I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 74
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
74. Crown Prince (3)
A sharply honed blade climbed up Ryuie’s heart to her throat like ascending a guillotine.
While Glem scanned Ryuie very slowly and awkwardly, as if cutting and tearing through a person’s insides, Ryuie suppressed the urge to grab Glem’s neck and shake him.
In case she might be discovered.
‘This is my one and only chance.’
Ryuie had absolutely no intention of backing down.
Finally, unable to overcome Ryuie’s steel-like persistence, Glem whispered tenderly.
“Would it be… would it be greedy of me, your lover, to dare wish you would abandon your lingering feelings for the Crown Prince?”
Thump.
Ryuie’s violently beating heart stopped.
Glem caressed Ryuie’s frozen cheek, interpreting his reaction somehow.
“How about… letting go of Yosua’s body now?”
Glem’s heart also pounded along.
Expectation that Ryuie might now truly love him and impatience that the betrothal vow that had been persistently clinging might finally be resolved swelled together.
‘If only you can live, I would.’
It would be fine to live as Glem forever. It would be fine to abandon a position like Crown Prince and just be able to stay by Ryuie’s side.
After a longer silence than expected, the end of Ryuie’s voice cracked slightly.
“…Let him go?”
“I know too. If you kill the other party to the vow, the curse returns even greater.”
Glem added urgently.
“But even when we held the annulment ceremony with the unconscious Crown Prince, it failed. Then I’d rather kill him and reclaim your freedom.”
Ryuie’s throat flinched greatly at the word freedom.
Watching Ryuie look up at him with an unreadable expression, Glem vowed with a trembling heart.
“Let me bear that curse together with you. By your side. I’ll face anything together. Forever.”
As if he wasn’t afraid even now, Glem suddenly embraced Ryuie tightly.
However, Ryuie didn’t move even as the touching parts began to sizzle.
* * *
The story that Ryuie might kill Yosua’s body spread quickly.
Of course, the nobles’ opposition was the fiercest.
“By what right does she dare decide His Highness the Crown Prince’s fate!”
“But since Yeongae, his fiancée, continues to suffer harm because of the vow, nominally speaking…”
“Besides, if he won’t open his eyes again anyway, what meaning would there be in leaving him as he is?”
“Her Majesty the Empress said she would entrust the authority to the Saintess, so leaving it to that side might be…”
“Didn’t you see Lord Rkultu who appeared at the annulment ceremony!”
Other people of lower status were equally restless, but the content was slightly different.
“He still seems to be alive like that, but to end it!”
“I heard Glem deliberately said such things out of jealousy toward His Highness the Crown Prince! Since he’s a past lover who’s more beautiful and handsome than himself.”
“Oh my. Oh my. Goodness!”
“Honestly, even in his unconscious state, he’s still lovely enough to fall in love with.”
“Shh. You mustn’t say such impious things.”
Glem was a bit flustered that the rumors spread faster than he had wanted.
‘How did this become a rumor?’
Surprisingly, the rumor hadn’t come from Glem or Agasa’s mouths.
People who had attended the annulment ceremony also knew. Wasn’t there no way to break the betrothal vow now?
And it wasn’t as if Ryuie had the personality to remain chaste forever.
In the end, speculation that the Crown Prince’s body had to be dealt with somehow reached a conclusion similar to Glem’s.
“Wasn’t bringing the Saintess from the monastery also to send him off without pain?”
“It might be for a grand funeral. If it’s a ceremony conducted by the Saintess, it would be equivalent to one held by the Imperial Palace.”
“But why bother? If they wanted a grand funeral, they could just take him to the monastery.”
“No matter how unconscious he is, would the Imperial Palace dare permit killing His Highness the Crown Prince? He can only be killed here.”
“Ah.”
“That’s only possible because she’s Yeongae of a ducal house.”
Ryuie heard all the whispered conversations of others in silence.
Catsy and Bendam watched Ryuie with great concern.
If Ryuie really intended to kill Yosua, she would find other people bothersome.
If she didn’t intend to kill Yosua, she would have more than enough reason to turn the whispering people upside down right now.
However, Ryuie only said strange things.
“What was the name of the flower Mos brought?”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. Forget it.”
Ryuie, who had become strangely distracted since meeting Glem, suddenly stood up again.
Earlier, she had asked how many guns there were in total, then even told Bendam to try shooting once.
Everyone was at a loss, not understanding what was going on.
Though Ryuie’s whims weren’t new, now she was clearly distracted by something else.
“Let’s just do it simply with a sword.”
“Please tell us the subject this time, would you?”
“Killing Yosua.”
Ryuie looked down at her subordinates with clear eyes.
Toward the shock directed at Ryuie who had finally made her decision, he nodded his chin.
“A sword would be good.”
Leaving only those words, Ryuie left the room.
Shortly after, screaming, all sorts of people began chasing after him.
