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Chapter 26 - The Monster Duke Mistook Me for His Wife
Translated by Arnlian
Edited by Arnlian
“… Alright, alright. I get it, so stop now.”
Harris covered his ears. Dillian brags about his lover with a stupid face, it was so hard to hear anymore.
“You got it, right? I will have a happy family with Miss Ria.”
“But Miss Ria doesn’t want to.”
“It’s because she’s shy. She’s such a fool-like, kind, and sweet woman.”
No, she really hated it though…
‘Sir Dillian’s bull. No, nonsense or everything just ignore it. He doesn’t remember anything now, so he has a strange misunderstanding.’
If I refused and said no to it, he was on the verge of kneeling.
The polar reaction. It’s like, he got brainwashed.
‘Perhaps, something happened to him in Wilhelm?’
Like dark magic, what if he got brainwashed by mental magic?
It was nonsense, but Dillian’s behavior was strange enough for me to have such doubts.
Otherwise, a cold and indifferent person cannot change this much.
“You, is there anything strange about you? On your head or on your heart, are you feeling a sense of difference?”
“I can guarantee that this is the best time in my life.”
“What do you mean it’s the best even though you don’t have memories?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
He takes jokes too. Hmm, sure it’s weird.
Harris grabbed Dillian by the shoulder and put his divine power.
Zap-!
Harris clicked his tongue at the splashing spark.
“Of course, it’s not working.”
“What?”
“I was wondering if you were caught by something.”
Harris shook off his prickly hand.
‘It’s still the same.’
A body that can’t receive divine power, is troubling.
“You, do you know that you can’t receive divine power?”
“I can’t receive it?”
“Yeah.”
Isn’t Divine power omnipotent?
Unlike healing magic, which requires a high degree of mental strength and skill, divine power has no unique restrictions for treating a person.
If you have divine power, it’s easy to use if you know how to apply it.
Of course if you use divine power that exceeds your body standard, your life might be at risk, so, such serious illness is taken care of by the high priests.
They can save even someone who is about to die.
However, it could not help them, the people with high divine resistance.
Dillian is that person with greatly high divine resistance.
“Until now, you’ve never received divine power. Not once.”
It’s been like that since birth. So he didn’t get the usual blessing like other people.
Instead, a curse grew on him.
Dillian’s face was tinged with confusion at the truth he heard for the first time.
“That woman must have a hard time. Because she has to treat you with pure medicine.”
Medicine? No. The one that Ria uses is divine power for sure.
“What if I can receive divine power?”
“There’s no way. You always push the divine power away, you never accept it.”
It’s not just a saying. I said it because I knew the precedent.
Harris added while shaking his head.
“You said that you forgot that you had a curse, right? In that situation, it’s a relief that you didn’t get Runaway.”
“I did.”
“What?”
“I did, twice.”
He doesn’t remember the first time, but the second time, obviously was a Runaway.
Harris was also confused by the unexpected answer.
“But how can…”
How can this village be so peaceful?
Dillian’s Runaway devours everything, swallowing everything greedily. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an animal, a plant, or even a human.
It’s swallow and swallow until satisfied.
But for that to happen, this village was perfectly normal and peaceful.
“Dillian. You, is there…”
Bang!
Surprised by the door that opened roughly as if it were to break, the two people turned their heads.
“Miss Ria?”
Ria’s heart thumping heavily. Her shoulder trembled as if it were on the verge of collapsing.
“Dillian…”
Ria, who was bowing her head, raised it and called his name.
Her voice was so moist as if she were about to cry.
And at the time he met the eyes as clear as glass beads.
Dillian forgot how to breathe.
He feels like he is falling into a lake where there is no end in sight, it’s an intuition that no matter how much he dives, he won’t be able to get out.
Being swayed by the unfamiliar sense, he ran as his instinct told him to and hugged Ria’s slender shoulders.
Dillian drew Ria slowly and locked her in his arms.
Ria, who would normally have fled in a panicked state, was quietly hugged in his arms, trembling.
Ria’s fresh and soft unique scent stimulated him constantly.
Dillian raised his hand, resisting the urge to bury his face in Ria’s neck.
Patt, patt. He patted her back carefully.
Like a newborn deer learning how to walk, he soothed someone for the first time.
With the most awkward gesture.
‘Nathan would do better.’
It was such a clumsy act, for him to have self-mocking thoughts.
Dillian wasn’t the only one feeling complicated.
Harris held his breath at the strange sight of Dillian he saw for the first time.
‘That is Dillian? That’s not a monster with a flipped over shell…?’
Dillian, whom Harris knows is a destructive person who ruins everything, not someone who takes care of it.
