Previously
Iris comforts Heyer for his refusal to enter the temple, touching him deeply with her gentle words about finding one's own way to greet the deity. After receiving her gilded royal name plaque as Princess Iris Repos, she joyfully reunites with the boisterous Tehas Knights, including Henke Heywin and Annamaria.
A King Is Born on the Road
* * *
The following morning.
Iris awoke to the sound of coarse cursing outside her window. The racket was loud enough to tear her from an exhausted, heavy slumber.
Pulling the curtain back slightly and glancing out, she saw three burly men menacing a merchant.
Unable to fall back asleep, she moved to get up just as heavy footsteps shook the floor; Annamaria, who had been sleeping on another story, was already storming out toward them.
Henke followed close behind her.
“Ann, hold your temper.”
“Hold it? Hold it?! I got woken up in the middle of my sleep! How the hell am I supposed to hold it?!”
With that, she threw punches at the three thugs threatening the merchant, striking each in turn.
Even with Iris’s memories of how many enemies those two had slaughtered on the trek to the North Gate—and how effortlessly they had done it—witnessing it anew sent a prickle of genuine fear through her.
Without even letting out a scream, the three thugs collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Henke made a show of holding her back, but a closer look revealed he was egging her on from the side.
Annamaria spared their lives as though granting a generous favor, then spat on the fallen thugs as she turned around.
“Let’s live quietly. Quietly.”
Henke said, heading back into the building alongside Annamaria.
Iris was certain that had the Tehas Knights been garrisoned in the capital rather than stationed in the forbidden lands, their notoriety would have exploded in no time.
Once everyone had risen, Iris stepped outside to board the carriage, only to find Annamaria—fresh off her morning tantrum—waiting to escort and accompany her.
Annamaria stood a full hand taller than Iris, and her build was broad and formidable.
belatedly, Annamaria sank to one knee before Iris to offer the formal greeting she had failed to give the day before.
“Annamaria of the Tehas Knights.”
A brief silence fell.
Having no knowledge of noble etiquette, Annamaria was simply mimicking the greeting she had seen Henke offer.
Wondering if she had done something wrong, Annamaria lifted her head slightly.
Noticing her cautious peek, Iris spoke in a steady voice.
“A handshake should suffice between women.”
“…Is that so?”
“It is in the north, Sir Annamaria. When it is between two women, one only bends the knee to their sovereign lord.”
Embarrassed by her words, Annamaria scrambled to her feet and took Iris’s proffered hand, clasping it firmly.
“Thank you for telling me straight out. I’d have done that every single time otherwise. Not that I ever had to greet anyone on someone’s behalf… Ah, no wonder. Is that why the Commander assigned me to escort you?”
“What do you mean… Ah.”
Realizing what she meant, Iris nodded.
Heyer surely knew Annamaria was unfamiliar with polite etiquette, but pointing it out as her superior would have only made his subordinate uncomfortable.
Annamaria remarked,
“Unlike me and Henke, the Commander has his thoughtful moments.”
“It seems so.”
“Let’s go.”
Annamaria gestured with a nod, and Iris tipped her head in answer before following her toward the carriage.
Iris watched Annamaria’s back with an indescribably complex expression.
A moment later, they boarded the carriage together and set out for Everhart Port.
Iris preferred quiet, but she knew that Annamaria, like the rest of the boisterous Tehas Knights who loved to chatter, found silence deeply uncomfortable.
Pitying Annamaria as she clamped her mouth shut for fear of seeming impolite, Iris spoke up first.
“To reach the forbidden lands, one must pass through the lands of the Kawatians, the mountain people. What are they like? What kind of people are they?”
Given a topic she could happily ramble about, Annamaria’s face brightened.
“Well, coming from such a poor place myself… right from when I first followed the order through Kawat, I felt a kind of kinship with them.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. Putting food on the table came first; religion was pretty much at the bottom of my list.”
‘There are people like that too.’
As Iris nodded with quiet fascination, Annamaria continued.
“To tell the truth, when we first went to Kawat, the people there harbored so much resentment. Especially toward the Luwan royal family. Oh, excuse me.”
Belatedly realizing Iris was royalty herself, Annamaria paused, but Iris shook her head to show she took no offense.
Relieved, Annamaria picked up the thread again.
