I’m Telling You, I’m Not a Boss Monster!

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Roxanne was dying to kill me until now.

I couldn’t grasp what kind of reaction she was having all of a sudden.

Before that, I couldn’t even believe the situation that was currently unfolding.

A deep, dark green level.

With no apparent reason, she suddenly had extreme goodwill toward me.

‘Is she really insane?’

Regardless of her backstory, I couldn’t understand this change in attitude from that insane girl.

It was Roxanne, of all people.

The one who had been trying to kill me more than anyone else flipped her stance just like that.

“Explain yourself.”

It was so ridiculous that Old One’s feelings were clearly showing even without any expression.

‘Must feel incredibly betrayed, huh?’

Even an enemy couldn’t help but sympathize.

At Roxanne’s declaration of an emergency summons, the Old One, who had been wrapped in a veil, revealed himself for the first time.

Even though it was just a clone, it was still something.

Moreover, he had been the only one to outwardly support Roxanne’s opinion and even dismantled my arguments.

He had done this for me, that for me, everything for me, and now he’s turning on me?

It wasn’t just that he was defending me; he was an incredibly ungrateful bastard.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

Roseha, who had come over, also threw out a question.

She subtly glanced at me, looking for an answer.

But I didn’t know either. Honestly, I was inquiring about that myself.

“If you can’t convince me, you die.”

A fierce aura emanated from the Old One.

It was only natural for him to be angrier at Roxanne than at me.

Roxanne threw a sidelong glance at me. It was far from her usual oppressive gaze.

For some reason, her level remained firmly green.

“Execution is a hasty decision. Barugore is our comrade, is he not?”

“Do you think that makes any sense?”

It didn’t make sense at all. It was brazen beyond measure.

It was Roxanne who declared the summons and brought us here.

“Isn’t the execution decided by majority vote? If you rescind it, the opposing votes will prevail.”

“Are you suggesting we reverse a matter that’s already been decided?”

Roxanne bit her lip tightly.

She seemed to have realized how absurd her own argument was.

The more I thought about the reason she was acting this way, the more I was puzzled.

“You were the one who declared the summons regarding execution, Roxanne.”

“It was my mistake. Now, I can rectify that mistake. I—”

“Your current words and actions are the mistake.”

The Old One’s tentacles shot upward.

The extended tentacles seemed poised to reach the ceiling and targeted Roxanne.

From the Old One’s perspective, I was pushed aside, and she had become the priority target.

Even if she was an Undead Dragon, it was another story against the Old One.

Even Roxanne’s fear of the Old One was evident in her expression.

Still, she didn’t back down and continued speaking.

“As I said, it’s too hasty a decision. How about we suspend Barugore’s execution?”

“It’s too late.”

“It’s not too late yet. The charges against Barugore are not just the murder of a Lord. Isn’t the execution being considered based on the jury?”

That was a fair point.

The Old One’s push to corner me stemmed from a sense of humanity stronger than Calandas’s.

“It makes sense to set a period and observe the situation. If Barugore shows any signs of acting for humanity, then execution it is. However, not right now.”

The Old One stared silently at Roxanne.

The dozens of pairs of eyes glaring at her were downright chilling.

“There was a valid reason for Barugore killing Calandas. It wasn’t even for the Empire. It was a preemptive action against the 72 Lords. That alone cannot serve as proof of humanity. We can’t decide on execution based solely on suspicion, can we?”

“It has been confirmed through insight.”

“That’s vague corroboration. You might not know, but Barugore’s deputy is human. Naturally, as a close aide, he’d be fond of his deputy. While we cannot see that liking as affection for humanity, it’s equally ambiguous if it’s the opposite.”

When they say humanity, they mean all humans in the world, but it doesn’t make sense to be fond of all humans I don’t even know.

Roxanne’s argument had some room for consideration.

‘…But that’s not the issue.’

It was a seemingly reasonable argument, but the problem was that Roxanne brought it up.

From the Old One’s standpoint, it was all just amusing drivel.

Roxanne’s sudden change of heart was secondary.

I concluded that calming the Old One’s rage was the priority.

“Old One.”

He turned to look at me.

The attention from dozens of pairs of eyes felt unsettling.

“Setting aside ranks, I respect your will. A Lord with a sense of humanity deserves to die. That’s undoubtedly true.”

If I tried to slither out of this situation, it would only aggravate him more.

Keeping a subordinate stance and giving the Old One some face was the right answer.

“Using Roxanne’s words, if I show any signs of defending humanity, feel free to kill me. I trust you to judge that threshold.”

Judgment would fall solely in the Old One’s court.

To speak plainly, I’d have no arguments if he decided to take issue with me just for talking to Charlotte.

But I doubted the Old One would do that.

I had an instinctive feeling about it, but I also believed he would make a reasonable judgment, owing to the dignity of being the top-ranked.

Of course, this also meant handing him the blade.

‘But there’s no other choice.’

The Old One’s strength was an unknown territory.

He could wipe us all out on a whim, and being a clone, he might be weaker than Roxanne.

The crucial thing was that the Old One in front of me was not the original.

Survival instinct was telling me I had to tread carefully.

“If there’s anything else to negotiate, I’m all ears. Please, share.”

[Lv. ■■ (?)]

His level was still a deep red.

