Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 43

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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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Chapter 43
When my vision was suddenly obstructed, a wave of panic and betrayal washed over me at the same time.
‘I knew it!’
No, I shouldn’t have trusted Deyan and allowed this outing in the first place.
I thought he didn’t possess an ounce of free will, but it was all an act.
Just as I began to regret my own complacency, a deafening crash pierced my eardrums.
“Get outside first!”
Deyan grabbed my arm and shoved me roughly as I stumbled from the sudden loss of vision.
The force of his grip left a vivid sting against my skin.
‘What is going on?’
My mind went completely blank for a moment, struggling to process the situation.
Immediately after being driven toward the door by that pushing force.
I looked up to find the sword I usually kept at my waist now held firmly in Deyan’s hand.
And the blade of that sword was impaling the back of the spy’s hand.
“Aaargh!”
The spy’s face contorted in sheer agony.
“You betrayed us.”
“Betrayed you? Don’t make me laugh!”
He gritted his teeth and twisted his impaled hand against the blade.
“You pieces of trash who treat human beings like mere tools! I have simply been saved!”
With that, he grabbed the blade, his eyes flashing with venomous malice, and lunged at Deyan.
Instead of easily relinquishing the sword, Deyan hurled the very chair I had been sitting on moments ago straight at the spy.
Furniture in the office shattered into pieces, and a lamp smashed to the ground, causing the candle flame to flicker wildly.
Stray sparks caught onto loose papers, but no one in the room had the luxury to care about a fire.
Only then did the scene before me finally make sense.
Deyan had realized that the spy—who had perfectly drawn the shape of the Holy Relic based solely on his description—had been bought off by Joaquin Perez.
He had even anticipated that the man would attack him.
That was why he pushed me away, intending to handle the man himself, but…
“Don’t kill him!”
It would be a waste to lose such a useful source of information.
At my command, Deyan’s hand, which had been about to crush the spy’s throat, froze instantly in midair.
“Subdue him!”
“What?”
Deyan froze in place like an idiot.
“We need to torture him for information! Don’t kill him, bring him back alive!”
“I…!”
The moment I saw his bewildered expression, intuition struck me.
‘He only knows how to kill!’
I shouted toward the door so the guards waiting nearby could hear me.
“Subdue that man immediately!”
Storming into the room in an instant, the guards charged swiftly toward the spy.
Yet just before they could seize him, the spy snatched the water pitcher from the desk and hurled it at Deyan.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Drenched in the clear liquid from the pitcher, Deyan collapsed to the floor in absolute agony.
His skin bubbled and warped violently, as if suffering from a horrific chemical burn.
“Sir Nemanic!”
I instinctively started to rush toward him but hesitated.
The glare Deyan directed at me was blood-red.
“Do not come close.”
From his ragged, panting breaths, I could tell his sanity was slipping away.
“It is… Holy Water.”
Swallowing hard, Deyan barely managed to convey that single fact.
“Writhe in your curse, burn in Hellfire, and have your very soul torn to shreds!”
Spewing a vicious curse instead of a final scream, the spy plunged a blade into his own throat and took his own life.
The metallic stench of blood instantly saturated the air.
With the flames from the overturned candle consuming the room, the scene looked exactly like Hell itself.
“My Lady!”
Now reduced to fighting his own instincts to cling to his sanity, Deyan screamed at me.
“Flee this place at once!”
Immediately after that roar.
His hand thrust out in a straight line toward the face of the nearest guard.
“Sir Rock! Get away!”
I shrieked the warning while simultaneously bolting for the door.
Whether Deyan could escape the fire or not was no longer the priority.
Remaining by his side right now meant certain death.
Barely managing to escape Deyan’s reach, the two guards hurriedly caught up to my side.
Raking my memory, I sprinted toward the spot where the carriage had been stationed.
However, another spy had already ambushed the carriage.
The coachman appeared to be dead.
Dark red liquid bled into the rain-soaked ground like ink.
‘The smell of blood.’
I couldn’t tell if it was the scent of the rain or the stench of gore anymore.
“My Lady, please hide yourself.”
“I’ll flee to the east.”
“Understood. We will finish this quickly and follow right behind you.”
I snatched a dagger about the length of my forearm from a guard’s belt and began running toward the east.
