Dungeon Defense (WN)

Out of the 6 village chiefs, only Parsi knew about my plan.

The plan was to gather a bunch of adventurers. The non-local delinquents came and made a mess. The villages had to endure this unfair treatment since they lacked a civil militia.

They couldn’t take care of this by themselves, so they had to borrow someone else’s strength. ……The villagers looked around to see who could help them and realized they had to reach out to their lord, Demon Lord Dantalian.

“What did the other village chiefs say to you?”

“Don’t even ask. They kept asking me to talk to the Demon Lord and make a request even when I told them that I couldn’t……Jeez. I’m sick of it already.”

Parsi rubbed his face with his hands. There were clear signs of exhaustion around his eyes.

Parsi was mostly known as my aide. The other village chiefs all rushed to Parsi since they knew they had to get to the horse first before the general. He wasn’t just a village chief.

The landowners from each village―they were naturally targeted by the adventurer parties the most, so they were being pillaged the most―rushed to Parsi’s place as fast as possible and even the normal villagers also came to ask him to talk to His Highness the Demon Lord.

“Ah, I kept telling them that I couldn’t do anything, but they must have dog shit in their ears.”

“Yeah. You must have had it rough.”

But what can he do? He’s probably going to have to work even harder from now on.

I was going to cherry-pick talented people from Frankia in order to lessen his burden……but I can’t get anywhere near them now after getting completely defeated by Henrietta. Haha. Recruiting competent people here isn’t as easy as it was in the game.

I’m not entirely a bad person, though. I brought people who could be raised to fill that part.

“Have you met Daisy and Luke?”

“……The young siblings? Of course I know them. I brought them to their parents.”

“Bring them with you to the next village meeting.”

Daisy was a given, but Luke also had a good head on his shoulders. Jeremi had tutored them for only a month, but not only could they read Frankian, but they could splendidly understand the Ancient Empire language as well. They will probably become skilled at Habsburgian soon as well.

However, Parsi looked doubtful.

“What do you want me to do with a couple of kids?”

“I intend to raise those two like attendants. They will probably come in contact with the villages in my stead. I need them to start learning about the livelihood within the villages.”

“Hmm.”

Well, if that’s what you want, Parsi remarked with a shrug.

“But that little girl isn’t very dainty. Sheesh, I’m not sure if I should tell Your Highness about something like this.”

“Hm? Did something happen?”

“I let them stay at my place for a night. The boy must’ve had to take a dump or something since he went outside in the middle of the night. That woke me up. I’m a rather light sleeper, so even the smallest movement can wake me.”

Parsi furrowed his brows.

“But I started to hear a strange sound. I thought I was being haunted by a ghost or something, but that wasn’t the case. When I listened carefully, I found out the sound was coming from where the girl was sleeping. I was really surprised. She was masturbating!”

“…….”

I went silent. I felt my sweat flow down my forehead.

“Y-You probably heard wrong.”

“My ears may be bad, but do you think I’d get confused by the sound of masturbating? Sheesh, she probably doesn’t even have any hair down there, and yet she was panting obscenely……. She may be young, but that isn’t something you should do while you’re a guest at someone else’s place.”

Parsi clicked his tongue.

“I’m telling Your Highness this because you said you were planning to raise her. I don’t have a great opinion of her because of that incident. I would be grateful if Your Highness gave her a proper lesson about etiquette later on. You aren’t going to let her continue her perverted antics, right?”

“……Indeed. You’re right. I’ll give her a firm talking to.”

I’m the culprit who had forced that perverse behavior onto her, Parsi.

More importantly, isn’t Luke the problem!? Seeing as how he goes out in the middle of the night to masturbate, he was clearly addicted to the slime onahole. The 11-year-old boy has become infatuated by the slime’s sensation. He has no idea that the inside of the onahole is a replica of a certain someone.

I give my sympathy to Daisy who was being mistaken for a pervert because of her older brother’s libido. Of course, I only offered her my sympathy in my mind.

“Well then. I guess it’s time to give the other village chiefs a response.”

I quickly changed the topic. Parsi didn’t seem to notice as he nodded.

“They’re all waiting with anticipation for your response like horses in a rut, so they’ll come running if Your Highness calls for them.”

“My position is clear and simple. This is my ordinance.”

In essence, there was only one contract made between me and the villages.

They acknowledged me as their ruler as long as I protected them from monsters.

This gave me the obligation to manage the monsters within my territory like the goblins while the villagers were given the obligation to not betray me and give a report whenever they decided to reclaim more land.

―There was no line in the contract that said ‘I will protect you from humans’.

Adventurer parties were wreaking havoc in the villages, but what did that have to do with me? Adventurers aren’t monsters. Demon Lord Dantalian has no reason to get involved if other humans decide to pillage or even slaughter them.

I continued.

“Give them these exact words. This situation is outside the bounds of our contract. Demon Lords are beings that rule over monsters, so how am I supposed to stop the intrusion of humans? Human matters should be handled by other humans.”

The villages had already betrayed me twice.

The first time was when Riff’s party invaded. Only the villages that didn’t betray me survived. They should know very well what I did to traitors. It was highly unlikely that they would decide to team up with the adventurers and try to plunder my castle as well. 

