Chapter 50
I bent at the waist and carefully picked it up.
I’d thought it was pure white, but looking closer, it was an egg that shimmered silver.
“Is it a bird’s egg?”
“It could belong to a monster,”
Kaiden replied leisurely, resting the back of his head against his interlaced fingers.
“It would be best to put it down, just in case,”
Enoch muttered. I agreed.
“Then it might be dangerous, so we should leave it somewhere far from the cabin.”
Only after walking a good distance away from the cabin and setting the egg down did I return.
When I came back, the cabin had become noisy.
I went inside with Enoch and Kaiden, then froze in shock at the complete mess inside.
“What happened?”
I asked Rujef, who was closest.
Rujef turned to me, his face bright red. Struggling to hold back laughter, he said,
“Ah, it would be better if you stepped outside for a moment, my lady. Pfft—if you stay here, you’ll see something you shouldn’t.”
And then I saw him—Diego jumping down from the second floor wearing nothing but his underwear.
The moment he noticed me, he shrieked in surprise.
At the same time, large hands reached out from both sides and covered my eyes. Enoch and Kaiden.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing, Sir Diego?”
Enoch’s icy voice settled by my ear.
The loud clatter of someone running down the stairs, the crashing noises, and Kaiden’s mad laughter all mixed together into utter chaos.
“What happened?”
“It seems Sir Diego lost his clothes. He went to the nearby stream for a morning bath, and while bathing, his clothes disappeared. So he had no choice but to come all the way up here wearing only his underwear.”
“Ah, so that’s what it was.”
Unable to hold it in, I burst out laughing.
At that, the hands covering my eyes moved away, and my body was turned. Enoch had deliberately turned me so I couldn’t see Diego.
“Margaret, don’t tell me…”
At Enoch’s narrow-eyed stare, I broke into a grin.
“I stopped by the stream earlier too.”
Beside me, Kaiden slung an arm around my shoulders and asked, his voice still full of laughter,
“Was this your doing, Margaret?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Rujef asked, looking at me in confusion.
I glanced briefly at Rujef, then spotted a large, bare pair of apple-shaped hips behind him and quickly turned my head away. My eyes were ruined.
“You know, Sir Diego?”
Still facing Enoch, I raised my voice so Diego could hear.
“There’s a saying called karma—what you sow, you reap. That’s what it means. So why on earth were you throwing away your knightly spirit and stealing a woman’s dress like some pervert?”
“Y-you mean to say you stole my clothes, my lady?!”
“I didn’t steal them. I merely harvested what you sowed.”
I shamelessly made excuses and laughed brightly.
It went without saying that Enoch’s expression as he looked at me subtly changed—but it was just too fun to care.
“I was wrong.”
Diego’s voice followed. I reflexively tried to turn around, but Enoch’s firm grip on my shoulder prevented me from facing him.
“Don’t look. It’s unsightly.”
At Enoch’s words, I obediently nodded, while Kaiden clutched his stomach and laughed again.
“At the time, I wasn’t in my right mind. I kept replaying that day over and over, filled with remorse.”
On this island, it was impossible to stay sane. Still, my understanding only went that far.
“So what were you planning to do with my clothes after stealing them?”
“I intended to give them to the Saintess.”
To Yuanna?
“But the Saintess already has clothes. Perfectly good clothes—”
Then I suddenly recalled that Yuanna’s clothing situation had been even worse than mine. Still, that didn’t justify stealing someone else’s only outfit.
I fell silent, thinking for a moment, then asked again,
“Why didn’t you apologize right away?”
Without turning to face Diego, I crossed my arms and asked coolly.
“That is… it may sound like an excuse, but I was waiting for the right timing to apologize.”
Diego spoke earnestly.
I listened to his apology for a moment, weighing my decision. Should I accept it, or not?
In the end, I decided not to forgive him immediately. I resolved not to return his clothes until that afternoon.
Just then, the cabin door opened, and Yuanna and Asdal came in.
“What are you all doing? Oh my!”
Yuanna looked puzzled when she saw me, then screamed when she saw what was behind me. Along with Asdal’s shout, a second round of scolding descended upon Diego.
After being thoroughly chewed out by everyone, I finally told him where his clothes were around evening.
Diego’s clothes were under Asdal’s bed. Being a refined nobleman, he probably couldn’t bring himself to search under the Crown Prince’s bed.
“Margaret, you’re really fun.”
After the commotion ended, Kaiden tried to coax me into thinking of other ways to tease Diego.
“That’s a hassle.”
Teasing someone or getting revenge required a considerable investment of time and mental energy, so I flatly refused. Diego seemed to understand well enough too.
“What a shame.”
Kaiden smacked his lips in disappointment. Honestly, he never knows when to stop.
After dinner—mushroom porridge—we held a meeting to discuss our future plans.
We gathered around the fireplace. It was a rare sight to see high-ranking nobles sitting casually on the floor like this.
Those who initially cared about etiquette had now naturally adapted to the harsh environment. If more time passed, even their social ranks might become meaningless.
I only hoped everyone could keep their sanity until we escaped the island.
“Shall we begin?”
Lost in thought, I looked up at Enoch’s voice.
The meeting was led by Enoch, whose experience was tempered by countless cabinet meetings and tactical councils.
I expected Asdal to object, but he seemed uninterested in the meeting altogether, arms crossed, wearing a sly smile from start to finish.
Just like our side, their group didn’t seem particularly normal either.
“You really have no guesses at all about the key, Saintess?”
At Enoch’s sharp question, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up. Even under his pressure, Yuanna shook her head calmly.
“No. Other than the fact that it was by my pillow when I woke up, I don’t know anything either.”
Enoch looked at her with an impassive gaze.
Resting my chin on my hand, I watched the scene with a strange feeling.
Enoch was not the type to fall in love at first sight. Even in the original story, I remembered that he had been gradually drawn to Yuanna, slowly becoming captivated.
Perhaps he was in that process now.
Enoch, Kaiden, and Bishop Rujef had all once been hostile toward me and had only just begun to show goodwill.
I couldn’t forget that they might eventually become Yuanna’s people. I couldn’t let my guard down.
I closely observed the way Enoch looked at Yuanna.
But perhaps it still wasn’t time—no matter how much I watched, Enoch’s gaze toward Yuanna looked like…
“You don’t know the location of the escape gate either?”
Enoch pressed her again.
Ah, right.
It was like he was interrogating a criminal.
A criminal…
Was it really appropriate for a male lead to look at the female lead like that?
“You’re being too harsh with your questioning. You’re frightening the Saintess.”
Diego stepped in protectively. Yuanna, however, didn’t look frightened at all. Enoch tilted his head askew.
“Sir Diego.”
Enoch’s low voice sank heavily into the air like molten lead. His golden eyes glared at Diego with suffocating pressure.
In that stifling atmosphere, I was reminded anew that Enoch was the Crown Prince of the Empire—and a commander who had led wars to victory.
“The actions you’ve taken on this island—are you aware that they constitute grounds for responsibility as Captain of the Guard?”
Enoch asked, resting a finger against his temple. Diego pressed his lips shut, seemingly unable to respond.
Right. It would be strange if he did have something to say.
“When we return to the Empire, prepare yourself for a demotion.”
At Enoch’s words, Yuanna—who had been pressing her temples—looked up at him with a crooked smile.
“Isn’t demoting him just because he sided with me a bit excessive? It sounds like an abuse of power.”
I thought a mere demotion was actually a lenient punishment—but it seemed Yuanna thought otherwise.
More than anything, the relationship between Enoch and Yuanna was sharp and tense to the extreme—not even a hint of romance, more like rivals locked in a hostile standoff.
