The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses-Chapter 267 - Hope for Escape

Honestly, I should have realized it much sooner, right?

The ‘fate’ I believed in so strongly... it started spiraling out of control a long time ago.

I thought I was their ‘teacher’, guiding their growth, believing I could handle them even if they truly went dark.

But... Treya, using a ‘worldview’ and ‘rules’ I’d never heard of—yet which were apparently right under my nose the whole time—had trapped me here.

She worked harder than I imagined.

She loves me more intensely than I imagined.

She wants me more desperately than I imagined.

She’s so determined, far more committed to her ideals, goals, and desires than I ever anticipated.

She has her own plans, her own designs.

Even though I was the one who influenced her development... only now, facing this, was Will forced to accept it...

The control I thought I had, derived from knowing the original story... it’s slipping away.

They...

They’re becoming truly, completely dark yanderes, capable of showering me with overwhelming affection.

—And they won’t be easily swayed by my actions anymore.

“If you say this is a dungeon, then don’t blame me for using dungeon rules—!”

“TREYAAAA—!!”

Shuna’s voice shattered the tense silence, striking his mind like a gunshot.

He looked up...

Shuna stood there.

Standing defiant under the moonlight again, her body looking just as “healthy” and “whole” as before, nearly roaring out her words.

Except...

She was drenched in a pitch-black substance that had the disturbing texture of thick ‘blood’. The viscous goo dripped steadily from her arms.

She flexed her shoulders, rolled her head.

“...”

Treya heard it too.

Her expression under the moonlight remained chillingly cold. She turned, the black earring—a match to Will’s white one—swinging with the movement.

“Hmph... Demon Castle Zero, huh? Real throwback. Stuff like this ‘Black-Blood Sludge’ that only uses blood attacks... haven’t seen primitive stuff like that since reading about it in dusty old books...” Shuna drawled, twirling her blood-slicked dagger. She began walking deliberately towards Treya.

Treya didn’t yield. Instead, like a guard ‘blocking an enemy’ or ‘protecting someone precious’, she positioned herself firmly in front of Will.

“What... what are you talking about?” Will stammered.

He didn’t feel ‘safe’ with Treya shielding him from Shuna. Quite the opposite; a conditioned reflex of ‘fear’ made him instinctively step back.

Shuna... Shuna’s okay. She came back. Then I... I still have a chance... Yes, there must still be a chance, I can still get out of here...

Shuna, standing right there, felt like a lifeline tossed into a raging sea.

He felt his mindset shift, crystallizing into a single, overpowering urge—

Escape escape escape escape ESCAPE!

Run away, no matter the cost, run far away from this Empress who twisted his memories, fed him false dreams, and demanded his love.

Escape this dungeon, this terrifying place filled with black, disgusting things that felt like the source of all ‘demons’.

Escape...

Escape this Treya who had shattered his assumptions, the Treya he now realized he couldn’t control at all...

“Hah... Hah... Fighting an elite monster from two hundred years ago... pretty refreshing, actually,” Shuna panted, her eyes fixed on Will. “Straightforward attacks, totally different from these modern mobs who just rely on cheap tricks.”

She noticed the flicker of ‘doubt’ in Will’s eyes—his gaze darted towards her, then quickly away, flitting around uncertainly.

That’s so unlike him. Avoiding my eyes, showing fear and refusal... even resignation.

—But hey, Will, this is just something ‘adventurers’ run into all the time, right?

—If you still want to complete the dungeon crawl, you don’t just need to maintain your drive, advance efficiently, and plan everything...

—You also need to learn when it’s right to retreat and run away.

—Maybe only when you feel that threat to your life, that desperate urge to flee, that courage born from needing to escape...

—Maybe then you’ll truly grasp what it feels like to live in a ‘real’ world, not just one dictated by ‘fate’ or a ‘story’.

—If you’re still the Will I believe in, if you still have that persistence, if you’re still worth picking yourself back up after running...

—You’ll see this and understand instantly!

“WILL—!”

Will, who had been wavering just moments before, snapped his head up at the sharp call.

He saw it.

Shuna flicked her left wrist. After the last gob of black sludge fell away, it revealed an obsidian pendant. It caught the moonlight, gleaming with a faint silver sheen.

