Chapter 26
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Chapter 26
Unlike Enoch and me, who had only traveled between the Cave and the Beach, I'd assumed Kaiden must have explored this Island far more extensively—which prompted my question.
Kaiden shrugged his shoulders.
"I haven't seen any people. I've only been out hunting Monsters in the first place."
"You could just avoid them and be done with it. Why deliberately go out hunting? It's dangerous."
At my question, Kaiden stroked his chin, his eyes darting between Enoch and me as if wrestling with something. The look in his eyes suggested he was debating whether to reveal what he'd been hiding.
After a moment, he seemed to reach a decision and opened his mouth.
"There's something I need to investigate."
"...Investigate what?"
"It's strange, isn't it? Magic can't be used on this Island, yet Monsters—creatures that are fundamentally dependent on magic—exist here."
"...!"
Kaiden's words struck me like a blow to the head.
Why hadn't I thought of that?
"There are more than a few odd things about this place."
Enoch, who had been silent until now, spoke up as if he'd been waiting for this moment. He rubbed his temples as he continued.
"I went out on patrol today and found incomprehensible words carved into the Cliff."
Alea
The word Enoch had traced into the ground with a stick was none other than English.
Alea.
"Oh, I saw that too. It was carved into the Monster's body as well."
Kaiden chimed in agreement.
Suddenly, I remembered the flare I'd picked up on the Mountain days ago, and I frantically rummaged through my dress pockets. Fortunately, the flare was still there.
As I pulled the red flare from my pocket, Kaiden leaned in close with curiosity gleaming in his eyes.
"What's that?"
"I found it a few days ago when I was on the Mountain. That explosion of fire in the sky—I triggered it with this."
"What? You did that? With this? How?"
Kaiden asked in astonishment. Enoch looked at me for a moment with an expression suggesting he had much to say.
"I wasn't trying to hide it. I just forgot about it with everything else going on..."
Between the strange confessions from Enoch and Kaiden, I'd completely forgotten about the flare incident.
"It's remarkable that something so small created that explosion. How did you do it?"
Kaiden asked me again, his curiosity undiminished.
"I didn't know it would produce an explosion either. I was just fiddling with it, and suddenly it happened..."
Kaiden took the flare from me and examined the object from every angle.
Enoch, watching the flare alongside Kaiden, asked a question.
"Is it a magical artifact?"
"I'm not sure about that."
I was about to explain that flares are normally used to send distress signals, and this one seemed to have been modified for a different purpose, but I held my tongue.
It would be suspicious if I knew the purpose of an object no one else recognized.
Kaiden opened the cartridge and examined the rounds inside, then looked at me with surprise.
"This does seem to be a magical artifact. There are faint traces of magical formulas carved into it."
Traces of magical formulas etched into the surface—so this wasn't a modern object after all? I furrowed my brow and examined the bullet Kaiden was pointing to.
There appeared to be some sort of scrawled writing on the bullet, but it was far too small to make out clearly. That was supposed to be a magical formula?
Kaiden turned the bullet over in his hands before offering his explanation.
"This appears to be condensed magical energy."
Had Alea taken a modern object and modified it? It was certainly plausible.
"When I pulled what looked like a trigger, sparks came out. But that's not the important part—it's this."
I pointed to the characters inscribed on the side of the flare: Alea.
"You mentioned I studied the Eastern Continent's language, didn't you? I read this as Alea, and it looks like a person's name. Couldn't this be the name of the owner of this magical artifact?"
'But what does the word Alea actually mean?'
Latin or Greek, perhaps. I'd definitely seen that word somewhere before. I even seemed to recall learning its meaning back when I was studying sports science.
I racked my brain trying to remember, but the memory simply wouldn't surface, so I gave up. I'd have to think about it again later.
"It's clear that people lived here before us."
That certainly explained why the Cabin and Bunker existed.
"Alea... We can't rule out the possibility that someone lived on this Island. They might still be living here."
Kaiden nodded at Enoch's speculation.
"The owner of that magical artifact might still be alive. They could be the one who kidnapped us."
If this person named Alea were the culprit, was this Island truly part of Korea or some other country?
Like something out of a movie or drama, we might be trapped on an Island used for experiments, undergoing tests ourselves.
But if that hypothesis were true, how would people from other worlds be here?
For now, there were only mysteries. I couldn't be certain what exactly the name referred to, but 'Alea' was nonetheless the first direct piece of information I'd obtained since awakening on this Isolated Island.
"We need to search for more information first. This alone isn't enough to make an accurate judgment."
Both Kaiden and I nodded at Enoch's words.
"You're right. We should organize our space first. The sun is setting."
Enoch glanced up at the twilight sky once more before extinguishing the campfire.
After that night, Enoch's hostile attitude toward Kaiden seemed to have softened somewhat.
Yet whenever Kaiden tried to approach me, Enoch would remain vigilant and sharp, watching with unwavering caution.
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