Chapter 55
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Chapter 55
* * *
If Enoch had to identify the most suspicious person among those gathered in the Cabin, he would have chosen Margaret over the Saint who'd found the key.
She wielded unfamiliar magical artifacts with effortless mastery, and her survival instincts were far too sharp for a noblewoman.
The Margaret he knew was utterly transformed—as if another person had possessed her entirely.
"Enoch, are you alright?"
At Margaret's call, Enoch lifted his head quietly.
Her luminous blue eyes caught his attention. She gazed at him with a face full of concern.
"You don't like duck meat."
The fact that he disliked duck was something only his aide and personal chef knew.
When he and Margaret had stayed together in the Cave with nothing else to eat, he'd forced it down, but he'd never shown his distaste.
Yet how could Margaret possibly know that?
Perhaps it was because she'd changed so completely. While on the Island, he sometimes forgot—that Margaret was a woman who'd loved him obsessively.
"You truly know nothing about me that escapes you."
"There's nothing about Your Highness I don't know."
Margaret responded smoothly.
Enoch rested his chin on his hand, troubled, and stared at her intently. Yes, he was troubled. Because even this version of Margaret was beginning to seem endearing.
I must be losing my mind.
Margaret acted as though she might leave their side at any moment, yet sometimes she behaved as if she knew everything about Enoch.
If he suggested they leave together alone, she'd pretend ignorance again. It was utterly confusing.
After a moment's deliberation, Enoch spoke to her.
"Margaret, if you keep doing that, I'll become confused. I'll think you actually want to leave with me alone."
"...What?"
At Enoch's words, Margaret's expression shifted strangely as she looked at him.
Her face bore the look of someone who couldn't believe what she'd heard. Perhaps she was even slightly flustered.
"My goodness, how unexpected. For you of all people to say such a thing—surely your fever hasn't fully subsided."
Then, belatedly, Enoch recalled something she'd said.
Could it be that Margaret still didn't believe he cared about her?
If so, it made sense why she would hide her true feelings this way, refusing to reveal her emotions clearly.
"I'm quite curious whether your heart remains as it was in the past."
So he'd deliberately posed that direct question. It was then that Kaiden appeared, scratching his ear.
"Did I just hear something nonsensical?"
"Indeed. One might think Your Highness Enoch harbors feelings for Flone Young Lady. When the reality is quite the opposite."
Rujeep added grumbling commentary. Kaiden nodded with reluctant agreement.
"Ah—that was the case in the past."
Kaiden's response irritated Enoch considerably. By declaring "that was the case in the past," he seemed intent on emphasizing that Margaret's feelings were no longer the same.
Enoch felt a petty, uncharacteristic emotion surge toward Kaiden, who kept interfering at every turn.
From the beginning on this Island, it was Enoch who had been with her. He believed that between Margaret and himself had formed a bond that others knew nothing of.
"Margaret, what's your ideal type? If you like handsome faces, I'm not bad-looking myself."
Kaiden smoothly placed his hand on Margaret's shoulder. Unable to restrain himself, Enoch seized Kaiden's wrist.
He'd agonized over it dozens, thousands of times before approaching Margaret, yet Kaiden made it seem effortless and natural.
"Be careful, Rodban. If your conduct is too light, you'll blow away easily. Your right arm seems so reluctant to stay attached to your body."
Enoch's gaze fixed on Kaiden's right arm draped across Margaret's shoulders.
His eyes gleamed with a murderous intensity, as though he might forcibly sever Kaiden's arm from his body at any moment.
Kaiden shrugged with an exasperated expression and stepped away from Margaret.
"You certainly know how to make a simple request sound difficult."
Kaiden swept his gaze over Enoch with a look of utter disbelief.
"I'm fine, Enoch. But I'm concerned about those over there... just a moment."
Margaret answered casually and walked toward the fireplace where Diego, Rujeep, and Yuanna had gathered.
Enoch rose quietly and trailed after her.
"Are you managing alright? I came because it seems no one here knows how to cook."
Margaret asked Yuanna.
Yuanna's gaze turned to Diego beside her. Diego couldn't bring himself to look directly at the dead duck and kept his eyes shut.
Yuanna sighed and gestured toward him.
"Well, it doesn't seem to be going very well."
"I've cooked before. I can manage it."
"You can't even prepare the ingredients properly. Besides, the others won't be able to cook either. I'll do it."
At Margaret's firm response, Yuanna raised an objection.
"That's strange. This is my first time meeting the Young Lady. Yet sometimes it seems like you know us quite well."
