Chapter 88
I looked up at Kaiden, who was still standing by the door, after watching Diego and Yuanna pass by me.
He hadn’t looked all that great to begin with, but now he looked even worse.
Ruffling the back of his hair and narrowing his brows in irritation, he looked down at me and let out a sigh.
“Margaret, I’ve really had it today.”
He genuinely looked exhausted. Behind him came the sounds of Yuanna and Diego being greeted, the noisy clamor of their excitement filling the air.
Kaiden’s gaze slid briefly over my shoulder.
“I thought about just leaving those bastards behind, but I held back for your sake. So, you should give me some credit.”
Judging by the pitiful look in his eyes, his claim of being “exhausted” didn’t seem like an exaggeration.
He checked my face with concern.
“Did any of those weird red flowers bloom here? Are you alright?”
It didn’t seem like he was asking just about my health. He scrutinized me as if searching for any traces of something, grabbing my cheeks and turning my face this way and that.
I realized that the “weird red flower” he was talking about was tentationem. It seemed his group had found it as well.
Suddenly, my ankle itched, and I looked down. Enji, crawling across the floor, wrapped himself around my ankle and popped his head up to peek at me.
I smiled and bent down, lifting Enji onto my shoulder, then pointed at him and said,
“He ate all of it.”
At my words, Enji nodded proudly and snorted. Kaiden, who had been staring at him with a blank expression, visibly relaxed.
“So you’re not poisoned. That’s a relief.”
“Eh? I was poisoned, though.”
“What?”
Kaiden’s jaw dropped in shock at my words. I turned my shoulders boldly and laughed.
“Being tied up for a day was enough to recover.”
“T-Tied up?”
Was being “tied up” really that shocking? I asked Kaiden with a puzzled look.
“How about your side? Where did you find the flowers? What were the symptoms? Are you really alright now?”
“Oh, were you talking about the flowers?”
Yuanna, returning after greeting Asdal in the distance, asked me. I nodded and looked back and forth between her and Kaiden.
“Don’t even mention it. Diego and I were completely overwhelmed by the poisoning. At its worst, even tying us up didn’t help. Physical contact was the only thing that helped a bit, so Rod had a tough time.”
Yuanna’s words made me recall the original story where the protagonists went insane from being poisoned by tentationem.
“Physical contact with Kaiden…”
I became very curious about what kind of contact it had been, but neither of them seemed willing to explain and quickly moved past the topic.
“Hmm… are they hiding something?”
But as if unaware of my curiosity, Kaiden sighed and brought up another topic.
“The two of them kept going back and forth between being fine and being poisoned again, so I had a hell of a time. I’m naturally immune to all poisons, so I was fine.”
At some points, it felt like his swearing had been muted. Probably not just my imagination.
“That flower spreads quickly when it touches human body heat, increasing its numbers. Even without direct contact, it seems to gather by sensing a person’s energy.”
Hearing this, I realized just how much they must have struggled.
We at least had the cabin as a sort of barrier, but on their side, they would have been exposed in the wild with no protection.
“We didn’t inhale much of the pollen, so we were fine. Enji ate all the flowers around the cabin.”
I gently patted Yuanna’s shoulder with a sympathetic look.
“You went through a lot.”
“Let’s talk about the details when we’re all gathered together.”
She smiled slightly and returned to Diego and Asdal, who were gathered near the kitchen.
I turned back to Kaiden.
“You went through a lot too.”
I lifted my heels slightly to reach and stroked Kaiden’s head.
Kaiden opened his eyes wide and looked at me, then slowly squinted and smiled.
“Why?”
“Because I like doing this.”
Kaiden grabbed my wrist and lowered his head onto it.
“Do more.”
“What?”
“Stroke my head more, it feels good.”
Like a cat, Kaiden pressed his head against my hand with his eyes closed, enjoying it.
For some reason, his cheeks were slightly flushed, and he wore a contented smile.
I slowly stroked his head, feeling the soft silver hair slip through my palm. It tickled.
Then, a large hand reached out from behind me.
