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Chapter 9
* * *
Sleep had been impossible, of course.
I lay sprawled across the stone floor like a vagrant, shivering through the night as the cold seeped up from the unforgiving ground.
Exhaustion had claimed me so thoroughly that I hadn't even worried about drooling in my sleep.
Rain pattered outside, and the Cave was saturated with a bone-deep chill; ‌‌the temperature swings were so severe that the cold was almost unbearable.
Even in my dreams, I trembled from the cold.
'So damn cold.'
Accumulated fatigue crashed over me, and my mind grew hazy. This dream felt remarkably vivid and sensory.
While I shivered in that half-awake stupor, someone approached. Through my blurred vision, I glimpsed Enoch's jacket.
I reached out desperately and seized his jacket, and ‌‌‌the warmth that flooded my hands sent an unexpected ‌‌‌‌ache through my chest.
"Why are you doing this?"
The figure ‌‌‌in my dream ‌‌‌‌asked me. I stared at the jacket, my face contorted with anguish as ‌‌‌I furrowed my brow.
"Because you're cruel."
"...Cruel?"
I pulled the jacket closer again as I answered.
"This thing. This jacket. It's the one that covered ‌‌‌my shoulders when I was shivering from the cold."
Yes, that's how it was supposed to be... Suddenly, a wave of sorrow crashed over me, and tears welled up in my eyes.
"Stupid thing. Why are you draped over some other useless body ‌‌instead? I'm freezing right now."
"..."
"Your love for me has faded, hasn't ‌it? You heartless bastard. How could love change ‌‌like this?"
I released the jacket with a sob, my grip loosening ‌as I let it fall. I'd clutched it so tightly that it hung wrinkled and misshapen.
Even that pitiful sight pierced my heart.
My chest aching anew, I turned away from the crumpled jacket and drifted back to sleep.
I could have sworn I heard someone laugh bitterly as we spoke...
When I came to, morning had already arrived.
'What kind of dream was that?'
I lay with my eyes open, staring blankly at nothing. Though I'd fallen asleep shivering from the cold, my body felt surprisingly refreshed.
'It doesn't feel real, and the memory is hazy... It must have been just a dream.'
I tilted my head in confusion, then felt an unexpected warmth and looked down.
A jacket of fine fabric draped across my shoulders—Enoch's jacket.
I glanced around the Cave, and through the stone wall stacked up to ‌‌waist height near the entrance, morning sunlight streamed in. The rain had stopped completely.
At the ‌‌Cave's entrance stood Enoch. His shirt sleeves ‌‌‌were rolled up as he worked intently, moving large stones aside.
Perhaps from his ‌years spent in warfare, Enoch prioritized practicality over the dignity befitting a Crown Prince.
I didn't refuse the ‌‌‌‌jacket he'd given me; I pulled it on carefully ‌and ‌‌approached him.
He glanced at me briefly. I thought he ‌‌‌might say something, but instead he ‌‌‌simply turned away ‌‌‌and resumed clearing the stones.
In the dream, I was certain I'd looked at his jacket and said something like, 'Why are you draped over some other useless body ‌‌‌instead?'
Could it have been real instead of a dream? If that were the case...
'Have I lost my mind? I wasn't even drunk—why would I say something so senseless and incoherent?'
My mind went blank. Never mind the charge of insulting the royal family; I was mortified!
Fortunately, Enoch appeared no different from his usual self.
'...Since he's not saying anything, it must have been a dream?'
Only then did I feel somewhat relieved, and I mustered the strength to help him clear away the stones.
But ‌‌then,
"It seems love has been fulfilled quite well."
"...What?"
The sudden question struck my eardrums like a blow.
Enoch finished clearing away all the stones and dusted off his hands, turning to face me. With one hand planted firmly on his hip, he smiled while pointing at the jacket I wore.
"Wouldn't it be better to fulfill the jacket's love than to have a useless body like mine wear it?"
'Damn it, ‌‌‌it wasn't a dream!'
I panicked and rolled my eyes, evading his gaze. And in that moment,
"You wretched bird, ‌how could love ever change?"
The final words I had uttered ‌‌came flooding back to me.
This is why people should always speak beautifully, even in their ‌‌‌‌daily lives.
"That.... I'm not sure what you mean."
"You're going to pretend you don't know?"
An uncharacteristic playful question from Enoch burrowed into my ears. Flustered, my ‌‌mouth only gapped open before I finally answered in a small voice.
"That.... I was just talking nonsense in my sleep...."
"After giving such a cute name as Jackie, if you deny it like that, poor Jackie will feel hurt."
Damn it, he heard me curse too.
Desperately trying to change the subject, I rolled my eyes and carefully opened my mouth.
"It's quite strange hearing you curse."
"It's my first time putting such crude language in my mouth. But the Young Lady was remarkably natural about it. As if it were everyday."
Damn. It was everyday, so I had nothing more to say.
"No, that's not it? That wasn't me. Your Highness must have been dreaming. I can't curse like that. ‌I'm nobility, after all."
Enoch laughed languidly, stroking his chin.
"...If you're embarrassed, I'll pretend not to know."
He spoke as if bestowing a favor.
Then, with ‌‌‌an unhurried gait, he approached me and tapped the gold trim on the shoulder of the jacket I wore with his finger.
