Chapter 41: Chapter 40: A Day with the Last Boss
Raydel was all mixed up when he heard that. He also knew everyone at the table was probably in the same situation. As they all looked at Deather in confusion, someone in the restaurant screamed.
"Wait, that's…!"
"That's Deather!"
"The strongest hunter?!"
In the blink of an eye, everyone whipped out their smartphones and pointed the cameras at the table, gossiping with each other while taking a lot of videos and photos. Raydel and his friends were dumbfounded, not knowing how to act, while Deather seemed unbothered by the fans. He tilted his head and crossed his arms.
"Get in my car."
Raydel blinked several times. "Pardon?"
"I'll start training you guys. Today feels like a great day. We should start our lessons now," Deather said and smiled. He lowered his voice, "You don't trust me?"
Raydel was speechless. Before he could answer, he felt Han moving.
"Ray, don't go," he heard Han say.
Raydel turned to look at him and turned back to Deather. The last boss laughed and said,
"You should come too, Mr. Friend. I want both of you to be my students. But if me being a stranger makes you worried, then we could get to know each other first."
Deather said and immediately sat down next to Raydel, intentionally closing the gap between them, so Raydel had to scoot closer to Han instead. A nice scent from Deather did nothing but confuse Raydel even more. His mind was too occupied to notice Han's grim face as the number of people on the bench went from two to three.
"Do I still need to introduce myself, though? You guys should probably know me already," Deather said while nodding at Sheryl. "I'm Deather. What about you guys? Are you Raydel's friends?"
Sheryl froze as she reached for the grilled pork.
"It's Sheryl Watson."
"I'm Shane," Shane introduced himself.
Deather returned his attention to Raydel and Han. "Well? Why don't you guys Introduce yourselves again so we can really be friends."
"Ah… I'm Raydel…"
Han didn't even open his mouth. He just stared at the last boss, barely concealing his resentment. Raydel just remembered then that Deather had been bothering Han for a while before this, so it wasn't surprising to see the glaring hate from the protagonist. Raydel took it as his duty to introduce Han instead, then he sat awkwardly.
Deather beamed, leaning toward Raydel and ignoring how Han was staring at him.
"I do want to teach you and your friend. I'm not trolling around, you know? I mean, it's mostly because your friend has a lot of potential, but I don't think he wants anything to do with me without you. He must be the kind of person who is always with their friends, right, Han? Do you feel so attached to your friend? To Raydel?"
Han "..."
"Well, with that kind of face, you really are, don't you?"
Han "..."
"Are you guys close? How long have you two been friends? Why..."
There was a popping sound of an almost exploding blood vessel from Han. Raydel coughed and intervened in the conversation.
"What if I don't want to be your student?"
Deather shrugged. "Not interested, huh? Why?"
"Why do YOU want a newbie hunter like me?"
"Do I really need a reason? Actually, do you remember Fray? The girl who's a summoner like you. She can teach you lots of stuff and she'll only do that after you accept my offer to be my student in exchange. It's a nice deal, isn't it? Having the first and third-ranked hunters as your teachers. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance I dare say."
"You planned this?"
Deather smiled widely.
"Yes, I did."
"..."
He lowered his face, and the long, fluttering lashes only encouraged his feminine look.
"So, will you say yes?"
"..."
To be honest, Raydel was quite convinced by the man's words. This kind of chance hardly came by—having a high-ranked hunter offering to be your teacher, and such luck was simply possible because Raydel was Han's friend. Moreover, Deather mentioning Fray was a trap to get him to agree to the offer, and if he said yes, Han would definitely agree, too.
Raydel couldn't help but feel like he was being used…
Still, getting to study with Fray was an undeniably sweet offer. Raydel wanted, if possible, to become stronger. He wanted to be a summoner who could protect his own bosses better, and Fray was the third strongest hunter, too. This would guarantee that he would come out of it better than his current self.
"I know you're using me, though," Raydel murmured.
Deather hummed, "Hmm?" Then, he asked, "Don't you want so?" He flicked Raydel's forehead lightly, causing the younger boy to flinch and cover his red forehead in shock. Deather laughed softly, his voice beautiful. When he leaned closer, his sweet scent became so present that Raydel blushed.
He's a man! Raydel reminded himself.
"So, are you down?" Deather asked.
