If I Throw Myself into His Sea - Episode 2.19

Irene, who had drawn attention with a forced cough along with her response, stared at Rupel. He still seemed to be waiting for Irene’s answer to his question.

“Rupel.”

If she had intended to hide her reunion with Ian, she wouldn’t have written the letter at all. She just hadn’t expected to meet Rupel in this way. A resolute expression appeared on Irene, who had resolved to tell the truth.

“Your guesses are all correct. Pereian is Ian, my first love.”

“You said he wasn’t kind to you. I saw it too. He dragged you out roughly.”

“That’s…”

“Don’t tell me you’re satisfied with such treatment and sent me letters saying life in Deltia is fine.”

“I sent them because it really is fine. I’m not in a position to demand warm treatment.”

Irene added briefly,

“Above all, I’m comfortable with this sea he rules. At least I don’t starve or get beaten by anyone.”

At those words, Rupel tightly closed his mouth. There was some truth to Irene’s words.

It was even more understandable because he knew how Irene had grown up in the basement. This place would be more comfortable than the Epin royal palace, where surveillance was everywhere and harsh actions toward her delicate body poured down. Even if the other person was her first love who had turned cold.

“Should I call this fortunate?”

“It is fortunate. Who would have known the day would come when I could treat you like this?”

At the words thrown out like a joke, Rupel bowed his head deeply. He couldn’t help but hate himself for momentarily pushing and interrogating Irene about her situation.

“Irene, let me ask you just one more thing.”

“Yeah.”

“He’s acting like that even after recognizing you?”

He was Irene’s close friend, so he couldn’t know Pereian Richard’s heart, but clearly, Irene’s stories of ‘Ian’ from childhood were closer to love than friendship.

Even if it was an outdated first love, he wondered if he would have treated Irene better if he had recognized her. Irene shook her head and replied,

“He didn’t recognize me. I told you I lied about my name back then. Besides, I can’t reveal my past because I have to be the precious princess of Epin.”

“That’s…”

How could the world be like that? Rupel was frustrated as if it were his own problem. Irene smiled softly, offering him a dessert plate.

“Don’t worry about me, just eat this quickly.”

“How can I do that? When there’s so much to worry about…!”

Rupel stood up abruptly and ruffled his hair. Irene also got up and comforted her close friend. Just then, another figure appeared at the garden entrance. Rupel, unaware of the presence of others, grumbled as Irene comforted him.

“Why does your husband, Irene, don’t try to understand that bastard too much?”

Rupel spat out his dissatisfaction.

“That bastard, huh.”

However, what returned to him was not Irene’s reply, but the response of a strange man. Rupel, reacting to the unfamiliar voice, turned his head.

“I heard you were having a cozy conversation with my wife.”

A frigid voice cut in between Rupel and Irene once more. It was a voice Irene had heard and repeated dozens, even hundreds, of times since coming to this sea.

“I guess you were laughing while gossiping about me.”

The owner of the voice was Pereian. Approaching Irene abruptly, Pereian scrutinized Rupel without concealing his animosity.

“Now that she’s married to me and become a person of Deltia, I don’t think you, an envoy of Epin, have any right to interfere in our marital affairs.”

“……”

“Am I wrong? What do you say?”

He didn’t take his eyes off Rupel as he seized Irene’s wrist. Soon, he raised his hand holding his wife’s wrist as if to flaunt it, adding:

“For instance, even if I grab this woman right now and disappear into the bedroom…”

“……!”

“You wouldn’t be able to protest to me, would you?”

Having finished speaking, Pereian shook off the wrist he had been holding as if even that brief contact was unpleasant. Irene, unable to resist, hid the hand that had been held and then dropped behind her back.

Rupel blinked repeatedly, finding it difficult to accept Pereian’s actions unfolding before his eyes. His gaze shifted from his friend’s hand to her face, filled with shame.

Rupel and Irene’s gazes briefly met. Rupel’s eyes seemed to ask if she was truly alright with such treatment, and Irene avoided his gaze, bowing her head.

“…I apologize to Your Highness for any offense caused by my words and actions.”

After a silence, Rupel was the first to yield. As a mere envoy, Rupel could not stand against Pereian, the King of the Undersea Kingdom.

Despite his apology, Pereian made no effort to respond. As if losing interest, Pereian turned his gaze from him and finally looked at Irene.

‘Her expression…’

Her flushed face held an emotion closer to shame than shyness, unlike before. An expression as if she was biting her lip and enduring something. It was a first.

No matter how coldly he treated her, she would only cry, never hardening her expression like this.

He had not anticipated that her face, so indifferent and detached even in the face of countless humiliations, would break down in this way.

Pereian raised his hand. As he always did, he intended to grasp her chin and further capture Irene’s expression in his eyes. But this time, it didn’t go as he pleased.

“Don’t, please.”

Irene muttered, turning her head away, rejecting Pereian’s touch. It was a firm refusal, and the first act of defiance she had ever committed.

At Irene’s voice, Rupel looked up and gazed at the two of them. Pereian’s hand, frozen in mid-air, was reflected in Rupel’s pupils. At a glance, Pereian seemed bewildered.

Rupel sighed softly. Irene had clearly said she was alright, but her face now showed she was anything but. No woman would be unaffected by her husband’s mockery in front of her close friend. Moreover, Pereian’s actions were not mere contempt, but closer to harassment.

Pained that Irene, who had barely left the land, was being subjected to such treatment, Rupel clenched his fist and addressed Pereian.

“…With all due respect, as a friend of Irene, I have a request to make of Your Highness.”

Support If I Throw Myself into His Sea