I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 182

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 182
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The note I received from my mother contained a memo stating that Marquis Rohade had departed for Alea Island in search of the Blood Scripture.
The Vilterheim Family had assigned someone to monitor Marquis Rohade, and fortunately, his movements had been tracked.
‘I need to share this with Enoch and Kaiden right away.’
Just as I arrived in front of the Magic Tower, I stepped down from the carriage.
At that moment, a young newspaper vendor passing by handed me a daily gazette. I didn’t refuse and purchased the newspaper from the child, then unfolded it.
[Margaret Rose Flone has changed?!
Is the love triangle between Lady Flone, the Crown Prince, and the Magic Tower Master truly real!]
My name was splashed across the front page in embarrassingly large headlines. It seemed this newspaper was more focused on sensational gossip than serious news.
I casually rolled up the newspaper and tucked it into my side, then gazed up at the Magic Tower. The building soared so high into the sky that it was impossible to take in its entirety at a single glance.
When I lowered my gaze slightly, Enoch stood at the entrance of the Magic Tower. Though his attire was simpler than the uniform he had worn the previous night, it was extraordinarily elegant and suited him remarkably well.
With his arms crossed and his back against the wall, he stood lost in thought, his deep-set eyes distant and contemplative.
I approached him with light, fluttering steps, clasped my hands behind my back, and tilted my waist as I looked up at him.
“Have you been waiting long?”
Focus finally returned to Enoch’s golden eyes.
“No, I just arrived myself.”
His voice, low and subdued, carried a certain decadent quality that stirred my heart from the very morning. The fact that such a captivating voice was speaking my name felt strange.
He placed a soft kiss on the back of my hand. Where his lips touched, my skin burned hot. I stared at Enoch, tense and alert. The atmosphere today felt somehow peculiar.
His gaze upon me was heavy and intense. I subtly averted my eyes from his stare and pointed toward the entrance of the Magic Tower.
“Shall we go inside?”
Enoch silently followed me into the Magic Tower.
While waiting briefly in the lobby, he called out to me again in that deeply resonant voice.
“Margaret.”
“Yes?”
“I have something I wish to ask you.”
I looked up at him with a puzzled expression.
“Something you wish to ask?”
Enoch’s serene golden eyes swept across my face as if intent on unraveling every secret I held.
“Do you remember all of the past? Everything that happened between us, every conversation we shared?”
The question was weighty and profound. Why would he suddenly ask such a thing?
“Yes… I do remember.”
“Do you still separate your past self from your present self in your thoughts?”
“…”
This too was an unexpected question.
Yet it was not entirely unfamiliar. It resembled the question Archbishop Luzef had asked me on the island. What had I answered then?
‘The Lady Flone I saw at the Papal Court and the you of now—which one is your true self?’
‘…That’s a strange question. They’re both me. I decided to accept my past self as well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to move forward.’
That was right. Back then, I had decided to accept my past self.
I lived as Margaret for twenty-two years, then lived again as Lee Jin-ju for twenty-seven years. Perhaps because of this, my past self as Margaret felt like a distant memory from long ago.
Why, just as the seven-year-old me could never be the same as the twenty-year-old me.
And Enoch, who had despised me so thoroughly, must have changed after meeting me—Lee Jin-ju—on the Island.
“That version of me is still me. I know I said many things that wounded Your Highness. I’m sorry.”
Margaret Rose Flone and Lee Jin-ju are both me. Yet the past me had only chosen actions that would earn Enoch’s hatred, so it was natural that he disliked me—though that knowledge left a bitter taste nonetheless.
“Perhaps that’s why I ended up living a different life. Maybe God punished me for it. To make me come to my senses.”
At my words, Enoch burst into laughter.
“You’ve always had a gift for sophistry, whether then or now.”
“How is that sophistry?”
“Both you and I were clumsy back then, as I recall.”
“Pardon?”
“Your apologies can stop now.”
I wanted to ask what he meant, but Enoch offered no further explanation. Stop apologizing? Could he truly mean that?
Just then, one of the Magic Tower staff greeted us as we waited in the lobby.
“The Lord stepped away briefly. He asked me to show you both to his office, if you’re willing. He should return shortly.”
I nodded and climbed the Magic Tower’s stairs alongside Enoch.
“Is it uncomfortable? Shall I carry you?”
Enoch asked with concern, eyeing my dress. I shook my head and answered spiritedly.
“Have you forgotten? I’m the woman who climbed a mountain in this dress and flat shoes.”
At my response, Enoch finally let out a soft chuckle. Though I’d spoken boldly, climbing stairs in heels rather than flats was proving somewhat taxing.
Damn it, why did I have to act so spirited? How many stairs were there? I recalled the building’s height from outside and felt a moment of dread wash over me.
Surely we weren’t climbing all the way to the top? Why were there no elevators or escalators here? Why no Warp gates? This is supposed to be a Mages’ tower!
“Wait.”
With that, Enoch swept me up into his arms.
“Oh!”
“What on earth—!”
Hearing my small cry, the Mage climbing ahead turned to look at us. His expression twisted like a rotten apple when our eyes met.
He quickly averted his gaze and continued up the stairs. It was a rude look, but I couldn’t fault him for it. After all, I was the one behaving shamefully.
“Please put me down.”
“Do you truly wish that?”
Enoch asked with a puzzled expression, continuing up the stairs while holding me.
I laughed somewhat sheepishly and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“Then I’ll take the liberty.”
