I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 13

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

13. Ghost of the Swamp (3)

Glem ignored Ryuie’s question with an angry expression.

“I don’t know.”

“Pull out the carriage. I need to go down to that bottom and take a look.”

“You’re saying that after seeing what just happened?”

Glem shouted angrily.

“Do you know how many people might get hurt! Just like before! Don’t you have any sense of caution?”

“What? The priests I brought can’t even heal that much…”

“Aaahhh!”

Before Ryuie could finish speaking, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the abandoned house.

The knights who hadn’t lowered their guard hastily raised their weapons again.

“Is it an attack!”

“Where!”

“I can’t see anything!”

“It’s from behind!”

“No, what’s that?!”

The gazes of Ryuie’s party, who had been quickly searching for the culprit, stopped at one spot.

Especially Glem’s face, which had turned pale, crumpled mercilessly.

“Damn it.”

It was Mos’s scream, who had been excluded from everyone’s attention while Ryuie’s party was fighting.

He had only been watching Ryuie from a safe place.

The sight of a woman raising a gun while fighting fierce monsters was a scene difficult to see twice in a lifetime. Mos had never even followed along when mercenaries were occasionally called to hunt wolves. He never dreamed in his wildest imagination that something would go wrong with him.

“Huh.”

Mos, who suddenly felt one of his legs buckle, looked down.

And as soon as he saw his lower body, he began screaming like mad.

“Aaahhh! Aaaahhh!”

“What! What’s happening!”

“My leg!”

At that moment, everyone who looked at Mos was horrified.

The red-haired young man’s leg, which had been standing fine just moments before, was bent at a strange angle.

The shoes he was wearing also fell off, dangling loosely.

His toes, moving with a squelching sound as they stuck together, gradually lost their color and widened.

Into a form he had seen somewhere before.

“A fish…?”

“It’s, it’s a monster!”

“Save me!”

Mos screamed.

“It’s a curse! This is exactly what fell on the village! Whether it’s magic or prayer, please help me!”

Ryuie ran over immediately without being shocked twice.

If he had been in his right mind, he would have been moved by the fact that the Duke’s daughter was saving him, but now he couldn’t see that. It was none other than Glem who caught Mos as he fell backward, crying and wailing.

“Stay calm and steady your breathing!”

“Please don’t kill me! I’m, I’m still not a monster!”

“What?”

Mos looked at Glem and trembled as if having a seizure instead. Mos, who had shrunk in fear, shed tears and shouted.

“You’ve been dealing with curses that came from the swamp until now! People like me!”

“…!”

While Glem flinched, Mos’s legs stuck together more and more, becoming the complete form of a fish.

“Move aside.”

As soon as Ryuie appeared next to Glem, Mos desperately reached out his arms while crying.

“Miss! Miss…!”

“If you know something, speak quickly. How do we stop this?”

Ryuie, annoyed because she couldn’t touch him directly due to her engagement vow, pressed Glem and Mos with her gun. This time Glem furrowed his brow with a completely different problem without worrying about bullets being fired.

“It can’t be stopped.”

“It’s a curse, isn’t it? If we offer some sacrifice right now…”

“The vow that made the Crown Prince disappear couldn’t be broken with sacrifices either, that’s why we came this far.”

Ryuie’s eyebrow rose slightly.

‘I never told him that?’

Glem asked coldly despite Ryuie’s suspicious gaze.

“The change is still only below the waist, but as you know, we don’t know how far the curse will progress. So tell me first. Did you feel any signs or symptoms before the change? Or anything else?”

“I don’t know! I said I don’t know! Not all villagers who came to the swamp were cursed! We still don’t know the reason! I, I didn’t even participate in that vow!”

Ryuie’s priests approached and began praying. But no effect appeared. This meant that the grade of the curse Mos was under was higher than the priests Ryuie traveled with.

It was becoming more and more certain that this swamp’s curse was truly related to the vow involving the Crown Prince.

“Yeongae, it’s not working at all.”

“What about magic?”

“Yes. It’s definitely a side effect of the vow.”

As the priest and mage gave negative responses one after another, Mos gasped. He still tried to escape from Glem’s embrace. With only his two arms, it was extremely difficult to break free from Glem who was supporting his back. Even though he didn’t seem to be using much force.

Whether Mos saw Glem’s distorted face as some determination before killing, he struggled violently.

“Save me! Take me to the Temple!”

“These people are pretty high-level ones brought from the capital, you know? If they can’t do it, those priests we saw earlier don’t stand a chance.”

“No!”

Mos pleaded with a face covered in tears and snot.

“If I go to the Temple, I might be able to live. Please!”

“It’s useless. You know that’s useless too.”

“…Move him for now. Do you have cloth or something? Don’t leave out even the tail.”

