I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 64

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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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64. The Annulment Ceremony (2)

 

For a very brief moment, Ryuie’s toes stopped in midair before stepping forward gracefully.

 

‘Stop, you fool!’

 

Drawing his sword, he roughly tore away the forms that were binding even his face.

 

Ryuie seemed so consumed with the thought of breaking the betrothal vow that she didn’t look back even when Glem was wielding his sword behind her.

 

That alone was already despairing.

 

Ohen shouted like lightning.

 

“When truth takes our hands.”

 

“!”

 

Thump.

 

Suddenly Glem’s heart lurched.

 

The high ceiling tilted, his vision became dizzy, and he felt as if he were being crushed under the feet of a giant beast.

 

“Huh…?”

 

Glem gasped for breath at the sensation of someone shoving their hand into his mouth and forcibly extracting all the air.

 

‘What is this?’

 

Heartbeats overlapped in his hearing.

 

Thump.

 

Thump.

 

“Look over there!”

 

“Oh God. His Highness the Crown Prince!”

 

“Ahhh! Ahhhhh!”

 

Glem struggled to keep his eyes open through his flickering, intermittent vision.

 

Through his blurred focus, he could see something white rising.

 

‘My body…?’

 

Yosua’s chest, which should not have awakened, was heaving.

 

That wasn’t all.

 

Glem could see Yosua with his eyes, and very faintly, Yosua could see Glem with his eyes.

 

As if they had become ‘two bodies.’

 

Yosua’s two pupils, open without consciousness, stared directly at Glem.

 

‘My original body is calling for my soul.’

 

Glem realized.

 

This ceremony was meant to take all of Glem’s soul from the cursed body back to the original.

 

“God shall know our desires.”

 

Ohen’s voice thundered powerfully.

 

Glem, whose body had been stiff, barely managed to regain his senses.

 

‘It’s being stolen!’

 

Though Yosua’s body was originally his, he absolutely could not return to it now.

 

A ceremony was in progress now.

 

God was watching.

 

The moment he returned to his original body, the annulment ceremony would immediately become a wedding ceremony.

 

Because that’s what God wanted.

 

‘Damn it!’

 

Before he knew it, the black forms that had been holding Ryuie were piled up layer upon layer around Glem’s ankles.

 

As if to say he couldn’t escape.

 

“Those who respond falsely before what they truly desire shall receive their due.”

 

Crack!

 

Glem changed direction and pointed his sword downward.

 

Now was not the time to rescue Ryuie, but to escape himself.

 

Even in the worst case, it would just be a failed ceremony.

 

Wasn’t that better than dying!

 

Despite the black energy increasingly surrounding her, Ryuie spread her arms as if accepting everything.

 

As if trying to embrace Yosua, who appeared to have awakened.

 

Throb.

 

Glem’s chest was crushed once more. This time not from outside, but from within.

 

‘Don’t look.’

 

The black veil fluttered wildly, tangling up Ryuie’s retreating figure.

 

Yosua, with empty, unfocused eyes, only leaned his body toward Glem.

 

Ryuie seemed deeply shaken by just that, her fingertips trembling slightly.

 

Suddenly Glem felt an even greater emptiness than when his soul was being stolen.

 

‘Just from something like that.’

 

Ryuie bent one leg and matched eye level with Yosua’s body.

 

As if she couldn’t see Ohen conducting the ceremony or Glem wielding his sword below at all.

 

Gently grasping Yosua’s chin and forcing him to look up at her, Ryuie tilted her head.

 

As if truly checking whether Yosua’s consciousness existed beyond those vacant eyes, or simply trying to kiss him.

 

Glem, who could no longer consider Yosua’s face as his own, felt his pulse racing wildly and his heart pounding.

 

It felt like witnessing a lover committing adultery behind his back.

 

‘I hate this!’

 

His consciousness screamed helplessly.

 

‘This is an annulment ceremony. It must be stopped. Please. You are…’

 

Like a revolving lantern, scenes of Glem and Ryuie together flashed through his mind.

 

At some point, all those scenes had been replaced with Yosua’s face.

 

The two black-haired man and woman looked remarkably similar to each other, like the most perfectly matched lovers in the world.

 

They looked happy.

 

‘This isn’t why I left!’

 

“Huh…!”

 

Rip.

 

Glem’s shoe, which had been continuously held by the black energy, tore as his foot barely managed to step back.

 

Glem, who had barely regained his reason, steadied his breathing.

 

This ceremony could not be turned into a wedding.

 

Now barefoot, Glem stepped backward.

 

Then Yosua’s body, which had briefly risen in response to Glem, slowly returned to its original state.

