The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 120

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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 120. Individual Consultation (2)
Knock, knock.
Standing before Elisha’s office, I rapped carefully on the door.
“Come in.”
A voice called from within.
I slowly opened the office door.
“You’re here.”
As I entered, I found Elisha in her usual black suit, a cigarette dangling from her lips, her slender legs crossed elegantly.
“Sit. I’ll get you something to drink.”
Elisha stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and rose from her seat.
She walked toward the shelf, then turned back to me and asked.
“Whiskey? Wine?”
“Don’t you usually offer coffee or tea?”
“Among non-alcoholic beverages, only water is worth drinking.”
“That’s something an alcoholic would say.”
“Heh. It’s fine. Heroes don’t develop alcohol addiction anyway.”
As she said, a hero’s body possessed far superior immunity compared to ordinary people, so no matter how much alcohol one consumed, addiction was impossible.
‘When you think about it that way, being a hero is pretty broken.’
Long live the stigma.
“Then whiskey, please.”
“Understood.”
Elisha filled a glass with ice, then poured whiskey and brought it to me.
At the first sip, the sharp alcohol stung my nose alongside oak notes.
An unfamiliar taste to someone who usually drank cheap beer.
“Hmm.”
I closed my eyes, stroking my chin as if savoring the flavor.
In truth, I couldn’t distinguish whiskey tastes at all, but men have this inexplicable urge to posture about alcohol.
“The first impression carries an intense oak aroma. Then a sweet vanilla note dances across the palate, and finally a subtle woody finish lingers—this must be quite premium whiskey….”
“It’s cheap whiskey I bought from the Convenience Store for 27 gold.”
“Damn.”
If you’re going to give me something, at least make it decent…!
“Heh. So Dale does have this adorable side.”
Elisha chuckled and tilted her glass to her lips.
“Now then.”
Clink.
Elisha set down her glass, her violet eyes gleaming.
“Can I hear your answer to the question I asked before?”
“Before I answer, may I ask why you had such a thought?”
“Hmm. Why I had such a thought, you mean.”
Elisha leaned back in her chair, arms crossed.
“As I’ve mentioned before, Dale is far too strong. Unnaturally so.”
“Are you suggesting I’ve come from the future simply because I’m powerful?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Elisha shook her head slowly.
“If we’re talking about strength alone, Yuren and Aaron—a fourth-year Candidate—are formidable in their own right, though not quite at your level. They too could be called ‘exceptional.'”
But.
Elisha’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“You’re different, Dale. There’s a composure to you—a seasoned maturity. It’s embarrassing to admit, but when the Archbishop of Madness invaded, the calm you displayed far surpassed my own.”
She withdrew a thin cigar and placed it between her lips.
“It’s not just this time. When the rank-eight magical beast broke into the Test Site during the midterm evaluation, and when Bishop Harris laid his trap in the Rural Village—you were the same then.”
You never panicked. You responded immediately.
As though you’d faced such situations countless times before.
“Your unprecedented strength could be dismissed as mere talent. As you yourself said, just because something hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. No one can know for certain.”
A long exhale.
The tip of the cigar glowed red.
“But that seasoned composure you’ve displayed… it cannot be explained by talent and effort alone.”
And so.
I’d arrived at the conclusion that I’d come from the future.

