A King is Born on the Road

Hayer explained to his mother, who was looking at her son with empty eyes.

“Mother, if magic is used skillfully, you may be able to clear your mind for a while.”

Peonia tilted her head at his words.

“Hm?”

“You may feel a little dizzy.”

Peonia was just nodding whether she understood or not.

Hayer, who was explaining it carefully as if he were doing it to a child, gathered his mother’s messy hair and started brushing it after receiving a comb from the maid.

While Peonia was dozing off as if the comb made her drowsy, Cadella tried to cast a spell.

He used a hallucinogen similar to the amount he used on Iris, but Peonia was only a little tired and did not go into a complete hallucination.

Cadella grumbled at Hayer.

“I just realized it now, but Iris is very unhealthy.”

“More than my mother who lives here in confinement?”

“Uh-huh. She must be born like that.”

Hayer, who was told that she was not healthy because of the poison used by King Eswa while she was in the womb, narrowed his eyes, not knowing that it was that serious.

Meanwhile, Peonia seemed to be slowly losing her consciousness, and stumbled.

Hayer hurriedly helped his mother to the bed and laid her down. Then he looked at his mother for a while, who was sleeping soundly.

“…Well, it’s nice to see you sleep with such a comfortable face even if it fails.”

Cadella, who was watching Hayer muttering like that, asked.

“Should I just let her sleep a little longer?”

“No, but I should know about my father.”

Cadella nodded at Hayer’s words and asked again.

“Did you say she first met your father when she was fifteen?”

“Yes.”

“Then she’ll have to go back to being fifteen.”

Shortly after Cadella said that, an uneasy look permeated Peonia’s face.

Hayer asked.

“Mother, have you met my father?”

Then Peonia slowly opened her mouth.

“Oh… yes, I did.”

───  ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅  ───

That day, the Asheri family mansion.

On the balcony of Peonia’s bedroom was a tall, blood-stained boy of her age.

Peonia, who was about to fall asleep, spotted the boy and froze. The boy used the last of his strength to come in, shut the door, and put his hand over her mouth.

The blood from the boy’s body stained Peonia’s white nightgown. The boy breathed as if he was about to die.

Peonia’s fear slowly subsided from the moment she made eye contact with the boy. His bright orange eyes were shaking with guilt.

Peonia pushed the boy’s hand away slowly. As she guessed, the boy still had strength, but he removed his hand as Peonia did. Then, he took a sharp folding knife from his waistband and handed it to Peonia.

“If I look dangerous, protect yourself.”

The boy said so, and fell unconscious in her arms.

Peonia trembled all over, but she could not leave the boy alone. As soon as he came in, her mouth was kept shut, so no one should notice.

Lifting up the plain black shirt the boy was wearing, she saw a serious cut on his waist. It was such a wound that it would not be strange for ordinary people to die instantly.

Peonia breathed out another trembling breath. She already knew where the boy had fled from and ended up here.

Peonia was a member of the Asheri family, who loved peace at best and was good at walking a tightrope at worst. She knew that if this boy died right now, there would be no peace in Luwan.

She tore the sheet with the knife and tied the boy’s wound tightly. In Peonia’s judgement, this midnight intruder had to be saved.

Her memories passed quickly from the first meeting. Then, years later, she remembered when the boy became a man and they reunited.

She found out she was pregnant and told the man she wanted to leave.

“If this is your child, you die. Don’t talk nonsense when you don’t have the strength to survive. Are all three of us going to die?”

As soon as she remembered her harsh words and the sad eyes of the man listening to them, Peonia came back to her senses and opened her eyes. Cadella’s hallucinogenic drug was returning her confused mind to a rather normal state.

When she came to her senses, there was her second son and a child in front of her.

“Hayer. My son.”

Peonia briefly returned to her original personality. As a typical Asheri family member, judging coldly and was cool-headed.

She asked Hayer, in terrible distress by the insecurity and confusion she had been trapped in.

“How is the situation now?”

───  ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅  ───

Hayer couldn’t remember his mother well before he was ten.

Like any other child of the royal family, he was raised by a nanny, and as far as he remembers, his mother was always drinking tea in the parlour or the royal garden. And after the age of ten, most of the mother he remembered was sobbing for her son to be saved.

Seeing Peonia return to her full mind, Hayer dimly remembered that her mother was such a cool-headed person.

