<Episode 19>
When I woke up, I couldn’t move. So I thought I might be caught by a mouse or trapped by scissors, but it wasn’t the case.
It was because of Abellard.
His thick arms were wrapped around my neck, and his waist was tightly pulled. Moreover, I was sleeping with a gun in my arms.
Come to think of it, I fell asleep without even locking the safety pin. Risky.
“Bro-ther.”
“Mmm…”
He pretended to be asleep. But his fake sleeping was so clumsy that anyone who saw it might doubt if he was really asleep. Above all, his eyeballs were moving around inside his eyelids.
I twisted my body a little, and the clothes covering me fell off with a thud.
From the sound of it, Elkais seemed to have put some sedatives in the coat.
Although I drank from the hip flask in the pocket, it seemed like there was another one in another pocket.
“If you wake up now, maybe I’ll grant you a wish.”
“I’m awake.”
“Then, can you release your arms?”
“My wish is to engrave each other’s imprints.”
Fed up with his nonsense again, I placed my hand on the trigger and pressed the barrel against his chin.
“My wish is that you don’t talk such nonsense.”
“Eve…”
“What do you want to do? Do you want to exchange wishes?”
Perhaps because of the gun barrel I was pressing against him, he released the hand around my waist and stared at me intently.
“Instead of exchanging, let’s keep it to ourselves.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
I slowly got up, feeling sore all over.
I wasn’t used to sleeping on a hard surface that hurt my body, especially since I always slept on a bed in the manor.
“Are the clothes all dry?”
“Yeah.”
I approached the clothes hanging on the rock.
“Put them on.”
“Okay.”
I threw him the pants, and I put on the negligee. Then I put on the coat Elkais had given me.
“Why are you so attached to that coat?”
“It’s too hot to wear it, but I feel like I shouldn’t take it off.”
“Because of the mosquitoes?”
“No. Because of you.”
“You want to look good in front of me, huh? I feel the same way.”
“…”
I had a lot to say, but I just kept it to myself. There was no need to argue since we would have to cooperate for a while anyway.
“Let’s both try to look good.”
“Yeah.”
“And put on some clothes.”
“Probably won’t need to do that once it’s noon today.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hehe.”
He chuckled strangely again and mumbled something. Maybe he couldn’t speak properly, as he looked frustrated. Seeing that, I didn’t ask further.
“Let’s go now.”
“Yeah.”
The morning was cool yet clear, perhaps because the sun had just risen. I secured the safety pin on the gun and strapped it back to my garter belt.
We had to climb back up the cliff we descended yesterday.
As expected, the cliff… It was made so easy to climb that it seemed almost artificial.
After grabbing onto them, we quickly reached the top of the cliff.
“Eve…”
The only problem was that only I made it up, and Abellard didn’t at all.
“Give me your hand.”
“I’m scared…”
“Yes, look at me.”
“Yeah…”
He whimpered again as he grabbed my outstretched hand and started to climb up. His body was quite heavy, but I managed to pull him up slowly. As Abellard finally reached the top of the cliff, I let go of his hand.
“Oof…”
“Eve.”
Intentionally or accidentally, he fell over me. His chin hit my shoulder, and it felt like it would bruise.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry.”
Abellard tried to get up by reaching for the ground with his hand, but his body seemed twisted, making it difficult for him to get up properly.
He eventually grabbed my shoulder tightly and managed to get up first, but there was a strangely refreshing scent coming from his pants.
A different, refreshing scent from Elkais’s forest smell.
“Eve.”
He reached out his hand as if to help me up, but I stood up without taking it. It didn’t seem like he grew taller or stronger.
“Let’s go up now.”
“Yeah. Hold hands and go. We shouldn’t get separated.”
I wondered if he had forgotten that we were bitten by a jaguar while climbing up like this yesterday. But remembering what happened then, I couldn’t refuse the hand reaching out to me.
“Huff.”
I sighed as I took his hand, and he was smiling as if something was amusing.
“I feel really good when Eve holds my hand.”
“Yeah, I see.”
“I like it even more when Eve looks at me like this.”
“Yeah, I see.”
“And it’s even better when we talk.”
“Yeah, I see.”
