Chapter 97

Maybe everyone thinks I’m dead and isn’t looking for me. In fact, it is surprising that I am still alive.

‘Well, Kayden and I did survive one fall off a cliff.’

However, at that time we fell vertically into a river with a calm current, not a big river flowing through the island.

‘As soon as the suspension bridge broke, I fell into a big, fast-flowing river. Logically, how could one survive that?’

It’s not just a thing or two that is strange about this island though. In the past, many things have happened that are difficult to explain to the extent that even reasoning is impossible.

I remembered again that Jenas has lived a thousand years. I don’t think I’ll have to endure the next thousand years, do I?

“You must have struggled not to go crazy for a thousand years.”

I encouraged Jenas to talk while keeping my gaze fixed on the fireplace. Jenas’ gaze touched my face.

He looked at me for a while and then asked me. “……do I look like that?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how you feel inside, but I think it’s amazing you look that calm.”

On the other hand, there’s Kayden who once you see him you’ll know he’s a maniac. I turned my head slightly and looked at him lying on the hammock.

The boy, still expressionless, was staring blankly at me.

“What have you been doing on this island for a thousand years?”

Jenas looked up at the sky as if thinking about the answer to my question.

“There was no time to be bored.”

He doesn’t seem to want to say what he’s been doing all this time. I struggled to swallow the ominous assumptions about Jenas that somehow came to mind.

“Did you find out anything about this island? If you’ve been here for a thousand years, you’ve figured something out, right? Like the reason you were kidnapped, and is there really no way to escape?”

“No.”

“What?”

I frowned in surprise at Jenas’ resolute answer.

“No? Nothing?”

Jenas nodded his head calmly in response to my question.

“No. So don’t get your hopes up.”

I do not quite understand. Isn’t the escape door opened every year on this island?

However, it is impossible to bring it up directly to someone I just met.

Feeling a little frustrated, I sighed. “There must be a cause to have an effect. If there is a way in, there must be a way out. You just couldn’t find it.”

As I said that, I became somewhat emotional without myself realizing it.

“It’s so stupid to give up on everything without knowing why you woke up on this island just because you thought there was no way to escape. Did you spend a thousand years so complacently?”

I got emotional and my voice got a little higher. But Jenas, who looked at me, was still calm. He spoke to me in a very calm voice.

“You don’t know how I spent a thousand years.”

I couldn’t understand what he said.

“Yeah, I don’t know. I haven’t lived for a thousand years, how can I know? It may sound funny to you, but I won’t give up.”

Having said that, I clenched my teeth. And I said it again to Jenas, who looked at me like I was a strange creature.

“I want to live.”

At my words, Jenas tilted his head.

“You are still alive.”

“As long as I’m stuck on this island, I’m defending my life, not alive.”

Surprised, he looked at me with his eyes wide open. Immediately after, what could be called an expression appeared on his face.

The corners of his eyes curved gently into crescents. Yes, he smiled at me.

Maybe because he’s a handsome boy, his pretty smile seems to be shining.

“That’s a funny thing to say,” Jenas murmured slowly, then smiled again.

I stared blankly at his smile and came to my senses belatedly.

“I have to go find my group. I’ll be leaving tomorrow. I’m sure they’re looking for me.”

“Do you have to? Your wound hasn’t healed yet.”

“Yes, I do. Do you want to go with me?”

“No.”

Jenas leaned his head back and lay down looking at the ceiling. While looking at him like that, I suddenly remembered the bunker map.

The reason I didn’t tell Enoch and the others about the bunker was that I wanted to leave it as a kind of escape for me in case the story carried on like the original.

But now that I met Jenas, I don’t think something like that would matter. If he’s lived on this island for a thousand years, he must have known about the bunker.

I may not be the only one who knows about the bunker’s existence.

“You, do you know the geography of this island well?”

Then, Jenas raised his head again and looked at me. He gently nodded his head.

“Yes.”

“Then……”

I tried my luck carefully.

“Do you happen to know that there is something like a bunker on this island?”

Jenas nodded once more and replied, “Yes.”

Yeah, you should know that much. That’s a relief. I’m sure I can get at least one useful piece of information.

I took out the bunker map from my wet crossbody bag. Then I remembered the date written at the end of the map.

‘Huh? Hold up. Come to think of it……’

Ingram Kingdom Calendar, 666.

I stared at the year written on the edge of the bunker map.

A bunker map that looks like it was made a thousand years ago, and a wizard from the kingdom of Ingram who says he has lived for a thousand years.

‘What is this……? This ominous premonition.’

At that time, Jenas glanced at the bunker map in my hand and said, “You picked it up. I didn’t see you.”

‘What?’

I have a lot of questions, but I don’t think I should hear the answers now.

‘It was as if he had been watching me all this time.’

My mind flashed as if cold water had been poured over my whole body. Then I remembered what Kayden had said,

“When I went out for an excursion a few days ago, I saw a monster watching me.”

“It looked like a wolf-type monster. Usually, this type of monster immediately attacks us when it sees us. But after looking at me for a while, it just walked away, as if just watching what I was doing.”

Could it be? Was it Jenas who was watching over us?

First of all, I think I should not disclose the information I have as much as possible. Instead, I’ll have to dig up as much information as I can from him.

I don’t feel good.

Pretending I didn’t hear him because I was concentrating, I said calmly, “I will go to the bunker.”

I spread the map on the floor and looked up at Jenas.

“Do you know where it is?”

Hearing my question, Jenas slowly got off the hammock. It took a long time, probably because he was a small and slow-moving child.

Oh, well, the word child is definitely not right for him.

Jenas knelt in front of the map.

“Here.”

Then he pointed to the northwestern tip of the island with his little finger. You have to take a long way to get there.

“I must have crossed over to the North Island.”

It is also a place marked with a star on Yuanna’s map. In fact, I still don’t know what the star on the map means.

So, I don’t know if Jenas is a kidnapper, an accomplice, or if he’s really a victim like us, but I have a hunch that he might be related to the secret of the island.

Jenas nodded. “Yes, here. North Island.”

I raised my head and looked at Jenas.

“Have you been to the bunker?”

“I made this map.”

I kind of expected it. So, without being surprised, I calmly accepted the fact.

I looked at the map with a bit of frustration. Actually, he was suspicious from the first time we met, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of doing anything to me……

I tried to ask him directly if he was the kidnapper, but I couldn’t because that might be a way to provoke him.

“What’s in the bunker?”

“Food and daily necessities……?”

“Is it still edible? Or has it expired?”

“I think you can eat it. I don’t need food, so I just left it.”

Hearing Jenas’ words, I nodded and propped my chin up. Even in the original story, it is stated that the bunker was full of food and supply boxes.

So Jenas wasn’t lying.

He said he didn’t know how to escape, so there was no point in asking about it.

Then what else should I ask? Something I can ask without giving him the nuance that I’m doubting him as much as I can……

-growling.

At that time, my stomach announced its hunger. I was so startled that I grabbed my stomach.

Jenas stared at me with his widened red eyes, then burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! Your stomach is rumbling! Haha!”

He was laughing out loud like a child with a bright face. What’s so fun about it? I am embarrassed, damn it.

It’s the first time since I met him that he’s showing such strong emotion.