<Episode 59>
“Elkais!”
As the body of Grand Duke Croppers fell, Eveline let out a scream.
Remembering that Elkais was inside, Eveline felt her heart shatter.
Then, a blinding light filled her vision, as if it would engulf everything.
* * *
Eveline was in immense pain.
“Ugh…”
The sand pressing against her face felt unpleasant, but more than that, she knew she had to get up as soon as she regained consciousness.
“Elkais!”
She shouted as she tried to bolt upright, but her body slipped back down.
Her arms had no strength. She noticed her tangled red hair.
This meant she was back in her own body.
“Elkais…!”
Ignoring the sand on her lips, she desperately called out while lying on the ground.
But no human voice answered her calls.
Only the sound of the waves crashing against the shore echoed in her ears.
“Ugh…!”
Eveline forced her uncooperative body to turn over. The sky was clear.
The fact that no one else was around left her feeling disoriented.
“Elkais! Brother! Is anyone there?!”
She shouted, but all she could hear was the relentless sound of the waves.
“Damn it…!”
It took a long time before Eveline could move her body again.
She was only able to stand after the sun had shifted slightly in the sky.
“Why has it already changed?”
She noticed her clothes and shoes had changed, even though it wasn’t supposed to happen yet.
But the clothes were the same wedding dress she had worn initially. The veil was perfectly in place, too.
Standing on the sand that sank under her feet, she tore at the hem of her dress.
“What on earth is going on?”
Inside, she found a gun—a Desert Eagle, fully loaded with bullets.
She attached the box of bullets to her dress.
Dragging her exhausted body, she looked around.
“Elkais! Abellard, Brother!”
No matter how much she called, there was no response.
There wasn’t even a trace of blood where she had fallen.
Had they really dealt with Grand Duke Rubellite Croppers?
If Abellard had succeeded in purifying, maybe Elkais hadn’t died.
The image of Rubellite’s decapitated face, the one that had just moments before been Elkais, flashed in Eveline’s mind.
The scene had left a deep impact on her because she knew it had been Elkais just moments before.
“It can’t be.”
Surely Abellard had succeeded in purifying and killing Rubellite.
Eveline decided to head toward the cabin.
Her body felt as heavy as lead. She wanted to cut off her heels, but without a knife, she had to resign herself to trudging up the rugged mountain in them.
She was on the verge of exhaustion, and her throat was dry, but right now, finding out whether they were alive was more important than her physical discomfort.
Abellard wouldn’t have abandoned her.
Elkais wouldn’t have left her behind.
So if she was alone now, it wasn’t by their choice.
But what if that was a lie too?
The thought of Abellard, who couldn’t even harm a single ant, stabbing Rubellite’s heart and beheading him right before her eyes…
What if Elkais was no different from that?
<Remember, only one person can leave this island alive.>
Eveline recalled the red-haired man, Dekarv, who had said that to her.
If he really was Dekarv, the god of destruction, and truly helping her, then Abellard and Elkais must each have their own gods too.
And if those gods were helping them to kill her…
“Then that’s how it is.”
Maybe because of her previous life as a police officer, Eveline could accept that possibility calmly.
Even if she didn’t know for sure now, she had no intention of surviving alone at the cost of sacrificing them.
The reason she couldn’t fully accept her life as Eveline Wilden was because, as Lady Wilden, there was nothing she could do.
Alpha, Beta, Omega.
In a society already divided by recessive and dominant genes, a Beta could do nothing.
But she didn’t plan on living that powerless life here.
Eveline was determined to find Elkais and Abellard, who had become like comrades, and escape this place.
Before coming here, nothing in the original story set in the Croppers Empire had deviated from its path, no matter how hard she tried to break free from the villainess role.
So perhaps, just as in the original story, the three of them could escape together.
She hoped they could avoid bloodshed and leave together.
With these thoughts in mind, she pushed her aching body forward and finally reached the cabin.
The cabin was eerily quiet.
“Elkais. Abellard, Brother.”
She called as she opened the door.
Inside…
“Lady Wilden?”
A person with brilliant silver hair and golden eyes, who seemed startled by the door opening, stood there as if they were about to open it themselves.
“Rubellite Croppers!”
She snarled, pressing the gun against his neck.
