I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 18

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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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18. Romantic Asylum (3)

It was the sound of a priest bringing food.

When Glem tilted his head back, he could see a wooden bowl being lowered beside his head.

Ever since he once tried to escape from prison with a spoon, they only gave him food in bowls.

Glem shifted his gaze over the soup that barely had anything in it and lay back down.

It was a priest whose face he recognized.

Clank. Clank.

The priest who didn’t even make eye contact and only set down the food bowl left the prison again.

“Phew.”

‘Priests are troublesome to threaten too.’

Since priests could easily regenerate severed body parts, they couldn’t be used as hostages unless you struck a vital point immediately.

Glem thought he had been caught at a really bad time.

‘Of all times, when Ryuie is here.’

Glem turned over, feeling irritated for no reason.

He needed to eat and sleep.

The only thing he could do here was preserve his strength. This was an environment that would make him sensitive even if he stayed still. He couldn’t let his emotions explode.

But even though he wasn’t sensitive yet, he was hearing strange sounds.

Clank.

Glem bolted upright from his position.

‘Door sound?’

Why did they come back when they just left after bringing food?

Glem, now wary, watched the stairs. But strangely, even though the door had opened and closed, there was no sign of anyone. No footsteps, no shadows visible either.

‘What? They wouldn’t have opened and closed it just for ventilation, would they?’

Glem’s confused gaze wandered through the air. To anyone watching, it would have looked somewhat crazy.

Fortunately, after a brief silence, Glem’s wish received a response.

“Oh my. You’re not exactly who I was looking for.”

“?!”

“How did you end up here?”

Glem shot up in shock at the voice coming from thin air.

“R, Ryuie?!”

Like the sun and moon rising simultaneously, a pair of red eyes appeared above his head.

Followed by the rest of her.

“Ahaha!”

As soon as she appeared, Ryuie’s voice, unable to contain her laughter, echoed through the prison.

* * *

‘He remembered my voice?’

She almost felt proud for a moment, but Glem gripping the iron bars with a dumbfounded expression was too funny for that.

He looked like someone who had suddenly been struck by lightning.

With his eyes and mouth wide open in shock, so uncharacteristically that he almost looked innocent.

Well, anyone would be startled if someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Ryuie let the laughter that kept spilling between her lips flow freely.

“What, how, huh. What’s going on?”

“That’s what I want to ask. You suddenly disappeared, so I thought you had run away.”

“Why would I?!”

Glem genuinely shouted. Being flustered by the situation seemed to make his voice naturally louder.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in? The entrance must have been hidden.”

“Yeah. That’s why I thought other patients would be here.”

Ryuie answered confidently.

As soon as the patients who had turned into monsters said they didn’t want to meet her, Ryuie immediately charged toward an alternative route. She had come out to find the patients herself.

Of course, her subordinates tried to stop her.

“You don’t need to search personally, Miss!”

Catsy beat her chest.

“If you just give permission, I’ll search everything and present it on a silver platter before the sun sets!”

“No.”

Ryuie refused with a grin.

“Why should you do something so fun?”

“Miss~!”

“No matter how much of a miss you are, it’ll become troublesome if you’re caught. The priests aren’t very cooperative as it is, and they’re the people in the world most immune to torture and threats.”

“I’m not necessarily going to get caught. I brought plenty of things for this, didn’t I?”

Among the pile of belongings Ryuie had brought as if bankrupting a household, there were magical tools perfect for such occasions.

“Ta-da-da-dan.”

Ryuie pulled the necklace string with her pinky finger. Two rings hung on the necklace.

One was a massive signet ring with a gem the size of a fist, probably a family ring, and the other was a thin gold ring.

Glem flinched and looked at the ring dangling in front of his nose, vaguely understanding the situation.

“Hah… You must have cast invisibility magic or something.”

“Correct. You recognize it after all? Well, you’re a mercenary, so of course you would.”

A magical tool that perfectly concealed the body would be very convenient for turning a temple upside down.

And Ryuie probably wouldn’t use it only in temples.

“You use it often, I see.”

“Of course. Well, since it’s magic, it becomes unstable when used inside a temple, so it’s not perfect. But all magic is single-use anyway, so it’s fine.”

The stronger Rkultu’s power, the less effective magic became, so priests were mostly immune to magic. The same went for temples that housed sacred relics.

As his judgment gradually returned, Glem questioned her disapprovingly.

“Isn’t that something people usually save for really important moments? Like when their life is in danger or they need to escape.”

