The God of Jesters
Chapter 553 - 8.14.5 Dark history of Blood Heart Family.

Chapter 553: 8.14.5 Dark history of Blood Heart Family.

Hearing the name Wortham, something clicked in Amir’s mind. To this day, he never really knew Duke’s first name as he mostly went by his middle name, Wortham. Though it wasn’t that odd to him, considering how commonly used this name and title was.

But now that he thinks about it, why was there no first name of Duke, why did he go with Wortham and not the title that suits him more as the protector of the Royal family?

Such questions kept pouring into Amir’s mind before he asked a somewhat stupid question.

"Foster sister? Was she adopted into our family?" A question whose answer came to his mind the moment he asked.

The name his Grandfather spoke of was Emilia Wortham, without the addition of Bloodcrow, meaning that she was never adopted into their family. So why was she called Duke’s foster sister? What and how was this relationship formed?

What happened for him to borrow the last name of his sister as his middle name?

And his Grandfather gladly explained. "The reason for all of this is one of the most shameful parts of our family, mostly it revolves around certain power dynamics and how the Bloodhearts were not so united."

The Bloodhearts were a branch of Bloodcrow influenced by the God of Wine, which mutated their bloodline. Their birth was followed by Betrayal fate didn’t like them much, and labeled them as betrayers, or so the people in the past believed due to the rampant backstabbing among the branches of the family, including direct siblings.

It was a family made up of people scared of their own.

It was during this time that Duke Wortham, whose first name had disappeared in History was born.

"The concubine at the time feared for her child, sending her to her sister’s home while claiming he died.... Of course, such words did cause the Prince at the time to label her useless and murder her in cold blood." The past of their family was overbearing as well as disgusting. But this is what happens when a power goes unchecked for too long, corruption and arrogance take over the mind and people start to do things that were generally immoral in the eyes of the many.

And Amir’s thoughts were pretty much the same. Though not that surprised, the Royal family of the current day might be too united, but there were still dark parts about it, evil that shouldn’t be spoken about.

Though such things don’t matter as such harm is mostly brought to those outside of the family, it’s rare for a family member to harm his own spouse and such in the current day without repercussions.

’She sent her child away, fearing he might suffer in this family.’ On the other hand, Amir also understood the reason why Duke’s mother might have done something like that. From the words of his grandfather, the Royal family was much more brutal during those days, it would be harder for the young duke to survive in that kind of environment.

So in a way, she gave up her life knowingly or unknowingly, just so she could have a chance to survive.

And survive he did.

"The cruelest part about it all, if my uncle’s talent was found out before he was sent away, he would have been given protection by the Emperor and things be a lot more different than now." Deimos showed some pity.

"His Aunt, am I to assume Emilia Wortham was her daughter?"

"Correct... The Worthams were not nobles, they were a newly risen Mage family during that time. And they broke up with the Royals completely after learning what happened to their daughter, which might be the first of the mistakes our family made during that time."

Duke Wortham grew up with hatred for his own family, knowing that his mother was killed for such a small reason, he grew up with hate and a penchant for magic. Probably a talent he obtained from his mother’s side.

A fact that did surprise Amir for a bit.

He never expected that Duke once used to be a Mage. Then again, it only showed what kind of monster he was.

And it was this talent that he used with his earlier spat with the Royals, a spat where he regularly suffered defeat due to the overwhelming odds, though he never stopped during those early days.

Going by a false name, he harassed his very own step-siblings, all in an attempt to take revenge on his father. Unknowingly showing that the Curse still plagued him, just like it did to the rest of the family.

Of course, this didn’t go on for too long. Might be due to his youth and inexperience, but the Duke was captured and soon to be executed.

Well, that was until the Wortham soon came to protect him and exposed his identity to the Royals. This did make them surprised for a bit, but with how used they were to cause each other to bleed, their plan didn’t stop, they maintained their plan to end Wortham.

This then came to a complete halt when one of the members out of curiosity checked his blood just to confirm the Wortham’s claims.

And what they found was utterly monstrous.

"Turns out, if not for being trained as a mage since childhood that suppressed the growth of his blood, Duke Wortham would have naturally entered the ranks of Grandmaster by his late twenties due to how potent his blood was. Which in the eyes of the Royals was a total waste of talent and resources."

"They gave him a choice, join the family and forget about taking revenge, in return for all his lost privileges as a Prince of the Cynark Empire and make the deal all the more delectable, or die. Of course, he chose to live as a Prince from that point on... though he did some things on the side once he came to power." The Duke gave up his identity as a mage and chose to pursue the power of his blood, which made him weak for a time, but instead of fearing for his life, he seemed happy at that time. He integrated into his new life and showed a level of respect for his elders as was expected of him.

