I'm Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 198

***

Yuanna stood on the shore, shading herself with her hands, and scanned her surroundings.

They had arrived on the southern coast of the Langridge Empire, but neither Jenas nor Diego, nor any Langridge troops, had been spotted.

“Not here?”

Yuanna tilted her head in question, and Arthdal pulled out a map.

“This is the right place. These are the coordinates that Sir Diego last sent.”

Arthdal glanced back and forth between the map and the shoreline, then back at Enoch, puzzled.

“But when will reinforcements arrive?”

Enoch had been studying Margaret’s complexion the entire time, then looked back at Arthdal.

“They say they’ll arrive sometime today, so we’ll have to wait.”

Then Margaret slowly walked toward the beach. Everyone looked at her in surprise as she pulled a flare gun from her pocket.

“Margaret?”

Yuanna called out to her, but she didn’t answer, instead opening the flare’s magazine and loading it with bullets.

“I’m trying to send a signal to Sir Diego,” Margaret said, smiling soullessly.

Yuanna gave her a worried look.

“What if that damn Jenas is nearby?”

“Then we’d be able to clean up the situation faster.”

They all fell silent, finally agreeing with Margaret. Then Margaret smiled, pulled down the flare gun’s charging lever, and aimed it at the sky.

She pulled the trigger, and red smoke shot up into the sky.

Seconds later, they watched it spread into a huge flame. Margaret turned back to them, waving the flare she was holding.

“This flare is finally doing what flares are supposed to do,” she said.

“……Reminds me of the first time I saw that flame on the island.”

Arthdal muttered with a wistful look on his face, and they all fell silent, as if remembering what happened back then. Arthdal spoke up again to lighten the mood.

“Reinforcements should be arriving within the day, which is good news. We should take a moment to clear our heads and come up with a plan. Let’s find that damn Jenas and the Archbishop, destroy the magic stone, and get back.”

“Very well. I hope we find that damn Jenas. I’m worried about our Archbishop.”

Yuanna gritted her teeth in agreement with Arthdal. They all had a lot of anger toward Jenas. In addition to all the hardships they had suffered on the island, Arthdal had lost one eye to Jenas, and Yuanna had nearly given her soul to the island, so it was no wonder.

Everyone said they wanted to kill Jenas with their own hands, and Margaret seemed to be no different.

“There doesn’t seem to be anywhere to sit,” Margaret muttered, looking troubled.

They looked around for a place to sit to make a plan, but there wasn’t one, so they decided to sit on the sand.

“If it were me, I’d never sit on this sand.”

“If it were the old me, I would never be sitting on the sand like this.”

Arthdal grumbled as he sat down on the sand, and even with that said, he was the first of the group to sit down.

Ever since they arrived, Arthdal had been talking nonstop, while Margaret’s face had remained somber, and Enoch hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her.

As she sat down next to Arthdal, Yuanna turned to Margaret.

“Is Eunji okay?”

Eunji, who was hanging on Margaret’s shoulder, looked up when he heard her call out to him. Margaret petted him and nodded.

“Oh yeah, he’s fine. It seems like every time he eats a magic stone, it gives him strength. He’s evolving.”

“Hmm. Evolution, that’s good news.”

Arthdal tapped Eunji’s head on Margaret’s shoulder with his hand, and Eunji made a pouty face and spewed a small fireball at him. Arthdal shuddered at the sight of it. Yuanna watched the scene for a moment, then turned to Enoch.

“So what are they going to do with that old man?”

Enoch, who had been sitting quietly with his arms folded, replied, “They say there will be a joint trial.”

The Joint Trial was a system created for cases that involved an entire continent. Or, more accurately, it was an institution created by the non-state institutions of the Wizards’ Association and the Holy See.

The location of the joint trial varies from year to year, or case to case. And this time, since the incident had occurred in the Empire of Langridge, it would be held in the Imperial Palace of Langridge.

“Presumably, all of the members of the Peony Blossom faction will be brought to trial, and with so many witnesses, they won’t be able to get away with it.”

In response to Enoch’s answer, Yuanna nodded and fell silent, and then silence fell again.

The atmosphere between Enoch and Margaret was strange. Or, more accurately, Margaret, who seemed to be lost in thought, and Enoch, who seemed to be too focused on her to care about anything else.

“Did you two have a fight and now I’m stuck here unawares?” Yuanna asked cautiously.

Margaret looked at Enoch in confusion. “We fought?”

Enoch tilted his head at an angle and looked at her with an unreadable expression. “We’ve never fought.”

“What’s with the vague answer?”

“Never mind,” Enoch replied, a little grimly, and turned away.

“Enoch, what’s with that response?” Margaret asked.

Enoch looked at her with a face of understanding. “You don’t have much to worry about, young lady. I’m just being considerate.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Enoch narrowed his eyes as Margaret continued her barrage of questions.

“Margaret.”

“Yes.”

“I’m just trying to learn to let go.”

Enoch didn’t seem inclined to offer any further explanation. He didn’t look particularly angry with Margaret, but rather relieved, as if he’d literally just gotten over something.

He went silent again, his face calm. Calm, or at least he appeared to be, though his mind might not have been.

Yuanna smiled awkwardly at them, then pulled something from her pocket.

“Now, attention, everyone. This is the journal of the Holy See’s experiments on dimensional rifts.”

***

On the day of the incident, at the back door of the kitchen at the Floné Castle.

In the dark corner, illuminated only by the castle’s torches, a sharp nervous battle raged.

Rinnehaon grabbed Margaret’s maid, Vanessa, by the neck and held a blade to her throat.

He turned to the man before him and warned, “Get out of the way.”

But the man stood still, unmoving.