As he kept walking, he kept talking, so I responded dutifully, even though I was starting to feel tired from walking for quite a while.
Since parting with Elkais yesterday, I hadn’t eaten anything, and my stomach was growling.
“Aren’t you hungry, Eve?”
“…”
“Eve. Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
Then he gently detached the strands of hair stuck to his cheek and infused me with sanctity.
“So that’s how you managed to survive.”
“Yeah.”
With the infusion of sanctity, I didn’t feel hungry anymore. It felt like the optimal state after a meal, even though three hours had passed.
“Do you believe that I’ve been here for a year now?”
“Yes.”
To be honest, I didn’t believe it.
The Abellard Willayden I knew couldn’t have been in such good health, and he wouldn’t have known about things like this.
If he really had been here for a year…
“It seems that time flows differently between the Cropper Empire and this island.”
“Yeah, it seems so.”
If that’s the case, then everything makes sense. Even though I spent a year here, not much time may have passed in the empire.
Come to think of it, how did this book end? Didn’t it end after the two of them were rescued from the deserted island?
“Eve.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you think we came here?”
I thought I knew this part because I read the original work. I just couldn’t remember it.
In the original, Elkais and Abellard were sent to this island to continue their story.
Then what am I, exactly?
Am I really necessary for them to continue? Is it certain that they need to continue to escape from this island?
But alphas of the same level instinctively reject each other’s pheromones.
But how on earth did I connect them?
“Eve, we…”
He seemed unable to speak again, and although his lips moved, I heard nothing.
“Something’s been strange since last time. It doesn’t seem like a joke.”
“I’m not joking.”
Abellard seemed to be crying unjustly. As I watched his tearful eyes, I sighed softly. Then he took my hand, gently stroked his face with it, and stared at me intently.
“I’ll believe you. So stop crying. You’ll get exhausted.”
“Are you worried?”
“Yes. I’m afraid I’ll strain myself lifting you.”
“Hahaha. I wish Eve could lift me.”
“You’re insane. I’d rather leave you here.”
“But you lifted me yesterday.”
“I had a little more strength yesterday.”
Still, the tears stopped. Perhaps because he was the male protagonist, even when he cried and then laughed, he looked dazzling.
His face was that of an innocent beauty, but his body was like a fierce sculpture, which seemed mismatched but somehow complemented each other.
“Eve.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think my body is pretty?”
“Yes. Let’s hurry up.”
“Yeah.”
After giving the answer he wanted, he started walking again with enthusiasm. I thought it was fortunate that climbing the mountain had become a little easier thanks to him.
We climbed the mountain for a while like that.
The sun rose highest, and our shadows became shortest.
That was the moment.
“Oh my.”
Suddenly, as if waking up from a dream, our clothes changed.
“Is this even possible?”
“Yeah.”
I was wearing the bridal attire I had on when I first came here. Abellard was wearing a groom’s tuxedo.
The garter belt on my thigh felt heavy again, as if a gun were strapped to it. When I lifted the heavy skirt, I found that the bullet box was still sewn to the back of the skirt, just like before.
Moreover, when I took out the gun hanging on the garter belt…
“This is unbelievable.”
The gun had completely changed to a new one. It was the same Desert Eagle, but the small scratches that had been there before were gone.
“It looks like I don’t have to clean the firearms.”
“Huh?”
“It’s convenient.”
“It used to change once a week.”
His claim that he had stayed here for a year seemed to be true after all.
“Let’s go, Eve. To where we belong.”
Abellard reached out his gloved hand.
I hung the gun back on the garter belt and ignored his hand, gritting my teeth as I had to endure the rugged terrain and climb the mountain.
* * *
At the same time.
Elkais opened his eyes.
He was confused because of the faint voice he had heard in his sleep. So, as soon as he opened his eyes, the first thing he checked was for Eve Wilidein.
But she was nowhere to be found.
“Eve.”
He called out to her. But she was nowhere to be seen.
He stood up from where he was, gripping the sword tightly in his hand.
“Eve.”
The fact that his attire had changed to the groom’s tuxedo upon his arrival here was the least of his concerns, so urgent was his situation.
T/N: Next Chapters are locked you guys can read via paying moondust
No way…
It’s a game right?😭