I’m Hunting My Enemy - Chapter 85

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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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85. Outpost (4)

Creak. Creak.

The sound of wheels echoed through the quiet corridor.

After the Crown Prince and the nobles had fled en masse, the inside of the temple had become much emptier.

‘It’s quiet.’

Mos was very pleased with this.

The priests were still under Ryuie’s surveillance, and the maids and knights were busy preparing for battle.

All that remained in the temple were Ryuie, a few of his subordinates, and Mos.

Mos was very pleased with this.

‘First, I need to catch the young lady’s attention frequently.’

Back when Glem was around, he had the wrong strategy.

He thought that if he lay there prettily and pitifully as a patient, Ryuie would feel sorry for him and visit often.

He should have stuck close by her side and lingered around like Glem did.

‘Look at now. The young lady came looking for me because I brought flowers.’

Mos rolled his wheels with vigor.

He had long since thrown away the flowers he used to pick for Yosua.

Now he was intensely pondering how he could follow along after hearing that Ryuie was going hunting.

The outside off the path was swampland, so he couldn’t drag his wheels around there.

He even considered getting out of the tank and trying to swim, but he didn’t even know if it was possible with this body.

Still, he desperately wanted to follow along.

He needed new legs.

“Mos.”

Someone called to him from the darkness.

Mos hesitated.

He looked around the front and back of the corridor, but couldn’t see anyone.

“Who is it?”

“Mos.”

“Miss Ryuie?”

“Mos?”

Mos froze while gripping his wheels.

After a moment.

Someone walked out from the darkness.

No, you couldn’t call it walking.

The missing Benito approached silently with tentacles protruding from his belly.

“!”

Due to the long, large tentacles, Benito’s feet didn’t even touch the ground. Benito used them like new legs.

The hideous and sinister tentacles writhed as they pleased, grotesquely swelling each time they extended from his belly to touch the floor.

Despite their size, they clearly contained tremendous strength.

Mos’s eyes widened at the shocking sight that was hard to believe even while seeing it.

‘This is impossible.’

Mos hadn’t seen Benito escape before.

This was the first time in his life he had witnessed such a thing.

It felt like a corner of his sanity was crumbling. Yet he couldn’t look away.

“Y-you’re Benito… right? Are you really that priest from back then?”

“Mos. Do you need my help?”

Like a heretic from another world, Benito spoke in a mysterious voice. He showed no concern for how Mos spoke in a trembling voice filled with horror.

“Wh-what did you say?”

“You like Ryuie. Then you must need something.”

Mos didn’t understand his question for a moment and stared for a long time at the scene he wanted to turn away from.

And very slowly, he realized what Benito was trying to give him.

Just moments ago, he had needed new legs.

And Benito had come.

“…That thing.”

Mos, who had been engulfed in shock, finally muttered.

His finger rose toward the still-writhing tentacles.

“I need that.”

Benito smiled.

* * *

Thin autumn rain fell steadily, spreading light fog across the swampland.

The swampland’s humidity absorbed all the heat, making the already chilly weather even colder.

The mud clinging to their feet made their legs heavy and doubled their energy consumption.

Nevertheless, this weather was advantageous for Ryuie.

Since she was the one doing the chasing.

“Found one here!”

As soon as the knight’s shout was heard, Ryuie ran over.

It was a human hunt unfolding purely through physical strength in swampland where even horses couldn’t run.

To use Bendam’s expression, it would be called a battle to cut off supply lines and block support.

“There’s no need for you to do it yourself, miss.”

“Move aside.”

The knight tried to stop her, but Ryuie gripped the rattling gun firmly and closed one eye.

Bang!

“Kragh!”

One of the guards who had tried to hide among the grass in the swampland was shot in the shoulder and collapsed.

Despite the knight’s disapproving glare, Ryuie silently reloaded her gun and moved to find her next target.

Since Glem’s group had positioned themselves beyond the swampland, it was difficult for them to obtain food and daily necessities.

There were limits to what they could receive through magic, so there must be someone secretly making contact with outsiders.

Ryuie intended to cut off that very supply line to make Glem’s situation even more miserable.

“Urgh! Restore justice, Yeongae!”

“That’s a new kind of whimpering.”

When Ryuie kicked with her booted foot, the captured guard rolled around helplessly.

“Give up on Crown Prince!”

“When God doesn’t permit it, what can I do?”

“At least don’t fight— Cough!”

