I am Being Chased by My Husband

Chapter 4

01. The Second White Night

Episode 4

Fagan blinked for a moment. The return to the Duchy of Noavik was unexpected.

“Hey, then… What happened to the Duchy?”

Fagan’s voice trembled. If everything went according to plan, he would only visit the Duchy once or sometime next year.

While he was staying in the capital, there were not many nobles who occasionally visited the estate, but Johannes rarely stayed in the estate in the capital anyways.

Needless to say, he was busy chasing down the bounties under the orders of the temple.

If he wanted to continue sending priests to the north, where too many evil spirits are infested, he had no choice but to make a decision as the owner of the estate.

Of course, Johannes didn’t just do it out of a sense of duty. It was certain that he was sincerely pursuing the bounty. In particular, it was no exaggeration to say that he spends most of his waking hours chasing ‘blue ruby’.

“A higher level demon has appeared.”

“Ah…”

Fagan groaned at Johannes’ short reply.

“I think a lot of people were hurt.”

The appearance of a higher evil spirit itself was not uncommon in the North.

Therefore, it was difficult to guess that Johannes would return to the Duchy only by the appearance of a higher evil spirit. Fagan sighed and continued.

“Somehow, this time, a divine beast was sent on behalf of the priests at the temple… It looked a little insignificant.”

Yes, it looked like a common dog raised in a home. The cursing rose to the end of his throat, but Fagan barely held it in.

This time, he looked at Johannes with a strong look to protest the temple, but Johannes responded surprisingly calmly.

“No, no one was hurt.”

“…Then why are you going?”

“I’m going.”

Johannes handed out the organized papers as if he didn’t want to explain any further.

“Because something is strange.”

Fagan resisted asking more questions, and he accepted the papers Johannes had given him.

To his subordinates, Johannes was a capable and reasonable superior, but he was by no means kind. Rather, it felt like he was standing in front of a beast.

His dark hair and golden eyes set beneath his thick eyebrows were cold and sharp, and his great stature and toned body were enough to give him a sense of physical intimidation.

“Get everyone ready. We can leave tomorrow morning.”

“Yes…”

In the end, Fagan had no choice but to nod his head. Still, he added that it seemed a little disappointing.

“But just now, there has been a report that traced the weapon of the ‘Blue Ruby’, wasn’t there? All the famous blacksmiths are gathered here, so why leave without looking around?”

Fagan glanced at the documents he had received and continued.

“According to Aimon, the weapon expert here, it must be a crossbow widely used in the western region…”

“No. Discard it.”

“…But apart from the crossbow of the West, there are no longer any ranged weapons. Oh, do you have any guns left?”

Johannes did not respond to Fagan’s words, but with a dry face, he was writing a short letter.

“But it cannot be a gun. There is a high probability of a misfire, and the weapon itself makes an excessively loud sound. Moreover, it takes a long time to reload and the accuracy is very low. It’s not like everyone uses swords for nothing.”

“It would be possible if you were a sniper with tremendous abilities. If you shoot at the Holy Power directly, there is no sound. Wouldn’t it be the best weapon to refine your Holy Power and hit the heart with just one shot?”

Johannes answered indifferently.

“Is that possible? It would be several times more difficult to shoot straight energy without a physical medium…”

“Anyway, throw it all away. It is useless.”

“Still…”

The document Fagan received was the report of the 92nd expert who inferred the identity of the ‘blue ruby’.

‘Blue Ruby’ was a first-class bounty designated by the temple and an illegal evil spirit hunter.

Those with holy powers should basically belong to the temple. It was a principle to register as a priest in the temple as soon as the holy power was manifested.

However, there was a dark organization in which a person with holy power illegally expelled evil spirits and greatly increased their power.

When you exorcise evil spirits, jewels remain, and that is because it becomes a considerable amount of money in itself.

At some point, the dark organization was disbanded for unknown reasons, but the most important talent among them, the Blue Ruby, did not stop hunting evil spirits.

Evil spirits must be exterminated only in the temple, so the ‘blue ruby’ became the temple’s first-class bounty at once.

From the point of view of Johannes, who took charge of the temple’s quest, it was also a subject that had to be pursued diligently.

“Aimon wrote that…”

At the end of the report, a picture was even drawn saying that it was “the expected appearance of a blue ruby.”

Great strength was required to handle the huge Western crossbow freely. Therefore, Aimon portrayed the “blue ruby” as a huge muscular man.

