I Captured the Enemy Who Tried to Kill Me - Chapter 41
But when I tried to realize something, the scenery before my eyes changed.
As if with the will to prevent me from realizing anything.
The esper who had mocked me as trash disappeared, and suddenly, familiar faces were standing before me.
“Hey.”
A voice devoid of warmth, impossible to consider as coming from the same team.
“Because of you, Ha-eun had to suffer several times more. Did your conscience die?”
“You should just write a team expulsion request for yourself, d**n it!”
“How long must we, Korea’s best S-team, keep carrying you who can’t even guide properly?”
My vision grew distant, like an endlessly repeating nightmare.
***
Voices echoed.
─We failed to use the mute prince. It would have been perfect if we had killed the prince… Six years ago, it seemed more difficult than with the Empress.
─The tracking by those vermin was more persistent than expected. We had no choice but to minimize the personnel withdrawn from the imperial palace.
─That seems to have been a good decision. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if our identity were revealed like this?
They failed in their attempt to sow discord using the mirror.
The original plan was to cruelly kill Prince Luias, making the Emperor and the Duke cross a river of no return.
Still, they succeeded in disrupting the relationship between the Emperor and the Duke.
Moreover, perhaps when the next morning dawned, the sun of the Empire might change.
They loved chaos.
“This time, the Emperor will surely die.”
The one closest to the leader.
He whispered with a slight smile.
The voices maintained a heavy silence. But clearly, joy was permeating that stillness.
The most monstrous one.
The small monster who, six years ago, protected the imperial palace that could have been overthrown.
But if, by any chance, like that twisted moment in the past, the Emperor doesn’t die and comes out alive.
If he manages to come out alive from that Gate with a body on the verge of going berserk.
“Then we must consider it the intervention of that evil, corrupt god.”
After that.
“Everyone.”
According to the doctrine bestowed by the Great One, it would be time to bring out the child they had fiercely prepared.
“Since the Emperor has not yet found his mate, we must prepare that child. The target is the day when the Duke will demonstrate magic. When all attention is focused.”
That distant gift was solely meant to enchant the Emperor.
***
“Ugh!”
“Hey, ah, this is so frustrating. Why are you butting in and making a fuss there!”
Espers must protect Guides.
They should treat Guides, who can heal them, with respect.
However, this team, which included Korea’s top S-class members, was rife with discrimination.
“Ha-eun, are you okay?”
Because, unlike me, who wielded a strange guiding that induced nausea, there was an S-class Guide in this team who displayed perfect power.
Clearly, I was the one who rolled on the ground, so I don’t understand why they suddenly rushed to another Guide while glaring at me.
I clicked my tongue indifferently and examined the challenging terrain of the Gate.
It’s really strange. Why does it feel like something that has happened before?
And why doesn’t my heart sting?
‘It feels like it has no meaning at all.’
Wasn’t I originally very hurt and upset by such words?
I maintained an outwardly calm, expressionless facade while pretending to be strong, but I think I used to go home, gulp down soju, and suffer.
‘I really don’t feel anything now.’
Somehow, as if reading my thoughts, the espers’ expressions turned hostile.
Then they blocked my path.
“Hey.”
Their distorted expressions were quite unpleasant to look at.
‘Am I a monster or something? Why are you surrounding me and making a fuss?’
Behind them was the S-class Guide called Ha-eun, who was peeking out and smiling at me.
‘Ah, that fox.’
Suddenly, one of the espers reached out.
“What?”
“Ha! This is really…”
As I tilted my head, wondering what was wrong, one of the men with a hostile expression snarled:
“We need to save Ha-eun’s guiding! Why are you staring so intently? We hate receiving your guiding more than death, d**n it!”
He seems to have a foul mouth.
I knew a voice that could elegantly look down on others without uttering a single curse, and compared to that, this seemed really low-class…
‘Huh? Who was that?’
“Hey!”
When I was about to drift into other thoughts again, the one with the dirty mouth who spewed curses approached urgently.
And he grabbed my wrist firmly.
Ah, this trash, really.
As my temper flared and I glared at him, the S-class Guide who had been hiding behind came up to me.
And then, pretending to be concerned, she said mournfully:
“Oppa! Don’t do that. It hurts her.”
Ah, I understand clearly now.
I was bored with this situation.
It didn’t hurt anymore, and it wasn’t painful anymore.
There was a reason why I could no longer feel anything, even while watching the esper fake retching in front of me while sucking in my energy.
“You’re not the one.”
“What?”
I knew the thrilling sensation of someone accepting my power.
Not this leech-like feeling of drawing in guiding energy in a way that makes both parties uncomfortable.
But a more affectionate, more passionate gaze and touch.
The sensation of a real esper who yearns for me and can kneel down and be gentle at any time.
Those blue eyes that intertwined gently while meeting my gaze.
Not these things, but the place that had become my real world.
Ah, a clear realization rang sharply before my eyes.
Kaisis.
That damn Emperor.
‘I came to save that man.’
Somehow, a smile escaped me.
Anyone watching might think we were lovers.
To be in a mental state where I recall that man of all people, while in a deep illusion, and become aware of the present, ugh!
“Ugh… Hey, bug. What are you saying right now?”
“What do you mean? Let go, you trash.”
Slap!
I struck down the hand that was holding me.
“You!”
Looking indifferently at the esper who was backing away with a bewildered expression, and the woman next to him who was pretending to be affectionate, I smirked.
“I’m not a bug, and if we’re making comparisons, your dirty mouth is closer to a bug.”
“How dare you say anything with that open mouth!”
“Shut up.”
I struck down the approaching hand with a slap.
“I know all of this is fake.”
“….”
“You’re all dead, and I’m alive.”
“….”
It was creepy how they suddenly went quiet.
Those standing there without any expression didn’t look like living people, but like mannequins.
And as if that wasn’t enough, the scenery began to change nervously.
“Haha. Really.”
Something that looked like a black hole.
I could see moment by moment the energy that was spreading with a tingling sensation, approaching with predatory intent toward me.
“Petty monster bastard. Since my memories aren’t enough, you’re bringing in the experience of death?”
There was an endlessly stretching Gate.
And perhaps in my imagination.
Something I couldn’t see directly landed with a thud.
My trembling eyelids gradually calmed down.
“I’m not afraid.”
Even if its foot lands heavily on me, I won’t die.
These are just illusions.
As my mind became completely sound, I wasn’t dragged back into the illusion.
“This kind of fake isn’t scary at all!”
And crack.
The scenery before my eyes cracked.
Like a mirror breaking, the image of the Gate about to go berserk with hunger for my destruction.
The teammates who didn’t seem human from the past, glaring at me with resentment.
All of them crumbled to dust.
And what I saw before my eyes was.
─Kieeeeek!
Due to my breaking the mental attack, a giant flower rolled on the ground, writhing in extreme pain.
“This damn flower!”
I gritted my teeth and reached out.
Was it because of the shock of my escape, or because of the guiding energy I had unknowingly scattered while trapped in the mental attack?
I could see a crack in the ice.
I quickly reached for it.
Before that, the cursed King Flower regained its senses!
And finally…
I touched it.
“Please open your eyes, Your Majesty!”
When I barely touched the man’s hand that looked like it was bleeding, and when I firmly grasped that hand, my guiding energy was drawn into his body.
‘Ah, again?’
My vision turned black.
The mental attack that was targeting him swallowed me once more.
