RD | Chapter 13

“Louise. Where is your village?”

“Huh? Why…?” Louise’s fur bristled like a startled feline.

“You must be not far from here, since you were brought to this forest as a guide. Do you know what that means?”

“No… I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“This area is originally part of the kingdom’s territory. All subjects within the kingdom must pledge loyalty to the king.”

“……!”

This game had a class system. Ian intended to use it. What was good about Ian’s character?

‘Nothing…’

Well, except that his status was that of a prince.

To be exact, the king’s illegitimate child…

“Since His Majesty is absent, I am his representative now. Guiding the subjects is the duty of the nobility. I must meet them.”

Louise flinched and then bowed his head.

‘He must be hesitant.’

Even in the original game, Louise protected the traitor race’s community that discriminated against him. He was a character with a pitiful start, just like Ian…

However, despite his harsh beginnings, his inherent special abilities were useful from start to end, and his other skills were excellent, making his route much less challenging than Ian’s.

Anyway, Ian added more to persuade Louise.

“They must have had their reasons for cooperating with the demons. How can the weak resist what the strong dictate? I’m not going there just to punish them.”

“What? No punishment? They are the traitor race!”

Someone objected.

[Loyalty: 40%]

Ian didn’t bother to check his name, just noted his loyalty and signaled Sema to deal with him.

This was the guy with the lowest loyalty. If he was silenced, there would be no one else to voice complaints. Sema, closing his eyes tightly, covered the mouth of the 40% loyalty guy with his hand.

“Mmmph! Mmmph!”

“……”

When the 40% loyalty guy quieted down, the cave became silent. Louise, having made up his mind, knelt and bowed his head.

“I will guide Lord Ian to the village.”

Ian mobilized everyone to descend to the village. It would be better if his force appeared larger.

Sema, following behind Ian, was conflicted.

‘What does he plan to do?’

The traitor race had betrayed the human realm. No one trusted them. Who would trust those who made the world like this?

If Ian forgave them, the distrust towards the traitor race would transfer to him.

‘He must have a plan.’

Sema tried to trust him. Wasn’t this the man who made him learn skills for a reason? There must be some strategy regarding the traitor race that he was acting on.

Ding!

[‘Mage’ Sema trusts you. Loyalty increases.]
[Loyalty: 80%]

‘Why does this guy’s loyalty keep going up and down?’ Ian was puzzled.

He was thinking about the ‘Support Force’ system. In the world of <Reverse Dungeon>, there was a continent shaped like a gamepad’s directional buttons, sticking out in four directions. This was the only continent, and in its center was the Demon King’s Castle.

The best strategy for this game was naturally to conquer the east, west, south, and north, then bring down the Demon King’s Castle, restoring peace by separating the demon realm from the human realm.

But what Ian was aiming for now wasn’t this route.

‘Unless I want to die.’

What he aimed for was to preserve his life safely and for the long term.

In this vivid world, he wanted to live well without getting hurt.

After spitting out a bucket of blood, Ian had experienced pain he’d never felt even in reality. Whether this was a dream or reality no longer mattered much.But, If it was an eternal dream, how was it different from reality?

The problem was that this game incessantly tormented the player.

Understandably, if a game left the player alone, would that even be game content?

True to its defense game nature, <Reverse Dungeon> had enemies attacking periodically.

Surviving while fending them off was Ian’s goal.

For that, he needed to strengthen the dungeon.

There were several methods for dungeon enhancement, but what Ian was after was external forces.

‘Immediately increasing the number of people within the dungeon is impossible.’

Ian had yet to obtain the . Among the elves, it was known as the <Elf’s Tree>, and it was essential for dungeon evolution. Without it, he couldn’t recklessly increase the number of people in the dungeon.

Currently, Ian had twenty-one humans under him. With one more just added, that made twenty-two.

And that was the current limit of ‘personnel within the dungeon’ he could accept.

By the way, monsters registered in the dungeon’s defense system were not included in the ‘personnel within the dungeon.’ They were considered ‘useful assets.’ This severe discrimination of the system was evident here, treating only humans and other races as ‘personnel.’

Anyway…

‘If I can’t increase the personnel within the dungeon, I’ll increase support forces from outside.’

Isn’t that the natural solution?

External support forces had several advantages over dungeon personnel. Firstly, there were no maintenance costs.

In other words, Ian had to feed and house the people he was currently leading.

Grrr…

A loud growl came from the people’s stomachs.

Ian pretended not to hear and followed Louise. He adeptly pushed through the leaves and stopped on a hill. He told Ian: “This is it.”

Smoke was rising from the village, the scent of cooking.

‘Smells good.’

“Go tell the village chief to come out.” Ian gestured down the hill with his chin.

The village chief was an elderly man with white hair. He was greatly surprised to see Louise return alive and even more so when he saw the strong men with weapons accompanying him.

He was too shocked to resist being dragged before Ian. Surrounded by men with weapons, he quickly assessed the situation and became polite.

“Oh my! Brave warriors. What brings you here? To call for an old man like me…”

“Are you the village chief?” Ian asked. The chief’s eyes darted around. “Yes. I am the chief, but I have no authority. As you can see, the village is small, and we barely make ends meet…”

“So, you sold me out to the demons?”

“Huh?”

“I am Ian, the son of the king. According to my subject Louise, you sold him to the demons and also handed over His Majesty and the subjects to them.”

Ian spoke with the tone of a noble. It wasn’t hard since he had seen it often in the game. What was surprising was how easily threats he’d rarely seen in the game flowed from his mouth.

‘I must have seen it somewhere.’ Ian thought casually.

“No, I…”

“Don’t think of denying it. His Majesty has passed away. You traitor race, not content with selling out the human realm, have now brought ruin to the kingdom.”

The chief finally crumbled.

“No! No, Lord Ian! We didn’t do it willingly! The demons threatened our lives. I sent that boy to resist as much as possible. I don’t know what that boy whispered cunningly to Lord Ian, but I clearly told him, ‘Lead them the wrong way’!”

“That’s a lie!” Louise exclaimed in shock.

“Shut up, Louise! Lord Ian, listen to me. That guy is a liar—he always has been. Of course he is! He’s Louise, the son of a traitor!”

“His parents were the former village chiefs—the very ones who proposed opening the human realm to the demon realm! They are the traitors, not us! We knew nothing! It wasn’t our fault! It was all his fault!”

The crowd murmured.

‘There was such a setting, huh.’

Ian knew why Louise’s parents opened the portal to the demon realm, so he wasn’t perturbed.

“Louise, is this true?”

“No! My, my parents were once village chiefs, but… No! This chief never gave me such orders!”

“Alright.”

“Please, Lord Ian!”

Louise tried to cling to him desperately. The chief wore a triumphant look when Ian said, “That’s what he said.”

“Huh?” A dumbfounded sound came from the chief’s mouth.

“My subjects do not lie to me. It’s you who is lying.”

“Huh?”

“……?”

Even the men with weapons, who had been trying to decide whom to attack, were confused.

Ian continued.

“But there is truth in your words as well. If the demons threatened you, then weak and spineless as you are, you had no choice.”

“Still, are you not subjects of His Majesty’s land? Even if you are traitors… you were people we should have protected. I apologize, on behalf of His Majesty, for failing to do so.”

“Huh?”

“We will protect you from now on.”

“Huh?”

‘These bastards are needed anyway.’

Why bother catching them like rats? Ian planned to bestow favor upon them.