I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 36
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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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36. Love and Subjugation War (3)
It wouldn’t be good for others to realize that Glem’s feelings were deeply sincere.
It was better for everyone to treat it as light-hearted banter like they were doing now.
Even though he had admitted to liking her, Glem still found Ryuie strangely unfamiliar at times.
‘It seems like everyone, from ordinary people to strange ones, ends up liking Ryuie.’
Everyone was falling in love despite knowing what kind of person Ryuie was.
It felt like he alone had fallen into a trap he hadn’t known about.
Not knowing she was this kind of person.
Not knowing it would turn out like this.
“Glem.”
Ryuie fluttered her eyelashes coquettishly and plopped down beside him.
Even though he had been thinking about Ryuie just moments before, Glem remained expressionless.
Ryuie elegantly stroked her chin with one hand and gazed intently at Glem.
“Are you excited?”
“Yeah.”
“Is your heart racing?”
“Yeah.”
“Look at how insincere your answers are.”
Ryuie laughed briefly.
“How can I believe your confession when you’re like this?”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it.”
Ryuie gazed at Glem with a bright expression.
Since his sudden confession, Glem had never said he didn’t like her. When asked who he liked, he would eventually admit everything while maintaining the same attitude throughout.
For someone in love, it was a very matter-of-fact attitude, which was refreshing.
But people need something called persuasion.
Ryuie, who had been persistently staring at Glem’s downcast eyes, quickly moved away from his unwavering profile.
“Well. It’s a pretty good strategy. Let’s love each other to our heart’s content until we each take what we need. Okay?”
“I don’t have anything to take from you.”
Ryuie pointed to the monster’s beak in Glem’s hand.
“I caught this one.”
“Aha. I guess I need to try harder?”
Ryuie smiled and clapped her hands once.
“Gentlemen. Back to what you were doing?”
“Oh my.”
“We’ll arrive soon!”
The knights who had been watching with great interest feigned innocence and formed ranks.
Ryuie, who had lifted up one side of her skirt, strode boldly toward the temple’s main entrance.
Another maid approached to help prevent her skirt from dragging on the ground, but Ryuie seemed annoyed and gave her skirt another flick before setting it down gracefully.
Glem didn’t look until Ryuie was in position, then raised his head again when he heard the sound of carriages.
The wheels that had been rolling down like an avalanche all stopped in unison in front of the temple.
Among them, the door of a particularly ornate and heavily decorated carriage opened first, letting out an impatient man.
Thud. Thud. Clang.
He stepped on the muddy ground with his boots, made a briefly contemptuous expression, then quickly corrected his posture upon spotting Ryuie.
“To think you’d make me come down to this wretched land.”
The young man with reddish-brown hair had a hooked nose and an extremely arrogant demeanor.
“He’s the heir of House Maffel.”
Catsy appeared beside Glem at some point, chattering away.
Since she couldn’t appear in formal settings, she had come to the back with the knights like Glem.
“He’s a noble who was rejected by Ryuie before, but he’s nothing special even for a ducal house. There’s a world of difference between him and our young lady.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“To keep him in check.”
With an attitude of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my enemy,’ Catsy ground her teeth.
Glem, who didn’t particularly want to engage in romantic rivalry, thought that the young master of House Maffel must have genuinely liked Ryuie.
He kept fidgeting and changing his posture while looking at the gorgeously dressed Ryuie.
“There must be a reason you spread treason charges in the capital?”
“Yes. Welcome!”
Marquis Maffel’s face brightened. He thought Ryuie was speaking to him.
However, Ryuie, who had been waiting eagerly, ran past him to one side.
“These lovely things!”
Marquis Maffel’s eyes widened as he turned his head.
He wanted to confirm who she was talking to.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the direction Ryuie ran toward wasn’t the people who were just getting out of the carriages one by one.
Ryuie had run toward the twenty harpoons loaded on the cart.
“Ugh.”
“Puhaha!”
Catsy burst into laughter watching Marquis Maffel tremble with embarrassment.
Glem also let out a hollow laugh.
‘If she’s like that, no wonder the knights were making all those jokes about me earlier.’
