Chapter 40
[These guys aren’t used to things like terror. Tsu-tsut─. You stay here… tsu-tsut─ and…]
“Yes!”
“Hahaha! A feast! A feast!!”
From far away in the royal palace came a ruckus of voices.
“Someone’s coming!”
[Tsu-tsut─. That’s all for now. Tsu-tsut─ run away.]
Taken completely by surprise, Ilena stood dazed for a moment, pressed against the wall.
“There they are. What are they doing?”
“A new game, perhaps? Priestess!”
A noisy crowd was approaching from afar—elders and ministers, led by Iago.
“There you are, Priestess! We’ve been looking for you!”
“We’ve decided to hold a feast!”
“Yes! Since it’s a rare event after ten years, we’re throwing the grandest feast in a decade! Before now, desertification kept us from enjoying the feasts we loved! Sniff!”
Among them, Utter was the most excited.
He ran toward her like a wagging dog, as if astonished that someone would abandon a perfectly fine person in the desert.
“Priestess! Come with us! We’ve decided to open wine that’s been stored for a hundred years!”
“A hundred-year-old wine!”
“A feast!”
The thrilled elders raised their hands in unison, cheering.
“…No.”
Ilena remained, as always, unreadable and expressionless.
“Ilena?”
Yet Iago, sensing something unusual about her demeanor, called out in concern.
Not wanting to dampen the spirits of the joyous ministers, Ilena quickly forced a smile.
“No. The feast can wait. Right now, I just want to be alone with one person.”
“Gasp!”
“Eek!”
The gathered crowd let out strange cries. Utter, predictably, was the most flustered.
“Ah! I was oblivious again! My apologies!”
He had recently been sternly scolded by Andre for being so clueless.
“Th-then… let’s head to Your Highness’s room!”
“Yes! We’ll have the feast among ourselves. Ah! We’ll bring one bottle of the hundred-year-old wine to your room.”
“Now that’s music to my ears.”
Having avoided alcohol for over two years due to depression medication, Ilena now yearned for even a single sip. She began walking toward Iago, signaling she wanted to be led to the room.
Only then did Iago, stiff as a robot, move his long arms with a creak.
The door clanged shut.
Without a word, Ilena walked straight to the large bed in the center of the room and collapsed onto it.
Iago tensed his spine, watching the bed sway like a heartbeat.
He kept replaying her earlier words in his mind:
“Right now, I just want to be alone with one person.”
The more he thought about it, the more her words morphed in his imagination:
“I just want to be alone with you.”
‘…Alone with me. Forever with Iago.’
Gulp─
Iago’s Adam’s apple bobbed audibly.
The room was so quiet he worried whether Ilena had heard it.
‘She wants to be alone with me? What does that mean?’
He wasn’t sure if she had really said “forever” at the end, though it felt like she did.
‘Do friends normally say that? Wanting to be alone together forever?’
Having never really had a friend before, he couldn’t distinguish what was normal. He also didn’t understand why his heart was racing like this.
“Ilena?”
When he spoke cautiously, a languid voice responded.
“Mm. Just a moment.”
Iago, captivated by the soft, ticklish sound of her voice, scratched his reddened earlobe awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Ilena on the bed had no idea the person standing before her was trembling like a reed in a storm.
She lifted her hand, heavy as a bag of salt, pressing it to her throbbing forehead.
‘I need to gather my thoughts for a moment.’
Too much had happened in such a short time, leaving her head spinning. Since quitting her depression medication, she found it hard to hold complex thoughts for long.
‘Damn. I used to handle this easily before.’
She missed the old days when she could work madly on little sleep without trouble.
Lying back, the tension drained from her body. A fleeting thought crossed her mind: she could just forget the world and sleep.
‘But I can’t.’
Ilena gritted her teeth and tried to focus.
Iago, Andre, the slightly overwhelming but kind and cute ministers who cheered and blessed her—they couldn’t be put in danger.
Recalling the warmth of the ocean and the fish that had surrounded her, her throbbing headache eased slightly.
‘I need to think… A terrorist attack will happen. I need to figure out how to stop it. I can’t just lie in bed forever…’
“Ilena?”
Another cautious voice, slightly trembling at the end, called her.
But Ilena, having no time to worry about minor details, sat up straight.
Iago, creeping closer like a timid dog, flinched.
“Ilena… I mean… wanting to be alone together forever—”
He stammered like someone caught reading a forbidden magazine, then snapped his mouth shut. His face instantly grew serious.
“Ilena?”
He had noticed something unusual about her expression.
Steeling herself, Ilena got straight to the point.
“Iago. It seems terrorists have infiltrated this country.”
“What?”
Iago’s violet eyes widened at her grave expression and tone.
But he tilted his head, puzzled.
“Terror…? What’s that?”
Ilena’s eyes widened.
‘Ah, right. This is the “Happy Island.” They probably have no concept of terrorism.’
“Just now, while passing through the deserted garden, I heard a strange voice.”
Calmly, Ilena explained the situation.
“It was a man’s voice, probably communicating with someone. He said he secretly planted a bomb and intends to detonate it someday.”
“…What?”
She patiently explained what terrorism was. Iago’s expression grew rigid.
“Who dares… in the Kingdom of Lihu…?”
His normally gentle eyes glinted coldly, like a wild animal’s.
“Who would do such a thing? Why?”
Their eyes met, and Ilena knew they were thinking the same thing.
The North.
They had a suspicion but no proof. Accusing another nation without evidence could risk war.
“Another war…?”
Iago reverted from his Black King persona back to his usual Black Rabbit. His face pale, incredulous.
‘Iago lost both his father and brother in the war ten years ago,’ she recalled from childhood stories at the villa.
“And now terrorism too…”
He buried his face in his hands, shocked by the indiscriminate cruelty.
“People could get hurt! Children could pass by, mothers, loved ones…”
“Iago.”
“Why do they do this? I can’t understand…”
For the first time, Iago crumbled under the concept of terrorism.
He had no experience with such cowardly psychological warfare or heinous crimes—but that’s exactly what the terrorists aimed for.
‘But now, I’m here.’
Ilena, raised in Korea and used to ruthless psychological tactics, knew how to handle such things.
“Don’t worry, Iago. I’m here with you.”
“Ilena…”
She looked at him with calm composure, almost coldly, despite his tearful gaze.
“They want me to give in to their demands and go north. Soon, they’ll send their demands.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“We’ll catch the culprit using that as leverage.”
“Mm-hmm… huh?”
“We have to make them confess that the North is behind this. Does the royal family have any torture specialists?”
Ilena asked casually, as if inquiring about potatoes at home, and Iago nearly jumped.
“T-torture specialists? The North has such a job?”
Iago muttered sadly, imagining how miserable they must be.
Ilena, not expecting much, merely nodded.
“It’s fine. There are many ways to get secrets without physical torture.”
With a cold whisper, she raised one corner of her mouth into a sharp, bitter smile.
Iago clutched his trembling chest, thinking:
‘She’s so cool…’
