The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 49

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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 49
The servants nearby had all been dismissed, so there was no point in Michael pretending to be Baron Roman any longer.
“I told you not to open the Rocket Pendant, yet you checked it anyway, it seems.”
“To rob an NPC of their life by force. It is a disgrace to all Players, Aegilpid.”
At Michael’s words, Aegilpid burst into laughter.
“Is it because you’re a priest, or are you simply a fool? NPCs exist for Players. What’s wrong with using beings that live for our sake?”
Aegilpid brushed dust from his rear and stood, tilting his head.
“You don’t understand that killing them, extorting their wealth, or playing the hero to help them—it’s all nothing but a Player’s game?”
I found this situation strangely unsettling.
I’d never heard of a game that so openly escalated conflict between NPCs and Players.
‘Why does this game bother to distinguish between NPCs and Players at all?’
In most games, NPCs weren’t truly separated from Players.
Especially civilian NPCs—they didn’t recognize Players as anything special.
They simply saw them as people with exceptional strength.
Not only were they not discriminated against, they enjoyed the world as equals with Players.
Some NPCs were even stronger than Players.
Every game had its own lore, after all.
While some NPCs drove the story forward or aided Players, few were treated like playthings, mocked and toyed with like this.
‘This is a strange game.’
I furrowed my brow and focused on their exchange.
“Have you abandoned your humanity because this newfound power delights you?”
Michael shook his head and drew the Holy Sword.
Since he hadn’t infused it with Mana yet, it was merely an ordinary blade.
But the level gap between him and Aegilpid was wide enough that raw steel would suffice.
‘It would be easier to use Mana.’
Did he not want to reveal himself as a Fallen Priest?
Fallen Players had a distinctive trait—their Mana turned black when they used skills.
I remembered this from facing several Fallen Players who’d come seeking the Demon Castle.
‘Right. If Akt finds out, it won’t end well for me.’
Akt was perceptive enough to suspect that Michael had become my servant.
Michael gripped the sword’s hilt and snarled.
“I’ll simply kill you.”
“Come then. I wasn’t twiddling my thumbs while you were on your way here, either.”
Michael charged down the central staircase.
Not at human speed—he shot forward like a cannonball.
The pressure of wind that Michael had displaced crashed down sharply upon Akt and me behind him.
I clenched my hair as it whipped painfully across my face and assessed the situation.
Aegilpid’s lips trembled as he dodged the blade by the narrowest margin.
It had aimed precisely where his neck had been.
The horizontal slash carved through the air, bisecting the cold sweat that beaded on Aegilpid’s skin, the blade wind streaking onward toward the wall beyond the landing.
Whiiing—!
Though he’d evaded the strike itself, the resulting blade wind tore across his skin and flew beyond the landing wall.
A decorative sword that had hung on the wall fell with a loud crash.
“Gah!”
Aegilpid wiped away the trickling blood and hurled himself over the railing.
The way he bounced reminded me of a slime.
He appeared to be using a movement skill unique to Monster Tamers.
“So you intend to face me without using skills? How arrogant!”
Aegilpid gnashed his teeth and cast a skill.
[Aegilpid has summoned a monster confined in the Trainer’s Prison.]
[Warning: A monster of higher level than the user has been summoned. The monster is running wild!]
Aegilpid drew the Monster Tamer’s Whip and wrapped it around the edge of the chandelier, using it to pull himself out of harm’s way.
The summoned monster exhaled hot breath that rose in white clouds of mist.
Michael, visibly startled, retreated a step.
“How do you like it? I prepared a Minotaur just for you.”
The Level 241 Minotaur spotted Michael and shook its snout with a rumbling snort.
“Did you forget that we have an Evil God on our side?”
Michael kept his guard against the Minotaur while mocking Aegilpid’s foolishness.
Still clinging to the chandelier like a bat, Aegilpid let out a low, contemptuous laugh.
“I am a Monster Tamer. No matter how low my level, I can capture monsters of higher ranks.”
‘Higher-ranked monsters? If that’s true, then maybe I could too…….’
The possibility wasn’t entirely without merit.
I tensed my body.
“Of course, I can only confine them in my Trainer’s Prison skill—I cannot control them. But surely capturing them alone carries sufficient meaning, does it not?”
“……!”
“Just as I have done with the Minotaur!”
Michael spun around sharply, his face betraying the weight of Aegilpid’s words.
But Aegilpid’s true target was not me.
“Akt—dodge!”
