The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 20

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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.
Episode 20
Akt was so far gone that the words tumbling from his mouth made no sense.
“Never again will you be alone. I’ll make sure of it. So let’s die together.”
Every time I felt it: Akt Hebgenia was genuinely insane.
“The Evil God is powerless. With that blade, pierce both our hearts.”
Akt turned toward Michael and smiled.
“Isn’t that why you came?”
Michael was the sort who would kill us both without the slightest hesitation.
Sure enough, he drew the Holy Sword.
At this distance, a simple thrust of that long blade would be enough to end us both.
My throat went dry.
‘Akt dying too, I……!’
This wasn’t what I wanted.
If I died, couldn’t Akt just shrug it off and move on?
It’s only a game, after all.
A strange experience with a Boss Monster, that’s all.
Something he could simply remember and be done with.
But not like this…….
Still, I couldn’t cry out for Michael to stop.
‘I can’t stop it. I’m…….’
I have to die.
Heat stung my eyes.
Akt was a Player anyway; if he died, he’d just return to the Sanctuary.
But I couldn’t understand why my chest felt so torn apart.
“Kill us! Michael Irubrure!”
The moment Akt roared in fury, Michael—who had been about to throw himself at us—froze solid.
His sharp blue eyes held fast on Akt and me for a long, drawn-out moment.
Cold sweat drenched him in an instant, his expression twisting into confusion.
It was a face I’d seen often before.
‘Why is he suddenly acting like this?’
In my bewilderment, his hand opened and the Holy Sword clattered from his grip.
Clang!
The fine blade fell to the floor with a sound like breaking glass.
Michael—Level 230, a Player—had dropped his sword and staggered backward.
One hand clamped over his mouth, straining with all his might to choke back a cry.
His face had gone deathly pale, as if he’d seen a ghost.
He pressed his back flat against the wall and shook his head.
The gesture of someone unable to accept what they were seeing.
‘What’s happening?’
Michael’s reaction was strange enough that I wasn’t the only one noticing it.
I turned my head to glance back, and Akt’s brow was furrowed in confusion as well.
“You…….”
“This, this is, this…….”
At Akt’s pressing, Michael gasped for breath.
‘Something’s gone wrong.’
A strange unease crept over me, and as I licked my dry lips, Akt suddenly burst into laughter.
Without fail, whenever he laughed like that, nothing good ever happened to me.
“You can’t do it, can you?”
“Why? Why suddenly? This is your chance. Do it! Even me. Go on? My heart at least! Michael!”
I felt tears building.
I could finally die.
The plan had gone slightly awry, but still.
I could still die.
Finally.
After six years, finally…….
“Please? Kill me, Michael. Michael!”
“I’m, I’m sorry.”
Michael looked at me.
His eyes—which had been examining my face closely, as if confirming something—began to shed tears, one after another.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I can’t kill you.”
“……What?”
He fled through the window as he was.
The Holy Sword lay abandoned behind him.
Cold wind whistled through the silence.
Akt and I stared at the window, frozen in the same posture as before.
Soon I felt the force binding me loosen and slip away.
I stepped back from him, unable to contain my excitement.
The warmth that had clung to my back vanished, and chill raced across my skin.
“It’s unfortunate the plan fell through.”
“This makes no sense.”
I clutched my head and paced the room in circles.
“What did you do to Michael?”
“Nothing.”
Akt, who had answered, rolled his eyes toward the ceiling for a moment before continuing.
“Or should I say I did?”
“Are you playing word games with me? I’m not in the mood for this!”
“Neither am I.”
Akt wiped the smile from his face.
“I’m not. I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
“…….”
“You made me see my own situation clearly.”
Akt walked closer to me and bowed at the waist.
A low, ominous voice thrummed against my ear.
Like an abandoned, wounded dog about to bite its master, a growling sound emanated from his throat.
Yet Akt did not bite me.
He only murmured, clinging to me still.
“You showed me plainly that you have no interest whatsoever in my happiness, that you only wanted to mock and humiliate me because I annoyed you. How could I jest without sincerity?”
“You understand well enough.”
I struck away his hand as it reached for my hair.
This was my chance to sever completely the obsessive attachment Akt harbored toward me.
