Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 158 Part 2

CHAPTER 158 PART 2

The way in which Iris spoke of those events…… it was as if she had been there when it happened.

「Can we get sidetracked for a moment, please?」

「Hm? Yes, what is it?」

「I am really sorry to interrupt you like that, Iris, but…… Just how old are you? Exactly?」

According to the legends and lore, the disappearance of the Celestial Tribe should have been an event that took place a long time ago.

But Iris was talking about those events as if they had happened merely yesterday, and she was there to witness them with her own eyes.

For someone who looks so young like this, could it be that Iris is actually much, much older than I am?

「Haah.」

Iris let out a sigh filled with disappointment.
.
Then she turned her sharp glare towards me.

「Please listen here, Rein-sama. It is considered to be extremely impolite to ask a woman about such a sensitive topic as her age. Do you even realize that? And moreover, to interrupt an important conversation to ask such a question, this is rather……」

「I-I’m sorry! I really am! It’s just that…… I just got caught up in the moment and I couldn’t really stop wondering about that……」

「Goodness gracious…… Oh well, I suppose that being like this is what I can consider to be “like you”, Rein-sama. The freedom to always speak your mind and act on what your heart tells you to do, without being bound by anything…… In a certain way, that can also be a great virtue.」

「Umm, thank you…… I guess?」

「I actually meant that in an ironic way, so please don’t take it so seriously…… Fufufu. Truly, you are someone to whom the expression “It couldn’t be helped” fits like a glove.」

The scornful look on Iris face was quickly replaced with that of a playful smile.

There was a thought that occurred to me just now.

If only she could smile and laugh like this all the time……

I wish we could have a normal relationship where we could laugh alongside one another because of the most trivial things like that.

But according to Iris, that’s absolutely impossible.

What in the world has happened in the past?

I need to listen to Iris’s story some more and uncover that fact.

「Well, well, well, we might have digressed quite a bit here, but it was not really all that bad, I suppose. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, that’s right. The Celestial Tribe managed to build some good relations with humans. It was no exaggeration to say that we became very good neighbors. The Celestial Tribe was close to humans and together we walked the path of development and advancement.」

The kind of life where Ultimate Species coexisted right alongside humans……

Imagining that scene made me feel a little more relaxed and warmed up inside of my heart.

Could it have been the kind of feeling that I had wherever I am with my Party nowadays?

Those days must have been filled with happiness and peace.

And judging by the peaceful expression that Iris had on her face right now, my guess must not have been that much off the mark.

I’m sure the days spent with the rest of her Tribe were not bad ones, even for someone who was so consumed with madness and hatred right now.

「But then, one day it all came to a sudden and abrupt end. Yes, it was on the day when the Demon Lord was revived.」

「The Demon Lord……?」

「Surely you must be aware of that fact, Rein-sama? The Demon Lord who periodically revives, only to lead the Demons against humans, is defeated by the Hero, and falls into a deep slumber only to be revived after a period of dormancy. As to why the Demons would ever want to destroy humans, that we do not know. However, it’s an undeniable fact that since time immemorial, there have been wars fought between the humans and Demons.」

「Yes, I do know about that.」

「As the envoys of the Gods, it was our sacred duty as Celestial Tribe to destroy the Demons and protect humans. Because of that, we chose to ally ourselves with humans and we went to fight the Demons together.」

The expression on Iris’s face turned grim, as if the memory of the battles that she had fought at that time filled her heart with grief and sorrow.

「A whole lot of Celestial Tribe members ended up dying. And a whole lot of humans also ended up dead. But even with all those losses that we had suffered, it was still not enough to defeat the Demon Lord.

「Does that mean that the Demon Lord is so immensely powerful……?」

「Yes, he was even more powerful than any one of us could have thought. Even though we, the Celestial Tribe, would bundle together, it was still not enough…… And soon, from the hunters, we have become the hunted.」

Iris then bit her lip.

What kind of thoughts were going through her head right about now?

Was it perhaps a rage against the Demon Lord?

Or was it the sheer frustration at the fact that she was not nearly strong enough to prevent that tragedy from happening and killing the Demon Lord?

Honestly, it seemed like a mixture of both of those things to me.

