I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Side Story 1

1. That Summer We-

104 days stranded on a remote island.

A record of one peaceful summer day.

Mmmm-mmm-

The cicadas chirped in the jungle bushes. It’s midday and the sun is so hot that I’m worried that my skin is burning.

In the middle of the dense forest, a large, two-story cabin stood firmly in place.

Behind the cabin, Diego was hard at work chopping firewood, and beside him, Arthdal carried a pile of firewood Diego had chopped to the front of the cabin.

As Arthdal set the firewood down in the clearing in front of the cabin, he tapped Margaret on the shoulder and looked over at her.

“Male strength!”

Arthdal pretended to wipe the sweat from his face and showed signs of difficulty. He looked as if he’d been chopping firewood.

“Did you call for me? Is there something you need me to do?” he asked, and when Diego appeared with an axe in hand, he turned white and hastily changed the subject.

“I was just talking about your strength, Sir Diego. You are so skilled at chopping firewood. I wonder if you were a woodcutter in your past life.”

Margaret and Yuanna glanced at Arthdal. Diego, who was holding the axe, looked at Arthdal with a puzzled expression on his face.

Enoch smirked as he stirred the embers. Margaret and Yuanna burst out laughing.

The crown prince of a nation was now a pity.

Ruzef sat idly on the log he was using as a chair, and Arthdal, perhaps out of embarrassment, went over to him and started an argument.

“Why is the Archbishop resting alone? How can you be so shameless?”

Ruzef glared at Arthdal. “I dug up some mushrooms.”

“Very good. You should have been a laborer, not a priest!”

Not sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

“If only you weren’t a crown prince…….”

Arthdal, who didn’t hear Ruzef muttering, turned away, and this time called out as he saw Kayden walking out of the forest.

“Where have you been all this time……!”

Arthdal shouted at Kayden, then shut his mouth again. Kayden held up a deer in his hand.

“Margaret! I did good, didn’t I?”

“Oh, my God!”

Kayden’s exclamation made Margaret, Yuanna, and Ruzef jump to their feet, pushing past Arthdal and rushing toward him.

Arthdal was pushed aside and fell pitifully like a heroine in a tragic novel.

Enoch, tending to the embers, spoke quietly, “The fire’s out, you go lie down over there.”

“Oh, no. I’m fine. Crown Prince of a nation that rose against the odds, that’s a pretty cool title. I’ll have to write a book when I escape.”

Enoch ignored Arthdal’s nonsense and stoked the fire.

Arthdal, who had been lying down for some time, rose to his feet when no one paid him any mind and began preparing the meal.

“I have hands, too. Don’t forget.”

Then he trotted around behind Margaret like a puppy,

“Don’t bother. Just sit down if you don’t have anything to do, that’s how you help.”

Told he was useless, he meekly sat down on the log chair.

While Arthdal sat there, the early dinner was coming together.

“Young lady, how do you do this? How do you do that? What about this? Oh my, do you know how to do this?”

Clinging tightly to Margaret’s side, Yuanna was firing off a barrage of questions about this and that. Kayden was trimming the venison, and Enoch was building a stone slab to roast the meat on.

The meal was in full swing. While Enoch was roasting the venison on the stone slab, Margaret began to make the bowls, this time with great effort.

As he watched, Arthdal spoke up. “You’ve changed so much. I remember my first impression of you in Hestia, when you were a wild dog. Do you remember? You followed the Banhwang and turned the Imperial Academy upside down.”

Margaret stared at him in disapproval. “Yes, I turned it upside down, but I didn’t act like a wild dog.”

“Okay. Not exactly a wild dog, but a mad dog?”

“That title is mine,” Kayden said, obviously proud of his title.

Margaret looked at Kayden and sighed.

“Why don’t you just call me a free spirit?”

At Margaret’s words, Ruzef retorted, picking at his venison.

“I thought you were a wild dog, too, when you first came to the Holy See. You grabbed me by the collar and told me to brew a love potion.”

Margaret fell silent, unable to refute the truth, and then Arthdal burst out laughing.

“I remember when you took off your shoes and asked Banhwang to put them on for you. I thought you were crazy when I saw that, but I never expected to see you like this.”

Margaret wiped her forehead as if she were breaking out in a cold sweat. She wasn’t really sweating, of course, but she looked at Enoch with a piercing look on her face.

Enoch didn’t say a word, just continued to cook the venison on the grill.

As the meat sizzled on the grill, Arthdal, chin propped up and staring into the flames, spoke, “Come to think of it, I always spent my summers in Langridge Empire. I really liked the fireworks festival.”

Yuanna swallowed her saliva as she looked at the venison.

“I’ve only been to one fireworks festival in Langridge.”

“Ah, I remember. The day you scattered snowflakes on Lanverson Bridge with your divine power.”

“Yes, that was the talk of the town.”

Arthdal chimed in, then turned to Margaret with a surprised look on his face.

