Chapter 58: Confrontation (2)
“So, that means I….”
According to Iago, no one could enter the royal palace without an invitation.
It was clear that Reina was able to enter only because she had been “invited,” and now that she had invited that guy again, he could sneak in.
The Crown Prince shouted with a flushed face at Ilena’s words.
“What? That bastard? Are you crazy? How dare you speak like that to your fiancée!”
“Dare? Really. But you are the Crown Prince, and yet you storm into the enemy’s territory yourself. You must either be insane or….”
Ilena tilted her head slightly and sneered coldly.
“Seems your position in the palace hasn’t improved much, has it?”
The Crown Prince’s handsome face turned red from humiliation.
“Ugh…! That’s all your fault! Suddenly you get all lethargic, don’t you? And now you’re making it rain in the south?”
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
“You’re the one who isn’t thinking straight! Have you gone mad under the southern sun? Huh?”
But despite his shouting, Ilena’s expression didn’t change at all, and she calmly responded.
“No, I’ve regained my senses. Before, I endured the electric torture quietly. Come to think of it, it’s all thanks to you. Really, thank you.”
Ilena blinked innocently and offered a polite, almost teasing, thanks.
The Crown Prince, stunned, could only gape in disbelief.
Even so, he had never lost a verbal duel—he always came out on top when making others angry.
“Thanks to you, the Kingdom of Manoa is on the brink of disaster because of abnormal weather? You’d make a terrible patriot. Ah! Sorry, sorry!”
Ilena, now like a fish in water, grinned and added:
“In your case, you’d be a patriotic dog, I guess.”
“This is….”
His face bright red, mouth flapping like a fish out of water, he couldn’t find words to respond.
After all, the one who gets excited in a quarrel always loses.
And he seemed to realize that fact.
After a few deep breaths, he suddenly tried to imitate Ilena’s composure.
“Yeah, yeah. I must tolerate my fiancée’s rebellion, being a man and all.”
“You sure know how to go overboard. You’ve found the only thing you’re good at! Congratulations!”
“…Yeah. When I keep trying to teach you nicely with words, that’s why you keep climbing on me.”
Trying to suppress his rising anger, he forced a trembling smile.
“It’s been too long since I had proper mental training. Right? Ilena?”
“…Training?”
They didn’t yet know that Ilena had lost her original memories.
When Ilena briefly fell silent, worried about revealing the truth, the Crown Prince gave a sharp, bitter smile, thinking she was intimidated.
“Yeah, training. Seems like you’re starting to remember now, huh?”
Ilena paused to assess his intent, noticing the small, fist-sized, black, round magic stone at his waist.
It was an oddly unsettling stone.
Extremely black and transparent, with red dots swirling inside it like a tiny vortex.
“This damn happy island doesn’t have any mind-attack magic, you see.”
“…Wait.”
Ilena, scrutinizing him, suddenly looked up in surprise.
“Did that man just say ‘happy island’?”
The locals always called this place Mai Island. “Happy Island” was only a figurative term from the novel.
People living in paradise often didn’t realize it was paradise.
Was it really a coincidence?
Before Ilena could process her shock, the Crown Prince suddenly pulled the magic stone from his waist and shouted:
“Everyone is so happy here. No insomnia, no nightmares. I had to go to great lengths to collect only the most horrific nightmares.”
What followed happened in an instant.
“No! Ilena!!”
At Reina’s scream, darkness as black as ink descended before her eyes.
‘Ah, this feeling…’
Ilena realized, in that moment, that it was the same sensation she had felt whenever the worst nightmares struck during severe depression at night.
Her stomach churned, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, she found herself floating in a pitch-black, void-like space, with nothing existing around her.
“Where is the Priestess?”
A particularly deep male voice echoed through the square.
At that moment, the crowd gathered in the square began murmuring quietly.
“It’s been over an hour since the founding festival started…”
“Maybe she’s planning to appear when the altar is lit?”