Raydel turned to whisper something to Han first, just noticing then that his friend's expression was a little scary now. His eyes glared dagger at him as if he wanted them to flee.
"I want to study with Fray, but if you don't want to, you don't need to come."
"I'll go with you," Han said.
"What…"
"I told you I'll go wherever you go."
Hearing that, Raydel felt thankful for him. He turned to ask Deather, lowering his voice so only they could hear it, "Tell me the details of that missing person case."
"When the dungeon for the third stage of the hunter test mutated and let the monsters out running wild in the downtown area…" Deather also lowered his voice even though the sounds of the people gossiping were louder anyway. "That's when some people went missing from that area. It took hours before the families notified the police. Not long after, we realized that all the cases were the same, so the police checked the CCTV and found this."
Deather showed Raydel the video on his phone from a certain angle so that no one in the restaurant and at the table could see what it was.
"See?" His voice was plain, and his eyes were blank. "Do you see the 'shadow' ?"
Raydel saw it—the 'shadow'.
The video started with people standing in the downtown area before a shadow flew past the camera, and when it was gone, those people disappeared as well.
The phenomenon repeated to many people. Sometimes it happened in a blind spot or in the middle of the street when everyone was rushing away from the monsters.
"About two hundred people," Deather said, "two hundred people went missing."
"Two hundred?"
"Interesting, right? When I saw this, I immediately thought of the dungeon and its boss because only beings with magical powers could do this. Something is kidnapping and hiding its victims in the dungeon, perhaps, and if we're able to clear it, who knows you might learn something or two from this mission. So, what do you say? Are you in?"
Raydel's mouth was opened wide, but then Han said, "Okay."
The last boss beamed triumphantly, nodding at Raydel who was still confused. Among the ongoing shutter sounds from bystanders in the restaurant, Deather pulled out a jet-black credit card.
"It's on me, everyone."
"Huh?"
Raydel thought he was hearing things. Deather was going to pay for everyone's meal?!
"Deather's paying!"
"Amazing, he's so rich!"
"Thank you so much, No.1 hunter!"
Everyone in the restaurant cheered in unison. Deather tapped his finger on the table as he waited for the waiter who was slowly and politely walking to the table. "What about the rest of you guys? Do you want to also intern at my guild? You're Raydel and Han's friends, so I figure you guys must have some potential as well."
"It's up to you," Sheryl said nonchalantly, "Whatever makes me stronger as a hunter, I'll do it."
"Great, here's my name card."
"Thanks."
"Thank you…" Shane also took one, still perplexed.
"Well then, meet me in my car when you finish your meal," Deather said to Raydel. "I give you ten minutes or… fifteen if you're still hungry. Whatever, just hurry up." He slapped him in the back so hard that Raydel's face twisted, he almost coughed up some veggies. Deather smiled at Han before leaving the restaurant.
Ten minutes later, Raydel had already said goodbye to Sheryl and Shane. He and Han left the place for Deather's car, which wasn't hard to find since it was the only supercar in the parking lot. The window on the driver's side was rolled down as Raydel got closer. Deather sat there with black sunglasses on. He pointed at the backseat, commanding silently, and the younger had no choice but to comply.
Silence prevailed in the car.
"Shall we?" Deather asked.
Raydel answered, "Yes…"
It was even more awkward because no one said anything.
Soon, they all found themselves stuck in the traffic due to rush hour in the evening. Raydel looked out the window, staring at the reflection of the tall buildings absentmindedly while listening to the soft music Deather was playing. He glanced at Han occasionally, noticing how strained he looked opposing to Deather's relaxing pose.
Tapping his fingers on the wheel to the beat of the music, Deather looked at the rearview mirror and met Raydel's eyes.
"Is it too hot?" he asked faintly.
Raydel murmured to himself, "No."
"Motion sickness?"
"No…"
The sky was now red as the sun was setting, the light was so bright that Raydel had to look away for now. He looked at Han again.
"Are you okay?"
Han relaxed his tensed shoulders and glanced at Raydel. Now he seemed a bit more comfortable. Han shook his head as if wanting to say that he was fine, and then he went back to staring at Deather.
Soon after, the car stopped in front of a restaurant. Raydel craned forward and saw a takoyaki stand, catching a whiff of an amazing smell that made his mouth water. He knew he had already filled his belly with the buffet, but he still managed to find some room for snacks and desserts.