At Yuanna's words, Enoch felt a thorn lodge in his throat, an uncomfortable sensation flooding through him.
He'd believed Margaret's attention was reserved solely for him. That's why he thought she understood him so thoroughly.
But perhaps that wasn't an emotion only he felt.
An inexplicable disappointment washed over him. He still couldn't understand why.
"Yes...? No, that's not it. You said before that you couldn't do it. And since everyone here is nobility, naturally none of you would have experience cooking."
At Margaret's rebuttal, Yuanna finally nodded in understanding. But then, still seeming suspicious, she tilted her head and asked Margaret.
"But Flone Young Lady is also nobility."
Margaret replied as though it were nothing.
"I'm rather exceptional. I'm an eccentric, after all—a famous one."
And at her answer, Kaiden nearby nodded in agreement.
"Right, Margaret isn't your ordinary eccentric."
Rujeep added to the conversation.
"You should have seen Flone Young Lady when she was obsessed with love potions."
"Love potions? Ah, that's right. That did happen."
"How do you know about that, Rodban?"
"She said she was sponsoring experiments, so I went to the Floné Mansion and caused a scene."
Margaret coughed dryly and glanced at Kaiden nervously.
This was something Enoch hadn't known. That Margaret and Kaiden had been acquainted in such a manner.
Kaiden, who had been conversing with Rujeep, suddenly scowled and stared at him. The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant.
"Now that I think about it, that pisses me off. The Servants of God conducting experiments on people? These goddamn Servants of God."
As Kaiden spat out curses at Rujeep, Rujeep grabbed him by the collar with a savage expression.
"Have you finished speaking?"
"Does it look like I'm done? You seem to have no sense of shame whatsoever."
"That's enough, Rodban!"
Rujeep and Kaiden's voices grew increasingly heated. Watching them, Margaret sighed, and Enoch observed without any particular intention to intervene.
After all, this wasn't the first time their conversation had escalated into a quarrel in this manner.
"Please stop. You're in the way—could everyone move aside?"
Yuanna, who had been quietly observing the tension flowing between them, redirected everyone's attention.
Eventually, Margaret shook her head and brought the wooden board with the duck and stone knife before herself.
Enoch likewise followed her and sat down in front of the fireplace.
* * *
Kaiden and Rujeep had been quarreling for quite some time and appeared exhausted. Rujeep grumbled as he walked over and plopped down beside me.
The cabin fell silent for a moment.
Kaiden, dissatisfied with something, was busy offering unsolicited advice as he watched Diego work.
"What? That's not how you do it."
Kaiden stood before the dining table where Diego was positioned, pointing at the cleaned duck and beginning to criticize.
"You didn't remove the organs? You have to take out the organs first!"
Yuanna, who had been helping Diego, glanced around and, deciding this was becoming tedious, quietly slipped backward.
"Make an incision from the belly toward the tail. No, that's not it either... Ah, forget it. Step aside."
Kaiden finally pushed Diego out of the way and took the knife himself, then proceeded to clean the duck with remarkable skill.
Somehow, Kaiden's tenacious vitality seemed to be resembling mine more and more—though that was surely just my imagination...
"Excuse me, Rodban. Why do you keep using informal speech? Please use respectful language."
Diego protested with a somewhat disgruntled expression. Kaiden stared directly at Diego while cleaning the duck.
His eyes were a vivid crimson, and whenever he fixed someone with such a gaze, it was utterly unsettling.
Seeing Diego furrow his brow, he too must have sensed the chilling coldness emanating from Kaiden's eyes. Indeed, Kaiden wasn't called a madman for nothing.
"Very well, if that's your preference, I shall do so. Diego."
As Kaiden answered nonchalantly, Rujeep, who had been sitting beside me, grew angry and shifted his hips indignantly.
"What about me?!"
Kaiden ignored Rujeep's outcry and cut the eviscerated duck into large, generous pieces with his knife.
Diego watched quietly for a moment, then asked with a bewildered expression.
"Even setting aside Flone Young Lady, surely you yourself are not of noble birth, Rodban? How on earth do you handle such things so skillfully?"
"I've done it many times. I'm a mage, after all. I conduct many experiments and such."
I could tell from the phrase "conduct many experiments and such" that he was speaking in jest.
Kaiden was a mage, but he abhorred experiments involving living creatures.
However, Diego, who had no way of knowing this, stared at Kaiden with an expression of shock.
Yet Kaiden offered no further explanation and simply continued cutting in silence.
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