I'm Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 202

***

The island Anata had blown up with the pendant was a mess, partially flooded and crumbling here and there.

The South Island of Alea was relatively intact, but the North Island didn’t have much ground to walk on except around the cabin.

Jenas’s cabin was similarly unrecognizable, though the ‘door’ to it stood firmly in place.

A light breeze blew around the quiet door. A moment later, a flash of light emanated from within the door, and with a bang, it flew open.

A man stepped out of the open doorway, striding casually.

It was Jenas, the man who had taken Kayden’s body.

Behind him, people fell in a heap as if a sack of goods had been dropped.

Enoch, rolling on the ground with Margaret in his arms, quickly rose to his feet. He still had her shoulders wrapped in his arms.

The heavy air pressed down on them.

Alea is an island where time and space have been distorted for a thousand years. After one explosion, the distorted lines of space and time were returning to normal, but the air was different than outside, as if the effects of the millennium still lingered.

The mana inside their bodies felt heavy and weighed down, like soaked cotton. It seemed to take some time for the group to adjust to this sensation.

Margaret checked on Eunji, who was struggling to hang onto her shoulder. Thankfully, he was unharmed, but he was staring up at Jenas with an angry expression on his face, his tail slapping against the ground.

“Long time no see, huh? I missed you guys.”

Jenas spun around, stretching his arms wide to the left and right. In contrast to the chaos of the group, Jenas seemed relaxed, even smiling lazily.

Several of the Imperial knights who had managed to regain their senses drew their swords and charged at Jenas, but they didn’t make it far before they were sealed in a massive magic circle at their feet.

-thud.

A transparent barrier formed around the magic circle beneath their feet. The knights were banging on the walls of the circle and shouting, like animals in a cage.

Margaret blinked, dumbfounded by the shock of the scene.

Jenas is doing magic.

She’d suspected it since he activated the portal gate, but never thought it would happen.

“You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this moment. You have no idea. Now I can use magic at will.”

Jenas stomped his foot a couple of times, and a circle of magic began to form beneath everyone’s feet. Enoch, who had been knocked away from Margaret by the physical force of magic, was sealed in the magic circle next to her.

But he refused to give up, and even though he was trapped within the magic circle, he slashed his sword through the transparent barrier that stretched vertically to the sky. A yellow current flowed around the sword and the transparent barrier cracked like the breaking of waves, causing Jenas to raise an eyebrow and cast a glance in its direction.

“As expected, I can’t let my guard down.”

Jenas snapped his fingers, and the barrier began to double or triple around Enoch’s magic circle.

Similarly, Margaret, trapped inside the magic circle, pounded on the barrier and glared at Jenas.

Jenas, standing outside the magic circle, smirked at her. He slowly walked over to her.

Seeing him, Margaret quickly pulled her flare gun from her pocket and aimed it at him.

“It won’t work. I’ve regained my power. And you’re going to attack me with a bullet I made? How ingenious.”

Margaret’s jaw clenched and she glared at him. Her eyes, the color of the sea, filled with hatred and anger for him.

Jenas watched Margaret’s face contort into a mess and felt the satisfaction of having subdued her.

“Wait here. There’s something I need to find. Once I find it, I’ll let you out. Now get on with the plan.”

But Margaret did not obey.

She spoke to him, her voice firm. Not at him, to be precise, but at Kayden.

“Kayden. I know you’re there.”

“…….”

“What happened to your ambition to take revenge on House Rohade?”

Jenas crossed his arms and watched Margaret as she did so. As if to say, “Let me hear what you have to say.”

The group, who had been working to unseal the magic circle, stopped and looked at Margaret and Jenas.

“……Is it because of me?”

Margaret’s mouth twisted. The hand that was aiming the flare gun at Jenas was trembling slightly, an indication that she was emotionally agitated.

Jenas recognized the slight fluctuation in Kayden’s aura within him.

Even so, there was nothing he could do about it now.

Because I’m bound by a damn soul-binding contract, but that’s okay. No problem.  If Kayden goes into suspended animation, there is no need to worry about the contract.

