I'm Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 146
No, I’ve never thought about them that specifically.
In fact, I consciously avoided them. Because I wanted to prioritize survival. I didn’t want anything to take precedence over survival and escape.
“That’s a hard question to answer, isn’t it?” said Yuanna with a look of understanding.
I nodded. On second thought, I guess I shouldn’t be thinking about it now.
I still believe in the suspension bridge effect[1]. After making it off the island, I don’t know if their hearts will be the same as they are now.
They hated me when I was in the Langridge Empire, so I’m a little scared. I’m afraid that if I go back, their feelings will change again.
It would break my heart if all their feelings were erased after escaping from the island. I had to get my act together now, to keep us all from falling apart.
Come to think of it, I was also curious about Yuanna’s feelings.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her open up about her story in any depth, partly because she and I haven’t had a lot of interaction.
“What about you?” I asked.
“Yes?”
“Have you ever had a crush on anyone, or do you still?”
Yuanna opened her eyes wide as if she hadn’t expected the same question to be directed at her.
“Uh……”
She trailed off, looking puzzled for a moment. It wasn’t the look of being caught with something to hide, but rather surprise at a genuinely unexpected question.
“No.”
She replied shortly afterward, so firmly that it was awkward for me to ask again.
I looked over at Kayden and Diego, who were still quarreling in the next tree. I thought Diego had a crush on Yuanna, but she doesn’t seem to have a clue.
I shook my head and decided to let it go. She said no, so whatever.
All that matters is survival.
I carefully looked around.
Enoch and Arthdal were in the tree on the other side, and Ruzef, who had not yet regained consciousness, was tied to a branch just above them.
We had to take turns sleeping in case of danger or attack, which is why we were in trees in pairs, and the team assignment coincidentally happened.
A wizard and a knight, a crown prince and a crown prince. Well, it’s a bit of a problem if Enoch and Kayden are together in the same group.
I glanced around, then back at Yuanna.
“Do you have any idea, what the Rohade siblings are trying to accomplish by opening the dimensional door?”
At my question, Yuanna’s brow furrowed, and she closed her eyes for a moment as she searched her memory. After a few moments of this, she answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
“I don’t know exactly, but what I do know is that it wasn’t just an experiment to satisfy the personal interests of Jenas and Anata. There seemed to be quite a few people involved.”
She frowned and shook her head in incomprehension. “Actually, I also still have a lot of questions. Before I turned back time, I didn’t have the energy to ask them, unfortunately.”
It was only then that I remembered her diary, where we all died and she was left alone, wanting to kill herself.
I wouldn’t dare say I understood what she was going through. So, I didn’t offer her any clumsy consolation. Instead, I asked her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes?”
Yuanna tilted her head in confusion.
I said in the calmest tone I could, “You’re the only one of us who remembers the past that we can’t, and I can’t imagine how hard it must be to keep those memories to yourself.”
“Ah……”
Yuanna was speechless for a moment. This was unlike her, who usually handled situations with a smile.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine……”
I hadn’t seen her look this flustered since I met her.
“Uh, so it’s okay……”
She stammered, repeating the same words over and over again.
At that moment, rain began to fall from the sky, drop by drop.
Yuanna’s eyes shook violently, her face clouding over. Just like the weather now.
I looked up at the sky. “It’s raining. In this weather, no one will hear if someone cries.”
Yuanna looked at me, her eyes wide. The tip of her nose turned red. Her brow furrowed and her face crumpled in agony.
-swaaash.
Soon it rained like a lie. Yuanna had her head down, and whether or not she was really in tears, I couldn’t tell.
She stayed like that for a long time. Until the rain stopped.
***
The clear weather after the storm was very hot, but this crazy island was still beautiful.
For a few days, we didn’t encounter any monsters. So now, instead of sleeping on the tree, we are resting under the tree after Kayden set up a barrier.
Fortunately, Arthdal had the ability to grasp the movements of monsters through his magical eyes, and he said there were very few around. It seems to be true that their numbers decreased noticeably when evolution was stopped.
It was late afternoon with the sun setting. We were now halfway to Jenas’ cabin. Since we had to go as far as the distance we had walked, we needed enough rest.
We didn’t forget to stay alert for the monsters and always put up barriers so that Jenas couldn’t determine our location through them.
We lit a campfire and sat around it, each of us lost in our own thoughts. A long silence ensued.
