The Oath of Origin. Protector of a Kingdom

Two men and a woman were sitting on a small stone, gazing at a tall pillar with only 15 names inscribed at the top.

The woman looked at one of the men and said with a sigh: “Your Highness, you should head back to the castle, or your court officials will go crazy again.”

The man laughed heartily and shook his head: “Auntie, the Academy just finished building its pillar of honor. There’s no way I’m going to the palace now.”

The woman sighed again and shook her head, already tired of reprimanding the young king. The other man chuckled as well and said: “Leave him be. He’s helped our Academy quite a lot.”

As the three were bickering and laughing heartily, a little girl with silver hair and curious blue eyes rushed out of the academy gates and came towards the trio. Fixing her eyes on the young king, she asked the only woman there: “Ascended Olivia, who is he?”

The woman’s face became stern as she reprimanded: “Is that how you’re addressing the current king, Iris? I’ll - “

The young king raised a hand to stop Olivia from scolding the little girl and beckoned for her to come closer. Olivia stopped talking with a scoff, and the little girl started shyly approaching the young king.

Since she knew the mysterious man’s identity, she was pretty apprehensive but still listened to his order.

Patting her head, the king smiled kindly and asked: “What is your name, little one?”

“Iris, sir.” Replied the girl, hiding her face behind her long silver hair.

“It’s Your Highness, not sir.”, said Olivia, making Iris immediately correct herself: “Iris, Your Highness.”

“Iris, what a beautiful name. I am Aidan Crovan Oath, but you can just call me Aidan.” Replied the king kindly.

Olivia scoffed again as Iris poked her eyes through her bangs and looked at her for permission.

“What a bunch of brats, not knowing anything about etiquette. Do whatever you want; I’m leaving.”, said Olivia as she turned around and walked the way Iris came back inside the academy grounds.

Aidan laughed, and even Iris smiled shyly. Picking her up, Aidan placed her on his knee and asked: “So, Iris, are you a student at the academy?”

Iris nodded, her excitement pushing away some of her shyness as she said: “Yes, I joined a few days ago.”

“Good girl. What is your affinity?” asked Aidan next.

The man on the side looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could, Iris already replied: “Fire and Air.”

Her answer surprised Aidan, and he turned towards the other man, a curious look in his eyes. “Headmaster, are you hiding this little gem from me?”

The man smiled wryly and said: “She’s more of an experiment. Olivia and I found her when we were walking through the slums. Since I’m an air ascended and she’s a fire one, we immediately realized that she had both our affinities. We don’t even know if she could create two sources, but if she can...”

The kings seemed excited all of a sudden, understanding what would mean for the kingdom to have an ascended with two elements. It would be something that had never happened before.

An idea came to him as he rubbed her head and asked: “Iris, how about a palace tour? I must return to the palace, but I want to hear more about you.”

“Your high - “the headmaster wanted to oppose, but the king raised a hand to stop him from trying. Iris looked worriedly between the two and asked: “is it okay?”

“Of course it is. I’m the king. If I say it’s fine, then it’s fine.”

With Iris’s curious nature and the king’s decision, the headmaster couldn’t do anything about it and allowed them to leave on the condition the king would send her back by nightfall.

Aware of the little girl’s potential, the king pampered her the entire day. He brought her food, took her everywhere inside the castle she wanted to visit, and so on.

As time passed on, he even became attached to the little girl. Whenever he had time, he would go to the Academy and take Iris to the castle. He gave her new clothes, let her play with his own children, and eventually even bestowed her with a noble rank, granting her the name Golden, imagining her being the key to a golden future for the kingdom.

Her cultivation was somewhat slow, but that was only normal as some concepts and theories happened to be in the early research stage, and she was too young to understand them.

Today, Iris just turned 16, and the king stole her from the Academy again, bringing her to spend her birthday at the castle. He’s been growing old, already close to 40 years old.

His children were all boys, and maybe also because of their power-hungry personalities, he liked spending time with the naturally curious Iris more. After pampering her the entire day like usual and listening to all the stories about her life at the Academy, the king decided it was time for them to return.

Iris looked somewhat saddened since she enjoyed spending time with Aidan as well. With it being her birthday today, she decided to be a little crafty and asked: “Aidan, can I stay longer today? Please? I don’t want to return to the Academy yet.”

Aidan looked at her puppy eyes and felt like he couldn’t say no to her. Sighing lightly, he nodded and said: “Alright, I’ll take you home myself later.”

Iris’s sad look went away instantly, and she gave Aidan a tight hug to thank him.

They spent a few more hours playing around, and it was already dark outside when Iris had her fill of staying at the castle. Knowing that his officials would cause a ruckus if he were to leave the palace so late and Iris would be in trouble with the Academy if she didn’t show up until tomorrow, Aidan sneaked out of the castle together with Iris to take her home.

Iris looked excited to be sneaking out of the palace with the king, but as they walked through the middle ring, a few masked men appeared and looked at the two with cold eyes.

The king moved his hand to the hilt of his sword and brought Iris behind him as he asked coldly: “Who are you?”

