The Boss Wants to Die

Chapter 30

Michael beat me to it.

He already looked thoroughly exhausted.

I coaxed him in a gentle voice.

“It’s a quest with no level requirement. Even you can do it.”

Michael pressed a hand to his forehead.

“There’s no way Akt Hevgenia would invite me. This was just a waste of time.”

“Don’t be like that, just hear me out. I promise you’ll be tempted.”

Michael kept glancing at my shadow as if he wanted to leave this instant, but knowing he would just be summoned right back, he held himself in check.

“All you have to do is act a little.”

Michael rested his hands on his hips with an attitude that said he would at least hear what nonsense I had to say.

“Take me directly to Akt yourself.”

“Me?”

Michael asked, pointing an index finger at his own chest with exaggerated disbelief.

It was as if he was emphasizing that he wouldn’t do it if his life depended on it.

I ignored him and continued.

“Akt seems to think you won’t kill me. Just like when you abandoned the Holy Sword and fled.”

“You can’t kill her.”

That was definitely what he had said back then.

When Michael had dropped the Holy Sword and staggered backward.

It had seared itself into my mind, so I remembered it vividly.

“And what about it?”

“What about it? A Michael Iruvre who won’t kill me is a useful DPS. Isn’t that obvious? Just look at your level.”

Accepting him into the party is pure profit, you know?

Michael’s face showed he clearly disagreed, but I pressed on undeterred.

“Go to Akt and tell him this: keep the Evil God on a tighter leash. Then…”

Michael’s expression twisted oddly.

“Pardon me for interrupting, but… are you trying to imitate the way I talk?”

“Doesn’t it sound like you?”

“Not in the slightest.”

The Evil God’s voice was naturally rather high and sharp.

No matter how much I lowered it, I couldn’t produce Michael’s pleasant baritone.

“That’s not what’s important right now.”

“My apologies. Perhaps because I consider this conversation utterly devoid of substance, it’s hard to concentrate.”

Michael fired off the venomous remark without batting an eye.

“…You know how to be pretty sarcastic, don’t you? Trying to mess with me like that?”

“It’s too late for me to be an exemplary priest anyway. Since I’ve fallen so completely.”

Michael let out a cynical chuckle.

“Fine. I’ll pay attention, so hurry up and speak. I don’t want to stay in a women’s restroom a second longer.”

A solidly built, pristine holy swordsman truly did look out of place in a colorful women’s restroom.

Even if I was in a hurry, was this a bit too much?

Feeling slightly sorry for him, I cleared my throat.

“Go to Akt and say the Evil God keeps bothering you. Tell him that even though you have no intention of killing me, she tracks you down no matter what and pressures you to do it.”

Michael raised a brow in distaste.

“And?”

“Then Akt will start to hesitate. That’s when you propose it: why not invite me to the party instead?”

Michael’s expression contorted instantly.

“Tell him that since you can’t live constantly being pursued by the Evil God, it’s better to stick together for the time being.”

“There is no way Akt would agree to that. I am leaving.”

Before he could even hear my reply, Michael was absorbed back into the shadow.

“Where do you think you’re running off to? Come back this instant, Michael.”

Summoned once more, Michael snapped, unable to suppress his irritation.

“Do not waste my time.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

Michael’s heated momentum faltered.

He looked uneasily into my red eyes, which reflected him like a mirror.

I stood my ground, crushing his resistance.

I couldn’t back down even a single step.

One way or another, I had to confront this head-on.

Time was running out, and Michael’s favorability was at -1.

Rather than being stuck with a title like ‘Incompetent Evil God’ and sucking my thumb for four months, I had to do whatever somersaults it took to persuade Michael.

‘I will get that quest completion reward no matter what.’

I would grasp the clue to the ending.

Even if it meant trampling Michael underfoot to use him as a stepping stone.

Michael replied in a strangely darkened tone.

“I will not kill you.”

“Then why not do at least this? You’re my familiar, after all.”

I said, staring straight at Michael.

“When you didn’t kill me, Akt already lowered his guard against you. It’s worth a shot.”

“And what do I gain from doing this?”

“Did you forget why you were tracking Akt in the first place?”

Michael’s mouth snapped shut.

“You said he was a criminal. That you had to drag him back to the Sanctuary.”

“…”

“From the looks of it, you don’t seem to plan on taking him in right now. But to do that, you need a plausible excuse for the Sanctuary, don’t you?”

“Ha…”

Michael let out a dry laugh.

“You are annoyingly sharp.”

“I have my reasons for having to be shrewd.”

“…”

Michael watched me in silence for a moment.