“It’s a waste, so throw it away at the temple. I don’t need to see any more.”

Johannes said coldly with a face that there was no regret at all. Fagan answered, carefully scrutinizing his report, intending to send it to the temple.

“Yes. It’s a shame. But really… Why does ‘blue rubie’ only appear around the capital? There are a lot of evil spirits in the Duchy, so why don’t it visit there?”

“What?”

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“To be honest… Did the ‘blue ruby’ do anything bad? It’s an evil spirit that needs to be eliminated anyway, what if civilians deal with it? In fact, if you know the contact information, you would pay money to hire…”

Johannes lifted his head and looked at Fagan. Even though he was just staring at him, Fagan was startled and spoke quickly.

“Sorry. The ‘blue ruby’ did a bad thing. Eradication of evil spirits is a task administered by the temple, but I shouldn’t have challenged that authority. Besides, the jewels that come out when you kill an evil spirit have to be given to the temple, but how can you lose sight of them since you are sweeping them all away? Wow, that’s a really bad criminal.”

At Fagan’s words, Johannes smiled and spoke slowly.

“Wrong.”

“…What?”

“It’s not about challenging authority or taking a few jewels from the temple.”

“A few of them… It would have been a bit too much.”

“Those with holy powers dream of a second ‘blue ruby’ and are afraid of not coming to the temple. The authority wielded by the temple to exorcise evil spirits is enormous, but as you said, what would happen if everyone secretly received money to get rid of evil spirits without becoming priests?”

“But… Doesn’t that make sense? Those who secretly use their holy powers are tracked down by the temple somehow.”

It was only after Fagan answered that he realized that he had said something stupid. A counterexample already existed, called the ‘blue ruby’.

As if ridiculing the temple, an illegal evil spirit hunter who has not been caught for over 10 years. As long as there was one counterexample, there were always others who dreamed of the same possibility.

“Well… If at all costs someone appears to get rid of evil spirits secretly…”

Fagan let out a sigh as he looked at Johannes’ golden eyes. And in the end he spat it out as if resigning.

“Hmm. They’ll hire us first to find them. Please don’t beg like this for them to send a priest.”

“If you know, then, in the future, don’t ever say things like that in front of other people. After the fall of the Leto Kingdom, there are too many suspicious eyes on the North.”

After giving heavy advice to Fagan, Johannes tied the letter to a bird.

The bird with the letter stating that it would go to the Duchy immediately flew out the window vigorously.

“Young master must like it.”

Fagan muttered blankly as he watched it disappearing as a dot in the distance.

“It’s been a long time since he has seen his father. He must have been exposed to a lot of swordsmanship, right? Since he resembles the Duke.”

“He’s eight years old.”

“But, didn’t the Duke exorcise the superlative evil spirits when he was eight years old?”

“That’s because it was me.”

A small smile appeared on Johannes’s face as he answered arrogantly. Fagan glanced at Johannes’s face and remembered his son Leo, who remained in the Duke’s Castle.

Eight years ago, there was a war with the Leto Kingdom. At that time, the heir to the duchy, Princess Reina Noavik, who was 12 years older and had almost raised Johannes, said she would support the battle.

Reina disappeared not long after the war began, and Johannes, who was staying in the capital due to the complicated circumstances of the estate, left for the battlefield to find her.

Then, when he returned from victory, he brought her son, who looked just like him, not Reina, and turned the duchy over.

Johannes was twenty at the time. Although he participated in the war unexpectedly, he earned the title of war hero anyway, and was just the right age to enter the marriage market.

Many aristocratic youngsters who coveted him were shocked as he took the dark-haired, golden-eyed baby boy, apparently Noavik’s bloodline, and announced him as his successor.

“Still, it would be cute to try the sword.”

Johannes didn’t go to the Duchy often because he had to deal with his temple’s requests, but he still loved Leo a lot.

No one knew about Leo’s mother. It was because Johannes never talked about it.

“Should I buy a practice sword that children often use on the way?”

Johannes said with a rare soft expression on his face. Fagan’s eyes lit up as if having fun.

“Are you only buying gifts for your son? What about a present for the ma’am?”

Johannes’ face hardened as if in pain at Fagan’s playful question.

“It must be very difficult in the North… How about buying one of the capital’s luxury items…”

In the north there is now Johannes’s wife. That was an undeniable fact.

“Hah…”

Johannes sighed deeply as he thought of the woman who had come to ask that they should get married with a bashful smile.

He then mumbled involuntarily.