“Where are Elkais and my brother?”
“Lady? What’s going on all of a sudden…?”
Eveline thought something was strange about Grand Duke Rubellite Croppers. His voice was the same, but his intonation had changed.
And what she sensed was…
“How did you become an Alpha?”
“What are you talking about, Lady? I was born an Alpha.”
The person looked exactly like Grand Duke Rubellite Croppers but smiled easily. His manner of speaking was different, too.
More importantly, there were two moles under his eyes. Marks the emperor had artificially created to distinguish him from his Omega brother.
“Crown Prince Ferite Croppers?”
“That’s correct, Lady.”
He smiled warmly at her. Eveline stared at him, dazed with confusion.
“I’m glad to have found you, Lady. It was lonely here, thinking there was no one else around.”
“Your Highness, how long have you been here?”
“It’s been two days.”
From his tone, smile, and intonation, he really seemed like Crown Prince Ferite.
“Your Highness, prove that you are different from Grand Duke Rubellite Croppers.”
Eveline kept the gun aimed at his neck, ready to blow his head off at any moment.
“I understand. You never got along with my brother, so I understand your suspicion.”
While Rubellite Croppers was a knight, his twin brother, Crown Prince Ferite Croppers, was not.
“Does this suffice?”
Beautiful snow began to fall around Eveline.
“Use another spell.”
“Should I use fire magic? That might harm you, Lady.”
“Do it anyway.”
“Understood.”
With a snap of his fingers, a small pillar of fire ignited in his palm.
“You truly are His Highness.”
Crown Prince Ferite was indeed a mage—the best in the empire.
“Yes.”
Eveline lowered the gun she had pointed at his neck.
Moreover, his attire was different from Rubellite’s, who had been dressed like a soldier left behind on the battlefield. Ferite, however, was wearing formal attire, much like Elkais and Abellard had worn during the wedding, except his cloak was black.
Elkais had worn a dark red cloak, and Abellard’s had been blue.
“Are we perhaps meant to be married, Lady?”
“I don’t know.”
Eveline was too confused to look at him directly. Ferite entered the cabin first, motioning for her to follow.
Eveline sighed and stepped inside, searching for any other signs or clues. But there was no trace of the clothes she had discarded, and even the ceiling, which had been patched up with banana leaves after being struck by lightning, was intact.
“But, Lady.”
“Yes?”
“Why do I sense Omega pheromones from you?”
Eveline looked at Ferite, who had started to release his Alpha pheromones.
“Did you bring me here, Lady?”
He asked with a smile, but the Alpha pheromones emanating from him were overwhelmingly intense.
Eveline knew what kind of person he was. Though he appeared kind on the surface, he wasn’t like Elkais.
Even among Royal Alphas, Elkais despised the idea of love driven by pheromones, while Ferite embraced it.
Many Omegas had pursued him, and Crown Prince Ferite had never turned them down.
After all, as long as he didn’t mark them by biting their necks, they wouldn’t be bonded, and since royal bloodlines were rarely fertile, his dalliances with Omegas rarely resulted in pregnancy.
That is, unless he decided to mate.
“If you’ve become an Omega, there’s no need to resist.”
“Your Highness.”
“I’ve never encountered such a fragrant Omega pheromone before.”
He smiled gently as he moved closer to Eveline.
* * *
“Goddamn it.”
The words slipped out of Abellard’s mouth.
“Why did it have to be you? If I had to be left with someone, I wanted to be with Eve!”
“This annoys me too.”
Elkais, who could barely walk and had to be supported by Abellard, found his frustration irritating as he tugged at his hair.
“If you go bald, Eve won’t even glance at you!”
“Do you want to be slammed into the ground?”
Abellard pulled his hair harder, but it didn’t come out easily.
Suddenly, Elkais recalled the island he and Abellard had spotted from the beach.
For some reason, it felt as though Eveline’s strong pheromones were drifting over from beyond the sea.
“Ugh…!”
The moment Elkais sensed the pheromones, he pushed Abellard onto the sand.
“I’m swimming.”
“What?”
“Follow if you want, or don’t. It’s up to you.”
With that, he plunged into the sea, determined to find Eveline.
TL/N: If that Arc would have continued I would have killed myself
