The Boss Wants to Die

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Boss Wants to Die

‘You’re so cruel, Rowoon-ah.’

Even while resenting it, Akt understood her.

She wasn’t in any position to be picky about her methods.

Death was everything to her, and she had simply longed for it so desperately that Akt’s very existence couldn’t hold her back.

‘So to stop you, I suppose I have to be cruel, too.’

Just like you were.

At long last, Akt Hevgenia was backed into a corner.

He intended to stop Lee Rowoon’s death no matter what it took.

Literally, by any means necessary.

***

“Is it really okay to leave him alone?”

4:00 AM.

I hesitated just as I was about to slip out the window.

Normally I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest, but Akt—who had thrown up and even cried—kept weighing on my mind.

‘He looked so miserable back then.’

In truth, I had never understood the condition for making Akt happy until now.

Even without trying, he had always looked happy enough on his own.

But Akt this afternoon was, how should I put it…

“He looked broken.”

He didn’t seem sad, nor did he seem angry.

He just looked completely out of it.

Most people would feel humiliated throwing up in front of someone else, but his dulled expression had been inorganic, like a doll’s.

There was nothing inside those empty eyes.

It was eerie how quiet resignation and gloom hid inside his hollow shell, mimicking a human soul.

The specific emptiness unique to someone who had lost their true self made me deeply uncomfortable.

‘Looking at his walk, he didn’t even seem that drunk…’

He’d barely had a couple of light beers.

I had scanned him for status ailments with the [All Visible to the Evil God’s Eyes!] skill, but there was no strange power manipulating his mind either.

I simply couldn’t ignore him.

I even felt a sense of kinship, wondering if that was what I looked like whenever the Evil God controlled me.

I knew what that hollow wound felt like.

I knew it all too well, which was why I was hesitating like this even now.

“Why does he have to make people worry so much?”

Clicking my tongue, I called Heart in annoyance.

“Heart. Keep an eye on Akt.”

“Yes! If he does anything suspicious, I’ll report it right a—”

I crinkled the bridge of my nose.

“Never mind that. Just let me know if he looks hurt or sick.”

“Pardon?”

Heart peered intently at me with his single eyeball.

“What are you looking at?”

Heart rolled his perfectly spherical body a couple of times in midair, then flapped his wings and nodded.

“Understood! Don’t worry and go on ahead, Master!”

“Don’t cause any trouble.”

“As if I ever would!”

Relieved at last, I leaped out the window.

It was time to meet Michael.

‘He told me to meet him again at the same place as last time.’

That was what the note hidden beneath the bed had said.

‘He probably called me because he needs to get the Holy Sword back.’

I had plenty to say to him.

‘Just wait till I see you.’

I sprinted toward the forest, constantly checking to make sure the Holy Sword I brought along wouldn’t fall.

Because it was an item bound to an owner, I couldn’t even stash it in my inventory.

After all that trouble running into the forest, Michael was waiting just as expected.

With an Affection level of 0 hovering over his head.

‘It really is 0. It wasn’t a bug.’

I gripped the Holy Sword and drove it into the ground.

Being the Evil God, sparks flew as the Holy Sword repelled me, but it didn’t even tickle.

Michael’s gaze inspected the sword planted in the dirt before returning to me.

“Hello, Michael?”

I waved and greeted him brightly.

Though I felt like ripping his head off right this instant, I was in a position where I had to win his favor.

“I have lots and lots of questions for you. You understand, right?”

“…”

“If you answer what I ask honestly, I’ll return the Holy Sword quietly.”

I picked my words carefully, trying not to provoke him too much.

Of course, no matter how hard I tried, it would all be for nothing if the Evil God went berserk.

‘Could it be that the Evil God can’t interfere while I’m interacting with an Affection target?’

I’d probably need more experience to figure that out.

Nursing my doubts, I parted my lips.

“Why didn’t you kill me? I think you know without me having to say it just how complicated things have gotten.”

“…”

“How are you going to take responsibility? Huh?”

Swallowing the urge to add hurry up and talk before I tear your mouth open, I forced a smile.

Michael looked exhausted.

He let out a thin sigh and spoke.

“Something important came up for me.”

“Did it, though?”

I cut him off with a smile.

“There shouldn’t be anything more important to you than my death. I thought I made that clear, but I guess not?”

Michael’s brow furrowed.

Yet his Affection didn’t drop. That was tremendous progress.

