“Young Master… is this for Iaar?”
After Iaar said those words, what happened to her? Will only remembered her expression, her tears seeming to well up in her gray eyes. Then, she nodded, as if agreeing with what Will had said.
“I don’t know. But I could tell that only by doing this, you would believe I love you, right?”
“…Iaar, Iaar doesn’t know.”
“However, when you make your move, please spare my life. That’s about all I ask.”
“…”
Iaar seemed a little shocked by Will’s words.
Her eyes widened, but soon returned to their usual expression, tinged with a faint smile.
“Iaar can’t really tell if someone is lying, but…” She tapped her nose. “I can smell that there’s no scent of lies in the words coming from the Young Master’s mouth.”
“…Believe me, I… I won’t deceive you.”
“Yes! Then Iaar is relieved. However, besides this, Iaar also wants to leave something on the Young Master… or rather, something that was prepared a long time ago but never had the chance… or perhaps I was afraid of scaring the Young Master, so I didn’t take it out.”
“…Hm?”
Before Will could even think, he felt a sudden chill on his neck.
The coldness of the leather gradually warmed as it touched his skin.
Wait…
Leather?
What Iaar had prepared was…
He lowered his head with difficulty, able to see a black band around his neck… a collar?
He sighed. Did this thing have to reappear on him as a form of “revenge”?
“The Young Master once put this on Iaar, and it even had Iaar’s name engraved on it.”
Iaar interrupted his thoughts. As if it were a treasure, she reached out and slowly caressed the metal collar on her own neck—also made by Will, but he was very satisfied with the functionality of this “accessory” so he hadn’t made a new one for Iaar in a long time.
And this one on his neck now…
He wanted to reach out and touch it, only to suddenly remember that his hands were tied, so he couldn’t touch the gift Iaar had just given him on his neck.
Iaar seemed to read his mind and, the moment he had this thought, reached out and untied the ropes binding his wrists.
The ropes that he had struggled with for a long time and couldn’t undo, for Iaar, seemed to be easily loosened by simply releasing some of the magic, making them quite loose.
“It’s untied…”
He caressed the leather collar around his neck.
And then…
Although there was no mirror and he couldn’t see it, he knew from the sensation on his fingertips that Iaar had engraved on the black collar…
“Will,” written in a style like a child who wasn’t yet proficient at writing.
It wasn’t the precise lettering of a craftsman designing and carving jewelry, but rather like Iaar holding a carving knife, inexperienced, yet because Will had done the same thing on her collar, she was imitating Will’s actions like a child imitating an adult.
“On my journey to find the Young Master, Iaar encountered a very good dungeon rescue team. We helped them clear several dungeons along the way, about three or four.”
Before Will’s fingers could move away, her fingers brushed against his and gently caressed the silver collar.
“Then, in one of the dungeons… when they were distributing rewards, they gave me this strange black leather. And then… Iaar made this collar based on the one on my own neck.”
“Is that so? I don’t remember you mentioning such an experience before.”
“It seems to be able to quickly activate some sealed magic arrays. So, Iaar stored three low-level Ice Array magic spells within it. It fills up very quickly; after storing three, it can’t hold anything else.”
“…”
“Originally, Iaar thought… if the Young Master really didn’t need Iaar anymore, at least this gift could protect the Young Master… just like Iaar was protected before.”
Will seemed to feel the weight and practicality of this gift.
A shortcut to activate some complex magic? It sounded different from the ring; the stored magic wouldn’t disappear after being recalled.
It was more like a frequently used mouse side button.
It was a good gift. As soon as he heard its function, Will could imagine a series of situations and uses for it. Especially for a “mage” in the [VIP 7-Lingba Service Private Chat Qun] facing a BOSS with extremely fast attack speed when alone…
Heh.
What was he thinking about dungeons here?
Right…
That future that looked like it belonged to the protagonist and the adventurers seemed to have been “abandoned” by him.
Alright, it’s actually very simple.
This isn’t a game where you can restart if your save file is corrupted, buy a new account from the trading market to be reborn, or start over after watching the Staff credits roll upon reaching a bad ending.
For him, this was a real world, a real life, a real existence, just like his previous life…
Therefore, he would accept the karma he had brought upon himself—
He just needed to smile and feel the person who would unconditionally love him forever, take care of him, offer her everything to him, and also take everything from him.
“Then… Young Master, shall we start with your fingers? Because for other places, Iaar currently has no confidence…?”
Having placed the collar on him, Iaar instantly returned to her initial state, back to their first agreement.
“Convenient for cutting, easy to stop bleeding… but it can still affect daily life… Whatever you wish.”
It was Will who offered the analysis—he admitted it was purely subconscious.
“Then… Iaar will go prepare bandages and a knife. Although I haven’t processed blood before, since it can freeze blood, there’s no need to worry about heavy bleeding. Perhaps there’s no need to worry about cleanup afterward either.”
She was calm, as calm as if she were preparing dinner for the evening.
“Yes. I’ll wait for you.”
Will looked at his palm, also calm, as calm as a diner waiting for a waiter to serve their food.
Such a calm narration, and such calm conversation…
It seemed free of any…
Pathological elements, right?
As the door to the basement was gently closed, the sound of a large iron chain locking the door could faintly be heard. Will looked at his now “complete” hand, half illuminated and half swallowed by darkness.
“Speaking of which, if I were in Iaar’s hands right now…”
“What would be the ‘ending’?”
“Will Liya also come looking for me? According to the timeline, she should have paid off her debt by now. Treya… what is she doing? The wedding must have been postponed, and the Entak Empire… right, the latest plot of the original work doesn’t match up anymore. The Entak Empire is even still…”
“So…”
“My ‘life’…”
“What will be its ending?”