“Why would I run away when my life is in danger? From such an interesting incident.”

Ryuie asked back, genuinely not understanding.

“And I think I definitely needed to use it now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found you, right?”

“…You said you were looking for other patients.”

Glem changed the subject too obviously, but Ryuie let it slide.

“Right. The humans who turned into monsters. The patients said they didn’t want to meet me. What an excuse. They’re probably planning to clean up anything suspicious in the meantime.”

“Ho. You knew.”

“You think this is my first or second time?”

Ryuie said cheerfully.

“If they try to clean up, I can figure out their purpose from what they’re trying to clean up, so I let them. Searching through those traces is no work at all.”

“Hmm.”

“Now then, let’s get back to the two of us.”

Outside the iron bars, Ryuie crouched down to match Glem’s eye level. Like a beautiful fairy in a story who grants wishes.

“If I get you out of here, what will you give me?”

Glem couldn’t answer immediately.

* * *

“You look to be in a good mood, Miss.”

“Tell me the part you left out.”

“You look strangely too happy, so I’m worried.”

At Bendam’s honest answer, Ryuie hummed a tune.

Just thinking about Glem staring at her in bewilderment in the prison still made her laugh.

With his long hair disheveled, unable to move, looking so pitiful.

The way he was flustered from encountering Ryuie at the worst possible moment was really cute.

“Something I never expected just rolled in.”

“Is that why you came back covered in dust?”

Catsy shook out her handkerchief.

They of course knew that Ryuie possessed invisibility magical tools. They were used to their master occasionally disappearing.

‘Though I didn’t know she’d use it even inside the temple.’

Since Rkultu’s energy always flowed within the temple, magic was easily disrupted.

Even when using magical tools, the duration of their effects was short, so proper usage and skilled stealth techniques were important.

Ryuie knew she would become good at it from the time she learned from Catsy, but seeing her actually put it to good use made her happy.

Thinking that what she had taught had become part of Ryuie gave her a thrilling feeling.

Unlike Catsy who had become cheerful along with her, Bendam still looked anxious.

It seemed he had misunderstood since Ryuie didn’t explain why she had briefly disappeared.

“Miss. You really can’t get involved with a priest.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Really, please don’t. You know from experience. If you mess up, you’ll end up on the brink of death again.”

Bendam had reason to be anxious.

Ryuie, who couldn’t date because of her engagement vow, had once thought of a loophole.

Namely, that a priest of higher rank than the priest who presided over the engagement vow might be able to neutralize the curse!

The simple thought that if the vow was blocking her, she could just date someone of higher rank was the problem.

Ryuie had actually tried to seduce the Archbishop, the most powerful priest in the Empire, and failed.

‘I really thought Miss was going to die back then.’

The whole Empire saw her get cursed and bounced away after hitting on a Saintess who might appear once in a thousand years.

The money spent treating Ryuie back then exceeded thousands of gold.

But Ryuie stubbornly insisted that she had seduced the blonde Saintess.

“You wouldn’t have known, but the Saintess eventually came looking for me again and lifted the curse. It’s proof that she loves me.”

“Miss, please stop telling stories that no one believes.”

The blonde Saintess, who was unbelievably pure and beautiful for someone who was the head of the temple, was dearly loved by the Empire’s citizens.

Such a person with Ryuie?

Of course, Ryuie claimed she was more popular than the Saintess, but the public did have their preferences after all.

Anyway, Ryuie didn’t harbor much lingering attachment to the Saintess either.

“If that girl had just shown a little courage, I would have achieved my wish too. But she’s a coward, so my feelings cooled.”

“If you broke off your engagement with the Crown Prince to be with the Saintess, what would happen to the Ducal House’s reputation? Besides, the Saintess is someone who’s even more forbidden from dating than you are, Miss.”

“Forbidden love is thrilling though.”

Ryuie licked her lips.

Bendam reaffirmed that for the sake of the Ducal House, it was better for Ryuie to only pursue the Crown Prince.

He hurriedly changed the subject.

“What purpose could His Highness the Crown Prince have had for coming all the way to such a small village?”

Catsy tilted her head sideways.

“I find it strange too, Miss. The thing he’s doing by deliberately inciting the villagers is just seeking freedom. And then he himself goes into the swamp and disappears. What could his purpose have been?”

“Now that you mention it, that is strange. The priests managing the swamp must definitely know what’s there. Wouldn’t it be better to investigate that side?”

Bendam looked around the temple suspiciously.

“Right. I thought it was suspicious too.”

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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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