriate to say that the gap between rank 1 and rank 72 is infinite. In the current situation, the existence of all 72 Demon Lords is acknowledged under the justification of expanding to the human world. If a Demon Lord were to attack another a Demon Lord, they would undoubtedly be criticized as ‘a heinous bastard who has forgotten his duty and attacks his fellow kin instead of the humans.’

What would happen if they managed to actually expand into the human world?

Their greatest enemy known as humans would disappear. Only Demon Lords would remain. Would the 72 monarchs all hold hands and rule the continent gleefully? That’s impossible. In the end, the Demon Lords would go to war against one another and only the high-ranking Demon Lords would survive.

“A majority of the Demon Lords don’t wish to conquer the human world.”

To be more exact, they don’t wish to use up their armies in the process of conquering humans. Defeating the human race wouldn’t mean they’d no longer need armies. If anything, they would need them more than ever before. Therefore, Demon Lords would try to preserve their forces as much as possible, more so the lower their ranks are.

In the beginning, only a small minority of the Demon Lords must have acted selfishly. They wouldn’t lose anything even if the Crescent Alliance failed. After seeing this, gradually, the other Demon Lords began to act selfishly as well. In the end, the anti-war faction that used to be a small minority 2,000 years ago has now become the so-called Mountain Faction and currently consists of almost a majority of the Demon Lords…….

Barbatos went silent. It seems she was putting the dots together.

“Haah.”

She let out a deep sigh.

“Fuck, I see now. So that’s why those fucking brats refused to move their armies to the bitter end. During the 4th…… and the 6th expedition……all of it…… damn it!”

The weak have their own way of survival.

The strong simply comprehended this way of survival as them purely being cowardly and incompetent. Why? Because the strong don’t believe they became strong because they were selfish but because they were brave, competent, and successful. In order to think this way, they have a need to look down on those weaker than them more than necessary. A very simple mental structure.

“Trying to conquer the entire human world with a small minority of the Demon Lords is impossible. Even if a single Demon Lord were to invade, the humans would immediately unite. Therefore, we must gather as many Demon Lords as we can and create the Crescent Alliance. But…….”

“The more Demon Lords gather, the more complicated the command structure becomes; thus, the number of bastards who boldly act greedily increases! Shit.”

That’s right. This is the paradox of all Demon Lords.

They’re unable to defeat their common enemy because their allies are far too powerful. No, they can’t because they could be killed in the not so distant future. Since the situation is like this, the Demon Lords refuse to invade the human world and waste their influence on pointless political strifes while shutting themselves away in their castles.

In the scenario of <Dungeon Attack>, each of the Demon Lord factions begins to decline due to the great era of adventuring before they’re eventually subjugated one by one by the hero’s party. Some Demon Lords might have even been delighted to know that their comrades, who could potentially become their rivals in the future, were killed. They probably sneered and called those who had died as pathetic Demon Lords who’d die by the hands of mere human adventurers.

In the end, as all of demonkind continued to weaken over time, the Demon Lords only realize the severity of the situation after half of them are killed by the hero. They tried to form the Crescent Alliance quickly and retaliate against the humans, but the fight was onesided. One by one, their heads were lopped off by the hero’s sword……Such foolishness.

The issue is that this foolishness wasn’t born from incompetency, but from the very system of there being ’72 Demon Lords’. Thus, it’s a foolishness which they can do nothing about. This was quite a depressing story.

“There’s only one way to get out of this fixed situation.”

“What is it?”

Barbatos looked at me seriously. The girl who had been jokingly flirting with me while rubbing my lower body was nowhere to be seen now. Sitting before me was a single Demon Lord who was thinking about her future and the future of demonkind.

I let out a sigh as I spoke.

“We won’t be the ones to invade, we’ll make the humans invade us. Additionally, we’ll have to decrease the number of Demon Lords to at least half of the current amount.”

“Dantalian.”

She stared right at me. The cold eyes of a monarch were on me.

“Do you understand what you’re saying? You’re suggesting that we should kill half of our kin which there are only 72 of in the world.”

“If we don’t, then all 70 of our kin will perish……!”

I cautioned her.

“Be it slow or fast, the humans will eventually consider the Demon Lords as their mortal enemies because of the Black Death! There’s a chance that some of the other races will be swept up by the groundless rumor and be hostile towards us Demon Lords as well. They will sporadically begin to conquer our Demon Lord Castles and our so-called amazing kin will watch with anticipation as their competitors weaken!”

That was the future that happens in <Dungeon Attack>. As this was something which only I was aware of at this moment, it was a future that was immeasurably cruel to demonkind.

“If we allow ourselves to get to this point, it’d be too late. In our current situation where our forces are entirely intact, we have to unite and decrease the influences in the human world as much as possible. We must sacrifice a few for the sake of all!”

Naturally, this wasn’t my only goal. As long as world conquest is my ultimate goal, it’s more than possible that I’d have to conquer even the Demon Lords.

By causing this war, I’ll weaken both the human and demon world in one fell swoop. The greatest war in the history of both humankind and demonkind will take place. Both sides will incur heavy losses. It will undoubtedly take a long time for either side to recover from the ravages of war.

I’ll grow my own influence after buying myself this time.

