A King is Born on the Road

In a state of incomprehension, Iris moved forward.

Regardless of Hayer’s last words, she knew that Hayer, who knew so well what would happen if he cut the tree, believed in her and sacrificed himself.

Hayer, who she watched all the way here, was really ridiculously strong.

The fact that he died was as unbelievable as the fact that he had obtained an immortal body. For everyone who knew Hayer, perhaps his death was a joke.

Although Iris was not injured because she did not participate in the battle, she, who grew up in the north in the first place, was much more resistant to the cold than other knights from the south.

Even so, she was not strong enough to walk in this condition for hours. She knew well that she would not have stood here if she had not sacrificed the entire Knights of Tejas. Therefore, she couldn’t make the sacrifice in vain because of her aching heart.

Her fever was so high that she fell right away.

The long walk froze the blood flow of her feet in her boots and made her legs numb. Still, she could walk.

The moment she accepted that she had lost everything, she finally felt joy.

She knew the way.

She knew from birth what this world looked like, how far the sea was, and how far the land was.

It wasn’t until she was 25 and was nearing the end of her motherland, that she was about to discover the only part of what she had that was superior to others.

At this moment of using it, she had reached the point of Nirvana, borrowing the religion of the Kawat people in the mountainous region, and she was so immersed she did not even feel pain, and finally arrived at the North Gate at the end of the mountain.

Alone in the white snow field, she saw a wooden door with one of the two doors open.

She knew she was going to run out of breath, but she grabbed onto her life with her eyes wide open.

“Not yet. Don’t die yet.”

Even if this meant nothing, even if Luwan would still be occupied by the enemy, Iris moved on. That was the only thing she could do.

Iris Lepos took just one step over the wooden door.

When she achieved her goal, she fell down on the snow.

Strangely, the moment Iris crossed the North Gate, the wind that was so rough stopped, as if the world itself had stopped.

The world became silent as if everything had disappeared. Looking at the sky now, there was a full moon in Luwan, which had not risen for a while.

Iris looked at the full moon for the first time in her life.

“Beautiful.”

All she could see was the sky. And the stars in the sky were moving so fast that they could not be seen.

Amidst the movement of so many stars, Iris felt something was changing.

Iris was relieved and cried. The tears she had been holding back ran down the corners of her eyes.

After a while, she lay on the snowy field and breathed out her last breath of life.

* * *

Iris gulped down her exhaled breath. Then she looked around in surprise.

“What, what happened?”

It was not the snowy field she stood in, but the convent where she stayed in until her nineteenth birthday.

She was holding a straw broom that she used on nights of cleaning duty to sweep the snow and chase sleep, and was wearing a black veil on her head with a white coif.

The convent at the entrance of the northern alpine region had long winters and heavy snow.

The twenty nuns, like Iris, who grew up trapped in the convent for their own reasons, took turns to sweep the snow on long winter nights.

Iris, who had been standing in the middle of the hallway for a while, was surprised by the sound of the alarm clock in the hallway, signalling 12 o’clock.

She took a step and went to check the calendar by the alarm clock. Today was her 19th birthday.

Upon confirming that she had returned six years ago, Iris ran frantically to the convent’s door.

“Isn’t there a boundary between the living and the dead? The heads of the living can’t think of a way to save Luwan, so let’s borrow the heads of the dead.”

Hencke’s words came to mind.

It didn’t take long to realise that the price of crossing the North Gate was going back to six years ago.

Iris couldn’t breathe and sat down, overflowing with complicated emotions.

Compared to the extreme cold just before, it felt hot here.

After grasping the situation, tears poured out, longing for the people she was with.

Iris couldn’t cry once, because the Knights of Tejas hated the terrible, sad farewells.

As she drew all the people she lost one by one, the face of Heyer Asheri remained at the end.

“If something changes beyond the North Gate. Don’t love me then. Never.”

Iris shook her head hard so that she wouldn’t think of Hayer’s words. Still, there was nothing she could do about the feeling of being stabbed in the chest.

Anyway, if she’s back six years, is he alive?

Iris wanted to run to the place where the Knights of Tejas were, but it was impossible to go to the southern end even if she left this place where the nuns could not open the door at will.

Out of frustration, Iris took off her veil and held it in her hand. Her black hair fluttered in the wind.

At least once a year, nuns would cut each other’s hair, but until that time, they could grow it to any limit.

White snow will be piled up to the horizon beyond the convent.

Iris, who had just followed the map in her head to the northern end of the land, felt that the convent was too narrow to breathe in for a moment.

As she looked at the convent door and thought, someone tapped her back lightly. Sister Agatha, who was her age, stood there.

She seemed to have woken up a moment ago and found her through the window. Her eyes were half closed.

Agatha greeted her with her hands together and gestured for a reason why she wasn’t wearing the veil.

Iris said.

“It’s stuffy.”

It was only after saying so liberally that a deeper thought came out.

“I don’t know why I’m here.”

What happened to the world?

Why did she come back here?

Agatha looked perplexed at Iris’s words, which were agonized with frustration. Then she looked around and whispered to Iris.

“God must be watching.”

“I don’t care.”

What was the result of her husband Sid Lepos’s rejection of pagans?

Luwan was defeated, and the arrogant Sieres, who believed their king was the god, Tilla, took over the land.

Now that Iris had seen it, she could not live in fear of God’s gaze.

Iris crossed the North Gate because of the sacrifices of the Knights of Tejas.

Throughout the journey to the end of the world, the Knights of Tejas saved Iris’s strength, and she was finally able to cross the North Gate.

Agatha, who was puzzled that Iris, who was quiet like a person without a care, showed her presence today. She approached Iris and talked to her again.

“You don’t know why you’re here, do you?”

It was the first time Agatha had spoken such a long sentence.

Six years ago, Iris really knew nothing, so she nodded as if she didn’t know.

Agatha checked the surroundings again, picked up a branch, and began to write on the snow.

“This is His Majesty the former King.”

Iris nodded, and Agatha drew a line under it and said,

“His Majesty had only one daughter under him. She’s your mother, Her Highness Celios.”

Agatha, the daughter of an aristocratic family, was expelled from society and trapped here because of her fiancé, who had decided to run away in search of love.

“The former king thought he needed a son to inherit the throne, and he passed on his inheritance to his nephew, Eswa Lepos. But the sages confirmed that Eswa Lepos was not legitimate, but born from a mistress.”

“…….”

She thought Agatha was quiet because she didn’t talk during her lifetime, but she wasn’t at all.

Agatha was excited to be able to explain to someone who didn’t know anything about society from the beginning.

Agatha continued.

“So, isn’t the enemy of the king Celios? That’s the question that’s starting to arise. You’re her only child. So maybe, this is my opinion, but your mother hid you here in case the current king would hurt you.”

“I see.”

Iris nodded and smiled faintly.

However, she had already entered the royal castle and returned after six years of living there, and knew that her mother was never a person to hide her daughter because she was worried about her.

On the day Iris met her for the first time in 19 years, her mother’s eyes proved that.

afterword

sorry if the text is too hard to read  i’ll try to change the size and maybe the font as well next chapter, since i’m just using the theme’s default atm!