I glanced back and saw Enok, expressionless, messing with Kaiden’s hair on my behalf.
And roughly, too.
“Uh? Margaret, that hurts a bit.”
Kaiden frowned adorably, clueless about what was happening. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Puhaha!”
Kaiden shot up, noticing Enok, and froze in shock before expressing his anger.
“What are you doing?!”
Kaiden and Enok grabbed each other’s collars, glaring fiercely.
I had to step in to mediate them.
“Stop it.”
The moment I said that, both men released their grip. Enok clicked his tongue and smoothed the wrinkles in his shirt.
“Margaret.”
Kaiden immediately opened his arms like a child begging for affection, pressing his face into my shoulder.
His cheek rubbed mercilessly against the bare skin of my neck. He hugged me so tightly it was hard to breathe.
I exhaled a tired sigh in his embrace.
“Enok, do something about him…”
Before I could finish, Enok took Kaiden from me, as if he had been waiting, and tied him tightly to a wooden pillar in the middle of the room.
Seeing Ruzef, Asdal, and Diego all cooperate to tie him up made my heart ache.
‘Kaiden… how did you become a public enemy? Why did you live like this?’
Of course, Asdal probably just joined in because it looked fun.
Anyway, watching Kaiden become a “public enemy” was bittersweet.
“As soon as Lord came, things got noisy right away.”
Asdal muttered as he approached me, brushing his hands.
“Now that we roughly understand the situation, let’s proceed with the report.”
Enok, adjusting his sleeves, motioned for everyone to gather.
“Alright. Everyone, come together.”
Yuanna smiled sweetly and stood. We naturally formed a circle around Kaiden, who was tied up and gazing off into space.
With his strength, Kaiden could probably break free, but it seemed he didn’t want the cabin to collapse.
I laughed, watching him grumble while staying tied up.
“Earlier, I spoke briefly with Lady Flone, but on the way here we discovered a flower called tentationem.”
“What’s tentationem?”
Yuanna asked, and Asdal looked at me with curiosity. I answered him.
“It’s the red flower that bloomed in front of the cabin. You know, we and the bishop were poisoned by it for a while.”
Asdal nodded in understanding. I turned to Yuanna again.
“You mean this flower?”
“Yes.”
“But how did you know the flower’s name is tentationem? Do you know it?”
Yuanna glanced at Kaiden. Everyone’s eyes followed hers to him, tied up and lost in thought.
Kaiden finally noticed and looked startled.
“W-Why?”
Yuanna sighed and answered for him.
“It seems it’s a unique poisonous flower secretly experimented on and developed by the Rohade family.”
“What?!”
I shouted in surprise, but no one seemed to care—they all looked equally shocked at Yuanna.
This was new information to me.
Could it be that the Rohade Marquis family is somehow connected to this island?
If it was secretly developed, it shouldn’t have leaked outside, so having this flower on such a remote island seemed very suspicious.
Kaiden explained the nature of tentationem.
The flower induces mental disturbances like excitement and hallucinations, temporarily rendering a person uncontrollable.
“The bishop and I didn’t experience hallucinations,” I said.
Kaiden shrugged while still tied.
“If the symptoms aren’t severe, it just causes a strong desire for physical contact and arousal. The toxin naturally leaves the system over time. But in severe cases, hallucinations occur. Once the effects wear off, the convulsions subside, and enduring it until then is the key.”
Only then did I understand why the original novel, More Important Than Survival, was adult-rated. It must have been because of tentationem.
The original work likely didn’t mention Kaiden being poisoned because of this secret.
Being immune to poison, Kaiden was more often the helper than the one needing help.
“But why did the Rohade family develop such a flower? What was it meant for? And why is it on this island secretly developed by the Rohades?”
As I voiced my doubts, everyone’s gaze once again turned to Kaiden.
Since it wasn’t a favorable look, Kaiden seemed slightly uneasy.
But it was a question that had to be asked. I repeated it.
“Could it be that your family is connected to our kidnapping?”
Kaiden blinked slowly, apparently taken aback by my line of questioning.
