I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 216

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

Side Story Episode 1
Side Story 1. That Summer, We
One hundred and four days stranded on the Remote Island.
A record of an unpeaceful summer day.
Bzzzz— Bzzzz—
The shrill chorus of cicadas echoed through the Jungle bushes. The midday sun blazed so fiercely that I worried my skin might burn away entirely.
In the heart of the dense Forest stood a sturdy two-story Cabin, unwavering in its place.
Behind the Cabin, Diego was industriously chopping Firewood, while beside him, Prince of Asdal gathered an armful of the split logs and carried them toward the front of the Cabin.
After setting the Firewood down in the Clearing before the Cabin, Prince of Asdal patted his shoulder and glanced at Margaret Rose Flone’s expression.
“Indeed, a man’s strength is everything!”
He shouted loudly, but Margaret Rose Flone didn’t even glance at him.
Prince of Asdal wiped away sweat that wasn’t even flowing, making a show of his exhaustion. He carried himself as though he had been the one chopping the Firewood all along.
“Did you call for me? Is there work that needs doing?”
When Diego Bastian Vilterheim appeared with an Axe in hand and asked, Prince of Asdal’s face turned ashen and he hastily changed the subject.
“I was just saying how impressive Diego Bastian Vilterheim’s strength is. Your skill at chopping Firewood is remarkable. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were a Woodcutter in a past life.”
Margaret Rose Flone and Yuanna Lucy finally glanced at Prince of Asdal. Diego Bastian Vilterheim, holding the Axe, looked at him with a bewildered expression.
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid, who had been creating Fire Embers, let out a quiet laugh. Margaret Rose Flone and Yuanna Lucy burst out laughing as well.
A Crown Prince of a nation had become almost pitiful to watch.
Archbishop Luzef sat blankly on a Log being used as a Chair, and perhaps embarrassed, Prince of Asdal went over to him and picked a quarrel.
“Why are you resting alone, Archbishop? A person shouldn’t be so shameless.”
Archbishop Luzef glared at Prince of Asdal sharply.
“I gathered Mushrooms.”
“Excellent work. Why didn’t you become a laborer instead of a Priest!”
Whether it was praise or insult was unclear.
“If only you weren’t a Crown Prince….”
Prince of Asdal, who didn’t hear Archbishop Luzef’s ominous muttering, awkwardly averted his eyes. Then he spotted Kaiden emerging from the Forest and cried out.
“Where have you been until now…!”
Prince of Asdal called out to Kaiden but closed his mouth again. Kaiden was holding up a Deer in his hands for all to see.
“Margaret! I did well, didn’t I?”
“Good heavens!”
At Kaiden’s cry, Margaret Rose Flone, Yuanna Lucy, and Archbishop Luzef jumped to their feet in surprise. Then, pushing past Prince of Asdal, they rushed toward Kaiden.
Shoved aside, Prince of Asdal collapsed as pitifully as a Tragic Heroine in a melodramatic novel.
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid, who had been tending the Fire Embers, spoke quietly.
“The Fire’s going out, so go collapse over there.”
“Oh well. I’m fine. A Crown Prince who overcame adversity—it’s quite a dignified title, isn’t it? I should write a book about our escape.”
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid ignored Prince of Asdal’s nonsense and transferred the Fire to the Firewood.
After lying there for some time, Prince of Asdal finally got up when no one paid him any attention and everyone began Meal Preparation.
“I have hands too. Don’t forget that.”
Then he followed Margaret Rose Flone around like a puppy, peering over her shoulder,
“Stop being a nuisance and just sit down if you have nothing to do. That’s how you help.”
After hearing that I was useless, I sat obediently on the Log chair.
While Prince of Asdal sat there vacantly, an early evening meal was coming together.
“Lady Flone, how do you do this? And this? How should we handle this? My, Lady Flone, you can do things like this too?”