Leaving things as they were was dangerous.
Our relationship had deepened far beyond what either of us had imagined.
If I let this continue, it would shackle me in death.
I could not allow that.
“Isn’t it only natural for me to torment you in every way I can?”
“…….”
“Did you expect an Evil God to perform charity?”
It was easy to summon those feelings.
I only had to recall what the Players had done to me all these years.
Akt Hevegenia was no different from any other Player—he simply refrained from killing me, and that was all.
“I understand the tragedy of a Boss Monster: having to face creatures like you.”
Yes, his words were true.
That was my sorrow.
Bewildered as I awoke in Demon Castle, they hurled attacks at me.
They cursed me as an unkillable final boss.
They grew stronger, returned, and struck me harder still.
For six years.
Six years, nothing less.
Even when I struggled to gather my wits and sought dialogue, what did they do?
They tormented me with fascination, like children crushing ants.
Did they ever give me a chance to speak?
I began to perform the role of Evil God without the slightest discomfort.
Because it seemed natural.
Because everyone believed it was right.
Now to expect something different from me would be shamelessly unreasonable.
“What exactly do you expect from me?”
“A person.”
I looked up at him, my lower lip caught between my teeth.
Akt’s voice was calm.
“Not a Boss Monster. I just want you to be human.”
Laughter burst out of me suddenly.
I waved my hand through the air, making it ring sharp with my laughter.
“Akt. No matter how unusually kind you are to me, I’m a monster. That’s a fact that won’t change.”
……
“Can’t you see this collar? You put it on me yourself.”
I shook the Silver Chain in front of his eyes as if to make my point.
“What human puts something like this on another person?”
“I needed it to bring you out of the Demon Castle.”
“Exactly my point. No matter how much you pretend I’m human, a monster is a monster. Without this collar, you couldn’t even take me out of the Demon Castle.”
……
“This collar tells me my place. Always.”
I swept my hair back.
My strength had drained away. There was no energy left in me.
A familiar, ancient resignation came creeping in.
“We can only resent each other. You’re a Player and I’m a monster. What else is there? My circumstances are what they are—what can I do about it?”
……
“So don’t expect me to be human.”
“Then what about being my girlfriend?”
The question came so abruptly that my words stumbled of their own accord.
“What. What did you just say?”
“Girlfriend. A monster can be someone’s girlfriend too.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“It’s possible.”
Akt drew a long breath.
I stood caught between anger and shock, unable to gather my emotions into one coherent response, stammering uselessly.
Akt’s black eyes reflected my bewildered face clearly as he whispered.
“……We could be lovers.”
“Do you honestly think that’s possible?”
“My love doesn’t discriminate by species.”
He said that, but I still couldn’t seem to come to my senses.
A question—are you joking with me?—hovered on my lips, blocked by the depression that had settled over the atmosphere.
Akt said nothing more.
He simply sat there, sunken, staring at the floor.
The air I’d drawn in so deeply, ready to shout, seemed to pierce me from the inside.
My brow narrowed and my mouth twisted awkwardly.
It took a long time searching through my mind before I could finally move my lips.
“You don’t really love me.”
We’re inside a game.
That was always the problem.
Akt’s black eyes fixed on me.
“Say true love were possible. But you’ve known me for what—a month now?”
……
“All you Players are the same.”
Akt neither denied nor affirmed anything.
I wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him, to demand he say something—anything—but I didn’t, and the reason was something I already understood.
That no matter what he said, I wouldn’t believe him.
“So is it over then? Everything—being lovers, all of it?”
Akt Hebgenia dragged over a chair from my room and sat down, pulling a bottle from his inventory as he asked.
He uncorked it, then grimaced with one eyebrow slightly raised.
He seemed to be suffering from a considerable headache.
“I’d rather it not be over.”
Even feeling the pain, Akt pushed the words out with difficulty.
“Being your lover, this contract, happiness—I want all of it to continue. Would that be so wrong?”
……
“Give me another chance. I’ll do better.”
Till the end.
Akt clung to me until the very end. Never tiring.
How could he do that?
Did Akt have no pride at all?
But still, he’s human. How could he possibly…
I shook my head and spoke.
“After hearing something like that from me, you still want to flirt? Don’t you have any pride?”

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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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