Cadella hid behind Hayer’s back, as if he was afraid of Peonia’s coldness.

Hayer opened his mouth.

“The situation is not good.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Peonia nodded. Then she narrowed her eyes while looking at Cadella behind Hayer’s back.

Hayer noticed that his mother was uncomfortable with a child who was, at a glance, not a noble, and immediately jumped the ball.

“How are you now? This doctor gave you medicine.”

He was not a doctor, and the medicine was ambiguous, but Hayer insisted. Cadella wondered if it would make sense to insist that a child like him was a doctor, but Peonia surprisingly seemed to accept it.

Rather than having a child who is not a noble enter her room, it was more realistic for Peonia that the child was a doctor.

Peonia replied calmly.

“Very good. I hope my head stays clear like this.”

Hayer nodded and patted Cadella’s head, saying he did well.

Cadella, who didn’t like that, stepped on his foot to repay him, but when he saw Peonia’s fierce eyes, he flinched and hid behind Hayer again.

Hayer immediately thought of asking about his father, but he felt like he was being pushed whenever he met his mother, so he brought up another topic first.

“The weather in the capital is nice these days. Would you like to take a walk?”

Of course, the king should hate it, but he thought it would be okay to walk near the west building.

Peonia nodded, and Hayer immediately called the maids to get ready to go out. And left Cadella to a subordinate waiting outside. Cadella quickly disappeared along with his subordinate, as if Peonia was very difficult.

Hayer left the west building with his mother. Peonia, who went outdoors after three or four years, felt dizzy but enjoyed the sunshine for the first time in a long while.

After taking a walk with Peonia, Hayer returned to the dark west building basement and said.

“Mother, I’m thinking of getting married.”

“Really? It’s already time for that. What kind of girl is she?”

“The daughter of Celios Lepos, Princess Iris Lepos.”

“Yes, I see.”

“But I think I need to know who my father is to do that.”

At his words, Peonia stopped nodding.

Hayer checked Peonia’s stiffened expression, and this time, he continued to speak more firmly.

“If it’s someone who shouldn’t be my father, I’ll keep it to myself.”

“Hayer.”

“Yes.”

“What kind of child is Iris?”

Hayer, who thought for a moment about Iris, answered her question.

“She has a clear goal, and is concerned about Luwan’s future.”

“If your father is from Siere, is she one who will cross over to Siere and live there?”

“No.”

Hayer smiled and shook his head.

“Never.”

“Then you can’t get married.”

“…My father is from Siere.”

Hayer, who was from a family on the border, fully expected that and calmly continued.

“I will keep my mouth shut. So that it is not known that I have the blood of a Siere.”

“He is not one to keep his mouth shut.”

“Is he a man of high status in Siere?”

“…It may be surprising that he is a Siere person, but isn’t the latter a given?”

Peonia asked back, as if asking what on earth that question was.

It was only then that Hayer realized that he didn’t know much about his mother, or that he didn’t consider it even if he knew. Worrying about his father being a slave. His mother would never have encountered a slave in her life.

Hayer sighed.

“He is a noble of Siere.”

“……”

“……”

Now that his mother was silent, Hayer would rather have his biological father be a nobleman of Siere.

If his father is a member of the Siere royal family at a time when relations between the two countries have deteriorated like this…

Peonia, who was looking at her confused son, opened her mouth.

“Even if I don’t tell you, your father will come looking for you someday.”

“…He’s coming to look for me?”

“Because I am his love, he let me choose what I wanted, but not you. I don’t know the situation, but if you’re the only heir, your opinion won’t matter to him.”

Hayer was frozen by his mother’s remarks, which he had never considered.

Peonia continued.

“So, as I said earlier, you should meet a woman who is willing to go to Siere with you just in case. Otherwise, you will just ruin her life in the name of love. Like my life.”

“……”

“It is unfortunate for a woman with desires to meet a man who destroys her desires.”

Peonia, who finished talking with a cold face, sat back down on the bed tiredly.

“Come back and take a walk with me again. It’s a beautiful day.”

She murmured and went back to sleep.

Hayer, whose heart became heavy, could not leave right away and stood still for a while.

afterword 

oh fuck. can’t they just get married in peace my goshhh… anyway happy 100 chapters everyone!!