The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses-Chapter 275 - Shuna Dungeon-Crawling

“Th-That... crazy maid... she’s seriously tough to deal with.”

Demon Castle Zero, Floor ▆▆▆, the Final Floor, the Monarch’s Sanctum.

Treya pressed a hand to her forehead, pushing back stray strands of hair. The purple in her left eye blazed with an almost painful intensity, and if one looked closely, they’d see it flickering erratically. She leaned against the armrest of her throne, not sitting, just using it for support.

She listened to her own heartbeat. `Thump-thump... Thump-thump...` Only when it quieted, when the frantic rhythm eased, could she even begin to consider her next move.

“She just... acts purely on instinct! Barely any thought, just brute force! So ungraceful! No respect for ceremony whatsoever! Just swinging that blasted shield around and around and around—” Treya’s voice, usually so cool and detached, rose in pitch, becoming more agitated, almost hysterical. “She’s basically... basically just a wild animal!”

Of course, Treya had ‘contingency plans’. Eir had, after all, barged into the seventieth floor of Demon Castle Zero she’d constructed—a floor where the original elite boss was the ‘Fallen Angel’ priest meant to officiate the wedding. So, Treya had simply... ‘retreated’ as the Monarch of that floor, pulling the nearby priest into combat with Eir. But doing so forced her back to this Final Floor, and she couldn’t act again until the ‘challenger’ (Eir) exited the dungeon.

Her heartbeat gradually began to settle. `Thump... thump... thump...`

...Actually, the real reason her heart couldn’t calm down wasn’t just that insane maid.

It was...

She couldn’t accept...

Every time she closed her eyes, the image flashed back...

Will, having clearly removed the white earring, then putting it back on himself.

Will, the subtle, unconscious smile that touched his lips when he saw Eir standing outside the wedding ceremony.

Will, that smile which was brighter, more radiant, more... ‘colorful’ than any smile she’d seen from him when he was lost in her dreamscapes.

...Why?

She shouldn’t care about a smile like that. As long as... as long as he signed the contract with the demons, as long as he became like her, he would surely understand her. He would surely smile for her then, wouldn’t he?

But... Treya felt an emotion she’d never experienced before. What was it? Perhaps... ‘envy’. Not envy of Eir. Envy of her past self, the self who could see Will smile at her like that. But that smile was supposed to be hers, why should she be envious...?

...Perhaps the feeling was... ‘regret’... or even... remorse?

“If I may be so bold~ Your Majesty~ Your own actions~ are just as unhinged as that woman’s, you know~?”

On one of the four demonic thrones in Demon Castle Zero, the Red Demon of the East cackled, flashing a row of jet-black teeth.

Taking his cue, the other three chimed in—

“Indeed, indeed! But such a Majesty! That is precisely why we follow you!” —The Black Demon of the West.

“Continue on this path—” —The White Demon of the South.

“Please... yawn... do your best.” —The Grey Demon of the North.

The four demons, masters of their greatest demonic talent—instigation—chirped and chattered, teasing their ‘Empress’.

“Silence.” Treya regained her usual composure. One sharp command, and the Final Floor fell back into oppressive stillness.

...

“Fine. Say something useful.”

“Your Majesty~ That lady trapped on the 20th floor you created~ What will you do with her~?”

“There’s nothing in that memory! Just a white void!”

“Yes—Her Majesty went in to see for herself at the beginning—after all, that memory, it’s the memory of her most, most important person—”

“Then... Mmm... What... what should be done?”

Treya knew they were talking about Shuna.

“Her...” Frankly, Treya didn’t want to deal with Shuna, or rather, she didn’t have time to deal with Shuna—because Will wasn’t currently in her grasp. After avoiding a direct confrontation with Eir, Treya planned to wait for Eir to exit Demon Castle Zero, then pursue her from the ‘outside’. Settle the score properly.

But... was this... really the right thing to do?

Treya looked at the beautiful sword in her hand, the one Will had given her, its hilt wrapped in bandages. She’d searched all over Demon Castle Zero but couldn’t find materials as perfect as this... Strange... He taught her... taught her how to face the darkness, how to blend with it, how to lock onto that singular, colorful desire. But... she was starting to doubt... doubt herself?

“Your Majesty~ Perhaps~ You don’t need to do this~”

“Think—that person you consider unhinged—wild—if your ‘teacher’ were to encounter her—”

“He would know you are still the best for him!”

“Hmph... Wouldn’t he?”

“...I don’t know.” Treya wavered. She didn’t know why, but even though she thought she understood herself, her current state of mind felt shrouded in mist. As long as Will was still within the Entark Empire, she would find him; it was only a matter of time. What she needed... was it for him to return to her side... or...

“Oh~ Your Majesty~ It seems someone is looking for you outside~”

“Ah—I’ve already heard the news—”

“Yes! Yes! About the rebellion of the army solely controlled by Eugenie of the North!”

