Fabian's eyes went wide as saucers.
Well now, it looked like one more shove and his eyeballs might just pop right out of their sockets. Laura would love that — she wouldn't have to bother cleaning them off the skull afterward.
"You son of a bitch...!"
"Mr. Fabian, you're not the only one who's guessed that my father was a dog. Quite a few people have, actually."
I said.
"It's a remarkably bold guess. The only common thread among those who've voiced it is that they're all dead. I sincerely hope you become the first to say it and survive."
A laugh spilled from my lips. It wouldn't stop.
Laura was the same. Jeremy, too. It was as if all three of us had collectively decided to exhale laughter instead of breath from our lungs. The three of us had all, in some important way — probably a part that mattered quite a bit to a person — come a little unhinged.
"That person who works at the Adventurer's Guild... Fleur, I think was her name? Don't you want to marry her? Then you'll need to survive this first. It wouldn't do for the new bride to spend her wedding night with a corpse."
"You chewing, murdering bastard! May you be cursed by all the gods and rot in hell!"
Oho, his spirit hadn't broken.
Fabian wasn't just some run-of-the-mill adventurer; he harbored a certain human pride. Pride was usually useless, but in a situation like this, it was even more so.
"Guhahh!?"
Regardless of Fabian's outrage, the battle royale had begun. One adventurer had just stabbed his nearby companion in the gut with a dagger. The other adventurers stared at the killer in shock. "What the hell are you doing?!" "How dare you betray a companion!" they shouted, their fury erupting.
"I-I don't want to die."
The killer, dagger in hand, was trembling.
"I never wanted to come to the Demon Lord's Castle in the first place... You all lied about it being a chance to strike it rich! Y-yeah. It's your fault... I have a farm back home... My life isn't like the dregs of you lot! We're on completely different levels!"
"You murderer!"
Another adventurer charged forward and swung an axe, cleaving through the killer's face. The murderer let out a shrill, shrieking cry and raised his dagger in a futile attempt to block, but it was no use. With the sound of bone pulverizing under the axe blade, his skull exploded.
That was the starting point.
The adventurers raised their shields and spears and charged at each other. The deafening clatter of shield bosses striking shield bosses rang out. Even Fabian had no choice but to stop glaring at me and wade into the mud bath of a brawl.
They wanted to live. They didn't want to die. Or perhaps they simply wanted to escape this hellish place as quickly as possible. Primal desires flew back and forth along the blades with ferocious intensity.
As I stood with my arms crossed, watching the arena, fairies fluttered over from somewhere. Four fairies were struggling to carry wine bottles. Another three delivered wine glasses each. They had noticed their master's thirst and brought it over. How could they possibly be this adorable!
"Our fairies are the kindest in the whole world!"
I took the wine bottles and ruffled their hair vigorously. The fairies giggled with delight.
We passed the wine back and forth as we watched the Colosseum. The fighting was extremely fierce. The fiercer it was, the more entertaining it was to watch. Add to that some surprisingly decent wine, and there was no better spectacle.
Among them were adventurers who fought aggressively, and others who were too afraid of killing their own kind to commit fully.
"Damn it, stop fighting! Don't be fooled by the Demon Lord's sweet talk! Damn it all!"
And there were humans like Fabian who tried to stop the fighting.
The adventurers already swept up in the frenzy of murder wouldn't listen to a word Fabian said. Fabian kept urging them to stop, but it was no use. He, too, had no choice but to swing his sword at the adventurers charging at him.
I whistled.
"Humans really do show their true faces when crisis strikes."
"Hmm. There is a certain beauty to be found in ugliness."
After ten minutes, the group of twenty adventurers had dwindled to seven.
The remaining seven were not in good shape either. Some stabbed with daggers, others slashed by blades—they were all covered in wounds. They panted roughly as they eyed the survivors with hawk-like gazes. No one made the first move. It had become a standoff.
This way the game would drag on forever. There was nothing more tedious than a game that dragged on needlessly.
I gave them a little motivation.
"Come now, everyone. Please stop fighting for a moment. Look over here."
I clapped my hands to draw their attention.
Seven pairs of bloodshot eyes, tainted with killing intent, fatigue, and terror, turned toward me. I pulled a heavy pouch from inside my robe and shook it.
"Do you see this?"
The clinking of metal coins rang out, one against another.
"This pouch is full of gold coins. Roughly fifty Libra, all told. I will personally gift fifty Libra to whoever among you is the last one standing. Now then—please, do resume your fighting."
"…!"
Greed bloomed in the humans' eyes. Fifty gold was by no means a small sum for an adventurer. What had been a desperate brawl simply to survive transformed into a duel for a prize. The adventurers lowered their stances and steadied their breathing.
"Graaaaah!"
With a roar, they charged at one another. Furious slashes, vertical cleaves, parries—each wielding whatever swordsmanship they were most confident in, they had become beasts that knew only how to kill. The clash of steel rang out like a discordant symphony.
I grinned and cheered them on.
"That's right! Of course it should be this way. If it's for survival, if it's for money, you'll gladly cut down your own kind. Naturally so. I knew you would understand. Se-si-bong! Se-si-bong!"
