I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Side Story 22

***

Enoch looked around. Seeing Arthdal and Ruzef welcoming them back, it seemed they had returned to their original timeline. He relaxed with relief and finally let go of the tension. Eunji and Margaret, who were in his arms, also began to regain their senses and slowly got up.

“Lady Floné! Are you alright?” Ruzef urgently checked Margaret’s condition more urgently than anyone else.

Enoch, holding Eunji, watched Margaret, who blinked with a dazed expression.

“What’s so bad about being cheeky?”

“So don’t be swayed. You have to love yourself for life to be beautiful.”

Margaret’s words from earlier echoed in Enoch’s ears.

What if Enoch hadn’t proposed to Margaret at the magic tower?

What if they hadn’t fallen into Kayden’s subconscious?

What if they hadn’t visited the past?

Perhaps he would never have met young Margaret at the fireworks festival. She wouldn’t have reached out to him.

A myriad of emotions tangled and swept through his mind. Enoch never considered himself a sentimental person, but this could only be explained as fate. It made his heart tingle.

In the past, he was saved by young Margaret’s choice. Without her, Enoch might still have been wallowing in the mire alone. But young Margaret herself was changed by the present Enoch and Margaret. Margaret and Enoch together saved their younger selves. It was a life that could only be completed with the two of them.

He swallowed the emotions rising to his throat with difficulty. Covering his eyes with his hand and sighing, Arthdal spoke to him. “It seems our future emperor has had a wonderful time, hasn’t he?”

Looking up, Arthdal was looking down at Enoch with a meaningful expression.

“I found something interesting during that time,” Arthdal said, showing his pinky finger to Enoch. Enoch’s eyes widened.

“……?!”

He hurriedly searched his pocket. The ring box he found was empty.

“You might want to explain, Arthdal.”

“I told you I picked it up. But I’m sorry, this ring just won’t come off. Maybe we should just get married.”

“There’s always the option of cutting off the finger.”

“I sense a tyrant’s potential in you, Banhwang. You might want to reconsider. Perhaps confinement in the Holy See would be a better fate.”

Ruzef, who had been checking on Margaret, was startled and turned to Arthdal. “I never said I would confine the Lady!”

Enoch, his mood displeased, asked, “You mentioned taking Margaret to the Holy See?”

“…No, that was! That was…!” Ruzef couldn’t refute and glanced at Arthdal. Arthdal, with his head bowed, had shoulders shaking in laughter.

In the end, Ruzef exploded, throwing off his cloak.

“Damn it, you Biscuit!”

Margaret looked at Ruzef with a surprised face. Only Margaret and Eunji called Arthdal “biscuit.” Ruzef, who had heard Margaret explain that it was a type of snack, had intentionally mentioned it.

However, Arthdal didn’t mind at all and laughed heartily, further aggravating Ruzef.

After roughly concluding the matters at the tower, Enoch returned to Floné mansion. He finally relaxed after using soapy water to remove the ring from Arthdal’s finger. He dismissed Ruzef and Arthdal, entrusted Eunji to Rosemary, and carried the exhausted Margaret to her bedroom.

“Don’t push yourself. You can rest tomorrow if you’re tired,” Enoch said as he laid her on the bed.

Margaret looked up at him with a bewildered face. She couldn’t focus on Enoch’s words. He was too close in this intimate space.

“Tomorrow is an important day,” Margaret said.

As she said, tomorrow was a very important day for Enoch. It was the first festival where fireworks would be launched without magic in a world without magic. It was a leap into a new era and the rise of a new leader to lead that era.

Enoch, feeling a fresh sensation, pondered Margaret’s words. The day he first met her was also the day of a fireworks festival. Enoch could never forget the young Margaret who had reached out to him, crying in the garden. It was also the day he first fell for her, three years ago at that same fireworks festival.

“Innis will scold me for this, but I want to see with my own eyes. You look handsome again today. So dazzling.”

On Lanverson Bridge that day, Enoch despised her but found himself captivated by her. He denied this fact for a long time.

