The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 131

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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 131. Summer Break (3)
A rugged off-road path.
A luxury mana-powered vehicle that clearly cost well over hundreds of thousands of gold was gliding smoothly down the road.
Though I’d used the phrase “sleek and stylish” when describing the mana-car Juliet brought, that didn’t mean she’d brought one of those trendy sports models popular among the Republic’s youth these days.
The car Juliet brought was what people called an “executive sedan.”
It was a model favored by the Republic’s wealthy elite, featuring leather seats so soft they seemed to melt at the slightest touch and a spacious back seat.
Thump!
“Ugh.”
No matter how luxurious a mana-car was, comfort became impossible on such treacherous terrain.
Especially when four of us were crammed into the back seat in this order: Camilla, Iris, me, and Yuren.
“Are you alright, Dale?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to sit so uncomfortably. You can lean more toward me if you’d like.”
“That’s…”
I offered an awkward smile as I glanced at Camilla sitting next to Iris, her eyes gleaming with the message: “Just try moving toward the saint.”
“Come closer to my side instead, Dale. We’re both ‘men,’ after all.”
Yuren grinned and pulled my arm toward him.
“Oh my~ what does gender matter in a situation like this? Dale, you’d find my side much more ‘comfortable.'”
“Haha. Iris, you certainly say bold things. Not very saintly of you.”
“Yuren, that’s quite an odd thing to say yourself. From what I understand, men typically avoid sitting close together, even between friends.”
Iris and Yuren’s gazes crossed.
While a fierce battle of wits unfolded between these two (?) with me caught in the middle.
“…Brother.”
Berald, sitting in the passenger seat, turned his head around.
“Would you take the passenger seat instead?”
“If you sit in the back, this car will burst.”
It was already cramped enough as it was.
“Ugh… sorry. I should’ve brought a bigger mana-car if I’d known it would be like this.”
Juliet, who was driving, glanced up at the rearview mirror with an embarrassed smile.
“No, I’m grateful you’re driving us at all.”
“By the way, why are you trying to go to Iron Canyon?”
“Well… I was thinking of doing some intensive training camp.”
“…Right at the start of summer break?”
Juliet shook her head with an exasperated expression.
“Despite your grades, Dale, you’re incredibly diligent.”
“Shut it.”
“Haha, just joking.”
Juliet burst into light laughter.
‘Juliet’s joking with me now.’
Ever since I’d handed her that money last time, the distance between us had definitely grown closer.
“Have you heard that rumor?”
“What rumor?”
“They say Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy is buried in the Iron Canyon.”
“Ah….”
Well, it was famous enough that I’d heard of it before.
‘Though it turned out to be nothing but a myth.’
The Iron Canyon Ruins we were heading to now were the very same ruins that in my previous life, Yuren, Berald, Iris, and senior Sophia had formed a party to conquer for the first time.
When we’d discovered the hidden ruins back then, Berald and I had made quite a fuss, thinking we’d finally found Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy, but the ruins had been completely empty except for a guardian golem.
‘Still, if we defeat the guardian golem inside the ruins, we should be able to obtain a high-grade mana stone.’
Of course, it was a golem far more powerful than the one we’d defeated during the midterm evaluation, but since we’d come for training purposes anyway, it was a win-win situation.
“Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy, huh….”
Berald, sitting in the passenger seat, murmured softly to himself.
Juliet turned her head toward Berald and asked.
“By the way, Berald… junior?”
“Heh. Just call me Berald.”
“Ah, okay. I’ll do that.”
“What were you about to ask?”
“The Ryu Family is connected to Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong, right?”
“Well, yes.”
The Ryu Family, currently one of the core power holders of the Republic, had been established through the bloodline of Ryu Jinhyuk, Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s younger brother.
Unlike his older brother, who possessed innate talent as a martial artist, Ryu Jinhyuk displayed exceptional talent in magic.
His talent flowed through his bloodline, and now the Ryu Family held the honor of being the Republic’s greatest magical house.
“Then you must know something about Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy too, right?”
Juliet asked with sparkling eyes, apparently quite interested in such legends.
“Heh heh. Not necessarily.”
Berald shook his head with a bitter smile.
“From what I heard as a child, the relationship between Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong and my ancestor wasn’t very good.”
“Ryu Jinseong and Ryu Jinhyuk didn’t get along? But they were brothers.”
“Just because they’re brothers doesn’t mean they have to get along, does it?”
“Ah, I suppose that’s true.”
Even with shared blood—or perhaps because of it—it was common for brothers to grow distant from one another.
“In any case, my ancestor deliberately kept his distance from Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong.”
“I see.”
“Since Ryu Jinseong never had children of his own… when his relationship with his only blood relative fell apart, Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy naturally faded into history.”
“So that’s why no one has been able to find it even after 500 years.”
Juliet’s expression showed a hint of disappointment.
I turned back to look at her and chuckled softly.
“You’re really interested in this sort of thing, aren’t you?”
“Huh? No, well… the legacy of the Great Five Heroes… how could I not be interested in heroes?”
“Well, I suppose that’s fair.”
In particular, unlike the other heroes, Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong had left his legacy to no one, so all eyes naturally turned toward him.
‘Now that I think about it, I’m not even sure if there was a real legacy to begin with.’