Raora chimed in with a quip.
"My Lord truly has wretched taste."
"Ha—I hardly want to hear that from a young lady whose hobby is collecting skulls."
"…In my view, the two of you are equally bad. Fifty steps mocking a hundred, as they say."
Jeremy muttered, dumbfounded.
The fight was over in short order. After five minutes had passed, only a single human remained in the coliseum at the heart of the goblin wall. A man stood surrounded by nineteen corpses.
"Hah… hah… grrkh."
Fabian.
He was wringing the last of his breath from his lungs. His left arm had been sacrificed in a desperate block against his opponent's final strike. Half cleaved through by an axe, it dangled like a broken toy. A dagger was buried in his thigh, and blood spurted out in unstoppable spurts, pumping like a fountain.
"Well done, Fabian. I knew you had it in you."
"Kgh… huff, hnngh."
"Congratulations."
I gave Fabian a round of applause. Lauer clapped, and Jeremy clapped too. While I was at it, I also issued a mental command to the goblins. Before long, hundreds of goblins broke into synchronized applause.
It was rather like Roman citizens paying homage to a gladiator who, despite being a slave, had fought with admirable courage. Amid the hundreds of rounds of applause, Fabian truly stood there like a hero. What a fierce, indomitable spirit!
But there was one odd thing. Fabian did not appear pleased by our congratulations. His face was twisted in pain and humiliation.
Why? I was congratulating him so sincerely. You would be the first human in history to receive applause from goblins, Fabian. You ought to be proud.
—Clink.
I tossed the money pouch. It landed precisely at Fabian's feet. He slowly lowered his head and stared down at the pouch for a moment.
"……"
It was the look of an animal encountering something it had never seen before, filled with curiosity. Before long, Fabian seemed to lose interest in the pouch and looked back up at my face.
"This is your promised reward. The victor deserves a prize befitting his victory. Please, don't refuse. Just think of it as a gift from the heart, and I would appreciate it."
"……Ngh."
Fabian's eyes were so bloodshot they looked ready to stream tears of blood. Even though the duel was over, killing intent still bled from his gaze.
Ah, I understand. I understand every last bit of what you're feeling.
I smiled calmly.
"Fabian. You want to kill me, don't you?"
"……"
"Don't worry. I made a clear promise earlier."
That I would never lay a hand on the last human survivor.
"If you want to kill me, by all means, give it a try. You have every right to take my life. Well, it's not exactly generous, but thanks to all of you I got to enjoy quite the spectacle. I'll grant you that much."
However, I added.
"You have only one chance. Just one chance to attack me. Don't be too disheartened. That's just how life is, isn't it? Two chances are something you'll rarely find in our lives... unfortunately, that is."
"......"
"If you choose not to attack me and leave as you are."
I pulled out a potion. Red liquid sloshed inside the glass vial.
"No way! In celebration of the holiday, Dantalion's Demon Lord's Castle is offering additional rewards! Rare items, high-grade stamina potions given out free! This is a total jackpot! Even Mr. Fabian, who's on the verge of death from excessive bleeding, can survive safely with this!"
Holding the potion in hand, I made a loud spectacle. My clownish act drew a brief smirk from Laura and Jeremy. Only Fabian failed to get the joke and stared at me as though he might kill me any second.
"So? Will you save your one chance to kill me? Or will you take the potion and gold and leave in triumph? It's all up to you, Mr. Fabian, you bald one-eyed man."
"......"
Fabian drew a dagger from his waist. His right hand was already trembling violently.
By now, he probably didn't even have the stamina to walk. He lacked the strength to rush me and land a blow. That was why he intended to throw the dagger.
He had chosen to kill me over his own survival.
"...Impressive."
I felt good. To someone, I mattered more than their own life. That fact settled my heart with a pleasant weight. I smiled quietly and watched the adventurer Fabian raise his dagger.
—Whoosh!
An attack born of his last ounce of strength came flying. Astonishingly, despite hands that trembled beyond control, Fabian's aim was excellent. Thud. The sound of flesh being pierced came from my body.
The dagger embedded itself in the right side of my chest.
I let out a wry smile.
"Too bad. That won't kill me. Not a Demon Lord."
I tapped my forehead with my finger.
"You should've aimed here. Not the chest — here."
"......"
Fabian's body crumpled to the ground.
His knees gave out and he collapsed. He lay sprawled on the floor, twitching. Blood seeped from every part of him. The cave floor was already drenched in the blood of other adventurers, but still.
We watched Fabian until he drew his last breath. At most it would take ten minutes, so there was nothing to get particularly bored over. When I pulled the dagger from his chest, the wound began to heal slowly. It was excruciating, but the leather armor held up well enough to bear it.
"Fl……eure……Fleure……"
Right to the end, Fabian kept muttering the name of a woman who worked at the Adventurer's Guild.
After about ten minutes, the muttering stopped. I stepped over and checked — his breathing had certainly ceased. So in the end, a woman's name became his last words. What a cliché of a man.