Dungeon Defense (WN)

The temple was on a cliff.

The dark waves crashed against the cliff and dispersed. Pure white marble pillars were lined up far above where the waves could never reach. The pillars were toppled over miserably.

The roof was partially collapsed and there were several pillars that had crumbled at the waist. They could not endure the test of time as they made up the lost empty space and emanated the light scent of the sea. Thus, the temple was half enveloped by sunlight while the other half was enshrouded in shadows.

It was the same for the people gathered here as well. They were enveloped by the sunlight and the shadow as they stared at the empty ground in the center of the temple. They were waiting for someone’s voice to fill that empty space.

“Finally, the time has come.”

In order to meet their expectations―Demon Lord Paimon opened her mouth. The ocean sunlight and the ocean darkness had gently settled over her.

“The human nations have become divided. The Demon Lord army has become disorganized. The ghosts that have been wandering the plains, mountains, and rivers have died. Humans, for the sake of glory. Demons, for the sake of rich land. These fake justifications are finally breathing their last breaths.”

The sound of waves resonated quietly between Paimon’s words. Even now, the powerful waves continued to crash against the cliff endlessly.

“Right now, we have been given a mandate from Heaven.”

“The mandate from Heaven is ordering us to present a cruel demise to those false justifications. The mandate from Heaven is ordering us to destroy all of the crowns and thrones that exist in the world.”

It felt like the temple was traveling back in time, returning to a time when it was still shining radiantly as Paimon continued to speak.

“The mandate from Heaven is ordering us to release the people who are suffering simply because they were born as commoners from their chains. It is ordering us to not accept the irrationalities of the world simply because they are treated as being natural and that we must destroy these irrationalities because they must not be treated as being natural. Comrades, we do not require a reason beyond this.”

The people gathered around Paimon nodded their heads in silence.

“There are numerous reasons as to why justice should not exist. It is too difficult. It is impossible. We can give thousands of excuses to drag justice down. On the other hand, justice only has one reason to exist.

Paimon raised her glass cup.

“Because it is right!”

Dozens of people followed suit and raised their glass cups as well.

“People are occasionally disgusting. The masses are occasionally wicked. Therefore, we do not act for the sake of the people or the masses. Similarly, we are not acting simply because we despise nobles. There is only one reason for our actions―.”

“Because they are right!”

Someone shouted. Once they did, the others raised their voices as well.

“”Simply because they are right!””

Paimon nodded. She brought her glass to her lips as if she believed that there was no reason to say anything more. The wine flowed down the side of her transparent glass cup and into her mouth. A bit of the wine strayed down a different path and flowed down Paimon’s jawline.

Paimon threw her glass on the ground.

“For revolution!”

Soon after, dozens of other glass cups were tossed on the marble floor. The cups shattered into tens of hundreds of brilliant shards. The smell of the sea, the smell of life rotting away enveloped those glass shards for a moment.

* * *

The construction of the dungeon was handled according to Lapis’ advice. 

As she suggested, once we gathered the representatives from a bunch of different building industries and told them to put forward a budget, Dear Lord, the initial price of 20 million gold that was demanded had shrunk to 14 million gold. It had gone down by a whole 6 million gold.

The dwarf representative from <Scarlet Marble Architecture>, who was the first one to ask for 20 million gold, was so fidgety that he couldn’t meet my eyes. Of course, I wasn’t the type of person to not say something about this.

“Look here, Chief. I have experienced all sorts of things throughout my life, but this is the first time I have ever made 6 million gold in only 4 days. This is all thanks to you.”

“……O-Our group can build Your Highness’ abode with only a total of 13,500,000 gold!”

The dwarf responded while sweating profusely. I smiled contently.

“Well, people are innately greedy creatures. In this regard, you are quite the splendid person, dwarf chief. A splendid man of character. There are not many people in the world whom I have complimented the character of, so you can be proud of this.”

“I-I am unworthy of such praise.”

“This is not about being worthy or not. I get you. Hahaha.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. The dwarf was sweating so much that his beard was on the brink of being drenched.

Heated discussions were carried out throughout the rest of the day. This was for the task of building an underground dungeon with 10 floors. How was it going to be designed and how were the pathways going to be arranged?

Most importantly, they were taking on my request with fresh eyes. It was the task of creating a maze-like dungeon. Furthermore, they had to create a village for demons beyond the thick labyrinth walls. Despite being goblins and dwarves who have been in this field for thousands of years, this was the first time they had ever been given a task like this.

As the discussion continued, their opinions naturally split into two sides. Goblins and dwarves.

A goblin frothed at the mouth as he shouted.

“Keruruk! You stupid dirt lovers! Why can’t you understand something so simple!? If you don’t raise the ceilings of the central paths, then that will make it difficult for the bigger demons to move!”

“Hmph, as expected of green moles. You guys can only think about one thing but not another.”

A dwarf let out a snort. His snort was so strong that it made his white beard flutter.

“If you raise the ceiling too much, then that would weaken the structure. The Demon Lord Castle would collapse in less than a thousand years.”

“That’s because you guys lack in skill. Keruk, You just have to support each floor with orichalcum.”

“Hah, you really are a race of creatures with tomato juice in your skulls. Support each floor with orichalcum? I can’t imagine how much that would possibly cost. Don’t even mention 20 million gold, 30 million gold wouldn’t be enough either.”

“You don’t have to refine the ore. Keruruk, put the ores in whole! You guys always lack in creativity. This is a Demon Lord Castle. It’s overflowing with magic! It’s incomparable to other places.”

I held back a yawn as I watched the two races argue.

