I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 73

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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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73. Crown Prince (2)

“I asked the capital to send sacred relics capable of purifying it, but no one responded.”

“That’s…”

“If you hadn’t run away and had stayed in the Imperial Palace, perhaps salvation would have reached even this small remote land!”

Ohen reproached him.

“Do our sins seem so great? Then you should have ascended to the Emperor’s throne. What right do you have to blame us when you’re just a Crown Prince who ran away.”

It’s because of you.

At Ohen’s rebuke, Yosua couldn’t help but think of Ryuie.

His words happened to strike precisely at the guilt toward Ryuie, whom he had left behind.

Eventually, Yosua brought up a compromise.

“I will purify that lake, so you must accept proper punishment. Would that suffice?”

Ohen nodded his head.

After that, Yosua also found the villagers who had participated in the crimes. He suggested they go purify the swamp together as an act of atonement.

“If you help me, you will only pay the price for the sins you committed.”

Naturally, people’s gazes were not kind.

Who would be convinced when told to go receive punishment?

Everyone had the same thought simultaneously.

If we just kill that Crown Prince, no one would know, right?

They pretended to follow Yosua’s words while secretly trying to kill him.

Yosua was also aware of their murder attempts.

But killing a Crown Prince protected by a patron deity was not an easy task.

With his already excellent swordsmanship and sufficient preparation, it only served to sharpen Yosua’s senses even more keenly.

Yosua said nothing even while taking these would-be murderers to the swamp.

He was desperately believing in every slim possibility at that time.

For Ryuie’s sake.

He prayed that if he yielded more and stepped back, God would surely reward him.

“I will give you freedom.”

The sinful and poor looked at Yosua.

“If you swear upon this land that you will never commit crimes again, the moment this swamp is purified, I will close my eyes just once and treat your sins as if they never happened.”

At the Crown Prince’s promise of a new oath, the villagers finally followed as if enchanted.

And when they entered to purify the swamp, a sacred relic that no one knew existed appeared, turning the sinners into monsters and stealing the Crown Prince’s body as well.

As if God could never permit such arrogant forgiveness.

* * *

Throughout hearing the story, the amount of light captured in Ryuie’s eyes changed moment by moment.

Meanwhile, the others were listening to Ohen’s confession barely able to breathe.

“In the end, the Crown Prince went missing like that, and all the villagers who made unforgivable oaths were transformed into monsters.”

Ohen’s eyes also became painfully burning at that time before going completely blind, he said.

The moment the sinners became monsters.

“Why did the sacred relic appear in the swamp at that particular moment?”

“Because God was watching.”

Ohen answered Bendam’s question.

He spoke with a weary face.

“In a way, the prayer was finally answered. If they became monsters, they wouldn’t need to worry about human oaths anymore.”

“So you sank it in the swamp?”

“I believed things would improve if we stopped using it.”

The monsters that changed then scattered throughout the swampland. The temple no longer cooperated with robbery and tried to dissuade people who came after hearing rumors, but it wasn’t easy.

Many mercenaries and caravans challenged the monsters that had once been human, and the moment they succeeded in defeating them and touched the sacred relic, more monsters multiplied.

The worst chain reaction had begun.

“And even villagers who hadn’t participated in the crimes would often turn into monsters.”

“Why?”

“Because they knew about the robberies happening in the swamp.”

Whether unconsciously or through vague realization, the moment guilt arose from knowing and neglecting it, they too transformed into monsters.

Ryuie asked.

“Then Mos too?”

“That child was too young then. But he might have vaguely known. The adults were acting suspiciously.”

Agasa glanced at Ryuie.

Even after hearing that the Crown Prince she had been searching for so desperately had sunk together with the sinners, her interest was focused elsewhere.

It wasn’t like Ryuie.

Ryuie just remained lost in deep thought, slowly rubbing her fingers.

“The village’s curse is both the Crown Prince’s fault and the punishment we had been accumulating even before he came.”

“You’re still saying such things.”

Agasa snapped at Ohen.

“It’s obviously the fault of you who deceived God. How dare you blame Crown Prince.”

Ohen didn’t answer.

Agasa drew Ryuie’s attention again.

“I can no longer feel Rkultu’s power from that man. He’s practically lost almost all his qualifications as a priest.”

“Really?”

Ryuie answered a beat late.

“But what changes just because that human is no longer a priest.”

Agasa looked worried.

Because Ryuie seemed like someone who had given up, despite being the person least suited to the word resignation in the world.

“I am still a priest.”

