A King is Born on the Road

KBR C80.

* * *

The traitors were running towards the wall that collapsed.

The traitor who hit Cadella on the head with a stone felt sweet even in the scorching sun.

The kid kept putting themselves to sleep. How much more they could do in the future… The traitor was running, conceited and buoyed up with dreams.

The traitor, who was running as if only joy remained in the future, was pierced by a flying spear and stopped.

Soon after, the Royal Knights appeared.

Kernin Lepos of the Royal Knights dismounted and approached the traitor. Kernin, who turned 40 this year, had Lepos’s signature black hair, and green eyes.

He opened his eyes wide and asked, looking down at the dying traitor.

“Was there a princess?”

A princess?

Come to think of it, there was a woman there who looked like a Lepos person.

Kernin checked his expression, pulled out his spear, and then mounted his horse and started riding again. He was followed by the rest of the Royal Knights.

Running over the collapsed wall, they arrived in a village.

The village was empty. In front of the two doors, Kernin saw the footprints left on the petals and strode to the door on the left.

As he stepped on the petals and was about to enter the door, he heard a thud behind him. Kernin turned around to see several of the Knights’ men lying down.

Meppo Behad, the vice-captain who has yet to fully recover from his injuries after the duel with Hayer, said.

“There seems to be something wrong with that flower.”

“Take it.”

“Yes!”

Meppo replied and ordered the Knights to gather the petals.

While collecting petals, most of the Knights fell into hallucinations, but two of the three current strongest knights in Luwan, including Hayer, did not.

When Meppo Behad gathered all the petals, Kernin strode right to the door.

“Ca-Captain… no.”

Meppo panicked for a moment when he saw the fallen knights, and then entered the door following his superior, forced to leave his men behind.

* * *

“Can we walk like this?”

“Come to think of it, the two of us have no idea where to go.”

They couldn’t tell at all whether they were moving away from where they started or getting closer. Eventually, the two put their ears to the wall and listened to the sound, and stopped after deciding that they were not moving.

Fortunately, Hayer had plenty of medicine, painkillers, and white cloth to apply quickly to an injury, so he was able to treat Cadella’s wound informally.

Shortly afterwards, Cadella opened his eyes and raised his upper body. Then he touched his head and said.

“Why isn’t it getting better?”

“I think it’s because you got hurt while the maze was broken.”

Cadella nodded at Tamati’s words and smiled faintly.

“It’s only for a moment, but we’re outside.”

“That… come to think of it, yes.”

“I’m pretty young, too. Isn’t that too much?”

Cadella, who rose from the ground, grumbled. Both Tamati’s clothes and Hayer’s clothes were all laid and covered on Iris.

Hayer rebuked him.

“You’re all grown up at eleven, you punk.”

“I didn’t grow up, you punk!”

“Ah, I know you’re older than me, but it doesn’t feel good.”

As soon as Cadella got up, he began to punch Hayer energetically. Hayer grumbled, leaving Cadella like that.

“Thanks to you, I will get better.”

“Looking at it, you probably didn’t get hit much when you grew up, so get hit now.”

“What are you talking about, there’s no one who’s grown up beaten as much as me.”

“…Really?”

Cadella paused for a moment, looked at him, and then raised his fist again and said.

“You’re lying!”

Hayer chuckled in response to the remark.

“Then, who dares to hit me?”

“Damn you, die, die.”

Cadella beat him to death, but Hayer thought he was joking and was playing with him.

Tamati was smiling happily as he looked at his grandchildren, and Cadella pulled his clothes recklessly, revealing Hayer’s shoulder wound.

Tamati asked.

“What is that wound?”

“Ah, this.”

Cadella, who saw the wound, stopped, and Hayer answered, adjusting his clothes.

“I’m saying this because we all have to go to the same place and carry out anyway, but…”

“…But?”

Cadella asked back.

Hayer wondered if he could tell these two traitors here. But soon the answer came out.