“Mmm... Not... surprising at all... It was prepared long ago...”

The reminder jolted Treya. Right. Just... a day ago. She had personally ‘buried’ Eugenie in the royal palace—her sister who feigned subservience while constantly scheming behind her back. Because that dear sister had touched Will. She wanted to awaken Will. She even wanted Will to betray her. Though a confrontation was inevitable, this was certainly sooner than planned. So, now there were ‘aftermaths’ to deal with.

“Can’t even let a person rest in peace after death,” Treya muttered, readjusting her clothes. She extended a hand into the air, and a doorway materialized on the Final Floor of this small dungeon. She glanced back at the bizarre dungeon, with its four grotesque, even uglier-souled, strangely-speaking Archdemons.

Treya briefly extended her senses. Shuna was still trapped within that ‘memory’. Demonic power could extract others’ memories, but memories themselves were intangible, their mechanisms a mystery. Though one could ‘materialize’ a memory, hold it in one’s palm, what it actually contained... required ‘deciphering’. Only after truly contracting with the demons did Treya understand that seeing through and manipulating memories and emotions wasn’t so easy. Everyone imprinted the world onto their minds differently. Human memory was like an encrypted spy communication; it needed a decryption key or method to understand the written text. Using shared memories from her interactions with Will, she could decipher a small part, but never the whole picture. Of course, most people didn’t have very strong encryption; a little probing was usually enough—like with her foolish sister Eugenie.

But... that world of white cubes... it was, after all, Will’s memory. Will, who had guided her step by step to the throne, who navigated both dungeons and business dealings with ease. And Will... who was, in many ways, an enigma she couldn’t see through. She had spent the resources of an entire dungeon and still couldn’t fully unravel his memories, couldn’t see him clearly. So... that ‘Shuna’... how could she possibly succeed? Thus, Treya was confident: Shuna couldn’t escape from there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shuna had been trapped in a white void, a world of perfectly regular ‘cubes’, for what felt like an hour—an hour she estimated purely by instinct. She was mostly just... ‘wandering around’.

When she first arrived, she could roughly discern ‘front, back, left, and right’. But after exploring for a while, even those directions became meaningless. This place seemed to ‘infinitely’ extend in every direction—though, walking alone, it was easy to go in circles, so that wasn’t much of a reference.

“This is a dungeon? Never seen one like this.”

This white space wasn’t completely empty, as mentioned; countless ‘cubes’ were scattered around haphazardly. Shuna picked one up, turning it over and over in her hands, examining it from every angle. It was incredible. She’d actually taken sketching classes seriously for a while at Entark Second Academy—mainly to accurately draw monsters for Will. She later discovered her artistic talent was... lacking—compared to her other gifts. Sketching a cube was fine, but her monster drawings were hilariously inaccurate; even she couldn’t tell which monster she’d drawn after finishing.

But... those sketching classes allowed her to realize here that these cubes on the ground were ‘perfect’ cubes. Smooth surfaces, seemingly frictionless, made of some unidentifiable material. Length, width, and height were all perfectly equal. Shuna couldn’t imagine anywhere else in this ‘world’ capable of producing such perfect cubes. But hey, dungeons were places where all sorts of bizarre things could exist.

“Oh well, getting to see such a curious dungeon isn’t a bad deal,” Shuna mused. “Hope that guy Will manages to escape from Treya.” She paused. “But, isn’t this supposed to be a ‘demon’s’ dungeon? Feels kinda weird. No ‘demonic’ elements at all.” Shuna mentally compared it to Lucifer’s ‘Tenth Demon Castle’. That place was hardly this ‘abstract’. Lucifer’s dungeon had all sorts of strange creatures, you could even talk to them. Compared to that, Treya’s ‘primordial’ Demon Castle was pretty poorly designed.

“Hellooo? Hello, my name is Shuna—” Shuna held up the white cube. Even she thought she might be losing it, talking to an inanimate white object after an hour alone. “Mmm, a self-introduction? I guess... I guess I’ve always seen myself as the ‘female protagonist’ of this world.”

“Because I always run into lucky things, always meet people who rescue me from danger, and easily stumble into adventures no matter what I do.”

“But... now I seem to have gotten into a bit of a nasty situation. Even I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“To save him, so he can be like he was before, so we can explore the ultimate secrets of dungeons together...”

“Even if I’m not the ‘female protagonist’, I can still do those things, right?”

...

“What am I even saying? So weird. Guess the stress is really getting to me.”

However...

The small white cube in her hand...

Actually responded.

`[“Password input correct. Commencing identification system activation.”]`

“Huh?” Shuna had never heard a voice like that... How to describe it? It didn’t sound ‘human’ at all. She looked up as the cube slowly floated into the air before her.

`[“Please confirm. Are you the ‘Female Protagonist’ entity?”]`

“What kind of weird question is that?” Shuna tilted her head in confusion.

`[“Please present your three-view orthographic projection.”]`

“?” Shuna scratched her head.

—