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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 223 Part 1

CHAPTER 223: THE BLOODLINE PART 1

「…… Excuse me?」

Since I was unable to comprehend what His Majesty the King has said to me just now, I just couldn’t really help it but to ask him back.

Fortunately enough, the King seemed to understand where I was coming from, or he simply chose to ignore my rude question, as he continued to speak and explain to me.

「You do know what makes one qualified to be called a Hero, yes? It is to have the blood of the Gods coursing through your veins.」

「Y-Yes, Your Majesty……」

「The Hero is nothing short for humanity but an ultimate trump card in the fight against the Demon Lord. That is why it is imperative that the blood of the Gods must never be lost to the world, it always has to be passed down. But, do you know how that goal was accomplished? It was accomplished by creating many branches of the main Hero family, to have contingency plans in case of something happening to the main family’s Hero.」

「I-I had no idea…… This is the first time I’m actually hearing about this……」

「That’s understandable. I wouldn’t think otherwise. After all, this type of knowledge is something that only a select few people in the world would know. It’s not something to be disclosed to the common folk. Just think of what could happen to the world if people knew that there are more people with the blood of the gods flowing through them. Surely there would be those who would choose to use that knowledge to accomplish their own goals, or use those people for their own nefarious purposes. For example, the branch family members might claim the right that THEY are actually the true Hero. So, in order to avoid such confusion and potentially catastrophic scenarios, this matter was to be strictly controlled and never to be made public. The fact that there is more than one person with the blood of the gods is something only the head of each branch family knows about, as well as the ruler of this country.」

「But if that is the case, Your Majesty, then why are you telling me all this? And why now?」

I already had a certain premonition about that matter.

In fact, I already understood what the King was trying to say here.

But still, I dared to ask that question. Because I had to hear it.

「There was a Hero branch family in the Southern Continent, in the Beast Tamers’ village as well. The name of that branch family was…… Shroud. It was your family.」

「Huh!?」

After listening to His Majesty’s story so far, this development was somehow predictable to me, but……

Still, the moment when I was actually told that to my face, it still came to me as quite a shock.

I have the blood of the gods flowing through my veins……?

No one even told me anything about it all those years.

Neither my father nor my mother, neither the people in the village, nor anyone else who might have known about it…….

「I-Is that really true, Your Majesty? Are you absolutely sure that this isn’t some sort of a mistake?」

「Oh, please believe me, Shroud. I had my doubts at first, in the same way that you have them now. That kind of story seemed to be way too good to be true. It was too good to be true that there was actually a survivor of the branch Hero family that was said to have perished years ago. However, the more I investigated that matter and the more I interacted with you, the more my own suspicions started to become true.」

「……………」

「Just think about it. You are way more than a regular Beast Tamer could ever hope to be. Not only you are able to tame members of the Ultimate Species, you are able to tame multiple of them at once! But it’s not only Ultimate Species and beasts. You can also tame creatures such as Ghosts and insects, right? And you have used that power of yours to expose the corruption of the former Lord of Horizon, and then you used that power to defeat the Devil that was running amok across the Southern Continent. Those are not small feats to accomplish.」

「I see that you have been conducting a very thorough research of your own, Your Majesty.」

「Yes, and I would like to say that I am sorry for that, but I am not. I wouldn’t be worthy of being a member of the royal household if I was not ready to go through all of those lengths and hoops to protect my realm and its people. Also, ever since I have heard that your name is Shroud, I ordered some people to conduct a more in-detail research right away.」

「But still, to conduct such detailed research on such a broad scope in such a short amount of time……」

「You could say that the royal palace has some really capable personnel at its disposal. Personnel who know how to do their job right, and to do it fast.」

After saying that, the King gave me a rather fearless smile.

「And what my research was able to uncover was as follows: you are indeed the last surviving member of the Hero branch family. You are the last surviving member of that branch, and you have blood of the gods coursing through your veins.」

「But that’s……」

Even if I was told something like that completely out of the blue like that, there was no way that I would be able to believe it on the spot.

And could anyone even blame me for thinking like that?

Even if I was told all of a sudden that I was actually qualified to call myself a Hero, I would never actually think that it was something that would be possible.

But…… Strangely enough, there was a part of me, deep down inside, that actually knew that this was the truth.

At first I thought it was obvious enough, but……

As everyone would always say, my power as a Beast Tamer was far beyond the normal scope and range of that class.

Not only that, but my growth rate was also quite outstanding.

So if you were to tell me that the reason for all of this was because I had the blood of the gods flowing through my veins, it all suddenly made a whole lot of sense.

It would also serve to explain a whole lot of things.

「You see? You are also a Hero, lad.」

「I am…… THe Hero……」

Honestly, this did not feel real at all to me.

「…… So? Now that you have told me all this, Your Majesty, what is it that you require of me?」

「Nothing. At least for the time being.」

The King said while looking up at the night, starry sky.

What was it that was reflected in his eyes right now?

Unfortunately, His Majesty the King was the only one who would know the answer to that.

「This time around, Arios was chosen to be the Hero, but it was mostly because of the fact that the blood of the gods coursing through his veins is the thickest. The thicker the blood of the gods, the stronger the power it grants to the individual. With this in mind, I made a decision to name Arios as a Hero. But, the thing is…… aside from his blood and the power it represents, I’m now not so sure if his heart is worthy of being called a Hero.」