I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 109
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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109. Sanctuary (4)
“The capital’s districts are divided according to social status.”
While Ryuie was driving out all the people living in the outskirts, Benito kept chattering beside her as if wanting to understand the situation.
“The closer to the city walls, the lower the status, and the Imperial Palace is at the very center. The Temple of Rkultu spans the boundary between where nobles and commoners live.”
While Benito was talking enthusiastically, Ryuie observed the objects around her.
Most were trivial things like brooms and laundry poles.
‘It was better when I was with the Knight Order.’
She missed the situation where armor and weapons were scattered everywhere no matter where she went.
Watching the backs of fleeing people, Ryuie searched for and picked up a usable stick.
From over there, two figures came running as if begging for immediate retaliation.
“Hiyaaaah!”
“Kyaak!”
Before Ryuie could even swing her stick, one of the humans trying to attack soared into the air.
Among the fleeing people, there were quite a few who bravely charged at Ryuie.
Seeing that there were only Ryuie and Benito, they underestimated it would be easy to subdue them.
Benito was happy to clear up that misunderstanding.
“Don’t kill them.”
Benito, who had lifted the human with one tentacle, stopped in mid-air.
“Control yourself.”
“Yes.”
Crash!
Benito threw the attacker down with not-so-gentle force.
The attacker who crawled out from among the cabbages didn’t groan in pain but fled in panic upon seeing the grotesque tentacles.
Meanwhile, a huge circle gradually formed around Ryuie.
“Isn’t there anything more flashy?”
Ryuie spun her stick and looked around.
She had told Benito to hide his tentacles only so that she herself would receive more attention.
The current level of fleeing people glancing at her wasn’t enough.
Benito, who had returned after picking up and throwing attackers one by one, complained a little.
“How many more are you planning to gather?”
“We’re still far from enough.”
“What are you going to do after gathering them?”
“Put them to use.”
“I can’t devour all these people at once.”
When Ryuie made an expression asking if he couldn’t even do that, Benito added:
“It goes against my aesthetic sense.”
“Haha, your jokes are getting better.”
“Why are you deliberately waiting until other people come looking?”
Benito’s gaze became serious.
“If you’re thinking of using yourself as bait to catch me, you’d better give up. This body is only an extremely small part of me. Capturing it would be meaningless.”
“Who do you take for a fool?”
It was an obvious fact that replaceable parts didn’t have the same value as the main body.
Ryuie simply had a different purpose.
She deliberately swung her stick widely and casually dropped a remark.
“A wedding needs many guests.”
“!”
At those words, Benito looked as if he might jump with joy.
The wedding of Ryuie and Yosua was exactly what he had been desperately waiting for to kill Rkultu.
“Great! That’s an excellent choice! I’ll gather more!”
Dark purple tentacles stretched out all at once from Benito’s back like a halo. They were much larger and taller than houses.
The screams of the fleeing people grew louder, and Ryuie also shouted irritably.
“Hey! How dare you try to be more flashy than the bride?”
“Don’t worry, Ryuie!”
Soaring upward, Benito shouted back just as loudly.
“You’ll be the most beautiful!”
“That’s obvious.”
Ryuie didn’t want to be under Benito, who was driving people toward the temple like a giant chariot, so she changed direction.
‘As expected, gods are convenient for making them work instead of me.’
While the Knight Order was buying time at the gates and Ryuie was drawing attention inside the city.
There were people who would enter with maps prepared in advance.
Ryuie looked down at the path ahead for a moment.
‘Until they arrive, walking alone on this wide-open street doesn’t feel too bad either.’
Beyond the direction where the commoners were being driven, the district where nobles lived was approaching.
* * *
“It’s a wedding.”
“Pardon?”
“Excuse me.”
The path Ryuie was taking straight toward the temple was expanding to an increasingly massive scale.
Benito’s figure was now visible even from atop the city walls, and the emptied path actually looked clean.
