If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.13

“You’re curious about my husband?”

“I’m asking if you are close to His Highness.”

In truth, Irene was convinced that she was Ian’s only close friend. After all, Ian had once told her that she was his only one.

-Ruine, you are my everything.-

You’re the only one who truly understands me. So, I will give you my uniqueness.

Recalling her sweet memories with Ian, Irene added a trivial excuse.

“I never thought His Highness would have a close friend.”

“He is eccentric, to the point of seeming so.”

“No, that’s not what I mean…!”

Her usually even voice wavered. Irene thought it strange that she was so easily drawn into this man’s teasing.

“Well. If I hadn’t been close to him, I would have been purged long ago.”

Sipri, after choosing his words for a moment, replied again.

“Because only two kinds of people lived in Pereian’s world. The first were my few people, and the second were, well things full of malice.”

“Malice…”

“Yes, malice. I can’t tell you the details, though.”

Hearing his words, it became certain that Sipri was Pereian’s close friend.

‘This man also knows Ian’s pain.’ Pereian’s close friend.

Although it was a shame that such a person wasn’t unique, Ian was happy for now that there was at least one more trustworthy person around him.

However, Irene could not show this feeling. She had to act like an outsider who didn’t know Pereian’s pain.

If her pretense was discovered, she would have to bid farewell to her life in the undersea kingdom.

Irene didn’t want to leave the land of her first love and return to the mainland that had treated her so poorly.

‘I wish I could just tell Ian the truth.’

The Ian she knew wouldn’t cruelly cast aside someone who knew the circumstances of his old friend. It would have been best to tell him the truth, but she was under a silence spell, like a muzzle.

Even after coming to the undersea kingdom, Irene couldn’t reveal her identity.

She had to live a life of lies, always. Even if the other person was her husband, her first love. So, with a face feigning ignorance, Irene slowly nodded.

“It’s alright if you don’t tell me the details. His Highness will tell me himself someday.”

“I hope that day comes. It will be the day Pereian settles down with Her Majesty the Queen.”

As if satisfied with the conversation, Sipri replied with a bright white smile.

Then, all of a sudden, he sent his gaze to a distant place beyond Irene.

A faint smile lingered on his face. It was just like the smile children wear right before they cause trouble.

He was still in the midst of kneeling on one knee, holding Irene’s hand. He then murmured, still with a smile on his face, “He finds us like a ghost.”

At Sipri’s words, Irene turned her head and gazed at the spot where his eyes were directed.

Irene’s husband, the monarch of the undersea kingdom. Pereian was there. As if he had come from practicing swordsmanship, a sword was held in his hand.

It was a real sword, not a wooden one, and it suited his fierce impression, making him look every bit the tyrant.

With a displeased expression, Pereian walked towards where Irene and Sipri were.

As their eyes met, Irene, flustered, used both hands to try and pull Sipri up. This was their first meeting since their wedding night, and she couldn’t bear to be seen by Ian while still held by Sipri.

“Let go and get up. Hurry!”

Her face reddened with the effort. For some reason, Sipri, who had stubbornly held on until Pereian was right in front of them, was finally pushed away by the monarch’s hand.

The word ‘thrown’ might be more fitting. Having dealt with Sipri in an instant, Pereian looked down at the woman gazing up at him from beneath his chin, his wife, with an unkind gaze. His eyes gradually lowered from her violet eyes to her flushed cheeks.

“I came because I heard the runaway queen had returned.” Pereian looked at her flushed cheeks with a strange feeling.

‘What did you do to be this red?’ It was unpleasant. Why would that woman be attached to my close friend?

“It seems I’ve interrupted.” He followed up with a sarcastic remark in a rough tone. He thoroughly drew a line between himself and Irene, venting his annoyance under the guise of a reprimand.

“Adultery in my palace. What a fine sight, Madam.”

Pereian knew that Sipri had not committed adultery with the Queen. Even if he was a frivolous fellow, Sipri was not the type to covet his close friend, and furthermore, the monarch’s woman. He merely thought it would be quite a sight to see the woman’s expression slowly crumple upon hearing the insulting words.

Irene, who had been saved from being lost in the underwater palace thanks to Sipri’s guidance, could not easily accept the current situation. All she had done upon returning to the palace was introduce herself to Sipri. Although she had been toyed with, that was purely Sipri’s intention. Irene had certainly not played along willingly.

And yet, adultery.

Pereian, who had appeared from afar, claimed she had committed adultery. And Irene knew how terribly Pereian detested adultery.

Back then, when they had shared painful memories through the conch shell, Ian had poured out his hatred for the former king, who frequently brought in concubines for his amusement. The bonds between children had crumbled through adultery. Because their mothers were different, the children of the Underwater Kingdom were at odds with each other, and Ian, the youngest among them, had experienced violence without even a chance to resist.

That was why Ian, who abhorred adultery more than anyone. Irene thought she had made a mistake with Ian and lowered her head deeply.

“Oh, it’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t mean to…”

Her voice gradually trailed off.

It felt like shrinking away as Ian’s deep red pupils met hers.

She didn’t have the confidence to face him squarely, not when she was deceiving him with a life steeped in lies.

It was Sipri who ended the standoff.

“Pereian, if you’re jealous, just say so.”

Perhaps their friendship wasn’t just for show, as he casually draped an arm around Ian’s shoulder and spoke playfully.

“Ha, jealousy? I don’t care who that woman is with.”

“Then what’s with that furrowed brow?”

“As long as it wasn’t done in my palace, I don’t care.”

Each word Pereian spat out returned as pain. Some words choked Irene’s breath, while others tightened around her heart. Pereian glanced at his wife’s face, which looked as though it might crumble at any moment, then turned his back indifferently.

“Let’s go back.”

Sipri sighed again at his unchanged attitude. Trying to read Irene’s expression, Sipri thought hard. What must the Queen be feeling right now? He was curious about the reaction of the princess of the land, who was said to have been raised nobly, after being openly scorned in front of her friend.

Would she get angry? Would she stamp her feet and beg for love? Or would she bury her face in her knees and weep in shame? No, that didn’t seem likely. Even after speaking with her briefly, he didn’t see the demeanor of a sheltered young lady in the Queen. Instead, her unyielding stance in the face of contempt made her seem like someone accustomed to humiliation.

Unaware of Sipri’s subtle observation, Irene kept her gaze fixed on Ian’s back and thought. It was impossible for Ian to look kindly upon his wife being with another man. If she let this misunderstanding stand, she felt another misunderstanding would arise someday, causing them both troubles.

Unaware that the person she was so worried about had actually pretended to misunderstand and spewed harsh words for his own amusement, Irene moved her steps next to Pereian to continue her explanation.

“I just wanted to look outside for a moment. Lord Sipri merely brought me here when I was lost. I was playing.”

Though she wasn’t a child, her excuses grew long, like a child who didn’t want to be scolded. Pereian, placing a hand lightly onto Irene’s dejected shoulders, interrupted her midway and muttered,

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