If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.3

‘Liar. You, and your sea are not kind to me.’ She could understand that Ian didn’t recognize her.

-Hey, what’s your name? I’m Ian. Call me Ian. “I’m I, no… Irene.” Young Irene, already knowing the entire kingdom hated her, had hidden her real name out of fear.

Along with Ian not recognizing her, she felt it was unavoidable that she couldn’t be loved by Ian.

From the moment the engagement was made for political reasons, Irene hadn’t hoped for or expected a loving marriage.

To be loved by someone. That was a fantasy to Irene. So, it wouldn’t be any different even if the other person was Ian. Whether her husband was Ian or another man, Irene intended to live resolutely in this sea.

However, the reason she felt so wronged by the cold words of Pereian, who didn’t recognize her, was due to his drastically changed attitude compared to the Ian with whom she had shared voices through the night.

‘Were you this kind of person?’ Ian had a prickly side, but even that was only because he was shy.

As the time they knew each other grew, he had been a kind boy.

‘Should I be relieved that you don’t have to embrace a woman you don’t love?’

Irene swallowed hard. ‘Or should I be sad that the target of your coldness is me.’

Betrayal. It was a kind of betrayal towards Ian, who was so different from the person she knew.

The nausea I felt, and the way I kept lowering my head, were all because of that.

‘Ian, if that is your true attitude, I suppose I’ll have to accept it.’ As if having made a firm resolve, Irene, who clenched her fists, looked up at Pereian boldly, and Pereian spoke again. “I suspect the Madam also has someone else in her heart.”

Pereian asked as if testing her, as if this were the final hurdle. “Am I correct in my guess?”

Irene, momentarily flustered, soon returned to a calm gaze and nodded.

“Yes. My first love, whom I left on land.” Irene recalled Ian’s youthful voice once more.

‘That Ian was left on land. This man is the current Ian.’ Sometimes, acceptance can be a source of strength.

Irene, acknowledging Ian’s changed demeanor, finally gained the courage to step into the sea.

“You left your first love?”

“……Because that child doesn’t love me.”

Pereian’s expression briefly contorted.

Irene quickly added, without giving him a chance to speak.

“But still, if that child is happy, it feels like everything will be alright.”

Not even knowing if those words referred to himself, Pereian laughed heartily and replied, grabbing Irene’s shoulder with one hand. “Yes, that’s fortunate. At least you won’t bother me for the reason that you love me.” As if he had finished saying everything he needed to say, Pereian suddenly reached out his hand to the right and, in an instant, sculpted a horse out of water.

It was the horse that had been beside Pereian when she saw him on the cliff. He mounted Irene on the horse and skillfully rode it.

“Where are we going?”

“My palace.”

As she felt Pereian’s body behind her, Irene’s body also stiffened. Irene mulled over Pereian’s voice. She had already been informed that there would be no love in this marriage, but that no longer mattered to Irene.

At this moment, only one fact filled Irene’s mind. ‘Ian is by my side.’ That Ian was within reach. ‘He is breathing next to me.’

That was enough for Irene. Even if he didn’t recognize her true identity, even if her love wasn’t reciprocated. If Ian was by her side, she felt she could overcome all those deficiencies.

“A woman came and threw herself in.” Around the time Irene threw herself into the sea and faced Pereian, rumors about the suicide of an unidentified woman spread quickly on land. The origin of the rumors was a small village near the cliffs where the carriage carrying Irene had been headed.

“Drowned?”

“That’s what they say. She came with just one man who looked like a knight, and suddenly jumped in.”

“Was it a noble’s child who died?”

Details about the deceased woman’s appearance also circulated, but the rumors soon died down. The death of someone nobody knew was merely a fleeting topic of conversation.

However, nobles who heard the descriptions of her appearance instinctively realized that the illegitimate princess had been sent to the Sea Kingdom.

While the common folk didn’t know of Irene’s existence, having spent her life in the royal palace’s basement, the nobles closely connected to the royal family were different. Those in power had known of Irene for a long time, and they criticized her more harshly than the king.

“A disgrace to Epin.” “The King’s mistake.”

In the Kingdom of Epin, where concubinage and bigamy were legally forbidden, Irene’s very existence was illegal. The nobles, who maintained their lineage through their ties to the royal family, sought to erase Irene’s existence for the sake of Epin’s national prestige.

Then, the news of Irene’s suicide suddenly arrived, making it only a matter of time before the political world became rife with hushed whispers.

“To be sent to that madman. What a tragic fate.”

“She was quite attractive. Given how things turned out, I should have bought her myself first.”

The King of Epin, having gathered the high-ranking nobles, fanned the flames of the endlessly overflowing rumors about the illegitimate daughter. No, he made it certain.

“The illegitimate daughter has been sent to Deltia.”

As if it were of no consequence, he continued to speak.

“Now the shame of the royal family is as good as dead.”

The King’s proclamation was soon a blessing for the nobles who relied on the Epin royal family’s dignity.

Irene’s plunge, which had only been a rumor, soon became a fact shared by Epin’s major powers.

The flaw of Epin, who had become the Queen of the Underwater Kingdom, became a woman already dead before the people even knew of her birth. It was a false end to a life that never even reached her.

Deltia was luxurious wherever the eye could see, as if boasting of its own brilliant civilization. From the royal palace to the daily lives of its citizens, magic protected all buildings and objects from corrosion by seawater in this country.

The Underwater Palace was a building that represented Deltia’s national power above all else. It featured styles unseen in Epin’s royal castle, with buildings decorated with coral and pearls everywhere.

Among them, there was one palace where coral stood out particularly, and that was the Queen’s residence where Irene would stay.

“It’s called the Coral Palace,” Ian explained the structure of the Underwater Palace in a perfunctory tone. He seemed bored, even with the tour.

“You must understand by now. The basic structure should be no different from a land kingdom.”

“There’s still more.”

Irene had been shown around the palace by Pereian, but there was one place she hadn’t heard about. The place Pereian omitted was also the place she was most interested in after her residence.

“If my residence is Coral Palace, then where is Your Highness’s palace?”

She had only believed he would answer something like this. However, Pereian was a man who had already greatly deviated from her expectations.

“Have you already forgotten what I said? I distinctly told you to live as if you were dead in Coral Palace.”

As if merely asking had crossed a line, Pereian looked at Irene with a sharp gaze.

“Forget about coming to my palace for trivial matters.”

Just then, the attendants of Coral Palace who had come to greet Irene witnessed the scene and gasped. Even to them, Pereian’s gaze as he looked at the new queen was mixed with contempt.

Pereian left without revealing his residence to Irene until the very end.

As he disappeared into the distance with the horse that had carried Irene, the attendants, who had been cautiously observing their lord, one by one approached and stood before Irene.

“These are the children who will serve Her Majesty the Queen from today.”

A woman who appeared to be the highest-ranking among the attendants lined up the others and bowed. “I am Atina, the head maid of Coral Palace.” “I, I am Irene Iphraim. Please take care of me.”

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