A King is Born on the Road

Iris closed her eyes tightly. Hayer always smelled good, but the closer he got, the stronger she felt it.

Iris murmured.

“…How?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you always smell good?”

“Because I always wear cologne?”

“Even in dangerous situations, even when death is ahead.”

“Do you mean inside the Traitor’s Labyrinth?”

“Not then…”

“No?”

“……”

“Iris?”

Iris, who had no way to talk about Hayer Asheri before crossing the North Gate, made something up.

“…I must have confused you with someone else.”

Then Hayer murmured with a laugh.

“Ah, another man.”

“I said it was someone else.”

“Were they a woman?”

“……”

It seemed that she shouldn’t have gone into such a state of misunderstanding. Hayer spoke again as she struggled to explain how the other man was himself six years later.

“The man I know, but have never met before?”

“…He’s dead, that man.”

She wondered if this would work, but Hayer murmured.

“I can’t win any more.”

“You can’t win?”

“There are bad memories with the living, but only good memories are kept with the dead.”

“……”

“It will be hard to win.”

“That’s…”

“It’s okay. I’m saying it’s going to be hard, not that I can’t win.”

Hayer continued with a smile.

“Because I think I’m pretty good.”

A smile spread across Iris’s face, who had froze because she was sorry for making a misunderstanding.

Unlike the Hayer Asheri in her memory, this cheerful man in front of her didn’t seem to say anything about not loving him.

Iris thought Hayer would forever hide that feeling with kindness, even if he didn’t love her.

A man who will act out love so as to not get hurt.

That’s sad, but on the other hand, she thought that was enough.

Hayer pulled down the shoulder strap on Iris’s nightgown. And kissed her shoulder.

Iris, who had never considered foreplay, was embarrassed by the unexpectedly prolonged kisses. As far as she knew, sleeping with someone was supposed to be over by now, but it hasn’t even started yet.

At first, it was a kiss that felt like a greeting, kissing the back of the hand. However, rather than adjusting to the tense state of her body, on the contrary, she became more and more sensitive to the kisses.

“Why… do you keep kissing me?”

Then Hayer met Iris’s eyes. And said what he was going to do, continuing to kiss the inside of her wrist.

“Because you said kissing would be nice.”

The breath that touched the inside of her wrist was warm, and it began to get hotter. She couldn’t tell if her body was hot or if his breath was getting hot.

Iris eventually couldn’t bear the heat that warmed her to her toes and pulled her wrist out of his hand, placing it on her bosom.

Then she thought he would stop, but Hayer put his arms on both sides of her body and leaned over, beginning to kiss her hand placed on her chest. He seemed to have noticed that the more they kissed, the more her reaction changed. Or he already knew.

Hayer got up for a moment and took off his coat. Then, he grabbed her tense leg with his hand.

He rubbed his fingers against Iris’s ankle soothingly and said.

“So don’t hate it.”

Iris, whose eyes were half-closed because she was distracted, opened her eyes and looked at Hayer’s face.

He thought Iris was reluctant to sleep together, so he was acting too gently. However, no matter how gently he tried to act, the weight of his muscular body, which looked slim overall but was thick, was heavy. He was a man with extremely masculine characteristics.

He didn’t even notice if she was trying to pull away unless he was watching it with his own eyes. It was the same in bed, in emotional relationships.

Iris closed her eyes again when his fingers, which had been delicately running along the inside of her ankle, touched the inside of her thigh.

She thought her breathing was too loud, so she covered her mouth with both hands. Then, at some point, she didn’t even have the attention to cover her mouth, so she grabbed Hayer’s shoulders with her hands as he held her.

The fact that the wound under her hands was diminishing briefly returned her sanity. But soon, even that faint thread was lost, and fell into a place where only instincts were.

It hurt, but strangely wasn’t suffocating. The only thing that can be called suffocating is that the fire in her body was swirling in a whirlpool, but couldn’t be let out.

