I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Side Story 5

So Enoch was even more perplexed. A woman who was obsessively fixated on him.

“Keep it a secret that you saw me,” Margaret said with a smile, lowering her veil.

The light that had been illuminating the surroundings vanished beneath the veil, plunging the area into darkness once more.

“Oh my gosh! It’s the Crown Prince!”

“Waaaah!”

At that moment, the crowd erupted in cheers. Although he held little sway in the noble society, to the people, he was a hero.

Enoch, the hero who ended the suffering of the people caused by the economic downturn and the continuous conscriptions. He brought peace to the nation by ending a long war. Loved and supported fervently by the people, that was Enoch.

With an annoyed expression, Enoch scanned the surroundings and noticed Baron Rockford staggering to his feet behind Margaret. The Baron soon picked up a mallet, the kind used in polo matches to strike the ball.

Startled by the cheers directed at Enoch, Margaret turned her back. By then, Baron Rockford had drawn near, lifting the mallet high. It looked as if he intended to strike Margaret.

Baron Rockford, unaware of Margaret’s identity, swung the mallet with a furious expression.

“This insolent wench dares to ignore who I am……!”

“What……!”

Before Margaret could even scream in surprise, Enoch wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his embrace, and caught the flying mallet with one hand.

Thud!

At the dull thud, Margaret’s eyes widened, but with her veil in place, no one could see her expression.

“How… how did you…!”

Baron Rockford stared at Enoch with a face gone pale. Enoch, who had precisely caught the mallet swung with tremendous speed and force, pulled it from the baron’s grip.

“Oof!”

Swoosh!

Baron Rockford, still holding onto the mallet, was effortlessly flung into one of the bridge’s support pillars and collapsed.

Margaret turned her head in shock towards the Baron. The strength was beyond comprehension.

Enoch emanated the immense presence of a knight commanding a battlefield.

The overwhelming pressure left Margaret breathless, but Enoch quickly softened his demeanor and looked at her. Even though he couldn’t see her face, he sensed her surprise.

“Well, well, look who we have here. My dear brother?”

It was then that Kayden made his appearance amidst the chaos.

With a swaggering gait, his wizard’s cloak fluttered dramatically. An earring glinted in his right ear, and his blood-red eyes gleamed with madness.

Enoch instantly recognized him as the Archmage Kayden Blake Rohade. It seemed Kayden had arrived long ago and had been watching the situation unfold before stepping in.

Kayden approached his brother, who was being helped up by the palace guards, and kicked him. The third son of the Rohade family, who had been struggling to stand, rolled on the ground again.

“Ah, what the… Damn it…!”

After kicking his brother in the stomach, Kayden pressed his foot firmly against his brother’s abdomen.

“Our family is really something. What a disgrace.”

With a slight movement of his fingers, Kayden bound his brother’s body tightly with ropes. He then began drawing a magic circle in the air.

The sight was astonishing, causing even those crossing the bridge under the guidance of the palace guards to stop and stare.

Drawing a magic circle in mid-air requires advanced skills. It’s not something just anyone can do, and even among Archmages, only a few can perform such magic.

Kayden did it effortlessly. As he completed the magic circle, a bluish light emanated, and he effortlessly lifted his brother by the scruff of the neck and tossed him into the circle.

“Aaaahhhh!”

His scream faded into the distance.

With a satisfied look, Kayden dusted off his hands and frowned at the onlookers.

“What are you looking at?”

“Where did you send him?”

A priest with aqua-colored hair, who had appeared out of nowhere, asked Kayden in a calm voice.

“What, a Ddakkari (slave of god) dares to speak to me?”

Before the enraged priest, Ruzef, could raise his voice, Kayden continued, cleaning his ears nonchalantly.

“I sent him somewhere in the snowfields. Told him to sober up and come back. He’s a wizard, so if he pulls himself together, he should find his way back. If he can’t, he doesn’t deserve to be a Rohade. If he lacks that capability, he might as well die.”

It was a pretty extreme line of thinking. Whether he knew it or not, Kayden didn’t seem to care as he turned to Margaret and looked at the broken wooden box on the ground, clearly surprised.

“What the hell? Who did this?”

“I did,” Margaret replied, causing Kayden to frown. The woman hiding her face behind a veil, the one who collided with him and didn’t apologize — she had a notorious personality.

“You just broke it? Are you a wizard?”

“No. Why?”

“There’s a protective spell on it that cannot be broken by an ordinary human’s mana. To break it without a magical formula requires an immense amount of mana, comparable to the Lord of the Tower.”

