Dungeon Defense (WN)

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This was truly the worst.

I can confidently say that this was the worst 12 hours in my entire life.
It seems my life had already ended once, but who cares?

I fell into a pool of water as soon as I opened my eyes.
I mustered all of my strength to swim out, but all that was waiting for me was a special ride on the torture train.
This wasn’t a joke.

I was tortured before I could fully understand my situation.
Even after I begged them to forgive me and to at least tell me why they were torturing me, they didn’t relent.

“Who supported you in committing this crime!?”

“You met with Captain Herci last Wednesday.
Is this correct?”

They kept asking me things that made absolutely no sense to me.

I’m not sure why, but my survival instincts were telling me fiercely that I shouldn’t answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to their questions.
I had a feeling that my life would actually be ended the moment I gave them a certain answer.
I kept telling them I didn’t know and they kept torturing me.

The surprising fact was the potions.
They would pour some sort of blue liquid on me and all my wounds would get healed.
It was at that point that I realized I had fallen into another world.
The conversation I had with VenusPanties before I died and a world where potions exist…….

Imperial Princess Johanna was the nail in the coffin.
She barged her way into the prison and took me with her.
It seems she got in a big argument with the wardens because of her stubbornness.

The reason why I’m saying ‘it seems’ is because I passed out around this point.
I ended up fainting due to the excessive pain from the torture.

If Imperial Princess Johanna hadn’t rescued me, then I definitely would’ve died…….
I would’ve no longer been able to endure the torture and simply admitted to every ridiculous accusation and be executed afterward.
I was genuinely grateful to the Imperial Princess.

“Is your body feeling okay?”

Sebastian entered the room while I was resting in the bed.
This person was also my savior.
It may have been Imperial Princess Johanna who gave him the order, but I heard that Sebastian was the one who conciliated the wardens.
He was also the one who arranged this bedroom for me.

“Yes, thanks to your care.”

“Think nothing of it.
I was simply following Her Highness the Imperial Princess’ orders.”

Sebastian answered a matter of factly.

Sebastian was a first-rate servant in the empire and I was a foreigner with no connections whatsoever.
In terms of status, we were like heaven and earth.
Despite this, Sebastian remained courteous to me.
This alone made it clear how much an upright person this man was.

“I must apologize to you, but…….”

“A problem has occurred, I assume.
What should I do?”

Sebastian was slightly surprised by my quick response.

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“You seem calm for someone who got out of prison only a few hours ago.”

It was natural from my perspective.
I may not know the circumstances, but the imperial princess of a nation arbitrarily decided to snatch away a man who was on death row.
There’s no way that this wouldn’t cause a problem.
My stamina had recovered thanks to the miraculous items known as potions.
The only thing left was to resolve myself mentally.

“They say that you can survive in a tiger’s den as long as you keep your head straight.
If it is something that I can do, then I will do it.”

“A splendid attitude.
Very well, then.
What should I explain first……?”

Sebastian gave me an explanation of the current situation within the palace.
The explanation was brief and clear, so it was easy to understand.
Seriously, if the people who tortured me were even partially like Sebastian, then I would’ve gladly confessed. 

“That is the basic gist of things.
The head maid and the captain of the royal guard have joined together in denouncing Her Highness Johanna.”

Sebastian let out a sigh.

“Even now, Her Highness is currently in a meeting with the head maid.
There is a limit to how much you can endure with your stubbornness, so it is concerning.”

“I see.”

Leaders of groups with their pride on their line and the Imperial Princess, a child.
This definitely didn’t look good.
This made my position even more perilous. 

But the ladies-in-waiting and the royal guard, is it……?

“Mr.
Sebastian, is there someone among the royal family who is especially close with either the ladies-in-waiting or the royal guard?”

“Mm, His Highness Crown Prince Rudolf is close with the ladies-in-waiting.”

Normally, the ladies-in-waiting are supervised by the highest female noble in the palace, the Empress.
Crown Prince Rudolf is the legitimate son of the Empress, so he was naturally closer to the ladies-in-waiting than others.

“Then is there a person whom the royal guard support separately?” 

“Indeed.
The royal guard mostly supports Her Highness Imperial Princess Elizabeth.
Throughout the past hundreds of the imperial family’s bloodline, she is the most skilled in martial arts, after all.”

And the royal guard that respected chivalry supported the world’s greatest prodigy, Elizabeth.
I lowered my head for a moment to think.

Johanna von Habsburg.
That was definitely the name of Elizabeth’s older sister.

She never makes a personal appearance in .
Johanna von Habsburg was already dead at the point where the game starts off.

The cause of death was suicide.
She hung herself after being unable to endure being gangraped by the princes, in other words, her older brothers for several years.
It wouldn’t be weird to call this a murder instead…….

To put it nicely, she was a victim, and to put it badly, she was a loser.

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Sebastian had only given me a brief summary, but that was enough for me to understand that the political struggle here was hellish.
Being weak in this sort of place was definitely not something to be proud of.

No, it was because Imperial Princess Elizabeth had survived this hell that she came out victorious in Dungeon Attack.
Strength was a virtue and weakness was a sin.
Johanna von Habsburg was a part of the weak.

If you look at this calmly, then she was ultimately a mediocre character.
She was a completely shabby existence compared to Elizabeth who was going to unite the continent and subjugate all of the Demon Lords in the future…….
Nevertheless, it was this very person who saved me.

“Mr.
Sebastian, please help me have an audience with Her Highness the Imperial Princess.”

“Did you think of a good idea?”

Did he notice the confidence in my voice? Sebastian didn’t try to hide his expectations.
He might’ve been thinking highly of me since I wasn’t wasting my time wondering about something pointless like why she had saved me.