Yosua, leaning out from the city wall, looked like he might fall at any moment.
“It’s dangerous, Your Highness.”
“It has already begun.”
Yosua muttered.
The emptied path was too clean, as if calling to him.
A knight grabbed him as he tried to run.
“Are you going to go?”
His tone suggested he couldn’t believe it.
Thanks to Marquis Kelsus conveying the entire situation, it seemed the people of the capital had all learned what the engagement between Yosua and Ryuie meant.
“Even I can see that’s a wedding ceremony. The moment Your Highness arrives at the temple, everything will be over.”
“The temple might stop Ryuie before that happens.”
Though he answered out of impatience, the knight wouldn’t back down from such an unlikely response.
“We cannot leave to chance a situation where an outside god brought in by Yeongae threatens us!”
“Even if that were the case, what would change?”
“…Pardon?”
“Even if Rkultu is defeated and disappears, we still cannot escape from the gods.”
The knight’s eyes widened.
Who would have thought such words would come from the Crown Prince’s mouth.
“Have you never feared Rkultu as much as you fear Agatos’s rule?”
“Rkultu is our patron deity. He protects and cherishes us.”
“Then why did I have to leave?”
Yosua’s gaze came at him like a stab, making the knight flinch.
“Why did Ryuie have to suffer?”
All because of Rkultu’s oath.
Even during the time when Yosua was absent, Ryuie was already an object of avoidance, a monstrous young lady who shouldn’t be touched.
The god who punished, cursed, and tormented them also protected the empire’s people from his own children.
Because he was bound by an oath humans had forced upon him.
“The First Emperor’s contract was the starting point. Now I must go and put an end to it.”
“…Are you saying we don’t need gods?”
“I’ll find out directly what I want.”
As Yosua spoke, he suddenly realized Ryuie’s intention.
‘Ah!’
Yosua hurriedly turned his head back toward Ryuie’s direction.
‘That’s why!’
She wasn’t doing all this to keep her word about killing Glem and marrying Yosua.
Of course, that’s how it would appear on the surface.
Ryuie had a much stronger desire for revenge than himself. She didn’t forgive easily either.
Even when it wasn’t Benito’s intention, she had been quite displeased when it was revealed he wasn’t the Crown Prince.
Now it would be even worse.
‘Agatos said he would tell me how to kill a god only if I came.’
Ryuie’s way of thinking, which he had always believed to be the complete opposite, suddenly made sense.
Unlike what others misunderstood, Ryuie wasn’t someone who would ask a new god to end her revenge.
She would rather die first.
Suddenly, as if cold liquid was flowing through one side of his chest, Yosua’s entire body grew hot and he clenched his fists tightly.
‘Yes, you would rather die. That’s what I’ve always feared.’
It was the fundamental cause of the anxiety that made his heart sink whenever he saw Ryuie acting carelessly in front of reckless monsters.
But now Ryuie had taken care of her own safety to avoid being crushed to death by people.
Even though that tool was an evil god.
The fact that Ryuie thought about her own safety already meant she had a different plan.
“I know what Ryuie wants.”
He had been so worried that Ryuie, sick of everything, might hold a wedding ceremony, kill Rkultu for revenge, then kill Yosua too, and then kill herself.
Not caring at all what happened to the world after that.
‘She won’t die!’
A very brief moment of joy burst forth before being suppressed by the approaching problem.
Yosua asked urgently.
“Aren’t the mages ready yet?”
“No, they’ve arrived. They should be waiting for Your Highness’s orders.”
“From now on, you must convey my words to the priests exactly. If we’re going to win this war.”
This isn’t a war of gods.
Suddenly, the entire situation looked different.
The gods had interfered and complicated the situation, but the answer had been given from the beginning.
‘This is a war between you and me.’
Unless you understand your prey’s heart better than anyone else, you will surely be defeated. It’s a war of reading each other’s minds.
In other words, it could also be seen as a process of proving who loves more deeply.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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