The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 22

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

The boss wants to die.
Chapter 22
I didn’t want to waste any more time.
I wanted to raise Michael Irubr’s affection by kissing him if necessary, then claim my reward without delay.
But the man had vanished without a trace.
“Where did he go?”
Bewildered, I searched the room where Michael had been staying.
That was when I spotted a hidden note tucked beneath the rumpled bed.
I picked it up and unfolded it.
***
Akt Hevgenia was at the Oak Tavern.
The establishment, built entirely of logs, was the most famous tavern in the surrounding village.
Both Players and adult NPCs frequented the place, so there was a system that automatically filtered out minors at the entrance.
That was why Akt was quite startled when he was mid-sip of beer and Michael Irubr got held up at the door, stammering.
“He wasn’t of age yet?”
Akt explained the situation to an employee and hauled Michael away from the entrance.
Michael was served fragrant milk instead of beer as he took the seat beside Akt.
“Why did you want to meet in a place like this?”
Michael glared at the white milk with a humiliated expression, then turned his reproach on Akt with bitter resentment.
His face still bore the marks of venom.
Seen this way, he looked almost childlike.
“I prefer crowded places. The Demon God still struggles in crowds.”
Akt Hevgenia drank his beer in quick, successive gulps.
Michael studied Akt’s profile nervously.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
‘A criminal who fled with the Demon Sword….’
Michael Irubr was a conscientious Holy Swordsman, faithfully completing his quests.
A Holy Swordsman tasked with apprehending Akt, who might have transformed into the worst of murderers.
He had counted the days until their confrontation, but he never imagined it would happen like this.
Michael felt the absence keenly and hunched his shoulders further.
He no longer even had his holy blade.
“Were you just panicking because you’re young?”
“…….”
“You even discarded your holy blade.”
Michael flushed, struck where it hurt, his veins standing out on his forehead.
“Shut it. Normally you wouldn’t even be allowed to speak to me. You’re a criminal of heinous standing.”
“Like my father?”
Akt let out a short laugh and propped his chin on his hand, causing Michael’s momentum to falter.
Michael clenched his teeth as he watched the composed Akt, then slammed his fist on the table.
“It’s not wrong, either. It’s only a matter of time before the Demon Sword consumes you.”
“Hmm.”
“You’re the son of a Demon Sword criminal who slaughtered a third of the village’s inhabitants. Do you mean to walk the same path?”
“No.”
“Then why did you escape the Holy Sanctuary?”
Akt suddenly seemed overcome with a profound weariness, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index finger before speaking.
“Michael Irubr.”
Merely hearing his name called rendered Michael immobile.
Akt was a Player of substance, separate from his fumbling against the Demon God.
An experience that transcended mere Level was crystallized in his voice like bedrock.
“It’s been a very long time since I last saw you. So I had completely forgotten your existence.”
Even as Akt said this, he seemed unable to believe that he had forgotten Michael.
He let out a hollow laugh and roughly swept his white hair back.
“I wonder if I’m beginning to fall apart…….”
“Fall apart?”
In response to Michael’s question, Akt tapped his own head a couple of times, then smoothly changed the subject.
“Never mind the Demon Sword—you must have plenty of things you want to ask me.”
Akt pushed aside the beer he’d been drinking and clasped his hands comfortably together.
He was settling in for a proper conversation.
His question carried deliberate weight.
“Your Memory has returned, hasn’t it?”
“……I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
Michael’s face had gone ashen, and he denied it at once.
“What do you mean we haven’t seen each other in ages? You and I are meeting for the first time now. Has the Demon Sword finally driven you mad?”
Akt shook his head and tore at the empty air, then plunged his hand into the space he’d opened and stirred it about.
He was rummaging through his Inventory.
Then, entirely without warning, he drew out the Demon Sword and held it up for Michael to see.
From hilt to blade, the sword was black as obsidian, and it emanated a sickly, dangerous crimson haze.
The air around the blade seemed to rot and deepen in color at the Demon Sword’s influence.
“Gasp!”
A waitress who had been serving tables near where Akt and Michael sat let out a strangled cry and collapsed to her knees.
The malevolent aura radiating from the Demon Sword had drained the strength from her legs.
While the waitress, who had fallen hard on her backside, trembled in terror, Players began turning their heads one by one to stare in their direction.
The Demon Sword seemed delighted.
It had been a long time since it had been drawn in such a crowded place.
The blade that called forth slaughter stretched its crimson haze with even greater malice, radiating its killing intent.