His eyes widened.

Even on the verge of giving up, he recognized it instantly.

A very old, very common dungeon drop: the Cursed Silver Chain. Typically dropped by the Black-Blood Sludge elite monster found on the floor right before the boss room, usually below layer 30...

Like a reflex, seeing the item triggered an avalanche of information in his brain.

That’s years of accumulated knowledge, everything I learned, everything I know about dungeons.

He understood.

Shuna was showing him this deliberately.

To tell him how to use the single most important dungeon ‘rule’.

“Morning Star is now...” Shuna began.

The moment their eyes met, they understood each other, perfectly synchronized in an instant.

This whole plan, everything up to now, was to get him out at this moment. We can’t stop here.

“”ABANDONING THE DUNGEON CRAWL—!!!””

Their voices overlapped almost perfectly, the raw declaration echoing in the space between them, drilling into Treya’s mind.

Treya’s expression froze.

She whipped her head around instantly.

Because she had Will ‘trapped’ inside the dungeon, trapped within her deepest, most hidden trump card, she had never even considered the possibility of him escaping like this.

“Teacher Will—!” she cried out in panic.

She twisted, reaching desperately for Will’s hand, but grasped only empty air.

Right before her eyes, the hem of the white ceremonial clothes she had prepared for Will vanished through a shimmering doorway. Slowly, the doorway dissipated, leaving only motes of dust.

“Dammit—What happened?! How could this—I need to get out of here...” Treya frantically touched her earring, speaking as if issuing a command. “Withdraw from the dungeon, withdraw now...”

“Heh,” Shuna chuckled softly. She carelessly tossed the silver pendant aside and raised her dagger, charging straight at Treya.

“There’s a rule in dungeons...” she stated, her voice dangerously calm.

“If you clear the floor right before the boss room, defeat the elite monster there, you gain the ‘right to withdraw’.”

“The right to choose not to fight the boss, to run away with your loot.”

“It’s a safety measure for adventurers.”

A flash of steel sliced towards Treya. With agility befitting someone in their party, Treya dodged, but a lock of silver hair fluttered to the ground, severed.

“You probably didn’t realize, did you? The floor you pulled us directly into—” Shuna pressed.

“—Is layer twenty-nine.”

“The most elite adventurers... no, someone like Will, can memorize item drop tables with terrifying accuracy. That’s something even I might struggle with.” Shuna’s voice held unwavering confidence. “So, he only needed one look to understand. I trusted him.”

Treya listened, her hand falling away from her earring.

“...Can’t withdraw,” she murmured, a new coldness in her voice.

Then, she drew her sword from her waist.

Shuna, by initiating combat with the ‘Dungeon Empress’, had effectively locked her here.

It was a gamble, trying to trap the ‘monster’ by engaging it on a floor that wasn’t its throne room, but it looks like it worked.

“You know,” Shuna said conversationally, “maybe... you should still call him ‘Teacher’.”

Shuna glanced towards the spot where the escape portal had vanished, a satisfied smile touching her lips.

Good. He got out safely. And... some things, he probably won’t realize until he’s far away, completely out of this anxious state.

Once everyone in a party withdraws from a dungeon, the exit portal disappears.

Originally, it was a ‘protection’ for the Dungeon Monarchs, allowing them to confirm an entire raiding party had left.

But now...

Shuna had used that very rule against the fledgling ‘New Dungeon Empress’ Treya. By keeping Treya from reaching the portal, she bought Will more time, let him get further away.

As for why Shuna herself remained...

That was the part she was glad Will hadn’t noticed, glad he was focused solely on escaping, not worrying about her.

After reaching the Adventurer’s Guild in the capital, she had impulsively, and slightly spitefully, filed the paperwork to leave the party.

She’d even imagined finding Will later, maybe he’d... maybe he’d even beg her to rejoin—but the thought had been too embarrassing, so she never told him.

“You intend to hold me here?” Treya asked, her voice dangerously low.

“Yep. Tried it just now. Pure melee? My short weapon is pretty evenly matched against you. Stalling for a bit shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Shuna spun her dagger nonchalantly. Without needing to cover Will, she seemed much more relaxed and confident.

