The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses-Chapter 287 - Winter of the Beastkin Maid (2)

Will silently gazed at the tombstone.

Back then, they had erected the tombstone so casually that even the birch tree used as a marker seemed to have been cut down, leaving only a lonely grave facing the newly frozen river.

This place had always been the most desolate part of the Hysterm estate, rarely tended to in the past, and now it had become like a wilderness, with the pine forest on the distant riverbank making it feel like they were in the middle of nowhere.

Will tightened his coat and shivered.

“Young Master, will you say something about ‘destiny’ again... or... or life?”

Eir held a long-handled black umbrella, but since it wasn’t raining, she didn’t open it, instead standing there with it propped on the ground.

She seemed to have an innate “respect” for this place, and even Will hadn’t seen her solemn expression in a long time as she looked seriously at the tombstone of just a dog.

“You remember that?”

“Of course I remember. Every experience with Young Master, every word Young Master has said, Eir tries to remember it all in my heart.”

She used the umbrella to brush the snow off the tombstone, then scooped up a handful of snow with her hand and began to shape a snowman—although she only made a few gestures, Will could tell she was trying to make a dog-like shape.

“If it were me two months ago, I might have thought that way. But now... well, I admit, I’m a bit lost, which is why I came here.”

Will sighed, looking at the tombstone.

Perhaps he came here to give his present “self” a fresh start.

Facing the destiny he once thought he couldn’t defeat...

Seeing the girls he had personally raised not only pull him into the water one by one but also disrupt the trajectory of the destiny he knew, changing the established events and their own destinies...

Perhaps he should also...

Think about the new future he faces after being swept up in the events of “Shu’s disappearance,” “a best friend becoming the protagonist,” “Edward dying a year early,” and “Treya becoming the new empress.”

Have a greater “sense” of this world, treat it as a place to “live,” and once again understand love and being loved here...

“So, Young Master, why did you think that way back then? For you... what does the death of Thirty-Seven here mean to you?”

Will’s thoughts were interrupted by Eir.

He seemed to have been staring at the tombstone for a long time, lowering his eyes to see the snow puppy in Eir’s hands.

She had made it very simply, just a ball with two round ears on top, two eyes drawn with her fingers, and then placed it on her palm.

But...

It was quite cute.

It didn’t look alike in appearance, but the feeling of “this thing is a bit silly” was somewhat similar to Eir.

“This has always been a problem that troubled Eir. Eir is dumb, and even though Young Master says that repeating words will eventually make Eir understand, Eir still can’t fully understand Young Master.”

She placed the cute puppy in Will’s hand.

“If... if Eir could understand more about what Young Master is facing... maybe... maybe Eir wouldn’t have to hear Young Master say that Eir is not needed anymore?”

Will gently took it.

Surprisingly, the puppy was not cold at all, nor did it have a chilling feel. Instead, Will could feel the warmth of Eir’s palm on the melted surface.

“I never said that. But there were complicated reasons back then, and now they probably don’t matter anymore.”

Will placed the cute puppy on top of Eir’s head, right between her two ears, like a big dog with a little dog on top.

“Huh...!?”

She seemed to sense a chill, lowering her head at first but immediately raising it again because of Will’s action.

Even though in the nearly two weeks they had spent together, he and Eir had become very “close,” and he had shown enough “reliance” and “response” to Eir...

And in these two weeks, living in this “old home,” spending each year as he had in the first ten years of his life, it seemed he had “returned” to the earliest way of getting along with Eir.

He had done it...

His mentality and state of mind had returned to the “Young Master Will” who belonged only to Eir, back to the time when he was the young master of the Hysterm family, growing up with the maid who took care of him.

But...

Why was this?

Why did Eir seem to have an unfillable void of security, always inadvertently revealing “unease” and low spirits?

“Well, don’t think too much. Where did you get the firewood before? Let’s take some back with us?”

At least, until he had a new destination, he would stay here.

He crouched down and patted Eir’s head.

“...Mhmm.” Eir took the snow puppy off her head and placed it on top of the tombstone. “Go around to the forest on the other side of the mountain. Young Master should have some impression; that area actually belongs to the Hysterm family. We used to go there together to play...”

“Um... I don’t seem to have much memory of that...”

Will didn’t have such deep memories of his childhood.

In his memory, he always seemed like a nerdy kid who stayed in the house studying magic and reading various books, right?

“Of course, because Young Master was very unhappy, pouting, and always wanted to go back. It was... after Thirty-Seven died. But...”

