I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Side Story 15

“Hey, who are you?” Margaret asked Kayden.

Margaret stood on the frozen beach, and Kayden looked at her with a somewhat troubled expression. He had inadvertently pulled her into his unconscious mind, but he hadn’t expected her to suffer from temporary amnesia as a result.

Of all things, her memory had reverted to before they met on the remote island.

“Margaret.”

“Who are you to call my name?”

Kayden looked momentarily choked up, then asked her in a tone full of discontent, “Didn’t you miss me?”

“What?”

“I missed you,” Kayden said.

Margaret didn’t reply. More accurately, even her usual sharp tongue couldn’t muster a response.

It was because he looked at her with an expression as if he might cry.

***

At that moment, Enoch also awoke, but neither Eunji nor Margaret was beside him. He quietly rose from where he was buried in the cold snow.

“What on earth is this…?”

It was a desolate winter landscape, filled with pristine white snow. The terrain was strangely familiar, with trees and bushes that were not unfamiliar. Everything resembled the jungle of the remote island from that time, except now it was covered in snow. This bizarre phenomenon reminded him that this wasn’t reality.

Suddenly, Enoch realized that the ring he was holding was also missing. At the edge of his vision, he noticed an empty box lying in the snow—the ring case he had brought to propose to Margaret. Hastily, he retrieved the cold box from the snow, but it was empty inside. The proposal ring that should have been there was gone.

“Damn it.”

He dug through the icy snow with his hands, but no matter how much he searched, the ring was nowhere to be found. His hands grew numb and frozen, but he didn’t give up. The ring held profound significance for Enoch, meaning beyond words. It was the kind of ring that…

Enoch was unaccustomed to losing something precious. He had never possessed such things before.

Enoch clenched his teeth, his hands trembling as they combed through the snow. Suddenly, he clenched his fist and stood up.

“Margaret first. Yes, Margaret first.”

He needed to pull himself together. Losing something precious should end with just the ring.

Grrr—

At that moment, he noticed the wolf-like monsters surrounding him. While he was distracted searching for the proposal ring, he had been encircled by them. Despite being unarmed and empty-handed, Enoch remained calm and composed, unlike when he was searching for the ring. He dodged the charging wolf-like creatures easily and grabbed the snout of the nearest one, slamming it into the ground, all the while thinking calmly.

“I think I know who you are.”

The one who created this illusion. The one who sent these monsters to Enoch. Veins bulged on Enoch’s forehead as he clenched the snout of the wolf monster.

Crack.

As he simultaneously crushed the heads of two charging wolves with tremendous strength, the veins on his arms bulged, turning red. He had exerted so much force that Enoch’s eyes were bloodshot. His eyes glinted menacingly as he stood covered in the monsters’ blood, suddenly letting out a low chuckle.

“Well, these monsters aren’t putting up much of a fight,” he remarked to the distant wolf that was watching him.

He spoke to the wolf watching him from afar.

“That’s troublesome, Lord.”

***

“Damn it, you monstrous…”

Inside his unconscious, the other persona of Kayden clicked his tongue in irritation. Just as Jenas had done in the past, he observed Enoch through the eyes of a monster. It seemed he couldn’t delay things for much longer. Even for Kayden, stopping a monster like Enoch was quite a challenge.

Meanwhile, Margaret walked along the snow-covered path, occasionally glancing up at him.

‘Why is he like that?’

The man had hair as radiant as moonlight and unsettling red eyes, and his shoulders were slumped. Somehow, he reminded her of a rabbit.

‘I’ve seen that face somewhere before…’

Then she remembered a wizard who had come to her estate a few days ago, causing a commotion, insisting she stop her love potion experiments.

‘Yes, that was definitely a few days ago.’

Only then did she realize the man was the archwizard, Kayden Blake Rohade.

“You seem to have remembered who I am,” Kayden observed.

Margaret glanced up at him, pondering for a moment. Until just a short while ago, she didn’t know who he was and had spoken to him without reservation. Now that she knew he was the archwizard, it was only proper to address him formally.

She quickly made up her mind and answered, “I remember now, Archwizard Kayden Blake Rohade. We met a few days ago, and here we are again, Lord.”

At her cheerful reply, Kayden furrowed his brow.

“Ah, I see. So your memory got erased and stopped there,” he noted.

“…What do you mean?” she asked.

“Don’t call me Lord, just call me Kayden.”

“Why should I?” Margaret retorted, now aware of Kayden’s identity. She had no intention of addressing him so casually as he suggested.

“Don’t be like that,” Kayden said, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Margaret remained unmoved, staring at him as if he were strange. It was clear her memory had reverted to the time when she only had eyes for Enoch and no one else.

Kayden couldn’t help but sigh. Whether it was her past or present self, there was always an insurmountable wall between them—the wall named Enoch.

Then Margaret asked him, “Do you know where we are, Lord?”