In the distance, the tongues of fire starting to swallow the building licked at the dark sky.
Since it was raining, the fire wouldn’t spread too far.
That was at least a small mercy.
The clashing sounds of combat filled the narrow alleyway behind me.
Mindful of my direction, I pivoted my body to the left.
Right then, a massive shadow lunged over me as if it had been lying in wait.
“Die!”
“Who’s dying?”
Without panicking, I twisted my waist to dodge the strike.
At the same time, I thrust my blade forward without a shred of hesitation.
Crack. The dull vibration of tearing skin and muscle traveled right up my hand.
Holding the hilt with a vice grip, I twisted the blade and ripped it free.
“Cough!”
I drove the blade into the collapsed spy’s throat one more time to ensure his life was extinguished.
After wiping my blood-stained hands, I gave the spy’s body a light kick to flip him over and check his face.
His features were plain, but he looked remarkably young.
Sixteen at the very most.
“You pieces of trash who treat human beings like mere tools! I have simply been saved!”
Had he been brainwashed?
While the Adorif Empire’s practice of using orphans as spies was deplorable, the Temple’s method of brainwashing those very children was equally transparent.
“Be born as a citizen of Plene Grand Duchy in your next life.”
At least if you become one of my people, I will gladly take responsibility for a life abandoned by your parents.
That is the entire reason my country exists.
I offered these genuine words of pity to the wretched victim.
I closed his unseeing eyes and searched his body just in case.
But nothing of note came up.
“Phew.”
Taking a deep breath that sounded like a sigh, I stared in the direction I needed to flee.
‘Today is going to be a long day.’
The pattering rain was slowly washing over the quiet alleys.
* * *
The flames expanded in an instant, licking at the surroundings with their crimson tongues.
Acrid, thick gray smoke choked out the oxygen and cloaked the vision, trapping everything left inside the building.
Thud, thud, thud.
Left behind in the inferno, Deyan tore at his own hair with both hands before slamming his forehead against the floor and screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Shut up, shut up!”
Kill.
Kill them.
Give me more blood.
Hurry!
“Shut up. Shut up, please just shut up!”
He couldn’t tell if the searing pain consuming his entire body was from the fire or the curse.
His wildly flickering red irises proved he was barely holding on by a thread of sanity.
The flesh drenched in Holy Water warped hideously, glistening with oozing clear fluid.
“……I want to die.”
Just kill me instead.
Deyan curled his body tightly into a ball, shielding his head just as he used to do when enduring the lashes of a whip.
“Uncle.”
Please.
Just let me die.
Kill that person and drench yourself in their blood.
It will cool this heat tormenting you.
Deyan shook his head violently, trying to banish the sweet voice of a woman whispering in his ear.
“Cut it out!”
Yet the voice merely let out a faint laugh, as if mocking his desperate struggles.
Go outside.
There are people who have come to kill you.
Take their blood.
Doesn’t it hurt?
The deep, grating voice of a man commanded him, while the gentle voice of a woman soothed him.
The voice of a young child urged his impulses forward.
“Damn it!”
Deyan scratched frantically at his own ears in irritation.
His calloused fingertips scratched deep welts into his skin instead of nails.
‘It hurts.’
I want to stop.
I want to die.
But I cannot die.
In this wretched helplessness, was there anything left that I could actually do?
Struggling and enduring.
Or simply staying faithful to the commands echoing in my ears?
“From now on, cast aside your thoughts and simply swear your loyalty to me.”
“Your loyalty will become my joy. You only need to pour your efforts into ensuring my happiness.”
“Is that not comfortable?”
A fragment of a deeply buried memory flashed before him.
‘Ah, right.’
An order.
I had to follow orders.
I didn’t need to think; I just had to follow the commands given to me.
Because that was my reason for existing, my way of living through this life.
“March out immediately and bring back victory.”
The voice commanded.
Deyan listened closely to that sound.
Let us go find that woman from earlier.
She surely possesses delicious blood.
The voice drifted in.
The command became crystal clear.
A distinct and undeniable purpose.
‘The woman…….’
Right, Idir Hubert.
I just need to kill her.
Deyan slowly rose from the floor.
The scent of the woman’s blood was drifting through the rain.

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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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