—
“They actually pulled back...”
Shuna murmured, peeking out the window again.
Was Treya really fooled? Did she think they’d already left this wing, so she moved the knights elsewhere?
“Is she... uhhh... that easily tricked?” Shuna asked, still unsure. She knew next to nothing about Treya, her impressions ford solely from Will’s descriptions—and he tended to talk more about the other two girls anyway.
“Maybe,” Will replied vaguely.
“That ‘maybe’ sounds pretty uncertain. You don’t know either?”
“Well...” Will scratched his head, also looking out the window. Treya was long gone from downstairs. He sighed. “I always thought I understood her pretty well, but now... it doesn’t seem like it. Maybe I need to get to know her all over again.”
“She’s... very different from the her in ‘fate’. Heck, this whole world is way off from ‘fate’ now. It ans I can’t predict her future anymore—or rather, I can’t confirm it like I used to.”
Will phrased it delicately.
Actually... She’s deviated so much from the original story! She’s the only one I’ve t who personally changed major plot points and outcos. Does that an all those character profiles I studied beforehand are useless now?!
In the original story, Treya always seed rather... peculiar, almost ‘out of sync’. She struggled to understand her own heart, her own feelings, and other people too.
Like a transmitter constantly broadcasting on a non-existent frequency, unable to even receive its own signals.
So, romantically, she lost, lost, lost.
In political struggles, she lost, lost, lost.
But...
This Treya wasn’t that Treya.
In this royal power struggle, she won, won, won.
And romantically, she’d rather resort to brainwashing than lose.
Still... reversing that thought... Seeing this as ‘growth’ for Treya, growth I personally facilitated... maybe it’s not entirely terrible. Maybe it’s even... a good thing?
“But you should know her better than anyone, right? Since you’re the one who taught her,” Shuna remarked, easily catching the implication in Will’s words.
“Yeah. So, I need to ditch so old impressions and reassess.”
How many faces had the current Treya shown him?
Treya the diligent top student; Treya the naive little princess; Treya the current dark Empress; Treya the sweet wife in his dreams...
They all seed to blend together seamlessly, yet also felt completely incompatible.
There needs to be so kind of ‘glue’ connecting these identities.
But Will knew, deep down.
That glue...
Was “desire”—the very thing he had taught her.
Though it looks like she learned the lesson a bit... crookedly.
And the other part of the glue was himself.
At a crucial point in her life, he had inadvertently beco her ‘savior’, centing himself as the heaviest presence in her heart.
“Alright, stop thinking so hard.” Shuna clapped him on the shoulder, snapping him back to reality. “Even if this looks like a trap, that doesn’t an we can’t try springing it.”
“Doesn’t this happen all the ti in dungeons? Like... uh... a really obvious trap that might have a way through? Usually, in those monts, the best thing is to just try it. If they left a possibility open, there’s a chance to break through.”
“True. ‘Classic Boss Battle Retrospectives’, issue twenty-three, ntioned sothing similar,” Will recalled.
“Whoa, you read that too?”
“It’s mostly entertainnt, but a lot of the events are based on real happenings. If you can sort the fact from fiction, it’s definitely worth a read.”
Shuna nodded.
“So, next step is... just walk out?” Will asked.
“Pretty much. Let’s try to stay stealthy and avoid alerting Treya. I still get the feeling this whole palace is... crawling with traces of her creepy demon mind-magic. Or maybe just... that dungeon vibe?”
“Mmm... is it bad?” Will asked, concerned.
“Dunno. But don’t worry, let’s just get out first. We’ll check the entrance I used on the way in.”
She was actually a little worried about Will. He’d only just stabilized after everything; now wasn’t the ti to pile more pressure on him.
In every adventure team, there’s always soone who takes the brunt of the stress... Guess that’s for now.
Sticking to the shadows untouched by moonlight, the two carefully made their way downstairs.
Treya’s old residence seed safe for now. Closed-off buildings were easy to scout, and according to Shuna’s senses, it was currently empty.
Will retrieved his dungeon gear from Shuna—the items Treya had confiscated—restoring so of his combat readiness.
He noticed Shuna not only kept her reconnaissance magic active the entire ti but also maintained a ntal defense buff, just like when they encountered Lucifa.
But...
She seed to be trying extrely hard to appear relaxed.
Will understood her intention—or rather, her consideration.
She didn’t want to shift the pressure onto him.
Though I don’t think I’m so pathetic now that I can’t handle any hardship.
“By the way,” he started, hoping so casual chat would ease the tension, “how did you know I was being mind-controlled?”
