Chapter 46
“I understand why you find it suspicious, but if this had been my scheme, you wouldn’t be here with me right now. Maybe if it were just Enoch and me—but why would I go through near-death situations and suffer together with all of you?”
At those words, Enoch looked oddly proud, while Kaiden muttered repeatedly that it was a good thing such a situation hadn’t actually happened.
“Are you saying you really were on the brink of death? You’re not exaggerating? We were genuinely teetering between life and death. I’m curious just how bad things were on your side.”
It was a leading question, born from the assumption that if I were the kidnapper, our group would have suffered less.
But if this was meant to be a suffering competition, then we were no pushovers either.
“Exaggerating? I nearly died several times.”
Kaiden’s voice came from beside me—so low it was chilling.
I’d only seen him smiling lately, but now his eyes gleamed with a madness I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Since he’d crossed the line between life and death alongside me, Asdal’s words had clearly struck a nerve.
Asdal chuckled easily and tried to calm him.
“Don’t be so sensitive, Lord. Given the circumstances, isn’t that a reasonable question? It’s not as though I’m only suspicious of Lady Plone. I find everyone here suspicious.”
“I don’t care about that. If you interrogate either me or Margaret in front of me again, I won’t let it slide.”
Kaiden jumped to his feet to warn Asdal. I hurriedly grabbed him with my whole body to stop him.
That only lasted a moment, though, because Enoch seized Kaiden by the back of the neck and shoved him aside.
Kaiden ended up sitting on the dirt, roughly raking his fingers through his hair as he glared murderously at Asdal.
Once again, I understood why Kaiden never fit into group dynamics in the original story.
Asdal straightened the collar Kaiden had grabbed earlier and muttered irritably,
“Lord, you seem to have lost your mind. Do you even know who I am?”
“In a situation where survival is on the line, status is meaningless.”
Trying to bring up rank, authority, or etiquette with Kaiden right now was pointless. And honestly, I understood him.
When survival is threatened, there are times when social rules have to be broken.
Go through that enough times, and concepts like status and class lose all meaning.
Rujeff, who had been quietly reading the room, stepped in to mediate while siding with us.
“I also nearly died. Your Highness should have seen it. Those anacondas were truly—”
His face turned deathly pale as he recalled it, shuddering again.
“What’s certain is that none of us would have survived without Margaret. It seems everyone here went through similar ordeals, so suspecting one another is pointless. I’m not asking for opinions, so don’t bother arguing.”
Enoch delivered his conclusion calmly, but with such force that no one dared contradict him.
“Yes… well, that’s true. We almost died as well. We were attacked by spider-shaped monsters.”
This time, Yuanna—who had been quietly observing with Diego—spoke up.
“Anyway, everyone is just making guesses based on circumstances. We haven’t narrowed down a culprit at all. We don’t even know if there is a culprit, or if we’ve all been caught up in some kind of incident. As His Highness says, suspecting one another seems meaningless.”
At Yuanna’s words, Asdal glanced around before finally closing his mouth.
It was still astonishing how easily she shut him up.
“So instead of questioning how each of us survived, wouldn’t it be better to discuss how to escape this island?”
Oh. That was impressively logical and persuasive. She was far more rational than I’d expected.
More importantly, she had zero interest in the male leads and was focused solely on survival—which I appreciated.
Then Kaiden spoke.
“This is also just a hypothesis, but I think there may be an escape gate on the island. Warping consumes a significant amount of mana. If this island exists in a different time-space, and we all expended a large amount of mana because of that, it would explain why none of us can use mana right now.”
“Waking up suddenly in a place like this is suspicious too… It feels like we were warped. If not, then there must be something like an escape gate. That’s why I plan to search the entire island.”
He’d said something similar when I first met him. Now his hypothesis was more detailed, more refined.
Stroking his chin, Kaiden continued thoughtfully.
“Given the presence of monsters, this island clearly isn’t devoid of mana. Yet none of us can use it—that’s unnatural. Circumstantially, a warp is the only explanation. It feels like someone warped us here and then artificially blocked mana output… though I don’t know why.”
“A warp through a gate… That’s the most plausible theory I’ve heard so far.”
Diego, who had been listening quietly, lent weight to Kaiden’s idea—but Enoch immediately countered.
“But if we were warped through a gate, how do you explain the key the Saintess found?”
At that, everyone’s gaze turned to Yuanna.
“Even if the key says ‘Exit Key,’ can we really be certain it opens a door that leads off this island?”
At my question, Yuanna nodded.
“That’s why we need to search the entire island. We have to figure out what this key actually does.”
A headache throbbed at my temples. Pressing my fingers against them, I asked her,
“Couldn’t it be a trap? If someone abducted us with intent and purpose, that key could be bait.”
“A trap for what purpose?”
“That, I don’t know. But I think we should always consider the possibility and stay cautious.”
“Hmm. That’s true. The more I see of you, the more I want you. Are you really not interested in becoming my subordinate?”
Yuanna said it with a smile, but the emphasis on “subordinate” made it clear she wasn’t entirely joking.
“I have no intention of becoming your subordinate, so shut up—unless you want to be tied up with ropes again.”
Yuanna burst into laughter, clearly delighted. Why does she like being told to shut up if she doesn’t want to be tied up?
I take back what I said about liking her. No matter how I look at it, she’s the female version of Kaiden.
If this were the Empire, she probably wouldn’t be throwing around words like “subordinate” or “attendant” toward me.
It was obvious that everyone—including me—was slowly losing their grip on social norms and order.
“Escaping doesn’t necessarily mean finding a gate or a door that fits the key,” Enoch said then.
“We could send a distress signal. Or build a ship and leave ourselves.”
“Build a ship? Us? Without magic?”
Kaiden shot back incredulously. Enoch merely raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
“Everyone seems fixated on options one and two, so I was simply offering an example. Given enough time, there’s little that can’t be done on an island where there’s nothing else to do.”
“That’s true. The options are so broad that it’s hard to narrow anything down.”
Resting my chin on my hand, I thought deeply.
Come to think of it, the key wasn’t the only issue. We also needed to understand why modern objects existed here at all.
“Right—those artifacts Lady Margaret found. They were incredibly strange items I’ve never seen in the Empire. Why would things like that be on this island?”
As if reading my thoughts, Yuanna brought up the modern items I’d found.
I pulled out the flare from my pocket.
“I don’t know why these items exist either. But there’s an engraving here that says ‘Alea.’ My guess is that this Alea might be the culprit.”
“Alea? Does anyone know who Alea is?”
Yuanna scanned the group, but everyone exchanged puzzled looks and remained silent.
Asdal chimed in eagerly.
“Perhaps it’s the person who built this cabin. The number of mysteries just keeps growing.”
The more we talked, the deeper the fog became. It felt like we were sinking into a swamp with no way out.
Then Asdal turned to Enoch and asked,
“Hey, Half-Emperor. If this wasn’t done out of personal grudge… could it be related to the Battle of Romalizan?”
