Previously
Litero cautiously examines Iris in the garden while she feeds Con, a white fox once raised by Heyer. Iris challenges Sid Repos's suitability for the throne, arguing that the kingdom cannot survive through his isolationist policies.
The King Is Born on the Road
Iris merely gave a nod and barely managed to part her lips.
“Could you… the window…”
The fever raging through her whole body made her stiflingly hot.
At her words, Heyer glanced briefly toward the window before looking back at her.
“It is an illness born of the cold, so the maids said warmth would be better.”
“…”
Iris thought so too, but the sheer heat right now was simply unbearable.
When she finally stepped down from the bed only to sway and nearly collapse, Heyer caught her arm in a hurry to support her.
“You are quite stubborn, aren’t you?”
“I told you I’m hot.”
“Then let us do this.”
Still holding her arm as she tried to head for the window, Heyer rang the bell.
Iris tried to pull her arm away from his grasp, but he was looking toward the door and did not even notice the effort she was putting in.
Heyer said to the maid who promptly emerged from the adjoining room,
“Could you bring some cold water?”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Only after the maid answered and stepped outside did Heyer notice Iris struggling with all her might and let go of her hand.
“You could have just told me to let go.”
“That’s why I was pulling away.”
“You weren’t pulling.”
“I pulled with all my strength.”
When Iris glared at him with an aggrieved expression, Heyer yielded reluctantly.
“Fine, fine. Sit down and stop straining yourself. I’ll open the window and get you cold water. Satisfied?”
She had lived far longer than he had, yet his coaxing tone, treating her like a little child, rubbed her entirely the wrong way.
The mature man who had weathered every trial and tribulation, whom she had spent three months alongside, was nowhere to be found in this world right now.
When the maid returned with cold water, Iris took the cup in both hands. Only after taking a sip did she feel the rush of emotion settling down.
Her illness must have made her far more sensitive than usual.
Having calmed, it struck her afresh with shock that Heyer had lived with a festering injury for such a long time.
Even Annamaria and Henke, who took pride in being his right and left hands, had not known their commander was suffering such agony. He truly must have kept his pain entirely to himself.
Yet when a woman he had never seen before in his life knew of that injury, the fact that he had not drawn his sword to threaten her was remarkably gentlemanly of him.
On the other hand, she thought with mild self-deprecation that he might just find her too frail to even bother threatening.
Iris emptied the glass in an instant. Only after she began drinking did she realize just how parched she had been.
Her thirst quenched, Iris spoke.
“I cannot tell you how I know, but I can assure you that I know the cure.”
At those words, Heyer fell into brief contemplation.
He did not appear ready to readily believe her. Perhaps he simply did not want to harbor false hope, Iris thought.
Heyer spoke.
“It seems you require a price.”
When Iris nodded, he asked,
“What is it?”
“Take me to where the Tehas Knights are, without Sid Repos knowing. Then I’ll tell you.”
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“My brother already knows you are here. How am I supposed to take you away in secret?”
“…He knows?”
When Iris asked in a daze, Heyer tilted his head slightly and asked,
“Have you ever lost your way?”
“No.”
“What about finding a lost item?”
“…”
“If you never lose your way and always find what you seek, Lady Iris, it means my brother is just the same. When we played hide-and-seek as children, he used to beat me far too easily.”
“Then right now…”
“He is in the main estate.”
At that, Iris let out a sigh.
She had risked her life to reach this place, and in just a single day.
At her sigh, Heyer said,
“At any rate, if you do not wish to marry him, I can protect you to that extent. But refusing to marry my brother means becoming his rival, and Sid will spare no time or effort in undermining his rivals.”
“…”
Iris knew that all too well after six years as Sid’s wife. He was cruel and cold-blooded.
Iris nodded.
“Very well. Just promise me you will help keep me from marrying against my will. That is all I ask.”
At her words, Heyer agreed readily.
“I will.”
As for how to neutralize the poison, she knew with absolute certainty because Heyer had demonstrated it himself before the North Gate.
It was a wild blossom that grew like a parasite right beside the Divine Tree. Looking back on it now, she realized it may not have been feeding off the Divine Tree at all, but rather purifying its poison.
Having spent over six years as queen managing the floral decorations throughout the royal castle, Iris knew every flower that existed.
Though it was a wildflower, it was one Iris recognized. However, it did not grow naturally in Luwan, meaning one would have to travel to a port city where foreign goods arrived to obtain it.
As she was lost in thought, Heyer happened to speak.
“Then it seems you will have to travel with our Tehas Knights for the time being.”
A faint smile brushed Iris’s lips at his words.
Her heart fluttered at the thought of meeting the other members of the order again.
Of course, they would not recognize her…
Striving to hide her excitement, Iris asked,
“Where are the members of the Tehas Knights now?”
“They departed after me, so they are likely in the capital.”
“…Did you come all the way from the south by yourself?”
“Yes.”
How many warriors in Luwan could gallop across such a vast distance alone? She was certain they could be counted on three fingers at most.
Flushed with anticipation at the prospect of reuniting with the Tehas Knights, Iris collapsed back onto the bed under the weight of her fever.
On their journey toward the North Gate, the knights had often envisioned many powerful figures sitting upon the throne. Yet all of that had been based on an already established premise.
Iris had always thought the idea of herself becoming king was entirely preposterous.
Naturally so; she had never received anything resembling monarchs’ education. What use was knowing the names of many flowers to a king? She lacked martial prowess, nor was she particularly magnanimous.
‘My subordinates are a difficult bunch. Every one of them does as he pleases and has a loud mouth. If they thought the Queen could not find the way, they would have lain down and refused to move. The fact that they followed you all this way means they saw something in the way you guarded the throne.’
‘Just as you are a dull person, I also know you are someone who will keep walking forward. That alone makes you sufficiently surprising and fascinating.’
Iris recalled Heyer’s words.
Just as he had said, she had the resolve to keep walking forward. She also harbored a clear desire to protect Luwan.
Rather than patriotism, it stemmed from the guilt of having sat upon the queen’s seat without being able to accomplish anything.
Ever since she crossed the North Gate and arrived here, Iris had been playing a game of considering several likely candidates for the throne to find a way to avert Luwan’s horrific defeat.
Iris had so much to ask of Heyer and so much she wanted to say, but after closing her eyes for a brief moment, she lacked the strength to open them again and lost consciousness.
Flustered by how Iris suddenly collapsed mid-conversation—sudden being the only fitting word—Heyer immediately summoned the personal physician.
The doctor stated that she was in an extremely weakened state and it was uncertain when she would wake, so it would be best to keep the room warm and leave her be for now.
As though bound by some obsessive compulsion, Iris had braced herself and remained seated upright even while burning with a fever.
Her fair face was flushed red from the heat, so obvious that even a child could tell she was sick, but she had acted so stubbornly that he had assumed she was reasonably fine.
Then again, hearing from Sid’s subordinates, it seemed that with that frail body of hers, she had plunged into frozen water and climbed back out. It would have been strange if she were fine.
After the physician left, Heyer was about to exit the room as well when he heard Iris’s faint, feverish murmur.
“Heyer…”
Hearing his name called made Heyer pause in his tracks.
In Luwan, dropping honorifics and addressing someone by name was natural only between those who had no need for formality. But Iris and he were hardly on such terms.