“No one seems to want to talk, and the atmosphere is getting heavy. If so, I’ll tell my story.”
Arthdal broke the silence. He scanned us, crossed his arms, and let out a self-deprecating laugh.
“Never in my life have I thought of myself as anything less than a noble person.”
It was a very arrogant statement, but Arthdal had every right to be; as a pureblood crown prince, he had grown up seeing only happy and beautiful things. Until he met his ex-wife.
“But since I came here, I’ve experienced many things for the first time in my life. Of course, so has everyone except Lady Floné.”
Arthdal winked at me. He continued, “It’s given me a lot to think about, and a bit of an epiphany, realizing that I’ve been nothing but a canary in a cage all this time.”
Canary is a bit of a stretch, but I knew I’d get in trouble if I argued back, so I listened meekly.
“I’m not a pessimist, but to be honest, I don’t think we’re all going to make it off this island alive.”
That’s not pessimism.
I also tried hard to ignore the assumption that we would all make it off the island together.
The atmosphere has become more gloomy than before for the words that started with concerns about the atmosphere becoming heavy.
Whether he realized it or not, Arthdal continued, “So, if each of you has any last words or requests to make to the one who succeeds in escaping, why don’t you do it now?”
It was as if he had been waiting all this time to say it.
It seems that he himself has something to say.
“Come on, don’t even try to say, ‘We can all escape, so don’t make that assumption.’ I mean, let’s be realistic. Sure, it would be great if we all got off this island, but ‘what if’ we don’t?”
“Okay, that’s good, I also have something to say.”
Unexpectedly, Kayden, the pickiest of us all, was the first to affirm Arthdal’s words. He stretched his arms behind his head and rested the back of his head on his clenched palms, smiling nonchalantly.
Perhaps everyone has something to say, not just Kayden.
“I’ll go first, then,” Arthdal said, “If I don’t escape, I want you to find Aberdeen Christine in the Hestia Kingdom. He’s my nephew. You don’t need to explain why. If you tell him I’m looking for him, he’ll guess why.”
Diego, hearing his words, questioned, “If he’s from the family of Viscount Christine……”
“That’s right, my distant nephew. There is no reliable successor in the royal family to succeed me.”
“Still, do you have nothing to say to your family?” Diego asked again, this time with a look of incomprehension on his face.
Arthdal shook his head without much thought. “No, sir. The royal family is driven by a cause, and they live for that cause.”
There was a moment of silence after Arthdal’s words, punctuated by the crackling of the campfire and the chirping of grasshoppers.
When the conversation started, I felt strange. Not just me, everyone would have.
Now we stood at the crossroads of surviving and escaping, or falling at the threshold of death.
“I… would like you to convey this to the Duke of Bilterheim: ‘You are always right. I respect you.’ That’s it,” said Diego.
No sooner had Diego finished speaking than Kayden raised a hand in an insincere gesture.
He said nonchalantly, “Pass my word to the Magic Tower that they can proceed as planned.”
“What plan?” I asked.
Kayden crossed his arms and smiled casually. “Before getting stuck here, I planned to destroy the Rohade family.”
Ah…… Given Kayden’s past, it wasn’t surprising that he’d been working on such a plan. After all, his antagonism toward the Rohade family was well known.
Yuanna, who had been waiting for our conversation to end, spoke up.
“It’s my turn, isn’t it? I don’t think anyone’s really waiting for news from me, but I’d like you to tell our great Holy Father: ‘I gave my life to destroy your experiment, and the result was your defeat. Oh, my God, you’ve raised a tiger.’“
Everyone turned to look at Yuanna. When our gazes focused on her, she smiled casually.
“Why?”
We all shook our heads at her innocent question.
Others don’t know, but I know that her soul is tied to this island, so her words hit me even harder.
However, Yuanna calmly turned her gaze to Enoch with a nonchalant face, for it was his turn to speak next.
When the attention was now on him, Enoch who had been silent all along had no choice but to open his mouth.
“If you break the news a little to my aide Ludvin, he’ll take care of the rest after that. And my last words are……”
His voice trailed off, and Enoch glanced at me sitting to his left.
“I’ll deliver them myself.”
[1] In case you forgot, the ‘suspension bridge effect’ is a term used to describe the phenomena of misattribution of arousal. Misattribution of arousal itself is a term in psychology that describes the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused. For example, when actually experiencing physiological responses related to fear, people mislabel those responses as romantic arousal.