The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 45

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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.
45
‘Roun.’
Even now, in this very moment, she was watching for an opening to death like a hyena stalking prey.
Ignoring Akt, who was always at her side.
She gnawed at him, doubted him, always cast him into hell—him who burned to keep her alive.
He hated her for it, hated her savagely.
He saw only her.
He couldn’t live without Roun, yet she kept trying to abandon him.
The hatred was so fierce it tore at his chest.
Your desperation made him understand, made him ache—and so he wept.
“Roun.”
She lifted her brows.
The expression of someone daring him to speak.
He hated her fiercely enough to want to kiss her without mercy.
Yet those burning crimson eyes, refusing to yield, refusing to surrender—they were so lovely.
He wanted to cry out: why couldn’t she abandon death and accept life instead?
And yet he wanted to bury his lips in that slender throat of hers and claim her without restraint.
Hate and love.
Loathing and love.
Pain and love.
So much love…….
He could not stop it, and so even divine punishment would seem believable—the pain was that exquisite.
Akt twisted within the contradiction.
There were countless ways she had warped his once-pure, patient nature into this distortion.
“If it were you, you could kill such a devotee with one hand. I know that.”
He could not let her die.
“But I still hated it.”
So he had to hide it.
He had resolved to become vicious, and so Akt Hevbegenia had to become cruel.
As a docile dog alone, there was no way to stop her death.
And so he had filled that role with a collar.
Yet in the meantime, he had forgotten his purpose and was wagging his tail.
The collar had always been fastened around Akt Hevbegenia’s neck.
Only this time, she had tied the leash-handle so that she could not abandon Akt, could not release it.
At her master’s neck.
‘There’s only one way to safely dodge Roun’s suspicion.’
Akt’s face hardened with a dry intensity.
A rigid expression that would not waver no matter how much she probed.
“Does there need to be a reason to dislike something?”
“What?”
“That bastard obsessed with the Evil God—he hates meeting you. So I dragged you here. There’s no special reason. I just didn’t like it.”
He decided to play a stronger hand to seal her suspicion more safely.
‘I really hated doing this.’
But what did it matter?
Akt’s heart didn’t matter.
Neither Roun nor Akt was doing this of their own desire anymore.
Akt pulled the chain taut, as though commanding her to watch with wide, alert eyes.
The translucent, slender Silver Chain connected to the tattoo chimed with a crystalline sound.
He whispered in a voice rough and fractured.
His black eyes had sunk into an unfathomable depth.
“You’re mine.”
I’m yours, Roun.
“I’m not sharing what’s mine. You’re my Evil God alone.”
I’m your person alone.
I am yours…….
Akt bit his lip.
“I told you before, Roun. About the tragic fate of a Boss Monster. This is the same. To a Player’s whim, you’ve been captured.”
There was no excuse more perfect than this.
A Boss Monster and a Player.
Akt knew—with a cruelty he couldn’t soften—that this was the one wall Roun could never breach.
And indeed, Roun pressed no further.
Akt’s heart had turned to ash.
***
I bit down on my lower lip.
The jingling Silver Chain swept the last shreds of my dignity into the abyss.
Dignity blazing hot and betrayal ignited without mercy into flame.
Akt’s words fell like salt into an open, festering wound.
I raised my nails against the sharp pain and raked them across the floor.
Screech—
Long gouges carved themselves into the marble tile.
I clenched the crumbled stone shards in my fist, eyes wide and burning.
“Do you mean that?”
“Yes.”
Akt answered flatly.
“You can’t fall away from me anymore.”
……
“When only I knew you were an Evil God, things were different.”
“Michael too—he’s—!”
“Devotees of Evil Gods aren’t individuals. They’re a collective. I’m sorry. I can’t release you now.”
Akt released the Silver Chain from his grip.
The chain faded to transparency, dissolving like a mirage.
Akt’s hands trembled as though he himself were held by the leash.
He’d delivered every cutting word himself.
The back of my skull throbbed, numb.
The scant trust I’d given him rolled across the floor, betrayed.
“Now you’re going to limit my freedom?”
“Yes.”
“Because of some worthless stalker like Aegilpid?”
“Even so, it’s better than the Demonic Fortress. So…….”
A hollow laugh spilled from my lips.
Blood drained from my clenched fist—my nails had carved into my own skin.
Still I couldn’t let go.
“Why all of a sudden…….”
Haven’t you been careful not to make me feel stifled all this time?
Akt Hebgenia, you weren’t like some ordinary Player.
