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"What do we do now?"

A young lady with long silky black hair somberly asked. She adjusted her reading glasses softly as she spoke. Her voice contained uncertainty, hesitation, and fear.

"What else? Play nice, of course!" Another young lady replied. This one had auburn hair with pretty hazel eyes. She had freckles across her cheeks and nose. She huffed, crossed her arms before her chest, and leaned on the chair.

"As much as I hate this, we can’t lose Sir Justin. No other party managers will take us, not with all the crap we did," she continued. "That’s why we’re going to play nice for a bit, just to calm him down. After that, well...we’ll deal with it once we’re there." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Holy shit. Totally unrepentant, huh?" A young man scoffed to the side. His eyes held disdain for the words of the unrepentant auburn-haired girl.

He’s got bowl-cut hair with sharp, fox-like eyes; he’s wearing a black hooded sweater and gray sweatpants; and he’s playing with a small dagger, making it dance between his fingertips.

"Shut it, you!" The auburn-haired girl sharply glared at him.

"No, you shut it, you unrepentant bitch!" The fox-eyed man sharply retorted.

The nasty word made the auburn-haired girl gasp in shock and fury.

"What did you just call me?"

"A bitch! What, aside from being completely unrepentant, you’re deaf now too? How fucking useless can you be?"

"Fuck you!"

"No, fuck you!" The young man retorted, completely unafraid even after seeing the scarlet orange tinted chakra being emitted from the auburn-haired girl’s body.

He even matched her with his dark blue tinted chakra in return. Indicating that he was completely willing to escalate this if needed, just to drill his message to this stubborn girl.

"At least 80% of the complaints and lawsuits our party now faced were because of you!" He angrily reminded her. "It’s you who made Sir Justin’s life miserable! It’s you who made all those people hate us! It’s because of you that we’re in deep shit!"

"The words that Sir Justin said before leaving? None of that was aimed at us; it’s for you, you stupid bitch! How insensitive can you be?"

"And instead of repenting and making things right, you plan on putting on act so you can prolong our agony? Holy shit! Since when were you replaced by a fucking demon?"

"You’ve always been bitchy since I met you, but damn, do you take things far now that ’he’ is gone! What? You can’t hold back your demonic urges anymore? Is that it, huh? You demon bitch!?"

The more he talked, the more he got riled up and the richer his dark blue chakra cloak became.

He didn’t mince his words at all. And he most certainly didn’t hold anybody’s hand before popping off, either.

His sharp accusations sliced through the heart of the auburn-haired girl’s heart; she was angry that she couldn’t even form words and so frustrated that she was tearing up.

"Derek, maybe we should—"

"No, we fucking shouldn’t, Jules!" The bowl-cut young man, now named Derek, glared at the other young man on this team named Jules—the one with curly dark brown hair and honey-colored eyes.

Jules flinched at Derek’s tone. Anything he wanted to say got swallowed up by how intimidated he got faced with Derek’s riled-up emotions.

"We shouldn’t continue to tolerate this bitch!" Derek spat in the girl’s direction, just to send the point across.

He then looked back at Jules and asked, "What? You think I should ’calm down’ and ’be rational’ or ’not go too far’? Why? Because she’s about to cry? Then why the hell did you not say the same to her when she made the previous applicants cry too?"

"You hated being bullied; ’he’ did too. ’He’ stopped her when she was going too far. You idolized ’him,’ but you turned a blind eye when she was bullying them? You’re a goddamn hypocrite!"

That silenced Jules. All he could do was to lower his gaze into his lap and bow his head.

Derek wasn’t done, though. He wasn’t even moved when the other girl was now in tears because of his words.

"Oh hell! Here we fucking go. Seriously? You think your crocodile tears will move me? After you’ve shown us how unrepentant you were? Give me a fucking break!"

"You don’t understand—!"

"You’re right, I don’t!" Derek didn’t let her continue. "I don’t understand you, Jen!"