"Boss!"
A voice rang out. Raydel then saw a woman in a suit. She raised the takoyaki bowl in her hand and scurried to the car before getting in the passenger seat. It was Fray, the summoner that he met in the hunter test. She turned around to smile at him. A nice smile accompanied by her sparkly, energetic eyes.
"Hi, Raydel. And you're Han?" She greeted them. "Hey, do you want some? It's my favorite takoyaki place."
"I'm okay."
"It tastes so good, though," she urged. "I always let my bosses eat it."
Raydel shook his head and watched Fray put the food in her mouth. Now he wondered. Wasn't she the one that caused Cthulhu to look so dejected back then? Raydel knew he had already asked her if she knew Cthulhu, but even though she said no, there were still some mysterious links between her and that man like how Fray liked takoyaki—the food that Raydel associated Cthulhu with. A name that Cthulhu seemed to hate.
How could an S-ranked boss like him, one that had been in a slumber for who knew how long, know about human food, anyway? Cthulhu followed him because he wanted to see the human world, and that got Raydel diving into a myriad of thoughts, wanting to know the truth about it.
"Miss, you always let your bosses eat it?"
Raydel asked.
"Uh-huh, if you're skilled enough to summon the portable version of a boss, they can eat whatever we eat," Fray said and showed her hand. "Watch this."
Suddenly, a rabbit with a weird color appeared in her hand. It flicked its ears and nose. When Fray fed it, the creature opened its mouth so wide that Raydel could see the crocodile teeth inside. The rabbit swallowed the food in one go.
Seeing how surprising Raydel looked, Fray laughed and flicked her hand. The fluff ball in her palm disappeared.
"You—you really don't have an octopus boss?" Raydel asked, trying to pry into anything about Cthulhu.
"Fray doesn't have a boss like that," Deather said, "Why?"
"Uh... Nothing."
"Anyway, where are we going first, Boss?" Fray asked Deather.
"Nothing much. We're visiting the houses of the families and friends of the victims," Deather answered. "They're worried and have no trust for the Hunter Association. So, the association asked me to visit and console them, so they don't get too worried, you know, because if the first-ranked hunter is involved, everybody should at least feel more confident in getting their friends and families back, right?"
"I see. Still weird to see you take these kinds of jobs, though."
"Why so?"
"Shouldn't the first-ranked hunter be too busy to take on these tasks?"
Deather smiled. "Right."
Then, he shrugged.
"No one's doing it," he murmured softly as if speaking to himself. "No one would do it even after I die, don't you remember? Just like in the movie we watched last night. We need the strongest superhero to reassure people, and that's me."
"You're not gonna die," Fray pointed out. "And technically, you're right about being the strongest."
In the meantime, Raydel listened to the conversation quietly as he thought to himself.
The movie we watched last night…? They went to see a movie together?
Speaking of which, they used the same perfume again.
About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the first house on the list of their destinations.
Still, nothing much happened. Mostly, it was Deather who greeted and asked the families how they had been doing. They were already informed by the police about all the important information like where and when the victims went missing, so now it was up to the Hunter Association that would need to find the dungeon that kidnapped people. What Deather had to accomplish today was guaranteeing the victims' families that they would surely bring them all back.
Raydel and Han only needed to stand behind Deather and listen to him talking with the victims' families. It felt peaceful somehow. Raydel could see that Han was more relaxed than ever. The young man simply listened to the smooth conversation, and Raydel had to admit, too, that seeing Deather's serious expression and gesture made him respect the older more.
"I know," Deather would say softly. "I promise I'll bring your son back."
Strangely, the responsibility Deather had to shoulder weighted down on him so visibly as Raydel looked at his stiff back. He didn't really know what else Deather shouldered since he had just known him today. But as he watched such a calm face, he recalled that in the novel "Ways to Become No.1 Hunter," there was not much of the last boss' background. All he knew was that Deather was Han's archnemesis, and now all the information had gone astray as the current storyline differed from what he had read in the book.
Deather became his teacher instead, and Raydel hoped he get a chance to learn more about him later.
"Thank you so much for today's work."
Deather stood up from his seat after he finished speaking.
Now several hours had passed. The sky outside the house was completely black. Thankfully, they had visited all the houses that the association asked them to.
