A King is Born on the Road

Iris ran through the maze.

She still lacked stamina, so she repeatedly ran and then took a break, but she didn’t stop.

Even when the night came, Iris ran, so the night was no longer boring.

The vibration of the ground felt when the wall moved was rather a wave of enlightenment that helped find the way. If there was moonlight, she relied on the light, and if the moonlight was hidden by the clouds, she walked with her hand on the wall.

She knew the way, so she wasn’t afraid. Rather, Iris was feeling the joy of finding her way.

Just as Hayer had a hobby of tying knots, Iris thought she would have a hobby of untying them.

After running so ceaselessly, Iris finally escaped the maze and found the same basin as Cadella’s once again.

However, this time, there was only one house that was beautifully built on the large land.

Iris didn’t have time, so she was going to pass it. But then the map in her head moved.

Iris stood still, closed her eyes, and grasped the flow of the maze.

It’s been a month. By discovering this basin, all the roads fell into place.

She thought about Cadella’s space where she started from and the distance she travelled based on this basin here. There were six entrances into the maze, and this basin was one of them.

If Iris was right, if she enters the third exit clockwise from the one she came out of, she could meet Hayer, who left a day earlier than her.

Not today, but two days later.

Therefore, Iris had to stay here for two days.

She then looked around the house and climbed up the ladder to see if anyone was there.

It seemed that the house was made by cutting down all the trees here, and it had twenty floors. When she reached the twentieth floor, she finally saw the barrier. A well-made window was leaning against the wall.

There were no people on the nineteenth floor below, so Iris knocked on the door on the twentieth floor.

After a moment, the door opened and an old man walked out of it.

The gray-haired old man looked at Iris with relaxed eyes.

“Welcome. How long has it been since we had a visitor?”

The old man who came out of the house was relaxed in his actions and words. The face had a deep trace of age, but the body did not. Even the walking posture was upright.

The old man said to Iris, who had a firm expression.

“That’s great, just in time. I don’t know if this is fate. Lady, I’ll be 170 years old in a few days. Then I’ll let you stay in this house. It’s not easy to find such a nice house…”

The old man who was talking so pleasantly stopped talking.

Iris was staring at the old man from beginning to end without saying a word. Her gaze was like a beast running through the darkness.

Dark blue eyes were shining like the moon of the night with black hair.

The old man asked a question quietly.

“Are you from the Lepos family?”

Iris nodded.

Since then, the old man became less talkative.

The old man, who had lived in the maze for 170 years, knew that he could finally find peace this spring.

“There are some Lepos people in here.”

“Didn’t the Lepos people get out even though they were weak?”

“Yes. This is a complicated place.”

“……”

The old man looked Iris in the eyes. Then he said with a smile.

“You know, I won’t leave here. You can’t imagine how I’ve been waiting for death. As I atone for that long time…”

“I never asked.”

Iris continued rather strangely.

“Do you want to go out with me?”

“So what I just meant was…”

“I didn’t even ask, but I thought about you going with me.”

The old man paused at her words.

Iris continued.

“I intend to stay here for two days. I have to find my lost party, and I have to take the person I met a month ago.”

Iris said that and sat on the railing. And asked, looking down at the wall.

“Did you make it yourself?”

“I did. Did it take about 100 years? It took long enough to cut down trees, grow trees, and re-plant trees. It’s such a solid, beautiful house.”

It was a great house, as he said. All of the wood was not just used, but was carved to the level of a work of art and then fitted together.

Iris asked.

“Why did you rebel? The child I met last time said it was because the king was bad.”

“I just wanted to be king.”

“……”

“That was it. Most of them do.”

The old man’s name was Tamati Sepate.

Sepate was originally one of the great noble families of Luwan, and he said he made great contributions to the war as a young man. Of the family members who revolted with the old man, he said that only he had entered this place, and the rest of his family would have died.

The old man said.

“I was the oldest in the family. So I should have stopped the young ones when they said I should be king. But I didn’t. Because I wanted to be king.”

This maze suppresses treason. If you didn’t want to wander for 170 years, you shouldn’t commit treason.

Iris just listened to Tamati.

She watched the sun creeping over the barrier.

Iris asked, pointing her chin at a spear.

“Do you know how to use a spear?”

“Of course.”

“Two days are long, so let’s spar.”

Tamati laughed when Iris told the person who had been waiting for 170 years that two days were long.

The 20-story house was built by Tamati, but its height helped Iris.

Iris retreated as far as she could avoid when Tamati jabbed at her with the spear. Tamati stabbed the spear again at Iris, who was staggering at the end of the railing.

Tamati attacked, and Iris struggled to dodge, block, or cut him. Blood dripped from her arms and waist that had been grazed by the spear.

You don’t die here.

The fact made the fight violent.

Iris ran into the house and threw whatever she could find.

Tamati easily grabbed the object with one hand and crushed it as it was.

As Iris laughed unknowingly, Tamati asked.

“Why are you laughing?”

“It’s fun.”

“This?”

“Aren’t all games in which you don’t risk your life meant to be fun?”

Tamati also laughed at Iris’s words.

He was feeling like a parent lion raising a lion cub now.

Tamati leaped several steps at Iris’s level and attacked, and in no time, Iris’s body was covered in blood. One ear was cut off, and her left arm was fractured when she fell.

However, Iris held the spear with one hand.

Tamati admired the grit. The very words of ‘a game where you don’t risk your life’ itself was something that people who had just entered this place would reject in their hearts, even if it was understood in their heads.

Iris was just naturally born not to fear death.

The fight continued until sunset, and Iris, lost in the darkness, eventually lost her senses and fell 20 floors down.

And that’s how the game ended.

afterword 

iris is actually so fucking cool and this chapter really highlights her badass nature, and it’s so nice to see her own strength (her grit & perseverance) being shown i love my power couple