If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 1.34

Just moments ago, she thought she was about to be devoured by the demonic beast that had been mimicking Ian, but Pereian didn’t seem to think she was trying to kill herself at all.

“Tell me you weren’t trying to die.”

Pereian was breathing heavily, having rushed through the water. His eyes were filled with anxiety and anger, but Irene finally felt relieved as she looked into them.

Only then did the fact that Pereian had pulled her back from the brink of death hit her with overwhelming force.

“I don’t know what you mean by trying to die, Pereian.”

She could say with certainty that she had never wanted to die. Until the very last moment when she closed her eyes, she had wanted to live. She couldn’t understand what Pereian was saying, or how he had come to be here, but Irene could recognize one thing.

The Pereian Richard in front of her was not a hallucination, and he had pulled her back into life.

Guilt washed over her. Irene turned her body completely to face Pereian directly. Then, she raised her hand and stroked Pereian’s head a couple of times, who looked almost pathetic.

He flinched as if no one had ever touched him before, even though he claimed to have a woman he loved, and Irene’s face brightened.

She had a mountain of questions she wanted to ask, but right now, she wanted the Ian in front of her to calm down more than anything. She was just that kind of person.

“Disappearing without a word, not leaving Deltia.”

Pereian trailed off. He knew he shouldn’t be this angry, but he couldn’t seem to stop questioning her.

“So, are you saying you’re disappointed you couldn’t die because of me?”

“I think you’re misunderstanding. I never tried to die.”

“Then what did I see?”

“I heard a hallucination coming from the cave.”

Pereian sighed and asked again, “You walked towards it, deceived by a hallucination?”

“Yes. It was definitely Pereian’s voice.”

Irene, who was confessing the truth, suddenly stopped talking. It was a mistake. She didn’t intend to say that she heard Pereian’s voice, but her heart melted in the warmth of Pereian that spread through her body.

“My voice…”

Pereian chuckled. It was ridiculous. The woman’s words that she approached after hearing his voice seemed like a lie.

“Were we ever close enough to approach each other by hearing each other’s voices?”

She was a woman full of lies. Perhaps she was lying again because she couldn’t die. He shook off the hair that Irene had touched. He felt unhappy.

Why did his rough breathing calm down with that touch? He expressed displeasure at the thought that even his body was out of control.

Pereian then examined the woman’s face. She had an excessively serene face, even though she would have died if he had arrived just a little later. Pereian didn’t like that serenity. It was like she was waiting for death. He had been bothered by the woman’s remark that this sea was gentle.

Even though he thought Ruine would look completely different from Irene Iphraim, he couldn’t understand why they kept overlapping. That serene face was the same. She said this sea was gentle, so why was she trying to die in the arms of that gentle sea?

Suddenly, Sipri from the day he was saved from the assassin’s hand came to mind. He recalled his past self, helpless and not resisting the assassination attempt.

Amidst the flooding memories, he chuckled briefly. The emotion Pereian harbored was truly selfish. A desire to hate her, yet also a wish for her not to die. This selfishness stemmed from the fact that even if Epin’s princess were to die, this complex situation wouldn’t end, and rather, Epin might use her death as a pretext.

Pereian frowned.

It was an expression starkly contrasting with the woman’s face. What would have happened if the woman had died here? If so, her death would have sparked numerous controversies.

Rumors would have certainly spread that the tyrant had finally killed even the queen. She was also one of Epin’s people, and they were a kind who only knew their own. Imagining it made him feel like his reason was evaporating.

Pereian moved the woman’s body away from him and turned his gaze to where the demonic beast was.

“Look. That’s what tried to kill you.”

At the end of his pointing finger was a whale. The spirit that had tracked Irene’s location and guided Pereian was crushing the demonic beast. It seemed intent on holding it until Pereian caught and killed the demonic beast.

After placing Irene on a safe rock, Pereian walked towards the demonic beast. As he reached out his hand, ordinary seawater coalesced and formed a spear.

Pereian threw the spear as it was, hitting the demonic beast. The demonic beast let out a strange sound and spewed blood. Irene squeezed her eyes shut at the grotesque sight.

As Pereian approached the demonic beast’s corpse, the whale circling the demonic beast turned its body. The whale was now moving towards Irene’s side.

“Kiee, kieee…”

The whale, pressing its snout against Irene’s body, emitted a cry of relief. Though it was an animal incapable of speech, Irene felt as though she understood the whale’s heart. All of the whale’s actions seemed to express concern for Irene.

Pereian, having thoroughly severed the monster’s breath, examined its type.

“This is…”

Perhaps Irene’s claim of hearing auditory hallucinations wasn’t entirely false; the monster was a Phantom, a type that lured prey with hallucinations and auditory illusions.

However, one thing was strange.

Pereian, to confirm, asked Irene again, “You heard my voice?”

“Ah, yes…”

Irene, seemingly embarrassed, lowered her head deeply. Beside her, the spirit whale, oblivious to its own size, kept pressing its body against Irene.

‘There’s no way.’

Even among Phantoms, this was a rather high-ranking monster. Though slow in movement, it possessed an exceptional ability to cunningly entice prey; Pereian himself had almost fallen victim to it carelessly in his early days on the throne. It didn’t simply show generic hallucinations or auditory illusions, but rather, it first charmed its prey and then read the target’s memories.

Having read the prey’s memories, the monster extracted beautiful memories or desires from within. Thus, those charmed by the monster saw fragments of the happy future they had envisioned or the beautiful past.

He, too, had once heard auditory hallucinations. At the time, Pereian was a man trapped in the past, so the auditory hallucination he heard was the voice of young Ruine.

For a monster that charmed its target with such affection to have made that woman hear his voice. Pereian couldn’t believe it.

‘Why me?’

Irene Iphraim, why did you hear my voice? He felt like he was missing something. The fact that Irene heard Pereian’s voice through the Phantom meant that Irene cherished Pereian deeply in her heart.

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