William Massachusetts

'''"Meetings are boring and useless. I want to walk my own path!"

- William, Volume 2 Annex '''

William Massachusetts, also known as Mithril Eyes William, is the guild master of Silver Sword, whose specialty is ranged combat. As the guildmaster of a raid guild, William held that whatever happened to the city, for good or ill, was not his concern. In the wake of the formation of the Round Table Alliance, and the good it brought to the city, he deeply regrets his own petty decision not to take part in the Round Table Council and goes into self-exile with his guild following him. While Adventurers speculated that William was too proud to bow down to any kind of governing body, the truth was that his decision was brought on by a feeling of shame due to his own pettiness.

When Shiroe ventures north to the Depths of Palm, William readily agrees to volunteer himself and his guild to aid in his latest scheme to make up for his previous lapse. By this point, they had ended up in Susukino, taking over the city by ousting the rouge guild Brigandia from its tyranny.

Appearance
While William is noted to have the handsome looks of a young prince, his short-temper contrasts with that image.

Personality
William dislikes joining meetings as he opposed his guild's participation in the Round Table Alliance, preferring to "walk his own path." However, he encourages the remaining 11 guilds to work on the current problem, proving that he's against joining the alliance but not against their principles.

He later reveals that he held animosity towards the Debauchery Tea Party, having idolized them when he was a younger player and hoping to join their group once he reached level 90; however, by the time he finally hit level 90, they had already dissolved without even a trace of their former glory, forming a sense of betrayal within him.

It is revealed that in the real world, William was a serious gamer who had difficulties communicating with and befriending his classmates, which is why he was so engrossed with playing Elder Tale.

Prior to the Catastrophe
When he first began playing, William heard of a legendary party that took on raids all over the world, and sought to join their ranks. However, by the time he was at a level high enough to join, it had disbanded without even a guild to leave its legacy, producing animosity within him since they "didn't wait for him."

As a result, he formed Silver Sword to take on raids both local and overseas to create the same legacy the Tea Party had. Most of its members, like himself, weren't very good at communicating with others in the real world, but made very good raiders.

The Catastrophe arc
William was seen rallying his guild right after the Apocalypse.

Round Table Alliance arc
William appears at the beginning of the episode as Shiroe explains how Guilds work. Silver Sword is mentioned by Maryelle as one of the guilds that was aiming to reach level 91 along with the Black Sword Knights.

William is one one of the guild masters who is invited to the Round Table Conference escorted by his elite bodyguards. However, he leaves shortly after the conference begins, because he feels that the situation in Akiba isn't something that his guild, which is a combat guild, should care about. Even though he doesn't personally want to be involved in improving the conditions in Akiba, he encourages the remaining guilds to continue working on the problem in his absence; he is against the Silver Sword's participation, not against the idea in principle.

Libra Festival arc
William appears at the very end of episode 25, approaching Demikas after he and his guild traveled in self-exile from Akiba to Susukino.

Gold of the Kunie arc
When Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Re Gan head to Susukino, it turns out that Shiroe had requested Silver Sword's participation in a new Raid Quest at the Depths of Palm. Although William is willing to listen to Shiroe's assessment of the new raid content, his primary concern was that his guild no longer had the motivation to go on raids, so he probably could not recruit enough people to go on even a Full Raid. As Shiroe met with William, Demikas barges in, still bearing hatred towards Shiroe and Nyanta for his defeat several months prior. Although Demikas threatens Shiroe, William tells Demikas to back down or he'll "kick [Demikas'] ass again," causing Shiroe to infer that the two had dueled, with William winning overwhemlingly. William manages to rope Demikas into assisting in the Abyssal Shaft raid, much to the latter's annoyance, upon seeing the arrival of Naotsugu and Tetora.

Despite the large distance between the Depths of Palm and Susukino, William decides to travel the route by foot, a decision that Shiroe honors and has his group (himself, Naotsugu, Demikas, Tetora, and two Silver Sword members) do likewise. Several days into the raid, both William and Shiroe noticed that the raid was much more difficult than they had expected and worry that their supplies would run out. In particular, the materials needed to repair their equipment (and for William, creating more arrows) would be in short supply.