As Ryuie kicked, the guard rolled around accordingly, swallowing a mouthful of mud.

“Blugh. Ptui! Ugh!”

“Hang this one up too.”

The knights lifted him up and hung him on a tree branch.

The mages would secure him temporarily, and later the priests would come to treat gunshot wounds, take them down, and heal them.

Their suffering would only last a brief moment. Annoyingly so.

‘I still feel terrible.’

Unlike the monster hunting she had done while riding freely on horseback, hunting in the swampland was quiet, didn’t make her blood boil, and felt heavy.

Her constantly dampening hair was bothersome, so she had twisted it up, but strands kept escaping and sticking to her cheeks.

Ryuie irritably brushed them away with her fingertips.

Her subordinates had advised against it since it involved searching a very wide area and tracking down enemies, but right now Ryuie needed to do even this tedious work.

Otherwise, she felt like she might cross the swamp again to go meet Glem.

“The rain is causing the swamp to fill with water again. The drainage work is taking longer than expected.”

“That won’t do. Once news that Yosua is alive reaches the Imperial Palace, reinforcements will definitely come, if only because people have been informed.”

There was another reason Ryuie had gone out hunting.

Contrary to expectations, Yosua’s body was not hidden in Glem’s camp.

Glem said he had hidden it in a place only he knew, but where could he go in this area?

She planned to search for Yosua’s body while hunting at the same time.

‘But everything is so muddy.’

Looking at the thick muddy water flowing beneath her feet, Ryuie became conscious of her cold body.

“Drain all the water from the swamp. Then we advance.”

“Understood.”

The knight carefully stepped back along the slippery path.

Initially, they had tried to cut all the grass in the swampland and drive stakes to mark paths, but the flowing mud made it impossible to secure the stakes.

In the end, they had no choice but to let the grass grow and use it as a guide to find safe paths.

Just as Glem had said.

“Ha.”

Ryuie, who had tried to conquer the swamp using methods other than what Glem had taught them out of sheer stubbornness, gritted her teeth and gave up.

The nobles that Glem had taken with him had built barriers on both sides of the swampland, making it difficult to approach with the knight order.

‘Who would have thought they’d be such a hindrance.’

It was absurd how the nobles who had been clamoring every day in the capital to introduce a council immediately sided with the Crown Prince when he appeared.

Ryuie had secretly thought that the nobles would naturally side with the ducal house and the Crown Prince would have to struggle to win them over.

But the result was the complete opposite.

‘Creatures without any pride.’

Now she fully understood why her father was struggling.

When she became duke, she would have to reform everything.

‘If I ever become duke.’

Squelch.

White breath escaped from Ryuie’s mouth as she shook off the mud stuck to the front of her boots.

As if her heated body was quietly thinking of the opponent on the other side.

‘If I marry Yosua and kill Glem, I’ll probably be executed.’

No matter how much of a duke’s daughter she was, killing the Crown Prince was a punishment she couldn’t escape.

It was even more certain since so many nobles were following Glem, treating him like Yosua.

If Ryuie won, she would never become duke. She would never see sunlight again.

But if she lost?

‘Not even worth thinking about.’

‘Execution would be better.’

Ryuie had no desire to die on purpose.

But rather than living in humiliation, it would be much better to win and end her life perfectly.

That’s what she would have done originally.

Yosua knew that Ryuie would choose death rather than live a life of defeat, which is why he had secretly left and tried to break their vow.

That’s why she couldn’t accept it.

If she accepted it, she would have to acknowledge that Yosua loved her that much.

Then her anger would have nowhere to go.

‘Because of you, I can’t even accept my own way of life anymore.’

The raindrops falling on Ryuie’s head grew increasingly heavy.

She wasn’t happy about the fact that the person she loved had predicted her perfectly.

She hated justifying the reason for leaving her.

What kind of feeling this is… I’m not sure.

Her world had always been clear.

Love and hate made Ryuie confused and angry.

“You shouldn’t be getting soaked in the rain like this.”

The rain that had been falling on Ryuie stopped for a moment.

Her damply wet eyelashes blinked, dropping the water droplets that had gathered on them.

An unexpected figure was looking at Ryuie.

“Mos?”

Ryuie was surprised by the fact that she had to lift her chin up toward him.

Until now, she had only ever looked down.

Mos, who had reached a similar eye level, tilted his umbrella and smiled gently.

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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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