If you've been reading Dungeon Defense in print, you can continue from Chapter 125, which begins with this installment.
War births heroes.
Someone dies. Someone survives. Among them, there are exceedingly rare humans who, despite being in situations where they should have clearly died, survive — and continue to survive.
Those who break free from the mire of blood and stand tall on their own two feet are called heroes. They carry thick stains of blood on the soles of their feet, invisible to the eye.
The war of the Crescent Alliance Army dyed the plains red with blood and inevitably gave rise to a feast of heroes.
"That princess again — her again?!"
Barbatos snapped his baton in two in a fit of excitement. The Demon Lords hung their heads in shame. Elisabeth von Habsburg — the woman who had been utterly defeated in the initial battle of oratory — had gone wild on the battlefield as if seeking vengeance.
At first, no one paid her much attention. The Third Princess Elisabeth moved about with only a small contingent of royal guards. The Demon Lords sneered, saying the brat princess had lost the trust of her soldiers and could barely command her knights.
Three of the Demon Lords who had joined in the mockery were killed.
The princess's strike force would appear at the most critical locations on the battlefield, at the most desperate moments. They shored up weak points in the human army and struck at weak points in the Crescent Alliance Army. At first, the Demon Lords of the Crescent Alliance Army were impressed that the brat princess was quite capable. But once more than a month had passed since the war began, every Demon Lord in the Alliance realized—
—that Elisabeth von Habsburg was a monster.
"Never engage that woman with fewer than three times her forces!"
Barbatos declared urgently. This came right after nearly three thousand soldiers had been lost to a strike force of barely a thousand.
It wasn't just the Crescent Alliance Army that had recognized the princess's abnormal strength. The humans too knew they had a once-in-a-generation genius on their side. The princess's strike force grew larger with each passing day. By now, she had thoroughly come to dominate the battlefield.
If Princess Elisabeth had commanded the entire human army, the Crescent Alliance Army would have crumbled. That she had lost her authority among the nobles was a stroke of divine fortune for the Demon Lords. The princess could only influence the forces of the Habsburg Empire. That alone was not enough to turn the tide of war.
The Crescent Alliance Army was no pushover, either.
"—We are not so weak as to lose to humans."
"Heh heh. How about we stretch our legs for the first time in a while?"
Zepar and Beleth began taking on the princess as their personal assignment. These two were the undisputed aces of the Plains Faction. Zepar served as the shield, Beleth as the spear, as they faced off against the princess. A bloody battle of advance and retreat ensued. Balance returned to the battlefield once more.
"Damn it. I should've crushed that bitch ages ago……!"
Barbatos flew into a rage. But it was too late—the ship had long since sailed.
Even setting the imperial princess aside, many other flowers had bloomed on the battlefield. Among them, the most dazzling flower was without question the young sovereign of the Kingdom of Bretagne. This queen, with her red hair billowing behind her and a striking smile, had personally graced the battlefield at the mere age of nineteen.
Henrietta de Bretagne. She was a major figure in Dungeon Attack, and on a personal level, I had quite the history with her. Not that she was a character I was particularly fond of. Hmm…
The person who was originally meant to become Raura's liege was none other than her.
In the game, Raura rose to become the Iron Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bretagne. Naturally, that meant serving Henrietta—Queen of Bretagne—as her sovereign. Every time I caught wind of Henrietta's exploits, I felt a strange pang of emotion. It was like a thief who had stolen someone else's property hearing news of the rightful owner…
Well, that was none of my concern anymore.
I had been badly injured during the war. I fell from my horse and my right leg shattered. This injury forced me to withdraw from the front lines.
No one objected. The unit under my command numbered fifty at most. In a place where two hundred thousand troops clashed, fifty was nothing but a handful of sand. The Demon Lords sent me off with an air of "You've worked hard—go get some rest."
Of course, my fall from the horse had been entirely my own little production.
