Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 14: Pave 10 Paths and Earn a Penny (4)

‘All of nature breathes just as those doomed to perish breathe. Plagues are the same, so if there is a moment of pause, its breath will eventually come out and spread an epidemic throughout the continent. I call it the Black Cloud.’

Divination.

Since ancient times, it has been widely known that Demon Lords were the only ones who could possess this ability.

They were referred to as oracles of God back when Demon Lords used to be treated as such. As time passed, or possibly, because the veils of magic gradually lifted from the world, people stopped believing in the Demon Lords’ prophecies.

The number of Demon Lords who were capable of making prophecies slowly diminished before they vanished entirely. Demon scholars had come to a general consensus that ‘Demon Lords possess higher intellect than the average person, so people may have misunderstood their simple predictions as prophecies’.

His Highness Dantalian possesses the ability of divination?

There was no way. Lapis’ rationality immediately refuted. No matter how much you try to predict the future, it was impossible.

……Regardless, has he always been hiding this overwhelming presence?

Lapis found it hard to swallow as saliva pooled in her mouth. Demon Lord Dantalian’s voice slammed against her like thunder.

‘Soon, numerous cumulus clouds will flow over the earth. However, a certain cloud will enshroud the entire continent. An immense cloud, an immense calamity will laugh at the history of the doomed.’

‘If so, then.’

Lapis spoke. Her way of speech had unconsciously changed as well. From simple honorifics to the most honorary terms. The person before her was no longer a mere customer, they were a king.

‘How much…… damage do you predict will happen to the continent?’

Dantalian grinned.

‘How impatient. Do you think I used the modus operandi of being metaphorical simply to confuse you? Divination is the act of borrowing the power of spirits to call upon something which should not happen yet to the present. If one tries to reproduce the future too precisely, then the fate of the world will become distorted and bring about a catastrophic calamity.’

‘Apologies, this one was discourteous because of her ignorance.’

Lapis promptly lowered her head.

‘I forgive you. In this day and age where there are no more Demon Lords who are capable of observing time, how could one expect others to know the decorum of divination? Girl, engrave my words into your heart. If there are three arrows on the continent, then the Black Cloud will break one of those arrows. If there are nine arrows on the continent, then three of those arrows will rot.’

‘……!’

This meant that a third of the continent was going to be wiped out.

A chill went down Lapis’ spine. His words meant that a third, in other words, tens of millions, no, if you include the other races as well, then hundreds of millions of people were going to die. Even as a joke, the level of deaths was too immense.

Lapis questioned if Dantalian truly had the ability to prophesize an epidemic. Adding to that, even if he could prophesize one, she considered the possibility that he was referring to a small one. Epidemics are always happening somewhere. Even now, an infectious disease is most likely causing panic in some corner of the continent.

If he was prophesizing something like that, then he definitely wouldn’t be lying.

But what if it was a prophecy about a third of the population vanishing? Within 2 months, at that.

The risk was too high to brush it off as a lie.

To put it bluntly, if nothing happens in the next two months, then Dantalian will lose all of her trust. There was no room for excuses. Losing the trust of your exclusive personnel meant, by proxy, that you were losing the trust of the entire Keuncuska Firm.

Was he telling the truth?

‘There’s no need to fear too much. As there is nothing in the world that does not have a natural enemy, the Black Cloud is the same. It is common for things that have more power to have a natural enemy that is, in truth, small and trivial. A small herb that grows on the mountainside has the ability to suppress the Black Cloud. I intend to gather those herbs beforehand.’

Lapis immediately understood the Demon Lord’s intention. A monopoly. This Demon Lord was hoping for something which all merchants dream of. He intended to borrow funds from the firm in order to create a monopoly.

‘Two months from now, the royal families of the human continent will scream as they try to obtain a mere plant. I plan to supply the herb at that time and make a substantial profit. Lapis Lazuli, consider my offer.’

A silence fell over the cavern.

‘…….’

Lapis’ intuition was warning her that the Demon Lord wasn’t lying.

An unprecedented calamity was truly going to happen. You can change a crisis into an opportunity. An unprecedented opportunity will be born from this unprecedented crisis.

On the other hand, Lapis’ rationality was refusing fiercely.