Besides, with Jenas now having magical power, all he had to do was say the initiation spell to bring Kayden back to suspended animation.

At that moment, he heard Margaret’s voice once more.

“If that’s not what you want, if what you want is to just disappear like this…….”

Margaret’s face contorted in pain. She looked at Jenas with a thoughtful expression, then continued.

“I’ll be with you even on that path. But for now, just come back.”

But the miracle of Kayden breaking free of Jenas’ grip didn’t happen. Jenas shrugged his shoulders and smiled wickedly.

Margaret tightened her grip on the flare gun. An ominous feeling of foreboding ran through her body. What if Kayden doesn’t wake up at this rate?

Slowly, Margaret lowered her gaze to stare at Arthdal’s magic ring on her finger. If they were to realize their plan, Kayden had to be conscious.

‘What if I cross the dimension, and Yuanna can’t save Kayden when she closes the rift?’

What if Jenas takes over Kayden’s body forever-

Margaret squeezed her eyes shut in horror at the thought.

‘Please wake up.’

***

An odd, desolate darkness enveloped Kayden, and he lay curled up in a ball in the darkness.

The murmuring noises from outside his body didn’t reach his ears.

Would he really go into hibernation at this rate?

No matter how much he thought about it, he doubted he could subdue Jenas completely.

I miss you, Margaret.

It had only been a day, but it felt like years since he’d seen her.

“Kayden. I know you’re there.”

“What happened to your ambition to take revenge on House Rohade?”

And then he heard Margaret’s voice.

Kayden’s eyebrows twitched in the darkness.

“……Is it because of me?”

She asked.

Not to say Margaret hadn’t had an influence, but ultimately, it was his own problem.

It was true that it was his own will that kept him from waking up. He hadn’t found a way to defeat Jenas.

Then, suddenly, it hit him. He thought about the defeat that had always been a part of his life, the fact that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake off the shackles of Rohade.

He was called the genius of the century, but he was no match for Jenas, a wizard even greater than him. The more he racked his brain for a plan, the more helpless he felt. Kayden could not defeat Jenas through sheer strength alone.

Margaret’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“If that’s not what you want, if what you want is to just disappear like this…….”

She continued to speak to him.

“I’ll be with you even on that path. But for now, just come back.”

‘Just disappear like this’ is the same as saying that you’re going to die.

But Margaret says she’ll be with him even on that path.

At her last words, Kayden opened his eyes in silence, though he had never thought of dying in the first place. A faint ripple formed in the still darkness.

Kayden slowly raised himself to his feet.

‘Margaret will die with me?’

He knows that doesn’t mean she likes him as a person. The Margaret he knew wouldn’t have meant it that way.

But it is what it is.

There was one person in his life who gave him that kind of unconditional love, and that alone made his life worth living.

His eyes burned. A lump in his throat, an unquenchable thirst.

The aura around him began to shift as his calm emotions stirred violently.

Jenas was the first to recognize the anomaly.

[I suppose you’re thinking of waking up now?]

Kayden didn’t answer.

[But, my descendant, I told you, it’s too late.]

Jenas was unfazed. He had the ease of a predator who had gained the upper hand in the hunt.

The menace in his voice carried a different weight. The seemingly insurmountable magical power of Jenas pressed down on Kayden.

But the desolate darkness surrounding Kayden was slowly dissipating, like a veil being lifted.

A tiny spark ignited in the wick of what he thought was dead.

It was desire.

A desire to push his inner limits.

Wasn’t his life worth living? Now that he had met the brilliant light of Margaret.

So he really did want to live. He just hadn’t gotten to enjoy it yet.

To do that, he had to somehow break down that great wall of Jenas.

Kayden gritted his teeth; the air around him was changing. It was changing the wavelength of the magical power Jenas had seized.

“Too late you say?”

Could my power not surpass Jenas’s?

Really?

……No.

Funnily enough, Kayden had never faced Jenas with all his strength, all his passion, all his soul.

Kayden suppressed his laughter and muttered, “No, I’ve never really gotten off to a good start.”