 

No one realized that Yosua’s eyes closed again as Glem moved away.

 

Because everything felt like part of this ceremony.

 

“All bonds and ties between the two shall be washed with blood in this place.”

 

Ohen, who had seen nothing, extended his hand according to procedure.

 

Ryuie just stared blankly down at Yosua, who had lost consciousness again.

 

As if believing he might wake up if shaken, yet never actually shaking him, eternally postponing the moment of failure.

 

Ohen extended his hand into the air and waited briefly.

 

But when Ryuie showed no movement, Ohen whispered softly.

 

“It must be finished before all the gold burns away.”

 

“…I understand.”

 

As if receiving a signal, Ryuie’s hand shot up into the air.

 

With her other hand interlocked with Yosua’s left hand, Ryuie pulled her body toward Ohen’s hand, her eyes gleaming like a legendary figure.

 

Then she immediately struck down both their hands with the dagger.

 

Crack!

 

Black blood spurted up.

 

The union of the two was stained with corruption.

 

Ohen, who should have been responsible for the stabbing, realized that Ryuie had finished the ceremony by herself when the hot blood droplets touched him.

 

Originally, it was usually the priest’s job to do it since most people couldn’t stab themselves.

 

He thought, as expected of the Duke’s daughter, yet felt puzzled.

 

‘Could it be that the ritual failed?’

 

Before Ohen could even wait, Ryuie’s impatient question flew out.

 

“Did it work?”

 

Glug glug. Despite the blood gushing out, Ryuie urged without a single groan.

 

“Did it work?”

 

The moment the blade was thrust, the black forms that had been clinging to Ryuie and Yosua also jolted as if struck by lightning, then all scattered to the floor.

 

The other people who had been standing far away also hesitantly approached.

 

They too were uncertain.

 

‘Useless things.’

 

Ryuie, frowning, figured out the most certain method.

 

To know if the ritual succeeded, she just needed to embrace Glem right now.

 

“Glem!”

 

Finally turning around, Ryuie called out loudly.

 

“Come here! Where are you! Glem!”

 

Ryuie shouted repeatedly.

 

But Ryuie’s cries still echoed hollowly.

 

With a face much more distorted than before, Ryuie scanned the humans below the stairs.

 

“Gleeeeem!!”

 

‘I told him he must come to watch.’

 

Ryuie gripped the dagger.

 

Due to the force transmitted to the handle, the stabbed area became even more painfully apparent.

 

Despite Ryuie’s hotly surging blood, it would be the same for Yosua’s coldly chilled hand.

 

Just as he was about to pull out the blade again.

 

Suddenly all the humans looked up at the ceiling in horror.

 

“L-look over there!”

 

“Oh God… dear Lord.”

 

The nobles who hadn’t knelt even during the ritual collapsed with thuds.

 

At such a great commotion, Ryuie also reluctantly raised her head to the ceiling.

 

Then she discovered that the ceiling of the prayer hall had cleanly disappeared without any sound or vibration.

 

As if someone had carved it out.

 

However, instead of the dawn sky’s sunlight pouring through where the ceiling had vanished, a giant circle emitting bright yellow light was looking down at the two people.

 

It was the eye of Rkultu God.

 

* * *

 

“It wasn’t the moon.”

 

Eight hours after the incident ended.

 

Bendam was still saying it repeatedly.

 

“That was Lord Rkultu’s eye.”

 

“I get it already!”

 

Catsy, who had grown sick of it, covered Bendam’s mouth.

 

Catsy, who had been outside standing guard during the ritual, hadn’t witnessed the surprising appearance of the god.

 

“Living with only books has made you completely lose your mind. Is it worth making such a fuss just because you saw Lord Rkultu’s appearance when using divine power?”

 

“It’s different. That, that was something indescribable in words…”

 

Bendam continued to stammer, unable to find appropriate vocabulary. It was a very rare phenomenon for him.

 

Catsy had also been incredulous at first.

 

The god’s eye had appeared in the sky, yet she and the knights outside hadn’t witnessed it at all.

 

Only those who had attended the ritual had seen the scene where the god revealed himself.

 

At first, Catsy had felt regretful, thinking she was the only one who missed it, but when the nobles were so shocked they holed up in their rooms, she thought it was fine that she hadn’t seen it.

 

Seeing Bendam continue to stammer like an idiot made her feel even more so.

 

“What’s so important about that stuff.”

 

Ryuie’s expression wasn’t pleasant either.

 

But she wasn’t angry at Bendam for becoming an idiot.

 

“The ritual failed in the end anyway.”

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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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