The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 43

—————
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.
Episode 43
I perked up my ears, straining to catch what he was saying.
His voice was thick with ragged, phlegm-filled breathing, trembling with excitement.
“……Beautiful. Yes, Helrod is beautiful!”
An ineffable revulsion swept over me, and I forgot I’d been trying to leave.
He repeated the word beautiful in quick, breathless snatches.
What I’d taken for a tearful face was, on closer inspection, smiling.
His trembling voice spilled sweet breath as it praised my appearance.
His two hands, clasped as if in prayer and pressed to his chest, shook with a rapture like that of a priest beholding his god.
I caught sight of transparent liquid pooling in the bloodshot whites of his eyes and stumbled backward.
“Yes, Helrod is truly the pinnacle of monsterkind.”
“What are you——”
“To break such a noble being?”
He lifted his bowed head.
“It’s impossible. Isn’t it? Helrod.”
He began crawling toward me on all fours.
Before I could react, Egilpid had closed the distance and seized me with sweat-slicked hands.
Goosebumps erupted down my skin in waves, as if centipedes were creeping across it.
My scalp drew tight, and every hair on my head stood on end.
“There is no monster in this world as perfect as you. No one could ever break you.”
“Let go. I’m asking nicely.”
“I’ll make it so. Forever noble, forever beautiful——that’s what you’ll be…….”
“This bastard’s completely insane! Get the hell away from me!”
Blood welled from Egilpid’s cheek where my nails had torn it open.
My sharpened nails were keener than a butcher’s knife.
The wound gaped deeply, the skin flipped back to expose the raw flesh beneath, yet Egilpid paid it no mind.
He rubbed his head against my palm like a pet, breathing in short, delighted gasps.
“Truly.”
His eyes warped with pleasure, half-lidded.
“The finest monster.”
My heart hammered like it would burst.
I wanted to tear him apart, to kill him, but my body refused to obey.
‘Why is this happening?’
My breathing grew ragged and panicked; every joint creaked.
‘Something’s broken inside me.’
My malfunctioning mind screamed with acute pain as it rewound through memory.
The past flashed before me in rapid succession.
All the way back to times I had no recollection of.
Backward, backward, backward into the past.
‘It’s spinning……!’
Truth be told, I’d experienced this vertigo and confusion before——this sensation of fragmented memories clawing their way up.
I’d entered Helrod’s body because of a critical Bug.
The memories the original Helrod had carried——memories that aren’t mine——they’d sometimes thrash against my skull as if trying to surface.
But never for this long.
A chaotic tangle of memories churned through my mind like vomit.
Unknown, sourceless recollections I had no knowledge of came flooding in like a tidal wave.
I felt like I was losing my mind.
A scream pierced the air.
When my senses returned, I realized it had come from my own mouth.
“Ugh!”
My Qi roiled inside my body, churning like boiling water.
In resonance with my emotion, it struggled to break free.
I didn’t try to stop it.
But my completely paralyzed body couldn’t even manage to open the sealed gate of my Qi.
‘Something……’
I forced my grimacing eyes open.
Egilpid Golzbian’s face came into focus through my clouded, confused gaze.
He was rubbing his lips against the back of my hand.
‘I hate this……!’
Somehow it felt as though I’d experienced something like this before.
Was it just my imagination?
Spinning, spinning. Memories tangled together.
Scenes of unknown origin bunched and unfolded, bunched and unfolded.
Before I could even grope toward understanding which memory it was, it rushed past in a torrent.
Spinning, spinning.
Everything kept getting jumbled.
Spinning, spinning.
Egilpid whispered.
“I’m tired of these petty aristocratic games.”
‘When did I go through something like that?’
While I sank into a daze, Egilpid seized the opening and spoke on without pause.
“I’d hoped that becoming lord of this Village would let me see every Monster in circulation, but now that I’ve found the Evil God, it’s pointless.”
His hand unfurled toward me.
“I’ll have you taxidermied, Evil God Helrod, so your form remains eternal!”
[Egilpid Golzbian has used Chains of Binding! Randomly draws nearby Monsters toward you!]
The crude chains that Egilpid conjured, ready to strangle me any second, suddenly recoiled off an invisible barrier.
Egilpid’s eyes flew wide in shock.
“That can’t be!”
[Chains of Binding have been nullified.]
[Warning! This Monster already has an owner!]
Egilpid let out a hollow laugh.
“An owner? That makes no sense whatsoever…….”
He muttered as if the System had clearly malfunctioned, then abruptly fell silent.
