The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The boss wants to die.
Chapter 12
“…….”
“I hope you do. Answer me.”
“……Yes.”
Under my threat, Michael grudgingly forced out the words, his face flushed with humiliation.
I broke into a grin as though I’d never been serious a moment before.
“So. Are you going to cooperate, or not?”
“What do I gain by cooperating?”
“What do you gain?”
I burst out laughing without meaning to.
I covered my mouth elegantly with the back of my hand and laughed so hard my shoulders shook—Michael’s face crumpled.
“Listen carefully, darling. You’re not in a position to haggle over profit right now. As long as I’m alive, you won’t be able to get anywhere near Akt, nor will you uncover what you’re after. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I continued with a pleasant smile.
“It means I’ll kill you the moment I find you.”
“…….”
“…….”
Heavy silence pressed down on the room.
At this point, I almost felt sorry for Michael—but I had no mercy to spare.
“How do you think you’ll handle an Evil God who charges at you with murderous intent? Even the Subjugation Force, formed on a national scale, can’t so much as breathe in front of me.”
“…….”
“Choose. Do you die by my hand, or do you cooperate and kill me instead?”
In truth, from Michael’s perspective, it was a deal with no downside.
He could make contact with Akt in the process of killing me, and after the deal was done, he’d gorge himself on the Items and Experience Points I dropped.
It was having your cake and eating it too.
“I accept the deal.”
As expected, he took my offer.
“But you’ll need to create the opportunity carefully. Make it so I can definitely kill you.”
I’d been planning to provoke Akt into restraining me, then order Michael to finish me off—but I found myself looking puzzled instead.
Michael stood motionless like a statue, watching me without so much as a twitch.
“There won’t be a second chance.”
“Why wouldn’t there be a second chance? We can create another…….”
“Akt Hebgenia doesn’t tolerate two mistakes. A collar?”
He shook his head.
“That’s cute. If you don’t want to suffer restraint far worse than that, you’d better devise a plan guaranteed to succeed. He’s insane, after all.”
‘……I know he’s crazy, but still.’
Hearing those words from another Player gave me chills.
“Akt is a serpent of a man.”
Is that so?
I fell into deep thought.
‘More like a dog, if anything. A massive, enormous hound…….’
Michael seemed to see straight through my thoughts, and his voice hardened.
“Don’t forget. He’s scheming and meticulous. You’ll have your hands full trying to deceive him.”
“…….”
“I doubt you can deceive him. Akt acts soft, but…….”
Michael trailed off, his brow furrowing as he shook his head.
He held his head with one hand as though struck by a migraine.
He hurried to finish as he waved his head away.
“It seems we’re done here. Go on, get out.”
“You’re the one who called me in the first place.”
I laughed at the absurdity of it all.
“I’ll contact you through my Familiar. Heart.”
“Yes, Master!”
Heart emerged from my shadow with a cheerful pop, fluttering his cute little wings.
“This is what he looks like. Don’t mix him up.”
“I’m not stupid enough to mistake a bat with heart-shaped eyes.”
“Good to know.”
I waved my hand languidly as I left his room.
Until the door shut completely, Michael stared at me through the closing gap.
His face was tense with anxiety, like a man desperately afraid he was forgetting something crucial.
***
“It’s getting very late.”
I almost screamed when I saw Akt the moment I stepped into the room.
“Why are you only just arriving?”
He lifted himself from where he’d been perched on the edge of the bed.
His shadow, stretched across the window sill, reached toward my feet like a demon’s claws.
I glanced out the window.
The deep amber sunlight was painting his pale skin and white hair in shades of blood.
Dusk had fallen without my noticing.
“Where were you? I was genuinely worried.”
The words didn’t sound like a lie—a shadow had deepened across his eyes in that moment.
I couldn’t make sense of his overreaction.
He was clinging to me as if a few hours’ absence meant losing me forever.
“You’re not my paranoid husband, so why are you prying like this?”
“We’re always together.”
“That’s not what being in a party means.”
I sighed and folded my arms.
“I want to rest, so please go—what are you doing?”
Akt approached with a pained expression, bending at the waist.
His long hair brushed across my shoulder as I stood in my off-shoulder mini dress.
It felt like cold silk threads gliding across my skin.
Before I could react and push him away, he drew in a breath as if scenting the air.
Like a dog greeting its master, trying to identify the unfamiliar smells clinging to them.
