The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 4

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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 4
The back of my neck tightened.
“Then at least take off this collar! If you’re not going to kill me, what is this? Once you remove it, I’ll go back to the Sanctuary or head to your city—just get out!”
“I’m sorry.”
The man shook his head with a gloomy expression.
The frustration was so intense I thought my chest might burst.
I beat my chest like a gorilla, trying to work off my rage.
Aktu tilted his head slightly to one side, staring directly at me.
His dazzling white hair spread across his black priest’s robes like freshly spun thread, slow and deliberate.
With an expression of unwavering composure, he made his proposal.
“You both seem to have much to say to each other. What if we had a conversation over tea? Black tea would do nicely to calm the nerves, don’t you think?”
“Are you seriously insane?”
“Does it look that way?”
A slow laugh leaked from the man’s cracked lips at my exasperated question.
“……You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you?”
“Don’t tell me you’re actually a demon race or something? A vampire? An incubus? Or just a demon outright?”
“That can’t be. I’m a priest. Look.”
The man smiled pleasantly and casually pointed to his priest’s robes, but I looked into his pitch-black eyes—empty of all light—and turned a deaf ear to him.
“Don’t lie! What kind of priest looks like you……”
I examined him carefully from head to toe.
Those debauched eyes, the cracked lips, and all the rest.
“Like you……!”
“Like me?”
The man asked back with a subtle gleam in his eyes.
I felt my face grow hot and bit my lower lip.
“What kind of priest looks so shamelessly indecent!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. How flattering.”
“It’s not a compliment!”
“Thank you. I’m delighted.”
Listen to what I’m saying!
He flicked out his bright red tongue and licked his cracked lips once.
I whipped my head away.
He had a face that embarrassed people for no reason at all.
“Stop wasting my time and kill me.”
“I won’t kill you. No matter how much you ask, you’ll get the same answer.”
“If you won’t kill me, I’ll kill you!”
“My name is Aktu Hebgenia.”
Regardless of what I spouted, the man said his piece.
He was extraordinary in every way.
“Let’s leave the Demon Castle. Then you’ll feel better.”
“Unless you kill me, I’ll keep feeling like this…… Wait.”
I perked up my ears.
“What did you just say?”
“Weren’t you bored?”
I stared at him with wide eyes.
“The Demon Castle is tedious. Let’s go out and see anything—everything.”
“Leave the Demon Castle? From here?”
I looked at the tightly sealed doors of the Demon Castle.
In six years, I had never once passed through those doors.
In this place devoid of people, I had endured six years of monotony with only my Familiar—a bat—as my sole companion.
Fighting off Players who wanted nothing but to kill me, sleeping, talking with Heart, and nothing else.
Fighting, sleeping, talking with Heart……
Six years of nothing but these three things stretched through my mind in tedious, endless measure.
‘Could I actually escape from here?’
My hands trembled faintly.
I was certain I could fill an entire pond with the tears of despair and rage I had shed before the Demon Castle’s doors.
There had been countless attempts.
Skill Barrage.
Incantations.
Search.
Physical attacks.
But none of it worked.
I was a Boss Monster who couldn’t take a single step beyond the Demon Castle.
A vicious and cruel demon deity who guarded the castle.
That was me.
“The Demon Castle…….”
“Let’s go.”
The man tilted his head with a gentle smile.
“What do you say we look around the nearby village?”
“…….”
“You can forget about the leash. As long as you don’t get angry, there’s nothing inconvenient about your daily life.”
“…….”
“Just come with me on a normal adventure.”
I clenched my lips in frustration.
‘That man is a demon.’
How does he always know exactly what to say?
Sweet words that make you want to accept them on the spot.
I twisted my eyes as they began to burn.
Adventure.
To me, who had gone deathly still, the man whispered words that were honey-sweet and unbearably gentle.
“There must be so many places you want to go. Let’s meet people, go sightseeing, keep moving around. Freely.”
People.
In six years, I had never had a proper conversation with another person.
There was no one to talk to me.
No one ever treated me like a person.
“So take my hand, noble demon deity.”
The man smiled kindly and extended his hand.
It was large and reassuring.
A broad embrace that made you want to lean against it without thinking.
A height so great that looking up at him, you felt you could cling to him forever.
His gentle voice, which had never faltered once…….
Like an adult with vastly more experience than me.
That’s how it felt.
And so, without realizing it, I reached out my hand.
It was something that happened without my awareness.
Into the warm, captivating palm of an adult man, a small hand with nails far too sharp for a human settled down—black lacquer coating the pointed tips.
When I noticed the sharp, polished nails, I startled belatedly and tried to pull my hand back.
