※ There is a paper book publication notice in the afterword. Please read it!
The realization came far too late.
Paimon was already dead. Killed by none other than Luke himself, with his own blade. Consumed by a regret that could never be undone, Luke had no choice but to go on living.
That he had doubted a woman's pure love for no other reason than the fact that she was the Demon Lord. That in the end, he had even gone so far as to kill her. This had been seared into Luke's heart as an eternal wound......
"......"
Elisabeth listened in silence as Luke confessed his regrets. About thirty minutes must have passed. Luke's head hung low, and Elisabeth spoke in a soft voice.
"So that is why you so forcefully demanded that I guarantee the independence of the Batavia Republic."
"......That's right."
The Batavia Republic was the only nation on the continent where humans and demons coexisted. Although elves and dwarves vastly outnumbered the other races, minority peoples such as centaurs and the silver wolf tribes also lived there alongside them.
When the Habsburg Empire reconquered the continent, it was only natural that the Batavia Republic became the subject of heated debate. The Demon Lord had been annihilated. The Demon Lord's army had been wiped out entirely. There was no longer any power that could guarantee the rights and interests of the demons. With a single word from Empress Elisabeth, the Batavia Republic could be dissolved at any moment.
At that point, defying everyone's expectations, there was a man who supported the republic's independence. It was Luke. The Hero — the most hardline of all the hardliners, who had done more than anyone to eradicate the demons — for some reason, this one time, had taken the demons' side.
When the Hero, the very leader of the hardline faction, took that stance, the other ministers were left without a word to say. Empress Elisabeth simply said "So let it be," and raised not a single objection to Luke's opinion. The Batavia Republic survived thanks to Luke......
Why would the Hero defend the demons, who were little more than mortal enemies?
Elisabeth had never once asked for the reason. She had believed that Luke would answer on his own before she had to ask. And finally, after years had passed, Luke was now confessing his true feelings to the Empress.
"Was it out of guilt?"
"Yes."
Half leaning on the fumes of wine, and half trusting in the bond he shared with his lover, Luke nodded without hesitation.
"I know better than anyone that it's a completely pointless thing to do. That there is no way for someone like me, who slaughtered countless demons, to atone for his sins now...... But I can no longer see the demons as nothing but 'enemies.' I can no longer sincerely wish for them to vanish from the continent......"
A meaningless atonement.
The sin of having slain the pure-hearted woman, the Demon Lord Paimon.
Luke intended to bear his wrongdoing in this way, at the very least.
Luke let out a weak, hollow laugh.
"Elise. I really am a pathetic man. Even Epimetheus would count as wise compared to me. Rampaging around as I pleased, only to realize my mistake later, and now thrashing about because I can't accept that the vessel is already broken. But there was no other way. I don't know what else I could have done…"
"Oh."
Elisabeth wrapped her hands around Luke's right hand.
She gazed at him with a gentle smile.
"What a foolish, ever-foolish man. Even if you scrape together every shard of broken glass, the fact remains that you shattered it once. To know that and still be consumed by regret, and then go further still, trying to atone…"
"……."
"But I find that I do not mind your foolishness, not one bit."
Elisabeth leaned against Luke's shoulder.
"A person's identity is defined by what they regret. Luke. If that is your regret, then I shall gladly accept it. Just as you once comforted my regrets, it is now my turn to support you."
"Elise…"
The two met each other's gaze in silence.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, the distance between Elisabeth and Luke closed. After only a brief moment, their lips had already met. The continent belonged to the Empress, but the Empress belonged to the Hero.
When the snow-white skin spread before his eyes, Luke pressed his body against hers. Labored breathing soon filled the bedroom. The mingled sweat of man and woman produced wet, slick sounds that echoed through the room.
No longer did Paimon cross Luke's mind……
"……Truly. Wearing nothing but a frightening expression until the very end."
Paimon forced the words out with great effort.
The blade the Hero had driven forward had pierced Paimon's heart with perfect precision. She would likely die here. Paimon could feel death approaching. Then again, she had never even attempted to stop the Hero in the first place.
Paimon had realized the danger of the Habsburg Empire several years ago.