You smiled for me, showed me consideration, poured affection into this.
You prioritized my comfort as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
‘You coaxed me into thinking the leash wouldn’t matter as long as I didn’t get angry, didn’t you!’
That’s why I left the Demonic Fortress.
I believed that first extended hand would be gentle.
‘If you were going to bind shackles to my feet all along, if you were planning to confine me in your arms…….’
Then don’t be kind to me.
“I understand you clearly.”
……
“This is how you show it?”
I glared at him with eyes blazing scarlet, my words sharp as shattered glass.
“Get it straight. Break the contract now, before I snap your neck.”
Michael, caught between us, looked helplessly back and forth, but I had no mind for his plight.
We left the guest room to meet Erictman, clinging to a party that hung by a thread.
He was under the protection of the Information Guild.
Given everything we’d endured, it took less than an hour to reach him.
***
“Never would have expected that.”
A Player in a dark uniform tapped his cheek with one finger, lost in thought.
“Hellord has found a master?”
“Allegedly she was dragged away during combat by this master, sir.”
Another voice, more agitated, added to the briefing.
“There were signs a Legendary Item was used in the Demonic Fortress. It seems connected to this master of hers.”
Hmm.
“An item that can bind an Evil God would need to be at least Legendary grade.”
“So what you’re saying is……”
“To lure the Evil God, we’d have to kill the master first. And if we seize the Legendary Item as a bonus, it’s perfect.”
The man who appeared to be the leader folded his arms, lost in thought.
“The master is a Player with strong vigilance—apparently, she rarely separates from the Evil God after this point.”
“How can you be certain that woman is an Evil God?”
“You’ll understand once you see the video recording that Aegilpid sent.”
Inside the dim corridor.
Five Players dressed in black uniforms gathered around a massive table and activated a video item.
A shared hologram projected a giant screen above the table’s surface.
It was a scene of Hellord emanating Chaotic Energy.
The potent energy seemed to radiate its force even beyond the hologram, and they shuddered.
The Players who viewed the footage swallowed hard.
Though they wore masks that obscured their faces, the fascination with the Evil God’s power was unmistakable.
“That’s it. No doubt about it.”
“Hellord was actually wandering outside the Demonic Fortress……”
The corridor stirred with excitement.
“Then the plan has actually become smoother.”
“Before we capture the Evil God, we need to clean up the surroundings first.”
A Player wearing a distinctly crimson mask issued the command.
“Release the devotees.”
***
“Weren’t you supposed to have quit smoking?”
Michael snatched the cigarette dangling from Akt’s lips and crushed it beneath his foot.
“It’s bad for your health. And a priest should stay far away from such things.”
Akt exhaled the last wisp of smoke he’d drawn deep into his lungs, eyeing Michael sideways.
Akt’s complexion had grown noticeably rough in the interim, with faint dark shadows creeping beneath his eyes.
“Why did you speak to Roun that way?”
Akt turned fully to face the window, resting his arm against the sill.
It was a brief window of rest before the Information Guild’s employee would bring Erictman here.
Akt had just stepped out of the guest room, saying he needed to use the restroom, after noticing how noticeably silent the Evil God had become.
Michael was concerned enough to follow—and found him exactly as suspected.
“There was a reason you spoke so harshly, wasn’t there?”
Michael spoke with certainty.
“Akt Hebgenia, you care for Roun more than anyone else……”
“Be quiet.”
Suddenly, Akt cursed under his breath and gripped the window frame with force.
He drove home his rebuttal to Michael’s observation.
“I intended this from the start.”
“But……”
“Michael. You were raised so well in the Sanctuary that you don’t understand what a leash means?”
Akt reached out and seized Michael by the throat.
The difference in their builds was so great that the growing boy’s neck was nearly caught in a single hand.
“A leash is a tool to seize and dominate someone’s very life.”
It was as though Akt himself was wounded by his own words.
With each sentence, his dark eyes twisted with pain.
“Whether human or monster, most breathe through this throat.”
“Ugh……”
“You tame them by controlling whether they breathe or not, by your will alone.”
I was the one who placed such cruelty around her neck.
Around Roun’s throat.
Because that was the only way to hold onto someone as brilliant and merciless as Roun.
Toward the Evil God alone, Akt was submissive by nature, yet far from weak.
He was a man with enough poison in him to make her weep, if it meant securing a better future.
Had he been weak, he would have descended into madness and corruption long ago.
He cursed sharply, then released Michael’s throat.

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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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