“I figured it out, you know. You realized modifying his memories and creating illusions... he always develops resistance eventually...” Shuna mercilessly dissected Treya’s psyche.

“You realized no matter what, he’d try to escape, no matter what, he’d leave you.”

Shuna’s rapid attacks forced Treya back step by step.

“So you wanted to at least control him until the ‘wedding’, make him despair, make him finally surrender to the sweetness you created...”

As Shuna finished, she saw the purple in Treya’s eye flare brightly again.

“Yes. So what?” Treya hissed, her swordsmanship flawless.

Shuna considered herself highly skilled in close combat; she wouldn’t have stuck with short blades for so many years otherwise.

But...

Treya truly was Will’s student. Beyond her adept use of demonic power, her combat instincts and positioning were excellent.

“Seriously, your possessiveness is kinda off the charts. Maybe he’d be happier if he got away...”

“He won’t be,” Treya interrupted sharply, finding an opening with her sword, slicing through both Shuna’s words and her defense.

“Impossible.”

Shuna barely dodged, losing her grip on her dagger.

“It shouldn’t happen.”

Shuna retreated, reaching for the folded backup blade strapped to her other thigh.

“I am already stronger than he was back then. Being by my side is definitely his best option.” But Treya relentlessly pressed her advantage.

“More importantly... I cannot leave him.” she declared, the calmest tone delivering the heaviest words imaginable.

“That’s... way too heavy. You’re basically...”

Shuna’s words were cut off again by Treya—

“So you see? You can’t possibly love him as much as I do, can you?”

A chilling smile spread across Treya’s face, a smile that made Shuna’s skin crawl, radiating an oppressive aura she’d never felt from any other dungeon boss...

“But, no matter. I’ve figured it out. Your little ‘dungeon crawl’ ends right here, right now.”

“?”

Shuna felt the ground beneath her feet soften, like stepping into a swamp.

Another illusion? Memory alteration? Impossible... I definitely cast...

“Stacked countless goddess buffs on yourself to resist illusions?” Treya finished Shuna’s thought.

“Seems you weren’t holding back on the mental attacks earlier either,” Shuna retorted dryly.

“You said earlier... that I don’t understand adventurers...”

“Yeah, yeah, you still have a lot to learn,” Shuna quipped.

“Perhaps you also don’t know... that what each floor of a dungeon is like... is decided by its ‘Empress’.”

Shuna’s eyes widened, but she didn’t blink.

“This is... the reality of this dungeon’s Boss Floor—”

Her vision began to flicker violently, cycling through static images, yet the rapid flashing created a jerky sense of motion.

“When you get out... well, that depends on when you clear it,” Treya’s voice continued, growing fainter, more distant, like music from a tinny music box.

“Where is this...” Shuna gasped.

Finally, the flickering stopped.

She stood in a world composed entirely of stark white, untextured blocks.

***

Dawn was breaking.

Will ran.

He ran out through the palace gate.

Onward, ever onward.

His first coherent thought was that he didn’t know how long Shuna could hold Treya off. With the dungeon itself belonging to Treya, she held far too many trump cards, too many options.

So...

He couldn’t just aim to ‘get as far away as possible’.

Either trick Treya—mislead her somehow.

Or find backup—wait for Shuna, eventually.

Tricking Treya means avoiding the main roads where she could easily pursue with horses. I’m definitely not outrunning a horse.

As for backup...

An idea sparked in Will’s mind.

He quickly checked his wounds. First, heal the leg; he needed to run further. A simple low-level healing spell would suffice; as a top-tier healer, that was trivial.

But...

He smeared some blood from the gash on his leg onto his finger.

On the ground beside the main gate, he hastily scrawled three digits—

296

If he remembered correctly...

My own book... I should... probably... hopefully remember it right.

This was the only hope he could cling to now.

If ‘he’ suddenly vanished, what should they do?

Seeing this number, one person would understand.

Next...

Use roundabout routes, make it hard for Treya to find him—she didn’t have any special tracking abilities outside the palace, and her demonic power would weaken further away.

“This is the hope Shuna...” he gasped, pushing himself harder.

“...bought for me...”

“So... I have to keep going...”

He veered off the road, plunging headlong into the adjacent forest.