Langridge’s fireworks festival was a day filled with long memories and history for Enoch and Margaret.

“I’ll pray for tomorrow’s festival to end successfully.”

“…To whom?”

“To God… Hmm.”

Margaret suddenly closed her mouth as she spoke of God. After the Alea incident, everyone except Ruzef had become atheists. She must have remembered this fact after inadvertently mentioning God.

“Let’s pray to Kayden. He’s practically a god now.”

“Since when was a transcendental being a god?”

“That’s what they say. He’s the one closest to the heavens now.”

Enoch didn’t respond. If Kayden knew that Margaret thought of him as such a distant existence, he wouldn’t react well. But instead of saying that, Enoch chose different words.

“If that’s what you think, then so be it.”

He slowly bent over Margaret, who was lying on the bed. After leaving a kiss on her forehead, he bid her farewell.

“Then have sweet dreams tonight.”

Enoch’s affectionate whisper was filled with love. Margaret instinctively grabbed his hand as it moved away.

“Please wish me luck too.”

Enoch tilted his head in puzzlement. “I have to ignite the fireworks tomorrow. I need your prayers too.”

Margaret seemed to think her request was childish, as her earlobes turned red. Finding her irresistibly cute, Enoch chuckled.

“Oh, then what I did earlier wasn’t enough.”

“What did you…”

Before she could finish, Enoch gently kissed her forehead.

“This is how I wish you luck.” Then he tilted his head and pressed his lips to hers. Margaret’s body stiffened with tension.

Ha.

As their breaths intertwined, Enoch pressed deeper. Exploring her lips, he unfurled her clenched fist and entwined his fingers with hers. At the same time, her body relaxed.

Creak. The bed made uncomfortable noises as their breathing grew ragged.

Just when Margaret thought she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, their lips parted. Ha, ha. For a moment, they caught their breath and gazed deeply into each other’s eyes.

Enoch gently brushed his finger over Margaret’s moist lips and asked shamelessly with a sly face., “Is this enough? I can wish you even greater luck.”

Margaret’s face flushed. “What is this? This is pure fraud…!”

“Don’t you like it?” Enoch asked pleadingly.

Margaret couldn’t help but swallow her words. Enoch was pleading with her. Enoch, pleading for a kiss.

Margaret’s mind went blank. “What? That’s not…….”

“Then it’s fine.” Enoch smiled as he changed his expression.

Oh, this isn’t right.

This isn’t right…

Margaret was once again engulfed by Enoch, for a very long, deep, deep time.

***

On the morning of the fireworks festival, the Floné mansion was bustling with activity. The news had spread that the Saintess Yuanna from the Holy See was visiting before embarking on a long journey.

Innis was the one who greeted her, not Margaret. Yuanna had been busy managing her duties, so making time for Margaret was significant.

“Where is our Meg?” Yuanna asked, scanning the room.

“I’m sorry, Saintess,” Innis replied with an awkward smile. “She had a long night and hasn’t woken up yet. Could you wait a little longer?”

Yuanna’s face grew concerned, but then she noticed someone else—none other than Enoch, the Crown Prince.

“Young Lady, there are a few missing things in Margaret’s portrait that you were supposed to give me…”

Enoch, who was showing the portrait he was holding to Innis, belatedly recognized Yuanna.

“Margaret’s portrait? What do you mean?”

Before exchanging greetings, Yuanna reached out to Enoch with an intrigued expression. “Give that to me too.”

“No,” Enoch refused outright.

Yuanna then took out a notebook from her pocket. “Then I’ll trade you for this notebook that Margaret used on Alea Island. Let’s exchange.”

“Agreed.”

And so, a sacred exchange of Margaret’s possessions took place without any formal greetings.

Innis watched them with a somewhat exasperated expression, marveling at how the crown prince and the saintess were behaving.

‘I can’t believe these people are the future emperor and the saintess,’ Innis thought. ‘It seems they’ve forgotten they’re in our home.’

But unable to voice this, Innis could only sigh internally.