Dungeon Defense (WN)

Fabian opened his eyes wide.

Dear me, his eyes will pop out like that. Laura would probably be pleased. She wouldn’t have to remove the eyeballs from the head herself.

“You son of a bitch……!”

“Mr. Fabian, more people than just yourself have assumed that my father was a dog.”

I spoke.

“That is truly a bold guess. All of the people who made this guess share the common trait of currently being dead. I hope that Mr. Fabian is able to stay alive despite this and become the last survivor.”

A laugh slipped out of my mouth. I couldn’t stop it.

It was the same for Laura and Jeremi as well. It was like our lungs were filled with nothing but laughter. There was probably something important, something incredibly important to normal people, broken inside of the three of us.

“The staff member who works at the adventurer guild……was her name Fleur? Did you not want to get married to that person? Then you will first have to get out of here alive. It would be troubling if the newly wedded bride spends her first night with a corpse.”

Ooh, he still has spirit.

Fabian wasn’t simply a vagrant adventurer. He was someone who also had pride as a human. Pride was usually useless, but it was even more useless in a situation like this.

“Kuuah!?”

Whether Fabian was upset or not, the battle royal had already begun. An adventurer had stabbed a dagger into the person next to him. The adventurers looked at the sudden murder in shock. “What are you doing!?”, “How dare you betray your comrades!”, the other adventurers shouted in anger.

“I-I don’t want to die.”

The murderer stood shakily while holding his dagger.

“I didn’t want to come here to begin with……. If you guys didn’t lie to me that this was an opportunity to get rich quickly! Y-Yeah. You guys are the ones at fault……. I have a farm back home……. I’m on a whole different level than you guys who are at the bottom of the barrel!”

“You murdering bastard!”

A different adventurer charged at the murderer and swung their axe at his face. The murderer let out a shriek as he raised his dagger, but it couldn’t block an axe. His head was split open as the axe shattered through his skull.

That became the starting point.

The remaining adventurers took up their shields and spears as they started to charge at each other. Several loud ringing sounds resonated as sharp objects came into contact with shields. Fabian stopped glaring at me as he had no other choice but to take part in the chaotic fight.

I want to live. I don’t want to die. Or, I want to get out of this hell as soon as possible. These sorts of primitive desires flowed through their weapons as they were swung around.

Some fairies came flying up to me while I was spectating the gladiatorial battle with my arms folded. Four fairies were doing their best to carry a wine bottle while another three fairies were each holding a wine glass. They knew their master had a craving for alcohol, so they came to deliver some. How could they be so cute!?

“My fairies are the kindest in the world!”

I received the bottle and patted their heads fiercely. The fairies giggled.

We poured each other a glass of wine as we watched the colosseum. The battle was incredibly intense. The intensity made it that much more entertaining. Adding wine on top of this made it quite a splendid viewing experience.

There were adventurers who fought intensely and individuals who were being careful because they were afraid of killing their comrades.

“Damn it, don’t fight! Don’t get tricked by the Demon Lord’s words! Damn it. Fuck!”

And there was a person like Fabian who was trying to stop the fight.

The adventurers who had already gotten intoxicated by the bloodlust didn’t listen to Fabian. Fabian continued to try and stop the fighting but it was to no avail. He also had no choice but to swing his sword in order to stop the adventurers who ran at him with their weapons.

I whistled.

“Humans tend to show their true nature when in the face of danger.”

“Mm. There are things that are beautiful because they are unsightly.”

After about 10 minutes, the 20 adventurers had shrunk down to 7.

The remaining 7 people weren’t unscathed. Someone who was stabbed by a dagger, someone who was lacerated by a sword, they were all covered in injuries. They were all breathing heavily while glaring daggers at each other. No one tried to make the first move. They had ended up in a stalemate.

This would only make the game last longer than it should. There was nothing more boring than a game that lasts longer than necessary.

I decided to give them some motivation.

“Now now. Everyone, stop fighting for a moment and look over here.”

I clapped to attract their attention.

7 pairs of eyes that were filled with bloodlust, exhaustion, and fear turned to look at me. I took out a heavy pouch and shooked it in front of them.

“Do you see this?”

Clink, clink, the sound of metal objects colliding against one another rang out from the pouch.

“There is a lot of gold in here. About 50 libra. I will specially gift 50 libra to the person who survives. Now then, please continue the battle.”

“……!”

Greed filled their eyes. 50 gold was no small sum for an adventurer. The desperate battle for survival changed to a battle with a prize on the line. The adventurers lowered their postures and caught their breaths.

“Kuuaah!”

They let out a cry as they charged at each other. Rage Slash, Crown Slash, and Cross Slice. They all used their own individual sword techniques as they became animals solely for the sake of murdering each other. The sound of metal colliding rang like a chaotic symphony.

I cheered them on with a smile.

“There you go! That’s how you should do it. You have to be able to kill your fellow man if it’s for the sake of survival and money. This is only natural. I knew that you all would understand. C’est Si Bon! C’est Si Bon!”

Laura spoke up.

“You have a really bad hobby, Lord.”

“Hah, I don’t want to hear that from the lady who collects skulls.”

