The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 113. Final Evaluation (3)
“We’re doomed….”
“Wait, are you serious? How are we supposed to fight and win against the professors?”
“Can’t we just give up on the exam?”
Before the warp portal leading into the Ruins.
The expressions of the Candidate Program students gathered by Party were so gloomy they looked like they’d arrived at a funeral before the exam even began.
“Alright, everyone stop chattering.”
Lucas Kane turned to address the students.
“I said fight and win, but honestly, just holding out decently will earn you a passing mark, so don’t worry too much.”
“S-so we can just run away without fighting?!”
“Of course that’s possible.”
Lucas Kane grinned wickedly as he glanced down at the trembling student’s thigh.
“As long as you can keep running even after your legs are broken.”
“….”
“Hahaha! Just kidding, just kidding! Now hurry and go through the warp!”
The students shuffled toward the warp portal like cattle being herded to slaughter.
“Let’s get moving too.”
I gestured toward the warp and looked back at my Party.
Instead of their usual Academy uniforms, my Party members were outfitted in combat gear.
Iris in a pristine white priestess robe adorned with sacred relics.
Camilla in thin steel armor with a long claymore strapped across her back.
Yurina in comfortable leather armor with a sword crafted from a unicorn’s horn at her waist—not Yuren, but Yurina.
‘Wow, just looking at them makes me feel reassured.’
A healer, a holy knight, a swordsman, and me—capable of everything from close combat to long-range magic.
It was an ideal composition that seemed impossible to have formed in such a crude environment as the Hero Academy.
“Y-yes! Let’s all d-do our best!”
If only one person weren’t here.
“I… I might end up being a burden, but I’ll do everything I can!”
Albert gripped the hilt of his sword at his waist, his legs trembling visibly.
I approached the nervous Albert and patted his shoulder.
“Don’t be so tense. Just relax. Lucas Kane said it himself earlier—it doesn’t matter who your Party members are.”
“Th-thanks, Dale.”
Albert nodded repeatedly, his expression noticeably more at ease.
“…Unexpected.”
Camilla watched him with her arms crossed, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“What’s unexpected?”
“That you’re capable of showing kindness to others. I’m genuinely surprised.”
“…What kind of person did you think I was?”
Well, Camilla’s assessment wasn’t entirely wrong.
I wasn’t exactly known for being particularly kind to others by nature.
But.
‘Seeing Albert reminds me of myself back when I was a timid nobody.’
Watching him hesitate, worried that he might make a mistake and face ridicule for joining a party above his station, I couldn’t help but see my own past self reflected in him.
‘Back then, no one offered me a single kind word.’
It might be shallow sympathy on my part.
But at least I didn’t want to inflict the same terrible experience I’d endured on someone else.
“I’ll do my best and find what I can contribute!”
Albert clenched his fists and shouted with determination.
I chuckled softly and turned away.
I could see my party members waiting for me ahead.
‘I used to follow from behind before.’
But that’s different now.
“Let’s go.”
I stepped forward as the leader and headed into the warp gate.
* * *
Vision flickering in darkness.
With a sensation of weightlessness, the darkened vision inverts and clears.
“Ugh…”
“…I still can’t get used to this sensation.”
Camilla and Iris, having completed the warp, clutched their heads and winced.
Warp travel caused dizziness that varied greatly from person to person, similar to motion sickness.
In severe cases.
“Blech, bleeegh!”
People like Albert weren’t uncommon—they’d lose their lunch entirely.
“You alright?”
“U-ugh… s-sorry.”
“Here, drink some water. You’ll feel better.”
“…Dale.”
Albert accepted the water pouch I offered, his eyes glistening.
“It’s incredibly vast, just like it looked on the map.”
Yuren kept his hand on his sword hilt, ready to draw at any moment, as he surveyed the surroundings.
True to his words, the interior of the Ruins where the final exam was being held was incomparably massive compared to the Red Tears Cave we’d explored before.
“It feels like we’ve entered an Underground Labyrinth.”
Iris, having recovered from the warp’s aftereffects, approached my side and slowly gazed around.
The towering rock formations jutting up like spires in the vast underground chamber conjured exactly the image of a massive labyrinth, just as she’d described.
“So where do we go from here?”
Camilla looked around at the party members and asked.
“Wait a moment. Let me check where we are first.”
I activated the Hero Watch.
Whirrrr.
I activated my Hero Watch, and a holographic map materialized in the air before me.
It was the same map Lucas Kane had shown us in the Classroom.
Our Party’s current position was marked on the map as a yellow dot.
‘Slightly northwest of the center, it seems.’
It wasn’t a bad starting point.
