The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 26

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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 26
‘You’re really cruel, Ro-un.’
Even as he resented it, Akt found himself understanding her.
She wasn’t in a position to pick and choose her methods.
For her, death was everything—and she desired it so desperately that even Akt’s existence couldn’t hold her back.
‘So if I’m going to stop you, I’ll have to be just as cruel.’
The way you were.
Finally, Akt Hebgenia found himself cornered.
He was resolved to prevent Ro-un’s death by any means necessary.
By any means whatsoever.
***
“Can I really leave him alone like this?”
Four in the morning.
I hesitated before climbing out the window.
Normally I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but Akt had vomited and wept earlier, and something about that kept gnawing at me.
‘He looked truly miserable then.’
The truth was, I’d never understood what it took to make Akt happy.
He seemed to have enough of it without any effort on my part.
But this afternoon’s version of him was something else entirely.
“Like a broken doll.”
Not sad, not angry.
Just hollowed out.
Most people would feel shame vomiting in front of someone, but his dulled expression was as inorganic as a puppet’s.
His vacant eyes held nothing.
Quiet resignation and melancholy had hidden themselves inside his shell like his very soul, mimicking a person so eerily that I found it unsettling.
The peculiar emptiness of one who’d lost himself disturbed me.
‘From the way he walked, he didn’t seem that drunk.’
Just a light buzz from a few beers at most.
I scanned him for abnormal conditions using the Evil God’s All-Seeing Eye skill, but his mind wasn’t being controlled by any sort of force.
I couldn’t just ignore him.
I even felt a kinship—wondering if my own face would look like that if I were ever controlled by the Demon God.
I understood what that hollow, wounded expression felt like.
I understood it far too well, which is why I was doing this.
“Why do you have to be so worrisome?”
I clicked my tongue in exasperation and called for Heart.
“Heart. Keep watch over Akt.”
“Yes! If he does anything suspicious, I’ll report it right away——”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Never mind that. Just contact me if he seems to be in pain.”
“Huh?”
Heart stared at me intently with his single eye.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Heart rolled his perfectly spherical body through the air a few times, then fluttered his wings and nodded.
“Understood! Go ahead without worry, master!”
“And no causing trouble.”
“As if I would!”
Only then could I relax, and I leaped out the window.
I was heading to meet Michael.
‘He said to meet him again at the same place we saw each other last time.’
That’s what the note hidden beneath my bed had said.
‘Seems like he called me so I could recover the Holy Sword.’
I had plenty to talk about.
‘Let’s just see what he has to say.’
I ran into the forest, constantly checking that the Holy Sword I’d brought along hadn’t slipped away.
Since it was an item with an owner, I couldn’t even put it in my inventory.
When I reached the forest as expected, Michael was waiting there.
With a Favorability rating of 0 hanging over his head.
‘So it really is 0. No bug after all.’
I gripped the Holy Sword and drove it into the ground.
Being a Demon God, the Holy Sword pushed back with a shower of sparks, but it didn’t so much as tickle me.
Michael’s gaze lingered on the blade embedded in the floor before returning to me.
“Hey there, Michael?”
I waved cheerfully in greeting.
Every fiber of my being wanted to rip his head clean off, yet I needed him to like me.
“I have so very many questions for you. Understand?”
……
“Answer them honestly, and I’ll hand the Holy Sword back without complaint.”
I chose my words carefully, trying not to provoke him unnecessarily.
Still, if the Demon God went berserk, all my effort would be wasted.
‘I wonder if the Demon God can’t interfere when I’m interacting with a Favorability target?’
I’d need to accumulate experience before I could know for sure.
I opened my mouth, troubled by the question.
“Why didn’t you kill me? You must know how complicated things have gotten, even without me saying it.”
……
“How do you plan to take responsibility? Hmm?”
I swallowed the words that wanted to follow—something about ripping that mouth open—and forced a smile instead.
Michael looked exhausted.
He exhaled thinly and spoke.
“Something important came up for me.”
“No, it didn’t.”
I cut him off with a laugh.
“There’s nothing more important to you than my death—or so I thought you understood. Seems I explained it poorly.”
Michael’s brow furrowed.