However, his growing strength as a Knight did cause some worry that he might be planning something odd because such a sudden shift was too bizarre and unnatural.

It was then that the first of Bloodheart was born, his own younger sister, a foster sister born of his Aunt an Archmage, he implanted the blood of Bloodcrows into her secretly, obviously such things were long noticed by the book that remains in Amir’s hand. The Royals of that time just chose to use this action of Duke Wortham to their advantage to tighten their grip over Duke Wortham in case he tried something with his increasing strength as a mage.

They ended up doing, so by putting his sister’s life at risk and claiming her as a heretic, they intended to end her then and there, and it was only after the Duke made a contract to never harm the Royal family unless his hand was forced or he was requested by the Emperor, did they let her live.

Of course, this Contract did put a strain on his soul, slowing his speed of growth to some level, but not too noticeable. It had virtually no impact on the monstrous talent of the duke, who grew further in ensuring his sister’s survival.

"But that’s the problem you see, many in our family thought that she was going to walk the path of a Knight, but she never did... born in a mage family, my Aunt had an analytical mind, she started tinkering with her own blood, modifying it artificially and not through practice like most of the derivative bloodlines are formed."

"And the result, well you can already see what the ingredient she might have used in modifications." Duke Wortham pointed at the corpse that was still showing some movements as well as corruption. "She touched the Taboo?"

"Curses and anomalies, she was a master of those and was successful in implementing them in her blood... though we would learn of it at a later date. The first weapon she initially created was a virus that directly targeted our bloodline in the worst way possible."

"Calling it a disease would be too much, it was a mixture of Curse and corruption that directly harmed the mind of those infected, and once you were infected, there was no coming back... and that started the massacre."

There were many dark parts of their family. The Blood Crows had suffered through tragedies throughout their history, but none were as big as the one caused by Emilia Wortham. As the disease caused many among the Royals to turn on each other and let go of their reasoning, the murders and betrayals of the Royals worsened with time.

Of course, some noticed this oddity and with some further research, they soon learned of the perpetrator, which surprised them. "The Duke even with the restriction placed on him never let go of his revenge... and considering he was already at the peak of Grand Master Rank at that time, none dared to be too obstinate with him once he tried to protect his sister once again."

"This worked to our favor, he faced further restrictions, all in an attempt to curb his hatred for the family, while his sister ended up living though she was barred from practicing."

"As for the ones who had been infected with her disease, the Duke was ordered by the Emperor of the time to get rid of all those that were infected with this virus." The Family wanted to keep this tragedy in the family to themselves, so they never used any of their vassals for this job.

Considering the fear of the spread of this disease, no one was better to handle the mission than the Duke himself, who seemed to have a level of immunity to this virus.

Which Duke enjoyed, it was the first purge among the family. "The order was, all those that dared to harm the Royal family are to be ended... of course the Emperor, my Grandfather didn’t know, even though he had long been infected with the virus, and it was only through his strength that he had been able to fight back."

"But his strength waned after learning just how many of his sons and siblings died under the Duke’s hand, and with his waning strength came Duke Wortham himself, to end the Emperor himself."

The restrictions placed on the Duke played in his favor, with this one move he had ended over 90% of all those that carried the Royal blood, and with the emperor who gave the order dying, in his hands as well, the Duke was forced to follow this order through the end of his life.

Which he at first was happy about. Now he had the god-given right to correct the wrongs of the Royal family.

That happiness soon turned into horror once his sister died of old age, considering her mage powers were sealed due to her crimes, she died at a normal mortal age of 90.

Followed by certain hatred from her family members, who suppressed it for two centuries, living on the edge of the Royal family, before they finally accumulated enough strength to take revenge.

"The Duke Wortham was forced at that moment, he was forced to kill the last legacy of his sister, and his hatred for the Royal family had only grown further due to that."

"..."

"So much tragedy, just due to one murder?" Amir still can’t believe the story, the dark secret of the Royals, and how horrific Duke Wortham actually was.

One mistake by his mother led to the current state of the Royal family.

"When Soros attacked the city, the Duke was here, he had all the strength to stop him, but he chose not to using the excuse of restrictions. Then he just enjoyed the destruction before leaving Rudrain... happy that one of his sister’s children had survived. Though we both can see it’s not a good thing he had survived. This blood, if it spreads further can create certain problems."

Deimos explained and Amir understood.

He understood what he had to do at this point.

"This is not a job anyone else can do considering the family’s dark history can be exposed... so I hope you hunt Soros down, make sure not a single drop of his blood remains in this world. As for the Duke, let me handle him."