“Ha.”
I swallowed a bitter laugh and rubbed my face.
I drained the whiskey in my glass and opened my mouth.
“You’re right.”
“Hmm?”
“I did come from the future.”
“….”
Perhaps even the one who’d asked hadn’t expected such an answer.
Elisha’s eyes widened.
“…Are you serious?”
“Weren’t you the one who asked?”
“….”
Elisha pressed her forehead, visibly confused.
“The ‘two’ powers sleeping within you… is that the cause?”
“Likely so. Though I don’t know for certain myself.”
I smiled bitterly and shook my head.
Elisha tapped her cigar against the ashtray and asked.
“If you’re a regressor, how far into the future did you return from?”
“How far into the future…”
Who knows.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s been so long that I never counted precisely.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“The last time I counted was around seven thousand years ago… so it might well be over ten thousand by now. And there was still quite a bit of time after that.”
“Wait, wait. Seven thousand years? Ten thousand? What in the world are you talking about?”
Elisha rose abruptly from her seat, her eyes clouded with confusion as she stared at me.
I leaned back against the chair, tapping my left chest lightly.
“Surely you’re aware that I possess the ‘Blessing of Resurrection’?”
“…No, it can’t be.”
Elisha’s face drained of all color.
“A blessing that prevented not just death… but aging as well?”
“Aging is merely another form of death, after all.”
I nodded quietly.
“….”
Elisha stared at me with a rigid, frozen expression.
Her lips trembled slightly before she spoke, her voice strained and forced.
“…Could you tell me? About the future… or rather, about your past life?”
“It will be quite long. Are you certain?”
“By all means.”
Elisha nodded and settled back into her seat.
“Well then. Where should I even begin?”
I exhaled deeply and opened my mouth.
How I graduated from Hero Academy at the bottom of my class and became a lowly mercenary.
How after ten years of mercenary work, I formed a party with Yuren, Iris, Berald, and Sophia.
How I became one of the Last Five Heroes, humanity’s final hope.
How I fought the final battle against the Demon God and was left alone in the world.
How I wandered the Continent for thousands of years searching for the Primordial Flame.
Stories that only I knew.
Secrets that only I carried.
Tales I had never shared with another soul.
“…That concludes my account.”
By the time my long narrative ended, darkness had settled beyond the windows of the Professor’s Office.
*Clink.*
I set down the whiskey glass—I’d lost count of how many—onto the table.
“….”
Elisha regarded me in silence.
I could see her violet eyes trembling faintly.
“Dale…”
She bit her lip before continuing.
“Just… how terribly cruel a life have you endured?”
Tears welled up at the corners of Elisha’s eyes.
Her expression, usually so stoic that a needle prick wouldn’t draw a drop of blood, was now twisted with sorrow.
I let out a hollow laugh and shook my head.
“It’s nothing. It’s all in the past anyway….”
‘All in the past?’
A voice echoed through my mind.
So achingly familiar.
My own voice.
“….”
In that instant.
My vision inverted.
Before me stretched an expanse of pristine white—the Snowy Wasteland.
Howling blizzards tore through the air.
White breath escaped between my lips.
My feet sank deep into the snow with each step.
Silence descended like a curtain.
Pure white.
A world of nothing but white.
“…Ah.”
Nothing? All in the past?
It’s all over?
‘No.’
It couldn’t be.
It wasn’t.
“Ah, ugh.”
“Dale…?”
It surged forward.
Forgotten memories, suppressed emotions.
Like a shattered dam.
Pouring out, overwhelming me.
“I was so… lonely….”
Fragments of emotion spilled between my lips.
“So desperately lonely I thought I’d die… but I couldn’t die… no matter how much I endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, it never ended….”
I vomited forth the suppressed emotions.
“Even knowing it was a hallucination, I laughed like an idiot, I rambled… I repeated the same conversations hundreds of times, thousands of times….”
“Dale.”
“But it never ends…! I smashed my head, I cut my throat, I tore out my heart, I burned my body! No matter what I did, I kept coming back…!”
“Dale!”
Elisha grabbed my shoulders.
My vision flickered, and the pristine white expanse of the Snowy Wasteland faded, replaced once more by the familiar Professor’s Office.
“…Are you coming to your senses?”
“Haa, haa.”
I gasped for breath, my chest heaving as I swallowed hard against the dryness in my throat.
“I apologize. I got a bit carried away without thinking.”
“….”
“Well, it’s getting late, so I should be going now.”
I stood abruptly.
I turned to flee, my body moving almost of its own accord.
That’s when.
“Dale.”
Elisha pulled my hand toward her, her lips meeting mine.
A soft warmth transmitted through our lips.
Tongues intertwining.
“…Feeling better now?”
After the brief kiss, Elisha cradled both my cheeks in her palms and asked.
“….”
I traced the lingering warmth on my lips with my fingertips and let out a small laugh.
“You smell like cigarettes.”
“Hmm. That’s not something you should say to someone whose lips you just kissed.”
Elisha smiled faintly and gently pulled me into an embrace.
Pat, pat.
She patted my back as if soothing a crying child.
“I’m sorry for making you remember what you’d forgotten.”
“….”
“Hmm, now that I think about it….”
Elisha’s expression grew contemplative, then her eyes sparkled as she snapped her fingers.
“Doesn’t that mean Dale is essentially thousands of years old?”
“Well… if you count my past life, I suppose so.”
But honestly, I didn’t feel like I’d aged at all.
If aging meant spiritual maturity through various experiences, then all I’d endured in that Snowy Wasteland was nothing but bitter solitude and loneliness.
“Hmm. Hmmm. Hmmmm.”
“…What is it?”
“Hehe. Then, wouldn’t that make Dale older than me?”
Elisha’s violet eyes sparkled with barely contained excitement.
I suppressed a hollow laugh and looked at her.
“Does it matter who’s older?”
“It does.”
Elisha grinned and sat on the edge of the table, crossing her legs.
“From now on, I’ll call you ‘Dale oppa.'”
“….”
“Dale.”
Why was it?
Even hearing a title that ranked among the top one or two that men longed to hear.
Rather than sweet excitement, an unpleasant sensation crawled across my skin like insects—why did I feel such revulsion?
“Professor Elisha.”
“Hehe. What’s wrong, Dale?”
“….”
I shook my head firmly and released a deep sigh.
“It doesn’t suit you.”
“…Tch.”
And so, my confidential (?) private meeting with Professor Elisha came to an end.
A peculiar lightness settled over one corner of my heart.

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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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