By then, nearly half of the 72 Demon Lords were already dead. The Demon Lord army was still intact, but it had been cornered without a doubt. When the surviving Demon Lords screamed for the Hero to be killed, Paimon harbored a completely different thought.
'……Even if we kill the Hero, we won't stand a chance against Elisabeth von Habsburg.'
It was, above all, a wariness toward Empress Elisabeth.
Paimon had seen through with perfect clarity who the true monster of the Habsburg Empire was. The Hero was certainly formidable. But in terms of individual ability alone, they were inferior to Barbatos, Marbas, and Bael. Securing victory against the Hero was not as difficult as one might think.
The problem was Elisabeth.
'If the Hero is a capable general and warrior, then Elisabeth von Habsburg is a sovereign with strategies akin to a force of nature. To her, the Hero is nothing more than a political chess piece.'
Paimon pondered.
What would happen if, by some chance, they succeeded in killing the Hero?
If the human army relied entirely on that one Hero, there would be no issue. The human forces would lose their spiritual pillar and collapse easily. However, as long as Elisabeth von Habsburg existed, such an outcome would never occur.
'Rather, she would package the Hero's death as a tragedy to boost the morale of her troops. A dead hero is far easier to use than a living one……That woman would handle everything with consummate skill.'
Paimon judged.
The enemy of the Demon Lord army was not some mere Hero.
The true enemy was the sovereign manipulating everything from behind the Hero's back――a truth Paimon alone had seen through coolly while the other Demon Lords had their attention stolen by Luke.
That was why Paimon had attacked Elisabeth directly, not the Hero.
Paimon secretly incited the Queen of Bretagne to raise an army. The method was simple. Paimon proposed that if Bretagne invaded the Frank Empire, the Batavia Republic would also offer its help. Thereupon, the Queen of Bretagne swallowed Frank in one gulp.
As Paimon had planned, the continental situation descended into chaos in an instant. To the west, the Kingdom of Bretagne raised its banner. To the east, the Habsburg Empire proclaimed itself the victor. Although Bretagne's national power did not match the Habsburg's, it was enough to aspire to a fine match.
'Done!'
Paimon cried out in triumph.
'The great general leading Bretagne is Laura de Farnese! Even if Elisabeth is her opponent, she will not lose easily. With this, our Demon Lord army has bought itself time.'
However.
Contrary to her expectations, the Kingdom of Bretagne fell far too quickly.
Once again, the problem was Elisabeth. Elisabeth was not merely a genius of stratagem and warfare. She had demonstrated her full talents on the diplomatic stage as well.
In the blink of an eye, Elisabeth drew the Kingdom of Castilla, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Venetia, and the Teuton Kingdom into an anti-Bretagne front. Surrounded on all sides, there was nothing Laura de Farnese could do. The Queen and Grand General of Bretagne perished gloriously in battle…….
'…….'
The despair Paimon felt in that moment was beyond the power of words to express.
They couldn't win in war. They couldn't win in stratagems. They couldn't even win on the diplomatic stage. What on earth were they supposed to do? How could they possibly eliminate that monster of an era? How could they prevent the annihilation of the Demon Lord's army?
Paimon intuited it.
'...Is this the unstoppable tide of the era?'
The doom of the Demon Lord's army.
A simple yet clear truth lay before her eyes.
"Elisabeth von Habsburg was competent."
"The Demon Lord's army had no talent as capable as hers."
Written out as sentences, it amounted to barely two lines.
But the consequences those sentences brought to reality were excessively cruel.
'...It's still too early to raise the white flag.'
Paimon did not give up.
'Even if the Demon Lord's army falls, we might still be able to prevent the annihilation of demonkind. At the very least, the survival of the Batavia Republic and the Helvetica Confederation... if those two nations remain intact, we can at least stave off the extermination of our race!'
Paimon sank into deep thought.
If all the Demon Lords perished, the forces that could support the Batavia Republic and the Helvetica Confederation would vanish from the continent entirely. Whether those nations' autonomy would be recognized or not depended entirely on Elisabeth. It all hinged on her—the one poised to seize dominion over the continent.
Unfortunately, Paimon was not confident she could persuade Elisabeth. She was keenly aware, down to her bones, that she was less capable than Elisabeth.