It wouldn’t be surprising if a tentacle flew toward me out of nowhere.

The Old One silently gazed at me.

That chilling stare filled me with discomfort.

At first, I thought the feeling was just the aversion of seeing something grotesque.

But it wasn’t.

It was a primal aversion as if my very soul was being touched.

The more I faced the Old One, the more I felt that alienation rising within me.

An instinctive fear, something familiar but altered.

It was a feeling I’d never experienced in my life, and even now, I couldn’t pinpoint it.

“Don’t hide anything. I see everything about you.”

What does he mean by that; what can he see?

There were so many pricks to my conscience that I couldn’t pinpoint just one.

The fact that I was not one of the Seven Lairs’ Lords.

The absurd disparity between his grandeur and my weakness.

Though my body was that of a Death Knight, my soul was alive.

Amidst the confusion, the Old One silently moved away.

“I accept.”

With just that one phrase, the Old One vanished.

I thought I was shrouded in darkness, but whether he left or not, my level was out of view.

…Is it over?

Only then did the cold breath of relief I had been holding come out.

Around me, others also exhaled the breaths they had been holding. It wasn’t an illusion; the air in the vicinity felt liberated from its oppressive weight.

‘What just happened?’

The Old One’s strange presence was something I couldn’t even express with a metaphor—like something that transcended my grasp of understanding.

The weighty words he left at the end were entirely unclear to me.

I stopped my pondering about the Old One and shifted my focus to Roxanne.

She seemed to have been watching me too, and our eyes met.

Her level remained unchangingly green.

For whatever reason, she had opposed the Old One with goodwill toward me.

Without even needing to ask, Roxanne approached me first.

Well, she tried to, but then hesitated.

Roxanne, who had been hesitating, picked up the parchment used for voting.

‘What is she doing?’

She was staring intensely at the parchment, as if deep in thought.

Suddenly, Roxanne gathered magic at her fingertips and scribbled on the parchment.

Not just me, but everyone around was paying attention to her.

While she was writing something on the parchment without a care, she flinched as if she made a mistake.

She brought another piece of parchment and repeated the action.

By now, she had done this five times.

‘What on earth is she doing?’

With her lips pressed tight, it seemed like she was concentrating, occasionally glancing toward my direction.

“Seems like Roxanne wanted a gentle resolution after all.”

It was Daron, who had come closer to me.

A gentle resolution, huh. If I hadn’t seen her level, I might have thought that way too.

That maybe it was about something that worked through bravado.

But that was far from the case.

“Seriously, what is she doing…?”

Roseha tilted her head, looking at Roxanne.

The title “Elder” returned to her now that she helped me.

In reality, she hadn’t helped at all; it was just her covering up her own mess.

‘An “Elder”? Hardly. The girl’s crazy.’

Just because she acted nicely and took responsibility didn’t mean that the bitterness simply vanished.

From the gathering to now, considering all of her misdeeds, I couldn’t stand to see her.

Even with her goodwill, I remained on guard.

Suddenly, I felt a soft touch from my lower body.

I looked down to see Estizel’s tearful eyes.

Estizel was holding onto my waist tightly, burying her face against me.

Given her height and her gesture, it felt like I was looking at my niece.

“It’s all over. You can relax now.”

When I ruffled her hair, Estizel nodded her head.

Roseha looked down at her nonchalantly, her gaze not holding any animosity.

It wasn’t strange to have such feelings towards a kid who was barely in middle school.

Beside us, Isabella also playfully tapped Estizel on the back of her head.

“We’re so glad it ended well. We really thought we were all going to die.”

I nodded in response to Isabella.

We were almost facing a collective disaster.

In a last-ditch effort, I posed bravado, and that somehow worked out favorably, saving us.

“What is it? Show me!”

“Lin! I wanna see!”

From the direction of the voices, Roxanne was approaching.

Ren and Lin jumped up and down on either side, raising their hands high.

From what I could tell, Roxanne seemed to be holding onto a piece of parchment.

Soon, Roxanne stopped right in front of me and darted her eyes around.

“I’d like you to step aside.”

Roxanne’s words held the weight of a second-in-command.

With just one sentence, the crowd rushed out of the conference room.

Naturally, the Lords of the Seven Lairs, along with Isabella and Estizel, remained.

The subtle glances, waiting for my reaction, prompted me to speak.

“Go ahead.”

There was no need to worry; she was showing nothing but goodwill.

After I spoke, they too stepped out of the conference room briefly.

With just the two of us left, Roxanne cleared her throat, preparing to speak.

Her trembling fingertips handed me a piece of parchment.

“Do you know what this word means?”

It was Roxanne, who had just used and discarded dozens of pieces of parchment.

Had she only been trying to write one word?

When I received it and looked closely, I saw a singular Chinese character written there.

It wasn’t particularly difficult, so for me, who had a level 3 Chinese qualification, it felt as easy as Hangul.

-龍

Dragon.

It took me a beat longer to realize something was off.

In this world, Chinese characters didn’t exist.

Or rather, I should correct myself; it was an ancient language. The forgotten language of the ancient dragons was represented in Chinese characters.

That alone was supposed to exist only in theory.

“How do you know this?”

I involuntarily blurted out a question.

In my current bewilderment, there was another change in Roxanne’s level.

The deep green had become even darker.

“Ancestor…?”

 

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