What’s more, that tender atmosphere. The two looked like lovers to anyone.
Harris, who is between the unruly two, decided to take a step back and watch them.
“Sshh, it’s okay. So tell me.”
“…Than is…”
“Nathan is?”
A crumbling little voice was crushed under Dillian’s chest.
“What’s happening to Nathan?”
Come to think of it, where is the one that always stuck to Ria?
When Dillian, who belatedly realized Nathan’s absence, asked, then Ria screamed.
“Nathan’s been kidnapped…! “
***
The incident that turned Ria’s eyes into carp happened about thirty minutes ago.
The time when Dillian and Harris were unraveling anger, not inmost thought.
Ria was killing time in the alley between the inns.
“Ria, don’t let him know who you are.”
“Harris? Is he dangerous?”
“He is from the great temple. Maybe it’s because of you.”
“The great temple? Why me…?”
No way, is it because of Nathan?
The temple of Nathaniel, though it is corrupt, is one of the pillars of the empire.
The divine creature that was guarding the place disappeared.
On the day she escaped being the apprenticeship priest.
By all means, she was a criminal.
‘But I lasted for a long time.’
On the day Nathan disappeared, I thought I would be caught right away, but I lasted for a year.
“But how did I get caught? I was always hiding.”
Outside the village, she got a house at the entrance of the forest and hid it, and she has never used divine power in front of other people.
I was wary of strangers, but where did the words leak?
“No matter how much you hide, rumors will leak. Now that they’re just around the corner, we’d better get out of this village asap.”
“Right. Let’s leave soon after Dillian’s problem settles.”
When she was sighing at the suddenly uptight things, one person was caught her sight.
“Huh? Claude…?”
Ria raised her body that leaned to the wall. The back of that round head was definitely Claude.
‘I was going to see you, so that’s great.’
Angry at him for leaking Dillian’s information, Ria ran toward the alley where Claude disappeared.
“Claude! Claude! Stop right there!”
She grabbed Claude’s shoulder as he entered the alley.
Then his body flinched noticeably.
Claude turned his head slowly. The face that she saw was a mess.
Blurred, burst, and twisted. He looked as if he had been badly hurt.
“Claude you…”
“Ria, run away.”
He is, in a scared state.
“What’s wrong with you? What happened to your face? Who did this?”
“Run away. You can’t stay here. They’ll come. Hurry, hurry…”
Whatever Ria said, Claude didn’t listen. He was scared and repeatedly told her to run away.
Just as bewildered Ria calmed Claude down, his swollen eyes grew bigger.
She feels a chill in the back. The anxiety that climbing from her toes, warned her.
Ria, who avoided the attack by a hair, breathed heavily.
“Tsk. You’re quicker than I thought.”
The suspicious man clicked his tongue. Ria, who stepped back, came to the front to protect Claude.
“Claude. I don’t know what’s going on, is he after me? And you’re bait to hook me?”
“Ria…”
The breathing Claude and the frowned suspicious man.
“Seems like I hit the nail on the head*?”
*Be accurately right about something.
However there was one question that didn’t go away.
‘Why is he after me?’
There is only one in this empire that is likely aiming for her. It’s only the temple. But no matter how she saw it, he seemed far from the temple.
‘He’s more like a mercenary.’
Is it human trafficking or he is under order of someone?
If it was human trafficking, it can be said she was unlucky, but they are using Claude to catch her.
‘It’s not me, they aimed at Dillian.’
They used Claude to catch me, then used me to get rid of Dillian.
“Ria, you have to run away.”
Claude whispered in the back.
“I think that’s going to be tough.”
“Why, why?”
“We’re, surrounded.”
Ria clenched her teeth at the sign she feels behind.
‘I got caught properly.’
The front and the back are all blocked.
2 versus 2. It is right in number, but they are mercenaries who look strong.
This side is a patient with zero combat capability and an ordinary citizen without weapons.
It can’t be a fight.
The suspicious man charged at her. At the same time, the other suspicious man blocking the retreat also rushed in.
‘Can I avoid it?’
No, it’s impossible. The alley was too narrow to escape.
“Ria! No matter how, I’ll try to block it.”
Claude blocked the suspicious man with his harmed body.
“Ria, I’ll buy time. Go run away.”
Nathan also flew up to protect her.
And at the moment,
Boom!
“Cough!”
The suspicious man was stuck to the wall.
It’s not pushed by someone. He left his place and stuck himself to the wall.
Ria asked in a puzzled voice about the magical thing that happened before her eyes.
“Nathan, did you do that?”
Nathan pointed behind its back instead of answering.
“It is not Mr. cute owl, it was me.”
It was a bouncy voice, unsuitable with the situation.