I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 100

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

100. Yosua (1)

They say you cross water to reach the afterlife.

“…Hueok!”

His limbs flailed wildly as if someone had pressed hard on his stomach, forcing all the air from his lungs.

His swaying body tilted toward the chilling void, as if foretelling a long fall.

Belatedly realizing he was at the top of a tree, he frantically grabbed the trunk with his arms.

“Huk…! Hueok…!”

The pouring rain made everything slippery and it was even harder to regain his senses.

Under the dark sky that endlessly pounded him, he kept coughing. Even though it was so damp outside, his chest felt suffocatingly tight as if filled with sand.

Only when he tasted dirt and dust, as if he had actually emerged from a swamp, did he realize who he was.

“This body is…”

In this dark and dreary place where even being alive felt gloomy, the only green eyes flashed brightly.

It was Yosua’s body.

‘No.’

Yosua still alternated between coughing and breathing while clinging to the tree to avoid falling.

Too many things had happened at once, making it difficult to understand.

Ryuie had shot him.

Glem’s body was certainly dead.

But he was still breathing.

The god called Agatos must have extracted his soul before Glem died and put it back into Yosua’s body.

‘I should have died.’

Rain-soaked Yosua panted. If he had met death as intended, all the vows and the god’s schemes would have come to nothing, and Ryuie should have finally been free.

‘I should have killed him.’

Yosua’s body shivered coldly once.

He felt no joy at being alive. None at all. Even though he had returned to Yosua’s body that he had searched for so desperately, Glem tasted extreme despair.

Ryuie had turned to Agatos’s side.

“Haa… haa…”

Yosua rubbed his face against the pouring rain several times. He had to keep his mind clear. His mind…

“Aah…!”

A long, long scream burst out as a muffled sound. It was a desperate scream.

“Ah…! Aaaaah! Ah!”

Along with the tearing sound from his throat, he tasted blood. Having screamed to his limit, Yosua coughed again and leaned his back against the tree.

Below his exhausted eyes, he could see the sluggishly flowing swampland and the top of the Temple in the distance.

Glem had hidden Yosua’s body at the top of the forest. Considering the distance to the Temple, it was practically within arm’s reach.

As they say, it’s darkest under the lamp – he had hidden his body right under the god’s nose.

Yosua looked down at those things for a moment with his crookedly seated body.

His rain-soaked body was cold everywhere, and at this rate he might die of hypothermia again right after coming back to life.

But Yosua didn’t care.

Mixed with the rainwater, the only lukewarm liquid on his body kept dripping down his chin.

“Ryuie.”

The name he couldn’t say with Glem’s mouth came tumbling out repeatedly. Along with all the other emotions he couldn’t express, all mixed together at once.

“Ryuie, Ryuie…”

The more he called her name, the more violently his heart surged instead of calming down.

The blazing hot, dazzling daytime sun and joy had disappeared along with Glem’s body.

Now with only cold and darkness remaining in his body, empty void consumed Yosua.

He thought of the form that had been in his hands, in his arms just moments before.

‘Never again.’

He wouldn’t choose justice and the righteous path. For one who had lost his god, such a path didn’t exist.

Yosua stared at the swamp where water sprayed up. The sacred object that the god had demanded betrayal for was somewhere down there too. The Envoy’s inscription that spoke of the world’s survival was also somewhere around there.

Yosua erased all of those things and wrote his own inscription anew.

Now I have tasted the deepest despair below, the bottom of the world, and death in full.

I died at the hands of my beloved and was betrayed again.

For what?

Finally.

‘We’ve become equals.’

Yosua’s eyes transformed.

An unknowable obsession was painted over the beautiful, sacred eyes depicted in portraits.

Amazingly, Yosua’s mouth gradually formed a smile. Over his disheveled face where tears and rain were tangled beyond recognition.

In the end, you really couldn’t kill me.

‘How unfortunate, Ryuie.’

Yosua whispered, leaning his head back.

“Now I’ll do as I please too.”

‘You little enemy.’

Yosua added playfully, letting out sobbing-like laughter – kook kook kook kook – that continued flowing into the rainy night.

* * *

Bendam didn’t believe Catsy’s words.

“The young lady will come!”

“Did you see some star again?”