But his large hand closed around mine like a shackle, gripping it firmly.
“Wait, just a moment, wait…….”
I was drawn along without even a chance to prepare myself.
There was no time to feel afraid.
Aktu headed straight for the Demon Castle’s door.
And in an instant, we were pulled out into the world beyond.
The artificial chandelier lights of the Demon Castle vanished, and intense sunlight burned my iris, striking my forehead.
I opened my eyes wide and lifted my head.
The vast expanse of sky.
A high, vivid blue sky that my hand couldn’t touch even if I reached for it—it was right above my head.
Not through a window.
Not with glass between.
Above my head, endless.
“Ah…….”
My neck, where the primordial leash had seeped in, burned hot.
Intense vertigo washed over me, and I swayed.
As expected, the man’s hand naturally steadied my waist.
“Want to rest for a moment?”
His low voice murmuring close beside me echoed from far away.
“Sorry I was late.”
My consciousness slowly dimmed.
“From now on, you’ll never have to part from me, Ro-un.”
So don’t worry.
I relaxed completely and sank into the depths of consciousness.
***
When I opened my eyes, it wasn’t the familiar Demon Castle.
I lay rigid, staring up at an old wooden ceiling.
It had been far too long since I’d woken in unfamiliar surroundings.
I pinched my cheek to see if it was a dream, then my thigh.
It wasn’t a dream.
Though it wasn’t reality either, of course.
Through the window, I could see players in armor and robes.
‘In the end, I’m in the game again…….’
I bit my lower lip, then forced myself to find something positive.
“At least I’m out of the Demon Castle. That’s a big change.”
I caught the smell of dust and decay from the old inn’s bed and furniture.
And I heard sounds that hadn’t existed in the Demon Castle—small, endless sounds.
Conversation from the adjacent room, birdsong from outside the window, players quarreling in the street…….
That rich tapestry of sound woven from people and living things.
The Demon Castle, silent as dead earth except for the sounds I made, seemed like a dream now.
After I’d savored the sounds enough, I pressed myself against the window and watched player characters pass by.
Aimless NPCs wandering about, even colorful and eccentric pets that players led around.
“It really feels like a real world…….”
I didn’t know the specifics of just how advanced the virtual reality game I was trapped in actually was.
Given that I’d lost my memory, I was already fortunate just to be aware I was inside a game.
But there were a few things I did know.
Thanks to highly developed AI, I could converse with NPCs about anything, and the freedom was high enough that anything a person could imagine could be implemented.
So when I looked out at the street, it felt exactly like looking at the real world.
“Why did that man bring me out?”
How had I escaped the Demon Castle?
I touched around my neck and sank into thought.
‘It seems like it’s because of the Legendary Item…….’
“I don’t understand what’s what.”
I rubbed my face roughly and flopped back onto the inn bed.
The dignified demon god’s dress wrinkled and the tall heels hung heavily, but I didn’t care.
The moment I lay down carelessly on the bed and pressed the cool back of my hand to my forehead, someone knocked on the door.
“May I come in?”
It was him.
That pale, sneaky man.
The timing was uncanny, as if he’d guessed I’d be sprawled out exhausted by now.
“Come in.”
When I turned my head, Aktu entered unsteadily in the shabby priest’s robes from yesterday, eyes slightly narrowed.
“Sorry. My head’s pounding.”
He pressed his temples and dragged over a chair, sitting down near the bed without ceremony.
A deep woody scent emanated from Aktu.
The smell of strong alcohol.
When my expression twisted, Aktu noticed and spoke up.
“Is it too strong? I drank so much yesterday that the smell won’t wash out even after a shower.”
I made a displeased face.
“What priest drinks so much alcohol?”
“Strange?”
He asked quietly. I crossed my arms.
“Of course…….”
“Even Boss Monsters ask players to kill them in this world. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”
My mouth closed at his lighthearted words and casual smile.
I studied Aktu’s face.
He was smiling pleasantly.
‘The atmosphere seemed a little…….’
Wasn’t there something sharp about it?
Silence stretched between us. I shrugged.
It must be my imagination.
“Anyway, I’ll accept it.”
“What?”
“You’re quite the Player. I’ll reward you for managing to surprise me. I’m a demon god with considerable depth, after all.”
I crossed my legs with an elegant flourish and lifted my chin.
“If you kill me right now, I’ll hand over your sword without complaint. There’d be the Primordial Leash as well—killing me should be child’s play for you now. So go ahead. Don’t mind me.”
Adventure?
Fine.
Escaping the Demon Castle itself was already a remarkable achievement.
But it paled beside dying and logging out.
Nothing else could outweigh that absolute goal.

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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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