Chapter 24
My plan to hide and avoid the male leads completely fell apart. I’d already run into three male lead candidates.
Yeah—honestly, the plan had been doomed from the very start.
I tried to think about where it had gone wrong. No matter how I looked at it, meeting Enoch in the first place had been the mistake.
I should’ve run for my life the moment I opened my eyes on this island!
Of course, even if I’d hidden alone, it’s questionable whether I could’ve survived the monsters.
Well… it was all pointless thinking now.
Still, what on earth had Rujef been doing halfway up the mountain at sunset?
“Margaret!”
I carefully brought the flare down to the cave, and there I found Enoch standing at the entrance. Weapon in hand, he rushed over and pulled me into a tight embrace.
By the time I thought I might suffocate to death, he finally let go.
“I saw a strange magic circle in the sky. So you… I thought you…! Hah…”
Enoch’s voice was extremely agitated.
Because of that, I lost the timing to talk about Bishop Rujef.
“I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Even after my apology, Enoch didn’t respond, clearly still furious.
I wanted to ramble on with some half-baked excuses, but I was truly exhausted.
I nearly died. So please don’t be so angry.
I had so many things I wanted to say, but my legs gave out.
I knew it would happen. At this rate, I probably wouldn’t even be able to get up tomorrow and would be suffering from muscle pain instead.
In the end, I collapsed where I stood.
Enoch immediately scooped me up into his arms.
I’d lost count of how many times he’d carried me like this since coming to the island.
Wrapped against his solid, warm chest, a sense of relief rose in me without my realizing it.
If this were the Langrid Empire, it would’ve been completely unimaginable.
“…But why is the cave in such a mess?”
The cave was a disaster.
There hadn’t been much to begin with, but even so, the spears and coconut bowls we’d worked so hard to make were all smashed to pieces.
It was as if a storm had swept through the cave.
Or had a thief broken in?
“That’s…”
Enoch swept his gaze across the cave without blinking and replied briefly.
“It just happened.”
What kind of answer was that?
The only thing left intact in the cave was my sleeping area.
Enoch set me down on my portion of the makeshift bedding—a large leaf—and then knelt on one knee in front of me.
“Where’s Kaiden?”
“He went to look for you.”
Enoch answered curtly.
Knowing Kaiden had gone out searching for me in the dangerous night made me feel guilty and uneasy.
I’d caused trouble for them.
“I went hiking. I thought I’d be back quickly, but it’s been a while since I last climbed a mountain, so I must’ve lost track of time.”
I rattled off excuses.
But it was true. I really had planned to return before sunset.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
I nodded, but then frowned as a stinging pain shot through the soles of my feet.
Looks like the blisters had burst again.
Watching me quietly, Enoch grabbed my ankle.
His large hand wrapped around it in one motion, making me inexplicably tense.
He carefully removed my flat shoe.
There wasn’t just one blister—there were several. My feet were scraped and torn in many places.
Flat shoes really weren’t suitable for the wilderness.
Enoch stared at my ruined feet in silence.
After exposing my bare feet for a while, I grew embarrassed and cleared my throat.
At least it was fortunate that Enoch could handle seeing injuries like this.
“I ran straight down the mountain behind the cave. Monsters were chasing me. I’m lucky to be alive. Ha… ha, haha…”
The more I spoke, the worse Enoch’s expression became.
In the end, I trailed off and closed my mouth.
Enoch brought over a medicine kit and asked which bottle was the disinfectant. I explained the medicines I used most often.
When I finished, the uncomfortable silence returned.
It was unbearable.
Please—just get angry at me instead.
Enoch quietly applied disinfectant to my feet, then spread ointment over the wounds.
“Ah—! That hurts.”
“Endure it.”
He answered my whining firmly.
So he was angry.
He put bandages over the scraped wounds and gauze over the burst blisters.
After watching me do it a few times, he’d become skilled with the tools himself.
“Just get angry.”
I finally blurted it out.
Enoch lifted his head, still kneeling with my foot resting on his knee.
“I’m not angry.”
He lowered his gaze again and gently handled my foot.
It seemed unconscious on his part, but the sensation of his touch against my skin felt strangely intimate.
“Then why are you acting like this?”
“I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at myself.”
I frowned, unable to understand what he meant.
What was that supposed to mean?
“I should’ve made sure you could stay safe and comfortable without doing anything… but because I’m inadequate, you keep getting hurt—”
“No, wait a second, Enoch. What are you talking about?”
I cut him off in surprise.
He looked at me calmly, but his eyes seemed oddly desolate, which made my heart ache.
When we first met on this island, he’d been so harsh—so openly disdainful of me.
“I got hurt because I was careless. Why would that be your fault?”
Enoch listened quietly to my words.
“This time… it was my mistake. You don’t have any obligation to take responsibility for me.”
Was that it?
Did he think he’d be blamed once we returned to the Empire?
That actually makes some sense.
Thinking that, I nodded to myself.
“Thank you for worrying about me. But I don’t plan on living comfortably in the wilderness.”
Comfort could wait until after escaping the island.
If I let my guard down here, I’d die a pointless death in no time.
I couldn’t afford to die meaninglessly—twice.
“And instead of trying to protect me, worry about yourself first. Without me, you wouldn’t last a single day on this island.”
Of course, that wasn’t true—but I exaggerated on purpose.
Unexpectedly, Enoch agreed.
“That’s true. Without you, I couldn’t survive on this island.”
…Huh?
I stared at him, blinking in confusion.
Did I hear that right?
Or had Enoch eaten something strange today?
Seeing my expression, Enoch smiled.
“It’s surprising, but it’s true.”
His tone was slightly self-deprecating.
Ah. Is this because of his seizures?
That would make sense.
He must think that without me, no one could control his episodes.
But Yuanna exists.
Once she appears, many things might change.
My bare foot was still resting on Enoch’s knee.
I wanted to pull it back, but he was holding it, making the timing awkward.
“I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“…What?”
Enoch’s golden eyes settled calmly on me.
There wasn’t a hint of falsehood in them.
“Margaret. I can’t help but be conscious of you too.”
His low, deep voice was pleasant to listen to.
Maybe it sounded even better because we were inside the cave.
Wait… “too”?
That sounded like he was assuming it was obvious that I was conscious of him.
It seemed Enoch still believed that I liked him.
Understanding what he meant, I quickly thought things through.
So he meant he was aware of me in a romantic sense.
But why all of a sudden…?
Of course, I was human too. Living together, I’d grown fond of him.
The frequent physical contact had been unavoidable in life-or-death situations, so I never mistook it for something special.
Above all, he was gentlemanly and very kind.
So I had feelings only to that extent.
Nothing more—for now.
More than anything, I wanted to live.
That was all that mattered to me.
“I understand. Living together, it’s only natural to be conscious of each other.”
In the end, I deliberately answered like someone completely missing the point.
I had no intention of denying that Margaret had once liked him.
That, too, was part of the past I had to shoulder now.
Enoch looked at me with a troubled expression.
“Margaret, that’s not what I meant—”
“But Enoch, if you waste energy worrying about such trivial feelings, won’t it interfere with survival? Wouldn’t it be better to… restrain yourself a bit?”
I thought it was a fairly rational response.
This was a good answer, wasn’t it? A pretty solid one.
But Enoch’s expression darkened.
“If it were that easy.”
Tilting his head slightly, he gazed at me quietly.
“If I could control it, do you think I’d be like this right now?”
