TRIML 64

Chapter 64

I suddenly came to my senses, looked around, and changed the subject.

“Were you on your way to the cabin?”

Kaiden, who had been staring at me, ran a hand through his hair awkwardly and let out a sigh.

“Yeah. But I need to know where we are first. I’m roughly estimating our position based on the cliffs and moving that way, but…”

“How long was I asleep?”

“When I woke up, it was already midday. You were sleeping so deeply that I didn’t wake you.”

At Kaiden’s words, I forced myself to forget what had just happened. Then I resumed walking with him.

“You did the right thing. It’s a shame, though—if I’d had my bag, it would’ve been easier to pinpoint our location.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I drew a map of the island. It was in the bag I was carrying.”

No point talking about something we’d never find anyway. There were still bombs left at the cabin, but losing the flare gun was what really hurt.

“It would’ve been nice if we had the flare gun. If we’d fired it into the sky, the cabin would’ve seen it for sure, right?”

When I muttered that, Kaiden sighed as if to say there was nothing we could do about what was already lost.

The cliff we assumed we had fallen from was the largest and tallest in the area, visible even from far away.

I crouched down and drew our route on the ground.

“Kaiden, let’s think this through. If we assume the distance from here to that cliff is five kilometers…”

Kaiden sat down beside me and quietly watched as I scribbled calculations on the dirt.

“What’s a kilometer?”

‘Damn it, different units of measurement.’

I desperately rummaged through Margaret’s memories, but she had never been interested in math.

With a sigh, I glossed over the explanation and continued.

“I’m saying we should calculate the distance and time from here to there. That cliff might not even be the one we fell from. If we drifted a long way while unconscious, we might have to go back to the original spot.”

“So you want to move efficiently. I get it. I thought about it too—we walked about three thousand steps from the river to here. Since I was carrying you, it probably took around thirty minutes.”

I watched him calculate time and distance.

“We’ll need to recalculate the time it takes to go back.”

Kaiden began carefully counting time on the dirt with his finger.

“If that cliff isn’t the one we fell from, it’ll take at least two days—maybe more—to get back to the cabin.”

“And if it is the right cliff, then one day should be enough, right? In that case, we should secure at least a day’s worth of food first.”

At my words, he nodded, brushed the dirt from his hands, and stood up.

“For now, we need to find a place to sleep.”

Kaiden said this while looking at the sinking sun. I followed his gaze up to the sky.

“Enoch will be worried.”

This had happened before. When I disappeared, Enoch had searched for me all night.

This time wouldn’t be any different.

Having completely erased his distrust toward me, Enoch was always openly affectionate, never confusing in his intentions.

—

“I don’t think I can live on this island without you.”

“So, Margaret, I need you. Please stay by my side. Don’t leave.”

—

I recalled the words Enoch had once said to me.

He was truly like a puppy anxious when separated from its owner—so restless without me that he couldn’t think straight.

“We need to hurry back. Enoch is waiting.”

I was walking absentmindedly behind Kaiden when—

“Margaret.”

Kaiden called my name in a low voice.

“Do you like the Crown Prince more, or me?”

There was an unmistakable note of jealousy in his tone, which made me pause.

“Why would you ask that?”

“I’m just curious. Come on, answer.”

He even stopped walking and pressed me for an answer.

“I like Rujef.”

I deliberately mentioned a name that wasn’t even part of the choices, using a playful tone. It was obviously meant as a joke, but—

“That bastard. I never liked him from the start.”

Kaiden took it seriously. Worse, he was genuinely angry. I stared at him, flustered.

As if unaware of my confusion, Kaiden grabbed my shoulders and asked again, dead serious.

“What do you like about him? Tell me, Margaret.”

His beautiful face was twisted with hostility.

I stared blankly at his terrifyingly red eyes, burning like fire.

“Wow… I really can’t joke around with you, can I?”

“What?”

Kaiden twitched an eyebrow, not understanding me at all. I shook my head.

“My fault. I shouldn’t joke like that anymore.”

He still looked utterly confused. Seeing him about to bring up Rujef again, I forcibly changed the subject.

“Should we really head for the cliff? There might be a shortcut.”

Kaiden stared at me for a moment, then ran a hand through his hair and looked away.

“No, the cliff is better. If we start looking for other routes, there are too many variables. And we might find your bag at the top of the cliff.”

I sighed along with him.

