I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 30

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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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30. Absurd Yet Convincing (1)

 

After finishing her meeting with the Ohen Priest, Ryuie came out and stretched luxuriously.

 

“Mmm! Refreshing. How does it feel to officially be under me, Glem?”

 

“The worst.”

 

Glem spat out through gritted teeth as if he’d explode if provoked. Ryuie, who slightly pouted her lips, immediately turned her attention to Benito.

 

“You said we couldn’t let the Ohen Priest find out before, right? What about now?”

 

“I didn’t know you would do something like this.”

 

Benito answered with a beaming smile.

 

He had his hands clasped behind his back, but when Ryuie spoke to him, he leaned his upper body toward her.

 

This created a very friendly-looking posture.

 

Glem had to ask, even though he knew it wasn’t right.

 

“…Did you two know each other originally?”

 

“Ah. This is the kid who called me to the room.”

 

“I’m Priest Benito.”

 

His harmlessly smiling face looked incredibly pure, which only made Glem feel worse.

 

Suppressing his discomfort, Glem raised a question.

 

“Didn’t that priest say he opposed the Ohen Priest?”

 

If he came to arrest Glem directly, he seemed very obedient to Ohen.

 

Though for that to be true, his attitude was rather insincere and half-hearted.

 

‘…I can’t figure him out.’

 

Benito walked in step with Ryuie as he answered.

 

“I hate getting scolded if the Ohen Priest finds out. Since I’m an apprentice priest, I have to listen well.”

 

“I see, I see. So you liked me that much?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Good boy.”

 

Despite Glem’s wariness, Ryuie remained relaxed.

 

If she could, she clearly wanted to slowly pet Benito like grooming fur.

 

‘Does she find that bulk cute?’

 

His height nearly matched Glem’s, and though he pretended to be thin, even with the robe covering him, he seemed to have quite a build.

 

It wasn’t like she’d picked up some large animal to tame.

 

Suddenly Glem remembered hearing that the Duke’s daughter had insisted on keeping a tiger as a pet.

 

He’d thought it was just a rumor, but maybe she’d been serious.

 

“Let’s go. It’s better to finish our business before the noisy ones come swarming.”

 

Ryuie carefully folded Glem’s record and put it in her bosom, then headed straight for the patient ward.

 

But the patients, who were already difficult to get reactions from, all rejected Ryuie’s proposal.

 

That is, if you could call showing no reaction at all a rejection.

 

At best, one person shaking their head was the only response they could elicit.

 

Ryuie’s group had to leave empty-handed.

 

“Since that’s how it turned out, what about you, Mos?”

 

“…Huh?”

 

Mos looked up at Ryuie in a daze.

 

For him, who was still mulling over the last moment he’d met with Ryuie, this was sudden stimulation.

 

‘She disappeared for so long and then suddenly.’

 

Moreover, this time she wasn’t alone.

 

Mos was very bothered by the two men standing behind Ryuie.

 

Surely those two hadn’t originally seemed so friendly with the Duke’s daughter.

 

“You need to explain properly.”

 

“Is that important?”

 

One was a mercenary Mos knew. Glem mainly took jobs going to the swamp, so the villagers didn’t like him much.

 

He didn’t bother coming into the village either.

 

Seeing him up close, he was eerily handsome. The scar across his face made his expression heavy, and his white hair was ghostly.

 

The other was the complete opposite – a beauty with a honey-glazed, sleepy expression. The thick priest robes made him look quite dull though.

 

Mos tried to disparage them.

 

‘What happened outside while I couldn’t even move from here?’

 

When Mos couldn’t focus on his story due to nervousness, Ryuie naturally sat on his lap again.

 

“!”

 

“Not paying attention?”

 

Startled, Mos flailed, and for the first time, the other two men’s gazes also fixed on Mos.

 

Benito was curious.

 

“You can touch the monster parts?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Ryuie answered casually and crossed her legs. She looked more comfortable than on a chair.

 

Flustered, Mos stammered back.

 

“S-sorry. What did you say?”

 

“Finding sponsors. Meeting some nobles who’ll come here and asking them to help with treatment. I don’t really know much about that field.”

 

“Ah…”

 

“You can take whatever you want. Everyone else refused, so if you get money, use it all up. If you want to help, well. That’s fine too.”

 

Ryuie chuckled softly.

 

The small vibrations of her body laughing right in front of his chest gently traveled up through his body.

 

Goosebumps rose.

