I'm Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 203

***

No matter how long I waited, Kayden didn’t respond.

Jenas, who was glaring at me, shrugged.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Margaret. There’s nothing my descendant can do now but hibernate.”

I clamped my mouth shut and glared at Jenas. There was a moment of silence.

Enoch sat stiffly with his arms crossed within the sealed magic circle, glancing back and forth between Jenas and me, his posture uncharacteristically poor.

Yuanna was watching him, assessing the situation. I knew she was biding her time. We would wait for the moment when the magic circle would be unsealed and prepare to close the dimensional rift.

We had to close the rift, destroy the magic stones, and deal with Jenas. It would be better if Jenas had the remaining magic stones. We just need to deal with Jenas and that’s it.

Right. Coming to the island like this is also a good thing. It’s easier to figure out how to kill him in a limited area.

Even if the island had an automatic explosive device, Jenas wouldn’t blow it up if he was with us. We had to subdue him on the island.

I calmly scanned the surroundings.

Arthdal sat in a crouching position, watching our conversation intently, and the other knights stood ready to move at Enoch’s command at any moment.

I turned my head to look at Jenas again. Behind his back, I could see the remains of the collapsed cabin and the forest.

There wasn’t much ground to step on on the North Island. Perhaps it was because Anata had taken a direct hit when she broke the pendant’s seal, but it was still surprising that a hundred-meter radius around the cabin was relatively intact.

Now that I was doing this, I realized that I was back on Alea Island. Fxcking Alea Island.

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

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

What I said earlier wasn’t for nothing. Because that was all I could offer Kayden right now.

I turned to Jenas.

“You don’t know Kayden. The Kayden I know is capable of anything.”

Jenas’ brow furrowed as if he’d heard an unexpected answer. With a disapproving look, he opened his mouth to say something to me. But-

“What the hell?”

He suddenly faltered, dropping to one knee. He was clutching his heart and wincing as if he was fighting something inside of him.

“You insolent……!”

Jenas gritted his teeth. He spat a harsh groan between his teeth, and he coughed up blood. The feel of the wind around him changed.

A faint sense of anticipation rose within me at the sight. I glanced at Jenas, who lay precariously on the ground, near the edge of the barrier.

His head hung low and he didn’t move for a moment, and when he opened his eyes again, the air around him was completely different.

I stared at him, tense and unmoving, pulling the trigger of the flare gun I was holding down just in case, and hovering my finger over the trigger.

A cold breeze blew in, gently ruffling his silver hair. The man’s disheveled hair settled calmly over his forehead and his red eyes came into sharp focus.

His eyes widened in surprise as he stared at me, and then he called out to me in a hushed voice.

“……Margaret?”

I lowered the flare gun and pounded on the transparent barrier.

“Kayden!”

“Oh my God, Lord! You’re back!”

Arthdal and the others were surprised, too, and they came up close to the transparent barriers of the magic circle respectively to look at Kayden.

“What happened to Jenas? He’s not dead, judging by the fact that the magic circle hasn’t broken yet.”

Arthdal asked Kayden, but Kayden didn’t seem to have heard his question as he was staring at me.

Judging from what happened earlier, he took the opportunity when Jenas was caught off guard.

But now that Jenas had regained his power, there was no telling when his body might be taken over by him again.

Kayden walked over to me. I looked at him and breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad you’re alive. I’m glad, really. Glad……. I’m glad…….”

His words were muffled. Along with the sobs.

I roughly wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. He needs to know how anxious and worried I have been. He really needs to know that.

“I thought you went into hibernation.”

“I was going to, but……. I don’t know, damn it. I kept seeing your face and it was hard to do.”

Kayden replied, smiling weakly. I lifted my head and turned to face him.

“What’s going on right now, can you tell me?”

“I’m trying to figure out a way.”

“A way? What way?”

“I came out because there’s something I want to tell you. Don’t worry if Jenas comes back. Trust me.”

With that, Kayden tapped his finger against the transparent barrier of the magic circle between us.

“Hang in there.”

“If I wait a little longer, you’ll come back?”

“Yeah.”

It occurred to me that Jenas might be listening to our conversation from inside Kayden’s body.

“Then I’ll ask you a favor.”

“What is it?”

“When I give you the signal, cancel the soul-binding contract.”

“What? I can’t do that.”

“Trust me. Hang in there, too, you have to put up with being with Jenas for a while.”

Kayden narrowed his eyes at my words. I’d said exactly what he’d said earlier.

But I couldn’t say more in case Jenas heard me.

Part of me wanted to push him away right now, now that Kayden was in control of his body.

But Kayden clearly had other plans, and I decided to wait for them.

Kayden glanced at my face and asked, “Were you worried about me?”

“Of course I was worried.”

“Were you thinking about me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“……Huh?”