“We’re basically stragglers now.”

The sky was already growing dark.

“Damn it.”

Kaiden cursed again.

First, we decided to find a place to spend the night. Fortunately, it didn’t take long.

There was a space beneath the massive roots of a tree where we could hide our bodies, and we decided to stay there for the night.

It looked very similar to the place where Rujef had hidden us after we were knocked out by anaconda poison gas.

“There are a lot of places like this in this forest. Where we used to stay, the roots didn’t stick out like this.”

I muttered while setting up bedding with branches and fallen leaves.

Kaiden, who was helping beside me, chimed in.

“Yeah. It really does feel like each area has its own characteristics.”

“Huh…?”

At his words, puzzle pieces began snapping together in my mind.

Near the cave where we first stayed, only wolf-type monsters appeared.

Then there were anaconda-type monsters, and near the cabin, tarantula-type monsters.

Was this really just a coincidence?

“It’s almost like someone deliberately set it up that way.”

The name Alea kept circling in my head.

“Are we being trapped here and experimented on or something?”

At the word “experiment,” Kaiden reacted sharply.

“We don’t know that yet. The only clue we have is ‘Alea.’”

“That damn Alea. If I ever see them…”

Kaiden ground his teeth.

Still, it wasn’t certain this was Alea’s doing. It was all speculation.

And since I was supposed to be dead in the original story but wasn’t, who knew what variables had been introduced.

‘A lot has already changed, but whatever. I need to survive too.’

According to the original story, if we survived for one year, we could escape the island. The problem was, we still didn’t even know where the escape gate would appear.

If Yuanna’s key worked, we might not have to wait an entire year.

“But didn’t you notice? In the wolf-monster territory, we saw an orangutan monster.”

At my comment, Kaiden tilted his head.

“Yeah. Maybe it was a mutation? I don’t think I’ve seen any others like it.”

I turned to him with a serious expression and proposed a new theory.

“If monster habitats were originally separated, but their evolution is breaking those boundaries, that would explain it.”

“Or it could still be your earlier theory—there are defined habitats, but someone is deliberately manipulating them.”

“Either way, that orangutan definitely seemed intelligent. Like it was actively searching for people.”

I shivered, recalling how it had stopped right in front of the rock crevice where we were hiding, as if it knew we were there.

Just then, my stomach growled loudly.

‘I need to eat something.’

After a moment of thought, I sharpened a stick with Kaiden’s dagger. He looked at me in confusion.

“Huh? What are you doing?”

“Preparing to hunt.”

“At night? Are you crazy?”

“I know it’s insane. But we haven’t eaten since yesterday. If we don’t secure some food now, it’ll be harder to move tomorrow.”

Kaiden couldn’t argue and stood up. He began preparing for the hunt with me.

“It’d be better to make a fish trap. There’s a limit to spearing fish in the dark.”

“What’s a fish trap?”

“A tool for catching fish. I’ll make it—you help.”

He nodded and obediently helped me.

I chopped nearby bamboo into pieces, tore some into thin strips to make rope, and wove thicker pieces together to form a trap.

With the completed trap, Kaiden and I went to find a stream.

The sound of running water hadn’t been my imagination—we soon found a wide stream.

“We still need bait for the trap, so I guess we’ll have to spear at least one fish.”

Luckily, the sky was completely clear that night.

With no trees blocking the sky, the moonlight illuminated the wide stream well enough to see.

‘If only we had a flashlight.’

Even so, without one, spearing fish wasn’t easy.

After about two hours—because fishing really is about persistence—I finally managed to catch a crucian carp for bait.

Kaiden, who’d had no luck at all, stared at the palm-sized fish in my hand in disbelief.

“That education they teach in the Flone ducal family… I kind of want to receive it too.”

I shrugged, cleaned the fish, and placed it inside the trap.

“I told you, I was a weirdo. Everyone has secrets they don’t want others to know.”

Kaiden finally nodded in understanding. The phrase “a secret I don’t want others to know” seemed to satisfy him.

“True. Who would’ve guessed that Lady Flone would be so well-versed in survival skills?”

I ignored whether it was a misunderstanding or not. As long as he accepted it, that was enough.

I stood up and gestured to him—we should head back.

When we returned to the place where we’d prepared to sleep, something familiar caught my eye.

Beneath the tree roots, softly gleaming, stood a silver-colored egg.