Kayden, having given up, answered, “We’re in my unconscious mind, and you guys got caught up in it.”

“You guys?” Margaret asked in confusion, prompting Kayden to quickly correct himself.

“I mean, just you. You got caught up in it.”

“How did I get caught up in this? I was at the Floné mansion the whole time,” Margaret said, trying to recall.

‘Just before waking up here, I remember drafting a proposal letter to the Crown Prince at the mansion. That’s strange.’

She had been half-listening to Innis and Rosemary scolding her for her obsession with Enoch, but… Was that not it? If not, what was I doing just before?

“…Well, I don’t know either. We’ll have to find a way from here,” Kayden replied, choosing not to tell her about her partial memory loss or how to escape. Mentioning it would inevitably lead to talking about Enoch.

Despair crossed Margaret’s face, and seeing that expression made Kayden’s heart ache unbearably. He realized that being alone with him here wasn’t a happy situation for the past version of Margaret.

While contemplating their relationship, Kayden suddenly spoke up.

“I’ve wondered what it would have been like if it had started with me.”

“What?”

“If the person you woke up with on that beach was me, would the outcome have been different?”

“Beach? Are you talking about when I woke up just now? What are you saying? Speak clearly, Lord.”

Margaret tilted her head, chiding him in a mix of informal and formal speech. The only memory of waking up on a beach she had was of the frozen shore she had just left, so her reaction was understandable.

Kayden gave a bitter smile. “Come to think of it, if it had been me, I would never have wanted to leave that island. I’d have wanted to hold you forever.”

Margaret stopped in her tracks. What the heck? Is this guy just a pervert?

As she entertained such thoughts, Kayden continued talking to himself, almost as if he were muttering.

“The real me is asleep, so my unconscious self can be active here.”

“So you’re saying you’re not Archwizard Kayden?” Margaret asked.

“I am Kayden, but not entirely. I’m one of the personas dormant inside, the kind that’ll vanish like a mirage when the main body awakens.”

He was speaking of dormant selves and other things she couldn’t comprehend, but his eyes looked so sad that Margaret couldn’t bring herself to ask more questions.

She couldn’t find any reason why she had suddenly entered his unconscious mind. Kayden himself didn’t know, so there was no way for her to understand either.

“If you don’t know the cause, that’s fine. Lord, do you not know how to get out of here either?”

Kayden remained silent, staring at her for a long time as if deep in thought before finally speaking. “It’s just the two of us here, Margaret.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. It’s like a remote island,” she replied, and it was freezing cold.

She was wearing a summer dress with a lot of exposure, making the situation even worse. It was unbearably cold, and she felt her fingers and exposed skin starting to freeze. The situation was becoming quite serious.

Kayden, observing her closely, took off his wizard’s cloak. He stretched out one arm to wrap it around her shoulders.

“Let’s share this,” he offered.

Kayden was so large that when he covered her with his shoulder, she ended up huddled close to him under the cloak. Margaret frowned for a moment and pushed his hand away, causing the cloak to fall to the ground.

“Don’t try anything funny,” she warned.

Kayden nonchalantly picked up the cloak and draped it back over her shoulders, flashing her a gentle smile. “I don’t mean anything by it. Your body temperature keeps dropping.”

He had a point. It was so cold that her body was shivering uncontrollably. Margaret pondered for a while, but as time passed, her fingers felt numb and unresponsive.

Enoch’s face kept flickering before her eyes. But on this remote island, there were only Kayden and Margaret. For survival, as Kayden said, she had no choice but to cooperate.

It’s for survival.

Finally, she nodded in agreement.

“I know a nearby cabin…” He seemed oddly excited as he spoke but suddenly swallowed his words. After a brief silence, he suggested, “There might be creatures like monsters there. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Kayden led Margaret to a large cave.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here.”

His words were cryptic. Margaret furrowed her brow at Kayden, who spoke in riddles. Ever since their first meeting, he had spoken nothing but incomprehensible words.

He was somehow different from the man who had come to her estate a few days ago, raising hell and demanding she stop funding the love potion research.

Something was unsettling about this, but the unfamiliar environment was frightening, the weather was extremely cold, he was a man of verified identity, and he was, at least, kind.

Margaret, half-believing, followed him into the cave.

“You said this is your unconscious mind. Can’t you control things like the weather here?”

Kayden hesitated for a moment, deep in thought, before finally answering. “No, I can’t.”

What’s with this lukewarm response?

“You’re useless,” she remarked.

“Yeah, I’m useless,” Kayden replied calmly, as if he had figured out how to deal with her.

Margaret felt a bit awkward after being so blunt.

Why do I feel guilty…?

Where did the arrogant and obnoxious man from a few days ago disappear to?

With a slightly softened demeanor, she sat with Kayden inside the cave, sharing the cloak and sitting close together.

Oddly enough, Kayden’s body was warm. Unconsciously, she moved closer to him, and he pulled her in tighter, saying, “If you’re cold, get closer.”