After all, our Party needed to head toward the ‘northern end’ of the Ruins.
‘The Diamond-grade insignia was discovered at the northern end of the Ruins in my previous life.’
Of course, since the future continued to shift and change, I couldn’t blindly trust my past memories, but it was still worth investigating.
“Let’s move slowly and investigate the outer areas of the Ruins first.”
“So you’re planning to investigate from the outer edges inward?”
“That’s the idea.”
It was merely a matter of where to start—ultimately, to find the ‘secret space,’ we’d need to traverse the entire interior of this vast Ruins.
“This time, you’re obviously after the… ‘Diamond-grade’ insignia, right?”
Yuren turned to face me with a grin.
He seemed to remember how we’d competed over the unicorn horn during the midterm evaluation.
I stifled a laugh and nodded.
“Of course.”
“Great. I’m in!”
Yuren nodded with confidence blazing across his face.
I watched him clench his fists, burning with determination, and suppressed a wry smile.
‘I thought he’d moved past his family issues and wouldn’t care so much about grades.’
Just as I was about to think my judgment had been too hasty.
“If our Party comes in first this time… you’ll be able to escape last place too, right, Dale?”
Yuren leaned in close, his eyes sparkling.
He grabbed both my hands and declared passionately.
“I’ll definitely make Dale first place!”
“….”
Suddenly.
Something Yuren—no, Yurina—had once told me flashed through my mind.
-Now, you’re my sun.
Yurina had smiled brightly as she said those words.
Recalling that memory, I let out a quiet, hollow laugh.
‘…My judgment really was short-sighted.’
So Yurina’s burning determination had been to make me first place all along.
‘At least it doesn’t seem like she’s obsessively chasing first place the way she used to.’
I watched Yuren, still gripping my hands tightly with a radiant smile, and chuckled.
As long as things aren’t excessive, they won’t harm the body.
Besides, it was only natural for Candidates in the Program to strive for good grades.
“…That arrogant bastard.”
Just then, a small voice reached me from beside us.
When I turned my head, Iris, her cheeks puffed out adorably, seized my hand from Yuren’s grasp with a sudden tug.
“I’ll do anything to help you become first, Dale!”
“Ah, thanks, Iris.”
“Even if I have to sell the Seven Gods!”
“No.”
What would happen if a saint sold the gods?
“Sigh.”
Camilla pressed her forehead as if her head was throbbing.
“…Enough with the theatrics. Let’s depart quickly.”
“Yes!”
I released Iris’s hand—in that instant, she shot Camilla a terrifying glare—and headed northward following the map.
‘I think I heard rumors about discovering a secret space around here before.’
Naturally, I only knew the approximate location from hearsay in my past life and had never seen it directly, so I didn’t know the exact position.
“Huh? Dale. Look over there.”
Yuren pointed toward the gap between towering cliff faces.
“That… doesn’t it look like smoke?”
“It does.”
True to his words, black smoke was rising from beyond the cliff face.
“Let’s go check it out.”
“Okay!”
As we moved toward where the smoke was rising, what came into view was—
[Crackle, crackle. Crackle-crackle.]
[Error, error.]
A gorge scattered with dozens of guardian golems reduced to rubble.
“H-hieek! W-what is all this?!”
Albert gasped in shock at the sight before his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
While the rest of the party didn’t react quite as dramatically as Albert, they were all considerably startled.
“Aren’t those the guardian golems the professor mentioned?”
“Y-yes, I think so.”
“There seem to be dozens of them… who destroyed all the golems?”
The party members surveyed the golem debris scattered throughout the gorge, their eyes narrowing.
“…”
I too examined the strewn golem remains, my eyes narrowing.
‘There are no signs of combat around here.’
Unless dozens of golems had been destroyed in the blink of an eye, it made no sense that only the golem debris remained while all other traces of battle were completely absent.
‘Destroying dozens of golems without leaving any trace like this would be impossible even for us.’
Then.
It meant someone had ‘deliberately’ moved the golem remains to this location.
‘Candidates from the program couldn’t possibly do something like this.’
Only one possibility remained.
“Wait here for a moment.”
“U-uh, okay.”
“Cover your ears.”
“…What?”
Leaving my bewildered Party members behind, I moved toward the center of the Gorge, where fragments of golems lay scattered.
“Hssss.”
I drew in a slow breath, pulling mana to the surface.
Spreading both hands wide, I brought them together with tremendous force.
Berald Martial Arts.
Hand Lightning.
BOOM!
With a deafening roar like an artillery shell detonating, the scattered golem fragments exploded outward in all directions.
And where those fragments had been cleared away, I found it.
“Bingo.”
A doorway leading to a hidden chamber.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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