Dungeon Defense (WN)

Ten days after I got injured. My condition had visibly improved.

I could move my lips and look around. It was only a matter of time before I could speak again. The twenty hours I would usually spend being unconscious had decreased drastically as well. I was now conscious for about six hours a day.

The first person I saw the moment I opened my eyes was Lapis. Lapis glanced at me and gave a curt nod before calling the healing priest as if she somehow knew that I would be waking up now.

“Amazing. This is almost like a miracle.”

An incredibly old priest let out a voice of awe.

“If you were human, then you definitely would not have awoken. I did hear rumors about the bodily functions of Demon Lords…….”

“Does that mean His Highness has made a complete recovery?”

Lapis cut the priest off before he could go on a long monologue. The priest smacked his lips as if he were unsatisfied that he couldn’t beautifully express what he felt.

“Yes. However, he has been unconscious for far too long. He will need a considerable amount of time to recover his stamina. In other words, the only thing he has left to do is restore his strength.”

Lapis brought her hands together and bowed courteously.

Both the priest and I were surprised. Lapis was no longer a mere demon merchant. She was now the close aide of a ruler who held a prominent position in the Demon Lord Army. Someone of this stature had bowed her head.

“P-Please raise your head. I am a commoner by birth.”

“One’s status does not matter under the umbrella known as life. Status means nothing to someone who saves and heals the lives of others.”

Lapis responded with her head down.

“If you are ever in need of assistance, I, Lapis Lazuli, promise as His Highness Dantalian’s Chancellor, to do my utmost to assist you in any way that I can.”

“Haha.”

The priest laughed partially awkwardly, but also happily.

“I am nothing more than a doctor who was hired momentarily by the government. Rather than me, it would be more appropriate to show your gratitude to Batavia’s government. However, since it was the government’s fault for the gathering’s poor security, in the end, you do not have to thank anyone. Please raise your head.”

“My intention remains the same.”

The priest surrendered before Lapis’ persistence. The old man spoke despondently as he left the room.

“They say that you can see a ruler through their vassals. After meeting you, Miss Lazuli, I understand how the Count Palatine was able to arrive together with the Saintess of Brittany despite being a Demon Lord. May Artemis’ smile never stop falling upon you.”

On a side note, this entire conversation was carried out in the ancient imperial language.

The mage knew it because it was his basic language, but how was Lapis able to use it so fluently when she was born as a peasant and lived her entire life as a merchant? Lapis is way too gifted.

Once we were the only ones left in the room, Lapis sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“…….”

“…….”

Lapis glanced at my face.

It felt awkward doing nothing, so I pointed at the area around Lapis’ eyes. There were distinct bags underneath her eyes. I had to communicate with my hand gestures, so I kept it simple.

‘Right now, under your eyes, no joke.’

Once I did, Lapis let out a sigh.

What? I said that as a way of being considerate to a woman. I felt a little hurt, but I then came to the realization that that was the first thing I communicated to someone after being practically unconscious for ten days.

Hm. I’m quite the character as well.

* * *

“Hey, what’s up with your Chancellor?”

Barbatos abruptly complained after she came to visit me.

“What? Is there a problem with Lapis?”

Half a month had passed since I initially became bedridden. I had recovered considerably since then and was now capable of having normal conversations as long as I didn’t have to raise my voice.

“You probably don’t know about this, but she’s been holding everyone by the balls.”

Barbatos plopped herself down on the chair. She folded her legs and seemed rather displeased as she furrowed her brows.

“Do you think I wouldn’t have rushed over the moment I heard that you got injured? I came all the way here and saw that bitch Paimon walking around. She asked if she could go in, but your Chancellor got in the way and refused to move.”

I was impressed. Succubi are treated as parasites among demons, and Lapis is scorned even further for being a half-succubus. Despite this, she was able to block Paimon, the Rank 9 Demon Lord.