Ryuie touched the sharp blades of the harpoons with an ecstatic look. Anyone watching would think treasure had arrived.
Since Catsy wasn’t going anywhere anyway, Glem asked casually.
“Even so, she wouldn’t have dressed up just for weapons.”
“Since she’s meeting people from the capital after a long time, our young lady wanted to create an atmosphere. Though she’s not one to care about others’ opinions.”
Catsy spoke proudly.
The others, accustomed to Ryuie’s eccentric behavior, approached her while suppressing light sighs and laughter.
“It’s been a long time, Duke’s daughter.”
“Ah. Secretary.”
Ryuie, with her hand on a harpoon, sent a friendly nod.
“Good to see you. Bendam will guide you through lodging and personnel arrangements as usual. It’ll take about another week for all the buildings to be completed, but everyone must have prepared for that.”
“Of course. But first, we’d like to confirm the case you’ve raised charges about.”
“Since the parties involved have arrived, shall we hold the first trial where the defendant is?”
Ryuie, who had been speaking readily, tilted her head and corrected herself.
“Or should I say the defendant object? Since the swamp is what’s being accused.”
Though it was highly questionable whether the trial itself could be established, the Duke’s daughter’s power couldn’t be ignored.
Since the Imperial Court was also tacitly supporting the House of Greatone, they had no choice but to proceed according to protocol.
It was around the time when the officials, having confirmed again that Ryuie wouldn’t let this pass as a joke, were about to unload their luggage.
Ryuie added.
“And there’s one more case you need to examine.”
* * *
Nervous Mos smoothed his hair back again.
Ryuie’s maids had come by in the morning to fix it, but he was getting anxious anyway.
Today his tail rested not on a crude wooden tub but on smooth silk.
Thick blankets were stacked several layers deep with the finest silk spread on top. The highest quality fabric that wouldn’t let a drop of water through extended endlessly, spread in a circle beneath his fins.
When real water was poured over the blue fabric like a lake, it sparkled even more as if a water surface had formed.
It was Ryuie’s consideration to prevent the scales outside the water from drying out and getting hurt.
After all, if people were to easily examine the parts that had transformed into monster features, he couldn’t be kept submerged in the tub continuously.
Mos, wearing a short top that revealed his waist slightly so the connection point would be clearly visible, asked shyly.
“When will the young lady…”
“She should arrive soon.”
Thud thud.
With the sound of people gathering, the visit Mos had been waiting for began.
“Gasp!”
“This can’t be.”
“That’s the, the. Transformed into a monster.”
“So it was true.”
As soon as people rushed in, startled gasps erupted from here and there.
Mos, for his part, observed the people who had entered while completely tense.
Most wore fine clothes and looked dignified. They were the type he would have automatically stepped aside for and avoided when he met them in the village.
‘But now it’s different, isn’t it?’
He was clearly Ryuie’s guest, and they couldn’t come to see Mos without permission either.
Whether they were priests, villagers, or even nobles.
When Mos said it was okay to show his transformed monster appearance, Ryuie had specially changed the authority that way.
Mos, who had been tense, desperately searched for Ryuie among the people.
Ryuie, who wasn’t stepping forward as befitted the organizer of everything, made eye contact with Mos and her eyes curved into gentle crescents.
Encouraged further by the subtle sign of support she sent, Mos gently swished his tail back and forth.
“Ooh!”
“It’s moving!”
“That thing is really alive!”
The nobles marveled with an innocence that didn’t suit them.
Only Ryuie and Ohen, who had been through everything, reacted calmly, but it truly was a wondrous scene.
With the power of water and light, Mos’s lower body sparkled beautifully in rainbow colors, and since he had originally been a sturdy adult man, his tail was also massive in size.
Looking like a living, moving vein of gemstones, Mos undulated his tail and vibrated his vocal cords.
“Thank you for coming today, everyone. I’m called Mos.”
Delicately and pitifully.
Mos drooped his shoulders as much as possible to evoke sympathy.
Though he originally had a good physique from working as a shepherd, his muscles had diminished somewhat from sitting continuously for the past few days after transforming into a fish.
Thanks to this, the harmony of his now-lean body combined with the fish tail made Mos appear even more mystical.
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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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