A King is Born on the Road

Edwin, who first delivered the insufficient answer to Iris, suppressed his frustration and soon headed to Hayer.

Arriving at the base of the Knights of Tejas on the southern border, Edwin caught one of the Knights in a tumultuous atmosphere.

“Why? What happened?”

“The captain has fallen!”

“What?”

Edwin also rushed into the garrison in surprise. Knights, including Ato, were moving Hayer, who was carried on a stretcher.

“C-Captain!”

Edwin ran frantically.

Hayer slowly opened his eyes to the commotion around him and opened his mouth.

“…Others will think I’m dead if they see this, you bastards.”

At the voice that blurted out, the Knights finally sat down with some relief.

Edwin, who approached Hayer, noticed the state of his body that was visible under his shirt and covered his mouth. There were wounds scattered that looked like knife cuts.

Soon after, as Hayer ordered, the men who had pulled out the flowers blooming under the sacred tree with their roots returned. They first poured flowers into a large bathtub and filled it with water.

Hayer threw his clothes off and stepped into the bathtub filled with flower water.

“Oh, it hurts like hell.”

Hayer looked into the air and cursed.

His head was blank from the pain he felt all over his body. At least the sacred tree on the southern border was uprooted and burned, so it was some relief.

But the roots were not completely removed. Countless small roots sprouted out. They couldn’t figure out how far it stretched with the number of people here now.

Except for Edwin and Hayer’s boot, Dylan, the rest of the soldiers withdrew.

After the surroundings were cleared, Hayer asked Dylan.

“Did you bring the medicine?”

“Yes, here.”

Dylan handed over the painkiller he had brought.

Because it was painful to put on or eat, the painkiller paste was put in a thin cloth, rolled up, and put in the mouth like a cigarette.

It was only after three or four inhales that Hayer came to his senses to some extent. The painkiller was so strong that just by inhaling the fumes from the side, young Dylan got dizzy and touched the wall.

Hayer called a subordinate to take Dylan outside, and burned painkillers one after another.

After smoking to the point where he felt his head go numb, the pain that seemed to be cutting his whole body like a sharp knife gradually died down.

The flowers in the bathtub were clearly an effective remedy for the wounds. Like the stigma of a curse, or like a transparent being wielding a knife against Hayer’s body, the wounds on his body that had been stretching stopped stretching. The quick action was obviously much more effective than the treatment of old wounds.

Hayer looked down at the lingering wounds that almost healed as soon as he was submerged in the flowers. Then he looked up at Edwin and said.

“Iris will be upset if I tell her that I treated the wounds on my own, so tell them to keep it a secret.”

“I don’t think that matters right now. Take a look at yourself, Captain. Even an old rag is cleaner than this.”

“Can you compare it to something nice? What do you mean a rag.”

Hayer grumbled and dipped himself deeper into the bathtub. And said to Edwin, who was standing with a firm look on his face.

“I’ve never seen your expression so bad. Did you get dumped?”

“Can’t you listen to it after you recover?”

“I can’t. Your expression is so ominous that it would be easier for me to listen to it quickly.”

Edwin sighed deeply at Hayer’s words.

“I…”

“Is it hard to say?”

“The King of Siere has denied entry to Princess Iris Lepos.”

After Edwin spit it out at once, Hayer tilted his head and asked.

“If Iris was denied entry to the country, does it mean that someone else was allowed?”

“Yes. The captain’s entry…”

“…In the end?”

Hayer clicked his tongue, repeating the misunderstanding he had at first, that the King of Siere wanted his power.

“Did you say that I wouldn’t go if he were trying to appease me?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“No?”

The painkillers Hayer smoked were too strong, making Edwin’s body slowly loosen up like young Dylan’s.

It was because he had a terribly strong body that he could endure such a wound and smoke that horrible painkiller without a blink of an eye.

Edwin said with tears in his eyes, because the painkiller kept his tear glands out of control.

“He said it was an order. To enter Siere.”

“Could you elaborate a bit?”

