If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.10

Some boys pouted, showing their displeasure. Irene, thinking they might feel excluded for only being introduced as “unnie,” quickly added,

“Irene noona is fine too.”

“Noona, you look just like a princess!”

The children, having grown up bright and cheerful, were almost purely simple; a few added words like these were enough to quickly lift their spirits. Surrounded by the children, Irene crouched down to meet their eyes. When she extended her hand, the children one by one affectionately offered their cheeks and heads.

‘So cute…’

A smile spread across her face. It was the first time since arriving in the undersea kingdom that she had smiled so freely and wholeheartedly.

‘Children who are loved exist everywhere.’

The appearance of homes in the undersea kingdom was no different from those on land. Loved children existed everywhere, and such children knew how to receive love and how to give it, which was why they were so adorable.

The villagers gazed, as if entranced, at the Princess of Epin’s bright smile.

Can a person be like sunlight?

In their eyes, Irene’s wheat-colored hair was just like sunlight reflected on the water’s surface.

Hair that seemed as if the color of sand had been extracted and processed into light. Even the color of her pupils, resembling the sky she had gazed upon with her head emerging from the water at sunset.

She was a woman with an appearance that was both alien and eye-catching, nothing about her could be overlooked carelessly.

Just her smiling seemed to fill this village with moonlight.

While they marveled at Irene’s smile as she became their queen, Irene was playfully tickling the children’s sides.

The children’s parents, snapping out of their reverie, exchanged glances and then, pulling their children along, whispered something into their ears.

Even as they spoke, they seemed to glance at Irene intermittently, but since there was no malice in their eyes, Irene didn’t pay it much mind.

After a few conversations with their parents, some of the children left Irene’s side and ran towards the village shops.

While the children were away, the village adults, who had been waiting for an opportunity to speak, slowly broached the subject.

“Indeed, you are no longer a princess of the land, but our Queen.”

They regarded Irene with faces half-worried, half-joyful. Wondering if something was wrong, Irene tilted her head and was about to ask with a concerned voice, “Perhaps, me becoming queen has caused you sorrow?”

“No, that is absolutely not it!”

Voices of denial poured out from everywhere before she could finish speaking.

“It’s not that, we are merely concerned for Your Majesty.” Someone continued, as if making an excuse. Puzzled, Irene immediately asked again.

“You’re worried about me?”

To them, Irene was a precious princess of the land, and now, the queen of the sea.

The former was a lie on land, but at least in the undersea kingdom, this was the truth.

As Irene looked on in bewilderment at their words of concern, though she hadn’t been caught in any lies, the residents glanced around quickly before whispering to Irene.

“Well, it’s because His Majesty the Monarch is so….”

“So?”

“Violent. We were wondering if perhaps he might have even drawn a sword on our princess.”

What was this all about? As Irene stared at them without a word, her face a mask of confusion, the residents let out deep sighs and seemed to relax.

“Judging by your reaction, it seems that hasn’t happened yet. That’s a relief.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t understand at all why His Majesty the Monarch would draw a sword on me.”

This was a matter of ignorance. Irene had stayed in the basement and married in haste, so she had fallen into the sea without even knowing her husband’s name. Such a woman could not possibly know the infamy of the undersea kingdom’s monarch.

“Your Highness, you truly don’t know?” As Irene nodded, the residents clicked their tongues and shook their heads.

“My word!”

“Oh dear….”

Sighs erupted from various places. Just as one of the residents stepped forward to relay the monarch’s rumors to Irene, the children who had run to the market street returned, pushing through the crowd, and stopped abruptly before Irene.

“Sister, this is a gift!”

Sally took the lead and handed something over to Irene.

Irene was curious about the story that the residents would tell about Ian, but first, she checked the gifts that were filled in her arms. It was a bouquet made of coral.

“You’re as pretty as your sister. My mom asked me to go to the store and bring a gift for my sister.”

The boy’s mouth was covered by his mother’s hand.  The mother, who appeared to be middle-aged, tried to calm herself by fanning herself with her hand as if feeling embarrassed.

Irene’s gaze, which captured the playful yet harmonious image of the family, shifted back to the coral bouquet. From yellow corals to purple corals, everything was harmoniously blended as if they had taken colors from Irene’s appearance.

Seeing the bouquet, Irene recalled the conch shell she had communicated with Pereian.

‘That conch shell resembled me exactly.’

Whenever I think of elements related to Ian, a deep longing fills me.

Irene tightly embraced the huge gift given by the children. Even though corals should have no warmth, for some reason, it felt warm.

Irene was able to sense the source of this warmth. The warmth felt when holding the child. In other words, it was kindness.

‘I never thought such a kind world would exist in my life. I thought Ian’s sea was not kind, but now hope was visible.’

You were right, Ian. Your country is really kind to me. This sea was gentle. Except for Pereian, who had clearly told Irene that this sea would be gentle.

Ian, who had always been cold. Ian, who is unwanted. Ian, who intends to reject her several times in the future, offers a humble experience.

Even the kingdom ruled by such an Ian was tens of times better than the land.

For if one roamed this open sea, rather than a basement, one could surely discover kindness like today.

Watching the Queen, who seemed lost in thought, the villagers appeared to be contemplating how to convey the news to the Queen, who seemed unaware of the rumors about the ruler.

Breaking through Irene’s silence, which was steeped in warmth, Sally’s mother bravely spoke.

“His Majesty the Ruler cut down his father, the former king, and his brothers with a sword to ascend the throne.”

The villagers watched Irene’s reaction with kind eyes.

“This is all I intended to tell you earlier.”

Another woman, who had only been listening, quickly added a word of caution. “Please be careful. His Majesty the Ruler might harm Your Majesty the Queen.”

Irene, frozen for a moment, could not respond to the warning with thanks.

‘Ian killed his father?’

That the father who had abused Ian was dead, and what’s more, that Ian himself had killed him. This was entirely new information to Irene. Before Irene could even register her surprise, the people began to recount Pereian’s mad past.

The child of the former king’s beloved concubine. However, that concubine had left the sea when Pereian was past the age of five. The debate on whether she, an undersea dweller, had survived leaving the sea seemed to be ongoing. The villagers said that the former king loved the concubine so dearly that he embraced even the child she left behind with love.

Irene’s head throbbed.

‘This isn’t true.’

Pereian did not receive the former king’s love. At least, that was the case until she was seventeen, the last time she was in contact with him.

Irene knew. She had never forgotten Pereian’s painful past, not even for a moment. It was true that Pereian was a child born out of wedlock, just like herself, but the claim that her birth mother had been the former king’s concubine was clearly a lie.

Pereian’s mother had been an innocent land dweller, merely brought to the king by his indulgence in women. Since she was originally from the land, she could have fled to the land. She might be living out her remaining days without pain somewhere on land, or perhaps she was suffering from guilt thinking of the son she left behind in that hell, but she would still be alive.

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