I blinked at the unexpected question and pondered it for a moment. I had no idea why he was saying it that way. I narrowed my eyes.

“Hey, you two, I can’t hear what you’re saying. Why don’t we all talk instead of just the two of you?”

“Oh, come on, don’t be such a jerk! Will you be quiet?”

At that moment, Arthdal could be heard grumbling in the distance, and Yuanna scolded him for it.

Kayden paid no attention to them, his gaze fixed solely on me. As if he couldn’t see anything else.

I want to know what he’s thinking, what he’s going to do, if he really has a plan.

I had a million questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask them. For now, I have to trust him.

Kayden looked at me with a face that said he didn’t really understand.

“Why did you think about me and worry about me, huh?”

He leaned in close, his red eyes sparkling with life.

I remembered something Kayden had said to me once, that he didn’t know what the concept of liking was. He’d also insisted that what he felt for me wasn’t love.

“Margaret, I’m not sure what this concept of liking you’re talking about is, and if you’re asking if it’s love, I don’t think it is.”

“I just miss you when you’re not around, I like to see your smile, I like to touch you, and I want you to look at me and only me.”

“I like touching you, and I like you touching me.”

“I’m sorry I kissed you without your permission. Would you hate me if I asked you to forgive me for that?”

When I think about it, we’ve all been bad at love. Myself, Enoch, Kayden, Yuanna, and everyone else on the island.

Kayden, especially, had never been loved, so he didn’t really know what it felt like.

But love is more complex and comes in many forms.

I know that the love Kayden wants from me is the same as what Enoch wants from me. But my love for Kayden takes a different form.

“Of course I’m worried and thinking about you. Because you’re important to me. Love doesn’t have to be a rational emotion.”

“If you mean in the dictionary sense, I get it. I like you as a man.”

Kayden replied, running a hand through his hair. He had a complicated look on his face. He looked like he had a lot of things he wanted to say but didn’t know where to start.

“I’ve been thinking a lot. In this body, a lot of the time, over and over again.”

“What have you been thinking about?”

“I thought that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t have anything, not even my life. And…….”

You too.

I’m pretty sure that was the shape of his mouth, but he whispered the words so softly I couldn’t be sure.

“But now I realize that it doesn’t matter, whether I love you as a man, as a friend. Or whether I love you as a person.”

Kayden moved slowly toward me.

“What really matters is that you love me in some form. And my life isn’t so bad anymore because I know someone loves me.”

He lowered his head in a heavy sigh as he looked at me with his soulful eyes. His forehead rested against the transparent barrier of the sealed magic circle.

“So thank you, Margaret. I’ll be right back.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a light breeze blew around us. Kayden didn’t panic, as if he’d seen this coming.

His face contorted sharply. As if enduring some kind of pain.

“Kayden!”

I shouted, pounding on the barrier, but Kayden didn’t look back at me. His legs gave out and he sank to the ground, coughing up blood once more.

An unusual wind swirled around the ground where Kayden lay, digging a deep crack into the earth. It soon grew into a powerful whirlwind, rising and falling, and I lost sight of him.

“Damn it, Kayden!”

It was a long time before the wind died down.

It was Jenas who stood in it, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with a casual smile.

“Ah, I let my guard down. If I hadn’t had that initiation spell, I could have been in trouble.”

Judging by what he’d just said, Jenas had just recited the ‘initiation spell’ that had put Kayden into suspended animation.

“You see, I don’t have a lot of mana, so even if I recite the initiation spell, it’s impossible for me to completely take over my descendant’s body, unless I recover my mana.”

I recalled what Jenas had said in the garden of Floné Castle.

He was now in possession of a considerable amount of mana. He must have absorbed all the remaining magic stones, because he had said earlier, “Now I can use magic at will.”

I clenched my fists nervously.

I hope Kayden can make it through this ordeal, if only for a moment while Yuanna closes the dimensional rift. As long as he doesn’t succumb to Jenas’s power and go into hibernation.

“It’s too late to do anything now, don’t worry. I told you, I’ll protect you.”

“Stop saying that shit. I don’t need your protection.”

Jenas laughed out loud at my insults. It’s like he’s loving the antics of his favorite pet.

“Oh, and by the way, how many magic stones did that snake eat?” Jenas asked, pointing to Eunji on my shoulder.

-kwaaaaah!

Eunji reacted fiercely, baring his teeth at Jenas.

“You’re cute when you’re cheeky. Makes me want to eat you.”

“What?”

“Just kidding. So how many did that snake eat?”

“You think I’m going to answer that?”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter.”

My words made Jenas’ mouth shut. The smile slowly faded from his face.

“I’m waiting. There’s something I’m looking for. After that, I’ll let you out. Let’s get on with the plan.”

With that, Jenas turned away without hesitation. He seemed to really have something to find on the island.

What could it be?