Intuition or rationality. Lapis stood quietly as she faced the fork in the road.

She somehow managed to give an answer.

”I apologize, but I still cannot.’

‘Is that so?’

Unexpectedly, the Demon Lord didn’t appear to be displeased. No, he seemed interested.

‘Tell me why.’

Lapis felt as if she had entered the mouth of a Balrog. Her refusal was going to be forgiven; however, if she dared to refuse the Demon Lord’s offer for a trivial reason, then she was going to have to pay with her life.

That was what the Demon Lord’s eyes were telling her.

Lapis calmly ruminated over her beliefs before speaking in a clear tone in order to not get pressured by the Demon Lord’s aura.

‘For starters, there is no guarantee that an epidemic will occur. Sir Dantalian, you proclaimed that an epidemic will manifest itself soon and that it will spread across the entire continent and wipe out a third of mankind.’

‘However’, Lapis continued.

‘This is not a claim. There is no basis. The firm does not invest in prophets.’

Merchants must always be rational. That was what Lapis believed.

If her belief caused her to die to Dantalian, then it couldn’t be helped. For demons, death wasn’t a distant future. It was a shadow that constantly threatened them from behind. Lapis was resolved to die.

However, something unforeseen happened next. The imposing aura which the Demon Lord had been incessantly emitting until now had spontaneously vanished. Dantalian had become a normal person again.

He grinned.

‘How about this? Simply inform the firm that I’ve requested a loan. Also, tell your superiors what my business plan is. It doesn’t matter if you don’t loan me any money.’

His words that followed afterward were also unexpected. It seems that Dantalian knew she was going to refuse him since the beginning. He understood the firm’s position.

He was simply trying to set up an opportunity to gain the firm’s trust. Lapis felt as if she had been hit by a hammer.

That’s right, if he truly does have the power of divination, then there was no reason for him to obsess over the infectious disease right now.

What a terrifying ability.

However, there was something more horrifying than that. It was the Demon Lord himself. Despite having an incredible skill like divination, he didn’t go around flaunting it. If anything, he utilized his prophecy in order to plant fear and trust in her.

Furthermore, he went back to his usual self the instant he had achieved his goal. No, was that truly his usual self? Was the attitude he had been showing her until now, which she thought was his norm⎯⎯⎯actually just an act he had been putting on for the sake of this very moment?

Lapis reproached herself. She was hit by a pang of regret.

How could she lower her guard just because he was a rank 71st Demon Lord?! Demon Lords are Demon Lords even in death.

Rather, this Demon Lord was earnest. He had been constantly sharpening his blade in order to deal with her. A blade for a single moment.

Lapis felt embarrassed. She suddenly had the worrying thought that the Demon Lord was possibly overestimating her excessively. The authority she had in the Keuncuska Firm was pitiful. She wasn’t confident that she could live up to the Demon Lord’s expectations. She found herself inadvertently avoiding the Demon Lord’s gaze.

‘……There is something that I have not told you, Sir Dantalian.’

Lapis then explained how humble her birth was.

The Demon Lord will probably begin to scorn her as well, but it couldn’t be helped. Whether she told him or not, he was going to find out one way or another anyway. If the Demon Lord held any needless expectations towards her, then it would be better to break the news to him early. Rather than be scorned later…… it’d be best to start enduring it now before our relationship could build any further.

However.

‘So what?’

⎯⎯Dantalian was different.

‘Why does it matter if you’re a mixed-blood?’

Even though he was a noble and pure Demon Lord who, out of everyone, should be appalled by crossbreeds the most.

‘Don’t worry about these kinds of things.’

He declared that that was an incredibly insignificant matter.

Lapis stared at the Demon Lord vacantly.

Has anyone ever said this to her before? This was the first.

Even the people who approached her with good intentions would eventually scowl at her and walk away. There was no exception. For the past hundred years, this had always happened. She had a life where she had to think about separations before even meeting people for the first time.

She had already given up on those words which she always wanted to hear and the desire was simply floating around her unconsciousness in a twisted form. And yet, these words were said to her by one of the highest existences in the demon world.

Ah⎯⎯⎯.