Derek stepped closer to the auburn-haired girl, now named Jen, and stressed his next words directly to her face.

"He’s dead, Jennifer."

Jen’s face went stiff at the reminder. Jules flinched, and the black-haired girl with glasses slowly lowered her head.

"Travis, our party leader, is dead, Jennifer. He’s gone. He’s not going to return."

"That’s why I don’t understand you, Jen. Why go this far? You’re not stupid. You know the truth? Why do you keep running away from it? Why escape knowing that it’s going to catch up, anyway?"

"Even if you torment the other people you suspect were trying to replace him. Even if you torment Sir Justin because you might be blaming him. Even if you try everything in your power to run away from this truth...nothing’s going to change."

"He’s dead."

"He’s gone."

"He’s never going to return."

Jen’s body shook with sobs; the anger melted from her eyes and face, replaced with deep sorrow and loss.

"We lost him, but we aren’t the reason why he died. It’s not the other people who wanted to join our party or Sir Justin’s fault, either."

"Travis was ill even before our party was formed. He was on a time limit since he was born, and he knew it."

"He just wanted to experience what it’s like to live as a martial artist and a dungeon explorer with the remaining time he had. And even though we didn’t know it, we gave him the best experience he could."

"Travis departed in peace, Jen."

"We were there. We sat right there as he said his farewells."

"He died painlessly and peacefully, Jen. That’s the best ending he could’ve asked for. It’s certainly much worse than dying in the jaws of monsters."

"So stop tormenting others, Jen. Stop tormenting yourself, either; you know that’s not what he wanted."

Derek’s anger was gone, seeing that his message had been received, not well, but definitely received. He’s so sick and tired of this party not handling loss very well.

He tried to give everybody time; he rationalized that Jen was just being rebellious. But before he knew it, she had gone too far. They had gone too far.

It wasn’t until Sir Justin’s ultimatum that Derek finally woke up and decided to do something about it. This can’t continue anymore. If Jen still doesn’t wake up after this, then Derek will be left with no choice.

He refused to tarnish their party leader’s memories by letting this party shackle his future. That is not something that Travis will ever allow to happen; he’d kill himself sooner if it ever did, that’s for sure.

It won’t just be Sir Justin who’ll move on without this party; Derek will, too.

"It’s unfair...so unfair," Jen’s body continued to shake from how badly she was sobbing.

Hurt, pain, and loss were evident in her voice. Now, it’s very clear that she hasn’t taken the loss of Travis very well. She cried a lot when he died and during his funeral. They all thought that she already cried her heart out, but no.

Instead of handling her loss, she weaponized her pain and inflicted it on those who she thinks were trying to replace Travis’ position. She never thought about it this way until Derek confronted her because in her mind, she’s just trying to protect Travis’ memory in anyway she can.

"It is." Derek agreed. "It’s is really unfair."

"But so were you, Jen," he continued. "You were being unfair, too. To Sir Justin, to the others who just wanted to join a party to continue climbing the dungeon levels."

"They had nothing to do with this, yet they suffered your wrath, anyway. So yes, it’s all unfair."

"..."

"Stop it, Jen," Derek sighed. "Grieve if you want to grieve; we’re not asking you to stop. We’re hurt too. But you don’t see us weaponizing it to hurt others."

"Stop tormenting yourself and others. If you want to visit his grave, if that helps you, go. We won’t be stopping you. Just stop hurting yourself and others too."

"I can’t stand to see us in this state. Not anymore."

"Travis told us to let go and move forward without him. He told us not to let this be a shackle to us, and I intend to uphold that promise."

"If this party becomes a shackle to me too because it is unable to handle loss and grief after much time and chances, I won’t hesitate to leave too."

"I believe that Travis will support me."

"He’s never one to hold back anybody from reaching their full potential, after all."

After saying his piece, Derek walked out of the room and allowed the rest to chew on his declaration.