“But she should’ve already lit the altar by now!”
A grand stage had been erected in the center of the square for the founding festival.
On the end seat of the stage was a golden throne for His Majesty the King, and in the center, an altar for the ritual.
“The ritual sequence is different only for today.”
The people whispered anxiously.
Normally, the ritual began with the King’s announcement of the founding festival.
The priest would then recite prayers to the gods and light the altar.
In the past, live animals were offered, but now, stuffed animal figurines made from halcon substitutes were used instead.
When the offerings were burned, a wind would carry the smoke toward Mount Aufus, indicating that the gods had received the scent of the offerings.
However, one hour into the ceremony, the altar still remained unlit, and the Elder’s rambling speech seemed endless.
“So… everyone must unite in these difficult times. And… um, unite our strength….”
The Elder had been repeating the same phrases for some time.
Wiping cold sweat with a handkerchief constantly looked suspicious.
“…Maybe the King fears that the gods, angered, won’t accept the offerings?”
“The abnormal weather started after the war because of the gods’ anger.”
The crowd, skeptical, turned their attention to the King.
On the golden throne, the Black King sat with supreme composure, exuding authority like an apex predator.
Leaning back comfortably, he showed no signs of anxiety or impatience.
“But His Majesty hasn’t said a word.”
“Yeah. What kind of king is he? Let’s just wait. Maybe the Elder has a lot to say this year.”
“The Elders are always like that—principals, chairmen… same with this Elder.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Iago, sitting calmly, blinked slowly.
A gesture to hide the anxiety inside him.
Outwardly composed, Iago’s mind was burning black with worry.
‘Something must have happened to Ilena.’
He would never have appeared irresponsibly without contact.
He wanted to rush out and find her immediately, but as long as he remained on the throne, he couldn’t.
The murmuring of the crowd was growing louder.
So he suppressed his worry and commanded Utter to find Ilena.
Find her. Protect her.
‘If anything happens to her…’
It was just a thought, a hypothetical.
Yet suddenly, he felt as if the ground beneath him had vanished, and he was plunging into endless darkness.
Since ascending the throne, he had never felt such extreme anxiety.
Even on the battlefield, he hadn’t felt this sensation of falling into an abyss.
Whenever he thought of her, emotions overwhelmed him.
Iago closed his eyes tightly.
Amid the intense anxiety, a realization crashed over him like a massive wave.
So clear and obvious—why hadn’t I noticed before?
Perhaps he had unconsciously ignored the truth.
She was the Priestess of the enemy nation. One day, he might set fire to her homeland. He was the King. He could not lose reason.
Yet all the “must nots” crumbled instantly at the mere thought that she might be in danger.
Iago lifted his gaze to the clouded sky.
Though his body sat here as the King of Rihu, his heart kept racing toward her.
He felt as if he were swimming alone in a vast, endless ocean.
If this overflowing feeling had a name, then…
‘I… probably love her….’
Ilena could not comprehend the situation.
She glanced at the small hand gripping her sleeve, then at Reina, trembling at the end of the sleeve.
“What? Were you trying to save me just now? Is this a cure or a disease?”
She had invited the Crown Prince to this palace, luring herself to him.
Ilena questioned her in disbelief.
Yet Reina only muttered, clutching the sleeve like a lifeline.
“Because… I’m your sister….”
That “sister” remark made Ilena flinch. She waved her hand in exasperation and then sharply observed the surroundings.
In this crisis, her mind, dulled by depression, started working rapidly.
‘Where is this place?’
An unknown space.
Everything was pitch-black, and even voices sounded muffled as if in an empty void.
No light, no sound, no scent.
Looking down, she felt a terrifying sense of falling in this abyss-like darkness.
‘This is how they broke Ilena’s mind and trained her to their will.’
Humans can’t survive long in a confined space without going insane.
It felt like swallowing a bitter pill whole.
Even before possession, Ilena probably wasn’t entirely sane.
