I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 75
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
75. Crown Prince (4)
When Ryuie stabbed him, Glem thought, inappropriately for the situation, that Ryuie was clinging to him.
To stab a person deep enough for a blade to penetrate, one inevitably has to put their entire body weight behind it.
It was the first time Ryuie had leaned so completely into his embrace, and the first time she had felt so fragile.
‘You must have been struggling.’
For a moment, an intense urge to embrace Ryuie flashed through his mind, even if it would only drive the blade deeper into himself.
“Ryu…”
Glem, who was about to say something, realized he was in no condition to speak.
The blade had struck his lung, making it impossible to breathe.
It was the opposite of Ryuie’s calm breathing, filled with betrayal.
After stabbing Glem, Ryuie neither pressed further nor showed anger.
She was coldly, terrifyingly waiting for Glem to acknowledge the truth with his own mouth.
Unable to explain the situation, Glem wanted to convey something.
Anything that could lighten the burden Ryuie carried.
But in his current state, moving his fingers was all he could manage. Glem’s attempt to cover Ryuie’s hand only looked like the futile resistance of a dying man.
“What did you just say?”
“Who did you say that man was?”
“Yosua? Don’t tell me the Crown Prince…?”
“Is that really true, Saintess!”
“Yes. So please stop this quickly!”
Among the murmuring nobles, only Agasa understood exactly what was happening.
‘We only decided to kill Yosua’s body!’
Even though it was something he had chosen himself, it was something that felt repulsive.
Moreover, this was different from the plan, so Agasa had no choice but to stop this situation.
‘Right now, all the other nobles are watching you too, Ryuie!’
Agasa’s prayer immediately enveloped Glem and began healing his injured state.
However, the Saintess’s attempt to calm the situation ended in failure.
“Now you can speak, can’t you, Yosua?”
Ryuie spoke as if she had already calculated that Agasa would treat Glem.
If it had been an ordinary person, even during treatment, the pain would have made breathing difficult, but Glem managed it.
Because Ryuie wanted him to.
“…I am.”
I did it for you?
I wanted to protect you?
Possible words flashed through his mind moment by moment.
However, Glem couldn’t speak any of those words aloud. Because he was terribly selfish.
What he could give to someone who had just been betrayed by him had to be found not in the other person, but in himself.
‘What you would want from me.’
“It was… to love… you.”
“…!”
Ryuie’s lips, which had been shielded by coldness, trembled slightly.
Because she could feel that these were words spoken sincerely, casting aside all excuses and self-interest.
Even though they were so close, Ryuie’s eyes moved quickly across Glem’s face as if trying to find evidence of every emotion.
Glem still felt that both the blade embedded in his chest and the weight of Ryuie holding it were light.
Because she was his lover who seemed like she would fly away into the void forever if he didn’t hold onto her now.
“Miss, please let go.”
Just then, the knights who had finally reached the top of the stairs urgently whispered to Ryuie while blocking the nobles.
“You mustn’t show yourself like this.”
“Is what the Saintess said true, Great One! Is that man truly our missing Crown Prince?”
“We can verify his identity later.”
“Even then it won’t be too late!”
It was too dangerous for the knights to directly take away the blade. If Ryuie and Glem collided in the process, it would be like striking lightning into his wounded body.
But the sword hilt didn’t retreat even a little.
“Why did you deceive me?”
His chest kept feeling like it was burning, so Glem blinked with difficulty.
His focus kept shifting, making Ryuie’s face appear and blur repeatedly.
“Don’t cry…”
“Just answer me! I haven’t cried. Not once during the ten years you were gone!”
Ryuie screamed in frustration.
Her voice sounded as if her throat was splitting in three.
“How dare you betray me and then speak of love.”
‘But that’s the truth.’
In his rising anguish, Glem desperately wanted to tell her exactly that.
He hoped that Ryuie’s eyes, still unable to find their place and continuing to wander, would finally settle.
However, apart from the treatment, blood foam suddenly welled up, making Glem cough.
It was because the blade that had been continuously piercing his chest was pulled out.
Splash.
Finally, one noble who had broken through the knights with overwhelming numbers grabbed Glem’s shoulder and dragged him backward.
“Stop Yeongae!”
“Stop this insane commotion right now!”
Soon hands appeared to restrain Ryuie as well. Having witnessed someone stabbing another person right before their eyes, there was no way they could harbor any ill intentions.
Confirming that Ryuie’s curse wasn’t activating, the nobles rushed in and tangled together as if throwing themselves bodily at her.