Eir took his hand.

“Now Young Master can have snowball fights with Eir, play in the snow, and even lie in the snow making big characters! Eir is very happy!”

“Ah... maybe it’s because life now is more like a vacation.”

Will began to reflect on himself.

In the years since he had erected the tombstone for Thirty-Seven, had he been too “hardworking,” too “busy,” with so little time for fun in daily life that Eir had such a misunderstanding?

“Alright, let’s go—”

...

......

When they reached the forest northwest of the Hysterm estate, Will saw half of it had been cleared by Eir.

And he hadn’t noticed before, but the markings and Eir carrying the “Snow Chanting Sacred Shield” he had given her, when connected...

“Eir, did you use the shield... to chop down the trees?”

“Um... Yes? What about it?”

Eir calmly raised the carefully crafted shield he had given her, her face not showing any “difficulty,” standing in the middle of about four or five trees, aiming the sharper edge of the shield at one side of the forest.

Then—

Using her left foot as the center, she slightly lifted her right foot and spun around in a full circle like a compass!

Crack, crack, crack.

Crash.

After a slight “delay,” a second or two after hearing the sound and Will’s eyes widening, he saw...

The trees that had been hit by her shield fell in all directions.

Standing among the fallen trees, Eir wagged her tail happily, planted the shield in the ground, and put her hands on her hips, proudly puffing out her chest.

“See, isn’t it useful!”

......

Will nodded silently, then gave her a thumbs up.

He just hadn’t expected his shield to have such a use. In the future, if everyone reconciled, could Leah’s staff be used to start a fire, Treya’s sword to chop vegetables... and then they could all sit around the table happily eating barbecue?

“Then the chopping is up to you, I’ll sort out these logs.”

“Okay, Eir will do whatever Young Master says.”

“Such a good girl, pat your head.”

Will waved his staff, using levitation magic on the logs on the ground.

It was much easier than before.

Originally, for items of this weight, his levitation magic shouldn’t have been so low-cost. Now he really felt that his magic efficiency had improved significantly because of the witch’s blood mixed into his.

But...

After about five minutes, he had just finished sorting the logs in front of him and suddenly stopped working.

Something—no, he could clearly sense it was a monster—was approaching him. Eir had already gone quite far ahead.

He took a deep breath and turned around.

About three to four meters tall, its fur more like shadows flowing, it lowered its head, hiding behind a tree, but not hiding at all, emitting a low growl.

Will immediately judged that it was at least a Level 2 Shadow Wolf, not a low-level monster.

In this world, there were indeed “dangers” outside the dungeons, with many “monsters” attacking residents and farms, mainly feeding on humans and animals.

According to this world’s history, these monsters seemed to have leaked out from an early dungeon, breeding and evolving outside. As dungeon difficulty increased, the earliest leaked monsters had gone from being very troublesome to becoming low-level dungeon creatures.

Generally, Shadow Wolves rarely appeared during the day, preferring the night.

Perhaps the blizzard had kept people away for many days, and they were very hungry. Plus, this place was indeed far from town and had been uninhabited for a long time, making it a normal gathering place for monsters.

Will looked at it, his left eye catching its shadow and the magic fluctuations around it—the first time Will had discovered this use for his left eye.

“Roar—!”

Their eye contact lasted only a few seconds before it charged at him with incredible speed.

“Young Master!!!”

Will heard Eir’s anxious cry from behind.

But...

He drew a dagger from his waist and, with incredible speed and keen prediction, swung it in the air, directly cutting off its right paw!

Black, shadowy blood splattered to the side.

In that moment of suspension in the air, Will stabbed the dagger into its ribs.

Then, with his other hand, he turned his staff, aiming it at the spot between its eyes where there was a white patch, contrasting sharply with the black monster.

Will knew monsters well. Although it wasn’t a dungeon monster, that didn’t hinder his understanding of it.

A proper monster’s “vital point” should be marked with a different color.

“Quick Magic—”

“Fireball.”

Boom.

An exceptionally large and forceful fireball, far beyond the norm, pierced through the three- to four-meter-tall monster, causing it to explode in mid-air.

“Don’t worry, Eir, piece of cake.”

“Young... Young Master? Are you... are you okay...?”

“Yeah, I can handle a monster of this level...”

But as Will turned around.

Eir was standing there, head bowed, one hand tightly gripping her shield. For some reason, in his left eye...

Her body was overflowing with black hues.