The second time was when the village chiefs embezzled. I had generously forgiven them for this. The villagers understand this as well. If they have any shame, then they wouldn’t ask me to ‘chase away the adventurers for free’.

A business transaction was the only option left between me and the villagers now.

“If you decide to leave human matters to me as well, then……it would only be appropriate for me to rule you all like a king as this would mean that you would be appointing me as one. Be faithful to our laws. If you commit a crime, then you must go and receive judgment from the elders of another village. In return, I will guarantee you complete protection.”

Parsi smiled wryly.

“I will tell them.”

The farmers here were conservatives, so they didn’t accept new policies. 

Therefore, I made it so that the farmers saw the new policy as a ‘deal with strings attached’. If you promise to receive your trials at another village, then, oh my? His Highness the Demon Lord will promise to protect you. What a deal!

I wasn’t even asking them to pay more taxes. I wasn’t telling them to become soldiers and fight for me either. They were simply being told to receive their trials from the people of power at other villages……. This will practically feel free to them.

The truth was different. This was no different from them giving up on their judicial power autonomously. 

It was unlikely that they would consider a political concept like judicial power when they were currently being harassed by adventurers. I had injected them with a poison called adventurers to cure them of their conservativeness. 

The villagers were having their things plundered while being cured. There might be a few families whose daughters were raped by adventurers. I carry out notorious schemes like this not only to my enemies but to my own people as well…….

I went beyond being a foolish ruler and was comparable to a tyrant. No, a malicious lord would probably be the more appropriate term. Barbatos said that I should become a monarch, but this was the only way I knew how to rule people.

“But Parsi, you’re also rather sly.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

Parsi tilted his head.

Did he really not know? Or was he acting?

It didn’t matter either way. I was confident that I could like Parsi’s character regardless. If it was the former, then his blind naivety. If it was the latter, then his dirty underhandedness. Those were both traits that I valued.

“Is a village chief not a position that should protect the assets and customs of their people by any means necessary? You have basically lost sight of your duty and have sworn your loyalty to me. Between duty to your people and duty to your lord, you have chosen the latter. Why is that?”

I smiled coldly.

“Do you think my side has more value than your people? Do you intend to be my loyal retainer before being a village chief?”

“…….”

“Do not worry, Parsi. I’m not trying to berate you. You have always been loyal to me. I am simply curious. I want to know what you are thinking and what your true intentions are. Please be honest.”

Parsi’s complexion settled down as he responded in an offhanded manner.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t feel any sort of loyalty to Your Highness. I didn’t group up with Riff’s party and I stepped forward to deal with those village chiefs when they were fucking around. In other words, there’s not a lot of things that can get me down. But…….”

“But?”

“It was when I met Your Highness for the very first time.”

His tone became flat. He spoke with a voice that somehow sounded young, old, and middle-aged all at the same time.

“Do you remember? I had lost my father at that time, so I had just become the village chief. There were other people who could’ve become the chief, but they were all so afraid of Riff that they forced the job on a young kid like me.”

“Ah, I remember.”

Parsi was rude since our first meeting. However, he had a way with words despite his rudeness, so he knew how to consider his own gains while also not disregarding the other party. He was born with a knack for politics.

“Do you remember why my father died?”

“……Was it not because he refused to cooperate with Riff’s party? That is how I recall it.”

“That is correct.”

Parsi nodded.

“But it is actually a bit more complicated than that. My father tried to lead an assault on Riff with the other villagers. Mm. He was going to pretend as if he were welcoming Riff’s party and take them out in one fell swoop.”

“I see.”

This was the first time I had heard about this. Wasn’t he just as splendid as his son?

“Just as he had planned, the adventurers made their way deep into our village. My father then gave the order. ‘Attack! Attack!’, he shouted.”

“Splendid. What happened next?”

“Nothing.”

Parsi cackled.contemporary romance

“The other villagers had become frozen in fear once they actually saw the adventurers before them. They didn’t move even after my father gave them the order. Nothing happened. My father basically ended up shouting by himself in front of 20 adventurers.”

“…….”

“It was almost scary how fast that Riff bastard figured out what had happened.”

Riff immediately swung his axe once he grasped the situation.

Parsi’s father wasn’t able to retaliate properly as his head was done in by an axe because he was so shocked by the other villagers’ betrayal. Parsi had apparently witnessed everything from start to finish.

This was probably why Parsi was able to turn away from his duty as village chief.

“……Is that so.”

Parsi nodded his head indifferently.

“Yes, that’s right.”

I took out a tobacco pipe and passed it to Parsi after lighting it.

Parsi received the pipe without a word and took a long puff. The silent smoke flowed between us. He passed the pipe back to me and I naturally blew more smoke into the air as well. I knew that this was Parsi’s way of giving a ceremonial service to his father in the sky.

A human without a scar didn’t exist. That was obvious. That was why I could only respond with ‘is that so’ and Parsi could only say ‘that’s right’ in return.

That’s just how it was.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. We’re finally getting a bit more backstory on Parsi, huh? It’s truly sad that he isn’t another waifu, but Dantalian does need a guy pal. I wonder if he would’ve ever appeared in the LN. Considering the actions Dant took in the LN, it seems highly unlikely. 

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

done.co