“I will admit that our Lapis is rather bold.”

“I also chimed in and asked to be let in, but she still refused. I got annoyed and was going to use my control power, but what she said next was really something.”

I am in charge of His Highness’ Demon Lord Army during his absence.

Ignoring my words is comparable to stepping on the collective will of His Highness’ army.

If you still do not care, then you may go on ahead.

“I was so baffled.”

Barbatos grumbled.

“So? Did you ignore her?”

“Hmph. That’s the way she wanted to play it, so I removed my rank and fought her on even ground.”

Barbatos let out a snort.

She brought her hand to her own collar and pulled out a necklace. It was the necklace that had two of my left fingers.

“I showed her this and said this to her: You pink-haired brat, I didn’t come here as a Demon Lord but as the woman who had sex with the man behind that door hundreds of thousands of times. It doesn’t matter if you’re a chancellor or whatever, you don’t have the right to stop sex camaraderie.”

“Pfft.”

How should I say it? It was really a Barbatos-like answer.

“Fuck, she let me in after I said that. Do I, of all people, really have to get permission from a low-ranking demon now? Sheesh. I should’ve died a long time ago, but I kept on crawling just to see a glimpse of hope.”

I chuckled.

“Don’t hate Lapis too much. She’s someone I like.”

“That depends on you.”

The glint in Barbatos’ eyes changed.

“All right. Let’s get straight to the point. Who’s the culprit?”

“…….”

“I let a couple of my kids go around to investigate and people seem to be talking about how the Consul is suspicious.”

I smiled faintly.

Barbatos didn’t know what happened behind the curtains. Her perspective was purely that of an outsider. Therefore, it should be fine to conclude that Barbatos’ thoughts were the general opinion among third parties.

Currently, both the political world and high society were clamoring over this attack.

I had become popular due to the winter diplomatic battle. An assassination attempt was made on my life when my value was reaching its peak. Whether I was going to die or not, who the culprit was, and how much this event will influence other things……. There were a lot of topics that were being discussed.

The representative groups of each nation strongly criticized the Batavia Republic.

A bombing and an assassination attempt had occurred at a gathering of influential people. To make matters worse, the culprit behind the assassination attempt was still unknown. I doubt people trusted Batavia’s ability now. There was also a considerable number of representative groups that returned to their nations.

With this, there was a drastically low probability that a republican representative meeting would be held……. Or, at the very least, one hosted by Batavia. Paimon had failed.

If Batavia couldn’t hold one, then the only place left was the Habsburg Republic; however, this was more impossible for them. There were suspicions on Consul Elizabeth for being the one who attempted the assassination. Furthermore, there were some republicans who saw Elizabeth as a dictator…….

Everything was going according to plan.

There was only one final puzzle piece left.

“Barbatos.”

“Hm?”

“Let’s close this incident right now.”

Barbatos’s expression twisted in confusion.

“……Let me ask you this first. Why?”

“We discussed last time that it was still fifty years too early for our Demon Lord Army to conquer the continent. If we perpetuate the situation, then this will turn into a war. So…….”

“So it really was that bitch.”

Barbatos growled.

“If the culprit was a normal person, then this wouldn’t turn into a war. The culprit is someone whom you can’t get revenge on unless you go to war, right? Tell me I’m right.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Then who’s the bastard that stabbed you!?”

For an instant, the room trembled along with the entire building.

Barbatos’ golden eyes were filled with bloodlust. A magic aura that could even suffocate me, a Demon Lord, poured out from her body. The air inside the room trembled in fear of Barbatos.

Aah, this is why I didn’t tell Barbatos…….

Look. Let’s say I were to tell her that I stabbed myself willingly. Barbatos will undoubtedly ask why I would do such a thing.

At that point, I would have no other choice but to honestly admit that it was to stop Paimon. I would be telling this to Barbatos, the person who hates Paimon the most in the world. How would someone like that react?

