Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I met Deyan’s cold, level gaze with a chilling stare of my own.
He merely bore the brunt of my look in silence, his face wearing its usual mask of detached indifference.
“I am not asking to leave your side permanently.”
“Is that so? Because that is exactly what it sounded like to me.”
“Could you not simply assign someone you trust to accompany me?”
“And how many people would it take to successfully subdue a war hero who has led countless battles to victory?”
A bitter smirk curled the corner of my lips.
“Especially when that very same war hero wields a Demon’s Power through a contract?”
It was a bruising blow to my pride, but the reality was clear: if Deyan truly set his mind to it, he could slip from my grasp whenever he pleased.
The only reason he was cooperating so meekly right now was because his aide’s life hung in the balance…
‘But that life becomes a useless scrap of paper the moment he decides to give up on it.’
The instant Deyan resolved to prioritize his own safety, this predatory beast of a man would undoubtedly walk away from us without a backward glance.
Keeping him confined within the Grand Ducal Castle was the absolute bare minimum required to maintain control over him.
Yet he had the audacity to ask me to loosen that leash.
“If I recall correctly, you already have a history of trying to deceive me, don’t you?”
“That was before the Demon was summoned. I genuinely believed I could prevent it.”
“But now that the Demon has been summoned, you’re suddenly willing to cooperate?”
“Do we have any other alternative?”
“Mmh. Even so, I cannot bring myself to trust you.”
“Can we not find some way to compromise on that…”
His plea was utterly clumsy.
It was the most pathetic, poorly constructed attempt at begging I had ever heard in my life.
I would honestly find it more challenging to deal with Glay raising a loud, frantic fuss.
“Why are you so stupid?”
“Pardon?”
“Did I just say that out loud?”
“Yes.”
His blank response drained the remaining energy right out of me.
“In any case, the answer is no.”
I slipped the book back into its original slot, putting a decisive, one-sided end to the conversation.
‘There’s no need to take unnecessary risks.’
Investigating how Joaquin Perez had colluded with the Temple and discovering just how much he knew, versus letting Deyan walk out the front gates.
There was no competition between the importance of those two matters.
Deyan Boislav Nemanic was not leaving my castle.
‘I can find another way to verify whether the Holy Relic truly belonged to the Temple.’
It didn’t have to happen this very moment.
No matter how I looked at it, that issue was trivial compared to the danger of letting Deyan loose.
“If he has colluded with the Temple, they might be plotting something far grander behind the scenes.”
“Undoubtedly. But letting you wander outside isn’t the only way to uncover that, is it?”
“It is the most certain method.”
“And it carries an equally high level of risk for me to shoulder.”
“Does that risk entail me running away?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you so obsessively fixated on me?”
“You already know why. Every single thing I am doing right now is driven by revenge.”
Deyan stared at me, looking utterly flabbergasted.
“Is that not why you joined hands with me?”
“To be precise, I joined hands with your aide.”
I offered a sweet smile as I drew a firm line, causing him to shut his mouth tightly.
I reinforced the reality of the situation once more, ensuring he wouldn’t forget.
“You possessed the Demon’s Power from the very beginning, didn’t you? Though I am well aware you exerted quite an effort to break that Curse.”
I strolled through the aisles of bookshelves to return another book that had outlived its usefulness.
I could feel Deyan slowly trailing behind my footsteps.
“I require that Demon’s Power and your noble status to achieve my revenge. And the one who actually contracted with Beval to lift your Curse was Sir Holdin.”
“But that was an action forced by your hand when you took him hostage.”
“Correct.”
My eyes scanned the titles stamped on the book spines until I spotted an empty gap and came to a halt.
I nudged the corner of the book forward, and it slid perfectly into place like a custom fit.
“What I am trying to say is that you haven’t actually risked a single thing yourself.”
The only reason I could keep Deyan so perfectly tamed was because I held Glay’s life in my hands.
“To be fair, I don’t believe you would ever abandon your aide. It seems Sir Holdin is the only person you have left in this world.”
The camaraderie built from walking a treacherous path together wasn’t something to be dismissed lightly.
And that was precisely the problem.
