I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 5

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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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5. An engagement is a matter between two people. (5)

Satisfied, Ryuie bent her knees and patted them with both hands. It was a friendly gesture, as if calling a dog.

“Little bell. Come here.”

Glem’s face contorted as he realized that he was the “little bell” Ryuie was calling.

Suddenly a white flash gleamed and the sound of metal striking stone rang out with sparks flying.

Clang!

Wind stirred as Ryuie, with a sword stuck right in the middle of her hair, lightly fluttered her eyelashes.

A long sword that had been drawn without her noticing was gleaming at a distance that almost touched her cheek.

Glem twisted the sword handle threateningly.

“Get lost.”

The corners of Ryuie’s mouth turned up.

“How cute. Are these claws too?”

Glem’s expression crumpled further as he watched Ryuie, who wasn’t shaken in the slightest.

For some reason, Ryuie, who had no weapon in her hands, felt more dangerous than the guards who had immediately drawn their swords and surrounded him.

“But you don’t seem to groom yourself at all, do you?”

Ryuie blatantly looked Glem up and down as she pressed her cheek against the blade. Glem flinched. Her cheek, softly pressed against the dirty, dull surface, was incongruously lovely.

“How could you even scratch someone with this?”

“!”

When Ryuie gave a signal, the mages who had been standing apart immediately cast binding magic.

Glem’s eyes widened like a wildcat’s, never expecting that mages would be mixed in among the guards who had followed a single woman to such a secluded place.

“Mages!”

Red circular chains flew like discs, passing through Glem’s body and binding him.

“Kuk!”

“Oh my! Oh my! Please don’t fight, I beg you!”

“We’re resolving this peacefully, so why is he acting like that?”

Along with Catsy’s disgruntled muttering, Glem’s head struck the ground with a thud.

“Graaah!”

He let out an enraged sound as his arms and back surged upward, but he couldn’t overcome the force pressing down on him like a driven stake.

Still, Ryuie mentally awarded him one bonus point for continuing to hold onto his sword.

“Now then, shall we continue with the commission?”

Ryuie crossed her legs as she looked down at Glem pressed to the floor.

“The Crown Prince’s ring that supposedly came from the swamp. Did you take it, little bell?”

Naturally, Glem didn’t answer the question and just kept struggling to break free from his restraints.

“What bullshit! Release this right now!”

“From what I can see, someone who makes a living from human trafficking would have no reason to stop people from going to the swamp, right?”

“Do I look like someone who’ll do anything for money?”

“That’s exactly how you look?”

Ryuie engaged in childish banter. The effect was excellent, as it made Glem even more heated and writhe violently.

“If you speak honestly, I’ll forgive you. Something like slightly injuring the Crown Prince is something I can handle at my level.”

“It might not be just ‘slight.'”

Bendam, who had been watching along, interjected. His expression was very wary. Glem let out a bitter laugh.

“Ha. First you paint me as someone obsessed with money, and now you suspect I’m a murderer? That I killed the Crown Prince?”

This time Ryuie smiled instead of answering.

The surrounding guards, who knew the Crown Prince wasn’t dead anyway, also remained silent.

Though it wouldn’t look that way at all to Glem and Marco.

Seeing that he was suddenly being framed as the Crown Prince’s assassin, Marco pressed Glem.

“Say something! You said with your own mouth that you saw the Crown Prince’s ghost back then!”

“Shut up!”

It was already too late. Ryuie pointed directly at Marco.

“You there. In detail.”

Flustered, Marco hesitated and looked around nervously. Naturally, Glem threatened him with a menacing aura.

“Shut up and stay still!”

“If you shut up, you’ll be an accomplice too.”

Bendam kindly explained.

Since the most calm and rational-looking person among Duke Ryuie’s group was saying this, Marco, being a commoner, was naturally swayed.

“Me too? I, I have nothing to do with any of this.”

“Strange. Then what did I just hear with my ears?”

Catsy chimed in. She intended to contribute to creating a terrifying atmosphere.

“As you know, imperial matters allow for summary execution without trial, and the Duke’s daughter here has sufficient authority to act in that capacity. You do know that, don’t you?”

“D-Duke!”

With those words, Marco completely surrendered.

“I really don’t know anything! The one who secretly goes in and out of the swamp all the time is that Gle…”

“I told you to shut up!”

Glem puffed up his chest with an even more terrifying aura than before, then finally made a snapping sound and broke free from his restraints.

Ryuie’s eyes widened.

Black tentacles had surged up from where the red magic had been wrapped around him just moments before.

The tentacles that tore the magic to shreds and extended in all directions surged up as if letting out a soundless roar, then subsided after completing their task.

“Wh-what was that!”

Great shock overwhelmed them.

