The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 74

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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 74
A voice torn by rage, unable to contain itself.
I lowered my gaze, degree by degree, inch by inch.
Black nails came into view.
Demon God Helrod’s hands were soaked in blood.
Blood shed while disposing of the pirates.
But that blood looked like someone else’s. Someone else entirely.
Like a friend, for instance.
Or family.
“Ah…”
I knew why they had died.
Not because pirates attacked like they did to Aerial, not because of some natural disaster.
‘I killed them. With these hands. Directly.’
The birth of a Demon God.
Demon God Helrod awakened by slaughtering all his kin.
I knew that lore.
I’d only ever known it as ‘lore’.
But now those memories from that era were suddenly crashing into my mind—not as setting anymore, but as lived experience, forced in like a knife blade.
I tried to block it out, but Aerial’s words had pulled the trigger; I was helpless against it.
“Hngh…!”
I was gritting my teeth, clutching at my head as it threatened to shatter, swallowing a ragged cry—when it happened.
“Roun.”
Suddenly, two enormous pale hands covered my eyes from behind, and an embrace pulled me back.
In the eerily frigid Water Ruins, warmth as radiant as sunlight savagely draped itself across my entire body.
A slow breath escaped from Aktr, brushing my cheek.
The agony that had been gnawing at my mind like a pack of wolves suddenly lost formation and scattered.
It was as if my senses had been muffled by some enormous earmuff.
The world went quiet.
Each time Aktr’s beast-like frame pressed against my back, my awareness seemed to flicker and separate from the Water Ruins.
The phantom voices vanished, and soon a complete sense of peace took hold of me.
“Breathe. You’re all right.”
I blinked my eyes.
Tears spilled down both cheeks, running their blind path.
My vision cleared, and I saw Aktr tilting his head down toward me, deep and close.
White hair gleamed at the edge of my sight like strands of sunlight.
He smiled with his pale, milk-white face, utterly harmless.
“You all right? You look exhausted.”
“Huh?”
I pressed my palm to my forehead for a moment.
The terrible pain had receded, and my head felt dull and hazy, as if sensation had fled.
As though I’d been anesthetized.
I shook my head side to side and cleared it, and only then did my mind sharpen a little.
Aktr brushed lightly at the corner of my eye with his thumb as he spoke.
“The smoke from the burning building must’ve been toxic.”
“Ah…”
Had I been crying?
I looked around.
Fine rain had begun to fall, dampening the blaze somewhat, but homes were still burning.
“I suppose so.”
I nodded and wiped my eyes.
Then I covered my nose and mouth with the back of my hand and exhaled sharply, pushing the smoke away.
My vision cleared, and breathing became easier.
Aerial looked down at me with an odd expression on his face.
He’d occasionally glance at Aktr, raising his eyebrows as if demanding an answer, but when Aktr said nothing, his frown deepened.
I cleared my throat and asked.
“So, was there something else you wanted to ask me just now?”
“Hm?”
At my question, Aerial wrinkled the bridge of his nose.
His expression was quite puzzled, which in turn puzzled me.
“Why that look? We were just talking about this—you said your revenge had become pointless because of the Fever Curse.”
“……Yes.”
Aerial glanced at Aktr sidelong, then nodded.
“That’s right.”
Why did he look so displeased?
Still, he was answering readily enough, so I didn’t think much of it and pressed forward with the conversation.
“What made you become a Demon God Worshipper? I need to know everything if I’m going to help you, so don’t leave anything out.”
“You’d help me?”
“Of course. I need to convert you, don’t I?”
I pointed my thumb at Aktr standing behind me.
‘If I blame it on the Quest, it’ll sound less burdensome, won’t it?’
But Aerial kept his eyes on me, regardless of whether I’d gestured toward Aktr or not.
After staring at me for a long moment, a flush crept across his cheekbones.
[Aerial Atlantis’s Affection Points have increased by 5!]
“You always make it sound so simple, like it’s nothing at all…….”
“What do you mean?”
Aerial shook his head, lowering it further.
“Just do as you like. It’s fine either way.”
“……?”
“Whether you help me or not—do whatever you want…….”
[Aerial Atlantis’s Affection Points have increased by 5!]
‘Again?’
I looked back and forth between the blinking notification window and Aerial, who seemed to be fighting off embarrassment.
‘What’s this?’
Was he actually flustered right now?
Moreover, his Affection Points were climbing rapidly.
It was a drastic shift from the curt attitude he’d shown before—as if those days had been a dream.
Ten points at once!
‘I haven’t really done anything.’
Maybe Aerial’s true nature was gentler than I’d thought.
Or perhaps he’d taken a liking to my offer to help with his revenge?
As I pondered the possibilities, I asked what had been on my mind.