He shook his head.

“That contract was made through your coercion. An unfair deal collapses in the end. Just like this—through the betrayal of the weaker party.”

He certainly knew how to string words together smartly.

I lifted a brow slightly and gestured with my chin, signaling him to go on.

“Instead of a contract that could crumble at any moment, why not make a new deal with me? Evil God.”

“The deal between you and me is completely over. Thanks to the betrayal of you, the weaker party.”

I shrugged, throwing his own words right back at him.

“It shattered completely and is rolling around in the dirt. And me standing here, tiresomely alive and breathing, is living proof of that.”

“…”

“How can we make a new deal clinging to shards of rock-bottom trust? Can you even build anything on top of this?”

I was skeptical of his proposal.

Someone who betrayed you once could easily betray you twice.

Besides, as long as I felt this bitter inside, trusting him wasn’t even within the realm of possibility.

Of course, accepting Michael’s deal could raise his Affection.

Since I urgently needed his favor, I might not have the luxury of acting so haughty.

‘Still, agreeing too readily will definitely raise suspicion.’

Michael was somewhat naive, but he was exceptionally cautious by nature.

That meant things weren’t that simple.

How nice would it be if Affection skyrocketed just by handing over gifts, smiling, and doing everything they asked?

This wasn’t some breezy game where you followed a set formula and got whatever you wanted dropped into your hands.

Because Michael was a player.

‘Human hearts are complicated by nature. If you don’t want to make things more complicated, acting unsuspicious is the best way.’

“Let’s forge a proper, fair contract anew. That is why I called you here today.”

Michael said.

I almost burst out laughing at his naive proposition, but managed to hold it in.

“And just how do you plan to do that? By sharing a Token of Contract or something?”

“No.”

At best, I thought he would push another contract item on me or try to persuade me using useful information as bait.

However, Michael Iruvre offered an answer I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

“Make me your familiar.”

“What?”

Even at my reaction asking what kind of nonsense that was, Michael didn’t bat an eye.

“Reading the scriptures, it said the Evil God possesses the power to make anyone who catches their fancy into a familiar.”

The moment his words ended, an hourglass hologram materialized in the air.

The hourglass spun for a long time, displaying a loading screen as if programming a whole new system from scratch.

Soon, with a cheerful chime, a hologram popped up.

Ding!

[‘Michael Iruvre’ has requested to become a Familiar of the Evil God. Would you like to view more details about familiars?]

My jaw dropped in disbelief.

‘Michael isn’t even my pet, so how am I supposed to make him a familiar?’

Heart was the only familiar I ever actively used.

Stunned by this out-of-the-blue situation, I stood there blinking and frowning, but figuring I should read more, I tapped to view details.

[Loading information on ‘Familiar of the Evil God’……]

Ding!

A lengthy explanation appeared on the hologram right after.

I read through the text carefully.

[Familiars refer to subordinates who borrow and wield the Evil God’s power.

Do you wish to make the target a servant of the Evil God? Then win them over and make them your familiar!]

‘I guess it is what I thought. Minions of evil. And Michael wants to be that?’

Reading the explanation only made me more suspicious.

Michael was watching me with eyes as holy and noble as an emissary of God.

Unlike Akt, the black priestly vestments symbolizing a departure from the secular world suited his upright posture well.

‘And now he wants to be an evil minion all of a sudden?’

Narrowing my eyes, I checked the remaining contents.

[How the target develops as a familiar depends on the Evil God’s attitude.

You may make them a captive, or you may treat them as a detached business partner, reaping benefits in exchange for lending your power.]

‘So it’s a kind of contract.’

A contract where I lend my power in exchange for the familiar’s labor.

However, it seemed that after taking them as a familiar, certain steps could be taken to utilize them in other ways.

‘And it doesn’t seem like being a familiar automatically makes them worship the Evil God either.’

Just because he requested to be a familiar didn’t mean Michael Iruvre’s Affection suddenly jumped to 80 or anything.

Furthermore, the quest to increase the number of people who worship the Evil God wasn’t completed either.

‘Is this just a special contract only I can use?’

Scratching my cheek, I read further.

[There are a total of five grades for ‘Familiar of the Evil God’.

As the grade increases, the borrowed power of the Evil God grows stronger, but the restrictions placed on the familiar also become stricter.]

[The familiar grade requested by Michael Iruvre is 1-Star (★).]