 

“That’s enough, stop it.”

 

Glem intervened.

 

“She says that, but it’s about becoming a spectacle. You’d better decline.”

 

“I’ll be a spectacle at such events too.”

 

“That’s different.”

 

“Why?”

 

The moment Ryuie turned her head toward Glem, Mos urgently shouted.

 

“No! That’s not it! I want to do it!”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes. I’ll do it.”

 

Ryuie’s gaze, which had been about to turn away, came back to Mos.

 

Somehow pleased, Mos bowed his head slightly.

 

“I want to be helpful.”

 

“Oh my.”

 

Ryuie smiled with satisfaction. It was as if things had worked out well, even if it wasn’t entirely for her sake.

 

Mos wanted to be misunderstood.

 

That actually, he didn’t care what happened to the other patients. Even when his body was fine, he’d never cared what happened to patients taken to the temple.

 

Wasn’t it proven now by the fact that not a single villager had visited him while he was at the temple?

 

Once someone transformed into a monster, that person was no longer treated as human.

 

‘Is that why I’m more obsessed with the Duke’s daughter?’

 

He’d never desperately wanted one person’s attention before, so he wasn’t sure.

 

Mos moved as close to Ryuie as possible. Then he whispered.

 

“I want to do it because it helps you.”

 

At his coquettish voice, Ryuie’s head tilted.

 

* * *

 

Crunch.

 

Ryuie, who had bitten into an apple, leaned comfortably against the window.

 

This place was dim even during the day. Perhaps due to the swamp’s influence. To read properly without a lamp, you had to go somewhere with good light.

 

“There’s no title in the journal.”

 

She’d thought it recorded the trials that had taken place so far.

 

It seems there wasn’t even anything resembling a trial.

 

‘Even after imprisoning someone?’

 

When he turned the empty first page, a briefly summarized text appeared. It was more like a diary format than a report.

 

[A man claiming to be the Crown Prince headed toward the swamp with the villagers.

 

His black hair, green eyes, and white skin matched the impression I had heard about in the capital before, but he was quite poor and injured, and didn’t even try to come to the temple, so I judged he wasn’t the Crown Prince.]

 

Ryuie slowly read through the text.

 

[The swindler’s group entered the swamp.

 

The next day, they returned with half their number missing.

 

The swindler said he would save them and gathered companions again, but most didn’t respond.

 

He left the village saying he would buy mercenaries.]

 

The journal’s lines were uneven, as if written whenever incidents occurred.

 

Ryuie stared blankly at the letters.

 

“Yosua.”

 

The story about going back into the swamp to save people sounds so foolish.

 

“…”

 

Ryuie, who had changed position, lightly touched her brow.

 

From this sentence that only seemed foolish, Yosua’s atmosphere was slightly emanating.

 

Even though it was written by the hand of a pathetic priest.

 

[The man really did return with mercenaries.

 

The mercenary captain claimed he had received the Crown Prince’s ring as payment from that man.

 

I plan to ask for detailed information and contact the Imperial Court if he’s definitely the Crown Prince.

 

Before I could properly confirm with the captain, they departed for the swamp.

 

Unlike last time, the result of entering the swamp wasn’t disappearance but total annihilation.

 

That thing in the swamp seems to be getting progressively worse.

 

The number of monsters has greatly increased.

 

The marshland has sunk much more.

 

Even priests who knew the way nearly fell in and died several times.]

 

Ryuie could easily imagine that scene.

 

Those who barely survived would have left, trembling at the swamp.

 

Even she hadn’t yet seen the hidden main body of that monster that had risen from the swamp.

 

‘I want to catch it.’

 

Wondering if there might be information only the priests knew, Ryuie paid even closer attention.

 

[It seems not all of the last group had died.

 

Several people escaped from the swamp.

 

I sent trackers in the opposite direction of the swamp to hear their testimony.]

 

Disappointingly, Ohen’s journal didn’t devote any more space to the Crown Prince who had disappeared once again.

 

[Humans transformed into monsters appeared.

 

Visitors who heard rumors and want to go to the swamp still come.

 

Among the merchant groups was the mercenary band that had escaped.

 

They claimed they were looking for their missing captain and the payment they were supposed to receive, which they had dropped in the swamp.]

 

“Dropped in the swamp?”

 

Ryuie, who had been reading quietly, muttered.

 

‘The mercenary mentioned here seems like Glem, doesn’t it?’

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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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