“Eek, eek!”
The watching Players began backing away hesitantly before scattering in flight.
The Village had a maximum Level cap of sixty or so.
The aura the Demon Sword released was on par with the toxicity that poured from the Demonic Realm itself.
It was a killing intent no Player lounging about the tavern could withstand.
Patrons drained away like a receding tide, and even the waitress fled, scrambling to escape.
Only the proprietor of the Oak Tavern held his ground until the very end, though he could not move from his perch at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor.
Once the room fell silent, Akt placed the Demon Sword on the table.
“There. The Demon Sword. If it bothers you so much, take it.”
He seized Michael’s wrist abruptly and pulled his frozen hand toward the blade.
He brought Michael’s hand to within a hairsbreadth of the crimson haze surrounding the sword.
Michael’s face went yellow, and he froze.
The Demon Sword, sensing a new host, writhed its haze even more repulsively.
It seemed that if his hand descended even slightly further, his skin would touch the corrupted air.
His palm was soon slick with cold sweat.
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Akt spoke softly.
“Pick it up yourself. Take it. I won’t stop you.”
Being Level 230 didn’t mean one could control the Demon Sword.
One could endure without fleeing, but that was all.
It would not take long after touching the Demon Sword before reason shattered and one spiraled into rampage.
‘Since he was just a child……’
This was the first time Michael had ever seen the Demon Sword with his own eyes.
It was unbelievable.
How could anyone grip that sinister thing barehanded?
And for more than twenty years at that.
“Won’t you take it?”
Akt shrugged and released Michael’s wrist.
Sustained only by pride, Michael withdrew his hand faster than sight and wiped away the cold sweat with a handkerchief.
It was a cloth he had dampened beforehand with Holy Water.
It was one of the essential items one carried before facing Undead or evil-type monsters.
“Now that you’ve seen it with your own eyes, what do you think? Do I still look like someone driven mad by the Demon Sword?”
Akt gripped the Demon Sword barehanded as if it were nothing.
His pale white hand pierced through the crimson haze that formed around the sword like soap bubbles.
Then he grasped the handle, which looked as though it were decaying, without hesitation.
A crackling, eerie sound rang out.
It was the sound of the Demon Sword, frustrated because it had been restrained by Akt for so long and unable to rampage as it pleased.
Michael felt his very soul chill merely watching.
Akt waited for Michael’s answer, his gaze sharp and focused.
“No.”
He could not disagree with what Akt had shown him.
If the Demon Sword had driven him mad, the Akt sitting before him would never have remained peacefully in this tavern.
This place would already be a sea of blood.
“You look perfectly sane.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
Akt placed the Demon Sword into his Inventory.
The deception that had gripped the tavern’s interior evaporated as if wiped away.
Crash.
A commotion erupted from somewhere.
It was the sound of the tavern keeper, who had barely been holding on, collapsing as his strength gave out.
“It’s safer if I keep the Demon Sword. I can control it.”
…….
“The Michael Irubr I knew would have scoffed at me. But now you’ll believe me.”
Akt cradled his chin lazily in one hand.
“Your Memory has returned, after all.”
…….
“Isn’t that right?”
Michael’s Search Skill was abnormally acute.
He had known for some time that Akt Hevgenia was not lying.
It was simply difficult to accept.
If one of them had to be mad—either himself or Akt—he wanted to believe it was Akt. But both their minds were sound, and Akt had proven it in the most irrefutable way possible.
Both their minds were sound, and Akt had proven it beyond any shadow of a doubt.
“What do you mean it’s been so long since we met? I don’t think it’s been that long.”
Michael gave up and drank the milk.
His throat was parched and there was no water, so he had no choice—but to his surprise, it had a rich, soothing taste that calmed his nerves.
Michael found that fact desperately depressing.
Meanwhile, Akt, turning over Michael’s words about it not seeming like so long ago, finished his calculation.
‘There’s no need to explain what isn’t in his Memory.’
He continued the conversation naturally.
“Easy enough to forget. You were the first Player to kill a Demon God.”
Michael’s hand, reaching for more milk, froze in mid-air.
Their gazes met in the empty space between them.
“It was a very long time ago.”
Akt’s voice turned cold and cutting.
Michael Irubr was the first Player across all his many lives to have killed a Demon God.
Akt Hevgenia could recall that moment with perfect clarity, as if wondering how he could ever have forgotten it.
The air of that day, the weather, the expression on Michael’s face, and even Iryoun, smiling.

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