Yet his Favorability didn’t drop. That was tremendous progress.
He shook his head.
“That contract was built on your threats. An unfair deal crumbles eventually—just like this, through the betrayal of the weak.”
He could talk sense when he wanted to.
I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.
“Instead of a contract that could collapse any moment, why not make a new deal with me? Demon God.”
“My deal with you ended completely. Through your betrayal as the weak party.”
I threw his own words back at him and shrugged.
“I’ve been utterly destroyed, left crawling on the ground. Here I am, still miserably breathing—proof of it.”
……
“How do you build a new deal from scraps of trust that hit rock bottom? Can we even stack anything on top of this?”
I was skeptical of his proposal.
Someone who’d betrayed you once would betray you again easily.
Especially with my insides twisted like this, trusting him wasn’t even a remote possibility.
Of course, if I accepted Michael’s deal, I could raise his Favorability.
But he needed my good graces too urgently—maybe I wasn’t in a position to act superior.
‘Still, if I agree too readily, he’ll suspect something.’
Michael was naive, but surprisingly cautious by nature.
That meant things weren’t this simple.
How nice it would be if Favorability just climbed steadily from gifts, laughter, and doing whatever he asked.
This wasn’t some light game where following a set formula dropped your goal into your lap.
Because Michael was a Player.
‘Human nature is inherently complicated. The best way not to make it worse is not to seem suspicious.’
“Let’s forge a proper contract this time. One that’s actually fair. That’s why I called you here today.”
Michael spoke.
I almost laughed at his naive proposition but managed to hold it back.
“So what now? Do we exchange tokens of the contract or something?”
“No.”
I’d figured at worst he’d wave some other contract item at me or dangle useful information as bait to convince me.
But Michael Eruber offered an answer I could never have imagined.
“Make me your Servant.”
“What?”
Despite my reaction of disbelief, Michael didn’t even blink.
“I read in the scriptures that the Demon God has the power to take favored individuals as Servants.”
The moment he finished speaking, an hourglass hologram materialized in the air.
The hourglass turned for a long time like a program compiling new code, displaying a loading screen.
Soon a cheerful notification chime rang out, and a hologram materialized before me.
Ting!
[Michael Eruber has requested to become a Servant of the Demon God. Would you like to learn more about Servants?]
I stood there, utterly flabbergasted, my mouth hanging open.
‘Michael isn’t even my Familiar—why is he asking to become my Servant?’
Heart was the only Servant I’d ever contracted with.
Too stunned by the sudden turn of events to do anything but squint at the screen, I realized I should read more details and tapped to expand the information.
[Retrieving information on ‘Demon God’s Servant’……]
Ting!
A lengthy explanation appeared in the hologram display.
I read through it carefully.
[A Servant refers to a subordinate who borrows the Demon God’s power.
Do you wish to make someone your servant? Then persuade them and take them as a Servant!]
‘So I was right. Evil henchmen, basically. Michael wants to become that?’
The more I read, the more suspicious I became.
Michael gazed at me with eyes as holy and pure as a divine messenger.
Unlike Akt, the black priestly robes he wore—a garment signifying renunciation of the secular world—fit him remarkably well.
‘And now he’s asking to become a minion of evil?’
I narrowed my eyes and scanned the rest of the text.
[How the target develops as a Servant depends on the Demon God’s approach.
You may make them a captive, or, by lending them power in exchange for gain, establish them as a simple transactional partner.]
‘It’s like a contract of sorts.’
I lend my power; in return, I receive the Servant’s labor—a straightforward bargain.
It seemed that after making someone a Servant, I could progress through certain stages to utilize them differently.
‘It doesn’t look like becoming a Servant automatically means worshiping the Demon God.’
Michael Eruber’s Favorability hadn’t suddenly jumped to eighty just because he’d requested to become a Servant.
Nor had any quest to increase Demon God worshippers been completed.
‘Is this a special contract only I can offer?’
I scratched my cheek and continued reading.
[‘Demon God’s Servant’ has five ranks in total.
As the rank increases, the Demon God’s power available to borrow grows stronger, but the constraints on the Servant also intensify.]
[The Servant requested by Michael Eruber is of 1-Star (★) rank.]

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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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