Even when I wandered the Continent alone for thousands of years searching for the Primordial Flame, I never found Iron Fist’s legacy.
‘Well, Iron Fist’s legacy isn’t what matters right now anyway.’
What mattered was helping my party members grow through real combat while simultaneously obtaining a “sacrifice” that could heal Berald’s Father.
Chasing after a legacy whose very existence I doubted was far less important than this.
“This is the entrance to the Iron Canyon… I don’t think we can take the magical carriage any further than this.”
After driving for another half day, we finally arrived at the canyon’s entrance.
Juliet Kang brought the vehicle to a stop as she observed the jagged rocks visible inside the canyon.
“This is far enough. Thank you for the ride.”
“Hehe. It’s nothing, really. So now you’re all doing intensive training together?”
“Yeah.”
For a moment, Juliet Kang looked at us with envious eyes, but I couldn’t bring myself to invite her to join us.
‘When the skill gap between party members becomes too severe, it can actually become a hindrance.’
Juliet Kang wasn’t someone who fell short anywhere, but that assessment was only relative to “ordinary candidates.”
Yuren, Iris, Berald, and even Camilla Bediche.
These four had already reached a level that even active heroes would struggle to match—far beyond what ordinary candidates could aspire to.
“Well, I’ll be heading out then! Contact me if you need anything else!”
“Okay. Be careful going in.”
“Oh, and message me when the training camp is about to end. I’ll come pick you up then.”
Juliet Kang smiled brightly as she put on her sunglasses.
“Thank you, Juliet Kang.”
Iris bowed her head respectfully toward Juliet Kang.
Perhaps Juliet Kang hadn’t expected to receive thanks from a saint.
She shook her head with a flustered expression.
“Oh, no. It’s just a favor for a friend—this much is nothing….”
“Hmm. Is that really the only reason?”
Watching Juliet Kang shake her head in confusion, Iris’s lips curled into a knowing smirk.
“…What? Is that really the only reason?”
“Hehe. The reason you’re being so enthusiastically helpful to us….”
Iris glanced briefly at Berald before stepping closer to Juliet Kang.
“It’s because of Berald, isn’t it?”
“…What?”
“Hehe. You mentioned it before, didn’t you? That Juliet Kang had feelings for that gentleman.”
“Ah.”
In an instant, Juliet Kang’s face drained of color.
“N-no! I…!”
Before she could even finish her denial, Iris patted her shoulder and gave a thumbs up with a bright smile.
“Do your best! I’ll be cheering for your love!”
Iris turned away with a radiant smile, walking back toward us.
“…Ugh.”
Left alone, Juliet Kang bowed her head and trembled with clenched fists.
“No… I… I don’t have those kinds of tastes….”
It was summer.
* * *
The Iron Canyon, where Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong was said to have spent his final years, had a notorious reputation for its treacherous terrain and labyrinthine passages.
Savage beasts lurked throughout, and the canyon was teeming with deadly poisonous plants and venomous creatures that could prove fatal even to heroes.
Rumble, crash!
“Phew. Now I understand why this place is called forbidden among heroes.”
Yuren nimbly extracted himself from the ground that crumbled beneath his feet as if a trap had been set, exhaling a quiet sigh.
I sidestepped the collapsed earth and glanced back at my exhausted party members trudging forward.
“We’re not far from the Ruins now, so just hold on a little longer.”
“By the way, how did you know there was a Ruins in a place like this?”
“That’s right. I’ve never heard of a Ruins existing inside the Iron Canyon until now.”
Berald and Yuren regarded me with questioning eyes.
“Remember when I went outside the Academy for a bit following Professor Elisha?”
“Oh, right. You mean after the final evaluation?”
“Yeah. That’s when I obtained information about a hidden Ruins within the Iron Canyon.”
In truth, I’d discovered the location thanks to memories from my past life.
But I couldn’t reveal all the truth to my companions just yet.
“Hmm… is that so?”
I moved forward, leaving Yuren behind with his skeptical expression and narrowed eyes.
After venturing several more hours deeper into the Iron Canyon, a massive cave entrance appeared before us.
“Is this the Ruins entrance Dale mentioned?”
“That’s right.”
“But for a Ruins entrance… it seems like the opening is large, but it’s not very deep, is it?”
Just as Iris said, the cave’s end was visible from outside, so close we could see it clearly.
It looked less like a cave and more like a wide pit created by a landslide.
I suppressed a chuckle and stepped inside the cave.
“If the entrance were easy to find, it wouldn’t have gone undiscovered for 500 years, would it?”
This cave’s entrance was concealed by the Ruins’ seal, making it impossible to discern where the entrance actually was just by looking.
‘I went through quite a bit of trouble unsealing it.’
To reveal the Ruins’ entrance, I first had to locate the seal stones hidden throughout the Iron Canyon, then arrange them in the correct sequence within this cave.
‘But if I did that, the entire break would pass.’
There was an easier method.
Much simpler and faster.
“Berald. What was that spell you used when the Student Cafeteria door broke before?”
“Surely… you mean the Unlock spell?”
“That’s it.”
I smirked and conjured a flame.
Whoooosh!
Ashen flames erupted fiercely from my clenched fist.
“I’m going to use that magic.”

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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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