「At the rate at which the things were going, we would end up wiped out sooner rather than later…… The Demon Lord would be victorious and everything that we were trying to protect would end up destroyed…… Knowing that fact all too well, the Celestial Tribe decided to turn towards our last resort.」

「The last resort……?」

「Yes. Namely: a suicide attack.」

「Huh!?」

Those words, said so plainly by Iris, made me gasp on the spot.

「We, the Celestial Tribe had the greatest specifications among the entire Ultimate Species. Not to mention our top tier physical abilities, we also possessed the strongest magical powers. So the plan was to do the following…… We were to unleash all of our power at once, cause it to run amok, and then hit the enemy with it while we would burn ourselves to ash in the process.」

「N-No way, this can’t be……」

「But, our enemy was not so naive as to just let the single member of the Celestial Tribe to defeat the Demon Lord with the self-destruct tactics. For that plan to work out, all of the Celestial Tribe members had been gathered and all of us had decided to make that suicide attack at once.」

「You had to go that far……?　I am not even sure I would have been able to make a decision like that…… And it still did not work out?」

「That goes to show just how powerful the Demon Lord really is.」

Iris had a bitter look on her face as she remembered those days.

But still.

Iris’s story was not over yet.

She hasn’t touched on the part as to why she came to hate humans so much.

「Well then, can you tell me the rest of this story, please?」

「Yes, of course.」

「Once again, I’m really sorry for this.」

「Fufufu, please don’t feel sorry for me, Rein-sama. While it is true that it’s painful for me to remember those days, it is also true that it is all in the past for me right now. So I don’t mind it that much.」

「…… I see. Well, let;s just leave it at that for the time being. Thank you so much.」

How could it not be hard for her?

Still, Iris continued to relate her tale to me.

I bowed my head, at least as a thought.

「Well then, let’s continue our story, shall we? We, the Celestial Tribe, have decided to blow ourselves up in a suicide attack, but not all of us, to be honest. If we did that, we would be entirely wiped out from the face of earth. Young people like me were left behind, excluded from the suicide attack plan.」

「Is that what happened……?」

「Then, the suicide attack plan was carried out and in exchange for the lives of our dear Celestial Tribe comrades, and they succeeded in inflicting great wounds on the Demon Lord. Next, the human Heroes attacked and assaulted the Demon Lord, finally managing to defeat him. There were a whole lot of other things that happened, but oh well, those things are not nearly as important to my story for the time being…… So you will have to excuse me, Rein-sama, for I am going to skip that part entirely, Anyways, that’s how we succeeded in defeating the Demon Lord, but we, the Celestial Tribe, had our numbers greatly reduced as a result of the war.」

It was a truly epic story.

To have to risk one’s lives until the entire Ultimate Species tribe was brought on the verge of extinction……

Once again, I was reminded of the threat that the Demon Lord posed to the entire world.

It’s just that……

From what I have just heard, I don’t see any reason for Iris to hate people all that much.

So I guess that there has to be more to this story, still……

What reason was waiting for us?

What truths were still hidden?

As much as I dreaded to hear them……

There was no longer any option left for me to back away.

「So then…… What happened next?」

「As a result, our Celestial Tribe has been greatly reduced in numbers, making it extremely difficult for us to achieve our raison d’etre.」

「Your raison d’être…… Do you mean acting as the agents of Gods’ will?」

「Yes, that’s right. The only people of our tribe who were left after this were women and children. Like this, there was no way that they could possibly act as the guardians of humans or fight the Demons on human behalf. And that is without even mentioning that we had our hands full with such a critical task as keeping our tribe alive. Of course, the Gods were sure to take notice of that really fast and accept the reality of our situation.」

「Well, yeah, that’s actually a given. It would not be possible for you to fulfill your duties when you were facing such a dire crisis. And even if someone would still insist on you doing just that and work yourselves to the bone, you would have every right to be angry with them. I mean, I hope that the Gods weren’t actually so unreasonable?」

「No, fortunately, they were not. The Gods were actually very understanding of our dire predicament. They would never do something so unreasonable.」

It was then that I felt that something was really strange with Iris’s choice of words.

THE GODS would never do something so unreasonable.

So, does that mean that…… 　I mean…..

「Yes, that’s right. But there was nothing that would stop humans from being so unreasonable. And surely, they approached us once more, asking us to protect them from dangers as we have always done.」