“……You two seem the same to me.”

Jeremi muttered under her breath.

The battle soon came to an end. After 5 minutes, there was only one human left standing in the colosseum surrounded by goblins. A man stood with 19 dead bodies scattered around him.

“Hoo, hoo……kuuh.”

Fabian.

He was struggling to breathe. He had sacrificed his left arm trying to block someone’s attack. It was dangling like a broken toy after getting partially chopped by an axe. There was a dagger stabbed into his thigh and the blood flowing out of it like a fountain was showing no signs of stopping.

“Splendid. I knew that you would be able to do it, Mr. Fabian.”

“Kuh……hkk, hggh.”

“Congratulations.”

I gave Fabian a round of applause. Laura and Jeremi applauded as well. I ordered the goblins to do it as well while I was at it. Soon, hundreds of goblins were clapping their hands.

You could compare this to the citizens of Rome applauding a brave gladiator who had struggled to the very end and showing their respect even though the gladiator was a slave. Fabian was truly standing like a hero in the center of hundreds of applause. He was a true man!

However, there was one thing that was weird. Fabian didn’t seem happy about our congratulations. His face was filled with pain and shame.

Why was that? We were genuinely congratulating him. Fabian, you are probably the first human in history to be applauded by goblins. You should be proud.

– Clink.

I tossed the pouch of money. It landed right next to Fabian’s feet. Fabian slowly lowered his head and looked down at the money pouch for a moment.

“…….”

It was like he was staring curiously at an animal he had never seen before in his entire life. Fabian soon lost interest in the pouch as he turned to look at my face again.

“That is the promised reward. An appropriate reward must naturally be given to the winner. Please do not decline it. You can think of it as a gift with my feelings inside of it.”

“……Kuuh.”

Fabian’s eyes were blood-red like he was about to cry tears of blood. There was still bloodlust in his eyes even though the duel was over.

Aah, I understand. I understand you completely.

I smiled calmly.

“Mr. Fabian, you wish to kill me, correct?”

“…….”

“Do not worry. I promised you before, did I not?”

That I wouldn’t do anything to the last surviving human.

“If you wish to kill me, then you can try as much as you like. You have the right to kill me. Well, it isn’t exactly enough, but I was able to enjoy quite the spectacle thanks to you all. I will say that you do have the right.”

However, I added.

“You have only been given a single chance. A single chance to attack me. Do not be too heartbroken. Is this not life? A second chance is hard to find……. It is unfortunate.”

“…….”

“If you do not attack me and decide to leave instead.”

I took out a potion. A red liquid sloshed around inside the glass bottle.

“My word! A national holiday has arrived, so an additional reward is being granted by Dantalian’s Demon Lord Castle! A rare item, a luxurious health potion will be given to you for free. This is quite the occasion. This should guarantee Mr. Fabian’s life since you are almost at death’s door because of your excessive bleeding!”

I rambled on with the potion in my hand. Laura and Jeremi chuckled at my clown act. Only Fabian failed to understand the joke as he continued to glare at me as if he wanted to kill me.

“How about it? Will you use this one opportunity to kill me? Or will you return home with glory after taking the potion and the gold? This is your decision to make, One-Eyed Baldy Fabian.”

“…….”

Fabian unsheathed a dagger from his waist. His right hand was already shaking.

He probably didn’t have the stamina to even walk now, meaning he didn’t have the strength to run at me with his blade. That was why he was going to try and throw his dagger.

He chose to kill me over his own survival.

“……Amazing.”

I was in a good mood. Compared to other people, I was someone who valued his own life more than anything else. This fact elated me. I quietly smiled and watched as Fabian the adventurer raised his dagger.

– Swiiish!

An attack with that squeezed out the last bit of his strength came flying at me. Surprisingly, despite his hands that were shaking uncontrollably, Fabian was still skilled at hitting his target. Shunk, the sound of flesh being pierced came from my body. 

The dagger had impaled the right side of my chest.

I smiled bitterly.

“How unfortunate. Demon Lords cannot die with only this.”

I tapped my forehead with my finger.

“Here. You should have aimed for here and not my chest.”

“…….”

Fabian’s body could no longer hold itself up.

His knees buckled, making him fall. He fell to the floor and twitched. He was bleeding from his entire body, but the ground was already soaked in the blood of the other adventurers.

We watched until Fabian’s last breath. At most, it was only going to take 10 minutes, so it wasn’t that boring. Once I removed the dagger from my chest, the wound slowly closed. I felt a sharp pain, but I had leather armor on, so it was bearable. 

“F……Fleur……Fleur…….”

Fabian muttered the name of the guild staff member until the very end.

The muttering stopped after about 10 minutes. Once I approached him, I confirmed that he had indeed stopped breathing. In the end, the girl’s name became his last words. What a cliché man.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I can’t believe Thanos from Avengers: Infinity Wars plagiarized Dantalian’s line here. The raw for this chapter came out much before the movie after all. On another note, this was a good chapter. Although I did struggle a bit with the sudden inclusion of like weapon skills. They had some weird names so I couldn’t really translate them properly. They also don’t sound as impressive in English.

Welp, I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.

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