Chapter 02
2. Abandoned on This Godforsaken Island
“First, we should climb the mountain. It’ll be best to check the terrain from a high vantage point. If this is inland, we might be able to find nearby houses or a village. If it’s an island, then…”
If it’s an island, we’ll be able to see the horizon.
Enoch trailed off, as though he didn’t even want to entertain that latter possibility.
Still gripping my wrist, he walked along the shoreline. I lifted my gaze to the sky.
The sun was already slanting low.
Climbing a mountain at this hour was not a good idea. If the sun set while we were on the way up, we’d easily end up stranded.
More importantly, monsters appeared at night—that was an even bigger problem.
Enoch, who had been glaring at me like he wanted to kill me just moments ago, had noticeably softened.
He must have realized that there wasn’t much I could actually do in this situation.
“Climbing the mountain would be better tomorrow. We shouldn’t risk being up there when the sun goes down.”
Fortunately, Enoch understood my reasoning right away.
“I didn’t expect the young lady to be capable of such a rational thought.”
At his remark, I frowned slightly.
Was that supposed to be a compliment, or an insult?
“As you say, we’ll leave the mountain for tomorrow. For now, it would be better to survey the area a bit more.”
True to someone who had lived through countless battlefields, his grasp of the situation was extremely quick.
After all, Enoch was a man who had risen to Crown Prince purely through ability, despite being born the son of a maid of common origin.
Through countless military achievements, he had crushed all his brothers and seized the position of Crown Prince.
In the novel, he was described as a viciously relentless man—someone who never knew how to retreat.
And yet, once stranded on a deserted island, that same man would eventually descend into obsession and madness over the female lead.
…Wait. Is it really okay for me to be alone with this guy?
He hasn’t gone mad over the female lead yet, like in the novel… so it should be fine, right?
Anyway, he finally released my wrist. I rubbed the spot he’d been holding and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
We resumed walking along the beach.
After walking for quite some time, I suddenly stopped. Enoch, who had been walking ahead, turned back at my hesitation.
“What is it?”
Instead of answering, I stood there and stared at the mangrove trees faintly visible between the palm trees along the shore.
Mangroves usually grow in brackish areas.
‘If there are mangroves, that means there’s freshwater nearby. Maybe it really would be better to head into the forest.’
Resting my chin on my hand, I spoke with the solemn expression of a cool-headed philosopher deep in contemplation.
“It looks like the beach ends here. I think we really have to make a decision now.”
The end of the sandy shore was blocked by a massive cliff. The path ended there.
Enoch, seemingly thinking the same thing, silently followed my gaze toward the dark forest ahead.
“We need to find a place to sleep before the sun sets.”
I nodded in agreement.
So we decided to search for a place where we could hide for the night. If necessary, we would prepare a sleeping spot back at the beach where we had first woken up.
In situations like this, splitting up would normally be faster—but Enoch refused to let me out of his sight.
What if we couldn’t secure a place to sleep before sunset? Just thinking about it made my lips go dry. We had to hurry.
Not long after, while we were searching through the forest near the beach—
Awooooo—!
A wolf’s howl echoed from somewhere.
A chill ran from the top of my head down to my toes.
‘Don’t tell me… a monster? No way.’
My heart pounded violently. That couldn’t be right. Monsters were supposed to appear only at night.
Fear surged through me, making my blood feel like it was freezing.
“Could that be… a wolf—”
I turned toward Enoch to ask, but at that moment—
From the forest that had been utterly silent until now, there came the violent sound of bushes being crushed.
The noise, which had started far away, rapidly closed the distance. In an instant, it was right upon us.
My palms were slick with sweat from the tension.
Thududududak.
The speed of the approach was so terrifying that I had no time to process what was happening.
Just as I thought I saw a glinting pair of eyes flash between the tall shrubs—
Thump!
Something enormous leapt into the air in a wide arc, then came crashing down toward me, jaws snapping wide open.