I shrugged and spoke.

“You have to hide the fact that you’ve fallen from the Sanctuary, too. I know you need an excuse. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“…So you’re saying I should try to trick a ghost instead?”

“An Evil God is far scarier than a ghost. I’m alive, after all.”

I let a sinister glint flash in my red eyes.

“Now. What’ll it be?”

Michael finally seemed to conclude that my proposal wasn’t so bad after all.

He wiped his dry face with a hand and answered with a sigh.

“Understood.”

‘Yes. Now I can gather Party Points.’

The tension abruptly melted away, making my knees wobble, but I fought to maintain the dignity of an Evil God until the very end.

I tapped Michael on the shoulder and pointed at the shadow.

It meant that if he understood, we would meet again in a little while.

With a complicated expression, he readjusted his grip on the towel.

“I will get ready. But why are you going this far?”

“I don’t feel like answering.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I’m feeling spiteful?”

I answered nonchalantly.

“You won’t tell me either. Why you won’t kill me. If I ask, will you answer?”

“…”

“I thought this was what you wanted. A strictly dry business relationship.”

Sensing my cold gaze, Michael sealed his lips.

“Drop the useless questions, go back, and get ready.”

Without asking anything further, Michael stepped onto my shadow.

“I’ll summon you in an hour. We’ll be starting the quest in earnest soon, so be ready.”

The moment my words ended, Michael was sucked into the shadow.

‘This is where it begins.’

I stared at the shadow for a moment.

‘I can’t give up. Never.’

I would struggle until the very, very end.

I couldn’t die inside a game.

Even if I were to die.

At the very least, in my final moments, within my own real life…

‘…If only I could log out.’

I stood there like that for a long time.

---

The moment Michael Iruvre returned to his room, he buried his face in his hands.

It was because he had no confidence that what he was doing was right.

‘To think I truly became a familiar of the Evil God.’

The Summon was practically the final nail in the coffin.

Proving that he had indeed become her familiar.

Any route of escape was gone; all that remained for Michael now was the path of corruption.

Staring in horror at the ‘Fallen Priest’ written on his status window, he lowered his head and clutched the back of his neck.

Because a Fallen Priest showed no outward signs, he had not yet been expelled from the Sanctuary.

However, the moment he used magic power, the Holy Sword would be dyed black and expose him.

Therefore, Michael intended to endure by avoiding the use of his power as much as possible.

‘If it’s a party quest without level requirements, there shouldn’t be any need to exert my strength.’

In the first place, the Sanctuary wouldn’t have assigned someone to tail Michael.

Because he was a trusted holy swordsman.

‘I cannot be cast out of the Sanctuary.’

He adored the Sanctuary’s scriptures, the benevolent Bishop, and the holy justice they pursued.

One could see it simply from the fact that Michael had been chosen to pursue Akt Hevgenia.

He was a priest famed for his piety.

The services and rituals Michael conducted were renowned for a perfectionism so fastidious that even high-ranking priests shook their heads in awe.

Sacred relics arranged at precise, immaculate angles.

Worship held down to the exact minute and second, without missing a single day.

The glass vials meant to hold holy water kept so spotless that not a single fingerprint could be seen even when held up to the sunlight.

There was no believer more devoted than Michael.

That had certainly been the case, and yet…

“Michael Iruvre. You are the most devout priest and holy swordsman here at the Eclis Sanctuary.”

Recalling Bishop Montigui’s face, Michael bit his lower lip.

“I entrust you with an important mission. Please lend your hands so the light of the Main God may seal the wicked Demon Sword once again.”

Yet, despite all that, Michael Iruvre had fallen.

Fallen.

Of all people, Michael.

It was unbelievable.

His heart ached so intensely that he felt he could never face the Bishop again.

No matter how many purification rituals he performed for his body and soul, it was futile.

Once stained by worldly taint, it could never be washed clean.

He had crossed the point of no return, casting away his purity entirely.

Much like death.

Michael feared that.

And yet, the only reason he had begged to be made the Evil God’s familiar was a single, unforgettable ‘memory.’

The memory that had resurfaced after meeting Akt refused to leave his mind.

“Just what do you believe in, and what are you following?”

“Do you think what you know is everything in this world?”

The young Akt Hevgenia from back then.

He had dared to insult Michael’s noble spirit.

He had spat upon the holy land, where not even a speck of filth was permitted.

It was a humiliation that made his blood boil, an outrage for which strangling him on the spot would not have been enough.

Yet Michael had not grown angry.

When he heard those words, he had felt, instead, betrayed by the Sanctuary.