“That medicine is too strong…”

“Ah. Sorry.”

Hayer stretched out his arm and opened the window.

The smoke had dissipated a bit, but Edwin, who was already intoxicated with the painkiller smoke, could not hide his emotions and clenched his fists.

“He said he was the captain’s father.”

Hayer, who was taking another inhale of the painkiller at his words, stopped moving for a moment. Then he asked, keeping an eye on Edwin.

“What?”

“He told the captain to enter the country immediately, as he is the only heir to the Siere royal family, the Lassor family.”

“……”

“It was an order.”

Hayer’s frozen hand did not move for a while, and the painkiller burned as it was.

Edwin took out another rolled painkiller that Dylan had left on the table and held it out with both hands.

Hayer stared at the hand, then reached out for the painkiller. Then he lit and smoked another one, and asked back.

“Did you say that the King of Siere is my own father?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what he said. The fact that the captain is strong… he was very interested. I also thought he was just trying to appease you as a soldier of Siere.”

“He is my father?”

“Yes…”

“Father…”

Hayer repeated the word ‘father’ over and over again, as if he was not convinced no matter how many times he repeated it.

After repeating that for a while, Hayer covered his face with one hand.

“Shit.”

After he managed to spit that out, he didn’t say anything for a long time.

───  ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅  ───

Iris felt an inexplicable uneasiness in Edwin’s expression after meeting the King of Siere.

From the first time she saw him, the courier had a relaxed expression throughout. However, when he met the King of Siere, his face had an indistinctness with an unknown root.

She could feel that he was struggling to put words into his throat that he couldn’t convey right now but had to tell her.

Feeling that, it was hard to concentrate right after Edwin left. Fortunately, however, after the sun went down and the world became quiet, she was able to focus on finding data again.

When the wax candle burned out, Iris stood up and opened the cabinet on one side. She took out a new wax candle from it, fixed it again on a silver candlestick used in the royal palace, and lit it.

The maximum is 170 years of punishment in the maze. Therefore, she identified all the traitors of the last 170 years by searching for their names.

When she checked all the last names and closed the book, a knight of the Royal Knights entered the library.

He found the book Iris left on her desk and asked politely.

“Princess, have you finished reading the book?”

“Yes. I read it.”

Then the knight, who hesitated with an abashed look, asked very carefully.

“Have you seen these names?”

The knight handed Iris the four names written on the paper.

The knight went on awkwardly.

“Our leader told us to find out about the traitors we met in the labyrinth before arriving at the palace. But since time is running out…”

“That’s a familiar name.”

“Is that so? Oh, thank you.”

The knight was very relieved, as if he would be in a lot of trouble if it wasn’t found.

Iris read all the books meticulously, and the stories accompanying each traitor were interesting and all remembered. She found all four traitors’ information.

The knight that was checking while turning the pages with Iris stopped at one name.

“Is this guy the only one named Herbin? Have you seen anyone with the same name?”

“I didn’t. What happened?”

“The leader said that Herbin was a sage. He said he was wearing a grey religious robe and a crystal ball around his neck.”

“I looked for all the sages within 170 years. There was definitely no sage named Herbin.”

“Ah!”

The knight slapped himself on the forehead as if he were punishing himself and continued.

“Herbin is said to be a person from 300 years ago.”

“300 years? It can’t be. The maximum punishment in the Traitor’s Labyrinth is 170 years.”

“But… that’s what the leader said and heard.”

Iris got up as soon as she heard that. Then she brought a book about traitors from 300 years ago and piled it on her desk.

She searched for a sage named ‘Herbin’ by checking only the article and name, but there was no such name. Iris looked again at the sages. There were few.

She soon found the description of the traitor the knight spoke of. He was from 342 years ago, and his name was not his own.

In the first line about the sage, Zeniel Bronte, the knight of the Royal Knights dropped the book he was holding.

The sound of the book falling echoed in the quiet library.

“Between a monster and a human… no. This sentence seems to be wrong. It doesn’t make sense.”

The knight spoke forcefully.