As our bodies pressed close together, tension made my muscles tighten. I worried whether my heartbeat was audible to him.
He climbed the stairs without his breathing faltering once, still cradling me in his arms.
This moment brought back memories of when I first met him on Alea Island. My feelings felt strangely complicated.
Fortunately, we arrived at Kaiden’s office quickly.
The floor we reached had a single door, and the Mage who guided us inside said he would bring tea before disappearing.
The office interior had an extraordinarily high ceiling, with books packed densely along both side walls reaching all the way up.
I looked around the office with mild curiosity. So this is what a Mage’s office looks like.
“…Huh?”
“Why is that?”
Enoch approached at the sound of my puzzled exclamation. I pointed at one section of the bookshelf with my finger.
“There are books about Jenas Igran here. And books about the Ingram Dynasty era as well.”
I promptly pulled out one of the volumes.
[The Great Mage, Zenas Igran Rohade.]
The Great Mage, they call him.
…Well, he is a great mage, I suppose.
Enoch glanced at me briefly, then I watched as he pored over the book with a contemplative expression. I stood there for a moment, examining the pages.
[…(excerpt) Jenas had an extraordinarily unfortunate childhood. He was not born with innate magical power. Most people born in this land possess at least some measure of mana, but Jenas apparently had none at all.]
Oh. That’s something I didn’t know. Finding it rather intriguing, I brought the book over and settled onto the sofa to read Jenas’s biography in earnest.
[A thousand years ago, discrimination against the powerless was rampant. There existed a perception that those without mana were inferior creatures. This contemptuous trend reached its zenith in Year 666 of the Ingram Dynasty, giving rise to large-scale persecution events against the powerless. Those without mana were hunted by those who possessed it.
Jenas Igran, known at the time as one of the powerless, could not escape the blades of his hunters.]
I paused mid-breath, blinking at the page I had opened in surprise.
Persecution and hunting of the powerless—such terrible words were shocking, but what astounded me most was that Jenas had endured such horrors.
Yet if the Ingram Dynasty’s Year 666 matched the date written on the Alea Island Map…
Perhaps the map wasn’t created in that year itself, but rather that year held some significance for Jenas.
It’s possible it’s connected to what prompted him to create Alea Island.
[Jenas was fortunate. He awakened just before the mages could hunt him down. It wasn’t that he was born without innate magical power—rather, his mana had accumulated and stagnated somewhere within his body, unable to flow.
Though he escaped death, he had already endured severe suffering, and his hatred toward those with magical power and those with divine power was beyond imagination.]
He hated those with magical power and those with divine power. This too was something I was learning for the first time.
Then again, what did I really know about Jenas? All this time, I’d assumed he was a mage for mages, but it seems I was mistaken.
‘No, that’s not quite right. He wasn’t a mage for mages—to be precise, he was a mage for the Rohade Family.’
Now that I thought about it, he never seemed to display any particular pride or affection toward mages.
[Amid the chaos of the persecution events against the powerless, a rebellion erupts in the Ingram Kingdom. At this time, Jenas led the Ingram Dynasty, which had spearheaded the persecution of the powerless, down the path to ruin.
Afterward, he made great contributions to the founding of Langrid and received the title of Rohade, though he was granted only a marquis rank. This was because of his history of persecution as one of the powerless.
Jenas believed that if he could only topple the Ingram Dynasty, he could create a new world, but ultimately, Langrid proved to be no different from Ingram.]
Damn bastards. They swept everything under the rug and called it a day. No wonder Jenas became twisted.
Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a despicable scoundrel.
“What passage did you read to make that expression?”
Enoch, who had been observing me from the opposite sofa, asked. I closed the book I was holding and shrugged.
“I was thinking—perhaps Jenas created that mad experimental island as revenge against those with magical and divine power.”
At my words, one of Enoch’s eyebrows twitched upward. He seemed to be turning my words over in his mind.
“But honestly, what does it matter now? Jenas’s plans have already crumbled anyway.”
That was when the office door opened, and Kaiden appeared alongside the mage who had guided us earlier.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting. The journey took longer than expected.”
He glanced at us once with a weary expression, then nodded.
“Want to go see it right now?”
I understood immediately what he meant. It was the reason Enoch and I had come to the Magic Tower.
We followed him up another flight of stairs.
“Where have you been?”
Kaiden let out a weary sigh, his expression hollow.
“The Rohade Mansion. The seal in the basement has been reinforced even further. Finding the Blood Scripture won’t be easy.”
Since this was what I had anticipated, I simply nodded at Kaiden’s words.
As we climbed higher, we came upon a room that the Mage who had guided us could not enter.
I watched as Kaiden locked the door behind us, then calmly surveyed the chamber.
There was little to observe, really. In the center of the room sat a solitary chair, and bound to it was the Archbishop, surrounded by a Magic Circle with candles encircling it.
The Magic Circle was not unfamiliar to me. This resembled….
“That’s right. It’s the same Magic Circle we used to seal Anata alive.”
At Kaiden’s confirmation, I found myself recalling that moment in the Cabin when Jenas had trapped me within a Magic Circle.
My entire body trembled violently. The horrific memories from Alea Island came flooding back with renewed clarity.
The Archbishop before me had played a hand in that nightmare. As I reminded myself of this fact, anger began to surge through me in waves.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
The Archbishop thrashed against the chair within the Magic Circle, bound and gagged, struggling desperately.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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