At first, Iris didn’t understand what she was looking at, but then the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She threw the book as hard as she could down the long aisle of bookshelves as if it were hot coal burning her hands, and she turned and ran in the opposite direction, screaming as she had done when she was a young child.

“Your Highness? Are you all right?” A maid asked with some concern.

The maids were waiting in front of the library as Iris bolted through the open doorway and the guards rushed to her instinctively, protectively surrounding her.

Lily En Oswald, the commander of the guards, escorted the Queen, looking at her with a mysterious face. The Queen was shaking her hands as if she was trying to remove something unseen from them, and she looked as white as a sheet as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Your Highness?”

“I, I,” Iris stuttered, unable to say anything coherent.

“Call the doctor. And, let the King know,”

“No!” Iris screamed. She couldn’t believe what she’d seen, the image was burnt into her brain and she was still reeling from the shock.

That, that, that thing you put in your mouth, that thing, that thing? But a man’s p*nis, that’s used to urinate! That’s being put into that lady’s mouth in the picture?! Iris was even stuttering in her thoughts at the shock and horror of it all. She understood now, for the first time, that a man could have weird fantasies about putting their p*nis into someone’s mouth, and that was what Sidrain wanted her to do. She staggered blindly, her eyes unable to focus as her brain tried to process this new information.

“Your Highness, I don’t think you’re in good condition. The King will be worried. As you know, he loves you so much,” Lily said quietly, not sure what to do.

“No, no, no, no!” Iris shook her head recklessly and her blonde hair, which had been beautifully tied up by the maids, was now a mess as the jewelry and pearl clips fell on the floor, but she didn’t care in the least.

Oh my God, what do I have to do to make a successor then?! I need to flee the palace as soon as possible! Iris had made a concrete decision.

***

“Did you know this?” Iris demanded. She had returned to the library to retrieve the book to show her teacher, once the shock had worn off.

Elaine was highly embarrassed when he saw the book that Iris had brought to him. Rather than shaking his head, he moaned as his ghostly-looking eyes stared at the oral s*x picture before him. “Do you know about s*x?”, was probably the last question that a father ever wanted to hear from their innocent daughter.

When Elaine moaned and didn’t answer, Iris asked again, in frustration, “Did you know, teacher?”

Elaine was fifty-nine this year and sixty next year, and he’d had his fair share of s*xual encounters. As a young man, he’d been a bit of a punk and had fooled around a lot with women. But he wanted to be a solemn father to his daughter, so he shook his head without realizing it and lied, “I’ve never seen this before.”

“This is what it says I need to do to have a successor, teacher! I guess the King wants to make me do this!”

A woman didn’t have to perform this particular act to have a child with her husband, but Elaine was so embarrassed that he couldn’t explain to Iris that this act was more for pleasure, so he just accepted the book Iris handed over without saying anything.

Elaine paged through the book quickly noticing one of the headings, ‘Lie north, so you don’t get sick in childbirth’, what a load of crap. The problem was, his adopted daughter was ignorant and she seemed to believe this bullshit completely, or, she hadn’t read it until the end. Perhaps it was the latter but Iris wasn’t the type to believe just anything without investigating further, so he wondered why she believed this bullshit that lying north would lessen the pain of childbirth. Closing the book, he looked at his innocent daughter’s face, unsure of how to explain all of this.

“I thought my teacher wouldn’t know about such things,” Iris said, clearly upset since she knew her father wasn’t a beast like this.

Elaine, who had been more of a beast than Iris would ever know, felt burdened by the sad-looking eyes staring at him, in wait for an answer. He hadn’t been a beast per se, it was natural to learn about s*x, but how the hell was he going to tell this to her? He was at a loss for words.

“Come on,” Iris persisted.

Elaine decided against the idea of explaining this all to her, it was just too awkward of a topic to discuss openly with her. In appearance, it seemed impossible for Iris to become the King’s wife, even if the world was overturned! Sidrain was not a priest but a fine man nonetheless, and a man who’d experienced numerous events because he was trained in the royal society. The more he thought about it the more he realized that a relationship between the King and Iris couldn’t work out.

They came from completely different backgrounds and had been raised with different interests, in different environments. Therefore, they were total opposites because their values and personalities were so different. Moreover, the King had only established relationships with great beauties and Rosemary was more loathsome than a worm, and he couldn’t see how the King would be attracted to a face such as hers, which oozed hatred. It was a crazy notion to think that it would work out between the two of them.

When Iris had disappeared, it seemed to have hit Elaine harder than expected, and no matter how much he knew that Iris was alive and here now, it was difficult for him to see the child that he’d raised with so much love and care, was now inside a miserable body. Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t think straight.

“I’m a little busy these days, Iris. The Magic Tower isn’t running as smoothly.”

Hearing Elaine’s words, Iris bit her lip because that should’ve been obvious to her but she hadn’t given much thought to this as she’d been consumed with her issues. Now that she was gone, a lot of things must’ve changed. The teacher’s power must’ve weakened as well and he would’ve had to delegate her work to others to do, and in the process, the teacher might lose his place. Of course, she should’ve thought about it! She had selfishly not thought of her teacher because she was blinded by her misfortunes!