“Are you alright, Your Highness!”
“Quickly move him down the stairs! What are the priests doing!”
“Stop her! Stop her!”
The nobles urgently dragged the half-collapsed Glem backward.
‘No. I haven’t finished explaining everything to Ryuie yet.’
Glem struggled to resist.
However, the hands holding him seemed to number in the dozens, hundreds.
Those who had found the Crown Prince seemed to have no intention of letting him go.
Now that the blade was removed, the wound was finally beginning to heal.
“Stop.”
Ryuie’s voice rang out clearly.
What stopped the nobles and knights was her voice, sharp enough to cut like a blade.
The command, where coldness had twisted with anger, captivated people like magic.
Of course, they weren’t conscious of this and simply believed they were shocked because Ryuie had brought the blood-stained blade to her own throat.
“If two people die here, you won’t be able to avoid responsibility either.”
“Yeongae!”
“Oh, please!”
“Don’t move. Do you want to die?”
Ryuie waved the blade tip.
The nobles who had been trying to overpower Ryuie just moments before swallowed and released her clothing.
Ryuie looked down at them with contemptuous eyes.
Their noble mission to save the Crown Prince quickly disappeared when they faced the prospect of being branded as Yeongae’s killers.
Glem groaned.
“Don’t… Ryuie.”
“It was just a means for quiet conversation. I have no intention of doing something as stupid as suicide either.”
Ryuie turned the blade nonchalantly.
Blood drops fell to the floor with soft thuds from the still-bleeding blade as it pointed at Glem again.
“Don’t interfere.”
“Won’t you give me any chance to make excuses?”
Agasa interjected.
“Ryuie, it may be hard to believe, but His Highness the Crown Prince has endured all this time for your sake!”
“Then why don’t you explain, Agasa?”
Ryuie said, still pointing her deadly blade.
“Since when did you become Yosua’s lackey?”
“!”
Agasa couldn’t hide her bewilderment either.
She never expected Ryuie to have figured out that she and Glem had met together.
Glem still struggled to raise his body despite the tearing pain in his upper body.
“…How long have you known?”
“I’m going crazy because I can’t say I’ve known since we first met, Glem. I’m going insane!”
Ryuie burst into hysterical laughter.
“I was suspicious, you know. From when I took you to the ball. You dodged well back then, didn’t you? Hmm? But then you got greedy for the ring.”
Glem squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
In the end, Ryuie hadn’t forgiven Glem for stealing the Crown Prince’s ring.
She hadn’t forgotten, had sharpened her blade, waiting to stab him now.
“I don’t forget.”
Ryuie declared clearly.
“Glem. Do you remember when you first faced the monsters around the swamp? You had a guilty expression then.”
“…I did.”
“Yes. You did. Because you knew what they originally were, their true identity.”
Because Glem had rushed to save Ryuie, she was able to sense his changes from closer than others.
Though back then, her gaze had been drawn purely by her heart’s pull.
Ryuie thoroughly trampled on those feelings from that time.
“Even when I learned from Ohen that the monsters were humans who had deceived the Crown Prince and transformed, I was suspicious. Surely Yosua wasn’t such a kind person who would protect even criminals and traitors.”
“…”
“But then I suddenly thought.”
Ryuie’s voice slid dramatically.
“That Yosua was a traitor from the beginning, and the boy I had once decided to marry was already nowhere to be found.”
Glem winced as if in pain.
His brow, which hadn’t even furrowed when he was actually stabbed by the sword.
“Then it wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to side with those people either, would it?”
“…Ryuie.”
“So I changed my thinking. Now only one suspicion remained. If you really were Yosua, there would be no reason to become my lover.”
As new flesh grew in his chest, Glem felt extreme terror instead of relief.
Ryuie’s aim was precise.
“Because any sane person wouldn’t think of becoming my lover again in a different body after abandoning me and leaving in their original body.”
That sentence properly pierced Glem’s already tattered conscience.
As Ryuie said, as Agasa said, he should have just left without caring about himself.
He knew it too.
But when he met Ryuie again, he was so happy… so overjoyed. It seemed like now was the chance to break the vow.
‘I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to love you that came again.’
Glem ruthlessly crushed the inner voice trying to make excuses.
He couldn’t dare say such selfish words to Ryuie.
Ryuie’s judgment continued.
“But you met Agasa. You couldn’t even pretend to be Glem, a perfectly insignificant mercenary, and maintained Yosua’s status that allowed you to even fight the Saintess, whom even Glem would find hard to meet.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————