Yuanna Lucy clung to Margaret’s side, pelting her with questions, while Kaiden butchered the venison, and Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid crafted a stone slab for grilling the meat.
The meal preparation was in full swing. As Enoch grilled the venison on the stone slab, Margaret began earnestly crafting Bowls.
Prince of Asdal, watching her quietly, spoke up.
“Lady Flone, you’ve really changed so much. The first impression I got of you in Hestia was like a wild stray dog. Do you remember? Back then, you followed the Half-Emperor and turned the Imperial Academy upside down.”
Margaret looked at him with an aggrieved expression.
“I did turn things upside down, but I didn’t behave like a stray dog.”
“Right. To be precise, not a stray dog, but a mad dog?”
“That title is mine.”
Kaiden chimed in, seeming quite proud of the title he possessed.
Margaret sighed as she looked at Kaiden.
“Could you just call me a free spirit instead?”
At Margaret’s words, Archbishop Luzef tore into the venison and countered with conviction.
“When Lady Flone first stormed into the Papal Court, I truly thought she was a stray dog. You grabbed me by the collar and demanded I create a Love Potion.”
Margaret fell silent—it was an irrefutable fact. Then Prince of Asdal burst out laughing heartily.
“Wasn’t it you who refused to put on your own torn shoes and asked the Half-Emperor to put them on for you? Seeing that, I really thought you were a mad woman, but to think you could be like this.”
Margaret wiped her forehead as though breaking into a Cold Sweat. Of course, she wasn’t actually sweating, but with a guilty expression, she glanced nervously at Enoch.
Enoch himself said nothing, quietly tending the venison over the stone slab.
The sound of meat sizzling over the flames filled the air. Prince of Asdal, resting his chin in his hand as he gazed at the dancing Fireworks, opened his mouth to speak.
“Come to think of it, I always seem to spend summer in the Langrid Empire. The Fireworks festival was truly wonderful.”
Yuanna Lucy, swallowing at the sight of the venison, spoke.
“I’ve only been to the Langrid Fireworks festival once.”
“Ah, I remember. That day on the Lamberson Bridge, when the Saint scattered that snow-like Holy Power.”
“That’s right! It was quite the talk of the capital.”
At Margaret’s words, Prince of Asdal agreed. Then, with a surprised expression, he asked Margaret.
“Did you see that too? Through the newspapers?”
“…I was there.”
“On the Lamberson Bridge?”
“Yes.”
At Margaret’s answer, Kaiden spoke.
“I was there too.”
“Oh? I was with the Saint as well. I even saw Enoch and Diego there…”
Yuanna Lucy, who had been tearing into the venison with combative enthusiasm, asked with surprise.
“So you were all there that day?”
Everyone looked at each other in astonishment.
“How strange. We were all in the same place on the same day.”
As Kaiden murmured, everyone recalled that day’s events.
And as Yuanna Lucy, lost in those memories, tilted her head and looked back at Margaret.
“Wait a moment. If Lady Flone was on the Lamberson Bridge… Could it be that the woman who destroyed the explosives was the Young Lady?”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward Margaret Rose Flone. She did not deny it.
“Damn it, that’s right. I saw you that day too. Why am I only remembering this now? To think that person with such tremendous Mana was you.”
Kaiden sighed. The Love Potion incident that unfolded immediately afterward had been so intense that the nameless woman on the Lamberson Bridge had simply been erased from memory.
Then Archbishop Luzef and the Prince of Asdal spoke in turn.
“Good heavens. So that was the Young Lady.”
“That woman was throwing herself at the Half-Emperor so relentlessly that day—I had my suspicions.”
The Prince of Asdal boasted as if he’d known all along. But in truth, he too had been inwardly shocked.
Then everyone nodded as if the puzzle pieces had finally fallen into place.
“I’ve never seen a woman kick apart a Mana bomb with her bare foot. Even men wouldn’t be that reckless.”
“That’s right. And didn’t she jump off the bridge that day as well?”