Instead of answering, Catsy kicked Bendam in the rear. It was a painful blow that brought tears to his eyes.

Bendam protested angrily.

“Can’t you see we’re preparing for war right now?!”

“How can such a trivial thing compare to our young lady?”

Catsy threatened him.

“Anyway, the young lady’s kidnapping is just an excuse, and this is nothing but the Empire’s scheming to sweep away the Republic.”

“…I know that, but I don’t see any other way to go rescue the young lady.”

Bendam lamented. He too was a servant of the ducal house down to his roots, rather than an imperial citizen.

While other nobles were trembling with anxiety about whether they would really wage a holy war, they were already interested in nothing but their own gains and losses.

It was Ryuie who had trained them to make such decisions.

The two people, who had never been without their master for so long, were in a considerably anxious state.

So when Catsy suddenly started saying such things, he naturally thought she had gone a bit mad.

Catsy spoke with conviction.

“You wouldn’t know, but I received a dove! A dove!”

“A dove?”

Bendam glanced at Catsy with a still suspicious expression as she suddenly brought up the symbol of peace.

“Was it carrying an olive branch in its beak too?”

“It’s not some old tale! Right now, the young lady will appear and write a new legend!”

Catsy raised her hands toward the sky.

Coincidentally, at that very moment, Ryuie appeared in response to Agathos’s summons.

“!”

“Gasp!”

A hole opened in the sky that had been raining continuously.

Actually, the rain had stopped, but the clearing of the rain and clouds that had been falling for days and the sunlight streaming in was enough to carve a powerful mark on the gloomy world.

Ryuie was descending through that very spot.

“Good heavens.”

“Is that…?”

“Oh gods…”

Bendam nearly broke his neck craning it up at the unbelievable sight. Even Catsy, who had confidently predicted Ryuie’s return, could only watch with her mouth agape.

Ryuie’s appearance as she descended barefoot in light clothing with only a silk cloth embroidered with stars wrapped around her body was truly mythical.

The swamp priests were already waiting at the hole in the prayer hall ceiling of the temple.

As she slowly descended to the ground, Ryuie looked for Benito.

However, Benito was nowhere to be seen.

“You’ve worked hard, Ryuie.”

Instead, Ohen took Ryuie’s hand and supported her as she descended from the sky.

Immediately sensing something wrong, Ryuie gripped Ohen’s hand and asked.

“Where did Ohen go?”

“He’s inside me.”

The surrounding priests were somewhat puzzled by Ohen’s words. It was an obvious statement, after all.

But Ryuie, who had dreamed many dreams, realized an even greater truth and frowned.

Ohen had ultimately been devoured by Agathos.

‘Poor priest.’

He too had paid the price for hiding Benito.

Ryuie shook off Ohen’s hand as if she had touched something dirty.

‘Disgusting.’

Even under Ryuie’s gaze that didn’t hide her contempt, Ohen maintained a hollow expression.

“Still, you came to do what needs to be done. Welcome.”

Ryuie, who had been summoned directly from the Republic to the Empire by Agathos’s power, realized that the swamp priests were no longer hiding the god they served.

They were all wearing robes with symbols she had never seen before.

‘Is that Agathos’s symbol?’

It was a picture of finger-like candles and shadows merging into one.

Their takeover was faster than expected. Agathos’s ambition to devour Rkultu wasn’t just empty words, it seemed.

Surveying the situation inside the temple, Ryuie made casual conversation.

“You like flashy things more than I thought. What an entrance. Unexpected.”

“It’s necessary for the art of deception.”

He smiled as brightly as Benito with Ohen’s face. But with Ohen’s appearance, it only looked bizarre and eerie. He couldn’t deceive like an innocent young man.

‘I wouldn’t fall for it anymore anyway.’

Ryuie remembered Glem collapsing in her arms for the last time.

His eyes losing their light as they dimmed stuck in her mind and wouldn’t leave.

‘Forget it.’

If Agathos had done his job properly, Glem would have returned to Yosua’s body.

So she didn’t need to think about his death anymore. A symbol of deception created as a fake. A liar and despicable thief.

Such things couldn’t be compared.

Now all she had left to do was deal with Yosua and it would be over. Only Yosua…

“Ryuie?”

Ryuie, who had stopped walking for a moment, soon passed by them as if nothing had happened.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————