It was a wolf-type monster.
Between its sharp, densely packed teeth, a long tongue writhed sinuously, like the body of a snake.
Overwhelmed by its grotesque appearance, I couldn’t even scream.
That was when Enoch yanked me into his arms.
Using the pull as momentum, he spun halfway around and nimbly avoided the monster’s attack.
Landing lightly on the ground, the creature snarled at us. It was unmistakably one of the monsters described in the novel.
Cradled against Enoch’s chest, I forced myself to take deep breaths.
With the arm holding me, Enoch reached out and snapped off a thick tree branch nearby.
The monster didn’t miss that fleeting opening and lunged at us again.
‘Shit!’
Thankfully, Enoch’s agility and brute strength were beyond anything I had imagined. Gripping the branch in one hand, he drove it straight through the monster’s back and slammed it into the ground.
Boom!
The earth shook with a massive impact.
As expected of a male lead from a high-intensity dark fantasy—his strength was utterly merciless. Veins bulged along the solid muscles of Enoch’s arm as he held the branch.
Yelp!
In stark contrast to its aggressive charge, the monster let out a pathetic cry and collapsed.
It didn’t move again—its breath seemed to have stopped. Black blood soaked into the soil.
Enoch straightened up, breathing heavily.
I was still in his arms, panting in shock. The veins on his arm were swollen as if they might burst.
Well, killing a monster in one blow with nothing but a tree branch—and with one hand, no less—was far beyond normal human strength.
Come to think of it, didn’t Enoch have a trauma related to blood in the original story? Would he be okay?
If I remembered correctly, it was a lingering aftereffect of the war.
‘What exactly were the symptoms again?’
I tried to recall, but perhaps because I was still shaken by the monster, nothing came to mind.
Eventually, I gave up and looked up at the sky.
In the original story, monsters were supposed to appear only at night. Yet this wolf monster had attacked us even though the sun hadn’t fully set.
‘Why?’
Through the dense foliage, I could see the sky dyed red with sunset. Looking around, I realized that only this area was so thickly overgrown with trees that it was already dim.
‘Maybe it’s not nighttime that matters—but darkness.’
Monsters might be able to move as long as it’s dark, regardless of the time, and night is simply when darkness lasts the longest—making them most active then.
‘That would explain why one appeared at this hour.’
At that moment, Enoch shoved me aside as if brushing away something dirty and shook his hand.
He glanced once at the dead monster, then flicked his eyes toward me.
“I have no idea what that thing was. Are you all right, young lady?”
“…Huh?”
I was so dazed that it took me a moment to process his question. When I finally reacted, he frowned and stepped closer.
Tilting his head slightly, Enoch examined my face carefully.
Then his hand came up and touched my cheek.
The warmth of his skin against mine made me swallow involuntarily.
It was a stark contrast to the way he had shoved me away just moments earlier.
With a serious expression, as if looking at an injured comrade, he asked,
“You look like you’re about to die. Are you really all right?”
Perhaps he truly was reminded of the comrades he had lost.
“Ah… yes. I’m fine. Thank you for saving me.”
My voice trembled badly, the fear not yet fully gone.
Embarrassment made my face burn.
After staring at me for a moment, he scowled as if annoyed.
Then he held out his hand toward me.
I stared at it, not understanding. He waved it impatiently, urging me on.
This time, it wasn’t him forcibly grabbing my wrist—it was an invitation.
The fact that I had the option to refuse felt like a small consideration, in its own way.
“You know you’re still under suspicion. Once we return to the Empire, I intend to thoroughly question you about this situation. So don’t you dare die without my permission.”
‘Interrogate me? What did I even do wrong?’
When I hesitated, Enoch glared at me as if something else had displeased him.
He added, almost like a sigh,
“Hurry up and take it. It’s dangerous.”
His tone was sharp and irritable.
What was this feeling? Annoying, yet reassuring—this sheer, tsundere-like forcefulness.