The clouds scattered across the dusky night sky lifted, revealing a brilliant moonlight over the man’s head, which seemed holy and sacred.

It twisted Rinnehaon’s heart. The man was always like this, pretending he alone was a virtuous agent of God. Pretending to be the chosen one, the perfect priest.

Rinnehaon’s mouth twitched. He pulled the maid in his hand once more and brought the blade closer to her neck.

“Ruzef Cain Dieferde. I said get out of the way.”

“It’s no use, Rinnehaon.”

Ruzef glanced at Rinnehaon and Vanessa, his face impassive.

Physically, Rinnehaon couldn’t beat him. If Ruzef didn’t care so much about Vanessa, he could easily subdue Rinnehaon.

But Vanessa is Margaret’s favorite maid. He couldn’t let her die. Besides, Ruzef had noticed a suspicious pouch in Rinnehaon’s hand, and the stones he could see through it.

He must have stolen all the missing magic stones and was running away with them. He was going to do something with them, but Ruzef couldn’t tell exactly what.

“You can’t beat me anyway. Just like you always have been.”

The starry glow in Ruzef’s palm gradually grew in size, circling around his body widely.

Rinnehaon swallowed dryly as he watched Ruzef manifest his divine power. Cold sweat dripped from his palms.

As he had said, if there was to be an armed conflict, it would be Rinnehaon who would lose. How many times had he been beaten by Ruzef so far……!

‘Damn it, he said he’d open the portal gate on cue!’

Rinnehaon glanced around nervously. The Marquis of Rohade was supposed to open the portal gate if he sent a signal into the sky using a magic stone. He even sent the coordinates to this place beforehand.

‘Then why the hell……!’

Rinnehaon grabbed Vanessa by the scruff of the neck and quickly spun half a turn to the side. At the same time, a spear of sharp, pointed light pierced through his body.

A cold sweat ran down his back.

“You want this woman dead?”

Vanessa wept as Rinnehaon tightened his grip on the blade at her neck.

“Hic.”

Then Ruzef hesitated.

“I, uh, I’m fine. If I get in the way of what Miss Margaret is doing, I’ll die if I have to……. Ugh.”

“Shut up.”

Rinnehaon pressed the blade deeper, and Vanessa finally shut up, and Ruzef halted his pacing.

Just then, a huge magic circle began to rise from the floor where they stood. The Marquis of Rohade must have finally activated the portal gate.

Rinnehaon stood on the magic circle, holding the maid Vanessa hostage, and for the first time, a look of panic crossed Ruzef’s face.

Panic on Ruzef’s face. A thrill of pleasure shot through Rinnehaon’s body. He turned to him with a smug look on his face.

“Victory is not always achieved through brute force.”

The light from the magic circle formed a pillar of light that reached straight up to the ceiling. Rinnehaon had intended to escape through the portal gate, with Vanessa as his hostage.

Until Ruzef stepped onto the portal gate just before the magic circle finished activating.

“What, what, you……!”

This isn’t an agreed-upon situation with his group, so he’s at a disadvantage if he follows him alone. Nevertheless, Ruzef had no hesitation.

When the light that had taken over his vision was completely cleared, he could see the huge sandy beach and the unfamiliar middle-aged man waiting for them.

His silver hair slicked back neatly, his red eyes, and his appearance symbolized the Rohades. The middle-aged gentleman stroked his neatly trimmed beard and turned to Rinnehaon.

“Archbishop, who is this?”

His question caught Rinnehaon off guard, and Ruzef quickly snatched Vanessa from his hand.

But Rinnehaon stepped aside as if Vanessa didn’t matter and stood beside the Marquis of Rohade.

Vanessa was his hostage to help him teleport to the southern coast of Langridge where Marquis Rohade was. Now that his purpose was complete, he would have to kill her along with Ruzef.

“This is Archbishop Ruzef. He’s one of the survivors, so I suggest you kill him here, along with that maid.”

“What? How the hell do you do things? Why did they follow us here!”

Marquis Rohade, who heard Rinnehaon’s words, raised his voice in annoyance.

The sight of the two men made Ruzef tense.

Rinnehaon alone would be one thing, but facing the Marquis of Rohade, the head of the Wizards’ Association, all at once was quite a challenge, even for him. He had to steel himself.

Seeing Ruzef’s face tense with tension, Vanessa muttered despairingly.

“G-Give up on me and just run away, Archbishop. I, I’m useless to you……. a burden to Miss Margaret and to you.”

Ruzef’s gaze flicked to her.

‘Useless.’

A word that had haunted him constantly on the island.

And a word that had haunted him all the way to becoming Archbishop.

Rinnehaon had always thought that Rusev had gotten everything he had without effort, that he was born with it, and that he had the backing of his family.

“You are the pride of our family, so hang in there. Be the best you can be, I can’t see you falling behind the other priests.”

Ruzef was born and raised in the Deferde family, a family that has produced archbishops and popes for generations. And Count Deferde has been pushing Ruzef to follow in their footsteps.

As if his existence is worthless if he doesn’t become the best.

His head went cold. He felt his heart, which had been beating nervously in rhythm, slowly relax. The tension dissipated and his thought circuits began to function rationally.

Looking at Marquis Rohade drawing his magic circle and Rinnehaon poised to unleash his divine power, Ruzef spoke to Vanessa.

“No one is useless in this world. You are precious to Young Lady Floné; you are valuable to those who value you just by existing.”

Without looking back at Vanessa, he stretched his right hand out to his side. The meteor-like lights in his hand orbited, then swung wildly around his right arm, forming a sharp, long spear.

Ruzef swung the spear of pure white light once in his hand, then crouched down and assumed an attack stance.

He spoke quietly to Vanessa.

“Stay back. I’ll protect you.”