I never saw the boss like this before. Ever since he returned to us after escaping the castle, there was something going on with him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. At first, I thought he was just exhausted from his escape. That he just needed a good rest and he’d be back to his old self. But I couldn’t help but worry. There was this flicker of anger I’ve never seen from the boss before.

  That anger only seemed to grow with each passing minute. In fact, it seemed to intensify when mentioning his escape. Something must have happened when he was trapped there, and that new recruit he brought over seems to know.

  And that’s another thing, the new henchman acts so casually with the boss it makes my blood boil! But the boss seems to like the way he talks at the very least. If the boss doesn’t mind, I guess I’ll have to let it pass…

  At the very least compared to the bear, he doesn’t seem like he’s after top spot as his number one henchman. So long as he’s useful to the boss I’ll leave it be. And I guess I should at least give credit where it’s due, he did help the boss escape.

  But now the boss seemed determined to really conquer the kingdom, and I’m all for supporting him. I can’t forgive them for what they did to him and the others surely agree with me. We had plans to conquer their kingdom and this was just an extra motivator for us.

  But I can’t help but notice that the boss seemed less excited for the conquest than he normally was. In fact, he wasn’t giving off his signature laugh as often as he usually does. I think he was taking this a lot more seriously.

  Well either way, I’ll still support him as his weapon. I just hope that after this, the boss will be back to his old self.

  *

  Before we were done with preparations, I freaked out over seeing this weird blue glowing object appearing. The boss told us that it was part of his abilities and that these ‘Screens’ were something he normally sees. That would explain all those weird motions he would always do when he was deep in thought. I doubt I’ll be able to figure this out though.

  At least I’m able to talk with the boss wherever I am with my thoughts, I like that!! He has warned me to keep my thoughts quieter cause apparently, I think too loudly.

  Oh well, hopefully this will be useful for the boss later. I’ll just need to keep my thoughts open to hear his voice. Until then we finished things up, I made sure my ax was extra sharp for the battle tomorrow. I even practiced some non-lethal techniques since I knew the boss would want to recruit those defeated soldiers and I wanted to make sure he gets as many minions as he can!

  We planned to do this at the break of dawn. This’ll probably be the best opportunity we’re going to get. I was getting excited, and I couldn’t wait for the boss to take that kingdom for himself.

  When it was time we got started I wanted to check to make sure the boss was awake from the conquest. I was concerned when I saw that he was already awake though there was this mix of fear and anger on his face. I was concerned but thought it was best to leave him to work it out. I doubt I could make it any better.

  Once he got everyone together, he made a big speech that motivated us to his conquest. Once he was done, he gave us our orders and I’m glad to hear he left the responsibility of being in the front lines to me. I’ll make sure to knock out as many of them as possible for him!!

  We all got into position, each with our own assigned group to take charge of. All I had to do was wait for the boss’ signal and the conquest would begin.

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  Once he gave the order I decided for an extra flare and yelled to the top of my lungs for all to hear “FOR BOSS VLADIMIR!!!”

  This managed to motivate our group as I led the charge, those human soldiers were all panicking. They didn’t look at all prepared to handle us. Fine by us, I started it off with the first swing.

  I’ll admit, I don’t really remember much after that. I can vaguely remember knocking out a bunch of those humans with only a few scratches on me. I wondered how long I was going at it; it was just so exciting being in such an intense battle!

  I only managed to get out of that mindset when I realized the bear threw the boss right at me! I was about to yell at him for being so reckless though it turned out it was the boss’ idea.

  But man, he took charge of the situation so well! He managed to convince them all to surrender and submit. The way he carried himself was amazing, I had thought that he was back to his old self and so I was glad to come with him to deal with the king, even if that bear had to tag along as well.

  I was really confident that the boss had this, I thought that those moments before was just stress or something. But I was wrong…

  The deeper we got into the castle the more I saw that intense anger of his bubbling back. It was when he stood face to face to the king that it was hard not to notice.

  This wasn’t the intense feeling of conquest and determination that I’ve come to admire, no…. This was something else I’m familiar with.

  Killing intent.

  He was actually ready to kill this human, not only that he wanted to make him suffer. He even made sure we took our time with dealing with him. It was like he was savoring his time in torturing this human. This…. this doesn’t feel right…

  It wasn’t until we reached the last room, did I started to understand why the boss was feeling particularly furious. The room was filled with these weird markings but there was this dreadful feeling I was picking up from them. Even the bear could tell something was wrong here. Not only that but there were other monsters of the same species as the boss in there.

  They all looked scared, more so than what you’d typically expect from their species, well except the boss of course. No, their fear seemed more genuine. Among them there were some that looked a bit…off about them. It was like there weren’t really here with us…

  Just seeing them seemed to upset the boss further as he decided to stop messing around and finished that fat king off.

  Not conquer him, not recruiting him, not even overpower him.

  No, he was just done with him and ended it like that. I’m sure he deserved this but the boss….

  Before I could think about this further the boss had collapsed again after he was done with the human king. I quickly caught him before he fell as I held him on my hands. He probably pushed himself far again. Well at least his determination is just as strong as always.

  But now we were in a dilemma, what are we supposed to do now. Considering how long it takes for the boss to recover, what should we do with all the humans here?

  Damian walked up, silently looking at me. Guess it’ll be up to us to handle things till the boss wakes up. Still, there was another matter we needed to discuss.

  “Hey bear. You noticed the same thing with the boss, right?” I asked while I carried the unconscious boss on my shoulder.

  He simply nodded in agreement, as ever only speaking as little as necessary. I continued as I looked at the terrified humans. “And what do you make of it? Think we should do something?”

  The bear stared at the corpse of the human king for a bit before he answered. “…. I don’t know. But I plan to continue to support Vladdy.”

  I rolled my eyes over his deeming nickname for the boss. “Ugh, I wish you didn’t call the boss that. But I agree with you. I’ll be doing the same thing.”

  I then pointed towards the others around the room, “And what should we do about them?”

  The Beastman shook his head, seemed like he didn’t know what to do either. Well, it’s probably best to let the boss decide for now so I figured it would be better to gather them all together and keep watch over them until he wakes up. Not like it’s my place to make any real decision making anyway.

  “Still, I can’t help but wonder what I could do for the boss right now...” I ended thinking aloud.

  Before I could correct myself, the bear responded to my blurted out thought. “…. I’m sure there’ll be something when the time comes.”

  “Bah, Like I need you to comfort me.” I said, in truth I couldn’t help but agree with him.

  Hopefully after the boss takes over, he’ll feel a lot better afterwards. And he’ll be off to the next conquest with his signature laugh again.