I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 17

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

17. Romantic Asylum (2)

This morning too, Ryuie looked absolutely beautiful.

She had a fresh fragrance as if she had never rolled around in the swamp, and a strand of hair twisted and hanging to one side was cute.

Mos recalled how he used to compliment girls, then scattered all those thoughts. Saying things like “your eyes resemble violets and smell like spring” seemed somehow too cliché and… didn’t suit Ryuie.

Besides, while a priest was lifting up half of his lower body and talking like a fisherman, flirting would be even more ineffective.

“The rest of the transformed body is exactly like an ordinary fish. If I had to categorize it, it’s closer to a sea bass.”

“Sea bass! I’m a human, Priest!”

Naturally, the priest ignored him. Even Ryuie did too.

“Can you eat it?”

“I’m not sure since I haven’t cut it open yet.”

“D-don’t eat me.”

Mos flinched at the conversation that had suddenly turned murderous.

The fish tail fell with a splash, hitting the water surface and causing a vigorous spray.

The priests, suddenly drenched in water, continued their conversation with the same composure.

“Every time he tries to move his legs, the tail moves with them, so they’re definitely properly connected.”

“Like last time, even if we cut off the monster part and perform regeneration prayers, it would just grow back as a fish.”

“That’s right.”

“Ugh.”

Mos turned his head away from the priests who were casually saying horrible things and dry heaved.

‘This is why priests are…’

Cut it off, they said. He almost experienced a living hell.

He could feel Ryuie’s touch, so how much would he feel the pain of having his flesh sliced?

Seeing Mos shivering, Ryuie suddenly remembered.

“Oh right. I had something to tell you too.”

“Ahhh!”

Crack!

Before he could be surprised at seeing Ryuie rushing toward him with arms spread wide, black lightning sparked. Mos had extended his finger to avoid Ryuie’s attempt at another embrace.

“Ah, Miss. Even the slightest touch and the priests will know.”

“Do you dislike my hugs?”

“Ahhh no! Miss! That’s not it!”

“What was that just now?”

Unlike the flustered Mos, the priest showed interest.

“Yeongae. Did you just test the oath of fidelity on Mos?”

“That’s right.”

Ryuie carelessly swished Mos’s tail around.

“If a person transforms into a monster, can they escape from their vows?”

The priest was silent for a moment, then answered.

“Vows are only possible between humans. Just because Yeongae can touch the part that transformed into a monster doesn’t mean Yeongae is freed from the engagement vow, nor does it mean Mos is no longer human.”

Mos’s heart grew anxious, fearing the words “not yet” might be added.

“Hmm.”

“The oath of fidelity depends on one’s original mindset. The curse activates when one’s heart is drawn to someone other than their marriage partner, or when they intensely dislike them.”

“Even when disliking them?”

“Because Lord Rkultu protects us.”

It meant that if someone was rude and tried to assault them, the god would personally strike them down.

“Our guardian deity is quite reliable indeed.”

“Since Yeongae has no feelings of love for a fish, your current reaction is natural.”

Ryuie dropped Mos’s tail back into the water tank with a splash.

Mos rubbed his tail against the tank wall, feeling the spot where Ryuie’s hand had touched burning for no reason.

It didn’t last long.

Because the next moment, Ryuie said this.

“But Glem is nowhere to be seen today. I thought he’d be here.”

“…What?”

‘Didn’t you come to see me?’

The sentence that almost burst from Mos’s mouth got caught on the tip of his tongue.

Even while he stared intently at Ryuie, she only looked around this way and that throughout the room.

The priest shook his head.

“He hasn’t come here.”

“Hmm. He pretended to be quite worried, so where did he go?”

Ryuie stood up.

“I’ll ask the same question again tomorrow, so you’d better prepare a different answer this time. The patience I had has already been used up entirely on Joshua and ran out long ago.”

“We’ll make an effort to persuade the patients.”

“Effort alone won’t do.”

Ryuie’s eyes turned cold.

“Effort guarantees nothing.”

The priests silently bowed their heads, and Ryuie left.

But even after she left, Mos’s heart strangely kept pounding.

Did Ryuie also see him as just one of countless patients who had fallen victim to a curse?

‘No.’