"There's no reason for me to linger on the battlefield. Haha."
"…Sometimes, my lord, you strike me as rather wicked."
I made one excuse after another and headed straight back to the Demon Lord's Castle. My story was that an adventuring party had raided the castle while I was away. And they really had raided it—so it wasn't technically a lie. It was just that the "adventuring party" was actually a group of villagers who had secretly asked me to arrange the whole thing.
No—my objective had been achieved. There was no reason to keep suffering on that godforsaken battlefield.
My eyes gleaming, I declared with confidence:
"A wise man knows when to enter and when to make his exit. Let's make our escape, shall we?"
"Haa…"
"Come now, Raura. Walk with your head held high! Our beloved home awaits us!"
I dragged the sighing Raura along with me back to the castle. Farewell, Barbatos. Farewell, Elisabeth! Please, fight your hardest. The harder you fight, the higher my chances of survival become. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in battle.
We returned to the Demon Lord's Castle for the first time in nearly half a year.
For two weeks after returning to the Demon Lord's Castle, I didn't set foot outside.
I had given myself a well-deserved little vacation. No matter how I looked at it, I had worked far too hard over the past year. I was, by nature, a lazy person — someone who only scrambles to work when his life is genuinely on the line. And now that the crisis had passed!
"Mmgh, Master… Ah, we just did it earlier. Again already."
"This isn't my fault. Raura, your body is simply too beautiful. If doing it once makes me want to do it again, what exactly do you expect me to do about that?"
"Hnngh, that's… that's forced… Mmph!"
And so we plunged into the throes of sexual rapture. Even among the crowd, I had managed to sneak off now and then and sleep with Barbatos or Raura, but given the wartime circumstances, those encounters had always been quick and to the point. We could rarely find the time.
I was beginning to understand why victorious soldiers would brutally pillage an enemy city. It was the only way to release all that pent-up desire. Quite a few camp followers tagged along behind armies for exactly this reason. Soldiers would vent their urges through the prostitutes. Even so, the heavy burden of knowing the war wasn't truly over yet must have weighed on them.
For the entire fortnight, Raura and I walked around completely naked. There was no point putting on clothes only to take them off again right away. In the Demon Lord's quarters, in the dungeon caves, by the underground lake — the two of us mated without regard for time or place. Some days, we went at it as many as seven times.
"This is no way for a sentient being to live!"
In the end, Raura finally snapped.
"No matter how much you want it, once a day is the limit! Six times a week! At the very least, give me one day to rest! At this rate, a young lady can't get anything done in a whole day! Lately, my stomach has been aching so badly I can barely walk!"
I put on a deeply pitiful expression.
"Once a day… that's far too few."
"Exces— sive! Ab— normal! Master's stamina is outrageously extraordinary! Completely beyond common sense!"
Raura growled like a lioness.
"What, is Master some kind of Ogre in heat? Even on the lightest days, we go at it at least morning and evening — four times minimum… Even though I've never lain with any man other than Master, even I know this is far from normal. Look, Master!"
She spread her labia apart with her fingers. She was still naked, of course. From her pristine, hairless genitals, a cloudy liquid streamed down her thighs in a steady trickle. Semen had pooled on the cave floor, forming a small flood.
"This is Master's doing! My belly never gets a break from Master's seed. Imagine someone dumping a full bucket of warm water into your abdomen — that's what it feels like. With you thrusting in at all hours, my stomach is about to burst!"
"Oh come on, that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?"
More importantly — Raura. Weren't you the precious, sheltered young lady of a duchy? A duke's daughter, spreading her own parts open for the world to see with her own fingers. How had you sunk so low, so vulgarly? As your lord and educator — as the responsible adult in this arrangement — I find myself deeply troubled…
"My lord is the one who made me this way!"
Raura grabbed my forearm. She glared up at me with a fearsome look in her eyes.