“It’s a mountainous region where farming is out of the question, yet the crown kept ordering them to farm. And while offering them zero protection, they threatened to slaughter everyone if the taxes weren’t paid.”
“Ah.”
“Still, the monster raids were so bad that once we stepped in to protect them, they gradually opened their hearts. To be honest, I quite liked the Kawatians’ beliefs too.”
“What are they like?”
“As you know, the Kawatians believe the God of All Creation has already… ceased to be, and that we, the people left behind, should live with the divine spirit in our hearts, helping each other and protecting the Divine Trees. Isn’t that their doctrine?”
“It is.”
“And you know, as the Commander put it, the way they live simply and pray so earnestly is surprisingly wonderful to see.”
“…”
“That was how the Kawatians and our order came to respect each other.”
Iris nodded.
She firmly believed that Tilla was the sole creator and ruler of all things. Thus, even after turning back the flow of time, she could not bring herself to accept the terrible notion that the deity had perished.
Yet in this life, Iris felt she had to come to terms with it.
King Sid Repos had refused to accept it, and as a result, he had driven Luwan to suffocate in war without ever managing a single cry.
Closing her eyes, she pondered the Kawatian doctrine for a moment. But unable to digest it just yet, she patted down her sinking heart.
“…That Tilla has vanished.”
At Iris’s pained mutter, Annamaria burst into a loud laugh.
“Why are you torturing yourself trying to accept it, Your Royal Highness?”
“Because…”
Iris paused for thought before continuing.
“Our territories share a border.”
“What of it?”
“Being constantly on guard and fighting each other is a waste of resources.”
It was an economic problem.
Annamaria nodded in agreement at her words.
“Like Everhart and Hall?”
“Yes. I have heard those two families are on terrible terms as well.”
“Terrible doesn’t begin to cover it. They loathe the mere sight of anyone belonging to each other’s trade. If a farmer wanders into Everhart, or a merchant steps into Hall, they beat each other to a pulp, not caring whether someone dies.”
Annamaria spoke as if finding the whole thing pathetic.
Worrying whether there was any way to mend that feud at all, Iris could not help but sigh.
Before long, the carriage carrying the two arrived at Everhart Port.
Stepping down from the carriage, Iris blinked at the sight before her, the likes of which she had never seen in her life.
A colossal market sprawled across Everhart Port. It stayed open twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year without ever closing, said to house everything the world had to offer.
The scent of unfamiliar and familiar spices permeated the air, while foreigners brushed past Iris without courtesy, barking words in incomprehensible tongues.
Jostled along by the crowd, Iris managed to step inside the Everhart gold exchange. There, she checked the share of gold she was to inherit from what Celios had inherited and deposited into Everhart’s vaults.
Checking the figure beside Iris, Annamaria’s jaw dropped.
“Whoa, Princess, you’re rich!”
By virtue of her bloodline alone, the amount Iris could claim was substantial.
Yet from the sum she received, Iris was reminded once more that House Repos teetered on the brink of ruin.
House Repos had borrowed immense fortunes from Everhart, and the debt continued to mount. Even half of the inheritance Iris had received was held under mortgage.
Having exchanged the document from the gold exchange for silver coins, Iris returned to the market carrying her purse.
Searching for a flower shop amid the stalls, Iris spotted a handkerchief stall first and turned to Annamaria.
“I was thinking of buying a handkerchief. Would you like one as well, Sir?”
“A handkerchief? Aren’t those things only nobles carry around?”
“I wonder. A maid of the Asheri family asked me to bring her one as a gift.”
Hearing Iris’s reply, Annamaria burst into hearty laughter.
“Good grief, Your Highness must be the only princess in the world running errands for a maid.”
“Is that so…?”
Unable to deny the truth in Annamaria’s words, Iris broke into a laugh where she stood.
For the maid, Annie, Iris bought a yellow handkerchief patterned with lines drawn in blue dye brought from a distant island, just as she had requested.
And when Annamaria took a clear liking to her choice, Iris bought two of the same kind and gifted one to her.
With an unmistakable look of delight on her face, Annamaria beamed.
“I love it. Thank you.”
Iris smiled quietly at Annamaria’s thanks, then soon asked her,
“What kind of things… does Heyer like?”