Abandoned Bastard of the Royal Family Volume 6 Chapter 38 (Patreon)

Chapter 38 – Father

“It isn’t me who benefitted from this in the end. It is you.”

The father interrupted his son’s speech.

“This was all for you. I hatched this conspiracy to regain what was rightfully yours. Now that you have it back, you can use it to feed your people, those who are left.”

King Preslate was unable to do this.

Because he is a weak and isolated king.

“I am a weak king. I spent most of my reign barely regaining the power I should have wielded. You are right. I am weak, and I am not fit to be king.”

However,

“I got it back. I spent my whole life regaining the power of a king, which a king should wield. That is my achievement that no one can deny. But it is not me who shall wield my achievement. It is you.”

He pointed his finger at Schild.

“You said I don’t deserve to be king? Then you must show, by your actions, what a real king is. That you have what it takes. Use what you inherited from me, and show it to the people that denied me! Even if it means denying me as your father, as a king, even if it makes me the enemy!”

“You still want me to move according to your plot!?”

“No, for it is you who will write the plot. Or rather, you’ve been doing it from the beginning. I’m just waiting for you to believe in me.”

Then, King Preslate repeated himself for the third time.

“I am a weak king. I’ve spent all my life gaining power, which cost me to become unable to face my people. In that case, you will be the king who does. For you now have the power.”

Does he mean the power of might, his strongest fighting power, and the “Majesty of the Lion” that Schild was born with?

Or was he referring to the power of authority, the power that his father had spent half his life gathering?

Schild did not know which it was.

If he referred to the original question, then it would seem that both were given to him by his father.

“Every king is like that. No matter who the predecessor, he will pass on something to help their future generations.”

“…what are you going to do from now on?”

The reason this was asked instead is because Schild himself does not have a definite answer as to what he would do from here.

“I’ve already done my job. It is your time now.”

“You’re not going back to the royal capital?”

“It’s your castle now. You will be the master of the place, and you will show me that you are a strong king who can repudiate my deeds.”

Schild was at a loss.

Should he be really repudiating his father? Denying all that he has done for him? Indeed, his methods were wrong, but he is still his family. There’s also the feeling that inside him, his father may have wanted this all along.

“I am content to stay here and continue my research on monster control. It would be a nice, quiet way to spend the rest of my life.”

“What are the chances of that research becoming a threat in the future?”

“You’re looking at things from a bird’s eye view. That’s exactly the point of view of a ruler.”

“Stop kidding around. So, what do you think?”

“Don’t worry. I’m the only one who can handle this research.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t told you. My mother…who is also your grandmother. She was a Demon.”

Schild’s eyes widened at this unexpected admission yet again.

“It was when humans and demons were still fighting each other in earnest. A Demon Race village was conquered, and a woman of the Demon Race was presented as a sex slave to King Protesto, who was a prince at that time. Back then, it was an acceptable practice.”

King Protesto, the father of King Preslate, playfully raped the demoness, and a half-human, half-demon boy was born.

“I was born from that demoness,” Preslate said.

“I have half-demon blood in my body. That blood makes allows me to practice the technique of creating and controlling monsters. No other pure human being can handle this research. Nor I can involve them in it.”

“So that’s how it is.”

“When I negotiated with the real Demon Lord, he was unapproachable at first. But when I told him about my birth, he finally receded.”

“……”

“My mother was unhappy until the end. She was nothing more than a sex toy to my father, but even so, she was happy when I was born. Unusually, he took her as his concubine. But that was a mistake.”

The special treatment aroused criticism from those around her, and she was harassed by many of her rivals in the royal court.

“Adding that they were originally from different species, their living environment did not match. In the end, mother died of illness after a period of weakness.”

His father had the same father, who abandoned him, and a mother who left him, unable to carry on the life she was having.

The obvious but unimaginable fact stunned Schild.

“Like my father, I laid my hands on a village girl, impregnated her, and threw her away with her baby. We are the same, right? For you are also abandoned by me. The only difference is that your mother’s treatment is better than mine. I know what I was doing when I abandoned you and your mother at the border. And I didn’t regret this up to this day.”

“……”

“I know you’re angry. But I’ve done what I had to do. If it helps you eliminate your anger by allowing myself to be cut by you here, then perhaps that’s not a bad way to end it.”

Schild’s dominant hand gripped the hilt of his sword, which was lowered to his waist.

It was the only thing his father had left for him when he was born.

And that sword he gripped…

He drew it out.

◆

Schild stepped out of the hut and started to walk outside.

The sword was already back in its sheath.

In his right hand was a lock of hair, tied up in a knot.

Even if he would never return to the royal capital again, he should at least bring back a lock of hair.

So he cut it off.

If he looked out the cabin window, he would see his father’s face with a new haircut.

But Schild never looked back until the hut disappeared behind the horizon.

Schild went on.

Through the empty wilderness, just as he had spent the first half of his life on the road.

“Now then… where should I go now?”

His mission of finding his father is now over.

His new life is about to begin.

What he has carried since the day he was born is gone, and now he must decide for himself what he will carry next.

“Where should I go? Or rather…should I go back?”

To go forward or to go back.

For the first time in his life, Schild also felt.

That he is now free.

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