Deyan was a man of extraordinary capability.
If he ever decided to stab me in the back, flee, and attempt to rescue Glay on his own, would I truly be able to stop him?
‘Killing him makes him useless, but keeping him alive presents too great a risk of him being snatched away.’
No matter how many times I ran the numbers, it was a reckless gamble.
“I’ll be blunt. If you took matters into your own hands to rescue Sir Holdin, I have no confidence that I could stop you. That is why I am choosing the method most convenient for me to keep you bound.”
“What must I do to earn your trust?”
Frustration tinged his question, prompting me to glance back at him.
I wondered where the sheer venom from our initial meeting had gone, or the sharp edge he displayed when trying to prevent me from summoning the Demon.
Watching this man behave as meekly as a gentle bear felt incredibly surreal.
If he wanted to escape the contract so badly that he was willing to discard all of his pride, why had he acted the way he did until now?
‘Wait.’
A sudden wave of cognitive dissonance washed over me.
Terminating the contract with the Demon and breaking the Curse that dragged Deyan Boislav Nemanic through endless agony.
The one who desperately desired that wasn’t Deyan—it was Glay.
Once I noticed the abnormality, everything else began to look warped.
Why would a knight so fiercely loyal to the Emperor that he could butcher someone in the middle of a Banquet Hall without blinking an eye submit to me so easily just because his aide was a hostage?
Why had he marched off to countless wars when he explicitly claimed he despised conflict?
Even while his aide was negotiating terms with me, this man had remained entirely passive.
And he was still playing the passive observer now.
“Sir Nemanic.”
“Yes.”
“Do you actually want to break your Curse?”
I lobbed the question at him, my voice dripping with suspicion.
Deyan seemed to ponder the query for a brief moment before executing a slow nod.
“I believe it would be for the best if it were gone.”
“I didn’t ask for a belief. Tell me your deepest desire.”
“…….”
His lips parted slightly, but he ultimately lapsed into a heavy silence.
Stepping closer to the man who had completely shut down, I tilted my head curiously.
Perhaps finding my unblinking gaze too suffocating, his eyes flicked sideways, deliberately avoiding contact.
“How peculiar.”
I raised a fist and lightly tapped the top of Deyan’s head.
“Why are you knocking on someone else’s head?”
“Is it broken?”
“I am not a machine.”
Deyan caught my wrist, a deep furrow carving itself between his brows.
‘Well, judging by the reaction, he’s definitely human.’
I stared at him blankly, forced to agree.
“That’s exactly what I mean. You’re clearly a human being, so why does it feel like you completely lack a sense of self?”
“…….”
“You are cooperating with me entirely because Sir Holdin insists that the Curse must be broken. Am I right?”
“…….”
“You yourself have never truly expressed a genuine desire to do so, yet why did I foolishly mistake that for your own will?”
“I do wish to break the Curse.”
Deyan, who had maintained a steadfast silence until now, finally offered a counterargument.
I casually brushed his words aside, testing him once more.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“I have no desire to lose my sanity and rampage like a wild beast, nor do I enjoy slaughtering or harming others. And you know absolutely nothing of the excruciating agony that assails my body immediately after it regenerates.”
He poured his heart out in a single breath, his tone warning me not to speak so lightly of his plight.
Yet even within that passionate defense, I managed to spot the glaring contradiction.
“Then why didn’t you just run away or go into hiding?”
“Pardon?”
The man’s eyebrows twitched violently.
“The rampaging, the harming of others, the agony after regeneration. In the end, all of those problems could have been solved if you simply refused to bleed.”
Why did Deyan never desert the battlefield?
‘Yes. This was the part that made no sense.’
“If you hated it that much, you should have fled. If your true goal was breaking the Curse, you could have gone into hiding and searched for alternative methods.”
Why did he willingly hand his leash over to the Emperor and endure that torture?
And why was he currently staying confined here, behaving like a fiercely loyal hound for me?
“Sir Nemanic, you…”
I stared into Deyan’s hazel eyes as they began to cloud over with profound confusion, arriving at my own distinct conclusion.
“Are you perhaps a bit simple-minded?”
“Pardon?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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