If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.16

“Did you find anything strange?” Whether it was curiosity, or suspicion like his own. The guess that he would have taken steps to find out about that woman.

“There was one thing.”

“What is it?”

“A strange magic was cast on her. I even tried to hold her hand to track her, but it was no use.”

Did holding her hand mean the time he called ‘infidelity’? Pereian’s brow furrowed as he estimated the timing.

“Strange magic, you say.”

“Yes. So, don’t interrupt with strange talk about infidelity or anything.”

And stop being so jealous. Although Sipri knew Pereian’s feelings weren’t childish jealousy, he playfully nudged him on the shoulder, teasing him. When Sipri played like this, Pereian would always reply with a seriousness that made him seem like someone who had never experienced a joke.

“Why would I be jealous of another woman when it comes to her?”

“You still haven’t forgotten? Even though you don’t know her face.”

What is it about that girl? Sipri shuddered, surprised first by the fact that his close friend cherished a woman with all his heart, even to the point of disregarding the princess of the land, and then again by the fact that he still harbored feelings for someone whose face he didn’t even know.

Pereian kept his lips tightly shut, withholding his answer. Seeing his cheeks slightly redden, it seemed he was thinking of the woman he claimed to have liked since childhood. Sipri, shaking his body as if disgusted by the uncharacteristically youthful appearance of his usually cold friend, stepped back out the door and waved his hand.

“I’m leaving now. I need to spend quite a bit of time uncovering the magic placed on the Queen.”

The carpet placed near the door had sand on it, following someone’s footprints. Judging by the smallness of the tracks, it must have been the Queen who left this sand here.

Overlaying his own footprints on the sand, Sipri thought slowly.

Strange magic. Sipri’s homeland was the underwater kingdom of Deltia. From the day he was born, he came from a lineage of magic families, and he was a top-tier mage who contributed to Deltia’s development. There was no way he couldn’t detect the magic placed on the Queen.

“A silence spell, a special magic that prevents the utterance of specific information.”

‘The source seems to be a mage belonging to the Epin Kingdom.’

It was impossible to question further because any attempt to reveal the limited information caused his entire body to resist. He had reported it to Pereian as strange magic, but Sipri already knew the nature of the magic placed on her.

‘If I tell Pereian now, it will only provoke him.’

Unless the marriage was entered into by Pereian’s own will, the Queen would have been treated harshly by him. If he heard that a silence spell was in place, he might try to force the truth out before even uncovering the details.

Sipri couldn’t let Pereian ruin everything before he could even discover the reason for the spell and its conditions of silence.

“……Irene Iphraim, was it?”

To him, who had been a member of Deltia his entire life, the princess of the land was still unfamiliar. But now, he had to get closer.

‘Because I absolutely must know what secrets you are hiding behind that silent face.’

It was a one-sided curiosity, unrelated to his lord.

Irene naturally stepped onto a path she had never taken before, as if she were destined to become lost in the undersea palace once more. She wondered if she had always been this good at finding her way, but her strong desire to return to the Coral Palace left her no time to worry about that.

As she walked past the gardens of the Deep Sea Palace and the Underwater Palace, and then the residences of the royal descendants, now without owners, she finally saw the entrance to the Coral Palace.

The first thing that caught her eye was a greenhouse embroidered with colorful corals. Next was the meticulously maintained underwater garden, with not a single misplaced element. These were things she hadn’t properly seen when she first entered the palace, as she had only paid attention to Ian.

Surely, decorating such a grand palace wouldn’t have been easy. Irene, who had lived in the palace’s basement, knew how much effort the servants’ labor consumed in maintaining the palace. Sometimes, when help was scarce, even the wet nurse had to be called out to lend a hand.

To think that she, who had lived in a place where not a single ray of light entered, was the owner of such a palace. Whether she liked it or not, her heart beat faster at the thought that there would be people who had tended the gardens and refined the palace for her. And among them, there would surely be servants who had spoken ill of Irene.

“It was a marriage His Highness never wanted from the start.”

“That’s why she’ll be divorced.”

Immediately after the hollow wedding night, the servants’ gossip, which I encountered for the first time since arriving here. My churning stomach felt much better thanks to the children I met outside the palace, but my heart grew complicated thinking that those servants might have also contributed to the Coral Palace’s landscaping.

As I replayed the day’s events, which had been confusing in many ways, and stepped into the Coral Palace, I saw Atina and a few servants lined up before her.

Atina’s angry voice drowned out my footsteps. Thanks to that, the other servants, who hadn’t noticed their mistress’s return, were scurrying away, casting nervous glances at Atina. Irene moved silently to a spot out of Atina and the servants’ line of sight and strained her ears.

“Pathetic things. Can you truly call yourselves members of the Coral Palace?”

A voice filled with irritation. And the servants, cowering, listening. Looking closely, the servants trembling before Atina were the very ones who had spoken ill of Irene.

“I’ve told you hundreds of times to show respect to the one you serve!”

“……”

“If you dare to gossip about Her Highness’s scar again, I will consider your lives forfeit!”

Upon hearing the word “scar,” Irene looked at Atina with uneasy eyes. Her Highness’s scar. Atina was talking about Queen Irene. Then.

‘The wedding night…’

It was already strange. Irene knew she had a scar on her back, left by her father when she was young. When Atina and some servants had attended to her during the preparations for the wedding night, they had seen it. She had been relieved because there was no reaction then, but that scar was now once again catching up to Irene.

‘I’ll listen just a little longer.’

It seemed they were angry about the matter of having overheard the master being badmouthed, but Irene, who was the party concerned, did not have the courage to interrupt.

With even scars mentioned, all she could do was observe.

So, let’s listen a little longer, and when the situation seems to be roughly concluded, pretend to have just returned.

While thinking that, hiding her body behind a pillar and peeking her head out, a gust of wind suddenly arose behind Irene. It wasn’t just a simple flow of wind, but a feeling of someone’s scent suddenly wafting over, and Irene, startled, turned her head.

“Shh. Stop looking at my face and focus on Atina.”

It was Sipri. He must have used magic to move, as he didn’t seem to have opened the door.

However, because Sipri possessed such immense magical power that even ordinary people could feel it, Atina and the servants’ gazes were already directed towards where Irene had been.

“Sipri, why are you here?”

Atina, who had called out his name upon instantly detecting Sipri’s presence, suddenly froze.

“Lady Irene.”

It was because she made eye contact with Irene. Atina bowed deeply, as if she had never been angry or shouting, and greeted her.

Sipri, who had been looking at Irene and the servants who were now focused on her with awkward expressions, muttered, “I seem to have drawn attention.”

“…Yes, it’s because of you, my lord.”

Glancing at the man beside her and playfully nudging him, Atina, having dismissed the servants in the meantime, approached Irene. With her head bowed low, Atina spoke in a gentle voice, “I heard everything. The children were disrespectful to you, Lady Irene.”

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