Blank.

Rye was the only human in the world that was not blessed with a heritage. The king, queen, and the ministers knew about it because they witnessed it when his heritage was checked right after his birth.

He didn't think there would come a day when he was glad he didn't have any heritage. With this, it would be beyond unreasonable to put him into the hero's party.

The king and queen would get many protests from the nobles that couldn't get their children to enter the hero's party. Not only nobles, average civilians would also be dissatisfied since all of them have a heritage but couldn't become the hero's comrade.

Not to mention, his family has technically abandoned him. Except for his family name, he never received anything from his parents after he came of age. He wasn't considered as a member of Cazmere noble family.

"Ludric reported to me that you could block his sword with only a metal pointer? Is that a lie?" The king asked.

"Anybody could block that since Sir Ludric wasn't swinging his sword seriously. It was a spur of the moment and I was just lucky. My metal pointer is broken because of that."

"What about Rosetta's ice magic?"

"It was a fluke."

"And the lightning?"

"A coincidence. It was attracted by the sunflower in my hands at that time."

"Then, how did you return the possessed student back to his original body?"

"I have read about it once," Rye touched his glasses, "I am an avid reader."

"Why should we believe you?"

"Why would I lie?"

Rye and the king stared at each other, both assessing the other. The ministers at the side were already itching to rebuke Ludric's rude younger brother, but they couldn't just yell at the hero's younger brother.

"Why do you not want to enter your brother's party? Do you not want to save our kingdom from the demons? Or is Ludric's speculation correct? That you have formed a contract with them?"

"Your Majesty, not everyone desires glory. I am satisfied with my life as it is. It is not that I do not want to save our kingdom, I am just contributing to it by teaching this kingdom's future generation. If you are so insistent that I have formed a contract, you can conduct a test to see whether it is true or not." Rye didn't falter.

"…" The King raised his palm to the anticipating ministers, "No need. We all can agree that there is no speck of demonic energy within you."

"…" Rye waited.

He has a feeling there will be a but after it.

"But," The king added, "I do not believe that your successful blocks were flukes."

"If Sir Ludric used the bare minimum of his hero heritage, I would definitely die at that time. I was lucky."

The king tapped his finger rhythmically on his armrest, "You do not want to join the hero party that much?"

"Excuse me for my bluntness, but yes."

"Reason?"

"I do not have the capability, I do not want to die, I want to live peacefully, I like teaching, I do not like fighting," Rye briefly side glanced at the hero party and back to the king, "And from what I understand about their way of doing things from the incident a few days ago, I believe our ideology does not match."

"Ideology?"

"The hero party solely focused on exterminating the demons. I myself do not care whether it is demons, beasts, elves, humans, or anything else. Each side has both bad and good. If there was a situation, for example, where a human harms an innocent demon without any particular reason, I will unhesitantly side with the demons."

The king and queen immediately frowned. The ministers also flew into a rage from his statement.

"You just admitted yourself that you side with the demons!"

"Are you really a human!?"

"How could the younger brother of a hero state such controversial words?"

Rye took off his glasses and cleaned them, "If demons are pure evil creatures, for what did god create them? They are just another species with their morality leaning toward black, just like elves who leaned toward white and us, humans, who are in the grey line. It just so happens that demons need to eat humans, just like us who happen to eat animals, plants, and sometimes even beasts. Am I wrong, Your Majesty?"

"…" The king studied Rye intently, "You have changed, Rye Cazmere."

"Because I am a normal human, Your Majesty," Rye wore his glasses back, "That is why, I refuse to join the hero party."

"Is it really not just because you do not want to be with Ludric in a long period of time?"

Rye paused for a second, but he nodded his head honestly, "I am also aiming to avoid that future."

"Ahahahaha!!" The king suddenly laughed, startling everyone in the hall. He pointed at Rye decisively, "Rye Cazmere, you are indeed worthy. You are officially joining the hero party as of this second!"

"Huh!?" Rye couldn't stop himself from his shock.

"Are you questioning my decision?"

"Yes, I am," Rye fearlessly talked back, "After everything I said, why did you conclude to such a decision? Are you not concerned about the possibility of my betrayal?"

"Because you honestly admit that you do not like your brother," The king smiled, "And the fact that you have just said that means the possibility of your betrayal is near zero."

"Ugh." Rye couldn't think of any words in return.

"You have grown into an excellent man, Rye Cazmere. I grant you the authority to stop the hero party from killing someone, something, or anything that you deem unnecessary."

"Huh…?" Rye was even more confused.

"Say it is a fluke all you want, do you think you can deceive my eyes?"

Rye remembered.

The king has an appraisal skill that could see through every living and dead object.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean by that?" Ludric stepped forward.

The king raised an eyebrow at Rye, "So? If you do not accept your role, I can spill everything right here right now. But if you do, I swore to secrecy and you will directly be under my rule."

Rye fixed his glasses. The king could appraise not only an object's mana capacity and raw physical strength, he could also appraise that object's ability and overall power.

To be honest, Rye didn't know exactly what it was inside him that the king could use as blackmail. Throughout his life, he has learned many knowledge and skills from all the books he read to survive that he lost track of it.

Most likely, the king knew that he didn't want Ludric to know even that small fact.

"I understand. If you have any rules or restrictions for me to abide, please say it now. I will not accept any additional rules after I walk out of the door of this hall." Rye reluctantly admitted defeat.

"How dare you say such words to the king!"

"Beg for forgiveness!"

"As our king, His Majesty can restrict and order you anything and anytime he wants!"

"Silence!!" The king slammed his fist to his armrest. He sighed, "Your yelling is giving me headaches."

"F-Forgive us, Your Majesty…" The ministers hurriedly backed away and bowed.

The king put his attention back to Rye, "You're not allowed to kill any of the heroes. Punishments will be given by me. Your duty is only to report if they went against your order. Of course, aside from that, you must assist them in their fights and missions."

"One question."

"Go ahead."

"Just like I am allowed to stop them from killing someone, am I allowed to order them to kill or save someone?"

"Don't push your luck!" Desmund, one of the heroes, yelled.

"Granted," The king unhesitantly agreed under everyone's surprise, "But before a kill order, you must report it to me first."

"I understand," Rye nodded, "If that is all, I will excuse myself first."

"I am looking forward to your achievements, Rye." The king allowed him to leave.

"I cannot say the same, Your Majesty." Rye left tiredly.

He could hear the king's laughter from behind him.

Was the king this lax of a person? Well, recalling back at that time, the king didn't particularly look down on or pity him when he was revealed to not have any heritage. He was just surprised, maybe fascinated.

How could their king be such an oddball?

If the queen was the one in power, she would've already kicked him out once she saw he was still heritage-less. And why didn't any of the heroes say anything in objection about him joining?? Shouldn't they be dissatisfied?

Nothing went according to his expectation.

But at least, he didn't stay down and let himself be dragged around by Ludric or the king. If he was going to do this, he would do it at his pace.