An even bigger smile spread across Ryuie’s lips. She had seen through the true nature of that power.

“You have a sacred relic of Rkultu, don’t you?”

“…”

As if it had been his trump card, Glem glared as he pushed a black object into his chest.

There was no sign of trying to subdue him now that he was free again. Because Ryuie had stood up herself.

“How cunning. To endure without using such an object even though you had it because you didn’t want to be caught. Your acting skills are admirable.”

“That makes sense. It’s far too excessive an object for a mercenary to possess. The source is suspicious.”

“My, how enviable.”

Glem scraped his sword tip against the floor with a dark expression.

He emanated an aura as if he would cut down anyone who entered his radius. But Ryuie pointed straight at him.

“Capture him.”

All the waiting guard knights rushed forward.

Glem swung his sword widely in a threatening manner.

But it was pointless.

The guards who rushed forward grabbed Marco, not Glem, and forced him to his knees.

“Huh? Why me?”

“You’re asking after we just confirmed he’s a man who can’t even be caught with magic?”

Catsy tilted her head. Only then understanding the situation, Marco was horrified. He had suddenly become a hostage.

“H-hey! Help me! Glem!”

Glem hesitated and looked back at Marco, then wrinkled his nose.

The next moment there was a clashing sound as a dagger fell.

The guards holding Marco had deflected it for him.

Seeing Glem attack him without hesitation, Marco’s blood ran cold.

“Huuuh.”

“To try to kill someone who asked for help – what a heartless man.”

“Didn’t you just argue that you weren’t a murderer, little bell?”

“That’s not something the side that took an innocent person hostage should say.”

Ryuie chuckled.

Having failed to silence Marco, Glem clicked his tongue and leaped up to the ceiling. He was escaping.

“I won’t see you out! See you again!”

“Get lost!”

Ryuie even waved her hand toward him as he disappeared across the rooftops.

Marco, completely dejected, stared blankly up at the sky in despair.

While Catsy gently patted poor Marco’s head, Ryuie approached.

“Now then, shall we finish the story we didn’t complete?”

Marco, sensing his fate, quickly and accurately spilled the rest of the story faster than anyone.

* * *

“Was it alright to let that man go like that?”

Bendam, back in the rattling carriage, asked cautiously.

Ryuie, who had been resting her chin on the carriage window frame, turned around. At the signal to continue speaking, Bendam mustered a bit more courage.

“I mean that man called Glem. There are more than one or two suspicious things about him. The fact that he’s a mercenary yet possessed a sacred relic of Lord Rkultu, and also that he saw the Crown Prince’s ghost.”

“That’s right.”

Ryuie nodded in agreement, stroking her chin. Her eyes took on an even deeper gleam.

“Besides, he seemed to recognize me.”

“Pardon?”

“Or maybe he fell for me at first sight? As expected, this appearance never changes no matter where I go.”

Ryuie elegantly pressed her chin with her finger.

Bendam decided to quietly keep his mouth shut. Instead, Catsy picked up the conversation.

“Still, it seems to be true that the Crown Prince’s ring came from the swamp.”

Marco, who was more frightened by the dagger that flew toward him than by the guards’ threats, told everything while trembling.

Thanks to that, his description of the swamp sounded even more horrific and vivid.

Everyone who entered either died or went insane. Another merchant besides Glem who survived the swamp apparently fled foaming at the mouth.

“It was a place where priests regularly performed rituals, but after a merchant fell and died there with treasure, it became a place even the priests avoided, making it all the more ominous.”

“The monsters kill so many people that the smell of corpses never leaves the swamp.”

“Don’t the priests in this village conduct subjugations?”

Ryuie fell deep in thought.

Originally, monster subjugation was the lord’s duty, but in remote regions far from the lord’s castle like this, temples sometimes moved as a self-defense measure instead. Yet if monsters remained, it meant the priests’ power was that weak in this land.

‘Well, even self-proclaimed mercenaries are running around. Public order is a mess.’

She couldn’t believe that Glem, whom they’d just encountered, worked for the village people. The villagers weren’t letting him sleep in their homes either, but leaving him to sleep in that hideous abandoned house.

Rather than confirming whether the Crown Prince’s ring really came from the swamp, it seemed better to first understand the power dynamics in the area.

‘I’ll need to investigate further.’

Moreover, there was something that drew Ryuie’s attention more than anything else.

‘It was brief, but he provoked me.’

When Glem threw the dagger at Marco, he was looking at her, not his target.

With eyes that said if you don’t want to see this one die, block it properly. As if commanding her.

Thanks to that, even after protecting Marco, Ryuie was seized by an unpleasant feeling.

For someone reputed to cut people down indiscriminately, wasn’t his mind working far too quickly?

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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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