Lapis’ emotions fluctuated more than ever before. She didn’t want the other party to notice what sort of state she was in. It would be the end if someone discovered a merchant’s weakness. That’s why she had to get out of the dungeon as soon as possible. She didn’t even remember what sort of excuse she gave before leaving.

After returning to her office, she continued to stare at the ceiling. She couldn’t suppress her emotions like she used to.

This was a good thing. If Demon Lord Dantalian was this gifted all along, then the chance she’ll rise up in her career will swiftly increase as well, was what she kept trying to fell herself, but…… nothing could douse her current emotions.

In the end, Lapis couldn’t help but mutter to herself.

“What a weird Demon Lord.”

Still, her emotions refused to calm down.

With an emotionless face, Lapis tilted her head as she declared that today was a weird day. She then began to prepare the report which she intended to hand in to her superiors. The document started with the statement that Demon Lord Dantalian may possibly have the ability of divination.

「You’ve extracted 2 iron ores.」

“All right, two in one again!”

While this was happening, a certain Demon Lord continued to swing his pickaxe energetically. Unaware of whatever was happening outside his cave.

* * *

It has been two months since I intimidated Lapis.

Adventurer parties invaded the dungeon roughly once a week.

It might be because this was still the beginning portion of the game, as all of the parties consisted of only 15 members. They were also all F-ranks. If this were a proper dungeon, then a party of F-rank adventurers would normally get wiped out the instant they step foot into the dungeon.

Of course, my Demon Lord castle, my dungeon which I couldn’t even proudly say was my Demon Lord castle, wasn’t a proper place. All of the F-rank adventurer parties approached me as a threat to my life.

Thus, I was currently laying down on the floor.

“Huh? Hey, someone’s collapsed over here.”

“Oh, you’re right. Hey, wake up!”

An adventurer approached me and patted my cheek.

I let out a groan.

“Uuh, waaater…… water…….”

“Tsk! He’s suffering from dehydration.”

Water was poured on my face. It seems that one of them had poured their water bag on me. Water flowed through the gaps of the cheap helmet I was wearing. I lapped at the water like a dog during a summer heatwave.

“Uu, uuu. T-Thank you.”

“People down on their luck should always help each other out. So, how did you end up like this?”

“Well.”

I activated my skill in my head.

「Acting has been activated.」 「The die of luck has slipped from your hand! The chance that the other party doubts your statement has been ‘slightly’ lowered.」

“It’s been about 3 days since I came to this dungeon.”

I then began to tell them my pathetic story.

My name was Hansen and I was from Jalsen Village. I traveled to this dungeon with some other people from the same village, but we were assaulted by monsters and our group wound up getting separated. Our guide had died early on, so we soon got lost in the dungeon. I wandered around for 3 days straight before my body could no longer hold itself up and I collapsed…… Even I felt like my acting ability was amazing.

However, these people were more naive than I thought was possible.

“Hkk, you must have had a hard time!”

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard such unfortunate events.”

“Uaah. Young man, please don’t despair and continue to live on. No matter how shitty the world is, the stars will shine upon you one day. Let us believe in the future! We must believe.”

The cave was filled with tears.

The faces of the adventurers were rough since they had spent their entire lives under the sun. Tears and snot came flowing out from those sunburnt faces. The adventurers patted my shoulder with their hands which they had blown their noses and wiped their tears on. Gross.

‘They’re really weak to acting, huh.’

The party from Jalsen Village wasn’t this weak to it.

Well, I’m wearing a helmet, after all. My horn, which was the only evidence on me that made it clear that I was a Demon Lord, wasn’t visible to them. The difference between how they react to Demon Lords and other humans is probably massive. I came to this realization as I watched a bunch of notice windows pop up telling me that I had raised their affection.

“Young man. No, young friend, may I ask a couple of questions about this dungeon?”

***

Author’s Afterword

Why did his imposing aura disappear all of a sudden?

Once Lapis made her ‘refusal’ clear, the effect of the skill had disappeared because the Acting skill was deemed unsuccessful…… haha. There’s no way that our Ms. Lapis would know this, though. She’s free to jump to conclusions.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Who knew that being in uni again would speed up my translating speed. Weird. I might slow down a little later when one of my professors reaches out to me later this month. Not really sure when, so just keep this in mind if I suddenly slow down.