He intends to cut four more sacred trees in the future anyway. It was impossible to hide from people forever.

From the time he first cut down the sacred tree, he was somewhat accepting that he would go down in history as a villain.

Hayer opened his mouth.

“I cut the sacred tree.”

“What?”

“There was a reason.”

“Wow, this kid. Kill it and you’ll be commuted.”

Hayer explained as Cadella looked at him with complete disbelief.

“I couldn’t help it. Rather than blocking the monsters, the sacred tree is actually adding strength to them.”

Neither Tamati nor Cadella could keep their mouths shut for a while at his words. They wondered how the world had changed so much while they were in the Traitor’s Labyrinth. After a while, Tamati opened his mouth.

“Come to think of it, I’ve heard of it from Tejas.”

At those words, the two turned to Tamati.

He went on.

“Tejas was worried one day when he saw the sacred tree. He said that someday this tree will reach its limit.”

Hayer soon understood what he said and sighed.

Since Cardella couldn’t quite understand it, the two of them had to take turns explaining it step by step, as if to a child.

* * *

Iris was lost in a hallucination. It was a dark road with nothing in sight.

“This is a dream. It’s a hallucination.”

Iris said to herself and moved on.

She couldn’t see anything. She felt the wall with her hand and continued walking.

It was a deep forest.

Helen Lepos, the founder of the Lepos family, was blind. Iris thought maybe she was looking through her world.

Iris, who was urgently searching for the way through touch, stopped. She closed her eyes and inhaled the smell of grass in the world.

It was a forest.

Iris knew that the tree she touched was a sacred tree. Holy energy rippled through her hands.

“Ah…”

She looked up in admiration, then paused. A monster was passing around the sacred tree. It was still out of sight, but she could feel it.

Numerous types of monsters passed by. Among them was the walking monster that she saw with the Knights of Tejas. It was peaceful.

Iris caressed the sacred tree. Then, as the energy she touched gradually changed, she sat down under the tree.

“You’re exhausted.”

The sacred tree was slowly getting tired. Following it, the energy that touched her hand grew tired. Then she heard the sound of a monster roaring.

Iris promised in a powerful voice.

“I will help you. Somehow. I will help.”

Then, she remembered the scriptures she had read enough to memorize in the convent. She recited the scriptures to the sacred tree.

Like the moon and the earth.

Look down from above.

Look up from below.

Everything can be seen there.

While saying that, she looked at the ground.

“Root… was it the root?”

Iris groped the ground. Soft petals touched her hand. It is said that this flower is a medicine that heals the wounds left on the body from cutting the sacred tree.

It was when she reached into the soil to feel the roots. Something lifted her up.

Terrified, Iris grabbed the moving floor with her hands. It was a tree. And when she thought she was as high as a tree.

A voice was heard.

“Help me.”

“Who is this?”

“Find me, child of Lepos. This tree can no longer protect us…”

* * *

At that moment, Iris opened her eyes.

As she breathed heavily, Hayer, who had been playing with Cadella, rushed to her.

“Iris?”

“……”

“Iris.”

Iris was out of her mind, so she couldn’t say anything.

Cadella came running in surprise.

“Why? Was it a bad hallucination? I couldn’t control it because I also fainted.”

“……”

“Iris, why aren’t you talking?”

As the two people alternately urged, Tamati approached with a click of his tongue.

“Leave her alone. She looks surprised. Shouldn’t there be time to calm down? Anyway, young people.”

“I’m not young.”

“I’m young.”

Hayer and Cadella, who answered so, backed down at Tamati’s gaze.

Cadella said as he climbed on Hayer’s back.

“It’s because you surprised me.”

“Yes, yes.”

Hayer took it in moderation, and gently squeezed Iris’s trembling hand.

The warmth of his hand brought Iris back to her senses a little faster.

She looked towards Hayer, and after calming down for a while, she managed to open her mouth.

“I may have misunderstood the cure.”