If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.22

No wonder she was so captivated. Irene pointed to a conch shell hanging at the shabby entrance and smiled brightly. It was the first time Atina had seen such a radiant face since the monarch’s visit, and she moved as Irene led, as if possessed.

The shop sold things that were no different from its appearance. Filled only with old books and outdated items that weren’t even treated as valuables, Atina sighed and looked at Irene. She opened her mouth to tell her to go to another store, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Irene was taking in the items with more excitement than anyone else. A hunched-over owner approached Irene, who was holding a leaf encased in a preservation film, and spoke to her. Even without revealing that she was a princess from the mainland, the old man had a face as if he had seen through everything.

“You must have been born on land to be drawn to things of the land.”

A mainland inland leaf specially processed to never rot permanently, an outdated valuable. Irene, who stroked the preservation film a few times, poured out questions to the owner.

“How do you preserve this like this?”

“Our ancestors taught us.”

“The ancestors of Deltia.”

“Yes, the ones who came down from the land and first pioneered this sea.”

The owner smiled on his wrinkled face and continued.

“The ancestors are dead, and the undersea people who have succeeded them no longer feel a sense of belonging to the land.”

Even though he was clearly smiling, Irene couldn’t help but listen to his somehow lonely appearance.

“The craft of preserving things from the land is dying out, but that is why it is precious.”

“We were once land dwellers, so everyone is of one origin.”

Irene nodded, holding the leaf to her chest. She seemed determined to buy it.

“Who are you going to give it to?”

“Ah, I’m going to give this to Lord Sipri.”

In truth, as the old man said, these leaves were now treated as burdens by the Deltians, but for some reason, Atina smiled softly, thinking that Sipri would laugh and accept it if Irene gave it to him.

In the meantime, Irene moved busily, darting around the store. Now, she even looked at the commonplace conch shells with wonder. Atina approached Irene as if she couldn’t help herself.

“That’s a conch-shaped communicator. I thought we’d never see one again because the late king discontinued them and had them all destroyed.”

It was amazing. A communicator that was no longer produced in Deltia was in this shabby store. Regulations had been lifted since the late king’s death, but it was originally an unpopular item, so stores didn’t bother putting them back on the shelves.

In the first place, all the undersea kingdoms strictly adhered to the rules set by the late king, so even if the tyrant lifted the regulations, they wouldn’t listen.

“Do you like this?”

“Yes.”

“Shall I buy one for Irene?”

When Atina picked up one of the two, Irene stopped her hand and shook her head. Atina tilted her head, worried that she was being passive because she liked it but wasn’t buying it, perhaps because she was worried about money.

“I just… want to look at it here.”

She could have bought them. Irene knew that with the gold coins Atina had brought, she could buy everything in this store. But she didn’t want to. Nothing else mattered except for the conch shell

Ian had sent to the mainland, which Rupel and the nanny had given her as a gift. Shifting her gaze to the other items in the store, Irene recalled the late king’s regulations that Atina had mentioned.

All the conch communicators that had been produced were also collected and disposed of, she had said.

What if Ian’s conch shell had also been destroyed back then? What if the late king, who had acted as if he wanted to kill Ian, had somehow found and destroyed all the conch communicators, and as a result, communication with Ian had been cut off?

If that were really the case… She needed to confirm.

“Atina, you said these conch communicators are hard to find now.”

“Yes. It’s amazing that they’re even selling them here.”

Irene returned to the display where the conch shells were and picked one up.

“My plans have changed.”

“Are you going to buy one?”

“Yes. Since it’s rare, I’ll give it to His Highness.”

Then she smiled like an idiot. Even as she feigned a bright smile, she kept thinking.

‘Let’s give it to Pereian as a gift.’

If he hadn’t intentionally gotten rid of or removed the conch shells, wouldn’t he feel like he was getting back something he had unwillingly lost in his childhood?

‘I hope he smiles when he receives the gift.’

Although she couldn’t reveal that she was Ruine, she could pass it off as simply giving a rare gift without knowing anything. Anticipating Pereian’s reaction to receiving the conch shell, Irene left the store.

I was going to return to the Coral Palace and deliver it with the letter.

The Deep Sea Palace was terribly dark, just like its master. The magnificent structure of the building echoed even the smallest voice, making it feel like being in an underwater cave.

Pereian wondered at the strangely desolate interior.

‘Last night, the Queen requested to visit the Deep Sea Palace.’

Pereian, who heard the request after dawn, hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t like she was asking to have dinner together like last time, but since she said she just had something to visit for a while, he accepted it, thinking he would hear her out, but even after the appointed time had passed, there was no sign of the Queen arriving.

The office of the Deep Sea Palace. Pereian, who couldn’t wait any longer, gestured briefly.

“Report on the Queen’s whereabouts.”

At Pereian’s command, his confidants, who periodically returned to the Deep Sea Palace to report on the movements of various parts of the underwater palace, came in one after another.

“She stayed in her bedroom all the time and went out of the palace yesterday.”

“Purpose of going out?”

“I’m not sure about that.”

Pereian clicked his tongue and drove his confidants with a fierce look. “I saw it all. The way she came back with gifts.”

Another henchman, who had been looking for a chance to impress Pereian, seized the moment and spoke up.

After hearing even about the movements of the noble families who had supported the late king, he dismissed his henchmen and muttered to himself, swallowing his annoyance.

“I thought they were behaving themselves.”

He didn’t think he needed to receive any further reports about Irene Iphraim’s activities. She must have been buying luxury goods, as always. That’s what the royalty of the mainland were like.

From not addressing the scandals of foreign monarchs to regarding this underwater kingdom’s civilization as barbaric, he hadn’t liked any of them from the start. To think that the woman who had been refusing to eat as if she had read his desire for her unhappiness was now spending money as if nothing had happened, and she was the queen of the underwater kingdom.

Pereian suddenly rose from his throne in the office, wondering if he could perhaps depose the queen on the grounds of extravagance. Let’s see what she bought. And it would be even better if he could find a pretext to criticize her behavior.

Pereian curled up the corners of his lips. A bitter smile washed over his well-maintained skin.

The Coral Palace was in a state of emergency even before Pereian arrived.

It wasn’t his return visit that was the problem. Rather, it was the fact that the owner of the Coral Palace was suffering from a fever immediately after returning that was the bigger issue. Perhaps it was going out with a weakened body that had caused the illness, the resident physician of the Coral Palace said, taking Irene’s pulse.

The doctor added that it seemed that land dwellers did not easily adapt to underwater life.

Everyone should have been taking care of her with all their heart, but Irene was being driven to pain under Pereian’s leadership.

“If only I hadn’t asked Irene to go out.”

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