If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.28

He said it was a magical artifact bought with money.

“Send this out whenever you miss the land.”

How could he miss the land when he had never even seen it? Pereian muttered inwardly.

He became a close friend with Sipri, exchanging greetings often from that day on. Avoiding the eyes of the other royal children, they competed in magic, judging each other’s superiority by the amount of magic power or the magic they could manifest.

In the midst of the chaotic situation, his fourteenth birthday approached. As if the Crown Prince had been waiting for that day, he didn’t leave Pereian alone. He lost consciousness from the barrage of kicks, and when he barely opened his eyes, the day had already ended. His birthday was such a futile day.

Pereian, who had healed his wounds without making it obvious, suddenly thought: What is my birth mother doing right now, having abandoned me here? Does she even know that today is the day she gave birth to her child? With an empty heart, Pereian picked up the conch shell his birth mother had left behind.

“Send this out whenever you miss the land.”

Was it because he had been nursing his wounds?

Pereian finally discovered the tear stains hidden behind the phrase he had dismissed as meaningless.

That day, Pereian sent the conch shell out to sea instead of receiving a birthday present. It wasn’t that he wanted it to reach his mother. He wasn’t desperate enough for his birth mother to try and reconnect a bond that had already been severed. The target was a boy of his age.

With the small hope that he wouldn’t be as arrogant as Sipri, who was becoming increasingly impudent, he cast a target designation spell on the conch shell and sent it out to sea.

Clearly, it felt as if the magic had been undone by someone’s touch, but no matter how long I held the remaining conch shell to my ear, no voice came. Could my father have found out?

But he was so obsessed with women that he had forgotten about patrolling the sea.

Should I have attached instructions for use?

Regretful, Pereian gradually forgot about the conch shell’s existence. He even stopped putting it to his ear every day, waiting for a voice. I’m always unlucky. I must be someone everyone spits out.

That’s why even small connections like this don’t form easily.

Thinking that all this was useless, I wanted to put the conch shell away again. After leaving it neglected for a few days, I picked up the conch shell, dusted it off, and put it to my ear one last time. That’s when a small sound came from within.

-… It wasn’t a voice, but a distinct wheezing sound. The kind of cozy sound a child makes when falling into a deep sleep. The conch shell had never made such a sound before.

Pereian, his eyes wide open at the faint breathing sound as if someone was near the conch shell, listened again and cautiously spoke,

“Is anyone there?”

A brief silence was followed by a gasp.

They must have been surprised to hear a voice coming from the conch shell for the first time. Pereian chuckled, hearing the other person’s intake of breath.

-Wh-who is it? Where are you?

It was strange. I had clearly cast a spell so that a boy of similar age would pick it up, but after waiting for so long, the response I finally received was from a girl.

After roughly explaining, Pereian made a capricious decision. He didn’t want to refuse the chance to have someone to talk to, now that he had been lucky enough to find one.

“Explanations later. You, be my friend.”

The girl laughed without hesitation. The clear laughter seemed to momentarily relax Pereian’s tense body.

“Call me Ian. My real name is longer, anyway. What’s your name?”

After all, this kid is a land dweller. With that thought, Pereian wasn’t ashamed of his existence. However, he didn’t know what might happen if he revealed his real name, so he used the name his birth mother had called him instead.

“Ruine. My name is Ruine, Ian.”

The only girls his age around him had been his half-blood princesses, so everything felt awkward to Pereian. He was unnecessarily grumpy and stiff, but Ruine didn’t push him away.

“Ruine, Ruine.”

Even late at night, when the girl had fallen asleep and he was alone again, Pereian savored her name. The pronunciation that came out when he rolled his tongue in his mouth felt pleasant. Indeed, it was a name that grew on him the more he said it.

‘Ruine…’

Pereian thought that her voice was as sweet as her name. He spent days, two days, and then years together. Ruine felt more like family than the half-blooded Deltia royals. Just hearing her voice filled his heart.

Because Ruine had such a warm heart, Pereian thought he couldn’t help but love her. At times, it was funny. His father had brought a woman from the land to give birth to him, and he himself was in love with a girl from the land.

Ruine had more in common with Pereian than he thought. She also lived with people who didn’t treat her like family, and she said she had never been outside the basement. Pereian couldn’t understand Ruine’s family for mistreating her. Even he, who was so far away, loved Ruine, but they didn’t love her even though they could see her whenever they wanted.

“…What’s the point of having eyes? If that’s all they can do with them.”

“Huh?”

“If it were me, the moment I saw Ruine…”

They said she had silver hair and blue eyes. Unlike himself, with his jet-black hair and ominous red eyes that everyone pointed fingers at.

“How could I not like you?”

I fall for you every day, even though I don’t even know what you look like. Pereian made a decision.

Someday, when the day comes when he can reveal this hidden magic and live proudly, he must find Ruine. He heard that becoming the king of Deltia could further amplify his magic. This meant that, just as his father had kidnapped a woman from the land, Pereian could also use that magic to go to the land and endure to some extent.

When the day comes when I am proud of my existence. If I can live in the underwater kingdom without any pain. I will propose to Ruine.

This small decision kept Pereian alive at the time. Even if he finished the day covered in bruises, Pereian could smile because there was a conversation with Ruine at the end.

It was as if they were living together. The more he did, the more the desire for a family with Ruine grew.

“Someday I will go to the land and propose to you, Ruine.”

He barely swallowed it, but the emotion that had grown in size popped out on its own. It was inevitable because they had just had a conversation about marriage.

“The two of us, we’ll create the warmest family in the world.”

Pereian squeezed his eyes shut as if embarrassed and waited for Ruine’s answer. The second it took to swallow felt like a day. Ruine asked back what that meant. Thinking that his heart had already been revealed, Pereian expressed his feelings a little more actively.

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