Egilpid’s eyes narrowed, piercing through me as though he’d discovered something.
The Qi I’d unleashed moments ago had torn my collar loose, and the collar of my garment hung slack around my neck.
He caught sight of the pink tattoo and furrowed his brow.
“The Evil God never had a tattoo like that. Is it a fake?”
He shook his head.
“No. A fake couldn’t emit an Aura like that…….”
His voice, twisted and clinging with disappointment, anger, and obsession, shot toward me like a curse.
“Then… you’ve gained a true master? Like a dog? Ha!”
“Ugh, shut that mouth…….”
I clutched my head and staggered.
“So the great Evil God has become this weak, caught by a Player!”
I had not become weak.
Only my prison had changed from the Demon Castle to Aktu’s side.
‘Once this headache fades, I’ll make him beg for mercy before I’m done.’
Egilpid, oblivious to this truth, rolled about in a fury.
“When did you fall to being a common Monster? You’re a king, Evil God! Not some trophy dispensed to a Player like an accessory!”
“Stop spewing nonsense……!”
My stomach churned and my vision blurred.
Even as consciousness slipped from my grasp, I bared my nails, determined to tear that mouth to shreds.
‘Disgusting bastard. I’ll rip out that mouth even if I can’t kill you right now!’
Yet despite my will, my hands trembled uncontrollably.
It felt as though I were gripped by fear.
‘What is this? Why am I like this?’
The moment I went to bite my own tongue to rouse my frozen muscles—
“Gasp!”
Strength drained from my entire body, and a brilliant pale-pink radiance flooded my vision white.
I barely managed to haul myself upright.
Clink, clink—.
A bright, crystalline sound rang out, like Mithril—the divine metal—striking against itself.
I lowered my head to trace the source.
From the Primordial Collar, a Silver Chain extended, crawling across my skin and coiling round my limbs in spiraling loops.
This obsessive motion.
Relentless and thorough restraint.
It resembled someone’s movements.
‘Aktu……?’
At last the chain wound tight around my entire body.
The chain gave off a gentle warmth, as if I were cradled in Aktu’s arms.
My body trembled from the silver cord burrowing through my sensitive, delicate sides without leaving room to breathe.
What was happening?
‘Why did the collar suddenly….’
My throat constricted and my skin shuddered at the touch—kind yet cold.
“Stop, now!”
The chains binding my hands and feet lifted me carefully into the air.
Then they began dragging me somewhere at tremendous speed.
My limbs lurched forward until my body nearly folded in half.
The velocity was so great it was hard to overcome the air’s resistance.
Beads of cold sweat flew ahead of me as my full black hair whipped about like a banner.
“No!”
Egilpid’s outstretched hand toward me vanished in the blink of an eye.
Clink-clink-clink—!
The elongated chain began constructing a spherical barrier around me, allowing me to assume a comfortable position.
Like a shield, precisely.
‘Is he protecting me?’
I reached out with my tangled fingers to touch near my neck.
The noble silver chain revealed its shape semi-transparently, completely isolating me from the outside world.
Since I’d only ever experienced gentle summons—as if riding on clouds or feathers—this degree of actual restraint caught me off guard.
Inside the sphere of chain-turned-dark, where I couldn’t even see the sky, I struggled slightly to escape.
At that, the silver chain moved with a sound like creaking wood, restraining my limbs as if to say: stay still.
‘There’s no choice.’
The destination of this frantic summoning would undoubtedly be Aktu Hevgenia’s side.
Truth be told, I wasn’t greatly dissatisfied.
If anything, I was grateful to Aktu for summoning me.
The fact that I’d escaped that stalker was an immense relief.
I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing.
Whether Aktu was inside the building, during the drag I heard deafening crashes as the sphere of chains smashed through doors multiple times.
Boom—!
It was around the third time I heard that loud shattering sound.
My body struck a solid, lukewarm wall and I rolled across the ground.
“Ugh!”
A low groan escaped from the crown of my head.
An intoxicating scent of blood and a heavy, musky fragrance pierced straight into my nostrils.
There was no mistaking who it was.
“Aktu….”
I opened my clouded eyes.
Aktu lay on the ground, cradling me entirely in his arms.
Seamlessly, so my bare skin wouldn’t scrape against the earth.
Instead, his own skin bore the impact—raw wounds carved across it.
“Foolish….”
I started to click my tongue, then turned my head to the side and retched.
Having eaten nothing, only clear gastric fluid poured out.
“Roun. Are you alright? Let me see.”

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