It can’t be helped! It’s practically impossible to cultivate my forces through normal means alone! How are my stats compared to Barbatos who’s level 357?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

True Name: Dantalian Race: Demon Lord　　 　Faction: Dantalian’s Demon Lord Army Attribute: Evil(-20)

Level: 21　　　　Infamy: 3750 Job: Dungeon Manager(F), Demon Lord(E)

Leadership: 26/30　　Might: 7/10 　　Intelligence: 30/32 Politics: 24/30　　Charm: 15/20　　Technique: 4/10

*Titles: 1. Demon Lord of Fear *Abilities: Tactics(E), Marksmanship(F), Mining(F) *Skills: Acting

[Achievements: 2] [Subordinates: 42 units/210 units]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rank 8 Barbatos is level 357. There are 7 Demon Lords stronger than her! How long would I have to grind to get my level even remotely high enough to face against those monster-like people? When would I achieve world domination? Would the other Demon Lords do nothing while I’m getting stronger? What about the humans? How would I possibly handle the protagonist in 10 years along with the people in his party who’ll eventually become renowned heroes as well?

I severely lack the time to accomplish anything.

In the end, the best thing I can do is shave away at the forces of my competitors. Not only the Demon Lords, but the protagonist and his capable comrades as well. Even if they become powerful enough to shave down mountains and dry up the ocean, that’s still 10 years from now.

At the current moment, they haven’t reached their peak potentials yet! Even the protagonist must be a 7-year-old kid right now. This is the best opportunity! It’s fine to call this a gamble. Rather than wait for the future where I have no chance of winning, I’d rather put all my cards down now while I can still see a chance.

No, it wasn’t to the degree of just seeing a chance. It was definitely possible for me since I know every piece of information on <Dungeon Attack>! I’ll cut the numbers in both the demon and human world and thoroughly create time for myself. I can accomplish all of this through this single war.

“Barbatos, haven’t you always labelled those Mountain Faction bastards as cowards?”

I spoke desperately and sincerely.

“Most of the Demon Lords who’ll be sacrificed will belong to the Mountain Faction. They’re bastards who’ve already been blinded by greed and have given up on the wishes of demonkind and their duties as Demon Lords. Do you intend to crush the hopes of demonkind by worrying about such individuals!?”

“……Who’ll be the first sacrifice?”

Barbatos asked quietly.

“In order to unite all of the Demon Lords, the human invasion must be massive. An enormous expeditionary force will approach us with their blades held up high and it’s only natural that at least one Demon Lord must fall to this expeditionary force before we can form the Crescent Alliance.”

She was right. The Demon Lords won’t try to cooperate until they see that the danger had gotten right under their noses. Until one, two, or, if we’re unlucky, three of our kin fall, they won’t realize the severity of the situation. If we don’t unite, then we’ll be taken out by the humans one by one, this sense of crisis must be shared.

“I’m sorry, but……the Plains Faction has to make a sacrifice first.”

“Keh. As I expected.”

Barbatos chuckled. She must’ve figured out what my intentions were. If a member of the Plains Faction is killed by the human army first, then Barbatos will naturally have more authority. She could comfortably express her desire to get revenge on the humans. Furthermore, this would also obstruct all of the groundless rumors about how the Plains Faction had created the Black Death…….

Barbatos stood up. She then walked towards me.

“You sure are cruel, Dantalian. You’re seriously cruel.”

There was a gloomy tone in her voice. She stroked her hand up from my stomach, chest, neck, and finally to my cheek. It almost felt as if she were going to take my life right this moment with this hand of hers. I boldly received her touch.

“When I left that mark on Riff’s corpse, I was just looking forward to you see you grow even slightly. I believed that you would quarrel with Belial, compete with the Mountain Faction, and grow to be a splendid Demon Lord after many moons. It seems that I was the runt all along. Keke…….”

“Barbatos.”

“All right. I’ll cooperate. War? That’s what I wanted. Sacrifice? If that was something that I clung to, then I would have given up a long time ago. I can endure anything if it’s for the sake of a single moment of honorable war. I’m a Demon Lord, after all.”

Barbatos turned my chin. Her and my face were nose to nose as we stared at each other. The breath that flowed out from her small lips touched my face.

“But this is surprising and interesting. Dantalian, you definitely did this because you already know what my personality is like……. How far are you looking forward and what do you desire? I’m so curious where your path is going to lead you that I can’t hold back anymore. Look.”

She grabbed my hand and brought it between her legs. She pushed aside her skirt and brought my hand deeper before the tips of my fingers touched a thin layer of cloth. It was soaked.

“I’m wet……The mere thought of how cruel the war you’ll bring will be excites me. It’s my first time meeting such a devilish, nasty, and dog-like person.”

Ah.

It was that again. Her seduction spell. This time Barbatos was softly whispering to me while licking my ear. I felt dizzy. A carnal desire that couldn’t be compared to before drove its way into my ear. It shook my brain and travelled down to my lower body through my spine. My body heated up. A viscous voice kept pouring over me as I desperately tried to maintain my sanity.

“I’ve always wanted to be pounded by a dog-like bastard and pant like a bitch in heat……want to give it a go?”

That was it. My consciousness stopped here. The only thing I could vaguely remember was her and I having intercourse while pushing our way through the vast Demon Lord Palace. We connected in all sorts of different positions while utilizing various things like tables, chairs, and anything else we could get our hands on.

She gasped between moans. I thought as I looked down at her. This is a type of contract. A secret contract between two people about participating in the scheme of making their kin fall to hell from now on…….

Winter approached. The season changed.

On the first spring I met after coming to this world,

Rank 49 Demon Lord Crocell of the Plains Faction fell in battle against the humans’ invasion.

***

Author’s Afterword

━ Chapter <Two Schemes> END.

━ Part 1 is now over. Part 2 will now begin.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Of course this section had to end like this. This reveal about the Demon Lords’ true nature came out a lot sooner in the WN. It does make me curious to see how the war will progress if Barbatos is let in on this sooner.

On another note, since I’m done with this section, I’ll be doing another chapter of Handholding. I sort of do wish that people would read that series more since I genuinely enjoy it. Although recent chapters have been a bit of a struggle cause I sort of feel like I’m repeating myself a lot while translating.

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