“Haha.” One of the men started laughing. “Didn’t expect to come searching for the jewel of the Academy and even encounter an unguarded king. Walking the night streets with none of the royal guards, quite reckless of you, don’t you think?”

“You’re not from my kingdom.”, said the king, drawing his sword immediately. Looking towards the three masked men, his heart sank. He knew he couldn’t fight three spies simultaneously, even if his sword skills were not bad, and escape with his life.

Feeling Iris grab his tunic tightly, Aidan looked back with a kind smile as he said: “Iris, close your eyes for a while, and don’t open them until I tell you to. All would be over soon.”

Iris’s eyes were already red, but she closed them and released the king’s clothes so she would not bother him.

The king’s kind face turned cold in an instant as he turned towards the enemy spies and said: “You stray dogs, even if I were to fall here, I’d never let you lay a hand on Iris.”

The men chuckled simultaneously and moved to attack the king, knives appearing in their hands out of their sleeves.

The king saw one of them deviating from him, aiming for Iris behind him, and his rage spiked instantly.

“You dare!” he yelled as he ignored the other two attacking him and swung his longsword at the one targeting Iris.

The assassin targeting Iris didn’t expect the king’s suicidal move and moved to parry using his dagger, but his attempt was useless in front of the heavy longsword.

With the sound of bones cracking, the hand holding the dagger broke first, and the longsword fell on his neck, cutting halfway into his ribcage before its momentum stopped.

The assassin was dead instantly, but the king was also heavily injured. The two other assassin’s attacks landed, piercing two holes in his abdomen.

Wincing slightly in pain, the king released the sword from the dead assassin’s body and grabbed the hand of one of the other ones before he could pull his dagger back.

The assassin tried to release his dagger and escape, but before he could do it, the king grabbed his neck using his other hand and crushed it, looking into his eyes as blood started leaking through the mask covering his mouth.

As he was taking care of the second assassin, the other one had once more plunged his blade into the king’s chest, barely missing his heart. The king grabbed the dagger the second assassin left in his abdomen and sank it into the last assassin’s neck, killing him as well.

The strength he managed to gather finally left him, and he fell to his knees, a sudden weakness traveling throughout his entire body.

“Iris. It’s over.” He said weakly, his voice somewhat hoarse. Darkness was slowly encroaching the corners of his vision, but he wanted to have one more look at the golden hope he had fought so hard to protect.

Iris opened her eyes and quickly came to Aidan’s side when she spotted him kneeling on the ground. The tears she managed to hold in finally broke loose as she tried to cover his wounds and stop the bleeding with her tiny arms.

Aidan winced and grabbed her hand, stopping her as he said: “It’s too late kiddo. They got me good. *Cough* *Cough*”

Seeing the blood he coughed out and hearing the weakness in his voice, Iris got even more terrified, but she didn’t know what she could do to help. She wanted to carry him to the Academy but didn’t know if she could lift him. She wanted to yell for help but was too afraid of there being more bad guys around.

Seeing the panic in her eyes, Aidan smiled kindly and said: “Don’t cry, Iris. A tree is allowed to grow dry and die as long as the forest is still green…”

“Kiddo, can you promise me something?”

Iris immediately nodded, taking his blood-covered hand in her own, with tears still falling down her cheeks.

“This kingdom and my kids. Once you finally ascend and gain the power to, please watch over them for me.” even if his children turned nothing like he had hoped, they were still his, and he loved them.

Iris nodded again, her face already covered in tears and snot as she said: “Don’t worry, Aidan. I’ll grow strong and take care of everyone. I swear.”

Aidan smiled kindly, caressing Iris’s cheek with eyes full of pride.

“There’s no need for you to…” he didn’t finish his words as the light faded from his eyes, and he fell lifelessly forward, his head resting on Iris’s knees.

Iris remained there, unmoving, for a few hours, tears rolling down her cheeks as memories of her time with Aidan kept flowing through her mind.

A few hours later, the royal guards finally found them and took the poor Iris into custody, but she didn’t move or say a word the entire way, her eyes fixed forward with a lost look inside them.

The Academy took care of the investigation, and the truth of the king’s death soon came to light, causing the royals to release Iris. She remained silent the entire way back to the Academy, the headmaster’s presence beside her bringing her none of the peace and happiness Aidan’s presence did.

When she returned to the Academy, she was sent to her room, where she stayed inside for a few days, only eating bits and pieces at Olivia’s insistence. It took over a week for some life to return to Iris’s eyes as she looked down at her own hand, feeling the cold blood of the former king still flowing on them.

The words between Aidan and the assassins repeated in her mind the entire week, and she understood. All of it was her fault. Her wish to stay more, making Aidan have to sneak them out of the palace, was what allowed the assassins to attack, and she was also their initial target.

Closing her eyes, she was suddenly overwhelmed by guilt and anger and clenched her fists.

“You were like a father to me, Aidan, Your Highness, and I only brought death to you, for which I am sorry. Don’t worry now, and rest in peace. I will grow strong and protect everything you hold dear. This kingdom, your royal family, I’ll keep them all safe.”

In response to her conviction, a sudden bout of fire and air energy swirled around her body, making the start of the indomitable Protector of the Oath Kingdom, Iris Golden.