“Yes, the situation is rather perilous, but it may be able to deal a large blow.”

That’s right, the reason didn’t matter.
She rescued me.
This means my course of action was already determined…….

Shortly after, Sebastian brought me along to the Imperial Princess’ reception room.
The title of Second Imperial Princess must’ve not been that impressive as her reception room was small.
Sebastian knocked on the door courteously.

“Your Highness, it is Sebastian.”

“Come in.”

A clearly bored voice came from behind the door.
It didn’t give off much of a competent feeling.
I suddenly felt anxious.
My anxiety was then amplified once the door was opened.

A girl whose silver hair was done into impressive rolls was seated on a luxurious chair.
Should I say she was seated? Her body was burrowed into it.
She was giving off an aura that made her boredom almost palpable.

“Wow! You’re already awake!”

However, she abruptly let out a shout the moment she saw me.
I’m not sure, but her behavior felt rather dopy for the imperial princess of an empire.
To be honest, my first impression of her wasn’t great.

I didn’t let my thoughts appear on my face as I knelt down.

“This is respectfully our first meeting, your beautiful honor of Habsburg.”

“Yup, mhm.
My face is rather great.”

She let out an easy laugh as she boasted.
There wasn’t a single bit of doubt in her voice.
My first impression might’ve been on the good side…….

“Now then, come here! I’m really interested in you.
How did you get through the palace’s absolute defenses? Are you really a commoner who doesn’t know any martial arts or magic? What’s your goal? Your trick? Do you actually have an accomplice on the inside?”

Imperial Princess Johanna barraged me with questions.
Sebastian gave me some supporting fire while I was struggling to figure out what to answer first.

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“Your Highness, it has only been an hour since he got out of the torture room.
I feel like it should be fine to have this discussion later…….”

“Mm? Hm.
That’s true.”

Johanna fiddled with her side bangs.

“We don’t have that much time.
At most, maybe two hours? After two hours, your name was Lolita, right? You’re going to get dragged away by either the ladies-in-waiting or the royal guard.”

Only two hours……my throat felt dry.
It felt like someone was choking me from behind.

Imperial Princess Johanna smiled.
It was an honest smile.

“For starters, I’d like to say sorry.
Lolita, I’m sorry.
You seem to be treating me like your savior, but I can’t save your life.
I only managed to delay your death by about 3 hours.”

“…….”

“However, I can at least avenge you to some degree.
The court nobles and everyone else within the palace learned about this incident because I kidnapped you.
If the ladies-in-waiting or the royal guard punish you, then everyone will know you were sacrificed unjustly.”

The ladies-in-waiting’s and the royal guard’s reputation will plummet.
The Imperial Princess before me didn’t flourish her words as she declared that this was the least bit she could do for the sake of avenging me a little.

“Now then, we don’t have that much time left to get friendly with each other.
I want to first hear the answers for the questions I asked earlier.
How did you get here, this place where normal people can’t enter or leave even if they wanted to?”

“Your Highness.”

I bowed my head to the ground.

“Your Highness had undoubtedly saved this humble one’s life.”

“Hm?”

Johanna tilted her head.

“No, wait.
I seriously can’t do anything even if you plead to me.
That’s a waste of time.”

“What if I were to say that I have a method?”

“Oh?

The glint in the Imperial Princess’ eyes changed.

“All right.
I’ll gladly hear you out.
However, Lolita, I advise you to be careful.”

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If her eyes were like that of a mischievous child until now……they were now the gaze of someone that was testing another person.
Her innocent curiosity was gone and was replaced with the gaze of someone who was born to rule.

“If you’re unable to offer a decent method, then I will lose interest in you as well.
This means the 2 hours I had guaranteed you will also be taken from you.
You will return to that hellish torture chamber.”

I bowed my head.
I was prepared for that.

“This is about the time I was being tortured.
The head maid and the captain of the royal guard visited the torture chamber.
At first, I did not know who they were, but I later found out through their conversations with the chief warden.”

“Hm? What about it? It isn’t surprising that they’d be concerned about this since their pride is on the line.”

“Even if they visited once every hour?”

The malicious look on Johanna’s face disappeared.

“……Once every hour? That’s rather unusual.”

“Yes.
It felt like they were excessively nervous.”

“It’s only been half a day since an intruder fell in the lake last night.
Of all people, why would the head maid and the captain of the royal guard be worrying constantly?”

My guess was like so.

Crown Prince Rudolf has control over the ladies-in-waiting.
On the other hand, Third Imperial Princess Elizabeth managed to charm the royal guard by displaying great talent in combat despite her young age.
It was already a clear fact in politics that these two were competing for the throne most intensely. 

“Therefore, there is a high chance that this political bickering has become a skirmish in their battle to succeed the throne.”

“So you’re saying they have people above them that are pressuring them…….
Those people being Rudolf and Elizabeth.”

Johanna gulped.

“Rudolf and Elizabeth are trying to make their winning move.
The person who wins this will probably gain control of the entire palace.
Kuh, I ended up stepping on a snake’s tail while trying to quench my curiosity.”

“What if I were to tell you that it was the snake’s head and not its tail, Your Highness?”

“Huh?”

Johanna gave me a strange look.
I smiled.

Don’t worry.
You saved my life, so I’ll stop the future where you’re raped by your brothers until you ultimately commit suicide.
Even if that makes the Crown Prince of the empire and the future ruler of the continent into my enemies…….

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter.
Sorry bout the delay.
Just some personal matters that made me forget to upload this yesterday.
Expect another chapter tomorrow, so I’ll keep this note short.