“Getting revenge on a pirate and becoming a Demon God Worshipper are two different things, though.”
“Becoming a Worshipper makes it easier to track the pirate down.”
Aerial cleared his throat and spoke.
“Since I stopped raiding, it’s been difficult to investigate the pirate on my own.”
After becoming more comfortable in my presence, Aerial had dropped his formal tone entirely.
I didn’t mind at all.
In fact, Aerial seemed far more disagreeable when he bothered with polite speech.
“So joining the Worshippers would let you track him?”
“The Demon God Worshippers have ties to the black market. If I can find who’s been supplying the Blue Pearl appearing on the market, I can find the pirate.”
“I see.”
I nodded in agreement.
“That’s smart.”
“R-really?”
Aerial nodded, his face flushed.
[Aerial Atlantis’s Affection Points have increased by 10!]
‘It’s climbing awfully fast……’
He seemed visibly delighted even though I’d done little more than state a fact, not even offering real praise.
It was surprising that he could take to someone so readily.
‘Though judging by how coldly he looks at Aktr, maybe that’s not entirely true.’
Since I’d had that headache, Aerial had occasionally shot sharp glances at Aktr—the kind that looked like he wanted to devour him whole.
Such wariness seemed odd to me.
And yet he was opening his heart to me without reservation.
I couldn’t quite understand his criteria for favoring someone.
“Eek!”
A scream rang out in the distance.
Aerial’s attention wavered, and he turned his head toward the source of the cry.
The problem was that we hadn’t completely eliminated the pirates—we hadn’t cleared the Quest.
Sensing with a sharp perception, I could tell that the Sea-Accepted, now superior in numbers, were clashing with the remaining pirates.
I decided I needed to end this conversation quickly, so I asked.
“Tell me about the Fever Curse.”
……
“It’s not a cold, and it’s not a curse. How can a Player keep getting sick? What exactly is this Fever Curse you’ve been suffering from?”
This was what I’d wanted to know most.
Aerial’s face grew dark and distant.
“My race—we are Sea-Accepted.”
Sea-Accepted?
‘Hmm…….’
As I rubbed my chin, lost in thought, Aerial continued.
“The vessel that holds the sea must be more transparent and pure than anything else. It must be dispassionate, naturally.”
……
“Conversely, when the vessel becomes clouded, sickness takes hold. When the sea is neglected and one stirs only in the mundane world, or when hatred seizes the heart—the more one loses dispassion, the worse the symptoms grow.”
That was the Fever Curse, Aerial said with a bitter smile, lowering his hand marked with spreading crimson patches.
“Fall into corruption like me, and your body burns hotter and hotter until it consumes itself entirely.”
In other words, it was a racial trait.
‘So that’s why my Search Skill couldn’t detect it.’
Strictly speaking, Aerial wasn’t afflicted with a status ailment at all.
Rather, his race’s own inherent nature was thriving, yet he suffered because of it.
‘The problem is more complicated than I thought.’
How was I supposed to eliminate that Fever Curse?
If the body needed to be purified of worldly corruption, would I need to seek out a priest?
I glanced at Aktr for a moment, then shook my head.
‘I’ll ask Michael about this later.’
I was just taking my first step forward in contemplation.
“Help me!!”
A frail-looking woman burst through the mist and smoke, running desperately toward us.
She must have been wandering in search of survivors before tumbling this far.
Her shoes had come off from running so hard, and the soles of her feet were streaked with blood.
“Ah!”
As she ran toward us, her foot caught on a pillar of the collapsed building and she stumbled.
I nearly caught her falling body when I froze in shock.
‘This necklace…….’
A heavy necklace hidden beneath her clothes slipped free and glimmered brilliantly.
It was a pendant shaped like a tightly closed shell.
‘This is definitely…….’
Just as my hand reached out to touch the pendant hanging around her neck, the woman’s expression changed as if she recognized something.
“You……?”
Then she pushed me away and dashed to the side.
Toward Aerial, who was barely managing to walk with Aktr’s support.
“Could it be—Aerial……?”
It was the moment Aerial lifted his head at that clear voice.
The woman’s blue eyes and Aerial’s crimson eyes met for just an instant in the empty air.
The two recognized each other, and just as their lips parted to speak—
Squelch—!
Disaster always struck in this fashion.
Aktr was preoccupied with supporting Aerial.
Aerial was preoccupied battling his Fever Curse.
And I was preoccupied with her necklace.
When all of us were distracted.
When all of us had let our guard down.
“That damn woman! I’ve finally got you!!”
“Ah…….”
The woman’s body crumpled like a broken willow branch and crashed to the ground.
From nowhere came a strength—Aerial shoved Aktr away and reached out toward the woman.
“S—Syris!”

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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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