A King is Born on the Road

Sid, who was displeased with being in the same space as the pagan, said

“I can’t believe my aunt is trying so hard to convert pagans.”

“So what if you don’t believe me? It’s the truth.”

There was a sarcastic tone in Celios’s voice.

Sid, who was somewhat certain by the way she spoke, drew his sword. The jewellery on the sheath and the blade of the knife rubbed together, and you could hear the unpleasant sound that scratches your ears.

The sword soon touched Iris’s shoulder.

“Show your face, pagan.”

She could hear the nervous breathing of the maids around her.

Iris recalled the pagan priest who came to the convent.

The priests bombarded the kneeling pagan priest with constant questions. Then she only repeated the answer that the pagan god did not exist.

Iris said politely.

“There is no pagan god.”

Sid frowned at her answer.

“That is not an answer to my orders.”

“There is no pagan god.”

“Crazy bitch. I said, show your face.”

“There is no pagan god.”

The people around her who didn’t know what to say made faces of surprise.

The reason why a pagan does not show their face is because they are a sinner, and denying the pagan god was a process of cleansing their sin.

Therefore, in order for a pagan to show their face, the questioner had to admit that the pagan had converted and that their sins were gone.

And now the role had to be played by Sid Lepos, who told her to show her face.

If he acknowledged the pagan’s conversion, Iris would be forced to unfasten the cloth covering her face.

However, for Sid, who grew up as a royal and only believed in the god of Luwan, it was close to taboo to admit that the sins of a pagan had disappeared.

“I will never forgive a damn pagan. I can cut your throat and check it out. Eyes and face. Who does that face look like?”

“There is no pagan god.”

Seeing her daughter answering like that, Celios laughed unconsciously.

Pretending to be a pagan is something only an uneducated fool would do. But apart from that, her daughter was quite clever. There was also a pulpit.

Sid Lepos, the king’s heir and eldest son, was even feeling chills at the woman’s reply in front of him.

This must be a pagan woman.

But what if it’s not?

What if this is the hidden daughter of Aunt Celios, posing as a pagan priest?

Sid wanted to check the girl’s face right away and break the taboo. This taboo was pushing Sid into a strange emotion.

However, if she was Celios’s friend, she was likely to be of a fairly decent family, and if he touched a son’s bride, it could have been quite an affair.

He knew it was better not to touch this woman now. However, he didn’t know why such a strong curiosity was trying to dominate him.

Is it because of that sweet voice?

Sid eventually held the woman’s face over the old shawl Iris wore on her face. He could tell she was a great beauty just by the lines of her face that he could touch.

Celios spoke as his hand moved in a travesty.

“What are you doing!”

“…….”

In the end, Sid let go. And got on the horse to return to the capital.

* * *

Celios’s and Sid’s group headed to the capital.

Thanks to Iris posing as a pagan, she was able to sit alone in an empty carriage and head to the capital.

The security was so tight that she doubted whether it would be possible to get out in the middle of it.

There was nothing she could believe in but the sunlight felt over the frayed shawl. But she had no choice but to risk her life.

It may not be a grandiose idea to save Luwan, but if she endured it now, she wouldn’t live a meaningless life without much difference whether she lived until the age of 25 or died.

She pricked her ears and focused on finding the way. In the three months before crossing the North Gate, she knew that the map in her head alone could not properly grasp the scale of the real world.

And by riding a horse for three months and constantly walking in the middle, she was able to make some adjustments.

On the week after leaving the convent, with three days left before reaching the capital, she had made up her mind to escape.

As the short sun on a winter night passed and the tents were set up for rest, Celios summoned Iris to her tent.

Celios said when Iris came in.

“Stop pretending to be dirty now.”

Iris undid the shawl that she was wearing at her mother’s words. Then she went to the chair that the maid pulled out and sat down.

The dinner table, which was so colourful and rich that it was hard to believe that it was a meal for people who were travelling for a long time, began to be set up.

Iris inadvertently tried to hit the bell on the table, but stopped.

She belatedly realized the six years she spent as queen was engraved in her body.

Regardless of her relationship with her husband, whether as a host or as a guest, she was always the highest-ranking woman in Luwan, so she played a leading role in all dining venues. It had been her role for a while to ring the bell to tell the servants to leave.

Celios opened her mouth as she saw her daughter’s hand touch the bell and then fall.

“Do you think you’ve become a king already?”

“…I didn’t know the etiquette because I only ate among the nuns.”

Celios, who didn’t know what kind of meal they had at the convent, was displeased but didn’t inquire further.

Even during the meal, Iris was under great pressure to lead the conversation, but she desperately kept her mouth shut.

It’s only been a week since she went through the North Gate and returned to six years ago, so it felt difficult for Iris to suppress her attitude as a queen.

Celios opened her mouth as she continued her meal with wine.

“Is it okay if it’s early in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a place you can go even if you run away? This is a meadow, and it’s a place where you don’t know when predators will appear and attack.”

“After avoiding those beasts, I will go to Her Majesty’s family, Asheri.”

“…Asheri?”

Celios narrowed her eyes.

She naturally didn’t get along with the current king and his wife. At least it would be better than the king who had been poisoning her for a long time so that she could not have children, but it was about the same with the queen.

Asheri, the queen’s family, believed that Sid Lepos, the eldest son of the queen, would naturally become the next king, but Celios began to insist on her daughter’s legitimacy, so they could not get along well. She couldn’t figure out what her daughter was going to do with the Asheri family.

She thought she had some great plan, but the only thing she could do was run away to Asheri where Sid would stop by to say hello to his grandfather.

Disappointed, Celios scolded Iris.

“Say something that makes sense. How can they be on your side?”

“…I don’t know.”

Celios was bewildered, but she was intrigued by her daughter, who was strangely calm in the midst of it.

At the end of the meal, the guard knight closest to Celios entered.

“You have to leave now.”

Celios turned to the guard knight.

Iris knew the guard was her father. This is because her father, Peter Wick, was tearing up to the point where it was hard to pretend not to know.

In the end, Iris asked first.

“You’re my father, aren’t you?”

Peter flinched when Iris cut out the introduction and asked straightforwardly.

Perhaps he is not good at lying, but his ears turned red in an instant and he spoke in a rigid voice.

“I-I can’t say yes or no.”

“If not, what happens?”

“Well… it could be your misunderstanding.”

Indeed, he was a man who couldn’t lie.

Peter didn’t know what to do with his daughter, embarrassing as he was with Celios.

He wanted to know how she lived, and he wanted to tell her how much he cried when he sent the child out of the castle.

But he handed the spear right over, with only the sad expectation that Iris would resent him.

“This is the lightest spear made out of wood I’ve ever used.”

Iris took the spear. As he said, it was relatively light, and a spear you could fold three times.

Iris, who took the spear, bid farewell softly.

“…See you again. It may be the last time.”

At the words, tears fell from Peter Wick’s eyes, who was trying his best to hide that he was the father to his daughter whom he finally met.

afterword

peter wick has got to be one of the silliest names i’ve ever heard of