Then at some point, even the whirlpool was let out, and after that, she couldn’t think of anything.

* * *

Iris Lepos was usually one of those people who couldn’t sleep very deeply.

There were many cases where she could hardly sleep, and even if she did, there were more days where she was plagued by nightmares all night long. But not today. It was unclear whether she was even asleep.

Could this strange man have knocked her out?

Early in the morning, Iris opened her eyes and looked back on what she had done yesterday.

Hayer seemed to want it, so she thought she wanted to listen to him. So, until she caught the man trying to leave, his will was clear.

However, from then on, it was unclear whose will he was moving on.

Apparently, six years of marriage and all that night pre-knowledge didn’t help really, at all.

When she looked to her side, Hayer was sleeping soundly.

Iris got out of bed cautiously, fearing Hayer would wake up. Thinking of how she must have looked to Hayer all night, she was not confident of making eye contact with him again.

She found and wore the clothes Hayer had neatly arranged while she blacked out. And as she was about to leave the room, a hand from behind covered her hand holding the doorknob.

“Where are you going?”

Iris couldn’t raise her head and responded to Hayer’s lowered sleepy voice.

“…I can’t look at you. I’m embarrassed. I’ll go out and come back.”

“What are you embarrassed of?”

“I don’t know… just… anyway…”

As she tried to run away by saying that, she began to worry that the sounds might have flowed out of the bedroom last night.

She eventually gave up going out and quickly started talking to forget her shame.

“I have a lot of work to do today. Most of all, I have to write a new letter. What would be good? If I write….”

Iris, who was diligently talking to herself, glanced at Hayer belatedly. He was looking at her with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed with a serious expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Iris asked, and Hayer asked back.

“Are you going to pretend that nothing happened?”

“…If possible.”

“Are you the only one who can’t get out of this?”

“……”

Does he really have to say that conversation?

Iris let out a sigh. Then Hayer pushed his pretty face forward and said.

“I’ll give you an example.”

“What kind of example?”

Then Hayer opened his index finger and said.

“It’s really bad, so let’s keep from seeing each other for the rest of our lives.”

“……”

Then he opened his middle finger and said.

“Well, what if it’s only for occasional needs?”

Then he opened his ring finger and said.

“Now, again. No, tonight or tomorrow?”

Perhaps he thought he had no conscience now, but Hayer put it back one day, looking around.

Iris sighed again and covered her face with one hand. Then she touched his ring finger with her other hand and said.

“Tomorrow is early. I don’t have stamina. And next time more… lightly?”

“More than this?”

“…What do you mean more than this?“

“No. Sorry. I can do it. I have to. I’m not some kind of slave to sexual desire.”

Hayer said that like he promised to himself, and then smiled with the corners of his mouth raised, as if he was very satisfied with her answer anyway.

Fortunately, with the choice of views evened out, Hayer no longer talked about last night.

Iris was relieved by Hayer’s tendency not to force herself to dig into stories she did not want.

The problem was, Hayer didn’t ask, but when she tried to recall the contents of the letter to be sent back to the King of Siere, she kept thinking of Hayer from last night.

The large body that covered her view, the arms that lifted her lightly, the beautiful eyes that reassured her who couldn’t speak and trembled in the middle of it, the voice that became rough from suppressing himself, the tendons that bulged…

Eventually, Iris came to her senses and said to Hayer.

“I can’t—get out.”

“What?”

“I can’t concentrate at all because of you.”

“I stayed quiet.”

“I keep thinking about it even when you’re quiet.”

She didn’t know she was such a weak person. Iris blamed herself.

But honestly, on the other hand, she also thought it was because Heyer Asheri was a bad man who clouded a woman’s concentration with temptation. So she blamed him a little too.

Fortunately, Hayer realized in what sense he had disturbed Iris, and got up.

“You have to work hard for justice, so I’ll be leaving.”

“Thank you.”

The last words seemed to be teasing. Seeing Hayer leaving the room, covering his mouth with his hand to hold back his laughter.