“It was reckless, certainly. Now that I think about it, the Young Lady seems much the same as before. She hasn’t changed much at all.”
“What? Archbishop, are you saying I’m still a wild dog?”
“Hmm. Yes. It’s hardly a dignified epithet to attach to a noble Young Lady. Then let us compromise and call you a tamed wild dog from now on. I must say, I’ve truly never seen a noble Young Lady who catches fish with a Spear before.”
The Prince of Asdal had offered a solution. At that, everyone burst into laughter.
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid, who had been quietly listening to the conversation alongside Diego Bastian Vilterheim, also recalled that day.
That Fireworks Festival had been somewhat special to Enoch. It was the day he had begun to see Margaret Rose Flone differently, rather than simply despising her outright.
As the conversation died down and silence settled over them, all seven castaways fell into contemplation.
To explain what Margaret Rose Flone had done, one had to go back three years to that very day—the day of the Fireworks Festival.
* * *
So, three years ago in early summer.
That day was as loud as a Langrid summer always was. The city was teeming with people for the annual summer Fireworks Festival.
On the day of the Fireworks Festival, Margaret Rose Flone was walking along the promenade beneath the Lamberson Bridge, which flowed through the heart of the Capital, together with her older sister Innis.
Then suddenly, Margaret Rose Flone cast off the uncomfortable mesh shawl she’d been wearing. She felt as though she were suffocating from the heat. The maid following behind hurriedly caught the shawl.
“Shall I bring you a fan?”
“Bring it quickly.”
Margaret Rose Flone extended her hand toward the maid. The maid swiftly handed over the fan.
Whoosh—
Opening the fan, Margaret Rose Flone fanned herself vigorously. Even by the cool riverside, it was difficult to escape the early summer heat.
“I knew you were vain from the start.”
Her older sister Innis chided her. Young Margaret Rose Flone lacked maturity. However, Margaret herself did not acknowledge this fact.
“Wear your hat properly. You do realize I’m following you around to keep watch, don’t you?”
Innis pressed the brim of her hat down deeply. Then she lowered the veil, carefully covering her face.
The fact that she had recently grabbed the hair of the highly esteemed Young Lady of the Lantz Duke Family had spread widely as gossip. For the Flone Family, it was an utter disgrace.
The enraged Duke of Lantz had come to their father, and they seemed to have found a compromise by temporarily banning Margaret’s public activities.
So if someone were to see Margaret leisurely enjoying the festival like this, it would cause considerable trouble.
But Margaret was confident. And she felt wronged.
“I did nothing wrong. The Young Lady of Lantz insulted our Crown Prince. Arrogantly. She called him filthy blood. She must have known I favor the Crown Prince and said such things deliberately. Damn it, I should have beaten her more. She really irritates me, Innis.”
“Are you a street ruffian? You want to become Crown Princess? Now that you’ve made up your mind, you need to manage your reputation.”
In fact, whether or not she became Crown Princess, reputation management was necessary since this was the time to seriously enter the marriage market.
As Innis rattled on with her lecture, she looked Margaret up and down, then shook her head.
“Your education in etiquette still has a long way to go.”
Of course, Margaret knew perfect etiquette perfectly well. The problem was that she only employed it when she felt like it. By that standard, one couldn’t really call her perfect.
Innis, who had been pondering this quietly, suddenly spoke up.
“Margaret, only amateurs make it so obvious when they’re trying to crush someone they dislike.”
Margaret lifted her veil with a flourish. Her eyes, wide and round, turned toward Innis.
Innis quietly lowered Margaret’s veil back down.
“Your older sister will teach you a secret technique. How to trample someone gracefully without leaving a trace. You should eliminate your enemies without anyone knowing—not go around advertising it like you do.”
“You truly are the pride of the Flone Family.”
Margaret clapped her hands in admiration.
Being called the family’s pride by a scoundrel felt unsettling, but Innis consoled herself that at least the scoundrel had understood her point.

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