"This is no joking matter! At this rate, this maid is going to die of overexertion! Is my lord planning to kill his only vassal? I'm asking you to at least be content with oral alone. This morning alone—four times! You made me use my mouth four times, and yet this rutting Ogre of a man still—!"
"Y-yes, but you see—"
Pressed by her murderous gaze, I found myself stammering involuntarily.
"You're just too delicious, Raura. The inside is so tight and springy, and your breasts are so soft. Your backside is smooth to the touch and feels wonderful—and once you slide in, the way everything clenches around you, I'm telling you—"
"What would this maid know about that!"
As it happened, she really didn't need to know.
I protested, feeling wronged.
"It's not like I'm the only one enjoying this. You have your fill of pleasure too, and then you only blame my side? That's cowardly."
"Of course this maid enjoys it! That's exactly the problem—I enjoy it too much! Once we start, I climax at least thirty times without even trying, so what on earth do you expect me to do about it? Do you understand, my lord? A full thirty times! If we have intercourse just three times a day, that means this maid experiences a hundred climaxes in a single day!"
Raura clutched her head and muttered in a gloomy voice.
"Do you have any idea what it feels like to climax a hundred times? I can't tell whether it's day or night anymore… I can't remember if I woke up a little while ago or ages ago, whether I've even eaten or not… And that state has already lasted half a month… A heaven-like hell—that must be what they mean by that expression… No, a hundred times would actually be better. Once it hits two hundred, from that moment onward…"
She kept muttering to herself, radiating a dark, oppressive aura.
Ugh.
When she lays it on that thick, I can't help but feel like I'm somehow in the wrong. Raura was still only seventeen. If I went around bragging that I'd spent half a month having sex day and night with a seventeen-year-old girl, nine times out of ten people would call me a monster and curse me out.
"Commander Barbatos… no, even Lord Lapis should be here at the very least."
Raura looked over at me with mournful eyes.
"With at least two people, someone might be able to handle my lord's unruly lower half. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, I'd want three or four—urg. When is Lord Lapis arriving?"
"I'm not sure. Lapis is technically an employee of the Kunkuska Trading Company, so, well, she'll need to finish up her business there first."
Raura collapsed to her knees on the cave floor with a thud. She spoke in despair.
"Lord Lapis, please, come back soon. In this girl's short life, she has never waited for anyone this desperately……."
Well. Lapis and I weren't even in that kind of relationship to begin with……how should I put it.
The position Raura had sunk into on the ground just so happened to leave her rear raised up, resembling a certain position from behind. Her hips were rounded just right, like a perfectly ripe apple. I felt a stirring below the belt. Look. It's not my fault. Raura was naturally endowed with the kind of allure that seduced men.
"Fine. We'll limit sexual activity. But then what am I supposed to do? This isn't me bragging, but my Demon Lord's Castle is pretty bleak. There's nothing to do besides sleeping with Raura."
"Haven't you subjugated the villages surrounding the Demon Lord's Castle, my lord?"
Raura mumbled, still holding her despairing pose.
"In a manner of speaking, you've become their lord. Depending on what you do, those villages will either prosper or decline from here on out. Why not take this opportunity to merge and consolidate the villages, and start building up your domain in earnest?"
"Huh. A domain."
I'd never considered that before. But listening to Raura, it did seem like it could be interesting somehow. The Demon Lord's Castle, and all the villages scattered around it……. Maybe I could do something fun with it.
But first.
*Grip.*
"……My lord?"
"Go on."
"If this girl isn't mistaken, you're currently holding my rear."
"You're not mistaken."
"Surely you're not thinking of going another round……?"
"Hmm. The fluids would serve as lubricant, at least."
Raura cried out urgently.
"No! I've already done four rounds today! Please, at least give me two hours!"
"The one to blame is Raura, for having such a pretty behind."
"H-Haaaah!?"
I thrust my hips in with all my might. Her pitiful moans echoed through the gloomy cave…
============================ Author's Notes ============================