Ryuie gave instructions. Glem looked frustrated that no one was listening to his advice. And Mos, or more precisely the part that had become Mos’s tail, was now completely out of control and slapped Ryuie’s arm with a splash.

“!”

Ryuie’s expression changed, more surprised by the cold contact than the pain. Mos’s changing body was only damp and cold. It wasn’t stinging hot like being struck by lightning!

Ryuie’s eyes fixed intently on Mos.

“Has he really become a monster?”

“Y-yes?!”

Mos was startled again as if Ryuie was about to order Glem to strike him down right now.

Ryuie, who had covered the part that touched Mos with her hand, shook her head with a strange expression. Soon the knights who brought clean cloth tied up and lifted Mos’s lower body. They looked afraid of touching him directly in case it might transfer. There were actually curses that worked that way.

“Huuk. Huuu.”

Mos was carried out crying miserably. Ryuie briefly looked back and forth between the swamp where Joshua’s ghost had been and the direction the cursed Mos was heading, then turned toward Glem.

“Explain.”

“What.”

“You seem to know about the Crown Prince’s vow as well as Mos does.”

Even in the midst of chaos, Ryuie hadn’t forgotten what Glem had said.

But Glem was watching Mos being carried away rather than listening to Ryuie’s words. Wisely, Ryuie’s party had cut grass along the path when entering the swampland, so they wouldn’t need a guide when returning.

Though by tomorrow, it would return to its original state again.

Like his hair that returned to its original length no matter how much it was cut, everything that came from this swamp was like that.

Glem said.

“What you asked of me was only guidance.”

“No. It was to help until we find the Crown Prince’s ring.”

“I guarantee that you, as an outsider, won’t be affected by that curse. If that’s included in the guidance.”

Glem replied coldly.

“Only the villagers who heard the Crown Prince’s vow are affected by this curse.”

“My goodness. Did the priests also make a vow with His Highness the Crown Prince? How dare they?”

“No. I just told you. It doesn’t matter whether you were a party to the vow or not. You just get hit if you’re unlucky.”

“Good heavens.”

“I can understand why the villagers are so angry.”

Bendam and Catsy each added their comments.

If half your body was turning into a monster just for being in that place, naturally you’d lose your mind even seeing a portrait resembling the culprit.

Ryuie was staring at Glem while letting her subordinates ask questions, lost in some thought. His gaze busily moved between Glem’s hair, eyes, and scars.

“Have you ever treated that? If there’s a priest skilled at breaking oaths, it might be possible…”

“No. There isn’t.”

“Then why is he making such a fuss asking to be sent to the temple?”

“Because not a single one of the priests has suffered the consequences of the oath. That’s why the villagers want to go to the temple as soon as they’re hit by this curse.”

“Ah.”

“In my opinion, it’s just a matter of time.”

Glem muttered as if the priests should have been the first to be affected. He seemed to worry about the villagers and Mos he had fought with, but not about the temple. But just moments ago, Mos had made a fuss saying Glem would dispose of him.

If the temple was originally responsible for managing the swamp, they might have commissioned Glem to deal with the monsters that emerged from here. Glem happened to have a holy relic too. It was essential for dealing with monsters.

Could Glem’s dislike of priests be because they were his superiors who assigned him work?

“…So that’s why you live outside the village.”

“What?”

“Because you were the one who disposed of people when they turned into monsters. They can’t forgive that.”

Glem’s face hardened at Ryuie’s words. But he couldn’t refute it either.

Before reaching the swamp, Ryuie had passed through two villages. One was the village where Marco, who had introduced Glem, lived, and the other was the village of Mos, who had just transformed.

Considering the distance to the swamp, Mos’s village was definitely affected by the curse.

Marco’s village, which had peacefully welcomed guests, hadn’t had anyone suffer such a fate yet. They hadn’t even recognized the Crown Prince’s face.

‘Then how many more villages like this are there around here?’

Ryuie looked up at the sky for a moment. His hand resting on his waist twitched.

“Is there any possibility that the oath the villagers are experiencing is related to my engagement oath?”

“It’s unlikely.”

“What’s the possibility that the oath remains even though Joshua is dead and only his soul remains?”

“Surely not!”

“It’s unlikely.”

Despite Bendam’s shocked outcry, the exchange between the priest and Ryuie remained calm.

Ryuie gave a bitter smile.

“You don’t say it’s absolutely impossible.”

“Lord Rkultu’s mysteries are endless.”

The priest bowed respectfully.

Catsy’s expression also grew serious, unable to understand.

“Do you think Lord Joshua was murdered in that swamp?”

“Perhaps.”

Ryuie admitted he was more concerned about the vision he had seen in the carriage than he had thought.

‘What was that expression?’

Joshua’s gaze as he looked back at him kept coming to mind.

The resentment of dying unjustly? Or the look of recognition upon meeting his fiancé after ten years?

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