Barbatos went berserk back when I only lost a single finger, so this would definitely lead to a civil war.

Despite this, I don’t like lying to Barbatos, so skirting around the answer was the best I could do.

“Barbatos, calm down and listen to me. There is something I want to ask of you.”

“What……?”

“Yeah, a request. I’m going to need you to do a little acting from now on.”

My plan was like this:

After leaving my room, Barbatos will angrily return to the Habsburg Republic. Once she returns, she’ll start rallying her army and make it seem like she was going to invade another country soon.

On my end, I will declare my intent to publicly reveal the culprit’s identity. I will also make the declaration with a nuance that sounds like a war was going to break out soon.

This will most likely confirm people’s suspicions about Consul Elizabeth being the culprit. They will tremble in fear at the thought of another war unfolding. The entire continent will be on edge.

At that moment, the Saintess will visit me.

The Saintess and I will have a private conversation. What the conversation was about will not be recorded, but the fact that we had met will. The private conversation will have to last for more than half a day.

I will immediately make another announcement afterward.

—I was so moved by the Saintess’ genuine aspiration for the peace of the continent that I will not reveal the identity of the culprit behind the assassination attempt.

War would approach quickly before fading away abruptly. The people of the continent will most likely praise the Saintess of Brittany. I can ride the bandwagon and pretend as if I genuinely support something as silly as ‘continental peace’ as well.

Saintess Longwy who supported peace until the very end even though she was attacked.

A Demon Lord who stopped a war from starting even though he was attacked because he was moved by the Saintess.

This will clear our images perfectly.

“Barbatos, we discussed this before. We concluded that we must not start another war for the next fifty years. This should be enough to last us fifty years.”

“…….”

“You will pretend to be pro-war, while I’ll pretend to be anti-war. Whenever an incident occurs on the continent, you and I will put on a show to the humans by taking opposite sides. And, in the end, we will show a performance where you get suppressed.”

People are cunning.

If someone suddenly advocates peace for no reason, then they aren’t trusted immediately. Especially if the person is a Demon Lord, a kind that has started wars for the past thousands of years.

A performance is necessary to get rid of those kinds of doubts. By putting forward a Saintess as a cast member and creating a non-existent assassin, the image of a ‘Demon Lord who advocates peace’ can be made.

If I point my finger at Elizabeth, then this will turn into a battle of evidence. Naturally, we don’t have anything like that. If a truth spell gets involved, then we would absolutely lose.

However, conversely, if I don’t say that Elizabeth is the culprit—then she would contrarily be suspected more.

The culprit is Elizabeth, but the Saintess and Demon Lord who loves peace overlooked the incident due to their mercy. This is how the scenario will progress.

Barbatos quietly listened to my explanation.

She then suddenly asked me a question.

“Dantalian, don’t tell me you’re intentionally not announcing the culprit for my and the Plains Faction’s sake?”

“Of course not.”

My silence is for my sake.

This seemed to convince Barbatos as she let out a sigh.

“All right. I’ll go along with your act this time…… but you better explain everything clearly to me later.”

I smiled brightly.

I’ll tell you when your relationship with Paimon gets better.

Although that day will probably never come.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I wish I could say that I wasn’t that busy with work anymore, but I really can’t. There’s still some residue work left for that Chinese game and more work is getting piled on top of that because of how long I was on that project. The virus scanner work actually got more annoying because the last file I received is a 60-page PowerPoint presentation. This entire thing screams, “I was told to make it long, so I decided to fill it with 90% redundancies where I just repeat the points I made during the first 10 pages, but for another 50 pages.” Would be a lot easier if I could copy and paste, but the person somehow figured out how to alter the words enough that I can’t copy and paste previous stuff. God, it’s just so annoying. Somehow, the Chinese game is 3 times better than this. I didn’t think it’d be possible.

Rant aside, I’ll see you guys in the next chapter if I’m still alive.

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