His gaze traveled from my shoulder up along my neck, rising slowly. Soon our eyes met.
A crooked smile hung at the corner of his mouth. He spoke as if finding this situation utterly fascinating.
"Well, the Young Lady was quite the ‌‌eccentric anyway. So it wasn't strange."
'I'd rather you just call me strange. You cruel bastard.'
Image improvement still ‌‌seemed far away. Somehow feeling sad, I wiped away tears that weren't even falling.
"I support the Young Lady's love."
"I told you that's not what ‌‌this is!"
When I ‌‌‌finally cried out in exasperation, he burst into laughter with a delighted expression.
His laughing face was so handsome. I forgot my irritation and gazed at him, entranced.
Of course, that laughter didn't last long. Returning to his composed expression, he suddenly looked at me with his face stripped of all emotion.
He was so serious that I thought he was about ‌‌‌to say something grave,
"Keep the jacket on. I'd hate for you to be mocked for having ‌‌a useless body."
He was determined to tease me until the very end. Damn it.
Was Enoch always like this?
In the original work, ‌‌‌even in Margaret's memories of Crown Prince Enoch, he was definitely not this kind of person!
4. Kaiden Blake Rohade
The jacket incident ultimately concluded with the conclusion ‌‌‌that I loved the jacket.
'What kind of ridiculous conclusion is that.'
As I always say, life is inherently made up of terrible timing, so there's nothing to do but accept it.
Early in the morning, we hydrated ourselves by drinking water we'd collected in coconut bowls, then satisfied our hunger with acai palm fruit.
We'd managed to collect a bowl full of ‌‌rainwater, but the coconut bowl was so small that it was far from enough for the two of us to drink.
'I wish I could drink water freely....'
I'd need to find a way to create a filter for drinking water in the afternoon or find a method to distill it.
Having designated the Cave ‌‌as our temporary base camp, we decided to proceed with our reconnaissance as planned.
We needed to spend several days here recovering our strength, and to do that, we had to properly understand what was around the base camp.
As I explored the nearby Forest with Enoch, I worried about the possibility of running into the other male leads.
But fortunately, that didn't happen. At least not yet.
I was following behind Enoch ‌‌through the undergrowth when my dress hem caught on a branch and I stopped in ‌‌‌my tracks.
"This damn dress...!" ‌‌‌
Damn it, I ‌‌‌need to find that Cabin soon. I think it had quite a few modern clothes in it.
'I want to wear pants ‌‌too!'
It ‌‌‌was while I was struggling for a while trying to free my dress caught on the branch.
A large hand reached out from behind me.
It was Enoch. He ‌‌‌freed my dress hem caught on the branch with surprising ease.
I looked up at him blankly. His sharp facial features, devoid of any emotion, caught my eye. He extended his hand to me.
"Take my hand."
"What? Why?"
It was a ‌‌‌reflexive question. At that, Enoch frowned as if displeased.
Goodness, even his scowl was hauntingly beautiful.
"You keep falling behind. Don't get hurt. Take it."
He acted as though I annoyed him to death, yet he always took the initiative to look after me. This was exactly what people meant by words and actions being at odds.
I had no reason to refuse Enoch's help, so I ‌‌took his hand.
His hand was very large. He was tall, his hands were large, his feet were larger than mine, and everything about him was bigger than me—a physique that made me want to lean on him.
Muscular, well-defined body and overwhelming strength that didn't waver even when I hung limply from it. He was truly strong and dependable.
Perhaps this was why the heroine relied on ‌‌‌him most. I understood why Enoch was the main male lead in the novel.
Holding his hand no longer felt unfamiliar or awkward. Yet strangely, my heart tickled.
"Are you uncomfortable."
Enoch asked, observing my ‌‌‌expression. His grip softened gently.
"It's my first time holding hands with someone, so I'm having trouble controlling my strength. I hope you understand. Tell me if you're uncomfortable."
His tone was blunt yet quite tender.
His first time holding hands with someone?
"Why?"
"Oh, no. It's just... I was surprised that Your Highness would hold hands for the first time."
"There was no occasion for it. And no one worth holding hands with."
Now that I thought about it, Enoch was a man of absolute solitude.
Though the original work hadn't delved into it deeply, the ‌‌‌Crown Prince Enoch I'd ‌‌‌glimpsed through Margaret's memories was exactly that.
Perhaps he'd never formed deep connections with others and had spent his entire life in loneliness.
He'd always been solitary because of his unfortunate birth, but from what I recalled, after the war ended, he'd withdrawn even further from people, tormented by profound trauma.
As I pondered these thoughts and prepared to continue ‌‌‌‌walking, a sharp sting suddenly radiated from the soles ‌‌‌‌of my feet.
"Ow."
It seemed I'd developed blisters on my feet.
It was hardly surprising. These pretty flat shoes were utterly unsuited for trudging through a Forest like this.
Hearing my wince, Enoch turned back to me.
"Sit down."
He pointed ‌‌‌to a fallen log nearby as ‌he spoke.
As I hesitated on my feet because of the pain, Enoch let out a sigh. Then a large, ‌‌warm hand slipped around my waist.
Enoch lifted me effortlessly and set me down on the log.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official ‌‌‌site: valirscans.org
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