'But if it's the Hero...?'
The Hero.
Surely she could find some way to bring the Hero around.
'...Rather than doing nothing and letting things happen, it would be worth trying.'
The decision was swift, and her actions were even swifter.
Paimon made contact with Hero Luke under the guise of chance encounters. Each time she crossed paths with him, she sang the praises of human-demon coexistence. She argued that the Batavia Republic was the closest to an ideal state, and ceaselessly employed the powers of the Succubus Queen to win the Hero over.
His mental defenses were indeed as solid as one would expect from a Hero.
'But they're not so impregnable that I can't break through...!'
Paimon smiled a smile of triumph.
To be certain of securing his affections, Paimon deliberately saved the Hero from a crisis. In truth, the future where the Demon Lord's army would be crushed by Elisabeth was already nearly certain, regardless of whether the Hero lived or died. The gain from killing the Hero versus the gain from winning his favor—between those two options, Paimon found the latter overwhelmingly superior.
With exquisite skill.
Without him ever noticing.
Gradually, bit by bit, Paimon infiltrated Hero Luke's heart.
——Finally.
"Truly. Even at the very end, you only ever wore such a frightening expression."
The moment Luke's blade pierced her heart.
Paimon managed a strained, yet somehow relieved, smile.
As a Succubus, she knew. Luke had developed feelings for her. He himself seemed unaware of his own emotions, but that didn't matter. With one final kiss, even a Hero as dense as he would surely realize his feelings.
'Ah.'
What a fitting end for her, the Queen of Succubi.
To toy with love and achieve one's goals — that was the quintessentially Succubus way. Paimon realized with belated clarity that she was, in the end, better suited to being a lowly Succubus than a Demon Lord.
That was fine.
Though she had been unable to prevent the annihilation of the Demon Lord's army, the autonomy of the Batavia Republic and the Helvetica Confederation was now far more likely to be preserved.
That alone was enough to satisfy Paimon.
*Now then,* she thought, a gentle smile gracing her lips.
She would gift the Hero a "final curse" to make that future a reality.
She would etch herself into his memory forever as both his first love and his nightmare.
Everything for the sake of the demon race.
Everything, to fulfill her duty as Demon Lord.
Paimon parted her lips.
"This is my dying moment… Surely you can grant a maiden at least one kiss?"
That was the end.
Watching the Hero fall under her seduction and press his lips against hers, Paimon slowly closed her eyes. Perhaps it was because it was his first kiss. His technique was truly terrible. But that was all right. A clumsy kiss — it actually suited her final moments rather well.
She had no regrets.
*But still…*
Paimon felt consciousness being swallowed by fathomless darkness.
*If only I had realized Elisabeth's danger even a little sooner.*
*If only I had crushed her just a little more quickly…*
*Then perhaps…*
Without even bringing her final regret to a close.
Paimon drew her last breath.
The woman who had been hated by humans as a Demon Lord and despised by her fellow Demon Lords as a traitor died just like that.
A lonely truth had been hidden within her heart, but the day it would be revealed never came.
Never.
─ Ending no.00 (True Ending): <The Conclusion of This World>
─ An ending album has been added.
─ The game…
─ Would you like to start the game again?
============================ Author's Afterword ============================
Just putting up a publication notice felt a little lackluster, so I brought along a bonus chapter.
Hello, readers! Dungeon Defense has finally been published as a brand-new paperback! >_<)!
Dungeon Defense Volume 01 is currently on sale at various bookstores and online bookshops.
You can easily pick up Dungeon Defense Volume 01 from online bookstores such as Aladin, Interpark, YES24, and others.
As mentioned in the advertisement, Dungeon Defense Volume 01 has been completely rewritten. The basic framework of the plot has been preserved, but the characters' personalities, the worldbuilding, and the detailed story have all been changed. You can think of it as having been written from scratch, start to finish!
To all of you who read Dungeon Defense on the web, thank you — and if you also purchase this newly revised and published paperback, it would bring me more joy than I can express.
※ I've posted a Dungeon Defense advertisement in the announcements section. You can see the book cover and illustrations there. Please check it out to see how Dungeon Defense has been given its brand-new look! >_<)!