“Ugh,” Shuna actually sighed. “You really didn’t know? Treya collected like, hundreds of novels where the main guy is basically you. And she marked all the parts that could be woven into your mories.”
“...She did what now?”
Will could guess so of it. She’d done sothing similar in the ‘original story’, so it figured she’d do it here too.
Wait, wait, that’s not quite right either. In the original, the male lead was— Will glanced sideways at Shuna —a mysterious, powerful orphan with black hair and black eyes. Collecting books about similar protagonists made sense. But how did she find a pile of novels about a cannon-fodder character like ?
“Oh, and there were romance tabloids too,” Shuna added casually.
“...Huh?”
“You didn’t know? There are already quite a few trashy romance stories about you floating around on the street stalls. Guess it’s a special perk for the young master of the Hysterm family.”
“Wha—?!”
Will suddenly felt a chilling premonition. The him from years ago, eagerly buying tabloids about Carver’s escapades, surely never imagined he himself would end up being sold on those sa stalls.
“Pfft,” Shuna snickered. “Your face is priceless. Feeling more relaxed now?”
“...Seriously? I was the one trying to get you to relax by bringing it up.”
“Well then...” Shuna reached the second floor, peeked around the corner to confirm it was clear, then took Will’s hand to lead him down. “How about we talk about sothing serious?”
“Like what?”
“Why... do you want to escape?” she asked, her voice losing so of its earlier lightness.
“Ah. That is serious.”
“When I first saw you again, I honestly thought you might like living like that. After all...” Shuna hesitated, her usual cheerful expression turning slightly inward. “When you left... you seed pretty into her.”
“...Because you can’t just let a yandere win that easily! Letting her play around a bit is fine, but letting her achieve total victory now? That’d be letting her off too easy.”
“???”
Shuna had expected Will to struggle with the question, maybe hesitate. She didn’t expect such a straightforward, almost clinical answer.
And again...
It was laced with those elents only he seed to understand, while also sounding strangely... detached, like it wasn’t even happening to him.
He really still sees things happening to him like an observer...
—Just as Shuna thought this, Will suddenly jumped down the last two steps, landing in the empty first-floor hall, just shy of the moonlight spilling through the doorway. He looked up.
“Okay, yeah, that sounded kind of ‘detached’, like sothing you’d say when making up a story—but I don’t just think like that anymore,” he declared.
He clasped his hands behind his back, gazing out at the cold moonlight.
The door leading outside stood open. There wasn’t even a breeze; the silence felt desolate.
Hearing this, Shuna let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Okay. He really was changing.
Even if I’m not the only reason for the change... at least he’s not quite like he was before.
Will felt like Treya had dragged him down into the ssy reality with her.
Even though he’d faced “ntal attacks,” “threats to his life,” and “terrifying affection,” it was precisely these intense experiences that finally pulled him down from his detached perch as an observer.
Especially when he realized he was no longer the “all-knowing” one relying on story knowledge, that his own “fate” could actually waver in this world...
He was actually kind of happy about it.
“Right now, I genuinely feel that she likes —and I really like this yandere top student who handed her teacher a perfect score on the assignnt.”
“Except... a perfect score on the paper doesn’t necessarily an the result is correct.”
“The fact that she needs to resort to this thod just to accept that I like her shows a serious lack of confidence. For that whole process? I give her zero points.”
Having cald down a bit, Will could see things more clearly now.
Actually, he always figured it out quickly—that’s why he tried to escape each ti he woke up. He knew what he wanted Treya to understand—
The person she felt mattered...
The person she thought was most important...
The person she believed she liked the most...
The person she treated as the object of her “desire”...
Should be the Will who could stand beside her as an equal, as a “teacher,” not a canary manipulated at her whim.
“So... uh... Right. Since I already fell for her trap, escaping first is the only option. She’s not going to listen to anything right now.”
“Figures,” Shuna sighed, not looking particularly happy. She gave him a light push from behind, nudging him towards the moonlight. “Co on. We’re here. Let’s just get out.”
“Don’t you think what I just said sounded super cool?” Will asked, fishing for praise.
“Yeah, yeah, totally cool,” Shuna replied, her tone carrying a strange, distinct hint of vinegar.
Will suddenly rembered sothing...
Feelings Shuna hadn’t “spoken aloud,” but that he had vaguely sensed that day.
She was supposedly the “protagonist,” but right now, she seed more like an awkward, sulking loser in love.
“Oh, right. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t save next ti?” Will teased.
“And didn’t you still think I was an ‘obstacle to your destiny’?” Shuna retorted.
“So...” Will reached out and patted her back. “We call it even?”
“How about we grab a drink after we get out?” she suggested, a slight smile returning.
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