A faint voice gnawed at Mos’s chest.

‘Miss smiled and made eye contact with me even before I transformed into a monster.’

Mos decided to believe again today that Ryuie had simply come because she wanted to see him. Glem wasn’t here, so how could she have come to see Glem? It was obvious logic.

Mos was here.

And Glem was somewhere else.

* * *

Underground prisons tend to be damp.

Drip, drip.

Listening to the regular sound of cold water drops falling, Glem reflected.

‘I was reckless.’

Glem, who had been sitting upright even in the crooked prison, soon abandoned his dignity.

‘What’s the point when I’m already caught anyway.’

Resting his elbows on his knees and supporting his chin with his fists, he began thoroughly ruining his back health.

‘Who would have thought they’d capture and confine me even when I appeared with Yeongae by my side.’

Since they acted normally in the village, he had carelessly assumed they wouldn’t bother him anymore.

He thought that if they had any sense, they wouldn’t do anything suspicious in front of Yeongae.

‘But they did. Tch.’

Actually, Glem had been caught by the temple quite frequently.

This underground prison was so familiar it was practically like his regular lodging, if you could understand that.

Originally, the priests and Glem weren’t in an antagonistic relationship.

The priests blocked access to the swamp, and Glem kept trying to enter, so they gradually came into conflict.

At first, Glem challenged the swamp by any means necessary.

Whether hiring mercenaries with money or joining with merchants from outside, whenever people gathered, he would tag along and head for the swamp.

Because the priests’ opposition was so strong, he even deliberately infiltrated the temple and set fires.

All to get into the swamp.

Naturally, the priests had no choice but to capture and confine Glem whenever they saw him.

Each time, Glem would escape on his own or someone else trying to reach the swamp would pay money on his behalf to get him out.

Glem started blocking people who wanted to go to the swamp, just like the temple did, only after the Crown Prince’s ghost appeared in the swamp. Until then, he too had desperately frequented the swamp.

‘This time it’ll be hard to get out quickly.’

Glem looked up.

In his last escape, he had broken through the ceiling entirely, so now even the ceiling was patched with iron plates.

Glem snorted once and grabbed the prison bars, shaking them.

All the weapons he had been carrying and Rkultu’s sacred relics were confiscated as well.

Though the sacred relics originally belonged to the temple, so from their perspective, they had simply reclaimed what was theirs.

‘Damn it.’

Glem, who had been spewing profanities, soon flopped down on the bare floor with nothing laid on it.

He already knew the temple was planning to release him with some ulterior motive anyway.

Thanks to the huge advantage of having survived, most people wanting to go to the swamp sought out Glem. So the temple could monitor almost all new visitors just by keeping watch around Glem.

‘They’re leaving it to me because they don’t have enough priests.’

Glem ground his tongue between his teeth.

In the humid yet dry prison, there was nothing to quench his thirst.

Were they properly angry that he had stolen the sacred relics instead of overdue payment, furious at the temple’s practice of assigning work without paying?

They had pretended to be indifferent, then threw him underground.

And at the exact moment when it coincided with Ryuie’s arrival.

‘What will they explain to Yeongae?’

Glem pressed the back of his head with his interlocked hands.

Surely Ryuie wouldn’t have memorized all the swamp paths from just one visit, so wouldn’t she look for another guide?

Glem unconsciously covered his forehead with his hand as he recalled Ryuie shooting in the swamp.

‘Maybe not.’

Yeongae was extraordinary.

Extraordinary enough to believe she could reach the swamp even without a guide.

Glem looked up at the ceiling while pressing his forehead.

‘…Won’t be getting out for a while, I suppose.’

With nothing to do, Glem’s professional instincts kicked in.

After all, observation was indispensable for a guide.

The number of priests at the village temple, which could never prosper due to the curse, had somehow increased slightly.

It seemed someone who couldn’t escape far from here had decided to become a priest.

‘Did they tell that priest about me too?’

If he caught the new priest and questioned them, he could find out how much information the other priests shared.

Then he could roughly determine what stories the villagers had heard from the temple. He could even speculate what the priests were after.

If only he hadn’t dealt with the villagers who had become monsters, they might have remained on speaking terms at least.

Clang.

Glem snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of the iron door opening.

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