I have no idea what orichalcum is, but it’s probably an incredibly delicate and important issue to professionals in the building industry.

“Lapis, why are they getting so worked up?”

I quietly asked her. Lapis was standing next to me. She was participating as my secretary and the top advisor of this project.

Lapis also answered in a small voice.

“Goblins and dwarves have always despised each other. The two races have a lot of professional fields that their skills overlap in, after all. It is similar to how succubi and nymphs hate each other.”

“Hm? What do nymphs usually specialize in?”

“Naturally, prostitution.”

Aha, is that so? A majority of occupations were determined by one’s race, huh? Lapis must have noticed my interest as she elaborated further.

“Prostitutes have a ranking system as well. Although the standard is slightly different depending on the hell, they are roughly divided into Tier 3, Tier 2, and Tier 1. Tier 3 prostitutes only provide bodily satisfaction. On the other hand, Tier 1 prostitutes follow their customers to balls and other sorts of social gatherings. They could be referred to as the Flowers of the Banquet.”

“I see.”

“Succubi are mostly Tier 3 and Tier 2 prostitutes. A majority of Tier 1 prostitutes are nymphs. Due to this, despite being prostitutes all the same, they mock and belittle one another.”

Scorn and envy can be found anywhere.

I felt rather cynical as I sneered.

“How foolish.”

“Yes, it is severely irrational.”

“Hm. There are people who are only able to defend their existences by scorning others.”

We turned our gazes back to where the heated discussion was still taking place. The goblins and dwarves were practically at each others’ throats now. There was probably something else other than their pride as master craftsmen that was making them behave like this.

I turned to glance at Lapis and chuckled.

“So that’s why you deliberately called for both the goblins and dwarves, Lapis.”

“Pardon me?”

“People tend to become irrational when their pride gets needlessly involved. If these builders worked together to raise the price, then I would have had no other choice but to pay 20 million gold. It would have probably gone like this if we had either called for only the goblins or only the dwarves.”

However, Lapis had deliberately called for the two races that were hostile toward one another. We goblins can build it better than them! We dwarves can build it more efficiently than them! ……They wound up competing not only for profits but with their pride on the line as well.

I smiled.

“Should I call it pride in one’s race? In any case, when a group’s pride is on the line, they tend to gladly take the loss in profits for the sake of winning. This is a splendid idea, Lapis. I will give you a bonus pay later.”

“……It is interesting.”

Lapis stared at me with her lazurite blue eyes.

“Hm?”

“You are completely ignorant when it comes to commerce. From what I can tell, you also do not excel at military tactics either. Despite this, be it commerce or military tactics, when a bit of intrigue is involved, your insight becomes like that of a different person.”

I’m not sure, but I think she was complimenting me.

“As I thought, you need a working group under you, Sir Dantalian. If a group of competent professionals were to gather under you, then they would most likely be able to perform a terrifying opera under your command.”

“Ah. I was already planning to go out for a bit after this matter is settled with.”

The construction of the dungeon wasn’t something that would end within a few days. It has to get started first. Once it does, I plan to go around the continent for the sake of finding talented individuals. I would like to hire at least 4 people if possible. If things go well, that is.

Well, there was also the request that Paimon happened to give me as well. I should be able to do that at the same time.

The heated debate between the goblins and the dwarves finally came to an end after six hours.

A few fisticuffs were exchanged during the argument, but I didn’t feel like stopping them, so Lapis and I watched them fight with interest while pouring each other wine. I bet 5 gold that the goblin would win while Lapis bet 5 gold that the dwarf would win. The dwarf won. That was the instant I decided to never make a bet with Lapis.

“We would like to present Your Highness’s royal abode for 17 million gold.”

“We humble ones will create a Demon Lord Castle far superior to any other for 12 million gold.”

The estimated price was split into two sides.

The first price was higher for the sake of building larger hallways. Most of the goblins supported the first price. They claimed that a higher ceiling would allow larger monsters to move with ease and create a better environment for monsters to live.

The second price’s goal was to save as much money as possible. The dwarves supported this idea. They wanted to only raise the ceilings for the floors where large monsters would reside while lowering the ceilings on the other floors.

With these two proposals before me-

“My Demon Lord Castle will have ten floors. I will leave each floor to a different group.”

I took in both races.

This was also suggested to me by Lapis. If we leave the work to only one group, then there would be no more competition. All of the architecture groups gathered here were first-rate. There was no way that they would present to me a faulty design. The issue was how hard and earnestly they would work.

Lapis was going to be the supervisor. The Keuncuska Firm was going to be the middleman in purchasing construction material and hiring builders. As long as Lapis―with the most legendary merchant, Ivar Lodbrok―was supervising them, it should be hard for them to slack off.

“A-A wise decision.”

The goblins and dwarves looked disappointed, but they obeyed. They wouldn’t be able to pocket money for themselves now, but this was an understandable decision to them. The construction of a dungeon in itself was already a massive business that guaranteed a huge profit.

The foundation of my dungeon’s construction was settled like this. After temporarily leaving the task of managing the villages to Parsi and leaving the tasks related to my Demon Lord Castle to Lapis and Laura, I quickly departed.

My destination was the Empire of Francia. It was where Paimon’s <Liberation Alliance> was waiting for me.

―It was also the country where the hero, the protagonist of Dungeon Attack, lives.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Dantalian is going to recruit more people and also going to the country with the hero. I wonder if there’s any connection :^). Well, I don’t really know either. Only assumptions can be made. Welp, May is coming to an end and summer is going to start soon. I hope you guys are ready for the heat because I’m not.

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.

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