Chapter 337: The Promised Future

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—Will’s meaning…
—He not only wants others to think he’s dead…
—But he wants them to believe he’s really dead?

“Speak!!!, you!!!  FUCKKKK—why didn’t you save him?!”

Seeing Shuna’s silence, Treya’s voice grew louder, the sword at her neck scraping slightly, full of menace.

Shuna looked up, studying their expressions as they each held their “keepsakes.”

Eir, clutching the collar, her ears drooping like a sad puppy.

Leah, squeezing the ring in her hand, her head bowed, hiding her face under her hat.
And finally…

Treya, her usually cold face now showing a rare “anger.” But her hand holding the earring was gentle, as if afraid of crushing it.

Shuna understood now. Will had entrusted this task to her, not even letting her explain in person, just delivering the items. Because everyone present knew how much he cherished the gifts they gave him. Everyone—especially those who had shown him their most insane love—knew he would never take off these symbols of their feelings.

Unless…

Unless he was really dead, and these were his last effects.

If… if she hadn’t met them face-to-face, it might have been easier.

“Heh… Why didn’t I save him? Don’t you understand yet?”

Shuna chuckled, getting up from the ground.

—This is bad. When it comes to acting, she was really not good at it.
—But, luckily, she had seen what she would become if she lost Will.

“He wouldn’t take these things off voluntarily.”

Shuna’s tone was very “rational,” a cold, declarative statement. From the question to the final answer, she sounded like a strict, ruthless teacher analyzing a problem.

That’s right.

If Will were really gone.

She would become exceptionally “cold,” “rational,” and “obsessed.” Her whole heart would be filled with only him.

This was the ending she had seen… after his death.

“He left on his own. After I woke up… he only left these things. And he asked me to mail them… to you.”
“Yes, everything was done as if he… were saying goodbye to you and me.”
“So, he really did step in there on his own… into the death he had calculated.”

“Young Master… how could he…”

“Are you serious? He would never… never be someone who seeks death!”

“You should know the consequences of deceiving us.”

—This is probably the direction Will wanted to guide their thinking, right?
—It seems her acting isn’t as bad as she thought.

“I know. It’s just death here. But… it’s fine.”

She imitated “Shu’s” tone, then ran her hand along the black blade of Treya’s sword. This time, she used no defensive magic, simply sliding her palm five centimeters across it. Blood dripped from her palm.

“If he’s gone, I don’t mind dying either. The items are delivered. If you want to kill me, just do it.”

As soon as she said this, Treya, who had been the most suspicious, her sword tip trembling, slowly let the doubt fade from her face.

“He did this, probably because of… you all.”

Shuna held the sword tightly with one hand and looked at Leah.

“His most trusted teacher didn’t believe him, imprisoned him, and injected him with dangerous witch’s blood.”

Then, she looked at Treya.

“His fiancée with an engagement contract even wanted to trap him in a dream, taking away his entire life.”

Finally, she looked at Eir.

“The maid who raised him since childhood… wanted to turn him into a cripple, to keep him by her side forever.”

They didn’t refute her words. But they weren’t crying either.

Shuna realized something “abnormal.” Their reactions were strange. As if they had already known Will would die here.

…Wait, where did Will want her to mail these things?

Novis Town?

Was it to lure them to Novis Town? Was there something there he wanted them to see?

Could it be…

“But, perhaps it’s not your fault either, which is why he chose death.”

Shuna added at the end.

“What… what do you mean?”

As if with a glimmer of hope, Eir looked up at her with a hint of expectation.

“If you’ve read the Quest System he wrote, you should know that you, whose fates he changed, have also broken free from his control, and haven’t reached the… future he wanted.”

She lowered her hand. The three of them didn’t look confused, but rather, were lost in memories—memories tinged with regret and guilt.

—Alright, Will, see? I even thought of this step. You have to give me the best actress award.

“Are you saying he wanted to die because of us?”

“Perhaps… I have a share in it too.”

Shuna laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Taking him away from you, hoping he would forget you all… and rely only on me… I was also very wrong.”

Shuna had indeed thought that, for a moment, when she saw Will sitting in her basement. Saying this now, she felt a slight sting.

“No… impossible… you… you must be lying to us…”

Only Eir, looking at the collar in her hand, pressing it against her own, kept repeating.

“Whether you believe it or not…” Shuna looked at Treya. “Just have her ask her good friends at the Adventurer’s Guild. They’ll know everything, won’t they?”

“…No need. He would only take this off when he was about to die.”

Treya remembered the last time she had tracked the possibly fleeing Will, and what he had done. She lowered her sword.

With the threat removed, Shuna took two steps and picked up her shadow dagger.

“A death, and the grief it brings, I think we all need time to process. I’ll be leaving now—after all, I’m not a member of Morning Star anymore.”

“But I find it strange… you seem like the type who would follow him in death… but now you seem to have other things to do.”

Then, Treya spoke, as if seeing right through Shuna.

Shuna broke into a cold sweat.

—After all this acting, there’s still a flaw?!
—Did I get too into it and trap myself?

“He left me a ‘future’…”

“What—”

“The Death Sanctum, the deepest dungeon now. He wants me to go see… that future for him.”

“““…”””

No answer, but it was an answer of “agreement.”

—Alright, alright, they believe it.
—Perhaps the Will who was so obsessed with dungeons would indeed say something like that.

Before turning, Shuna looked again at the items in their hands.

Guessing what Will wanted to do, she felt a little jealous. Only she knew. The Will with that smile and look in his eyes, as if taming these “bad kids,” wanted to use this “釜底抽薪” (cutting the firewood from under the cauldron ? , i dont know about this and did some googling, this is what i got from google ” Metaphorically, to solve a problem fundamentally or to cut it off at the source, preventing it from continuing to exist or develop..” )  perhaps method to rebuild his relationship with them.

In their hands now, these keepsakes were just “farewell items”… but in Shuna’s eyes, they were Will’s promise of a “guaranteed reunion” in the future.

One could only say, that’s just like him.

He and the women he had cultivated, just as Shuna had initially judged, their relationship was a game of chess—a game he had personally created. And Will never wanted to be the one at a disadvantage in this game. She was very curious to see what he would do.

“I’m leaving. Goodbye.”

Shuna smiled contentedly and said goodbye to the others, who weren’t looking at her.

“…”

Winter days grew dark early. The three of them stood on the street, facing the setting sun.

Eir was the first to raise her shield.

“Let’s go.”

“Where are you going? What can we even…”

“I… I think…”

She calmly changed the self-address she had used for years—especially in front of him.

“We, at the very least, must take revenge on Dustbone Corridor. Slaughter it clean.”