“Did you watch it too, young lady? Or read about it in the newspaper?”

“……I was there.”

“On the Lanverson Bridge?”

“Yes.”

In response to Margaret’s answer, Kayden said, “I was there, too.”

This time Ruzef, “Huh? I was there with the Saintess, too. I saw His Highness Enoch and Sir Diego there, too…….”

Yuanna, who was ripping into her venison combatively, asked in surprise, “So we were all there?”

Everyone looked at each other in surprise.

“I know. It’s kind of weird that we were all in the same place on the same day,” Kayden muttered, and everyone recalled their own memories of the day.

Then Yuanna, who had been reminiscing, shook her head and looked back at Margaret.

“Wait. If Lady Floné was on the Lanverson Bridge…… were you the one who smashed the magic bomb?”

All eyes turned to Margaret. Margaret didn’t deny it.

“Damn it, yes. I saw you that day. Why did I remember that now, that you were the one with all that mana?”

Kayden sighed. The Love Potion incident that followed had been so intense that he’d erased the unknown woman on the Lanverson Bridge from his memory.

Ruzef and Arthdal chime in next.

“My God, that was you.”

“I had a vague idea, given the way she bombarded Banhwang with love.”

Arthdal shrugged, as if he’d seen it coming. But in truth, he was surprised.

The others nodded as if the puzzle had finally come together.

“I’ve never seen a woman smash a magic bomb with her foot. Even men aren’t that reckless.”

“Exactly, and didn’t she also jump off a bridge that time?”

“Yes, it was reckless, but when I think about it, young lady is the same as she was then. I don’t think much has changed.”

“What, Archbishop, does that mean I’m still a wild dog?”

“Hmm. I suppose so. Not a very noble nickname for a noble lady. Then let’s agree that you’re a tame dog for now, for I’ve never seen a noble lady catch a fish with a harpoon before.”

Arthdal offered a solution, and everyone laughed.

Enoch, who had been quietly listening to the conversation with Diego, also recalled the day’s events.

The fireworks festival was a little special for Enoch. It was the day that he began to see Margaret differently, even though he had always hated her.

As the conversation lulled and the silence settled, the seven stranded survivors turned to their thoughts.

To explain what Margaret had done, they had to go back to that day three years ago, the day of the fireworks festival.

***

Three years ago, in the early summer.

It was a noisy day, as is typical for a summer in Langridge, and the city was crowded with people for the annual fireworks festival.

On the day of the fireworks festival, Margaret was walking with her sister Innis on the promenade under the bridge over the Arden River in the center of the capital.

Suddenly, Margaret took off her uncomfortable fishnet shawl. The maid who was following quickly took the shawl from her.

“Would you like a fan?”

“Give it to me.”

Margaret held out her hand to the maid. The maid quickly handed her the fan.

Unfolding the fan, Margaret fanned herself vigorously. Even in the cool of the river, it was hard to escape the early summer heat.

“I knew it would be like this.”

Her older sister, Innis, scolded her. Young Margaret was immature, but Margaret herself would not admit it.

“Wear your hat properly. Do you realize I’m following you out here to keep an eye on you?”

Innis pressed the brim of her hat down deeply. Then she pulled down her veil, meticulously hiding her face.

It had been widely rumored that she had recently grabbed the hair of the young lady of the prestigious Duke of Lantz family. It had been a disgrace to House Floné.

The enraged Duke of Lantz came to visit Duke Floné, and a compromise was reached, with Margaret being banned from public life for the time being.

So if anyone saw her taking a leisurely stroll through the festival, she would be in trouble.

But Margaret was proud. And resentful.

“I have done nothing wrong. Lady Lantz insulted the Crown Prince, insolently. She called him dirty blood, and I’m sure she said it because she knew I liked the Crown Prince. Damn it, I should’ve beaten her up more. She’s such a lowlife, Innis.”

“You little punk. I thought you wanted to be the crown princess? Now that you’ve decided, you’ll have to manage your reputation.”

In fact, even if she didn’t become a crown princess, she would still need to manage her reputation because it was time to enter the marriage market.

After looking Margaret up and down with a nagging look, Innis shook her head.

“You’re still a long way from being educated.”

Of course, Margaret has impeccable manners. It’s just that she only uses them when it pleases her, so, yeah, not so perfect.

After a moment of silence, Innis spoke up.

“Margaret, it’s a low thing to do to someone you don’t like in such an obvious way.”

Margaret lifted her veil. Her bright blue eyes turned to Innis.

Innis lowered Margaret’s veil again.

“This sister will teach you the secret. How to tread gracefully and unnoticed. How to kill mice and birds without anyone noticing, not like you, who flaunt it.”

“As expected from the eldest daughter of House Floné, the proud of the family.”

Margaret clapped her hands in admiration.

It was awkward to be called family pride by a trouble maker, but Innis consoled herself that at least the trouble maker understood what ahe was saying.