A curious expression crossed Arthdal’s face as he listened to Kayden’s explanation.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Margaret at Kayden’s words.

“I don’t know. By the way, I think someone named Encanto made this wooden box. Shouldn’t we go check that out first?”

Kayden’s face twisted into a grimace.

“So it’s that asshole.”

He muttered a curse under his breath and then turned to those watching him.

“I’m leaving. Gotta crush that rat.”

With a casual farewell, he dramatically swirled his cloak, and as it fluttered and obscured the view, he vanished without a trace.

People stared at the spot where Kayden had disappeared, as if in a trance, before slowly coming back to their senses.

Diego quickly assessed the surroundings and spoke to Enoch, “Your Highness, it’s time to move. We can’t control the crowd any longer.”

Suddenly, a woman approached them.

“May I help? I can divert their attention so you can slip away.”

Enoch recognized her as the new saint proclaimed by the Holy See. Though she had never officially appeared in public, he had seen her face through a projection sphere.

On Lanverson Bridge, Yuanna spread her arms wide, and a bright, white light began to form a spherical shape above her hands.

Seeing this, Ruzef clutched his neck. “Saintess! You can’t use holy power without permission……!”

“It’s fine. I can handle the scolding from the old men.”

Yuanna ignored Ruzef’s reprimands and exerted her holy power. A pristine light, imbued with a sense of sanctity just by looking at it, unfolded in the air like snowflakes.

“Wow!”

People exclaimed in admiration and excitement. It was a sight more beautiful than any other, like snowflowers blooming in the early summer night sky, an appetizer before the fireworks.

As people were mesmerized by the spectacle, Innis patted Margaret on the back.

“Let’s go now.”

“Uh, wait, Innis!”

Margaret was pulled away by Innis before she could even bid farewell to Enoch. They all scattered, each going their separate ways.

“It’s time.”

Watching them disperse, Arthdal brushed back his hair with a solemn expression. He strummed his lyre and looked back at Enoch.

“Banhwang, it was a pleasure. Now, I’ll return to my true calling and continue my song.”

Ignoring Enoch’s exasperated look, Arthdal waved cheerfully and left.

With everyone having gone their separate ways, Enoch gave a slight nod to the saint and the archbishop before preparing to leave the bridge.

Just then, the sound of fireworks echoed.

People stopped in their tracks and looked up at the sky. Enoch and Diego also halted, gazing upwards.

Underneath the Arden River Bridge, Kayden, who had been searching for a place where Encanto might be hiding, also paused to look up. Margaret and Arthdal did the same.

A slightly warm, stuffy breeze, the noisy commotion of a large crowd, the excited laughter from all directions, the gentle summer night breeze, and the brilliant fireworks painting the dark night sky.

It was a chaotic and dizzying encounter, but that night, everyone shared the same memory in one place.

And three years later,

They met again on Alea Island.

On that day, all those who had plotted treason were executed, except for two: the Empress, entangled with the Peony Blossom faction, and the youngest of the Rohade family, Maurice.

The Empress cut her losses and feigned ignorance, while the youngest Rohade claimed he had not been in the capital of Langridge but in an unknown snowy mountain at the time, using Kayden’s earlier banishment of him as an excuse.

***

As they all finished reminiscing and stared at each other with curious expressions, Yuanna spoke up. “Looking back, that lady was so obviously Lady Floné. How did we not recognize her?”

Ruzef, who was with Yuanna, agreed. “I thought I only saw the Crown Prince. Oh, I did see a wizard performing some amazing magic……!”

At that moment, Ruzef’s eyes met Kayden’s. Ruzef’s clear, gray eyes widened in recognition.

Ruzef pointed at him dramatically and turned red in the face. “So it was you, the scoundrel who called me a Ddakkari back then!”

Kayden nonchalantly picked his ear, pretending not to hear. “Did I? I vaguely remember a Ddakkari being there.”

Kayden’s obvious attempt to brush it off only fueled Ruzef’s anger further.

Quietly, Yuanna picked up a piece of venison, and Margaret cleared away the coconut bowls filled with water. At the same time, Ruzef threw one of the coconut bowls he was holding.

“Damn wizard!”

Watching Ruzef charge at Kayden, Margaret, Yuanna, and Enoch continued to eat calmly. Diego, flustered, tried to break up the fight, while Arthdal clapped and encouraged the brawl.

It was their 104th day of being stranded on Alea Island—a day that was proving to be a peaceful summer.

Side Story 1 <Complete>