If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.2

‘Black hair and red eyes. Just like Ian, that child.’ Coincidentally, Irene looked at her husband and recalled her childhood first love. Since Ian’s described appearance was also jet-black hair and red eyes, her husband’s face before her eyes was enough to remind her of that boy.

The ruler of the undersea kingdom murmured his name towards Irene, who was staring intently at him. As the former king had not even told her husband’s name, Irene was encountering his name for the first time. “I am Pereian Richard.” Hearing her husband’s name, Irene’s eyes lit up.

Pereian’s ‘Ian’, his voice, which was a little more mature but familiar from the first moment she heard it, and his appearance.

At that time, Ian would not have recognized her, as she had lied about her appearance and name. Irene could guess. No, it was a certainty born of intuition. Irene’s first love. Ian, whom she thought would remain forever in the past, had become a tyrant who killed the former king and took Irene as his wife.

In her joy, unrefined words welled up, threatening to escape her throat. Ian, is it really you? You’re safe. Thank goodness, I really thought you might have died in that sea. However, Irene could no longer linger in the days when she exchanged voices with Ian. She had to approach this marriage as the noble princess of the Epin Kingdom, not the skinny girl who had talked with Ian.

Forcing down the words she wanted to say, Irene smiled brightly at Pereian. The man looked at her smile as if it were detestable and parted his lips. “Shall I dare to say it? I swear, there will be no love in this marriage.”

As he spoke with a fierce look resembling a sea beast, threateningly, Irene’s expression, which had held a hint of joy, crumbled in an instant. The boy who had been her first love had become a blood-soaked monarch.

‘I swear there will be no love in this marriage.’ The Undersea King’s words, like a pronouncement, echoed in Irene’s ears. Irene realized. In June, when storms brewed, here, where she had fled to escape earthly ill-fated ties, she had married her first love, who did not recognize her. It was an undeniable fact that her heart reacted to him.

Irene reflexively closed her eyes at his voice, which denied even the possibility of love blossoming.

Pereian, unbothered, continued to speak his piece. “One more thing. To be clear, I have a woman I hold in my heart.”

For a moment, surprised by Pereian’s cold words and actions, which were different from her expectations, Irene’s expression hardened. Then, she smiled brightly again. “It’s alright.”

Objectively, it was not a situation that would elicit laughter, but Irene couldn’t help but smile. Irene had been ordered by her father, the King, to act like a noble princess. However, since her father had never given her any specific instructions on how a noble princess should behave, Irene merely imitated the demeanor of her half-sister, whom she had observed from afar.

Unlike Irene, who always had a stiff expression, the legitimate princess, who had grown up showered with love, always wore a smile. Recalling her sister, Irene raised the corners of her mouth, mimicking her sister’s face. ‘Somehow, I feel like I’m only ever lying to Ian, now as then.’

Irene faced Ian’s still-cold expression and recalled what she had just heard.

‘He has a woman in his heart?’ That Ian? The Ian in her memory was a boy who proposed to her in a shy voice. Irene found it strange that he had found a new connection, not with her. She felt a churning in her stomach.

As Irene offered only a faint smile without any reaction, Pereian, seemingly provoked by her response, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “You must not have been taught how to converse on land.” He smiled a sly smile. It was a sneer directed at Irene, whose face was blank, lost in memories.

“What kind of bride is brought over after how much was paid? Would it be acceptable if she had a defect?” At those words, Irene’s senses snapped back, and she looked up at Pereian with startled eyes. She doubted her own ears.

If the other party had been the Ian of old, she might have chided him, saying that one person should not speak of another’s flaws. The reality that she could not do so felt suffocating for the first time.

“While you’re staring like that, at least try to move your lips more.” Pereian spat out words laced with barbs, without a hint of consideration.

“Aren’t you going to introduce her?”

“……”

“I, too, am a blank slate, aside from the fact that my wife is a princess from the land.” Just as Irene had entered the water without knowing the name of the king she was to marry, Pereian also only knew that the woman to be his wife was a pampered princess from the Kingdom of Epin.

He seemed completely unaware that even that was a lie, and that the woman sent as his wife was a neglected illegitimate daughter.

Irene, rolling her eyes to avoid Pereian’s gaze, cautiously opened her mouth. She feared that if she made eye contact with Ian and revealed her name, her flustered feelings might be exposed.

“I am Irene Iphraim. The bloodline of the Epin royal family you desired.”

Having finished speaking, Irene presented Pereian with a certificate engraved with the Epin royal family’s crest. She wanted to reveal herself as Ruine even now, but just thinking about it sent the terrible sensation she felt when the silence spell was cast spreading through her body once more.

Pereian, who scanned the paper indifferently yet intently, snatched the certificate from Irene’s hand and said,

“Sending this scrap of paper without any envoys.”

He let out a hollow laugh and then muttered,

“I understand well what your country thinks of my seas.”

“……”

“We have no intention of demanding tribute either, so I suppose we understand each other.”

After a moment of silence, Pereian, displeased by something else, grabbed Irene’s chin.

“You didn’t expect love from me, did you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then we can understand each other.”

“What…?”

“Live as if you are dead in this sea. I will never embrace you.”

As Pereian repeated the words he had already spoken several times, as if brainwashing her, Irene lowered her head. Since he had said he had a woman he loved, Irene was also aware that he would not embrace her. But to live as if dead in this sea.

‘With what heart did I come to this sea.’ Irene gritted her teeth. This could not be.

Even at the moment she was falling into the sea, Irene recalled the words Ian had once spoken to her.

-This sea will surely be kind to you. It will make even the rough waves and fierce sea beasts gentle towards you. The kind boy was no longer there. As she acknowledged that gap, a sudden ache welled up in her chest.

As she desperately suppressed the urge to retch, Pereian, noticing it, pulled Irene away.

“Does the noble princess of Epin find this sea disgusting as well?”

“It’s not that…!” The sarcastic tone.  Irene had never, in her entire life, imagined or foreseen Ian speaking to her in such a manner.

‘You said this sea would be kind to me.’ Contrary to those words, Ian’s sea was not kind to Irene.

Even as she threw herself into this sea, the waves that the young Ian had boasted would be kind to Irene writhed as if intending to shatter her body. And Ian himself, the one who had spoken those words, did not hide his contempt for Irene.

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