When they were getting in the car, Deather remarked to himself, "Some of the people we met today know reporters or have some connections with the press. The association doesn't want the case to become big news…they're afraid of being skinned alive by the public, so I did what I could and now can only hope it worked so that the association stops bothering me."
Raydel had heard a bit about how the Hunter Association was now being heavily criticized by the public for letting the dungeon mutate and causing a lot of casualties.
He slipped inside Deather's car. Fray then opened the car window and poked her hand outside.
"Now, all we have to do is find the dungeon, right, boss? It's our job, too," she asked.
"Yes." Deather nodded. "Let's do it."
Fray then snapped her finger, summoning a dog-like creature with transparent skin outside the car. She chased them away and said, "Follow the smell." The dog immediately started running, dashing into the street so fast Raydel was worried that they would not be able to catch up with it. Luckily, Deather followed suit, and the creature was only a meter away from their car.
Tension and silence filled the car. There was only an hour before midnight, so the street was almost empty since everybody had already gone home.
This time Deather did not turn on the radio. He only drove after the dogs, face still like a brick. Raydel felt as awkward as he did in the evening because nobody said anything. But then Fray suddenly pulled out her weapon. She inspected the sharpness in the dark for a while and glanced at Raydel.
"Prepare your weapon," she said in a serious tone. "We're going into a dungeon."
"The dungeon where we will find all the missing people inside?" Raydel asked.
"Yes, and it's probably an A-ranked dungeon, too. But if we're unlucky, it could be an S-ranked."
"Probably an A-ranked," Deather remarked.
Raydel stiffened. "I don't think it's a good idea for us non-rankers to tag along…"
"Surely not," Deather said, "But we're meeting the 'Nyarlathotep', so I'm here for a chance that you guys will learn a lot from the battle between me and that boss—if we get to fight it." His voice was low and mixed with uncertainty. "But I don't think we will. Hopefully."
Raydel didn't really expect to hear that name.
Nyarlathotep? We're meeting Nyarlathotep this early?
Fray raised her hand. "What? You already know what we will find?! That's a first-ranked hunter for you!"
Even though they were literally walking toward a high-ranked dungeon—a doom, these two hunters still managed to laugh heartily. Raydel got a goosebump, feeling like he was dragged into a world he knew nothing about at all. It was scary.
Eventually, the car parked in front of the construction area which was located several kilometers away from the main city. When Raydel got out of the car, now surrounded by empty streets and barely any nearby buildings, he could see the bridge and lights from the city in the background. It was almost midnight now. The place was quiet and desolate, the air was so freezing that Raydel had to hug himself. But then, someone touched his shoulder.
"Huh?" He turned around and saw Han taking off his coat.
"Put this on."
Raydel's eyes opened wide. He took the coat, confused.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not feeling cold."
"Thanks."
He's such a nice friend, Raydel thought before putting Han's coat on. It was too big and a bit loose. He looked even smaller in this gigantic coat and had to fold the sleeves up so that he could see his hands. Raydel was so occupied with the coat that he did not notice the way his friend was looking at him.
In Han's eyes, Raydel looked so tiny he could put him in his coat's pocket.
"Woof!"
The dog Fray summoned was barking at the emptiness in the middle of the desolate construction area. She jogged toward it and snapped her fingers. The dog suddenly exploded into dust. The air before her cracked, and thus revealed a dungeon's gate.
"Here's the entrance," Fray said. "Boss, do you really want me to guard the outside? Well, just call me if anything happens, okay?" She held up something that seemed like a communication gadget between her and Deather. The last boss nodded and put his hands on his hips as he looked at the dungeon's gate.
Raydel went to stand next to him. He heard Deather ask him.
"You're cold?"
"Yes."
"You're not afraid, right?" he asked. "Don't worry. As your senior, I'll look after you."
"Thanks."
Deather smiled. As he walked back to Fray to hand her the car key, he felt a strange stare coming from behind. He turned around and saw that Han was walking toward him. The young man fixed his eyes at the ground as he warned.
"Stay away from Ray. I'll take care of him myself."
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Montag71
Montag71 Hi! I’m back! Please also read my thread on X about the update (X: @montag71)
Thank you @parheliahesta for the translation! As for editing and proofreading, I’m the one in charge for this volume. There are some sentences that I rewrote to make it more smooth, so if you read the original version, you might find some changes! Thank you, and please enjoy!
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