“If I can use the Chains of Binding, the Evil God becomes mine. Therefore, its master—you—must die!”
Aegilpid charged toward Akt with ferocious speed.
‘Should I intervene?’
If Akt died, the Primordial Leash binding me would break.
Even if Aegilpid captured me, I had more than enough means to shatter the chains and escape.
I could combine my power with my subordinate Michael to break the binding, or simply kill Aegilpid outright.
‘Either way, I’d end up returning to the Demon Castle.’
There, I would encounter high-level Players far more frequently.
The old me would not have hesitated—I would have killed Akt without a second thought…….
‘But his face stays with me.’
Some faint attachment to him had formed, and that fragile thread had become my shackle.
I tried to console myself by citing other entangling concerns.
For instance, Akt’s true identity.
The secrets he kept hidden from me.
If I returned to the Demon Castle now, what would become of this quest?
Would I lose forever the chance to glimpse the hidden story—the thread that leads to the ending?
Such questions.
I looked up at Akt.
If he died, some strange anxiety gripped me—the fear that I could never return to who I once was.
With each passing second of my hesitation, the distance between Aegilpid and Akt shrank.
Aegilpid drew the Teal-Tinted Dagger.
True to its level tier, the blade gleamed with wicked sharpness.
“Akt……!”
I started to call out to him, then froze.
Akt showed no sign of tension whatsoever.
‘Why is he standing there so calmly?’
Now that I thought of it, this Party Quest had no level restriction.
To kill Aegilpid would require a level exceeding 153.
So why was there no level cap?
As if answering that very question, a black shadow bloomed beneath Aegilpid’s rushing feet.
‘What is that?’
It was only an instant.
Not Aegilpid, not Akt, not even Michael caught sight of it.
I tracked the shadow with my sharp eyes, rolling my gaze to follow it.
The shadow writhed as though ready to spew something forth, then burst upward and swallowed Aegilpid whole.
“Wha—what—aaaaah!”
I squeezed my eyes shut against the ghastly spectacle.
The air shifted, and I heard the sound of something tearing.
I cracked open my eyes to look ahead.
The black shadow pierced through Aegilpid’s abdomen, protruding like an awl.
It ran straight through, neither twisting nor wavering.
Because of the precise, bloodless penetration, an even deeper dread had taken root.
A clean and certain kill.
‘Whoever cast that skill is no ordinary caster.’
Only the ragged tear in Aegilpid’s beige uniform bore witness to the wound.
Aegilpid’s lips trembled in disbelief.
“How……how is this possible……?”
Coughing blood, Aegilpid’s body began to shimmer with light.
He had entered the process of returning to the Sanctuary.
The Minotaur that had been summoned began to de-summon as well, pulled back to its original place.
It seemed that when a Monster Tamer died, they lost all the monsters they’d imprisoned in their subordinate forms.
“No, no, my monsters…….”
The moment tears welled in Aegilpid’s bloodshot eyes, light scattered and his form vanished.
The teal-tinted dagger he’d been holding, the equipment he’d worn — all of it disappeared with him.
Aegilpid’s possessions clattered to the ground, leaving traces that he had ever existed in this place.
Among the remnants, I kept watch on the shadow spike that lingered uncertainly.
As I’d anticipated, it writhed and shifted form, took on the shape of a person, and stretched itself out.
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
Before the shadow had even fully solidified, it began clapping eagerly.
“Indeed, an Evil God, no less. How perceptive of you to notice me even when circumstances were spiraling so urgently!”
The voice was buoyant and cheerful.
As the shadow took on human form, it filled with color, revealing a petite woman.
A white shirt, navy trousers faded at the knees, golden hair in a bob that swayed at her shoulders.
Her body bore the soft curves of a woman, but her exposed limbs were defined with hard muscle.
She wore a crimson mask and waved her hand with elegant grace.
“Greetings, Evil God? It’s our first meeting.”
She offered her salutation without flinching before Michael’s bloodlust.
“I’m Matia, your devoted worshipper. Delighted to make your acquaintance!”
“A worshipper of the Evil God?”
Michael turned his blade toward Matia, his face twisting in displeasure.
“Then you’re on the same side as Aegilpid, are you not?”
“Ah, yes.”
Matia nodded.
“But our purposes differ. Even if we’re both Evil God worshippers, I can’t share the same cause with someone who wants to kill the Evil God and stuff him for display.”
…….
“We are a congregation that worships the Evil God. Rather than binding him, shouldn’t we grant the Evil God what he truly desires?”

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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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