If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.15

Irene, smiling faintly and about to turn away, soon fixed her gaze on one spot.

For a moment, her eyes widened. As if she had seen something she shouldn’t have, Irene couldn’t take her eyes off the small table.

An old fairy tale book lay there. A familiar cover.

It looked worn and tattered from age and countless hands, but Irene recognized the book instantly. “The Girl of the Storm.”

It was the book Irene had recommended to Ian when they communicated. It was also one of the few books Irene had read. The book her nanny had read to her, and given her, while avoiding the Crown Prince’s eyes.

This fairy tale featured a boy and a girl. A girl who brought storms and a wounded traveler boy met, overcame trials, repeatedly misunderstood each other, and finally danced happily in the rain.

The reason she recommended it to Ian was also because of that ending.

The girl living a stormy life was like her, and the boy who didn’t let her be lonely in the rain was like Ian.

The line, “Even though your life is full of pain, I think you’ll be alright,” felt like Irene’s own feelings upon meeting Ian.

She had guessed Ian wouldn’t have touched the book, as she recommended it casually.

Just looking at the worn cover clearly showed how often Ian had read it, so Irene approached it and carefully examined the cover.

Pereian, perhaps displeased even by the Queen’s gaze falling upon his belongings, stared at Irene with a look of annoyance and said, “I want to be alone, so leave quickly.”

“Ah…”

“Now.”

It felt like returning to reality from a dream. Towards him, who had transformed from the warm Ian into the monarch Pereian, Irene gave a brief nod and left the room.

The Deep Sea Palace, befitting a monarch’s palace, had thorough security. The thick inner gate did not open easily, no matter how much force she put into pushing it. As she struggled to push the door open, it suddenly swung open with ease, and the light of the undersea kingdom flooded in. It took half the effort compared to when she first tried to push it. With a strange feeling, Irene looked beyond the door and murmured upon recognizing someone, “Lord Sipri.”

Sipri stood on the other side of the door, his hand on the handle. “You looked like you were having trouble.”

Sipri, leaning casually, opened the door all the way and spoke from behind the door panel. His voice was a whisper, as if he didn’t want Pereian to know he was there. As Irene fully stepped out, he quickly closed the door again and leaned against it, observing Irene’s expression.

Pereian took the queen to the bedroom, and shortly after, he sent her out. Surely my lord must have been sulking in the meantime, but I could not discern any emotion from the queen’s expression. Whether it is because of the inherently noble lineage that has ingrained in them the social skill of hiding emotions, or if they are simply insensitive to changes in expression.

“Don’t take Pereian’s words too much to heart.”

“…Did everyone hear that?”

“As I offered words disguised as comfort to test her, the woman casually responded with a question.”

I knew it would be like this. It must be something that was said to Pereian. Sipri silently looked at Irene with a questioning expression.

Even after being caught in a situation where she is suspected and ignored by her husband, this woman asks dryly.

There was not a single drop of shame in that question, and all that was left was Sipri, who was simply amazed that he had unexpectedly thrown comfort to the queen.

“I did not eavesdrop.”

I just thought that if it were Pereian, they would have said something harsh again.

“I’m okay.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

“Leaving behind the awkwardly smiling Sipri, Irene finished the conversation and walked back outside the palace.”

I wanted to go to Coral Palace and rest. Even if it was the den of the attendants who spoke ill of her, that was the only place arranged for her in this underwater kingdom.

As the queen brushed past me, Sipri suddenly recited some advice.

“The handmaiden was Atina.”

“…….”

“That child is probably not as submissive as you think.”

Does she know? That to avoid being swept away by the currents here, one must know how to survive in the space between land and sea.

“……I wish you would become a person like a reef.”

To the advice that felt like a warning, she nodded her head a couple of times before gracefully disappearing. Sipri stopped gazing at her slender back and took in the door she had tried to open with his eyes again.

The bedroom the Queen had left held no warmth. Within that empty space, Pereian let out a quiet groan.

The book the Queen had been staring at just before leaving the room was a fairy tale her first love used to like. He had dismissed her because he found it ridiculous that she would show interest in that book without knowing anything about it, but he hadn’t expected her to leave so soon.

As the Princess of Epin, what exactly was she hoping for? She should have at least put up a fight, asserting her pride, but she left the residence with eyes that seemed to want nothing.

‘A strange woman.’

Pereian thought she was a strange woman, somehow different from the hateful Princess of Epin he knew, a woman whose every action was questionable. Pereian, who seemed unfazed by the solitude of the empty room, soon slowly wiggled his fingers. Then, he drew the summoning circle once more and brushed his hair back.

“Kiiiii!”

With a splash of bubbles, the whale that had been held in the Queen’s arms moments ago appeared.

“Kiiing……”

The whale, which had made a lively entrance, became as quiet as usual once it realized Irene had disappeared. Watching the whale, which so readily displayed its mood, Pereian muttered, his thick hand resting on the part of the whale’s head Irene had petted.

“You, why on earth did you take a liking to that woman?”

“Kkii!”

“I can’t understand it.” The monarchs of the undersea kingdom spend their lives with their grown spirit whales. When a monarch dies, the elder spirit whale also disappears into the deep sea after passing the lineage to its successor, but this whale was one abandoned by its spirit whale parents.

It was perhaps natural for the whale’s lineage to be shaken, given that the former king had died suddenly by his own child’s hand. The elder whale had departed for the deep sea without even properly completing the spirit succession, leaving this whale incomplete.

It was like Pereian’s closest friend. It was said that a spirit whale, as an undersea monarch’s companion, would recognize the monarch’s consort and behave intimately.

Yet, it was this small whale, indifferent to everything, that had reacted to Irene Iphraim. Thinking that there must have been a problem with its ability to recognize its consort during the spirit succession process, Pereian sent the whale back to its original dwelling with a single gesture. Then, with a deeply furrowed brow, he shouted towards the door.

“Sipri, stop lurking like a rat and come in.”

His tone suggested he could no longer stand it, that he had been patient enough. With a “Kkiiik” sound and a playful hunch of its body, Sipri poked its head through the gap in the door.

“Calling your only friend a rat. Pereian, that’s why you’re estranged from your wife.”

Brushing aside the nonsensical remark that sounded like a greeting, Pereian got straight to the point.

“That woman.”

As much as Sipri knew Pereian well, he also knew Sipri’s nature. Sipri had helped the lost queen and brought her here. The Sipri that Pereian knew was not someone who acted purely out of goodwill. If he had stepped forward like that, it must surely be.

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