Chapter 84
Enoch surprisingly assisted Asdal obediently and helped me.
“Seems like this is what it’s like to have potential but no talent,”
Asdal, who had been pointing at me for a while, sighed and evaluated my power with a sharp, cold frankness.
Having spent the whole day explaining how to use magic to me, hearing that from him was incredibly embarrassing. Still, I had no intention of showing him that I could wield magic well in an instant, so I stayed quiet.
“That’s because I’ve never tried it before. I’m sure I’ll get better with practice.”
Even after my reply, Asdal shook his head skeptically.
“Well, what can be done? You’re the only one who can use magic. There’s no other way but to keep practicing.”
I obediently nodded at Asdal’s words.
So, we continued practicing magic control until the sulky Luzeph came down from the second floor to prepare dinner.
Several squirrels had been caught in the traps I had set, so we could make do for dinner.
We sat huddled in front of the fireplace, gnawing on meat. Luzeph, who picked at his food as if he had no appetite, spoke with a sigh.
“If someone intentionally trapped us on this island, there should be a purpose behind it, right? But no matter how I think about it, I can’t figure out what that reason might be.”
As Asdal, eating his meat elegantly, nodded in agreement with Luzeph’s muttering. He put down the meat, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief made from his torn clothes, and spoke.
“I concur. I’ve even started wondering if this is all some kind of divine joke.”
A joke… a divine joke…
Hearing that suddenly brought a memory lurking in the back of my mind to the surface.
“Dice game…”
“What?”
I murmured it softly, but Asdal seemed to have heard, and he questioned me, while Enoch and Luzeph stared at me.
But I wasn’t in a state to care about their gazes. The meaning of the word alea, which I had studied during physical education class, had suddenly come to mind.
“Perhaps…”
I pondered deeply before lifting my head.
“‘Alea’ might not be a person’s name but the name of this island.”
“Alea… the name of this island?”
Asdal questioned my words. I stared blankly, scanning the men looking at me.
“The word ‘alea’ means ‘dice game’ in a minority language of the Eastern Continent. A dice game is something entirely governed by fate, regardless of one’s effort… So, what could it mean that this word, implying fate, is engraved in various places across the island?”
It felt like a storm had hit my mind. I clutched my head. Luzeph, who had been quietly observing me, spoke softly.
“So, you’re saying…”
“It seems we are being experimented on. If Alea isn’t the island’s name, it could be the name of some experiment.”
This time, Asdal asked,
“Who would dare experiment on us?”
“That, we don’t know. From what I’ve gathered, whoever designed this island is fluent not only in the common language of the Western Continent but also in Eastern languages.”
Technically, Korean and English too, I thought. If there is a designer for this island, perhaps they know languages from both worlds.
“If it’s an experiment, then there might be someone inside the island watching us.”
Enoch’s words made me nod.
“That seems most likely.”
After my answer, a long silence fell. Everyone sat quietly, lost in their own thoughts.
They were probably recalling past memories to see if there was anyone who would want to use them as experimental subjects.
I, too, recalled the original story, but having not finished reading it, I couldn’t come up with much.
Then, I shifted my thoughts to Margaret’s magic.
“Come to think of it, don’t we all have another thing in common?”
Their gazes turned back to me. The three men looked at each other, puzzled. I spoke to them.
“We all possess immense power, far beyond what ordinary people have. That’s our commonality.”
Not everyone is born with magical or divine power.
Magic is only possessed by a very small number of people, and those on this island are among the strongest.
Caiden speaks for himself. Enoch and Diego are among the few swordsmen who can wield magic-based sword techniques.
Luzeph is the youngest archbishop with extraordinary divine power, and Yuanna is a holy power user who appears once in a century.
Asdal’s magical capacity isn’t widely known, but anyone from the Hestia Kingdom Academy would know, as even Enoch in the original story mentioned it.
Initially, we thought we were kidnapped for social status reasons, but in reality, gathering high-ranking individuals on an uninhabited island would have no benefit—unless it was for war.
The abducted were key figures from different institutions and countries.
“If this island is for experimentation, and the kidnappers brought us here because of our magical powers, then that makes the most sense.”
Enoch nodded in agreement.
Even if it was an experimental abduction, it’s very likely that each country wouldn’t know why we disappeared.
Still, the result could trigger a continental war anyway.
“But there’s still an unresolved question: what kind of experiment would they conduct using our magic, knowing it could spark a continental war?”
Luzeph hit the core of the issue.
Hearing his words, a thought occurred to me.
The presence of modern items on this island and the kidnappers’ ability to speak Korean and English might be a clue. Could they be people from Earth?
If that’s the case, they wouldn’t need to worry about a continental war. Then, they would likely abduct the strongest individuals, regardless of status.
But this hypothesis is something I couldn’t share with them yet. Without solid evidence, mentioning it could destroy the trust I’d built.
“If our commonality is ‘immense magic,’ another question arises. Why would the kidnappers gather powerful people yet prevent them from using magic on the island, and why can only Miss Flone use it?”
Once again, Luzeph pointed out the most critical part.
“In my view, leaving Margaret’s magic untouched might have been the experimenter’s mistake. And sealing our magic seems like testing the limits of those without it.”
Enoch sighed irritably. His explanation sounded quite reasonable.
“Testing the limits without magic… makes sense. It’s rare for a subject to fully understand an experimenter’s objective.”
Asdal, sitting with his arms crossed, agreed and added a comment.
I watched them reason for a while, then spoke up.
“Then we should also look for commonalities in the items with ‘Alea’ engraved on them.”
Seeing question marks appear on the three men’s faces, I took out a flare and pointed to the word Alea engraved on its side.
“It seems the experimenter marks objects they’ve touched with ‘Alea’.”
Everyone studied the engraving on the flare thoughtfully.
“According to Lord, even monsters had ‘Alea’ engraved on them,” Enoch said.
Asdal’s face contorted.
“So the experimenter can control monsters too?”
“Oh, I also saw it on the second-floor hallway window,” Luzeph added.
Then I remembered that sulky Luzeph had gone upstairs earlier. That must be where he saw it. It meant this cabin, too, had been touched by the experimenter.
“If objects touched by the experimenter get engraved, then it’s likely new items will keep appearing this way too.”
“For now, we can only observe,” Enoch replied. I nodded, and simultaneously, all of us sighed.
“When the scouting party returns, we should get information about the keys and plan accordingly.”
To make proper countermeasures, Yuanna’s party needed to return quickly.
After the long meeting ended, everyone looked at me. They all stared at me so meaningfully at once that I felt awkward.
“Why?”
“I think I now understand why Half-Ban wanted to include you in the scouting team,” Asdal muttered. Enoch and Luzeph nodded repeatedly, looking pleased.
Ah, so that was it? How anticlimactic.
I brushed my hair behind my shoulder and smiled.
“I’m pretty good at assessing situations and making decisions.”
Acknowledging it confidently, Asdal shook his head as if disappointed, and Enoch and Luzeph briefly avoided my gaze.
Seems like these days, being proactive is more admired than being modest.