“Stop Yeongae!”
“Protect the young lady!”
“You mustn’t, Yeongae!”
Screams and cries began pouring out in front of the Prayer Hall.
People shocked to the point of fainting stumbled and pushed each other without even properly dressing.
“Please reconsider, young lady! The curse will return!”
“You’re not really going to kill him, are you? That’s the Crown Prince’s body!”
“Let go of this! Move aside! You’re committing treason!”
“These are the young lady’s orders.”
“Oh dear God. Oh dear God! What on earth is the Saintess doing?”
Walking steadily to the Prayer Hall just slightly faster than the news could spread, Ryuie had the knights block the door.
In his hand was a bright blue blade.
The thin, long knife originally used for deboning meat was enough to make Ryuie look even more like a mad Yeongae.
The watching nobles felt their hearts grow cold on their own.
The sight of Ryuie’s back as she approached Yosua lying quietly step by step made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
“No! Someone please!”
“Oh God!”
Why was Rkultu, who had appeared during the annulment ceremony, just letting this situation unfold!
The Saintess who arrived belatedly also had her jaw drop at the chaos unfolding in front of the Prayer Hall.
“Ryuie!”
“Hello, Agasa.”
Ryuie waved her hand while still holding the long sword in one hand.
Since the sword was positioned above Yosua’s neck, the onlookers felt their lifespans swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
“Did you hear too? That I’m going to kill Yosua’s body to free myself.”
Agasa couldn’t bring herself to continue speaking.
Though it was certainly content directly agreed upon with Glem, she hadn’t expected Ryuie would want to kill with her own hands.
‘No, I should have anticipated this enough.’
There was no way Ryuie would entrust such a task to someone else.
Ryuie lamented as if enjoying the gathered people’s gazes.
“You’re right. I had already decided this when I left the capital, but I don’t know why I delayed it.”
“Ryuie. Put down the sword first. I understand your resolve. But you don’t necessarily have to do it yourself, do you?”
“Then why not?”
“Well…”
Agasa, who was about to answer without hesitation, paused.
Is this murder to Ryuie?
She’s trying to euthanize the Crown Prince who can’t wake up.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Ryuie answered instead.
“Who would have thought my first murder would be the Crown Prince?”
Everyone felt chills at Ryuie’s expression as she smiled joyfully and ecstatically.
Agasa, who had been stamping her feet, shouted urgently.
“Glem!”
Ryuie’s gaze followed Agasa’s finger.
Glem’s head appeared through the hole that had been blown open in the ceiling where the god had once appeared.
“Stop Ryuie!”
Glem was jumping down from the ceiling and couldn’t properly see Ryuie’s face when she discovered him.
By the time he landed, only a calm expression remained.
“So you came too, as expected.”
“Ryuie. You don’t need to do it yourself. No matter how much I wanted this to happen, it’s not worth doing it this way.”
Glem hurried toward Ryuie.
He acted as if he couldn’t even see the large sword in her hand.
Whoosh.
The sword was swung once through the air threateningly.
“No.”
“Do you have to do it right now?”
“Yeah. Right now, this moment, I have to finish it immediately. It’s mine.”
Ryuie showed no signs of compromise.
Glem glanced once at the nobles who were still protesting against Ryuie for trying to commit this terrible act.
Then he met eyes with Ryuie, who was staring intently at him.
“I’ll do it instead.”
“…You’ll do it?”
“This is the kind of thing someone who lived by begging does anyway.”
Glem shrugged his shoulders once, self-deprecatingly.
If someone was going to bear the infamy anyway, it was better for him to do it.
Since he was the one who gave up on Yosua’s body, naturally he should be the one to handle it.
Glem thought this was inevitable, and so he was able to grasp Ryuie’s hand holding the sword.
Ryuie strangely allowed her hand to be held obediently.
As if she had been waiting for this moment alone.
Thunk.
“!”
The sound of the blade burying into flesh and the spreading smell of blood brought the commotion outside to a halt.
‘No way.’
The ominous premonition that pierced everyone’s minds emerged as a groan.
“…Kugh.”
A groan?
The nobles’ frozen minds began working again.
Yosua doesn’t groan. Because he has no soul.
Then who is the person who got stabbed by the sword right now?
Pushing through the crowd, panicked gazes frantically focused on the wound area.
Ryuie, with fingers interlocked with her beloved lover’s hand, was simultaneously thrusting the sword hard near Glem’s ribs as if swinging it.
“I guess you forgot that I’m dating that damn bastard.”
“You…”
“…Kyaaah!”
“She stabbed him! It’s not His Highness the Crown Prince! She stabbed that guy!”
“Good heavens!”
More than anyone else who screamed, Agasa was the most shocked.
“No, Ryuie! Pull out the sword right now! That person is!”
“The damn Yosua, right?”
“!”
Ryuie smiled at her bleeding lover.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————