Ohen muttered. Agasa, already anxious because of Ryuie, became angry.

“If you’re still going to claim a priest’s authority, I’ll strip it from you. You deceive people with false prayers, deceive Crown Prince, and even deceive us!”

“False? Go directly to the swamp and see for yourself. Whether it’s really not a sacred relic. Whether you can’t feel God’s power.”

Transparent tears flowed from Ohen’s blind white eyes.

“God has responded. But He is simply cruel and unforgiving.”

Ryuie finally finished thinking and gave her order.

“Leave Ohen alone.”

“Ryuie!”

“In the end, it was Yosua who decided to fall into the swamp together with the sinners.”

Ryuie raised her long fingers to press her brow.

“It’s also ridiculous to keep blaming a decision made by someone who had responsibilities that couldn’t be dismissed with the word ‘deceived.'”

And I too.

Ryuie muttered the rest inaudibly as she swept her fingers down as if pressing her cheek.

“I’ll leave the matter of the priests’ responsibility to you from now on, Agasa. Roast them, boil them, tear them apart and kill them – do whatever you want.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I need to meet Glem.”

Learning of Yosua’s choice, Ryuie felt disappointed once.

The reason she still wasn’t angry was because Yosua had become Glem.

The time spent with Glem, though it was time filled with deception and lies, had been very enjoyable.

‘Choosing Glem as my lover was my decision.’

Just like Yosua who entered the swamp knowing he was being deceived by Ohen.

Ryuie somewhat empathized.

‘It feels like walking into a swamp.’

Even knowing that Glem was Yosua, Ryuie didn’t immediately run to Glem and explode his head.

It was a surprising attitude even to herself.

‘I didn’t know I would act like this either.’

There was only one reason why Ryuie exercised patience.

Curiosity.

‘What on earth made him become Glem, and then decide to love me after that.’

She could endure it until she heard that answer.

The moment she revealed that she knew his identity, Glem—no, Yosua—would absolutely refuse to tell her the reason.

There was also some satisfaction in knowing that Yosua continued to love her even after changing his appearance.

Of course that’s how it should be.

That’s how it had to be.

With one of her two curiosities resolved, Ryuie’s steps grew faster.

If Glem made the right choice this time, Ryuie was willing to forgive him.

She wasn’t some iron-hearted person who didn’t know how to forgive.

Many people misunderstood, but she simply had hotter blood flowing through her veins than others, so she needed to be firm.

Her pounding pulse raised Ryuie’s blood pressure once again.

“What do you think I should do with Yosua?”

Glem flinched when Ryuie suddenly appeared and grabbed him, spinning him around.

Ryuie stared intently at his eyes that widened with her reflection filling them, then his gaze that meekly lowered.

“Ha. It’s you. You know that every time you appear like this, you’re shaving years off my life, right.”

“Answer me first.”

Ryuie pressed him.

Until Glem carefully spread his fingers, Ryuie hadn’t even realized she was gripping his arm so tightly.

“You’ll get hurt. You can let go and still talk.”

“At this point, really.”

Ryuie’s nails scraped against the back of Glem’s hand, leaving small scratches.

Without understanding why, Glem carefully observed only the fact that Ryuie was filled with dissatisfaction.

For someone who supposedly came to see her lover out of sudden longing, she wasn’t embracing him or kissing him like usual.

‘Why is she like this?’

Glem wanted to make Ryuie feel better. Even more so because what he had to say wasn’t an easy decision.

‘What’s bothering you?’

His desire to care for and cherish her firmly suppressed the urge to tell Ryuie everything right away.

Even in this situation, the moment Ryuie came close to him was so lovely that he didn’t want to pull away.

Rolling around that grating name even in his mouth, Glem changed his form of address.

“The Crown Prince won’t wake up anyway, so what is there to decide.”

“No. You’re my lover, aren’t you. You have rights. Tell me right now. Make a decision. When I said I’d listen carefully. It’s an honor, isn’t it.”

Ryuie rapidly collided her words together.

‘Say you were wrong!’

Ryuie’s dilated pupils fixed on Glem.

‘Say that you’ll return to being Yosua someday, so you’ll apologize for all the wrongs you’ve committed until now!’

She still clearly remembered Glem saying he couldn’t confess to her because he had a fiancée.

Becoming Yosua meant returning to her. It meant acknowledging everything he had done so far.

It meant returning as her fiancé.

Ryuie’s forgiveness could only function under those circumstances.

Because even that would be impossible while Yosua remained in Glem’s form.

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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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