“Huh…”
When his warm breath touched my sensitive neck, my body instinctively recoiled.
His thick brows shot upward.
“It’s not as if there’s anyone else worth meeting in this place.”
………
“We’ve explored everything there is to see here, going hunting with me from the Small Village as we do…”
His black eyes—fathomless as an abyss—fixed on mine.
“I don’t smell alcohol or sweet desserts. Were you in the inn the whole time? Which room?”
Akt’s suspicion tightened its noose around me.
Those pitch-black eyes stared as if they might swallow me whole.
It was deeply unsettling.
Guilt—over something I’d done—made my heart hammer in my ears.
I seized on his behavior, attacked it relentlessly, desperately trying to break the suffocating tension.
“This is really strange, you know? We’re not even in a relationship. And even if we were, you can’t act like this. That’s a crime. I’d report you to the authorities right now.”
“When I feel anxious, I become… strange. I’m sorry. I can’t seem to control myself anymore.”
How much stranger could this possibly get?
Under that gaze, Akt straightened.
I placed my hands on my hips.
“From now on, be careful. I don’t appreciate this kind of interrogation.”
Without responding, Akt dragged over a chair, sat down, and abruptly changed the subject.
“Do you remember what you said? Rowen.”
“Which time?”
“You said I must have gone to so much trouble capturing you that I should recoup my losses, didn’t you?”
It was an oddly disconnected thing to bring up.
I looked at him with confusion.
“Your words were actually right. I’ve taken considerable losses crawling around like a dog, farming.”
Akt spoke the crude words without hesitation, that same composed smile on his face.
He was a man who would occasionally jest or tease, but he’d never been foul-mouthed.
Yet now, speaking in such an uncharacteristically cheap manner, he seemed entirely unfazed.
I was taken aback by the incongruity.
Actually, more than just a little.
“What are you talking about?”
Surprise cracked my voice.
Akt didn’t smile at all.
“But I don’t need your Experience Points or items. My goal is being with you. That’s why I’ve been farming Legendary Items—like a worthless slave.”
………
“That Dog Collar you despise so much. I’ve been dragging a level-ten body all the way to the Demon Realm just to obtain it.”
“…….”
“If I’m going to get my money’s worth out of this, what do you think I should do?”
What is my investment, if not keeping you by my side?
He whispered words that rang like metal, his voice coiled like a serpent seducing Eve.
I blinked.
I was too startled to think of anything at all.
Akt recited a narrative that had bypassed his mind entirely, yet was far too detailed to be improvised.
“For one, I could lock you in my room and keep you with me all day. Not that I enjoy the idea…….”
Akt continued, his voice strained.
“If things take a turn for the worse and I’m forced to act, I’ll bind your hands and feet so you can’t move an inch.”
His voice turned dark and hollow, splitting dangerously.
“So that you have no choice but to depend on me for everything.”
My mouth fell open, but no sound emerged.
The shock had rendered me speechless.
His description was unnervingly concrete, as if it were something he’d already done before.
“That’s what I mean by getting my money’s worth.”
“M…….”
“You were about to say I’m insane, weren’t you?”
He laughed, a sound that died in his throat. It was a mournful laugh.
“I thought you already knew I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“I just didn’t know it was this bad.”
“If a madman like me gets his hooks in you, there’s no one you can report me to. I’m a Boss Monster, after all.”
“…….”
“But I won’t lock you away. That’s not what I want. It would be too presumptuous of me.”
“Presumptuous?”
“How dare I try to force an Evil God?”
Akt countered firmly.
“Imprisonment would be too one-dimensional, and it only brings suffering.”
“Then what are you trying to say?”
I forced my voice down, stiffened with wariness.
Akt rose from his seat and answered.
“I’ll get my money’s worth from you in a different way. I understand the tragedy of being a Boss Monster—having to deal with creatures like me.”
He walked closer and planted both hands on either side of my thigh as I sat on the bed, then leaned forward.
Creak―.
As his weight settled, the mattress sank beneath us, groaning in protest.
That alone was enough to make me feel trapped in the embrace of his massive frame.
“That’s why I didn’t want to do this. To act this way, by force. But there’s no other choice.”
Ha……
A hollow laugh drifted like a ghost.
“To you, every Player is sick, criminal. You want to kill anyone you see.”
“…….”
“In the end, I’m no different.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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